The Dark Waters Enviro Show

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Greetings Earthlings. Once rivers caught on fire or were so toxic no one went near them here in the U.S.  Do you think those days are over? Shaina Kasper from Toxics Action joins us to answer that question and to delve into the growing concern over PFAS  (sometimes called "forever chemicals") not just in our rivers but......well, everywhere!  As always we'll also drag you along to meet this week's Fool-on-the-Hill and to gawk at The Mad King and his henchmen, as well as remind those who haven't been paying attention that It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid! But first it's time for......Revenge of the Critters! Turkeys without manners? During Thanksgiving?? 

This week's Fool-on-the-Hill is Alaska Repugnican Senator Dan Sullivan who In July 2018, acknowledged some effects of climate change in Alaska, including erosion and acidification of the water seen in fisheries, but also said there were increased "opportunities in the Arctic." We guess he means "Drill baby, drill!" so that we can have even more of the above mentioned and more? 

His Malignancy The Mad King (also a climate crisis denier though he didn't use to be) was exposed last summer in Rolling Stone where this eye-opening comment was published: “With Trump, we’ve had a corporate takeover of government with no parallel in American history,” [said] Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. And, the conclusion was: "At a time when the climate crisis threatens the future of humanity, Trump and his corporate backers have taken the country in the opposite direction. Meanwhile His Malignancy is called a fanatic at the opening of the COP 25 climate talks by Spain's socialist leader. 'This administration’s agenda was set well before Trump was elected,' says [Michael]Brune of the Sierra Club. 'Just about any safeguard to protect the country’s air, water and climate is up for sale'."  OK, it's been reported two thirds of real Republicans now are concerned about the climate, so why are their reps in congress still clinging to His Malignancy's sinking ship??  Impeach the bastard already! Make your holidays happier.   It's hard to find good news these days, so here on The Enviro Show we always fall back on schadenfreude to make our day more bearable; you know, stories like "White House Staffers Say Impeachment is Driving [Him] Crazy" to which we say.....it's not a long drive!

In case you just got back from decades of being away, It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid! and “The summary findings are bleak.”  So said the annual assessment produced by the United Nations Environment Program formally known as the Emissions Gap Report. "Countries have failed to halt the rise of greenhouse gas emissions despite repeated warnings from scientists, with China and the United States, the two biggest polluters, further increasing their emissions last year." Great work, big guys. If your Uncle George or Aunt Harriet is Catholic and happens also to be a climate denier you might want to mention what The Poe has in mind! Do they want to go to Hell or to Heaven?  Cement production has a mighty large carbon footprint but how about cement  literally sucks carbon from the air? Grist tells us: "Today, most cement powders are hardened, or “cured,” by adding water, but several companies, most notably New Jersey-based Solidia, are creating cements that need to absorb CO2 in order to harden. Solidia claims that every metric ton of cement it makes can absorb 240 kilograms of the climate-warming gases. And because the CO2 is being packed into artificial rock, the storage is effectively permanent."  Sure beats turning our forests into cross-laminated timber.

Our Enviro Show Quote of the Weekis about this week's featured topic:

"Recent studies have shown that PFAS can mimic human hormones including thyroid, estrogen and testosterone, resulting in low function. One study looking at young men exposed to high levels of PFAS over long periods of time found lower testosterone activity resulting in smaller genitalia and lower sperm counts."   - The Ecologycenter

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

The River of Tears Enviro Show

Greetings Earthlings. Depending on how you view it, there's been a lot of bad news lately but enough good news to keep most of us from throwing ourselves in the river. That said, the Abenaki Nation refer to November's full Moon as mzatanos, or freezing river maker moon so you'd be....um...hard pressed? jumping into it. Our friend Karl Meyer calls in with more bad news for the endangered Shortnose Sturgeon struggling to survive in the Connecticut River's dead reach below the Turners Falls dam. Not long ago the dam and pump storage operator, First Light’s actions directly interfered and imperiled this listed Sturgeon's spawning, even when they had been apprised of the fishes presence in the river. Did we mention 85% percent of sturgeon, a species as old as the dinosaurs, are at risk of extinction, making them the most threatened group of animals right here in the "Happy Valley"?  We'll get to that with Karl and way more like this week's Fool-on-the-Hill and The Mad King but first it's time for..........Revenge of the Critters! Another surprise for a hunter who should have known better!

