This is the 624th edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue). Here is the Dec. 21 edition. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
eurthamudtoes writes—Oil from unknown origin continues to affect Brazil beaches and wetlands: “For four months, oil has been appearing along the Brazil coastline. 2,700 miles of beaches, mangroves, wetlands, and reefs have been affected. According to the Brazilian Navy, more than 5,000 tons of oil have been removed from beaches, but no one is certain how much remains. The oil is dense crude, for the most part traveling below the surface of the water, making it difficult to track. [...] I’ve been following the story particularly because of its implications for shorebirds, although the danger to other ecosystems, wildlife, and local communities is also significant. So far activists and government workers have rescued 159 oiled animals including 105 sea turtles and 39 birds. Of these, over 70% have perished. The problem is that much of the coast is remote, so the full impact on wildlife may never truly be known.”
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - solstice oystercatchers: “December 21, 2019. Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest. As you all heard, we had a deluge of rain from last Wednesday night right into solstice day (Saturday). The relentless downpour finally started slowing down by solstice afternoon, and I was happy to go out for my walkies even as that short day waned. Turns out others were out and about too. Most splendidly for me was a troupe of Black Oystercatchers foraging in the rocks. Oystercatchers have a bright orange beak, but their black plumage blends into the rocky background so well it’s hard to see them unless they’re talking, or close up. Like other shorebirds, oystercatchers are constantly busy when feeding, but they have an extra reason not to waste any time, especially in winter. These birds only feed in the marine intertidal — that means they can only fuel up during the short time when the tide is low enough to expose the invertebrates. Winter is a double whammy for them: not only are there few daylight hours to hunt, but the highest tides occur in the daytime at this season. Above 6 feet (7 at most) there isn’t much scope for foraging. When I was out there watching them at 3:30pm, the tide had gone down to 4 feet but they had less than an hour left to feed.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Assaf writes—The Daily Bucket: Pineapple Express Arrives at Thornton Creek: “So it rained here Friday. Big Deal. It rains in Seattle in December. Well, it so happens that Northwest rain is usually drizzly and mild, like the rest of the weather here. 100mm downpour days are fairly common in the Eastern Mediterranean where I come from, and in other hot climate regions — but not here. In fact, only one day above 100mm in the modern recordkeeping. It happened when we were already here — October 2003 — but we were too new to notice how unusual it was. Anyway, Friday we got close. Just before the calendar prefix-change, Seattle’s rainiest day of the 2010s squeezed in. It’s also the 5th rainiest overall in 70+ years of records, and the darkest day in 20 years of measuring that metric. How rainy? The official Seatac airport gauge caught 82.55mm (3.25” for you`Muricans).”
giddy thing writes—Dawn Chorus: Mixed-Species Flocks in a Ponderosa Pine Forest: “I finally reserved a calm, semi-sunny day to do some birding and exploring around my new home in northwest Montana. The plan was to circumnavigate Flathead Lake and stop at a few of the 6 state parks, 9 fishing accesses, and a National Wildlife Refuge that ring this largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi. My first stop was the Big Arm Unit of Flathead Lake State Park, on the west-central shore of the lake. This 217-acre park sits at 3,000 ft. elevation and offers a stunning view of Flathead Lake and the towering Mission Mountains to the east. Big Arm supports a mixed ponderosa pine and Rocky Mountain juniper forest. This dry conifer forest type is common in lower elevations of the Rocky Mountains. Understory vegetation is perennial grasses with patches of western snowberry and wild rose.”
David Neiwert writes—Listen: Humpback whales singing upon their return to the Salish Sea: “Humpback whales are one of the real success stories of the environmental movement. Having crept perilously close to extinction by the mid-1970s—there were only 450 of them in the South Atlantic then—their numbers have gradually rebounded in the ensuing years, largely thanks to the ban on hunting them imposed in the 1980s, as well as to efforts to restore their traditional habitats.A recent paper found that the South Atlantic population now numbers around 25,000, a significant rebound that likely approaches historically normal levels. Historians record that humpbacks were common in the North Pacific before the late 19th century, when whaling operations nearly hunted them to extinction as well. After the 1980s, their numbers also rebounded significantly, from a low of 1,200 to modern estimates of about 21,000. Some of the waters they had previously visited on their migratory journeys up and down the Pacific Coast, including the Northwest’s Inside Passage and the Salish Sea, home of Washington's San Juan Islands, had not seen humpbacks with any kind of regularity at all until just the past decade. But now residents of the San Juans are seeing them with great frequency, the humpbacks apparently unperturbed by the presence of salmon-eating Southern Resident killer whales. It’s been … amazing.”
