This is the 649th edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue). Here is the Sept. 12 edition. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
Ernest T. Bass writes—Lies about Plastics: “[D]id you know that nearly all recycled plastic is not recycled? That may seem like a contradiction, and, well, it is. But it’s true because all the plastic sorting consumers dutifully do, all the yellow or blue or green curbside bins we fill with carefully washed plastic, just waiting to be lovingly picked up by the local trash collector and to be delivered —so we’re led to believe—into the eager hands of the recycled plastic manufacturer to be made into new products… isn’t. It’s either buried in a landfill or burned for energy recovery. Very little is ever recycled. [...] How does corporate greed come into play? It’s well documented that the whole notion of plastic recycling is something touted by the plastics industry. They’ve hyped it for decades to give a green veneer to the plastics they sell. But the truth is the last thing they want is for a product stream to come on line that competes with their main business: producing and selling virgin plastics.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
cardinal writes—Dawn Chorus: The Pan List: “Good morning birders, twitchers, twitchy birders, and bitchy twirlers. I want to share with you my 2020 coping mechanism. I call it the ‘Pan List.’ As a college professor, relearning how to do my job has kept me busy since March. However, I committed early in the pandemic to setting aside time every day for outdoor activities. That decision, catalyzed by my wife’s brilliant insistence that we buy bikes, has been the primary force preventing depression from winning this high-stakes round of my lifelong battle with it. With four trips cancelled (and counting), it was time to explore my home of 17 years. Birding was the obvious choice for a safely distanced activity. After all, the top local hotspot is a square mile of sewage drying beds, so the odds of close contact are fairly slim. Tarrant County, TX — home of Fort Worth, Arlington, and 2 million people — lies at the intersection of the southern Great Plains and the southeastern deciduous forests. Its rural areas and greenbelts are a mix of grasslands and ‘Cross Timbers’ woodlands featuring oak, juniper, pecan, elm, ash, willow, and many others.”
6412093 writes—Daily Bucket-- Purple Haze: “We are safe, and we pray for everyone at risk. I see only the hummingbirds bickering, and the squirrels stealing pears, in the back yard. A couple of juncoes visited for a minute. The hummers are hitting the feeders hard. The Bartlett pear tree is dropping 10 a day now.”
OceanDiver writes—
The Daily Bucket - shades of smoke: “September 2020. Pacific Northwest.
“Wildfire smoke has been the story here in the PNW islands for the past week and a half. My only forays outside my yard have been in a car, given that the Air Quality Index has been over 200 most of that time. Yesterday it dropped to 160 at least, so that’s a hopeful sign. Weather forecasters have been saying “Just another day or two” since the smoke arrived Sept 8. Maybe by the weekend we’ll have air clean enough to breathe freely outside. For real this time lol. The smoke started from the eastern Washington wildfires and then we got slammed by the massive smoke from the Oregon fires. The local weather has been stagnant: no wind, no circulation, smoke trapped at the surface by a temperature inversion. Views of the scenery hereabouts have been shades of smoky grey, varying with smoke thickness and presence of fog. Some days have been nearly dark as night, others more orangey as the sun works its way through, and recently more pearlescent as the smoke layer lifts and fog settles in. ”
Username4242 writes—Less known beauty: hiking Caprock Coulee Trail in Theodore Roosevelt National Park (Video): “Vagabond journeys brought me through North Dakota, where I visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Beautiful place surrounded by some unbeautiful things.”
CaptBLI writes—The Daily Bucket - Hawk hunting: “Here is a short segment of last week’s footage. He had several meals of insects, lizards and toads. I wanted to show him and not his prey. He is very expressive. His head movements in the middle section are curious to me. I suspect his range of vision (focus verses scanning) required the maneuver in his head and neck. I liken it to the lens of my camera adjusting. I’ll have to ask a friend that raises (and hunts) hawks his observations and thoughts.”
