Archives for category: Environment
Newer Entries »

SomeDam Poet: How I Will Celebrate Earth Day

By dianeravitch
April 22, 2017 //
10

Ruminations on Earth Day in the Trump era, by SomeDam Poet:

“How I plan to celebrate earth day”

For Earth Day Forty Seven
I plan to chop a tree
To honor Earthly Heaven
I’ll drill in Arctic sea

I’ll open up a pipeline
That brings the oil to you
Pollute the river lifeline
With tar and other goo

I’ll bring back dirty coal
And with it, lung disease
The things enviros stole
Through hugging of the trees

I’ll shutter EPA
And end the Species Act
Polluters shouldn’t pay
And grizzlies should be sacked

I’ll celebrate the day
For glory of the Earth
No matter what you say
I’ll smoke, for what it’s worth

Categories Environment, Humor

Tomorrow is Earth Day! There Will Also Be Many “March for Science” Events

By dianeravitch
April 21, 2017 //
9

April 22 is an annual event to celebrate the Earth and to take steps to improve the environment for all who share the same planet.

Tomorrow there will also be a March for Science in many locales, notably in Washington, D.C. and in New York City. In New York City, the March for Science will assemble at Central Park West and 64th Street in Manhattan. Open the link for details.

Earth Day began in 1970 and is now a worldwide event.

What will you do?

Trump has promised to slash the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency. He does not believe that the climate is changing in response to human activity like pollution. Neither do most of those that he has put in charge of EPA and other agencies that relate to science. Scientists fear that those in this administration might wipe out decades of data that have been collected about climate change, in addition to defunding the agencies responsible for protecting the environment. What will happen to the Endangered Species Act? We must all stay informed to protect what is left and to resist the reversal of decades of effort to save the earth and its creatures.

It is hard to remember the days when automobiles and trucks spewed pollution and when smokers were free to smoke wherever they wanted, even in the enclosed cabins of airplanes.

What a shame to reverse those years of progress towards protecting the planet and protecting humans too.

Nearly 500 communities across the world will participate in Earth Day activities and a March for Science.

Join one. Be informed. Be active.

Categories Environment

While Trump Tries to Revive Coal Power, Other Countries Turn to Solar Power

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2017 //
11

In Chile, solar power is the wave of the future.

“On the solar farms of the Atacama Desert, the workers dress like astronauts. They wear bodysuits and wraparound sunglasses, with thick canvas headscarves to shield them from the radiation.

“The sun is so intense and the air so dry that seemingly nothing survives. Across vast, rocky wastes blanched of color, there are no cactuses or other visible signs of life. It’s Mars, with better cellphone reception.

“It is also the world’s best place to produce solar energy, with the most potent sun power on the planet.

“So powerful, in fact, that something extraordinary happened last year when the Chilean government invited utility companies to bid on public contracts. Solar producers dominated the auction, offering to supply electricity at about half the cost of coal-fired plants.

“It wasn’t because of a government subsidy for alternative energy. In Chile and a growing list of nations, the price of solar energy has fallen so much that it is increasingly beating out conventional sources of power. Industry experts and government regulators hail this moment as a turning point in the history of human electricity-making.

“This is the beginning of a trend that will only accelerate,” said Chilean Energy Minister Andrés Rebolledo. “We’re talking about an infinite fuel source.”

“President Trump ordered U.S. regulators this week to reverse Obama-era policies aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, and he has promised to “bring back” the U.S. coal industry. But construction of coal-fired power plants dropped 62 percent over the past year worldwide, according to a survey by the Sierra Club and other activist groups. In China last year, the number of new permits for coal-fired plants fell by 85 percent.

“More worldwide generating capacity is now being added from clean sources than coal and natural gas combined, according to a December report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which closely tracks investment in renewables.

“An investor in Chile wanting to build a hydroelectric dam or coal-fired plant potentially faces years of costly political battles and fierce resistance from nearby communities. In contrast, a solar company can lay out acres of automated sun-tracking panels across an isolated stretch of desert and have them firing quiet, clean electricity in less than a year, with no worries about fluctuating fuel prices or droughts. The sunlight is free and shows up for work on time, every morning.

“Long dependent on energy imports, Chilean officials now envision their country turning into a “solar Saudi Arabia.” Chile’s solar energy production has increased sixfold since 2014, and last year it was the top-scoring clean-energy producer in the Americas, and second in the world to China, according to the Bloomberg rankings. (China is the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases but also the leading investor in renewable energy.)

