We've come to the end of a week when it became known for certain that, yes, the Fukushima nukes did, in fact, melt down and are continuing to spew radioactive material into the environment. This despite the sometimes sneering claims of people who wanted us to believe the soothing words of the Tokyo Electric Power Co., whose chief has now resigned. The clean-up of the Fukushima nukes won't be completed for decades.
Which makes now a good time to look at plans another decades-long project, the one that a small Scandinavian country that was ridiculed when it set energy goals for itself 25 years ago has set now established for the next 40 years in a world in which fossil fuels are dwindling and nukes are still presented as the only workable solution to both that and global warming.
Here is Anders Østervang, First Secretary, Economic Affairs, Danish Embassy, speaking on that future:
In Denmark, we have decided that we do not want to be in that energy race. We want to insulate ourselves from future peaks in energy prices and disruptions in supply, and to invest our money in green, long-term, sustainable sources of energy. Our government has announced its ambition that Denmark should become fully independent of fossil fuels by 2050, and instead meet its energy needs with renewable energy. A detailed, comprehensive strategy for how to get there, “Energy Strategy 2050”, was launched a few months ago—the first of its kind in the world.
Danish postage stamp
We went into the 1973 oil crisis almost 95 percent dependent on foreign oil imports for meeting our energy needs. Since those days, we have broken this spell of dependence by focusing heavily on energy efficiency and energy savings (in industry as well as households); by exploring domestic oil and gas; by diversifying our energy mix; and, increasingly, by investing in renewable energy sources.
As a result, Denmark is now one of the most energy-efficient countries in Europe and a net exporter of energy. We have reduced our oil consumption substantially so that today oil accounts for less than 40 percent of the energy we use overall. Renewables now account for 23 percent of the energy we consume, and for 30 percent of the electricity. Our many wind farms deliver two-thirds of that energy.
Importantly—and with a bearing on the current debate in the United States—we did this while securing economic growth. Since 1980, the Danish economy has grown by almost 80 percent while our energy consumption has remained more or less flat and CO2 emissions have fallen. We have also seen the development of a strong and globally competitive energy efficiency and sustainable energy industry.
A recent report commissioned by WWF shows that Denmark earns the world’s largest share of its national revenue from the clean tech industry, at 3.4 percent of GDP. This is far ahead of China, in second place at 1.4 percent. The clean tech industry now also accounts for more than 13 percent of our exports. Denmark is now a world leader in wind turbine production, and Vestas alone holds a 12 percent share of the global market.
On the end-user side, we focused heavily on strict building and appliance efficiency standards, public awareness campaigns about savings in households, and taxes on energy consumption that result, in a way, in the price of energy including the environmental costs of production, use, and disposal.
On the production side, cogeneration of electricity and heat (combined heat and power [CHP]) and district heating have been critical. CHP uses approximately 30 percent less fuel than separate heat and power plants producing the same amount of heat and power. Almost 53 percent of Danish electricity is cogenerated with heat, concentrating emissions at CHP-plants that are equipped with efficient emission-reduction equipment.
As in Austria, individual communities have helped drive this development. One example is the pioneering island of Samsoe, home to 61,000 inhabitants. In 1997, Samsoe entered a Danish government challenge along with four other islands to cut its carbon footprint and increase production of renewable energy—and won. Afterward, Samsoe decided to continue what it had started and is now entirely self-sufficient. It is even selling surplus energy generated by windmills. It has cut its carbon footprint by 140 percent (carbon emissions are now in effect negative, since Samsoe is selling clean power to other communities).
Samsoe owes much of its success to a model of strong public participation and local ownership. …
While taking into account unique characteristics that every country has, the United States could go down a similar path if the political will could be mustered. But that seems to be in short supply. And action is hampered at every turn by deniers and the self-interested. The only way we can free ourselves from fossil fuels is by freeing our politicians from the bankrolls of the fossil-fuel industry. And the only way to do that is to free the country from enough of those politicians to overwhelm the remainder.
• • • • •
Green Diary Rescue is a regular Saturday afternoon feature at Daily Kos. Inclusion of a particular diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement with it. Because of exmearden's memorial service, the GDR deadline was three hours earlier than its usual noon closing.
