Spotlight on green news & views: Cape Wind takes step forward, Bardarbunga bubbles, saving red wolf

Bárðarbunga sunset.

Bárðarbunga sunset.

Too many environmentally related posts appearing at Daily Kos each week don't attract the attention they deserve. To help get more eyeballs, Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The most recent Wednesday Spotlight can be seen here. So far, more than 19,250 environmentally oriented diaries have been rescued for inclusion in this weekly collection since 2006. Inclusion of a diary in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.

Framing Climate Change Action Now: Advice, Slogans, & The "Necessity" Frame—by SusanCStrong: "Right now many people are preparing for the People's Climate March, in New York or in many locations around the country. So I'm getting requests for slogan ideas for signs and other demonstration pr. Below are three items that can give folks some ideas about what to say on signs and other demonstration media. 1.The first is a general suggestion to visit The Metaphor Project site, with directions for finding relevant articles I've written about framing climate change for the general public. 2. The second is a list of slogans I've generated for the March next week. 3. The third is a link to what I think is a very significant development in framing the issue: the "necessity" defense which emerged today in reports of a decision re two climate change activists who blocked a coal shipment from unloading in Rhode Island. [...] I also just generated a list of actual slogans, and they are pasted in below. They are just samples that show how to tinker and modify until you get what you want. The most important rule of thumb is this: say it out loud before you write it down on a sign. If it sounds clunky, tweak it until it has rhythm and sounds 'cool.' The inner ear can hear the clunk, even if the slogan is just written down!

Climate Safety Now!
Climate Safety First!
Climate Safety Fast!
Our Earth needs a fast move—to climate safety!
Our Earth needs a fast move—to green energy!
Earth needs a fast move—to green energy!
Let's make a fast move—to green energy!
Let's move fast to green energy!
Green energy now! Before it's too late! (this tag could be added to any of them).
Make cool rules the Earth can live by!
Make cool climate rules!
Make cool-the-earth rules!
Stop carbon pollution!
Stop the carbon pollution!
Stop carbon pollution all over this earth!
Meet the climate challenge now!
Stop the methane monster now! Before it's too late!"

World Trade Center Rescue/Recovery and Obstructive Airway Disease—by charliehall2: "The inhalation of chemicals, particulate matter (dusts and fibers), and the incomplete products of combustion during occupational and environmental disasters has long been associated with respiratory disorders. While there is substantial literature on the association between respiratory diseases and chronic environmental exposures such as air pollution and long term occupational exposure in industries such as mining, silica handling, and construction, much remains to be learned regarding the biological mechanisms that cause such disease and on the latency between acute exposure and disease onset. [...] Our research group at the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), one of the Clinical Centers of Excellence in the WTC Health Program, administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), used innovative statistical methods to investigate for how long new-onset OAD is associated with WTC-exposure intensity. In this research, funded by a NIOSH cooperative agreement, we assessed whether the higher incidence rates of physician diagnosed OAD seen in FDNY firefighters who experienced a higher intensity of exposure persisted throughout the first five years after September 11, 2001, by allowing the relative rate of new-onset OAD in firefighters with more vs. less exposure intensity to vary over time. Our results were published in the August 1, 2014, issue of American Journal of Epidemiology. We found that although the relative rate of new-onset OAD diminished after 15 months, it remained elevated in firefighters who had experienced higher exposure intensity for the entire five year follow-up period. Similar results were seen in analyses that examined the incidence of OAD subtypes (asthma and chronic bronchitis). This is a longer period of latency than has been seen in previous studies of short-term exposures, but the WTC-exposure was unusually intense compared to other occupational/environmental exposures."

