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Today's editor: boatsie
All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists.ss
Good evening. It is time for another one of these photo diaries provided only as a brief respite from the struggles of the day and as a brief reminder that we share this planet with all manner of amazing critters. I hope you enjoy your visit here.
Molokai Dawn
One of the most promising, yet also most frustrating,
aspects of dealing with Climate Change is how the noise (the static) of the debate makes it difficult for the majority of people to understand the power of the "No Regrets" strategy opportunity and promise.
Today is a day that some folks celebrate as a holiday. They call it "Columbus Day." Me? I call it "European Invaders' Day," and I don't celebrate it.
I do, however, use this day to remember - and to remind myself that it can happen again. And it is.
The latest episode is one state over, in Arizona. And it literally involves European (and Australian) corporate invaders, attempting once again to strip tribes of sacred lands and resources, while plundering, pillaging, and despoiling the environment.
We explored a little of this in last week's EcoJustice with the sordid histories of the two transnationals behind this latest effort, BHP Billiton and the Rio Tinto Group. Tonight, we're going to delve into their joint faux "American" operation: The Resolution Project.
And it's going to get ugly.
GOP candidate for governor Chris Dudley is looking vulnerable on an issue that helped take down GOP Sen. Gordon Smith back in 2008, the environment.
This week, Stimson Lumber, Dudley's largest campaign donor (to the tune of $235,000) was hit with nearly $15,000 in fines for "failing to comply with hazardous air pollution standards, failing to operate an air quality control scrubber properly and discharging wastewater into Scoggins Creek." Not a huge fine as far as environmental fines go (barely a drop in the bucket to what they've spent on Dudley), but nonetheless showing failure to comply with environmental standards. Given how deep in the pocket of industry--particularly timber--Dudley is, then the revelation that he's a climate change denier makes sense.
Toeing the party line, Dudley opposes the Western Climate Initiative global warming agreement as a “cap-tax-trade” system that would “do damage to the economy and job creation.” He even bashed a weatherization initiative as a boondoggle. “Climate change is probably caused by a variety of factors,” Dudley said in a September interview with the Oregonian, “but that debate is beside the point.” In a gubernatorial debate on September 30, Dudley finally admitted he doesn’t know if pollution is causing global warming:
My thought on global warming is this: that global warming exists, man contributes to it, how much, I don’t know. I don’t know how much is man made and how much is natural.
His friends at Stimson Lumber might like that answer, but most Oregon voters probably won't.
The more Oregon voters learn about Dudley, this story being no exception, the more they turn away. Even Rasmussen now has Kitzhaber leading, though still by just a hair, 48-46.
In this weekly series we have been discussing the benefits of a vegetarian diet including: public health, global food crisis, animal rights , food safety, better health and the immense contribution of meat production to climate change/depletion of resources/public health
because of increases in population and per capita consumption we will have to cut back on meat between 19-42% by 2050 just to keep environmental damage at current levels.
"a profound disconnect between the anticipated scale of potential environmental impacts associated with projected livestock production levels and even the most optimistic mitigation strategies."
in really simple terms: More meat means more greenhouse gas emissions, more nitrogen runoff and pollution, and more land needed for grazing or to grow food for animals which humans will eat.
Referred to as a “supermarket on a trunk,” moringa is potentially one of the planet’s most valuable plants. Serving not only as a reliable source of diverse foods, moringa also provides lamp oil, wood, paper, liquid fuel, skin treatments, and the means to help purify water. But despite its multiple uses, and well-earned nickname, the tree is relatively unknown to most people in the United States.
Referred to as a “supermarket on a trunk,” moringa is potentially one of the planet’s most valuable plants.
Welcome one more time. Magical, marvelous Monday is here. The time has come to gather around and take a well deserved hiatus from all the politics of the day. Science talk is here. New discoveries, new takes on old knowledge, and other bits of news are all available for the perusing in today's information world. Over the fold are selections from the past week from a few of the many excellent science news sites around the world. Today's tidbits include the first census of marine life shows ocean life richer than expected, bioenergy choices could dramatically change Midwest bird diversity, oasis of life discovered on the floor of a Yellowstone lake, 200 new species discovered in remote Papua New Guinea, cell phones bring spectroscopy to the classroom, galaxies found in today's universe that were thought to exist only in the past, and human activities overload ecosystems with nitrogen. Pull up that comfy chair and relax. There is plenty of room for everyone. Settle in for one more session of Dr. Possum's science education and entertainment.
To members of the Climate CoLab community,
We are pleased to announce the launch of a new Climate CoLab contest, as well as a major upgrade of our software platform.
The contest will address the question: What international climate agreements should the world community make?
The first round runs through October 31 and the final round through November 26.
In early December, the United Nations and U.S. Congress will be briefed on the winning entries.
We are raising funds in the hope of being able to pay travel expenses for one representative from each winning team to attend one or both of these briefings.
We invite you to form teams and enter the contest--learn more at http://climatecolab.org.
We also encourage you to fill out your profiles and add a picture, so that members of the community can get to know each other.
And please inform anyone you believe might be interested about the contest.
The Florida voter initiatives make for entertaining reading most election cycles, but every once in a while an important one slips into the stream. Amendment 4 is one of them.
I first noticed a "Vote No on Amendment 4" banner attached to a land developer's building. Then I saw one on a Rinker site - a company that provides fill for new construction sites.
That spurred some research.
In short:
* link is to a synopsis of the history of this legislation and here you'll find a lot of wonky land use definitions.Amendment 4 requires the voters ok any changes to the Comprehensive Land Use Plan* at the community's expense.
You are in the current BP Catastrophe Morning Edition - AUV #407. ROV #406 is here.
The digest of diaries is here.
Please RECOMMEND THIS DIARY, the motherships have been discontinued.
Bookmark this link to find the latest Gulf Watchers diaries.
Please be kind to kossacks with bandwidth issues. Please do not post images or videos. Again, many thanks for this.
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!