See OceanDiver's post.
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 22,610 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.
In just five weeks, $2M climate denier lawsuit implodes—by
Keith Pickering: "You may or may not have heard of Dr. Edward Wegman, a statistics professor at George Mason University, who got in very hot water a few years ago on well-founded charges of plagiarism. Wegman is most famously known for the "Wegman Report", which was commissioned in 2006 by Congressional Republicans to look into Michael Mann's famous "hockey stick" paleoclimate research. Wegman (and his report) concluded that Mann's work was flawed. But as it turned out, large parts of the Wegman Report were plagiarized, as was widely reported in USA Today and other sources. The evidence for plagiarism in the Wegman Report, and also in at least two peer-reviewed papers of Wegman and his colleague Yasmin Said, was uncovered in excruciating (and damning) detail by citizen journalist John Mashey, who currently writes for that invaluable environmental crusader, DeSmog Blog. On March 24, after an entire year of secret preparation, Wegman and Said sued John Mashey for $2 million, citing the damage his honest reportage had caused to their careers. (Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.) And who was their lawyer in this quest? Milt Johns, former law partner of uber-climate-denier (and uber-jerk) Ken Cuccinelli, the ex-Virginia Attorney General who spent his brief term in office more interested in suing climate scientists than in prosecuting criminals. But on April 30, just five weeks after filing the suit, Johns showed up in court to drop the suit, and the day after that, Johns was out of a job, having parted ways with his ex-partners in the firm of Day & Johns (which will now certainly have a new name)."
The true cost of a fossil based economy—by
Mattias: "Climate science makes it clear: We need a green transformation of our way of living. This year countries are presenting their plans for how to reduce CO2 emissions, and how to turn into a low carbon development. However, we also hear complains, and arguments, stating that it is too costly to convert away from our fossil fuel dependency. Fossil fuels are cheap, renewable energy is expensive. The International Monetary Fund, IMF, has just dropped a bomb into this discussion. In a new report they estimate global energy subsidies by measuring the difference between consumer prices and the ‘true costs’ of fossil fuels, and the result is 'shocking'—to use their own words. According to their estimates, the global subsidies amount to a staggering US$5,3 trillion this year alone, which is US$168.000 per second. If you are not shocked—you should be. That is 6,5% of the world’s total GDP."
You can find more excerpts from green diaries below the orange spill.
Climate Chaos
A switch was flipped and now southern Antarctic glaciers are rapidly melting. Finally—by Pakalolo: "Scientists have discovered that the ice shelves of South Antarctica, located in the Bellingshausen sea, are in rapid melt. This new study follows reports that the remnants of Larsen B should disintegrate within a few years, that a 17 mile crack has been spotted on Larsen C and that Larsen C is at risk of collapse. The discovery that the southern ice shelves are in rapid melt is new. Phys.org reports: Using measurements of the elevation of the Antarctic ice sheet made by a suite of satellites, the researchers found that the Southern Antarctic Peninsula showed no signs of change up to 2009. Around 2009, multiple glaciers along a vast coastal expanse, measuring some 750km in length, suddenly started to shed ice into the ocean at a nearly constant rate of 60 cubic km, or about 55 trillion litres of water, each year. This makes the region the second largest contributor to sea level rise in Antarctica and the ice loss shows no sign of waning."
New! Bad News for the ANT-Arctic Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...—by kellyb2: "The floating ice shelves surrounding the Antarctic Ice Sheet restrain the grounded ice-sheet flow. Thinning of an ice shelf reduces this effect, leading to an increase in ice discharge to the ocean. Using 18 years of continuous satellite radar altimeter observations, we have computed decadal-scale changes in ice-shelf thickness around the Antarctic continent. Overall, average ice-shelf volume change accelerated from negligible loss at 25 ± 64 cubic kilometers per year for 1994–2003 to rapid loss of 310 ± 74 cubic kilometers per year for 2003–2012. West Antarctic losses increased by ~70% in the past decade, and earlier volume gain by East Antarctic ice shelves ceased. In the Amundsen and Bellingshausen regions, some ice shelves have lost up to 18% of their thickness in less than two decades."
Rapid Warming is Here—by New Minas: "The Oceans have begun to heat up at rates double those observed by scientists only 6 years ago. This graphic, released today by the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) represents the work of hundreds of scientists deploying thousands of independent ARGO buoys throughout the globe's oceans. 90% of the world's global warming occurs in the oceans. This makes the oceans the first place that we will directly observe large-scale changes in global warming, (the second is in the Arctic)."