“Driving the global shift to cheap sun power is a dramatic decline in the cost of the photovoltaic (PV) panels that can be used to create giant desert solar farms or rooftop home installations. China produces more than two-thirds of the world’s PV panels, and their price has fallen more than 80 percent since 2008.”

Meanwhile, Trump is heading in the opposite direction, trying to fulfill his promise to revive the coal industry. He has ceded world leadership in developing renewable energy to China as he seeks to bring back the polluted world of a century ago.

Categories Environment, Trump

The Fight to Block the Keystone Pipeline is not Over

By dianeravitch
March 26, 2017 //
11

This article reviews the many legal and political challenges that still face the Keystone Pipeline.

https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/eco-catholic/legal-challenges-await-keystone-xl-pipeline-after-trump-grants-permit

He said it would create thousands of jobs, but they are temporary construction jobs. Once the pipeline is completed, it will be run by 50 people, only 35 with permanent jobs.

Environmental groups say it will cause irreparable damage.

“Trump said, “It’s going to be an incredible pipeline, greatest technology known to man or woman. And frankly, we’re very proud of it.” Despite Trump’s repeated insistence that Keystone and new pipelines would be built with American steel, the White House confirmed earlier this month that Keystone will not, since it was considered already under construction.”

Categories Environment

A Year of Tillerson Emails Lost! Sad! So sad!

By dianeravitch
March 24, 2017 //
16

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used a secondary email with an alias “Wayne Tracker.” He used it to communicate with Exxon board meters about sensitive matters like climate change. A year of emails has disappeared!

“Exxon Mobil Corp. may have lost as much as a year’s worth of emails that former Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson used to discuss climate change risks and other sensitive issues under the alias ‘Wayne Tracker,’ a lawyer for New York state told a judge.

“Tillerson, now U.S. secretary of state, used the pseudonym account for communicating with company board members, according to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is investigating whether the Irving, Texas-based company broke state law by misleading investors for years about the possible impact of the Earth’s warming on its business.

“John Oleske, a senior enforcement lawyer for New York, cited the missing emails at a hearing in Manhattan Wednesday to bolster his claim that Exxon is failing to comply with a subpoena in the case despite turning over more than 2 million pages of documents. In court, Oleske described Exxon’s admission of missing emails as a “bombshell.”

“Exxon concedes that it failed to preserve all documents from an alias email account used by Rex Tillerson,” Oleske said in a court filing before the hearing. “Exxon’s conduct outside this court reflects a pattern of stonewalling and disingenuousness.”

“Both parties agreed to discuss possible ways, if any, to recover emails that may have been lost and report back to the court by March 31.”

Someone on Twitter suggested that Rex should ask his friend Putin to find them.

Categories Environment

One Month from Today Is EARTH DAY: March for Science!

By dianeravitch
March 22, 2017 //
20

The first Earth Day occurred in 1970, and it raised awareness of the importance of protecting the environment.

Now, more than ever, we must all stand together to support the environment, to defend science, to denounce fake theories, and to protect the earth.

The Trump administration thinks that climate change is a hoax. Trump’s budget makes deep cuts in the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency, which has enjoyed bipartisan support for almost 50 years.

Earth Day is April 22.

Join your friends and neighbors to speak up for clean air and clean water. Join with them to protest the budget cuts to scientific research in many other agencies.

Plan now for April 22.

Categories Environment, Research, Science

Scott Pruitt of EPA Questions Scientific Consensus on Carbon Dioxide as Primary Contributor to Climate Change

By dianeravitch
March 9, 2017 //
63

Scott Pruitt, the new director of the Environmental Protection Agency, challenged the scientific consensus on the causes of climate change.


WASHINGTON — Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said on Thursday that carbon dioxide was not a primary contributor to global warming, a statement at odds with the global scientific consensus on climate change.

Speaking of carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping gas produced by burning fossil fuels, Mr. Pruitt told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that “I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so no, I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.”

“But we don’t know that yet,” he added. “We need to continue the debate and continue the review and the analysis.”

Mr. Pruitt’s statement is not consistent with scientific research on climate change, including decades of research by federal agencies. His remarks may also put him in conflict with laws and regulations his agency is charged with enforcing.

A report in 2013 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of about 2,000 international scientists that reviews and summarizes climate science, found it to be “extremely likely” that more than half the global warming that occurred from 1951 to 2010 was a consequence of human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

A January report by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration concluded, “The planet’s average surface temperature has risen about 2.0 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere.”

Benjamin D. Santer, a climate researcher at the Energy Department’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said, “Mr. Pruitt has claimed that carbon dioxide caused by human activity is not ‘the primary contributor to the global warming that we see.’ Mr. Pruitt is wrong.”

