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Wake Up: These Unneeded Instruments Can Wreck Mass Destruction  
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has recently advanced a clean energy plan which mandates that New York transition half of its energy needs to renewables by 2030. By regressive contrast, New York's Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved enormous subsidies for three aging nuclear power plants―Ginna, Nine Mile Point and FitzPatrick―located in Upstate New York. Estimates of the costs of these subsidies range from $59 million to $658 million by 2023, with specialists such as Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group predicting that costs could grow to $8 billion. New York consumers will be covering the tab via their utility bills.

Ginna and Nine Mile Point are owned by the Exelon Corporation, and Exelon has plans to purchase the FitzPatrick plant. You can be sure that Exelon is frothing at the mouth for this huge bailout that was approved without adequate public scrutiny. Approval of this plan gives New York State the not-so-honorable distinction of being one of the first states to bailout the aging nuclear industry in our increasingly green energy age. The long-coddled nuclear industry is hoping that other states will follow suit.

Unfortunately, subsidizing the nuclear industry in the United States is nothing new. Since the first nuclear plants opened back in the 1950's, taxpayers have assumed nearly all of the financial risk. One of the most telling warning signs about the real cost of investing in nuclear power is that fact that Wall Street will not finance the construction of a nuclear plant without a full loan guarantee from the U.S. government. The reason for such caution by financial wheelers and dealers is the long history of delays, cost overruns and reactors that never came online. Whether the plants open or not, obeisant politicians pass many of the nuclear boondoggle costs to the taxpayers.

Atomic energy is also uninsurable in the private insurance market. Under the Price-Anderson Act of 1957, taxpayers must cover almost all of the costs if a catastrophic nuclear accident should occur. Think of the devastation caused by Chernobyl, Fukushima and Three Mile Island. Three Mile Island, which experienced only a partial meltdown in 1979, cost approximately $1 billion to clean up.

The case to preserve the New York nuclear power plants is that they are an "emissions-free power source." There are, however, much better, more affordable and safer low carbon options that would replace the need for nuclear energy in New York. These options were not even discussed or evaluated. A more sensible approach would have been for the PSC to present some alternative scenarios, so that citizen taxpayers could compare the risk and costs of a massive nuclear bailout against significant investments in other energy-generating options like wind and solar, in addition to energy conservation measures.

Consider the absurdity of the complex and expensive nuclear fuel cycle itself. It begins with uranium mining which produces radioactive tailings and dust, followed by the fabrication and refinement of fuel rods, the risky transport of these rods to the plant where they are installed, and then firing up the reactor so it goes critical with a huge amount of radioactivity. The end goal? To boil water to generate steam to turn turbines to produce electricity!

What other method of boiling water has to have specific population evacuation plans?

There is also the significant problem of spent fuel rods which are stored in pools at nuclear plants. No permanent storage sites exist for these deadly radioactive wastes, which pose national security risks, and which must be kept for thousands of years.

It's notable to point out that the Indian Point nuclear plants in New York, which are located near an earthquake fault just thirty miles from Manhattan, were excluded from the PSC proposal. Even cautious Governor Cuomo and Hillary Clinton, when she was a Senator, have acknowledged the imminent danger that Indian Point poses to the Greater New York City area and urged its closing. The 5 PM rush hour in New York's metropolitan area is bad enough without adding the chaos of a panicked mass evacuation of millions of people.

So what about those who live within the fallout zone of these three upstate plants that will be the recipients of billions of dollars of taxpayer money? Why is Governor Cuomo trying to close Indian Point while saving these other plants? One explanation could be right out of the classic nuclear industry handbook―hold the state hostage by threatening that the lights will go out if they don't pony up.

The public was given just 14 days to comment on the bailout proposal. Despite pushback from anti-nuclear activists, the nuclear industry prevailed. Is two weeks enough time for a thorough public debate on the merits of bailing out the costly, risky, dirty nuclear power industry? Shame on the indentured PSC and Governor Cuomo!

Rather than prop up deteriorating nuclear plants with a huge hand out, New York officials should be focused on phasing out nuclear energy entirely. Nuclear power has been proven many times over to be unnecessary, uneconomic, uninsurable, unevacuable, unsafe and unfit for use in the unstable modern world.

New Yorkers―don't take this lying down. Write and call Governor Cuomo's office and tell them that you oppose the PSC's huge bailout to the nuclear industry. And, we hope that some citizen groups will challenge the decision in state court.

Have you seen the print, TV and radio ads touting atomic energy by the Nuclear Energy Institute? Its top executives and the CEOs of the nuclear energy corporations have not been willing to debate publically the assertions in these ads about cost, subsidies, evacuation, risk, alternatives and climate change. I'm confident that Peter Bradford, former member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and former chairman of the New York PSC would agree to a debate in a neutral forum such as the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. So too would Amory Lovins, physicist, author and energy consultant to agencies from electric utility companies to the Pentagon.

Can you, readers, demand that the Nuclear Energy Institute open themselves up to informed debate? After all, they represent big corporate welfare kings that have taken taxpayers for a ride of hundreds of billions of dollars for the last sixty years. They owe you!

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Marcia G. Yerman: Is Your State Attorney General Undermining America's Clean Power Plan?  
The surreptitious collusion between energy companies and specific state Attorneys General becomes crystal clear when looking at contribution supporters of Attorneys General who are part of the lawsuit against the Clean Power Plan.

Read more: Environment, Clean Power Plan, State Attorneys General, Kochs, William F. Whitsitt, Devon Energy Corporation, Oipa, Election-Contributions, Politics News

 
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Working Together: Research and Water Governance on Mount Kenya  

By Kate Weiss, The National SocioEnvironmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC)

Environmental social scientist Jampel Dell'Angelo and filmmaker Matteo Dell'Angelo recently co-directed a documentary film of Elinor Ostrom's last research project. Working Together documents the challenges and successes of interdisciplinary research on smallholder climate adaptation and community water governance in semi-arid areas. The study found that involvement of all the river basin actors in a participatory way reduced social conflicts while providing more sustainable water allocation in the region. The film features water competition and governance in Kenya, which is a country that is innovative among developing countries for participatory water governance reforms.

A postdoctoral research fellow at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), Jampel Dell'Angelo conducted over nine months of fieldwork on Mount Kenya as postdoctoral researcher at the Ostrom Workshop and coordinator of an interdisciplinary team on the U.S. National Science Foundation research project awarded to Elinor Ostrom. The film chronicles Elinor Ostrom's last research project and can be found here: http://videos4water.org/.

The Dell'Angelo brothers worked on the project alongside an interdisciplinary science team that included social science researchers from Indiana University and hydrologists from Princeton University.

Jampel Dell'Angelo has a passion for science and scholarship that has the potential to inform decisions and improve public policies. He believes multimedia can provide a powerful and inspiring means for scientific storytelling to accomplish those goals. “It's not often science makes an effort to communicate in a way that is entertaining and for larger audiences, and this documentary thanks to the involvement of my brother Matteo, makes that effort,” he says. “The film also documents the value of critical efforts to address emerging problems, such as the issues around climate change adaptation and water resources in Mt. Kenya, through real interdisciplinary research.”

Ostrom was the only woman in history to win a Nobel Prize in economics for her work on community natural resource management. Ostrom unfortunately passed away before her research team got to the field; but she was the principal investigator who received the grant from the National Science Foundation research featured in the video. http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/19578.html/

 

I had the opportunity to catch up with Jampel to discuss the documentary, the research conducted in Mt. Kenya, and the implications of this research.

Q: In Working Together, you provide a glimpse into what happens when two teams of researchers work together to gather important information on both human and natural systems. With so much happening on the research end, how did you begin filming this as a research narrative?

Dell'Angelo: It began both as a desire to keep Elinor Ostrom's legacy alive as well as a response to how, when I first arrived in Kenya, I was immediately touched with how much people were affected by and involved in managing water at a local level and how this really affected their lives. And all of this was happening in a scenery that was incredible and that had enormous ecological, cultural, and social variety. It was evident that this research was incredibly interdisciplinary and needed to account for an enormous amount of complexity. So, I thought, “Well, this is something that should be documented.”

Q: What were the main findings of the research?

Dell'Angelo: I think that one of the most interesting things we observed was that this system of community-water governance has a real impact on people and on how resources are allocated. We were working with 25 communities along five different river basins that had experienced increasingly elevated conflicts over water resources. This was really because the downstream users didn't have a voice to articulate their discontent and frustration when they felt the up-stream users were withdrawing too much water. The transition over to a community-based water governance drastically reduced the level of conflicts between different users.

In terms of the main bio-physical findings, we found that, with climate change, what's happening in the area isn't that there's less rainfall, but that the distribution of rain is changing. This is important, because there is a big difference between the same amount of rain falling in one month versus in six months. This has significant implications in terms of agricultural production and agricultural decision making. This raises questions of how people will adapt to these various changes in the future.

Q: Why is it important for both researchers and decision-makers to understand the human dynamics and climate impacts of Mt. Kenya's water governance?

Dell'Angelo: Kenya is a little bit of a laboratory in terms of community irrigation schemes and community water management—they are pioneers in this new system of community water governance that's also hugely affected by climate change, so they are on the front-line of new systems of governance in the face of climate change. Understanding what is happening in this area is hugely important in terms of generalizing knowledge for other areas in developing countries that face similar challenges.

Q: What do you want people to take away from this video?

Dell'Angelo: I hope people take away from this documentary a better understanding of the complexity and importance of interdisciplinary research when combined with local people and local knowledge. I think it is both a valuable resource for those interested in natural resources, sustainability, and development as well as for those who might be facing similar problems in their own communities. I hope this can be an educational and practical tool as well as an insight into a reality that many communities across the world face.

The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, funded through an award to the University of Maryland from the National Science Foundation, is a research center dedicated to accelerating data-driven scientific discovery at the interface of human and ecological systems. Visit us online at www.sesync.org and follow us on Twitter @SESYNC.

 
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The Laws Of Ecology And The Survival Of The Human Species  
I was raised in a small fishing village on the Passamaquoddy Bay in New Brunswick, Canada and I still vividly remember the way things were in the Fifties. The way things were then is not the way things are now.

I'm not talking about technological, industrial or scientific progress. I'm referring to the health and stability of eco-systems. What was once strong is now weak. What was once rich in diversity is now very much the poorer.

I have been blessed, or perhaps cursed, with the gift of near total recall. I see the images of the past as clearly as the days that were. As a result it has been difficult for me to adapt to diminishment. I see the shells on the beaches that are no longer there, the little crabs under the rocks, now gone, the schools of fishes, the pods of dolphins, the beaches free of plastic.

I began traveling the world in 1967 -- hitch-hiking and riding the rails across Canada; joining the Norwegian merchant marine; crossing the Pacific and Indian Oceans; traveling through Japan, Iran, Mozambique and South Africa, working as a tour guide in Turkey and Syria, co-founding the Greenpeace Foundation in 1972 and, in 1977, founding the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.



Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson some forty years ago when he founded the non-profit.

Many things that I saw then no longer exist - or have been severely damaged, changed and diminished.

