"The fate of the living planet is the most important issue facing mankind." - Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson
The Eco-Diary Rescue appears every Saturday afternoon or evening. If you have missed the most recent two, you can find them here and here.
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I don’t often give prominence to a particular Diary in the Rescue because there are so many good ones it’s hard to choose. But this week I found davidseth’s compelling. Viewing the yet-to-be-enacted federal government’s version wanting, he offered My Small, Local Stimulus Package. He owns some land in rural Columbia County, New York, in the Hudson Valley next to Massachusetts. Like the rest of the country, the economic slowdown some experts with tenure aren’t yet ready to call a recession has struck in Columbia, too. davidseth decided to put a bit of his land into the hands of somebody who could make good use of it on many counts:
So I scouted around the local natural food store, the local food coop, the local organic, biodynamic farm, and I found an organic farmer who wanted to grow vegetables and flowers and was doing so successfully on other land nearby. A farmer who wanted more land. An organic, skilled farmer.
"And I made him a deal he couldn't refuse: I'd lease him between 5 and 10 acres for $1.00 a year for 5 years or longer if he'd put it into production, if he'd promise not to use chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and he could keep whatever money he made from the crop he grew. If he made enough that I could get an Ag exemption, great. If not, that's fine also.
What I really want is for the land to be productive and to feed people. And I want the land to become more fertile, and better farming land as we go along. My hope is that by doing this I can inspire other people who own land or who have abutting lots with enough vacant land (5 acres seems to be the minimum) to find farmers to put their land back into production of food. I want them to give the same deal I'm giving.
Is this a stimulus? Absolutely. It's a modest one to be sure. But it's a real stimulus. Unlike the one they're talking about in Congress, it's a real one. It's new production. It's turning fallow land into food. And does the money stay in the local community? Definitely. And does it decrease food prices for organic local vegetables? Sure. And does it provide a farmer with additional income that he will spend in the local community? Yes. In other words, it's a real stimulus. And my hope is that it's an example: we can find ways of making our lives better by being creative. And we can begin to change the way the economy runs for the better when we do that.
As he said, a small stimulus. Obviously, not everybody can do this. And all good progressives know that individual actions like this – even in the aggregate – won’t do the whole job that's needed. We need government for that. Good government. Regulations, oversight, incentives, investment, even, dare I say it, something v.i.s.i.o.n.a.r.y., or, at least, official endorsement of something visionary. Still, nothing is more wrong-headed than to say an individual can’t make a difference. One very great piece of the commons is what individuals do, whether that’s turning off extra lights or the idle computer, composting instead of landfilling the garbage, or bicycling instead of driving when that’s possible. It’s a cliché, but like many clichés it’s true: Every little bit helps.
jillian wrote two eco-compilations last week, BREAKING!...the Earth (Breaking my heart version): "U.S. study says Iowa among main Gulf polluters. Farms in Iowa and eight other Midwestern and Southern states are causing most of the pollution that creates a "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, a government study says. Des Moines Register"; and BREAKING!...the Earth (Political trash talk version): "Cox all alone in defense of autos. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox launched a spirited -- if lonely -- defense of the auto industry Thursday, testifying in opposition to the bid by California and 15 other states to impose vehicle tailpipe emissions limits. Detroit News"
ENERGY
Outstanding in the Field: Winds of Change in West Texas was Eddie C’s outstanding Diary about Cliff Etheredge, a one-armed cotton farmer from Roscoe, Texas. Etheredge says: "’We used to cuss the wind. Killed our crops, carried our moisture away, dried out our land. But because of the advent of the wind farms, we've had a complete 180-degree attitude change. Now, we love the wind.’ Now Texas, the state that leads the nation in emissions of global warming gases has bragging rights to something else. Texas has surpassed California in Wind Power. ... Besides the enthusiasm of Cliff Etheredge, Texas legislature played a part. Laws were written eight years ago requiring utilities to buy renewable power. So this one-armed West Texas cotton farmer who organized his community to cash in on that average 17 m.p.h. wind in the Big Country is seeing positive aspects that just keep coming."
gmoke told us about Invisible Solar in NYC, at Night!: "Took a quick trip to the big city a week or so ago and while I was walking around the streets of Manhattan saw quite a number of these new solar-powered parking meters. They are skinnier than the ones I've seen on the streets of Boston and might even work for bicycle parking. I guess the advantage is that the solar power allows them to take credit cards now. Another step towards a cashless economy brought to you by solar electricity. This is another example of solar seeping, finally, into our daily lives. I wonder how many people notice, especially, as in this photo, when they come across them at night."