Polar bears, penguins and pie charts...—by SninkyPoo: "So let's ditch the wildlife—or at least reduce the mentions—and focus on people. We can talk about national security, as the president has just done. We can talk about terrorism—ditto. We can chat about food security, discuss insurance prices, voice our concerns about the lives of firefighters and other first responders, kvetch about food prices and tropical disease, wonder about the mysterious die-off of moose in the great northern woods, bemoan the fate of much coastal real estate in Florida, raise a great alarum about crumbling infrastructure in the midst of ever wilder weather, warn about the coming climate change refugees, talk about farmers—gardeners—bees—hunting—fishing—our national parks—global unrest—asthma—wildfires—WHEW! Truly, the list is pretty much endless. So consider giving the polar bear and penguin pics a rest. Trust that the evidence backs you up, WITHOUT having to brandish a graph or pie chart every time you speak about climate change! It's real—it's here—it's flucking gripping—and we need to reach out and grab people's hearts and emotions as well as their minds by telling them the story of how they and the things that they love are in imminent peril. Not in 2100—not in 2050—not when their grandkids are in high school: NOW."
Monckton and Watts inadvertently reveal global warming "Pause" to be clumsy fraud—by OutOnALimb: "The idiot climate denialist website http://wattsupwiththat.com, run by the idiot climate denialist Anthony Watts, is fond of running graphs proclaiming NO GLOBAL WARMING FOR ‘XX’ YEARS ‘X’ MONTHS. Most of these entries are written by another ignoble denier, Christopher Monckton. The British Daily Mail does similar things. Below are some recent examples from Watts/Monckton. (I've linked the WUWT articles, if you want to read them.) What Monckton did is to produce identical-looking graphs, month after month, with the time of the "pause" in global warming lengthening, ever lengthening, implying that since the time he started, the world has not warmed one tiny jot. [...] In almost any noisy time-sequenced dataset such as monthly averages of world temperatures, it is easy to find a stretch of time ending at the current datapoint that shows a flat trendline. You just need to do a little trial and error, find the longest recent stretch you can that has both ups and downs, and add a linear regression line. Nothing to it. That's clearly how Monckton started. But as time goes on, Monckton has to keep changing the start date in order to find the flat trendline. This is an almost perfect example of cherry picking for the purpose of committing a fraud."
Hair On Fire, People!—by
SninkyPoo: "I've been an "environmentalist" in the loosest sense of the term since I was in grade school. I've always known in my gut that climate change was true—happening—human made. I watched 'An Inconvenient Truth' three times the first week it was available on DVD. I'd never had any doubt that Hurricane Katrina was a symptom of climate change. I've bemoaned the death knell of the pack ice and the puffins and the polar bears as much as any other average tree-hugger you know. I "own" rain forest in Belize, and worked for the Audubon Society. So I wasn't a denier, or in the dark, or deluding myself. But like so many of us, I was able to push the coming climate calamity to the back of my mind most days. I wasn't agitating for legislative change. Yeah, I'd join a Green Party if we had a viable one in this country, but ... well, you probably get it. And that morning, ALL OVER SUDDEN BLANG! (Pogo) I changed. I grokked. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Fill in the cliche."
Identify plagiarism? Pay $15,000 to $2 million.—by climatedenierroundup: "In the latest attack on the climate science community, John Mashey (a computer scientist and frequent DeSmogBlog contributor) was sued for $2 million for exposing plagiarism. It's a long and weird story, culminating with the two litigants who filed the suit dropping it just days before the first court date. Even though the case was dropped, the legal fees still amounted to $15,000. Thankfully, the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (which has a fairly succinct description of the events) covered Mashey's costs. As for the details, Mashey himself has a more comprehensive account, but fair warning, this rabbit hole is deep, dark and scary: In 2006, Congressman Joe Barton of Texas commissioned Edward Wegman—a statistician turned climate science critic—to investigate Michael Mann's hockey stick graph. The final product, known as the Wegman Report, was rife with problems. The blogger, Deep Climate, identified substantial plagiarism, upon which John Mashey reported in 2010. But the story doesn't end there."
Monckton outfoxed by a calendar in his fight to censor art—by ClimateDenierRoundup: "Remember when UK student Ian Wolter created a masterpiece of denier commentary? The seven-foot, oil-covered plywood installation, titled, "Lest We Forget Those Who Denied," was a tribute to six of the UK's premier deniers and stood on display for two weeks before it's scheduled removal this month. Doing his part to make it a story again, Monckton has a WUWT post that (unintentionally) incites the Streisand-effect, attracting even more positive attention to Wolter's wonderful work of art. In Monckton's view, the sculpture was actually an 'unspeakable death threat,' because it 'put a victim's name on a tombstone.' This is an interesting interpretation, considering that two of the other deniers Wolter listed certainly didn't see it as a threat or say the sculpture resembled a tombstone. In fact, they went so far as to say they felt 'hugely proud' and 'proud to be honoured,' though Delingpole's now following Monckton's 'death threat' lead with an overwrought Daily Mail piece. Upon hearing of this artwork, Monckton sprung into action, having his lawyer send Anglia Ruskin University—where the statue was displayed—a demand that officials remove the work. Monckton is also preparing a police report on the incident. This legal blustering is a common tactic of Monckton's, which he uses in an attempt to silence his critics, as evidenced by Barry Bickmore's 16 point compilation of Monckton's misdeeds."
