Around the planet today, in a symbolic act, millions of individuals and businesses have been shutting off their electrical power off for one hour, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., local time. The Earth Hour originated in Sydney, Australia, with the World Wildlife Fund in 2007.
The details are here.
After the scheduled action was pointed to in Friday’s Night Owls & Early Birds thread, several people suggested that Daily Kos itself shut down as part of Earth Hour.
shock urged Please join my 24-hour Boycot[t] of DailyKos: "Concern for the environment is one of the top issues that unites our party (and for good reason, as environmental catastrophe on a global scale is one of the most urgent problems we all face). Kossack's have come together to send messages in the past; we can do so again today in grand scale if we so choose. Hence, I want to echo jmorton's call. It's simple. DailyKos should go dark in honor of Earth Hour, in solidarity with people around the globe who have united around this important issue that faces us all." Lesser Dane made a different proposal Black Out Daily Kos for Earth Hour - with DIY instructions: "I would like to suggest a less radical approach: Do the same as Google Denmark is currently doing - change the color scheme to gray on black. If the site is back to normal when you visit it, you can look at Blackle instead. This change in colors would serve two purposes: 1. It reminds every visitor of Earth Hour; It reduces the power consumption of the visitors screen."
The DailyKos Environmentalists can be found here.
jillian was back after several weeks away with another in her compilation of green stories – BREAKING!...the Earth (Earth Hour version): "Mid-America wades in the water. Risks for 100-year floods are higher than previously thought. And climate models predict that within 30 years the Midwest will receive more rainfall, equating to about 50 percent more water flowing through the rivers at any given time throughout the year. Living On Earth. "FDA relied on industry studies to judge safety. A Congressional investigation discovers that the FDA determined the bisphenol A was safe based on just 2 industry studies, ignoring hundreds of government and academic studies. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel."
Two other Kossacks also compiled eco-stories.
In his regular feature, JohnnyRook wrote EcoNoticiario # 4: Will Barcelona die of thirst? News from Spain and Latin America: "Spain features very prominently this week because of a slow week in Latin American environmental news combined with a fascinating developing story in Catalonia over how Barcelona is going get enough water to drink. Your Spanish environmental word of the week: environment – medio ambiente."
And Asinus Asinum Fricat covered quite a bit of ground in Eco News: the Good, the Bad and the Ludicrous: "Another great chunk of the arctic shelf is hanging by a thread. Does Sen. Inhofe sleep at night? You bet he does, having pocketed considerable sums of money from Exxon & Co., the OK Senator is comfortable with Global Warming, and probably welcomes the extra bit of ice for his Martinis. When I say we are at war, we are part of the environmental war, I mean as it is generally defined as the intentional modification of a system of the natural ecology comprising climate and weather, the earth systems such as the ionosphere, magnetosphere, the tectonic plate system, and to a lesser extent, the triggering of seismic events which cause physical, economic, social, and physical destruction of an area ((nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site showed that some tectonic stress was released simultaneously with the explosion)."
ANIMALS
In his latest Marine Life Series installment, Mark H informed us about Hermit Crabs and Exotic Species: "Generally the introduction of a non-native species of plant or animal into an ecosystem is a destructive event. Whether they be rabbits or poisonous cane toads introduced to the Australian outback or kudzu spreading through the American south, these organisms out-compete, consume or displace native fauna and flora. The introduction of these exotics, whether brought to foreign shores by accident or intentionally, is by definition due to human activity. Some time during the mid 1800’s a European species of snail, called the common periwinkle (Littorina littorea), was carried to Nova Scotia, Canada. It is not known if they were introduced intentionally for food or if the larvae were carried in the ballast of ships. Either way, this snail found the northern Atlantic to be quite hospitable. Today the common periwinkle is one of the most common intertidal species of animal in New England. It has spread from Canada down the coast to the mid-Atlantic states and is now the dominant herbivore on virtually every rocky shore in its range."