Not many people would, as davidwalters did, shout in delight over the DOE Energy Reports In: Yippeeeee!!: "The US Department of Energy has issued their reports on electrical generation for the year 2006 after totaling up all the information from utilities, generators, operators and other sources. The issue this report every October. Additionally, they issue tons of other reports you all ought to read. We'll examine some of them here. One of these reports is once called Cost and Performance Characteristics of the New Central Station Electricity Generating Technologies. That's a mouthful. It ought to be. It's the DOE's projection of ‘Overnight costs’ by on dollars-per-Kilowatt installed. Some FASCINATING numbers. This is a report that projects out into the future and is supposed to be a guide for how much it would cost to build a new nuke, wind, solar thermal, hydro or hamster powered electrical generating station."
In his Diary, Wind, Solar, Nuclear and Environmental Preservation, raoul78 had a rather different take than the DOE: "Many of the nuclear energy diaries I've read are perhaps even more contentious than current candidate diaries. One major issue argued over is whether renewables can provide base-load power-defined by Wikipedia as an ‘energy source that provides a steady flow of power regardless of demand.’ A recent article in Scientific American argues that solar can be used as base-load power and that America could almost completely transition to solar over the next century. Another recent article suggests that wind turbines can also function as base-load power at about a third of their rated capacity. The Solar Grand Plan envisions clean, renewable energy could supply almost 70% of US electricity and 35% of the total energy by 2050 if we were to construct 3000 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar plants(CSP). By the year 2100, with further construction, solar could provide 100% of the electricity and 90% of the total energy."
Contributing Editor DarkSyde reported that Oil's Well That Ends Well: "What is the true cost of a barrel of oil or a tank of gas for US consumers? Difficult to say. But any holistic number would have to partially factor in the damage done to local and regional water tables from refineries and storage facilities, the gigatons of greenhouse gases and other pollutants released, and the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars and thousands of lives spent in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East to secure cheap oil. Adding insult to injury, consider the lavish tax breaks and sweetheart subsidies the oil industry and Exxon specifically have received from the Bush-Cheney administration courtesy of We the People."
GLOBAL WARMING
Europe Takes the Lead in Tackling Climate Change was Asinus Asinum Fricat’s more or less sneaky way of telling us, as if we didn’t already know it, how far behind the federal government is in dealing with global warming: "The European Union has unilaterally set a goal of slashing carbon emissions by 20 to 30 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels and has offered to go further if other major economies join the effort. The European Commission first adopted the 20% by 2020 target in 2007. Last week's proposal describes a package of concrete measures and policies, which the commission says will allow Europe to meet this target. The implementation of the climate change package will cost the EU bloc an estimated €60bn. The package would cost 0.5% of Europe's gross domestic product by 2020."
juliewolf gave us a look at Two eco items from the Rutland (VT) Herald: "First, as though we didn't already have plenty of evidence to support this – Study: Temps affect waters: A state study of the watersheds of the West, Williams and Saxtons rivers in the southeastern corner of the state shows the biggest environmental problem appears to be increased temperatures, a planner with the Agency of Natural Resources said."
A Siegel asked Will Joe Lieberman decide our future? ACTION: The Climate InSecurity Act: "The battlelines are being drawn when it comes to what makes sensible legislation to respond to Global Warming. Sadly, the lines are being drawn among the environmental community, with Global Warming Deniers, Skeptics, and Delayers watching the developing battle with amusement. In December, the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) committee passed out for full Senate consideration the Lieberman-Warner Climate (in)Security Act (CISA). As discussed elsewhere, the CISA is fundamentally flawed. Among its problems: Giveaway of $500+ billion in pollution permits, raising the cost and lowering the efficiency of the US economy's finding a path toward a climate friendly society; and Inadequate targets for reducing CO2 to lower the risk of catastrophic climate change ... "
He also had some tough words for Senator Barbara Boxer in Boxing our way to disaster?: "Barbara Boxer is desperate for having Global Warming legislation under her belt. Can there be a better explanation for her strong championing of the fatally-flawed Lieberman-Warner Climate (in) Security Act? (For a great discussion of CISA's/Coal-Subsidy Act's flaws, see this commentto a post by Environmental Defense at Grist defending CISA.) Thus, it shouldn't surprise anyone that Boxer has reacted angrily to the Friends of the Earth ad campaign voicing reason re Lieberman-Warner."