CaptBLI writes—The Daily Bucket - Beware the Bot Fly! “My Dad called them Warblers. ‘Don’t shoot anything that has bumps on it. Warblers have spoiled the meat.’ he instructed. He was referring to any game that I might bring home. Rabbits, squirrels and deer had to be studied before I harvested any animal to supplement our family meals. I never forgot his words, but learned about this menace.”
lostintheozarks writes—The Daily Bucket - I wish I could be like a bird in the sky: “Douglas County, Missouri. September 14, 2020. Way back on July 9, 2017 a friend of ours came to visit us and he brought along his new expensive toy. I know that in 2020, drones are no longer the exciting new thing that they were a few short years ago, but even now, when I look back at the video he shot above our land and the surrounding area, it makes me wish that I could fly. I actually succumbed at one point and bought myself a cheap drone, but after realizing that it would only get about 5 minutes on a battery charge I returned it. During the last three years they have become considerably less expensive, but I still can’t justify the cost. Right now I would like you to come for an aerial tour of the backwoods, the creek and the hills surrounding my home and get a pretty clear idea of why I am “Lost in the Ozarks”. If it doesn’t start for you here or the video isn’t clear, you may want to go to the YouTube link instead: (You Tube).”
funningforrest writes—The Daily Bucket. Record(ing) temperatures: “Tuesday, September 15, 2020. I’ve been keeping a daily record of low and high temperatures and RH here at my apartment in Quincy, CA, since July 15. Three things have stood out: • Our highs have been very moderate for summer here. We’ve had only ten days where the temperature went into the 90’s, with the highest being 93f. Most of the time our summer afternoon/evening highs have been right in the mid-eighties. • The lows for August have all been below 70f, with the lowest at 53f on three separate days. Recollecting my experiences through the years of living here we have had an uncommonly cool summer. • Wildfire smoke (since August 17) has had a noticeable impact, keeping our temperatures down. Back on September 7 most all of California was hit with an ‘Excessive Heat Warning.’ Our temperature here in Quincy was forecast to hit 98f. There was a disclaimer that wildfire smoke could affect local temperatures. I decided to keep a record, charting temperature every half-hour that day. Sure enough, Quincy got no where near 98f. Hooray! for… wildfire smoke? Yeah, in a way.”
Lefty Coaster writes—Hundreds of Thousands or Millions of Migrating Birds found Dead & Dying in New Mexico Texas CO: “Biologists at New Mexico State University are trying to find out why hundreds of thousands of migratory birds have been found dead across the state.’It's just terrible,’ Desmond told CNN. ‘The number is in the six figures. Just by looking at the scope of what we're seeing, we know this is a very large event, hundreds of thousands and maybe even millions of dead birds, and we're looking at the higher end of that.’ Dead migratory birds -- which include species such as warblers, bluebirds, sparrows, blackbirds, the western wood pewee and flycatchers—are also being found in Colorado, Texas and Mexico. Residents and biologists reported seeing birds acting strangely before they died. For example, birds that are normally seen in shrubs and trees have been spotted on the ground looking for food and chasing bugs. Many were lethargic and unresponsive so they were getting hit by cars, Desmond said, in numbers ‘larger than ever seen before’.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
Jamess writes—A Must Watch, Gov Newsom: "We’re in the midst of a Climate Emergency. This is America Fast-forward”: “We’ve glimpsing the Climate Crisis future, in the last few weeks of fire storms across the West. That future is not kind. That future is not forgiving. That future is not bearable. Unless we step up and make the structural changes to become carbon-neutral, like ours lives depended upon it. Because they do … California folks, is America fast-forward. What were experience right here is coming to a community, all across the United States of America -- unless we get our act together on Climate Change. Unless we disabuse ourselves of all the BS that is being spewed by a very small group of people, that have an ideological reason to advance the cause of a 19th framework and solution. We’re not going back to the 19th century.” —CA Gov. Gavin Newsom, on the site of the North Complex Fire on Sept. 11, 2020.”
Jamess writes—Joe Biden takes on Trump's Climate Denial in a very direct way: “Biden minces few words when he took Donald Trump to task today — calling Trump a ‘Climate Arsonist’ at one point — if he is given 4 more years to do nothing, but deny the Science. Joe Biden delivers remarks on wildfires and the climate crisis in Delaware. Biden at the end of the rant, predicted Trump would be ‘next to useless’ in his visit to California today. True to form, Donald Trump did not disappoint with his Science-denial nonsense.”
