From Defenders of Wildlife:
Record number of bison slaughtered around Yellowstone National Park
A record number of bison – over 1,100 – have been slaughtered this winter around Yellowstone National Park. The removal of nearly one-quarter of the park’s bison population dramatically demonstrates the need to reform the rules governing the last stronghold for America’s wild bison.
"Yellowstone’s bison are America’s bison, the last pure descendants of the tens of millions of bison that once thundered through the American landscape," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, executive vice president of Defenders of Wildlife and former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Clinton administration. "Yet as soon as they set foot outside of Yellowstone Park, even onto publicly owned national forests, they are harassed and killed. This is truly one of the worst examples of wildlife management in the country."
The recovery story of bison is both courageous and historic.
Once numbering in the tens of millions, America’s vast herds of bison were almost wiped out in the 1800s. A remnant herd of a couple dozen bison made a last stand in Yellowstone Park, where they staged a comeback against all odds - only to be turned upon by the authorities responsible for their protection. Goaded by the livestock industry, the Montana Department of Livestock is responsible for indiscriminately slaughtering bison that venture outside the park in winter looking for food – with help from Yellowstone park rangers.
"Yellowstone Park is being treated like a zoo," said Mike Leahy, director of Defenders of Wildlife’s Rocky Mountain Region. "Bison aren’t allowed outside the park’s borders, and those that leave the park in search of food are either chased back in or shot."
If you’d like to sign a petition to protest this, log on here.
Here you can find the DailyKos Environmentalists.
Next week, April 12, the Eco-Diary Rescue goes on vacation, returning April 19.
We had our share of April Fool’s Day Eco-Diaries, with entries by reifman, Conservation group plans to relocate polar bears to Antarctica on Earth Day; Stranded Wind , Liposuctioned fat to become biodiesel; xxdr zombiexx, Bush: Global Warming essential to replenishing petroleum, and A Siegel, Gore cancels $300 million ad campaign
FOOD, AGRICULTURE & HORTICULTURE
Several Diarists took note of the rising of food prices worldwide.
The situation is stark, according to Windowdog, who wrote As food prices soar, the poorest of the world will starve: "I track international trade as part of my job. All year there has been a steady drum beat of stories that 2008 was going to be a lean year as far as food stores were concerned. In the last few days however a combination of stories has caught my eye that really drive home the problem facing the world's poor. If you had to pick one grain that represented the diet of humanity, it would be rice. It is the baseline staple crop for over half of the world's population. Yesterday India, a country that became food self sufficient over a generation ago, banned exports of rice (other high priced basmati) as a means of preventing domestic shortages. It joins Vietnam (the traditional rice bowl of asia) Thailand, China, and Egypt who have already restricted exports to some degree in the past few weeks. The causes for the shortage are many, and the long term results are hard to predict, but one thing seems seems certain, if international aid agencies don't see an infusion of donations quickly, some of the poorest people on earth may starve."
dday sought ACTION: Major World Hunger Crisis, 5 Million Or More At Risk Of Starvation60: "We get tunnel vision on superdelegates and stump speeches and credentials committees, all of which have their own level of importance. When I see a headline that millions are in danger of starvation I stop thinking about all that and pay attention. Meteoric food and fuel prices, a slumping dollar, the demand for biofuels and a string of poor harvests have combined to abruptly multiply WFP's (the UN's World Food Program) operating costs, even as needs increase. In other words, if the number of needy people stayed constant, it would take much more money to feed them. But the number of people needing help is surging dramatically. It is what WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran calls ‘a perfect storm’ hitting the world's hungry."
Although starvation isn’t imminent in environmentalist’s neighborhood, the pinch is still being felt, as he wrote in Rising Food Costs Ain't Funny: "My small town is not a cheap place to live. Gas prices ($3.48 today) tend to be $0.40 to $0.60 cents higher than other cities in our state. Then there is the electricity. Our co-op has been raising prices 14% per year over the past three years to help fund the construction new coal-fired power plants (don’t get me started on that one). Propane has gone up about 20%. This doesn’t even get into the home prices or the cost to rent. And my salary? It is probably, much like yours...it didn’t go up at all. Nationally, the USDA claims, food prices went up about four percent in 2007 and are expected to go up another four percent in 2008. That’s a significant hit in my wallet and, I imagine, the wallet of most Americans."
Asinus Asinum Fricat offered a look at Alternative Wheat: the Humble Potato. Our Future?: "With cereal prices soaring worldwide, an international conference has opened in Cusco, Peru, last week on a crop that produces more food on less land than maize, wheat or rice. That crop, which some scientists are calling "the food of the future," is the humble potato. Yes, the old tuber is back in vogue. Grown in more than 100 countries, potato is already an integral part of the global food system. It is the world’s number one non-grain food commodity and world production reached a record 320 million tonnes in 2007. Potato consumption is expanding strongly in developing countries, which now account for more than half of the global harvest and where the potato’s ease of cultivation and high energy content have made it a valuable cash crop for millions of farmers."