Critters & the Great Outdoors
What does defense spending have to do with endangered species? Everything, for Republicans—by Joan McCarter: "The House passed the National Defense Authorization Act this week, and while much of the attention was on the anti-immigration aspects of the legislation, Republican lawmakers also hit the administration on the Endangered Species Act and the endangered sage grouse. But a Republican maneuver on the $612 billion military bill to block the Interior Department from adding the bird to the endangered species list has set off a major congressional skirmish that has spilled over into Western states, where the sage grouse is revered, and among environmental groups that fear a steady erosion of the Endangered Species Act. […] House Republicans, in advance of a legal deadline for final determination of the sage grouse status, have gone at it in several forms, most recently in the military bill. There they argued that giving the bird special status would put military training operations in peril because the birds’ habitat—which stretches across an array of Western training areas—would be essentially off limits.[…]"
The Daily Bucket - Friendly Seal sighting—by OceanDiver: "May 20, 2015. Salish Sea, PNW. Yesterday we paddled around our nearby bay. It's been really really quiet lately now the ducks have migrated to summer breeding grounds and even the gulls are mostly on offshore islands nesting. It was too foggy to go far out but it was a low tide and quite calm, a pleasant day. We were heading back to shore, Mr O had beached his kayak and gotten out and I was about to ground when a seal swept under my kayak, popping up to look straight at me. Only one seal I know has ever done that, and I snapped a quick photo before it dived, hoping I'd be able to identify this individual by its fur pattern markings. It was!—the same one I first came to know a year and a half ago. :) Sightings of what I came to call the Friendly Seal have been few since last year, after frequent and utterly delightful encounters. I've bucketed about Friendly Seal several times, October 13, 2013, February 16, 2014 and June 20, 2014. You can catch up on the story there, and find out why I know this is the same individual."
Walking with Wildflowers: Photo Diary & Open Thread for Street Prophets—by Marko the Werelynx: "This week I thought I'd share a few more photos from my trip up into the rolling, green mountains along the northern border of the Czech Republic. I went there with a group of friends with whom I've been visiting this area nearly once a year for the last dozen years or so. There was a bit of rain during our hikes in this lovely national forest, but it just made for photos decorated with glistening droplets. Practically lit the place up like an aisle of Hallmark greeting cards. Listen carefully, perhaps you'll hear the steady drip, drip of kitsch and doggerel wafting through the spruce boughs ..."
Sword Fern Fiddleheads
The Daily Bucket - Fiddling Around—by
Milly Watt: "At the beginning of May, Mr. Watt and I went up to the Sol Duc valley in the Olympic National Park. Among other things, the ferns along the trail to Sol Duc Falls were just coming up. So, I fiddled around taking photos of fiddleheads (say that 5 times fast). [...] I believe that the fiddleheads that got me looking are Pacific Oak ferns. I found another stand in which there are unfurled fronds as well as those same delicate fiddleheads. IDing ferns from their fiddleheads alone seems difficult. Most nature books show only the mature ferns. If I've made a mistake, please correct me."
The Daily Bucket - Enormous Plankton Database
—by enhydra lutris: "An international team has been studying samples of plankton collected during a three-year global expedition. They have so far found 35,000 species of bacteria, 5,000 new viruses and 150,000 single-celled plants and creatures. They believe that the majority of these are new to science. Ocean's hidden world of plankton revealed in 'enormous database'—BBC News A great article with some very interesting pictures. Worth a read."
Energy
Dahr Jamail: The Navy's Great Alaskan "War"—by Dahr Jamail via TomDispatch: "It isn’t the best of times for the American Arctic and let me explain why. The world is in the midst of an oil glut. In the last year, oil prices bottomed out before rising modestly. A NASA study just offered the news that a massive ice shelf in Antarctica, half the size of Rhode Island, will disintegrate by 2020, and not so long ago Science magazine reported that the melting of that region's ice sheets is proceeding far faster than expected. Sayonara, Miami Beach! All of this, of course, is happening thanks to the burning of fossil fuels. In March, the Obama administration responded to such a world by preparing the way for a rather familiar future. It lifted a ban on drilling for oil and gas off the U.S. southern Atlantic coast, opening those waters and their untapped four billion barrels of oil and 37 trillion cubic feet of gas to future drilling. Then, less than two weeks ago, the Interior Department green-lighted Shell Oil, a company with a memorably bleak record of exploration and disaster in the Arctic, to launch this country into a drill-baby-drill future in northern waters."
Coal, Oil, Gas & Nuclear
An Important Message on Arctic Oil From This Pissed Off Cat—by earthyrobot.
