This is the 573rd edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue). Here is the September 8 edition. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - now you see it … “Saw this grasshopper yesterday late afternoon. I’ve seen others like it at this site, a dirt road by a field. They’ve either been parked on the ground or darting around looking like a butterfly — all colorful and flitty. This time it flitted its wings as if it was flying, but didn’t lift off. Not sure what that was about. But it gave me an opportunity to look at it more closely, and even identify it. It’s a Carolina grasshopper or locust, Dissosteira carolina. In spite of the name, this species is native to the whole US. These grasshoppers are quite large.
They eat grasses mostly, and are not considered bad crop pests. Typical habitat is weedy disturbed sites. While resting on the ground with wings folded the grasshopper is nearly invisible, exactly the color of the ground, a mix of dirt and dried grass. Wings open, it exposes not just its dark brown hind wings margined yellow with a pretty pattern in the corners, but brilliant metallic blue highlights on its thorax and abdomen. Completely obscured by the forewings at rest.”
Desert Scientist writes—The Destruction of La Frontera: “I grew up along the border, La Frontera, and I spent over 50 years of my life there, living first in Arizona and then New Mexico, with occasional visits to southern Texas and California, as well as a number of forays into Mexico itself from the Mexican border states of Baja California Norte to Tamaulipas and further south. In some ways, although I was not born there, it is more my home than any place I have lived. Unfortunately it is being threatened by political maneuvering and drug wars and may never be the same. It was always a bit dangerous, but not as much so for many years as it has been in recent times. You have to go back to the days of Pancho Villa to get the same level of danger, at least from my impression. However I still love the area and its people and am very saddened by how immigrants, both legal and illegal, and the environment are now being treated.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - hints of fall in PNW: “There’s the smell of fall in the air in the Northwest, literally and figuratively. Between the drying up of vegetation from our usual summer drought and the onset of autumn rains (a bit early and sudden this year), I’m smelling a damp herbal earthy aroma. It’s a nice change from the relentless parched prickly sameness of summer. At the same time it means the sun is weakening rapidly, both in daylength and intensity. Fall has begun. We get our own ‘fall colors’ even if not as explosively vivid as the Northeast and Midwest. On the lane above, while the foliage of alders has dropped, the Oceanspray and wild fruit trees are turning red, orange, and golden. However willows are hanging onto their leaves, and will far into the season. ‘Colors’ includes the maturation of fruits. [...] Bird populations are making the big autumn shift as summer migrants depart and winter migrants appear. Swallows, waxwings, Rufous hummers, warblers are gone. I haven’t heard the cheerful ‘Quick! Three beers’ call of the Olive-sided flycatcher for weeks. The summer fruit-eating robins have departed south (the last of my raspberries are available to me for a change!) and the winter robins, mostly worm and bug eaters, have yet to arrive.”
Besame writes—Daily Bucket: Fall in California with fledgling and fire-follower: “I’ve been watching Pasquale on the exterior live cam focused on the outside of the condor nest in Big Sur. On Monday afternoon, I couldn’t take my eyes off the view as I was convinced the chick would either fall and be startled into flying or intentionally take flight. The sun shone directly on the tree cavity that holds the nest. Sixty feet above the forest floor, Pasquale was climbing up one side of the cavity edge, leaping to a center bark section, dropping down into the nest, then springing back to perch on the outer rim. But after 20 minutes of clambering around, Pasquale settled on the edge and preened. The condor chick hatched in this redwood tree hollow on March 28, 2018 and is just over 5 months 3 weeks old on September 21st. Since condors generally fledge around 6 months old, Pasquale clearly was readying for a first flight. A camera inside the nest has allowed us to watch the chick grow, and a new video camera aimed at outside the nest cavity went live on September 17th, just in time for the big event. PASQUALE FLEDGES! On September 19th at 4:22pm Pacific time, Pasquale flew out of the nest for the first time!”