Lefty Coaster writes—Watch Jay Inslee shred Trump's inaction on Climate Change driving Western Wildfires on 'This Week': “STEPHANOPOULOS: One of the other signs of the times here, Governor Inslee, that we're seeing is that the response to this fire has been complicated by a lot of disinformation out there on social media. Any way to combat that? INSLEE: Yes. Vote. Vote. And vote on climate. Get out there and vote against any politician like Donald Trump who has downplayed climate change, just like he's downplayed COVID. And for Donald Trump to say he's a hero of climate change is like saying he's a hero of masks against COVID. And this idea that somehow we could have solved this problem by timber thinning is just a bunch of malarkey. I was in Bridgeport, Washington, yesterday, a town that lost about 20 homes. And I looked at where the fire came from. And where it came from was grass and bunchgrass and cheatgrass and sagebrush. It doesn't have a dang thing to do with thinning timber. It's just a bunch of malarkey.”
Mark Sumner writes—QAnon cultists spreading false claims that are consuming resources needed to fight wildfires: “The first, second, third, and fourth largest wildfires in California history are burning across the state at the same time, turning the skies of West Coast cities an apocalyptic orange and making the simple act of breathing torture even as homes, businesses, and thousands of acres are reduced to ash and rubble. As of Friday, 12% of all residents in Oregon had been evacuated from their homes to avoid the advancing flames. And against this nightmare background, QAnon cultists have been flooding the phone lines at 911 dispatchers, and interfering with firefighting operations, with claims that fires are being started by ‘antifa terrorists’.”
Mark Sumner writes—To fight forest fires, we may need ... more forests. And much better data about the changing climate: “There is absolutely no doubt that the horrendous fire season in the western half of the United States is directly attributable to human-caused climate change, and not to either fairy-tale terrorists or a failure to sweep the forest floors. Intensification of seasons, with shifting rainfall patterns and extremes of temperature, have made for a whole series of nightmare events in the West over the last decade. And that’s even when there are not increasingly common thunderstorm blasting the scenery with tens of thousands of fire-starting bolts. Still, just knowing the root cause of the life-threatening fires doesn’t help when it comes to fighting them. Something that would help: Predictions. Knowing when fires might start, the areas that are most threatened, and achieving greater accuracy in determining wildfire risks would help to allocate resources, plan budgets, and understand where fires are going, not just right now, but over the coming years. But is it really possible to pin down potential fires with the kind of accuracy that allows weather forecasters to protect people against tornadoes and hurricanes?”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Bereft Of New Ideas, Deniers Continue Recycling Content, Now With Open Letter from 2012: “Deniers love to tell their funders that they need money for shiny new projects that are definitely going to change things, but in the end all they have to offer is the same tired, misleading talking points. For example, in response to a great piece by CBS’s Jeff Beradelli on how wildfires and extreme weather are worsened by global warming, Heartland trotted out the usual cherry-picked denials at their new-ish climate realism website where they link to a mainstream media outlet’s climate coverage and claim that their own shoddy materials actually debunk it. How misleading are their points? Well, to dispute the fact that warming means more wildfires, they point to a graph created by Anthony Watts that purports to show a massive decrease in wildfire acres burned in the last 100 years, with a huge spike in acreage burned in 1930. But when you go to the source of the data, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), it says: ‘Prior to 1983, sources of these figures are not known, or cannot be confirmed, and were not derived from the current situation reporting process. As a result the figures prior to 1983 should not be compared to later data’.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Deniers Accidentally Debunk Their Own Wildfire & Climate Denial: “And while Tucker Carlson is hate mongering on Fox about climate change being as fake as racism, the Washington Post decided to run an op-ed by Julie Parrish, a founding board member of the Q-Anony, hate-mongering Timber Unity Association about how Oregon’s environmental policies that are bad for the industry that cuts down trees are the real culprit. That’s the recurring attack: that the fires are actually the fault of environmentalists and their pesky forest management policies. ‘Green radicals are responsible for red forests’ blares one ClimateDepot crosspost, while a Daily Caller piece tells us that ‘decades-old liberal policies’ will make wildfires worse, according to one ‘fire expert’ who, as evidenced by a magazine from 1994 that the piece links out to, has been making these arguments on behalf of the timber industry for decades. But of course, just like it wasn’t true last year or the year before, the ongoing wildfires have a lot more to do with climate change than they do with forest management policies.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Facebook Ducks Disinformation Criticisms With New Climate Information Center: “It’s easy to see that there’s a problem with disinformation on Facebook. But a newly revealed internal memo from a former Facebook data scientist reveals the depth of the problem, compounded by the fact that it is met with a surface-level response from management that takes months to act on obviously bad behavior. In her departing letter to coworkers reported by Buzzfeed, Sophie Zhang wrote that ‘I know that I have blood on my hands by now,’ because “In the three years I’ve spent at Facebook, I’ve found multiple blatant attempts by foreign national governments to abuse our platform on vast scales to mislead their own citizenry,” in places like Azerbaijan, Honduras, India, Ukraine, Spain, Brazil, Bolivia, and Ecuador. And of course, this is true in the US, where COVID and climate myths are going, well, viral and spreading like, well, wildfire. On both fronts, Facebook is taking basically the same response: set up new centers for information on COVID and climate, but otherwise take a relatively hands-off approach and do little to prevent disinformation from being shared.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Deniers Double Down on Crying Censorship To Trick People Into Paying Attention to their Stupidity: “Caleb Rossiter is the executive director of the CO2 Coalition, where longtime industry-paid denier Patrick Michaels is a senior fellow. They published an op-ed together in the Washington Examiner yesterday, and are very clearly trying to gin up interest in their denial by playing the censorship card. They’re eager to remind you that their opinions are dumb, opening the piece with a reminder that an article they wrote casting doubt on climate models, published by the Examiner a year ago, was fact-checked and labled as “highly misleading” by ClimateFeedback, then un-fact-checked by Facebook. Well, they’re back, with the same message (that we can’t trust climate models), and apparently the same promotion strategy: making people curious about what they have to say by pretending to be persecuted for holding such brave opinions.”
