What Burning So Much Carbon Is Getting Us

This is, one more time, what burning all the carbon we do and putting all the carbon dioxide we also do, into the atmosphere, gets us.

Wildfires burn homes in California, forcing residents to evacuate

And let's be clear, these are not "one off" events. It's part of a far larger trend and not just nationally or even on this continent but world wide.

How climate change is increasing 

forest fires around the world

Science suggests that over the past few decades, the number of wildfires has indeed increased, especially in the western United States. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS),every state in the western US has experienced an increase in the average annual number of large wildfires over past decades.

Extensive studies have found that large forest fires in the western US have been occurring nearly five times more often since the 1970s and 80s. Such fires are burning more than six times the land area as before, and lasting almost five times longer.

Meanwhile, foolishly, our nation's leader is taking us backward and in the completely wrong direction.

EPA chief says White House to roll back 

Obama-era clean power plan

#Resist

Link:

Wildfires Rage In California Wine Country, Forcing Evacuations

This Unprecedented Presidential Administration

Adding to the fact that this has been the most protested administration, both before and after it took office and, again, both nationally as well as internationally, there is now this.

Look at that. It's incredible.

--A total of 10 people already resigned in less than 6 months of an otherwise entirely new administration.

--Four people left the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency. Or what used to be the Environmental Protection Agency, anyway. Now it's the Fossil Fuel Protection Agency, it seems.

--And a total of four people were fired from this administration. So far.

Yet one more indication and example of the turmoil of this man Trump and his administration.

God help us, America.

Links:

Protests against Donald Trump

Donald Trump protests attract millions across US and world 

Trump protests around the world

A Trump White House Preview: Feuds, Turmoil And Conspiracies

Top Trump White House official Mike Dubke resigns amidst turmoil 

Behind the scenes: A White House in turmoil

The Topsy-Turvy World of Trump

First there was this:

Trump's EPA pick rejects climate science, 

fights for fossil fuels

It gets worse.

Trump's EPA pick has fought vehemently ... 

against the EPA

And then there's Betsy DeVos, Trump's pick to head Education:

I'm telling you, folks, God help us.

The Next Important Documentary We Need to See

Get ye to the Tivoli

"Why are you a Democrat?"

LOTS of reasons:

Like

Elevating economics above the biosphere... ourselves

Quote of the day--on what's important

 

 

 

 

The white man screws over Native Americans yet one more time

If you listened to NPR last evening, you may have heard this story:

EPA Wants To Allow Continued Wastewater Dumping In Wyoming

Dirty water from the oil wells flows through oil-caked pipes into a settling pit where trucks vacuum off the oil. A net covers the pit to keep out birds and other wildlife. Streams of this wastewater flow through the reservation and join natural creeks and rivers.
_________________________________________________________

It's a real beauty.

It's not like the European settlers didn't cheat, lie, hurt, maim, torture and kill Native Americans enough since we arrive here about 500 years ago. We have to, apparently, keep on doing all we can to hurt these people.

A little from the story:

The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to let oil companies continue to dump polluted wastewater on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. This includes chemicals that companies add to the wells during hydraulic fracturing, an engineering practice that makes wells produce more oil.

An NPR investigation last year discovered that the EPA was allowing oil companies to send so much of this contaminated water onto dry land that it was creating raging streams. At the time, there was a controversy within the agency over whether to keep allowing this practice, according to documents NPR obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

On Friday, the EPA will close the public comment period on proposed permits for several oil fields on the reservations. The proposed permits include some additional restrictions, but would allow companies to continue releasing the water.

So the EPA may let the oil companies keep draining their wastewater onto what is the Native American's land. Isn't that great?

And check out a short list of just some of the things that may be in the water:

"The biggest concern is still what's in the water," says Duke University's Jackson. "It has salts, metals, radioactive elements like radium, and chemicals such as benzene, and sometimes at levels 150 times what's allowed in drinking water. Who wants to eat a cow that drinks water laced in benzene?" (Robert Jackson, a professor of environmental science at Duke University.)

Let's see, we came here, 500 years ago, took their land, killed many of them, shot, hurt, tortured, maimed and killed others, took away their language, their dress, their religion, their culture, gave them alcohol and guns, shoved them off to obscure lands we call, hypocritically enough, "Reservations"--because hey, we're reserving them a space in our country, right?--and now, on top of all that, we're going to heavily pollute their land and water and poison their and our own animals, water and soil and someone thinks this is okay and that it should continue?

Oh, hell, no.  We need to put an end to this ugliness, this gross injustice.

It's no way to treat the water, the soil and especially no way to treat a group people.

Protecting chimpanzees, at last

I saw this article in The New York Times  this past Sunday:

Goal of Broader Protection for Chimpanzees Emerges From Changing Perspectives

 

 

And suddenly, suddenly it also occurred to me how blatant and obvious this is, that we shouldn't be killing these beautiful animals or any longer using them for scientific experiments.

