This is the 551st edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue). Here is the March 14 Green Spotlight. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
Pakalolo writes—'Extreme' Changes Underway in Some of Antarctica’s Biggest Glaciers: “The great ice sheet on the continent of Antarctica is rapidly losing ground because it is being eroded by warm ocean water circulating beneath its floating edge, a new study has found. The study, published March 27, 2018 in Nature Geoscience, provides evidence that the Southern Ocean melted ‘1,463 km2 of Antarctica’s underwater ice between 2010 and 2016 – an area the size of Greater London.’ The first complete map ever prepared for this region (embedded below), on how the ice sheet’s submarine edge illustrates that the ‘grounding line,’ is shifting. Antarctica’s 3 mile thick ice sheet flows straight into the ocean due to gravity pulling the ice along deep submarine troughs, ‘the grounding line is the place where their base leaves the sea floor and begins to float.’ [...] The main driver of sea level rise 10 years ago was Greenland. ‘More recently, the Antarctic’s estimated contribution has been raised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But its forecasts were based on measurements from the two main west Antarctic glaciers—Thwaites and Pine Island—a sample that provides an overly narrow and conservative view of what is happening when compared with the new research’.”
OceanDiver writes—Dawn Chorus: Birdies go a-Courting: “Spring is in the air, and it’s that time — the birds and the bees. You may be seeing some of your local birdy neighbors getting a little frisky these days … I sure have. Reproduction is much too huge a topic for one Dawn Chorus, but what about the early stages—courting? Some of the most spectacular behavior among birds is during this high stakes time: finding the right mate is crucial in the success of breeding, arguably the focus of a bird’s year. For many birds, showing off their superior qualities and attracting a mate is carried out through song. There are other forms of courting too. [...] We’re all hearing birdsong everywhere right now, however for me it’s mostly hidden in the trees. I’m starting to lose my hearing in the upper ranges too—not as bad as some, but as we get older listening for bird song becomes more challenging. So I’m drawn to those birds who display their qualities visually. Luckily that’s common among aquatic birds, and I live near the sea. Unluckily, many of my aquatic birds are migratory and hold off on courting displays until they’re back on their breeding grounds up north. So I miss a lot of it, like the spectacular grebe dances.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - crab supper for otter & gull: “Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest. I was actually watching a crew of ducks grooming and dozing, while I stood on the bluff above this bay. Mellow mood. Then I heard splashing. Turned around and saw an otter climbing up onto the Rock. [...] I call this Otter Rock since it is used frequently by the local River Otters to eat their prey in safety and convenience. Most tides it’s surrounded by water, and the flat high surface is perfect for eating in peace while keeping an eye out for any unwelcome visitors. Sometimes they’ll use the lower shelf if the tide isn’t too high. I took a series of photos of an otter dismembering and consuming a huge sculpin once and posted the incident in an earlier Bucket (www.dailykos.com/...). You can see the remains of a crab on the shelf this day. I had a little bit of battery left in my camera so I ran the video of this otter eating a crab. Judging from its size, it’s an adult Dungeness crab (very yummy to human peeps too! cooked). The video shows several interesting kinds of activity, even besides eating.”
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - shelly beach: “Tides were medium height in the afternoons much of this month so I was looking at shells predominantly, and the birds who turn living bivalves into beautiful beach decor. This beach is particularly shelly due to its quiet location with a shallow sandy muddy bottom, perfect for these burrowing mollusks who filter plankton from tidal currents washing across the bay. The intermittent storms of winter have sorted thousands of loose shells into drifts high up on the beach face. Many other shells are so abundant in the wet intertidal zone it’s hard to walk along without crunching them underfoot. The vast numbers signify lots of predation, since every one of these bivalves was opened by some critter for its meat. Clams do not die of old age. [...] On my walk this past week, I took some photos of a few bivalve species to highlight —Cockles (Clinocardium nuttallii) are shallow burrowers, one edge right at the surface, and contain lots of meat inside their rounded shells. At first glance they’re not easy to break open, ribbed and structurally strong. But cockle shells are abundant on the beach. Seastars are subtidal predators who can easily pull the shells apart (although sometimes the cockles escape by energetically engaging their foot … see cool video here www.centralcoastbiodiversity.org/...).”
