This is the 606th edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue). Here is the June 29 edition. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
Due to Netroots Nation, the next Green Spotlight will not appear until July 20. |
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
James S V writes—A New Declaration of Independence…From Growth: “Climate chaos continues to make weather more unpredictable. Housing is increasingly unaffordable in cities, forcing us to work longer hours to get by or face living on the streets. Iran shutting the Strait of Hormuz would threaten our thirsty lapping at the tap of oil, and the prospect of war plays well in presidential elections. By the way, I actually can spot a soccer ball floating in that Pacific plastic patch. But, yes! – finally, some good tidings around the barbecue – we can do something. Let’s recognize that, like our founding fathers, we are ruled by another tyrant. Hidden behind our worries, and demanding our complete obedience, is the tyranny of economic growth. But wait. You’ve been taught your whole life that growth is good. So it must be. Right? Wrong. Growth certainly gave us longer, healthier lives for a time, as well as an endless stream of iPhones, sneakers and cars. But while economists and corporate executives obsess over the myth that growth is our raison d’etre, the result is an economy strung out and addicted, lurching forward in search of its next growth fix.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Conspiracy Theorists Think Chemtrails Are Controlling The Climate… Are They Right? (Lol no.): “For obvious ‘don’t lump us in with those nuts’ reasons, the organized denial network generally avoids chemtrail conspiracy theories. But a Venn diagram of chemtrail kooks and climate deniers is probably pretty close to a circle, and YouTube is a particularly rich source of chemtrail content. (To pull an example from this steaming online trash heap, apparently even the lack of chemtrails is cause for concern, because Hillery [sic] Clinton?) The theories are all over the place, but the general idea is that something nefarious is going on with those strings of clouds that planes leave behind, and it’s not just geoengineering… A new study reveals: there is something happening! According to research published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics last week, contrails (the real name for chemtrails) will produce three times more warming by 2050 than they did in 2006. It’s mainly a result of increased air traffic, leading to more of the clouds that cause heat to bounce around the atmosphere instead of escaping into space. But for those wondering if this seals our warming fate, not to worry. By mid-century, all those extra clouds will add only 160 milliwatts of energy back towards the Earth’s surface, whereas the greenhouse gas emissions at that time will be responsible for radiating 6,000 milliwatts per square meter back into the climate system.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Winter Rabbit writes—Those Dolphins Can't Sing Anymore: “How does one think in sound? What would our world be like if every world leader thought in harmony? Is there such a thing as creative harmony, where one hears harmony (chords) in the inner ear, while spontaneously composing melodies? There is, because I experience it. Furthermore, I wish to add to the below quoted text—it is also free of thinking in words or sentences. It is communication, that, while one may not speak with the whales or the birds directly for example; moreover, one may deduce through their sound their feelings. Not so? Prince sang ‘I know why doves cry,’ while referring to his parents fighting. Hence, are birds and whales mourning, because they keep losing their homes of nests and open salt waters? Some people don't think animals feel, but what's happening to the birds and whales? Maybe Prince was just projecting his feelings onto the doves; however, dead whales on a beach can be personified - they're inanimate. Their homes are demolished by logging and fire, or their waters are polluted with oil spills, yet they communicate with musical song. So, for every world leader to truly think in harmony, they'd have to think with the birds and whales—in anguish. Music, by definition, is a universal language.”
PHScott writes—
The Daily Bucket: Open Bucket hosted by Eastern Tiger Swallowtail: “
July 5th 201. Well, we survived another celebration of our country’s past. The future? Not good but then we know that. Good day out here at this woodsy place. The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was my big
display. It worked over this large Butterflyweed for near 2 hours visiting the dozens of small flowers over and over.
The photos with dark background are Nikon D3500 telephoto from 20-30’ — the others are iPhone XS camera using the 2x optical from 3-4’.”
matching mole writes—Dawn Chorus: The Perils of (birding in) Peru Part 1: “Perhaps you’ve been wondering the absence of my humble self from the Dawn Chorus for most the past two months. Or perhaps not, as I may be over emphasizing my importance in the grand scheme of things. In any event, I was in Peru, one of the birdies countries in the world. In fact with over 1800 recorded species Peru has the second highest recorded number of bird species in the world after Colombia.*. So it is a birders paradise. Well sort of. I think it is a paradise for a certain type of birder. It is a wonderful country and if you get a chance to go there you should. The picture above is not from Peru, it’s from Panama. I spent four weeks in Panama teaching before going to Peru. I didn’t do a lot of birding but the four frigate birds above represent by far the best photo of birds I took during my whole six weeks abroad. Note the dolphin dorsal fins in the lower right of the photo. The frigate birds were following the dolphins to (hopefully) grab a meal as the dolphins scared fish closeto the surface. Side note — One of my students on the boat described it as ‘the best five dollars I ever spent’ (the cost of the boat tour). She was ecstatic at seeing dolphins which seemed a little weird for someone from Florida. The lesson here is not to make assumptions about other people’s experiences.”
Meteor Blades writes—Climate change worsens plight of endangered right whales: “North Atlantic right whales got their name because they were considered to be the ‘right’ one to harpoon and harvest. By the 1930s, so many had been killed that the federal government banned further hunting of the giants. Their numbers briefly and slightly rose, then stabilized. But for nearly a decade, these whales, which have been on the Endangered Species List since 1970, have been on the decline again. Today, marine biologists put their numbers at between 400 and 420, with only around 100 of them being sexually mature females. And since April 2017, 26 right whales have been lost, 4% of their total population. So far this year, six more have died, all of them far short of the 80 to 100 years they are known to live. The only good news this year is that seven calves have been born. Last year, none was, and in all of 2017, just five were. But those are still very small numbers, and conservationists fear that extinction is just around the corner. Right whales, they believe, may all be gone by midcentury or sooner. Regina Asmutis-Silvia, executive director of Whale and Dolphin Conservation North America, and an expert on the species, told Ed Yong at The Atlantic: ‘Honestly, I don’t have the words, It’s devastating. There’s now more people working on right whales than there are right whales left’.”
