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) normally appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
The most recent Wednesday Spotlight can be seen here. More than
21,810 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.
High-Latitude Forest Fires Behave Differently in North America and Eurasia - NASA—by
Pakalolo: "Tree species within the boreal forests of the planet can influence climate when they are burned by wildfire. The Eurasian boreal forest burns with low intensity surface fires, while the North American boreal forest fires burn the canopy like a torch with high intensity heat and flame. The result is that different effects occur on the climates reaction to the different impacts on the Earth's albedo (solar energy being reflected back into space) and the carbon rich stores of the northern tier. From NASA'S Earth Observatory:
In new research published in Nature Geoscience on February 2, 2015, scientists described how fires burn differently in the northern tier of North America compared to the northern tier of Eurasia despite very similar conditions. Combining ten years of satellite data with computer models and ground-based observations, the researchers found that boreal forest fires in North America spread faster, burn hotter and longer, send smoke higher into the atmosphere, and kill more trees than fires in Eurasia. This satellite view aligns with previous ground-based observations that North American forests are more prone to crown fires—which burn from the floor to the tree tops—while Eurasia has more surface fires."
The maps above show the continental differences in boreal forest burning. The top map shows fire radiative power, a measure of the intensity of the fires; specifically, the energy released from fire (in megawatts). The second map shows the change in albedo, or how the land surface reflects light. Note that the maps look down on the North Pole, with North America on the left and Eurasia on the right. In both maps, the brighter colors represent the greatest changes.
You can find more rescued green diaries below the orange garden layout.
The Serengeti Strategy - Why Conservatives Smear People to End Debate & How to Combat It—by
Steven D: "On January 10, 2010, Michael Mann posted an important op-ed piece in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, The Serengeti strategy: How special interests try to intimidate scientists, and how best to fight back. He focused on the specific attempts by climate deniers to attack his credibility as an expert on climate science through often vicious and inflammatory ad hominem attacks. However, the argument he lays out has broader implications in my opinion. I believe what he says will prove helpful to anyone the right lumps into their one size fits all category of "If you're not 100% batshit crazy like we are, you're our enemy." I would include here, without limitation, Democrats, liberals, feminists, LGBT people, minorities and anyone advancing ideas or policies deemed anathema in conservative circles. Obviously, Michale Mann has over a decade of experience with smear campaigns and even lawsuits filed against him and his employers, seeking to defame him personally and destroy his reputation in order to discredit the work of thousands of researchers regarding the impact of human activity to alter the climate."
Daily Tck: UN Climate talks in Geneva mark the year's first major benchmark on the road to Paris—by
Joshua Wiese: "2015 is set to have a profound impact on the shape of our future. Starting Sunday - just weeks after the UN climate talks in Lima set the course toward a new global climate agreement in Paris this December - we’ll reach the first major benchmark in that journey. Our partners and peers have followed government negotiators to the UN’s office in Geneva Switzerland to capture years of work building out the elements of a more robust global response to climate change in a draft negotiating text. We’ll spend seven days trying to whittle down the 38-page Lima Call for Climate Action—which captured the full range of governments’ visions for how to respond to a climate changed and changing world—into more workable document that better enables their ever-slow but constant movement toward a deal. 2014 was the hottest year in recorded history. From the Arctic to the Marshall Islands, San Francisco to Sao Paulo and well beyond, communities lived climate impacts. Yet even more quickly than the challenges of a climate changing world took hold, we pushed and breathed life into solutions."
Climate Chaos
Will governments look beyond their national climate interests?—by Mattias: "Next week government delegations from all over the world gather in Geneva, Switzerland. There is time for a new session of UN climate talks, and the agenda is packed. The climate summit in Lima, COP20, December last year, delivered a very weak result. There was agreement to continue negotiations, but there was limited progress on what the future agreement actually should include. This is now the task for diplomats in Geneva. During an intense week parties should agree on a draft text of the future Paris agreement. Details won't be set at this stage, but all important elements should be included as it will be difficult to add totally new issues later during the year. […] I wish government delegations arrive in Geneva with ambitious mandates for the negotiations, making it possible for them to look beyond their national interests, to search for fair and ambitious global solutions. Climate change is a global matter, and it must be approached with international cooperation."