balconesfault took issue with "Outside the box" on Global Warming: "A nifty little Brief Analysis from the nonprofit National Center for Policy Analysis came out today, under the title ‘Geoengineering: A Global Warming Fix?’ For some reason, author Pete Geddes left off what must have been his working subtitle how applying Band-Aids to global warming can be the Mother of all Contracting Boondoggles for Corporate America. ...Anyone want to guess who the major funders of the nonprofit National Center for Policy Analysis are?"
Joshua Holland lamented that the US Spends $88 on the Military for Every Buck Fighting Climate Change: "A few days ago, a Spanish reader made his way through a story about these primary-related gender wars we're fighting, and had a suggestion. ‘I think you all must go to the shrink,’ he wrote, ‘in a kind of collective, nationwide, psychoanalysis.’ Some support for that view surfaced this week, as the Institute for Policy Studies released a new report by Miriam Pemberton titled ‘Military vs. Climate Security.’ Pemberton found that for each dollar the U.S. government spends on fighting global warming, it throws $88 at the military. It's a stunning – and telling – ratio, but it's not the whole story; according to the report, ‘even the modest $7 billion in the federal climate change budget is badly targeted toward what ought to be low priorities, while major climate priorities get short shrift.’ The shocking thing is that the 88:1 ratio is actually an improvement over recent years."
SolveClimate found it hard to believe that there is, in the view of the Department of EnergyNot Enough CO2 Available for Carbon Sequestration Tests: "’Water, water, everywhere nor any drop to drink’ is the famous lament from the ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner.’ In this age of global warming there is now this equally ironic corollary: ‘Carbon, carbon, everywhere but not enough to sink.’ How so? It turns out that there simply is not enough ‘captured’ CO2 needed to conduct the large-scale carbon sequestration test projects over the coming decade. Why? Too expensive. Says who? The US Department of Energy in its Carbon Sequestration Roadmap and Program Plan 2007."
Lib Dem FoP gave us the skinny on an Island to Generate >95% of Electricity from Renewables: "On 1 February a small island community in Scotland switched to 24/7 mains power for the first time. The scheme uses a mixture of hydro, wind and solar power to generate in excess of 95% of the annual requirements. Batteries provide back-up for up to 24 hours if all the renewable systems go down and diesel generators are there for periods of excess demand. If biodiesel were used, the island's electricity generation would be 100% carbon neutral. The small island of Eigg (pronounced ‘eg’) is off the west coast of Scotland. The inhabitants used to be tenants of absentee landlords until they formed a Trust to buy the island from the German artist Maruma. The Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust celebrated 10 years of ‘independence’ in June last year."
FOOD, AGRICULTURE & HORTICULTURE
Relatively warmer weather returned last week, giving Frankenoid a chance to take off the mittens to type another Saturday Morning (Home And) Garden Blogging Vol. 3.49: "These are Jan Bos hyacinth, one of the easiest to force. They consistently send out bountiful roots, the buds form quickly and easily, and they don't require as long of a chilling period as some of the other hyacinth to get good results. The florets of the Jan Bos aren't as large and loose as with some of the other types (compare to the Sky Jacket hyacinth pictured last week), and they aren't quite as top-heavy. I've actually gotten adequate blooms with Jan Bos by leaving them in the refrigerator for 8 weeks, then doing the forcing in a cool, but not cold, closet (although the heads aren't quite as big as those that get the full cold treatment)."
Is it too late for progressive farm and food policy reforms? Critical decisions facing Congress was Thomas Dobbs’s question: "Failures and modest successes in the farm and food policy process to date, as we enter the Conference Committee stage, can be grouped in three areas: (1) commodity subsidies; (2) agri-environmental programs; and (3) healthy food initiatives."