In the Sixties we did not buy water in plastic bottles. In the Sixties the word 'sustainable 'was never used in an ecological context, and except for Rachel Carson, there were very few with the vision to see into the future, where we were going, what we were doing.

But slowly, awareness crept into the psyche of more and more people. People began to understand what the word ecology meant. We saw the creation of Earth Day, and in 1972, the first global meeting on the environment in Stockholm, Sweden that I covered as a journalist.

Gradually, the insight into what were doing became more prevalent and to those who understood, the price to be paid was to be labeled radicals, militants, and a new word - eco-terrorist.

The real "crime" of eco-terrorism was not burning down a ski lodge, toppling a power line or spiking a tree. Such things are only outbursts of desperation and frustration. The real crime of eco-terrorism was having thought, perception, and imagination. In other words, the questioning of the modern economic, corporate and political paradigm.

The word eco-terrorism should be more accurately used for the destruction caused by progress like the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal or the BP Deep Water Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.


Picture of an oil rig taken during Sea Shepherd's Operation Toxic Gulf in 2014.

In the Seventies, the late Robert Hunter, along with Roberta Hunter, Dr. Patrick Moore, David Garrick, Rod Marining and myself observed and wrote down the three laws of ecology. What we realized was that these laws are the key to the survival of biodiversity on the planet and also the key to the survival of the human species. We realized that no species could survive outside of the three basic and imperative ecological laws.

The law of diversity: The strength of an eco-system is dependent upon the diversity of species within it.

The law of interdependence: All species are interdependent with each other.

The law of finite resources: There are limits to growth and limits to carrying capacity.

The increase of population in one species leads to the increase in consumption
of resources by that species. This leads to diminishment of diversity of other species, which in turn leads to diminishment of interdependence among species.

For example, increasing diminishment of phytoplankton populations in the sea is causing diminishment of many other species as well as a 40% diminishment in oxygen production since 1950. Diminishment of whale populations has contributed to the diminishment of phytoplankton populations because whale feces are a major source of nutrients (esp. iron and nitrogen) for phytoplankton.

The planet simply cannot tolerate 7.5 billion (and growing) primarily meat and fish eating necrovores. The killing of 65 billion domestic animals each year is contributing more greenhouse gases to the planet than the entire transportation industry. The industrial stripping of life from the sea is causing unprecedented biodiversity collapse in marine eco-systems.

Ecological systems globally are collapsing from coral reefs to rainforests because humanity is exploiting resources far beyond the capacity of eco-systems to create and renew natural resources.

Diminishment of eco-systems is also leading to the breakdown of human social structures causing global conflict in the form of wars and domestic violence. Terrorism is not the cause of society's problems, it is merely a symptom.

Humans are compromised by medieval paradigms like territorial dominance, hierarchical desires and superstitious beliefs combined with primitive primate behavior like greed and fear.



Sea Shepherd's 2010 Faeroe Islands Dolphin Defense Campaign: Operation Grindstop. Photo credit: Sea Shepherd /Sofia Jonsson


The fishing village that I lived in as a child is no longer a fishing village. The relative innocence of our lives as children of the Fifties and Sixties is no more. The African bush, the Arctic tundra, the marine reserve of the Galapagos Islands, the Great Barrier Reef, the Amazonian rainforests that I once traveled through are no longer what they recently were.

Humans have this amazing ability to adapt to diminishment. It's a trait that was exceptionally useful when we lived as hunter-gatherers. We adapted to food shortages, to changes in the weather and to the world as it evolved around us. Today we are trying to adapt to the destruction brought on by ourselves and that adaption is taking the form of more and more control by governments and corporations and a blind reliance on corporate technologies.

We no longer have the empathy we once felt. I vividly remember the events of October 23rd, 1958. I was seven years old on the day of the Springhill Mine Disaster in Nova Scotia. 75 men died and 99 were rescue. I remember crying for the fate of people I did not know and feeling excited every time a miner was brought to the surface alive. I no longer have that capacity. Perhaps I lost it when I became an adult, or perhaps society no longer has room for such emotions.

Disaster happened and we grieved for people we did not know. A few weeks ago nearly 100 people were viciously murdered within a few kilometres of where I live when a deranged man mowed them down with a large truck in Nice, France. Last week, a priest was beheaded in France. Every week brings us more stories about mass killings in the Middle East, Africa, America etc. It's a worldwide pain-fest of chaos and violence and yet it is met with complacency for the most part and a predictable Facebook posting of -- "say a prayer for Paris, or Orlando, or Nice, or Beirut, or Istanbul" in a litany of self-indulgent adaptation to tragedy, before being quickly forgotten.

This is not the world of my childhood. We remembered the horrors of World War II with real emotion. I remember talking with both World War I and World War II veterans and feeling their pain. Today it's just another short-term item on the news, in a world that seeks to escape through movies, celebrities, video games and increasingly more fanatical religious fervor.

Here is the reality. As human populations increase, the consumption of resources increases with it. But because resources are finite and the rate of renewables is overcome by demand, this can only lead to one result -- the collapse of resource availability.

And because we are literally stealing resources from other species, this will lead to
diminishment of species and habitats, which will contribute to even more resource diminishment.



Sea Shepherd's 2008 Seal Defense Campaign photographs the murder and carcass dragging of a seal. Photo credit: Sea Shepherd / Greg Hager

At COP 21, I called for an end to worldwide government subsidies for industrialized fishing and at least a 50-year moratorium on commercial industrialized fishing. That solution was not given a moment's thought at a conference that did not even take into account the imperative role of the Ocean in addressing climate change.

My opinion of COP 21 is that governments were not looking for solutions. They were looking for the appearance of solutions. They certainly did not want to hear about solutions from people like me. They want solutions that are accompanied by jobs and profit. The one thing they do not want is any form of economic sacrifice.

I also do not believe that the majority of humanity -- certainly not the leadership -- understand the true gravity of the situation. There are six viewpoints concerning climate change: 1. Denial 2. Acceptance, with the view of it being a positive development. 3. Acceptance with the belief that science and technology will save the day. 4. Acceptance, but refusal to fully appreciate the consequences. 5. Apathy. 6. Acceptance with the resolve to find real solutions.

Those who are in denial have vested self interests in doing so, motivated primarily by greed or ignorance. My old Greenpeace colleague Patrick Moore sees climate change as an opportunity for longer growing seasons and better weather. (He lives in Canada and I don't think he's really thought it through.) Others like Elon Musk see our salvation in science, in moving off-world or developing artificial eco-systems on Earth. Most responsible world leaders recognize the problem but are too politically-impotent to address it with realistic solutions because those solutions would not be politically popular. And as with everything, the majority of the world is apathetic and too self-absorbed with entertaining themselves (developed world) or surviving (underdeveloped world).

On this path we are on now, the future is somewhat predictable. More resource wars, more poverty, more accumulation of wealth by the minority of privileged people, more disease, more civil strife and with the collapse of biodiversity - global mass starvation, and pestilence.

The rich tapestry of all our cultures and all our achievements in science and the arts hangs by threads linked to biodiversity.

If the bees are diminished, our crops are diminished. If the forests are diminished, we are diminished. If phytoplankton dies, we die! If the grasses die, we die!

We exist because of the geo-engineering contributions of millions of diverse species that keep our life support systems running. From bacteria to whales, from algae to the redwoods. If we undermine the foundations of this planetary life-support system, all that we have ever created will fall. We will be no more.

We made the mistake of declaring war on nature, and because of our technologies it looks like we are going to win this war. But because we are a part of nature, we will destroy ourselves in the process. Our enemy is ourselves and we are slowly becoming aware of that indisputable fact. We are destroying ourselves in a fruitless effort to save the image of what we believe ourselves to be.

In this war, we are slaughtering -- through direct or indirect exploitation -- millions of species and reducing their numbers to dangerously low levels while at the same time increasing human numbers to dangerously high levels.


Dolphin offal and intestines photographed during the 2011-12 Taiji Dolphin Defense Campaign. Photo credit: Sea Shepherd / Christoph Heylen

We are fighting this war against nature with chemicals, industrialized equipment, ever increasing extraction technologies (like fracking) and repression against any and all voices that rise up in dissent.

In our wake over the past two centuries we have left a trail of billions of bodies. We have tortured, slain, abused and wasted so many lives, obliterated entire species; and reduced rich diverse eco-systems to lifeless wastelands as we polluted the seas, the air and the soil with chemicals, heavy metals, plastic, radiation and industrialized farm sewage.

We were once horrified by the possibility of a Chernobyl or a Fukushima. But the accidents happened and we adapted and accepted. Now we are complacent.

In the process we are becoming sociopathic as a species. We are losing the ability to express empathy and compassion. We idolize soldiers, hunters, and resource developers without giving a thought to their victims. We revel in violent fantasies hailing two-dimensional fantasy killers as heroes. We have become increasingly more Darwinian in our outlook that the weak (other species) must perish so that the strong (ourselves) may survive. We forget that Darwinism recognizes the laws of ecology and we cannot pick and choose when it comes to the laws of nature. In the end nature controls us, we do not control nature.

The consequences of our actions are not going to happen centuries from now. They are going to happen within this century. Oceanic ecosystems are collapsing -- now! The planet is getting warmer -- now! Phytoplankton is being diminished -- now!

To be blunt -- the planet is dying now, and we are killing it!

From what I have experienced and from what I see there is only one thing that can prevent us from falling victim to the consequences of ignoring the laws of ecology.

We must shake off the anthropocentric mindset and embrace a biocentric understanding of the natural world. We can do this because we have wonderful teachers in indigenous communities worldwide who have lived biocentric lifestyles for thousands of years just as our species all once did. We need to learn to live in harmony with other species.

We need to establish a moratorium on industrialized fishing, logging and farming.

We need to stop producing goods that have no intrinsic value -- all the useless plastic baubles for entertainment and self-indulgence. We need to stop mass-producing plastic that is choking our global seas. We need to stop injecting poisons into the soil and dumping toxins into the sea. We need to abolish cultural practices that destroy life for the sole purpose of entertaining ourselves.

Of course it won't be easy but do we really want the epitaph for our species to be, "Well we needed the jobs?"

Without ecology there is no economy.

I am not a pessimist and I've never been prone to pessimistic thoughts. There are solutions. We see people of compassion, imagination and courage around us working to make this a better world -- devoting themselves to protecting species and habitats; finding organic agricultural alternatives; and developing more eco-friendly forms of energy production. Innovators, thinkers, activists, artists, leaders and educators -- these people are among us and their numbers are growing.

It is often said that the problems are overwhelming and the solutions are impossible. I don't buy this. The solution to an impossible problem is to find an impossible solution.

It can be done. In 1972, the very idea that Nelson Mandela would one day be President of South Africa was unthinkable and impossible -- yet the impossible became possible.

It's never easy but it is possible and possibilities are achieved through courage, imagination, passion and love.

I learned from the Mohawks years ago that we must live our lives by taking into account the consequences of our every action on all future generations of all species.

