Many environmentally related posts appearing at Daily Kos each week don't attract the attention they deserve. To help get more eyeballs, Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The most recent Saturday Spotlight can be seen here. So far, more than 18,825 environmentally oriented diaries have been rescued for inclusion in this weekly collection since 2006. Inclusion of a diary in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
Sunday Train: What Future for America's Deadly Cul-de-Sacs?—by
BruceMcF: "The Great Recession of 2007-2009 triggered the Depression that we appear to be exiting this summer. And it was triggered by the collapse of the Great Turn of the Century Suburban Housing Bubble. In coming out of the recent Depression, one driver of residential property values, the Cul de Sac, seems to be in conflict with a new driver: walkability. In October 2013, the Realtor(R) Magazine Online, of the National Association of Realtors, wrote, in Neighborhoods: More Walkable, More Desirable that:
Neighborhoods that boast greater walkability tend to have higher resale values in both residential and commercial properties, finds a recent study published in Real Estate Economics. In fact, a 2009 report by CEOs for Cities found that just a one-point increase in a city's walk score could potentially increase homesâ' values by $700 to $3,000. [...] So, what does this mean for the sustainable transport and for the future of the deadly American Suburban Cul de Sac? [...] First, lets start with the deadly status quo for suburban residental development, the Cul de Sac. Ironically, the Cul de Sac was first promoted in the 1920's as a safer residential layout option."
MI wind generation hits 168 billion KWhrs for 2013, CA feeds 4,767 megawatts of solar into grid—by
HoundDog: "Mike G. [of the DeSmogBlog at] the Ecologist reports over half of the new electrical generation capacity in the U.S. in 2013, came from solar [with] California and Texas are mainstreaming renewable energy. In California, May 2014 recorded three times as much solar generation as the same month in 2013. California, for its part, is following up on the huge year solar energy had in 2013 by breaking the record for single-day solar photovoltaic (PV) energy generation back in March, and then breaking its own record on June 1. ... The new record in California - 4,767 megawatts of solar PV electricity fed into the grid—is also the national record for any American state. California installed some 2,261 MW of solar capacity in 2013, more than any other state, and looks to be on track to post up even bigger numbers this year. PV Magazine reports that 'California's solar footprint is growing bigger with each passing day, week and month, with May recording three times as much solar generation as recorded during the same month in 2013.'"
Wildfires Gone Wild - Northern U.S. "a smoky, hazy mess."—by
Steven D: "One story I haven't seen the national media talking much about is the number of wildfires there have been in 2014. Currently, massive fires are burning throughout the Pacific Northwest and Northwestern Canada. Large smoke plumes have effected the air quality as far east as Minnesota and Wisconsin, and as far south as Nevada. One prominent scientist, Dr. Raymond Huff, who writes for the US Air Quality -The Smog Blog stated bluntly that 'Canadian wildfires and fires in the Pacific Northwest have conspired to make much of the northern half of the US a hazy, smoky mess.'"
You can find more rescued green diaries below the sustainable squiggle.
Climate Chaos
Penguins still at risk, turbines not so much—by ClimateDenierRoundup: "Two stories have started making their way through the deniersphere, and (contain your surprise) both are blatantly misleading. The first is a Daily Caller story on penguins reporting that because penguin populations are booming, global warming scares are unfounded. Media Matters debunks the article with responses from the actual scientists. They told MM that the reason for the supposed 'boom' in population is actually just better observation. Scientists in Antarctica have recently discovered new colonies, meaning penguin populations are bigger than previously thought. This does not mean—as the scientists were quick to point out—penguins are not at risk from climate change. Meanwhile, a report supposedly found that wind turbines are 10 times more likely to catch fire than previously thought. Carbon Brief takes this one on, noting that the data comes from an anti-wind group and that HUGE assumptions were made. While it's too complex to explain fully, the bottom line is this: the anti-wind group compared their data on turbine fires to an assessment released by the UK trade association for wind power that reported 10 times the number of incidents. Only problem is, the incidents reported by the trade group were 'overwhelmingly near events where no injury, harm or damage resulted' (in other words, not tantamount to the number of fires). In fact, there are actually fewer fires than previously thought!"