K S LaVida warned that we may be headed toward Zimbabwe agriculture in America: "Wow, we're becoming more like Zimbabwe every day. Not only are elections in dispute, but one of the last of our major industries, agriculture, is suffering as a result of anti-immigrant politics. From today's New York Times comes this story about a big Pennsylvania farmer who won't plant his tomatoes this year because he can't get immigrant workers to pick them in the late summer: This is the crux of a tense, if largely unspoken, conflict between politics and reality in a state with 40,000 commercial farms. On many of those farms, crops requiring hand-picking are either not being put in this year, or are being planted by farmers who cannot be sure they will have the workers to harvest them, farm experts say."
Other problems for farmers were pointed out in Scaredhuman ’s Diary, The other campaign in Pennsylvania: "This writer has tried to let the liberal community, through this blog, know how dire things are for farmers, a community that continues to fall mainly outside of the scope of progressive attention to the benefit of those who making what can only be called a totalitarian move on what is left of family farming in this country through NAIS. ... Yesterday, a group of people with one reporter in attendance gathered in western Pennsylvania on a 143 acre farm, to listen to two disturbing speeches and to watch two riders and a boy traveling with them by bike, set off on an historic mission. They are carrying news of what is happening to American farming."
OrangeClouds115 spent the week digging into The Dirtiest Scandal of All: "For a solid week, I had my nose buried in this book and all I could talk about to anyone were bacteria, fungi, and nematodes. The contents of that book expose the DIRTIEST, FILTHIEST scandal of all in our society. Why dirtiest? Well, for one thing, it's all about dirt. Or - to use a better word - soil. But bad puns aside, we would have a VERY different and MUCH healthier environment if the knowledge in this one little book were widely known. You'd see no dead zone the size of New Jersey in the Gulf of Mexico, for example, and that's just the start..."
Frankenoid is so funny, always talking about Denver as if the weather there has been unusual, when, in fact, unusual was always the defining characteristic of the Denver weather in the three decades I lived nearby Saturday Morning (Home And) Garden Blogging Vol. 4.6: "Man, but the weather has been weird here in Denver — we'll get a day or two of semi-nice (if windy) weather, followed off and on cloudy, drippy wet. How weird has it been? This March was the third driest on record — but instead of Denver's usual sunshine, there were only 6 "fair" days, and the remainder were either cloudy or partly cloudy; very unusual for Denver. And we had 11 days with fog! Fog! In Denver! Instead of our usual March snow dumps of several inches, followed by sunshine, we had lots of clouds, but little snow. It's been cloudy, cold, and damp — but not wet."
Spud1 regaled us with a tale of Maine Maple Sunday: "March had five Sundays, and so many of those that boil down sap to make maple syrup put off their open houses a week so as to avoid having it on Easter. The man that taps my father in-law's trees, like the ones that line his driveway shown at right, did so. You'll note the metal buckets hanging at the base of these stately trees, and this being a good year, they were often emptied twice a day. The trees are bored with a drill and the spigot inserted. Many folks now pipe the sap using plastic tubing to a central collection tank - but one must be careful - further inland from us, there is so much snow that these people can't find their lines they are buried so deep. That's Adam Rice, enveloped by steam from his evaporator. With his wife and his daughters, he uses the free time that the weather forces on his logging business to harvest sap from around his farm, some days pulling in more than a hundred gallons (and yes, it cooks down forty to one: forty gallons of sap will yield one gallon of syrup)."
POLLUTION & RECYCLING
upstatetimmyhad some Thoughts on NY bottle bill: "New York's bottle bill turned 25 last year. Fred LeBrun has an interesting column in Wednesday's Albany Times Union regarding an enhanced bottle bill that has been kicking around the NY legislature for a number of years. It has passed the NY Assembly but has been stalled in the Senate. His column follows on the heels of an article by TU Capitol Bureau reporter Irene Jay Liu about the irony of the bottling industry, the current recipient of unclaimed container deposits [estimated to be $100M-$190M per year], funneling hundreds of thousands of $$ of that money to lobby lawmakers to keep the bill, which would direct unclaimed container deposits to the state's environmental fund, from succeeding."
NNadir digs around in the scientific literature looking at The Level of Perfluoroorganic Chemicals in World Trade Center Responders: "It turns out that the now ignored and forgotten World Trade Center attacks were, among other things, an experiment in the injection of large amounts of electronic component waste into human flesh. The subject is covered in a current issue of Environ. Sci. Tech. A Publically Available News Item in the Journal Is Here.... Just so we're clear here, the levels of these compound is not zero for people who have never been to New York. These compounds are now detectable in the flesh of every living mammal on the planet."
