This is the 559th edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue). Here is the May 26 Spotlight. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
Besame writes—Daily Bucket: Rare wildflower smoked out after 54 years in hiding: “How to make a rare plant bloom: take one fire-dependent Mediterranean ecosystem, add wildfire, rain, and sun, then wait six months. California wildflower displays this spring are encouragingly rich in some of the areas burned last October by wildfires. In particular Mount George in Napa County, burned by the Atlas Fire, is exploding with fire-following native wildflowers amidst blackened trunks. As nature designed, the native shrubs like chamise, toyon, and manzanita, and coast live oak trees are resprouting from burned stumps. Because these woody plants no longer dominate, rare plants can colonize the open space. One wildflower spotted this spring hasn’t been seen on Mount George for 54 years: the Fire Poppy (Papaver californicum). Seeds have been waiting in the soil for the wildfire’s smoke to break seed dormancy so they can sprout when the rains begin. This rare annual plant, which only grows after a wildfire, was found in the Foote Botanical Preserve. Some plant species, like Clarkia, show increased germination following fire but also grow without that trigger. Fire poppies are obligate fire-followers, however, and haven’t been seen on Mount George since the last big fire in 1964.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Crappy Anniversary: One Year Since Trump Announced Intention of Paris Pull-Out: “Today marks the one year anniversary since President Trump stood in the White House Rose Garden and announced that he intends to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement. While there was an undercurrent of fear among greens that other countries would follow suit or backslide on ambition, the reaction was instead quite the opposite. After Trump’s announcement last June, the last two countries that hadn’t already joined the accord, Syria and Nicaragua, signed on. What’s more, a massive group of more than 2,700 state, local, and business leaders across the country took up the mantle of climate leadership that Trump had unceremoniously abandoned just days before. This Still In coalition, representing more than half of Americans (and the US economy), is still pushing to meet the Paris Agreement goals. Another coalition that has emerged from the wreckage of America’s reputation is America’s Pledge. The group has a new ‘One Year Later’ page up on their website touting all that has been accomplished in the past year, despite the absence of federal leadership. This list provides a straightforward rebuttal to the hyperbolic claims of Pruitt, Trump and the deniers, so let’s take a look.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
RonK writes—The Daily Bucket: A “Bio-Blitz” Inventory of an ecosystem at a Nature Reserve: “This nature reserve includes some very old logged areas (now with big second growth) but also some old growth forest (> 450 year old trees). Aside from its beauty and diversity, it is remarkable for fact that its maintenance is a multi-agency support effort. The preserve, (The Stimson Family Nature Reserve) now of 388 acres was donated by a long time family in our area and supported and maintained by many entities including The Whatcom Land Trust, the State of Washington, Whatcom County, and the City of Bellingham, among other partners. I reported on this reserve a couple of years ago as an illustration of how many governmental and non-profit agencies can work in concert to maintain valuable tracts of our environment. Click here to get a broader view of the forest. Not only is the Reserve relatively primal forest, it is close to town, borders on residential development and is only 6 miles from my house which is across town. The Reserve is readily accessible, even by city bus service and/or bicycle.”
Angmar writes—The Daily Bucket: Sunrise, sunset [Open thread]: “The sun is one of more than 100 billion stars in the Milky Way. It orbits some 25,000 light-years from the galactic core, completing a revolution once every 250 million years or so. The sun is relatively young, part of a generation of stars known as Population I, which are relatively rich in elements heavier than helium. An older generation of stars is called Population II, and an earlier generation of Population III may have existed, although no members of this generation are known yet. [...] The strength of the sun's magnetic field is typically only about twice as strong as Earth's field. However, it becomes highly concentrated in small areas, reaching up to 3,000 times stronger than usual. These kinks and twists in the magnetic field develop because the sun spins more rapidly at the equator than at the higher latitudes and because the inner parts of the sun rotate more quickly than the surface. These distortions create features ranging from sunspots to spectacular eruptions known as flares and coronal mass ejections. Flares are the most violent eruptions in the solar system, while coronal mass ejections are less violent but involve extraordinary amounts of matter — a single ejection can spout roughly 20 billion tons (18 billion metric tons) of matter into space.”
cardinal writes—Dawn Chorus open thread: Spring Blues and Red Romeos: “I’ve spent 39 of my 44 years in cities with long, brutal summers. This is an awkward fit for an outdoorsy guy with an aversion to excessive heat. Accordingly, my perception of seasons has always been inverted from the European-influenced American mythology. Literature and culture tell us that spring is a joyous time — the colorful, festive rebirthapalooza that rewards us for surviving winter — while fall is an ominous harbinger of cold, darkness, and Buick ads. But to me, autumn means “woo hoo, we can go outside!” while spring foreshadows months of air-conditioned cabin fever. [...] This spring brought a bumper crop of migrants to my yard. My neighborhood — a 1960s tract whose mature trees make up for the decrepit strip malls — seems to have become a roadside diner for warblers.”
enhydra lutris writes—The Daily Bucket - May 2018 Yard Report: Photo diary. “This is part of my ongoing project to document the changes in our yard from month to month.”