Joan McCarter writes—Trump wants to kill off nation's biggest wild salmon run in Alaska. What will Murkowski do? “Monday, July 1 at midnight is the last chance to provide public comment on the Trump administration's U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ environmental impact statement on a proposed mine that could kill off the nation's most productive wild salmon fishery, located in Alaska. Even Trump's former EPA administrator, the disgraced Scott Pruitt, opposed allowing the proposal to go forward. ‘It is my judgment at this time that any mining projects in the region likely pose a risk to the abundant natural resources that exist there,’ he wrote in January 2018. "Until we know the full extent of that risk, those natural resources and world-class fisheries deserve the utmost protection." The United Tribes of Bristol, representing 15 tribes in the area, blasted the Army Corps' EIS as "completely inadequate," and that it ‘ignores the many valid concerns about the devastating impacts this project will bring.’ It was also denounced by the more than 8,000 scientists and researchers of the American Fisheries Society, whose public comment said that the evaluation ‘fails to meet basic standards of scientific rigor.’ Tribes, fishermen, Bristol Bay residents, and concerned Alaskans have sent an ‘SOS’ to Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski for her assistance in killing the proposal.”
Joan McCarter writes—Golden eagles hatch in a California park for the first time in decades: “Here's a spot of good news to celebrate the holiday: A close cousin of the nation's iconic symbol, the golden eagle, is coming back to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in California. For the first time since the 1980s, a pair of chicks were spotted in a remote part of the park. Katy Delaney, an ecologist with Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park Service, told the National Parks Traveler website that loss of habitat has reduced the range of the eagles throughout the state, enough to be worrisome for their future. ‘Humans are the greatest threat to golden eagles," Delaney said. "In the past, they were trapped and shot throughout their range and today, they are vulnerable to habitat loss. Like their mammalian carnivore counterparts, they can die from eating poisoned prey as well as from lead poisoning, electrocution on power lines and collisions with wind turbines.’ It's possible, she said, that they've been around and just haven't been seen, but the appearance of these two chicks, which have been banded for tracking, ‘is a good thing for our mountains’.”
RonK writes—The Daily Bucket: A Flicker Family Feeds and Fledges: “The Northern Flicker (NOFL), (Colaptes auratus)) is the most prevalent woodpecker in my part of the country. Although they are found throughout North America, those in the east are Yellow-shafted while ours in the west are red-shafted. This is the first time I have had an opportunity watch a pair of Flickers excavate their nest in what they must have considered a typical tree cavity, prepare their nest, lay the eggs, incubate them, hatch them, protect them, feed them, and finally fledge them. It has been a very interesting and time consuming process for me as their nest cavity was in a power pole in our alley. As is typical for Flickers, the hole was about 20 feet up and it faced my backyard. I could watch them from inside my house and back porch. It was only a few steps to my garden fence that I used as a makeshift tripod, or something to steady the camera. (Similar to PH Scott’s hawk fest last month. )”
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - more slow beach walking (w critter sightings): “I’m still slow on my feet and not covering much ground but it’s nice to get out to the beach even so — thankfully this particular beach is right next to the road and there’s a handy place to pull over and park the car. This was on a sunny day, so everything was brighter, including the water. I like the glints in the wave swash above. Goose feather swishing back and forth. It’s summer though so not much wave action, especially in this bay, which is among the most protected in the islands. Almost as quiet as a lakeshore, but the unmarked sand tells us this is a tidal shore. At first I assumed the tide was newly ebbing, all that nice clean-washed sand, since in summer there’s a lot of tromping around on the beach by tourists and absentee landowners who come up to the island occasionally in nice weather. But after looking at the tide table I see this is an incoming tide, still an hour to high slack. I’m amazed that nobody’s left any tracks right here but a mink who’s scampered down the beach. Since daybreak! Well, high summer season doesn’t really begin in earnest until the 4th of July, after which it’ll be wall to wall people until after Labor Day. A quiet afternoon on the beach like this will be precious then.”
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - mama wren: “Heard a trilling in the bushes the other day and saw it was coming from a small tail-flicking brown bird. It was holding something in its beak, chirruping at the same time. No way to tell who it was at the time, through the branches of a twinberry shrub and hopping back and forth, but I took a few pics hoping to tell that way later. Turns out it was a House Wren with some kind of bug. Unlike our other wrens (Bewick’s, Marsh and Pacific), House Wrens are strictly summer birds here, arriving in early May, nesting and departing by September. While they’re here they feast on a “wide variety of insects and spiders, including beetles, caterpillars, earwigs, and daddy longlegs, as well as smaller numbers of more mobile insects such as flies, leafhoppers, and springtails. Also eats snail shells, probably for the calcium they contain and to provide grit for digestion.” (www.allaboutbirds.org/...). House Wrens are cavity nesters and in the wild build nests tucked into tree crevices or old woodpecker holes.”
Angmar writes—The Daily Bucket July 4th: "Revenge of the Lycanthaphibians": “Before Miss Bergergeron found John Brown's body in the school gym, none of us believed in the teenage werefrog. There had been rumours, of course. There always are! But many of us viewed Miss Bergergeron's discovery as confirmation of our worst fears..... Not everyone shared our certainty. There had been only a fingernail paring of moon that late March night, and a small but vocal minority (the Spring Peepers) amongst us argued that this precluded the possibility that John Brown's killer had been a lycanthaphibian, because they only began the change during FULL Wormmoons™ as everyone well knows..… But weeks passed, and suddenly it was the Solstice! Would a lycanthaphibian emerge? And most frighteningly, what of the *Great Heron, who took form mainly for his best meal of the season! A veritable buffet....Meanwhile, I searched the dusty old library shelves for a certain battered leatherbound book™..… I knew it was my only hope....”