6412093 writes—The Daily Bucket--Dozens Flee Collapsing Wall; two goldfish killed. Prosecutor finds Collusion: “About ten years, ago we planned to add a room to our house. We decided I would excavate the new foundation area myself to save money. But soon after I completed digging a massive hole adjacent to our house, the Great Depression of 2008 swept over the land like economic pestilence. We cautiously delayed the buildout to save money, leaving us with a big hole in the backyard. But I wasn’t giving up. I went digging in my scraps pile to see what I could build in that hole for little or no additional costs.Look Here! Scrap lumber! An old pond liner of thick flexible plastic! A spare pump! Stolen plants from the golf course! When the mud settled in the backyard of my NW Oregon location, I had built a nifty 7 x 15 pond, almost 4 feet deep, in the old foundation hole. I put in goldfish from my other pond, stuck in cattails and irises and lilies and wapato plants, and my water feature was completed, using only recycled materials.”
matching mole writes—Dawn Chorus: The Raven: “Probably the most famous ‘bird poem’ is The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. Let’s take a look at ravens. The Common Raven, Corvus corax, is an all black relative of the familiar American Crow. Crows and ravens are members of the family Corvidae which also includes the jays. Ravens can be distinguished from crows by their voice (a croak rather than a caw), their greater size, their proportionately larger beak, the shaggy feathers on their throat, and their wedge-shaped tail. The common raven is the largest species in the immense bird order Passeriformes (song birds, although ravens don’t have much of a song). Ravens are found throughout most of the temperate and arctic northern hemisphere giving them one of the largest geographic ranges of any passerine bird.”
Angmar writes—The Daily Bucket: 4 seasons of Lake Ontario- Autumn (for the Equinox): Some Autumn photos.
CLIMATE CHAOS
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Two Wrongs End Up Right: WSJ Opinion Page Accidentally Prints Facts: “On Sunday, Paul Tice, investment manager, adjunct professor at NYU, anti-divestment advocate and Endangerment finding denier, wrote about how Trump's rollback of the Clean Power Plan ‘will not change the trajectory of the coal industry.’ This, apparently, is a bad thing. Tice laments how various pro-renewable policies at the state level have been successful in lowering prices to the point where ‘excess renewable capacity has served to depress wholesale power prices and crowd out sources such as coal.’ As a result, Tice explains, there hasn’t been a new coal plant built in the US in five years, and it would be risky for an executive to even propose one now. Yes, renewables are replacing coal because they're cheaper. In Tice’s world, cleaner, cheaper energy that doesn't kill people at every stage of production is bad.”
Pakalolo writes—Russian ice cap once thought to be stable suddenly surges creating unprecedented ice loss: “Climate scientists are using words such as “unprecedented,” “remarkable,” “extreme,” and “unexpected” to describe an event unfolding on a cold glacier, or ice cap, in the Russian high Arctic. An ice cap means that it is fastened hard to the bedrock and that, so far, has not responded to the warming climate. Researchers found that Russia’s Vavilov Ice Cap dramatically surged over the past couple of years resulting in massive amounts of ice loss and raising concerns that other ice caps may experience the same phenomenon to the detriment of us all — the rapid thawing of the planet’s air conditioner. The worlds ice caps together hold 1 foot of sea level rise. [...]Ice caps, on the other hand, are much smaller. They are not below sea level, instead, they rest at high altitude above sea level where there is no warm ocean water to melt the ice from below. This has remained true even during changes to the climate that is currently melting the glacial ice in most areas of the world. A new study concludes that the bedrock of the Vavilov Ice Cap now has water at its base and there is nothing no possibility of putting the toothpaste back into the tube.”
teacherken writes—Please read Eugene Robinson's column on climate change: “Robinson briefly gives us a sense of the world-wide nature of the phenomenon of climate change by offering some facts on the impact of Mankhut, the world’s most intense storm this year with sustained winds of 165 mph. He writes about attempts by scientists to measure the impact of climate change on specific weather events, and I found the following words, beginning in the middle of one paragraph and extending to the end of the next, to be especially cogent: … the Climate Extremes Modeling Group at the Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, estimated Sept. 12 that Florence would produce 50 percent more rainfall than if human-induced global warming had not occurred. You don’t have to be a scientist to understand why that makes sense. We know from direct measurement that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 percent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, when humans started burning fossil fuels on a large scale.”