GREEN PHILOSOPHY & ENTREPRENEURIALISM
Ice Shelf Shifts. Bee Colonies Collapse. Bats Perish. Mother Earth Tortured were all on Bcgntn’s mind in: "Those who are five percent of the planet's population, and consume twenty-four percent of the resources care not for what is invisible. While Americans see the weather from their windows, and are aware of the conditions in their backyards, until the community in which they live experiences a weather-related crisis the public does not think there is reason to worry, Often, after a catastrophe, neighbors cleanup. The city removes the wreckage. Business and families rebuild. Then, everyone is content. People continue to live as though the earlier episode was a singular incident. Few question the cause beyond what they can easily observe and conclude. Since Spring is upon us, our countrymen are concerned with floods, just not the an ice shelf shift in the South Pole might cause. People understand the season of overflows is fast approaching. Most believe themselves protected. Insurance is meant to shelter subscribers from the effects of an excessively rainy day. However, what of the storm some ‘scientists’ tell us is no reason for panic."
iSenseChange spoke of the Android to Ostrich: On the General Ashtraying of the Planet: "Seems like the other guys, the status quo guys that travel around the world on the oil company's dime quasi-refuting these things are the ones that can't even really nail down what a scientific theory or peer-review paper is. Whole thing reminds me of these Creationist idiots in the final analysis: ‘Ooooooh, you have a theory. Well, I can have a theory too. Everybody can have a theory on everything and mine is that the world was created by a benevolent, invisible, superhuman master to whom we must all bow and pray to or we will be sent to an eternity of fire and pain.’ Hey, believe what you want, just don't try to call it science unless it's jumped the necessary hurdles, right?"
The FBI's War on (Eco)Terrorism irked Stologqdd : "Here's something to add to Guantánamo Bay, NSA spying, and the war on illegal immigration for places where the Bush administration's war on terror is getting out of hand. I just read this article on Salon.com: Is Briana Waters a terrorist?. To summarize the article, according to the FBI, if you set fire to a building it's arson. Unless your an environmental activist, in which case it's terrorism, and deserves the full use of the FBI's anti-terrorism resources, and a sentence many times longer than for mere arson. So this mother, violin teacher, and environmental activist, who might have kept watch while some accomplices set fire to an empty lab (the article raises some doubts as to her guilt), might now be thrown in prison for 20 years for terrorism."
mem from somerville wondered whether getting people to pay attention might benefit from The Triangle Shirtwaist Moment: "Today I attended a conference in Boston, down:2:earth.....But there were some things that I found unsettling. First: this was really preaching to the choir. My friend found out about this from her CSA newsletter. Another friend heard about it from the ZipCar membership he has. These are people already eating local and not owning a car. I know--that's a great group to reach out to. But when everyone in the room at the session raised their hand for various questions about their current efforts on sustainability, we are seeing the choir. Only the choir. I found the people in the seats knew as much or more about sustainability than most of the speakers. ... The choir gets it."
ENERGY
Mountain top removal, a subject that has caught the attention of several Diarists ever since Contributing Editor Devilstower highlighted the issue in a series several months ago, was prominent in the Eco-Diaries last week.
In a brief overview, RoyJCarter wrote Mountain Top Removal: "In the past two decades more than 470 mountains have been decapitated, more than 1,000 miles of headwater streams have been filled, and more than a million acres of hardwood forests have been stripped from an area the size of Delaware, all for the purpose of extracting cheap fuel for coal fired power plants in the Midwest and South, power plants whose pollutants cause premature deaths, hospitalizations for respiratory and cardiovascular complications, asthma attacks, and the further deterioration of the forests in our own Blue Ridge mountains. In the name of economic development and job creation, large coal corporations in Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee are sapping the economic future of coalfield mountain communities. They are destroying the mountains themselves, degrading water quality in the area, increasing the risk of downstream flooding, and permanently altering aquatic and forest habitat."
faithfull pointed to an important but flawed remedy to this lethal reality in Coal Companies Blowing up Mountains to Poison Air and Shatter Climate: "But, coal is being used to literally poison our air, with direct and devastating impacts on human health, increased medicare costs, tourism in our national parks. Coal emissions are literally killing people, and de-stabalizing climactic patterns to the point that we are potentially endangering the ability of the human species to persist on Planet Earth. Now...in danger of sounding like a sourpuss on an otherwise sunny day, I am pleased to announce that the wonderful people of Appalachia, never known to take it lying down, are organizing, and standing up to powerful coal interests to protect their homes from mountaintop removal. The Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169) has 129 co-sponsors in the House, and Presidential candidates (all 3) are talking (though imperfectly) about addressing mountaintop removal."
S/he also wrote about Obama on MTR: ‘Protecting Appalachian Waterways Primary Task of my EPA’: "Our candidates lack of outright opposition to mountaintop removal has lit a wildfire in the blogosphere and mainstream media, reviving debate over coal and carbon, energy and emissions, and extraction and our environment. We are seeing candidates take two distinct approaches. Within Senator Obama's plan, we are seeing the seeds of an ambitious approach to tackle the issue of mountaintop removal. But we still have a long way to go with both candidates to encourage them to do the right thing..."
And s/he noted that Appalachian Coal breaks $100/ton!!!
General Electric: Killing Chinese Workers For A Cleaner Environment was the claim put forth in a report highlighted by Tasini: "A report released a few days ago by Policy Matters Ohio investigated production of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) at a plant in China in which GE has a significant stake. It’s a great notion to replace the energy-sucking incandescent light bulbs with CFLs but what is the price: CFLs contain mercury, like other fluorescents, in order to function. Mercury is a well-known toxin, and mercury vapor can cause serious damage to the central nervous system. Though the amount of mercury in a CFL is small, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends opening a window and leaving the room for at least 15 minutes before beginning clean-up of a broken bulb. Yet workers at the Topstar plant do not receive ‘a detailed account of work dangers’ as their contracts stipulate, receive little safety training and often do not know basic facts about factory safety. The majority of workers interviewed told researchers they had no idea that the company was using mercury, or how to protect themselves. Told the meaning of the character for mercury, or gong, they said there were many plastic barrels on which ‘discarded objects containing gong’ was written in red. The barrels were filled with CFLs and often were open or not properly sealed."