6412093 writes—The Daily Bucket--We, Children of the Pond: “The Western Chorus peeper frogs have migrated back to their birth ponds for another mating season in Northwest Oregon. Every dusk for three weeks, about a dozen male frogs assemble along the edges of the ponds in my backyard, croaking loudly, or ‘advertising.’ Perhaps a half dozen female frogs join with them intermittently, treading water and picking a mate based on the quality of the trill in the males’ ‘ribbet’-sounding calls. The chemistry’s good, and the frogs are in a devil-may-care mood, so the miracle of creation continues for another season. Frogs have celebrated Spring this way for the last 190 million years.”
Lenny Flank writes—Photo Diary: Encountering a Rare Turtle in Congaree National Park: The weather here in Columbia SC has been pretty crappy lately—cloudy and chilly. So when the sun finally came out and things warmed up, I wanted to spend a day outside, and made my way to the Congaree National Park. Although it is not a very large park, it is the biggest remaining tract of old-growth lowland forest in the eastern US. Some of the Bald Cypress and Loblolly Pines here are several hundred years old and well over 100 feet tall. The park itself is very recent, having been established in 2003. [...] And while puttering along the walkway, I found something that excited me—a Spotted Turtle. Yeh, OK, maybe a turtle doesn’t excite YOU, but for a reptile guy like me it was like finding a pot of gold. The Spotted Turtle, Clemmys guttata, ranges from eastern Canada all the way to northern Florida. But despite this wide geographic range, it is in serious danger. Since its preferred habitat—lowland forest—has been largely destroyed, the turtle is listed as ‘endangered’ in Canada, and nearly all of the states where it occurs have also listed it as ‘threatened’ or ‘endangered’.”
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - awakening flora in my PNW neighborhood: “The weather is still chilly, and swinging between sunny days and pouring rain. But the equinox is behind us, the days are getting longer, the sun slightly higher, and the flora in my neighborhood is awakening. Red-flowering Currant is in full bloom, rosy shrubs visible from a distance on hillsides. [...] Most native plants are not flowering yet though. It’s their fresh bright green foliage I’m seeing on a few so far, with just a hint of oncoming flowers on a few. [...] Not a coincidence that the two native earliest shrubs bloom at the time the Rufous hummingbirds arrive on their migration to breed in this region. Very few insect pollinators out just now — a few bumblebees and flies. Hummers are attracted to red colored flowers. What else? There are plenty of active herbaceous “weeds” too, like buttercups, dandelions, bittercress, thistles, brambles, etc etc, mostly introduced/invasive. A few are blooming but most are pouring energy into vegetative tissue, to blanket the ground wherever they can.”
Pakalolo writes—Medic! Ants injured while hunting for termites get help from paramedic-style triage system: “Researchers for a new study of insects found that individual ants are of little value to the colony of a species of ant from Sub-Sahara Africa. Ants, after all, have a massive population and losing an individual insect is rarely missed by the colony. But they found that it does pay off for the colony as a whole, to invest in the rescue of lightly wounded and injured ants from a raid against furious termites. The termite soldiers are no pushover, they ferociously fight against the raiders by biting the limbs off the invading ants. The study found that social wound treatment in these insects goes through a multifaceted triage health care system focused entirely on the injured individuals. This mechanism of wound treatment is not only limited to the rescue of lightly injured individuals, but also includes the treatment inside the nest. This triage system reduces mortality of the rescued invaders by 90%. The injured ant decides for herself whether to be treated and rescued during the raid, by unconsciously determining the severity of it’s injury. It than alerts the raiding party that medical attention is needed. The more severe the injury, the more likely the rescuer will receive a message from the injured by not cooperating in their own rescue. Those wounded ants are left behind.”