Renewables & Conservation
USDOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory Revises U.S. Wind Energy Potential Map in All 50 States—by LakeSuperior: "The U.S. Department of Energy revises wind energy potential map for the entire U.S. and which shows the areas of the United States evaluated with increased (or new) wind energy potential with siting of a larger/taller generation of wind turbine systems that are now available. ... compared to publication of wind energy potential map areas previously considered practical or recognized from previous DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory findings on wind energy potential."
Fracking
Banned From Saying No to Fracking.—by thisisendless: "Awesome. It would seem that our Corporate Overlords are winning the right to trump our right to say NO to fracking. Texas has just passed laws which ban the ability of towns and cities to ban fracking. Yes you heard that right, they cannot say 'no' to groundwater polluting, earthquake causing environmental destruction in their own towns. The law was drafted after voters in Denton, a city outside Dallas, banned 'hydraulic fracturing' locally in 2014. Fracking opponents warn that potential carcinogens used in the extraction process may contaminate groundwater. Similar bills are being considered in US states including Colorado, Ohio, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Soooo, there are people who now have no right to say no to a corporation regarding a dangerous, polluting practice that can poison the entire area and cause earthquakes? And Republicans have the audacity to call the anti-fracking laws "heavy handed"
Keystone XL & Other Fossil Fuel Transportation
Santa Barbara spill shuts up KXL crowd—by Saldana33: "Funny how quiet pipeline supporters have become this week. You know, the ones who jump up and down, waving their arms every time an oil train derails or springs a leak. 'Pipelines are safer than trains!' They yell it over and over, pushing for a 'safe' alternative, crying crocodile tears for the people affected by the spill. Our friends at Media Matters, who keep track of such things, note that every train mishap gets Fox News in an uproar to push Keystone XL. But where are they now, Fox News and their pipeline-pushing cohort? Why have they suddenly gone radio silent? Is it because anoil pipeline ruptured on the California coast, spilling as much as 105,000 gallons of crude onto a popular beach in an area whose economy relies on bringing in more than one billion tourist dollars annually?"
WSJ: Clinton's DoS blocked the release of politically sensitive records about Keystone XL Pipeline—by VL Baker: "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the U.S. Department of State, then under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, blocked the release of politically sensitive records about the Keystone XL pipeline, requested by Friends of The Earth. From Friends of The Earth press release: WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Department of State, under then Secretary Clinton, blocked the release of politically sensitive records from Freedom of Information Act requests, including requests by Friends of the Earth about the Keystone XL pipeline. In December 2010, Friends of the Earth, Corporate Ethics International and the Center for International Environmental Law filed a FOIA request for documents and information regarding all U.S. State Department communications involving the State Department and Paul Elliott, a lobbyist for TransCanada Pipelines. A month later, the State Department denied the FOIA request."
10,000 Ton Texas Tankers ply the BC Inside Passage—by ingmarz: "The Nathan E. Stewart/DBL 54 is a 10,000 Deadweight ton capacity "articulated tug/barge" (ATB) petroleum tanker, and is owned by the Texas-based Kirby Corporation, which is one of the largest petroleum product ATB operators in the USA. (10,000 tons is 1/4 the spill volume released by the Exxon Valdez) It travels back and forth up the 'protected waters' of the British Columbia Inside Passage by “special waiver" which exempts it from Transport Canada shipping regulations. These guide the movement of all other tankers operating in BC waters. As a result, it operates here with no Canadian pilots on board, it does not require escort tugs while maneuvering in Port Metro Vancouver, and most egregiously, it is allowed to travel north through Seymour Narrows and into the "voluntary tanker exclusion zone" that is the B.C. Inside Passage. As such, this unflagged foreign vessel blatantly flouts the concerns of the people of Canada, offers nothing but imminent disaster, and operates here secretively without any social license whatsoever."
Bomb trains: the threat of annihilation and the politics of these ticking time bombs—by Samuel Vargo: "John J. O'Neill, Jr., the City of Youngstown, Ohio's fire chief, said with so many railroads in and around Youngstown, it's only natural for him and other city officials to be concerned with the dangers posed by petrol-carrying rail cars. 'I see them all the time,' O'Neill told this writer. 'Our main fire station is very close to a railroad track and I see them frequently. I'd guess that the shell of these tankers is only a half-inch thick or so, by the looks of things. Sherrod Brown, our Senator, wants changes to these petroleum-transport cars. But I don't know all the specifics.' With a population of around 65,000, the once prosperous steel town has the dubious honor of being America's fastest-shrinking city, according to a June 2013 report of The Hampton Institute. And in cities like Youngstown, which have a large population of families dependent on government subsidies, emergency responders might not be the best equipped at handling the horrid derailments and explosions that these 'bomb' trains, or 'bullet' trains, pose to residents and businesses. Rust Belt cities like Youngstown, suffering from a marginal and ever-dwindling tax base, have their backs against the wall in the ongoing quest of getting the best equipment for their First Responders."
