This is the 507th edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) usually appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Here is the June 24 Green Spotlight. More than 27,290 environmentally oriented stories have been rescued to appear in this series since 2006. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
lenamoffitt83 and Matt Remie write—Divesting from ‘Dirty Banks’ is a Form of Resistance: “After the Trump Administration’s reckless decision to exit the Paris climate agreement, many people are looking to divest their money from fossil fuels as a way to fight back. Fuel for their fire is last week’s federal court ruling on the inadequacy of the Army Corps’ environmental review of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), which provides renewed leverage against the banks that fund it and other climate-destroying pipelines. Earlier this month, we were pleased to join 15 leading national social change organizations representing 13 million members, and announce that we too are divesting organizational money from ‘pipeline banks’ and instead choosing to bank in alignment with our social values. Millions of people around the world, as well as major cities like Seattle and New York have called out the bad actions of big Wall Street banks like Wells Fargo. But for far too long, even the most progressive environmental groups in this country have continued to lend our money, and by extension our moral support, to the same banks funding the dig-dump-burn economy that we work day in and day out to replace. No more.”
PHScott writes—The Daily Bucket: How the Woodpecker Destroyed Its Home: “Never heard it. Didn't see it either, so I'm really not sure when the top of this Water Oak fell. Before I was out in the yard looking for wildflowers, I walked near but didn't see it in the mass of trees and greenery along the fence. Inside taking a break, I sat at my desk and looked out the window, a scene I’ve watched for hours—that's when I spotted it. This is the Water Oak the Pileated Woodpecker roosted in last winter. It had a regular schedule of coming and going—in before sunset and up at dawn, announcing itself with long repeated calls and drumming. The woodpecker had 3 holes in this tree right where the trunk branched, 2 you can see in photo below. It would go in a hole on the other side and pop up here to watch the sunset before roosting. I always wondered what it was doing in there and how much room did it have. Well now I know.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
matching mole writes—Dawn Chorus: Why All the Cool Birds Are Eating Fruit and Nesting in Holes: “I’m going to hopefully excuse my rather poor photographs with a bit of a science story to go with them. [...] Two and a half weeks ago I returned from four weeks in Panama teaching a tropical biology field course. Many of you probably associate the tropics with brightly colored birds: parrots, toucans, and so on. A common question is: why are tropical birds so colorful. What is it about the tropics that results in the evolution of bright colors? [...] Well first, are there really more brightly colored birds in the tropics? This is not a straightforward question to answer. One complicating factor is that there are a lot more species of birds in tropical forests than there are in any other environment in earth. So any comparison must take differences in the total number of species into account. [...] Secondly you have to consider carefully what being ‘colorful’ means. A vividly green parrot will seem bright flying over a desert but will blend in the forest canopy. Also bird vision is not exactly the same as our own vision so a bird’s idea of what is bright may not be the same as the impression of a birder.”
owktree writes—Daily Bucket: Mirror Alphabet - "Y": “Mirror Alphabet has gotten to “Y”. A bit easier than “Z” was!”a predatory snail hunting on a beach in Langkawi Island
owktree writes—Daily Bucket: Thinking of (or at) the Beach: “Starting on a vacation to visit the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Since I am looking forward to spending some time at the shore my thoughts turned towards doing a diary regarding how I regard beaches and walking on them. Things to see and peaceful sounds (to me) that can lead to thought and contemplation. [...] Molluscs. The main source of the shells we see while walking beaches. Live ones are a bit more rare to see since they are often being hunted by the various shore birds. Watching small surf clams dig themselves back into the sand after every wave is sort of interesting to watch.”
Angmar writes—The Daily Bucket: Rainy Spring- Lake Ontario water level rise 2017: “The waters of Lake Ontario, already at their highest point in a quarter-century, are continuing to rise. Shoreline property is flooding and erosion is worsening — and the lake level is expected to go up at least another four inches and quite possibly more by mid-summer. democratandchronicle. Lake Ontario is at the end of the five Great Lakes, and a dam near Massena, N.Y., regulates its flow into the St. Lawrence. Officials can't open its gates all the way because extremely strong currents affect shipping, could damage turbines in two hydroelectric plants along the river and create flooding in the Montreal area. Experts say it likely will be several months before Lake Ontario's level drops appreciably. Upstream, Lake Erie also is seeing higher water levels because of a wet spring and flows from the other lakes; erosion is a worry. usatoday.