• • • • •
FishOutofWater delved into the scary situation up north in eSci: 78% of Arctic Sea Ice Melted Since 1979: "No where on earth is global warming more rapid and more shocking than in the Arctic. The most rapid and the most shocking change has been the disappearance of Arctic sea ice. Polar bears have been forced to swim over a hundred miles to land. Walruses have been beached by the thousands in late summer in northern Alaska because ice has retreated hundreds of miles poleward. Rapid shoreline wave erosion has hit Arctic shores previously protected by sea ice. Ongoing data reports show that September sea ice volume has declined 78% since 1979."
Agriculture, Gardening & Food
In another installment of Macca's Meatless Monday, beach babe in fl discussed take-out food in Bring It On Home To Me: "We all succumb from time to time. After all, bringing home take out food is easy and fast. But, we all know that we pay the price for that convenience not only by busting the budget but by ingesting countless unwanted and unnamed ingredients mainly salt, sugar and fat which are used to tantalize our taste buds. In addition, we don't have a choice as to the quality of the ingredients. But I think we can assume that as a restaurant's main motive is profit that there have been some compromises in the purchase of ingredients. Today I will show you how you can satisfy your cravings for your favorite take out without compromising your budget or your health."
Common mullein (Verbascum thapsus)
by wide eyed lib
In Free Food,
wide eyed lib explored
More Foraging by Genus: A year and a half ago, I published a diary called
Free Food: Foraging by Genus, which discussed strategies that foragers with some experience can use to forage plants that they haven't yet identified down to a specific species. This post focuses on how to identify a plant's species once you have some idea which family or genus it belongs to. On my walk yesterday, I found two plants that were new to me. Here's how I identified each."
commonmass also took on the fun and benefits of free food in What's for Dinner: Foraging for Wild Food on a Maine Island: "Coastal New England isn't the only place where you can find goodies in the forest, in the water and in the fields but it is one heck of a good place to find things growing wild that you can eat. Some of them are surprising, like ferns, and some of them are no-brainers, like wild berries and shellfish. All of them are delicious, and tonight we'll talk about what to do with them. We will also address the issue of game and I will divulge my recipe for deer or moose braised with aromatics and red wine."
NourishingthePlanet discussed The GREEN Foundation: " In this episode, research intern Matt Styslinger introduces the GREEN Foundation which is working in Karnataka, India to preserve natural ecosystems and sustain rural livelihoods by teaching farmers the importance of agricultural biodiversity. Through village meetings, the foundation informs farmers about organic practices, such as creating fertilizer from organic waste, that are better for the environment and result in higher yields, at a lower cost, for farmers."
And Researchers Find Farmers Applying Rice Innovations to Their Wheat Crops: "Lead SRI researchers, Norman Uphoff and Erika Styger, are spearheading new research on applying SRI methods to wheat cultivation. The methodology—dubbed System of Wheat Intensification(SWI)—is improving wheat yields for small-scale farmers in India and Mali, while reducing costs and labor. In Mali, wheat farmers can increase their yields by 15 to 20 percent, and Indian farmers have seen yields 2 and 3 times higher than those from conventional methods. SWI practices have spread quickly in India, and farmers have spontaneously begun applying the principles to other crops, such as millet, mustard seed, soybean, eggplant, and maize. Collectively, these practices are becoming known as System of Crop Intensification (SCI)."
Iowa Farm Activist made The Case for Raising Farm Subsidies: "The case for farm subsidies is that they’re needed by farmers, including small and disadvantaged farmers, under the absurd farm bills where the US chooses to lose money on exports. At present we have a huge food movement that is aware that: 1. cheap, below cost corn and other commodities causes or contributes to a large number of problems. We see this in the new food books and films, and in a huge number of blogs, online videos and related comments. 2. The 'Commodity Title' of the farm bill, the part that includes farm subsidies, is the location of the policy program. That’s a second fact known in the food movement. The food movement is so big, that the timing is almost excellent for fixing these problems."
Frankenoid was an at 'em for another round of Saturday Morning Garden Blogging: "Now, we haven't gotten down to freezing — despite the weather girl's scaremongering of temperatures "hovering around freezing" when they were actually 5° beyond that — but it has been cold for mid-May. Especially when combined with high humidity — day after day of humidity ranging 70% to 98%, with temperatures in the 40s and 50s is not what we are used to. And it has rained every day since May 11 — and has made up our rain deficit for the year. We've gotten more moisture in the last two weeks than the entire year, well over 4" for the month. I always thought the world would end in hellfire — not drippiness."