If we love our children and grandchildren we must recognize that their world will not be our world. Their world will be greatly diminished and unrecognizable from the world of our childhoods. Each and every child born in the 21st Century is facing challenges that no human being has ever faced in the entire history of our species:

Emerging pathogens from the permafrost. (Just this summer, an anthrax virus from a recently thawed reindeer carcass broke out killing 1,500 reindeer and hospitalizing 13 people in Russia.) Eruptions of methane opening huge craters in the earth in Siberia, mass-accelerated extinction of plants and animals, pollution, wars and more wars, irrational violence in the form of individual, religious and state terrorism, the collapse of entire eco-systems.

This is not doom and gloom fear mongering. It is simply a realistic observation of the consequences of our deliberately ignoring of the laws of ecology. I call it the Cassandra Principle.

Cassandra was the prophetess of ancient Troy whose curse was the ability to see the future and to have everyone dismiss her prophecies. No one listened to her, instead they ridiculed her. Yet she was right. All that she predicted came to pass and Troy was destroyed.

Years ago I had a critic in the media label me as a doom and gloom Cassandra. I replied, "Maybe, but don't forget one thing. Cassandra was right."



Sea Shepherd's Galapagos Director Sean O'Hearn-Gimenez on a shark finning arrest operation om 2007.

And over the years I have made predictions (that were ridiculed and dismissed) that have come true. In 1982 I publicly predicted the collapse of the North Atlantic Cod fishery. It happened a decade later. In 1978 I predicted the destruction of one half of the African elephant population in Defenders magazine. I was wrong. Some two thirds of the population have been destroyed. In 1984, I predicted ecological destruction by salmon farms including the spreading of viruses to wild salmon populations. Every prediction was based on observation with reference to the laws of ecology and every prediction was dismissed.

Nothing has changed. Today I am predicting the death of worldwide coral reef eco-systems by 2025, the total collapse of worldwide commercial fishing operations by 2030; and the emergence of more virulent viral diseases in the coming decades. It does not take any exceptional foresight to predict that war will be the major business of the next half-century, as well as the rise of more authoritarian governments.

Recently my old friend Rod Marining, also a co-founder of Greenpeace, said to me: "The transformation of human consciousness on a mass scale can not happen, unless there are two factors. First, a huge mass visual death threat to survival of our species, and two, the threat of the loss of a people's jobs or their values. Once theses two factors are in place humans begin to transform their thinking over night."

I have seen the future written in the patterns of our behavior, and it is not a pleasant future, in fact it is not much of a future at all.

The four horses have arrived. As death sits astride the pale horse, the other three horses of pestilence, famine and war and terrorism are stampeding at full gallop toward us while our backs are turned away from them. And when they trample us, we may look up from our latest entertainment triviality to see ourselves in the dust of the ecological apocalypse.

I also see the possibility of salvation. By listening to the words and observing the actions of indigenous people. By looking into the eyes of our children. By stepping outside the circle of anthropocentrism. By understanding that we are part of the Continuum. By refusing to participate in the anthropocentric illusion. By embracing biocentrism and fully understanding the laws of ecology, and the fact that these laws cannot -- must not -- be ignored if we wish to survive.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Elusive Arabian sand cat spotted after 10 years' disappearance  
A rare sighting of this elusive and beautiful cat is bringing new insights into the life of a unique species adapted to nocturnal desert life  
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An Open Letter To Our Politicians. Please Protect Our Oceans Now!  

Dear Politicians and Elected Officials,

Our oceans are in peril. There is too much plastic in them. Plastic suffocates and strangles marine wildlife who consume it, thinking it is food.

The oceans have far too many chemicals in them; recklessly dumped with abandon.

We have removed and/or finned too many sharks and fish. Ecosystems are in danger. We are testing the oceans' ability to sustain life.

Carbon, methane, and nitrous oxide emissions are released into the atmosphere daily from transportation, energy, agriculture, and animal agriculture. These emissions not only affect global temperatures and the atmosphere, they also affect the pH of the oceans, and the ecosystems that existed long before humans came along.

Look, I know you're busy working on other important issues. I know you've been working on issues of "green energy," endangered species protections, and transportation improvements. But, what about the oceans? Over the years, most of your focus has been directed towards land, land animals, and fossil fuels.

I get it, we live on land, we understand land. Yet, even here, we are "missing the boat." After all, there are only 25,000 Rhinos left, and elephants are brutally murdered every 15 minutes! I get it. Something's gotta give.

But, moving forward, I do ask; please spend as much time and effort on our oceans; rather, more time! They sure do seem to get the short shrift.

FACTS ABOUT OUR OCEANS:

Did you know that our oceans cover 70% of the earths surface? Did you know that the oceans account for 90% of all habitable space on earth? Yet, did you know that less than 1% of our oceans are currently protected?

The oceans absorb nearly 50% of the carbon we emit, and produce nearly 50% of Earth's oxygen.


The oceans give us air to breathe, and water to drink (though indirectly.) We have removed more than 80-90% of our large fish. Many whale populations remain threatened and still hunted by some (Japan, Iceland, Norway, Faroe Islands).

We have dumped agricultural wastes, chemicals, and pollution into our oceans, creating dead zones where marine-life cannot live! These chemicals have
also affected marine-animals ability to reproduce!

Instead, we need to spend more effort, time, resources, and conservation dollars to protect this most vital of ALL resources. We need to protect the
oceans; or, at the very least, think about them and act on them, as much as we do our lands and the animals that live there. Protecting only 1% of our
oceans is NOT enough.

In fact, we need to do BETTER! Both on land, and in the oceans!

We lose more and more species every year. There will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2048.

The reason I set out to write this letter to you is because, in 2048, my son will be my current age. But I fear the planet will not look as it does today, at my current age.



I fear we will lose the life-support system that our oceans provide us. I fear we will lose too many species.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

As an elected official, you can work towards policies and guidelines that protect our oceans by:

• Banning the use of single-use plastic beverage lids and bags.

• Banning the use of gill nets, trawl nets, or purse-seine nets that kill more unintended species than intended! (This would never be acceptable on
• land!)

• Enforcing the bans on fishing of endangered species. Just as you prosecute anyone who steals from a merchant, prosecute anyone who steals critical life from the oceans or the land.

• Changing dietary guidelines to reflect the need for sustainability.

• STOPPING agricultural-waste dumping and runoff into streams, rivers, and oceans.

If we want the oceans to survive and protect the livelihoods of the billions of people who depend on them for food, money, life, and climate stability, you, our elected officials, must do more to help now.

I would gladly fill your seat, in congress or the senate or in local government, and work on plans to save our oceans, and our planet. But, since it will likely take me many years to get into your seat, I implore you, do something, do it now. Protect our oceans and wildlife. Don't wait another moment. That moment may be too late.

Thank you, and respectfully,


Dana Ellis Hunnes PhD, MPH, RD

To contact Dana: recipe.for.survival@gmail.com
Twitter: recipe4survival
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RecipeForSurvival/
PlanetExperts: http://www.planetexperts.com/author/danahunnes/"

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Agroecology and industrial farming: leveling the playing field  
Driving across the United States, the landscape of genetically modified corn stretches for hundreds of miles. Same crop, same variety, same methods, even the same seed company dominates the heartland--visual proof of the dominance of industrial agriculture. (Most of this vast sea of corn is used for animal feed or ethanol production rather than for human consumption...)

The same lack of biological diversity can be found in the industrial tomato fields of Florida, the vegetable fields of California and the cotton fields of the southern United States, with soy, rice, wheat and livestock also following the same pattern.

The negative consequences of industrial agriculture--from climate change to antibiotic-resistant bacteria--have been extensively documented. Agroecology, the "cleaner and greener" alternative to industrial agriculture, has also been extensively documented. Contrary to popular belief (and to a lot of industrial propaganda) agroecological methods can be just as productive as industrial methods.

While a few techniques have crossed the agroecological-industrial divide, they rarely challenge the monoculture mantra. Most large-scale farmers in the United States are locked-in to the markets of industrial agriculture and are reluctant to make sweeping changes to their farming system.

Over the last century chemicals and big machinery have replaced millions of workers. It's capital intensive, though. Farming is a multi-million-dollar proposition--and a marketer's dream.

Because all these inputs lead to chronic crises of overproduction and falling farm gate prices, farmers typically increase production and acreage to make ends meet. They take out more loans and buy more chemical inputs and more patented seed, which keeps the inputs industry very happy. But these farmers don't just consume more inputs; they ultimately consume smaller neighboring farms too, growing the scale of their operations in order to maximize slim profit margins. Industrial agriculture is tailored to the needs of a capitalist marketplace - it overproduces vast amounts of food, feed and fuel and consumes vast amounts of commoditized inputs. This doesn't necessarily help farmers, who, like many poor countries, produce cheap raw materials but consume expensive industrial goods. The wealth of our powerful industrial agricultural system ultimately accumulates capital in the hands of the input, grain and retail monopolies.

Agroecology isn't compatible with this system. First off, agroecology, with its diversified cropping systems and labor-intensive fertility and pest management practices requires specialized, place-specific knowledge and skilled labor--and lots of it. While this can produce plenty of food and jobs, it can't be scaled up to the massive farm size the monopolies demand. And even though agroecology does not result in the soil erosion, groundwater contamination, greenhouse gases and pesticide poisoning typical of industrial agriculture, neither the benefits, nor the costs of the environmental "externalities" are recognized in the marketplace. Agroecology gives us its environmental benefits for free, while industrial agriculture makes us pay for its environmental damage. How?

Industrial agriculture systems don't pay for farmworkers' illnesses after prolonged exposure to pesticides. It doesn't pay for the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. It doesn't pay for the loss of biodiversity, the runoff into our drinking water, or the decimation of rural communities and their social services. Industrial agriculture is a façade of economic efficiency - and we all pay the price.

Nevertheless, industrial agriculture thrives because it is compatible with existing social, political, and financial systems. It has what agricultural sociologists call "thick legitimacy" i.e., everything about the system legitimizes the practice--no matter how destructive. The consolidated wealth of the input and retail sectors do not account for real costs of production, which is precisely why industrial agriculture thrives.

For agroecology to have a fair chance to "compete" with industrial agriculture we have to level the playing field by internalizing the true costs of industrial agriculture--that is, by making polluters pay.

But how do we do this without penalizing the farmer and making sure those pushing the poisons and the overproduction (the monopolies) are the ones paying? It starts with making them pay a fair price to the farmer for the product. It also means something called "supply management" to prevent overproduction. George Naylor, a corn and soy farmer from Churdan, Iowa calls for a "quota system":

"Under the current laissez-faire policy of planting fencerow-to-fencerow, a farmer is always going to try to produce more bushels to sell either out of greed or fear of going broke. If a chemical input can seemingly increase income over the cost, it makes sense to use it. But when all farmers follow suit, overproduction results in low prices and our land and water are degraded. Instead, let's say that each farm had a quota based on history of production and an assessment of how a good crop rotation along with conservation plantings could regenerate the soil and biodiversity. If the farmer is compensated with a price that will stabilize his or her income, their thinking and practices will be just the opposite of the laissez-faire, free market straight jacket. If a farm has a quota of 10,000 bushels of corn, that farmer will think, "How can I produce 10,000 bushels of corn with the least amount of chemicals and fertilizer and the most amount of conservation? Maybe I could use some of the other land for soil saving hay and pasture to feed a new herd for grass fed beef or dairy." That farmer would be well on the way of becoming organic."