In two of many Diaries that have appeared in the past few months on the problems associated with biofuels,
nextstep explained how Ethanol: Great Politics, Ineffective Energy: "Corn Ethanol is becoming the Iraq war of energy policy. A policy based on lies, that initially won supporters political advantage, is highly destructive to the US, and ultimately destructive to its supporters when the costly truth becomes widely known. In 2007, 115 US plants produced 7 billion gallons of Corn Ethanol - the energy equivalent of 132 million barrels of oil using about 30% of corn production. While this sounds large, it is tiny in the context of the US economy. This is equal to only 1.6% of the energy from from oil in 2007 used in the US. But the situation is worse than this because it takes 1 unit of fossil fuel to produce 1.3 units of corn ethanol. The net energy produced was only 0.5% of the energy from from oil - while consuming 30% of the US corn crop!"
xaxnar also took on the subject in Ethanol, Corn, and Food Prices; It's not just about the Midwest: "Since corn is a major raw material for ethanol production, what happens as farmers chase the money has effects all over the place. Growing corn is very energy intensive for one, so replacing gasoline with corn based ethanol may actually be a losing proposition. Further, corn is the base of a large part of the American food chain; things that affect pricing and supply of corn impact a lot of other things. As the Times Union article from the AP notes – Farmers are expected to plant 86 million acres of corn this year, the Department of Agriculture predicted Monday, down 8 percent from 2007, when the amount of corn planted was the highest since World War II. The decreased supply could drive corn prices even higher -- a cost for food producers that could be passed on to consumers. "
Renew Missouri informed us about an attempt to get a measure on the ballot to Support Clean Energy in Missouri: "Missourians and national groups alike have been calling for mandatory Renewable Electricity Standards (RES). No other policy is as effective at spurring the development of renewable energy. Unfortunately, Missouri is missing this opportunity, as our elected leaders have not yet passed this critical law. Two-thirds of Missourians support an RES, so it's up to us to bring this issue to Missouri voters. Help get the Clean Energy Initiative on Missouri's November 2008 ballot!"
A Siegel urged us to evaluate ActBlue candidates to see if they will can be counted upon to Vote Energy Smart, not Energy Dumb: "In 2008, across the country, we have the opportunity for similarly stark shifts from Energy Dumb to Energy Smart elected officials. This diary is an appeal for help in identifying Energy Smart vs Energy Dumb opportunities across the country, for developing a strategy for bringing attention to these campaigns and these issues, and helping change the balance in Congress when it comes to energy-related legislative activity."
paprog complained that Rendell opens state forests to oil and gas drilling: "In 2002, Pennsylvania's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) proposed auctioning 500,000 acres of state forest land for oil and gas drilling. ... Eventually, the DCNR ended up auctioning about 50,000 acres, a ninety percent reduction from its original proposal. In 2003, following the fallout of the DCNR's auction, the agency placed a moratorium on oil and gas drilling in Pennsylvania's state forests. ... In 2007, the DCNR announced its intention to lift the moratorium as the oil and gas industry stepped up pressure to open these lands while oil and gas prices were at record levels. Once again, the citizens of Pennsylvania spoke out and told the DCNR to protect our state forests. All you have do is look at the state's only national forest, the Allegheny National Forest, to see the impacts of oil and gas drilling. But the DCNR did not listen and lifted the ban on April 1, 2008. This will allow oil and gas companies to drill shallow oil and gas wells in addition to deep gas wells. And what does the oil and gas industry and their supporters in the state legislature have to say?"
Lib Dem FoP wrote about the coming of age of an exotic energy source in Environment Round-Up: "In Northern Ireland, the first commercial tidal flow power generator has been installed. The single column/double rotor unit will generate enough power for over 1,000 homes. Unlike wind power, the times of peak output are entirely predictable."
mandot alerted us to an effort we can help to organize locally for July 4th - Oil Independence Day: "From the environment to health and security, energy (sustainable and otherwise) truly does permeate our lives. Oil Independence Day is going to be a global campaign to inject energy awareness into mainstream media and public consciousness. While there are no specific local events planned yet, we are developing a strategy to reach out to social and environmental groups all over the world to help organize and promote the Day in their communities."