An actual scandal involving green policies (sort of)—by ClimateDenierRoundup: "Michael Bastasch of the Daily Caller (who is usually the first to repeat denier attempts to generate controversy) shows that indeed a broken clock is right twice a day with a story about a scandal involving Oregon's Governor, John Kitzhaber. It seems the state's biggest paper, The Oregonian, has published an editorial calling on Kitzhaber to resign because of a series of scandals involving the Governor's fiancée, Cylvia Hayes. Apparently Hayes, while serving as an unpaid advisor to Kitzhaber, was also collecting a paycheck from the Clean Economy Development Center, opening the couple up to conflict of interest accusations. Further complicating the issue is the fact that two of Kitzhaber's campaigners helped Hayes get the job in the first place."
Critters & the Great Outdoors
The Daily Bucket - BumbleBeeWatch.org—by enhydra lutris: "Launched in January 2015, BumbleBeeWatch.org is a place to report, identify, learn about and learn how to help Bumble Bees (Bombus whichever). Bumble Bee Watch is a collaborative effort by: Wildlife Preservation Canada, University of Ottawa, BeeSpotter, Montreal Insectarium, Natural History Museum, London, and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Xerces News describes it as a new way for people to be directly involved in protecting bumble bees throughout North America. There appear to be some glitches with the site, but it's new. What it no doubt needs is more folks signng up, more observations and more feedback."
American River Steelhead Still Trickling Into Nimbus Hatchery—by Dan Bacher: "The American River continues to see one of the worst steelhead runs since Folsom Dam was built and blocked upstream migration to the native run of steelhead. Nimbus Fish Hatchery staff have trapped a total of 79 adult steelhead to date, in contrast with 465 adults by the same time last year, reported Gary Novak, hatchery manager. 'The fish are slowly trickling in,' he said. 'We have 8 fish in the trap this morning. We spawned six pairs of steelhead on Monday, February 2.' The hatchery has taken about 145,000 eggs so far, well below their goal of 1 million eggs needed to produce 430,000 steelhead yearlings. In a banner year, the hatchery would have already trapped thousands of fish by this time."
The Daily Bucket: What Bird is This!?—by
KenBee: "In my wanderings with my new-old-so-it-was-a-deal camera I have been taking a lot! of pictures. I am quite addicted of it, especially the instant picture taking qualities of the dslr as different than the older slower point and shoot cameras. We have talked here about that for quite a spell. For me 400 pictures during a two hour wandering is the norm. Usually I get lots of pictures of the same 50 common bird species big enough for me to ID, mostly around the estuaries and beaches near in Santa Barbara county. Birders here have among the highest bird counts during the Christmas Bird Count(pdf) every year. The weather is crazy mild and birds and people all flock here. It's a crazy place. […] So..when walking the beach lagoons after a high tide/surf event I saw all the usual suspects in their winter and transitional plumage...and then…"
Bald eagles allegedly poisoned at Florida landfill after shelter dumped euthanized animals—by Jen Hayden: "This week, two dying bald eagles were found outside a Marion County, Florida landfill. One has died since they were discovered and the other is still being treated. In the last two years, there have been a dozen cases of bald eagles dying around the landfill: The Animis Foundation alleges that the Marion County Animal Shelter has been dumping euthanized animals at the Marion County Baseline Landfill, which is located next to the shelter. Whitfield said two years ago when a bald eagle was found dying at the landfill, Animis and Dr. Shannon Kennedy performed a toxicology screen on the eagle’s blood. She said the results were disturbing. Test results showed the eagle had been poisoned with phenobarbital, a drug commonly used by veterinarians to euthanize animals."
Eagles being treated at the Animus Foundation wildlife sanctuary.
The Daily Bucket - elk in the Quillayute river valley—by
OceanDiver: "Things have been pretty quiet in my neighborhood lately, and with the weather so extremely wet and stormy I haven't been outside as much. So instead of a look at local wildlife I'd like to share some I saw out on the Olympic Peninsula, on the northwest corner of Washington state, a couple of weeks ago. One day on our recent trip out to the ocean we were driving along the riverside road and did a double-take. In a pasture by the road what I took for cows were actually wild elk! We turned around and I stopped to get a good look. I've seen elk up above the treeline in the Cascades in summer, but I'd never seen them this close. They were making use of the cleared area much as elk have for thousands of years in this area, drawn to the forage in the lowland valley in winter."
