The Sierra Club Meets Enviro Show

Greetings Earthlings. Given the present disfunction in our nation's capitol are you wondering who exactly can help steer this ship away from the GIANT iceberg looming dead ahead? We'll ask Emily  Norton, Director of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Sierra Club about that and drill down into many of the issues confronting us and the planet. Also, Martha Klein, CT Sierra Club Excom member and Communications Chair calls in with news on the proposed offshore drilling by the fossil fools.  Of course we are hoping, and working for, the Commonwealth and local government to pick-up many of the broken pieces Washington has scattered about as it stumbles drunkenly around destroying most everything in its path. Can't we have nice things anymore! As always, we'll take you down there below the Beltway to see The Mad King and his cult of climate criminal crazies, as well as a visit to the Fool-on-the-Hill and maybe some Breaking News. Also, a visit to The Enviro Show Echo Chamber but first it's time for............Revenge of the Critters! Tiny jellyfish mean BIG trouble! 

Let's see if The Mad King is available for some.....um...scrutiny? Of course we already know His Malignancy has adopted climate denial as his go-to strategy for dealing with the pesky planet he needs to, well SURVIVE ON! However, The Mad King and his climate criminal enablers also are changing the digital climate by sending science down the ol' memory hole. Checkout this PDF for all the gruesome details. One finding states: "Language about climate change has been systematically changed across multiple [federal government] agency and program websites. In many cases, explicit mentions of “climate change” and “greenhouse gases” have been replaced by vaguer terms such as “sustainability” and 'emissions'." We guess this headline qualifies for speaking the obvious: "Business Interests are winning out over science under [His Malignancy]" And, we don't need to guess who The Mad King is favoring by placing tariffs on imported solar panels. Meanwhile, over at the National Park Service their Advisory Board became so freaked out by The Mad King's crazed courtesans that most of them resigned. Whatever happened to "Stand up, Fight Back!"?? Over at the Dept. of Health and Human Services it appears some bible-banging operatives are angling for a kind of Handmaidens Tale. So much for the separation of Church and State. Last time we got all up into frat boy Rep. Devin Nunes' face for his efforts to keep The Mad King on his teetering throne. This time WMass' pride and joy, Rachel Maddow goes after a whole pack of Repugnican collaborators! Watch it here. You might recall our coverage of His Malignancy's offshore drilling scheme during the last show? Now, nearly every governor in the coastal U.S. is opposed.Also, concerning he who breaks near everything he touches. Yes, His Malignancy has  nominated an anti-climate and BP disaster enabler to be the DOJ's top environmental lawyer. "Jeffrey Bossert Clark, a lawyer who has repeatedly challenged the scientific foundations of U.S. climate policy and was part of a legal team that represented BP in lawsuits stemming from the nation's worst oil spill, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster" according to Inside Climate News. Finally, it looks like The Mad King's EPA lackey, Scott Pruitt is taking an old page out of the flat-Earth guide to climate denial: Global warming is good for you!

We don't know who, but some Fool-on-the-Hill kicked the spokes out of the effort to get more folks to bike to work in that bogus Repugnican tax scam that passed last year. According to HuffPo: "Since 2009, businesses have been able to give workers who commute on bikes a tax-free benefit worth $20 a month to cover bike-related expenses. Not anymore: Cyclists will now have to pay taxes on that money." If anyone out there can put a name to the Fool-on-the-Hill who did this please let us know, OK?

In The Enviro Show Echo Chamber we bring you potential good news! (can you believe it?). Yale Climate Connections reports a Stanford research team developed special cooling panels. "When placed over pipes of warm water, they draw heat out of the water, then convert and emit it at a wavelength that passes into outer space." There's a short audio clip about this here. On to the bad news! Another threat to our friends the Bees has surfaced, this time it's fungicides. Here's our Enviro Show Blog Action Link for this week: No Offshore Drilling!

After our conversation with Emily we move over to the Bus Stop Billboard:

Join the “if Trump fires Mueller” Rapid Response Team – Sign up to join our local MoveOn.org's "Mueller Firing Rapid Response" campaign. It's at 50 State St (Springfield MA U.S. District Court Building) in Springfield. This is one of 350 events planned nationwide if Trump fires Mueller. But, it's not just a reactive plan—our efforts are already making news, helping show that there will be an immediate backlash if Trump fires Mueller.  RSVP here to join. 