RisingTideNA let us know of the reward some people got when they Take Al Gores Advice = Get Tasered... Protesters Blockade Coal Plant and 100 more April 1 actions: "Yesterday was "fossil fools day" an international day of protest against the dirty energy industry for their promotion of climate change and resource wars, the protest was called for by Rising Tide and many other groups. Globally 100 fossil fools protests took place on April 1. <Although the actions were by no means due to his adivce, it's worth noting that Al Gore suggested such tactics last summer. Around a hundred actions -- include about a dozen involving civil disobedience -- took place around the world. In North Carolina, protesters who had chained themselves to bulldozers at a coal plant under construction were tasered by police despite being immobilized while ‘locked-down’ to bulldozer." </p>
Asinus Asinum Fricat provided Some Good Solar News: "All we need is to find inexpensive ways to convert more homes as Solar cells now only supply electricity to no more than 2.4 million homes worldwide."
juliewolf read some articles about the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant that didn’t make her too comfortable, as she reported in Follow the Bouncing Ball: "Sometimes, when you don't read the news for a couple days and try to catch up, you catch something interesting. Every one of these is from Vermont's Rutland Herald, all within the period from April 1 - April 4, and together they make a kind of a pattern that I think may possibly cause me aneurysm."
POLITICOS
rjones2818 told us that Kucinich Helps to Secure Major Changes In EPA Rule on Lead: "Lead in paint is still a major problem in the US. Many sites, including many older homes, still have lead paint (perhaps under layers of non-lead paint). The EPA has issued rules as to how to handle the removal of the older lead paint. ’I applaud the EPA for finally taking action, nearly two decades after Congress mandated it, to protect children, families, and workers from the hazards of lead poisoning as a result of home renovation,’ said Kucinich. "One of the good things about having a Congressman like Dennis is that he keeps working for the good of all of us. While lead paint removal might not be a glamorous as FISA or SCHIP (which, by the way, Dennis was right on in both instances, IMHO), it is an issue which still causes problems for millions of Americans."
Dirk McQuigley opined that McCain's ‘global warming’ rhetoric is hot air: "Has anyone else noticed that the McCain campaign and its surrogates have been using the phrase ‘global warming’ to differentiate the Arizona Senator from President Bush. The problem for McCain is it is easy to see through this cynical ploy which will only cause him more damage from his own party than will gain any votes. McCain or any other Republican ( with the exception of former RI Sen. Lincoln Chafee) talking about global warming or ANY environmental issue is just making empty promises. Although Nixon signed the law creating the EPA and Bush I did the same for the Clean Water Act, they were merely signing popular legislation passed by Democratic majorities in Congress."
greenvoting built a helpful green machine and told us about it with Advice on Environmental Wiki Website: "Last year I decided that I wanted to figure out a way to give students at my university a substantive experience in online organizing. I've read Daily Kos forever, and I was inspired by the 2008 Race Tracker that was put together with the Swing State Project. My academic and personal interests hew toward environmental politics, so I decided to try to organize a group of students who would collaborate on a new environmental website. Unfortunately, students are busy and Obama fever is high on campus, so it was difficult to get commitments. I changed tactics this semester and decided to teach an environmental politics seminar and require participation in the Web site as part of a class project. Nothing like a captive audience! Thus was born greenvoting.com"
AWhitneyBrown warned us that Al Gore Is Watching All of This The answer is simple, Fellow Democrats. You are not worthy! Al Gore is watching you, be sure of that. He is watching over all of you, even as he watches over the planet. Occasionally sparrows do fall without his knowing of it, but when it comes to Democrats, he sees all, knows all. He weeps when you criticize your fellow Democrats, did you know that? He actually weeps when that happens. It disappoints him. When you fail to train your sights on John McCain, he is vexed. When the candidate you don't support makes a gaffe, or tells a lie, go ahead, jump on it and blast them. But be aware that he is watching. And know that each invitation to attack your Fellow Democrat is not an opportunity, but a test. A test that Al Gore hopes you will pass. When you fail that test, he is vexed. When you suggest starving the DCCCC to punish them for being threatened by other donors, he is vexed. These are the things that incur his wrath. When you forget about the Supreme Court, or what is at stake in November, just as when you forget to turn off your lights, this also makes him wroth."
Two Diarists challenged the environmental damage from a federal project now underway. VoteHarder wrote Breaking: Bush admin to bypass 30 laws to build border fence: "Apparently building an impenetrable concrete wall will make it hard for wildlife to access the Rio Grande, especially during migration. But hey, the people who want The Fence obviously hate Mexicans more than they need nature, so whatever. Chertoff has a priceless statement tucked into each of the articles I found: ’Criminal activity at the border does not stop for endless debate or protracted litigation,’ Chertoff said in a statement issued Tuesday. He's right. Criminal activity does not stop at the border, it goes on all the way to the halls of Washington, where heroes like him will continue to plow through laws until we're all safe and white and shopping cheerfully as God intended. Bless you, Mikey Chertoff. You are a beautiful person! I am so glad you are in a position of authority in the United States government!"
FoundingFatherDAR followed up with Chertoff Waives Environmental Laws for Border Fence (Action Item): "As explained yesterday in Voteharder's diary, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff is imposing a blanket waiver of environmental and land management laws along 470 miles of the U.S./Mexico border so the U.S. can move forward with building a fence along portions of the border. The Defenders of Wildlife and Sierra Club have filed suit to stop the Bush administration from such sweeping disregard of environmental laws. But in the meantime they need our help."