bigwildlife introduced the ‘War on Carnivores’ Lecture Series: "The slaughter of cougars, wolves, coyotes, and other carnivores, has been common in North America since colonists arrived nearly four centuries ago. Today, the war on carnivores continues. The U.S government alone kills over three million animals, including 100,000 carnivores. Animals are poisoned, trapped, snared, beheaded, clubbed, shot from the air, and gassed in their dens. State agencies, including the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and private interests are in the extermination business too. In Oregon, entire bear families are wiped out simply because the animals peel bark off a few trees on corporate timberland. Most recently, Oregon launched its Cougar Management Plan, which calls for expansive, indiscriminate killing of the big cats, and reinstated the barbaric practice of chasing cougars with hounds. Soon nearly 2,000 cougars may be killed across the state. But you can help stop this madness. Read more to learn how."
ornerydad recommended some personal action regarding a serious and growing problem in ciao and thanks for all the plastic albatross: "Spring has sprung and we're all heading out for picnics, swims, sails – so please leave the plastic at home! In fact, please learn to do without and encourage your local businesses, town councils, county boards and institutions to cut back, pick up and recycle. The latest from the plastic dump formerly known as the Pacific Ocean: Nearly two million Laysan albatrosses live here and researchers have come to the staggering conclusion that every single one contains some quantity of plastic.
In Plastic, and Albatrosses around our necks, mwmwm recommended a collective approach: "The stinking, rotting corpses of the albatrosses -- the ones dying on Midway, as well as the fish, birds, whales, seals and turtles dying from ingesting our plastic -- will be around our necks for a long, long time. How do we respond? Like with the recent DKos climate chaos post on the Antarctic shelf collapse, we have to have leaders who are willing to inspire us to sacrifice convenience for sustainability. Leaders who will be able to explain what ‘environmental tipping points’ mean. Leaders who will be able to marshall our willingness to not be idiots.
kkjohnson wondered whether GMO the link between recent die offs in bats and bees?: "The New York Times recently carried the die off of bats in NY, VT, and MA: http://www.nytimes.com/... A researcher interviewed by the Times speculated that the bats were not getting enough nutrition that created the brown fat to enable the bats to last through the winter. And from Brit Amos at Global Research on how GMO may cause the CCD in bees: http://www.globalresearch.ca/... A quote from the article: When the flower pollen becomes genetically modified or sterile, the bees will potentially go malnourished and die of illness due to the lack of nutrients and the interruption of the digestive capacity of what they feed on through the summer and over the winter hibernation process. "
CanyonWren took a poke at Alaska Governor: Science Be Damned, Kill Wolves and Bears Anyway: "In 2002, during Republican Governor Frank Murkowski's term, the Alaska Board of Fish and Game ignored the will of Alaskan voters for for a second time and began an aerial assault on Alaskan wolves in order to boost moose and caribou populations in a specific district near McGrath, Alaska. (Voters overwhelmingly voted against aerial predator control in 1996 and again in 2000). Each subsequent year, the Board expanded the number of districts, and now aerial ‘predator control’ spans almost 50,000 square miles, and has resulted in over 700 wolf kills by Alaska Fish and Game. There are an estimated 7,700-11,000 remaining in the entire state of Alaska, thus around 8-10% of the state's population of wolves have already been killed. The goal of Republican Governor Sarah Palin and the Board is to leave wildlife biologists out of the decision-making process, and cull 80% of the wolf population in five enormous wolf-rich districts, and very recently bears have been added to the cull-schedule."
ENERGY
davidwalters made The Case for Expanding Pumped Hydroelectric Storage: "The great thing about Valentine's proposals on pumped storage is that they can be done incrementally, during overhauls, or whenever funding becomes available. But so what? What's the big deal? The big deal is efficiency. Now, Valentine suggests that using new Ultra-High Voltage DC lines we could transport large volumes of ‘surplus’ South-West based solar energy to the Northeast in Niagara Falls and ‘store it.’ Well, we 'could,’ but we 'can't' because there is NO ‘surplus,’ nor is their likely to be surplus, ever, of solar energy. Even the largest-scale projects would have on site hot-salt storage (assuming it could ever be economical) and most solar energy, I predict, would be used up as it was produced. You'd have to have a HUGE solar project to produce a 'surplus.’ A project that itself would become environmentally questionable in it's own right if it were big enough to produce enough power to wheel across country."