When I was a kid, my grandma used to fry catfish in about two inches of lard (which she reused a few times) and the results were quite tasty. Translator provided a far healthier recipe in What's for Dinner v25? All about Catfish Edition: "Catfish is a wonderful food. When I talk about catfish, I pretty much mean fried catfish. I am sure that there are ways to bake or grill it, but I do not favor them. However, there is a very good chowder that I will describe. Also, when I talk about catfish, I mean wild caught catfish. The farm-raised kind in supermarkets is a poor substitute, bland at best and off-flavored at worst. However, if that is all you can get it will do, but if you do not like the result do not write off catfish until you try wild ones. First, you catch the catfish."
OrangeClouds115 speculated on definitions in VMD - Undermining of Sustainable Livestock (Urgent Action!): "The USDA proposed a ‘naturally raised’ label that doesn't provide for animal welfare or environmental stewardship at all. The label simply means ‘no hormones, antibiotics, or animal byproducts.’ Is that what the word natural means to most people? Who knows? Maybe to you natural means that a cow was raised on a pasture, or wasn't stuffed into a feedlot to live in its own waste. Maybe it means that the cow lived in harmony with the earth, without contributing to a manure lagoon. Or it ate grass, not grain. But whether or not the label implies that, it doesn't mean that. Would you buy ‘naturally raised’ meat without guessing how narrowly defined it was?"
In two Diaries shirah gave us reason wonder whether somebody is trying to put one over on us: Got rBST? What about those 3000 studies showing rBST is safe? - I: "In the last month, and as part of the milk labeling scandal, Terry Etherton has twice claimed in public that there have been 3000 studies done that show rBST is safe. He made this claim when he participated in a discussion of Pennsylvania's milk labeling ban on WHYY’s Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane on Tuesday, January 15. He made the same claim on January 10 on his blog where he attacked and belittled the author of an op-ed - and even made his claim about those 3000 studies in red letters so it would not be easy to miss: Where's the studies? ... Where are the links, the list? Not on Etherton’s blog. (And not on Monsanto’s either. But Monsanto, of course, as far as I can see, has not used that number.) Why are those studies not there? Why not put them all out there and just blow the critics out of the water? surely Terry must have the data at his fingertips. As Etherton says on the same blog post: ‘I know the subject well.’ That's nice. So enlighten us." Here’s part shirahII.
kpstoia suggested one small fix for the fix we’re in with Meatless 1 day/wk - a recipe to reduce global warming: "For those of you who are considering becoming a meat reducer to help reduce global warming I am posting some meal ideas and recipes. I will try to do so weekly. It is my hope that this will help people that have decided to go meatless at least 1 day per week but may not be used to cooking meatless meals. I will be trying to leave out dairy/eggs as well, as the idea is to reduce dependence on animal derived food as livestock is a primary cause of global warming gases."
The long absent farmerchuck returned with a Diary about Farm$:musings, rage, and the act of getting a clue: "Just to get it out of the way, and to my own surprise, we are still alive here at No Snivilin Farm, and will continue to stay that way (if everyone that owes me money pays ... currently the roster looks like this (all sustainable energy customers). BB $3500 (wants to make sure it works before he pays); IP $980 (is already using a food pantry); DD $2400 (bank is dragging feet); SC $2200 (what if it doesn't work?); CG $4500 (it's new technology, and I should get it for free); EW $4600 (wants additionnal work done, won't pay until is); WF $5200 (wants more freebies); MS $4500 (laid off). of course, my mortgage company is giving me a break (NOT) and letting me collect, before threatening foreclosure on my mortgage<snark>, and we have instituted no food mondays and wednesdays. In addition, we had about 600 bales of hay stolen from us, which means buying small amounts at $4.50/bale--cash, and just getting enough for the next 2 days ... grain prices are up 15-17% for the year (and it's January!!). So, you ask, ‘what are you doing besides whining?’ glad you asked...HAE (my sustainable energy company) and No Snivilin Farm are proud to announce we are forming 2 new cooperatives, and moving HAE towards a more engineering and Development footing."
bernardpliers noted that Global Warming Deniers On Thin Ice: "One of the last shreds of hope that climate change denialists cling to is the belief that ‘Antarctic ice is growing, not melting!’ This claim is being eclipsed by finding that Antarctica is melting at roughly the same rate as Greenland, http://www.washingtonpost.com/... is to say that the oceans will be rising twice as fast as our worst previous projections. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/... what about these guys? They claim snowfall is increasing! http://www.agu.org/... is suggesting that this increase in snowfall disproves global warming. In fact, more snow is what you'd expect if the air temperature gets up over 20 degrees. And it's only 500 miles south of where the Larsen B ice shelf collapsed, so it sure doesn't prove that things are improving."
