This is the 510th edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) usually appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Here is the July 5 Green Spotlight. More than 27,365 environmentally oriented stories have been rescued to appear in this series since 2006. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
terrypinder writes—Nope, Yellowstone still isn't going to erupt: “The Yellowstone cycle of dumb begins anew.1. Minor uplift and or earthquake; 2. Someone on the internet notices; 3. Hysteria, conspiracy, and ridiculousness; 4. Scientists facepalm, rend their hair, wreck their edges, and sob.So there are two things that have happened. One, a persistent swarm of tectonic quakes within Yellowstone National Park (these happen all the time). Two, a sizeable earthquake happened in Montana yesterday morning and it was widely felt across several US states and Canadian provinces.The hysteria usually takes a few days to build (although, thanks a fucking lot, Newsweek!) so I thought I’d get out in front this time (like others are), and probably not as ranty as the last time I wrote about this. [...] SO, THE VOLCANO. Guess what? It’s not going to erupt. If you didn’t know that Yellowstone is a volcano, a big giant ass volcano, surprise! It is. [...] But why isn’t it going to erupt? Since the last time I ranted about this in 2014, some new science has come out. Most of Yellowstone’s giant magma chamber, which is bigger than expected, is not even molten enough to be eruptible.”
Besame writes—California's second wolf pack generates conservation thrill and rancher ire: “Two wolves seen last year scouting out north-central California are the parents of at least three pups born this spring. In early May, U.S. Forest Service biologists found new evidence of wolves in Lassen National Forest. California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) biologists responded by surveying the area to locate and trap at least one wolf. They narrowed in on a likely location and twelve days of attempted trapping later, they successfully captured a 75 pound female wolf on June 30th. After examining her and collecting genetic and other biological samples, she was fitted with a tracking collar and released. ‘The anesthesia and collaring process went smoothly and the wolf was in excellent condition,’ said CDFW’s Senior Wildlife Veterinarian Dr. Deana Clifford. ‘Furthermore, our physical examination indicated that she had given birth to pups this spring.’ [...] Named the Lassen Pack for their territory (which was named for Danish settler Peter Lassen), they are the second wolf pack in California. [...] In January 2017, the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of the California Cattlemen’s Association and California Farm Bureau Federation filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the state’s Endangered Species Act listing of wolves so that wolves may be killed. The Center for Biological Diversity and other groups are opposing what they call ‘this baseless legal challenge.’”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
cardinal writes—Dawn Chorus: Birds of Washington and Alberta: “My wife and I spent two weeks in June in Washington and Canada. Although it was mostly a hiking trip — I had to inflict one more round of abuse so I could get my money’s worth out of last week’s knee surgery — I did keep my eyes and ears open for colorful chirpy things. I ended up with a memory card filled mostly with the PNW’s most common backyard birds — but at least four were lifers for me! We started on the Olympic Peninsula, hitting the major sites in the national park. We spent most of our time in the gorgeous temperate rainforest on the west side of the peninsula. [...] Our only organized birding excursion was a morning walk at the Dungeness River Audubon Center in Sequim, WA. Fortuitously, we passed through town on the morning of their weekly guided walk. Thanks to our wonderful guide and fellow birders, this was a fruitful morning. For starters, I finally photographed my first bald eagle.”
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - osprey on a windy day: “Summer wind isn’t uncommon in these parts. One afternoon we were driving home, came down the hill and around the corner on the road to the harbor. When it opened up along the beach there was a blast of wind. This is a west-facing shore with a miles-long fetch, and wind waves had kicked up chop, muddying the water along the beach. An osprey was fishing in those less than optimal conditions. [...] We stopped the car and I got out to watch for a bit. The osprey carved through the wind, gliding then curving around, tipping, arrowing straight through. Sharp pointed wings...maneuverable in three dimensions. Great finesse and control in any skies. Usually an osprey hovers in place, searching for prey, judging distance and angle for an attack. This one wasn’t. Couldn’t, I guess, in the gusty 20+ knot wind.”
owktree writes—Daily Bucket: Mirror Alphabet - "W": Photo diary.
Besame writes—Daily Bucket: squirrel yoga: “There must be a family of squirrels nearby as two babies have visited me to show off their moves in the past week. For this fast Bucket today, I’m featuring those two squirrels. Yesterday morning I was sitting in my chair inside the glass front door and heard a thud. Looked out and saw the top image. I grabbed my phone/camera and swiveled to face the door. Little Ms Squirrel saw me, but she apparently decided I wasn’t worth her concern. It was morning yoga time. (Maybe this squirrel is aiming for her own Instagram account?)”
