The spotlight is a weekly, categorized compilation of links and excerpts from environmentally related posts at Daily Kos. Any posts included in the collection do not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of them. Because of the interconnectedness of the subject matter, some of these posts can be placed in more than one category.
CLIMATE CRISIS & EXTREME WEATHER
UNLESS by dooey. I would like to note — To all the KOS admins, writers and commenters: You repeatedly claim that calling out extinction will stop people from taking action. News flash — you already know that the watered down presentation of information to encourage hope is going to be erased in media, so why isn’t disinformation the problem? Easier to create a “doomer” mythology and attack that.
Fossil Fuel Executive Named President of COP29! by boatsie. For the second year in a row, the UNFCCC’s international climate talks will be led by a man with intimate ties to the fossil fuel industry. Mukhtar Babayev, ecology and national resource minister in Azerbaijan, will preside over COP29 this fall. Babayev’s career includes 24 years as an executive at Socar, the country’s state-controlled oil and gas company. This announcement on X by the UAE presidency comes after Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), served as president of last year’s COP28 in Dubai. COP28 concluded with an agreement to transition away from fossil fuels — representing the first time the words fossil fuels had even been mentioned in formal text. The Dubai declaration, however, contains huge loopholes that allow fossil fuel producers to continue expanding their production and exportation of fossil fuels. US Climate Envoy John Kerry had called Al Jaber a “terrific choice” to lead the Dubai talks.
Stratospheric Warming Disrupting Polar Vortex - Dangerous Storms Coming Next 6 Weeks by FishOutofWater. Polar vortex weakening, leading to repeated cold air outbreaks and storms of extreme intensity are one of the possible consequences of climate change. A stratospheric warming and polar vortex weakening event has been developing for the past week and weather models are now forecasting it will have major impacts across north America as cold air will be driven out of the Arctic towards the western states of the U.S. and provinces of Canada. Intense storms will develop in the midcontinent region as an intensified jet stream amplifies the “battles” between frigid Arctic air and warm air pulled in from the Gulf of Mexico. As of the first of January the snow extent across north America was very low and ice on the Great Lakes was at record lows. That is about to change. The estimated snowfall amounts by the American model over the next ten days across the continental U.S. are very high.
MAGA loses their minds over Mayorkas truth-telling on climate and migration; NYC sues bus companies by Pakalolo. The showboats on Fox News and other MAGA outlets are riling up the GQP simpletons over comments made by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Fox News and MSNBC’s Morning Joe after he correctly pointed out that increasing migration is occurring worldwide due to the increasing intensity of climate change on vulnerable populations and the consequential disruption of society as a result. The interviews of the Secretary were conducted over the past few days and will surely be fodder for the Congressional Republicans when their kangaroo impeachment hearing begins on Wednesday. As far as I can tell, only right-wing media has covered the pile-on of Mayorkas issue of record-breaking heat, sea level rise, and rainfall distribution pattern disruption as the cause of global warming impacts on human beings from Alaska to Guatemala. Where are MSNBC and CNN? They could connect the dots, and yet they don’t.
Despite Promises, the Climate Outlook Looks Worse by Alan Singer. When the average annual global temperature inevitably exceeds 1.5°C above preindustrial levels in the next decade, humanity can expect the dying off of coral reefs, increased numbers of violent storms, extended droughts as rain patterns shift, deadly heat waves, uncontrollable forest fires, lower air quality, coastal flooding as polar ice sheets melt, war over diminishing resources, and mass migration. While COP28 claimed to end on a hopeful note, climate scientists are not so hopeful. They are trying to determine whether record high temperatures in 2023 point to an acceleration in global warming caused by human activity accompanied by even more troubling climate events. A previously unanticipated problem is the relationship between two types of atmospheric pollutants. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane warm the planet.