Say Good-bye to a Western Natural Icon—by Jamess: "Procrastination will only result in more ecological losses like this: [...] The iconic pine and aspen forests of the Rocky Mountains are dying off at an alarming rate thanks to conditions exacerbated by climate change—drought, insect infestations and wildfires—a new report says. Colorado alone could lose 45% of its aspen stands over the next 45 years, says the report released Thursday by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization. Pine bark beetles alone have killed 46 million acres of trees across the west, an area nearly the size of Colorado. 'The wildfires, infestations and heat and drought stress are the symptoms; climate change is the underlying disease,' Jason Funk, the report's co-author and a senior climate scientist at Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement. And we and a future-based national energy policy could one day be the cure ... "

You can find more rescued green diaries below the sustainable squiggle.

Climate Chaos

March Madness—by boatsie: "If you are heading to New York, there are so many events to engage in the lead up and following the PCM. 1. Climate Convergence, People, Planet and Peace Over Profit, September 19th - 21st. 2. Flood Wall Street, Monday September 22nd. 3. On the Rise: Global and Local Front-line Communities and the Climate Crisis, September 16th, 7pm. Climate Convergence, People, Planet and Peace Over Profit, September 19th - 21st. limate activists from around the world are participating in the NYC Climate Convergence. Over one hundred workshops are taking place in churches, gardens, community centers and on two university campuses in Lower Manhattan - aimed at finding real alternatives and developing action plans that transform the system, rather than accept it. The convergence will include hub meet ups for the following hubs: Tar Sands, Indigenous Peoples, Public Health, Vegans, Bike Bloc, Elders, Boston, California, Fracking, White Anti-Racist Climate Activists, Climate Impacted Shorefront Communities and Great March for Climate Action. More information can be found at as well as a schedule can be found at  as well as below this email."

Catholic Online takes down Washington Times—by ClimateDenierRoundup: "Marshall Connolly of Catholic Online has published a great rebuttal to a recent Washington Times piece claiming that a slow wildfire season in California 'throws a damper on climate-change predictions.' Marshall points out that the unprecedented drought—which many scientists say is connected to climate change—is one of the reasons for fewer fires; most fires that aren't caused by human activity are due to lightening storms. Marshall also delves into the more technical aspects of the drought noting the role of the 'Ridiculously Resilient Ridge,' a high pressure atmospheric system that has persisted for much of the last three years. 'Until now, there are no records of such a persistent ridge of high pressure in that region lasting for more than one winter season. Ever…This is a climate anomaly and such anomalies are predicted by climate change theory.' So, while the concept is counter-intuitive, the relatively mild fire season is actually completely consistent with climate change predictions."

Extreme Weather & Natural Phenomena

Bárðarbunga: SO2 Levels In Reyðarfjörður Crush Record-Crushing Record-Crushing Record (x1)—by Rei: "I'll just let the graph tell the story:

Nearly 4000 µg/m³ [of sulfur dioxide]. I have no words to add to the significance of that, except to repeat what I said last time: I wish I could say that this is the worst it's going to get. But just like before... there really is no known upper bound. Dear god, Holuhraun, please don't prove me right again so soon. :( Umhverfisstofnun, the Icelandic equivalent of the EPA, basically liveblogged the spike. At the peak they added a brand new recommendation to their existing list: turning on your geothermal radiators (the standard source of heat for homes in Iceland). By heating the air in the house, you make it expand and thus produce positive pressure in your home, helping keep the gases outside from coming in. I really don't want to talk about the pollution there any more right now. Let's talk about something less depressing, like massive lava flows getting ready to destroy beautiful waterfalls."

Bárðarbunga: "Like Being In An Enclosed Space With A Diesel Engine"—by Rei: "I was checking in on the pollutant meters at Reyðarfjörður and I noticed something strange. A spike [of sulfur dioxide] way higher than I thought possible had begun. I immediately credited it to a glitch. Except that the other two meters on the site showed almost the exact same thing. I still had trouble believing it: Could that be right? Maybe they were recalibrating the meters or something - surely the levels couldn't be that high. It turned out, they were. Across the whole Eastfjörds, the plume descended. The national protective services told people to keep their children inside, their windows shut, and to shut off any air circulation systems. The levels topped out at nearly 2600 µg/m³. 500 µg/m³: WHO 10-minute safety limit. Even short-term exposure to these levels can cause minor irritation to healthy individuals and can cause health complications for people with breathing disorders, heart disease, children, and other vulnerable populations. 500 µg/m³: EU alert threshold. If levels exceed this point for three consecutive hours, a public health alert is issued for the area. 1000 µg/m³: Highest daily concentrations taken from the air next to Russian smelters."