Passionfruit Flower writes—The Daily Bucket:4th of July Weekend at Serrano Campground Big Bear CA: “Serrano, a US Dept. of Agriculture Forest Service campground, is located in the San Bernardino Mountains, within walking distance of the North Shore of Big Bear Lake. Accessed by the Rim of the World Scenic Byway (Hwy 38), the campground is situated in a mountainous, pine forest setting. Sagebrush grows alongside the paved roads.The park’s elevation is 6,800 feet. Visitors enjoy access to a number of hiking and mountain biking trails found within a short distance of the campground. The Alpine Pedal Path and the Cougar Crest Trail are nearby and provide access to the Pacific Crest Trail. Fishing and boating at Big Bear Lake are popular activities. The campground does not provide direct access to the lake, but a boat ramp is available about a mile away. Anglers can look forward to a possible catch of trout, bass, catfish, carp, bluegill and crappie, among others. Source: recreation.gov. There was a large coyote sited by multiple people. Also, one person claimed to see a bobcat run across the street in front of her at dusk, but no others saw it.”
RonK writes—The Daily bucket; Pupping on the Rocks – The birth of a Harbor Seal Pup: “In our part of the Salish Sea, late June is the beginning of harbor seal birthing (pupping) season that runs through August. On July 2nd, I was fortunate to observe one of these births on the shore of Bellingham Bay. On an early Sunday morning walk, I saw this harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) swimming erratically in tight circles and occasionally coming up to the rocks on shore, then back to the water. I was concerned that it was ill and disoriented. I could not have been more wrong. Mamma seal knew exactly what she was doing. [...] Shortly a few other walkers stopped by to observe the seal pulling herself partially up in the rocky shallow water. It was then that I saw something protruding from her back side. It was mottled gray color, just like the rocks on shore. The several human mothers on shore started calling in unison ‘push harder.’ A few seconds later something red appeared and then the water was full of blood. A whiskered nose pushed up through the water and it had big eyes. Before I fully realized it I had just observed the birth of what appeared to be a healthy harbor seal pup nuzzling its doting mother.”
owktree writes—Daily Bucket: Tails, Sometimes the only way to win: “Sometimes the only photo you manage to get is that butt-shot. But even that is generally better than no shot at all. So we keep trying. Dedicated to all the nature photographers who persevere in trying to get *that* photo. And being a bit tongue-in-cheek today as well.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
rktect writes—"I am gonna ask you questions. And every time you don't give me answers, I'm gonna cut something off: “This updates ‘A Growing Rift’ last addressed a month ago with Larsen C at 11 miles to separation. That is now down to 5 km with the rift growing at 10 m a day and accelerating because the shear and moment on the crack no longer are being resisted by enough of an area to prevent its breaking off. Clearly Donald Jr. is of more interest to most folks than Antarctica losing its ice, but this amputation of a major limb is the sort of thing where you are going to miss having it attached once its gone. We need to be asking and answering questions of our so called job creators as to whether they are in reality climate change providers. [...] As Larsen separates and drifts north into shipping lanes as an Ice berg the size of a state it will soon be having some company from its companion glaciers.”
hatrack writes—Larsen C Ice Shelf Calves, Satellites Confirm; 12% Of Ice Shelf Gone With New Iceberg A68: “The Larsen C ice shelf is more than 12% smaller in area than before the iceberg broke off – or ‘calved’ – an event that researchers say has changed the landscape of the Antarctic peninsula and left the Larsen C ice shelf at its lowest extent ever recorded. ‘It is a really major event in terms of the size of the ice tablet that we’ve got now drifting away,’ said Anna Hogg, an expert in satellite observations of glaciers from the University of Leeds. At 5,800 sq km the new iceberg, expected to be dubbed A68, is half as big as the record-holding iceberg B-15 which split off from the Ross ice shelf in the year 2000, but it is nonetheless believed to be among the 10 largest icebergs ever recorded.”