It would also help level the playing field between agroecology and sustainable agriculture.

Co-written with Ahna Kruzic

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Busy Beach  

photo fiddler posted a photo:

as thousands of migrating semipalmated sandpipers eat mud shrimp on their only stop on a 4000 km migration from the Artic to South America.

 
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A Special Time on the Bay of Fundy Shore  

photo fiddler posted a photo:

at Evangeline Beach near Grand Pre

 
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Gathering of Birds and Photographers  

photo fiddler posted a photo:

Semipalmated sandpipers

 
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Your Air Conditioner Is Making You Cooler, And The World Warmer. We Can Change That.  


Cooling and refrigeration are essential to increasing labor productivity, improving educational outcomes, safeguarding food and minimizing its waste, improving healthcare, and supporting countries' digital ambitions (that computer of yours heats up pretty fast). And all of this, from improved productivity to education to health, is vital to eliminating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity across the globe.

And yet, it turns out that that refrigerator in the corner is doing more than extending the life of your fruits and vegetables: it's also contributing to global warming. In a somewhat ironic twist, we know now that in filling the hole in the ozone layer over the past few decades under the aegis of the Montreal Protocol, we unwittingly had been adding to global warming. The good news, though, is that we can act on this quickly, and the result (in ecological terms) is almost immediate. But if we continue as we have been, we could face big problems.

Undoubtedly, the Montreal Protocol's success at reversing a universal environmental problem, depletion of the earth's ozone layer, also helped in our fight against climate change. Without the Montreal Protocol agreement and its 25 years of action to stop production and human consumption of harmful chemicals, the climate challenge facing the world today would be far worse. Overall, the climate achievements in phasing out chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) an organic compound made exclusively of chlorine, fluorine, and carbon, have been equated to the equivalent of eight billion tons a year of CO2. Yet, in hindsight we've learned that hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs, the chemicals picked to replace some CFCs, are very potent greenhouse gasses. What's worse, their use is on the rise globally, since they are seen to be the best substitutes for chemicals used in air conditioners and refrigerators.

The most concerning HFCs are thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide. Yet unlike carbon dioxide, HFCs tend to stay in the atmosphere for a shorter period, making it possible, if removed, to see a visible reversal of temperature rise impacts within the lifetime of our children. By contrast, the longer atmospheric life of CO2 means it takes longer to see the impact of the removal of the gas, so tangible results would only be seen by our children's children.

From Dubai through Vienna to Kigali

With the climate challenge facing the world already immense, it's clear that action to reduce HFCs must be accelerated to avoid an irreversible tipping point. This has been the key focus of the Montreal Protocol meetings just held in Vienna, attended by ministers from around the world with a focus on phasing down HFCs. One seminal study projected that global temperatures can be reversed by as much as 0.5 degrees Celsius if HFCs and their projected growth are eliminated. We need every tenth of a degree possible.

Several of my colleagues and I attended the Vienna meetings, which were part of a series that started last November in Dubai with the specific aim to work toward amending the Montreal Protocol to phase-down HFCs. An amendment is important because it will give a clear global signal for action and since it's taken within the Montreal Protocol framework, it would enter into legal force rapidly. The discussions highlighted the need for flexibility to respond to different country situations, while at the same time demonstrating strong multilateral consensus for decisive action. The final decision will be made in October in Kigali, Rwanda.

We're already working on it

But with predicted growth projections of HFC being the highest in developing countries (no surprise, since this correlates closely with economic development), the World Bank Group is not waiting for an international agreement to start accelerating action on HFC reductions. We are already working with countries under our Montreal Protocol projects to see where reductions can be taken and where we can reduce HFCs as technology becomes available, affordable, and safe. For example in Thailand, we're working with manufacturers to produce air conditioners that are friendly to the ozone layer, while reducing HFCs and saving energy. Additionally, with Government of Canada support, we are developing tools for Bank teams to identify and act on opportunities for a "triple win" to reduce ozone, reduce HFCs, and increase energy efficiency where air conditioning and refrigeration are part of Bank investments.

We know the Montreal Protocol has already achieved results. We've had reports this year that the recovery of the hole in the ozone layer has already reached a surface area equivalent to the size of India, and full recovery is projected to be achieved before mid-century. But it's too early to celebrate: the challenge remains immense. October will be the time to make a decision that reverberates for generations to come.

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Why We Don't Need More Environmental Organizations  
As the founder of Greening Forward, a youth-driven and youth-imagined environmental organization, I often mentor young people on whether or not they, too, should create their own organization, and my immediate response is a passionate, "No!" Likewise, my answer to adults with the same question is identical.

Often times, individuals want to start an organization when starting an organization may not be necessary to achieve their intended goals. One of the early steps to starting a new organization of any kind involves brainstorming lists of organizations who do similar and complementary work. What makes these organizations unique? What makes these organizations successful or unsuccessful?

Eight years ago, these were questions I began asking myself when I realized that no one was putting young people in substantive roles within the environmental movement. My peers and I believed that young people should be on boards, and at the forefront of campaigns, and Greening Forward would become a refreshing organization that could show adults how students could serve in these roles.

Before one starts a new campaign, one must also ask themselves: What's the innovative and refreshing thing that this new organization will bring to the movement? Frankly, environmental organizations already saturate the non-profit sector insomuch that it is likely that most things under the sun have been imagined and tried.

But, if it is true that we already have so many environmental organization addressing so many issues already, why is it that the most recent data from 2005 tells us that the number of new environmental organizations is growing at a rate that should double every 13 years?

I believe one of the issues is that existing environmental organizations are failing to be collaborative and cooperative, and are not being responsive to new ideas and research. Ultimately, more research must be done to adequately address whether these factors have led some individuals to chart their own paths with new organizations.

Some of the most reliable data we have on the growth of the environmental movement from 2005 tells us that our movement is growing much quicker when compared to all non-profits. Given that the number of environmental and conservation organizations registered with the IRS has grown by 4.6 percent per year, the growth rate of our subsector has outpaced non-profit organizations as a whole by 164%.

When it comes to measuring environmental impact, more organizations does not always forecast better outcomes. Environmental practitioners may be able to recognize themselves how the environmental movement has or has not changed despite the growth in quantity of environmentally-focused organizations after reflecting on these questions:

• Has the environmental movement become more competitive over the past couple of decades and is this competition more noteworthy than in other non-profit issue areas?
• 
  
• Has the environmental movement gotten substantively more effective at its tactics over the past couple of decades? (i.e. does it cost less to educate X amount of people than it did in the past, has the process of organizing X events become less time-consuming)
• 
  
• Is there increased confusion from the general public about the role that different environmental organizations serve for the movement?

We do not need any more environmental organizations as much as we need existing organizations that can (1) understand the difference between collaboration and cooperation, and are ready to do both, (2) be responsive to new people and new ideas, as well as (3) keep data on what works and what doesn't work.

1. Understand the difference between collaboration and cooperation, and be ready to do both. Collaboration is a process of shared co-creation. Collaboration is not agreeing to share another organization's event on social media. Instead, this is an example of cooperation. Cooperation is when one organization has set the rules, and has allowed another organization to play along. Both collaboration and cooperation are important to addressing problems with efficient solutions without the need of starting a new organization, but it is only collaboration that involves mutual risk, trust, and even potential embarrassment.
   
2. Be responsive to new people and new ideas. I'm not asking organizations to open Phishing or spam emails, but it appears that some mainstream organizations have approached emails from grassroots community organizers and Phishing e-mails the same. While it may seem time-consuming to respond to external suggestions and comments, it could be equally disastrous if an organization is blinded by an important movement change and shift. Social science researcher, Debra J. Salazar discusses more about this phenomenon as experienced by Washington state environmental organizations in her report, "The Mainstream-Grassroots Divide in the Environmental Movement: Environmental Groups in Washington State."
   
3. Keep data on what works and what doesn't work. As a practitioner in the field, I have observed that the best-funded environmental organizations do not always have the best results, and the least funded environmental organizations do not always have the least impact, which is a result of ineffective philanthropy. Partnerships should be pushing our movement in a way towards more substantive work that leads to proven results, even if it means challenging how the work was traditionally done.

With the threat of environmental degradation coming from all corners of the globe, we all must work together to ensure that our efforts are efficient, meaningful, and worthwhile. Now is the time to rise to these challenges that will define our movement.

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Climate Change This Week: Siberia Exploding, Too Hot to Work, LED Job Surge, and More!  
Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.




Soon This May Be The Only Kind Of Tropical Frog In Existence - one made of painted women; better to conserve our carbon-storing tropical forests. By Johannes Stoetter, source www.rebelsmarket.com

Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon




Palm Oil Eats Away as its plantations wipe out forests. Credit mongabay.com

OO Can We Feed The World Without Cutting Forests? It can be done, says U.N. (MEH: not really - see below.) Agriculture is biggest driver of deforestation globally, but:

• Giving people clear land ownership creates sustainable management;
• 
  
• Boosting investment boosts land productivity;
• 
  
• Forests can be protected.

MEH: The above argument is greatly flawed:

• boosting land productivity beyond sustainable limits has already destroyed arable land;
• 
  
• our global population levels are already beyond sustainable limits;
• 
  
• forests fall when desperate, unsustainable populations use them for resources.

• 80% of all arable land is already under cultivation globally;
• 
  
• The total amount of arable land is decreasing due to desertification and overuse.

Humanity is crashing through its global limits.


FORESTS ARE BURNING UP




Climate Change Drives Wildfires - as higher temperatures both melt out mountain snowpacks earlier (meaning less water later in summer), and, in combo with drought, dries out trees, creating tinderbox conditions for fires. Source Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory

OO Wildfires Have Burned More Than 2.6 Million Acres So Far This Year - under continuing climate change, higher temperatures and more frequent and intense droughts will fuel ever more intense and larger wildfires - until we run out of forests.


OO California's Costly Wildfire Season Might Never End until it runs out of forests.





Source siberiantimes.com

OO Huge Swaths Of Russia's Forests Are Ablaze
- Possibly A Record Fire Season - The past few years have seen huge conflagrations in this region, from a combination of forest management practices, firefighting policies, human-caused global warming and shorter-term weather fluctuations.


OO Russian Wildfires Put Key Climate Change Resource At Risk - as the government's practice of leaving massive wildfires to burn out of control in sprawling stretches of Siberia shrinks a key global resource for absorbing climate-warming emissions: its trees.

When we harm forests, we harm ourselves.




Just How Desperate Are You For A Hamburger? - enough to fuel climate change by destroying carbon sinks? Source www.vox.com

OO Cattle Grazing Is Now Causing Massive Deforestation Hotspots
In The Peruvian Amazon


OO Drought 'Shuts Down Amazon Carbon Sink' by killing trees and slowing trees' growth rates, a study has shown.





Source www.smarborists.com

OO Global Warming Could Limit Forest Capacity as Carbon Sinks - more specifically, North American forests, says a new study.





OO How To Stop Deforestation?
Give Indigenous People Rights To Land - Indigenous people are better than governments at preventing forests from being cut and should be seen as a solution, not a barrier to protecting them, said a UN official.