Sunday, February 25, 12:00 - 3:00 PM. East Meets West Anti-nuke Meeting. This is a terrific opportunity to meet and plan/strategize with our friends in MA Downwinders/ CAN/Western MA/VT. Framingham Friends Meeting House

841 Edmands Road, Framingham, MA 01701


Monday February 26, 7 to 9pm. Climate Action Now MA Monthly Meeting. Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, 220 Main Street, Northampton, MA. Accessible and on a bus line. Go to: climateactionnowma.org   

Tuesday February 27, 3 to 7pm. Offshore Drilling Program Public Meeting. Please attend a rally outside the Sheraton Boston Hotel, 39 Dalton Street, Boston, MA 02199 and then join for the public meeting to speak out against the proposal! The Trump Administration has made good on its commitment to big oil by presenting an ecologically devastating proposal that seeks to open over 90% of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf to new offshore drilling, putting our nation’s coastal communities, beaches, surf breaks, and marine ecosystems at serious risk of catastrophic oil spills, economic and environmental decimation.

THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW! #DefendOurCoasts, #ProtectOurCoasts from #OffshoreDrilling!
Go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/179215559511153/

Wednesday, February 28 at 7 p.m. at Smith College in Northampton, join Dr. Bill Moomaw, Professor Emeritus of International Environmental Policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, for a discussion of how our forests can help mitigate global climate change. Dr. Moomaw will present his perspective on a crucial part of the solution — how the protection and restoration of forests, wetlands, and grasslands could enable us to sequester carbon dioxide for many centuries to come. He will also share his insights on the drawbacks of using bioenergy as an alternative to fossil fuels. There will be time for a facilitated Q&A session after the presentation. Go to: https://www.kestreltrust.org/calendar/bill-moomaw-2018/

Saturday March 3, 9am. Local Environmental Action 2018. Massachusetts Climate Action Network and Toxics Action Center work together to bring you this conference every year to discuss new ideas, build skills, and strengthen our movement. Join community leaders, environmental justice and climate advocates and activists from across the region on March 3rd, and let the connections you make inspire you for the work ahead. Go to: http://www.localenvironmentalaction.org

Sunday March 4, 2-3pm. Possums, Bats & Goldenrod - O my! DCR Interpreter Nancy Huntington presents on the benefits of often overlooked flora and fauna. Quabbin Reservoir Visitor Center, 485 Ware Road, Belchertown, MA. 

Wednesday, March 14, 9:30 am to 3:30 pm. PAWS II Lobby Day: Protect Animal Welfare and Safety,  Massachusetts State House, Room 428, Boston

That's all for now. Remember to listen to your Mother, OK?

Another Sustainable Enviro Show

Greetings Earthlings. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the definition of "sustainable" is  "to be maintained at a certain rate or level, able to be upheld or defended". Dinnen O'Rourke, who knows a thing or two about defending the planet, joins us to talk about the group SustainUS and her recent exploits at the climate talks in Germany (that would be the one where agents of Old King Coal and the nuclear industry were the only US presence). As always we will also take you to see The Mad King continue his quest to ruin everything and to hear about this week's Fool-on-the-Hill, as well as a trip to The Enviro Show Echo Chamber, but first it's time for.........Revenge of the Critters! Camels laid siege to town down under! Like in many of these stories man-made climate chaos is suspected.

This week's Fool-on-the-Hill offers a double dose of foolishness, though "foolish" is putting it mildly when we are talking about enabling TREASON! (sorry). Let's begin with the usual climate change denial by Repugnican Rep. Devin Nunes of California who stated: "Despite dire predictions and prophetic warnings contained in a host of poorly researched Hollywood productions, there is no proof that our planet is warming because of mankind and there is certainly no proof that any of the radical changes proposed by environmentalists will end recent warming trends." Whoa! Which environmentalist ever said we can "end recent warming trends"?? Anyway, Nunes' position on climate chaos pales in comparison to his slavish enabling of The Mad King's efforts to...well...DESTROY THE NATION!  Frat-boy Devin Nunes is front and center in the Repugnican effort to undermine Special Council Mueller's investigation into the present occupants in the White House of Lies efforts to profit from caving to Russian oligarchs and kleptocrats while simultanously gutting government and the Constitution.

Did someone say Mad King? His Malignancy The Mad King has outdone himself lately with the madness. Where to begin?? We guess his edict to "drill baby, drill" for oil up and down both U.S. coastlines is a bad enough place to start. Of course, he did give a pass to Florida.....where his summer palace is! By the time you read this many governors will have registered their opposition to this harebrained scheme that was abandoned over 30 years ago. O wait, except for that creepy clown governor in Maine. BTW, Where's Charlie??  Here's another outrage from The Hill: "A former National Park Service (NPS) official who improperly helped the owner of the Washington Redskins cut down more than 130 trees near his Potomac, Md., estate in 2004 will assume the deputy director post at the agency." We guess His Malignancy remains on target for gutting agencies in Washington and trashing what's left of useful regulations, we just can't figure where the "Making America great again" comes in. You? Speaking of the oceans, The Mad King also hopes to shrink National Ocean Monuments, maybe to make room for more of his faulty drilling platforms! There has been a bit of a setback for His Malignancy and his courtisans recently, a concept that even the industry shills at FERC couldn't stomach! Energy Secretary? Rick Perry was trying to prop up the dying coal and nuke industries on your tab. "Perry unveiled a proposed solution in which utility companies would pay coal and nuclear power plants “for all their costs and all the power they produce, whether those plants are needed or not”, MSNBC reports. And to think we used to say "FERC don't work".