Animals
lineatus rode out to give a listen to the Dawn Chorus in Open Thread for Night Owls (and Day Owls): " Some birds have more universal appeal. Hummingbirds... colorful, zippy little birds who spend their days hanging around flowers. Shorebirds... most people don't really know one from another, but they're the birds who like to hang out on beaches where we relax, so a lot of driftwood carvings of them get sold. And speaking of birds with merchandising muscle... how about those Bald Eagles? But the birds who seem to fascinate humans more than any other are the owls. "
Michael Brune pointed out that No Species Is an Island: "So, basically, we need a strong Endangered Species Act now more than ever. Unfortunately, that's not the way things have been headed lately, and the reasons are political. The Fish and Wildlife Service requested $24.6 million for its endangered species listing program in 2012. In federal budget terms, that's a blip in the balance sheet. The FWS knows perfectly well that it's not enough money to do even the work that's required by law -- a huge backlog of species are waiting to be evaluated for protection -- but no one's willing to ask for enough to really get the job done. 'Not politically feasible.' "
tomasyn took on the lies in GOP's climate denial farce begins to unravel: "The plagiarism in the Wegman Report is more than just evidence of shoddy, unethical scholarship. It indicates that the authors did not have expertise on the subject; they were unable to produce background material themselves and had to steal it from people who did know what they were talking about. Of course, expertise was not what Joe Barton was looking for - he was more interested in a willingness to produce a report that reinforced his "climate science is corrupt" narrative. Further, the report claimed that climate scientists collaborating with each other was a sign of inadequate peer-review in the field. Ironically, Wegman's now-retracted paper was accepted for publication a mere 6 days after being submitted, an unheard-of speed that most certainly did not allow enough time for peer-review."
Also with some words on that subject was meatballs in My response to Prof Wegman and the Mercatus: "After reading tomasyn's recent diary about climate change denial and the controversy swirling around prof Wegman and George Mason University, I felt the need to let the Kos community know - through a diary - that Prof Wegman's 'research' was being presented in classrooms at Florida Gulf Coast University as a counter argument to climate change science. FGCU is an environmental college, BTW... One that the Koch's make donations to."
billlaurelMD wrote the Climate Change News Roundup: 15 May 2011 with emphasis on the Arctic: "You may recall that early in the 2010-11 winter, it was cold and stormy in many mid-latitude locations, similar to winter 2009-10. This was true in the U.S., even though the El Niño of 2010 had switched to a pretty strong La Niña during last summer. La Niñas typically feature warm, dry weather across the southern tier of the U.S. and up the Atlantic coast about as far as at least Washington DC. Not so this past winter. It was cold, and except around DC, it was snowy. But temperatures during that period in the Arctic were warmer than normal, especially over North America. There has been some conjecture that this is the result of the decrease in Arctic sea ice over the last 30 years, though nothing conclusive has been determined."
boatsie talked about just ended talks about upcoming talks about what to do regarding climate change in Rio+20: "4Ds" = Deny. Dilute. Delay. Divide: "Bangladesh UN Under-Secretary-General Anwarul K. Chwodhury sure wasn't a happy camper last week when he portrayed the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) as 'permeated by a mood of desperation and disappointment.' Insisting that negotiators address the root causes of poverty as opposed to 'band-aiding' over the symptoms, Chwodhury anticipated no meaningful action would occur at LDC-IV in Istanbul. The LDC-IV was a stepping stone en route to next year’s Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, which will focus on the Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. Also on the agenda? The design and agreement on an international framework for sustainable development."
She also alerted us to Climate CoLab Contest: Design 21st Century Green Economy: "MIT's Climate CoLab yesterday launched its annual contest, inviting teams to submit global or regional/national proposals addressing the question: 'How should the 21st century economy evolve, bearing in mind the risks of climate change?' I think we are up to the challenge. What about you? And guess what? If we make the finals, we get a chance to have our proposal presented to the United Nations AND to the frigging US Senate!"