maggiejean writes—Overnight News Digest: Australian PM Not Interested in Climate Despite Over 200 Raging Fires Edition: “DW News. Following criticism of his climate policy by climate activist Greta Thunberg, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said "I'm not here to impress people overseas." Over 200 fires are still raging across Australia. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended Australia's climate policy and coal industry on Monday as 200 wildfires raged on with little sign of abating. His words come a day after teen Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg condemned the lack of political action by the Australian government. ‘We still fail to make the connection between the climate crisis and increased extreme weather events and natural disasters,’ Thunberg wrote on Twitter.”
eurthamudtoes writes—Pronatura Noreste fights for Mexican Prairie Dogs vs. the Potato Industry: “Pronatura Northeast in an NGO based in Monterrey, Mexico with a mission to conserve the flora, fauna and priority ecosystems of Northeast Mexico while promoting society's development in harmony with nature . Recently they have been sharing stories of actions threatening a unique and highly valuable ecosystem, the high grasslands of Llano del la Soledad. About the site from the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) whsrn.org / ...Llano de la Soledad is part of a grasslands complex of 50 colonies of Mexican Prairie Dogs, distributed at the point where the Mexican states of Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas meet. This region's grasslands house the largest concentrations of various grassland birds, including some very vulnerable species such as Mountain Plover Charadrius montanus , Long-billed Curlew Numenius americanus and Upland Sandpiper Bartramia longicauda . It stands out as one of the most fragile open grassland ecosystems with the highest conservation priority for highland wintering shorebirds and birds associated with the North American Central Grasslands biome.”
CaptBLI writes—The Daily Bucket ... soothe the savage Beast: “During these solemn days, when the nation is rapt with the impeachment of the President, other voices can be heard beyond the cacophony. The gentle tweet, whistles and murmurs of birds, just out of sight or trumpeting in full view, are everywhere. Ignored by the masses or filtered by fingers in ears, the birds sing on. Let’s listen to a few of the voices that speak a constant truth. Here is the voice of my title guest. Take a few seconds to hear this male announce his intentions. Another friend to my yard is the Summer Tanager. These birds are a bit more chatty and specific with what they have to say.”
dawsonrd writes—Hide the Black Rhino Calf: “I woke this morning to the news that a black rhino calf had been born at Potter Park Zoo in Lansing, Michigan on Christmas Eve. I am elated to hear of this rare and endangered animal’s birth and can only hope that the Trump kids don’t hear of it. If they do the poor animal will probably hang on a wall someplace.”
Dan Bacher writes—Good Numbers of Salmon and Steelhead Return Again to Mokelumne River: “Large numbers of fall-run Chinook salmon have returned to the Mokelumne River in Clements this fall despite challenging salmon fishing on the Mokelumne and adjacent sloughs this season. A total of over 12,658 salmon have gone over Woodbridge Dam in Lodi on the Mokelumne as of December 10, according to Will Smith, manager of the CDFW’s Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery. ‘We’re seeing a good, above normal season, although anglers have reported slow fishing in the river,” Smith said. “We will probably see just over 13,000 fish this fall’.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
Pakalolo writes—Day Zero arrives in Australian towns; unprecedented and widespread heatwave kills marine life: “Australian fires continue to rage on the island continent as yet another looming record-breaking heatwave bears down on the land down under. The unrelenting heatwaves on marine and freshwater river systems alike are raising concerns of another carbon-related feedback that is not included in current climate models, the loss of the world’s seagrass meadows. The most recent event is occurring in Western Australia where the fish and other marine life are vulnerable to change in water temperatures.”
