Green diary rescue: Fukushima on the edge, fighting Big Oil, LOLing over Keystone XL bike path

Every week Daily Kos diarists write dozens of environmentally related posts. Many don't get the readership they deserve. Helping improve the odds is the motivation behind the Green Diary Rescue. In the past seven years, there have been 247 of these spotlighting more than 15,044 eco-diaries. Below are categorized links and excerpts to 59 more that appeared in the past seven days. That makes for lots of good reading during the spare moments of your weekend. [Disclaimer: Inclusion of a diary in the rescue does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.]

Green Diary of the Week

Can Obama Ever Stand Up to the Oil Industry?—by Bill McKibben via TomDispatch: "As the battle over the Keystone XL pipeline has worn on—and it’s now well over two years old—it’s illuminated  the Obama presidency like no other issue. It offers the president not  just a choice of policies, but a choice of friends, worldviews, styles. It’s become an X-ray for a flagging presidency. The stakes are sky-high, and not just for Obama. I’m writing these words from Pittsburgh, amid 7,000 enthusiastic and committed young people gathering to fight global warming, and my guess is that his choice will do much to determine how they see politics in this country. Let us stipulate at the start that whether or not to build the  pipeline is a decision with profound physical consequences. If he  approves its construction, far more of the dirtiest oil on Earth will flow out of the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, and reach  the U.S. Gulf Coast. Not just right away or for a brief period, but far into the future, since the Keystone XL guarantees a steady flow of  profits to oil barons who have their hearts set on tripling production in the far north."

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Nomadic picnic in Ladakh, India

The Dark Side of Consumerism: What Landfills and Nursing Homes Taught These Indian Villagers—by citisven: "Glamorized consumer culture has serious side effects—and to help people in remote Indian villages understand this, one filmmaker brought them to the West. Here’s what they thought of the dark side of Western lifestyles. [...] Before the Indian Army built a road to Ladakh in 1962, residents of the Himalayan desert region known as "Little Tibet" had been little exposed to outside ideas. Making a living in one of the highest, driest, and coldest inhabited places on Earth was never easy: Rainfall is less than four inches a year, and in the winter the temperatures go below minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit. But Ladakhis have nevertheless lived an abundant agricultural life that allows them to thrive physically, culturally, and spiritually. With the building of the road came a flurry of outside influence: material goods, centralized government, and tourism. By the time author and filmmaker Helena Norberg-Hodge first visited the region in 1975, Western pop culture and rampant consumerism were already making it difficult for Ladakhis to sustain the life that had nurtured them for so long."

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"Apocalyptic" Fukushima Fuel Rod Removal Begins Nov. 8; TEPCO Subcontracts Yakuza gangsters—by FishOutofWater: "Removal of highly radioactive spent fuel from Fukushima Daiichi unit 4, which was rocked by a hydrogen explosion two and a half years ago, will start November 8, according to TEPCO. Unit 4 was down for refueling when the great earthquake and tsunami hit, so the reactor is in good shape, but hydrogen built up around the fuel pool when the power failed leading to a hydrogen explosion on the structure's upper level. TEPCO reinforced the damaged supports for the fuel pool, but its seismic safety remains a major concern. Two new (moderately radioactive) fuel assemblies were successfully removed from the pool in July 2012 by a team of workers (above and below). Spent fuel must be removed robotically or by operators protected by heavily shielded equipment, unlike the dry run on new fuel, because it is highly radioactive. TEPCO announced that a specialized crane has been installed a week ahead of schedule and fuel removal will begin a week from today."

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Fish Not Out of Water—by Land of Enchantment: "A lot of efforts to protect endangered species get framed as jobs vs. the environment. With salmon, that's not the case. Instead it's a matter of different sectors of the economy at odds with each other. (Those sectors, as it happens, include traditional Native American economies and cultural practices.) And for a long, long time, salmon—and the tribes—have been on the short end of the stick. Salmon are anadromous fish, which means their life history requires an entire freshwater watershed, in addition to time spent in the ocean maturing to adulthood. Adults return to their birthplace in the headwaters to spawn, where the young hatch. They make their way downstream, undergoing a major physiological change to transition from fresh water to salt water in a life stage known as smolt, spent in estuaries. They are vulnerable to environmental damage (logging, dreding, filling, dams, toxins, siltation) at any point in their life history, anywhere in the watershed. And in larger rivers like the Columbia (or the Sacramento or the Klamath) dams like Bonneville and Grand Coulee caused precipitous drops in salmon spawning runs. The good news is that there were more chinook salmon pass upstream at Bonneville in this year's run than there have been since the Army Corps of Engineers built it in the 1930s."

Traveling today, so no diaries were added to the rescue after 9 a.m. Pacific Time.

Please drop below the sustainable squiggle to read more of the past week's green diaries.

