The elder brothers, the Kogi people, who retreated through dense Colombian jungle to high mountain sanctuaries from lost cities, rather than be conquered by Europeans or converted by missionaries, have sent their first emissary ever to Europe to warn us that we are are killing the earth.
Kogi priest (in white hat) with Kogi workers tending to the lost city of the Tairona. 
photo: Steven Ferry, National Geographic
I have written many times about my great-grandmother on these boards. She has taught me a great deal about foodstuffs, foraging, preserving, and above all, Provençal lore. She always spoke in our ancient language, and quite often I would have to ask her the meaning of a particular word or expression. It was during our long mushrooms excursions into the wild woods of the Esterel that I have learned about our rich culture...and wild mushrooms.
During the mushroom season we would wake up at 4am, gather our baskets and walk for a good four or five hours before we'd stop for a bite to eat. I would always bring bread, sausages, salt & pepper and a flask filled with water flavored with mint syrup. I'd make a small fire and grill our sausages on rosemary sticks. Over the break, she would tell me another story about our past and we'd resume our march for another couple of hours. She knew exactly where to go and what to look for.
EnergizeUS is all about local energy jobs and the manufacturing needed to support that. EnergizeUS coalition member and Arizona Senate candidate Rodney Glassman has a background in arid land management and he immediately keyed in on the water issues associated with energy production.
This isn’t well known yet, but it is a very serious concern, and one we’d do well to address sooner rather than later.
As DailyKos has been reporting, the momentum building up to the Global Day of Action is accelerating at .... the speed of light?
Just today, Bill McKibben sends out notice that with ten days to go, last year's phenemonal turnout has already surpassed last October 350.org's events.
This post is the latest in our series of coal ash community profiles. Our work on coal ash unfortunately becomes timely yet again, as news came out this week of a breach at a coal ash impoundment in North Carolina. This week's profile was written by Sierra Club Apprentice Andrea Sanchez.
There is nothing little about Little Blue Run Dam, the coal fly ash impoundment that reaches into both Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Coal ash is the toxic by-product of burning coal for electricity - the Little Blue Run ash impoundment belongs to the Bruce Mansfield Plant. This plant is FirstEnergy's largest coal-fired power plant, burning around seven million tons of coal annually. At full capacity, the three plants that make up Bruce Mansfield complex produce four million gallons of coal slurry daily. This is where Little Blue comes in.
"Alaska: The Last Frontier" is so eerily echoing of The Final Frontier. And, as with ever so many episodes of Star Trek: The Final Frontier, The Last Frontier is seeing a struggle that could have life-or-death implications for a planet.
Alaska's election could, plausibly, be a determining factor on the nation's (and the globe's) path forward toward (or away from) a clean-energy future.
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Welcome to the eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for green diaries and series.
Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.
Peruse the eKos Library to find previously listed diaries. You can also follow eKos on Twitter.
Tonight's editor: boatsie
All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently dealt a serious, perhaps, mortal blow to the Alien Tort Statute.
Tonight, I'm going to a take a slightly different approach. The subsequent segments will each contain action items, and I hope you'll follow through on each and every one. But the lead segment will not ask you to do anything particularly time-consuming.
In fact, it will not ask you to take any action at all, save one: It will ask you to bear witness.
Notice that I did not say that it will not be difficult.
[Editor's note: What follows includes graphic imagery.]
Lately we’ve been hearing a lot of excuses: people are unemployed because they’re lazy. They’re unemployed because they have skills mismatch.
The real reason people are unemployed is that the jobs they have the skills to perform have been exported at every possible opportunity for the last thirty years. We’ve retrained and retrained and retrained while this has gone on, until now they only industries left are training ... or going further into debt funding education in the next career that will be offshored as soon as someone figures out how.
Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.
In this regular video series, we bring you images, interviews and more in-depth information about different agricultural innovations. Get to know the NtP team and the innovations we are highlighting regularly, and stay tuned for more NtP TV in the coming weeks!
In this week's episode, Nourishing the Planet research Intern, Janeen Madan, introduces an entertaining way to spread information about agricultural innovations, health, politics, and other important issues: the television soap opera. Broadcast throughout sub-Saharan Africa and with 7.2 million viewers in Kenya alone, Mediae Trust’s "Makutano Junction" is doing just that, proving to be a soap opera that people love to watch and learn from.
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There's a Wilderness Area I've been visiting for over a decade, a beautiful place, with cliffs overlooking a steep forested valley. Sometimes I camp on the cliffs, walk out to watch the sunset, the sunrise, the night's stars spinning slowly. Or I hike down an old road to the river, and spend the day playing in the rocks and pools and waterfalls. The water's clear and cold all year round, and there are few things more satisfying than jumping into a cold deep pool, and then splashing out to dry in the sun on warm rocks.
What I love about this place is that there's nothing but nature upstream - the whole watershed is protected. I've built up an intimate map of this place over the years, still remember my first visits, remember getting lost and finding trails, remember the unknowns and discoveries, remember floods and storms and mist and mornings and seasons, remember cold nights and campfires, hunger and feasts, climbing cliffs and waterfalls, padding barefoot panther-happy over boulders, crow-calling echoes across the valley, remember fields of wildflowers in bloom, lightning and shooting stars across the sky. It's one of the few places i feel perfectly comfortable.
I couldn't believe my ears. Did Arnold just change from Red to Blue ?
Or maybe it was just a deeper shade of Green.
Schwarzenegger defends climate law, slams Texans
Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer, SFGate -- Sep 28, 2010
The governor's vehement defense of the climate legislation commonly referred to as AB32 comes amid a fierce campaign led by oil interests to win passage in November of Proposition 23, a ballot measure that calls for suspending the climate law until the jobless rate hits 5.5 percent for a year, a level achieved only three times in 40 years.