*
*

GOING, GOING...




Fracking As Far As The Eye Can See Credit Mark Gamba at Corbis via Foundation for Deep Ecology

OO Humans' Consumption of Earth's Natural Resources Has Tripled in 40 Years - says a new UN report.

Growing consumption drives climate change, as it uses huge amounts of climate-polluting energy; those energy sources, in turn, are using increasing amounts of energy just for extraction and distribution.




Asia Deforests Source ulet ifan at flipboard.com

Trees, Orchids, Beautiful Birds, And More - All Gone when a tropical forest disappears, and often extinguishing unknown, unique forms of life.

"The alarming rate at which materials are now being extracted is already having a severe impact on human health and people's quality of life," said UN International Resource Panel co-chair, Alicia Bárcena Ibarra.

"We urgently need to address this problem before we have irreversibly depleted the resources that power our economies and lift people out of poverty.

[It] calls for a rethink of the governance of natural resource extraction."


OO UN: Shorter Working Hours May Be Needed To Save Environment - to increase efficiency of resources used and slow their extraction.


*
*

HOT NEWS




OO Heat Alerts Blanket US. - N.Y.C., L.A. and Chicago were all under heat advisories recently, plus 23 states in between.


OO Deadly Dangerous Heat Wave Scorched Central And Eastern U.S. with at least 6 heat related deaths. The heat index, a measure of how hot it actually feels, could reach 115°F in parts of Washington, DC and 108°F in Philadelphia.


Related Headlines:





How Much Hot Temperatures Differed for June 2016 in the US from the average. Source NOAA

OO Sizzling Midwest Previews a Hotter Future Climate - 'Climate change is putting heat waves on steroids,' says prominent climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, with dire consequences for public health.

"Heat waves are getting more frequent and stronger."


OO Heat Dome Had Tens Of Millions Sweating From Minneapolis To Mississippi and the high pressure area persisted for days, creating a vast heat wave across much of the US.





OO Eastern Hemisphere's All-Time Temperature Record:
Kuwait Fries In 54°C (129.2°F) Heat on July 21, 2016 in the Middle East.






A Hot Map tracing global temperature anomalies. Source Climate Central via NASA, NOAA data

OO First Half of 2016 Blows Away Temp Records -the first half of 2016 has blown away temperature records, capped off by a record hot June, once again bumping up the odds that 2016 will be the hottest year on record globally, according to data released recently.


OO Earth On Track For Hottest Year Ever As Warming Speeds Up - and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also confirmed that June was the 14th consecutive month to break temperature records.





OO Global Warming Happening Faster Than Predicted says the World Meteorological Organization, reporting the first six months of this year have seen all previous global warming records broken.

It also marked the 378th consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th century average.




@@ Climate Change 101: Why Care?
What You Need to Know - Bill Nye tells it all in five minutes amid graphic, dynamic, engaging, compelling imagery. Check it Out!

*
*

MELTDOWN

OO Siberia: Areas Leaking Methane 200 Times Faster Than Usual,
Massive Releases Creating Giant Holes, 'Trembling Tundras' - as Russian scientists measured the gas emitted by the mysterious bubbles The 'trembling tundra' also contains concentrations of carbon dioxide 20 times higher than usual levels.

Scientists theorize the sudden appearance of giant holes in northern Siberia - a 2013 eruption was heard 60 miles away - is from methane gas from melting tundra is trapped in existing ice, exploding it.




Siberia: Scientists Discover Unusual Methane Bubbles Underground


OO Siberia: Heat Wave Sparks Anthrax Outbreak - as it melted the decades old, anthrax riddled carcase of a reindeer, allowing the pathogen to spread. 1500 other reindeer died from the highly infectious disease, and 13 people were hospitalized.






A Canyon in White - as Greenland melts away. Credit James Balog

OO Greenland Lost A Staggering 1 Trillion Tons Of Ice In Just Four Years - How much is that?

Think of the ENTIRE weight of humanity currently - now multiply that by about 3,000.


*
*

GOOD CLEAN NEWS




Sun Lights A Night Time Street with solar powered LEDs. Source www.truelite.us

OO Off-Grid LED Lighting Could Create 2 Million Jobs as solar systems come on-line across the globe.


OO Governments Look to Phase Out HFCs, which are potent climate changing gases, causing 1,300 times as much warming as carbon dioxide over a span of 100 years even though they exist for a shorter duration in the atmosphere.

Diplomats and leading national ministers are negotiating to phasing them out. Originally, HCFs substituted chlorofluorcarbons (CFCs) as refrigerants for air conditioners.





OO Solarcity Raises $345 Million To Fund New Projects


OO Corporate Investment In Energy Efficiency 'At An All-Time High'





@@ Time To Choose - this is the trailer but one can view the entire documentary here via download torrent.

OO Not Your Typical Climate Change Documentary:
It Focuses On Solutions, Not Doom - The film provides a compelling argument to its audience that renewable energy and alternative forms of living and eating are not only legitimately effective, but can give us a real shot at stopping climate change.


OO California: Alameda County Bans Fracking - the results of 2+ years of persuasion from a coalition of environmental groups.


OO California Moves Forward With Oil, Gas Methane Rules to slash methane emissions from oil and gas facilities 40-45% by 2025.





OO Obama Plans to Expand Solar for Low-Income Homes to One Gigawatt - via the 'Clean Energy Savings For All' initiative by 2020.

The DOE also will award up to $100,000 for projects that develop solar farms and train solar workers in low-income communities.


OO India Doubles Down On Solar Parks After Sunedison Setback - the company formerly contracted to build major solar projects. India will double the target for energy to be generated from solar parks by 2020.


OO PM Modi Lures India's Top Fossil Fuel Companies To Back Solar Boom





OO Elon Musk Unveils Tesla's 'Master Plan':
Package Electric Cars, Solar Panels and Energy Storage for Customers by merging two big companies, Tesla and Solarcity.


*
*

OH-OH




What We're Doing Won't Prevent More of This and worse, as climate change continues. Use your vote to tell leaders we have to do more.

OO The World's Climate Pledges Are Not Even Close To Good Enough - the Paris agreement won't prevent our planetary thermal shields, the polar ice caps, from melting, or rainforests from dying.

But there's still time to prevent even more catastrophic change - and the good news is, countries can easily do more than they've promised so far.

"If all countries were to replicate policies that are currently successfully implemented by some countries, the gap toward two degrees Celsius could almost be closed," says a senior Netherlands government climate policy analyst.

Beyond national governments, organizations and corporations are also moving to effect change. Get involved.





Missing In Action are measures to prevent the drowning of European civilization. Source www.caribflame.com

OO EU Climate Targets Fall Short Of Paris Deal Ambitions, Experts Warn - the European Commission missed an opportunity recently by failing to introduce a mechanism to increase emissions targets over time, a European coalition of environmental NGOs said.


OO Six EU Countries Have Already Met Their 2030 Climate Targets - indicating that the targets are way too weak.


*
*

SPEAKING OUT




OO 'World Can't Afford To Silence Us':
Black Church Leaders Address Climate Change - One of the largest and oldest black churches in the US warns that black people are disproportionally harmed by global warming and fossil fuel pollution.


OO France And UN Press For Ratification Of Climate Agreement


*
*

NATURAL REPERCUSSIONS




Higher and Higher - what is now our lowest global average temperatures is higher than the highest global average temperatures just 40 years ago... Credit Climate Central using NASA data

OO The Climate That Most Of Us Grew Up With Is Gone For Good







Climate Change > Drought, Heat > Dry Forests > Wildfires in the US West Source www.climatesignals.org

OO Massive Wildfires Rage Across California - destroying lives, homes, forests and sparking mass evacuations.


Extreme heat and years of ongoing drought, both linked to climate change, are increasing wildfire risk in California, and ten of the state's 20 largest wildfires on record have all burned in the last 10 years.

OO Flame Broiled Alaska: With soaring temperatures and crackling lightning, wildfires erupt across the state.





Credit Claudio Accheri at flickr

OO Tropical Storms To Get Fiercer As The World Warms − known variously as cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes, they bring death and destruction to huge swathes of the Earth's surface. And new research suggests that they are likely to become even stronger.


Air pollution that cools the air masks the accumulating heat on the planet, and as the air gets clean, that mask will be stripped away: heating air absorbs more water - that extra water and energy translates into fiercer storms.

As if life weren't exciting enough already...





A Stinking Green Monster Is Engulfing US Waters - toxic algal blooms are sickening swimmers, suffocating water life, driving away tourists, and smell like "death on a cracker." Credit Rick Egan at The Salt Lake City Tribune via AP

OO Why Disgusting Toxic Blue-Green Algae Blooms Seem Increasingly Common - across the US and elsewhere, sickening algal blooms are occurring more frequently.

"We've primed the system perfectly for blue-green algae blooms," says Australia government scientist Darren Baldwin:

• Nutrient runoff from agriculture settles in lakes and coastal areas;
• 
  
• Fiercer storms, fueled by climate change, stir up those nutrients more;
• 
  
• Hot waters, heated by global warming, and nutrients fuel massive algal blooms.

An Undersea Rainbow Collapses Into Gray and Brown - as corals bleach die, taking down an entire ecosystem with them in the Great Barrier Reef and elsewhere. Credit Justin Marshall at the University of Queensland

OO Sections Of Great Barrier Reef Suffering From 'Complete Ecosystem Collapse' as fish numbers tumble and surviving corals continue to bleach into winter, says a scientist witnessing it.




What Once Was Is No More at Lizard Island and other devastated areas of the Great Barrier Coral Reef.

These natural undersea wonders, the evolutionary work of millennia, have been destroyed, and will not come back for generations, if ever.







The Face of Climate Change - this could be the face of humanity in coming decades, if we do not address the underlying causes of climate change. Credit Kerstin Langenberger at Facebook

OO Polar Ecology In Flux Due To Climate Change - glacial melting and rising ocean temperatures are affecting the feeding, breeding and dispersion patterns of species, such as krill, cod, seals and polar bears, in the polar regions, say two new research studies.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls...


OO Wildlife Dying En Masse as South American River Runs Dry - the Pilcomayo River in Paraguay is littered with dead caiman and fish carcasses; in some areas almost all the caimans and capybaras - furry river animals - have died.


WASTE MAKES CLIMATE CHANGE




OO America Wastes $160 Billion In Food Every Year But Is Too Busy To Stop


OO Denmark Leads Europe In Tackling Food Waste - 33+% of all food is spoiled or squandered, resulting in nearly a loss of $1 Trillion, and generating 8% of global greenhouse emissions.

"Waste makes everybody poorer," said a Danish minister.

Led by a passionate activist, Denmark has been working intensively on solutions backing a global food waste measurement standard; once measured, it can be managed.




Credit S. Brandlin at Deutsche Welle

Strategies include:

• Supermarket "stop food waste areas" where nearly expired food sells very cheaply;
• 
  
• "ugly" food gets used in prepared food;
• 
  
• Public campaign urging people to eat their UFOs* once a month;
• 
  
• Too Good To Go startup pairs unsold meals with people who can buy them cheaply at day's end.

*Unidentified Frozen Objects found in overstocked freezers. Yes, you probably have some.