Critters

The Daily Bucket: Creepy Crawlies—by PHScott: "Since it's around Halloween, I thought why not do a creepy crawly bucket. After all, bugs are so alien to our human life forms, any one of them is frightening, ghoulish, macabre or take your pick! Let's start with a Halloween bug all decked out in black and orange. As usual I'm not sure what it is. It's not a Milkweed Bug (Lygaeidae family) or a Milkweed Beetle (Cerambycidae family) - at least it's not like the photos I see at Bug Guide or paging thru the web. What I have noticed now after zooming in on these photos is that it metamorphosing. [...] You can see how the body has little spikes on it. BG says this about true bugs: "Life Cycle - Gradual or incomplete metamorphosis (no pupa stage); juveniles (nymphs) resemble adults except they usually have reduced wings and are incapable of flight.'"

Woolly bear

The Daily Bucket: woolly bear season—by OceanDiver: "I've been seeing these vivid Halloween colored Woolly Bear caterpillars often crossing the roads here lately. That means we're deep into fall, and frosts will be upon us here in the Pacific Northwest any time. In the fall, this caterpillar is on the move seeking a suitable overwintering spot - like under a rock or bark - to wait out the cold, until it can crawl out next spring, pupate, and fly away as the Isabella Tiger moth (Pyrrharctia isabella). Very soon after the moths mate and lay eggs, new caterpillars will hatch and start crawling around for the rest of the warm season, until next fall."

The Daily Bucket: Cormorants are the New Peahens—by matching mole: "Saturday afternoon I was leaving to run a short errand.  As I started backing down the drive I caught a flash of movement off to my right. Seemed big enough to be a dog so I stopped to look. A double-crested cormorant was struggling to clamber up into the shrubby trees separating our property from the vacant house next door. When I got out to take a closer look the bird jumped rather inelegantly out of the tree and ran at a surprising speed under the vacant home. I left, not really wanting pursue it under the house, and hoping it would come out and find its way down to the lake, only a hundred yards or so away. When I returned I found the bird perching, more more elegantly, on the edge of our swimming pool. It's big black flappy feet neatly curled over the rim and it stood very still and ever so slightly leaning out over the water. I went down to the pool area as I was part way through a project there and needed to finish up. Also I hoped my presence might induce the bird to leave. No such luck."

Daily Bucket--Sitting by the Dock on the Bay—by 6412093: "A few weeks ago, I stayed at a motel on Bay Farm Island. It faced towards San Francisco, across the Bay, so close and with a view so clear, you wanted to reach out and touch the City. However my attention drifted to the ugly mud flat right below my window. It was the kind of mud flat, that when you were a kid, you tried to walk out on it, sank in, had visions of dying in quicksand, and pulled out so fast that you lost a shoe, which your long-suffering mother had to replace from a dwindling kid-clothes budget. This mud flat was right under the Oakland Airport runway, with massive jets thundering overhead every couple of minutes. Nonetheless, our feathered friends found the area irresistible."

Cormorants

A skink, a gecko, and a frog—walk in from a Cloud Forest, into Discovery—by jamess: "On the second day of a four-day trek to Cape Melville a team led by Dr Conrad Hoskin, from James Cook University, and Dr Tim Laman, from Harvard University, discovered three reptile species, including a "bizarre-looking" leaf-tailed gecko, a golden-coloured skink and a boulder-dwelling frog—species that have been isolated from their closest cousins for millions of years. [...] Accessible only by helicopter, the upland plateau area is a 1.8 by 1.8 mile patch which sits on a "monstrous wall" of "millions of giant, piled up boulders the size of houses and cars". The whole mountain range is around nine miles long and three wide."

The Daily Bucket: sunny day seal play—by OceanDiver: "Mr O went aboard the sailboat to do some regular maintenance, and I drifted across the bay, enjoying the flat calm water reflecting poofy white clouds, watching the cormorants on the pilings...and then I felt a nudge. Looked around and there was a Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina), probably a female or a youngster, as it was on the small side, her head barely above the water, behind me, looking. And maybe listening. Seals hear extremely well in water—very likely she'd heard me paddling from a ways off underwater—but they can hear in air too. I noted that when Navy jets roared by later several times, and I had to stick my fingers in my ears, she remained safely underwater for the duration of that deafening noise."

Climate Chaos

What does serious climate change look like?—by erratic: "We read plenty of encouraging stories about green-tech and recycling, but there's little serious discussion of making the kind of cultural/consumption shifts that would significantly change our current consumption levels. The marketed fantasy is that we can continue living at our current level of luxury (even middle and low-income people have access to wealth and resources that would be inconceiveable for the elite 500-1000 years back: health care, refrigerators, electricity, transport...), while gradually greening the economy. And I'm certainly participating in that fantasy as well - I sometimes fly places, eat way more meat than necessary, drive a car, and generally live far more extravagantly than needed. I'm going to skip the stats on this and go with general impressions, but we're looking at some very serious changes in the next 20-30 years, with no signs of slowing down."

President Obama issues Executive Order on Climate—by VL Baker: "President Obama just issued an executive order 'to prepare the Nation for the impacts of climate change by undertaking actions to enhance climate preparedness and resilience.' Today, President Obama established a Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience to advise the Administration on how the Federal Government can respond to the needs of communities nationwide that are dealing with the impacts of climate change. The Task Force members include state, local and tribal leaders from across the country who will use their first-hand experiences in building climate preparedness and resilience in their communities to inform their recommendations to the Administration."