Angmar writes—The Daily Bucket: lmages of Early Spring, on old Native lands: Photo diary.
CLIMATE CHAOS
Meteor Blades writes—Judge tosses Exxon's lawsuit seeking to end state probes into its fraudulent climate-change claims: “With a kind of judicial sneer, a federal judge Thursday labeled as ‘implausible’ claims Exxon made in a lawsuit seeking an end to two states’ fraud investigations into the giant corporation. The target of those state probes are decades of lying engineered by Exxon’s executives to cover up that they knew climate change was real even as they and those they paid smeared and otherwise attacked climate scientists and environmental advocates as radicals, charlatans and greedy grant-seekers. The corporation’s lawyers argued in Exxon Mobil Corp v. Schneiderman that the investigations amounted to a political vendetta designed to violate the corporation’s First Amendment rights. What happened, the lawyers wrote, was Democratic attorneys general Eric Schneiderman of New York and Maura Healey of Massachusetts formed a conspiracy to ‘silence and intimidate one side of the public policy debate on how to address climate change.’ Therefore, the lawyers asserted in their lawsuit, the investigations should be stopped. The judge dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning Exxon cannot bring it up again. Or, to put it in technical terms, she called it hogwash.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Alex Jones Hops On Climate Change & Gun Control Brainwashing Bandwagon: “Let’s start our week with two jokes: Alex Jones and Marc Morano. Last week, Jones interviewed Morano for a segment that supposedly showed how the ‘global warming playbook’ is apparently being used to brainwash children against guns. We watched the silly interview so you don’t have to. (Our brain is still hurting, please send pizza.) Seems that Alex wanted to huff some Big Words and invent new ones, while Morano was out to promote his new book. In between, we got a segment that just about barely actually explained why they think kids are getting brainwashed. It started with both of them praising Trump The Greatest Human To Walk This Planet, because he solved the gun shooting epidemic with his promise to maybe ban bump stocks. The discourse involved statements like ‘People are saying don’t criticize the gun marchers because they’re connected to Hitler.’ (Don’t ask us. We don’t know. Who knows why coherent sentences were even invented in the first place.) The crux of Jones and Morano’s ‘conversation’ centered around how the gun control movement’s key motivation is a hatred of the Second Amendment, (of course, it has absolutely nothing to do with not wanting school children to die), and paralleled this to the supposed ‘real agenda’ of climate activists: world domination (again, nothing to do with wanting to live safe and healthy lives and keeping the planet clean).”
MikeMaloney writes—Chevron lawyer agrees in court that humans cause climate change: “Details at Vox. From the story: Last week, a federal judge at the US District Court for the Northern District of California held a five-hour tutorial to lay the scientific foundation for two lawsuits against the five biggest oil companies in the world. ... the judge presiding over the suits, William Alsup, wanted to get the science straight first, and he invited the cities and the oil companies to present the history of climate change research and the best available findings in a kind of unusual hearing that he’s become known for ... Theodore Boutrous, a seasoned litigator who’s argued cases before the US Supreme Court, presented on behalf of Chevron. ‘Chevron accepts the consensus in the scientific communities on climate change,’ he said last week. ‘There’s no debate about climate science’.”
Walter Einenkel writes—Newly uncovered 20-year-old video shows Mobil Oil CEO acknowledging oil connection to climate change: “ExxonMobil has been fighting tooth and nail to deny any active culpability in climate change. This includes a tidal wave of lawsuits, counter lawsuits, and numerous motions in their attempts to block discovery orders of the big oil company’s internal documentation showing what they did and did not know about human-made greenhouse gas emissions. And while ExxonMobil says they didn’t know much of anything, leaks dating back to the 1970s suggest the opposite. ThinkProgress has done a bit of digging and published the very interesting video from 1998 that shows then Mobil Oil chief executive Lucio Noto speaking in front of other Mobil Oil employees, addressing concerns about fossil fuel emissions and its effects on the environment. But archival video footage of a Mobil Oil meeting seen by ThinkProgress indicates that 20 years ago, employees were raising concerns about the company’s responsibility for climate change. In response to staff complaints, Noto — the man who would become ExxonMobil’s second in command alongside Lee Raymond — appears to acknowledge the impact the company’s product has on rising greenhouse gas emissions.”