ECO-ACTION & ECO JUSTICE
lmarsh5 writes—Support Courageous Native American Woman Fighting Big Oil in N.Mexico for the Sake of 7 Generations: “A battle is a foot in New Mexico between incumbent Brian Egolf, who is promoting fracking in New Mexico, and Lyla June Johnston, a Stanford graduate from the Diné Nation, who is promoting the protection of water for the sake of the next seven generations. She needs to raise $40,000 by the end of December, because she can’t raise money after January. Listen to her words and donate anything you can. This battle is being fought everywhere there is fracking. Lyla’s courage to tackle big oil is what is needed so the children and grandchildren will have water. Water is Life. ‘This Christmas, give a gift to future generations instead of the capitalist system at: www.bit.ly/electlyla. I vow to use every penny to fight hard for this election. I vow to use every penny to work with New Mexico to face this climate crisis with bravery and grace. I promise to use every penny to protect the endangered water systems of our desert, which are being squandered by fracking industries as we speak. I promise to use every single penny to fight for this victory so we can protect and stand behind marginalized communities.”
Meteor Blades writes—Environmental justice: Low-income people of color pay a larger portion of income on energy: “But there’s more to this disparity than class. A recent study in five cities by Constantine E. Kontokosta, Vincent J. Reina, and Bartosz Bonczak found that ‘even within defined income bands, minority households experience higher ECBs than non-Hispanic white households. For lower income households, low-cost energy improvements could reduce energy costs by as much as $1,500 per year.’ The researchers obtained their data by scrutinizing energy use disclosure forms from some 13,000 apartment buildings in Boston, Cambridge, New York City, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Brendon Mock at CityLab reports, ‘Residents of minority neighborhoods who make less than 50 percent of area median income (AMI) are 27 percent more energy-cost burdened than residents from the same wage bracket who live in white neighborhoods.’ The trio found too that lower-income households spend 10% to 20% of what they make on energy while wealthy families in the same cities pay an average of between 1.5% to 3% of their income to pay their energy bills. This isn’t true just for people of low income. Families with incomes ranging from 51%-80% and 81%-120% of AMI were found to face an energy cost burden average of 24%. And in New York City and the District of Columbia, people of color bringing in 121%-150% of AMI were more cost burdened than white residents with the same incomes.”
CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
poopdogcomedy writes—MA-Sen: Jane Fonda Endorses Green New Deal Co-Author, Sen. Ed Markey (D), For Re-Election: “Received this e-mail from Actress & Activist, Jane Fonda, in support of U.S. Senator Ed Markey’s (D. MA) re-election campaign: I’m reaching out today to ask you to join me in supporting my friend and co-author of the Green New Deal, Senator Ed Markey. As you may have heard, I’ve gotten into the habit of getting arrested in our nation’s capital — putting my body on the line with young people, making an intergenerational compact to demand a Green New Deal. Earlier this year, Senator Ed Markey told me he needed us to help build an army of activists. We need people in the streets demanding action on the climate crisis. The Green New Deal won’t happen without it, but it also won’t happen without powerful leaders like Senator Markey inside fighting with us. That’s why we need to make sure our army is behind him every step of the way as well. Right now, that means he needs our support in his re-election campaign to the U.S Senate. He’s facing the toughest race of his career in 2020.”
ENERGY
Fossil Fuels & Emissions Controls
Pakalolo writes—Ecuador declares State of Emergency after barge carrying diesel fuel sinks in the Galapagos Islands: “In the 1950s, the government of Ecuador established Galapagos National Park, preserving 97% of the land area as well as designating the surrounding waters as a National Marine Reserve. VOA News reports: Ecuador declared a state of emergency Sunday after a barge carrying nearly 2,300 liters of diesel fuel sank at the Galapagos Islands. A crane collapsed while loading fuel onto the ship at a port on San Cristobal, the easternmost island of the Galapagos chain. A heavy container of fuel fell to the deck, causing the barge to go down while the crew jumped overboard for their lives. Soldiers and environmentalists immediately deployed barriers and absorbent cloths to stop the spilled fuel from spreading. Experts will assess the damage.”