RLMiller was pleased to learn that the WaPo decides to hunt climate zombies.: "The key paragraph: 'Every candidate for political office in the next cycle, including for president, should be asked whether they disagree with the scientific consensus of America’s premier scientific advisory group, as reflected in this report; and if so, on what basis they disagree; and if not, what they propose to do about the rising seas, spreading deserts and intensifying storms that, absent a change in policy, loom on America’s horizon.' I'm just thrilled that the WaPo has decided to do my job."
jamess had much to say about a new report, starting with the diary National Research Council concludes Climate Change is very Real and Requires Action: "You'd think, a new "National Security Threat" would get Lawmakers stop their bickering, and start their legislating, to address the many threats, that Climate Change will bring. You'd think, that would prompt the Traditional Media to report on the new National Research Council report. To inform and educate the Public of the grave dangers we will be facing in the not-so-distant future. I guess they got more important things to do ... "
And in Climate Change will soon trump Terrorism as a NationalSecurity threat, Climate Change will soon trump Terrorism as a National Security threat and National Academy of Sciences: Climate Change is Occurring.
Energy
boatsie asked (rhetorically) "Will Natural Gas Fuel America?" Online Q&A Tomorrow: "A detailed new energy report argues that the natural gas industry has propagated dangerously false claims about natural gas production supply, cost and environmental impact. The report, 'Will Natural Gas Fuel America in the 21st Century' is authored by leading geoscientist and Post Carbon Institute Fellow J. David Hughes. The most significant of the natural gas industry’s claims – one that has been bought hook, line and sinker by everyone from the Energy Information Agency (EIA) and the Obama Administration, to leading environmental groups – is that the United States has a 100-year supply of cheap natural gas. The report shows this to be a pipe dream."
Coal Fades As Clean Energy Rises wrote Mary Anne Hitt: "Roger Singer loved the recent good energy news out of Colorado. 'We're now seeing further on-the-ground evidence that a swift conversion by energy providers from dirty coal to increased levels of clean, renewable energy sources is not only possible, but it's also easier than expected and it's cost effective,' said Singer, Regional Representative for the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign in Colorado. He's beaming about a utility, if you can believe it: 'Colorado Utility Meets Renewable Goal Eight Years Ahead of Schedule,' read the headlines."
Earlier in the week, Josh Nelson highlighted activism in 3,500 Chicagoans to Rahm: Deal with the City's Coal Pollution Problem: "Chicago has a major coal problem. The city's Fisk and Crawford plants, which have been operating for nearly 100 years and were rebuilt more than 40 years ago, were grandfathered in under the 1970 Clean Air Act amendments. The assumption at the time was that these plants would be shutting down within a few years since they were already so old. Needless to say, that hasn't happened -- yet."
Tasini reported on the official version of what we all knew to be the case inBREAKING: Mine Owners Caused Killer Blast: "For years, Massey's CEO Don Blankenship, a right-wing Republican, who led a one-man campaign to defeat unions in the coal industry. You can read about this here, which makes it clear that Blankenship had no regard for peoples' lives and there was a track record of criminal neglect ."
ban nock sought Help spending a billion $ on the Environment: "NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) is seeking public comments and suggestions on how best to spend the billion dollars BP has to pay for restoration due to damage from the Deep Water Horizon blow out."
Long-time anti-nuclear activist harveywasserman wrote that America's New Nuke Showdown Starts Now: "As Fukushima continues to leak and smolder, what may be the definitive battle over new nukes in America has begun. The critical first US House vote on a proposed $36 billion loan guarantee package for reactor construction may come as early as June 2. Green power advocates are already calling and writing the White House and Congress early and often, gearing up for a long, definitive showdown. ( http://nukefree.org/.... ). Germany and Japan have made their decision---the 'Lethal Atom' has no future."
Joieau had some angry words about Pro-Nukes: Adding Insult to Injury: "The NRC/industry game plan will probably succeed because our government is currently so hamstrung by radical right jihadists and an ongoing economic depression engineered by Wall Street as the greatest generational theft and cash-out ever conceived. Neither the radicals in Congress nor the greedheads on Wall Street care that their evil deeds will destroy this once-great country, so why would the nuclear industry and their governmental protectors care that their mouldering monsters are lined up to deal out mass amounts of physical death and destruction as they melt and spew one by one (or two by two, or three by three…)? What's left of the wealth still in the hands of the people who still have jobs is just more for the cash cow to milk and launder through to the takers at the top. FUBAR."
The Anomaly was also down on nukes, but only the kind that have already been built, as was explained in his answer to the question Is Thorium the Key to a Nuclear Renaissance?: "What type of power avoids the pitfalls of nuclear meltdowns, oil spills, ash floods, and water contamination, while providing 3.5 million times more energy per ton than coal? The answer is thorium."