Meteor Blades writes—EPA's Pruitt wants a televised debate on climate science. Next up: Is the Earth really spherical? “Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency-hating chief of the EPA, wants to have a televised debate among scientists on climate change. When my colleague Mark Sumner read the news about this, he pictured a climate Thunderdome in which two scientists enter and a hunk of the public leaves still believing that there really is a debate to be had. [...] All in all, Pruitt is a horror show for the environment, as has been documented here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here. It’s quite the tell that Pruitt credits the idea of a debate to his reading of two people—Steve Koonin and Bret Stephens. They both wrote Op-eds in April laying out a piece of their climate science “skepticism” on the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal andThe New York Times. Both of them then and in their other work repeatedly rely on fallacies and debunked claims. Neither is a climate scientist. Indeed, Stephens isn’t a scientist at all.”
Meteor Blades writes—Open thread for night owls. Climate scientists: We aren't as doomed as New York mag writer asserts: “Robinson Meyer at The Atlantic: In a widely shared article, David Wallace-Wells sketches the bleakest possible scenario for global warming. He warns of a planet so awash in greenhouse gas that Brooklyn’s heat waves will rival Bahrain’s. The breadbaskets of China and the United States will enter a debilitating and everlasting drought, he says. And millions of brains will so lack oxygen that they’ll slip into a carbon-induced confusion. Unless we take aggressive action, ‘parts of the Earth will likely become close to uninhabitable, and other parts horrifically inhospitable, as soon as the end of this century,’ he writes. ‘No matter how well-informed you are, you are surely not alarmed enough.’ It’s a scary vision—which is okay, because climate change is scary. It is also an unusually specific and severe depiction of what global warming will do to the planet. And though Wallace-Wells makes it clear that he’s not predicting the future, only trying to spin out the consequences of the best available science today, it’s fair to ask: Is it realistic? Will this heat-wracked doomsday come to pass? Many climate scientists and professional science communicators say no. Wallace-Wells’s article, they say, often flies beyond the realm of what researchers think is likely. I have to agree with them.”
Meteor Blades writes—In communique, 19 of G20 nations affirm commitment to Paris climate accord as 'irreversible': “While Donald Frederickovich was making nice with Vladimir Vladimirovich and having daughter Ivanka keep his seat warm at the adults table during parts of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, the assembled leaders struggled to come up with climate language in their final communique that the world’s 20 richest nations could all agree to. Thanks to the stubborn climate science denial of the Trump regime, the communique had to recognize that only 19 of those nations accept the seriousness of the matter and remain firmly committed to the Paris Climate Accord. This was no surprise. To groans and sighs in the scientific and environmental activist communities, Pr*sident Trump announced the first of last month that the United States will withdraw from the 2015 agreement.”
Mary Anne Hitt writes—Cities and States Take the Lead With New Paris Agreement Pledge: “Good news and real leadership are here, just when we need them most, as a massive trillion-ton iceberg breaks away from the Larsen ice sheet in Antarctica and an apocalyptic viral climate article in New York Magazine captivates (and terrifies) the internet. Today, former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and California Governor Jerry Brown announced ‘America’s Pledge,” a plan for cities and states to lead the way on cutting climate pollution 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. By reaching that target, the US will meet our nation’s commitment for reducing climate pollution that we set at climate talks in Paris in 2015. The dismay amongst Americans and people around the world continues after Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and his increased climate action isolation at last weekend’s G-20 meeting. This new pledge shows a pathway for the US to meet the agreement regardless of his decision. That historically bad move by Trump has ceded U.S. leadership on fighting climate disruption to other countries, and has even caused some to refer to the global alliance of powers as the G-19, signaling our lack of leadership on the world stage as humanity faces an unprecedented threat.”
poopdogcomedy writes—VA & NJ-Gov WA-45: LCV Helps 3 Climate Hawks Keep Their States In Accord With Paris Agreement: “Received this e-mail today from the League of Conservation Voters: Trump may have withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris climate accord, but across the country, states are filling the leadership void that Trump has left. At least ten state governors have signed onto an alliance to move forward on the Paris accord goals. And activists are fired up like never before — in five special elections in heavily conservative districts this year, Democratic candidates have outperformed the expected partisan lean of their district by an average of eight points.