stonehenge writes—On the Climate Change Action Summit: “While I applaud California Governor Jerry Brown and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for hosting the Global Climate Action Summit, it should have been hosted by the federal government. Consider, however, that under Donald Trump, the federal government has done nothing about climate change. Trump has had a lot of things to say about global warming. He’s called it an urgent problem, and he’s called it a hoax. He’s said, the “concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” When he became president, his true intention became clear when he quickly signed an executive order rolling back key Obama-era limits on greenhouse gas emissions. And then he pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord, signed by 176 countries and the European Union.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Will Exxon Et Al Ever Be Brought To Justice for Environmental Injustice? “North Carolina is, by most accounts, the birthplace of the environmental justice movement, which seeks to correct the systemic racism that puts communities of color at an increased risk from environmental damages. [...] E&E News reported this week on the struggles low-income communities face when adapting to the changing climate. One woman interviewed, Mona Houser, didn’t mince words when describing the hardship of dealing with a flooded trailer home: ‘Us poor people, we're screwed.’ Talking about how the melting ice caps are changing the weather, Houser talked about the impacts of climate change her community has observed: ‘I'm just a poor country girl, and I know about the environment,’ she told E&E. Another NC resident, Laura Davis, told E&E that she thinks ‘every home in North Carolina should be covered for hurricanes. And we shouldn't have to pay for it, because it's not really our fault.’ And there’s the crux. Who should be paying to repair homes and fortify communities from these stronger, wetter storms? It’s certainly not those who have profited least from the use of fossil fuels. It’s not like the fossil fuel industry didn’t know decades ago that these problems would arise from the continued use of their product.“
Extreme Weather & Natural Phenomena
Michael Brune writes—Storm Warning...as essential as the short- and long-term relief efforts are, they shouldn’t be our only reaction to this disaster. We must also prepare for the storms that will follow. That means, first of all, acknowledging that these extreme weather events are our new reality. In just the past year, four states have set tropical storm rainfall records. And let’s not forget that Typhoon Mangkhut was wreaking havoc in the Philippines and China at the same time Florence was landing on our coastline. Instead of attempting to legislate sea-level rise out of existence, as pro-development climate-deniers in North Carolina’s statehouse did, we need to absorb this new reality and rethink everything from infrastructure to wetlands protection. Much of the misery and suffering from Florence and the ensuing floods, for instance, will be the result of inundated toxic sites like hog manure lagoons and coal ash dumps, both of which the Sierra Club has long fought against. They were disasters waiting to happen and, tragically, that wait is over. If we zoom out even further, the unprecedented scale of these disasters reinforces that we must do everything in our power to limit the extent of the climate change that is already making storms wetter and wildfires hotter. As we all know, that’s simply not happening at the federal level (exactly the opposite, in fact) — but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening at all.”
Mark Sumner writes—Flood waters continue to rise in North Carolina, 32 dead, aftermath of Florence leaves genuine swamp: “As the scope of the disaster and the scale of the recovery effort within North and South Carolina become evident, it’s worth remembering that the record 36” of rain received at Elizabethtown, North Carolina was exceeded by the 38” recorded at several locations around Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria. And the mountainous terrain in Puerto Rico meant that the rains washed out roads and other infrastructure, as well as generating deadly mudslides. And while Florence moderated before reaching land as a borderline Category 1 / Category 2 storm, Maria came aground with winds raging at 180 mph. It was in all ways a larger storm, affecting more people, over a bigger area.”
Walter Einenkel writes—Toxic coal ash, rancid hog waste, and fetid sewage spill across Carolinas in wake of Florence: “Reports of the massive flooding going on in the wake of Hurricane Florence continue to filter in. How the Carolinas’ infrastructure holds up to this flooding is being watched closely by environmental groups, as many of the big business industries in the area have had a long and recent history of cutting safety corners and paying off officials to look the other way. For decades people have warned that Duke Energy and its coal ash ponds, the waste from their industrial plants, shouldn’t be housed near waterways. Lacking regulations and covering up the science of pollution from these waste sites have led to years of cascading lawsuits against the energy giant telling them to clean up their act. ABC News reports that Duke Energy says at least ‘2,000 cubic yards of ash were displaced at the L. V. Sutton Power Station outside Wilmington.’ The company has not yet determined whether the weir that drains the lake was open or if contamination may have flowed into the Cape Fear River. That's roughly enough ash to fill 180 dump trucks. Oil and gas interests have a history of under-reporting their short-sighted infrastructural issues, so we will see how this plays out in the days to come as there are numerous coal ash ponds dealing with Florence’s rains.”