Stranded Wind expressed a different point of view on the subject in Iowa's Stored Energy Park: Firming Wind: "Here in Iowa the wind blows most strongly in spring and fall, with winter being somewhat less than those two seasons, and summer being the worst of all in terms of electricity production. OK, so what is wrong with that picture? Air conditioning use causes spikes in the summer and that is when we have the least overall wind energy available ... and if you examine summer in detail you'll find that cloudy, windy, rainy days with low air conditioning usage are when we get the energy from the wind. The industry calls what needs to be done here firming, but we feel that the more descriptive phrase time shifting might be more easily grasped. The foremost thinker on these topics that we know is Bill Leighty of the Leighty Foundation. The foundation has published a great deal of work in the area and remains the foremost vanguard on this front. So, per our FAQ there are five possible solutions for this problem: pumped hydro storage, compressed air storage, hydrogen production, ammonia production, and flywheels. Today's we'll turn away from our passion for ammonia and consider pumped air storage."
The ever-practical gmoke graced us with another in his series, Solar, As Seen on TV (7): "I was watching Medium on TV Monday night, a very well-written show. The DuBois family has been going through a rough patch this year. Joe, the father, lost his job as an aerospace engineer and has been on unemployment. Allison is persona non grata with the new DA. In this most recent episode, their middle daughter, Bridget, has a school assignment to use a solar electric panel to power a Christmas tree light, a stupid idea, as Bridget rightly complains, because who needs a light when the sun is shining? Joe tries to help her by using the solar cell to power an old boom box but he can't get enough juice through the cell. Then he has a dream. He invents a mirror-based power boost for solar cells that not only powers Bridget's school project but also may have real potential to power much more. Who knew? Photovoltaics as a plot point in a network TV drama. Now that's market penetration. And that's not the only TV show featuring solar and green ideas."
The USAF Pushes for Liquid Coal, moaned CrazyDrumGuy : "The U.S. Air Force is redefining alternative energy. In an attempt to wean itself off of foreign oil, the Air Force wants the next generation of jets to run off of synthetic fuel derived from liquid coal."
SolveClimate warned that Report: Kansas Coal Plants Will Lock In Decades of Rising Electricity Prices: "Kansas has become the ground zero of the fight over the future of coal in America, and a new report being released today by a leading global financial research firm drives a stake through the heart of the strongest argument proponents of coal-fired expansion there have: that coal is cheap. The groundbreaking report says coal is not the cheapest source of power for Kansas – or anywhere else, quite likely – if you account for coming federal regulation of carbon emissions. Projected to cost $3.6 billion, the two coal plants proposed for Holcomb, Kansas, have been touted by its builders, Sunflower Electric Power, to provide the promise of cheap electricity for the state's next generation of citizens. But the independent financial analysis – surprisingly, the first of its kind – says otherwise: The new coal plants would be a bad investment that will saddle ratepayers in Kansas with increasing prices they won't be able to control."
In his Diary, WE have the Power2Change!, A Siegel told us about: "The Sierra Club is launching a nine-state campaign, Power2Change, focused on bringing clarity about what is at stake in the 2008 elections. The choices we make in 2008 will define our future - especially when it comes to the election and energy issues. The contrast between competing visions of America's energy future could not be sharper this year: we can move forward or continue the policies of the past. ... Between now and Earth Day (22 April), Power2Change will bring to the forefront the stark differences between clean energy progress and options with the damage that dirty energy is inflicting and could inflict in the future in each of these states, as across the nation."