A Siegel asked (rhetorically, of course) whether McCain better than Gore on Global Warming ... ???: "Anyone with an open mind realizes that the ‘Straight Talk Express’ has little relationship with action for McFlip, McFlop, McSame McCain as the man (the politician) truly seems to excel at telling people to ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ Sadly, this is the case when it comes to Global Warming, where McCain's Green Straight Talk Express is truly a Dirty Energy Twisted Delay Action Machine. Realityaside, McCain surrogates are seeking to create an image of John McCain as a real green machine. They are seeking a triumph of truthiness over truth."
RDemocrat informed us about More Distortions From Exxon Ed Whitfield: "It is a work of fantasy which compares with J.R. Tolkien, and R.A. Salvatore. Today we will continue our fantasy reading on another essential issue that could really help our farmers and workers here in Western Kentucky, the issue of investment in renewable energy. Lets look at Exxon Eddie's quote on Energy Independence: High energy costs weigh on every Kentucky family and that is why Congressman Whitfield has been focused on alternative energy solutions like clean coal technology, ethanol, bio diesel and coal gasification to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. Now, this fantasy unfortunately doesn't match with the reality of Exxon Eddie's voting record. He says he is focused on Renewable Energy, but the opposite is true."
lowkell also blasted one of our elected leaders in Carcinogens, Corruption, and a Conservative Congresscritter To sum up, what we have here involves: a golf course made from dirty Dominion fly ash; cancer causing heavy metals; a sale of property at far below assessed value (to Rep. Thelma Drake's son's company, no less); and a suspicious tax break form the city to the golf course. Let's just put it this way: it doesn't take an Orthodox Rabbi to figure out that something here ain't kosher!
GLOBAL WARMING
eparrot gave what someone called the best eco-headline ever in More climate change skeptics shot down like an attorney hunting with the V.P. First, one brief comment - we should refer to the dangers of sea level and temperatures rising as climate change, not global warming. As most kossacks know, the problems are systemic, resulting from how all the different parts of the global climate interact. Warming one most notable general trend, but not only does it avoid some of the important problems (CO2 levels rising, ice caps melting), it provides a built in way for skpetics to point to record snowfall or freezing temperatures and joke about the DFH who talk about it. In fact, one theory (granted not one that is currently given a high likelihood of happening - more here) is that the gulf stream will disappear due to an influx of cold water from the melting poles and northern Europe will get colder. But I digress. Most climate change skeptics are not scientists.
gmoke gave us the skinny on a new organization at 350 PPM or Bust: "There was a green exposition at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston called Down 2 Earth this weekend. I went because I wanted to see Bill McKibben and what he's up to since he organized Step It Up. Now he's starting a new organization called 350.org, the purpose of which is to get out the idea that we need to limit our CO2 to 350 parts per million, 350 ppm, into the public consciousness. This is going to be difficult as we are already at 385 ppm today. McKibben is following the lead of Dr James Hansen of NASA whose most recent research indicates the 350 ppm is our climate change redline. Over 350 ppm and we lose the ice cover on the Arctic and start positive feedback loops that result in atmospheric warming such as we probably haven't seen as a species. You can read the paper at http://www.columbia.edu/... [pdf alert]"
Pay No Attention to Footnote Number 5 was Target Global Warming’s exposé of some industry propaganda at work: "Two industry groups, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF), have been relentlessly hyping an ‘independent study’ claiming that the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act will destroy the economy. Massive job losses! Huge increases in energy prices! Panic! Why was so much attention paid to the study? It came from Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), a leading science adviser to the federal government. Sounds credible, right? But there's just one problem - SAIC has disassociated itself from the results. Why? Because ACCF and NAM had their thumbs on the scale."
bklynarch warned us of The Awakening Great White Whale: "With the latest readings from NOAA (look particularly at the graph showing the biggest temperature rises over the Siberian forest.) it is another concrete Clarion call to action. It seems that the melting permafrost has likely got a one way ticket for the foreseeable future - that is until we can turn our CO2 spewing boat around. Our future may be defined by the simple calculation of how fast the permafrost is going to melt - and like Hansen's 350, another number may come to haunt us: 500. That's the over 500 billion metric tons of carbon that the permafrost is estimated to hold. For comparison, we globally, currently emit about 7.4 billion tons of carbon each year - without including deforestation. (Take the 27,245,758,000 CO2 emissions number and divide by 3.67 to get carbon.)"
States Unite To Sue The Environmental ‘Protection’ Agency over global warming was isucyclones94’s Diary about a new lawsuit: "Attorney generals from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia are uniting to sue the EPA for not acting on global warming and will give the EPA 60 days to do something about it. The EPA fails to act again, and has not responded to the accusals."
SUSTAINABILITY
BruceMcF was up again burning the midnight oil, this time on behalf of Living Energy Independence: "I just recently discussed Tiny Houses as one extreme end of a range of a more sustainable approach to housing. And, because they strike me as really cool, the examples I focused on where the kind of Tiny Houses that can be picked up, put on a trailer, and hauled around, like an old fashioned Shepherd's Wagon, except with inside plumbing, excellent insulation, and 11 foot ceilings in the main living space. Mind you, I always thought that the old-fashioned Shepherd's Wagon was kind of cool, so add all those ‘except for's,’ and its no surprise I thought these were cool. However, just as cool in their own way are the Tiny Houses intended to be built from modular parts on a foundation on site."