George Harrison memorial tree lost to climate change—by VL Baker: "In an ironic twist a memorial tree planted in Los Angeles to honor the contribution and humanity of former Beatle George Harrison, has been lost to insects which are proliferating due to climate change. Yes, the George Harrison Tree was killed by beetles. [...] Except for the loss of tree life, Harrison likely would have been amused at the irony. He once said his biggest break in life was getting into the Beatles; his second biggest was getting out. The sapling went in, unobtrusively, near the observatory with a small plaque at the base to commemorate the former Beatle, who died in 2001, because he spent his final days in Los Angeles and because he was an avid gardener for much of his adult life. We will hear more about the loss of memorials and landmarks as the extreme effects of climate warming advances."
Climate wars are on in Florida—by VL Baker: "Finally, here in Florida, we are beginning to have the much needed discussion about global warming. As the state most as risk for rising seas and extreme storm surge, discussion about the problem has mainly been a taboo subject because of our corrupt fossil fuel supported state leadership. When Rick Scott became Florida governor he dismantled many of the climate initiatives which had been assembled during the previous administration of Governor Charlie Crist. But now, our corrupt, idiot governor has been backed against the wall and will have to respond. The recent request by ten Florida university scientists to be allowed to school Rick Scott on the dangers of climate change has gone viral. At first Scott ignored the invitation, then he said he would send 'someone' to meet with them. At the same time, Charlie Crist, Scott's political opponent in the run for Florida governor said that he would actually meet with the group. This pushed Scott to say that he would also meet with the group personally."
A Science Lecture in a Small Town ~ A Way to Counter Denialism—by Village Vet: "Full disclosure: I am not a scientist. I have not even been to college: I am just a disabled veteran, an erotic Romance editor, and a village trustee (city councilmember)—they are all related. Daily Kos member Retroactive Genius wrote a short diary here about a decision handed down by the United Kingdom's parliament to the BBC Trust on no longer giving climate change denialists an equal platform to the overwhelming number of scientists who agree that global warming is happening, it is being driven by humans, and it is changing the climate. As I said, I am not a scientist, just a high-school educated tail-ender of the baby boom with too many unemployed brain cells. But below the tangled orange knot of string theory branes, I will rehash a debate I had on another forum on how to address the problem of denialists in the long term."
To denier chagrin, models prove accurate—by ClimateDenierRoundup: "In a new study, expertly reported on by Dana Nuccitelli, researchers show that climate models incorporating short-term El Niño and sea surface temperature trends accurately depict current temperatures. This means the "pause" does not invalidate climate models but simply shows that models tuned to discern short term trends (like the pause) capture it better than models focused solely on long term climate trends. Watts has an in-depth post, but the bulk of his contention seems to be that Stephan Lewandowsky (author of the paper connecting conspiracy theories and climate denial) and Naomi Oreskes (co-author of Merchants of Doubt) are co-authors to the paper. Regardless, this paper provides a helpful rebuttal to the deniers' tired 'models have failed' meme."
Food, Agriculture & Gardening
The Banana: A Social History of the World's Most-Cultivated Fruit—by Lenny Flank: "It was probably one of the first foods you ate as a baby. It may have been the actual "apple" in the Garden of Eden. It is the most widely-cultivated fruit on earth, and the staple food for millions of people. It has been a global force for environmental destruction and the brutal exploitation of workers, and has created and toppled governments. And it will likely be gone--at least in the form we know it now--within a couple of decades. It is the lowly banana, and here is its story. [...] In the US and Europe, of course, bananas are just a luxury--if they disappear, we can live without them, and will simply put blueberries or strawberries in our corn flakes instead. But bananas are a huge global industry that provide employment to millions of people. Even more importantly, in many areas of Africa, where crops such as corn, wheat, rice or potatoes do not grow well, bananas are a vital staple food. In places like Uganda, as much as 70% of all daily food calories come from bananas and plantains, usually grown in small village gardens--almost 100 pounds per capita per year. Plantains are also a prominent part of the diet in South America, India and Southeast Asia. The loss of the lowly banana, therefore, has the potential to produce widespread famine and starvation. If bananas die, much of Africa dies with them."
