Every week Daily Kos diarists write dozens of environmentally related posts. Many don't get the readership they deserve. Helping improve the odds is the motivation behind the Green Diary Rescue. In the past seven years, there have been 251 of these spotlighting more than 15,294 eco-diaries. Below are categorized links and excerpts to 45 more that appeared in the past seven days. That makes for lots of good reading during the spare moments of your weekend. [Disclaimer: Inclusion of a diary in the rescue does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.] |
The Daily Bucket: rare oak woodland habitat—by
OceanDiver: "On a day trip over to San Juan Island to take care of some business at our county seat there, I went across the island to the west side to see one of the rarest habitats in western Washington, a Garry Oak woodland. The predominant feature of this ecosystem is the Garry Oak (Quercus garryana), the only kind of oak native to the Pacific Northwest. It's important to realize that the San Juan Islands have never been wilderness. Ever since the ice sheet retreated 10,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age, and the islands emerged from the meltwater, people have lived here and worked the islands. But before 'European' settlement of this area in the mid 1800s, there were extensive oak woodlands here, as elsewhere across the Garry Oak range (mostly northern California to southern British Columbia, on the coastal side of the Cascade Mountain Range). Today, small patches barely survive, although several organizations are actively restoring this habitat in places. What happened to the oak woodlands? And how can current threats be mitigated? I can provide a brief overview, with links to current research and restoration efforts."
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Southern Illinois Unprepared for Social Costs of Fracking Boom—by Willinois: "The Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence is concerned southern Illinois is unprepared for the social costs of a potential fracking boom. Most attention is given to the environmental consequences of fracking, but a Pennsylvania study by Food & Water Watch is bringing focus to social impacts on rural areas. Arrests for nuisance crimes, drug use and sexually transmitted disease rates went up disproportionately in fracking regions. I spoke with ILCADV's executive director, Vickie Smith, who says that law enforcement and social service agencies in fracking areas, such as North Dakota and Montana, have struggled with increases in domestic violence, sexual assault and other crimes that come with fracking booms. Dickinson, N.D., for example, saw a 300 percent increase in assault and sex offense cases."
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Bombshell: Methane in U.S. atmosphere 50% higher than previously thought—by VL Baker: "Methane may be a bigger global warming issue than thought, according to a new study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Methane is 21 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the most abundant global warming gas, although it doesn't stay in the air as long. The study says that the EPA has underestimated the amount of methane in the atmosphere due to faulty testing and reporting methods. Much of that extra methane, also called natural gas, seems to be coming from leaks from the refining and drilling for oil and gas, known as fracking, which blows up the whole notion of natural gas as a short-term bridge fuel to a carbon-free economy. It also includes a major contribution from industrial livestock production which it says has been underestimated."
More rescued green diaries can be found below the fold.
Eco-Activism & Eco-Justice
President Obama comes to San Francisco ATM, Climate Activists sing him a song—by citisven: "President Obama came to San Francisco today for a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at the SFJazz Center—and a couple hundred of climate activists welcomed him in their own creative way, by singing him sweet songs. Even though we didn't get to see him outside his limo, he seemed to have noticed as several hundred of us tried to get his attention. At his fundraiser, he commented on the serenade he received. I always have fun in San Francisco. (Applause.) There’s always something going on. Even in the ropeline—(laughter)—I had some folks sing to me; had a guy who took a photo with me with the shoes with the little toes in them. (Laughter.) I am sure that's the first time that's ever happened to a President. (Laughter.) And they looked very comfortable. But that doesn’t happen in Chicago. (Laughter.) There have been at least five protests that I don't know what they’re protesting, but they’re yelling something. (Laughter.) That's sort of par for the course in San Francisco. I knew it was something.Well, what we were singing was "Barack Obama, Barack Obama, stop Keystone right now" to Steams' 'Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye).'"
Action: Plant Milkweed Seeds—by bkamr: "There is a terrific FP pointing to the terrific NYT article about the loss of monarch butterflies and bees. Want to help? For about $15, you can make a difference: We have a school greenhouse, and I plan on having our 8th graders fill it with 2 types of milkweed seedlings and 4 different nectar flowers. Come spring, hundreds of students will be planting them all over our district."