Dan K writes—The War on Christmas is Now a War on Coal: “Mandy Gunasekara served in the EPA as Trump’s Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation from March 2017 to February 2019. Before that, she was counsel to Sen. Inhofe, the most insistent of all climate deniers. Now she’s a climate denier for Fox News and also runs Energy45, a dark money PAC promoting Trump’s pollution agenda. And today she has an op-ed in the Palm Beach Post: Santa says coal-shaming in U.S. needs to end. [...] Seems if you’re against coal, you’re against Christmas. Because Santa is not only the expert on naughty and nice, he’s an energy maven as well: Santa understands the vital role coal has and will continue to play in human flourishing [sic]. Accordingly, he has called for coal-shaming to end and in an effort to start this trend, he will be leaving a lump of “beautiful, clean coal” in the president’s stocking. Regardless of their naughty or nice status, all little boys and all little girls deserve a brighter, healthier and more prosperous future and the path for that starts with a reliable, safe and clean source of energy.”
Meteor Blades writes—Christmas night owls open thread: Regulators go easy on oil and gas frackers over clean-up costs: “Federal and state regulators have been failing to require [fracking] companies to fully fund expected cleanup liabilities, which helps mask the true cost of oil and gas production. Passing environmental cleanup costs on to the taxpayer amounts to a backdoor subsidy for the oil and gas industry. Requiring oil and gas companies to pay for shutting down and cleaning up wells would greatly increase the cost of drilling for many oil and gas wells. The fracking industry already can’t make money pumping fossil fuels out of shale in the U.S., and that's without these firms coming even close to fully funding their cleanup costs. However, more state governments are realizing the scale of this problem and starting to look at increasing and enforcing bonding requirements for oil and gas well cleanup. However, in oil-rich places like Alberta, Canada, and Alaska, regulators are realizing that the money just isn't there.”
Renewables, Efficiency, Energy Storage & Conservation
Mokurai writes—Renewable Monday: 1M Solar Roofs in California: “California set out to get solar panels on a million roofs in a multi-year effort that resulted in a law passed in 2006. The original goal was to do it by 2018, but it has been a bit delayed. Now look who's celebrating. (Hint: not the MSM. But we know.)”
Mokurai writes—Renewable Tuesday: Facing our Climate Problems: “Anthropogenic global warming needed to be addressed 50 years ago. It wasn’t. Now we all must accept the consequences, from inconveniences to major death and destruction, and possibly major wars. And the profitable solutions. It is an article of faith among the Market Fundamentalists that the only duty of corporations is profit. But more than 40% of coal-fired power plants are operating at a loss, and the bottom line on the entire fracking industry from the beginning is hundreds of billions in losses. Almost every country and almost every US state operates its energy market at a loss. Coal, oil, gas, and nuclear all cost more than renewables, but we don't give up running them, and even subsidizing them hugely. Iceland, Denmark, Rwanda, and Costa Rica are the most notable exceptions, where all or nearly all of their electricity comes from hydroelectric, geothermal, wind, and solar, and they either sell their surpluses to neighboring countries, or recruit energy-intensive business like aluminum smelting to use their super-cheap power. In the meantime, the environmental losses also keep mounting up.”
Mokurai writes—Renewable Wednesday: A Present They Can't Refuse: “What's green, worth tens of trillions of dollars, and gives corporations a present they can't refuse? Climate Action 100+ (CA100+). A path to a functioning planet, whether they like it or not. And in many cases, increased profits that they have failed to pursue on their own. The National Legal and Policy Center (‘promoting ethics in public life’) is no fan of doing anything about Global Warming, or anything Progressive. [...] Here is the complaint. Feel free to point and laugh. Comments such as these underscore suspicions that Climate Action affiliates envision a world in which business enterprises either submit to global monitoring or lose a large chunk of working capital. These shareholders represent a real danger to corporate independence. And they are doing nobody any favors by demanding that we treat science as a set of foregone conclusions. So how do our friends at CA100+ convince a corporation that it cannot refuse? The prime mover behind Climate Action, California State Controller Betty Yee, is uniquely positioned to extract commitments from target companies.”
Mokurai writes—Renewable Thursday: Saudi Arabia's Plan to Go Off Oil—But Not Yet: “St. Augustine prayed in his youth: God make me pure, but not yet. Saudi Arabia has a similar stance on going off oil: lavish projects that somehow never happen, plus robust obstructionism. They should be careful, though. Someday it is going to take. Saudi Finance Minister: “I Wouldn't Care If The Oil Price Is Zero." After announcing ambitious goals for solar in the Kingdom back in 2014, Saudi Arabia unveiled the biggest solar program in the world in 2017. The Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled the nation’s ambitious “Vision 2030” in an interview with Al-Arabiya in April. The roadmap lays out a wide variety of economic reforms that will transition Saudi Arabia away from oil and into a broader array of investments. But that was then. How are they doing? tl;dr Not so hot. Saudi Arabia is now one of the greatest obstacles to dealing with Global Warming.”