OCEANS, WATER & DROUGHT
Dan Bacher writes—Approving the Delta Tunnels permits would be a huge disaster for West Coast fisheries: “Based on the research and many articles I have written since 1983, my conclusion is the State Water Board should not approve the joint petition filed by the California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to add three new points of diversion and/or points of rediversion of water to specified water right permits for the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project associated with the California WaterFix Project. The project would present a tremendous danger to the fisheries that I write and edit articles about and to the recreational fishing industry.”
Walter Einenkel writes—Trump’s not only selling off our oceans, he’s doing it for pennies on the dollar: “Trump’s Department of the Interior, headed by a man submerged in fossil fuel stock, is selling off the rights to offshore drilling. This comes after the January announcement that one of the worst administrations in the history of history would begin opening offshore drilling everywhere, except where a couple of Republican officials didn’t want them. This sell-out to the fossil fuel industry has been packaged as a way to create jobs and make America strong, like bull. But as the Center for American Progress points out, this administration’s idea about how to go about monetizing our country’s federal land seems to be by making a bidding process that’s inopportune and uncompetitive. The federal law underpinning offshore oil and gas development—the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act—requires that the Department of the Interior only grant leases of publicly owned offshore resources to qualified bidders through ‘competitive bidding’ and that federal offshore leasing ‘shall be conducted to assure receipt of fair market value for the lands leased.’ In spite of this clear legal mandate for the parameters of stewardship, the Trump administration’s actions on offshore drilling policy, including last week’s regionwide auction, are flooding the market for leases at a time of low industry interest, eliminating competition among bidders, and minimizing the returns to American taxpayers—to whom the resources belong.”
jamess writes—Pruitt appoints himself 'Czar of Clean Water': In the new directive, Pruitt states he will make final critical decisions about preservation of streams, ponds and wetlands. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility provided CNN with a copy of the memo dated March 30, 2018. In the memo calling for ‘regulatory certainty,’ Pruitt directed EPA regional offices to ‘cede their Clean Water Act determinations’ to him, said Kyla Bennett, the New England director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. [...] Why doesn’t he say the same thing for “Clean Air”— oh wait, he already has.”
ENERGY
Leo W. Gerard writes—Energy Independence Requires Steel Independence: “Shale oil and gas, now fracked from deep underground in two dozen states, is celebrated for delivering energy independence to the United States. But that goal can’t truly be achieved if America depends on China, Korea, even Brazil for the steel vital to drilling. Sustaining steel independence is a big part of what President Trump’s tariffs are about. They’re intended to revive American steel production which has been hammered by illegal trade practices, particularly in China. Just this week, the tariffs helped secure a new trade deal with Korea that reduces by 30 percent the amount of steel and drilling pipe the Asian country can export to the United States. As fracking geared up across the United States, American steel makers invested in their mills to meet drillers’ needs, from pipe called Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) to plate for platforms. It was a symbiotic relationship. The new access to energy resources reduced the price of natural gas used in forging steel. That, of course, helped lower the price of American-made OCTG, plate and other steel essential for drilling.”