Walter Einenkel writes—Positive news: new census of endangered mountain gorillas shows 26% increase in six years: “The critically endangered wild mountain gorilla received some good news this week as a newly published census puts the known population over 1,000. The animal made world famous by the work of people like Dian Fossey, has been the subject of movies and documentaries over the years—chronicling their near extinction due to human activities. According to Eureka Alert, the new census numbers show a 26 percent increase over a six year period. This represents one of the rare success stories in conservation. The population of mountain gorillas in the Virunga Volcanoes has more than doubled in the past three decades, despite intensive threats of poaching, habitat degradation, and civil conflict," stated Martha Robbins, research scientist and gorilla expert at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. "This increase exemplifies the dedicated efforts of the governments of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to conserve these critically endangered great apes, and notably, the hard work of park staff on the ground.”
Ojibwa writes—Public Lands: Sunset Bay State Park: “Located near Coos Bay, Oregon, Sunset Bay State Park has an overnight campground as well as day use areas. It is situated in a secluded cove where the beach is sheltered from the ocean winds and waves. It has ten miles of hiking trails which connect it with Shore Acres State Park and Cape Arago State Park.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
Walter Einenkel writes—Trump's dismissal of Climate Change Paris Agreement will cost U.S. trillions according to research: “A new study published in Nature, titled ‘Large potential reduction in economic damages under UN mitigation targets,’ analyzes what savings the United States is losing out on due to Donald Trump’s insistence in pulling out of the UN Paris Agreement on climate change. Writing in The Hill, the researchers from Stanford explain that while the Trump administration has attempted to deflect criticisms surrounding this change in policy by saying the Paris Agreement is not economically viable for the U.S., the facts are simply the opposite. We estimate that beneficiaries will include not only the world’s poorest countries, which stand to benefit substantially, but also many wealthier countries, including the United States. In fact, we calculate the cumulative savings to the U.S. economy alone of meeting the most ambitious Paris targets could total $6 trillion (in today’s dollars). [...] Prior to our study, accurate, quantitative estimates of those benefits were not available. Now, we find that the benefits of achieving the ambitious Paris targets are perhaps 30 times larger than the costs.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Washington Post Hires Former WSJ Opinion Editor, Will He Bring Deniers Along? “On Tuesday evening, the Washington Post announced that it has hired Mark Lasswell to be the paper’s associate op-ed editor. According to the post, Lasswell oversaw the Wall Street Journal’s opinion page from 2012 through 2016. The Post’s hire continues the worrying trend of legitimate media bending over backwards to accommodate conservative opinions, like the NYT’s hiring of WSJ’s climate bullshitter Bret Stephens. Or Bari Weiss, who formerly worked with Lasswell at the WSJ and now writes for the NYT where she pens puff pieces for hate speech, misunderstands cultural appropriation, and criticizes the #MeToo movement. We don’t know for sure what Lasswell will bring to the Washington Post, and we don’t know how much his former employer’s questionable ownership influenced his editorial decisions. Given the drama around Lasswell’s ousting--word is that he pushed to run op-eds criticizing Trump’s business, against his bosses’ wishes--we have faint hope that he may want to abandon all the terrible racist content the Journal’s opinion page has featured during his tenure. But we know exactly what the WSJ opinion page’s climate content looked like under his watch, and it’s not good.”
Extreme Weather & Natural Phenomena
Angmar writes—The Daily Bucket: Lightning- will it become rare under advancing Climate Change? “Global warming may lead to a drop in lightning strikes, affecting atmospheric composition and the frequency of natural forest fires in the tropics, a new study suggests. Using a newly-devised method, scientists including Dr Declan Finney and Professor Alan Blyth from the University of Leeds, have forecast a 15 per cent drop in the average number of lightning flashes worldwide by the year 2100, if global temperatures continue on their predicted upward trend. Study lead author Dr Finney, from the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science at Leeds, carried out this research while based at the University of Edinburgh. He said: ‘Our method looked closely at the impact of climate change on the fundamental components that lead to lightning.’”
BYPRODUCTS, TRASH, TOXIC & RADIOACTIVE WASTE
TXL writes—Just days left until Texas bureaucrats take over Rio Grande toxic waste dump decision: “Just days remain before a Texas administrative judge and Texas bureaucrats take over the decision-making process regarding a proposed toxic waste dump located in a floodplain whose streams empty into the Rio Grande. Ahead of a May 31 deadline to submit comments in relation to the proposed landfill, opponents are making another push to ring alarm bells over the project. According to the Laredo Morning Times, to date, over 9,600 comments on the project have been submitted, the majority of them likely negative since many members of the local community are staunchly opposed to the project. The proposed dump is the brainchild of Texas landowner C.Y. Benavides, who has clashed with local residents and officials, including Democratic State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, over the issue. Zaffirini has raised concerns with the proposed site’s location in a 100-year floodplain and the fact that Texas floodplain maps are out of date, a particular worry in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey’s toll on Texas last year.”