Schwarzenegger, speaking before several hundred people at the Commonwealth Club in Santa Clara, said the proponents of Prop. 23 are attempting to subvert the democratic process using scare tactics. He likened the campaign to a shell game hiding what he said was the real purpose: "self-serving greed."
"They are creating a shell argument that they are doing this to protect jobs," the governor said. "Does anybody really believe they are doing this out of the goodness of their black oil hearts - spending millions and millions of dollars to save jobs?"
If you want to see what true believers in laissez-faire capitalism think about the value of your life, look no further than an opinion piece in the online publication Manufacturing.net, which bills itself:
...a website designed for today's busy manufacturing executives. It features daily updates covering the latest news from around the globe on key topics for manufacturers - regulations, industrial trends, plant openings and closings, supply chain updates, distribution and trade issues, prices, employment, finance, economic forecasts, world events and more. The site is part of Advantage Business Media.
By Kristin Eberhard
Originally posted on The MarkUp.
Now that Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has announced her opposition on Proposition 23, this dirty energy proposition stands as the main issue that she and the Democratic candidate Jerry Brown agree on. While Whitman’s stance against Proposition 23 is good news for California, jobs and our strong clean air and health standards, it is troubling that she coupled her technical opposition while simultaneously announcing her intent to suspend AB 32 for at least a year if elected Governor. Her position sounds like she wants it both ways. Delaying AB 32 would throw a monkey wrench into the implementation of our clean energy polices, and significantly hamper the transition of the state – indeed, the nation – to a clean energy economy.
The fourth annual Clean Energy Venture Summit is in Austin on Sept 29-30. This is a chance for innovative 'clean energy' start-ups to try to wow some moneybags and hopefully score some cash to get their babies out of diapers. While clean energy is defined broadly, 'clean coal' need not apply.
Twenty start-ups (through series B financing) are selected to show their brilliant ideas. Of these, the top five get to meet directly with the Pecan Street Project for possible inclusion in the Mueller redevelopment - Austin's clean energy laboratory/neighborhood. The place is also crawling with venture and investor types who search deep in their altruistic hearts to find innovative companies that can make them some money. Twenty-seven venture funds officially participate in the Summit, so funding chances are pretty good for worthy tech.
I spent some time checking out the twenty presenters and getting up to speed on any technology that I wasn't familiar with. I put together a summary for each below the fold. It's a good slice of what's actually going on out there in the green economy beyond the big stuff that gets most of the press.
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Today, September 28, 2010, EcoAmerica is hosting an important environmental conference, America The Best, in Washington, DC, for a small group of specialists in environmental communication to see what ideas emerge. Because of the number of distinguished participants, I compressed my ideas to 4 pages. I have written about these issues at length in the journal Environmental Communication, No. 1, 2010, but since a 4-page version has a chance of actually being read, I thought I would send it out beyond the conference participants to see if it can get some discussion started on a national level.
This is another one of these photo diaries meant to provide a brief respite from Tea Party insanity and Meta Madness and as a reminder that we share this planet with a wide variety of amazing critters. These photos with a couple of exceptions were taken this past weekend. I hope you enjoy your visit here.
He'eia
Windward Oahu.
In August, US officials claimed that 75% of the oil had vanished. Today, the Oil Spill Commission was told that "over 50 percent of the total discharge" remains in the Gulf, still embedded in the ecosystem and on the ocean floor.
His assessment implied some 2.5 million barrels of oil -- or 105 million gallons -- was still embedded in the fragile ecosystem, out of the estimated 4.9 million barrels that gushed into the Gulf during the 87 days before the well was capped.
"Much of it is now buried in marine and coastal sediments," MacDonald warned, adding there was "scant evidence for bacterial degradation of this material prior to burial."
While the oil might not be clearly visible now, MacDonald warned that "any storm event tends to resuspend them."
How do you drill a well in waters where the US Government has told you that you can't because it's dangerous off shore drilling ... and you're the very Oil Corp that has proven it can't be trusted?
Easy! Move Off Shore ... to On Shore!
This is the next in a series of diaries on the state of Arctic sea ice (and other topics as warranted) in memory of Johnny Rook, who passed away in early 2009. He was the author of the Climaticide Chronicles.
Arctic sea ice reached its minimum extent (the area covered 15% or more sea ice) last week on 18 September 2010, according to the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) at University of Alaska Fairbanks. Since the minimum, sea ice extent in the Arctic Basin has increased by almost 300,000 km2 to about 5.1 million km2 as of 24 September.
Here's a the Barrow AK Arctic Sea Ice webcam at 14:36 Alaska Time on 25 September. There's a trace of snow on the ground, but no sea ice as yet. Conditions at photo time are annotated.
More below.
Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.
Sorghum is Africa’s contribution to the world’s major food crops, with only rice, wheat, maize, and potatoes playing a larger role. Collectively, these five crops provide over 85 percent of all human energy. Sorghum was eaten in Egypt 4,000 years ago, and today is Africa’s second most important cereal. Ethiopia is the center of the crop’s diversity and sorghum is still an important staple food for most of the Horn of Africa. It has long been a staple food in South Asia,brought by traders as many as 20 centuries ago.
There simply are not enough thanks to go around for the amazing support the Daily Kos community has shown for the ongoing Gulf Watchers liveblog effort. It turned out to be needed longer than anyone had hoped.
However, this will be the last Gulf Watchers Mothership. This format will be discontinued. Instead, there will be a Gulf Watchers Morning Edition diary posted at the same time, 5:00 a.m. CDT for a few days as we sort out how to go forward. Recs and discussions will be welcome just like they would be for a normal Daily Kos diary.