Pakalolo writes—The front of Greenland's NE ice stream has shattered - it will funnel the interior ice to the ocean: “Bad bad news for you and me. Be kind to each other. Satellite imagery from the European Space Agencies Copernicus has revealed that the front of Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden glacier in NE Greenland has disintegrated. Greenland has experienced a rapid temperature rise in the atmosphere by 5.5 Fahrenheit since 1980. Mind-blowing melting has occurred in 2019 and 2020 as a result. The ice disintegration is an example of how a combination of an influx of warm water eating away at the underbelly of the glaciers marine extension while meltwater lakes on the surface splinter and shatter the ice all the way to the bedrock.”
Telly Caneesis writes—Climate Change, (gasp) “Global Warming”, and FAIR Reporting: “With the devastating destruction going on in the Western USA from all those huge fires, maybe we should step back for a moment and review what goes on in the atmosphere of our (once) beautiful, blue planet. Anyone who has lived in any sort of a cold climate knows that, as we breathe out, the water vapor on our breath looks like mist or fog. In warm weather, we breathe out the same amount of water vapor, but no mist. Thus, very simply, the warmer the air, the more water vapor can be absorbed. Without a great leap of faith, let’s extend the water vapor of one person’s lungs, to imagine how many millions (billions?) of tons of water vapor are absorbed by the atmosphere. Further, let’s compare the likely increase in this amount possible, if the average global temperature rises by only one or two degrees (Fahrenheit or Celsius, the logic is the same).”
SninkyPoo writes—What do you do when the pavement melts? “I wrote ‘What Do You Do When the Pavement Melts?’ back in 2016. It was in response to the refugee crisis. If I wrote it today, it could be a comment on the world outside my window. Seattle woke up this morning to an AQI of over 200. The wildfire smoke is thick and choking. As we drove along a stretch of the Lake Washington Loop this morning, we couldn’t see Bellevue, just a few miles away over the water. We can normally see all the way to the Cascades, but today a grim fug of almost greasy looking smoke shrouded the view entirely. It looked like a scene from a sci-fi movie about a dystopian future. But of course, that dystopian future is already here.”
HalBrown writes—Climate arsonist: "I don't think science knows, actually." Trump says, rolling his eyes and smirking: “I live outside of downtown Portland. The first thing I’ve been doing every morning is look at the air quality for the air quality level. [...] I am very lucky. The worst I have had to cope with is being in the “green zone” and having my ‘go bag’ ready to leave on short notice. We are now out of the fire risk zone but of course the air quality is hazardous. [...] The most sobering news, to put it mildly, now is the growing death toll. Entire towns have been wiped out. See: Stunned residents tour Oregon town devastated by wildfires. With at least 16 counted dead, search and rescue has now moved to search and recover as crews with cadaver dogs now are searching for bodies.”
Egberto Willies writes—Donald Trump's embarrassing comment to California scientist on Climate Change: “Donald Trump shows why he is an all-around danger to all of the world. His response to the scientist on climate change and science is embarrassing. [...] The problem with Donald Trump is that he does not know how much he does not know. And unfortunately, those who serve him are using that to get their will. [...] Remember, people are already voting. We do not need to be fearful, scared, or concerned. We just need to encourage most affected by this president, — which is most Americans — to vote.”