LAND, FORESTS & SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Bush OKs Clear Cutting of Millions of Acres of Alaskan National Forest was markthshark’s way of giving us yet another reason to want January 20, 2009, to arrive: "More than 3 million acres in Alaska's Tongass National Forest will be open to logging under a federal plan that supporters believe will revive the state's struggling timber industry. Environmentalists, however, fear that the proposal will devastate the forest. Last Friday, as is their usual practice, the Bush regime released their end-of-the-week-bad-news-dump to the press. Relegated to the bottom of the pile was the announcement of a new management plan for Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. At nearly 17 million acres, Tongass is the largest national forest, not only in our 49th state but in all of the United States."
Contributing Editor mcjoan warned us in Public Lands Tag Sale that it’s not just the Tongass at risk: "Get ready, folks. It's finally the waning year of the Bush administration, and they're going to go out in style. No oil field shall go untapped. No roadless area undisturbed. No threatened or endangered species unmolested. They've got just 11 short months to put their mark on what's left of the nation's wilderness, and they're coming for it. Last week, while everyone was distracted by a faltering worldwide economy and free-falling markets, the administration made Alaska the target of its renewed renovation. It snuck through something called the Chuckchi Sea Oil and Gas Lease Sale 193 and opened up 2.4 million acres of the state's Tongass National Forest to logging and road building. They must have something against bears."
scharrison completed another in his series, Sustainable Development Part Three: EPA's RTP Campus: "As you can probably tell from the timeline, the years leading up to the completion of the project were filled with planning, research, budgetary headaches, as well as some strident opposition from a few of our less ‘visionary’ North Carolina Senators. The fact that this project was finally approved and completed is a testament to those who do have a vision, and should be a lesson to us all. As I mentioned in a previous diary, the environmental impact of a project (especially one with this scope), must be gauged before ground is broken, and a detailed plan of conservation and construction waste disposition needs to be in place and adhered to. It’s not something that can be dealt with later, or left up to some third party to be responsible for. Granted, the EPA would (theoretically) be the last client that would ignore something like this, but it’s a critical component of sustainable development, regardless of who the end user will be."
mbzoltan filled in for sarahnity last week in the series Frugal Fridays: DIY, the Internet, and Home Improvement: "From roof repairs to small motor fixes, do-it-yourself or DIY isn't just a lifestyle choice, or a marketing trend, or hot topic in the media. DIY means learning, empowering ourselves with skills and approaches to problem-solving that serve us not only in our wallets, but also help us to set examples for future generations, neighbors, and our community. DIY itself is apolitical, but the effects ripple out to reach back and pull into the 21st century key philosophical concepts such as self-sufficiency, efficient use of resources, and community aiding community."
POLITICOS
SharonRB asked us to Help a True Progressive and Environmentalist Win the DFA Grassroots All Stars Contest: "Nancy Skinner, a strong environmental candidate and a true progressive, is a talker and a doer -- and we need both in Congress. For anyone who cares about the environment and slowing down the effects of climate change, Nancy Skinner is an ideal candidate. Nancy is running for Congress in Michigan's 9th Congressional District. In 2006, she came within 5% of beating 14-year incumbent Joe Knollenberg despite being outspent 7:1. In 2006, the cornerstone of Nancy's campaign, in the heart of the auto industry, was to take away the subsidies being given to oil companies and to give that money to the auto companies to help them develop cleaner technology – fuel cells, hybrids, etc. If this could be accomplished, it would help the environment, the economy and homeland security and would be a win-win-win. As we've seen the administration continue to drag their feet on solving the global warming crisis, this has become even more important, and Nancy continues to hold this position in her 2008 campaign."