Climate Chaos
Warsaw Climate Change Conference Inconclusively Concludes—by asimacestes: ""For the third year in a row the (member) countries have found a new way to say absolutely nothing," asserted Oxfam director Winnie Byanyima, as the U.N.’s annual climate change conference limped inconsequentially to its end on Saturday in Warsaw. The 19th Conference of the Parties (COP-19) to the U.N. Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) was supposed to set out a roadmap toward completing a global treaty that would bind all countries to some kind of commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions after 2020 at the Paris COP-21 in 2015. No commitments were made and no clear roadmap was adopted at the Warsaw talks. Citing the 'historical responsibility' of rich countries for causing climate change, China, India, Brazil, South Africa and other developing countries want to maintain the original obligation established in the 1992 UNFCCC that only developed countries are required to do anything about man-made climate change. In the agreement reached at Warsaw, the developing countries, including the largest and fourth largest emitters of greenhouse gases—China and India—forced the rich countries to drop their insistence that all countries make 'commitments' to address climate change. Instead, countries will now make vague nationally determined “contributions” toward addressing man-made global warming."
Forbes' Climate Change Trickery—by dan kaufman: "An email (I believe from The Heartland institute) is going around that says: 'In January 2012, the AMS surveyed its members via email and found 52 percent believe global warming is happening and is mostly human-caused, while 48 percent do not.' It's a misleading distillation of a misleading Forbes article by James Taylor. I read the survey cited and the amount of trickery used to arrive at those numbers is pretty shocking. The 52/48 numbers are nowhere to be found in the American Meteorological Society survey."
#ClimateThanks: 5 Things I'm Thankful for this Year—by Mary Anne Hitt: "This Thanksgiving, people around the country are using the hashtag #ClimateThanks on Twitter to share who and what they're thankful for in the fight against climate disruption. As director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, I have the great honor of working with people across the U.S. who are winning big climate victories week after week, and then seeing those wins add up to real progress on climate change. From that perch, here are five things I'm thankful for this year."
For some real statistical measurements of climate change mitigation—by Cassiodorus: "Climate change is just one aspect of a general global ecological/ economic/ political crisis. A lot of these solutions assume a sort of ceteris paribus—'if all things remain the same.' The problem with our 'solutions,' then, is that all things don't remain the same, and until we can change our economic system in some fundamental ways, the future will be one of increasing crisis. As David Harvey reminds us in his many books, the crises can be moved around from place to place, but they won't go away. To sum up: all of the optimistic press releases about climate change now look like PR, we don't seem to know what we're doing with climate change, and the social change requirements for climate change mitigation appear quite daunting. So, below the macaroni, and as a sort of parlor game, I will suggest some statistical measurements that will give us an idea of whether or not what we're doing has any effect."
Pentagon releases its version of 'Arctic Strategy,' mostly boilerplate—by Meteor Blades: "In the face of the reduction of Arctic ice that allowed 500 ships to sail the Northern Sea Route between Alaska and Russia in 2012—a 50 percent increase over the past decade that is expected to increase 10 times—the Pentagon has issued a 14-page white paper, Arctic Strategy. It's the Defense Department's approach to implementing the National Strategy for the Arctic Region released by the White House in May. [...] 'With Arctic sea routes starting to see more activities like tourism and commercial shipping, the risk of accidents increases. Migrating fish stocks will draw fishermen to new areas, challenging existing management plans,' [Defense Secretary Chuck] Hagel told a security conference in Canada on Friday, where he announced the new strategy. 'And while there will be more potential for tapping what may be as much as a quarter of the planet’s undiscovered oil and gas, a flood of interest in energy exploration has the potential to heighten tensions over other issues.'"
Taking advantage of global warming—by Mr Horrible: "Up to now, we’ve looked at problems like global warming and thought 'we have to fight it.' This is exactly how we acted for most of the history of the human race. I propose to act in a different way, and that difference can be summed up with one word: aikido. In aikido, one does not “fight” the opponent, but instead one seeks to merge one’s energy with the opponent and bring a successful conclusion to what started as a dispute. The best conclusion, of course, is to end up with the opponent agreeing with you, and both of you going in the same direction, hopefully as friends. The same thing can be done with global warming; let me give you an example."