Walter Einenkel writes—Owner of portable toilet company to serve jail time for illegally dumping wastewater in California: “In June 2017, the owner of Diamond Environmental Services—a portable toilets company that services California, based out of San Marcos—admitted to illegally dumping wastewater from thousands of his portable toilets into municipal sewer systems. [...] The conspiracy began in 2009. As a regular company practice, the trucks full of waste pumped from portable toilets were dumped into municipal sewers at the company’s various facilities in San Diego, San Marcos, Perris, Fullerton and Huntington Park from 2012 to July 2016. Employees were directed to design and install the system to make the dumping possible at the facilities, then covered up the sewer connections by placing a portable toilet over them during inspections, according to the plea agreement. By doing this, Diamond was able to not pay dumping fees, stealing a few million dollars in the process. The hold-up on sentencing had to do with the plea deal signed by the defendants and the possibility of larger, more costly financial penalties being added on.”
ENERGY
Fossil Fuels
Dan Bacher writes—Jackson bill to halt Trump's offshore drilling expansion off California passes off Senate floor! “This news just came in from Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson’s Office: Her legislation, SB 834, to halt Trump’s oil drilling expansion off the California coast passed off the Senate Floor tonight. Below is the statement from Jackson’s office. Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson’s (Santa Barbara) legislation to thwart the Trump Administration’s efforts to expand federal oil drilling off the California coast passed off the Senate floor today on a 24 to 8 vote. Senate Bill 834 will ensure that pipelines and other infrastructure needed to support new federal oil development cannot be built in California waters, effectively halting such expanded drilling efforts. ‘The Trump Administration’s proposal to dramatically expand offshore oil drilling is dangerous, reckless, and a direct threat to our coastal communities. California must stand firm in our opposition to this expansion, which could devastate our marine ecology, public health, and coastal economy,’ said Senator Jackson.”
Mark Sumner writes—Trump using emergency Cold War powers to make 'unprecedented intervention' on behalf of coal: “A draft plan circulating in the Trump White House would make use of a 68-year-old grant of emergency powers to force electrical companies to buy more power from coal and nuclear plants. The plan, based on a scheme that Rick Perry already tried to launch through the Energy Department, would raise prices for power, increase pollution, and represent the largest intervention of the government into the energy sector since World War II. Despite Donald Trump’s claims that he would arrest the decline of coal of coal power, power plants using coal closed at a record rate in 2017. Those plants closed in red states and blue, and many of them closed years earlier than had been predicted. The reason is simple enough: Coal costs too much. Natural gas, wind, and solar are all now cost-competitive with coal on a per megawatt basis, and much cheaper when the associated costs of coal—including long term disposal of ash—are added in. In addition, the necessary scale of coal plants makes them enormous investments that take decades to pay off. No one is willing to make a bet on coal under those circumstances. That’s why there is not a single new coal plant in development in the United States. The single plant that was supposed to represent the first “clean coal” facility in the U.S. was switched to natural gas last year before it even came on line. To reverse this trend, Bloomberg reports that the Trump plan would employ Section 202 of the Federal Power Act as well as the Cold War-era Defense Production Act. The last time these powers were used was when Harry Truman temporarily nationalized the steel industry in 1952.”
annieli writes—Trump regime games US energy markets by propping up coal power plants: “Trump regime props up inefficient and environmentally costly ‘beautiful coal’ power plants. Because all that BS about free markets and energy independence is nothing but a subsidy to crony capitalism and corporate energy putting the lie to ‘public utility’. Remember the national security rationalization applied to banning German luxury cars and … covering up Russian collusion.”
REGULATIONS & PROTECTIONS
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Pruitt’s Defense Team Doesn’t Just Include Heartland, but Daily Caller Too: “Last week, documents FOIA’d by the Environmental Defense Fund and the Southern Environmental Law Center revealed how the EPA is working hand in hand with fossil fueled climate denial groups like Heartland. The news wasn’t exactly unexpected. Documents the Project on Government Oversight FOIA’d provided more information on the story Mother Jones broke last year on Pruitt’s desire for a “campaign-style” media monitoring effort. That no-bid contract went to the GOP-aligned Definers Public Affairs. One of the outlets on the list for Definers to monitor was the Daily Caller, though unlike real media, that was likely to provide Pruitt with the praise he needed to defend himself to Trump against calls for his ouster. In case you need a reminder of the Daily Caller’s pedigree, it was set up by Fox’s Tucker Carlson and funded at least in part by the Kochs and other billionaires. That anyone considers it news and not purely opinion (or just propaganda) is a shame. We’ve covered the Caller’s Michael Bastasch plenty. Recently, we’ve seen a new byline on some staunchly pro-Pruitt pieces: Jason Hopkins.”
