NYC Gov going "Locavore" Big Time!

by Eddie C

Today on The Leonard Lopate Show the lead story was called Feeding The Soul and for anyone seeking to restore their faith in good government, it did just that. Two guest in an interview to discuss Food Works in New York City that would have seemed an unlikely pair as recently as yesterday.

One was Chef Dan Barber who has been a great advocate in the New York area for the local food movement. The other was City Council speaker Christine Quinn. Today they were on the same page. It was amazing to hear Christine Quinn's introduction sounding more like Marion Nestle in talks about what the government needs to do, hearing a powerful politician discussing things being done now and progressive plans for a sustainable future. I've never heard such a merger of bottom up activism and top down good government action before.

The city has already moved $4.5 million in public school food spending over to local farms and is trying to change the $300,000 spent on school lettuce to money being pumped into the Rockland County farm economy and processing facilities in the economically depressed Bronx. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.

continued at Daily Kos....

Big Oil Praises Latest Obama Cave on EPA Regs.

by TomP

The caves keep coming.  The Obama adminstration is delaying new rules governing smog and toxic emissions from industrial boilers, and keeping the Bush standards for now.  Big Oil loves it, but wants even more.  

The Obama administration is retreating on long-delayed environmental regulations — new rules governing smog and toxic emissions from industrial boilers — as it adjusts to a changed political dynamic in Washington with a more muscular Republican opposition.

The move to delay the rules, announced this week by the Environmental Protection Agency, will leave in place policies set by President George W. Bush. President Obama ran for office promising tougher standards, and the new rules were set to take effect over the next several weeks.

snip

But in a striking turnabout, the National Association of Manufacturers and the  American Petroleum Institute — which have been anything but friendly to Mr. Obama — are praising his administration.

NY Times: E.P.A. Delays Tougher Rules on Emissions

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I Love You But You're Full of Shi... Poop

by Jill Richardson

This diary is about the Cancun summit, saving the rainforests, the climate crisis, and Jane Goodall. I love Jane Goodall, but right now, she's full of shit. If you're one of the world's leading conservationists and you find yourself agreeing with the head of Wal-mart and the head of the World Bank on something, you need to ask yourself why whatever you're for is probably something you oughta be against. And that's where Jane Goodall finds herself right now.

Now, she's not the only one to point a finger at. There are an awful lot of total sleezebags who are all for the same thing. She's the one in the group who shouldn't be there. She's the one who oughta know better.

I'm a newbie when it comes to learning about saving the rainforests and the rights of indigenous people's in the Global South. I've only just visited the Amazon for the very first time, this year. But it doesn't take a lot of time there to learn to recognize bullshit when you see it.

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eKos: Acidifying Oceans Endanger Web of Life

by FishOutofWater

Oceans acidifying at the highest rate since the last great mass extinction 65 million years ago, threaten marine life, coral reefs and nutrition for over a billion people according to a report (PDF)just released by the UN. Fossil fuel burning, cement production, deforestation and land use changes have increased atmospheric CO2 from 280 to 390 PPMs. Increasing atmospheric CO2 has dissolved in the oceans, increasing the acidity (decreasing the pH) by 30%. Increasing acidity is destabilizing shells and corals, threatening the web of life in the ocean.

Recent studies of a Mediterranean vent in shallow waters revealed key ecosystem changes in high CO2 areas compared to normal CO2 areas. Certain algae and seagrasses were found to grow more efficiently closer to the vents where there was also a large reduction in biodiversity, notably a loss of calcifying organisms adjacent to the vents where the pH was lowest.

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While you were arguing about taxes...

by LaughingPlanet

primary challenges, and Dancing with the Stars, our planet is galloping one day closer to real-life Waterworld.

Yesterday on my local listener-supported radio, I heard a powerful & terrifying interview with the author of a book I am now afraid to read.

"The Flooded Earth" by University of Washington professor Peter D. Ward, paints a detailed picture of where we are headed in the not-distant future. If mankind does not change its ways, and quick, the reality of what our planet will look like is not pretty, to put it very mildly.

Hearing the facts about climate change, it is hard for me to watch our current discourse about minor day-to-day trifles when it is so clearly this one, singular issue which will supersede all else unless we turn our full attention to it right now.

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New Plant to Make 100% American Made Wind Turbines

by Muskegon Critic

Wanna see some American jobs? A wind turbine assembly plant is opening in Saginaw, Michigan. That's right where the Thumb of the Mitten meets the Hand. Saginaw. And it'll be the first plant the US to make 100% American Made wind turbines. That's wind turbines spelled: j-o-b-s.

Score one more for Governor Granholm's long time push to diversify Michigan's economy...not just into anything, but into green manufacturing. Screw this being tied to one industry crap: the auto industry. She's doing what should have been done 50 years ago.