Mokurai writes—Renewable Friday: Tech News Roundup: “When I was writing just Renewable Friday Diaries once a week, I couldn't keep up with the news from PV Magazine and Power and many other sources. Now I can pick out a few choice items from time to time, and here is my first such selection. Subsidy-Free Onshore Wind Farm Will Host First Siemens Gamesa 5-MW Turbines. Three first-of-their-kind Siemens Gamesa 5-MW wind turbines will be installed on the island of Thyholm in Denmark at a project that will be operated without subsidies. The company announced on Dec. 19 it has entered into a contract with Torp Vind I/S for the delivery of three SG 5.0-132 models for the 15-MW Torp Vindmoellepark wind farm in the Danish municipality of Struer. The turbines will replace three old Bonus wind turbines, each which have a capacity of 1 MW, that were installed in 1999. [...] Torp Vind I/S, which is owned by local farmers, plans to begin installation of the turbines in late summer 2020. “Besides delivery and installation of the wind turbines, Siemens Gamesa has also sold a long-term service contract and will take on service and maintenance of the wind farm for the next 25 years,” the company said in a statement.”
Hunter writes—Trump rails against windmills again in an incoherent, word-salad tirade: “Donald Trump interrupted his holidays to speak to a Turning Point USA crowd about, to be honest, God only knows what—if there was a speech in there, it was well-buried. A portion of it was devoted to Why Windmills Are Bad, which is one of the oldies Trump returns to in speech after speech, because the man's brain can only hold 10 separate facts, and eight of them are about longtime personal grievances. Before becoming history's most famous idiot, Trump bitterly (bitterly!) fought against a wind farm off the coast of one of his private golf resorts, claiming it would spoil his money grabs view, and since then he's hated windmills, people who like windmills, things shaped like windmills, and songs featuring windmills, publicly and often. The windmill grievance is equal parts Trump repeating phrases he has repeated for years and Trump festooning those old complaints with new bells and trinketry. So here's his ‘windmill’ speech. This is what it sounds like when you combine lifelong malignant narcissism with a less-than-stellar understanding of the world and sit it down in the Oval Office.”
Mark Sumner writes—Don T-ixote is still tilting at windmills, and it's going to be a big part of 2020 campaigns: “Trump’s real war with windmills seems to be mostly connected to his long-running battle to prevent the Scottish government from permitting a series of offshore mills to be built within sight of his golf property in that country. Trump lost that fight. But ever since, he’s seemed supereager for a rematch. In the United States, that’s meant Trump doing everything he could to promote both coal and methane in the electrical marketplace. He’s removed regulations for coal slurry ponds, despite major accidents; rolled back restrictions on emissions from coal-fired power plants; and allowed coal mines to freely dump waste into streams and rivers, even when they are critical water supplies for nearby communities. He’s forced through—or attempted to force through—pipelines over the objections of residents whose land those pipelines cross, and removed limits on fracking and methane leaks, even as individual wells have spewed more gas in three weeks than most nations do in a year. Despite all that, the windmills are winning. Both wind and solar continue to get cheaper and easier to put into operation, and to make up an ever larger part of the nation’s overall electrical production.”
jmcmeans writes—Trump Warns Americans of the Danger of Windmills: “I am proud to support President Trump for his under appreciated efforts to bring to the attention of the world the danger of Windmills. Readers can access the entire speech that President Trump gave in front of the conservative high school and college youth at the Turning Point USA conference on Saturday. I will only touch on the most important highlight. Several times in his mostly off the cuff and brilliant spontaneous speech he highlighted little known facts which like myself, many conservative experts consider to be one of the most dangerous aspects of windmills fueled with fossil fuels. Most importantly, several times in the speech he emphasized the incredible amount of toxic fumes and dangerous gasses which these hazardous windmills recklessly spew into the atmosphere.”