teresahill writes—I-95 closed in NC, Florence flooding central NC, north-central SC, expected to worsen. (Updated.) “UPDATES Sunday afternoon: The North Carolina DOT is still show the jaw-dropping warning below about much of I-95 being closed due to flooding within NC. Also most roads south of I-64 and east of I-73-74 in NC. Parts of I-95 in the northern part of SC is also closed due to flooding, between Fayetteville, NC, and Florence, SC. Here and there, I-26 in SC, especially around Columbia, is closed due to downed trees and/or power lines. For a detailed list of NC roads that are closed, go here. It’s not the easiest to read list or map, but it’s the NC Dot.”
avatarabbiehoffman writes—Strongest Storm in the World This Year. So far: “The strongest storm in the world this year, Typhoon Mangkhut has already left death and destruction in the Philippines, thrammed Hong Kong and Macao, and is sweeping through Southern China. Flooding is off the charts. My father-in-law said the rain hitting the roof was so strong, people couldn’t shout loud enough to be heard in the same room. These videos show the awesome power of the storm. But we don’t need to worry about global warming, right? It’s one small world that we all share.”
michelewin writes—Hurricane Florence, Helping Those In Need: Live Blog 7 and similar posts during and after the storm.
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
Dan Bacher writes—Congressman Garamendi Slams 'Misrepresentations' by Delta Conveyance Finance Authority: “Promoters of the California WaterFix project, including Governor Jerry Brown, Natural Resources Secretary John Laird, the Metropolitan Water District and corporate agribusiness interests, have continually used misrepresentations, obfuscations and disinformation to promote the environmentally destructive Delta Tunnels. In the latest example of this attempt by Delta Tunnels proponents to bilk the public, Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA 3rd District) on September 19 sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler describing the ‘misrepresentations’ present in the Delta Conveyance Finance Authority (DCFA) Letter of Interest (LOI) for the Delta Tunnels project, also known as the California WaterFix, according to a press release from Restore the Delta (RTD). The Congressman’s letter asserts that the WaterFix LOI overestimates the amount of jobs the tunnels project would create, does not address the lack of federal participation in the project, and misrepresents the status of essential permits and environmental reviews for the project.”
Dan Bacher writes—Restore the Delta, Dr. Jeff Michael respond to controversial CA WaterFix benefit-cost analysis: “On September 20, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) released a Benefit-Cost Analysis for the Delta Tunnels written by Dr. David Sunding of the Brattle Group claiming that the California WaterFix could bring ‘billions of dollars in benefits’ to those who receive their water from participating State Water Project (SWP) contractors. The benefits include ‘improved water quality, more reliable water supplies, enhanced disaster preparedness, and climate change resilience,’ according to Sunding, a professor of natural resource economics at UC Berkeley.In his initial response, Dr. Jeffrey Michael, the Executive Director of the Center for Business and Policy Research at the University of the Pacific, pointed out out four major flaws in the analysis, including the assumption of a ‘massive new subsidy’ for agricultural users cost share from urban water user and the dependence of the positive benefit-cost on a ‘dubious new benefit’: the value of sea-level rise protection benefits.”
CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
Pakalolo writes—'Red Tide Rick' Scott being booed out of a Gulf Coast restaurant may be the best thing you see today: “In Venice, Florida, Rick Scott, who is in a closely contested Senate race against Democratic Senator Bill Nelson, was booed out of the Mojos Real Cuban restaurant in the ruby red county of Sarasota—only to face an even larger, angrier crowd when the coward fled out the back door. Venice, along with other SW Florida communities, has been hard hit by a toxic red tide, which although a natural occurrence, has been supercharged by the big sugar industry’s nutrient-laden agricultural runoff and subsequent discharge from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers, which carry the pollution to both Florida coasts. Horrified and tearful citizens up and down the Gulf Coast have watched as red tides spread over 1 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico, obliterating beloved manatees and the rest of our treasured marine life. The red tide has slowly inched north, where it has now begun to bring to the metropolitan Tampa Bay area the same death and economic misery that has been ongoing in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico since the beginning of the rainy season.”