Conspicuous in Their Absence. Pesticides and Environmental Impacts.—by marc brazeau: "This week a new paper entitled Leverage Points for Improving Global Food Security and the Environment was published in the journal Science. [...] The authors focus on the 17 major crops that account for the vast majority of calories produced and consumed, inputs used and environmental impacts from agriculture. The heavy hitters, no surprises. Corn, wheat, rice and cotton. The big impacts that they focus on are water use; carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and methane pollution of air and water, and tropical deforestation. Two things might surprise folks who get their sustainable ag news from urban reporters and not from academics. The first is that the percentages of overuse of inputs in the U.S. are fairly low and our impact is large, not because our farmers are out of control, but rather that we produce so much freaking food that a few percentage points of overuse is a big impact relative to the production in other countries. The second is the absence of even a mention of pesticides as a major environmental impact anywhere in the paper. Why is this? Because, while pesticides remain a labor issue for farmworkers, especially in developing countries, they have improved so much in their mode of action and use in the last half century that they really don't rate as a major environmental impact, at least in comparison to the big foot issues raised in this paper."
Right-to-Pollute—by Robocop: "Goaded by ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, which works to persuade legislative bodies to enact laws that benefit their corporate members, states are attempting to enshrine a right to farm in their various constitutions. If they succeed, any future legislation or ballot initiative seeking to regulate agriculture would be quashed. The ballot language usually reads 'Shall the state constitution be amended to ensure that the right of citizens to engage in agricultural production and ranching practices shall not be infringed.' These amendments, however, seek to go beyond Ag-gag laws and provide corporations protection against outside interest groups who wish to protect either the animals or the environment from their practices. Right to farm language, encoded into state constitutions, would simply act as a barrier against any restrictions on Big-Ag."
Prediction: Hemp Will Save The Small American Farm—by kavips: "You heard it here first. More on this later, but first all need to work to make hemp completely legal... Hemp is God's gift to America, and I don't mean when it goes up in smoke. I am speaking of fibers... Begin educating those who won't vote for hemp legalization.... The hemp plant is a renewable resource ... Hemp enriches the soil it grows in. ... Hempseeds and hemp oil are highly nutritious and delicious ... Hemp is the only plant that contains all of the essential fatty acids and amino acids required by the human body... (stop over-fishing). It is an excellent option for vegetarians. It's quite high in some essential amino acids, including gamma linoleic acid (GLA), a very rare nutrient also found in mother's milk. Fishermen sprinkle hempseed on the water as an effective bait. Songbirds will pick it out of the mix as they prefer it over other seeds."
Energy & Conservation
Through MIT's Nuclear Goggles—by gmoke: "Switzerland came to the Boston area a week or so ago. There was a conversation with one of the political leaders of the country, Doris Leuthard, Councillor of the Swiss Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy, and Communications, at MIT on "Future Energy Supply and Security in Switzerland" and the next day a seminar on Watt d'Or, the Swiss award for the best energy projects in the country (http://www.bfe.admin.ch/....), at Northeastern University to celebrate the opening of an exhibit that will stay up at Northeastern's International Village until September. [...] Councillor Leuthard was introduced at MIT by the former President of the Institution, Susan Hockfield. Under Hockfield, by training a neuroscientist, the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI for short, pronounced 'mighty' just so you catch the drift) began. You can learn more about MITEI at http://mitei.mit.edu/ A look at the members page will give you a good idea of their slant on the energy world.During her introduction, Susan Hockfield said she wasn't sure how the world could produce the energy it needs without nuclear power, a rather gratuitous comment especially since Switzerland has a policy of slowly but surely phasing out its existing nuclear power plants and Councillor Leuthard talked clearly about the Swiss plans to provide safe and secure energy supplies expressly without nukes while still reducing or eliminating greenhouse gas production. As she said, 'When you live in an alpine region, you don't doubt the reality of climate change.'"
Mississippi Moves Forward on Energy Efficiency—by AdirondackForeverWild: "Over the past 40 years, energy efficiency has been associated with progressive politics. That is unfortunate, because the economic and environmental benefits of energy efficiency are tangible—it isn't a cultural or philosophical belief that making better use of natural resources raises people's standard of living. That is why I was so encouraged when the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released a report recognizing the efforts of Mississippi's leadership in advancing energy efficiency in the Southeast. I was further encouraged to find that Gov. Phil Bryant (R) had made this a focus of his administration. I think that it is worth a look at the language Gov. Bryant is using, and why it sells in a deep red state."