CLIMATE CHAOS
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Delingpole Goes to Glastonbury, Finds Out Greenies Are Sincere and Deniers Losing: “We’ve given Breitbart columnist James “interpreter of interpretations” Delingpole plenty of grief over the years, for his lazy lies, fake news, defense of white nationalistsand literally unbelievable stupidity, as well as his attacks on women and children and Muslims and scientists and public servants. But now it appears he’s taken a turn for the softer. He’s written a pair of columns about his experience at the recent Glastonbury Festival that are approaching, if not embracing, a basic level of human decency. The lighter of the two pieces is in the Spectator, where Delingpole mostly keeps the commentary focused on the music (apparently Miley Cyrus was much better than Kylie Minogue?) and is downright reasonable. Upon reading it, you can almost see the writer Delingpole would be if he had a solid editor to keep his pretentiousness in check, and a heart and soul uncorrupted by his very white, very male brand of hate. Over at Breitbart, though, Delingpole lets his true colors fly with a column on what he learned on his ‘undercover mission among the greenies at Glastonbury.’ But even here he’s more conciliatory than usual (perhaps still under the second-hand influence of one of the various recreational chemicals that float around music festivals).”
annieli writes—Anti-Capitalist Meet-Up: attacking the estimates of economic damage from the Climate Crisis: “” There are always contingencies, and it’s worse with the global climate crisis. You’d think the 2018 Nobel Prize recipient would have a handle on this, but capitalism has never been good about expectations, especially in terms of the environment. I once asked the then Moscow bureau chief of the NY Times in a graduate seminar about the historical responsibility of writing for the “paper of record”. He could have answered it personally or institutionally, but I got an unsatisfactory answer probably because the graduate program was still doing joint research work with the Soviets. No one likes ever being quoted verbatim, even if it would be “off-the-record”, and not a ‘known-answer question.’ Then again, my expectations were for something thoughtful at least. Similarly, criticizing Nobel Prize recipients might not represent any significance, but post-Keynesian Steve Keen has written on the historical failure of William Nordhaus’s neoclassical estimates of the economic damage from the Climate Crisis. As Kohei Saito says ‘humans are now facing a serious global ecological crisis under neoliberal capitalism.’ but we’re still short on expectations.”
Meteor Blades writes—Trump fails to persuade anyone to abandon support for Paris climate accord in G20's final communiqué: “At the G20 meeting in Osaka, Japan, this week, Donald Trump failed in his effort to get several nations to back off their support of the Paris climate accord. If he had succeeded, this likely would have killed the final communiqué usually issued at the end of each G20 meeting. Three senior officials told Politico reporters that Trump had been pressuring Australia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Turkey to withdraw their support for the G20’s commitment to the 2015 accord. It didn’t work. In fact, French President Emmanuel Macron gave notice early on that he would veto the final communiqué if it weakened the G20’s support for the accord. As it turned out, Trump’s arm-twisting lost, and the communiqué’s language declares similar support for the accord as it has in the past, with an “agree to disagree” carve-out for the United States in the document like those that have been included since 2017. [...] The G20 leaders presumably toned down what they would liked to have said about Trump’s stubborn backwardness. His national and international retreat on dealing with the climate crisis has been one of the most egregiously pernicious hallmarks of his regime, a stance motivated by greed, myopia, and ignorance that deserves constant excoriation and litigation.”
Meteor Blades writes—Existing energy infrastructure will take us past 1.5°C of warming“: All the power plants, vehicles and other fossil fuel-burning infrastructure operating today will lock the world into 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming, exceeding the Paris climate agreement goals, unless the biggest polluters are shut down early or are retrofitted to capture their carbon emissions, a new study shows. And that's just the infrastructure already built. When the researchers factored in the future emissions of coal- and gas-fired power plants that are currently planned or under construction, they found the total lifetime emissions would shoot past 1.5°C (2.7°F) warming and put the world on pace to burn about two-thirds of the remaining carbon budget for staying under 2°C warming compared to pre-industrial times. The findings imply profound changes for the planet and many of its inhabitants in this century.”
Vetwife writes—Climate Change Gagged and USDA Scientists to be fired in 2 weeks. We are in severe danger: “OK. Just forget the danger we are in with this climate change. I sit here with the news telling me it is 85 degrees at 12 midnight and 94 today when every mercury reading thermostat told me different today in the shade and in the sun and registered 100 in the car I was driving. I don’t know if the weather people are lying, getting faulty software or all of my thermometers are broken. I do know this, as I did some research and 114 in France is not normal. This heat wave is not normal. I know humidity makes the heat index rise but it is DAMN hot. It is hotter than I have ever known in Florida and I am sure hotter in Minnesota as well. Why is he wanting to fire Scientists who study climate change? ( According to Rachel and other reports. www.scientificamerican.com/…Then we have the Food and Drug inspectors who have a problem thanks to the orange dung. USDA inspects food, and meds.”
RoyMorrison writes Escaping Climate Catastrophe: Two Paths: “Climate Change was briefly discussed in the June Democratic Presidential debates by the 20 hopefuls. Two themes worthy of our attention can be glimpsed to help understand the policy debates to come. First, is the idea, much beloved by economists, and roundly despised by consumers and business people, is to raise prices on carbon. Hike prices and eventually slash carbon emissions is the idea. Price hikes are achieved through a carbon tax, or carbon tax and divided, or a cap and trade program imposed either at the pump, mine head, or refinery. While economists like William Nordhaus prove we can tax our way out of climate disaster, politics and experience say something else. Raising prices on gasoline drove the Yellow Vest movement in France into the streets and Republican Senators in Oregon to flee to stop carbon cap and trade.And while Nordhaus' analysis is correct if the carbon tax was indeed high enough, experience has shown that, first, such a tax must be phased in slowly to avoid plunging the world into recession as followed sudden spikes in oil prices.”