He also worried whether Dirty Energy Money turning Purple?: "This shouldn't surprise anyone: some of the worst polluters in the country, some of those most determined to fight action on Global Warming, are starting to color their political donations 'purple'. With Democratic Party control of Congress, high odds that the Hill will tinge even bluer come 2009, and that Barack Obama will be sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office, only a fool would not be hedging bets. But, that these serial Fossil Fuel polluters might not be total fools when it comes to political influence games does not mean that this is something to celebrate. Global Warming legislation will have $trillions of implications in the coming decades. This can be done with social equity or a way to enrich the pockets of serial polluters at the expense of the rest of US. Should we wonder which way these polluters' donations are trying to drive this equation?"
mommyof3 pointed out that Coal is used for 86.9% of Virginia power (AEP)!: "I understand that coal thinks it's still king here in Appalachia and that lots of folks in Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee in particular have cast their lots with coal and its new cousins ‘liquid coal’ and ‘clean coal.’ But those new cousins are experimental at best and are at the development stage. The TWO plants testing the carbon capture technology won't have results we can use until 2011 or 2012. Even if Integrated Gasification (the fancy name for liquid coal) reduces tons and tons of emissions, it doesn't account for the pollution that occurs from the MINING of the coal. No one in the energy sector seems to be looking at this realistically. All they see is that the US has about 30% percent of the world's recoverable coal reserves."
billlaurelMDEnergy Deregulation Hits Me Where I LiveThe BillLaurelMD household has been hit by big utility bills since deregulation went through in MD in 2006. In the winter of 2005-6, I spent about $0.06/kWhr on electricity in an all-electric house. Well, deregulation hit and now I'm paying $0.156/kWh, about 260% more. From the CA experience (and my parents live out in suburban LA, so they've been through this), one can say I and other Marylanders have been Enronized, or maybe more appropriately, Enronicated.
"Dan Nepstad is not just any talking head scientist – he's one of a handful of the world's top earth scientists specializing in global warming dynamics." wrote
bklynarch in Amazon left for dead by biofuels? "His recent report ‘Interactions among Amazon land use, forests and climate: prospects for a near-term forest tipping point’ describes a terrifying razors edge the Amazon finds itself on. If the Amazon tips, it goes from a massive carbon sink to a massive carbon emitter - quite likely leaving much more than itself for dead."
GLOBAL WARMING
No surprise that so many Diarists chimed in on what’s happening at the bottom of the world, one of the last refuges for global warming deniers who have said the temperatures aren’t rising there. DWG noted Massive Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses: "Six ice shelves have already collapsed completely during the past 30 years and the Wilkins is the latest and largests to be threatened. The climate scientists note that since this is sea ice, the crumbling of the Wilkins Ice Shelf will have no impact on sea levels. However, this is a rather large canary to lay dying in the coal mine. Even Fox News, traditional host of the denial machine, covered the death of this canary. .. Carpe Diem, Obama and Clinton. I don't care where you went to church. I don't care what your pastor said. I don't care about misstatements and sleep deprivation. I don't care about superdelegates. I do care about how you will lead this country toward a responsible energy policy that protects our environment."
Deadicated Marxist in Meanwhile in Antarctica...., and Ellinorianne in Losing the battle, Another large Ice Shelf ready to collapse, JohnnyRook in Climaticide Chronicles: The Imminent Collapse of The Wilkins Ice Shelf, and mwmwm in Arctic and Antarctic: styrofoam and Northern Ireland also took up the issue. mwmwm wrote: "Climate chaos – and the required national, political, and international response – may well become the key (and practically only) significant issue in the next five years. If the predictions of IPCC, the National Academy of Sciences, NOAA, and others all turn out to be utopian fantasies, then confronting these issues will be key – and will make the ‘global war on terrorism’ puny by comparison. Which candidate is most likely to respond with the depth, sublety, nuance, and directness necessary to lead the world to sanity? I lean toward Obama, but certainly Clinton would be better, in this scenario, than McCain. Huge sacrifice, and huge realignments, will be required in a fast-climate-chaos scenario. Dramatic reframing of what ‘the American Dream’ is, and dramatic reframing of how we use government to coordinate relief and even survival to its citizens, will be in order."