Extreme Weather
Photo Diary: Project Bohol setting up Shelter Box Tents in the Central Philippines—by Lefty Coaster: "After arriving on earthquake stricken Bohol Island my first task was to reach Project Bohol's base near the town of Antequera, and to do that I had to cross the river next to the collapsed Arbatan Bridge by hiring an outrigger canoe, as a new temporary bridge was being erected in its place. After crossing the river I hired a motorized tricycle for the rest of the trip. As we went up the road I saw dozens of collapsed homes, signs painted across the roadway so large it could be seen by the air with the message: "We need Help" and signs along the side saying "We need Food and Water" and a grim on that read "Dead Lydy" (Lady). Bohol suffered comparatively minor damage from Typhoon Yolanda compared to the neighboring island of Lyte, were All Hands is about to launch two new projects to help disaster victims there. [...] The family living next to this destroyed home requested to be provided with a Shelter Box as some of their neighbors across the road already were living in like this one with a collapsed church just up the road. Project Bohol assigned the team I was part of to their fellow volunteer Patrick from Redmond Washington to train us to set up the Shelter Box tents."
The tall guy on the right is Lefty.
Typhoon Haiyan from a Teacher's Perspective—by
iambic pentameter: "This, my first diary, is based on a short talk that I gave at the school where I work. My intent was to thank students and faculty for initiating a fundraiser on behalf of our local Red Cross chapter, which had sent workers to several towns in the Visayas (Central Philippines). [...] As the victims, five million of whom are children, try to recover and rebuild in the storm’s aftermath, students will return to schools that have been badly damaged or are no longer standing, and some will have to face the reality that their friends and teachers will no longer be there among them. I appreciate the efforts of the International Red Cross, and I am especially thankful to the Faculty Association and Student Council for initiating this fundraiser. I hope that you find it in your heart to contribute even a small amount, because when these resources are pooled together, it can make a difference."
Seventh Typhoon update: Not 2,000,000 homeless, but 2,000,000 without housing—by oldpotsmuggler: "The numbers, truly comprehended, are more soul searing than merely tragic. Also, there are no official numbers released because no one oficially does or can keep track. Information that the First World takes for granted about itself simply has no counterpart in the Third World. But well within the range of what's cited is that Typhoon Yolanda pretty much wiped out 600,000 homes, displacing some 2,000,000 filipinos residing in them."
Eighth Typhoon update: Did God give the candy to all of the children—by oldpotsmuggler: "My, my, my, what a difference a couple of weeks can make. Instead of all involved suffering anxiety and heartburn, the golden load, the sweet paradise graced and blessed more young tongues and tummys than ever was imagined to be the case. Of course we called as soon as possible and asked that that particular bounty be as widely shared as possible. And as we imagined, and more than a little expected, we were told that the kids were beginning to arrive in ever larger numbers even as we spoke. So now I don't know why none of the "food aid packages" that I've read about include candy. Such a simple gesture, and one that I'm gratefully now able to understand the importance of."
Food, Agriculture & Gardening
Food banks struggle to find enough Thanksgiving turkeys after food stamp benefit cuts—by Laura Clawson: "As Republicans fight to slash billions from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, food banks are struggling with the food stamp benefit cuts that already happened. That's leading to Thanksgiving turkey shortages in many places. [...] The story is similar in Phoenix, Arizona, and San Jose, California, and Dayton, Ohio, and Utica, New York and northern New Jersey, and more. In other words, it's not a fluke. People are hungry and private charity simply cannot make up for the SNAP cuts. The crisis won't end Thanksgiving day, either. According to Joel Berg, executive director of the New York Coalition Against Hunger, 'The two days out of the year with the least hunger in America are Thanksgiving and Christmas.' Thanksgiving is just the day the most people are paying attention to hunger and to what is or isn't on other people's tables."
The REALFOOD.ORG Thanksgiving Reader—by marc brazeau: "Nationwide, consumers will purchase around 736 million pounds of turkey this Thanksgiving, of which about 581 million pounds will be actual meat. The USDA reports that 35% of perfectly good turkey meat in the U.S. does not get eaten after it is purchased by consumers (and that’s not including bones). This compares with only 15% for chicken. Why is so much more turkey wasted than chicken? “Possibly because turkey is more often eaten during holidays when consumers may tend to discard relatively more uneaten food than on other days,” the USDA writes. And unless we take action to prove the USDA wrong, we’ll be throwing away about 204 million pounds of that meat and about 1 million tons of CO2 and 105 billion gallons of water with it. Per pound, the resources needed to produce that turkey are equivalent to driving your car 11 miles and taking a 130-minute shower (at 4 gallons/minute).* The price tag on that nationwide will be $282 million, according to prices from the Farm Bureau’s annual Thanksgiving price survey. And that’s to say nothing of the vast amounts of antibiotics used to produce turkey meat, leading to antibiotic resistance, which you can read more about here."