Frederick Clarkson writes—Some Good Climate News: “The Green New Deal is certainly a good, aspirational start to envisioning a livable future. The original New Deal had a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) that provided employment, helping to lift the country out of the Depression and built a lot of the infrastructure in our state and national parks and forests. A 21st century version might be doable — and sooner rather than later. The original CCC was a state project of then New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt. No reason why it could not start in any city, county or state or civic organization with the gumption to try it right now. Even better, it turns out there is something we can do while we wait for whatever mass mobilization to save the planet our leaders finally put forward: Plant trees. Now. That’s the conclusion of a group of Swiss scientists who wanted to figure out what would be be most significant interventions we can make to reduce carbon in the atmosphere while we reduce or eliminate carbon emissions. The headline in The Guardian report on their findings reads: ‘Tree planting “has mind-blowing potential” to tackle climate crisis: Research shows a trillion trees could be planted to capture huge amount of carbon dioxide’."
Benthovens5th writes—Climate Change Will Make Your Kids Gay: How to get Evangelicals to Accept Science: “Climate Change was briefly discussed in the June Democratic Presidential debates by the 20 hopefuls. Two themes worthy of our attention can be glimpsed to help understand the policy debates to come. First, is the idea, much beloved by economists, and roundly despised by consumers and business people, is to raise prices on carbon. Hike prices and eventually slash carbon emissions is the idea. Price hikes are achieved through a carbon tax, or carbon tax and divided, or a cap and trade program imposed either at the pump, mine head, or refinery. While economists like William Nordhaus prove we can tax our way out of climate disaster, politics and experience say something else. Raising prices on gasoline drove the Yellow Vest movement in France into the streets and Republican Senators in Oregon to flee to stop carbon cap and trade. And while Nordhaus' analysis is correct if the carbon tax was indeed high enough, experience has shown that, first, such a tax must be phased in slowly to avoid plunging the world into recession as followed sudden spikes in oil prices.”
Pakalolo writes—The Arctic will not survive Russia's wave of industrialization; nuclear submarine in flames: “While climate change is helping to fuel Russia’s moves in the Arctic, Russia’s development of the region will continue contributing to rising temperatures. This, and the fact that Arctic development presents specific environmental risks, makes Russia’s activities in the region of relevance within international environmental discussions. The greatest environmental threat to the region stems from the extraction and transportation of fossil fuels. While oil and chemical spills are likely to occur in any region containing oil and gas reserves, when such spills occur in the Arctic, they are particularly dangerous incidents. For example, because the Arctic drilling season is typically limited to a few months during the summer, companies have a limited timeframe to cap leaking oil/gas wells or successfully drill relief wells before winter sea ice returns. Oil spills are also difficult to clean up and contain, as oil will become trapped under large blocks of ice and travel large distances under ice flows. Extreme weather conditions, short days, lack of search and rescue stations, also amplify the danger of such events.”
Pakalolo writes—Wildfires sweep across the Arctic circle; seventy percent of soil carbon could be lost by 2100: “The fact that climate science is brutal explains the reluctance of many people to keep knowledge of the issue at bay. I get that. I respect that choice. It’s a defensive reaction, and people do disassociate when bad news arrives. It’s widespread actually. In my case, I have been living with my own mortality for a very long time, and if it weren’t for modern pharmaceuticals, I would have been a goner a long time ago. I’m still here, doing well and eternally grateful. See I followed the medical science closely and reflected on my chances if I made the right choices given the dire diagnosis. I was determined to delay the inevitable as long as I could in the hopes that the scientists would discover a miracle for me. And they did work, diets, relaxation, meditation all kept me somewhat healthy - all tools that allowed me to survive long enough to reap the benefits of their labor and compassion. The breakthroughs keep me focused and provide a lot of emotional support for the predicament I was in. For me, the climate is similar to my health experience. See, climate science offers the brutal truth, but it also encourages real solutions and it is that visibility that we use to save ourselves.”
NHlib writes—The climate crisis is our third world war. It needs a bold response: “That is the headline of a June 4 opinion column in The Guardian newspaper written by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. When the US was attacked during the second world war no one asked, “Can we afford to fight the war?” It was an existential matter. We could not afford not to fight it. The same goes for the climate crisis. How to start? There is a saying, when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.”
committed writes—we are so screwed: “and alaska is a solid gop state and deep into climate change denial. A giant heat dome over Alaska is set to threaten all-time temperature records Anchorage’s nighttime lows may settle only in the mid-60s during this hot stretch, which is close to its average high at this time of year. ‘This 7-day forecast contains the warmest 1-day, warmest 2-day, warmest 3-day, warmest 4-day, warmest 5-day, warmest 6-day, and warmest 7-day period on record for Anchorage,’ tweeted Alaska climatologist Brian Brettschneider. This heat wave is the latest in a nonstop barrage of warm weather for the northernmost state. It comes right on the heels of a June that was well above average and filled with wildfires that are persisting and/or growing into July. Spring was disturbingly warm before that, and so was winter.”
Angmar writes—"Prolonged heat wave to bake Alaska, keep fire danger high into early next week" Angmar: “For residents in southern Alaska that have been dealing with dense smoke and poor air quality from the Swan Lake Fire, more bad news is on the way as a rare, long-lasting heat wave overspreads the state. The Swan Lake Fire, which was ignited by lightning on June 5, has already charred over 84,000 acres and continues to burn south of Anchorage on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. As of Wednesday night, the fire was still only 14 percent contained, according to Inciweb. The National Weather Service office in Anchorage issued the first ever Dense Smoke Advisory for the region on Saturday afternoon, and the city’s international airport reported smoke for 74 straight hours ending 3 p.m. local time Sunday.”
kailaHI writes—Saudi-led group of oil-producing countries gets major climate report scrubbed from UN negotiations: “Saudi Arabia has successfully lobbied for a major Climate Change report to be scrubbed from international negotiations on limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C. The Saudis led a loose coalition of oil-producing nations, including the US, Russia and Iran, that objected to the science behind the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).The report emphasised the need to keep warming down to 1.5C as a matter of survival for many countries and called for drastic action to reach this goal, with the whole world needing to hit zero emissions by 2050. However, as a result of the Saudi-led intervention, this landmark report was blocked from formal climate talks at Bonn this week. Read the rest of the article. And then the UN chief pushes back. Will the three countries who don't like science (Saudi Arabia, Iran and the US) stop schools from teaching science?”
kailaHI writes—Governments and firms in 28 countries sued over climate crisis: “I did not know this: Governments and firms in 28 countries sued over climate crisis—report. WOW. More than 1,300 legal actions over global heating brought since 1990, say researchers.”