Laura Clawson writes—When Trump and Biden talk climate change, it's exploding trees vs. science and jobs: “Donald Trump and Joe Biden put on a study in contrasts on climate change Monday, as massive wildfires continued to burn in the western states. Trump visited California, finally, but continued to try to blame the state’s supposedly poor forest management practices for the fires. Fallen trees, Trump said, ‘just explode—they can explode. Also leaves. When you have years of leaves, dried leaves on the ground, it just sets it up, it’s really a fuel for a fire.’ He stopped short of suggesting (again) that California needs to rake its forests better, but that’s what he was thinking. Biden, on the other hand, expressed empathy for the plight of Californians and others on the West Coast, with ‘our families who have lost everything, the firefighters and first responders risking everything to save others, and the millions of Americans caught between relocating during a pandemic or staying put as ash and smoke pollute the air they breathe.’ And he identified climate change as one of ‘four historic crises’ facing the United States, along with the pandemic, the accompanying economic crisis, and ‘emboldened white supremacy unseen since the 1960s and a reckoning on race long overdue’.”
Kerry Eleveld writes—Trump reassures Californians on climate change: 'It'll start getting cooler, you just watch': “A week ago Trump visited Florida and, in a cheap political ploy to curry favor in the state, declared himself ‘a great environmentalist’ for extending a ban on oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. But once a science denier always a science denier. Trump wasn't even concerned about the immediate death and destruction he brought to America by deliberately underplaying the severity of the coronavirus, there's no way he'll ever give a lick about frying the planet and all its inhabitants at some future date he won't be around to see. Joe Biden had the right term for Trump, a ‘climate arsonist’.”
annieli writes—Trump counters Biden speech with nonsense about exploding trees and forest floor sweeping again: “The climate arsonist is now in California, on a hastily scheduled addition to his campaign trip and repeated his nonsense from the last time he was there, touting Finland’s approach to forest floor management. And Trump later claimed that the climate will get cooler. (Probably after the nuclear winter).”
Extreme Weather & Natural Phenomena
tampaedski writes—About the busy Tropical Atlantic...welcome Teddy! Watch out for Sally! "So, Tropical Storm Teddy has formed (forecast to get rather impressive, albeit probably a fish-spinner), and wave behind it has become TD 21. 21 has a short window, but might use up the name ‘Vicky’ later today. Of course Sally is still a danger to the Gulf Coast. It’s been a slow mover, has made a mess of my yard (my son helped that out by getting my wife’s truck stuck in the back!), but I’ve been luckily just at the edge of any real serious weather. Few bands, a lot of rain. We were already pretty wet. There’s still 36-48 hours before likely landfall. If you live in this area you unfortunately are all too familiar with this routine.”
AKALib writes—Hurricane Sally takes aim at LA, MS and AL, while 4 other major storms roam the Atlantic: “As predicted, tropical storm Sally rapidly intensified to a Category 2 hurricane on Monday packing 100 mph winds. It is expected to intensify some more on Tuesday over the warm waters of the gulf, before making landfall late Tuesday night on the Louisiana coast. It is then expected to cross Mississippi into Alabama on Wednesday, dumping torrential rainfall along its path. The slow movement over the next two days means more storm surge, more rain and more misery for areas beneath its canopy. Like Hurricane Laura last month, Sally intensified very rapidly once it entered the Gulf waters. Sally is one of 5 tropical storms / hurricanes marauding in the Atlantic basin today.”
Mark Sumner writes—We're already running out of alphabet: Hurricane Sally closes in and a swarm of storms follow: “The most active hurricane season on record came in 2005. That was not only the year of monster storms Katrina and Rita—those storms were part of a season that included 27 named storms in the Atlantic alone, requiring the NHC to haul out tropical storm names Alpha, Gamma, Delta, and Zeta along with hurricanes Beta and Epsilon at the end of the record-shattering season. But in that year, it took until Sept. 14 to get to Hurricane Ophelia. The 2020 season was already up to “V” with Tropical Storm Vicky by that date. The incredibly powerful Hurricane Rita did not begin to develop until Sept. 18. At the current pace, 2020 is going to be into the Greek zone by next week because … 2020.”