The momentum is with us — and three state elections are kicking into gear now. We can expand the map of pro-environment governors and state legislatures this year with three key candidates. These candidates need your help: To advance climate progress in the face of a hostile Trump administration, chip in today to Ralph Northam, Phil Murphy, and Manka Dhingra’s campaigns.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Silly Non-Study Supposedly Strengthens Endangerment Challenge: “Back in April, we gave you a heads-up about a pal-reviewed, poorly sourced and largely ignored white paper from a bunch of deniers that seeks to undercut the Endangerment finding. Well try and contain your excitement, because they wrote another (pdf warning). Just like last time, Koch operative Michael Bastasch of the dodgy Daily Caller falsely describes the now weeks-old report as a peer-reviewed study in his ‘exclusive’ story published Wednesday. For the record, the word ‘study’ doesn’t appear anywhere in the white paper—it appears that even its authors don’t consider their work to be a study. Despite Bastasch’s lack of journalistic ethics, integrity or basic competence (or, you know, because of it), links to the inaccurate story appeared on Drudge and got top billing on Climate Depot. This is an indication that deniers are going to be flogging this particular paper hard in their campaign to pressure the Trump administration to take on the quixotic quest to undo the endangerment finding.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Who Needs Scientists When You Have Lobbyists? “Late last week, CBS reported that the Office of Science, Technology and Policy (OSTP) lost the last of its science division employees. These folks work to provide the president with vital information on a range of issues where policy meets science: medical epidemics like Ebola, biotechnology issues like stem cell research, and even broader issues like science education. Of course, the White House later denied the CBS report in an attempt to do some damage control. Given that CBS’s source was an anonymous official, and that the White House has told the public to ignore anonymous sources, we’re… skeptical.”
AKALib writes—Al Franken, David Letterman Talk Climate Change in Brilliant New Series - 'Boiling the Frog': “Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) has teamed up with David Letterman for the first season of a new web series on Climate Change - ‘Boiling the Frog.’ The series title is a reference to the analogy Al Gore used about how the slow warming of our planet makes people less likely to notice and thus less likely to care about Climate Change. The series has been created by the website Funny Or Die and ‘the geniuses behind Years of Living Dangerously,’ as Franken describes the producers of the Emmy award-winning climate change series.”
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
Dan Bacher writes—Jerry Brown Announces Global Climate Action Summit As He Promotes Fracking, Delta Tunnels: “California Governor Jerry Brown announced yesterday, via video message at the Global Citizen Festival in Hamburg, Germany, that the state will convene the “world’s climate leaders” in San Francisco in September 2018 for a ‘Global Climate Action Summit.’ Brown made the announcement at a time when increasing numbers of Californians are challenging his environmental credentials as he teams up with the Donald Trump administration to build the controversial Delta Tunnels and to exempt three major California oilfields from protection under the federal Safe Water Drinking Act. (www.counterpunch.org/...). ‘It’s up to you and it’s up to me and tens of millions of other people to get it together to roll back the forces of carbonization and join together to combat the existential threat of climate change,’ said Governor Brown in his remarks on the eve of the G20 Summit. ‘That is why we’re having the Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, September 2018.’”
Dan Bacher writes—Breaking: Governor Brown, Senators Harris and Feinstein oppose Valadao's Big Ag-sponsored water bill: “California Governor Jerry Brown and Senators Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein have voiced their opposition to HR 23, the “Gaining Responsibility on Water (GROW) Act of 2017,” water legislation that is supported by San Joaquin Valley agribusiness interests. This bill is strongly opposed by California Indian Tribes, fishing groups and conservation organizations, since it guts key provisions of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act of 1992 and the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act, two landmark federal laws that aim to restore salmon, steelhead and other anadromous fisheries on the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers.The House is expected to take up H.R. 23, authored by Congressman David Valadao, this week.”
POPULATION, EXTINCTION & SUSTAINABILITY
Dartagnan writes—Only A Century Away From An "Uninhabitable Earth?" “In a jarring analysis that purports to confirm what many of us have suspected as we’ve watched the seasons we once grew up with become increasingly unpredictable, as populations of wild animals disappear or migrate to places they should never be, as crops refuse to grow in places where they should, and as fish and coral reefs die off and vanish without explanation, Wallace-Wells is telling us—yes, we’re killing our planet and our children’s futures with our unchecked consumption of fossil fuels. Yes, it’s happening faster than anyone predicted. And yes, your children—or at best, your grandchildren for the most part—are going to suffer miserably, no matter how rich or protected you think they are. The Uninhabitable Earth is his title: [A]bsent a significant adjustment to how billions of humans conduct their lives, parts of the Earth will likely become close to uninhabitable, and other parts horrifically inhospitable, as soon as the end of this century. It’s really not possible to do justice to the total impact of Wallace-Wells’ article, which unsparingly rolls together all of the likely consequences of an unstoppably warming planet into one, horrifying piece—the unbreathable air that ravages the lungs of millions, the perpetual wars for a drastically diminished food supply, the end of ocean life as we know it and the spread of disease on a scale we can’t fathom.”