WILDERNESS, NATIONAL FORESTS AND PARKS & OTHER PUBLIC LANDS
Ojibwa writes—Public Lands: The Sierra Mine Loop Trail (Photo Diary): “During the 1860s, gold lured thousands of miners to Montana’s Garnet Mountains. Along the streambeds and beneath the ground’s surface they found gold nuggets, flakes, and dust. Within a decade, the placer gold deposits played out and prospectors turned to drilling deep into the bedrock to find lodes. The Sierra Mine Loop Trail begins at the parking lot for the Garnet Ghost Town and goes through the Sierra Claim and the Forest Lode Claim. This is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Shown below are photos of the trail.”
BYPRODUCTS, TRASH, TOXIC & RADIOACTIVE WASTE
jtietz writes—500 Million Plastic Straws a Day? Let's Go with Paper: “Is it 500 million straws per day or 200 million or 10 million? Whatever the figure, we know it is a lot, and it matters little just how much. The point is, we are using a vast number of plastic straws, every day – and it appears reasonable to suggest that we are using more than is necessary for a healthy, productive, satisfying life. If we need a straw for something, paper straws are available. If there is a pressing security or health issue for which a paper straw will not suffice and only a plastic straw is acceptable, we can certainly produce such specialized instruments for specific challenges – but 500 million a day? Let's go with the paper.”
ENERGY
Fossil Fuels
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Hurricane Florence Apparently Justifies Putting More Oil Rigs In Path of Future Florences: “The oil industry has a weird new excuse to convince people that we should expand oil drilling outside the Gulf of Mexico, the Washington Post’s Paulina Firozi reported Monday. According to industry, Florence is a reminder that we should put more oil rigs in the path of the next hurricane to strike the southeast. You see, the concentration of rigs in the Gulf of Mexico means that when a hurricane rolls through, rigs need to evacuate and could cause subsequent problems with the nation’s oil supply. To keep the oil flowing, industry logic goes, companies should be allowed to drill across the southeastern United States, as well as other parts of the Gulf of Mexico, and off the California and Alaskan coasts. That way, no matter where a hurricane hits, they will still be able to sell their product.”
Emissions Controls & Carbon Pricing
Dan Bacher writes—Jerry Brown announces satellite plan as frontline youth protest oil well expansion, carbon trading: “In closing remarks at the Global Climate Action Summit, California Governor Jerry Brown announced before corporate, government and NGO leaders that the State of California is teaming up with San Francisco-based Earth imaging company Planet Labs (Planet) to develop and eventually launch a pollutant-tracking satellite. ‘The satellite will track climate change-causing pollutants with unprecedented precision and help the world dramatically reduce these destructive emissions,’ according to Brown. ‘With science still under attack and the climate threat growing, we’re launching our own damn satellite,’ said Governor Brown whose administration over the past seven years has overseen the approval of 21,000 new oil drilling permits in California, including 238 offshore wells in state waters under existing leases in Los Angeles County between 2012 and 2016.”
NickEngelfried writes—Why I'm Working to Pass Washington's I-1631: “This November Washington voters will have their say on 1631, which would finance clean energy and ecosystem restoration projects by charging a fee per unit of carbon on the largest polluters in the state. The money raised would pay for projects like wind and solar farms, community energy efficiency programs, accessible transit, and forest and salmon stream restoration. Each project would mitigate climate change or reduce its effects while creating jobs—and in many cases, saving consumers money by reducing fuel and electricity use. 1631 is supported by one of the largest coalitions that’s ever gotten behind a ballot initiative in Washington: environmental and health groups, unions and small businesses, faith groups and social justice organizations, and many Tribal governments are all on board. When I learned about Initiative 1631 I knew I had to get involved in helping pass it. But while I’ve been an environmental activist for over a decade, something in me really hates electoral campaigns. I’m an introvert; initiating conversations on the street, let alone knocking on strangers’ doors, doesn’t come at all naturally to me. I’d rather stand on a picket line, organize a rally, or even sit in front of an oncoming coal train (and I’ve done all that). Yet, volunteering for Initiative 1631 was just too important for me to say no.”