We've messed up our weather, big time—by VL Baker: "For the past six years we have been reading about or experiencing the above average summer rainfall in northern Europe. The rainfall has wrecked havoc on farming, tourism and transportation. During those same six years the summer Arctic sea-ice cover has averaged about 40% below its typical summer extent setting a new precedent.  Now Exeter University, UK scientist Dr. James Screen has a new study published in Environmental Research Letters where he shows the connection between the Arctic melt and the extreme rains experienced in northern Europe. The study connects shifts in the jet stream which would account for the increased precipitation."

No, Global Warming Hasn't "Paused."—by Dartagnan: "At about the same time the IPCC report on Climate Change [summary here] was issued last month several reputable media sources reported that a slower rate of temperature increase as measured on the Earth's surface signalled a "pause" or "hiatus" to global warming. Predictably, this nugget of information was triumphantly seized upon by the fossil fuel industry and its paid propaganda organs to trumpet the news as marking a turning point in what they like to call the "climate change debate." What has raised a few eyebrows recently is that temperatures on the surface of Earth have increased at a slower rate since 1998 than in previous decades. Scientists have largely chalked this up to the short-term variability of climate. However, climate skeptics have taken the surface-temp slowdown acknowledged by the IPCC to mean that global warming itself has stopped -- that somehow the physics has changed. It hasn’t. Research published too late for the inclusion in this year's IPCC report indicates that there is no "pause," nor was there any "turning point." To the contrary, if anything we are continuing our heedless march towards the point of no return."

The Amazon carbon sink is failing due to climate change enhanced drought—by Pakalolo: "In normal years the forest absorbs nearly 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. The drought caused a loss of more than 3 billion tonnes. The total impact of the drought—5 billion extra tonnes of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere— exceeds the annual emissions of Europe and Japan combined. RAINFOR, the sole research organization dedicated to examining the rainforests of the Amazon reports: Without this 'carbon sink' the world’s ability to lock up carbon will be reduced, compounding the effects of global warming."

Gore on fire: Says humans treating atmosphere 'as if it is an open sewer'—by VL Baker: "Al Gore has been everywhere lately. Just last week he presided over his '24 Hours of Reality' project which was seen by millions globally! And without even taking a nap the very next day he gave a talk at Making Progress, where he was fired up, more so than many had ever seen him. He touched on many subjects: He spoke about how income inequality threatened the American Dream, subprime mortgage systems helped start the Great Recession, and how the world is still dealing with the credit crisis as a fallout. But unsurprisingly, he reserved his passion for his signature issue; the environment."

Open thread for night owls: Leaked draft of part two of U.N. climate report warns of food problems—by Meteor Blades: "A source has leaked a draft of the second installment of the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The draft document of the IPCC's Working Group II, which focuses on 'Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability,' was leaked to a blog run by Donna LaFramboise, a Canadian who promotes climate-change denial and argues that there is no consensus among scientists about global warming. The IPCC report will not be finalized until March and may undergo substantial editing before then. LaFramboise claims it's good to see the draft before it is "re-written/sanitized/torqued line-by-line by diplomats, politicians, and bureaucrats." Justin Gillis at The New York Times writes, Panel Warns of Risks to Food Supply From Climate Change."

IPCC: Climate change threatens world’s food supply—by Lawrence Lewis: "A lot of people think of climate change as abstract, and a lot of people who live nowhere near oceans think it won't impact their lives. It doesn't get more basic than food supply. Climate change isn't an issue, it's the issue."

[Pew Poll Highlights Interesting Intrapartisan Divides on Climate Change]—by Liberty Equality Fraternity and Trees: "Yesterday, Pew released a new poll on public knowledge of climate change. The intrapartisan divides were perhaps the most interesting part. [...] We see an interesting divide within the Republican Party, as Pew chose to divide the center-right into Tea Party-identifiers and non-Tea Party identifiers. Among the Tea Party crowd, 70% denied the existence of solid evidence for global warming, and 41% of the Tea Party crowd claimed that global warming “just isn’t happening.” More people said that we “don’t know enough yet” than acknowledged global warming, with only 9% of the total Tea Party crowd recognizing the impact of human activity. Among the non-Tea Party identifying right, 61% acknowledged that the earth is warming. A slim majority of that contingent (32%) attributed global warming to human activity, whereas about two-fifths (24%) attributed it to natural patterns."

Food, Agriculture & Gardening

Macca's Meatless Monday: Gimme some inconvenient truth—by VL Baker: "As the climate crisis becomes more urgent it becomes necessary to accept some inconvenient truths. It becomes apparent that our lives will change either by proactive action to reduce greenhouse gases or by reaction to the effects that climate change will have on our environment. We have an opportunity to get ahead of the problem by deliberately making the changes necessary and becoming part of the solution. By far, the easiest and most effective action we as individuals can take is to reduce or eliminate meat and dairy products in our diet. The benefits for early action are enormous both to our health and the environment. Today we're going to have some Happy Halloween Fun with some recipes that prove you can have a healthy, Earth friendly feast using traditional holiday ingredients."