Nuclear
Mark Sumner writes—FirstEnergy wants Rick Perry to bail out their money-losing coal and nuclear plants: “One of the first things that Rick Perry did on assuming the role of Secretary of … the third one, was to draw up a plan for ‘grid reliability.’ According to this plan, reliable plants had to have 90-days of fuel on-site. That meant that solar plants didn’t qualify, because the sun was inconveniently located. And wind-power didn’t qualify before, because they didn’t jar the stuff up. And even natural gas plants don’t qualify, since their fuel arrives by pipeline on demand. Conveniently, the definition that Perry put together was just right to exclude everything except coal plants and nuclear plants.= However, Trump’s own regulators stomped on this plan in January, just because it was poorly thought out and illegal. Since then, power companies have closed even more coal plants and brought even more renewable and natural gas power online. Not even most power companies liked the plan Perry put together because it forced them to keep using more expensive, less environmentally friendly sources that kept them bound to aging, difficult to maintain plants. [...] But some less major operators had bet the farm on those aging technologies, and Utility Dive reports that one of them has come back to Rick Perry asking that he deliver what he promised.”
Fossil Fuels
Mary Anne Hitt writes—The Coal Industry Is Leaving Behind a Mess - Clean Energy Can Be Part of the Solution: “Climate Home News recently asked the question: As the US coal industry winds down, does it have enough money set aside to clean up the vast pits, walls and broken mountains left behind? Their investigation into mines nationwide found that ‘the answer is no. Particularly in Appalachia, the land, water and health of mining communities have been put at risk by a critically underfunded system supposed to clean up after mines close.’ As a West Virginian, I’ve seen first-hand how coal mines can drastically affect nearby towns during operation and after they’re closed. Community members are often left coping with toxins leaching into their waterways and with landscapes that were once home to amazing biodiversity now left as a scarred place where nothing but scrub grows. Local organizations are doing inspiring, much-needed restoration work on these sites, but their work is harder than it needs to be, because in most places, the coal industry simply isn’t setting aside the necessary resources to do the job right. While this lack of care and foresight from the coal industry is infuriating, I’m also inspired by several recent stories about reclaiming old coal sites as clean energy facilities. In Washington State, the massive former TransAlta coal mine will soon be home to solar power.”
Renewables, Efficiency & Conservation
johnnyinthestreets writes—It's pitiful how few major cities have pledged to use 100% renewable energy: “This is the time for cities to take control and make a stand when it comes to climate change. With Trump in the White House, it’s a pretty well known fact that any support for environmentally friendly living will not come from the federal government. Additionally, Scott Pruitt is the head of the EPA, and he’s stated more than once that he will not link CO2 to global warming. [...] So, it’s time for cities to step up. There are a number of ways to do this, but one of the most important is for cities to pledge to commit to using 100% renewable energy. Then, of course, they have to follow through. Unfortunately, a shockingly low number of major cities have made this pledge. According to a new nationwide analysis, only 9 major cities have committed. Out of those 9, 5 have made the commitment to do it by 2035. Sure, we’re gaining on 2020, but that’s still quite far away. The fact is that renewable energy is not only clean, but it’s getting cheaper.”
REGULATIONS AND REGULATORS
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Pruitt’s Not-So-Prudent Pad Poses Problems: “ We’ll be frank: Scott Pruitt has tired us out this week. From his pricey tastes in travel to his (suspiciously) budget preferences for DC housing, we’ve been treated to some invaluable insights into how Pruitt is taking advantage of his time and position in Washington. [...] In our favorite turn events, ABC released a third story over the weekend. Apparently Pruitt’s security detail broke down the condo’s front door after they weren’t able to reach him by phone. Turns out, Pruitt....was napping (super relatable). The EPA then refunded the condo owners for the cost of the false rescue attempt—which, by the way, was still less expensive than Ryan Zinke’s door.”