gohlkus suggested some Tough questions for candidates about global warming: "For the first time in years, we have an opportunity to elect a president who will give the global climate crisis the level of attention that is required to tackle it. But how are we to know where the candidates stand on global warming, if reporters simply refuse to ask the right questions? Of the 2,938 questions asked of the presidential candidates since January 2007, just 6 mentioned global warming. ... So the California League of Conservation Voters is taking matters into our own hands. (We have) asked presidential candidates four critical questions about global warming."
cumberland sibyl reported Last night the Clinton and Obama campaigns talked about Global Warming: "Last night the Sierra Club hosted a nationwide conference call for any of its more than 700,000 members to call in to hear what the presidential candidates plan to do to fight global warming and put us on a path to a clean energy future. Only the Clinton and Obama campaigns accepted. (Note this was the day after Edwards New Orleans announcement. The Repubs were also invited). I'm not going to go into great detail about their specific global warming plans because you can go to their websites for that, but I think how differently they responded is somewhat telling. I should add here that I don't intend for this to be a candidate flame-throwing diary. I'm an Edwards’s supporter and will still vote for him in the Feb. 5 Tennessee primary, assuming he's still on the ballot. But I am an environmentalist and think how we address the global warming challenge is the most important issue for every living being on the planet. I'm sorry that it's not gotten much attention so far in the campaign."
TRANSPORTATION
Nurse utopia recently decided to make some life changes that requires her to commute from Northern Virginia into D.C. It hasn’t been a totally satisfactory experience, as she related in Ok Virginia 2 outta 3 ain't bad, but... (a useful environmental model being ruined): "Luckily, Virginia had done something innovative along the I-95 corridor, that others have told me is unique for the entire country, and guess what, kinda earth friendly! Everyone is familiar with HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes, the are used nation wide. It is usually an additional lane reserved for car poolers, vans, buses, motorcycles and in some areas hybrid cars. These lanes are opened for travel and limited to the aforementioned cars during ‘rush hour.’ The one drawback though is that these lanes parallel existing lanes so other vehicles either disregard the lane restrictions or dart in and out trying to get ahead, and as a result the HOV lane(s) become as congested as the other lanes. As a result the incentive to pool and reduce carbon emissions declines as well. Virginia though did something unique."
NNadir plunked himself down (metaphorically speaking) on the Front Lines of the Car Culture: Ford Scientists On Pluggable Hybrids: "Ford scientists have recently published a paper in the Scientific Journal Envir. Sci. Tech on the energy savings they imagine would be generated by having plug in cars, not that they manufacture such a thing, any more than Phillip Morris-Altria manufactures ‘safe’ cigarettes. The paper comes from the ASAP section of the journal - page numbers have not been assigned - and the abstract is here: Environmental and Energy Implications of Plug-In Hybrid-Electric Vehicles. There is a peculiar agnosticism about the source of electrical energy in the paper."
elishastephens wondered, rhetorically, Can you have too much mass transit?: "Apparently, yes. I've written before about the capitalist death spiral approach to mass transit: ... raise the rates to make a profit, ridership drops, raise the rates some more to make up for it, ridership drops, cut the number of trains or buses, thereby reducing the frequency and providing even less incentive to use it, ridership drops some more, continue until death. There are, however, rare exceptions to that rule, and San Francisco has been considering becoming one of them. Alas, it won't be happening."
A Little Car Triggers Eco-Hypocrisy wrote Lindsay Meisel : "The new Tata Nano is fuel-efficient, affordable, and provides safer, faster, better transportation to millions of Indians who until now could not afford a car. But in the eyes of many environmentalists, Tata Motors may well have unleashed a virus. They see a scary vision of the future, in which an entire nation of benign motor-bikers is now equipped with an army of cheap carbon-emitting machines. Don't copy our American ways, the environmentalists warn, or global warming will wreak its havoc. Sure, the Tata Nano is not perfect, and yes, it will add to the emissions problem. But so does practically everything we do in the developed world, because higher standards of living equate to higher energy use. As India's middle class grows, and people are able to escape agrarian poverty and lead more comfortable lifestyles, their energy use will rise. This is a good thing, and it should be driving the focus of the conversation about international development."