Dan Bacher writes—Karuk Tribe Declares State of Emergency due to Deadly Slater Fire: “In a resolution passed by the Karuk Tribe today, the Tribe authorized the use of Department of Treasury CARES Act funding to address the unbudgeted housing needs created by the devastating Slater Fire while adhering to COVID protocols. As of this morning, the Slater Fire has burned more than 140,000 acres between the community of Happy Camp on California Highway 96 and O’Brien along Oregon Highway 199 along the California/Oregon border, according a press release from the Tribe.The Tribe said about 150 homes have been damaged or destroyed in the small community of Happy Camp, CA. Many of these homes belong to Karuk Tribal members and their families. ‘This fire is devasting our Tribe and our community,’ said Karuk Chairman Russell ‘Buster’ Attebery. ‘The fire moved so fast that folks had little time to collect essentials before fleeing for their lives. A lot of people have nothing left but the clothes on their backs’.”
ECO-ACTION & ECO JUSTICE
Meteor Blades writes—Detroit's most polluted ZIP code—the heavily Black 48217—fights for environmental justice: “Last year, 271 people were murdered in Detroit, giving it the third-highest homicide rate among large U.S. cities. Grim as that total is, the University of Michigan School of Public Health estimates that 650 of Detroit’s inhabitants die each year from pollution. In a two-part series that began in January, Steve Neavling at the weekly Detroit Metro Times reports that 48217 at the city’s southwest tip is the ZIP code where that pollution is worst. It’s no surprise that residents there are mostly poor and 81% Black, with a significant Hispanic population: The community is inundated with a toxic stew of chemicals wafting from steel mills, coal-fired power plants, gas flares, billowing smokestacks, towering piles of coal and petroleum coke, a salt mine, wastewater treatment plant, and one of the nation's largest oil refineries—all looming over schools, neighborhoods, parks, senior centers, and a recreation center. A nauseating stench of rotten eggs, burnt plastic, and gasoline permeates the air. Heavy-duty trucks spewing harmful emissions rumble to and from factories all day and night, often carrying toxic chemicals and debris.”
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
Dan Bacher writes—Support Winnemem Wintu Cultural Survival and Write a Letter Opposing the Illegal Shasta Dam Raise! “Action Alert from the Winnemem Wintu Tribe: We believe the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is getting close to finalizing their plans to raise the Shasta Dam an additional 18.5 feet and flood us out a second time. This project is not only devastating for our cultural and religious practices, it also threatens to contaminate the public’s drinking water. The project is also a corrupt misallocation of taxpayer dollars to expand a reservoir in order to benefit the wealthy and powerful Westlands Water District. Now that the Trump administration has a Westlands Water District lobbyist installed as Secretary of Interior, and has rewritten a 2009 Biological Opinion that called for ecological restoration and salmon reintroduction above the big dams, they are making their move. Who cares if it is against the law? Who cares if it’s a $1.3 billion tax-payer boondoggle that will harm endangered salmon? Who cares if important Winnemem sacred sites will be flooded forever? Well, we all care.”
CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
Pakalolo writes—Oregon state senator sabotaged a state climate vote; now, his home was incinerated by climate change: “Eleven Oregon GOP state senators walked out of session in 2019, and some even ‘vanished,’ meaning they fled the state so that a climate change bill could not get a quorum. Labor 411 connected the dots on their website that State Senator Frank Girod was one of those eleven saboteurs who blocked the quorum on a bill that would have lowered fossil fuel gas emissions along with wildfire reductions. His home in Mills City burned to the ground during the Beachie fire that destroyed local communities in his district. [...] Sorry, you had to join the growing count of climate change victims, Mr. Girod. You should apologize to the people of Oregon for your climate crisis shenanigans and wildfire threat reduction sabotage.”
Merlin196357 writes—Oregon State Sen. Fred Girod BLAMES Environmentalists For The Loss Of His Home To Fire: “Oregon Republican State Sen. Fred Girod just blamed environmentalists for the loss of his home to the fires raging in the West. I had predicted that the loss of his home would not change Girod’s mind, and he proved my cynicism correct. [...] Girod’s previous political moves to block the state from doing anything to battle climate change clearly demonstrated that he is an extremist. And let’s be honest folks. How many extremists have you run into that have changed their views when tragedy hits them? It takes incredible self-reflection and humility to realize that you can be wrong, especially on a matter of live and death. It takes courage to admit that deeply held beliefs can be false. It shakes anyone to their core.”