murfster35 writes—The White House is torqued at EPA's Scott Pruitt. But for the wrong reason of course: “Trump tends to have two kinds of cabinet appointees. There's the stealth destruction type, who burrow quietly in like termites and weaken the foundation of the agency. Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State was a perfect example of that, so is Betsy DeVos. Then, there's the Ghostbusters Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man type, who clomps around, pounding everything in sight into rubble. Scott Pruitt is one of those. If you're Trump, Scott Pruitt is a gift from heaven to run the EPA. Pruitt repeatedly has said that the EPA is useless, and that the environment would get along just fine if the agency were abolished. As the Oklahoma Attorney General, Pruitt sued the EPA at least 14 times over regulations, and in 13 of those cases, at least one of the co litigants was a campaign contributor to Pruitt. Scott Pruitt lawsuits against the EPA tended to be like rocks thrown into a pond. They made a splash, and then sank to the bottom of the legal system. There was a rumor earlier this week that had Trump firing Jeff Sessions, and then temporarily appointing Scott Pruitt to take over the DOJ so that he could axe Robert Mueller. Now, it looks like Robert Mueller may be the one sending flowers to Scott Pruitt's political funeral.”
Mark Sumner writes—Scott Pruitt's incredible levels of corruption and ethics violations earned him … a pat on the back: “Scott Pruitt is a one man law-breaking, ethics shredding, environment smashing dynamo who has demonstrated an unprecedented ability to spit in the public eye. In just the last week, it’s been revealed that Pruitt has been staying at the swanky home of an energy lobbyist in one DC’s toniest areas, while paying the princely sum of $50 a night—an amount that has purchased for Pruitt the run of the entire place, including guestrooms for visitors. While enjoying his cheap and modest digs, Pruitt just incidentally approved the pipeline that client was working on. The Environmental Protection Agency signed off last March on a Canadian energy company’s pipeline-expansion plan at the same time that the E.P.A. chief, Scott Pruitt, was renting a condominium linked to the energy company’s powerful Washington lobbying firm. The townhouse served more purposes than just being a place for Pruitt to secretly meet with energy lobbyists, and for energy lobbyists to support his good work. Because that kind of blatant in-your-face bribery and collusion would just not be enough.”
Mark Sumner writes—EPA director Scott Pruitt has been living in energy lobbyist's condo since he moved to D.C.: “Rather than getting his own place in Washington D.C., EPA director Scott Pruitt has been living in a very nice condo owned by very well-paid energy consultant J. Steven Hart. Pruitt may have fenced off an entire floor the EPA for his personal use, installed a whole separate security system to get into his private domain, staffed the building with a private army of at least 30 who escort people in an out of the sanctum Scottorum, and fitted his office with a cone of silence … but he hasn’t bothered to get a damn apartment. He spent much of his first year in office back in Oklahoma—spending up to $14,000 on a single domestic flight (which takes work). But when he’s not heading back to Tulsa or zipping off for a taxpayer-funded $120,000 vacation in Italy or an as yet untallied jaunt to Morocco for himself and a few dozen friends, he has to sleep somewhere. And it turns out that somewhere is a pricey townhouse belonging to a guy who is ‘one of Washington’s top lobbyists’.”
ECO-ACTION & ECO JUSTICE
Pakalolo writes—Can an influx of Democratic-leaning climate migrants in Florida tip the state's political balance: “Puerto Ricans arriving stateside have a learning curve to master when it comes to Florida politics. Sebastien Malo and Adriana Brasileiro writing for the Thomson Reuters Foundation News have just published a fascinating, and must-read article, on the effects of climate change and electoral politics that are beginning to appear in the State of Florida. Specifically, the story focuses on those Americans who relocated to the continental United States due to the collapse of infrastructure caused by the double whammy to the island of Puerto Rico from the climate change enhanced hurricanes, Maria and Irma. Puerto Rico is still reeling from those storms. The fossil fuel-powered electrical system for the island’s 3.4 million residents went out, roofs peeled off homes, poisoned water supplies, flood damage and hunger. Many left the island, some temporarily, some for good. Reuters points out that 135,000 Puerto Ricans relocated to the United States “in the six months after Maria, according to a report published this month by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York”. Of those, 56,000 relocated to Florida, primarily to Orlando. Groups like Boricua Vota, a non partisan group focused on Puerto Rican voter registration, are currently in a registration drive for new arrivals from the island. If these newly registered voters actually vote than it means that ‘at least seven of 27 congressional seats in south and central Florida are now too close to call in elections coming later this year’.”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
Pakalolo writes—You can kiss much of California's agriculture goodbye because of climate change: “There are an estimated 77,500 farms in California, the largest and most varied agricultural state in the nation. California produces over one-third of the country’s vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts. That critical food supply is at great risk of mostly vanishing as a result of the greenhouse gas emissions from our relentless burning of fossil fuels. That is the finding of a new study published in Agronomy, in a recent paper by a University of California team led by Tapan Pathak of UC Merced. Climate change in California will have huge impacts on our food supply of almonds, pistachios, oranges, apricots, nectarines and prunes, more than a third of our vegetables, including artichokes, broccoli, spinach and carrots and other food crops.”