ANIMALS
Rimjob asked Who Wants To Kill Some Mosquitoes?: "There are millions of people who die each year from one of the worst disease vectors in human history: mosquito bites. Millions of people have died from Malaria, Yellow Fever, and a whole host of other horrible shit that female mosquitoes transmit by sucking blood. What if we could genetically engineer our own modified set of mosquitoes in order to control & eradicate their population? The company, Oxitec, said it can decimate mosquito populations by breeding genetically modified male mosquitoes, then releasing them to mate with wild females. Their offspring contain lethal genes that kill them young, before they can reproduce. Company officials told Wired News that their latest test results show that the genetically modified bugs can breed just as well as wild ones. ‘We will be able to control dengue through controlling the mosquitoes that transmit it, especially in large urban areas,’ said the company's chief scientist Luke Alphey. ‘Thereby protecting many, many millions of people from this disease.’ But are there any risks in this? I mean it's all great until we turn into vampires/zombies, and start hunting Will Smith through Greenwich Village at night..."
On hand for a hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works was The Cunctator, offering us yet more insight into the mind of that notorious toe-tapper, Senator Larry Craig, at a LIVE HEARING: Bush v. Polar Bears (w. Barbara Boxer!) : "I'm live-blogging this as it happens. Panel 1: Dale Hall, Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Panel 2: Margaret Williams, Director, Bering Sea Ecoregion and Russia projects, World Wildlife Fund; Andrew E. Wetzler, Director, Endangered Species Project, NRDC; Dr. Brendan P. Kelly, Associate Vice President for Research, University of Alaska; Richard Glenn, Alaskan Arctic Resident/Sea Ice Geologist; J. Scott Armstrong Ph.D., Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. 10:28: Craig ‘I'm just beginning to acquaint myself with this issue. I understand the climate change movement, the emotion involved in all of that, it's difficult to predict the future. I've watched as various organizations have used the ESA as a wedge or a sledgehammer to shape human activities. I'm here to listen. I hope we don't rush to judgment. History will only say, was it us, or was it Mother Nature? That is still an open question.’"
Several Diarists took note of a video making the rounds. As El Yoss wrote, Video shows systematic torture of cows at CA slaughterhouse: "Video footage from an undercover investigator working for an animal rights group has uncovered systematic abuse and torture of sick cows at a California slaughterhouse, in violation CA law and USDA regulations, in an attempt to get them to pass inspection. ...I, personally, am not a vegetarian, and have the occasionally weakness for a good Whataburger (go Texas!). However, we can all agree that animals must be treated ethically, both for the sake of the animals themselves and for our own physical and, dare I say it, moral health."
Bcgntn gave us a window into the cows’ point of view in California Slaughterhouse; Human Cruelty Exposed: "What if you were born to the world, hopeful, and full of life, only to be immediately separated from your mother and father. What if you never felt the warmth of a parent's love or the sun on your skin? Imagine, instantaneously, after birth you were placed in a restrictive room with no space in which to spread out. Your arms and legs frozen from confinement. You are squeezed into a sealed cage, placed in a pen with other little beings. In this crate, you are forced to eat food not to your liking. From what you observe, there are hundreds of other orphaned newborns in this dark and dank dwelling. The stench in the warehouse that you call home causes you to gag. Some of the other occupants are diseased. A few have already passed. Dead bodies, trampled by the live who are trapped with them, smell of decay. Bugs eat at the flesh."
Marine Life Series: Sand Dollars was Mark H ’s latest entry in his delightful long-running series: "Sand dollars belong to a group of echinoderms called echinoids. The word echinoid literally means ‘like a hedgehog’ in Latin. And it fits this animal pretty well when you look at a live specimen. The entire body is covered by thousands of tiny brown spines."
GREEN PHILOSOPHY
jonibgud’s probed Green Stimulus: A few simple thoughts: "There is so much that recommends a ‘green’ stimulus over a simple, one-time payout to taxpayers (the political solution) that only adds to the deficit ... A few simple notions after reading the excellent ideas by Michael Shellenberger, Dean Baker and others ..."
bottsimons took another look at a proposal in the Northwest in Two tribes square off over the Klamath River proposal: "The Klamath River flows from the Pacific Ocean, on the northern coast of California, about 263 miles inland. First through the Yurok Nation, past Resighini Rancheria on the southside, then inland and upriver about 20 miles toward the Hoopa Nation, onward through the traditional lands of the Karuk Tribe, and, finally, on to Oregon through the lands of the Klamath Tribes, comprised of the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin Tribes. With so many parties affected by the Klamath proposal, it has been a divisive issue, even between tribes and tribal members and On- and Off-Project farmers. Tribal water rights, particularly, are a sore issue. The Hoopa Tribe, having taken an aggressive approach to water quality issues, rejects the proposal and is unwilling to relinquish their water rights. In light of prior decisions and actions by non-tribal agencies, Hoopa skepticism is understandable. Nevertheless, other tribes urge that the benefits and terms of the proposal are acceptable and desirable."