Daily Bucket: Arborvitae--Threat or Menace?—by 6412093: "All year long, I've tended my burgeoning compost pile. I walled it in with lumps of pickerel roots so I could stack it high. I piled a cubic yard of vegetable gardens wastes on it in September, and scraped up extra dirt from every corner of my yard to add to the heap. The top six inches are squirming with huge earthworms. But below the tangled orange roots, I'll explain why the compost pile has betrayed me. When I dug deeper into the pile, hoping to extract a wheelbarrel load of nutrient-rich soils, instead my shovel stopped. Tiny red roots, the thickness of string, had massed into tight forms and taken over the entire bottom foot of my precious compost. I think the culprit are the slender red cedars, sold as arborvitae (Thuja Occidentalis) that were planted along the property line. The ornamental arborvitae are not true cedars, yet they do feature cedar-like, reddish bark, cones, and flattish foliage."
Bacon, bacon, bacon—by Bush Bites: "Thousands of pregnant pigs spent nearly their entire lives crammed into cages so small they could barely move. They couldn’t turn around, walk or even lie down comfortably. I saw pigs with open wounds and bloody pressure sores from rubbing against the bars of their metal cages or lying on hard concrete. Pigs would constantly ram their heads against their tiny stalls or spend hour after hour, day after day, biting the bars of their cages out of frustration. These intelligent and social animals were literally driven mad in these hellish conditions. Most realistic animal rights people realize they're not going to end the meat trade or factory farming, but this kind of thing has to stop."
Macca's Meatless Monday: No turkey—by VL Baker: "Today we're giving thanks that we have an easy and delicious way to be part of the solution to stopping the worse effects of climate change. Reducing or eliminating our consumption of meat and dairy products is the fastest and most effective (pdf) way of reducing our individual carbon footprint. A beautiful and Earth-friendly Thanksgiving feast is the perfect way to honor Mother Earth and to show respect for the bounty she has provided. Today I'll share some meatless Thanksgiving entrees which are real show stoppers; you won't even miss the big bird."
Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 9.41—by Frankenoid: "And, just in time for the proper start of the holiday season the Christmas cactus I've been keeping at the office are nicely budded, so I'm bringing them home to decorate the house, rotating the Christmas cactus I've had here at the house into the office to trigger their blooming."
Energy
Japan Passes Draconian Secrecy Law—by Joieau: "Japan has had some serious issues with leaks over the past two years and eight months or so, what with three melted-through nuclear power reactors and 4 reactor buildings blasted to smithereens, leaving 4 overstuffed Spent Fuel Pools precariously dangling 100 feet up in the air. Groundwater and coolant water that has been in contact with molten cores somewhere south of the basements is leaking to the tune of 400 metric tons per day into the Pacific Ocean. There is no consensus on what might stop or at least seriously diminish the leaks, and the world is concerned. So, what does the responsible national government do when faced with such an unthinkable situation? Why, it passes a draconian 'State Secrets' law to prevent civil servants, whistleblowers, journalists and citizens from talking about unpleasant things, of course."
Renewables
Morning Joe's Pro Keystone XL & Fracking, Anti Renewable Propaganda—by occupyingmodesto: "The Morning Joe segment started with coverage of an Op-Ed by Stuart Stevens, Romney's former campaign strategist, but quickly evolved into a one-sided discussion of fracking and renewable energy, which praised the growth of fossil fuels, supported the Keystone XL Pipeline, and ridiculed the feasibility of renewable energy sources for the next few decades. While it is not surprising Joe Scarborough always takes the pro fossil fuel side of any discussion, neither his co-host Mika nor any of his guests offered balance to the discussion and merely nodded in agreement for the majority of the conversation."
MA Judge: Wind Turbines Cause "Dental Injuries"—by TheGreenMiles: "Why are so many people immune from 'wind turbine syndrome'? Why do a few people say they feel sick in so many different ways, while so many of their neighbors—and even children in the same household of 'syndrome' sufferers—feel great? Judge Muse doesn't have an answer, but science does. Research shows it's a communicated disease: People who expect to feel sick do, while those who don't expect to get sick don't. Turning off the turbines won't cure that—turning off Fox will."