Surprise! Even if you didn't move, you're probably in a warmer growing zone by Mark Sumner. This is the time of the year when backyard gardeners start seedlings or scan seed catalogs as they eagerly plan for spring. I’m actually writing this with potting soil under my fingernails from prepping a tray of buttercrunch lettuce and two new tomato varietals. But before you make those final decisions about what you put in the ground, you might want to check the latest USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, because most people will find that they’ve moved by at least one half-zone, and some have moved even more. If your gardening experience extends beyond occasionally grabbing a pack of marigold seeds at the hardware store or murdering a tomato on the balcony, odds are you already know this. The 2023 revised map came out two months ago and the shocking difference between that map and the previous version has been a big subject of discussion in gardening circles.
Overnight News Digest: 8 billion people + record oil production = 2023 the hottest year… yet by Magnifico. From The Guardian—World will look back at 2023 as year humanity exposed its inability to tackle climate crisis, scientists say: The hottest year in recorded history casts doubts on humanity’s ability to deal with a climate crisis of its own making, senior scientists have said. As historically high temperatures continued to be registered in many parts of the world in late December, the former Nasa scientist James Hansen told the Guardian that 2023 would be remembered as the moment when failures became apparent. “When our children and grandchildren look back at the history of human-made climate change, this year and next will be seen as the turning point at which the futility of governments in dealing with climate change was finally exposed,” he said.
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Back Yard Bird Race - End of year and December 2023 tally by CaptBLI. I hope everyone had as good a year birding as I did. I’ll give my list and totals to start things off.
Sleepy Orange — Abaeis nicippe on Calico Aster — Symphyotrichum lateriflorum
Daily Bucket - A new year and a new goal by CaptBLI. Happy New Year and welcome to 2024. I’d like to encourage all of you to strive toward bettering yourself and urge others to do the same. My “resolution” began in November when I received funningforrest’s old camera. It was, “out with the old, and in with the new” for me. I was so excited when the “Beast” came in the mail. I read the pocket manual and then got on line to watch videos and read the official professional recommendations for camera operation. The next day, I took it out for a test trial. [...] I was satisfied with the results of a stationary insect so I aimed for better game. The “sleepy” name refers to the lazy flight of this lovely butterfly. It is medium sized and has a brighter splash of orange on it’s upper wing seen best when it glides and slowly flaps between blooms,
Dawn Chorus - Noxubee Wildlife Refuge, December 2023 by CaptBLI. I encountered a “Time Out” (a Dkos admin. decision) in December and decided to take that day off and travel the two hours to Noxubee Wildlife Refuge. I hoped to see new species and found two lifers. It was cold with a light fog at 6 am when I drove up to the first lake. Most of the Wildlife Refuge is maintained specifically to create a habitat for the Red-cockaded Woodpecker and the supporting vegetation (Long leaf Pine) that the birds live in and feed from. Prescribed burns are lit annually through rotated areas.
It's Final: No Delta Smelt Collected in CDFW Fall Midwater Trawl Survey for Sixth Year by Dan Bacher. It’s final — For the sixth year in a row, no Delta Smelt have been collected in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fall Midwater Trawl (FMWT) Survey in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from September through December 2023. Once the most abundant species in the entire estuary, the Delta Smelt has declined to the point that it has become virtually extinct in the wild, due to massive water diversions from the Delta to agribusiness oligarchs and water brokers, combined with toxics, water pollution and invasive species. Disparaged as a “little minnow” by agribusiness oligarchs and right wing talking heads like Sean Hannity, the important role this fish plays in the ecosystem can’t be overemphasized. ”Delta Smelt are the thread that ties the Delta together with the river system,” said Caleen Sisk, Chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “We all should understand how that affects all the water systems in the state. They are the irreplaceable thread that holds the Delta system together with Chinook salmon.”
Bonaparte’s Gull
The Daily Bucket: Cirque du Bonaparte by BrownsBay. The Edmonds Fishing Pier is a bustling place this time of year. The circus has arrived in town. The winter migrants have come to play. We’re here for it. The circus performers included Surf Scoters, Rhinoceros Auklets, Red-necked Grebes, gulls, and a supporting cast of other birds. The star of the show was a lone Bonaparte’s Gull. I was down at the Edmonds Fishing Pier about a week ago. I spent a short time there, not even an hour, but was rewarded with an active cast of birds. The map showing the location of the Edmonds Fishing Pier and the surrounding area is found by clicking this link: Edmonds Fishing Pier. It’s close to home and I’m there often. Each visit brings something special—Bonaparte's Gull. There was a single Bonaparte's Gull flying near the pier. I can’t describe the flight better than this excerpt from Birds of the World (subscription): It is an unusually graceful gull, dove-like in appearance with a light, buoyant, tern-like flight.