Candidates, DC, State & Local Eco-Politics
Jeb Bush is partly right. Somebody is definitely 'intellectually arrogant' about climate change—by Meteor Blades: "That arrogance does not, however, come from the scientists behind the 97 percent of peer-reviewed papers that say civilization's emissions of greenhouse gases are driving climate change. Nor from the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change who are 95 percent certain the human activities are causing climate change. Rather it is the lethal arrogance of the shills for the fossil fuels fools who have, over the past quarter-century, done the bidding of their paymasters in twisting the facts about climate change—when they haven't been fabricating 'facts' outright."
Jeb Bush Says it's "Really Arrogant" to be Certain About Man-Made Global Warming—by ericlewis0: "Nevermind the reckless idiocy of doubting the science of man-made global warming; did you catch Jebya's racist dog-whistle? He calls it 'really arrogant,' in response to a speech by President Obama. Next, he'll say calling the Iraq invasion a mistake is 'uppity'."
House Passes Bill to Gut Science & Research Funding—by Liberty Equality Fraternity and Trees: "Yesterday, in addition to passing a deficit-funded corporate tax break for R&D, the House passed the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2015, a funding bill for federal scientific programs that cut the National Science Foundation's funding for social behavior and economic sciences research by 55% compared to current enacted spending levels. It would also cut DOE's applied research programs in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by almost 30% and the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy by 50% below fiscal 2015 levels. Here is Representative Eddie B. Johnson (TX-30), the ranking Democrat on the Science and Technology Committee, laying out the many other flaws of the bill."
Ex Sen Alan Simpson: Global Warming "is real" And Deniers Are "goofy"—by pollwatcher: "Yeah, you read that right. EX Republican Senator from Wyoming Alan Simpson stood up at a school board meeting and slammed Global Warming denialists. Ok, slam might be a little to much, but he sure shut em down. Senator Simpson lives in the small town, which happens to be the eastern gateway to Yellowstone National Park, of Cody Wyoming. As conservative Tea baggers around the country get active in what I refer to as modern book burning, a group showed up at a local school board meeting to try to get the school board to not just deny science, but to deny history. They challenged a group of teachers, administrators and parents that made a selection of books to be used in the high school."
Eco-Action & Eco Justice
Time for Dem Committees to Follow California Dem Party's Lead, Call for Fossil Fuel Divestment ASAP—by lowkell: "A few weeks ago, Terry McAuliffe was actually arguing that he has no leadership role to play on whether "the state of Virginia and its retirement fund and other relevant funds should divest from fossil fuel companies." McAuliffe's pathetically weak answer: No! I think they have to make the decision what is in the best interest of whatever they're making their investments; they have a fiduciary duty to make those investments. And clearly as governor I am not going to sit here and tell the people who manage these funds what to do—not my role. And I clearly understand my role ...J eff, it is not my job to come in and tell our businesses what to do. I am a fiscally conservative, pro-business Democrat; I am socially very progressive ... As I said at the time, that was wrong on almost any level you consider it, not to mention a pathetic abdication of leadership. Now, the largest (by far) state Democratic Party has shown what its state's governor has shown—real leadership on the most important issue facing humanity, that being climate change."
A Victory in the Decades-Long Fight for Environmental Justice in the Gulf and Beyond—by Mary Anne Hitt: "Suzie Canales never planned on going back home. But, when she saw what was happening to her family, her friends, and her neighbors in her community, she could not stay away. In 1999, Suzie visited Corpus Christi from Illinois at a time of tragedy. Her sister Diana had passed away at the age of 42 due to breast cancer, and she was back in Texas for the funeral. As she explained to CleanHouston.org, it was there that she heard people repeatedly tell her that many others in the area around her sister’s age also faced cancer, prompting Canales to begin to question whether or not, in a community home to industrial facilities like refineries and power plants, something in the local environment could have contributed to her sister’s death and the deaths of so many others. From there, she started organizing in her community, co-founding Citizens for Environmental Justice (CFEJ) to dig into exactly what was getting into the local air and water. Over the years, Canales and CFEJ mobilized around some of the more egregious cases of environmental injustice in the country. Among the largest problems were upsets, malfunctions, and flaring of gases that would happen all hours of the night and day, or while children were at school, and all without enforcement or penalties by state or federal agencies. As it turned out, the facilities were getting a free pass to pollute during those episodes, and the communities had little recourse as a result."
Agriculture, Food & Gardening
Glyphosate use before Roundup ready crops use and abuse—by indycam: "There is a basic misunderstanding being presented as the truth re glyphosates use before roundup ready crops came to market. The claim is that glyphosate was used on crops for 20 years before roundup ready crops came to market. There is a sliver of truth to the claim but it is far from the truth. It is misleading, it presents a false picture of the past and present use and abuse of glyphosates. Glyphosate kills crops that are not genetically modified organisms with a tolerance for direct glyphosate application. Glyphosate accidentally applied to a non 'GMO'/Roundup-ready crop would kill the crop. Glyphosate drift into a crop nearby would cause the death of the crop that the glyphosate accidentally got onto. Glyphosate applied to the soil would have to be applied far enough ahead of planting so as not to kill the crop as it was planted. If before the non roundup ready crop was fully grown some glyphosate was applied to the crop the crop would be ruined. Farmers who accidentally applied glyphosate at the wrong time would kill off their crop accidentally."