This week's Fool-on-the-Hill was running on all cylinders going off the rails live coast-to-coast at the first impeachment hearing for The Mad King; sadly he forgot his fool's cap along with his jacket. Yes, it's Jim Jordan (Repugnican-OH). Let's let conservative political strategist Rick Wilson take it from here regarding Jordan's performance: "Jordan, as always, was without a jacket, an appropriately knotted necktie, or a clue. His gotchas didn’t get anything, his predicates were as thin as his combover, and his belief that he’d save the day by talking louder and faster was a flop. He was rattling off “questions” so fast that he sounded like an auctioneer who had discovered the joy of cocaine. The fact that other members of the committee kept throwing their remaining question time to Jordan was a sign not of confidence in him, but of their own desires to punch their questions out and resume hiding.” Of course, if you happen to be accustomed to fratboy antics, Jordan was in character. Self-parody lives!

His Malignancy The Mad King is tanking before our very eyes and ears (if you can stand watching or listening to it).  While getting truly sick and tired of having his smarmy poser face appear on our Facebook news feed, we grin and bear it when the news is bad for him and his crony enablers. We are in complete agreement with Amy Goodman and her partner when they write: The Mad King's "denial of the climate crisis is unconscionable and should be added to the articles of impeachment against him".  Sadly, it's not always schadenfreude time around here. In fact, usually the bad news concerns his attacks on the beleaguered planet, like when His Malignancy's "administration is preparing to significantly limit the scientific and medical research that the government can use to determine public health regulations".

Have you informed your stubborn Uncle George with the Made in China MAGA hat that It's the Climate Crisis , Stupid! Maybe tell him "A new report by 11,258 scientists in 153 countries from a broad range of disciplines warns that the planet “clearly and unequivocally faces a climate emergency”?  He'll probably tell you it's "fake news" but you should send him the link anyway, or maybe send him a one-way ticket to New Delhi so he can get a dose of climate dystopia?  Finally, have you seen THIS?

Our Enviro Show Quote of the Week is here:

"A river or stream is a cycle of energy from sun to plants to insects to fish. It is a continuum broken only by humans."               -  Aldo Leopold

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


December 3 at about 10:30AM in the Orange District Court, 1 Court Square, Orange, MA ten Forest Protectors will be heard on charges of trespassing following their arrests for civil disobedience in the Wendell State Forest in August of this year. The defendants are members of the Wendell State Forest Alliance and were attempting to stop the commercial logging of 100 year old oak trees in the state forest. The Climate Emergency mandates that trees be allowed to mature as carbon sequesters rather than be cut for private industrial benefit. The Defendants were originally charged criminally. These charges were subsequently converted to civil offenses by the state. The Defendants will present a Necessity Defense. Ten Defendants will be heard on criminal charges, which were not converted, on a date yet to be set by the court. In total 32 arrests by 17 Defendants took place during the 7 weeks of logging in the Wendell State Forest. 


Friday December 6, 5 to 7pm., Springfield Climate Strike! We strike. In Springfield, at City Hall, we will hold a rally, followed by a march and an action at the office of congressman Richard Neal. We demand that he endorse the Green New Deal and sign the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge, the only federal representative in Massachusetts who hasn't done so. We are #GenGND!. Sign up for more information at bit.ly/ClimateStrikeWMass.


Friday, Dec 6, 10:30am. We strike from school and work and continue the fight for climate justice. Join us to stand for a Massachusetts Green New Deal and an end to the climate emergency! For up to date information, check out @climatestrikeMA on Instagram and Twitter. See here for resources (flyers, toolkits, and more). Contact @ClimateStrikeMA or bostonclimatestrike@gmail.com with any questions! RSVP here! See Facebook for more details. Fri, Dec 6, 10:30 am, Copley Sq, Boston.


Saturday, December 7, 10:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Racial Justice Rising and Greening Greenfield present Lighting the Way: Climate Change Theatre ActionDoors open at 9:45. First Congregational Church, 43 Silver Street, Greenfield. Free and open to the public. For free childcare, send number and ages of children to email@racialjusticerising.org

Tuesday, December 10, 6:30-8:30pm. Screening and discussion of "The Human Element". Leverett Library, Montague Road, Leverett, MA. With rare compassion and heart, THE HUMAN ELEMENT follows environmental photographer James Balog on his quest to highlight Americans on the front lines of climate change, inspiring us to re-evaluate our relationship with the natural world.  For more information contact Peggy Wolff, Leverett Climate Action Group peggylwolff@gmail.com

We're done here for now. Please remember to listen to your Mother, OK? 