ECO-ACTION & ECO JUSTICE
ian douglas rushlau writes—Environmental justice, social justice, economic justice: progressive values just make life better: “You may have heard that when asked, conservatives will consistently report that that they are happier than progressives: The purported happiness gap between liberals and conservatives has attracted considerable media attention. Conservative Americans, Canadians, and Europeans all seem to be happier than their liberal compatriots. Those results are generally based on surveys that ask respondents, for example, to rate on a scale of 1 to 7 how well a statement applies to them. Examples include: ‘The conditions of my life are excellent. If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing. I am satisfied with my life.’ Given that conservatives are known to operate from a highly negative, decidedly fear-based worldview, that may seem strange.”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
Mark Sumner writes—Humans and our livestock make up an astounding amount of life on Earth: “Seven billion, six hundred million. That’s roughly the number of human beings currently living on Earth. At the moment, that number appears to be growing at about 85 million a year. On the other hand, humans represent just 0.01 percent of the planet’s biomass. One set of numbers might seem very large. The other may seem small—though 0.01 percent of all life on earth converted into one type of complex animal is itself an astounding number. But according to an article from the Guardian, an article in the Guardian there maybe another number that better reflects the role humans have played when it comes to life on Earth. Since the dawn of civilisation, humanity has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants, while livestock kept by humans abounds. If the number of people on the planet seems immense, the numbers of the things we raise to eat are also mind boggling. In fact, some of the numbers aren’t just astounding, they’re absolutely terrifying.”
Mahdalgal writes—Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol.14.22 Dishing The Dirt on Crinum Lilies: “Good morning, gardeners! 2018 is now the second hottest May on record for Dallas TX. We experienced 10°-12o higher temps than normal every day for the entire month. Today’s expected air temp high: 102o with heat index 104o. A five day string of 100o+ days starts next week after a ‘cold front’ of mid-nineties; electric grid at max. Dallas has now moved into official moderate drought. 10% chance of rain tomorrow. That means 90% of us won’t see any. Torrid, temperamental Texas. My gardening day for the last 12 days began at 6am because the pictured old east facing bedding plot was still in shade from trees across the street. Got in about 2-½ hours/day of work before the blazing sun and heat forced me into the shade. What we gardeners will do to get our prized flowers and vegetables! [...] I’m fortunate to have an all organic general store nearby. My tomato starts come from the place. Its mascot is a live rooster named George who is quite a celebrity locally and at the Texas State Fair! They offer chicks and poults in the spring and everything ever thought of for green gardening.”
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
Mark Sumner writes—EPA prepares to ditch clean car rules over objections of their own scientists: “On Thursday the EPA formally started the process of rolling back CAFE standards, erasing all intended progress over the next decade. It’s an action that US car companies are celebrating for the immediate gain to their bottom line as they can drop the research and design effort needed to improve mileage and concentrate on selling larger vehicles. The proposed changes are particularly good for companies like Ford which has announced plans to drop almost all passenger cars and move to a lineup almost exclusively composed of large SUVs and trucks. But the EPA is going beyond just rolling back the improvements that were supposed to happen in the near future, they’re attacking one of the core features of the Clean Air Act—the rules that allow California to set its own standards for mileage and emissions. The New York Times reports that the rules that the EPA has sent to the House would strip California of the ability to set alternate requirements—requirements that are often followed by other states.”
A Siegel writes—Good Politics Trump Good Policy? (What did you pay at the pump?) When it comes to energy prices, gasoline has been and remains the most visceral touch point for Americans (and, well, likely drivers around the world). Few really connect the turning on of a light bulb to that monthly electricity bill while essentially everyone with a (non-electric) car has experienced the smelly hands while watching the dollars go up far faster than the gallons while filling up the car. Almost no Americans have internalized that, whether at $2.50, $3.50, or more per gallon, the ‘price’ paid at the pump is only a fraction of the true price that we pay per gallon -- in terms of health security risks, and environmental damage. (And, of course, it is far below the price at the pump paid in other industrialized nations which have more appropriate tax structures on their automotive fuels.) Without internalizing the true cost (more likely in ballpark of $15 per gallon or so), Americans react to marginal price increases: talk of abundant oil and price drops, SUV sales skyrocket ... prices increase and screaming begins. Thus, when prices go down or, even more so, when they go up, the political rhetoric ramps up as politicians seek to take advantage of the moment -- sometimes irregardless of the facts and, all too often, with disdain for long-term and potentially conflicting issues.