OO Wal-Mart, America's Largest Grocer, Is Now Selling Ugly Fruit And Vegetables - at a discount, using weather dented produce that might otherwise go to waste.


*
*

SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS





OO Soaring Temperatures Will Make It Too Hot To Work, UN Warns.


OO Global Warming Set To Cost The World Economy $2+ Trillion By 2030 as it becomes too hot to work.
'If you are physically active in work, the hotter it is, the slower you work.'





Source www.independent.co.uk

OO Heat Stress To Wipe Billions Off GDP In India, China





So Pretty, So Deadly For Humanity - the loss of reflection as ice melts, not only speeds Arctic warming, but contributes to climate disruption worldwide. Source NASA

OO This Year's Record Arctic Melt Is A Problem For Everybody - "Melt ponds are a major contributor to radiation and heat in the Arctic," says a NASA sea ice scientist. Takeaways:

• Global warming is melting ice;
• 
  
• This increases Arctic heat absorption by darker waters;
• 
  
• Further heat speeds Arctic warming;
• 
  
• Arctic warming wobbles the polar jet stream;

• Wobbling further mixes extreme cold and warm air masses over the northern hemisphere;
• 
  
• Thus, the wobbling is linked to more extreme weather where humanity lives.

So, Arctic warming helps fuel more extreme weather. Be concerned.


WATER, MORE AND LESS




Source www.chiangraitimes.com

OO Torrential Rains, Floods Kill At Least 112 Across China,
With Scores Missing


OO Colorado: Climate Change Causes Earlier Snowpack Runoff,
Late Summer Water Scarcity For Farmers






Drought Continues even as the devastating 2015-16 El Niño subsides; many parts of Africa, Central
America and Southeast Asia rains and harvests are not expected to recover until 2017.

OO Devastating Droughts Continue As El Niño Subsides





OO Nigeria: Pests and Drought Hit Farms of Tomatoes - a staple of Nigerian diet. Increasing drought and desertification, along with pesticide resistance to the tomato moth worm, are decimating this important food crop.


*
*

FIXING CLIMATE CHANGE



@@ A Simple And Smart Way To Fix Climate Change given by Dan Miller in 2014 at a Ted talk suggests a way to profit as we tackle climate change, by finally charging those who sell and use fossil fuels - and distributing the revenues back to all of us.

The strategy is sure to speed transition to clean renewable energy. What's not to like? Check it out!

*
*

CLUELESS LEADERSHIP




Credit Donar at politicalgraffiti.wordpress.com

OO GOP Platform, Which Calls Coal 'Clean',
Would Reverse Decades Of US Energy And Climate Policy


OO Republican Platform Rejects Paris Climate Agreement,
Climate Regulations


OO Republican Dream Of Shrinking EPA Could Hurt Industries former EPA officials say, and "rejects 40 years of environmental history and success," says an ex EPA head under the GHW Bush administration.





Credit Nate Beeler at the Columbus Dispatch

OO President Trump Would UP Climate Change
By Upping US Oil, Gas Production - a policy promoted by his energy advisor.)
l

*
*

ELECTION YEAR:




If You Don't Vote For Climate Action, You Can Forget The Rest - in a climate-changing world of famine, drought, rising seas, giant storms and heat waves, there will be no security in jobs, health, wealth, or national safety. There will be chaos ensuing from increasing crises and disasters. Vote.

OO Global Warming Policies We Set Today Will Determine The Next 10,000 Years - of global warming, a new study shows -- and whether our civilization survives or not: history shows that harmful climate change has destroyed civilizations before.

This time, it could be worldwide. Let's keep "The Hunger Games" in the realm of fiction.

*
*

GOOD IDEAS




Source Wikipedia

OO Invest In Small Scale Renewable Projects Too,
To Ensure Universal Access To Low Carbon Energy


OO The Public Health Case For Energy Storage - A new study proposes storage and demand response to avoid extra air pollution while meeting peak demand.


OO Curb the Marijuana Industry's Voracious Energy Appetite - policymakers should start by requiring indoor cultivators to consume only carbon-free energy sources or to pay a carbon fee until such measures can be implemented.





Some Like It Cool - but if a cool pool isn't nearby, try a cool neck wrap instead. Source www.arcticspas.com

OO The Best Strategies To Keep Bodies Cool In A Heatwave, say researchers, is full body immersion or cooling the extremities to help maintain healthy body temperatures.

Okay, let's just assume we all don't have a cool pool handy at home or work. What to do?

The Wet Scarf: Carry a cotton scarf/cloth, a wash cloth, and bottle of water with you. When you start heating up, thoroughly wet the scarf and wash cloth, roll the latter inside the former, and tie around your neck. It makes a BIG difference. Replenish occasionally with ice cubes or cold water (often free at fast food places).

At night, keep a wet wash cloth nearby for periodically swabbing down your extremities.





Google Data Center Source Google/Rex

OO Google Uses Artificial Intelligence To Cut Data Centre Energy Use By 15%


OO How A Former Wal-Mart Executive Is Helping The Air Force Cut Energy Costs


OO Paying Businesses To Power Down 'Could Save UK Billions' a new industry report finds.





Zipping Around In a Borrowed Car helps reduce pollution.

OO Car-Sharing Reduces Pollution, Autos On The Road says a new study, filling in the small gaps between those who commute using mass transit or bicycling.


OO China Launches New System To Efficiently Channel Wind Power Investments - to prevent investment in areas where lack of infrastructure results in useless power production.


OO Australia, Cheap And Clean:
Company Creates Hydrogen With Near-Zero Emissions - using cheap iron ore to convert methane into hydrogen, capturing any resulting carbon as graphite.


*
*


CLIMATE LEADERSHIP




The Man Gets It - "Stay safe as it heats up: Drink water, stay out of the sun, and check on your neighbors," tweeted President Obama. Source www.baltimoresun.com

OO Weather-Communicator-In-Chief? President Obama Calls Attention To Heat Wave


*
*

FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES




OO Increased Asthma Attacks Tied To Exposure To Natural Gas Production


OO Ships Worsen Air Pollution Over China, Killing Thousands finds a new study.


OO The Future Of Big Oil?
At Shell, It' The "New Coal," Natural Gas as the deluded energy giant thinks this will help address climate change.





Credit Joel Pett

OO New Documents Reveal
Oil And Tobacco Industries' Dirty History Of Working Together to mislead the public on the harms of each.


OO Tobacco And Oil Industries Used Same Researchers To Sway Public - as early as the 1950s, the two groups shared scientists and publicists to downplay dangers of smoking and climate change.

*
*



If we do not grow sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.





@@ Myth vs Truth: The Huge Value of Contraception is an incisive, heartfelt recognition of the value of contraception by Sarah Brown, CEO, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy


Unintended Pregnancy Costs US Taxpayers:

Unintended Pregnancies Cost US Taxypayers Nearly $11 Billion Yearly
-the Guttmacher Institute

Teen Childbearing Alone Cost US Taxpayers $9+ Billion In 2010
And the costs of raising a child usually ensures decades, if not a life, of poverty for its mother.
- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Help prevent unintended pregnancies in your community:
publicize where women can access affordable contraception.



They can go here to find locations:




And there are many more actions you can do, right here.

*
*

SOLAR KEEPS RISING



OO Tanzania: Dodging Costs And Power Cuts,
Firms Profit From Solar Drive


OO China Installed 20 GW Of Solar Power in first-half of 2016; triple from a year ago.





Check it out here, right now!

*
*

WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS




Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Aug 4, 2016

How unusual has the weather been? No one event is "caused" by climate change, but global warming, which is predicted to increase unusual, extreme weather, is having a daily effect on weather, worldwide.

Looking above at recent temperature anomalies, much of the US and the waters surrounding it are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures: the eastern Pacific warm spot continues and so does the drought in California.

Much of the areas surrounding the North Pole are experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures - not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats.




There is, of course, much more news on the consequences and solutions to climate change. To get it, check out this annotated resource list I've compiled, "Climate Change News Resources," at Wordpress.com here. For more information on the science of climate change, its consequences and solutions you can view my annotated list of online information resources here.

To help you understand just what science does and does NOT do, check this out!

Every day is Earth Day, folks, as I was reminded by this wild spotted coralroot orchid I photographed one spring. Making the U.S. a global clean energy leader will ensure a heck of a lot more jobs, and a clean, safe future. If you'd like to join the increasing numbers of people who want to TELL Congress that they will vote for clean energy candidates you can do so here. It's our way of letting Congress know there's a strong clean energy voting bloc out there. For more detailed summaries of the above and other climate change items, audio podcasts and texts are freely available.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: 'Green News Report' - August 4, 2016  
The Green News Report is also available via...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: New criminal charges for MI state employees in the Flint Water Crisis; $1...

Read more: Clean Energy, Climate Change, Climate Change Denial, Democratic Convention, Democrats, Donald Trump, Economy, Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, Global Warming Deniers, Green News, Green News Report, Oil, Regulation, Renewable Energy, Republican Convention, Republican Party, Republicans, Video, Enbridge, Pipeline, Oil Spill, Kalamazoo Oil Spill, Flint Water Crisis, Voting, Hillary Clinton, Green News

 
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Finance, Renewable Energy And Social Inclusion Are Key To A Sustainable Future  
When opening the Climate Summit in Copenhagen, I quote one of my favorite Guyanese creole sayings: wan wan dutty build dam. Put differently, every house must sit on solid foundations and we build it one brick at a time. Many years later, the Paris Climate agreement brought us the international breakthrough many have fought for so hard: near universal action to address climate change and keep global average temperature well below 2 degrees centigrade.

Of course it was the euphoria of the outcome that made the headlines. But the Paris agreement also noted some important points of caution. First that the commitments made in Paris are not enough to achieve the temperature goal, second that early action is imperative and thirdly that the provision of finance, technology and capacity support are essential to enable enhanced pre-2020 action by developing countries. As early as 2018 countries will meet to take stock of efforts taken to meet the long term goal.

If Paris was all about setting the goal(s) and drawing the boundaries of the pitch, the next conference in Marrakesh will be about defining the rules of the game. That is critical if the 2018 stock-taking is to provide the confidence to take next and bolder steps towards achieving the long-term goal. As the Guyanese also say in creole: clath ah easy fuh dutty but hard fuh wash (having achieved a goal, it is difficult to retain it)!

As an organization dedicated to working with its members to achieve a greener model of growth, the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) is now doing everything to help countries understand how international climate finance can be made to work for climate action, remove the barriers that prevent investments in renewables, translate climate ambitions into bankable projects, build national finance institutions to support this and ensure that growth is more socially inclusive.



In line with an effort to identify practical solutions to sustainability challenges, GGGI and its partners will organize the Global Green Growth Week (#GGGWeek2016), on September 5-9, on Jeju Island, Republic of Korea. The sessions throughout the five-day event will focus on three key topics: 1) mobilizing finance for climate action and green growth, 2) driving renewable energy and green investments in Asia and 3) improving the livelihoods of and creating a green and inclusive economy for the poor.