Bárðarbunga: Accelerating (Plus: Got questions? Here's your chance for answers): "Whenever the rate of significant quakes in Bárðarbunga's caldera seems like it couldn't get any higher... it does. Here's the latest map. The red line is the flow as of the 7th of September; the yellow line is as of 8:00 this morning [Sept. 11]. The estimated time until the lava reaches Vaðalda is now only two days. The doomed waterfall Skínandi is right near where the Jökulsá runs into a narrow valley at the base of Vaðalda."

Eco-Essays and Eco-Policy

Climate Rescue Capitalism: Using Product Profit to Fight Climate Change—by Georgeortega: "Just as the world's controlling population won that control by selling goods and services, humanity must use this same means to win back the level of political influence necessary to first winning its battle against them, and then winning the battle against climate change. Humanity must go into business for the sake and interests of humanity, and market products that compete with, and win against, products marketed by today's controlling population. [...] Climate Rescue Capitalism is a powerful vehicle by which business profit within a capitalist economy can be redirected in order to fight climate change. It is a way to direct product profits away from conventional corporations and toward the funding of the scientific, sociological and political initiatives needed to best mitigate and adapt to climate change. As such, it represents a pragmatic coming together of capitalist and socialist perspectives that maximizes the fundamental strengths of these two disparate economic systems, as they relate to climate change."

Energy & Conservation

More on Coal—by indycam: "The problems that coal was having, excess supply, etc., seem to be resolving. The problems that some saw as an evidence or proof of entrance into a death spiral, look to be ending. For two years, the world's coal miners have been plagued by a glut that has battered prices and led to the closure of mines, straining tiny towns from Australia to South Africa. Now, some of the largest coal exporters are signaling the worst may be over as prices stabilize. Coal-mining executives say a string of pit shutdowns should finally kick-start the market by curbing supply, while demand from buyers such as China and India appears to be picking up. The optimism is a reversal from past months when companies warned of a sustained market surplus, although they are stopping short of predicting a sharp rebound and see any recovery as gradual."

Fired foreman sues notorious coal CEO over pressure to donate to Republicans—by Laura Clawson: "Murray Energy CEO Bob Murray is notorious for using his workers as political props and pressuring them to donate to political candidates he supports, and now he's being sued for the latter. In 2012, Murray drew a lot of bad publicity for the former, when he forced coal miners to be unpaid props for a Mitt Romney campaign speech. In the wake of that story, his habit of instructing salaried employees to write checks to candidates he supports also got some attention. That habit is the focus of a lawsuit from a former preparation plant foreman who feels her firing was related to the fact that she didn't make the contributions Murray solicited."

Design for Limited Attention Spans: 9 Minutes for Energy—by gmoke: "Opower (http://opower.com) designs customer engagement programs for more than 90 partners in the utility industry. They serve millions of domestic and commercial customers on three continents, North America, Europe, and Asia, providing energy efficiency services through customer engagement, helping them to understand and manage their energy use. This results in higher levels of energy efficiency, increased demand response, and improved grid resilience. Since 'The average person thinks about energy use for only nine minutes per year,' as Deena Rosen, Senior Director of User Experience for Opower said at GreenTechMedia's Soft Grid conference (http://www.greentechmedia.com/....) on 9/10/14, Opower has to design with limited attention spans in mind."