Pakalolo writes—Earth's 6th mass extinction event already under way, scientists warn of 'biological annihilation’: “The Guardian has yet another excellent report on environmental justice. Again the news is devastating for our biosphere as humankind’s population continues to soar resulting in our collective devouring of the world’s resources and the elimination of other species homes. The world population is currently at 7.3 billion. ‘Continued population growth until 2050 is almost inevitable, even if the decline of fertility accelerates,’ notes the World Population Prospects: 2015 revision. ‘There is an 80% probability that the population of the world will be between 8.4 and 8.6 billion in 2030, between 9.4 and 10 billion in 2050 and between 10 and 12.5 billion in 2100.’”
poopdogcomedy writes—FL-Sen: Bill Nelson (D) Keeps Up The Fight To Stop Trump's Oil Drilling On Public Lands: “Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator Bill Nelson’s (D. FL) re-election: Earlier this year President Trump issued an executive order that aims to open up places like the Florida Keys to Big Oil. And now more than two dozen national monuments have been put "under review" by the Trump administration. I've fought hard to protect our beaches from the threat of offshore oil drilling and I'm not going to sit back while President Trump takes a sledgehammer to the critical protections put in place for our public lands.”
poopdogcomedy writes—WA-Sen: Maria Cantwell (D) Goes After Secretary Of Interior Ryan Zinke's Assault On National Parks: “Unless we act now, President Trump and his Interior Secretary -- Ryan Zinke -- will be able to sell the most beautiful public lands in America to oil and gas companies. The Interior Department is accepting public comments online until July 10, and we're already submitting more than 18,000 comments from you to persuade them to preserve our parks. But we want to make sure the Trump administration is listening. So we're making our voices heard in every way we can.”
ENERGY
jamess writes—Big Oil lobbying for Big Payday on Big Russian Reset: “Big Oil is hauling out the big guns, to scare Big Politicians into backing their next geopolitical play. They’re even hauling out the tired old canards about ‘risking American Jobs’—even though the extraction work ‘they are lobbying for,’ is going to be over a half-world away. Big Surprise! Oil companies lobby against new Russia sanctions.”
Fossil Fuels
Louie Miller via Mary Anne Hitt writes—Dirty. Expensive. Unnecessary: “These three truths became well known to Mississippians put on the hook for the so-called Kemper ‘clean coal’ gasification experiment. Touted as the flagship for the future of coal, and backed by the U.S. Department of Energy and the heavy-hitter utility, Southern Company, what could go wrong? As many predicted from the very beginning, costs soon spiraled out of control; what started out with a $1.8 billion price tag ended up at $7.5 billion plus, giving Kemper the dubious distinction of being the most expensive power plant ever built in the United States. For comparison, $7.5 billion, which works out to about $40,000 per Mississippi Power customer, could have installed solar panels plus batteries for every one of the utility’s 150,000 residential customers. Years behind schedule, the plant has yet to run as advertised. This past week, the newly elected Mississippi Public Service Commission (MPSC) stepped in and ‘pulled the plug’ on Southern Company’s big bet gone bad, putting an end to any further attempts to continue to throw good money after bad.”
John Crapper writes—Being Vigilant, War on Terror, Oil and Connecting the Dots: “I would like to posit a new approach in our war on terror. What if the United States, along with our Western allies, made a concerted and sustained effort to unplug from the Middle East? Why are we so involved with this area anyway? Is it because we consider Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq our natural allies as we do Great Britain? I think not. I think it is because of oil just like the soldier who recently returned from Afghanistan said to me. There is an ebb and flow to the sources of terrorist funding depending on the circumstances they find themselves dealing with. It is a complex system but individuals and charities continue to play a significant role. How does it work? Here is a Saudi Arabian example provided by the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security.”
Emissions Controls & Carbon Taxes
EARTHWORKS writes—Diverse voices speak out against delay of methane pollution rule: “On Monday, more than 150 speakers testified before the Environmental Protection Agency at a public hearing concerning the proposed two-year delay of implementing the methane pollution rule. The rule regulates methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas 86 times worse for climate than carbon dioxide, that is released during oil and gas drilling and fracking. Even though EPA acknowledges that methane is a potent greenhouse gas, Trump’s new EPA administrator Scott Pruitt claims the EPA needs more time to reconsider the rule. The threat from methane doesn’t stop there. While oil and gas companies release millions of metric tons of methane into the air every year, health-harming hitchhiker pollutants are released at the same time, including benzene and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Use the Oil and Gas Threat Map to see the extent of this pollution and why we need these rules to protect our health.”