Northern Power Systems of Barre, Vt., intends to use a facility in Saginaw to manufacture its next-generation large wind turbines, expected to be the first ones built in the U.S. using 100% American-made parts. Plans call for sourcing as many parts as possible from Michigan companies.

[snip]

Northern Power already has a deal to supply 13 of the turbines for a Heritage Sustainable Energy wind farm near Escanaba that will supply power to Consumers Energy, state officials said.

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Oil Will Drive the U.S. to More Wars Unless America Changes

by Magnifico

The United States of America is the world's biggest military spender and allocates more on its war machine than any other nation in the world. The U.S. paid $661 billion to the armaments industry in 2009, a recession year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). "This represented 43 percent of the total global spend, and was $47 billion higher than the 2008 U.S. expenditure, according to SIPRI." America has increased military spending by 63 precent since 2000, according to SIPRI. This increase has partially been driven by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes estimate the "budgetary and economic costs" of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will now be "between $4 trillion and $6 trillion". An upwards revision of 25 percent in just two years. The U.S. has already spent $1 trillion in Iraq and "spending in Iraq and Afghanistan now comes to more than $3 billion weekly, making the wars a major reason for record-level budget deficits."

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Eco Activists "Greatest Threat" to Society and Church

by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse

A right-wing religious organization says that environmentalists are "one of the greatest threats to society and the church today." Not surprisingly, this right-wing group, the Cornwall Alliance, is a disinformation front group funded by Big Oil.  Cornwall Alliance calls environmentalists the "Green Dragon" on claims that activists are "using the message of climate change to take over the world" to place it "under its destructive control."

The scary part is not just that a GOP lawmaker who might become chair of an environmental committee may be an adherent of this group's extreme views, but the GOP selected the founder of Cornwall Alliance as a witness for Congressional hearing on climate policies.  

continued at Daily Kos....

Gulf Watchers Sunday - WikiLeaks to Target BP - BP Catastrophe AUV #436

by Yasuragi

You are in the current Gulf Watchers BP Catastrophe - AUV #436. ROV #435 is here.

Bookmark this link to find the latest Gulf Watchers diaries.

Please RECOMMEND THIS DIARY, the motherships have been discontinued.

Gulf Watchers Diary Schedule
Monday - evening drive time
Wednesday - morning
Friday - morning
Friday Block Party - evening
Sunday - morning

Part one of the digest of diaries is here and part two is here.

Please be kind to kossacks with bandwidth issues. Please do not post images or videos. Again, many thanks for this.

continued at Daily Kos....

Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Arsenic Life edition)

by Neon Vincent

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 NPR.

Scientists Find Bacterium That Survives On Arsenic
by Jon Hamilton

Researchers say they have found a bacterium that defies scientific dogma: It's able to use the deadly poison arsenic in place of an element previously considered essential for life. The finding appears to expand the range of places where life could exist — both on Earth and elsewhere in the universe.

The discovery comes from a young NASA astrobiologist who likes to find exceptions to rules. Felisa Wolfe-Simon says she was fascinated by crustaceans because they don't use iron to carry oxygen around their bodies the way most species do. Instead, they use copper.

Wolfe-Simon thought this sort of chemical substitution might go even further.

More science, space, and environment stories after the jump.

continued at Daily Kos....

US Plays the Big Tease at Global Climate Talks

by Bill McKibben

We're staying at the youth hostel in downtown Cancun, away from the strip of beach hotels that draw $3 billion in tourist trade each year. But I went down there this morning for a meeting, and found myself in a little outpost of the United States: Starbucks, KFC. Chili's (Are you kidding me? Chili's in Mexico?)

And here's the thing--as usual, the conference center is an outpost of the U.S. too. From the very beginning of this process, 16 long Conferences of the Parties ago, it's U.S. politics that have set the tone and pace. And every time with the same message: be less ambitious, so Congress won't nix the deal. That's why we ended up with a Kyoto pact that was a babystep at best. That's why the treaty that was supposed to result from Copenhagen ended up an empty Obama-written 'pledge.' We're very, very mindful of the importance of our domestic legislation," his chief negotiator Todd Stern said at the time. "That's a core principle for me and everyone else working on this. You can't jeopardize that."

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eKos: Labrador Sea 9F Above Normal, Changing Global Weather

by FishOutofWater

Loss of Arctic sea ice is changing northern hemisphere ocean currents and atmospheric circulation patterns. A massive influx of warm water as much as 9° F above normal has flowed up the west coasts of both Greenland and Norway towards the Arctic ocean causing a new northern hemisphere weather pattern called the warm Arctic cold continents pattern to develop.

Temperature anomaly in ° C at 100 meters depth in far northern waters.

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We Protect Endangered Wildlife, Why Not Endangered People?

by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse

On Monday, right-wing contrarian Bjorn Lomborg argued that we have "twenty to forty years" to spend on researching new technology for global warming.