First, finance is an important issue. In principle, sufficient financial resources from the public and private sectors are available to support developing nations. However, not enough attention has been paid to enhancing the capacity of the system to absorb the capital in ways that are beneficial to the poor in developing countries and acceptable to those that bring the capital. The Global Green Growth Summit (GGGS) aims to explore ways to unblock the barriers to capital flowing to emerging markets, develop innovative international financial instruments for green growth, strengthen national financing vehicles and build solid project proposals. It is critical to find blended financial models and innovative solutions to mobilize climate finance.

Second, transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewable energy will bring health and financial benefits as well as enhance employment opportunities. Asia is claiming to be going green, but according to the International Energy Outlook 2016, China and India are projected to be the top two coal-consuming countries together with the United States, accounting for more than 70% of world coal use. For instance, in 2012, China accounted for 50% of world coal consumption and its coal use is expected to grow through 2025. Coal is expected to continue to play a prominent role in Asia's energy consumption due to the abundant regional endowment of coal and low extraction costs.

On a brighter note, energy demand is projected to almost double in the Asia and Pacific region by 2030. This rapid rise in demand is a reflection of the dramatic economic growth in countries such as China and India. Countries in Southeast Asia have also been enjoying remarkable economic progress in recent years while solidifying their position as a major driver of global growth in energy demand. Investments in renewables have now overtaken investments in fossil fuel and renewable investments in developing countries have significantly overtaken those in industrialized countries - all of which is positive. But the reality remains that making more money available and decreasing costs of technology is not enough to address the challenges of climate change.

The Asia Regional Policy Dialogue (ARPD) will examine the success factors and barriers to scaling up the transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy. The discussions will be tailored to the Asian context, in line with the goal of building consensus among major stakeholders on strategic, actionable solutions to be taken to promote clean energy.

Third, more emphasis needs to be placed on creating better lives and livelihoods for poor people in society by using green growth policies. Billions of people have been lifted out of poverty, but the gap between the rich and poor is increasing. 90% of urban population growth this century will occur in developing countries, predominantly in Africa and Asia and a significant proportion of that growth will be in cities that don't exist yet. Although the world has made significant progress in reducing poverty in the last decade, inequality still persists, with large portions of humanity, particularly in developing countries, lacking basic sanitation, access to electricity, and clean drinking water.

Growth in developing countries will continue, yet this growth needs to be green and inclusive. The discussion topics for the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP) Annual Conference include examining challenges of inclusive green growth, exploring the climate change and poverty nexus and identifying whether economic growth can be inclusive and green.

#GGGWeek2016 will serve as a platform to generate innovative solutions, leverage green growth opportunities and promote delivery of growth that is pro-poor, inclusive, and environmentally sustainable.

Click here to learn more about #GGGWeek2016.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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An Analyst of Gothic Monsters Explores Trump's Appeal  
A student of Gothic literary monsters assesses Donald Trump's allure.  
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Want to Fight Food Waste? Get with the Food System  

Above: Students working in the Field and Fork Student Gardens at the University of Florida. Part of creating a sustainable food culture is appreciating the labor and resources that go into food production. UF/IFAS Photo by Amy Stuart

At the University of Florida's Innovation Academy, students are challenged to come up with creative, inventive solutions to some of our toughest problems.

This year, the freshman class was tasked with developing a business concept or invention that responded to the issue of food waste. As the campus food system coordinator and part of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, I was invited to talk to some of these students about their ideas and probe their thinking.

Needless to say, this was a group of very smart, very talented young people. But as I listened to them talk about their ideas, I began to notice a trend that worried me.

It's not that their ideas were unrealistic. For example, one student proposed a composting device people could install in their homes and use like any other appliance, an approach I thought was both clever and practical.

The problem was that they all assumed that waste was inevitable and that all we can do is figure out what to do with it. They weren't asking themselves how they could reduce the amount of waste produced in the first place.

When I pointed this out, some of the students got excited. Others looked daunted, struggling to imagine a world in which food waste wasn't a given.

This isn't to say that composting or participating in food drives are bad things to do. These efforts are a great step toward sustainability and food security. In our campus food program, Field and Fork, we embrace composting in our student garden, and we ask our community to donate extra food to our on-campus food pantry.

But these efforts are a response to food waste and don't necessarily stop it from happening.


Above: Student volunteers learn not only how to grow their own food, but also how to manage the gardens' operations. UF/IFAS Photo by Tyler Jones

I encouraged the students to think about how food is often wasted as a result of our preference for beauty and abundance. I asked the students to visualize how fresh fruits and vegetables, for instance, apples, are typically displayed in stores--hundreds of shiny apples, all the same color, size and shape.

The store may not sell all those apples, and the ones not sold may be thrown out. But a mountain of fruit conveys abundance, and we're attracted to abundance. A display of only a few dozen apples is underwhelming, even suspicious. If given the choice, we'd likely choose an apple from the big pile over one from the small pile, even if the apples themselves were identical.

As a class time drew to a close, the students and I thought about how we could tap into this preference for abundance in a way that doesn't lead to wasted food.

One way to reduce food waste may be to offer people, particularly young people, a chance to be part of food production.

As consumers buying broccoli at the store, we only know the end product--we may not even know what a broccoli plant looks like. But when a student at the Field and Fork Student Gardens grows a broccoli plant from seed, she not only understands where her food comes from but also gains an appreciation for all the resources--energy, labor, time, water--that go into producing it.

Understanding how an apple or a head of broccoli is produced may be one way to recognize the vast abundance already embedded in our food.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Radar tracking reveals the 'life stories' of bumblebees as they forage for food  
Scientists have tracked the flight paths of a group of bumblebees throughout their entire lives to find out how they explore their environment and search for food.  
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Mary Ellen Harte: Climate Change This Week: Siberia Exploding, Too Hot to Work, LED Job Surge, and More!  
Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.




Soon This May Be The Only Kind Of Tropical Frog In Existence - one made of painte...

Read more: Climate Change, Environment, Drought, Extreme Weather, Global Warming, Sustainability, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Nature, Science, Technology, Technologie, Green Technology, Technology News, Climate Change Denial, Climate, Climate Science, Climate-Change, Obama, Green Energy, Clean Energy, Renewable Energy, Natural Gas, Wind Power, Solar Power, Fossil Fuels, Heat Waves, Congress, Voting, Weather, Business, Business News, Corporations, Economy, Climate Change Solutions, Greenhouse Gases, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Carbon Emissions, Food, Water, Coal, Fracking, Oil, Agriculture, Crops, Rising Sea Levels, Insurance, Pollution, Wildlife, Transportation, Transports, Transport, Cities, Deforestation, Jobs, Natural Disasters, Population, Population Growth, Overpopulation, Oceans, President Obama, Barack Obama, Epa, Nasa, Noaa, Department of Energy, Republicans, Gop, Democrats, Animals, Cute Animals, Fish, Birds, Activism, Political Activism, Humor, Alaska, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Mississippi, Utah, Paris, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, United Nations, United Kingdom, England, Australia, Britain, Canada, China, Europe, European Union, France, Denmark, India, Asia, Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Peru, Russia, Siberia, Children, Babies, Children'S Health, Kids, Human Health, Health, Education, Air Pollution, Seafood, Shell, Donald Trump, Soil, Art, Cartoons, Elon Musk, Wal-Mart, Cars, Tobacco, Tesla, Solarcity, Green News

 
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American Crocodiles on Florida Bay  

Nick Scobel posted a photo:

Crocodylus acutus

A pair of recent hatchlings take their first steps into the world in a remote estuary of Florida Bay in south Florida. Because of long term conservation efforts, this species was downgraded from Endangered to Threatened on the Endangered Species list in 2007. Today, more than 1,500 wild crocs are estimated to inhabit south Florida. Long term conservation and management plans are essential for the long term survival of this species moving forward.

 
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American Crocodile  

Nick Scobel posted a photo:

Crocodylus acutus

A hatchling explores a mangrove estuary on a remote key in south Florida.

 
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Technology that Could Turn the Tide on Climate Change: Clean Coal Technology  
New technology is required to make meaningful progress on climate change. This column will focus on one of those options: making coal power greener.

Coal will be a part of the international energy equation for decades to come. While domestic coal consumption is decreasing, worldwide consumption is still trending upwards. For many regions, coal is a plentiful, inexpensive feedstock and it is often the only option available for energy generation. Any pragmatic approach to attacking the global problem of climate change must include a way for developing economies to continue to use coal in an environmentally sustainable way.

Researchers are exploring several options to reduce emissions from burning coal. One approach is pre-combustion capture which separates the CO2 after gasifying the coal. It is less expensive and more efficient to capture the carbon dioxide on the front-end of the process than to add CO2 capture equipment on the back-end of a traditional power plant.

Another alternative is burning coal in recirculated flue gas and oxygen rather than air. This changes the chemistry of the emissions, eliminates the nitrogen, and recycles most of the CO2 so that it is not emitted.

Industry and government have invested in research, demonstrations and pilot projects to test these technologies. Depending on the results it could be a real game changer for power generation.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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The Climate Post: New York Joins Handful of Other States with Ambitious Clean Energy Targets  
By 2030, half of the energy produced in the state of New York will come from renewables, according to a new policy adopted Monday by the state's public service commission. The move is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels (80 percent by 2050) and to attract billions in clean energy investment.

"New York has taken bold action to become a national leader in the clean energy economy and is taking concrete, cost-effective steps today to safeguard this state's environment for decades to come," said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. "This Clean Energy Standard shows you can generate the power necessary for supporting the modern economy while combatting climate change. Make no mistake, this is a very real threat that continues to grow by the day and I urge all other states to join us in this fight for our very future."

The plan calls for New York to retain its nuclear reactors--though The Washington Post reports that those facilities don't count as part of the 50 percent renewables target. According to New York regulators, doing so might cost $965 million over two years but could lead to net benefits of $4 billion due to avoided carbon dioxide emissions and air pollution. While supporters of this provision applaud New York's effort to retain its emissions-free nuclear generation, opponents are likely to challenge the nuclear subsidies on the grounds they are discriminatory, hurt markets, and intrude on federal authority.

New York is not the first state to announce an ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target. In April 2015, California announced it planned to cut those emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels in the same time frame with renewables increases. Like California, New York plans to phase in its renewables increase; 31 percent of its energy is to come from renewables by 2021 and 50 percent by 2030. Those targets are meant to give utilities and clean energy companies time to develop their business models.

The only states with higher renewables standards are Vermont, which set a target of 75 percent renewable power by 2032, and Hawaii, which set a target of 100 percent renewable power by 2045.

White House to Federal Agencies: Consider Climate Change Impacts

In an action with broad implications for thousands of projects, including energy and mineral development on public lands, natural gas import and export facilities, and transportation projects, the Obama administration issued final guidance on how federal agencies should consider greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impacts when conducting reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (subscription).

"Focused and effective consideration of climate change in NEPA reviews will allow agencies to improve the quality of their decisions," the guidance states. "Identifying important interactions between a changing climate and the environmental impacts from a proposed action can help Federal agencies and other decision makers identify practicable opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve environmental outcomes, and contribute to safeguarding communities and their infrastructure against the effects of extreme weather events and other climate-related impacts."