Renewables

Cape Wind Takes Big Step Forward - Will Koch Finally Call Off Lawyers?—by TheGreenMiles: "Big progress in the race to build America's first offshore wind farm today, as Cape Wind has signed a lease agreement to stage its 130-turbine project in Nantucket Sound out of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center's New Bedford South Terminal. More from Ariel Wittenberg in the New Bedford Standard-Times: Cape Wind will pay a total of $4.5 million in rent to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, which owns the 28-acre facility, for two years. During that time, Cape Wind will be the only operator of the facility and the terms of lease allow for two one-year extensions. Cape Wind has said that the assembly, staging and ocean construction of the project will create 600 to 1,000 jobs. Once in operation, the project is expected to employ 150 people, at least 50 of whom are expected to be based in Falmouth to do maintenance on the Nantucket Sound turbines. The lease agreement is significant not just for Cape Wind but for New Bedford and the commonwealth's future involvement in the offshore wind industry. City officials have long stated that being the first port to stage an offshore wind farm will help the city to attract future projects and industry manufacturers. Not only is this great news for clean energy and for New Bedford, a struggling former industriual hub in dire need of good-paying jobs, but it's a huge blow to Cape Wind's opponents."

Fracking

There MIGHT be a way to deterimine which quakes are induced and which ones aren't—by terrypinder: "I've been documenting the continuing research into the increase in seismicity occuring east of the Rockies in the United States. Almost all of it is concentrated in a handful of states, like Oklahoma, where four wastewater fluid injection wells have been potentially linked to 20% of all the cumulative seismicity that's occuring in the region. However, while the methods by which humans can induce seismicity are fairly well known and have been for decades, telling the difference between induced seismicity and natural seismicity is not as straightforward. A short note in the October 2014 Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America suggests there might be a way. Again, big emphasis on might."

Fracking company: We turned your drinking water into fire so we will be suing you for saying so—by weinenkel: "Steve Lipsky has a problem. His potable water is flammable. On-fire flammable. In 2009, Range drilled and fracked two gas wells approximately 2,000 feet from Lipsky’s home. Later that year, Lipsky says he started noticing that the water from his well was slimy and fizzy. The next year he began trucking in his family’s water for about $1,000 a month. The methane levels in his well have risen to concentrations nearly three times higher than what’s considered explosive, according to recent test Lipsky helped pay for. He created a video about it, which you can see below. The wheels of regulation and justice begin to turn. This is the right way to solve our issues. There's a problem though—the Railroad Commission of Texas. Here's some history of their hard-hitting work regulating oil and fracking companies: In fiscal 2012, the Railroad Commission 'performed more than 118,000 oil-and-natural-gas-facility inspections, identified about 55,000 violations … and assessed $1.9 million in penalties,' according to the Sunset Commission, a legislative commission that evaluates Texas state agencies. Its report says the Railroad Commission pursued more than 250 'formal enforcement actions,' suggesting that the average penalty per enforcement action was about $7,600, while most identified violation resulted in no fine."

New York Times visits Youngstown, discovers huge and nonexistent transformation—by danps: "On Monday The New York Times ran a piece by Nelson D. Schwartz titled "Boom in Energy Spurs Industry in the Rust Belt." As straight news articles go, it's not very straight.  For some reason, the Times likes to give the occasional sloppy, um, kiss to the fracking industry, and this seems to be the latest in the series. Near the start is a 'correlation equals causation' argument: Fracking is big in northeast Ohio; factory hiring has ticked up in northeast Ohio; therefore fracking has led to the uptick: Here in Ohio, in an arc stretching south from Youngstown past Canton and into the rural parts of the state where much of the natural gas is being drawn from shale deep underground, entire sectors like manufacturing, hotels, real estate and even law are being reshaped. A series of recent economic indicators, including factory hiring, shows momentum building nationally in the manufacturing sector. Schwartz provides one example of actual causation, a pipe mill that employs 350 workers. That's definitely good news for those employed there, but is it an example of the kind of region-transforming development that would justify the expansive tone? He notes the site used to house a mill that employed 1,400 people when it closed in 1979."