The Daily Bucket - mixed ducks by OceanDiver. Have I mentioned I’m fond of ducks? (heh) How can winter be bad when there’s such a wealth of ducks everywhere? Even though many of our winter days are quite dark, as they tend to be at this latitude in the Pacific Northwest, the ducks are always busy doing ducky things. Overcast or rainy days are especially dim and wind kicks up choppy waves which can make it a challenge to see them, but sometimes the sun comes out and it’s quite cheery. The ducks can manage any kind of weather, and I’ll brave it to see them. These are some of the ducks I’ve seen in my local three local bays this past week. My usual daily walking route takes me to at least two of these bays. The ducks aren’t always around, moving from bay to bay as the wind and forage suits them, but usually someone’s livening up one or two of them.
Magpie chats with Red-shouldered Hawk.
The Daily Bucket. Photobombed by a Magpie. And first-of-season Prairie Falcon by funningforrest. The weather was unsettled and chancy; it had obviously rained somewhat through the preceding night, the valley had fog banks hither, thither and yon, and the mountains were still shrouded in lowering (or were they rising?) clouds. Still, it seemed well worth it to venture a good walk out in American Valley and take on challenging light conditions for photography. As it turned out, it was definitely worth the walk. [...] To my surprise and merriment, a Black-billed Magpie has opted to photobomb the scene. Now, according to the definitions on the internet, “photobombing” is the act of “purposely putting oneself into the view of a photograph, often in order to play a practical joke on the photographer or the subjects.” I’m not saying this Magpie is trying to spoil my fun, but I well remember Heckle and Jeckle cartoons from the days of my youth. As I’m sure you’re already aware, those two nefarious characters were Yellow-billed Magpies, so there’s some wiggle room here as to my bird’s intentions. At any rate, what amazed me was the tolerance of the Red-shouldered Hawk to the temerity of such a pugnacious butt-inskie.
FOOD, AGRICULTURE & GARDENING
Why Mexico doesn't want our corn (GMO) by nailkeg. Some years ago, Mexico banned GMO corn from being imported from other countries. Mexico is one of the leading customers for US-grown corn. Almost all are GMO varieties. We are not the only country supplying GMO corn to Mexico. Our northern neighbor, Canada also supplies corn to Mexico. The banning has been a dispute for several years and eventually, Mexico said no more as of the first of the year. the US and Canada have appealed the ruling and as of now, Mexico has relaxed its ban to only white corn, the corn used in their foodstuff. They are as of now allowing yellow corn which is used for feedstock for fatening animals. From Aljazeera: “Mexico is the centre of origin of more than 55 strains of maize. The food security policy of the Government of Mexico consists of preserving this biocultural heritage,” the government said in a statement, in addition to preserving the sustainable farming practices of peasant communities. “This has to do with consolidating sovereignty and food security in a central part of Mexican culture.” From Aljazeera
ACTION
Everyone doesn't have to change at once, but WE can by Gardening Toad. Some people have expressed to me that taking action on the climate is pointless because “everyone isn’t doing it.” The idea seems to be that somehow everyone on the planet is supposed to change at once, and things will be better overnight. Obviously that’s not going to happen, but I don’t believe that means action is pointless. Not everyone has to change at once, but WE here at DK can change, and we can change now. We don’t need to wait for everyone else. Everyone else might be waiting for us! Those of us here on DK are uniquely privileged. No matter what our social or financial status, just our being here is proof that we are blessed with vast resources of knowledge. We have no excuse of ignorance to keep us from taking action.= Apparently as little as 15% of a population changing is enough to create a tipping point after which it’s more likely the rest of the population will follow. So we need to model new ideas and behaviors for our neighbors and share information about how to change with our friends and acquaintances. Not lecturing, not scolding, but encouraging and helping.