Will North Dakota end up a "Drill baby Drill" radioactive wa$teland?—by Eric Nelson: "Big Oil has a stranglehold on North Dakota's Agriculture commission. Oil drilling permits are currently controlled by three Republican shills who make up the three member agriculture commission. 35,000 new oil wells over the next 15 years is the plan for North Dakota. A plan with zero resistance from the 'deciders' in charge. In 2013: there were 153 pipeline leaks with 291 other reported oil spills. Also: Nearly 300 Oil Spills Went Unreported In North Dakota In Less Than Two Years. Radioactive oil waste sites."
Renewables
Stephen Moore’s Ridiculous Anti-Clean Energy Rant—by bluto211: "Hard right-winger Stephen Moore took a break from pushing debunked trickle-down economic policies to take a pathetic shot at clean energy. Let the stupid begin. …radical Greens, one of the most influential political forces in America today… Seriously? He goes on to mention the famed Sierra Club as one of these forces. And where did they rank in 2013 on lobbying: 755. In fact, if we look at the top 50 interest groups giving to members of Congress this year, no sign of a 'clean energy' or 'renewable energy' group in the rankings. Yet, they are one of the 'most influential' because Stephen Moore says so and not because any facts back it up. …we could end up seeing 'rolling brownouts and even blackouts in the years ahead.'Kind of like the blackouts induced by the infallible private sector giant, Enron, in California over a decade ago? Remember kids, always let the fossil-fuel guys have their way and nothing will ever go wrong."
Despite foot-draggers in Congress, wind turbine company adding 800 jobs to Colorado manufacturing—by
Meteor Blades: "The United States had a tremendous opportunity in the early 1980s to become the world's premier manufacturer and innovator of wind turbines. Thanks to the Reagan administration's sneering and budget-cutting, that opportunity was squandered and, as a consequence, a one-time Danish appliance company called Vestas became the world's largest wind turbine manufacturer. Currently, 19 percent of global wind turbine capacity has been built by Vestas, totaling 60 gigawatts. Vestas has installed 51,000 turbines in 73 nations. [...] Its U.S. headquarters are in Portland, Oregon, and Vestas has four manufacturing plants in Colorado, which generated 13.8 percent of its electricity with wind power last year. The company announced Friday that the worldwide boom in wind energy has spurred it to hire more employees in Colorado by the end of 2014."
Fracking
Department of Conservation stops injection of fracking waste—by Dan Bacher: "In a move welcomed by anti-fracking activists, the California Department of Conservation has shut down oil and gas water injection sites over concerns that toxic waste from hydraulic fracturing operations may be threatening drinking water supplies during a historic drought. According to Abraham Lustgarten of ProPublica, 'California officials have ordered an emergency shut-down of 11 oil and gas waste injection sites and a review more than 100 others in the state's drought-wracked Central Valley out of fear that companies may have been pumping fracking fluids and other toxic waste into drinking water aquifers there.' 'The state's Division of Oil and Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) on July 7 issued cease and desist orders to seven energy companies warning that they may be injecting their waste into aquifers that could be a source of drinking water, and stating that their waste disposal 'poses danger to life, health, property, and natural resources,' said Lustgarten."
UK Anti-Fracking Movement Grows—by StewartAcuff: "An exciting tour by my Goddaughter Liz Arnold around Europe to talk about the awful effects of fracking for poisonous natural gas has seemed to spur a movement in Europe that is even stronger than the burgeoning one here in the US. She has seen the largest, strongest, most global union in the UK march in huge numbers in the streets of London and the Labour Party oppose fracking. There are fully 800,000 jobs in the US to create green, sustainable jobs from rebuilding the electrification infrastructure and developing solar and wind power across the country. There are untold number of jobs to fix, expand, and deliver rail transportation. There are massive public transits like we have in Philly to get cars off the street. We do not need to destroy our planet and ourselves to power ourselves."
MN-Gov: Republicans having meta-argument over frac sand mining—by ericf: "So there's the underlying issue of frac sand mining, and the issue of who correctly construed who, as Republican gubernatorial campaigns go after each other. For the part of the story about Republicans going after each other, Bill Kuisle, running for lieutenant governor with GOP gubernatorial endorsee Jeff Johnson (for the national audience, I'll explain at the end the unusual way Minnesota handles lt. governor candidates), said it makes sense to delay frac sand mining so the effects can be studied."
