Blog Archive

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The Green Vote Enviro Show


Greetings Earthlings. With the 2010 Elections behind us and a House full of cretins in front of us we welcome Green-Rainbow Party Candidate for Massachusetts State Auditor, Nat Fortune to the show. We'll check-in with Nat about the Party's annual convention at Clark University in Worcester last week and his excellent run for office that put the Green-Rainbow Party on the map for the future. As always we visit The Enviro Show Echo Chamber and our E-Valley-uation and Fool on the Hill segments. We'll also give you our Enviro Show Quote of the Week and if time allows we'll Meet the New Boss once again, but first it's time for....
Revenge of the Critters! Elephants bust out! It's not just the GOP taking out poor farmers.



In our Fool on the Hill segment we find Senator Debbie Stabenow, Michigan Democrat, has concerns that greenhouse gas permitting requirements would dissuade the use of biomass to generate power. Not too worry, Deb, your concerns were addressed by the EPA's, Lisa Jackson who has stated the U.S. EPA will "exercise whatever discretion the Clean Air Act affords" to shield biomass users from the agency's climate rules. Sorry Lisa & Debbie, it's the climate that rules! Of course, there's more than one Fool on THAT Hill: Repugnican Eric Cantor (R-VA), the likely House Majority Leader, calls for House committees to review proposed and existing regulations and issue reports, presumably recommending alteration or repeal of regulations the committees dislike. The document derides regulation, commenting on its cost to businesses without mentioning its benefits to society as a whole. Surprise!



On the same issue some Obamaistas take a hit from the folks at EnergyJustice.Net who "voiced sharp disagreement with Secretary Vilsack’s support for burning America’s forests for electricity, expressed in a USDA Press Release November 10." We're thinkin' those forests might come in handy sequestering carbon, no? Speaking of trees, THIS JUST IN: Wi-Fi Radiation Is Killing Trees. Quick, text your friends!



Speaking of the Biomess, here in our E-Valley-uation segment we introduce you to a new website for the Bennington-Berkshire Citizens Coalition organizing around yet another proposed biomass incinerator (OK, so it's not exactly our valley, but we ARE downwind, right?). This proposed project will also produce those cute little biomess pellets, the ones that used to be trees, right? Trees that sequestered carbon, right? Like the site says: "The wood needed for the Pownal plant will be close to about 600,000 green tons per year, more than the entire annual timber harvest on private and public lands in Massachusetts." What? You think this stuff grows on trees?? And this Enviro Show Blog Bonus: Greenpeace has all the toys! The GP blimp hovers over Vermont Yankee. Also this: the Biomess takes hits in both Greenfield and Springfield!



Our Enviro Show Quote of the Week puts us back into the Wayback Machine in keeping with tonight's theme, where Massachusetts' own John Quincy Adams reminds us: "“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”



In The Enviro Show Echo Chamber we replay Public Citizen's alert: "Time is running out for the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. The Commission has less than two months to complete its report examining the causes of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and recommending steps to guard against future oil spills. The Commissioners are still waiting for the Senate, to give it subpoena power – a necessary tool to get at the core of the oil spill tragedy. Tell the Senate to stop being lame: Give the oil spill commission the authority to do its job! Also, the New York Times tells us even as we scale back on coal burning mining and exports increase. Finally this: Climate scientists prepare to fight back against climate crisis deniers. Watch out teabaggers, they have all the secret weapons!



After our interview with Nat Fortune it's on to The Bus Stop Billboard:

Thursday, November 25, Tar Sands Conference, University of Alberta, Canada. "Everyone's Downstream" is an annual conference that brings together community members, activists and others fighting the global infrastructure of the tar sands gigaproject. Go to: http://www.everyonesdownstream.org/

Friday, Nov. 26, is International Buy Nothing Day.

Wednesday, December 1, 7pm. the award-winning film, "Scarred Lands/Wounded Lives: The Environmental Footprint of War" The film will be aired in 106 Seelye Hall, Smith College, Northampton.

Wednesday, December 8, 7:00-8:30pm. Second Decommissioning Forum on VT Yankee. Greenfield Community College, Downtown Building, Main Street, Greenfield, MA Refreshments will be served. For more information, contact Deb Katz 413-339-5781

Monday, December 13, 6:30 – 8:30p.m. (Snow Date: Thursday, December 16). DCR Forest Futures Implementation [or who gets clearcut!] Public Workshops. Greenfield Community College, Downtown Center, 270- Main St, Greenfield. There will also be an opportunity to provide written comments. For more information on these workshops or the landscape designation process, please feel free to contact Jessica Rowcroft at 617-626-1380.

Thursday, December 16, 12:30-2pm, WMass Green Economy Working Group. Brown Bag Lunch at Noon, Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO Hall, 640 Page Boulevard, Springfield (732-7970).



OK, so don't forget to vote.....umm...sorry, we already did that. Next time Rev. Billy calls in about the coming Shopocalypse. Until then, remember, listen to your Mother!