 

And how insane it all was that we ever did.

Walmart, locally and nationally, yesterday

I saw this a couple days ago:

Wal-Mart pleads guilty in hazardous waste cases, to pay $81 million

The bad thing? They polluted.  And blatantly so.  Worse, then they tried to get away with it.

The good thing? The great thing?

They got caught. 

Far better than that, they got penalized for it, and stiffly:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will pay $81.6 million after pleading guilty on Tuesday to criminal charges of improperly disposing of fertilizer, pesticides and other hazardous products that were pulled from stores in California and Missouri because of damaged packaging and other problems.

The retail giant entered the plea in federal court in San Francisco to misdemeanor counts of violating the Clean Water Act and another environmental law regulating pesticides. The fine also settled Environmental Protection Agency allegations.

Here's the headline from the Star:

Wal-Mart pleads guilty in environmental case involving pesticides sent to Missouri contractor

Here's hoping they learned their very expensive lesson and don't repeat it.

I'm not holding my breath.

What those daffy Liberals and Lefties and Communists believe

Just crazy, aren't they?

Can you imagine?

The Grand Canyon, under siege

Part two of the video on our national parks:



Link: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/07/public_lands_private_profits.Html

Republicans and Libertarians: You really want to do away with the EPA?

For any Republican or Libertarian or anyone else in America who think it is or would be a great idea to do away with the Environmental Protection Agency--the EPA--or who think there's too much "red tape" from the EPA, I just have to ask if they want us to be like China.

The above situation, announced today and going on now in China, is just one more example of what a nation and an economy is like and would be like if we don't have protections from corporations, especially, so we have and keep cleaner water, air and soil.

A little from the article (link at bottom):

"Young and old residents of the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan were advised to stay indoors on Monday after a thick haze blanketed the city of nine million people, official media said.

Described by residents as opaque with yellowish and greenish tinges, the fug descended suddenly in the morning, prompting people to rush to put on face masks, witnesses told AFP."



"The official Xinhua news agency quoted the environmental protection department of Hubei province saying in a statement: "Children, the elderly and people with heart or respiratory diseases are advised to stay indoors."

Xinhua said straw burning was the cause and denied there had been any industrial accidents in or near Wuhan, after Internet rumours suggested there had been an explosion at a chemical complex northeast of the city."

In this case, the Chinese not only have this huge problem with their air quality, they don't even know what it is or what it's from.

And that's the kind of world we want to live in?

No, no thank you, very much. I'd like to keep an effective EPA, thank you.

It reminds me of the Native American quote: "When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money."

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-wuhan-city-covered-mysterious-haze-145340073.html

New Greenhouse Gas Public Data available from the EPA

There's an interesting, rather revealing new website from the EPA that shows the sources of large amounts of greenhouse gases in the nation. You can zoom in on your own state and area. You can find it here: http://epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ghgdata/. Just go to the map on the lower right hand side and click on it. Then enter the area you wish to see.

Isn't this right?

I mean, seriously, doesn't this describe our situation? The scientists and scientific community have declared that "global warming" or "climate change" or whatever you choose to call it, is real and that it is very likely being inflicted on us by our own actions of pumping so much carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. Some, however, want to deny it--whole political parties, at minimum. So what if the scientists are wrong? Doesn't it make sense to use less and conserve? Of course it does. What part of how we live across this planet seems sustainable? It surely is not.

While they were screwing us on this debt deal...

...the Republicans were also putting riders into bills last week to strip our environmental laws of any real "teeth". From The New York Times this past Sunday: Concealed Weapons Against the Environment. "While almost no one was looking, House Republicans embarked last week on a broad assault on the nation’s environmental laws, using as their weapon the 2012 spending bill for the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. When debate began Monday, the bill included an astonishing 39 anti-environmental riders — so called because they ride along on appropriations bills even though they have nothing to do with spending and are designed to change policy, in this case disastrously. Riders generally are not subjected to hearings or extensive debate, and many would not survive on their own. They are often written in such a way that most people, even many Capitol Hill insiders, need a guide to understand them. They are, in short, bad policy pushed forward through a bad legislative process. A rider can be removed from the bill only with a vote to strike it. The Democrats managed one big victory on Wednesday when, by a vote of 224 to 202, the House struck one that would have gutted the Endangered Species Act by blocking the federal government from listing any new species as threatened or endangered and barring it from protecting vital habitat — a provision so extreme that even some Republicans could not countenance it." To show how they're screwing us and the environment, go to this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/opinion/sunday/concealed-weapons-against-the-environment.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=environment&st=Search

Radiation from Japan: that's how brief a time it took

How long did you think it would take before we'd start detecting at least some radiation in our--the US'--food chain?  Longer than this?