 

The Enviro Show SOS

Greetings Earthlings. It's SOS time on the show. Take 'yur pick: Save Our Station or Save Our Swallows, how about both? Yes, it's Valley Free Radio's Fall Fund Drive beginning Sunday at WXOJ and Save our Swallows with Mara Silver returning to the show once again Tuesday, 6 to 7pm. and Thursday at 2pm. Save Our Swallows is having a "Stand for the Swallows" protest event to show your support for saving the unique, thriving Barn Swallow colony on Saturday Nov 16, 10 to noon, at the intersection of Rt 9 & 116 in Hadley. Also on the show we'll take you to see this week's Fool-on-the-Hill and to watch His Malignancy The Mad King sinking along with His ship of fools, as well as a reminder (as if you needed it) that It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid! But first it's time for..........Revenge of the Critters! Since certain Russian parties don't mind meddling in our affairs here in the States we take some interest in one of their bears meddling with  humans who believe they can train them.

This week's Fool-on-the-Hill is Rep. Gary Palmer Repugnican from Alabama’s Sixth District.  Palmer, in a statement announcing his appointment to the House Climate Crisis Committee, said he wants the committee to “focus on sensible solutions” but did not acknowledge a crisis and placed “climate change” in quotation marks. That’s not a surprise to some local environmental activists. Palmer was described as a “known climate denier” by the Sierra Club.

His Malignancy The Mad King took a lot of heat from the crowd at the 5th World Series game recently with booing and chants of "Lock him up!" Some of his enablers are whining about the sports fans' "incivility" conveniently forgetting about His Malignancy's near daily uncivil remarks and actions, not to mention high crimes and misdemeanors. None of this should surprise anyone who has witnessed the Repugnicans ongoing fall from grace over the past few decades. They were trained on campus as Young Repugnicans on how to be so......repugnant.  Speaking of which, The Mad King formally begins bailing from the Paris climate deal  this week. Karen Orenstein, Friends of the Earth's deputy director of economic policy noted: "When the U.S. has more sane leadership and rejoins the international community, the Paris agreement needs to be substantially more equitable and ambitious." Sane leadership, what a concept! And this: The Mad King's dark prince heading the Environmental "Protection" Agency (EPA), former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler had a surprise last week. Wheeler, who worked as a senior aide to Republican Sen. James Inhofe, one of the world's worst climate criminals, is presently engaged in gutting the very agency he heads. But surprise, a group of air pollution and public health experts reconvened to review the latest science and offer public recommendations for new air quality regulations, one year after they were fired by Wheeler! Finally, the EPA is now rolling back rules controlling toxic ash from coal plants. Surprise!

We guess you know It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid, yes? Speaking of an SOS. The present other worldly wildfires engulfing California are another climate related SOS, but did you ever think about who suffers the most during such disasters? Wait, what about the critters?? How about whether large swaths of the state becoming uninhabitable? And Common Dreams reports: "Leah Stokes, assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, criticized the corporate media for ignoring the role of the climate crisis in the fires and explained that the scientific research about what's happening in California is crystal clear." No such lack of dot connecting here on The Enviro Show!

After you make your pledge to Valley Free Radio and we hear from Mara it's on to the Bus Stop Billboard:

Saturday, November 16, 10 AM – 12pm. Stand for the Swallows Protest Event. The habitat of the largest known Barn Swallow colony in Massachusetts is in danger of destruction by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. This colony nests in an abandoned stable at Fort River Refuge in Hadley. Join us for a Stand for the Swallows protest event to show your support for saving this unique, thriving Barn Swallow colony. Stay for 10 minutes or the entire 2 hours. Bring a sign or hold one of ours. Go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/485988478677552/ 

Sunday, November 17,  1pm. the Wendell State Forest Alliance celebrates  National Take a Hike Day by inviting hikers and mountain bikers to Wendell State Forest to hear a brief talk on the Wendell Ghost Forest and to go for a hike or bike lead by Alliance members. National Take a Hike Day in the United States is an annual event .  An orientation meet-up will begin shortly after 1pm. where maps and information will be shared.  For more information email: savebrookrdforest@gmail.com 

Monday, November 18, 1-3pm  Public Meetings for Stakeholder Input on Greenhouse Gas Regulations at MassDEP’s Central Regional Office, 8 New Bond Street, Worcester, MA. If you would like to be added to the stakeholder list to receive additional information about this topic, including stakeholder meeting announcements and instructions for providing input, please email climate.strategies@mass.gov 


Tuesday, November 19, 10:30am.  The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Flag and Seal Bill (House Bill H2776 / Senate Bill S1877) will be presented at a hearing at the MA State House after a rally and press conference on the Boston Common. Go to: http://maindigenousagenda.org/state-flag-and-seal/  


Monday November 25, 7 to 9pm. Monthly Climate Action Now! Gathering. Unitarian Meetinghouse on N. Pleasant St (downtown), Amherst, MA. Go to: https://climateactionnowma.org/calendar/ 

 We're done here, but have you helped support the station that supports us? Also, remember to what? Listen to your Mother!