This week's Fool-on-the-Hill is also a fool when he's not on The Hill talking trash. "Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue cited weather patterns and said "it rained yesterday, it's a nice pretty day today" when asked about the cause of the global climate crisis in an interview with CNN. Perdue told CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich in the interview... that "we don't know" the cause of climate change, adding, "and obviously scientists -- many scientists believe that it's human caused, other scientists believe it's not," according to a recent CNN story.
On to His Malignancy The Mad King who has come up with a plan that would leave the
public with no role in more than 90 percent of the decisions made for our national forests. This is a clear violation of the public trust and of major laws like the National Environmental Policy Act, and it's designed to ramp up clearcutting and bulldozing of millions of acres in national forests.
Also His Malignancy has a replacement rule for a clean power plan tailored to please the fossil fuel industry. Inside Climate News reports, "The replacement, called the "Affordable Clean Energy Rule," would take the narrow approach of encouraging efficiency improvements in existing power plants, giving states leeway to implement the requirements based on only a few technologies. States would not be permitted to use the rule to force power plants to switch from coal to natural gas or renewable energy sources or to use carbon capture technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, even though these are the only technologies that promise significant cuts in carbon. Nor could they use it to impose emissions trading." Of course, the flip side of giving ol' King Coal a free pass is proposing budget cuts for actual clean energy research. He's got a plan for that! And this: The Mad King's NAFTA 2.0 (pdf) is a deregulatory gift to the fossil fools and bad news for any Green New Deal even after he's exiled! Wouldn't you love to read the emails and backroom minutes that lead up to that deal? Sorry! New language in the FOIA rule signed by EPA chief Andrew Wheeler would allow him and his minions to review all materials that fit Freedom of Information request criteria, and decide whether to release or withhold any record, so in other words, no. And, moving on to the theme of this show, "The U.S Forest Service unveiled a new plan to skirt a major environmental law that requires extensive review for new logging, road building, and mining projects on its nearly 200 million acres of public land." That, courtesy of this week's Fool, another of His Malignancy's climate criminals.
OK everyone, did you get the memo? It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid! (not YOU of course). Apparently President Bolsonaro didn't get it, or perhaps used it for target practice 'cuz it's just been reported that 740 square kilometers of rain forest were clearcut in 30 days. We don't have rainforests here in the northeast U.S. but we sure have a lot of forests that damaged humans like Bolsonaro would love to empty out while filling up their bank accounts. Meanwhile it was 84 degrees near the Arctic Ocean last month as CO2 hit the highest levels in human history and "Climate change is “eating” the glaciers of the Himalayas, posing a grave threat to hundreds of millions of people who live downstream, a study based on 40 years of satellite data has shown." In case you thought climate chaos was a thing in the distant future maybe you should check this out! And kudo to presidential candidate Kamala Harris for calling it what it is in the Dem debates: the Climate Crisis. Finally, did you know "Logging is the Lead Driver in Carbon Emissions in U.S. Forests"? Now you do!
After our conversation with Susan we take you to the Bus Stop Billboard:
4PM – 5PM Every Thursday. Weekly climate action protest inspired by Greta Thunberg. Since the federal government is incapable of doing anything we’re pressuring the Commonwealth and the Legislature for a Massachusetts Green New Deal. THE ASK: A 40%-50% reduction in emissions by 2030, and completely carbon-neutral by 2050 to help limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius Massachusetts State House, 24 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02133
» Facebook Info and Location Details #MassGreenNewDeal #SitWithJohn @johnflerner on Twitter
Monday, July 8, 2019 at 6:30-8:30pm. 350 Central Mass Action Planning. First Unitarian Church of Worcester, 90 Main St, Worcester, Massachusetts 01608. Go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/2277136405688917/
Thursday July 18, 7pm. Extinction Rebellion (XR) meets at Herter Hall, UMass. The meetings are first Monday and third Thursday, at Herter Hall, for now. Go in the front door and look for people or signs. Go to: https://xrmass.org/west/
Saturdays July 13, 20, and 27, 9am to Noon. Help stop pipelines in Hampden County by circulating this petition bit.ly/HGEpetition t
Monday July 22, 7 to 9pm. Climate Action Now WMass Monthly Meeting. Unitarian Meetinghouse on N. Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA. Go to: http://climateactionnowma.org
Sunday, July 28, 1 – 5pm. WMass Extinction Rebellion Potluck Picnic. Join us for an afternoon of regeneration and relationship building! All are welcome, even if you're new to the movement. If you're able to bring picnic food to contribute, leave a comment below with what you're thinking of (fruit? side? dessert? chips?) so we can all plan. Go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/2312450552407006/
That's all, folks! Remember to wear white when your out at night on your bike AND to listen to your Mother, OK?