Note: The climate strike action began at San Francisco City Hall in 2019. The following entries are excerpts from “letters” that were issued each week of the action. Although the strike was focused on San Francisco, many of the same issues affect countless U.S. cities.]
Cooling Reaction Guidelines -- Strike for the Planet week 177 by birches. Gotta run for shelter/ Gotta run for shade Reaction Guidelines for Cooling. This is a resource for cooling. The goal is to have procedures you can pick up off the shelf and start putting in place when it’s too late to avoid disaster. San Francisco has inadequate and unequally distributed tree shade. Trees cover 15% of the city’s total area, making SF extremely low on tree shade compared with other large US cities. The majority of SF’s trees are found in 5 areas: Golden Gate Park, McLaren Park, Lincoln Park, the Presidio, and Glen Park. The majority of SF’s neighborhoods have less than 10% tree coverage. These include Visitacion Valley, Bayview Hunters Point, Excelsior, Outer Mission, Oceanview/Merced/Ingleside, Sunset/Parkside, Outer Richmond, Presidio Heights, Lone Mountain/USF, Marina, Japantown, Tenderloin, Nob Hill, Russian Hill, North Beach, Chinatown, Financial District/South Beach, South of Market, Mission Bay, and Mission. This citywide lack of shade threatens the majority of SF during extreme heat events.
Ready For Disaster? You Better Be! -- Strike for the Planet week 176 by birches. This week’s topic: Ready for Disaster? You Better Be! Thwaites: This is an Antarctic glacier. The glacier is the size of Florida, and its meltwater is responsible for 4% of current global sea level rise. The glacier is held in place by a floating ice shelf that’s jammed against an underwater mountain 50 km offshore. That ice shelf is being attacked by warm water from below and warm air from above, and will collapse in 3-5 years.. The amount the melted ice shelf will raise sea level is over 60 cm (2 ft). That’s assuming the glacier doesn’t follow it. Greenland’s melting at the fastest rate in the last 12,000 years. Greenland’s zombie ice (ice on the edge of ice sheets that is not accumulating fresh snow and is unable to gain mass) will melt and raise sea level 25.4 cm (10 inches) no matter what we do to reduce CO2 emissions. A heat wave over Greenland triggered a major melting episode this month. At its peak last Saturday, 12 billion tons of ice melted into the ocean in one day. Greenland stores 7.2 meters (24 ft) of potential sea level rise in its ice. Are you ready? Are you kidding?
A Mid-List Summary -- Strike for the Planet week 175 by birches. Is San Francisco ready for disasters? This is a summary of the Reaction Guidelines to date, guidelines developed for when it’s too late for San Francisco to avoid disaster.
Communications Reaction Guidelines -- Strike for the Planet week 174 by birches. Reaction Guidelines for Communications. This is a resource for communications. The goal is to have procedures you can pick up off the shelf and start putting in place when it’s too late to avoid disaster. Communication is vital in trying to survive and manage a disaster. Sending the appropriate supplies and the correct type and number of responders, and the ability to triage to best use your resources all depends on knowing what is going on where. SF’s emergency communication systems are very limited.
People Displaced By Climate Change Reaction Guidelines -- Strike for the Planet week 173 by birches. You don’t have to live like a refugee Reaction Guidelines for People Displaced by Climate Change This is a resource for dealing with people displaced by climate change. The goal is to have procedures ready on the shelf to be put into place when it’s too late to avoid disaster.
Heat Reaction Guidelines -- Strike for the Planet week 172 by birches. Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city. Reaction Guidelines for Heat. This is a resource for heat and heat events. The goal is to have procedures you can pick up off the shelf and start putting in place when it’s too late to avoid disaster.