He argues that "efforts to reduce global warming pollution can wait, because 'coping with climate change is something we know how to do.'"  Go tell this to Pakistan flood victims.

I guess "coping" now means death, illness, economic deficits, job losses, hunger, national security risks, environmental destruction, wildlife extinction and environmental racism.  

It also means allowing nations to face the threat of extinction. When wildlife is threatened by extinction, our endangered species law may provide protected status while recovery remedies are implemented to save the wildlife.  What about people threatened with rising sea levels that might swallow up entire nations?  Are people as important as our wildlife?

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NASA To Announce New Form Of Life

by Rimjob

Earlier this week, an announcement of a press conference today at NASA led to all sorts of speculation as to what would be announced. Based on who was appearing at the press conference, most of the speculation centered around the idea that maybe alien life had been discovered on Saturn's moon, Titan. Well, some of the information about the press conference has leaked, and the discovery is much more terrestrial. However, it does have implications for the discovery of life on other planets.

According to Gizmodo and NASA Watch, NASA will announce the discovery of a bacterium in California's Mono Lake that achieves the effect of phosphorylation differently than other known organisms. Instead of using phosphorus, the bacterium uses arsenic, which is usually toxic & deadly to living things. So if life can adapt to use arsenic here on Earth, it makes it possible that life can adapt to live off arsenic (and God knows what else) somewhere out there.

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No Meta, just good news

by Jerome a Paris

As you know, I'm firmly (and rightly or wrongly) in the camp of those who are seriously disappointed with our current crop of leftwing politicians and who are quite pessimistic about the short term economic outlook. One of my diaries from this summer (Judging Obama) still sums up my views on the divide within the community and the positions of both sides.

One of the results of this mood of disappointment has been an inability to get worked up lately about politics, and to write anything much.

Another reason for my silence has been that I've been inordinately (and thankfully) busy at work. As you may remember, I created my own company earlier this year, after 15 years in the banking world, to help developers find money to build their renewable energy projects, in particular in the offshore wind sector where I've been involved in the past 5 years.

Well, I'm pleased to announce that the first transaction to happen with my new company's help was signed last week last week.

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COURT: Pull out the Monsanto Sugar Beets!

by greendem

Today Federal District Judge Jeffrey S. White issued a preliminary injunction ordering the immediate destruction of hundreds of acres of genetically engineered (GE) sugar beet seedlings planted in September after finding the seedlings had been planted in violation of federal law. The ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by Earthjustice and The Center for Food Safety on behalf of a coalition of farmers and conservation groups. The lawsuit was filed on September 9, shortly after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) revealed it had allowed the seedlings to be planted.

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Dawn Chorus: Fall in New England

by juliewolf

I love living in Vermont.  Our birds aren't as exotic as the Southwestern Species, and we don't commonly get the coastal excitement that they do over in NH and MA, but we get birds that are adaptable to the cold.  Fall in Vermont is especially interesting because we get boreal birds passing through as well as some occasional surprises.  One surprise happened to me just the other day in the form of this Barred Owl

                               

I didn't photograph it for long, but apparently it's been hanging out in this one spot, not far from my house (I could walk there without too much hassle), for months.  

Below the fold, I'll share some of our other local Fall birds, as well as a fairly major surprise/life bird.

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Gulf Watchers Sunday - More Agencies Point Fingers at BP - BP Catastrophe AUV #432

by Yasuragi

You are in the current Gulf Watchers BP Catastrophe - AUV #432. ROV #431 is here.

Bookmark this link to find the latest Gulf Watchers diaries.

Please RECOMMEND THIS DIARY, the motherships have been discontinued.

Gulf Watchers Diary Schedule
Monday - evening drive time
Wednesday - morning
Friday - morning
Friday Block Party - evening
Sunday - morning

Part one of the digest of diaries is here and part two is here.

Please be kind to kossacks with bandwidth issues. Please do not post images or videos. Again, many thanks for this.

continued at Daily Kos....

Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Thanksgiving weekend edition)

by Neon Vincent

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.

No featured story tonight, just this Thanksgiving greeting from the OND volunteer editors.

Science, space, and environment stories after the jump.

continued at Daily Kos....

Climate scientist takes on AM radio host and wins!

by Keith Pickering

Until a few months ago, nobody ever heard of John Abraham, an engineering professor at St. Thomas University in St. Paul. Maybe you've never heard of him. But he's shaping up to be perhaps the biggest hero of the fight against global warming, evah.

On Tuesday, John was a guest of Jake Judd, radio host and climate skeptic on KDLM-AM in Detroit Lakes, MN. But in less than half an hour, Judd was waving the white towel.

"All right, all right," Judd said. "No matter what side you are on, most people agree that Earth is warming and we have to do something about it."

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