Agroecology: 1- Study Nature. 2- Facilitate Natural Functions. 3- Rediscover Abundance—by FinchJ: "What ties the threats of runaway climate change, biodiversity loss culminating in trophic collapse, increasing water scarcity, discrimination and intolerance, food insecurity leading to widespread malnutrition and hunger, and the malignant ennui burdening the minds of millions? The answer, quite possibly, could be a combination of ecological boredom arising from an economic system which is rapidly destroying the biosphere we as a species depend upon. But while it is easy to heap the blame upon globalized financial capitalism, that answer may be all too simple. Could the root cause of many of the enormous challenges facing humanity actually something else, something more ancient and nearly universal?"

Pattern Language for an Urban Agriculture System—by gmoke.

Low Carbon Dieting: The 5 Minute Video—by Dont Just Sit There DO SOMETHING: "Our 17th Don't Just Sit There - Do Something! video is out - this time with a focus on climate and food. It was released yesterday so maybe it still counts as a contribution to Meatless Monday? (Or a belated addition to the Food Day festivities? Or as a shout-out to last week's excellent, powerful 'Butterfly Woman' food justice blogathon here at dKos?) This was a surprisingly difficult episode to put together—not because the facts aren't out there about food and energy, but because, with this topic, strong opinions abound. Rather than scold, however, (those who watch our series regularly know that guilting people into action isn't really where we come from), we do our best to highlight the many positive effects of a less carbon-intense diet, with our characteristic good humor, and, in a scant 5 minutes, bridge the gap between the stalwart vegans and the equally entrenched Big Mac-ophile crowd."

Health Survey For Anti-GMO Activists—by bernardpliers: "I've been noticing that many of the folks that dislike GMOs are also suffering from from very real health problems, some of which include food allergies or other digestive disorders. Other people suffer from autoimmune disorders. I also notice that searching for GMO related terms like "Roundup" lead to pages on holistic health that attempt to link GMOs to health problems of all sorts, including cancer and autism. The reverse is also true—that is you search for information on a variety of illnesses, you will quickly find articles blaming your illness on GMOs and Roundup.  The problem is that these sites generally overlap with the Glenn Beck conspiracy theory crowd in terms of pushing apocalyptic theories, colloidal silver, Geiger counters, and the usual CT paraphernalia. But sometimes science dismisses "old wives tales" that later turn out to be at least partly true."

New GMO Crops Temporarily Blocked in Mexico—by roberb7.

Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 9.37—by Frankenoid: "During October we were a bit colder than normal here in Denver — 3.2° colder than normal out at the airport.  We also had less moisture than normal, although the first measureable snow of the year arrived on time."

Eco-Philosophy & Essays

Now it's the scientists—by Cassiodorus : "Now, maybe the carbon-burning fetish, last year at 89 million bbls./day and an equal carbon-dioxide-equivalent in coal, will let up a bit with austerity planning. The idea is that economies that are screwed will burn less carbon—you can see this trend in the EIA statistics for Greece, for instance.  But the energy savings of global austerity planning won't be significant enough to matter as a genuine mitigation of global warming, and they will come at an extraordinary toll in human suffering without really changing anything about the exploitative nature of the capitalist system or the general unfreedom of working people within the system. Also, I think the idea of 'revolt' in the Klein piece needs a bit of broadening.  What counts as effective revolt?  Does it have to be civil disobedience along the route of the Keystone XL pipeline?  Let's think about that some more.  After all, that's capitalism that has to go, or at the very least we have to keep the grease in the ground."

Miscellany

Occam's Razor and Endocrine Disruptors—by marc brazeau: "David Epstein has quick and interesting look at research into the possible role of endocrine disrupting chemicals might be playing a role in weight gain both in humans and in animals. Cats and dogs, rats and mice, apes and chimps are all gaining weight in captivity (this is also seen in feral rats with access to people food).  The research is credible, but it raises to issues for me. The first is that it seems a little too convenient that ALL the endocrine disruptors in the environment are only causing our metabolisms to partition energy into fat storage rather than vice versa. In fact some of them are chemicals used for weight gain. I'd have liked to have seen that addressed in the article."

Now THAT's a Pact!—by jamess: "If you can't get a broken Congress to move the country (& friends) forward on Climate Change—maybe you get local governments to Act. While we still can ... before that window of opportunity closes, once more ... Climate change pact signed by California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia [...] Each state and the Canadian province promised to take roughly a dozen actions, including streamlining permits for solar and wind projects, better integrating the electric power grid, supporting more research on ocean acidification and expanding government purchases of electric vehicles. [...] The Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy also says that the signatories will agree to support new rules from the Obama administration setting limits on carbon emissions from new power plants, which will make it nearly impossible to build new coal-fired plants. The administration is expected to release rules next year on existing power plants -- which could raise electricity bills in many states that depend on coal.