Renewables, Efficiency & Conservation
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Everyone Loves Renewables, No One Trusts Trump’s EPA: “California’s recent passage of a 100% clean energy bill, coupled with Jerry Brown’s 100% carbon-free executive order, certainly make California a climate leader. But in terms of public opinion, it’s hardly a radical position. Even polling commissioned by the Edison Electric Institute, a utility trade group, shows overwhelming public support for clean energy. EEI is a group that’s been working on its renewables-related messaging for years now--it hired a crisis communications manager back in 2016, and shortly after issued messaging guidance we used as the perfect example of how propaganda emulates ideals to undermine them. Two years later, and EEI is still at it. Polling and message testing presented at the group’s recent board meeting was shared with Dave Roberts at Vox, and provides some surprising insight into renewable energy’s incredible popularity. According to the testing, 74% of Americans support using solar ‘as much as possible,’ while 70% support a 100% renewable grid ‘in the near future’.”
Pipelines & Other Oil and Gas Transport
Lincoln Green writes—Massachusetts and many other states are failing pipeline safety basics: “The recent gas pipeline explosion tragedy in Massachusetts has brought attention to the 2.4 million miles of gas and other pipelines in the US. Although Texas accounted for more than a quarter of all pipeline safety incidents reported in 2010–2016, every state has pipelines and there’s a good chance a pipeline is not far from where you live. Unfortunately, limited budgets and regulatory capture mean that some state regulatory agencies are not doing their job as well as they should, and the pipeline industry could be doing much more to prevent pipeline accidents. The Pipeline Safety Trust is a good source for credible independent information about pipeline safety. In December they rated each state regulatory agency’s pipeline safety website for transparency about inspection records, incident data, and so forth. Massachusetts got a failing grade. If your state failed too, now would be a good time to ask your representative why.”
REGULATIONS & PROTECTIONS
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke Wants Govt To Work For Oil and Gas Industry: “Yesterday, E&E News published the recusal of EPA air chief Bill Wehrum, who like Andy Wheeler, was a lobbyist until joining the EPA. Wehrum’s clients included Exxon, Koch, Chevron, API, Pfizer, and many more. As NRDC’s John Walke pointed out, Wehrum, despite his recusal, still met with many of his former clients to brief them on upcoming EPA rollbacks, which just so happens to look a lot like what he pushed for as their lobbyist. How is any of this legal, or proper, given his supposed recusal? The loophole is that apparently you’re allowed to meet with former clients, so long as more than five other people are there too. That way, it can be described as a general meeting, and therefore there’s no way anything shady can happen. It’s not like 10 oil and gas giants are going to ask anything improper of an EPA official who only officially lobbied for one or two of them, right? Sadly, the EPA is hardly the only agency that’s been sold off to fossil fuels. Over at the Department of Interior, Secretary Ryan Zinke has basically admitted to selling out America to oil and gas.”
Rmuse writes—Trump’s deregulation crusade is deadlier than the past three wars: First, it is noteworthy that since his poorly attended inauguration, every last Trump assault on environmental regulations was wholly supported by Republicans in Congress; they have as much blood on their dirty ‘pro-life’ hands as their corrupt leader Trump. According to a comprehensive study by two Harvard professors, Trump’s assault on environmental regulations will, ‘under the most conservative estimate, cost the lives of over 80 000 US residents per decade and lead to respiratory problems for many more than 1 million people.’ It is important to note too, that the Harvard report only calculated the number of premature American deaths due to Trump as of June, 2018. Tragically for Americans who do not want to die prematurely, Trump is still laying waste to environmental regulations he claims are ‘destroying us.’ His exact words: ‘We are going to get rid of the regulations that are just destroying us. You can’t breathe—you cannot breathe’.”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
danielbarker123 writes—Boycott factory farm meat: “Let us reduce waste of resources. Readers, we know factory farm meat is a tremendous waste and drain on the environment. Petroleum is used not only for the ranchers and synthetic growth hormones, also used for pesticides, fertilizers and tractors just to grow the crops to feed the animals. Personally, I have been flexitarian since May, 1992, and buy organic meat. I asked my physician and he told me to eat meat. Reducing our consumption of factory farm meat in turn lessens the amount of petroleum and therefore the profit the Koch brothers.”