Agriculture, Food & Gardening

The Industrialization of American Agriculture and the Proletarianization of The American Farmer.—by steve1960: "A 2013 USDA report on US agriculture on average farm acreage dedicated to field crops had this to say: The midpoint acreage for U.S. cropland nearly doubled between 1982 and 2007, from 589 acres to 1,105. Midpoint acreages increased in 45 of 50 States and more than doubled in 16. The largest increases occurred in a contiguous group of 12 Corn Belt and Northern Plains States. Midpoint acreages more than doubled in each of 5 major field crops (corn, cotton, rice, soybeans, and wheat) and increased in 35 of 39 fruit and vegetable crops, where the average increase was 107 percent. The USDA researchers measured midpoint cropland acreage instead of US median farm size as a better indicator of field crop farm land consolidation. The typical field crop operation has nearly doubled in size over the past three decades. [...] US farming has become dominated by agribusiness as is clear not only by output concentration of various crop categories but by specialization and the rise of monocropping or the decrease in farm diversification. In 2011, more than half of all field crops came from farms producing two or fewer crops; over one fifth of crop production came from farms producing only one crop. Crop diversification was traditionally the pattern in US farming to prevent soil depletion and reduce risks such as pests."

The Daily Bucket--Break Like the Wind—by 6412093: "The East wind peaked at 35 miles per hour yesterday near Pear Pond in my backyard, according to the National Weather Service  It felt stronger. Standing in my formerly manicured backyard, watching the merry wind working, I recognized how the wind affects a broad range of natural events, over and beyond just tipping over my potted plants. The powerful wind stripped hundreds of pounds of needles from the Sequoia Redwood just east of my property line. Some of my garden and yard and the street are 2-4 inches deep in redwood needles for some 60 feet downwind. In other words, the wind has created a micro-environment of acidic nutrient-rich mulch, utilizing the Redwood needles, smothering the subsoils. While some plants will thrive, others will fail under that dense needle drop. The soil conditions changed rapidly, in just one day. The wind coated my Pear Pond with needles, likely turning it more acidic. I'll pick up some ph testing papers later and see."

Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 10.29--Gardens around the world—by blue jersey mom: "Good morning, gardeners. I hate to say it, but my home garden is a mess. I am still getting a few tomatoes, but most of the garden is thigh high in weeds. It is quite amazing what will happen to a garden when it is left to its own devices for over 7 weeks. Since I did a lot of traveling this spring and summer, I thought that I would post some pictures of the flowers and gardens that I saw. [...] We took our family vacation to Tokyo in late June. It was at the top of everyone's bucket list. My kids wanted to see the electronics and the weird night life, and bjd and I wanted to see the gardens and the historic sites. When we were there, the hydrangea and the irises were in bloom. And here is a picture of the koi in the pond at the imperial palace gardens."

Oceans, Water & Drought

Ami Bera introduces bill to block federal funding for BDCP—by Dan Bacher: "On September 9, Congressman Ami Bera, M.D. (CA-07) introduced a bill with Congressmen Jerry McNerney (CA-09) and John Garamendi (CA-03) to block FY 2015 federal funds from being used for California’s controversial Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the peripheral tunnels. The Brown administration has asked the federal government to contribute nearly $4 billion to help it implement the plan for the twin tunnels under the Delta. 'The BDCP is a flawed plan that does nothing to increase our water supply and only diverts more water from the Sacramento area to Southern California,' said Congressman Bera. 'Not only that, but it will cost taxpayers billions, and hurt countless farmers and small businesses in our region. We must stop this misguided plan and continue to fight for real bipartisan solutions to secure water access and storage throughout our state.'"

Water Experts to explain why Proposition 1 will not solve California’s water problems—by Dan Bacher: "Representatives from Food & Water Watch, California Water Impact Network, Southern California Watershed Alliance, and the No on Proposition 1 campaign will hold a teleconference for Southern California media members on the case against the $7.5 billion water bond."

Critters & the Great Outdoors

Swallows' nest in pavilion at Naumkeag, Mass.