Fracking
Six-State Study Finds Industry Supporters Exaggerated Jobs Impact of Shale Drilling—by Chris Lilienthal of ThirdandState: "Drilling in the six states that span the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations has produced far fewer new jobs than the industry and its supporters claim. In fact, in Pennsylvania, shale-related employment accounted for less than half a percent of total nonfarm employment in 2012. These findings come from a new report released today by the Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative â a group of research organizations, including the Keystone Research Center and Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, tracking the impacts of shale drilling. As Frank Mauro, Executive Director of the Fiscal Policy Institute in New York and one of the authors of the report put it: 'Industry supporters have exaggerated the jobs impact in order to minimize or avoid altogether taxation, regulation, and even careful examination of shale drilling.'"
Firm with History of Spill Cover-Ups Hired to Clean Up North Dakota Oil Spill—by Steve Horn: "Tesoro Logistics — the company whose pipeline spilled more than 800,000 gallons of fracked Bakken Shale oil in rural North Dakota in September — has hired infamous contractor Witt O'Brien's to oversee its clean-up of the biggest fracked oil spill in U.S. history. The oil was obtained via hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') in the Bakken Shale basin. As revealed after ExxonMobil hired the same firm in the aftermath of a 210,000-gallon tar sands oil spill in April 2013, Witt O'Brien's — formerly known as OOPS, Inc. — is a firm with a history of oil spill cover-ups dating back to the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It also oversaw the spraying of toxic oil dispersants into the Gulf of Mexico during BP's summer 2010 mega-spill and a literal cover-up of Enbridge's massive 'dilbit disaster' tar sands pipeline spill in Michigan."
Keystone and Other Fossil Fuel Transportation
Obama Approves Major Border-Crossing Fracked Gas Pipeline Used to Dilute Tar Sands—by Steve Horn: "Although TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has received the lion’s share of media attention, another key border-crossing pipeline benefitting tar sands producers was approved on November 19 by the U.S. State Department. Enter Cochin, Kinder Morgan’s 1,900-mile proposed pipeline to transport gas produced via the controversial hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) of the Eagle Ford Shale basin in Texas north through Kankakee, Illinois, and eventually into Alberta, Canada, the home of the tar sands. Like Keystone XL, the pipeline proposal requires U.S. State Department approval because it crosses the U.S.-Canada border. Unlike Keystone XL – which would carry diluted tar sands diluted bitumen (“dilbit”) south to the Gulf Coast – Kinder Morgan’s Cochin pipeline would carry the gas condensate (diluent) used to dilute the bitumen north to the tar sands."
Eco-Related DC & State Politics
ME-Gov: Sierra Club Backs Mike Michaud (D) For Governor—by poopdogcomedy: "The Sierra Club announced their support for Michaud at a news conference Monday. The group had already said there's one candidate who's been stricken from their list: Gov. Paul LePage. That left either Michaud or independent candidate Eliot Cutler. Spokesman Glen Brand says the environmental group is devoting all of its resources to replacing LePage with 'a pro-environment governor.' The Sierra Club's early endorsement is aimed to help rally the base to get behind Michaud and take down LePage."
Tea Party Sweetheart GOP Congresswoman Kristi Noem brings home the subsidies for her South Dakota!—by : "Holy Cow! Tea Party GOP leader Congresswoman Kristi Noem (South Dakota) really brings the subsidies home to her South Dakota! My son sent me the following information from an article in today’s Rapid City Journal. Last year, records show, the state collected more than $721 million in federal farm subsidies. When government-subsidized crop insurance is added to that, South Dakota agricultural sector received more than $1.2 billion in assistance!"
Colleen Hanabusa: Hawaii's Environmental Champion—by thisisgio: "Colleen Hanabusa has a 96% lifetime score on environmental issues and has voted correctly on 100% of relevant votes since the last scorecard was released in 2012. Source? The League of Conservation Voters."
The Great Outdoors
A Temple of Ourea—by johnnygunn: "I feel very fortunate to live in Wyoming. On any day of the week— especially on Wednesdays—I can go out to the plains or the hills or the mountains. And I always find enchantment and wonderment. Today I visited the Bud Love Wildlife Refuge at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains. It was a generous gift to the state of Wyoming from the Love family to protect critical habitat. I cannot escape the thought that today, on the busiest travel day of the year, I can find complete solitude. The refuge will soon close until May 15th, so I feel especially blessed to be here. My outing begins on my trusty bicycle. I'm not as young or as thin as I used to be. And it may require a lower gear than in years past. But that doesn't really matter."