El Mimbreno writes—trump: ‘I Never Understood Wind’: “Another incoherent rant from the windbag-in-chief: ‘I never understood wind,’ Trump said. ‘I know windmills very much, I have studied it better than anybody. I know it is very expensive. They are made in China and Germany mostly, very few made here, almost none, but they are manufactured, tremendous — if you are into this — tremendous fumes and gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right?’ ”
FORESTS, NATIONAL PARKS & OTHER PUBLIC LANDS
Meteor Blades writes—Friday night owls open thread: Court rules against foes of marine nat'l monument est'd by Obama: “Defenders of ocean habitats celebrated Friday after a federal court upheld a lower court ruling defending the right of the U.S. executive branch to set aside marine areas as national monuments. Citing the authority found under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to establish marine national monuments, the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia sided against a lawsuit brought by large fishing industry interests that challenged President Barack Obama's designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which encompasses 4,913 square miles of the Atlantic Ocean off the nation's northeast coast, as a protected area. Conservation groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF)—which had intervened in the case—applauded the court's ruling.”
idlemoments writes—Minneopa State Park Photo Diary: Little bison on the prairie: “If you are looking for a camping home where the buffalo roam, then Minneopa State Park should be your Home on the Range. Seldom was heard a discouraging word about the State Park located near Mankato, in southern Minnesota, and the skies were not cloudy all day on our visit there this past summer. We didn’t see any deer or antelope play, but we did enjoy the park’s waterfalls, hiking trails, picnic area and campground. The park also has the remnants of a wind-powered flour mill constructed in the 1860s and a preserve you can drive through to see a herd of bison that roam free on 331 acres of prairie. [...]The bison at Minneopa are part of the Minnesota Bison Conservation Herd, a joint conservation project of the Minnesota DNR and the Minnesota Zoo. The herd, which currently numbers approximately 130, are located at Minneopa, Blue Mounds State Park and at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley. The herd is largely free of any genetic materials that would have resulted from cross-breading with cattle. This makes them rare among modern bison.”
Lenny Flank writes—Photo Diary: Koreshan State Park, Ft Myers FL: “he Koreshan Unity Settlement was a colony of Christian utopian communalists who settled in Florida in the 1890s. In 1869, a young man in New York named Cyrus Teed, who had served as a surgeon during the Civil War, had a religious ‘illumination’ and became an itinerant preacher, with a message of communalism, equality of all humans, and education as the way to personal betterment. Moving to Chicago, he attracted a group of followers and in 1883 they formed the Koreshan Unity church, taking their name from the Hebrew version of ‘Cyrus.” In 1894, Teed conceived a project to build a ‘New Jerusalem,’ an ideal new community which would live under his religious laws and light the way for humanity. To place it as far as he could from the corrupting influence of the world, he moved all of his followers to Florida. Settling near Ft Myers, they soon made a new convert, Gustav Damhokler, who donated a large chunk of land along the Estero River to the church. Teed’s plans were grand. After painstakingly clearing the land of palmetto and swamp, he laid out his ‘Koreshan Unity Settlement’ in the shape of a cross. In his dreams, this holy city would grow to shelter millions and would spark a peaceful revolution of social justice and harmony.”
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
Mokurai writes—EV Tuesday: Rivian Raises $1.3 Billion: “Yesterday electric pickup maker Rivian announced a new round of funding. The trade press, the financial press, the tech press, even the MSM are all agog. We still have to wait until the end of 2020 to get one, and roll electrons at the rubes. Forbes: Electric Truckmaker Rivian, Backed By Amazon, Ford, Raises Whopping $1.3 Billio. Creating a new auto company is remarkably capital-intensive, so electric vehicle maker Rivian is bent on accumulating a mountain of cash, ending 2019 with a massive $1.3 billion funding round that includes additional investment from backers Amazon and Ford. Rivian, which plans to start building its battery-powered pickup trucks and SUVs beginning in late 2020, said the latest fundraising was led by T. Rowe Price and included BlackRock, Amazon and Ford, without providing additional details. It’s the fourth funding announcement in 2019 from the company, which appears to have raised more than $3 billion since emerging from stealth mode in 2018.”