Our Quote of the Week requires another trip in the ol' Wayback Machine. Are you ready?

After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, love, and so on — have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear — what remains? Nature remains; to bring out from their torpid recesses, the affinities of a man or woman with the open air, the trees, fields, the changes of seasons — the sun by day and the stars of heaven by night.

-- Walt Whitman

It's getting mighty hot in The Enviro Show Echo Chamber! Newsweek tells us that the roads are melting Down Under. "A heatwave sweeping parts of Australia sent temperature soaring to more than 104F, prompting authorities to warn residents to stay inside to protect themselves from the “killer” heat that is fueling fires and melting roads." We have an Enviro Show Blog Action Link here regarding that criminal scheme to drill for oil offshore, but we're not convinced anyone at the Dept. of Interior really cares what we think. We'd probably be better off occupying their offices but, of course, we'd NEVER suggest THAT! 

After our conversation with Dineen we head over to the Bus Stop Billboard:

Join the “if Trump fires Mueller” Rapid Response Team – Sign up to join our local MoveOn.org's "Mueller Firing Rapid Response" campaign. It's at 50 State St (Springfield MA U.S. District Court Building) in Springfield. This is one of 350 events planned nationwide if Trump fires Mueller. But, it's not just a reactive plan—our efforts are already making news, helping show that there will be an immediate backlash if Trump fires Mueller.  RSVP here to join. 

Tuesday, February 6, 8pm EST. No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge Orientation Call. It’s past time for our politicians and political candidates to reject support from the fossil fuel industry and protect the health of our families, our climate, and our democracy. Join this orientation call to learn how to get candidates in your town, city or state to sign on, too. Go to: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/no-fossil-fuel-money-pledge-orientation-call

Saturday February 10, 9:30 AM - 5 PM. Non Violent Direct Action Training. Brattleboro Food Coop Community Room. For info and registration contact Tim at 802-869-2141 or email bereal@vermontel.net 

Sunday, February 25, 12:00 - 3:00 PM. East Meets West Anti-nuke Meeting. This is a terrific opportunity to meet and plan/strategize with our friends in MA Downwinders/ CAN/Western MA/VT. Framingham Friends Meeting House

841 Edmands Road, Framingham, MA 01701

Tuesday February 27, 3 to 7pm. Offshore Drilling Program Public Meeting. Please attend a rally outside the Hyatt Regency Boston and then join for the public meeting to speak out against the proposal! The Trump Administration has made good on its commitment to big oil by presenting an ecologically devastating proposal that seeks to open over 90% of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf to new offshore drilling, putting our nation’s coastal communities, beaches, surf breaks, and marine ecosystems at serious risk of catastrophic oil spills, economic and environmental decimation.

THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW! #DefendOurCoasts, #ProtectOurCoasts from #OffshoreDrilling!
Go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/179215559511153/

Wednesday, February 28 at 7 p.m. at Smith College in Northampton, join Dr. Bill Moomaw, Professor Emeritus of International Environmental Policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, for a discussion of how our forests can help mitigate global climate change. Dr. Moomaw will present his perspective on a crucial part of the solution — how the protection and restoration of forests, wetlands, and grasslands could enable us to sequester carbon dioxide for many centuries to come. He will also share his insights on the drawbacks of using bioenergy as an alternative to fossil fuels. There will be time for a facilitated Q&A session after the presentation. Go to: https://www.kestreltrust.org/calendar/bill-moomaw-2018/

Saturday March 3, 9am. Local Environmental Action 2018. Massachusetts Climate Action Network and Toxics Action Center work together to bring you this conference every year to discuss new ideas, build skills, and strengthen our movement. Join community leaders, environmental justice and climate advocates and activists from across the region on March 3rd, and let the connections you make inspire you for the work ahead. Go to: http://www.localenvironmentalaction.org

Sunday March 4, 2-3pm. Possums, Bats & Goldenrod - O my! DCR Interpreter Nancy Huntington presents on the benefits of often overlooked flora and fauna. Quabbin Reservoir Visitor Center, 485 Ware Road, Belchertown, MA. 

That's all, folks! Remember to listen to your Mother, OK?