nkgodfrey writes—Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol.14.37 Transformation: “Good morning! Each Saturday, I enjoy waking up to this blog instead of my usual ritual of checking the news. Our garden is in the SF Bay area about 30 miles north of the Golden Gate. We are in a canyon which protects the garden from winter cold. The shade from the Bay, Madrone, and Oak forest helps keep the temperature cooler in the summer. This morning, I will share the garden transformation over the 2 years we have lived here. [...] A few of my neighbors and friends have asked me how I keep the hillside so green when everything turns brown for the summer in California. They know I prefer to convert the lawn into a garden and that I do not want to use irrigation to support the ground cover. Santa Barbara daisies (Erigeron karvinskianus) spread in the sunnier areas and are an amazing ground cover. Pinkhead Smartweed (Polygonum Capitatum Punching Balls) likes a little water and does well in the sunnier and flatter areas where it magically appeared. Bacopa is doing well in some small, sunny, flat areas and I have had more luck with the white version. I am also experimenting with various succulents.”
leftinhamlet writes—Pigs and Chickens are Sentient Beings: “What we are doing to our farm animals in CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) is a major tragedy. Then you add the fact that these poor animals were sentenced to die in the flood in these CAFOs….the tragedy is magnified. Where was the evacuation plan for these animals??!! [... If we are going to be a humane and civilized society….if we are going to provide for a vital and healthy seventh generation…. then we need to eliminate CAFOs and other unsustainable methods of modern agriculture. We have the intelligence and the means to feed the world without unnatural abuse to our animals and plants. We may not have all the answers and alternative processes at this moment but I know we can get there if we have the collective will to feed the world in a sustainable way.”
bluegoatwoods writes—Pondering those hog farm waste pits… “You've surely been aware of the uneasiness, particularly on the left, over the growth of factory farming methods. And there are reasons to be concerned. Some more urgent than others. But even the low urgency items are important. But one reason that I haven't gotten too involved over the matter is the feeling that we have no choice. If there are things such as (genuine) free-range chickens and organic produce, I won't be able to afford them. Not everyday, anyway. And how do you expand production of these to feed seven billion people? I suppose we'd get right back to factory farms. Occasionally I'll hear it said that the stereotypical American farmer is extinct. I think that's an exaggeration. At least there are still some small, independent hog producers raising livestock in ways that would remind us more of small farming. Still, you gotta imagine that they are being squeezed more and more by the economies of scale helping their larger competition. Extinction probably is inevitable.”
Missys Brother writes—Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 14.38 - thoughts of home: “You can’t go home again and I couldn’t wait to get back home. ‘You can’t go home again’ is very true as when you return, it is never the same as your memories led you to believe. Home for me has always been the house below that my parents built and lived in for 57 years. When asked where home is, I have always named this one red-light town in Kentucky although I haven’t lived there since high school, other than a few retreats. Now that my parents no longer live there and I just spent my last night, I have lost ‘My Old Kentucky Home.’ My siblings and I have just emptied their house and our grandmother’s house behind theirs and they will both be auctioned off in October. The soul of both is now gone but I’ll always have my memories. Other than a few friends and classmates, I have no more living connections to the town. All four grandparents and my father are buried in cemeteries there and P and I will be one day as well. I’ll return for high school reunions, yet a main link in my life has been broken …..”
MISCELLANY
Paul C writes—The Fossil Fuel Industry is spying on environmental activists and organizations: “In an eye opening article related to the rise of the now $20 Billion industry of spycraft, Adam Federman in Mother Jones reveals how one of these security companies, Welund, is working with the fossil fuel industry to monitor environmental activists and organizations working to oppose massive infrastructure projects such as Keystone XL and the Trans Mountain pipelines, as well as to provide insight into how to counter and neutralize these efforts. Welund was founded by a former MI-6 agent together with Travis Moran, VP of operations and a former US Justice Dept. special agent: The company depicts the environmental movement as one of the energy industry’s most dangerous adversaries—comparable to the challenges posed by international industrial espionage. ‘What we’re talking about here is an existential threat,’ Moran told the audience of oil and gas executives in Houston... ‘The anti-fossil fuel movement is the No. 1 challenge threatening our industry, especially when they have sympathizers in the White House, Ottawa, and elsewhere in public office,’ wrote the editor of the Pipeline and Gas Journal, an industry trade publication, shortly before the 2016 election.”