In One Hundred Years Ago Today Standard Oil Was Kaputed, Karen Hedwig Backman told us some history: "'Special to The New York Times: Washington, May 15, 1911 — Final decision was returned late this afternoon by the Supreme Court of the United States in one of the two great trust cases which have been before it for so long — that of the Standard Oil Company. The decree of the Circuit Court for the Eighth Circuit directing the dissolution of the Oil Trust was affirmed, with minor modifications in two particulars.'"
mole333 argued that The time is NOW for Renewable Energy: " One problem with the info from the coal, oil, gas and nuke industries is that they only tend to take into account two or three renewable sources. Most areas can take advantage of multiple sources which complement each other, at least largely addressing the issues of variable availability of sources like solar and wind. Now is the time."
You could almost hear the gasps of exasperation in BuzzLightyear235's Wind power works too well. Feds shut it down.: "The Bonneville Power Administration will stick to a plan to curtail wind power in response to high water levels in the hydro system, at least for now. So the wind power that Bonneville Power, a US Federal Agency, and the right wing GOP and the Obama administration said was just a hobby and could not replace oil and we have to drill baby drill....all turns out to be a lie as the windfarms built in the Northwest are proving TOO SUCCESSFUL, generating TOO MUCH POWER and must be shut down to preserve coal, oil, natural gas and hydro power."
Russycle took note tht Rand Paul's Gas Tax Holiday Fails...Even Amongst Car Enthusiasts.
Lefty Coaster looked once again at a project that would link the United States to the country from which it imports the single largest portion of its oil in Environmental groups sue State Dept. for Hillary's emails on Tar Sands Pipeline: "At the center of this scandal is the infamous Revolving Door. The TransCanada company wants to build the Keystone Pipeline to import ultra dirty Tar Sands oil from Canada, and they need the approval of the State Department and Hillary Clinton. So TransCanada went out and hired one of the former top adviser from Hilliary's presidential campaign as a lobbyist. After first refusing a Freedom of Information Request from three enviromental groups the State Department is now dragging its feet about complying with the FOIA law, or even if it will comply at all."
slinkerwink explained why she Won't Eat Fish From The Gulf: "It's not healthy and safe for us to eat seafood from the Gulf of Mexico. Always ask where your seafood comes from when you go to eat at restaurants. Find out if they're sustainably farmed, or what countries they come from."
Green Policy, Green Activism & Politicians
Erich Pica discussed the politics of People or Polluters: Ending Oil Subsidies: "Some of these lavish tax loopholes that give the oil industry this money began nearly a century ago, when Congress decided that it would be beneficial for the American economy to encourage the production of a new source of energy. As the industry -- and its lobbying operation -- expanded, so did the handouts. Today, the sector is so rife with giveaways that some companies earn a higher return on investments after taxes than before."
zwerlst looked into the reality behind Big Oil As Job Creators: "I thought that since Big Oil has received these 'incentives' for many, many years, this claim that the government, through its tax policies, has helped them make huge profits would show evidence of leading to the creation of thousands of new jobs in the U.S. and worldwide. It is thus an ideal, and ironic, test case of government assisted trickle-down economics."
timnlisa1 did the same in Aren't tax subsidies for oil companies the same as picking winners and losers?: "GOPer's seem to think that subsidizing wind and solar projects are picking winners and losers. We have to do what the government wants and that isn't fair for those that have to make a good honest living in the free markets? But Tax subsidies for the oil companies are the exact same thing aren't they? I don't see why Dems don't make this argument."
On the same subject, ridemybike asked what are you going to do about this?: "[I]n case you hadn't heard
today the senate voted to continue giving billions of our dollars to the oil companies.
and in case you hadn't heard, big oil is the most profitable business ever ...
on earth."
Eric Cantor tells Oil Speculators -- We got your Back lamented jamess: "Cantor told the audience of speculators that his Republican caucus would 'do our part' to block the implementation of financial reforms passed last year as part of the sweeping Dodd-Frank law. He even called out the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the regulators in charge of overseeing derivatives and energy speculation, and promised to stop regulations from going online…"
people power granny reprised something she wrote a decade ago inI found my first morel at anti-nuke rally!: " In early April I found my first mushroom of the year. Along with Christmas and Mother's Day, the mushroom season has to be the most wonderful time of year! But there were many differences this year. In order to participate in a non-violent march calling for an end to construction of nuclear weapons in Oak Ridge, I gave up a great mushroom hunting day. "
ThirdandState viewed local fossil-fuel "incentives" in Taking Stock of Drilling Tax Plans: "Right now, there are four prominent plans being kicked around Harrisburg to assess a drilling tax or fee on shale gas. The plans, introduced by Rep. Greg Vitali, Sens. John Yudichak and Ted Erickson, Rep. Kate Harper, and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, have bipartisan backing. We took up the task of wading through each plan to make sense of them and to see how they stack up against each other. Here's what we found."