Public pressure stops oil company from drilling in Florida everglades—by VL Baker: "In a major victory in stopping dangerous fracking in the Florida Everglades National Park, the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States, the Dan A. Hughes Co., a Texas oil company, has agreed to close all but one of its fracking sites. The closing of the drilling sites situated on the edge of the federally protected Florida everglades was due to a massive pushback from state environmental activists, Food and Water Watch and the rigorous support and work of democratic Senator Bill Nelson."
Keystone XL Pipeline & Other Fossil Fuel Transportation
Industry Win - New Oil-by-Rail Regulations Allow "unacceptable public risk"—by Justin Mikulka: "Of course the NTSB had been saying the DOT-111's were unsafe for decades. But the NTSB has no enforcement power. And so these tank cars are being used to transport materials that they were never designed to transport safety. Imagine you had a gallon of corn oil in front of you in an open container. And you threw a match in it. It wouldn't be that exciting. Then imagine you had a gallon of gasoline. And you threw a match in it (just imagine this, don't try it at home). Things would get pretty dangerous and pretty exciting before the match even hit the surface of the gasoline. [...] oday the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration(PHMSA) finally released their report on the properties of Bakken crude oil. And this was their conclusion: Based upon the results obtained from sampling and testing of the 135 samples from August 2013 to May 2014, the majority of crude oil analyzed from the Bakken region displayed characteristics consistent with those of a Class 3 flammable liquid, PG I or II, with a predominance to PG I, the most dangerous class of Class 3 flammable liquids. Remember that example of a bucket of gasoline and a match. Well, it wasn't exactly accurate. Gasoline is Packing Group II. Which based on the report released by PHMSA today means it is less explosive than much of the Bakken crude oil."
Eco-Related DC, State Politics & Candidacies
MN-Gov: Mark Dayton (D), "Minnesota should eliminate coal use"—by poopdogcomedy: "Gov. Mark Dayton challenged energy policy and business leaders Thursday to find a way for Minnesota to eliminate coal from the state's energy production. Dayton, who has spoken of his aim to eliminate coal before, said it's time to start talking details so that Minnesota can lead the nation. 'Tell us what a timeline would look like, what has to happen for that timeline to be met and what kind of incentives or inducements do we need to provide to make that happen," Dayton told the state's first-ever Clean Energy Economy Summit. Dayton said converting coal plants to users of natural gas should continue, along with investments in renewable energy, Minnesota Public Radio News reported."
Florida Governor and Scientists: Professionals Offer Assistance on Climate Change—by jtietz: "In a July 15 letter, ten climate-change experts volunteered to help Florida Governor, Rick Scott, better understand the reality of climate change and its impact on Florida. The specialists are faculty from public and private schools of higher learning in Florida. The letter's opening line was: 'We respectfully request the opportunity to meet with you to discuss the current and future impact of human-induced global warming on Florida.' The request was prompted by the governor's prior rejection of scientific evidence for climate change and his more recent deflection of questions about his position with the declaration 'I am not a scientist.' The next day, July 16, the governor responded that his 'administration' would be 'happy to meet' with the scientists. What that means is not clear, but a number of sources mistakenly reported the governor himself was accepting the invitation. The Tampa Tribune and Tallahassee Democrat made this mistake using misleading titles on their articles about the governor and the experts. The Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald both got it right – the governor did not say he would meet with the professionals in this area, he told reporters 'his administration' would meet with them. This could mean anyone working in the governor's office, from the senior administrators to lower ranking assistants."
WI-Gov: Wall Street Journal Slams Scott Walker's (R) Attacks On Trek Bicycles—by poopdogcomedy: "Looks like Scotty pissed off the wrong news source: A writer for the conservative Wall Street Journal's opinion page has published a piece criticizing GOP Gov. Scott Walker for his TV ad accusing his Democratic foe, Mary Burke, of profiting from Trek Bicycles' outsourcing of manufacturing jobs to the low-wage nation of China. Burke is a former Trek executive whose family started and runs the company. Allysia Finley, an assistant editor of OpinionJournal.com, accuses Walker's campaign of channeling Team Obama for the president's attacks on GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney on outsourcing in the 2012 election. 'We normally associate criticism of outsourcing with Democrats, but Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is a reminder that Republicans aren't above playing the "Benedict Arnold CEO" card themselves to fan populist furies,' Finley writes."