Pakalolo writes—African people, who depend on agriculture-based economies, stare down an expanding Sahara: “From our community: ‘The trends in Africa of hot summers getting hotter and rainy seasons drying out are linked with factors that include increasing greenhouse gases and aerosols in the atmosphere. These trends also have a devastating effect on the lives of African people, who depend on agriculture-based economies."’Ming Cai, program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Science. Researchers from the University of Maryland recently had their study on African desertification published in the Journal of Climate. The research data determined that the Saharan desert has expanded 10% since 1920. The study indicates that the trend of the expansion is worse in the summer, resulting in a 16 percentage increase in the desert seasonal average. The results will have ‘far-reaching implications’ for the Sahara, as well as other deserts such as the Gobi in China, as climate change continues to wreak havoc throughout the world. The unsustainable world population increases, and the loss of even more arable land which receives rainfall to support the growing of food crops, will have horrifying implications for humanity. It is important to point out that Africa is the continent least responsible for fossil fuel greenhouse gas emissions, but is the most at threat to its effects.”
monkeybrainpolitics writes—Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol 14.13 What's Government Doing in My Garden? March 31 2018: “Most folks don't know that every county in the United States is part of a Natural Resources Conservation Service, US Department of Agriculture Conservation District promoting not just good farming practices, but also what they call ‘a healthy yard for homeowners.’ The agency brochure shown here, put together with the help of the Audubon Society, promotes bird, bat and butterfly friendly yards. The brochure recommends flowers as well as feeders for birds, birdbaths or ponds, and particularly native plants. I'll tell you much more about your conservation district and its promotion of native plants below. And before anyone accuses me of being a government agent promoting their own agency, I'm far from that. After living in China for over 27 years, and seeing that country's descent into some of the worst air, water and land pollution in modern times, as well as its drastic efforts to clean up the mess, my wife and I ‘retired’ to WA state and started up an organic farm. We simply couldn't see ourselves playing golf in retirement on the toxic wasteland that is really what most golf courses are. And as an academic I did one of the first comprehensive surveys of public opinion on environmental issues in China, with a survey conducted both in Hong Kong and in Shenzhen in 2001. For anyone curious about that and a great deal of other environmentally focused research I and others have done in China, you can go here: http://civic-exchange.org/.”
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
Mark Sumner writes—Trump prepares to turn the US into a dumping ground for dirty, inefficient vehicles: “As part of their plan to wreck planet Earth simply because they heard that’s where Barack Obama keeps his stuff, Donald Trump’s anti-EPA is preparing to weaken bothemissions standards and fuel efficiency requirements for vehicles. Because there’s nothing like kneecapping the future. The rules also would have put the United States, historically a laggard in fuel economy regulations, at the forefront worldwide in the manufacture of electric and highly fuel efficient vehicles. … American automakers initially accepted the plan by Mr. Obama in 2009 to harmonize what was then a hodgepodge of pollution and efficiency standards set by the E.P.A., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and California. And the automakers weren’t in much of a position to resist; they had just taken an $80 billion bailout to survive a global economic crisis. But any gratitude manufacturers felt is many financial quarters in the past.”