Forests & Public Land
ca democrat might be accused of the biggest understatement of the week in his diary Closing 70 CA State Parks Does Not Make Sense: "While the closing of 70 State Parks can serve as a good wake-up call for Californians, it has its problems.
To me it does not make sense as it:
1) Hurts our tourism industry (reducing jobs and perhaps losing more in State tax revenue than the cuts cost),
2) Eliminates one valuable reason for living in CA, and
3) Comes at a time when families are looking for affordable vacations the State Park system is perfect in filling that need (also keeps the dollars spent in CA not some other state)."
DWG spotlighted young activism in This kid just might save the world (or at least a few forests): "This is grassroots activism and leadership at its finest. When Cole Rasenberger was 8, he discovered the pulp-and-paper companies were harvesting old growth coastal forests in his state to expand tree plantations. He also discovered that these destructive practices were being fueled in part by growing demand for paper from fast food companies. As part of a class project, he got every kid in his school to sign post cards asking McDonalds to use post-consumer recycled paper products for their packaging. … Cole was honored as one of the 2010 winners of the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes for his efforts to persuade McDonalds to use recycled paper packaging. Now he is taking on KFC."
RLMiller posited what the Craigslist entry might be for a right-wing proposal for dealing with the deficit in
For sale: 1 red state, slightly used.: "Representative Dennis Ross (FL-12), a tea partier, suggests selling off the 70 percent of Utah that is federally owned: 'If you need cash, let's start liquidating.' And, doubling down on Teh Crazee, Utah's Governor Gary Herbert says it's worth exploring: 'If we want to reduce the deficit and balance the budget on a federal level, why don’t we sell some of the federal assets? And of course we have a lot of the private land, excuse me, a lot of federal land that they could liquidate and help balance the budget. I think it’s certainly worth exploring.' …But who would buy it? Not people who need scarce, expensive water. However, much of Utah is of interest to oil shale speculators."
The Natural World & The Great Outdoors
blueyedace2 posted photos about getting green: 
The Daily Bucket Series:
enhydra lutris: No HOFI Fledges yet.: " What I haven't yet noted is fledgling House Finches. They are pretty unmistakeable, and we have plenty each year, but none to date, in spite of the chickadee and towhee fledges. "
enhydra lutris: A Brushback Pitch: " I am nearly blown off of my feet by a cacaphony of Chickadees blasting by at just above head level and nearly swerving into the garage before hooking back out and then around the corner of the house and into the back yard. Several of the little bandits, peeling off in all directions to check out the day and try their new found freedom. Exuberant little balls of newly fledged fluff gleefully exercising their birthright. "
bwren: forest miscellany edition: " Headed over to the forest yesterday for the first time in a week and walked in dappled shade for the first time this year. Big-leaf Maple, Black Cottonwood, Red Alder, Dogwood. The last layer of the canopy has closed. Sword fern fronds, stinging nettles and bracken fern are at shoulder height in some places. Lady Fern is thigh high. Deer Fern has begun to unfurl. Licorice Fern is fading."
bwren: Vitamin R:
Mount Rainier
This is all I've got today, but months can go by when this view is a flat grey mass of cloud/rain/mist/fog. We are on day four of bright sunshine and a view of the mountain. Tomorrow will be back to normal.
bwren: owl kid edition: "Seattle — Got home late Monday to two nature gossip messages on the home phone. One reporting a single barred owl kid in the forest. The other, a couple of days earlier, reporting that another barred owl kid was on the forest floor and trying unsuccessfully to climb back up the nest tree. I've not been able to find out what happened to this young owl. "
Oceans, Wetland & Water
LaughingPlanet took a Stunning glimpse into our dry, desolate future: " A new video released by author Ransom Riggs should send chills up the spine of anyone who lives in a region facing potential water shortages in the near future. The terrifying tour of the wasteland that is the Salton Sea trumps anything imagined by Stephen King or Dean Koontz. This is not fiction, but a living reminder of what happens when fools lead, and lemmings follow."