A Gulf Watchers Evening Edition will be posted if needed. After a few days Gulf Watchers will review the situation and decide whether to retain that type of organization or try something different. Ursoklevar has an excellent diary summarizing Gulf Watchers's discussion about future plans. Please add to the discussion here or the current ROV if you have ideas or preferences going forward.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #395 - Condition: transition - BP's Gulf Castastrophe - David PA
The Rogue River dams in Oregon are down.
The Savage Rapids dam on the Rogue was dismantled in October 2009. And a bit ahead of schedule, in September of 2010, the temporary dam in place to allow for removal of the Savage Rapids dam parts, was also removed.
The Rogue River flows free once again.
The Elwha dams (both of them) in Washington State are scheduled for demolition before next summer.
Who says life isn't getting better in the U.S. of A.?
I have been thinking about sustainability for a long, long time. Unfortunately, in my scientific analysis, it not possible if we continue on the route that we have chosen. This is an extremely complex topic, and might even deserve its own, new, date. I am thinking that Wednesdays might be a good time for it. This is more speculation than science, so it does not properly belong on Pique the Geek for the long term.
This will be the most controversial topic that I have ever tackled. I may be dead wrong in some of my speculations, but a lot of thought has gone into them. I offer no easy remedies but do ask the hard, horrible questions and illustrate them with facts. I will ask that you, my readers, tell me whether this deserves a new series, uncoupled from Pique the Geek. Please read further.
It sounds a little silly, but it's not. Scientists found that the BP oil gusher triggered an explosion of sea snot or "sticky clumps of phytoplankton" that permeated an underwater patch of the Gulf of Mexico last May. Researchers believe that clumps of sea snot might have formed a marine snow blizzard that "plummeted to the bottom of the ocean." One concern is that "they may have temporarily wiped out the base of the food chain in the spill region by scouring all small life from the water column."
For more on sea snot and its potential to grow into marine mucus blob, as well as other climate change news, please join me below.
Two weekends ago I was privileged to attend, as a guest (rather than a participant) a conference devoted to developing a coordinated research program to measure the impact of the BP oil disaster on Gulf of Mexico coastal ecosystems. I'm going to attempt to give you an overview of the main points and show you some pictures to go along with them.
Beach in Panama City, Florida in fall 2008. This was the easternmost point (that I know of) where oil came ashore during June 2010.
Note: There will not be an 'A More Ancient World' diary next weekend.
Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence
This last week, I have been staring at The Transport Politic post, Republican Wave Could Spell Trouble for High-Speed Rail Projects from Coast to Coast.
Living in Ohio, that is doubly true: first, adding the impact of the recession on top of the impact of sixteen years of Kasich/Portman style policies is, ironically, the best opportunity for those who helped cause the mess to gain political power from it.
So, is there a Plan B?
The Wonk Room at Think Progress has been taking a look at Republican Senate candidates on the issue of climate change, and it should come as no surprise that when it comes to Republicans and science, never the twain shall meet.
A comprehensive Wonk Room survey of the Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate finds that nearly all dispute the scientific consensus that the United States must act to fight global warming pollution. In May, 2010, the National Academies of Science reported to Congress that "the U.S. should act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop a national strategy to adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change" because global warming is "caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for — and in many cases is already affecting — a broad range of human and natural systems."
This finding is shared by scientific bodies around the world. However, in the alternate reality of the fossil-fueled right wing, climate science is confused or a conspiracy, and policies to limit pollution would destroy the economy.
Remarkably, of the dozens of Republicans vying for the 37 Senate seats in the 2010 election, only one — Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware — supports climate action. Even former climate advocates Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) now toe the science-doubting party line. If Castle loses his primary on Tuesday to Tea Party candidate Christine O’Donnell, the GOP slate will be unanimous in opposition to a green economy.
Castle, of course, was teabagged out his race, leaving the Republicans in unanimous opposition to reality. The Wonk Room's Brad Johnson has compiled the statements of GOP Senate nominees, so for those that care about the actual science of scientific issues, let's compare some of those statements with those of actual scientists.
I don't, however, buy into the whole ... man-caused global warming, man-caused climate change mantra of the left. I believe that there's not sound science to back that up.
The National Academy of Sciences:
As part of its most comprehensive study of climate change to date, the National Research Council today issued three reports emphasizing why the U.S. should act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop a national strategy to adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change. The reports by the Research Council, the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering, are part of a congressionally requested suite of five studies known as America's Climate Choices....
The compelling case that climate change is occurring and is caused in large part by human activities is based on a strong, credible body of evidence, says Advancing the Science of Climate Change, one of the new reports. While noting that there is always more to learn and that the scientific process is never "closed," the report emphasizes that multiple lines of evidence support scientific understanding of climate change. The core phenomenon, scientific questions, and hypotheses have been examined thoroughly and have stood firm in the face of serious debate and careful evaluation of alternative explanations.
"Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for — and in many cases is already affecting — a broad range of human and natural systems," the report concludes. It calls for a new era of climate change science where an emphasis is placed on "fundamental, use-inspired" research, which not only improves understanding of the causes and consequences of climate change but also is useful to decision makers at the local, regional, national, and international levels acting to limit and adapt to climate change. Seven cross-cutting research themes are identified to support this more comprehensive and integrative scientific enterprise.
I’ll tell you, I have looked at global warming, now climate change, from both sides. While I think the earth is warming, I don’t think that man-made causes are the primary factor. I am one of those people that Al Gore refers to as a skeptic.
(At about the 24:00 mark of this video.)