In a densely packed thought piece, niccolo caldararo explored Japan and the Future of Human Population Dynamics
: "Recent articles on Japan argue that its economy is failing due to a lack of consumer spending. However, the Japanese appear to be on a more sustainable path than the rest of the world. With near zero population growth, low consumer spending and therefore consumption, the Japanese are producing a more sustainable economic model. The transformation of their economy into a low domestic waste producing and energy driven model departs dramatically from that of the West and comes close to that described as ‘steady-state’ systems proposed in the 1970s by Herman E. Daly. This change should be studied and copied by the global economy. That Japan has varied its population in the past during similar transitions in technology or political institutions should be of interest to students of public policy."
Code Breaker explained how Urban living can save you plenty on gasoline: "Here's a novel idea to save money: Live in an urban area. Long-term, it will absolutely save you money. How? By reducing your time in the car and saving hundreds, if not thousands, in gas. Suburban areas have segregated uses. This means that all of the places in a community (residences, schools, businesses, restaurants, office buildings, etc.) are kept in separate places. Accordingly, you have to take more crowded roads and drive longer distances than you would if you lived in an urban area. The average commute for a Pennsylvanian in 2003 was 23.8 minutes. In 2008, that number jumped to 25 minutes. The time will only continue to rise. The result of segregated uses is that Americans are driving more than at any point before in our history. In 1977, Americans drove an average of 4,200 miles per year. As families left urban cores and moved to suburbs, that number skyrocketed. In 2001, the average American drove 8,200 miles a year."
ThatPoshGirl raised some eyebrows with her Diary, Build a 2300 sqft home for under $30,000? Yes you can!: "So, how does one build a cheap, energy-efficient home? The answer is around you every day, dirt. Cob houses are made with a mixture of clay, straw, sand, earth and water. The ingredients are similar to an adobe brick home, but, unlike adobe homes, cob houses can be built in wet areas and areas prone to earthquakes. Because the earth walls of a cob home are typically more than 2ft thick, they are naturally energy-efficient. Meaning cob homes stay cool in the summer, and warm in the winter. Cob homes also give home-owners more control over design and construction. They are owner-built, and the unique nature of the material gives the owner-builder the ability to create nearly any kind of design. With a little help from your friends and a few free weekends, you can build your own cob home for next to nothing, often from materials that are already on site."
ANIMALS
> lineatus gave us a breather with Dawn Chorus Birdblog: Anza Borrego: "Desert wildflowers, Swainson's hawks and soaring mountains... can't beat it. I was desperately in need of recharging, and a long-planned trip to Anza-Borrego and Salton Sea (in southern California, inland from San Diego) was just the right way to do it."
Jane Fleming Kleeb, (janefleming) the Executive Director of the Young Voter Pac, took note of an annual migration in Sandhill Cranes Descend Upon Nebraska: "Every year around this time Sandhill Cranes descend upon Nebraska. The Audubon’s Rowe Sanctuary is an organization, led by Brad Mellema, that works to educate the public about the cranes as well as conserve the land that the cranes visit every year as part of their migration path. Video I created for MTV here: http://think.mtv.com/... The Rowe Sanctuary has been around since 1974 and now has over 1,400 acres of land it conserves for the cranes. The cranes are a beautiful sight to witness. They are the oldest bird on our planet with fossils placing cranes in Nebraska up to 9 million years ago. The cranes are very social and are "family" birds mating for life and staying with their offspring. Nebraska provides the birds a safe haven and a place to put on some weight before their long journey north to as far away as Siberia."
DEVO9SAM urged us to Please sign this to stop it---(Warning:photos in link)-brutal animal cruelty: "Action alert!!! I was forwarded this this morning and could not believe my eyes. I feel it appropriate here because as Dems we have hearts and a conscious. Additionally, I am not an advocate of censorship but I believe this is an atrocity. It is also something we can do something about. ... In August 2007, Costa Rican artist Guillermo Habacuc Vargas, took a street dog, tied him with a short rope to a wall of an art gallery in Managua, Nicaragua, and let him die slowly of starvation and thirst, as ‘installation.’ Now he plans on doing it again."
juliewolf let us in on correction she wrote in Owl Populations in Vermont: How the Media Gets it Wrong While Getting it Right: "A few days ago, I posted this to Birding New England: In today's Rutland Herald there's a very good piece with a very bad title: ‘VINS: Owl population on rise in Vermont.’ The article itself is good. It talks about the details behind the barred owl population and how its in trouble due to poor food sources this year, and how people are spotting them a lot more due to this malnutrition, etc. The problem is entirely with the headline, which suggests that just because more people are spotting a nocturnal bird means that the bird's population is on the rise. "
MISCELLANY
In a pair of Diaries – Spanish Water Crisis About to Become a War? and his The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly... Nowhere (Econoticiario Special Edition), JohnnyRook pondered resource conflict: "Tensions in Spain over water are increasing. In addition to the disputes between town and countryside in Catalonia, there is now evidence of strain between the central government in Madrid and the Generalitat in Barcelona. In the face of a drought that has now lasted 18 months and reduced Catalan reservoirs to 21% of capacity, the Catalan government has finally revealed a plan, about which there had been much speculation, subterfuge and political maneuvering: to divert water from the Segre River to the Llobregat River, despite warnings from the central government that water policy is a question for federal not regional authorities. Conflict is not limited to the Northeast: further south, the province of Castilla-La Mancha has announced that further transfers from the Tajo (Tagus) River to the Segura which serves the water-short Murcia area's 2 million people, are impossible."