DWG explained why
Texas has another water problem: radioactivity: "With no end in sight to the worst drought in at least a century, the scramble for groundwater is taking on new urgency. One challenge to groundwater use in Texas is high levels of radioactivity in some aquifers, particularly in central Texas. Unfortunately, the anti-government governor has not done much to address the problem. To further underscore the potential for radionuclide exposure, high levels of radioactivity have been discovered in the pipes, plumbing, and storage tanks throughout the central Texas."
Round-ups, Wrap-ups, Live Blogs & Summaries
Gulf Watchers #518 by Lorinda Pike: More Drilling and Fewer Oysters - BP Catastrophe.
Gulf Watchers #519 by shanesnana: Massive Dead Zone Predicted - BP Catastrophe.
Gulf Watchers #520 by peraspera: - BP's Russian Arctic deal blows up - BP Catastrophe.
Transportation
In the Sunday Train series, BruceMcF discussed the California situation in Legislative Analyst to Fresno: Screw You AND Your High Speed Rail: "Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida also 'sought flexibility' as part of the process of rejecting the Federal funding. Combine that with denying the California HSR Authority the funding to allow it to break ground to meet the requirements of the funding, and this report is a frontal assault on the second of the two Express HSR projects funded by the Administration HSR policy. Lose this fight, and the California HSR could lose its $3b+ in funding and fail to break ground. Win this fight, win approval to break ground, and the California HSR becomes much harder to kill off."
nthelurch gave us the skinny on his new electric car in My Electric Ride - Week 4: "I finally got my Electric Bill and some answers about how the whole set up works. I have PV Solar for my house, but the Car Charging port is on a separate meter and only that separate is billed at time-of-use rates. Turns out I'm selling the excess power I generate at almost 14 cents/Kwh, which is fine, but less than half of the Peak rate of 33 for the time-of-use. I doubt I can get the other meter on time-of-use, but I'll give it a shot. I've heard this week that some owners are complaining about the remaining mileage meter and its large changes. I can understand some of the concern, but I'm not overly surprised."
Green Essays, Et Cetera
No Border Wall reported on how Environmental Laws Are Under Renewed Assault: "Its precursor, the Real ID Act, was used in 2008 to waive 36 laws along the southern border to erect border walls. The Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and National Environmental Policy Act were among those brushed aside to allow for construction that otherwise would have violated them. This resulted in severe environmental damage. HR 1505 extends the 2008 waivers to cover all of the U.S. – Mexico border, the Canadian border, all maritime borders, and every square inch of terrain within 100 miles of them. The waiver covers some of our nation’s most important protected areas, from Glacier National Park and the Boundary Waters to Redwood National Park and the Cape Cod National Seashore. Two-thirds of the population of the United States would also fall under the waiver."
Elisa wrote about Flame Retardants: The Asbestos of Our Time?: "For Latino families, the results of this study are especially discouraging. Not only are our families exposed to toxic chemicals in the workplace, but according to this study, Mexican American schoolchildren in California have seven times the flame retardant level compared to children in Mexico. And just to show you how vulnerable their little bodies are, these same children had three times the level of flame retardants as their mothers."
Muskegon Critic bemoaned that fact that Wisconsin Fast Tracks Toxic Mining Permits, Threatens Great Lakes: "The problem isn't just that the once lush woodland has been turned into a barren moonscape for a gazillion years. No. The problem is that the northern regions of all three states just happen to be right next to one of the largest supplies of above ground fresh water in the world. Runoff from strip mines is effectively acid. It dramatically dropping the pH of the surrounding waters to the point where nothing can survive in it, not to mention all the other toxic chemicals set loose in the water."
In Going Green, Philoguy explained why I Hate Mowing My Lawn: "Certainly lawns can't be good for the environment. First there's the no brainer of all those lawnmowers and their carbon emissions. Then there's all that rotting grass dumped in landfills weekly that releases methane into the environment. Finally, there's the increased albedo lawns produce, leading the earth to absorb more heat."
Eric Zencey dug into Two Schools and the Path to a Sustainable Economy: "Upton Sinclair once observed, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." In the past that logic has worked against the spread of steady-state thinking. Now the logic has turned: if you want to make money, you'd better acknowledge reality, including the reality that on a finite planet there are limits to growth. To those of us concerned about the fate of a civilization that's outgrown its ecological niche, this is a welcome development."