The Daily Bucket - Citizen Science Summary Data—by
Milly Watt: "Another citizen science project in which I participate is Project FeederWatch. This will be my 4th year. They just revamped their website this year and added new visualization tools to look at your data in a couple of different ways. The first graph shows the number of species seen at each FeederWatch session during the 2012-13 season. It suggests that the number of species visiting my feeders grows a bit over the course of the winter."
The Daily Bucket: Tools of the Trade Part One—by matching mole: "I am writing this because I know a number of you are interested in and active in gathering data for citizen science projects. If you are interested in trying your hand at taking things a step further it is vaguely possible that these diaries might help a bit or at least not confuse you further. As a final caveat I will say that due to my training I'm going to emphasize ecological science. I'm certainly not implying that other areas are not worthy of investigation."
Critters
J is for Jay
Dawn Chorus: A Is For Avocet, B Is For Blackbird, C Is For ...—by
Kestrel: "No deep thoughts to share this morning, just a bit of fun. I hope all of you with photos to share will join in and add other examples within the alphabet theme. A simple concept, it's funny I've never thought of it before. I'm a bit surprised that I have something for every letter (except X) among my personal photos. Of course, I did need to use scientific names for U and Z, but otherwise I had much to choose from."
Western Governors Unanimous In Wish To Reform Endangered Species Act—by ban nock: "The endangered species act has been a terrific success. In other ways it has been an abysmal failure. For those who have had to work with it there has long been a bipartisan wish for reform. Last summer in a meeting of all 17 governors representing all the states from Texas up to North Dakota and on west, including Hawaii, Alaska and American Samoa, they adopted a resolution they all could agree on. [...] What do I think is up? Everyone is sick of getting jerked around by the ESA. You want to save species? Great, so do I. You don't like the boots I wear? Not the original intent of the Act. Crocks are not a species. There are groups and people who do not approve of and will work with any means at their disposal to stop all ranching, farming, mining, logging, and hunting, on western lands. Notice I said western not public. Private lands are also constrained by the ESA. As things currently stand the best action to take if you know you have an endangered species on your land is to kill it quick before someone finds out it's there."
Bullfighting and Evolution—by speedboat : "The Spanish province of Catalonia has prohibited bullfighting, and Ecuador held a referendum that would end the national bullfighting fiestas. The controversy is live. A friend sent me by email a very critical multimedia presentation of the cruel and savage character of bullfighting. The photographs paint the harshest aspects in explicit gore. The text passionately describes the bloody process, and appeals to ban it forever as a disgusting barbarism. The issue of bullfighting is more complicated than that essay and incarnadine photo collection. There is not among the photos a bullfighter gored or trampled. In fact, bullfighters average a goring per season. And so, it is not a simple massacre of defenseless animals. The challenge is unequal, yes, and it should be so. But seen another way, the bull could kill the bullfighter at any time during the encounter, while the man proceeds according to refined tradition."
The Daily Bucket--Tully Monster: An Unsolved Mystery—by Lenny Flank: "OK, the Tully Monster is not really a 'monster'—it's just eight inches long and has been dead for 300 million years. But it still remains a scientific mystery. In 1958, amateur fossil collector Francis Tully was searching through an old mining pit in northeastern Illinois when he came across some odd-looking fossils in the Mazon Creek Formation layers of rock, about 300 million years old, from the Carboniferous geological era. The fossils were apparently an invertebrate, at most 6-8 inches long, with two triangular fins at one end and an elongated necklike projection at the other. Sometimes two budlike appendages could be seen at the sides. When Tully took some of the fossils to the Field Museum in Chicago for identification, the entire staff was puzzled. The animal, now dubbed 'Tully's Monster,' did not resemble any known creature, living or dead."
The Daily Bucket, first Ruby Crowned Kinglet—by enhydra lutris.