Trade & Eco-Related Foreign Policy
China meat scandal hits Starbucks, McDonalds, Burger King and KFC—by VL Baker: "How bad does it have to be for the Chinese government to shut you down due to tainted meat? Well for a country that has a dismal reputation for food safety rock bottom seems to have been hit by the Chinese meat producer Husi which supplies much of the meat for US based fast food joints. What they have been doing is mixing outdated tainted meat with fresh meat in volumes not acceptable to government. You heard that right some mixing is allowed and probably expected but looks like they exceeded the allowed ratio. An undercover reporter posing as a worker at a local arm of U.S.-based supplier OSI filmed colleagues combining expired meat with fresh cuts and then lying to McDonald’s inspectors, the government-published Shanghai Daily reported today."
The Great Outdoors
The Daily Bucket - Sandy beach wildflowers—by Milly Watt: "After our pelagic bird boat tour, Mr. Watt and I went south from Westport WA, down the coast, doing some geocaching at state parks. One of our first stops was Grayland beach on June 29th. It is a huge, flat, sandy beach with lots of washed up sand dollars and a surprisingly few shells. The beach itself seemed to go on and on and there were dunes to cross to get to the beach. Big, flat, sandy beaches are very different from what I'm used to. Up north on the outer coast of the Olympic Peninsula, the beaches are bordered by bluffs with considerable piles of driftwood, including some huge logs, to climb over to get to the shoreline. Some beaches have sand, but many are rocky."
Critters
Black-footed albatrosses
Dawn Chorus: Pacific NW Seabirds—by
matching mole: "Anyone who's read my diaries and comments may have gathered that I have a great love for water birds in general and ocean birds in particular. Partly this is due to their first sensible habit of flying around and doing interesting stuff out in the open where you can actually see it. But despite, or perhaps because of, my inland upbringing the sea has always had great romance for me and birds that make their living on the ocean have a special place in my heart. If you think of ocean birds you may think of gulls and terns. Or shorebirds such as sandpipers or petrels. With a few exceptions most of those birds seldom venture more than a mile or two or three from shore. They aren't the goals of birders on a pelagic trip. The term pelagic refers to the open ocean. A pelagic species is on that is tied to the ocean but not to land (i.e. not the bottom and not the shore). A pelagic trip targets birds that are typically found over the ocean far from land and are usually difficult to impossible to see from land."
The Daily Bucket: Whaddaya Do When They Don't Come Back...—by PHScott: "A highlight yesterday was seeing the 4 otters cross my yard. I've thought of that all day. The usual second-guessing: where was my camera; what if I was in BR and 12' away; what if I was outside? Standing in the kitchen I look out and wonder what path they took. Did they have instructions? Slip thru the old fence and go up hill till you reach the trailer. Turn left and go past the trailer and firepit and then turn right on the trail. Cross the fence up top and the big pond is down the other side. Stay in line! No messin' around. So I've been looking out the windows often today. I'm ready. A camera in the BR; one by my desk. iPhone in pocket. A lot of waiting.... for that 6 second chance. For nothing probably, I could miss it easy walking to the other room. And it occurs to me now, I need more cameras, those motion-activated outdoor cameras. Heck, maybe video."
The Daily Bucket: Gopher Tortoise Funnies!—by
PHScott: "One of the beneficiaries of restoring the Longleaf Pine habitat is the critters. A previous bucket and bunches of comments have covered Spring Canyon located in rural Gadsden County, Florida. The 100 acres Ms. Helen has been restoring centers around a pond created by a long-ago dam across a ravine and creek. Steep slopes on either side are heavily wooded. Up top on the sandhills are the remnants of Longleaf. Thankfully past owners (a church resort) never bothered with the pines and cloudy titles from its turpentine past kept it from becoming a corporate Sandpine desert like the surrounding land. So this place became a small oasis for critters with dozens of gophers holes. But not all holes are gophers. The easiest tell is the shape of the hole. It's not round; it's wider and slightly rounded, you know, sorta like the shape of a gopher."
Mid-July Birding - a photo diary—by
boriscleto: "The past week has been all about realizing how great it is to live less than an hour from one of New York's birding treasures, Montezuma. I added five new birds to my life list this week, and that was in just 3 days. [...] The birding week started off on Wednesday June 16th with a sunrise walk at the Montezuma Audubon Center in Savannah, NY. Audubon provides a nice variety of habitats on 198 acres. There are 2 one mile trails. The one I took takes you past a wooded swamp and around two restored marshes. The grass on this trail is long and there was a heavy morning dew, so my feet got just a little wet ... There were many birds that I didn't get a photo of including a Belted Kingfisher. I did get to see him hovering above one of the marshes though."