Fukushima Nukes
Fukushima ROV #55 by boatsie: Meltdown? What Meltdown?.
Fukushima ROV #56 byGilmore: Meltdown Doubt Dispelled.
Steve Masover: Nuclear meltdown abroad and at home: " In a sickening sort of way, news coverage around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant meltdown in Japan still has me hypnotized. It's news this week, by the way, that 'the m-word,' as Jonathan Soble of the Financial Times put it yesterday, can be applied to this still-unfolding disaster with what the news media consider some degree of certainty. As hypnotizing as the coverage itself is the way news media are spinning it."
nathguy: Fukushima:A Perfect Day: " check out the above link, it's the Tepco analysis of how long Rac 1 lasted.
3 Hours, less then 180 minutes and it was in meltdown. So an hour for the diesel generators to run out of gas, an hour for the batteries to crash, and an hour for the boiloff. So much for all those BS systems. SLCCS,
HPPI, RCIC, 60 minutes from blackout to boiled dry."
nathguy: Fukushima: It's 3, 3, 3 meltdowns in 1: "Tepco says conditons in units 2, 3 likely as bad as unit 1. Radiation in Unit 1 at 1 Sv/Hr in second floor. Reactor likely breached in several places. Cooling in unit 1 'Impossible.'"
nathguy: Fukushima: Silence: " If I've noticed something unusual [it] is the almost total silence on Fukushima
from the Right wing noise machine. It's almost as if they are terrified to discuss this.
It's been a major Media blackout except when a news story breaks out but look at silly sites like Redstate (20 lots of positive spin), National Review (20-30 mostly positive spin), rushlimbaugh.com (0), glennbeck.com (2), I'm sure there is more
but I hate the bilge, so, i just poke around occasionally in them."
nathguy: Fukushima: The Truth Emerges: "So let's get it right, the engineering mods are state of art, and don't work in a blackout. Manual attempts to open the vents were non-starters,
the Plant managers were screaming at each other, so were the government people,
In a previous diary i said Japanese Society was Disintegrating."
nathguy: Fukushima: So now we know TEPCO was lying, let's stop monitoring[Edit]: "9 months just to get to cold shutdown? I'm not sure if they ever will,
and a decade to clean the site? NFW. It took 14 years to break down TMI and that was one unit 30% melted. Figure this is 7 times worse. so more like a century to get the site cleaned."
concerned: NYT: U.S. Was Warned on Vents Before Failure at Japan’s Plant: " I never thought I'd ever do a diary. With that in mind, I'll keep this short, sweet and to the point. Attention all fellow Kossacks: The New York Times is reporting that the 'U.S. Was Warned on Vents Before Failure at Japan’s Plant.' Matthew Wald writes: 'Five years before the crucial emergency vents at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were disabled by an accident they were supposed to help handle, engineers at a reactor in Minnesota warned American regulators about that very problem.'"
FishOutofWater: Radioactivity way up in Seawater from Fukushima 1, 2 & 3 Meltdowns: " released data on radioactivity in sea water that shows that the amount of radioactivity entering sea water is way up from levels reported 2 weeks ago. Moreover, short lived I-131 levels continue to stay high at levels that are very hard to explain if it is not being produced by continued criticality of some part of the apparently melted down core. TEPCO continues to pour water over the reactor vessel and it continues to leak away. It's clear that some of that water continues to flow into the ocean."
edrie: nuclear disaster interview - dr. caldicott: "dr. caldicott presents the clearest and most disturbing analysis of the fukishima disaster i've seen - and, because of that clarity of dr. caldicott's presentation, i wanted to link it here. she doesn't stop with the fukishima disaster - she links the previous nuclear accidents at three mile island and chernobyl to this one and paints a very upsetting future for us all. this video is a "must-see", if ONLY for changing your food purchasing habits!"
FOYI: Tepco Video of Fukushima NPP Update: "Below is a 13 minute video taken in and around the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant released by Tepco. The video was shot on May 6th, 2011. A list of brief descriptions of some of what is being shown follows."
FOYI:
Photos Tsunami Hitting Fukushima NPP.
harveywasserman: Fukushima's Apocalyptic Threat Demands a Global Response: " Fukushima may be in an apocalyptic downward spiral. Forget the corporate-induced media coma that says otherwise…or nothing at all. Lethal radiation is spewing unabated. Emission levels could seriously escalate. There is no end in sight. The potential is many times worse than Chernobyl. "