Renewables, Efficiency, Storage & Conservation
Ivy Main writes—Hearing examiner rules Appalachian Power’s renewable energy tariff isn’t good enough: “Appalachian Power’s plan to repackage power from existing renewable energy projects in its portfolio into a new, higher-priced green option hit a bump this week when a hearing examiner for the Virginia State Corporation Commission recommended rejection of the tariff, saying it wasn’t a good deal for consumers. Approval of the tariff would have allowed APCo to block competition from other renewable energy suppliers. Virginia law provides that if a customer’s own utility doesn’t offer a tariff for 100% renewable energy, the customer has the right to buy from any other provider. APCo had argued its tariff met the letter of the law, and that should be the end of the SCC’s inquiry. Since it was a voluntary tariff, customers could take it or leave it. Hearing Examiner A. Ann Berkobile disagreed. Because approval of the tariff would adversely affect competition and restrict the rights of customers, she found, the tariff could only be approved if APCo proved it was ‘in the public interest and its rate is just, reasonable and unlikely to prejudice customers.’”
Unenergy writes—World's Biggest Battery Set for South Australia: “South Australia has announced Elon Musk's Tesla as the principal builder of the world's largest lithium ion battery to expand the state's renewable energy supply. The project is intended to sustain 100 megawatts of power and store 129 megawatt hours, which could power about 30,000 homes according to Tesla. That was more than three times as powerful as the world's next-largest such battery, Mr Musk said on Friday. The project, slated for completion by December, will harness the existing Hornsdale Wind Farm to charge the mega-battery while the wind is blowing and discharge power when it is most needed. This comes on the back of a 2016 blackout of the state of 1.6 million people, caused by a number of factors.”
AlanC writes—Hopeful news: Batteries, wind and sunshine: “Some good news on the climate/energy front — potentially, anyway — and an interesting analysis of how technology and science have the ability to puncture political puffery by busting through it like the Kool-Aid pitcher-dude crashing through a wall. Tesla is building a 100 MW/129 MWh battery system to pair with a wind farm in South Australia. It’s billed as the largest in the world. They can store energy for when there are spikes in demand, as has been done in other, smaller projects. From what I’m reading, the costs of storing energy from solar and wind for times when the wind ain’t blowing and the sun ain’t shining have made those sources less than competitive, but plunging prices for batteries are helping to rectify that.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—NYMag’s Vision of Catastrophe Ignores Renewable Realities: “Not already bummed out enough by recent events? Well then, New York Magazine has just the thing for you! In a very lengthy cover story this week, David Wallace-Wells paints a bleak picture of an all-too-near future: The Uninhabitable Earth. Through nine sections, Wallace-Wells lays out a ‘schedule’ of what warming will bring humanity over the coming decades. While he does make it clear that his “schedule” may change if we alter our emissions trajectory, and though scientists like Dr. Michael Mann have pointed out some accuracy issues with Wallace-Wells’s assumptions, the piece is already rattling cages and causing mild panic and depression. With good reason: as Wallace-Wells describes coming heat deaths from just being outside in the tropics, Arctic melt awakening ancient plagues and socioeconomic breakdowns, the story is a vivid description of a worst-case scenario. But is that helpful? Or does it just create more deniers? All politics aside, on a psychological level, the more harrowing and hopeless the situation, the easier it is to throw up your hands and busy yourself with distractions. Why waste your time and emotional capacity on something you’re so powerless to stop when there’s such good TV to watch?”
CANDIDATES, & ECO-RELATED STATE AND LOCAL POLITICS
Jeff Singer writes—Reviled coal businessman Don Blankenship reportedly mulling a Senate bid against Joe Manchin: “Now this would be something. MetroNews' Hoppy Kercheval writes that Don Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy, is considering getting in the GOP primary to challenge West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. There's no quote from Blankenship, but Kercheval says that Blankenship blames Manchin for what he considers a politically motivated prosecution against him. Blankenship recently finished a year-long prison sentence for a misdemeanor for conspiring to violate federal mine safety laws. The government was hoping to convict Blankenship for far more serious felony charges over the deaths of 29 of Blankenship's employees in the 2010 Upper Big Branch explosion, but they were unsuccessful. Manchin would certainly be pleased if Blankenship somehow won the GOP nod. A May 2016 poll from Public Policy Polling survey found that only 10 percent of West Virginians had a favorable opinion of Blankenship, while 55 saw him in a negative light.”