Energy
Misinformation on Fukushima Impacts: Energy News Shows How Not to Communicate Science—by MarineChemist: "The purpose of this short diary is to discuss the surplus of misinformation on the environmental impact of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) disaster present in the public domain. The diary is part of an ongoing effort to mobilize useful and accurate information about the disaster with respect to the likely impacts on the health of the North Pacific and residents of western North America. Energy News has a history of misrepresenting or misunderstanding the scientific literature in its presentation of information specific to Fukushima. A recent report on a study estimating the atmospheric source term for Fukushima is no exception. It used to be that within a few hours of such misinformation posting we could be sure to see it show up on Kos but luckily we have been spared it recently. Below the fold I outline how this misinformation is packaged as an example of the sort of poor reporting and knowledge mobilization that the Fukushima disaster begets."
Norway's national sovereign wealth fund (world's largest) says NO to Coal and Tar Sands investments—by Lefty Coaster: "World Financial Markets are beginning to show that there isn't much of a future in digging up more Coals or Bitumen. Our dirtiest Fossil Fuels will need to be strictly regulated in the near future and that is becoming obvious even to big investors. World's biggest sovereign wealth fund dumps dozens of coal companies: Norway’s giant fund removes investments made risky by climate change and other environmental concerns, including coal, oil sands, cement and gold mining The world’s richest sovereign wealth fund removed 32 coal mining companies from its portfolio in 2014, citing the risk they face from regulatory action on climate change."
Renewables & Conservation
Gov. Scott Walker seeks to fund study on 'health impacts' of wind power—by Hunter: "What are the odds that the state governor who gained instant fame from his obsequious smarm in a phone call to what he thought was a Koch brother would come out with a demand that we study the terrible health dangers posed by—wait for it, savor it a moment—wind power. The two-year, $68 billion budget proposal Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker unveiled Tuesday includes a request for $250,000 to study the health impacts of wind turbines. Walker, who apparently considers himself a bit of an expert on the subject because so many people have called him a 'blowhard,' is seizing on a county declaration that a local wind farm has been making some nearby residents sick because of the low-frequency noise the gigantic fan blades make when they spin."
Fracking
Lee Co. NC Commissioners Vote No on Fracking, Local Paper Quotes My Statement—by FishOutofWater: "Commissioners of Lee County, North Carolina voted 5 to 2 late Monday to rescind a resolution passed in 2012 supporting the extraction of natural gas by fracking (hydro-fracturing). Next they passed a resolution opposing fracking and the 120 proposed fracking rules and regulations proposed by the NC Mining and Energy Commission. The Republican dominated NC legislature is expected to approve those rules drafted by the commission they created in the next few months. Chairwoman of the Lee County Commissioners, Amy Dalrymple, explained that Monday's resolution against fracking was taken because the proposed rules do not protect local interests. […] The vote was along strict party lines with the 2 Republicans voting no. The key change between 2012 and 2015 was not the nature of the rules, however. It was the election in Lee County that replaced Republicans that supported fracking with Democrats who supported local property rights, safe water, clean air and healthy communities. Lee County voters said no to fracking at the polls."
Zen Monks to CA Governor Brown: "Don't even THINK about Fracking!"—by citisven: "I have a sticker in my office that says "Zen Buddhism: Don't even think about it!"This kind of humorous take often leads to the (false) perception that Buddhism and its more western-palatable "mindfulness" cousin are about disengagement, a sort of blissful denial of reality in which the practitioner's magical skill is to sit there in utter peace and emptiness, able to tune out the world even while the world around is unraveling. In an open letter to California Governor Brown published yesterday in anticipation of tomorrow's massive March for Real Climate Leadership in Oakland, dozens of leaders and members from the San Francisco Zen Center—including the central abbesses and well-known figures such as actor Peter Coyote—dispel the notion of the passive, agreeable monk unfazed by any earthly rumblings below or outside his or her cross-legged self. February 5, 2015. Dear Governor Brown, We write to urge you to ban hydraulic fracturing—fracking—in California and, more generally, move away from making our state a major producer as well as a consumer of fossil fuels. We celebrate that you have, in your inaugural address, made a renewed commitment to addressing climate change."