National Parks, Forests & Other Public Lands
Glacier National Park: November, 2013 (Photo Diary)—by Ojibwa:
The Daily Bucket - Zion National Park—by
foresterbobFollow: "One benefit of working as a forester in different regions of the country is being able to travel the back roads and see this country's natural wonders. I prefer the unheralded places that most tourists never see. But some of the popular parks are too good to ignore. Zion National Park in southwestern Utah is one of them. Before I could see the cliffs at Zion, I had to endure my own cliffhanger. A certain group of petulant politicians had shut down the government in an effort to prevent their own constituents from obtaining health care. As that drama continued, I took my time crossing Nevada in hopes that the national parks would open their gates. On the first day after the shutdown (October 17), I took Exit 40 from Interstate 15 and parked at the Kolob Canyons visitor center."
Greenwashing
Walmarting the rivers and oceans—by Dan Bacher: "Walton Family Foundation dumped $91.4 million into greenwashing in 2012. [...] Walmart, the country’s largest retailer and employer, makes more than $17 billion in profits, so it has a lot of money to dump into "environmental" groups that serve its agenda of privatization of the public trust. The wealth of the Walton family totals over $144.7 billion—equal to that of 42% of Americans. The Walton Family Foundation reported 'investments' totaling more than $91.4 million in 'environmental initiatives' in 2012, including contributions to corporate 'environmental' NGOs pushing ocean privatization through the 'catch shares' programs and so-called 'marine protected areas' like those created under Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, as well as to groups supporting the Bay Delta Conservation Plan to build the peripheral tunnels."
Transportation & Infrastructure
Three Fixes For Illinois—by agnostic: "Trains are one the the most efficient means of shipping. To make it modern, we need to invest. And that means big bucks. Passenger trains also need a lot of work. Why does China have more than 20 high speed train systems, with hourly (or more frequent) service? Imagine what a high speed rail from Milwaukee, through Chicago, Springpatch,, and finally St. Louis would do? I am not talking about that piss poor 95 MPH train that Amtrak is bragging about (and that is only around Springpatch and Peoria). I am talking about hourly or better service, 24/7, at speeds no less than 175 MPH."
MassTransit and Limousine Liberals—by Grey Fedora: "I can understand my conservative colleagues attitude of 'fuck public transit.' It fits so neatly into their worldview. But I was puzzled by my more liberal friends. They agree public transit is a good thing in the abstract, but they all have their reasons why it just isn't for them. Both the liberals and conservatives [in my workplace] bought into the false dichotomy my brother sub-consciously hinted at: you are either a driver; able to hop into your car and go wherever and whenever you want, or you are transit bound. Your freedom is limited by the routes and schedules. But if whenever and wherever means a daily commute to and from the same place at the same time every weekday, how much 'freedom' do you really lose?"
Sunday Train: Trains & Buses Should Be Friends—by Bruce McF: "It should surprise no-one who has seen the Great American Suck-Up Industries in action ~ the Military-Industrial Complex, the Prison-Industrial Complex or the Publicly Subsidized Private Schools racket, among others ~ that rail construction costs in the US are typically substantially higher than in other high income countries around the world. And given the approximately $7,500 per person subsidy for the road transport system ~ between explicit subsidies, hidden subsidies, cross-subsidy and direct costs such as pollution impacts on health ~ it is no surprise that a BRT system that can tap into some share of that subsidy can come at a lower 'cost to buy' for a city or region. From the perspective of sustainable transport, neither of these are facts of life to accept. They are both problems to be solved. We must push for making mode choices based on the full economic costs of all alternatives, including the full economic cost of the 'just build more roads for more cars' alternative which is often falsely treated as cost-free."
Products & Miscellany
"Toxic Hot Seat" Ignites Awareness—by Marcia G Yerman: "Toxic Hot Seat, a new documentary directed by James Redford and Kirby Walker, takes an in-depth look at chemical flame retardants. [...]One of the top takeaways for the general public is the startling information that there are approximately 84,000 chemicals being used commercially in the country. They include home cleaning agents and flame retardants in furniture. Even more problematic is that the majority hasn’t been tested for safety—and are exempt from regulations."
The beginning of a "Green Friday" movement—by don mikulecky: "It is time to stop pandering to the corporate behemoth that rules us. All this publicity for its orgy of glut and waste is unbelievable! The planet is hurting. The economy that hurts it is fed by consumerism. It is going to take major changes in everyone's lifestyle to begin to hope we can stave off some of the coming disaster. Yet we all act like robots talking about the feeding frenzy that fuels our doom. When will this stop?"