Playing For The Planet: Environmental Benefit Concert, This Saturday in Boston—by WarrenS: "On Saturday, November 2, the eighth “Playing For The Planet” benefit concert will showcase master musicians from three different musical traditions in a rare evening of pan-cultural improvisation, with all proceeds going to benefit the environmental advocacy group 350MA.org. The performers include classic swing music with The Matt Glaser Trio, Albanian flute virtuoso Geni Skendo and the Astronauts of Albania, and Indian classical music for sarod and tabla with George Ruckert & Amit Kavthekar."

Energy

US Energy Policy: A Bridge to Nowhere—by bobburnett: "A decade ago, many progressives lauded natural gas as a bridge to the future, as a way to gracefully transition from petroleum and coal to renewable energy sources.  Now we see that natural gas is a bridge to nowhere, a bridge to the same set of problems from carbon-based fuels plus new vexing concerns resulting from the fracking process. The miracle cure has turned out to have nasty side effects. In his State-of-the-Union address Obama called upon Congress to come up with a 'bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change.' Then he indicated he would act independently: I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy. In September the Environmental Protection Agency issued new regulations capping emissions from new coal plants. But these regulations are just one of the executive actions Obama needs to take if he intends to combat climate change."

Robert Stone Must Film Fukushima Now—by nukefree: "We are in desperate need of documentary filmmakers at Fukushima. The Japanese government is about to pass a national censorship law clearly meant to make it impossible to know what’s going on there. Massive quantities of radioactive water have been flowing through the site since the 3/11/11 earthquake/tsunami. At thousand flimsy tanks hold still more thousands of tons of radioactive water which would pour into the Pacific should they collapse. An earthquake and two typhoons have have just hit there, flushing still more radioactive water into the sea. The corrupt and incompetent Tokyo Electric Power Company will soon try moving 400 tons of supremely radioactive rods from a damaged Unit Four fuel pool, an operation that could easily end in global catastrophe. The rods contain 14,000 times as much radioactive cesium as was released at the bombing of Hiroshima."

Fukushima: Health Propaganda Blitz—by Joieau: "In the very week of the UN's release of UNSCEAR's report on health effects of the catastrophe at Fukushima Daiichi, an op-ed appeared in the New York Times, Fear vs. Radiation: The Mismatch. Coming as it does in the midst of the last few months' worth of ever worsening conditions and increasing radioactive releases at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility, it isn't difficult to understand the purpose of this bit of reassuring fluff."

Renewables

From Massachusetts to New York, offshore wind energy now ready to deliver—by Ivy Main: "The long-awaited Cape Wind offshore wind farm will finally begin construction off the coast of Massachusetts in 2014. So, too, will the much smaller Block Island Wind Farm off Rhode Island. When completed, Cape Wind’s 130 wind turbines will supply almost 75% of the power needs of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, while the 5-turbine Block Island Farm will supply enough clean energy to power over 17,000 homes. 2014 also seems likely to see a power purchase agreement for some of the energy to be generated by a 900 MW wind farm off the tip of Long Island that would feed power to a growing and hungry New York market, at a cost that’s economic now."

Fracking

Moderates and Independents Oppose Fracking in Southern Illinois—by Willinois: "Southern Illinois is the next region threatened by a looming fracking boom. A new poll by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute shows surprising levels of opposition to fracking among southern Illinois residents. Despite using the cliche, false choice narrative of "jobs v. the environment," poll respondendents were evenly split on whether fracking should be encouraged. Surprisingly, moderates and independents are more opposed to fracking than either Democrats or Republicans. [...] As someone who has worked on coal issues in southern Illinois, I'm surprised to see the region so divided over another fossil fuel extraction industry. A minority know how the coal industry is a drain on both the regional economy and environment. The Simon Institute poll has a whopping 80.9% with a favorable or very favorable opinion of the coal industry."

Release: Fighting fracking on the airwaves—by Environmental Action: "When members of Environmental Action became fed up with pro-fracking spots aired by the American Natural Gas Association on NPR, they set up a mock website “NPR-Dont-Even-Thinkaboutit.org” to collect their own mesages highlighting the dangers of fracking. Dozens of comments and voices were then edited into a segment intended to serve as a counterweight to the pro-fracking messages on NPR. Hear the radio ad online here:

'Since the beginning, companies like Halliburton have been covering up the real dangers of fracking. And we count on major media outlets like NPR to uncover the truth and expose the danger—Like the LA Times and ProPublica have done in the last few months. But all you hear on NPR all day, every day is how gas is "natural" and fracking is "safe," and you should just "think about it" at the ANGA website of the same name,' said Drew Hudson, Director at Environmental Action. 'So our members decided it was time to set the record straight, and with this radio ad, we’re hoping to engage millions of NPR listeners and fans in the conversation about how, when it comes to fracking, NPR really shouldn’t think about it.'"