ENERGY, EMISSIONS & TRANSPORTATION
We just jumped in! A whole house heat pump vs.18,000 gallons of heating oil (diesel)? by evrgreen. My wife and I have lived in the Pacific Northwest for our entire lives. We have sequestered together in a small forest on the Western slopes of the Cascade mountains for nearly 40 years. The forest is nearing 100 years old and is second growth in what was a virgin forest, that was harvested in the mid 1920s. The original huge old stumps with toe board notches still stand. Although our forest is relatively small (about 2.5 acres), it is a beautiful mix of Western Red Cedars, Douglas Fir, Hemlock, Big Leaf Maples and Alders. It is a temperate forest with moss everywhere. The trees have grown tall and thick. The forest, beyond our grassy yard is carpeted with thousands of Sword Ferns and Oregon Grape. In another 50 years it will be considered a virgin forest once again. All in all, a very peaceful place to live. If it survives. During our fortunate and very enjoyable time living here, we have seen many changes. Recently we have come to realize that we are part of the negative impacts. In short, we have been using a very dirty form of heat. [...] The Inflation Reduction Act is currently active for up to $2,000 on income tax at the federal level for a heat pump installation. This state is still sitting on the biggest pot of money and will maybe make up its mind in 2024 or so on how to distribute the funds. It has been stated that it will not be retroactive! Oh S**t!. We simply could not wait another damn year!
Only You Can Prevent Climate Change: Buy Electric! by Stephen Dreyfus. Practically speaking, if we could get rid of every gas-powered vehicle on the road today, and replace them all with fully electric cars—doing so would increase rather than decrease climate change. Why? Very simply, it takes a huge amount of energy to manufacture each car. To best protect the planet, we should first use up all the gas-powered cars, and then gradually replace them with electric-powered cars. Only that’s not what we are doing. Instead we are replacing all old gas-powered vehicles with new gas-powered vehicles. Yet we consists of millions of people, including progressive Trump-hating liberals and Democrats. When the Covid pandemic was in full swing, there were too many ignorant fools in denial who refused to become vaccinated. But millions more did become vaccinated, which helped ameliorate the public health crisis. But in the midst of a sudden pandemic, it is much easier to perceive action needs to be taken, than when dealing with catastrophic climate change, when the climate gradually gets worse year after year. True, in the midst of a hurricane, flood, or raging fire, we will take immediate action to react to the crisis; but when conditions are “normal” we tend to forget the time to fight against climate change is now.
Renewable Tuesday: This Was the World That Was by Mokurai. In order to overcome Global Warming, we need to continue R&D; to increase funding for solutions, and decrease funding for making things worse; and to increase political will while overcoming denial. These points bear repeating in a new year, with attention to new details. So here we are again.
Doris Brown
Earth Matters: Biden's IRA plan extends solar to low-income people, EVs surge by Meteor Blades. The typical way it works is a developer signs up subscribers—local businesses, municipalities, owned and rented residences—and builds a (usually) small solar array that generates electricity transferred to the grid. Each subscriber receives a credit on their monthly utility bill for the electricity they used against their share of the community solar project’s output. In addition to the environmental benefits, bills can be reduced by as much as 15%, but it’s a lot less than that in many cases. For a good summary, check out the National Renewable Energy Lab and Berkeley Lab’s “Community Solar: Overview, ownership models, and the benefits of locally-owned community solar projects” published in June. In addition to limits on utility bill reductions, solar tax credits—federal, state, and local—don’t accrue to the subscriber, and cancellation penalties can be onerous. Alternatives to this third-party approach exist. Among them are cooperatives and the Solar for All provision of the Inflation Reduction Act that includes $7 billion to cover grants for about 60 solar energy projects in disadvantaged neighborhoods around the country. The latter effort may seem paltry, and it is, but the projects that prove most successful could serve as models for widespread adoption if Democrats gain congressional majorities willing to pass something more like the defeated Build Back Better Act than the far less abundantly funded IRA. A just transition requires that nobody be left behind, whether they’re a developing nation faced with climate adaptation costs they cannot afford or a low-income renter without the means to save money and simultaneously help the environment by installing solar. Expanding projects like Solar for All and clearing the path for the blossoming of thousands of solar co-ops should be made crucial elements in that just transition.