poopdogcomedy writes—NM-Sen: GOP Meteorologist Claimed That Climate Change Doesn't Cause Wildfires: “Political clashes about the role of climate change in catastrophic West Coast infernos are spilling into a U.S. Senate race in New Mexico, where a Republican meteorologist is campaigning for an open seat. U.S. Rep. and Democratic Senate nominee Ben Ray Luján accused rival Mark Ronchetti on Monday of engaging in ‘irresponsible and dangerous climate denialism.’Luján highlighted a video clip from a Republican online forum in March in which Ronchetti said that ‘fires aren’t caused by anything other than a spark or a lightning strike. ... Climate change doesn’t cause fires, come on’.”
Dan Bacher writes—Over 315 elected officials tell Newsom: declare a state of emergency for the climate crisis: “Elected Officials to Protect California (EOPCA), including over 315 officials from throughout the state, will hold a virtual press conference on Wednesday, September 23, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. asking Governor Gavin Newsom to accelerate CA plans to transition to 100% clean, renewable energy by the year 2035 instead of the current date of 2045. “To achieve this Newsom, must declare a state of emergency for the climate crisis, EOPCA said in a press advisory. The link to the press conference on ZOOM is here: Elected Officials to Protect California/ZOOM ‘Elected officials will speak personally about what they are doing to curb climate change and how the current fire season has impacted their communities. More than 110 local governments in California have passed 160 local policies to protect their communities from fossil fuels. They took action. It’s time the state addressed the climate emergency,’ the group said.”
ENERGY
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Power Outage WSJ Spent A Month Blaming On Greens Was Actually Due To Simple Human Error- And Climate: “Last month, we were skeptical of the Wall Street Journal editorial board and other rightwing anti-renewable, pro-fossil fuel voices claiming that California’s blackouts were the fault of renewables. Even at the time experts were saying that’s not the case, and it was clear from the start that three of the four power plants that were shut down that weekend were gas-powered (with the fourth being a wind farm, which would be fair game for criticism.) In the weeks since their first editorial falsely blaming California’s renewables for the power outage, the WSJ has run two different columns alleging that renewables will cause blackouts elsewhere, and another two editorials pushing the same narrative, most recently just this week. Clearly it’s something they really want to inform their audience about! So we have no doubts that we’ll soon be seeing a mea culpa, as the California utility responsible for the blackouts, PG&E, has admitted that their actions led to one of the blackouts on August 15th.”
Fossil Fuels & Emissions Controls
Dan Bacher writes—Elected Officials to Protect CA: Trump rollbacks methane emissions, Newsom issues fracking permits: “On September 12, Elected Officials to Protect California (EOPCA) issued a press release about their frustration with Newsom not responding to the letter sent to him on Valentines Day, signed by over 300 elected officials urging him to take action to halt oil and gas well permitting, put safety zones around existing wells and to phase out fossil fuel production once and for all. EOPCA says, ‘Newsom is shadow dancing, it’s time he lead the fight against climate change.’ Below is the complete press release: EOPCA says Newsom is shadow dancing, it’s time he lead the fight against climate change.”
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
paradox writes—Take a Look Out West, Ford Motor Company: “I’ve seen the new commercials for the great gleaming Ford F-150, flagship vehicle for the founding car company of the world and currently the only market lifeline for Ford. I feel like crying in a corner after watching, oh my god, it’s just another useless, dangerous piece of pollution junk, for the love of holy hell where is the new Ford electric truck line? We’re working on it. Oh shut up, for the love of Lincoln is anything ever accomplished in this country anymore? We can’t market with electric price. Remember cash for clunkers? A hugely successful popular program that subsidized gas guzzlers for new cars, all you do is scream at the government to give you a $800 billion electric subsidy.”