The American Geophysical Union:
The Earth's climate is now clearly out of balance and is warming. Many components of the climate system-including the temperatures of the atmosphere, land and ocean, the extent of sea ice and mountain glaciers, the sea level, the distribution of precipitation, and the length of seasons-are now changing at rates and in patterns that are not natural and are best explained by the increased atmospheric abundances of greenhouse gases and aerosols generated by human activity during the 20th century. Global average surface temperatures increased on average by about 0.6¡C over the period 1956-2006. As of 2006, eleven of the previous twelve years were warmer than any others since 1850. The observed rapid retreat of Arctic sea ice is expected to continue and lead to the disappearance of summertime ice within this century. Evidence from most oceans and all continents except Antarctica shows warming attributable to human activities.
I think there's evidence to the positive and to the contrary about global warming.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:
The 2009 State of the Climate report released today draws on data for 10 key climate indicators that all point to the same finding: the scientific evidence that our world is warming is unmistakable. More than 300 scientists from 160 research groups in 48 countries contributed to the report, which confirms that the past decade was the warmest on record and that the Earth has been growing warmer over the last 50 years.
In an interview with the Tribune on that subject Friday, Rubio called Crist "a believer in man-made global warming."
"I don't think there's the scientific evidence to justify it," Rubio said.
Asked whether he accepts the scientific evidence that the global climate is undergoing change, he responded, "The climate is always changing. The climate is never static. The question is whether it's caused by man-made activity and whether it justifies economically destructive government regulation."
American Association for the Advancement of Science (pdf):
The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society.
Now Osama bin Laden had a quote yesterday. He’s says he’s after the climate change as well. It’s a bigger issue, we need to watch ‘em. Not only because it may or may not be true, but they’re making up their facts to fit their conclusions. They’ve already caught ‘em doing this.
(At the 2:56 mark of this video)
Pennsylvania State University has completed the second half of a two-part investigation of Michael Mann's role in the so-called "Climategate" affair. The 2-month inquiry has found that Mann is innocent of the remaining charge of scientific misconduct that had been raised by e-mails uncovered in November....
A previous investigation found him innocent of suppressing data, deleting e-mails, and misusing confidential information.
House of Commons Science and Technology Committee (pdf):
In addition, insofar as we have been able to consider accusations
of dishonesty—for example, Professor Jones’s alleged attempt to "hide the decline"— we consider that there is no case to answer. Within our limited inquiry and the evidence we took, the scientific reputation of Professor Jones and CRU remains intact. We have found no reason in this unfortunate episode to challenge the scientific consensus as expressed by Professor Beddington, that "global warming is happening [and] that it is induced by human activity".
There is much debate in the scientific community as to the precise sources of global warming.
Careful and comprehensive scientific assessments have clearly demonstrated that the Earth’s climate system is changing rapidly in response to growing atmospheric burdens of greenhouse gases and absorbing aerosol particles (IPCC, 2007). There is very little room for doubt that observed climate trends are due to human activities. The threats are serious and action is urgently needed to mitigate the risks of climate change.
There isn’t any real science to say we are altering the climate path of the earth.
American Meteorological Society (pdf):
Indeed, strong observational evidence and results from modeling studies indicate that, at least over the last 50 years, human activities are a major contributor to climate change.
Direct human impact is through changes in the concentration of certain trace gases such as carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and water vapor, known collectively as greenhouse gases.
I believe the Earth is warming. There is still debate in the scientific community about the level of human impact on climate change, which is why I think the more important question is what we are actually going to do in order to reduce carbon emissions. Promoting new technology and providing incentives to cut emissions is the best way to accomplish that goal.
The city of Seattle admits that personal efforts to be efficient have had far more impact on greenhouse gas reduction than government regulations. My approach is to allow individuals to make choices.
American Physical Society (pdf):
The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth’s physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now.
Q: Is climate change real?
Fiorina: I’m not sure. I think we should have the confidence and courage to test the science.
(At 0:08 of this video)
Joint statement by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Chemical Society, American Geophysical Union, American Institute of Biological Sciences, American Meteorological Society, American Society of Agronomy, American Society of Plant Biologists, American Statistical Association, Association of Ecosystem Research Centers, Botanical Society of America, Crop Science Society of America, Ecological Society of America, Natural Science Collections Alliance, Organization of Biological Field Stations, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Society of Systematic Biologists, Soil Science Society of America, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research:
Observations throughout the world make it clear that climate change is occurring, and rigorous scientific research demonstrates that the greenhouse gases emitted by human activities are the primary driver. These conclusions are based on multiple independent lines of evidence, and contrary assertions are inconsistent with an objective assessment of the vast body of peer-reviewed science. Moreover, there is strong evidence that ongoing climate change will have broad impacts on society, including the global economy and on the environment.
This would be funny if it weren't so dangerous. This isn't a debate between Republicans and Democrats about what to do about climate change, it's a debate between Republicans and reality about the very existence of climate change. And it's clear that no amount of science will convince Republicans of something they just don't want to believe. The question is whether the voters want to listen to the scientists or to those whose beliefs are not based on anything remotely rational or factual. And it's only the future of the world as we know it that's at stake.
In today's diary I will look at the second edition of Joel Kovel's The Enemy of Nature, revised from the first edition which I reviewed here back in 2007. This newer review will take a look at Kovel's central proposal, ecosocialism, from the perspective of the history of power, by which I mean the general trend in which capitalism, imperialism, feudalism, empire, and so on exist as various historically-based means of domination.
Jim Holbert, Kentucky District 5’s House candidate provided us with his campaign platform, five sets of well organized bullet points, and he had appended another little section just for EnergizeUS.
This is the sort of discipline we’ve come to expect from the military candidates we see and Jim’s background as an Army and Coast Guard pilot, used to performing a preflight checks, is clearly apparent.
It’s a pleasure to put together an introductory piece like this when given such well organized source material.
So in this series we've learned about different ways that local areas are trying to fight the hunger crisis. So let's get the important stuff out of the way:
If you have the means, please donate to Feeding America by clicking on the box to the right. They help hungry kids through their Backpack Program, the Kid's Cafe, and Magic Summer Lunchbox programs.