For A Siegel "...the WIREC trade show was somewhat like being a kid in the candy store. There were so many truly Energy COOL items on the floor, so many chances to meet and speak with people pursuing intriguing (exciting) paths forward. A lot of passionate and capable people."In Lawyers blog global warming, he expressed surprise: "And, then, there were all the lawyers. A lot of lawyers and legal related booths. I truly did not expect this. On reflection, this suggests a limited thinking on my part. Why wouldn't the sharks be gathering? Energy laws are complex and confusing. There are a lot of regulatory issues and navigating those can matter as much as developing a technology. And, not in the least, there is a lot (LOT) of money at stake in the game. And, the existing and coming issues related to moving toward a carbon-constrained economy put even more money on the table, potentially to enrich those who know how to manipulate and navigate the system."
Siegel also posted on Greening March Madness ...: "Some of the most interesting activities related to Greening America are happening on campuses (including high schools). More than 500 university presidents have signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment pledging serious action on their campuses to develop a greenhouse gas reduction plan for their campus, to take action (such as commiting to LEED construction on campus and Energy Star appliance purcahses) even while planning, begin executing the comprehensive plan within two years, and be transparent in processes throughout this plan. In this process, they have allies and watchdogs in their students, like the thousands involved in the Youth Climate Movement. And, those 500 schools are represented in March Madness where we will find out if the Greenest schools are the hottest basketball schools."
Lindsay Meisel opined on the The End of Carbon Price Orthodoxy?: "Then there are those of us who think technology development ought to be at the center of climate change policy. We think this problem is too big for our current energy system to handle, and we will need to devote tremendous resources to creating a new energy infrastructure that can one day support the aspirations of nine billion inhabitants of the planet. We believe that a carbon price can play a role in an R&D-driven agenda, but on it's own, it will not be near enough. A slew of thoughtful articles this week questioned the central role cap-and-trade has played thus far in policy discussions. First there was Tony Blair, quoted in The New York Times, saying that he doubted cap-and-trade without a global carbon regime would work. Given that China and other developing nations have made perfectly clear that they're not interested in joining the Kyoto bandwagon, Blair is implying that emissions trading doesn't cut it as a solution to the carbon problem. Then there was Monica Prasad's op-ed in the Times yesterday describing the failure of Norway's carbon tax, and the success of Denmark's."
Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse gave us the scoop on Report Says Climate Change Happening NOW in Western States: "Today, a report (The West's Changed Climate) (pdf file) by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization (RMCO) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) concluded that climate change is now happening in the western US. The report is based on a comparison of the past 5 years (2003-2007) and found that the American West is heating up now: The West is now heating up at almost twice the rate of the rest of the world: While the global climate has ‘averaged 1.0 degree Fahrenheit warmer than its 20th century average,’ there are 11 western states which ‘averaged 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the region's 20th century average—which represents 70 percent more warming than for the world as a whole.’ Some may criticize that 5 years is not a sufficient period to determine a trend for climate change, but the report is based upon 50 scientific studies, 125 government and scientific sources and their own analysis."
SUSTAINABILITY, LAND & WATER
In -:Eco Design:- There's No Business To Be Done On A Dead Planet, New Sweden gave diehard corporate owners and managers something close to their he ... er ... wallets to think about: " ‘There’s no business to be done on a dead planet!’ In this time of climate change and efforts to protect our global resources, sustainability in design is a more vital topic than ever. Environmental issues and the availability of resources are changing the way we design, the materials we choose and the manufacturing strategies we adopt. With every passing day, these concerns become more relevant to companies and customers alike."