Keystone and Other Fossil Fuel Transportation

Architectural firm proposes 1,300 mile bike path along Keystone XL because that solves everything—by Hunter: "The debate over the Keystone XL pipeline has gotten pretty heated and Kinder Baumgardner has an idea to cool the emotions: a really long bike path.
The creative director for the SWA Group, an Houston-based architectural firm that designed Google Inc.’s corporate campus, says building the lane along Keystone’s path through the country’s mid-section could turn what is now a source of rancor into a tourist attraction. SWA is a serious group; alas, their proposal to create a 1,300 mile bike path so that you may accompany Canadian tar slurry on its way to the ports of the Gulf Coast is not being taken very seriously at all. Environmentalists are unimpressed with the compromise of helping destroy the planet's atmosphere in exchange for a 'interpretive display'-studded path celebrating the effort; TransCanada says they won't be able to build permanent structures in the pipeline easement, just the pipeline part of it, because rules and such."

TransCanada CEO admits Keystone foes have slowed project's approval—by Meteor Blades: "TransCanada Corp. (TRP) chief executive Russ Girling acknowledged that opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline have slowed its approval, though he said his company remains committed to the project. If the president does approve the pipeline, those widespread protests Girling took note of could be small potatoes. Thousands of people have already been arrested in anti-Keystone XL protests. More than 76,000 activists have pledged to engage "in acts of dignified, peaceful civil disobedience that could result in my arrest" to stop the pipeline from being built. Some critics who aren't in the fossil fuel companies' pocket, like Jonathan Chait, argue that the Keystone opposition has been a waste of activists' time because the impact on the atmosphere from burning that oil is relatively small. But that perspective ignores the fact this battle is just one of several meant to keep as much fossil fuel in the ground as possible."

Federal Pipeline Regulatory Body Re-Opens Line Causing Biggest Fracked Oil Spill in US History—by Steve Horn: "A month after over 865,200 gallons of oil spilled from Tesoro Logistics’ 6-inch pipeline near Tioga, North Dakota, the cause of the leak is still largely unknown to anyone but Tesoro. The pipeline resumed operations today. Carrying oil obtained via hydraulic fracturing ('fracking'), the controversial horizontal drilling method used to capture oil and gas found embedded in shale rock basins worldwide, the Bakken Shale pipeline spill on September 29 was the largest fracked oil spill in U.S. history. Oil spill experts say the spill may be even bigger than originally estimated. Yet few details of what caused the spill—and how to prevent it from happening again—have arisen in the month since it occurred."

All New/Totally Updated-Jersey City NJ Sues In Federal Court To Stop spectra's gas pipeline—by rebel ga: "From Bayonne to Hoboken, spectra's controversial natural gas transportation pipeline is expected to start pumping gas November 1st. Construction and testing are finished. Now this gas pipeline will go into service next month, with gas flowing  through Bayonne, Jersey City and offshore Hoboken. The spectra pipeline is expected to pump 800 million cubic feet of gas a day, starting in Linden and eventually making its way to Manhattan, the completion of the $857 million project. In December 2012, Jersey City filed a lawsuit in Federal Court to halt construction of spectra's proposed pipeline."

Eco-Related DC & State Politics

One year after Hurricane Sandy Republicans celebrate coal, ignore climate—by Mike Stark: "On Hurricane Sandy’s first anniversary, scores of elected Republicans seemed to have already pushed her out of mind. About 50 elected officials (almost all Republicans) spent part of their day speaking to a astroturfed crowd of coal supporters on the West Lawn of the Capitol. The rally was organized by the National Mining Association’s “Count on Coal” project. I attended the event hoping to speak with some of the miners that had been bussed in from coal states, but I soon learned they had been issued strict orders to avoid press. Instead their bosses required them to send media inquiries to the public relations professionals staffing the event. Yes, this was Astroturf."

Sen. Markey Introduces Bill to Establish Federal Renewable Energy Standard—by Stephen N: "This morning, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) announced that he is introducing the American Renewable Energy and Efficiency Act, which would require retail electric suppliers to obtain a minimum of 25% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025 and require electric and natural gas utilities to establish energy efficiency programs that would reduce power use by 15% and 10%, respectively, by 2025. [...] The act is supported by major environmental groups, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, League of Conservation Voters, and Sierra Club, as well as industry trade and lobbying groups, such as the American Wind Energy Association, National Hydropower Association, and the Solar Energy Industry Association. Markey introduced a similar bill last year, H.R. 5967, when he was in the House, but it died in the Energy and Commerce committee."

CO & NM-Sen: Mark & Tom Udall (D) Fight For National Renewable Electricity Standard—by poopdogcomedy: "Two US Senate Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a bill requiring utilities to generate 25% of their electricity from renewable energy sources, including wind and solar, by 2025. The bill, introduced by Senators Mark Udall of Colorado and Tom Udall of New Mexico, is similar to the Colorado Renewable Energy Standard, a ballot initiative approved by that state's voters in 2004 that requires investor-owned utilities to generate 30% of their electricity from renewables by 2020, the senators said. The senators plan to attach the bill as an amendment to an energy efficiency bill, which is expected to be voted on sometime this year."