WATER & INFRASTRUCTURE
Dark Brandon Cleaned up the Great Lakes: Boosting Biden Day 5 by GoodNewsRoundup. The great lakes are our nations largest fresh water lakes and affect the lives of millions and millions of us. Biden is protecting and improving them. President Biden, EPA Announce $1 Billion Investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Will Significantly Accelerate Cleanup and Restoration of Great Lakes: President Biden and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan will announce that as a direct result of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, EPA will make significant progress in the clean-up and restoration of the Great Lakes’ most environmentally degraded sites, securing clean water and a better environment for millions of Americans in the Great Lakes region. The agency will use the bulk of the $1 billion investment in the Great Lakes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to clean up and restore severely degraded sites, known as “Areas of Concern” or AOCs. This will allow for a major acceleration of progress that will deliver significant environmental, economic, health, and recreational benefits for communities throughout the Great Lakes region.
The Great Lakes ice cover was 0.35 percent on New Year's Day by Pakalolo. According to data from NOAA and the North American Ice Service, the world’s ice is in serious trouble not only in the polar regions but also in the Great Lakes, partly due to climate change. Lake Ice in the Great Lakes has declined over the past fifty years, and this year will be no exception, warned researchers. “It’s an extreme number, that said, it is early in the season, and there is year-to-year variability. But on average, we are seeing less ice cover and shorter seasons.” ” James Kessler, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL). Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff notes that according to the North American Ice Service, the five Great Lakes, Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie lake ice cover will be below normal this winter as the region had warmer than usual temperatures in December and that January will be similarly warm. He also noted that the average annual maximum is approximately 53 percent. That number also has declined by five percent per decade since the 1970s. The Great Lakes region depends on strong, thick, and widespread lake ice for tourism in towns with ice fishing and ice hockey contests.
MISCELLANY
Energy (and Other) Events Monthly - January 2024 by gmoke. These kinds of events below are happening all over the world every day and most of them, now, are webcast and archived, sometimes even with accurate transcripts. Would be good to have a place that helped people access them. This is a more global version of the local listings I did for about a decade (what I did and why I did it at http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html) until September 2020 and earlier for a few years in the 1990s (https://theworld.com/~gmoke/AList.index.html). A more comprehensive global listing service could be developed if there were enough people interested in doing it, if it hasn’t already been done. http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com - notes on lectures and books
http://solarray.blogspot.com - renewable energy and efficiency - zero net energy links list
http://cityag.blogspot.com - city agriculture links list
http://geometrylinks.blogspot.com - geometry links list
http://hubevents.blogspot.com - Energy (and Other) Events
http://www.dailykos.com/user/gmoke/history - articles, ideas, and screeds
Gaza's Future: A Toxic Wasteland? A FYI Diary by LaFeminista. I have noticed during this pulverization of Gaza that nobody including Israeli soldiers has any form of respiratory protection. As can be seen from two much more minor interventions below the dust will contain asbestos and heavy metals, these may not be immediate killers but their long-term dangers are well-known and will be proportional to exposure rates. Report 1. Environmental Assessment of the Gaza Strip following the escalation of hostilities in December 2008 – January 2009. Findings on pages 75 to 84: It is estimated that approximately 600,000 tonnes of rubble were generated by the collapse of buildings and other infrastructure during the escalation of violence. The quantity of rubble generated in various parts of the Gaza Strip is presented in Table 20. Plans are currently being developed for its removal, so that reconstruction efforts can begin. Now? Rivers of sewage, dirty water, and toxic air: The environmental disaster unfolding in Gaza Now, 70 days into the current war, experts warn that irreversible damage is being done to the environment of the narrow strip that is one of the world’s most populated regions. Air pollution has spiked, water-borne illnesses are on the rise and wildlife is suffering.
Overnight News Digest: Democrats and climate activists are on a collision course in 2024 by Magnifico. What climate scientists are predicting for the globe in 2024. From The Washington Post: As a year of surprising global warmth came to a close, a record high annual average temperature was already assured. Now, some scientists are already speculating: 2024 could be even hotter. […] [El Niño] could be enough to, for the first time on an annual basis, push average planetary temperatures more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial, 19th century levels, according to Britain’s Met Office. The planet came closer than ever to that dreaded threshold in recent months, providing a first glimpse of a world where sustained levels of that heat would fuel new weather extremes. […] “The fact that we are in uncharted territory, we don’t actually know what will happen next,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