DC, State & Local Eco-Politics
Facing Felony Charges, Rick Perry Joins Board of Pipeline Company Proposing Pipeline Across Iowa—by Steve Horn: "Former Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry has joined the board of directors at Energy Transfer Partners, a natural gas and propane company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that has proposed to build a controversial Bakken crude oil pipeline across Iowa. The announcement, which appeared in Energy Transfer Partners’ February 3 Form 8-K filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), comes as Perry faces two Texas state-level felony charges for abuse of power. Perry pleaded not guilty to both charges and District Judge Bert Richardson recently ruled against dismissing Perry’s case. 'It isn’t immediately clear how much Perry will be paid for his board position,' explained the Texas Tribune. 'According to regulatory filings published on the company’s website, non-employee board directors were paid $50,000 a year in 2013.'"
Agriculture, Food & Gardening
U.S. Meat Animal Research Center's Death Pit—by Lynne Vogel: "James Keen, a former scientist/veterinarian at the U. S. Meat Animal Research Center notified the New York Times a year ago that the Nebraska site's cows, pigs, and sheep were subjected to painful, unnecessary experiments that caused crippling ailments and death. The center, operating under Agriculture Department purview, is exempt from the Animal Welfare Act which means that the center's personnel may conduct any manner of experiments on its test animals without regard to their suffering. Freedom of Information documents obtained by the Times verified Dr. Keen's complaints regarding animal mistreatment at the U. S. Meat Animal Research Center. Examples of cruelty cited by the newspaper: animals undergoing surgery without anesthesia, pigs and cows placed in steam chambers, newborn lambs left in deadly environments and pigs held in claustrophobic quarters. Animals who do not survive the experiments are disposed of in the facility's death pit."
2014 South Dakota Leopold Conservation Award—by ban nock: "and the winner is … Rock Hills Ranch. Yes a real ranch, they raise cows, beef cows, to eat. They took the land out of crops and put it back into grass. The idea being the land didn't lend itself to crops as much as it did to grazing. Looking at the vid I'd agree, there's a slope, and lots of rocks. I follow the Sand County Foundation on Twitter and I'm always impressed with the choices they make for awards. I know that ranchers are a hated demographic here on Daily Kos, why I can only speculate. I guess for the same reason anyone hates an entire other people, fear due to propaganda, ignorance, all the usual suspects."
Yellowfin tuna mercury levels rising almost 4% annually—by Walter Einenkel: "Don't worry—the good news is that you can still eat tuna. Just make your ahi-tuna meal that less frequent (it's already a high mercury fish so you shouldn't be eating that much anyway). There have been a few studies done over the years connecting post-industrial mercury levels in the ocean with our food source's levels of mercury. A new study, re-analyzing previous papers on the subject, was just released: Evidence in support of this hypothesis has been hard to find, however, and some studies have suggested that analyses of fish show no change in mercury concentration. By compiling and re-analyzing published reports on yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) caught near Hawaii (USA) over the past half century, the authors found that the concentration of mercury in these fish currently is increasing at a rate of at least 3.8% per year. This rate of increase is consistent with a model of anthropogenic forcing on the mercury cycle in the North Pacific Ocean and suggests that fish mercury concentrations are keeping pace with current loading increases to the ocean. Future increases in mercury in yellowfin tuna and other fishes can be avoided by reductions in atmospheric mercury emissions from point sources."
Chipotle founder said McDonald's chicken farm was the most disgusting thing he'd seen in his life—by Jen Hayden: "Back in the 1990s, McDonald's invested heavily in Chipotle and helped grow the franchise dramatically: The Big Mac chain invested in Chipotle's business in 1998 when it had 14 locations. By 2005, McDonald's had a 90% stake—and Chipotle had 460 locations. The philosophies of Steve Ells and McDonald's executives couldn't have been more different: What we found at the end of the day was that culturally we're very different. There are two big things that we do differently. One is the way we approach food, and the other is the way we approach our people culture. It's the combination of those things that I think make us successful. The partnership between Chipotle and McDonald's ended in 2006, but not before Ells had been invited to visit a McDonald's chicken farm. Bob Ells, Steve's father, had this to say: They [McDonald’s] invited Steve to go to their chicken farm in Arkansas. He came back and said it was absolutely the most disgusting thing he’d ever seen in his life."
Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 10.50—by
Frankenoid: "In Denver this week we went from lumpy wads of wet snow on February 1, to a high in the mid 70s yesterday—and in between on Wednesday we started calm, were whipped with wind and snow for a couple of hours but ended up in the 60s. Weird. Weird weird weird. And now, an announcement. The last Saturday in February will mark ten years that I've been at the helm of Saturday Morning Garden Blogging. It is time for me to step down. There are a lot of reasons I could give—that I've gone through so many life changes the last few years; that my business is picking up and I have less time; that I'm concentrating on developing lace knitting designs as well as execution. And all of those reasons are valid. But the most important reason is that more often than not producing a Saturday diary has become a slog and not a joy."