Daily Bucket - Berkshire Adventures Part 1; Naumkeag—by Attack Gardener: "As I mentioned last week, Darling Spouse and I spent Labor Day weekend in western Massachusetts exploring the Berkshires. It was not our first trip by any means. We're always looking for an excuse to escape New York and that's one of our favorite places to go. [...] I will say up front I was rather disappointed in the wildlife we didn't see. We hiked all over 2 wildlife sanctuaries, half a mountain and 2 gardens. With one exception (to be discussed later), we could have seen the same critters in our wildlife-friendly backyard in New York. The same turkey vultures soared overhead, the same giant swallowtail butterfly fluttered in the black-eyed Susans, the same chipmunks dashed about on their urgent errands. The scenery, however, was lovely. Nothing quite compares with the Berkshires for sheer prettiness."

The Daily Bucket - signs of autumn—by OceanDiver: "The view of the headland looks much the same as it has for months. But a closer look shows signs in the plants and animals that summer is winding down and fall has begun, regardless what the calendar says! Madronas are the flowering broadleaf evergreen trees with rusty red peeling bark (some dead twisty branches persist for decades, weathering smooth and gray). Bunches of Madrona berries are ripening to red, or have already been picked off by foraging birds. Robins, Varied Thrushes and Cedar Waxwings are especially fond of them. [...] One of my greatest delights of the winter season is the return of the ducks. Most of ours depart in spring to breed north and inland, leaving the bay quiet and empty. I miss the lively mix of diving ducks, mergansers, grebes and loons. This week marks the beginning of duck season."

Cape Disappointment State Park (Photo Diary)—by Ojibwa: "Cape Disappointment is a bold promontory of ancient basalt which rises from the shore of the Pacific Ocean to the north of the mouth of the Columbia River. In was named by Captain John Meares in 1788 to reflect his feelings about failing to find the fabled Northwest Passage. It was here in 1805 that the American Corps of Discovery under the leadership of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark first encountered the Pacific Ocean after their trek across North America. Cape Disappointment State Park, formerly Fort Canby State Park is a 1,882-acre camping park which offers two miles of ocean beach, two lighthouses, an interpretive center, and eight miles of hiking trails. The park has old-growth forest, lakes, freshwater and saltwater marshes, as well as streams and tidelands along the ocean."

Boats on the Salish Sea: a late-summer crossing (photodiary)—by OceanDiver: "We live in the San Juans and love spending time on the water. Our first boat was a sailboat, but we've become too old and rickety to manage the rigging, so we are making the switch to power boat. A few days ago, we traveled up to Maple Bay on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, to close on a vintage boat we've been eyeing. The next day we drove it home, crossing the waters of the Salish Sea. On that late summer day, it was warm and sunny, and we had "fair winds". We did not have "following seas", timing being what it is, but our sturdy Swedish craft powered through the strong incoming tide beautifully, including frequent tidal rips. The long trip down the Salish Sea gave us an opportunity to see many other boats; I was surprised to see how busy it was, and with such a variety of craft. Here are photos of some of the kinds of boats we saw. This is by no means a comprehensive inventory of water craft in this area; rather, it's what I noticed of them on this one day."

URGENT: Endangered Red Wolves Need Your Help Today—by wordwraith: "The last remaining Red Wolves in the wild, on Planet Earth, some 90 to 100 in number, live in the 1.7 million acres of coastal swamp and forest of the Albemarle Peninsula in eastern North Carolina, which includes the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. They were declared extinct in the wild in 1980. Biologists, through the success of a captive breeding program, were able to release four pairs into the Alligator River Refuge on September 14, 1987, almost exactly 27 years ago. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has in the past described the program as one of the most successful endangered species reintroduction programs ever attempted. But Canis rufus unfortunately remains one of the most endangered canid species in the world. Its biggest threat presently is the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the North Carolina Wildlife Commission. THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING. If you read my diary earlier this week and you're ready to submit a comment to the Federal Wildlife Service to help save the Red Wolf Recovery Program, now is the time and here is the address, because the public comment period closes tomorrow, Friday, September 12th."