CLIMATE CHAOS
Agelbert writes—Utility CEOs Try to Rob Shareholders of Rights to Express Climate Concerns: “A group of CEOs which often lobbies for policies that support the fossil fuel industry, the Business Roundtable, has led the effort to insert the language restricting shareholders' rights. The group sent a letter to Trump economic advisor Gary Cohn advocating for the changes. The letter also called for delaying the EPA's rules to protect people from harmful ozone pollution, called for an overhaul of the Clean Power Plan, and called for the complete reversal of the Waters of the US rule to prevent pollution of streams, rivers and lakes. Those are all positions that other utility industry trade groups have fought, while individual utilities have sought to avoid the publicity of attacking popular anti-pollution rules. Agelbert NOTE: Why do the fossil fuelers never grow tired of avoiding responsibility and accepting their liability? Why do they keep doubling down on fossil fuels instead of transitioning rapidly to Renewable Energy (they have had the Capital to do that, in less than a decade, for at least 25 years!)”
Next Conservatism writes—Climate Change Doesn’t Need Rick Perry’s “Intellectual Conversation”: “Perry himself can’t hold an intellectual conversation that doesn’t involve Ovaltine and a nap. His job in the Trump White House is to put on his Smart Guy glasses and lay a politically acceptable face over lies and abject ignorance, so that the fossil fuel industries can buy time and force waste back into a system that seeks to eliminate it. He delivers the GOP’s focus-grouped arrogance in characterizing everything that preceded this as somehow not ‘intellectual’ to his standards, but this once again plays to the Conservative posture that their enemies are, and always have been, just emotional; that the very scientific method itself, and all its outcomes, are compromised by subjectivity and inherent bias; in short their argument is that blistering stupidity on the Right is mirrored by blistering stupidity on the Left, and that the issue itself isn’t a matter of actual fact, but only of how one looks at it.”
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
Pakalolo writes—Trump goes after Clean Water Rule threatening the water supply for 117 million Americans: “Another day of the Trump Administration, so of course, there is yet another fresh horror unleashed on the American people and the environment. Natural Resources Defense Council reports on the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers proposal to repeal the Clean Water Rule, which protects the water supply for 117 million Americans. When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers issued the Clean Water Rule in May 2015, they clarified, after decades of confusion and debate, that tens of millions of acres of smaller waterways across the United States were, in fact, eligible for protection under the Clean Water Act. Less than two years later, in February 2017, after several failed attempts by Senate Republicans to kill the rule, President Trump signed an executive order directing the EPA and the Army Corps to begin the process of repealing the Clean Water Rule, with the aim of eliminating it altogether. Today, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt indicated that the two agencies will send a proposal to repeal the rule. ‘This proposal strikes directly at public health,’ said NRDC president Rhea Suh.”
Dan Bacher writes—Why Delta Stewardship Council's Endorsement of Delta Tunnels Is So Wrong: “After covering fish, water, and environmental justice issues in California and the West for over 30 years as an investigative journalist, I’ve concluded that the California WaterFix, AKA ‘dual conveyance,’ is the most environmentally devastating public works project I’ve ever encountered. I urge the Delta Stewardship Council to reject making ‘dual conveyance’ the preferred conveyance alternative in the amendments to the Delta Plan. In my reporting, I’ve covered many aspects of the controversial plan. [...] But in the many hours I’ve spent covering the California WaterFix and its predecessors, there’s one terminal flaw with the project that stands out among all others: the false assumption the project is based upon. The WaterFix is based on the absurd contention that taking up to 9,000 cubic feet per second of water from the Sacramento River at the new points of diversion will restore the ecosystem. I am not aware of a single project in US or world history where the construction of a project that takes more water out of a river or estuary has resulted in the restoration of that river or estuary.”