Extreme Weather & Natural Phenomena
Pakalolo writes—Unusual hailstorm buries low lying areas of Guadalajara with hail and floodwater five feet deep: “Then we ask ourselves if climate change is real. These are never-before-seen natural phenomena. State governor Enrique Alfaro Local media is reporting that a powerful rain and hailstorm wreaked havoc in Guadalajara and Tlaquepaque very early this morning. Guadalajara is Mexico's second largest city with a population of over five million people. The city is culturally rich and one of Mexico’s colonial treasures. The rainy season is between June and September with afternoon storms common.”
Pakalolo writes—Japan empties entire cities on the island of Kyushu due to record torrential rainfall and landslides: “For most of Japan, this time of the year is the rainy season. The rains have taken a deadly turn in recent years according to the Straits Times. Singapore daily notes that ‘The deluge, which began last Friday and is forecast to continue until at least Thursday, has dumped in some areas more rain in a single day than the typical precipitation for the entire month of July.’ TOKYO - About 1.12 million people in south-western Japan were urged to flee to safety on Wednesday (July 3) as heavy rain continued to lash the region, bringing waist-deep floods in many areas and threatening deadly landslides. They are residents in parts of Kagoshima, Miyazaki and Kumamoto prefectures on the south-western island of Kyushu, where highways have been shut, bullet train services have been suspended and schools have been closed. A Unesco World Heritage site has also been damaged.”
Lefty Coaster writes—Anchorage, Alaska cancels it's 4th of July fireworks "due to extreme heat wave": “The city of Anchorage, Alaska, canceled its July 4 fireworks display this week over an extreme heat wave. The Anchorage Fire Department put out a burn ban and said that any use of fireworks could result in a fine. ‘Just a reminder per MOA Code 14.70.180 it is unlawful to knowingly sell, possess, or use any explosive fireworks or stench bombs to which fuses are attached or which are capable of ignition by matches or percussion, without permission of that municipal official charged with issuing permits for such activities,’ the department said in a statement. ‘Violation of this section shall be punishable by a civil penalty of $300.’ Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city by population, is expected to surpass an 85-degree temperature record, according to the National Weather Service.”
Walter Einenkel writes—Alaska hits 90 degrees on July 4th, breaking 50-year-old record: Alaska has been seeing a heat wave this spring and summer. Temperatures have been up in place like Utqiaġvik (formerly known as Barrow), 18.6 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. This Fourth of July was no exception to the record-breaking heat, as CNN reports that 90 degree temperatures in The Last Frontier were recorded July Fourth. The record-setting heat number was taken at Anchorage’s airport and broke the previous record set in 1969. June’s record-heat wave has hit across the globe, with France hitting well into the triple digits last week, and Greenland saw ‘widespread melting across the surface of the ice sheet.’ California’s coast has seen its own rising temperatures, and thousands—possibly hundreds of thousands—of mussels have ended up cooked in their shells, due to the unseasonably warm weather. And the heat wave isn’t going away because it’s not a normal heatwave, as Brian Brettschneider, a climate researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, tells NBC News, ‘It’s entirely possible that the warmest temperature ever recorded in Anchorage could be exceeded three to five days in a row. That’s the definition of unusual’.”
Dan K writes—BREAKING: Flash Flood Watch for DC Tonight: “At 11:45 EDT, the National Weather Service issued a flood watch for the DC area: I hesitate to call this evidence for the existence of a god, but it’s clear that Someone has a great sense of timing!”
Flash Flood Watch for portions of Maryland, The District of Columbia, and northern Virginia, including . . . The District of Columbia. . . Until 8 PM this evening.Slow moving showers and thunderstorms are expected to develop after 1 PM this afternoon before diminishing early this evening. Torrential rainfall rates may lead to totals exceeding 2 inches in a short period of time. This may cause flash flooding of small streams and other poor drainage urban ares.
ENERGY
Green New Deal & 100% Clean Energy
gmoke writes—How Do You Pay for the Green New Deal: Cost of Fuel: “I did some back of the envelope estimates of the cost of the fossil fuels we use in a year. The source of these figures is the USA DOE Energy Information Agency https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php. But any mistakes in arithmetic are my own. 7.5 billion barrels of petroleum products consumed in USA in 2018; average price $69.78 per barrel; cost of petroleum products: $523,350,000,000. In 2017, the United States consumed about 27.11 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas. average of $4.08 per thousand cubic feet. Cost of natural gas: $110,608,800,000. EIA expects total U.S. coal consumption in 2018 to fall to 691 million short tons (MMst). $39.09 per short ton (2017 price) Cost of coal: $27,011,190,000. Total: $660,969,990,000 We spend nearly $661 billion per year or something like that on fuel alone every year. And these are only ballpark numbers, probably on the low side. With the 2018 USA GDP at $20.50 trillion, the cost of fuel is approximately 3.22% of annual GDP.”
billofrights writes—"But how will we pay for it?" Stephanie Kelton delivers her "Presidential Lecture": “Dear Citizens and Elected Officials: I wish you all the best for this 4th of July holiday. The weather is warm, seasonal, with possible thunderstorms in the forecasts for Western Maryland for the next five days. Therefore, I'll keep the introduction of Professor Stephanie Kelton, giving a 50 minute "Presidential Lecture" on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) at Stony Brook University in October of last year, in New York, brief. Here at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS9nP-BKa3M She's simultaneously sharp and ‘down-home,’ not ‘coastal’ elitist in style or substance, and I could imagine her giving this talk at Frostburg State University or Allegany or Garrett College. However, understand this: it does turn the conventional wisdom on government spending and accounting upside down. With a central bank and sovereign currency, the dollar, the federal government's accounting "universe" is not the same as the family's household budget. Kelton chastises President Obama for misleading the public, repeatedly, with that misplaced analogy.”