WILDERNESS, NATIONAL FORESTS AND PARKS, OTHER PUBLIC LANDS
Meteor Blades writes—Tea party extremists want Trump regime to rescind 10 national monuments, shrink 13 others: “As the nation prepared for the holiday weekend last Friday, 17 tea party Republicans—members of the Congressional Western Caucus—sent a letter to Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke asking that he downsize or eliminate 27 national monuments across the western United States. Although the caucus is theoretically open to anyone in Congress, all 70 members are Republicans, including some of the most extremist representatives in the government. Zinke, himself a member of the caucus before he was appointed to head Interior earlier this year, is in the midst of a contentious 120-day review of national monuments, with an eye toward reducing their acreage or rescinding their presidential designation as monuments. The review was undertaken under Pr*sident Donald Trump’s Executive Order 13972. [...] In their letter, the tea partiers recommend rescission of monument designations for Bears Ears, Berryessa Snow Mountain, Cascade Siskiyou, Grand Canyon-Parashant, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Ironwood Forest, Katahdin Woods and Waters, Sonoran Desert, Vermillion Cliffs, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts. They also seek to greatly shrink other monuments. For example, they recommend reducing the Basin and Range National Monument in southeastern Nevada from 704,000 acres to ‘approximately 2,500 acres.’
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—“Who Will Win: 2+ Million Americans, or a Handful of Lobbyists? “One of the slogans of Trump’s campaign was that the forgotten men and women would no longer be forgotten. He would serve their interests, not special interest groups. So what about those forgotten Americans? Public input on Trump’s proposed regulations will put this promise to the test, because the public has spoken about the administration’s April 26 Executive Order to “review” (shrink or eliminate) the country’s national monuments. The response is starkly one-sided. Impressively, there were over 2.7 million comments submitted during the brief 60-day public comment period. According to one analysis of 1,000 comments, only one percent supported Trump’s proposed shrinkage. Similarly, at a Monday hearing about the rollback of a rule to limit methane pollution, the public was consistent in its pushback and overwhelmed those who support more pollution. (We heard it was 116 witnesses advocating on behalf of public health versus two industry supporters.)”
ECO-ACTION & ECO JUSTICE
durrati writes—Greenpeace Unfurls Giant Banners on Trump Tower Chicago. Seven Arrested: “Taylor Blevons, one of the intrepid Greenpeace activists that braved the Windy City’s gusts yesterday to unfurl the banner had this to say: ‘This action demonstrates that we will not accept the threats that the Trump administration poses to people here and around the world,’ he said. ‘Ignoring the science of climate change and removing us from the Paris Climate Agreement is just another indication that the billionaires who have hijacked our democracy are putting the short term profit of corporations over people and the planet.’ Kudos to the Greenpeace climbers who helped to keep the resistance alive!”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
Missys Brother writes—Saturday Morning Garden Blog V.13.27: a beautiful day visiting a historic CT garden, exploring area: “June 24 was Connecticut Historic Gardens Day. It also happened to be the day that P requested a ride to pick up his car from a repair shop. Sorta on the way during the drive was one of the fifteen historic gardens opened in Connecticut free just for the day. So the barter was that I would drive him if we could visit the garden. And so it was but we also needed to stop first for some lunch. [...] Our next stop was the historic gardens of the Thankful Arnold House built in 1794 in Haddam, CT. The house remained in the Arnold family until the 1960s when it was donated to the Haddam Historical Society. (on the main section’s right side is the sunlight showing off the irregularities of the clapboard. I cannot describe how much I love these aged imperfections showing their authenticity). [...] the tour inside of the house with period furniture was wonderful. I was so taken with it that I didn’t take photographs. Now as to the historic garden, it was done extremely period with much research going into the plants and their uses for that time. Though it would not have been laid out as it was below. I expected more but it was a good size for the house and property. The volunteers that day were a wonderful group offering their famous rhubarb tea to all.”