markthshark was astonished to learn that U.S. and Canada Only Countries at U.N. to Deny Water as Human Right: "Not recognizing water as a fundamental human right denies the impetus for governments to address the reality of more than a billion people across the world currently without access to clean water. And, this problem is only going to grow; not to mention the fact that the longer it is before this problem is recognized, the more power over decision-making bleeds from state governments and the U.N. itself in favor of institutions promoting water privatization; decisions that have proved harmful in the past both to the environment and water supplies for poor communities around the world. The tenacity of Germany and Spain is to be commended in continuing to bring up the resolution. So far, it has kept alive hope for NGOs and other groups wanting an international solution to the growing global water crisis. Canada’s latest denial has mobilized thousands of concerned Canadian citizens, demanding that their government reverse its obstinate position. Of course, No one's marching here in the U.S. The malevolent Bush regime (using their corporate compliant press) has successfully ducked their responsibility to lead on this epochal issue; deciding to instead take the side of the mega-capitalists who plan on making a profit on the world’s most fundamental staple."
Thanks to seaturtles, we probably know more about Jekyll Island, Georgia, (at least one side of the story) than we ever thought we would. In : Why people don't trust developers and their enablers, he wrote: "Because they lie to get what they want. It's that simple. It's an epidemic these days – instead of honestly debating disagreements, just characterize those you don't agree with as ‘misguided’ and lie about them (and while you're at it, fudge a few statistics here and there). The Jekyll Island State Park Authority is a body appointed by the Governor to protect and manage Jekyll Island State Park. The guy who heads it up, Ben Porter, is a developer by trade. He is also the person Governor Sonny Perdue tried to illegally install on the GA DNR board. That stunt ended up as an ethical embarrassment. Porter landed on a nice little cushion at the JIA."
FOOD, AGRICULTURE & HORTICULTURE
Frankenoid gave us the skinny on her world in Saturday Morning (Home And) Garden Blogging Vol. 4.6: "It's been a bad gardening week in Denver — cloudy and cool for the most part. On Easter Sunday we had a low of 11° — yeesh, that's cold anytime, let alone in late March! In theory my day off on Wednesday should have been a nice day for working outside — the official high temperature was 72° — in actuality it was impossible. Early cloud cover meant a slow warm-up. Higher afternoon temperatures rode in on the wind — it still felt cold. I ended up spending the majority of the day inside, farting around with taking cuttings off houseplants, repotting, and cleaning up the gardening-related detritus that has accumulated since I started the tomato plants back in February. Yeah, mess has a way of accumulating, doesn't it?"
bink warned that Exploding Food Prices Cause Turmoil in Asia: "The cause of the price increase? No one problem seems to be behind it. Instead, we have a variety of factors, from increased demand in China and India, to seasonal crop failure, to agricultural and land use planning. Industrialized countries in Asia like Asia and South Korea can, of course, endure price increases on staple foods. But developing countries? It's not that easy."
In two more rounds of discussion on the subject shirah wrote Got rBST? The New Pennsylvania Attack on rBST-Free Milk production and >Got rBST? Wal-Mart Is Now Being Targeted by the Monsanto Front Groups: "You read it at here months ago. Amidst the victory celebrations when the harshest form of milk labeling ban failed in Pennsylvania, I predicted that this was not the end. I predicted that Monsanto and its wholly owned subsidiary army of minions would continue to push in many and insidious ways to make the world safe for rBST. ...The new battle ground is not at the Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture. It is with the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board. And the battleground has moved from milk labels to milk prices. ... When Wal-Mart decided to go rBST-free last week, Monsanto knew it was in big trouble. So it's pulling out the big guns. Yes, when the going gets tough, Monsanto's astroturf groups get going.
In a highly personal Diary about a national policy, Rachel Griffiths asked : Did your children eat the Recalled Beef?: "I frantically searched the PDF of School Districts that had received the tainted/recalled beef. Did it go to my children’s school? I silently cried in relief when I saw that my children’s school district was not on the list. But then I saw that my friends and family members’ school districts locally were on the list! I feel ashamed for my relief that at least the beef did not make it to my sons’ lunchroom. The downer-cow beef did make it to the school lunch rooms of my nieces and nephews, and friend’s.