Remember that Ameriprise Financial will match your donation two for one through September 30 -- which means that every dollar you donate results in 21 meals to hungry people.
NOTE: The following is purely opinion, and is offered only for a bit of wry perspective on our world.
Imagine that you were born fabulously wealthy. As an infant you had no idea that there was a great treasure at your disposal, and relied upon others to provide for your every need. As you grew, you began to hear mentions of the wonderful inheritance that was yours, a thing of fabulous value, and wondered about what it could be. You only knew that one day it would be yours.
Thomas Friedman makes the case for an Apollo program to develop electric cars and get off oil in an editorial in the New York Times. He makes that case with a contrast between two large public investments in China and the US. China is investing trillions in modernizing its air transportation sector, creating a web of high speed trains, creating research and development infrastructure for biotechnology, and focusing on a growth industry for the future - electric cars.
Beijing just announced that it was providing $15 billion in seed money for the country’s leading auto and battery companies to create an electric car industry, starting in 20 pilot cities. In essence, China Inc. just named its dream team of 16-state-owned enterprises to move China off oil and into the next industrial growth engine: electric cars.
And the U.S. moonshot?
Not to worry. America today also has its own multibillion-dollar, 25-year-horizon, game-changing moon shot: fixing Afghanistan.
Ouch.
My father knew what it was like to go hungry.
Even before the onset of the Great Depression, his family was intimately familiar with hunger. Mixed-blood Indians living off the rez, in an area where cowards on horseback stalked the countryside in sheets and white hoods, were not the most "employable." Gramps traveled miles every day, on foot, looking for work. Sometimes he'd find something; just as often, he'd come trudging home, late at night, with nothing to show for it but sore feet and an empty stomach. If he was lucky, someone might hire him for 16 hours of backbreaking labor in exchange for a sack of beans, or a little rice - or on a really good day, a whole chicken (that Grandma had to pluck and dress). Most often, the beans or rice were served without salt, pepper, butter, or anything else.
To his dying day, my father hated rice.
Bob and Lisa were told by their doctor to move out of their home withing 48 hours because it was too dangerous for them to stay after they were diagnosed with drilling chemicals in their blood and organs.
Flight for survival
Toxic emissions force family to leave home
By Brandon Evans
Lisa was treated by eight different doctors over the course of a year. A source of the sickness was never determined. In June 2009, after exhausting everything he knew medically, her internal specialist suggested that something in the environment might be causing her various ailments.
In early fall 2009, she visited an environmental doctor who confirmed the presence of neurotoxins in her blood that matched chemicals used in natural gas production.
See below for a list of the chemicals found in Lisa's blood and in her lungs:
For five hundred years, much of the world viciously opposed the claim that the Earth orbited the sun. For 500 years - even though it was allegedly proven by science. And now, that same pathetic and willful ignorance has risen from the dead.
A recent paper in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society titled "The Psychology of Global Warming" delved into why so many people cling to denialism in locked opposition to evidence and facts.
Why is interesting. But in this instance we do not have 500 years to let reality sink in for those people as they stagger about - grasping not for "brains" like fictional zombies, but for excuses to cling to false beliefs.
The first thing that food banks need is money. So the Donate button is going right here so that you can't miss it.
For every $1 you donate, Feeding America helps provide 7 meals to men, women and children facing hunger in our country.
Ameriprise Financial will make a 2 to 1 match of any donation until the end of September. That means that for every dollar you donate for the next 5 days you are funding 21 meals.
Just as I was posting the diary last Sunday, the pre-dawn stillness was broken by a Western Screech Owl calling - very nearby. Honestly, it couldn't have been more than 20 feet away, but I couldn't quite narrow down the location and it was nowhere to be seen when we finally had some light. (Did find some intriguing cavities though...) That's how it goes with owls - much more often seen than heard, between the nocturnal habits and the dense cover they seek out by day.
There's one owl that makes it easier on us, though. It likes to sit on the ground, in wide open spaces... in the daytime no less! Even so, they're ever harder to see because we keep encroaching on their habitat.
After tomorrow morning the current Mothership format will be discontinued. Instead, there will be a Gulf Watchers Morning Edition diary posted at the same time, 5:00 a.m. CDT. Recs and discussions will be welcome just like they would be for a normal Daily Kos diary. A Gulf Watchers Evening Edition will be posted if needed. After a few days Gulf Watchers will review the situation and decide whether to retain that type of organization or try something different. Ursoklevar has an excellent diary summarizing Gulf Watchers's discussion about future plans. Please add to the discussion here or the current ROV if you have ideas or preferences going forward.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #394 - Transitions - BP's Gulf Castastrophe - Lorinda Pike
The digest of diaries is here
Portland is a city that prides itself on its abundant supply of fresh food. Whether it’s being served in cafes, food carts, stocked on the shelves of grocers, grown on sidewalk garden plots or hanging from neighborhood trees, local and often organic produce is all around us. With all this food, it’s hard to understand why Oregon consistently ranks as one of America’s hungriest states.
Let's go for a walk, see what's going down around town...
Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment.
This week's featured story comes from CNN.
Severe floods hit Midwest; areas downriver get ready
By Moni Basu
Parts of the Midwest battled severe flooding Friday as torrential rains caused rivers to overflow their banks and submerged entire towns.
The National Weather Service issued flood warnings for parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa and warned that waters gushing down bloated rivers and creeks could cause major rivers, including the Mississippi, to surge over the weekend.
The governors of Minnesota and Wisconsin declared states of emergency in flood-affected counties as local emergency officials ordered the evacuation of residents in several towns.
No deaths or injuries have been reported.
More science, space, and environment stories after the jump.