Frida Berrigan via Tom Englehardt writes—Growing My Way Out of Dystopia Can We Stop Feeling Quite So Helpless and Hopeless in a World on the Skids? “In the wake of Donald Trump's inauguration, George Orwell's 1984 soared onto bestseller lists, as did Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, which also hit TV screens in a storm of publicity. Zombies, fascists, and predators of every sort are now stalking the American imagination in ever-greater numbers and no wonder, given that guy in the Oval Office. Certainly, 2017 is already offering up a bumper crop of dystopian possibilities and we've only reached July. But let me admit one thing: the grim national mood and the dark clouds crowding our skies have actually nudged me in a remarkably positive direction. Surprise of all surprises, Donald Trump is making the corn grow in Connecticut! Maybe I'd better explain.”
karmsy writes—Farewell to Vermicomposting: No Shame: “I started raising worms to eat my household waste and then produce castings to nourish plants, a practice known as vermicomposting. I wanted to reduce my carbon footprint. I liked the idea of converting personal garbage, kitchen scraps and waste-paper, to a usable product. This was in June, 2013. I spent fifteen months after acquiring my first 500 Red Wigglers and my first worm-bin at painstaking trial-and-error, to arrive at the best habitat, the best setting, the best feeding practices, the best maintenance schedule, and so on, for my worms to consume and produce the most. By fall, 2014, I'd hit a stride. I estimated about 30-40% of my household waste was going to my worms. I'd bought the worm-bin; I was buying nothing more for my worms. [...] Life happened. I connected with my significant other. One of our "date" activities was to spend time each weekend sitting on my couch, shredding waste-paper for worm-bedding, for the worm-bin in my bathroom. He moved in. I became outrageously busy, going to school and working. He had his life, too. Our vermicomposting lapsed.”
MISCELLANY
Leslie Salzillo writes—Washington Post: U.S. Officials say Russia is now hacking our nuclear & electric power companies: “One day after Donald Trump and the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin met in Hamburg to discuss in part, international cyber security, the Washington Post released a news story citing U.S. officials who claim the Russians hacked into our nuclear and power industries. Ellen Nakashima reports. Russian government hackers were behind recent cyber-intrusions into the business systems of U.S. nuclear power and other energy companies in what appears to be an effort to assess their networks, according to U.S. government officials. The U.S. officials said there is no evidence the hackers breached or disrupted the core systems controlling operations at the plants, so the public was not at risk. Rather, they said, the hackers broke into systems dealing with business and administrative tasks, such as personnel. It’s hard not to question the statement, ‘so the public was not at risk. ‘Especially with the following excerpt: The campaign marks the first time Russian government hackers are known to have wormed their way into the networks of American nuclear power companies, several U.S. and industry officials said. And the penetration could be a sign that Russia is seeking to lay the groundwork for more damaging hacks.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Here’s the Goop on Fake News, From Mainstream Media to Human-Pig Hybrids: “What’s worse, though, is when otherwise trusted sources actively promote or disseminate the sort of denial we expect from the Daily Caller and Alex Jones. Rebecca Leber and Jeremy Schulman explored this problem in a recent piece for Mother Jones, and created a timeline of mainstream media’s climate-denying fake news. It’s a great illustration of how the fossil fuel industry has gamed media to prey on their instinct for (false) balance, controversy and lies-as-opinions. And sadly, based on the example of Bret Stephens being hired by NYT and now MSNBC, it doesn’t look like this is going to come to an end any time soon.”
streicher187 writes—The "Great" Free Market Myth: “How many times have you had a republican tell you that the ‘free market’ can do things better, faster and cheaper than government? This will anger capitalists but history and facts show that many of the things they claim are false and it is the government who has improved the markets. Just look at the two biggest sectors (minus military industrial complex) the last several year and both are possible and expanding because of government help. I’ll agree America is in the middle of an oil and natural gas explosion, not because republicans cut regulation and but because of hydrofracking which allows oil and gas companies to drill places they never could before. Fracking is not new, it was first tried in the 1940’s and improved by the Department of Energy in the 1970’s — that’s right fracking was created by the United States Government. Now while the government created the process of fracking it was still to expensive for use by the private sector until George Mitchell came up with a cheap mixture of liquids to replace the expensive foam in the original process. So why the private sector did find a cheaper way to do fracking it was the government who got them on their way. In fact I would say the only thing the private free market did was created the most polluted mixture they could find and poisoned the environment. Lets not forget that Oil and Gas companies get 3x in government assistance than America spend on education.”