Low levels of radiation found in US milk

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press 

WASHINGTON – Very low levels of radiation turned up in a sample of milk from Washington state, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday, but federal officials assured consumers not to worry.

Right.  That's how all the "officials" in Japan and here, both, end all the statements--"don't worry" and "we've got it under control" and "the levels detected are safe."

So reassuring.

Link to original story:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110330/ap_on_re_us/us_japan_earthquake_us_milk

3 nuclear power plants just blew in Japan--Quick! go turn off the radiation monitors!

Wanna' hear a hoot?  Check this out:

Gaps in US radiation monitoring system revealed

By GARANCE BURKE and NOAKI SCHWARTZ

SAN FRANCISCO – Parts of America's radiation alert network have been out of order during Japan's nuclear crisis, raising concerns among some lawmakers about whether the system could safeguard the country in a future disaster.

Federal officials say the system of sensors has helped them to validate the impact of nuclear fallout from the overheated Fukushima reactor, and in turn alert local governments and the public. They say no dangerous levels of radiation have reached U.S. shores.

In California, home to two seaside nuclear plants located close to earthquake fault lines, federal authorities said four of the 11 stationary monitors were offline for repairs or maintenance last week. The Environmental Protection Agency said the machines operate outdoors year-round and periodically need maintenance, but did not fix them until a few days after low levels of radiation began drifting toward the mainland U.S.

Right.  

Read that again.

The biggest nuclear event in the last, what?  three decades? takes place in Japan, nuclear fallout MAY be headed your way and you decide RIGHT THEN that maybe it's a good idea to TURN OFF THE NUCLEAR RADIATION MONITORS FOR MAINTENANCE?

Does that not sound a bit peculiar to anyone else besides me?

"But wait!" as Dan Akroyd would say---"THERE'S MORE!"

About 20 monitors out of 124 nationwide were out of service earlier this week, including units in Harlingen, Tex. and Buffalo, N.Y. on Friday, according to the EPA.

Isn't that a beauty?

I repeat the question:  The biggest nuclear event in the last three decades takes place in Japan, nuclear fallout MAY be headed your way and you decide RIGHT THEN that maybe it's a good idea to TURN OFF THE NUCLEAR MONITORS FOR MAINTENANCE?

Does this make any sense?

Here's an example of one of the situations, too:

One RadNet monitor in Fontana, Calif. stopped transmitting data in November, and regional air quality officials alerted EPA, said Philip Fine, an atmospheric measurements manager with Southern California Air Quality Management District. The repairs happened last weekend, when EPA made fixing California monitors a priority, he said.

That's a beauty, isn't it?  It breaks in November but you wait until the end of March, the following year, to fix it.  

I can hear it now:  "Fred, the nuclear radiation monitor broke today."

Fred:  "Oh, what the hell.  Let's wait until a nuclear reactor blows, somewhere in the world, before we fix it.  It's not like it's important or anything."

Here's yet another example:

In San Diego, an air district official who oversees one RadNet monitor, said they "babysit" the machine for the EPA and were unaware it had problems until agency officials showed up to fix it last weekend.

"We thought it was running," said Bob Kard, the air pollution control officer for the San Diego Air Pollution Control District.

Well isn't that comforting?  They thought it was running.

Who's running our nuclear radiation detection system?  The Keystone Cops?

Does this maybe look like the EPA is either in collusion with the nuclear industry it's supposed to be monitoring and so, shut off these monitors OR that they figured the radiation might, in fact, be headed that way and they decided that no information was better than having information so the American people don't panic so LET'S SHUT THOSE SUCKERS OFF?

Or is it just total irresponsibility and ineptitude?

I'm thinking it has to be one of those 3 options.

And none of them are good.

Link to original post:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110326/ap_on_re_us/us_west_coast_radiation_monitors

Quote of the day--on the planet

"We're in a giant car, heading towards a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit."
--David Suzuki, Canadian environmentalist, scientist and broadcaster, b. 1936

Reminds me of the people denying climate change---or global warming or whatever they want to call it--like how we live on this planet is sustainable.

Puh--leeze.

My own "Solar Power Day", Part II

There is an article out today, just now, on Germany's mastery of clean, "green" solar power and the fact that they both get "percent of the country’s power from renewable sources like solar panels and wind turbines" already AND they're challenging themselves, as a country to "reduce national greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent between 1990 and 2020, and by 80-85 percent by 2050." I'm telling you, folks, not only do we need this and need it badly, but the country or countries that dominate clean energy, particularly solar power, are the ones that will dominate the planet for at least decades to come, if not the next century. We need to be on this. Have a great weekend, y'all. Link to original post: http://www.causecast.org/news_items/9862-germany-plans-to-switch-to-renewable-sources-for-all-electricity-by-2050?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+causecast%2Flatest_news+%28Causecast+-+Latest+News%29