ConAgra $11.2M Salmonella Settlement—by enhydra lutris: "ConAgra just agreed to an $11.2 million settlement which included $8 million in criminal fines relating to charges of shipping salmonella tainted food across state lines. Though this is the largest criminal fine ever in a US food safety case, it is still negligible compared to the company's FY 2014 earnings, after restructuring charges of 303 million. A misdemeanor charge was filed against the company, but no officers or executives were charged with anything and nobody went to jail."
The very real and decisive GMO scientific consensus—by SkepticalRaptor: "Above, I used the example of climate change as an established scientific consensus. The deniers use all kinds of silly logical fallacies likecherry picking studies that support the denialist opinion, appeal to false authority to show off a denialist scientist, and too many more to mention. Ironically, there is a huge overlap between climate change supporters (using all of the science in support) and GMO deniers (using all of the science ignorance available to them). To be fair, it is also ironic there's a small, but significant, overlap between GMO supporters and climate change deniers. You cannot pick and chose your science to meet your ignorance-based pre-ordained conclusions. It constantly breaks my irony meter. Don't get me started on vaccine supporters who hate GMOs. The AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Sciences) has also released a statement regarding a GMO scientific consensus (pdf): The science is quite clear: crop improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe … The World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the British Royal Society, and every other respected organization that has examined the evidence has come to the same conclusion: consuming foods containing ingredients derived from GM crops is no riskier than consuming the same foods containing ingredients from crop plants modified by conventional plant improvement techniques."
food riots and food price volatility—by annieli: "Ultimately is it about prices indices or actual food, making it a more interesting signalling and modeling event - more about the riots and not actually about the food or that famine has already achieved disastrous levels and that it is a measure not about food but about violence, public order,or state instability. It is exceeding carrying capability and signalling sustainability failure or is it more about failures in governance and governmentality."
Transportation & Infrastructure
Using cars is 6 times more expensive than using bikes—to you and to everyone else—by Walter Einenkel: "A study by researchers at Lund University and University of Queensland applied Copenhagen's cost-benefit analysis to determine whether or not new cycling infrastructure should be built. It considers how much cars cost society and how they compare to bicycles in terms of air pollution, climate change, travel route, noise, road wear, health and congestion in Copenhagen. The study concluded that cars have a greater negative impact on the economy than bicycles: If the costs to society and the costs to private individuals are added together, the impact of the car is EUR 0.50 per kilometre and the impact of the bicycle is EUR 0.08 per kilometre. That's a big difference."
Eco-Essays and Eco-Philosophy
Projecting a Climate Change Timeframe - Holy $h*t—by John Crapper: "In researching a book I'm writing I've been collecting prognostications about climate change. These have been gathered over time from numerous sources. But they are projections and hence a best guess as to what is in our collective future. (Obviously the past dates are accurate.) I must confess that during the time I have been compiling these predictions the timeframe has been trending towards an acceleration of events rather than an elongation of them. There have been a shitload of Holy Shit moments in the process of putting this together. Even if you allow that only 50% of these predictions will occur you must come to the conclusion that life as we know it will be dramatically altered. *A city hits 'climate departure' when the average temperature of its coolest year from then on is projected to be warmer than the average temperature of its hottest year between 1960 and 2005. For example, let's say the climate departure point for D.C. is 2047 (which it is). After 2047, even D.C.'s coldest year will still be hotter than any year from before 2005. Put another way, every single year after 2047 will be hotter than D.C.'s hottest year on record from 1860 to 2005. It's the moment when the old 'normal' is really gone."
Now where'd I put that blue marble...—by Hammerhand: "It's easy to forget that our home is so terribly, terribly tiny. This expanse of land and sea all around us is deceptive. Relatively speaking it is much less than a marble. It's a pale blue dot. It's a peaceful speck in a hostile universe. These are things we need to remember, if we value this dot we call home. I think they're things we need to think about a lot more often than we do. We are at the dangerous time now, we're just smart enough to do something horribly stupid. We need to be mindful of the narrowness of our niche, and how we are currently pushing ourselves right out of it. Our very survival depends on remembering these things. Unfortunately, the vast majority of us will likely never see the shape of the earth in living color. Showing it in pictures is the next best thing."