Walter Einenkel writes—Trump and EPA roll back car mileage emissions standards under the Clean Air Act: “On Monday, Trump and his band of merry demons announced that they would be attacking the good work done under the Obama administration and in California by overriding the state’s higher emissions standards. The Los Angeles Times explains that this comes in tandem with Trump’s announcement that they plan on opening up public lands for drilling and other fossil-fuel interests. ‘Cooperative federalism doesn't mean that one state can dictate standards for the rest of the country,’ Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt said in a statement, which added that California's authority to set its own emissions standards was ‘being reexamined.’ ‘EPA will set a national standard for greenhouse gas emissions that allows auto manufacturers to make cars that people both want and can afford — while still expanding environmental and safety benefits of newer cars,’ Pruitt said. This is just a symptom of one of the many reasons scientists have been forced out and resigned their positions from Scott Pruitt’s EPA.”
Meteor Blades writes—Open thread for night owls: Trump regime seeks weaker penalties for violating car-efficiency rules: “You just know that if these guys could figure out a way to do it they would erase the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (along with CAFE standards). Instead they are doing what they can to gut these laws, weaken the rules drawn up under these laws, and hollow out the Environmental Protection Agency without actually eliminating it. Here, from Timothy Cama at The Hill, is one of the latest elements of that process: The Trump administration is proposing to scrap an Obama administration rule that increased penalties for automakers who violate fuel efficiency standards by more than 150 percent. The Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) implemented the higher penalties under former President Obama in 2016, though they weren’t due to take effect until the 2019 model year. The regulation was an attempt to implement a 2015 law mandating that federal agencies update their penalties to align with inflation, going back years.”
MISCELLANY
rflowers writes—Getting off the economic ride into the abyss: “A Chicago Tribune article from Feb. 22 is just one in a string of recent reports that technical progress on replacing fossil fuels, and signing grand international agreements are not going to be enough to stave off catastrophic climate change. Another story that came across my Facebook feed today illustrates how the pessimistic view once held by practically nobody but Guy McPhearson is now becoming almost mainstream. This is not exactly breaking news: for literally five decades a wide range of scientists, journalists, environmentalists, and philosophers have all agreed that there have to be fundamental changes in society in order to overcome both environmental and social problems. And for just as long, those calls for fundamental change have almost invariably been remarkably nebulous. ‘Marshall Plan’ ‘mobilize collective will’ ‘creating new democratic institutions,’ ‘opening our minds to the possibility of a more just economic model,’ ‘replacing capitalism,’ ‘organizing’ are a few examples of the ‘solutions’ I've seen in just the past month or so. What I almost never see is any action items—any sort of specific guidelines and policies to push for right now to start moving us toward that better future. So what would some specifics of path toward ‘fundamental social change’ look like? Herewith are several specific items (liberally cribbed from the writings of Herman Daly and a few others who are not shy about suggesting specific political changes) that will at least begin to address the issue of basic structural changes that must be made if the technical progress on climate change is to have any permanent effect.”
jamess writes—Some Advances in CO2 Splitting: “This is encouraging. Hope someone (with Big Bucks and Vision) follows through on this Research, to strip Carbon Dioxide out the air, and split it with some new Nano-enzymes, and convert the by-products into Fuel. Using Solar, Copper, and Tin. Here’s the Abstract from sciencedaily.com. A promising avenue for the future of clean energy is to store it in the form of carbon-based fuels produced from renewable sources, effectively enabling the clean use of liquid fuels such as gasoline. A first step is the electrolysis of carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbon monoxide. But current CO-forming catalysts are either not selective enough or too expensive to be industrially viable. Now scientists have developed an Earth-abundant catalyst based on copper-oxide nanowires modified with tin oxide.”