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
Dan Bacher writes—
ACTION ALERT to Save the Delta! CALL Governor Newsom today and all through the holiday break: “
It is clear from recent media stories that Westlands Water District is aggressively pushing the Newsom Administration to not litigate against the Bernhardt/Trump Water Plan that will significantly increase pumping from the San Francisco Bay-Delta. Westlands is threatening to walk away from the ‘voluntary agreements’ to set flow standards for the Delta.
The problem is the voluntary agreements, from what we understand, will be worse than the Bay-Delta plan approved at the end of 2018. Little water is being allocated for Delta flows during the summer and fall months when Delta waterways are in peril from proliferating Harmful Algal Blooms.
Not surprisingly, Senator Dianne Feinstein, as is customary, is working to help Westlands by putting her own pressure on Governor Newsom. It is sort of amazing to see Senator Feinstein collaborating with Secretary Bernhardt of the Department of Interior, with DOI investigations pending, to increase pumping from the estuary.”
Pretiare writes—
Can Our Oceans Be Air Conditioned? Marine Permaculture and the Movie 2040: “Can our warming seas be air conditioned? Last month I saw the Australian movie called 2040 shown in New Plymouth, NZ, promoted by Sustainable Taranaki.
https://www.sustainabletaranaki.org.nz/ The 2040 trailer is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-rTQ443akE Damen Gameau is the Australian filmmaker of 2040 and travels to multiple countries to show his audience what is being done and what can be done to improve our future. In that movie (which will be coming to the US) there are several key learning
points. One of those I hadn't heard of before was Marine Permaculture. [...] One of the many sites Gameau visited was Woods Hole in Massachusetts to explore what’s being done regarding Ocean Permaculture. It turns out that seaweed is better at carbon sequestration than the Amazon Rain Forest. Marine or Ocean Permaculture is aiming to grow more seaweed, and increase the diversity of sea life which global overheating is destroying.”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
dot farmer writes—The overview effect: “I got the idea for both this diary and a morning walk from a Guardian article about trying to get people to gain new perspective on planet earth through a virtual reality set up showing earth viewed from space. It made me think about how my own perspective was changed as a boy when I got old enough to ramble around the neighborhood on my own and saw our house from a distant perspective for the first time. The house and home farm was just about my whole world at that time, but it looked tiny and insignificant from a hill top a little over a mile away. I didn’t have any pictures on hand of what I wanted to show, so I took a walk beyond my farm border this very morning.”
Mimer writes—Saturday Morning Garden Blogging. Vol 15.52: A Search for Winter Interest in my Northern garden: “Ah yes, Winter Interest: The goal of nearly every northern gardener who doesn’t escape to Florida or Arizona in the dark months of the year. I have been attempting to create winter interest on and off for years, with varying success, and fortunately there is no lack of help in gardening publications. Here, for example, is an article from Fine Gardening magazine, which offers 12 ways to create winter interest. Come along and let’s take an inventory on how my garden measures up! 1. Rely on plants with winter flowers. OK, that sounds good! The only zone 4 plant on the recommended list is the Hellebore, which blooms in early spring, not winter, but whatever. I have a hellebore!”
MISCELLANY
mnLib writes—What would you do to save the planet? “Getting to pre-industrial revolution levels of carbon emissions will be difficult, if not impossible, and making any significant progress will require lifestyle changes on the part of every American, and every citizen of the world. So, what changes are you prepared to make? According to the EPA, total U.S.A. greenhouse emissions break down as follows: • 29% Transportation industry—cars, trucks, planes, trains, ships. • 27.5% Electricity generation • 22.2% Industry—fossil fuels for energy and heat, industrial processes • 11.6% Energy—commercial and residential heating • 9% Agriculture—livestock, fertilizer, crop production • 11% Land use and Forestry—taking land out of production and planting forest land produces an 11% carbon offset. Most people can’t have a significant effect on the Industrial sector but transportation, electricity demand, home energy, and agriculture are all areas that individual behavior can effect change in. However, change is neither easy nor cheap. How many people here would: • give up your car and rely on public transportation for at least 90% of your weekly mileage, and convert to 100% electric vehicles powered by renewable energy? • Reduce electricity consumption by occupying less living space, converting to all energy efficient appliances, using smart technology to turn off anything that is not in use? • Convert to 100% solar or other renewable for electrical power and home heating? • Become vegetarian or reduce calories from animal sources by at least 75%? The answer is ‘all of the above’.æ