environmentalist alerted us to an upcoming congressional action in National Landscape Conservation Act Gets a Vote: "I’ve been told that the National Landscape Conservation Act is finally going to get a vote. Next Wednesday, April 9, 2008. It’s about time. In June 2000, the National Landscape Conservation System - the most innovative American land system created in the last 40 years - was established to protect the crown jewels of the public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The 26 million-acre Conservation System includes more than 800 individual units: 15 National Monuments, 13 National Conservation Areas, Steens Mountain Cooperative Management Protection Area in Oregon, Headwaters Forest Reserve in northern California, 38 Wild and Scenic Rivers, 183 Wilderness Areas, more than 5,100 miles of National Scenic and Historic Trails, and 604 Wilderness Study Areas."
TRANSPORTATION
codylyon explained Why Some NYC Cyclists See Joy in Congestion Pricing Scheme: "Last year, New York City Michael Blomberg announced his support for what is called a "congestion pricing" scheme in New York City's Manhattan. Yesterday the plan moved a step closer to fruition after the New York City Council approved the controversial idea, which now goes to the State Legislature and Governor. (who has said he supports it). The plan would result in automobiles being charged $8 to drive into the highly congested areas below 86th Street . The market based theory, similar to a plan implemented years ago in London, would probably reduce auto traffic, estimated to be around 850 thousand cars daily, by around 20 percent according to most experts."
S/he also showed what Gas Prices Further Economic Injustice In the Black Belt: "Throughout the United States, there are places so isolated and impoverished that residents are literally unable to access the basic economic and educational ladders of opportunity that so many others take for granted. The impoverished rural areas in Alabama's Black Belt region offer testament to a nation that appears to have forgotten vast swaths of its own people. In fact, some might say Alabama's Black Belt presents a case study of blatant economic injustice. Here is a story from The Birmingham News that illustrates just one, but obviously major symptom of that apparent truth."
Ellinorianne was a little skeptical about motives in GM Calls for more Hydrogen Stations as Oil Companies Defend Their Profits: "Establishing an infrastructure to fuel hydrogen-powered vehicles is ‘economically viable and doable,’ General Motors Corp. said Wednesday as the auto giant keynoted the National Hydrogen Association's annual meeting. This is not coming from Al Gore or a major environmental group but from General Motors. Is it possible they've seen the light or that they've realized that alternatives can make money too?"
And maxomai was at first taken aback, too, as he explained in Ford Motor Company Goes Green: "I admit that I didn't believe it when I heard what they were doing, and I had to read the shareholder's report twice before I did. Here's what's going down: 1) Ford is putting $10m into Tesla Motors, in the hopes of incorporating their electric sports car technology into their Jaguar and Ford Thunderbird products; 2) They're also putting significant research effort into building trucks that use the Tesla technology for towing power. Of course, the batteries are an issue; 3) Starting with the next model year, all truck and SUV lines have the option of running on diesel or biodiesel. That includes hybrids. In 2010 this will be standard on ALL Ford models; 4) They're partnering with Honda to put CVT and hybrid motor technology into their Volvo line. I like this move a LOT. Nothing pulls the yuppie and hipster dollars like Volvo, and throwing hybrid on that means they'll eat Toyota for dinner."
JohnnyRook explained to us something that we could possibly be seeing a lot of soon – Hybrid Cargo Ships: The Return of the Age of Sail: "On January 22, 2008, the 10,000-ton cargo ship M.V. Beluga Skysails set out on a journey to Venezuela. Steaming out of the harbor it appeared to be just one of many merchant ships, however when it reached open sea something very unusual took place: a computerized arm on the vessels bow released a large kite, which rose high into the air and began to pull the ship through the water, in effect creating a hybrid cargo ship running on conventional fuel and wind power. The age of sail had returned. By March 13 the M.V. Beluga Skysails was in Norway having visited Venezuela, and the United States along the way and having traveled 12,000 miles. The experimental vessel's maiden voyage had been a success."
New Sweden touted a liquid other than gasoline and diesel to run our cars in the Diary Transportation- Ever heard of DME (dimethyl-ether) one of the most efficient renewable fuels?: "So what is DME? It's an alternative with extremely low exhaust emissions and if the fuel is produced from biomass it is carbon dioxide-neutral. With modest changes, a diesel engine can run on DME. DME is cheap to produce, relatively easy to handle and distribute. DME has different application areas. Today DME is used as a fuel in households and in industries, and as a propellant in spray-cans. DME has good prospects for becoming a widespread fuel, but then it is necessary for major players both within and outside the transport industry to interact."