And now for something to make you smile. Diver rescues turtle and gets thanked.—by Marnie1.
Seals Like Offshore Wind—by Lib Dem FoP: "Researchers tracking the movements of seals in the North Sea have discovered they like visiting offshore wind turbines. They fitted a number of harbour - or common - seals (Phoca vitulina) and grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) with GPS trackers. They have published their findings in Current Biology. Both species spend time at sea for a few days to a month with visits to land to 'haul-out.' What the researchers found is that both species tagged in both the UK and Netherlands visited recently constructed wind farms. Not only that, some individuals went in a straight line from one turbine tower to another and hung around each for a bit. Tracks show a perfect grid corresponding to the wind farm and, in one case, another structure. This strongly suggests that they are using the towers to hunt for fish. Some other seals followed the route of undersea pipelines. Their hypothesis is that these man-made structures are providing artificial reefs. These provide an environment where crustaceans can thrive. Fish gather to feed on them and in turn these are prey for the seals."
The Oceans, Water & Drought
CA Department of Water Resources Faces $60 Million Shortfall—by Dan Bacher: "It appears that California is not only running out of water during the drought, but it is running out of money to move that water because of mismanagement, according to the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN). The environmental group accused the California Department of Water Resources of facing a $60 million shortfall after failing to collect $125 million owed by water contractors."
Eco-Activism & Eco-Justice
A Little-Known 3000 Mile March Across the USA for Climate Action—by Leftcandid: "They are not a large group, but you're not going to get a large group to commit to a 3000 mile walk. Dedicated? Absolutely. The Great March for Climate Action set off from LA in March, bound for DC on November 1. I first met them at the Mercury Cafe in Denver in June, when 350 Colorado helped welcome them, along with of course the Merc's local treasure of an owner, Marilyn Megenity. We had a great night of conversation & dinner, setting up the marchers with donations to keep 'em going. This past Saturday, the marchers arrived in Bradshaw, Nebraska, close to the proposed route of the Keystone XL Pipeline. The terrific progressive activist group Bold Nebraska has erected a solar & wind turbine-powered barn in the propsed route, & it was there that Bold Nebraska, the Climate Marchers, & whoever else wanted to show up--me, f'rinstance--on Saturday for a pro-climate action/anti-KXL rally."
Hearings and Rallies Next Week! Your Voice is Needed to Support Climate Action—by Mary Anne Hitt: "Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed the first-ever national standard to clean up carbon pollution from power plants. Now the EPA is holding public hearings on the proposed standard in four cities. If you live near DC, Pittsburgh, Denver, or Atlanta, we hope to see you next week! Join Sierra Club and our allies as we march and rally outside these hearings. We've all got to do our part to show strong support for the EPA to take bold action on climate disruption! Polluters are gearing up to try and stop this standard in its tracks, so it's especially important that everyone concerned about our climate shows up, raises their voice, and gets involved."
National Parks, Wilderness & Other Public Lands
"Anywhere So Beautiful"—by Michael Brune: "Although only an hour's drive from Seattle, Index is a gateway to the Wild Sky Wilderness, which was created by Congress in 2008, after a long, hard-fought campaign that had strong local support but kept getting derailed by anti-environmental legislators from other states. Wild Sky is Washington State's newest wilderness, and it's already extremely popular. One thing we couldn't help but notice was the railroad trestle that crosses the Skykomish here, which led to the subject of oil trains. People here and throughout the Northwest are understandably worried that, sooner or later, a big increase in oil shipments by rail will lead to disaster. It doesn't inspire confidence that this same trestle bridge across the Skykomish was the site of a seven-car derailment in 1981."
Connect! Unite! Act! Kansas, L.A. & D.C. Meet-up Info! National Parks & Forests YOU've Visited?—by Angie in WA State: "I hail from southwest Washington State, home of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. 2,065 sq miles (5,348 km²) Managed by the USFS (United States Forest Service). One of the nation's oldest National Forests, created as part of the Mount Rainier Forest Reserve in 1897 it was segmented off as the Columbia National Forest in 1908 and renamed the Gifford Pinchot in 1949, after the first head of the US Forest Service."