Dan Bacher writes—Trump administration approves permit to build Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels: “As I predicted on election night, the President Donald Trump and Governor Jerry Brown administrations have apparently made a deal to fast-track Brown’s legacy project, the Delta Tunnels, considered by opponents to be the most environmentally destructive public works project in California history. The Trump released a no-jeopardy finding on the biological assessment to build the tunnels. The biological opinion is available here: www.fws.gov/… Federal and state officials on a teleconference call for reporters today described the release of the controversial document as a ‘milestone’ in the Brown administration’s campaign to build the giant twin tunnels under the Delta.”
Dan Bacher writes—The links between Delta Tunnels and faux marine protection are deep and alarming: “The deep relationship between the MLPA Initiative and Delta Tunnels is undeniable. In many ways, the neoliberal MLPA Initiative process, completed in December 2012, has served a template for the Governor's campaign to build the tunnels. In spite of some superficial differences, the two processes have been united by their (1) leadership, (2) funding, (3) conflicts of interest, (4) greenwashing goals, (5) racism and denial of tribal rights and (6) junk science. When people educate themselves on the undeniable links between the two processes, I believe they can more effectively wage a successful campaign against the Delta Tunnels and to restore our imperiled salmon and San Francisco Bay-Delta fisheries. In spite of massive opposition to the MLPA Initiative by Tribal leaders, fishermen, grassroots environmentalists, the fake ‘marine protected areas’ overseen by a Big Oil lobbyist and other political hacks went into effect anyway. I fear the same thing will happen in the Delta Tunnels struggle.”
ENERGY
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Energy Week Preview: Expect More Heaping Helpings of Dramatic Irony: “With this being the end of the school year and the beginning of the White House’s “Energy Week,” let’s take a look at the energy sector for an end-of-the-year lesson on dramatic irony. For reference, dramatic irony is when the audience knows something a character does not, setting up a humorous or tragic juxtaposition between the character’s expectations and reality. Here are three recent examples of dramatic irony in the energy sector [...] Second, at his Iowa rally last week, Trump told the crowd about his love of coal and how he doesn’t want to ‘just hope the wind blows to light up your homes and your factories.’ But Iowans don’t worry about wind not being able to keep the lights on because Iowa has the most reliable electrical grid and has the second-most wind power of any state in the country.”
Fossil Fuels
Caleb Fultz writes—Coal is dead but Appalachia isn’t: “But the issues don’t begin and end economically. Appalachian states like Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania have seen an explosion in overdoses. This has come on top of a wave in drug addiction on the East Coast. This surge in addiction and overdoses stems directly from the economic meltdown these places have experienced in recent decades. Coal miners began using opioids as a way to combat mine related injuries and pain. Later once jobs left and there was no money people turned to drugs to forget the situation they were in. We need to put more effort into helping Appalachia economically and end this epidemic before it claims any more lives. But it isn’t all doom and gloom for coal country. These economies can be saved by economic diversification. And the drug epidemic can end by providing jobs and addiction treatment. If not, it will be all doom and gloom.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Energy Dominance Is Obama’s LNG Exports, and NCA Might Get Red Teamed: “As the White House tries to fill the Oval Office schedule so Trump doesn’t get distracted and tweet something dumb, they’ve decided this week should be ‘Energy Week,’ and had underlings repeatedly use the catchphrase ‘energy dominance.’ Although what this phrase means exactly is anyone’s guess. A Reuters interview with Department of Interior Secretary Zinke from last week seems to suggest it means selling out public lands to oil and gas interests. But judging by Trump’s schedule this week, it could also just mean touting increasing exports of natural gas, which would be the continuation of a policy initiated by Obama. Trump selling the country to the highest fossil fuel bidder should come as a surprise to no one who has been paying attention. This administration is flooded with fossil fuel voices, from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on down. [...]As Mark Hand writes for CAP’s ThinkProgress, nearly a third of the 100 energy and environment hires in the administration thus far have ties to the Koch brothers and the fossil fuel industry. But that doesn’t even include people like Mandy Gunasekara, the aide who handed Senator Inhofe the snowball on that fateful day.”