Wife of Jim Norris with canned goods, Pie Town, New Mexico (LOC)
"Food preservation techniques can be divided into two categories: the modern scientific methods that remove the life from food, and the natural 'poetic' methods that maintain or enhance the life in food. The poetic techniques produce . . . foods that have been celebrated for centuries and are considered gourmet delights today." Eliot Coleman
Ending hunger requires changing our perspective. A government policy of tidbits, such as needed but obscenely low food stamps and school lunch programs, evinces a belief that hunger is a matter of individual failure.
Our government's tunnel vision yields counterproductive solutions, such as legislation to reduce childhood obesity and improve school nutrition that is partially funded by cutting future food stamp benefits. Or, we try to reduce our offensively high poverty rates by creating a supplemental poverty figure that removes on paper 8 million people from poverty by including food stamps in the income calculation.
It would be more productive toward actually ending hunger if we recognized that hunger is a violation of human rights, and interrelated with education, poverty, discrimination, economy, health care, and environment.
We could learn from a city in Brazil that is ending hunger.
Proposition 23 is the referendum measure in California which would eliminate suspend the state law, the Global Warming Solutions Act (a/k/a AB 32), that calls for lowering California's greenhouse gas emissions until California's unemployment rate hits 5.5% (well that is effectively the elimination of the law). That law was passed with Republican Arnold Schwartzenegger's active support in 2006.
Not too long ago the polls indicated that Californians rejected Proposition 23 by roughly a 60 to 40 margin. That was back at the end of July. Now however, since the infusion of big corporate cash and ad buys from Big Oil, such as the Koch Brothers (which I wrote about HERE), a new poll has been released are showing that the likely voters who are willing to vote for Prop 23 is now roughly equal to those opposed to its passage.
I admit it. For a lot of issues the first thing that comes to my mind is how it affects the kids I teach. If I meet a famous journalist or a Member of Congress, someplace in in that conversation I will ask if they will come out and talk to my students. More often than not they are willing.
Nutrition in schools is an important issue. Why? Because a hungry, malnourished child will learn less than if s/he has had breakfast, gets lunch during the day. Because in school we have an opportunity to help establish and/or reinforce patterns of healthy eating. Because we have a responsibility to the young people in our care to care for them, and not just their minds.
What we've seen since the 1973 oil crisis has been disgusting. Only lip service has been paid to solving the threat to our security that dependence on foreign sources of energy has become. Republicans in Congress, like Joe "BP, I apologize" Barton, John "Drill baby, Drill!" McCain, and Trent Franks(R-AZ), have made our country more dependent on foreign sources of oil than ever before.
The infamous Phoenix brown cloud, c/o Trent Franks (Source)
The simple fact is, we can't drill our way out of this problem. We need leaders who will fight for the future- help to establish an economy where American companies and American-made products provide jobs for us.
One in six Americans do not have enough food. One in four of those are children. Food pantries all over the country are closing because they cannot meet the crushing demand -- their shelves are empty, and they are turning people away.
Diary #2 is up Feeding America #2: nutrition in schools, by teacherken.
From Wikipedia:
I'SOT, which stands for In Search of Truth, is a Pentecostal/Bible-based offshoot Christian religious group...
Criticisms
Allegations of physical and sexual abuse brought against members by clients of I'SOT's Group Home/Foster Home during the late 1980s prompted an investigation by State of California Department of Social Services Community Care Licensing Division. The final report was filed July 26, 1991. That Investigation found a preponderance of the evidence that members of I'SOT had physically and sexually abused residents of the group home between 1978 and 1990. I'SOT's application for renewal of their license to operate the Group Home was denied, after which they appealed the decision and lost.
Your tax dollars are going to these people?
Yes - and with good reason.
You will often here with some justification the need to develop economically outweighs the environmental risk; in the short term. You may have enough revenue to educate the population but you by then may have degraded the environment to such an extent it cannot support them. Indeed you may spark a war with your neighbor if you have diverted resources such as main rivers to suit your own purposes but have starved them of their primary food source.
Such is the case with the proposed dams of the Mekong in Laos
He felt there was no alternative. "We have done studies on micro-energy and renewables, but they are expensive. I don't think the world can subsidise that. If we do it ourselves, only cheap energy from hydropower will do."
I would argue that the world cannot afford not to help developing nations attain their goals through renewables, the only reason the cost is high is that we are not expanding their use ourselves. If we increase the production capacity the price will come down.
Please rec the new Mothership #124 here. This one has expired.
After Monday morning the current Mothership format will be discontinued. Instead, there will be a Gulf Watchers Morning Edition diary posted at the same time, 5:00 a.m. CDT. Recs and discussions will be welcome just like they would be for a normal Daily Kos diary. A Gulf Watchers Evening Edition will be posted if needed. After a few days Gulf Watchers will review the situation and decide whether to retain that type of organization or try something different. Ursoklevar has an excellent diary summarizing Gulf Watchers's discussion about future plans. Please add to the discussion here or the current ROV if you have ideas or preferences going forward.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #394 - Transitions - BP's Gulf Castastrophe - Lorinda Pike
The digest of diaries is here
Physicists have known about the thermoelectric effect for decades: there are some materials that, when heated, produce electricity. Alas, these materials tend to be both expensive and inefficient. In other words, not much bang for the buck.
But with two interesting new discoveries this week, all that may be about to change. Not soon, perhaps – these are still just a theoretical results in quantum physics, after all – but much, much for the better.
Imagine capturing electricity from the heat of your exhaust pipes, or your brakes, and using it to recharge the battery in your hybrid vehicle. Imagine a solar energy system that converts solar heat directly into electricity cheaper and more efficiently than any photovoltaic cell ever could. Imagine capturing waste heat from a factory, a furnace, or a powerplant, and putting it to good use.
Impossible? Perhaps not for much longer.
Welcome to the eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for green diaries and series.