Transportation & Infrastructure
Google and UN's New World Order—by ClimateDenierRoundup: "Breitbart's aptly-named Chriss Street has a rather weird story on Google's automated driving project; the U.S. Department of Transportation's 'Beyond Traffic 2045' transportation policy; and the UN Environmental Program's environmental, social and governance policies (ESG). The story has the ominous title, 'Google teaming with UN to dominate transportation future,' but it ultimately fails to make the sinister connections implied by the tone and language. Street introduces the story as though Google is working on behalf of UNEP "to create a world in the next 30 years where all decision making will be controlled by environmental, social and governance policies." Apparently Google is offering data to the UN for use in setting standards, which Street implies is a ploy by Google for "dramatic growth and sustainable dominance of the industry.' After this, Street gets to the actual news event: Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx's visit to the Googleplex to announce the U.S. Department of Transportation's 'Beyond Traffic 2045' project. In describing the project's relatively innocuous, open-ended, and non-prescriptive framework, Street inserts parenthetical references to 'undocumented workers' and also implies that Google has some hand in shaping the UNEP's ESG policies. Ultimately, this is a thinly veiled attack on potential transportation policies intended to reduce carbon emissions that just throws in some vague UN references for good measure. It's a rather bizarre piece that almost enters 'Black Helicopter' territory, but doesn't quite. Rather, it sends those signals to its readers while maintaining a veneer of sanity. That veneer is quickly discarded in the comment section, though, with one particularly bizarre comment saying, 'Google and the UN want to knock God off of his throne. Lucifer tried it as well. Look what happened to him.'"
Eco-Essays and Eco-Philosophy
Survival International slams Big "Conservation" for violating tribal peoples’ rights—by Dan Bacher: "Stephen Corry, Director of Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, has slammed conservation groups, including some of the corporate "environmental groups" that I have challenged in many of my articles, for failing to achieve its stated objectives, partly because it routinely violates tribal peoples’ rights. In an article published this week by US journal Truthout and British magazine The Ecologist, Corry writes that governments, with the support of conservation organizations, are forcing indigenous peoples off their ancestral homelands in the name of 'conservation.' The illegal evictions of tribal peoples in India, the torture and abuse of indigenous Baka 'Pygmies' in Cameroon, and the mistreatment of the Bushmen in Botswana are just a few examples evoked by Corry, which Survival’s 'Parks Need Peoples' campaign has exposed, according to a news release from Survival International."
Oceans, Water & Drought
Will the State Water Board Tear Up Paper Water?—by Dan Bacher: "Restore the Delta (RTD) today responded to the State Water Resources Control Board’s (SWRCB) draft order issued Wednesday night demanding water diversion data from every riparian and pre-1914 water right holder in the Delta’s Central Valley watershed, starting March 1st 'until, well, whenever.' This is an unprecedented move by the Board’s Division of Water Rights,' said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, opponents of Governor Jerry Brown’s rush to build Twin Tunnels that would drain the Delta and doom salmon and other Pacific fisheries. 'The Board has never issued such a large-scale demand for water rights information before.' RTD has urged the Board to adjudicate all water rights, as the State has granted 5.5 times more water rights than actual water exists in a normal year. Rather than adjudicate the entire system, and face their own fatally flawed math, the Board has chosen to focus on senior water rights holders."
Trash, Pollution & Hazardous Waste
"Fighting for Our Right to Breathe"—by Mary Anne Hitt: ""None of us should have to be here right now fighting for our right to breathe." That's what a young woman told the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at a hearing this week about smog pollution, after boarding a bus with 100 high school students before dawn and traveling for hours to deliver her three minutes of testimony. The students live in a county with some of the worst air pollution in America, and one after another, they shared their personal stories, many noting they made the trip to speak for their family member who suffers from asthma or other smog related ailments. Their stories left audience members and EPA staff alike visibly shaken, choked up and teary-eyed. They were among hundreds of Americans who attended three recent public hearings on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed standards for ozone, also known as smog. I myself testified in Washington, D.C., last Wednesday (you can read my testimony here), where supporters of a stronger smog standard greatly outnumbered polluter industry representatives."
Desert Mirage High School students outside the EPA hearing on smog standards.