US Missionary Flies Orphaned Baby Elephant To Safety In 4-Seater Plane—by Retroactive Genius: "I don't, I must confess, have a lot of time for most missionaries. [...] Here, however, is a missionary I'm prepared to cut some slack for: Gary Roberts, a missionary and pilot working in Chad. It was Mr. Roberts who found an orphaned 9 month-old baby elephant at the scene of an elephant massacre carried out by poachers. Mr Roberts told the BBC World Service he flew to the area where the elephant massacre had occurred to see if reports of a sole surviving baby elephant were true. Upon finding the massacre zone he witnessed 'just piles of bones […] and large pools of blood on the ground that you could still see from so many animals.' 'We were able to confirm about 100 animals had indeed been massacred at that site,' he said. '[When we found Max] he was tied up to a tree where he had been for the last three-to-four days. He was getting weak, but also very angry because he had just been tied up to a tree. Mr. Roberts managed to get the 350lb baby elephant into his 4-seater light-aircraft and fly it the 75 miles to his mission's compound."

US Fish and Wildlife Service Revises Lynx Endanged Species Designation—by ban nock: "Today in a news release the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced revisions to both it's critical habitat component as well as it's contiguous range portion of it's listing of the Canada Lynx. The Distinct Population Segment now includes all 48 states. (at some time I'd expect this to include Canada). It's the Critical Habitat area that I suspect will make the fur fly in some quarters. In revising the critical habitat designation, Service biologists used the best available science to determine which habitats contain the features needed to support lynx populations and which are essential to the conservation of lynx in the contiguous United States. The final critical habitat designation totals 38,954 square miles in five units: northern Maine, northeastern Minnesota, northwestern Montana and northeastern Idaho, north-central Washington, and the Greater Yellowstone area of southwestern Montana and northwestern Wyoming. The Service concluded that areas naturally occupied by lynx populations at the time lynx were listed under the ESA are sufficient to conserve the population. Therefore, the critical habitat designation does not include areas not occupied by lynx at the time of listing. It also does not include the Southern Rocky Mountains, which currently host a lynx population that was introduced into Colorado between 1999 and 2006."

Horrific Torture of Baby Monkeys -Updated—by Piren: "You will be furious, sickened and disgusted. University of Wisconsin is planning to use our tax dollars to torture baby monkeys in the name of 'science.' The experiments, led by Dr. Ned Kalin, will take newborn rhesus macaque monkeys away from their mothers (who have been restrained or drugged against their will while their baby is removed). The defenseless baby monkeys are then sent to solitary confinement—where they are terrorized and exposed to anxiety-inducing stressors including live snakes, painful skin-punch biopsies, and stressful brain scans. After this relentless torture, they are killed before the age of two. I would call this "researcher" a monster and a boil on the butt of humanity, but that would be insulting to butt boils and monsters. Let's just say he's the Dick Cheney of science."

Miscellany

Who's going to stand up to save the Earth?—by VL Baker: "This diary is inspired by Neil Youngs' new song "Whose Going to Stand Up and Save the Earth? and his support for the documentary 'Under The Influence' Separation of corporation and state: From undertheinfluencefilm.com. Under the guise of democracy, huge global corporations have purchased our politicians and are writing laws that poison our planet and dismantle our democratic process. Corporations have usurped democracy by using their vast wealth to influence politics and silence the citizen voice in government. All natural living systems are in rapid decline, pushing the human race ever closer to extinction. Despite enacted environmental protections, global corporations have recklessly abused the four natural resources that we rely on for life (air, soil, fresh water and oceans) as an open sewer for their toxic wastes with blatant disregard for humankind. Neither the environmental crisis nor the many other social and economic crises we face can be addressed until democracy is restored and this cycle of corruption is broken by corporate money being removed from politics."