Oceans, Water & Drought
The war on illegal fishing begins—by Pakalolo: "Divers and scientists report that Indonesia's reefs are missing their big fish. The mother of all reefs is, and has been, over exploited by illegal foreign fishing ships. Some ships are trawlers that kill everything in the path of it's large and deadly nets. As a result, the coastal communities of Indonesia are fishing for juvenile fish and other protein that they can grind into fishmeal and use as feed for coastal prawn farms. [...] The good news out of Jakarta yesterday is that the government has had it with this problem and sank a large Chinese fishing vessel. They also sank 40 other foreign boats that had been caught fishing illegally in Indonesian waters. Beijiing is not expected to take this news lightly. Other regional capitals will bristle as well."
Due to historic drought, California forced to take extreme measures to save the salmon—by Jen Hayden: "What do you do when your state is in a historic drought, with no end in sight and no way for salmon to swim up those dry riverbeds? You roll out the largest fish-lift in history: For the first time, all five big government hatcheries in California’s Central Valley for fall-run Chinook California salmon—a species of concern under the federal Endangered Species Act—are going to truck their young, release-ready salmon down to the Bay, rather than release them into rivers to make the trip themselves. Some 30 million young salmon need a lift to survive."
Chinook salmon getting a lift upriver.
It's gotten this bad:Water Wars in California as agriculture prepares to face strict mandatory cuts—by
VL Baker: "On April 1, when California Governor Brown issued mandatory water restrictions for urban users he warned that he might have to consider cuts to agriculture in the future as well. Well, that future has come sooner rather than later and Think Progress/Climate has the story that Governor Brown will announce strict mandatory water cuts to agriculture today. 'The very fact that we’re beginning to have a conversation about water rights is an indication of how serious the drought is,' Peter Gleick, president and co-founder of the Pacific Institute, told ThinkProgress. 'It’s really an unusual move. I would not have guessed a year ago that we would start to have this conversation.' It's a Water War because many being asked to restrict use have already committed to fighting the new restrictions."
Protesters converge on Nestlé bottling plants in Sacramento and LA—by Dan Bacher: "The outrage over the bottling of California water by Nestlé, Walmart and other big corporations during a record drought has become viral on social media and national and international press websites over the past couple of months. On May 20, people from across the state converged on two Nestlé bottling plants—one in Sacramento and other in Los Angeles—demanding that the Swiss-based Nestlé corporation halt its bottling operations during the state’s record drought. Wednesday's protest, led by the California-based Courage Campaign, was the third in Sacramento over the past year. The first two protests were 'shutdowns' this March and last October organized by the Crunch Nestlé Alliance."
Water board approves Delta farmers proposal to voluntarily cut water use by 25 percent—by Dan Bacher: "While Paramount Farms and Westlands Water District continue to expand water-thirsty almond acreage during California's epic drought, Delta farmers this week stepped up to the plate and proposed a voluntary 25 percent reduction in their water use. Today the State Water Resources Control Board approved the proposal from Delta farmers, riparian water right holders in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, to voluntarily cut back water use in exchange for assurances they would not face further riparian curtailment during the June-September growing season. 'This proposal helps Delta growers manage the risk of potentially deeper curtailment, while ensuring significant water conservation efforts in this fourth year of drought,' said State Water Board Chair Felicia Marcus, in a Board press release. 'It allows participating growers to share in the sacrifice that people throughout the state are facing because of the severe drought, while protecting their economic well-being by giving them some certainty regarding exercise of the State Water Board’s enforcement discretion at the beginning of the planting season.'"
Costco's monthly special? A PALLET of Nestle water—by illegal smile: "Not a case of water, mind you. A pallet full of cases, 1872 bottles in all. At $0.21/bottle. The good news is I dropped a sternly worded note in their comment box as I left the store this afternoon so they'll probably stop carrying it soon."
Trash, Pollution & Hazardous Waste
Study: BP oil blowout at fault for Gulf of Mexico dolphin deaths. The petroleum giant says nah—by Meteor Blades: "A new study has linked the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to lung and adrenal lesions in bottlenose dolphins that died in the Gulf of Mexico between June 2010 and December 2012. The researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who conducted the study say the 'unusual mortality event' is continuing. The study compared 46 carcasses of dolphins that died in the unusual mortality event with 106 "reference" dolphins that died out of the area of the oil spill. It was published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE and confirms what previous investigations have concluded about mass bottlenose dolphin deaths in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi since the disaster. But Nicholas St. Fleur of The New York Times reports: The study was criticized by BP, which owned the well that blew out. It issued a statement saying that 'the data we have seen thus far, including the new study from NOAA, do not show that oil from the Deepwater Horizon accident caused an increase in dolphin mortality.'"
Surprise! Company whose pipeline burst in Santa Barbara has extensive record of safety violations—by Meteor Blades: "Since 2006, the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has logged more than 175 maintenance and safety violations by the company whose pipeline burst in Santa Barbara County, California, Tuesday night. That makes its rate of incidents per mile of pipe more than three times the national average, according to an analysis by the Los Angeles Times, which found only four companies with worse records. But those infractions only generated $115,600 in fines against the company, Plains All American Pipeline, even though the incidents caused more than $23 million in damage. It was initially reported that 500 barrels of oil had leaked from the broken pipe, but authorities later said the total could be in the realm of 2,500 barrels, 105,000 gallons. The leak contaminated a portion of Refugio State Beach and nearby patches of ocean. A crew from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is handling clean-up on land, while the U.S. Coast Guard is handling the job on the water."