The guidance, the product of a six-year effort by the White House Council on Environmental Quality, advises agencies to quantify projected greenhouse gas emissions of proposed federal actions whenever the necessary methodologies and data are available. It also encourages them to draw on their experience and expertise to determine the appropriate level and extent of quantitative or qualitative analysis required to comply with NEPA and to consider alternatives that would increase the climate-change resilience of the action and affected communities.

"From the public standpoint, we are now going to know what all of our decisions add up to in terms of impacting climate change," said Christy Goldfuss, managing director of the Council on Environmental Quality. "You can think of all the different federal decisions, and how they all add up. We have numbers where we can actually say, 'this is a huge decision, given the amount of greenhouse gases coming out of it.' And that gives the public a chance to really weigh in on decision-making."

Several media outlets pointed out that because the White House guidance is not a regulation, agencies are not legally bound to follow it.

Clean Power Plan Analysis: National Costs Low, State Costs Varied

Wednesday marked one year since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formally rolled out the Clean Power Plan, which aims to reduce carbon emissions from power plants. Even with the February stay by the U.S. Supreme Court, which halted implementation of the plan pending resolution of legal challenges, some say the plan is having an impact while others are finding more reason to explore the legality of the rule (subscription).

Should the rule survive judicial review, a new paper by the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions uses the Nicholas Institute's Dynamic Integrated Economy/Energy/Emissions Model to evaluate Clean Power Plan impacts on the U.S. generation mix, emissions, and industry costs. It indicates that industry trends are likely to make Clean Power Plan compliance relatively inexpensive, with cost increases of 0.1 to 1.0 percent. But policy costs can vary across states, which might lead to a patchwork of policies that, although in their own best interests, could impose additional costs nationally.

"The answer is not the same for everyone in terms of what's going to be the least-cost way for a particular state to approach this policy," said lead author and Nicholas Institute Senior Economist Martin Ross. "Nationally, it would make the most sense to have a broadly coordinated policy where you can take advantage of the usual economic [tools] to spread the cost reductions around and pick up the most cost-effective sources for reducing emissions."

Similar findings were presented at a conference of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Because of lower-than-expected natural gas prices, renewable power, and extended federal tax credits for that power, the country as a whole is set to meet the Clean Power Plan's early goals, reports ClimateWire.

The Climate Post offers a rundown of the week in climate and energy news. It is produced each Thursday by Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Regardless of Fierce Opposition, Rooftop Solar Is Unstoppable  
As the Spanish saying goes, the sun is the poor man's blanket. And thanks to technology, it's also our heating system, air conditioner, refrigerator and a shinning spot that lights up our clean energy future.

The solar industry is the fastest growing sector of the US economy. It currently employs more than 200,000 workers, thousands of them Latinos, and double that of the coal mining industry. And for us Latinos, solar energy is a three-fold blessing.

"Since I had my rooftop solar panels installed last year, I spend less than half of what I used to pay for dirty energy," says Oscar Medina, a client of Solar City in Tucson, AZ. "It not only keeps my home cool in the Arizona desert, it also allows me to avoid using power from dirty coal."

And one of those thousands of Latino solar workers is Roberto "Bobby" Rosthenhousler, another Tucson resident, whose mother is from Los Mochis, Mexico. He enthusiastically supports solar.

"If you are Latino, this is a good choice," says Bobby, who installs panels for Net Zero Solar. "As long as the sun is there, we are going to have a job. I want to be a pioneer because there is only room to improve in this industry."

But dark clouds loom over solar --the backlash of public utilities. In the last four years, the explosive growth of rooftop solar has turned it into a severe threat to an archaic system based on a monopolistic model that heavily depends on dirty energy.

Take Arizona utility Tucson Electric Power (TEP), which owns, at least partly, four coal-burning plants, including the San Juan Generating Station in Northern New Mexico.

TEP is due to review its energy plan for the next few years, which presents it with the opportunity to drop at least a large part of its coal fleet and expand its clean, renewable energy portfolio. Alas, TEP plans to stick with the dirty coal plant, hike rates for its customers and damage Arizona's growing rooftop solar industry with new fees on solar customers such as Oscar.

Utilities across the country justify these rate hikes by arguing that rooftop solar clients continue relying on the electric grid without contributing their fair share to its maintenance. Study after study, however, indicates that rooftop solar reduces the stress and wear of the grid by using it less often. Furthermore, it limits the construction of expensive, dirty plants, thus substantially reducing coal pollution and the climate change it triggers.

These abusive practices may paint a bleak future for the rooftop solar industry. The clean energy progress, however, is unstoppable. A Cambridge University study indicates that photovoltaic solar panels will soon be more competitive than any fossil fuel energy. And this scares the living lights out of the energy dinosaurs.

"They need to let other environmentally friendly companies come in and provide a service that would especially benefit working-class families," says Oscar. "It's clear that utilities need to stop the pollution that makes people sick, especially us Latinos."

"My four-year-old is autistic," says Bobby. "And that's one other reason I went into clean energy. I worry about all those chemicals in the air affect my child. This is something I can give back to him."

No matter how hard the utilities try, you can't block the sun with an umbrella.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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How I Fell In Love With Ugly Food  

While grocery shopping one day, I realized I'd spent close to 30 minutes just in the produce section, meticulously choosing the best-looking apples, bananas that were ripe, but not spotted, ears of corn with perfectly aligned kernels. I admit, I'm picky about my produce. But I bet I'm not the only one that rejects the slightest bruise, blemish or mark on my fruits and veggies. 

How did we get this way? Could it be because we are living in a society where everything is filtered, where beauty is rewarded, where supermarkets reject foods that don't adhere to a certain standard, where everything is shiny and bright?

I've also seen how my pursuit of perfect produce has impacted my kids. When I pack their lunches, I make sure to include the plumpest tomatoes, crispest blueberries, cucumbers without any dents or scratches. But one day when my daughter refused to eat an avocado that was turning slightly brown, I knew I had to change my ways. I realized I was unconsciously raising my children to accept society's norms of perfection and that these perceptions can have a devastating impact on our environment.  

In the U.S, up to 40 percent of food produced is wasted every year. Most of this waste ends up in landfills that create dangerous greenhouse gases. Around 20 percent of food waste is produced directly at the farm because this so-called ugly food may not meet certain cosmetic standards set by grocery stores, yet are still perfectly consumable. Meanwhile, 48 million Americans live in food-insecure households.  

On a recent night in San Francisco, I attended a dinner party to raise awareness about this growing problem. The event was called the Salvage Supperclub and it is the brainchild of food waste activist Josh Treuhaft, who decided to create a unique, immersive experience as a conversation starter around food waste. It was an intimate gathering of 16 people dining on a table made from reclaimed wood, all within a cleared-out dumpster. The chef, Pesha Perlsweig, prepared a six course meal with food that would have otherwise gone to waste.

Perlsweig sourced some of the evening's ingredients from Imperfect Produce, a delivery subscription service that specifically sells “ugly” fruits and vegetables. Boxes of produce might contain organic crooked carrots or knobbly sweet potatoes for 30 to 50 percent of the price that one might pay at a traditional market.   

I was blown away by Perlsweig's creative dishes made from food the industry considers trash including stuffed wilted kale, ugly eggplant and squash ratatouille, and a delectable banana doughnut made from the actual peel of a banana. Before each course, Perlsweig offered guests tidbits and tips about how we can reduce our food waste. Did you know that if you cut off the end of a limp carrot or celery stalk and place it in water it will become firm again? 

After the evening's dinner, I became inspired to rethink the way I shop for and consume food, to embrace the imperfect, the ugly, the unique. My actions have inspired my daughter to think differently as well. One morning, while she was helping prepare her school lunch, I noticed her choosing a handful of cherry tomatoes with slight blemishes. “They're special,” she said.  

Here's hoping these small changes in our perception might make a big impact on our world.

Watch more of Laura Ling's reports on Seeker. Follow her on Twitter @lauraling.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Spider sharing isn't always caring: Colonies die when arachnids overshare food  
Spiders living together in colonies of tens of thousands can go extinct from sharing food equitably, finds new research.  
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Lab-reared maggots may save Darwin's famous finches  
Researchers reveal how they used chicken blood to rear larvae of the fly Philornis downsi, an invasive species that parasitizes birds in the Galapagos Islands. The new method may be the first to effectively rear an avian blood-feeding fly from egg to adult in the absence of its host.  
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Tim Profeta: The Climate Post: New York Joins Handful of Other States with Ambitious Clean Energy Targets  
By 2030, half of the energy produced in the state of New York will come from renewables, according to a new policy adopted Monday by the state's publi...

Read more: Climate Change, Energy, Renewable Energy, New York, California, Clean Power Plan, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Environment, Pollution, Green News

 
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Sumatran Tiger On Danger  

dptro posted a photo:

Sumatran Tiger habitat were pushed away by oil palm plantation and poacher.

 
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Joan Michelson: Energy & the Environment Positions in the 2016 Election - Dispatch from the 2016 Democratic National Convention  
The Democratic and Republican platforms and their nominees' energy plans reflect complete opposite views. Here's a round-up of the differences, including excerpts from selected energy and environment events this week in Philadelphia where historic Philadelphia rolled out the red carpet and an analysis by top energy consultant, Peter Kelly- Detwiler* of Northbridge Energy.

Read more: Democratic Party, Republican Party, Energy, Environment, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Hillary Clinton Campaign, Joan Michelson, Politics News

 
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First evidence of legendary flood reveals China's origin story  
The ancient Chinese legend passed down through generations could be based on a catastrophic Yellow river flood that we now know happened 4000 years ago  
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Mystery of why some sunflowers track the sun across skies solved  
An internal clock helps young sunflowers track the sun's movement to boost their growth while mature plants face the dawn to lure in more pollinators  
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Baby monkeys smile in their sleep more so than human babies  
Videos of sleeping baby Japanese macaques show they smile much more than human babies.  Are they having sweeter dreams?  
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Giant honeybees may act like a collective lung to beat the heat  
Curtains of bees appear to draw air in and out of their colonies, keeping their colonies cool  
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Transgender Olympians in Rio don't have an unfair advantage  
The evidence shows that transgender women won't outcompete other female athletes, says Yannis Pitsiladis, a member of the IOC's scientific commission  
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Found: brain switches that wake flies up and send them to sleep  
Activating specific neurons in fruit fly brains sends them straight to sleep, or rouses them from slumber  and we may have a similar switch  
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Record-breaking year shows Earth's climate is in real trouble  
Our planet's “annual physical” check-up finds it severely ill, with dozens of various climate records broken last year  
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Videos reveal the Russian doll parasitic world of the deep seas  
Footage from the ocean depths shows the wealth of parasites hitching rides on fish - and yet others hitching rides on them  
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First evidence birds nap in flight without dropping out of sky  
Brain recorders fitted to 14 great frigatebirds show these birds sleep on the wing, usually while circling in rising air currents  
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Small carrion beetle  

Small carrion beetle (Catops sp.) collected near Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada, and photographed at the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics (sample ID: BIOUG23268-C06; specimen record: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_RecordView?processid=GMOLH393-15; BIN: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_BarcodeCluster?clusteruri=BOLD:ACX9198)

 
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