Renewables, Efficiency & Conservation
Wagatwe writes—California makes so much solar and wind power it pays other states to take it: “California invested heavily in using solar power—and it’s been a roaring success. However, a piece in the Los Angeles Times hints that perhaps the state has been a bit too successful: California has been consistently making too much renewable energy that state has to toss. As a result, it sometimes pays other states, like Arizona, to take their excess energy. [...] For now, it looks like ‘negative pricing’ for excess power is here to stay. This is due, in part, to utility companies who keep downplaying and creating doubt in the power of solar and wind energy. Even as California’s power output grew, utility companies were able to convince lawmakers to keep investing in natural gas plants. Now as the state consistently creates too much power, it’s clear that renewable energy is capable of powering California. California has so much surplus electricity that existing power plants run, on average, at slightly less than one-third of capacity. And some plants are being closed decades earlier than planned.”
Meteor Blades writes—Good news! Mayors resist Trump's rotten climate policies with commitment to 100% renewables by 2035: “Remember that decades-old phrase ‘think globally, act locally’? The message behind it made a big splash Monday. Activists are needed to turn the message into reality. While the Trump regime works diligently to turn its lethal, climate science-denying lunacy into federal policy, 1,400 American mayors have added their numbers to the resistance against it.In a unanimous vote Monday, the typically staid U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution backing municipalities’ efforts to obtain 100 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2035. If the words in that resolution are backed up with local planning and policy actions, as well as pressure from city officials on officials at other levels of government, the vote would go far to accomplish the much-needed acceleration of the transformation of our energy system.”
REGULATIONS & PROTECTIONS
Meteor Blades writes—Scientist felt 'bullied' when EPA chief of staff told her to mangle her congressional testimony: “Although many of the people being appointed to top staff posts—including EPA chief Scott Pruitt—are the sort who would like to see the agency left without one stone atop another and the legislative and administrative ground beneath it salted, eviscerating the staff and budget of the agency is much more effective than abolishing it altogether. The Republicans can claim the EPA is still there, doing the job it was designed to do, even as its guts are ripped out, its institutional memory destroyed, its veteran staff dissed and dismissed, and its public persona mutilated by scrubbing its websites of anything that ticks off the fossil-fuel industry and other polluters. A key aspect of creating this hollow shell has been getting rid of most of the members of the Board of Scientific Counselors. [...] Those empty science adviser slots will now be available to be filled by nominees suggested by Koch Industries, the American Petroleum Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the loony climate science deniers on Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe’s staff.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—EPA CoS Bullies Witness as Admin Pruitt Upholds Reputation for Non-Answers on Budget: “At yesterday’s budget hearing, EPA administrator and high schooler voted “most likely to sue his future employer” Scott Pruitt continued his tradition of stonewalling Congress instead of answering tough questions. And practically the only question he gave a concrete answer to, regarding the decision whether or not to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos, he got wrong by five years. Over and over, he answered questions about cuts the to EPA budget by saying that the issue--be it clean water, superfund sites or clean air--was a top priority. When pressed on how these issues can be priorities if funding is pulled, he used some variation of ‘let me be clear’ or “what’s important is” to pivot back to (non)answers about process and management and promises to work with Congress to make sure everything turns out just fine. Coral Davenport’s bombshell NYT report that the EPA pressured scientist to change her congressional testimony to better reflect the administration’s talking points of course came up in the hearing...and, naturally, Pruitt dodged.”
WILDERNESS, NATIONAL FORESTS AND PARKS, OTHER PUBLIC LANDS
eclift writes—America's Assault on Its Antiquities: “Anyone who has seen pictures of the Taliban-battered giant Buddhas in Afghanistan, or the destruction of the ancient city of Palmyra by Isis, will understand why environmentalists and naturalists are devastated by Donald Trump’s Executive Order calling for the identification of American national monuments that could be rescinded or resized. The destructive nature of that Executive Order is on a scale no less traumatic than the travesties committed by the world’s two most uncivilized bodies, and the fact that the present administration doesn’t get that is extraordinarily troubling. With the stroke of his pen, the president opened the way to drilling, mining and other development on federal lands, lands like Utah’s Bear Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which together comprise more than three million acres that Trump’s Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke claims to be of no concern to ‘people in D.C. who have never been to the area’ and who have ‘zero accountability to the impacted communities.’”