Record of oil pipeline owner marred by 175 incidents since 2006—by Dan Bacher: "During the privately funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative process, corporate "environmental" NGO representatives and state officials went out of their way to make sure that Big Oil and other corporate polluters weren't impacted by the creation of alleged "marine protected areas" along the California coast. State officials and MLPA Initiative advocates claimed that other state and federal laws and administrative actions "protect" the ocean from oil spills and new offshore oil drilling, so there was no need for specific bans or restrictions on oil industry activities in and near 'marine protected areas.' [...] However, as we can see from the oil spill disaster off the coast of Santa Barbara, the state and federal agencies responsible for enforcing the laws that are supposed to 'protect' the ocean weren't able to prevent a big oil spill like the one now taking place from occurring. To make matters worse, these same agencies allowed oil companies to frack the ocean off California over 200 times over the past 20 years. Now we find out that company that owns the pipeline involved in Tuesday’s major oil spill in Santa Barbara has had 175 incidents (mostly oil spills) nationwide since 2006, including 11 in California, according to a Center for Biological Diversity analysis of federal documents!"
For those who believe in the social benefits of oil spills—by annieli: "Who bears the costs of oil spills aside from the environment? Like the taxpayers who foot the bill for wrongful death suits among other damages when police shoot unarmed civilians, we are the beneficiaries of long-run social costs from negative externalities. Imagine the multiplier effects then of environmental racism or the other scalar, long-term effects of major oil spills. Even any social benefits aside from the obvious ones fail with the light of further scrutiny. And unintentional spills are like auto accidents or the choke hold, implying no one was at fault means that human actions transporting or drilling for oil get a pass from a supreme being (since there are acts of God/Nature) incapable of stochastic terror to the environment. As with National Security implications of climate change, the weapon is even bigger and the victim even greater and the losses no less immoral than the unarmed individual gunned down. The social benefits of enforcement bring with them their own new costs making cost-benefit analysis problematic at best."
Santa Barbara oil spill now stretches for 9 miles—by Dan Bacher: "State and federal government crews continue to monitor the clean up of a big oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara as the size of the disaster has expanded. The spill from a ruptured pipeline owned by Plains All American Pipeline expanded overnight from 4 miles long to two slicks stretching 9 miles along the coast, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The pipeline carries crude oil from to Flores to Gaviota. Preliminary reports indicated that the ruptured 24 inch pipeline in Goleta leaked an estimated 21,000 gallons of crude oil Tuesday. However, the pipeline company may have actually released as much as 105,000 gallons, with tens of thousands of gallons going into the ocean, according to the latest data from Plains All American."
Eyewitness footage of Santa Barbara Oil Spill—by VL Baker: "The area spoiled by the oil spill was a rare, globally unique area due to it's biological diversity. Workers are trying to sponge up the oil but it's a long, time consuming process. The Refugio spill is much smaller than the 3 million-gallon oil spill that struck the Santa Barbara waterfront in 1969 and gave birth to the environmental movement in the United States. But environmentalists said this latest accident hit hard, because it is soiling the Gaviota coast, a rare Mediterranean-climate region where northern and southern plants and wildlife meet. There are only five such regions in the world, all of them located at the western edges of continents and all of them unique for their biological diversity."
Bombing the Gulf of Alaska—by conniegallant: "I have never visited the Gulf of Alaska. Not any other place in Alaska. In spite of it, I can certainly appreciate the fact that it holds the most pristine waters and environment in the world, second only to the Arctic as we have known it. It is, therefore, a tremendous shock to learn that our US Navy is beginning live bombing training exercises on the Gulf of Alaska beginning next month (yes, June 2015). We are talking about live torpedoes, missiles, depth charges—the works—into the pristine waters of our wild salmon runs, bird foraging areas, and breeding grounds for mammals—whales, sea lions, seals—for the next 5 years and possibly up to the next 20 years. [...]I was equally surprised to find out that environmental organizations in Alaska are, apparently, not coming to the forefront to protest such actions that will, no doubt, impact the very causes they fight for. However, I must admit that is the same reaction I had when many of the Washington State environmental organizations and their leaders (my friends and colleagues) either took the (a) hands-off approach to the OP vs Navy issue because it appears to be a NIMBY issue—which makes me wonder how in the world anyone can think that our Olympic National Park is a NIMBY issue—or (b) perhaps their organization accepts mitigation funding from the Navy or other government agencies or foundations, which would ultimately affect their own wages, or (c) they are hesitant to—rock the boat—with political allies."