Fossil Fuels
Michael Brune writes—We Can't Get Beyond Carbon With Gas: “The New York Times reported last week, utilities have a decision to make as they replace polluting coal plants: adopt clean, renewable energy or build plants that burn fossil gas. It’s crucial that they make the right choice. That’s why the second goal (after finishing the job of eliminating coal-fired power) that former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg listed when he announced his $500 million Beyond Carbon initiative last month was this: ‘We will work to stop the construction of new gas plants.’ What makes it so important that we stop the so-called gas rush? After all, an unfortunate number of people (including some who know better), still claim that fossil gas ‘burns cleaner’ than coal, as if that somehow makes it palatable. I’m sorry, but even if fossil gas were less polluting than coal (which it isn't), saying that it "burns cleaner" is like insisting that a switchblade "kills quieter" than a machine gun. Either way, you're still pumping daisies. Exactly how you ended up there is kind of beside the point.”
annieli writes—Liz Cheney cares more about flags on sneakers than 700 coal miners losing their jobs in Wyoming: “Darn that vulture capitalism. The coal industry was rocked by two massive bankruptcy filings this week that have put nearly 2,000 jobs at risk in Virginia, Kentucky, Wyoming and West Virginia. Revelation Energy LLC., a West Virginia-based company that employs about 1,100 people in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of West Virginia, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. Cumberland, Kentucky, Mayor Charles Raleigh told the outlet that the company has already shut down its nearby mines and workers were told not to show up for work.”
Merlin1963 writes—Look Where the "Economically Distressed" Counties in Appalachia Are Located: “One of the local news stations flagged a report out by the Appalachian Regional Commission on the economic state of various counties in Appalachia. Take a look at the map they provide on where the 80 “Economically Distressed Counties” are located: In the words of Jed Clampett, “Weeelll Doggies!” Most of those red economically distressed counties are in Kentucky! Hey! Weren’t things supposed to be getting so much better in places like Kentucky? Um, Not really. The number of coal-related jobsplummeted from more than 11,000 in 2012 to less than 4,000 in the first quarter of 2019, according to data from the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, the number of coal jobs in Eastern Kentucky has remained flat at about 3,960 jobs.”
Renewables, Efficiency, Energy Storage & Conservation
Mokurai writes—Renewable Friday: Floating Solar: “What’s Not To Love About Floating Solar Farms? (#CleanTechnica Interview) with Christian Rynning-Tønnesen, CEO of Norway’s Statkraft. Floating solar panels can get a conversion efficiency boost, thanks to the cooling effect of the water upon which they rest. That is, the water cools the panels, which can thereby convert more energy at closer to their optimum operating temperature. Also, you don't have ground preparation on water. He pointed to the downward spiral in conventional solar costs as an indication that floating solar can become competitive — without subsidies — within a few years. This is currently being argued, but we will soon have facts to go on, in the forms of technology and market trends. For now, the convenience of locating floating solar on available bodies of water sometimes overcomes higher cost.”
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
Mark Sumner writes—Trump is gutting fuel standards to the point where automakers are begging him to stop: “There is nothing Donald Trump likes more than knocking down protections for air or water—except, perhaps, knocking down protections for air or water that were put in place by Barack Obama. So it was a cinch that the regulations Obama put in place to increase fuel-efficiency requirements for new cars would fall in Trump’s crosshairs. That was especially true because automakers were complaining that the new rules, which would require a sharp increase in efficiency by 2025, would be difficult to meet. So automakers signed on to and championed the idea of weakening the regulations. Then a funny thing happened. Whereas the automakers started off as the “right” edge of this argument, when it came to replacing the policy, Trump invited in climate-change deniers who were set on not just weakening the regulations, but also using auto emissions as a statement. They wanted to not just loosen the regulations, but essentially eliminate them, declaring that the government had no business trying to protect the environment, or American lungs. And those deniers ended up with a new opponent: the automakers.”
Assaf writes— #RbPi 15 (7/2019): Best-Value Used EVs: “I don’t count my announcement of the EV Revolution group (always accepting new members!) as part of the #RbPi series, so today is #15. With all the rhetorical wars around new EVs, fueled by oil-lobby-astroturf talking pointsoften lamentably parroted on the left (“EVs are toys for the rich! Who can afford them?”etc.), as well as by intra-EV family feuds (“To Tesla or not to Tesla?!”), the existence of a vibrant, immensely affordable used EV market, especially in the US, has been largely ignored. Now many American value buyers are discovering it. I used cars.com as well as myEV.com, but of course you can also find them on, e.g., Craigslist. In the interest of brevity, today only features my self-declared-expert-opinion list of the best value options. Next diary will feature the cheapies, and following that (or perhaps in the same diary) the pricier but still good-value models.”
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
Dan Bacher writes—Spring Delta smelt surveys reveal record low numbers of fish as big water exports continue: “The fall of 2018 saw a new record low number of Delta smelt — zero — in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) midwater trawl survey. This trend has continued in the spring Delta smelt 20-mm surveys conducted this year and last year, with a record low number of the smelt collected by Department scientists. (www.wildlife.ca.gov/...) The Delta smelt was once the most abundant fish on the entire Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, numbering in the millions. However, massive water exports by the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project to agribusiness interests, combined with declining water quality and the impact of upstream dam operations, have put the fish on the bring of extinction under the Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom administrations. According to independent fisheries biologist Tom Cannon in his California Fisheries Blog on the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) website, the Late April and early May 20-mm Surveys ‘provide an excellent picture of the status of Delta smelt population in the estuary’.”
CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
Austin Bailey writes—Koch Brothers and Militia Force Oregon to Abandon Climate Legislation: “Over the last two weeks the Oregon state senate attempted to vote on a bill that would have established a statewide limit on carbon emissions and move Oregon into the Western Climate Initiative that creates a regional carbon credit market – a cap and trade system designed to reduce carbon emissions while allowing time for industries to implement emission improvements. There is a great summary of the events and their links to industries and right-wing militias in The Nation. Let’s start with the legislation, which shares a foundational principle with the Green New Deal: that corporate polluters should help pay for the transition to a clean economy. Referred to as a “cap and invest” policy, the measure would have put a statewide limit on carbon emissions, forcing Oregon’s largest polluters to pay for emissions allowances. In the face of the imminent passage of this bill in the state senate where Democrats hold a majority, 11 Republican senators fled the state, thereby denying the senate the necessary quorum required to do business. The Republican senators were immediately embraced by members of the state’s far right militia movement, who vowed to defend the senators from any attempt to force them to return to the state capital to restore a quorum and allow a vote on the bill.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Media Matters Exposes Pro-Iran War, Anti-GND CNN Commentator As Oil and Defense Lobbyist: “We’ve hardly been shy about how not only is Fox news bad, but that most all TV news rots your brain and consistently misleads viewers. And it’s hardly a secret that we more or less operate under the assumption that everyone who regularly rejects climate science does so because they’re paid by the fossil fuel industry, an axiom that we’ve found is only very rarely wrong. But now we have the confluence of these two ideas. Media Matters’ Eric Hananoki reported yesterday that David Urban, one of CNN’s recurring commentators who has attacked the Green New Deal and praised Trump’s pro-polluter agenda, is actually a lobbyist for the fossil fuel industry. (Additionally, Urban is also a lobbyist for defense contractors, which explains his support for bombing Iran, part of his years-long work at CNN lobbying the public without disclosing his financial incentive for doing so.) After Hananoki’s reporting on Urban, CNN did disclose at the top of a segment that Urban is an energy and defense lobbyist. But that just leads one to wonder why CNN’s own staff never bothered to check out their own commentator’s background. Or if they did, why they didn’t disclose his affiliations sooner. And perhaps most startling, now that they know, why do they continue to allow him to use their network on behalf of his clients?”
Mark Sumner writes—Democrats may have a climate debate after all, but most of the candidates still lack a climate plan“: ”In 2016, only 2% of questions during the Democratic debates—and exactly 0% of questions during the final series of debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump—dealt with the climate crisis. While the first debate of the 2020 cycle did include at least two questions that edged into the area, and candidates brought up the climate crisis when describing the biggest challenges facing the nation, barely 15 minutes out of the first four hours of debate were spent really focused on the topic. With activists and voters already upset about the lack of attention given the issue in 2016, that start to 2020 only increased the heat (… so to speak) to bring more attention to this issue. As Mother Jones reports, the DNC’s hard line against a climate debate could be softening. The committee is currently weighing a pair of resolutions that could result in a dedicated climate debate. On Saturday, the DNC’s executive committee voted to refer the two proposals—one calling for a formal debate on the climate crisis, the other for a less-structured forum that wouldn’t officially be a debate—for consideration by the resolutions committee. The committee should return its recommendations to the complete DNC for a vote by the end of August.”
Idon’tknowwhy writes—Trump to Deliver Orwellian Environmental Address to the Nation on Monday: “From Mother Jones. Trump’s environment officials, including Environmental Protection Agency administrator Andrew Wheeler, interior secretary David Bernhardt and council on environmental quality chief Mary Neumayr will be at the White House on Monday for the 3:30pm event titled Presidential Remarks on America’s Environmental Leadership. The full article is worth the read and provides links disputing most of the lies Trump is likely to spew. In summary Trump is expected to deny and undermine science and lie about both his record the direction we are headed.”
Angmar writes—"Less than 10 minutes on the crisis" Jay Inslee Demands Rule Changes at DNC: “Jay Inslee is demanding the Democratic National Committee change its rules after the first primary debate devoted just 6% of questions to the climate crisis. In a letter shared with HuffPost, the Washington governor, who has centered his White House bid entirely on global warming, implored his 2020 rivals to rally behind his call for the committee to either schedule a debate on climate change ― or let someone else do it.”
Angmar writes—Breaking:"DNC To Consider Climate Debate Amid Mounting Pressure": “The Democratic National Committee is considering a pair of resolutions on whether to host a debate of some kind devoted exclusively to climate change, amid mounting pressure from activists who want a spotlight put on the issue. At an executive committee gathering in Pittsburgh on Saturday, the DNC voted unanimously to refer two proposals ― one calling for an official debate on climate change, another envisioning a less formal forum ― to a committee, a DNC official confirmed to HuffPost.”
Angmar writes—"INSLEE JUST ANNOUNCED MOST AMBITIOUS CLIMATE PLAN FROM A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE"(WHO IT TARGETS): “JAY INSLEE, 2020 presidential hopeful, released an expansive plan on Monday that attempts to capture and rein in the full range of what’s propping up the fossil-fuel economy, from big banks, to lax drilling laws, to federal subsidies. The Washington governor is the first candidate to call — and plan explicitly — for phasing out fossil fuel production writ large in the United States, through both legislative and executive actions to ban fracking and to prohibit fossil fuel leases on public lands, among other sweeping changes. The plan also explores possibilities for restricting drilling on nonpublic lands, such as instituting mandatory buffers between drilling operations and populated areas like schools, homes, and hospitals. Inslee’s ‘Freedom From Fossil Fuels’ plan looks to take on the leadership of fossil fuel companies directly and account for their role in climate and environmental crises, in part by establishing an Office of Environmental Justice within the Department of Justice. ‘The Inslee Administration will ensure that polluters pay for their actions, and will not hesitate to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law,’ the plan states. Identifying who those polluters are, and just how much they have to lose, inspired Dario Kenner, a visiting fellow at Anglia Ruskin University in the U.K., to create the Polluter Elite database.Kenner said his goal for the database is to demonstrate how ‘these people are blocking you and your grandchildren from having a future. … Do they get to continue profiting and dominating our politics and our chances of survival, or do we stop them?’”