Tonight's editor: LaughingPlanet
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First photo posted without comment. 
Finalist in the Changing Climate group: Sue Floods' picture of the North Pole sign in melting ice and meltwater
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...
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Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.
All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists.
Originally posted on The MarkUp.
On Thursday, House Republicans issuedtheir roadmap for the midterm elections and the next legislative session. It's called the "Pledge to America," but on energy issues, it sounds more like a pledge that makes powerful promises to the oil and gas industry.
Nature is an amazing place, and some folks manage to capture nature at its most amazing and beautiful in images that remind us of this fact and what is at stake.
Th Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management awarded their2010 Photographer of the Year for:
A picture of an unprecedented congregation of Munkiana Devil Rays in Baja California Sur has won Florian Schulz the prestigious 2010 title of The Environmental Photographer of the Year.
"During an aerial expedition over the coast of Baja California Sur, I came across something I had never seen before.... As we glided high above over the water looking for whales, a large dark spot caught our attention. As we got closer we started to discover its nature: an unprecedented congregation of rays. The group was as thick as it was wide, all heading towards the same direction...."
This week's coal ash community profile was written by Elizabeth Irvin, a Sierra Club Apprentice.
For one weekend each year in early May, Louisville, Kentucky, boasts an abnormally high concentration of horses, jockeys, mint juleps, and elaborate hats. Less than ten miles from Churchill Downs, the neighborhood of Riverside Gardens has been dealing with an abnormal and deadly concentration of toxic chemicals every day for more than 40 years. A low income neighborhood in an area of Louisville known for its concentration of chemical plants, landfills, and power plants, Riverside Gardens may soon be forced to deal with yet another threat: a second coal ash dump in their community.
We in the Gulf Watchers community have been discussing for some time how best to go forward now that the well has been declared effectively dead and the ROV activity has all but ceased. This diary attempts to be an amalgamation of viewpoints on that issue culled from the last dozen or so ROVs, which are the liveblog, nonrecommendable babies of what we call our Mothership. The Mothership is both commendable and recommendable.
We would appreciate commentary from more Daily Kos readers as to how the Gulf Watcher series can best meet the needs of the wider community and the needs of all those affected by the Deepwater Horizon blowout. If you have comments about our future format, frequency, content, please put them here.
Be kind to those with bandwidth issues and do not post videos or images, although though links are welcome.
Kudos to the Gulf Watchers who have worked so long and hard to keep accurate information available. We honor the eleven men who died in the disaster, and extend our best wishes to their families for peace and healing.
- the act of making extinct or the state of being extinct
- the act of extinguishing or the state of being extinguished
- complete destruction; annihilation
In the abstract, merely a word that describes the process or the state of complete eradication of some class of things or processes. In biology, those things which can suffer from extinction are living organisms: that is, plants and animals.
We are currently living through a period of one of the greatest mass extinctions in history. And the rate of extinction is the greatest in recorded history, thousands of times greater than at any time since the mass extinction event that triggered the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The title to this September 17th Reuters article, World examines "impossible" goal to halt extinctions is as ominous as it is blunt:
Of course they do. It's always teh gayz, isn't it?
http://www.dangerousminds.net/...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/...
My Stupid Meter just exploded.
Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.
Throughout the Sahel, recurrent drought since the late 1960’s is turning once crop covered land into desert. And the sand is spreading. Picked up by wind, dunes created by soil particles from the West African coastline and the Sahel are covering villages, roads, crops, and irrigation systems, making it increasingly difficult to farm and maintain infrastructure.
Today's output from Blogistan Polytechnic Institute’s state-of-the-art HEMMED (High-Energy Meta Mojo Elucidation Detector) machine is not sudsing up and leaves a bit of a film. But is it Clean?
Please rec the new Mothership #123 here. This one has expired.
Gulf Watchers are currently discussing when and how we will change from the current Mothership format. Please join in if you have any ideas or preferences.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #393 - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Lorinda Pike
The digest of diaries is here
Rules of the Road
PLEASE visit Pam LaPier's diary to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!
The volume of Arctic sea ice hit the record minimum this September according to Mark Serreze, director of the U.S. National Snow and Ice data Center (NSDIC).
The volume - extent and thickness - of ice left in the Arctic likely reached the lowest ever level this month, Serreze told IPS.
"I stand by my previous statements that the Arctic summer sea ice cover is in a death spiral. It's not going to recover," he said.
Source: Polar Science Center, Univ. of Washington
So what's the last beautiful thing that you experienced? Here's mine:
I've been learning about monarch butterflies this year, actually took a class on them. They are fascinating and beautiful beings, and my next ambition is to start up a classroom-based monarch program, where kids get to watch monarchs go from egg through 6 caterpillar instars, to chrysalis, watch the butterfly break out, and set it free. The Monarch Teacher Network is a great resource for putting together a program, all I need to do is queue up a grant and partner with a school. Doable. But I am a lazy soul.
Almost too lazy to bother to describe all the things that make Monarch Butterflies so awesome. The 2nd longest insect migration in the world (they were recently preempted by a dragonfly in the Indian Ocean). All monarchs east of the Rockies overwinter in one small area close to Mexico City, which means that in September, the great-grandchildren of the butterflies that flew north in the spring, fly more than a thousand miles, back to a place they've never known. http://en.wikipedia.org/..., for the curious.
Many people participated in the discussion on bobtmn's diary, University of Minnesota Cancels Agriculture Documentary. The story was horrible - an environmental documentary from a respected university seemingly cancelled because of corporate influence within the University of Minnesota. If you didn't read the diary, I urge you to do so.
But there is good news here in the heartland. It turns out that "Troubled Waters" will be shown after all. More on the flip side...