Where'd the Fish Go?—by Karen from Maui: "While Hawai'i citizens had their eyes glued to the live streaming testimony on legalizing Marriage Equality that extended well into the midnight hours, another battle was being fought between the Governor and the environmental community. Governor Neil Abercrombie, who rode to victory with major assistance from the Sierra Club, was trying to sneak a former GOP appointee in as Director of the Office of Environmental Quality Control—a powerful position that advises on whether a project meets Hawai'i environmental law and can go forward or not. The candidate, Genevieve Salmonson, in her prior incarnation as Director under Gov Lingle (R), over-ruled the Environmental Council who voted unanimously that Lingle's Superferry must do an EIS."

October's Lesson for Climate Activists: Skate to Where the Puck is Going—by TheGreenMiles: "Congressional Republicans won't support any legislation that gives President Obama any credit for solving the climate crisis. In fact, if the climate crisis did not exist, the House GOP would be gleefully passing bills trying to create one. The only hope is that either Democrats can re-take the House or that Congressional Republicans get more interested in problem-solving - as Wayne Gretzky once said, skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been. Climate activists should be planning and power building now for that moment when it comes, hopefully in 2014 or 2016."

CA-Gov: CREDO Action Calls On Jerry Brown (D) To Impose A Temporary Moratorium On Fracking—by poopdogcomedy: "Yesterday, CREDO activists and our allies had a chance to directly confront Governor Brown and demand a ban on fracking at an event in San Francisco. And he may have signaled an opening for a reversal on his position in support of fracking and SB 4, the dangerous fracking bill he recently signed. Ironically, Brown was in San Francisco to ink a climate agreement with Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. We know Governor Brown is committed to action on climate change, which he yesterday described as "the world's greatest existential challenge." But from his statements yesterday, it seems like Governor Brown, who greased the wheels for expanded fracking in California by pushing for and signing SB 4, may not realize some of the basic facts about how bad fracking is for the climate. If he stands by what he said yesterday, he should put a moratorium on fracking."

The Great Outdoors

Swan Lake (Photo Diary)—by Ojibwa.

The Daily Bucket, more old rocks—by burnt out: "After an August trip to Elephant Rocks State Park we talked about how cool it would be to get down there in the fall to see them all decked out in fall colors. Last week things fell into place and we were able to make that trip. The  timing was off by just a bit and the colors weren't quite what we had hoped for and had we been able to wait another week we'd have seen more color but with our granddaughter having a couple days off school we took the opportunity to take a little road trip while we had the chance. Elephant Rocks was our first stop. In a diary I wrote about our earlier trip I talked about the geology of the area and tried to explain in layman's terms how these marvelous rock formations came to be so I won't go into all that again. This will just be a collection of some of the pics we took last week."

The Daily Bucket - St. Jacobs Well, Kansas—by foresterbob: "Whenever I travel, I look for out-of-the-way places that are not commercialized and overrun with tourists. Avoiding the Interstate highways helps me find such spots. In late October, as I drove across southern Kansas, I saw Big Basin and St. Jacobs Well noted on what was otherwise an empty section of the highway map. My kind of place. Located some 40 miles south of Dodge City, 25 miles east of Meade, and 20 miles west of Ashland, Big Basin and St. Jacobs Well are two adjacent sunken formations with no drainages leading out. According to the historical marker next to the highway, Big Basin was formed thousands of years ago by the dissolving and collapse of massive gypsum and salt formations lying several hundred feet below the surface. St. Jacobs Well is a sinkhole that always holds water, even during dry years. Reaching it requires a short drive on a narrow gravel road."

Water

California Water Action Plan Greenwashes Water Grab—by Dan Bacher: "State officials today released the California Water Action Plan, an obvious attempt by the Brown administration to win support for construction of the peripheral tunnels by proposing water conservation and ecosystem restoration measures to greenwash the highly-unpopular Bay Delta Conservation Plan."

Bay Delta Conservation Plan Release Delayed to Dec. 13—by Dan Bacher: "The tunnel plan is a badly-conceived Nineteenth Century 'solution' to Twenty-First Century problems that will cost Californians an estimated $54.1 billion."

Sustainability

Energizing Sustainable Cities: Slouching Towards Net Zero in Two Degree C Hotter World—by gmoke: "Here are my rough notes (slightly polished) from three recent events I attended at Tufts, MIT, and online."

National Parks, Forests & Other Public Lands

Expanding the National Park System #4- Arkansas—by MorrellWI1983: "Last week, I visited the desert state of Arizona, this week, I'm riding down the Mississippi River to visit Arkansas. Carved out the Louisiana Purchase, Arkansas is a relatively small state, closer to Alabama in size than it is to Arizona, let alone Alaska. Arkansas has a number of wildlife refuges, a military park and a national park, all of which I will explore in this diary. Arkansas has 7.2% of its area owned by the feds, which is 22nd in the country. i will be proposing adding some monuments to the ledger as currently Arkansas doesn't have any. It was proposed in the 1920s that a national park be created out of the Ouachitas Mountains but the NPS opposed it because of its close proximity to Hot Springs, which had recently been created as a National Park. A mistake, that I will rectify, in my proposed monuments section."