Shocking mutation and 'burn-out' scenarios revealed about escalating Ebola epidemic—by HoundDog: "I've written almost three dozen posts about the Ebola epidemic in Western Africa in the last six months, as we've watched the death toll and total number of cases rise exponentially to over 2,300 out of 4,300 cases. Last week, the World Health Organization warned us to brace for several thousand new cases in the nest three weeks and that the total number of cases may exceed 20,000 before the epidemic can be brought under control. In all this time the basic message has been, 'as tragic as this is for Western African nations, the epidemic will be controlled and the rest of the world should not be worried about broader spread.' Tonight, I've just read two reports by respected virologists that challenge these assumptions. [...] What is not getting said publicly, despite briefings and discussions in the inner circles of the world’s public health agencies, is that we are in totally uncharted waters and that Mother Nature is the only force in charge of the crisis at this time."

Trash, Pollution & Hazardous Waste

EPA Takes Real Steps Toward Curbing Smog Pollution - Now We Need Your Voice—by Mary Anne Hitt: "The Environmental Protection Agency recently found that we’ve been doing it wrong for years; our air is not as clean or as safe as we once supposed. The agency’s smog pollution policy assessment, released in late August, found that current 'safe' levels of smog pollution are actually not strong enough to protect our communities, our kids, or the air we breathe. Doris Toles could tell you that.The Baltimore resident struggles with serious respiratory issues which are only made worse by the poor air quality in the city. 'I had my first asthma attack when I was two. I’m now living with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD),' says Doris. 'A person gets COPD like I have after years of asthma attacks permanently weaken the lungs, and there is no cure.' Doctors told Doris that her asthma is triggered by pollution in the air where she lives. “I have to be very careful and keep my inhaler close at hand on days when smog levels are high.'"

Plastic Bottles: One-Use Commodities We Do Not Need—by jtietz. An editorial from Ecology Florida: "This past March, San Francisco became the first major city in the US to prohibit the sale of plastic water bottles on public property. We commend this positive decision, and encourage Florida municipalities to take similar action. [...] Even if the water in the bottles is perfectly safe (and it probably is because it is from an EPA regulated municipal water system), for many there are real concerns with the plastic bottles themselves. Besides being a major and ongoing environmental problem, exposure of foods and beverages to plastic is considered by some to be a health concern. Bisphenol A (BPA) is obviously a health issue, and although many manufacturers are getting away from BPA, there are numerous other chemicals in plastic that can contaminate foods and beverages, especially over extended time periods and when exposed to heat."

Sierra Club Takes Major Hit in Texas Litigation - $6.4 Million Attorney Fee Award—by LakeSuperior: "Here is something rarely seen.....and definitely not good news, speaking as a 25 year Sierra Club member. A major national environmental organization, Sierra Club, just got hit with a $6.4 million award of attorney fees by a Texas Federal District Court Judge for waging frivolous air pollution litigation against a coal fired electric utility plant in Texas. Ouch!! Dallas Observer.

Infrastructure & Transportation

Is Carpooling Illegal in California?—by CALinnovates: "I’ve written before (and before, and before) in praise of the California Public Utilities Commission. Specifically, their innovative regulatory approach when it comes to ridesharing services like Lyft, Sidecar, and Uber. But then I read this over at Re/Code: The California Public Utilities Commission is apparently not a fan of the newest trend in mobile-enabled ride-sharing: Helping two or more people with similar origins and destinations share a car across town. In a letter sent on Thursday to Uber, the CPUC asserted that state law prohibits what are known as 'charter-party carriers' from charging fares to individuals, rather than charging a total amount to all passengers. This is the exact type of regulatory quagmire I’ve previously praised the CPUC for avoiding. While there was no doubt good reason for such a law to be on the books when it was initially considered, enforcing that law on ridesharing companies today makes all the previous work the Commission has done to positively regulate the service look like 80's style moonwalking given the forward-thinking approach the CPUC has taken on this issue up until now."