robctwo writes—I am an angry Oregonian: “Government by minority is tyranny. Government by threat of arms is terrorism. This brings me to Senator Brian Boquist. www.opb.org/… Boquist is retired special forces, and has a special training company to train for real time combat situations. Unfortunately, some retired military think military solutions work on domestic issues. Is he a broken warrior? I sure have known a bunch of them starting with my Dad’s generation form WWII. If the Republicans think for one minute that I do not see their “constitutional” movements for the armed terrorists they are, think again. If they think veiled threats and innuendo to incite violence against our duly elected representatives, even by our elected representatives, to achieve political ends is not terrorism, think again. If they think they are under attack, and are justified in using violence because they lost an election they are delusional, and dangerous.”
REGULATIONS & PROTECTIONS
Dartagnan writes—While we were focused on Trump, his EPA just made it easier for polluters to poison our air: “99% of the American population has never read a single word from the daily publication known as the Federal Register, or its annually-updated codification, the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), both of which detail all of the rules, proposed rules, and public notices emanating from nearly every agency in our Federal government. The Register is the driest of dry publications, containing everything from federal motor vehicle safety standards governing the cars we drive and the appliances we own, to the allowable chemical output and efficiency of chemical and energy company smokestacks. There are few color pictures in the Federal Register, and the diagrams incorporated in some its pages are for the most part are opaque and bewildering. But the Register is well-known to companies that profit from burning chemicals and energy sources extracted from the ground. They have entire teams of in-house lawyers poring over every word of it. Some of those lawyers are specifically tasked with working within our government to make sure those rules are written a specific way to benefit their company’s bottom line. And because the jargon contained in the Register is practically indecipherable to a public weaned on episodes of “The Biggest Loser” or “The Voice,” rather than fossil-fuel industry vernacular, most changes and alterations to its content slip by unnoticed by the public.”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
DownHeah Mississippi writes—Saturday Morning Garden Blogging. Vol.15.27 The Fruits of My Labor: “As many of you know, for most of this past Spring, I was bitching, griping, and groaning about the weather downheah, specifically too. much. rain. I know that many parts of the country are still dealing with excessive rain, but I’m glad to report that we are in a ‘mini-drought’ here, at the moment…a bit more than 2” since mid-May. That’s fine with me, as everything I need to water can be reached with a hose…. After about a 2 week delay in planting out, and a slow start due to high ground moisture, my tomatoes and peppers have really taken off. I’ve been better this year as regards pruning, so the Tomato Patch is not quite the jungle that I’ve dealt with in years past. [...]Big Beef (hybrid) is my main producer. There are 9 plants on 3 cages in the row to the left of Biggie in the picture above. I reckon that there are about 200 tomatoes on those 9 plants; it’s a tomato machine! ”
MISCELLANY
occupystephanie writes—KosAbility: Climate Change Anxiety Support Group: Place ~ Love and Meaning: “The Father of Human Geography, Yi-fu Tuan, wrote Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes and Values which became a surprising bestseller in 1990. What Dr. Tuan had written as a scholarly work, the general reading public took to its heart. Topophilia literally means "love of place".What are the links between environment and world view? Topophilia, the affective bond between people and place, is the primary theme of this book that examines environmental perceptions and values at different levels: the species, the group, and the individual. What does place mean to you? How has place formed your values and attitudes? And what does love have to do with it? My special place on Earth is the Columbia River Estuary. I’ve sailed her in a 36’ sloop, a 15’ open boat, a 90’ yawl, a 21’ swing keel sloop, and also a 15’ canoe. Spent a whole summer living aboard on the 21 footer with my shipmate, winding up with a job in Astoria where we married and had our daughter.”
Aldous J Pennyfarthing writes—Trump pilfers $2.5 million earmarked for national parks to cover costs of his July 4 party: “So what’s the cherry on the top of this shit sundae? Oh, you guessed it. The Trump administration is ‘diverting’ (i.e., stealing) $2.5 million from the National Park Service — money that had been earmarked for improvements to our, uh, national parks — in order to help cover the costs of Trump’s personal Potemkin party. The Washington Post: Trump administration officials have consistently refused to say how much taxpayers will have to pay for the expanded celebration on the Mall this year, which the president has dubbed “Salute to America.” The two individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed the transfer of the Park Service funds Tuesday. The diversion of the park fees represents just a fraction of the extra costs the government faces as a result the event, which also includes expansive displays of military hardware, flyovers by an array of jets including Air Force One, the deployment of tanks on the Mall and an extended pyrotechnics display. By comparison, according to former Park Service deputy director Denis P. Galvin, the entire Fourth of July celebration on the Mall typically costs the agency about $2 million.”
Walter Einenkel writes—The National Park Service diverts $2.5 million to help pay for Trump’s July 4th military parade: “This year’s July Fourth celebrations in Washington, D.C., will include a ramping-up of authoritarianism, after Donald Trump has gotten his teeny-tiny fingers into it. One of the big problems, among many, that Trump faced last year when he attempted to create a military parade a la all the world’s famous dictators, was its projected costs. So Trump and, possibly, his handlers have come up with the idea of using our country’s Independence Day celebrations as cover for their dress-rehearsal version of a fascistic military parade. It makes sense, since fascists don’t care about democracy or independence, so why not grab some of the already carved-out Independence Day celebration budget? But Trump is nothing if not a con artist, and the only way he knows to make his mark on anything is to blow everything up using the hot garish wind of his sense of taste. One of the ways to keep costs down is for the president to take pay-to-play offerings, such as $750,000 in fireworks from Phantom Fireworks CEO Bruce Zoldan. But there are other costs that need to be defrayed, and to do that the Trump administration is making sure to take from Peter to pay Paul and then punch Paul in his stomach in order to flush that money down the toilet.”