Dr. Santer added, “The scientific community has studied this issue for decades. The consensus message from many national and international assessments of the science is pretty simple: Natural factors can’t explain the size or patterns of observed warming. A large human influence on global climate is the best explanation for the warming we’ve measured and monitored.”

Pruitt is preparing the way for a rollback of environmental regulations that limit carbon dioxide emissions.

Categories Environment, Trump

EPA Leader Stacks the Agency with Climate Science Deniers

By dianeravitch
March 8, 2017 //
17

The New York Times reports that Scott Pruitt, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is rapidly filling up the agency with fellow conservatives devoted to destroying the environment.

To friends and critics, Mr. Pruitt seems intent on building an E.P.A. leadership that is fundamentally at odds with the career officials, scientists and employees who carry out the agency’s missions. That might be a recipe for strife and gridlock at the federal agency tasked to keep safe the nation’s clean air and water while safeguarding the planet’s future.

“He’s the most different kind of E.P.A. administrator that’s ever been,” said Steve J. Milloy, a member of the E.P.A. transition team who runs the website JunkScience.com, which aims to debunk climate change. “He’s not coming in thinking E.P.A. is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Quite the opposite.”

Gina McCarthy, who headed the E.P.A. under former President Barack Obama, said she too saw Mr. Pruitt as unique. “It’s fine to have differing opinions on how to meet the mission of the agency. Many Republican administrators have had that,” she said. “But here, for the first time, I see someone who has no commitment to the mission of the agency.”

Top positions are going to Trump campaign staffers who are climate change skeptics.

They too will have to breathe the same polluted air as the rest of us. Will there be special gas masks for the rich? Will we wear filters over our faces to screen out pollution? Should we stop eating fish because the waters are polluted?

This is not a normal administration. The agency created by Richard Nixon in 1970 to protect the environment is now controlled by troglodytes who want to end the protection of the environment.

Categories Environment

Should We Protect the Environment?

By dianeravitch
March 6, 2017 //
23

This post is about pollution and the environment. Please don’t say it is unrelated to education or children. Many children have asthma or other illnesses that are caused or aggravated by pollution. This damages their health, their well-being, even their performance in school.

It wasn’t so long ago that the idea of protecting the environment was considered absurd or too expensive. Smoke came pouring out of chimneys and smokestacks. Cars burned low-grade fuel. People died of lung diseases.

Scott Pruitt, the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has fought the agency in court to block enforcement of regulations. He received campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry and represented their interests–not that of the public–when he was Attorney General of Oklahoma.

Trump’s new budget will slash spending for the EPA. Estimates for the cuts vary from 25-70%. What is left of the agency will be devoted to rolling back the efforts of previous administrations–Republican and Democratic–to reduce pollution of the air and water of the nation. Let us recall that the Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1970, by President Richard M. Nixon. It is not a wild-eyed liberal scheme. It is a human, humane effort to maintain the earth and nature, so that it is habitable for all species.

One of Trump’s first executive orders revoked a regulation that prohibited dumping coal waste into streams. The streams will become polluted, unfit for aquatic life, fishing or swimming. Even coal miners like to fish and swim and breathe clean air.

EPA Director Pruitt plans to eliminate the “stringent federal regulations on vehicle pollution that contributes to global warming,” the New York Times reported. He is also expected to eliminate President Obama’s “Clean Power Plan,” which was intended ” to cut planet-warming pollution from coal-fired power plants.” The deregulation of auto emissions will permit automakers to return to building fuel-guzzling, pollution-emitting cars. It will reduce the need to build fuel-efficient cars like hybrid and electric models. The EPA is already fighting California to block its efforts to enforce tougher tailpipe standards for cars.

Let’s look back at a few images of what our country was like before the government began protecting the environment. By the way, this is something only governments can do, because air and water cross state lines and international borders. Even billionaires and Trump’s children breathe the same air as everyone else, even if they drink Evian and bathe in it.

Take a look at this slide show.

And please read this article.

It begins:

“Once upon a time, you could touch the air in New York. It was that filthy. No sensible person would put a toe in most of the waterways.

“In 1964, Albert Butzel moved to New York City, which then had the worst air pollution among big cities in the United States.

“I not only saw the pollution, I wiped it off my windowsills,” Mr. Butzel, 78, an environmental lawyer, said. “You’d look at the horizon and it would be yellowish. It was business as normal.”

“The dawning of environmental consciousness in the United States during the 1960s led to a national commitment to clean air and water with the creation, in 1970, of the Environmental Protection Agency. It came not a moment too soon for New York City, not to mention the nation.”

Categories Childhood, Environment
Newer Entries »