Pollution, Hazardous Wastes & Trash

Koch's Coke Bust—by 6412093: "The piles of petroleum coke on the Chicago waterfront, that generated swirling black clouds of toxic dust, choking their neighbors, have been busted.  The Illinois EPA has filed complaints against the coke handlers, and reportedly have the Koch's role in this unwarranted air pollution under investigation."

Quick Note on Utah Wasatch Front PM-2.5 Air Pollution Control Plan Up for Comment—by LakeSuperior: "The UDEQ-DAQ draft PM-2.5 control plan does not comply with EPA and Clean Air Act requirements and merits significant public criticism for insufficient reasonable further progress and the delay of the attainment date for the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for 24 hour PM-2.5 until 2019.....Although UDEQ-DAQ's feckless planning failed to include the proper method of making a demonstration. UDEQ-DAQ has many enforceability, monitoring and accountability problems with its air pollution control and permitting program."

Another Molasses Spill—by Karen from Maui: "Now more HC&S molasses has leaked into Kahului Harbor on Maui. We don't have details because this author was kicked out of the harbor and prevented from taking any photos. But security at the harbor did confirm a leak. HC&S has been under attack for burning its sugarcane fields daily for 9 months out of the year. The smoke enters homes and businesses and has reduced highway visibility. In June a five car smash up was blamed on cane burning."

Transportation & Infrastructure

Sunday Train: Steel Interstate Revolution—by BruceMcF: "The Steel Interstate is a proposal to pursue dramatic gains in the energy efficiency of long haul freight transport in the United States, resulting in: Substantial reductions in Petroleum Imports; Substantial reductions in Greenhouse Gas emissions; Substantially improved protection from Petroleum Supply interruptions; Improved productivity for North American manufacturing; and Substantial reductions in damage to the existing Asphalt Interstate System How can it promise all of this? By mining gross inefficiency. The United States has one of the most energy inefficient systems of moving freight long distances available under current technology, and we combine that with an economy that relies heavily on moving freight long distances."

Good News for Amtrak - and Us!—by xaxnar: " A perennial target of conservatives (i.e.: the Cato Institute), Amtrak nonetheless is still around and growing ridership. (pdf file) The latest news (here in the Washington Post) should make those riders happy - Amtrak is getting some new cars. The 130 cars will replace some of the 1940s and 1950s era cars on several long distance routes. Passengers on the Lake Shore Limited (Chicago, Boston), Cardinal (Chicago, D.C., New York), Crescent (New York, D.C. New Orleans) and Silver Service (variety of East Coast and Southern destinations) routes can expect to see the new cars in the summer of 2014. [...] Local officials in ChemungCounty are pleased that a plant which was idle two years ago now has over 500 workers (over 400 for Amtrak order; balance for Houston LRT order) and is expected to have 570 next year. The county executive is particularly pleased that CAF USA purchased the facility as opposed to just 'leasing and leaving.' CAF also has focused on hiring local contractors, further enhancing employment. Before 1986, the facility was part of US Steel, producing for the KennedySpaceCenter, Verrazano-NarrowsBridge, and other East Coast bridges. Then came SumiRail, ABB, Subsidiaries thereof, Bombardier (owned but did not use) and finally CAF. In addition to the 400 new jobs directly created by the $298.1 million investment, economic benefits are extending across a network of more than 120 parts suppliers in 25 states and 93 cities."

America should get off the stupid pills and invest heavily in renovated, innovated infrastructure—by Meteor Blades: "One thing that chart represents, besides intense myopia, is deferred maintenance. At a time when we should be investing a trillion dollars a year or more on infrastructure upgrades, innovations and repairs, the nation has been going the opposite direction, as pointed out in detail here. With such an investment, the unemployment generated by the Great Recession could have been reduced if not wholly eliminated by providing jobs and steady incomes that would have been spent by recipients and thus created more jobs and income, meaning more tax revenue. Instead, joblessness remains high after six years, our bridges and schools are crumbling, and much of our energy and rail infrastructure is dated, obsolete. Many analysts and activists have for years made the case for vastly larger government infrastructure investments via a modernized Works Progress Administration and other means. Too many politicians see things otherwise. The continuing focus on deficits and national debt instead of putting millions of Americans back to work at a time when the lowball official unemployment rate is at 7.2 percent, is so very, very dumb."

Coming FRA rule changes will boost passenger rail, cut costs, maintain safety—by Fake Irishman: "Little bureaucratic rule changes can sometimes make a big difference. And a pending rule change at the Federal Railroad Administration, which oversees safety on America's railways, will drastically cut costs, improve reliability, and maintain or increase safety standards. The FRA has traditionally focused on safety in terms of 'collision survival' while its European and Japanese counterparts have evolved to think of it as 'collision avoidance.' As a result, other countries have invested heavily in Positive Train Control systems, which track train location and speed and automatically stop trains to avoid collisions. In contrast, the U.S. has stayed with a traditional safety style of armoring its trains to protect occupants in a collision. [...] The pending FRA rule change will greatly ease many of the obsolete standards to allow modern European designs onto U.S railways, which will ease the issues of cost and poor performance that plague Amtrak equipment and American commuter rail systems."