2010 has been a year of missed opportunities for the environment. From no progress or worse on the international climate action stage, to a clean energy bill in the U.S. Senate that is still on ice despite the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, it’s enough to make you want to throw up your hands and buy beach-front property on the Bering Sea.
Here ye! Here ye! Bring your torches and stacks of wood. The practitioners of the dark arts of science will be harassed by an angry mob, defamed, and driven to their knees to confess their lack of respect for our beloved corporate overlords.
In June, Darrell Issa announced that he planned to hire dozens of subpoena-wielding investigators to target the Obama administration if the Republicans regain control of the House. Yesterday, he announced that he also planned to apply the proverbial thumbscrews, strappado, and iron maiden to climate scientists.
National fishing and conservation groups recently announced their support for a single, community-supported marine protected area (MPA) proposal adopted by Tribal, fishing and environmental stakeholders for California’s North Coast as part of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.
Jim Martin, West Coast Regional Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA), on September 9 announced that the RFA has endorsed a resolution in support of the "Unified Array" for marine protected areas on California's North Coast Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative process.
The resolution has been submitted for the consideration of local governments, tribes and tribal communities, fishing associations and conservation groups. It asks the Governor's MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) to approve the network of MPAs approved by the local regional stakeholder group, including the need to allow traditional tribal gathering.
When we heard about 350.org's 10/10/10 project a couple of months ago, we struggled to find one that was appropriate to our own project.
Last week we had an epiphany, and we've launched an 11th-hour experiment, to gather 350 jokes about environmental collapse by 10/10/10, and then make that database freely available for nonprofit use.
Why jokes? Because by laughing, we understand differently.
And because environmentalists are, according to most conservative pundits, a humorless lot, too serious by half, and we want to prove them wrong.
Below are the 40 jokes we've collected so far (only 310 to go!), in descending order of recency, not quality. There are some good ones!
If you'd like to participate, please do, either in the comments (I'll copy and paste 'em!) or directly, on the 350jokes page on our site.
Think like a stand-up comedian!
Gulf Watchers are currently discussing when and how we will change from the current Mothership format. Please join in if you have any ideas or preferences.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #391 - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Talking about Change - khowell
The digest of diaries is here
Rules of the Road
PLEASE visit Pam LaPier's diary to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!
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Christine O'Donnell is fast becoming the face of the Republican Party. Her campaign slogan is -- to put it in Marxist language -- power to the people. Or, something like that. To quote an oft-used phrase on the internet(s) and one used frequently on this blog, "Teh stoopid! It burns."
Time permitting, I will try to post Part II of this diary later on this week.
Welcome to the eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for green diaries and series.
Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.
Peruse the eKos Library to find previously listed diaries. You can also follow eKos on Twitter.
Tonight's editor: boatsie
All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists. 
Call me shocked, just shocked to find that there's gambling with California's future in this election.
The state legislator responsible for placing Proposition 23, the anti-climate measure, on the ballot is...a climate zombie. And one of Proposition 23's out of state dirty energy supporters, Koch Industries, Patient Zero of the climate zombie infection is holding a fundraiser tomorrow night for climate zombie Senate wannabe Carly Fiorina.
WWMWD? Will Meg Whitman endorse Proposition 23 and its oil-soaked supporters, or will she join the forward-thinking California businesses who urge a no vote?
At 11:09 PM EDT, Summer exits and Autumn begins. This year is especially significant since it also coincides with the Full Moon also known as the Harvest Moon. The night and day are equal as the sun passes over the equator heading south to give the Earth's Southern Hemisphere its turn at Summer.
Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
Independence is a big and important word in this country. A noble concept in and of itself, it reaches far and deep into the American psyche. The U.S.'s independence as a nation is supported by a rugged individualism among her people that has enabled many to do things that would otherwise be considered impossible. Accordingly, to immigrants like myself, the U.S. is known as the land of unlimited possibility in our native countries.
However, in the last century this independence, rooted in material freedom and mobility, has come at an ever-increasing cost: The dependence on fossil fuels and all the problems associated with it. From fighting wars in oil rich countries, to epic oil spills, to climate change, our ostensible emancipation from the constraints of nature that enabled us to go it alone is coming back to bite us.
In tonight's EcoAdvocates, I'd like to wander past the "dependence vs. independence" paradigm and discuss a third and perhaps middle way of how we might live in balance with the earth's ecosystem without losing our creativity and autonomy: Interdependence
The Chicken Little fable* was created as a cautionary tale against panic and mass hysteria in uncertain times. But there are times when the sky is failing and Chicken Little needs to be careful of taking advice from smooth talking strangers wearing Wall Street tweed. On to our story.
Once upon a time, there was a Fox named Loxy, a shrewd little fellow with a big appetite. One fine summer's day, Foxy Loxy was on the prowl for unlocked henhouses when he overheard Farmer Brown proclaim to her husband that their well was running dry. Without water for the corn, feeding the hens was going to be a big problem.
Foxy Loxy had a plan. Pass the bad news to the hens and con them to take a little journey to his den.
Before we return to our story, note that Foxy Loxy in this enactment will be played by Charles Maxwell, senior energy analyst at Weeden & Co.
| Welcome pootie, woozle, birdie and general critter lovers to a special Fall Edition of the Wednesday West Coast Woozle diary. This is a diary to relax, share pictures and stories about our animal friends, and to build community. Come on in and join us... |
An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the Sun being vertically above a point on the Equator. The term equinox can also be used in a broader sense, meaning the date when such a passage happens. The name "equinox" is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night), because around the equinox, the night and day are approximately equally long. It may be better understood to mean that latitudes +L and -L north and south of the equator experience nights of equal length.
In 2010, the autumnal equinox arrives on September 22 at 14:09 UTC which is 11:09 PM EDT or a few short hours from now.
And what does all this geeky stuff mean?....