ECO-ACTION & ECO JUSTICE
Earthjustice writes—EPA DELAY IMPERILS COMMUNITIES OF COLOR NEAR CHEMICAL PLANTS: “According to the EPA, more than 1,500 chemical safety accidents occurred between 2004 and 2013 that caused property damage, injuries and even death. This safety issue particularly threatens African Americans and Latinos, who are more likely to live in close proximity to chemical facilities. In fact, African Americans are 75 percent more likely to live near industrial chemical facilities than the average citizen, according to a national report by the Environmental Justice and Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform. The percentage of Latinos living in proximity to dangerous chemical plants is also shockingly high, at 60 percent more than the national average. According to [activist Pam] Nixon, this disparity makes the voices of communities of color and low-income communities particularly relevant.”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
Gabe Ortiz writes—Brace for food price hikes thanks to Donald Trump's deportation force: “File this one under “This is what you voted for, Donald Trump supporters”: Research by the Farm Bureau suggests that the federal immigration policy Trump is promoting could result in a massive farm labor shortage across the country, causing domestic fruit output to plunge anywhere from 30 to 61 percent and vegetable production to fall by 15 to 31 percent. Industrial-scale livestock operations and slaughterhouses also rely heavily on immigrants, so meat production could tumble by as much as 27 percent. As a result, the group concludes, US eaters are looking at food price hikes of 5 to 6 percent. That might not sound like much, but it’s sure to squeeze families on a tight budget. So Trump’s efforts to save us from ‘bad hombres’ is bad news for farms—and for Americans who are just trying to put dinner on the table. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, up to 2.2 million farm workers are needed across the country for harvesting, with at least half of these immigrant workers lacking any legal status. It’s backbreaking work that even Trump’s own family admits U.S.-born Americans just don’t want to do. When Eric Trump’s winery put out a call for workers, not one U.S.-born
MISCELLANY
The70Percent writes—So What Does Trump, Global Warming, Russia and Qatar Have In Common? “What you are looking at above is one of the few LNG port facilities in North Europe. It is located in Świnoujście, Poland. So what does all that mean. Well let’s first start with the more conspiratorial angle of the conversation. What does Trump, Global Warming and Russia have in common, and why would Trump exit the Paris Accord and deny global warming? First we must understand that there is one country on this planet that has about 6000 miles of Arctic shoreline and claims almost 600,000 square miles of Arctic territory. No it’s not Canada. So let’s say this country, that is not Canada, which has one operational deep water port in the Arctic and was building 3 more, realized “not so naturally” that those ports became operational for 12 months out of the year versus 3-4! OH, and by the way, 2 will have LNG off-loading capabilities. And, yes, major pipelines are being built from the interior to these ports. Looks like some one is putting a lot of resources into a receding ice shelf. But like I said, that part is just conspiratorial. I mean why would a country with 30% of the world’s soft timber want to be able to harvest that year long … think about the polar bears!!! So let’s drag Qatar into the mix. I’m sure, most of you Kosaddicts are starting to connect some dots, and the picture above becomes more relevant.”
flucies writes—Sequoia Tree Speaks Eloquently of America's Stupidity: “”An 880,000 lb. Sequoia in Idaho is being moved about a block to make room for a hospital expansion. I wonder how Native Americans see something like this, given their reverence for the earth, nature, and the people who live on this planet? The seed for the tree came from John Muir — about 100 years ago. How would he feel about this decision? It seems that no thought was given to a saner solution. Actually, this is just the most recent vivid example of capitalistic hegemony and idiocy. You can see the broad outline of such craziness in terms of what Trump is planning to do with so many national monuments. The message is loud and clear from his policies toward national lands and treasures. Money is more important than anything else.”