Thursday, November 04, 2010

The Toxic 100 Enviro Show







Greetings Earthlings. Tired of the toxic atmosphere these days? Michael Ash and Jim Boyce of our own UMass Political Economy Research Institute clue us in on the Toxic 100 Air Polluters in the nation. Speaking of breathing room, Massachusetts has significantly reduced mercury emissions from power plants and incinerators. We'll check that out in the Enviro Show Echo Chamber and see what's happening locally in our E-Valley-uation segment. As always, we give you the Quote of the Week and maybe have another look at The Fool on the Hill, but first it's time for....Revenge of the Critters! "New Zealand has these big green parrots called keas, which like to eat windshield wipers. Why do you suppose they hate cars so much??



The Enviro Show Quote of the week is a special post-election choice from none other than Ronnie Raygun: "Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources."



In The Enviro Show Echo Chamber we find the outfit that tops the PERI list of Toxic 100 Polluters, Bayer, has just hooked up with Pew's Center on Global Climate Change. Phew! What's that smell?? Meanwhile, over the border in Canada, people are organizing over toxic releases in Chemical Valley (well, yeah!). Also, we go over the good news about less mercury pollution here in the Commonwealth and the bad news about Governor Patrick's $91 Million Barge to Nowhere! That's no Love Boat! And, more good news: deciduous plants absorb about a third more of a common class of air-polluting chemicals than previously thought. Quick, go plant a tree! Finally, it seems the corporados are busy hi-jacking the UN's COP-10 Biodiversity conference in Japan.



In our E-Valley-uation segment there's a blue light special: Attention shoppers: Broken down old Nuke For Sale!



On the Fool on the Hill segment we go plural once again: There are no newly elected Republican freshmen, in the House or Senate, who admit the science of climate change is real. What a surprise. Must be all the tea they are smok....err...drinking.



Finally, it's time to checkout the Bus Stop Billboard:


Wednesday, Nov 10, 7 to 9pm. Do you want to find out more about the Transition Town movement and explore transition with others in Greenfield? If yes, come to a free evening of film & discussion the Second Congregational Church on the Greenfield Town Common. Refreshments will be served. For more information contact Greening Greenfield Energy Committee at 413-773-7004 or 413-773-0228

Sunday, Nov. 14, at 7:30 p.m. "This Land is Our Land", a timely new documentary about the global movement to reclaim the democratic tradition of “the commons” from commercial interests and free market extremists, will screen locally at Amherst Cinema on , at an event to benefit the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. For further information contact Sut Jhally, Media Education Foundation: (413) 584-8500 ext. 2301 email: sutj@comm.umass.edu

Tuesday, November 16, 6:30 - 8:30. Workshop on which DCR Public Forest will be open to commercial logging and which will be protected. Save the Trees! Noth Middle School, 350 Southampton Road, Westfield. For info call: 413-341-3878. Also see: http://www.mass.gov/dcr/news/2010/pr10-10-28.pdf

Tuesday, November 16, 6:30-8:30pm. Do you want to find out how to cut your heating costs? Go to GCTV, 393 Main Street, Greenfield, MA. Refreshments will be served. To find out more contact the Greening Greenfield Energy Committee at 774-5667.

Thursday, November 18, 3:30pm. Next meeting of Nuclear Free Future at the new AFSC office, 2 Conz Street, Suite 2B, Northampton. Call: 413-584-8975

Thursday, November 18, 7 - 8:30pm. Turkey Anyone? Have you ever wondered about wild turkeys? Just how did they get associated with Thanksgiving? Come learn from expert Joe Judd. Great Falls Discovery Center, Avenue A, Turners Falls. Call: 413-863-3221

November 19 - 21. Pricing Carbon Conference. A national conference co-hosted by and held at Wesleyan University in central Connecticut, to explore educational, organizing and political strategies to directly price carbon emissions and to build the essential cornerstone of effective climate policy: policies that transparently and equitably put a price on carbon pollution. Please inquire about scholarships offered to students
and climate activists with Tom Stokes, (413) 243-5665. Go to: http://pricingcarbon.org/

Thursday, November 25, Tar Sands Conference, University of Alberta, Canada. "Everyone's Downstream" is an annual conference that brings together community members, activists and others fighting the global infrastructure of the tar sands gigaproject. Go to: http://www.everyonesdownstream.org/

Wednesday, December 1, 7pm. the award-winning film, "Scarred Lands/Wounded Lives: The Environmental Footprint of War" The film will be aired in 106 Seelye Hall, Smith College, Northampton.

Wednesday, December 8, 7:00-8:30pm. Second Decommissioning Forum on VT Yankee. Greenfield Community College, Downtown Building, Main Street, Greenfield, MA Refreshments will be served. For more information, contact Deb Katz 413-339-5781

Monday, December 13, 6:30 – 8:30p.m. (Snow Date: Thursday, December 16). DCR Forest Futures Implementation [or who gets clearcut!]- Public Workshops. Greenfield Community College, Downtown Center, 270- Main St, Greenfield. There will also be an opportunity to provide written comments. For more information on these workshops or the landscape
designation process, please feel free to contact Jessica Rowcroft at either
jessica.rowcroft@state.ma.us or at 617-626-1380.





That's it. Next time Nat Fortune joins us for a post-election wrap. Until then remember, listen to your Mother!