POLITICOS
the choice is yours Diaried about The Political Value of Pushing McCain on Climate Change: "Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have demonstrated their commitment to taking strong and bold action on climate change. ... John McCain on the other hand, is as unstable as ever. After all, he doesn't even have a plan for global warming on his website. Despite the treatment he's received from environment groups and the media, his commitment to the issue is suspect, at best."
The Return Of The Nuclear Dead-Enders made TonyZ hopeful: "After being dealt a trio of disasterous defeats in his attempts to push nuclear power on California, Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has begun a fourth attempt to push this dead-end technology on California. Maybe the fourth failure will be the charm. This time Chucky has enlisted California's Dead-ender in Chief as his main supporter, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Governor spoke to the press recently and derided environmentalist scare tactics that ‘frighten everyone that we're going to have another blowup and all of those things.’ Maybe the Governor was too busy being a kindergarten cop to realize the environmentalists didn't need to do any scaring. Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, unmanageable nuclear waste, a joke of a safety record, sleeping guards, lax federal enforcement, and a construction timeline that does nothing to stop global warming have done all the talking that needs to be done.
Dana in MN has already had enough of a freshman Congresswoman, as s/he wrote in The War on Light Bulbs? MN Rep needs to go...: "Those of us steeped in Minnesota and/or wingnut politics know the name Michele Bachmann. The first-term Congresswoman from the suburbs of St. Paul has been a reliable source of misguided policy, but her latest effort is the kind that should be of concern to independent voters: repealing the phase-out of incandescent light bulbs out of concern for personal freedom and pollution. ... Today in the Star Tribune Bachmann's legislation to reverse the switch to compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) was announced. Titled the ‘Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act,’ the bill seeks to repeal the nationwide phase-out of conventional light bulbs, the kind that have been used for more than a century -- pretty much since the invention of the incandescent light bulb. ..."
Chelsea Sexton lamented that California Regulators Eviscerate Clean Car Mandate Again: "Yesterday the California Air Resources Board (CARB) revised its Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Program, eliminating 70% of previous requirements to produce zero emission vehicles in 20122014. Plug In America calls on California legislators to take over the charge of a pollution free future in the wake of air regulators’ shameful weakening of the ZEV Program. CARB voted to require automakers to produce only 5,357 zero emission vehicles in 2012-2014 while it considers a major overhaul of all clean car regulations in the state. The new regulations require less than an average of 297 zero emission vehicles per year per automaker, which is a 70% drop from the previous regulations, and results in a loss of at least 18,000 plug in hybrids in the same period."
GREEN PHILOSOPHY & GREEN ENTREPRENEURIALISM
Eric Zencey complained about Missouri floods a non-story? Eco-design for floodplains: "It is kind of weird--Bush declares several counties to be disaster areas, and the story is buried. Ecological problems don't seem to be news anymore. People who warn that the ecological roots of industrial culture are unsustainable are accused (mostly by conservatives, but I've been ignored plenty by supposedly progressive types) that we are ‘doomsayers.’ The idea seeming to be, we haven't met our doomsday yet, so all of that concern is just wasted worry. But who's actually got the gloomier world view, if 16 deaths from flooding, and the dislocation of thousands of Midwesterners, is just ho-hum turn the page non-news? I fear that some day we're going to pick up the paper and read ‘Last polar bear dies. Story on page 12.’ We are losing the ecological foundation of civilization by slow degrees, and yet you wouldn't know it from the news. There isn't any one story that pops out and makes people take notice; and it seems they're not even going to notice these ‘routine’ ecological problems, since they don't seem to be news anymore. Some people in the Midwest got wet; wonder who's playing basketball today?"
Nulwee was delighted about a plan Save The Rainforests! and Green Capitalism: "A London investment firm and the government of Guyana will agree to place a monetary value on preserving a segment of one of the world's last four intact rainforests, securing one million acres of tropical rainforest."