JLowe explored Christianity's Role in Our Ecological Crisis - Lynn White's Essay Revisited: "I was driving around a last week performing an errand, and I had NPR on the car radio as background noise because I wasn't in the mood for music (NPR is mostly background noise to me these days, particularly the news and analysis). I had the opportunity to hear a snippet of a public affairs program which was profiling Dr. Paul Lindroth at the University of Wisconsin, professor of entomology, an Evangelical and a promoter of the Christian environmental stewardship movement. Environmental stewardship by Christians is underpinned by the idea that man's dominion over the earth as articulated in the Bible actually means stewardship. One of the roots of this idea was an essay published in 1967 by Lynn White, professor of history at Princeton and UCLA. That essay, ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis,’ identified Christian ethos along with the Industrial Revolution as critical shapers in human attitudes towards nature - as a resource to be exploited. The stewardship movement in a sense is effort to counteract the message in Dr. White's essay of Christianity as a despoiler of nature."
Against Eco-Asceticism was Michael Shellenberger’s final installment of his debate with Colin Beaven, "the New York City writer who goes by the moniker ‘No Impact Man"’ and is massively cutting back on his energy consumption. This episode begins with Colin criticizing my pro-growth position. I give him the last word, so let me just say I wish him the best and hope he changes his avatar to ‘Impact Man’ and finds a logo and theme song that communicates all the ways in which human power is good, not evil."
Some eco-history was on Nuisance Industry’s mind last week in Environmental racism, environmental justice: What have these terms meant?: "Two terms, environmental racism and environmental justice, are frequently used to discuss the unequal distribution of environmental burdens in society. A quick summary distinction between the two used in the 1980s is that environmental racism is the explanation for inequities, that is, discrimination against people of color is the reason why people of color are inordinately exposed to environmental burdens. In contrast, environmental justice (then and now) may be seen as the method or set of methods used by communities and activists to overcome unjust environmental burdens. (Racism as cause, justice as the treatment.) The landmark publication propelling the study of race-related environmental burdens was released by the United Church of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice in 1987. A series of conflicts, including the protest of a Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCBs) dump in the African-American community of Warren County, North Carolina in 1982, led to the national study of patterns in toxic waste dumping."
POLLUTION
Outrageous!!! could be the title of so many Diaries, but Deep Harm found an especially ridiculous situation to attach it to: "It's bad enough that government officials keep citizens in the dark and lie to them about the real threat from contaminants in the environment. Now, the New York City Police Department's deputy commissioner for counterterrorism wants to make it illegal for any individual or group to monitor for the presence of radiation, chemicals and other contaminants without police authorization. And, don't think other jurisdictions won't follow suit if Richard Falkenrath and Mayor Bloomberg have their way. Speaking of ‘suit’...did I mention that New York City and the EPA have been sued by firefighters and others disabled by air pollutants at Ground Zero after government offials told them not to worry?"
The Big Problem With Removing Arsenic From Water: Disposing Of the Arsenic, as NNadir pointed out, turns out to be a really big problem: "Another place where arsenic contamination is endemic is the American West, where arsenic is found in the water from things like old silver, copper and gold mine tailings and from percolating through unmined rocks. If you live in a rich country where you can afford things like water treatment problems you can actually but a kind of purification system that quantitatively removes arsenic. Aren't you in luck? Of course, arsenic can't be destroyed, at least without neutrons - and there will never be enough neutrons on earth to make much of an impact in any case - because as most people know, it's an element. So where does the arsenic go when it's removed? Well, folks, it stays right in the removal device. And what happens to the removal device when it's all filled up with arsenic? Why it goes to a landfill."