sninkypoo writes—Bullsh*t: “Music plays—a hush of vaguely Celtic strings topped with a shimmer of bells. Gorgeous actors in plush outdoor gear gaze ecstatically at a magnificent rock formation. Another pair of actors ride expensive mountain bikes along a breathtaking trail. A massive machine sweeps into the frame – a shining SUV, pelting hell-bent-for-leather across a wilderness track and throwing up a sexy spume of dust and gravel in its wake. Yes, it’s an SUV ad, playing right now, in 2020. In the year that Cascadia is on fire—the smoke from those fires is spreading east over the entire USA and is visible from space—and the gulf coast is being pummeled by hurricane after hurricane after hurricane. This is bullsh*t. This is obscene. This is madness.”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENS
DownHeah Mississippi writes—Saturday Morning Garden Blogging- Vol.16.38: End of Season Musings and a Look Ahead...”Good morning, gardeners, and welcome to another downheah edition of the SMGB. [...] As I’ve said a few times here, “besides old and cranky, tomatoes and peppers are the only things I grow”. My few remaining tomato plants are limping along on life support, but the Pepper Patch is going strong and will continue to produce until the first hard freeze. After that date, I guess I’ll just keep working at getting old and cranky… I tried a new approach to growing tomatoes in 2020 (outlined here), but I’ll be changing things up again for 2021. 5 gallon buckets turned out to be less than adequate containers for the indeterminate varieties that I prefer, so they will not be in the plan for next year. The Tomato Patch will soon be cleared out in preparation for a Fall planting of mustard, which will be tilled under as a form of nematode control. That will be followed by a heavy dose of alfalfa pellets and leaf mulch, which will then be tilled under sometime next February.”
REGULATIONS & PROTECTION
NoMoJoe writes—Longtime Climate Science Denier Hired At NOAA: “NPR reports that ‘David Legates, a University of Delaware professor of climatology who has spent much of his career questioning basic tenets of climate science, has been hired for a top position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. … Neither Legates nor NOAA representatives responded to questions about Legates’ specific responsibilities or why he was hired. The White House also declined to comment. Legates has a long history of using his position as an academic scientist to publicly cast doubt on climate science.’ Legates, a professor in the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences at the University of Delaware, has been at least partially supported by the Kochs, the American Petroleum Institute, and ExxonMobil. He’s also says that the sun is the cause of global warming. His bio is in the ‘Who we are’ section of The Heartland Institute’s website (Heartland is ‘an advocacy group prominent for promoting misinformation about climate change and the health effects of tobacco smoking’).”
POPULATION, EXTINCTION, SUSTAINABILITY
Pakalolo writes—'Extinction denial' is the new thing for anti-science conspiracy theorists, warn Biologists: “The evil of science deniers recently has been beyond the pale. Not content with killing the planet over climate change, and sowing doubt over vaccines the far-right conspiracy theorists have a new target to haunt the world with the crazy, the world's biodiversity. The raging denialists first emerged only last year when the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was published and revealed that over one million species are at risk of extinction. Republicans at the time, went out of their fucking minds when the report came out in 2019. For example, Raul Grijalva's Natural Resources Committee held a meeting after the report came out and it revealed companion crazies in congress, Gop representatives. The full hearing can be seen here. Two major reports on the loss of biodiversity and extinction have recently been released and looneys once again have attempted to sow doubt on an existential threat to our existence in the public mind as they have repeatedly done over the decades.”
MISCELLANY
walterc writes—Make a DIY air filter for pollution from west coast fires: “The west coast now has some of the worst air quality in the world caused by the forest fires. Much of this air pollution is particulates and can be filtered out. There has been research on DIY filters by residents of Beijing. Beijing DIY filter. Ideally you will have a device for measuring and test the air quality improvement with your filter. The brand name to look for is Dylos; this can also be DIYed using cheap Arduino or Raspberry pi computers. Don’t let the lack of a air quality monitor stop you. The simplest filter can work pretty well: take a 20”x20” box fan; tape a 20”x20” furnace filter to the fan; use a MERV 13 filter if available (the higher the number the better the filtration), but use what you can get. This will work best for cleaning the air in a small single room with closed windows.”
Meteor Blades writes—Earth Matters: Critics nix Facebook's climate hub; speculation soars over Tesla 'Battery Day': “Rep. Liz Cheney wants Department of Justice to investigate eco-groups for possible Russian and Chinese influence: In a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr, the Wyoming congresswoman expresses ‘grave concern’ about potential Russian and Chinese efforts to influence U.S. energy and environmental policies through nongovernmental organizations. In addition to “robust and political judicial activism” via hundreds of lawsuits to advance their goals, Cheney wrote, environmental groups ‘espouse views that align with those of our adversaries,’ adding: “Environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the National Resources Defense Council, whose anti-fracking agendas align with the Kremlin’s, are low-hanging fruit for Russian influence.” At last count, there were more than 30,000 Wyoming fracking operations in Wyoming, with associated problems. Four states have banned fracking: Vermont, Washington, Maryland, and New York.”