The Forest Futures Enviro Show?

Greetings Earthlings. Do you still believe people honor Earth Day in spite of horrors like  THIS?  Are you doing your social distancing?  Staying sheltered in? We continue to bring you the show remotely from our on-line studios and may well into the future....depending on what the future holds. Speaking of which, Joshua Strauss a forest carbon specialist at Bluesource joins us to talk about the future of forests and so-called carbon markets. That could be interesting. As always, we'll also take you for a visit with this week's Fool-on-the-Hill and with His Malignancy The Mad King and his court of climate criminals (Careful! Keep your distance) as well as a reminder "It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!" and more, but first it's time for.............Revenge of the Critters! Watch this smart-ass critter remind some dumb human about social distancing.

This week's Fool-on-the-Hill is Sen. Roy Blunt (Repugnican, MO) who has a bit of history denying the Climate Crisis. According to Business Insider:   " 'There isn't any real science to say we are altering the climate path of the earth,' Blunt said in 2009. In 2015, Blunt introduced an amendment to the Senate that sought to nullify a previous climate change agreement between the United States and China to reduce carbon emissions. In a 2017 statement, Blunt praised President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate agreement.” We guess no Missourians showed him the overwhelming evidence. 

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It's a bit of a challenge to decide which of His Malignancy's self-obsessed dangerous statements or actions should go first here but surely this one qualifies as the most ominous. After The Mad King said “When somebody’s the president of the United States, the authority is total” a recent op-ed in the New York Times pointed out: "Some of the most potent emergency powers at his [Malignancy's] disposal are likely ones we can’t know about, because they are not contained in any publicly available laws. Instead, they are set forth in classified documents known as 'presidential emergency action documents.'.......They are one of the government’s best-kept secrets. No presidential emergency action document has ever been released or even leaked."  Can you think of a worse person to have such power available?  Here's mild antidote if you're freaked out by that one: Some wings of the corporate media are pushing back harder on The Mad King's fake news. Lately CNN has run debunking chyrons during His Malignancy's blathering. If all that real fake news leaves a bad taste in your mouth try this headline: "Inspectors warn unsafe pork could makes its way to the consumer under Trump rule change".  Here's another one for our COVID Excuse Bullshit file from His Malignancy's enablers: "Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is working with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to see how to reduce wage rates for foreign guest workers on American farms, in order to help U.S. farmers struggling during the coronavirus". But wait, there's more: "a nonpartisan congressional body found that nearly 82% of benefits from a Republican tax provision in the most recent coronavirus relief package will go to the nation's millionaires and billionaires and cost taxpayers an estimated $90 billion this year alone." His Malignancy, of course, signed onto this latest bit of bullshit.

Surely none of our listeners have forgotten during COVID Daze that "It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!" We have some actual good news on this front. Some of Washington State's Gov.Inslee's climate wonks are throwing in on "forming a nonprofit called Evergreen to shape Democratic climate politics in the coronavirus era. Evergreen kicked things off by unveiling a green stimulus plan dubbed the Evergreen Action Plan that revamps Inslee’s proposals for the unique, pandemic-ravaged moment we’re in." Read about it HERE.  So, we all know those fossil fools emissions are contributing to the Climate Crisis, right?  Glen mentioned this on the show recently and now Grist reports: "Dirty air in the United States is linked to higher death rates from COVID-19, according to a new study from researchers at Harvard’s school of public health. Scientists found that people who lived in counties in with elevated levels of fine particulate matter known as PM 2.5 in the air were more likely to die from the virus." 

Here's our Enviro Show Quote of the Week: 

"Every other civilized nation in the world has been compelled to care for its forests, and so must we if waste and destruction are not to go on to the bitter end, leaving America as barren as Palestine or Spain." 
                                          - John Muir 

How about we head over to the Bus Stop Billboard: 


Saturdays 11am. Weekly Democracy Standout on the Greenfield Common w/ social distancing.  Time to reassert democracy into the public dialogue. Time to assert the right to vote, to have (and SUPPORT) a free press locally and beyond--ensuring the public’s right to know, and the facts that support democracy itself. 


Saturday May 2, 2pm. Heading for Extinction and What To do About It.  The planet is in ecological crisis: we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction event this planet has experienced. Scientists believe we may have entered a period of abrupt climate breakdown. This is an emergency. In this online talk, climate speakers from Extinction Rebellion will share the latest climate science on where our planet is heading, discuss some of the current psychology around climate change, and offer solutions through the study of social movements. Everyone is welcome and there will be time to ask questions and discuss afterward. This talk is free and will run from 2 to 3pm.
Signup here! https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUtdOGoqz0vHN0CqyNTEAAMtzZuMt6hgQxO 


Monday May 4, 6 to 9pm. The Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel will hold its third meeting of this year. In accordance with changes to Vermont Open Meeting Law in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this meeting will be conducted as a Skype webcast and teleconference.  Members of the public may join this meeting using the following weblink: https://meet.lync.com/vermontgov-vermont/anthony.leshinskie/2W0G05Y8 or by dialing-in to the following teleconference line: Phone number: (802) 552-8456 -or- (802) 738-0888. Conference Room Number: 935 865 382 (followed by the “#” sign) 

Wednesday  May 6, 4PM ET. Indian Point Zoom Closure Forum. Here's the link to sign up. 

Tuesday, May 12, 7 p.m. Climate Action Now & Save Massachusetts Forests present “Protecting our Forests in a Time of Climate Emergency & Global Pandemic - A Virtual Series” Reducing Heat Trapping Emissions from Energy Use & Storing More Carbon in Forests to Achieve a Safe Climate. Dr. William R. Moomaw: Professor Emeritus, Center for International Environment & Resource Policy at Tufts University.  Go to: http://climateactionnowma.org/

Friday May 15 Endangered Species Day! 

Tuesday, May 19, 7pm. Climate Action Now & Save Massachusetts Forests present “Our Forests: To Cut, or Not to Cut?”  Dr. Bill Stubblefield’s current focus is on the role forests can play in mitigating catastrophic climate change and biodiversity collapse. Michael Kellett is Executive Director and co-founder of RESTORE: The North Woods. Go to: http://climateactionnowma.org/

Stay safe and remember to listen to your Mother, OK? 

The Vernal Pools & Hopeless Fools Enviro Show

Greetings Earthlings. We trust you are doing well hunkered down during these trying times. We are still recording the show remotely, hopefully with better audio this time! Let's start off with an update from the last show. As you may recall, the worst recent human pandemics and epidemics all stemmed from trading or consuming animals and destroying their habitat. As the Center for Biological Diversity points out: "The solution couldn't be clearer: Ban wildlife trade to reduce disease risk and save animals from over exploitation." Now CFB has an action page you can go to HERE. Please sign in and share it with your family and friends. Onward (in place, of course): Kyla Bennett, Director, of New England Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility  joins us for a conversation on wetlands and vernal pools.  As usual, we'll take you to visit this week's Fool-on-the-Hill and His Malignancy The Mad King, being sure to keep our distance so as not to be contaminated. Also, we will give you our Enviro Show Quote of the Week and remind anyone who hasn't been listening that......"It's The Climate Crisis, Stupid!".  All that and more, but first it's time for........Revenge of the Critters!  There's a virus out their wanting to have a word with you.

Guess which Repugnican fool is back on our Fool-on-the-Hill segment? The Hill news has the answer: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)... blamed the Democrats’ push to impeach President Trump in January for distracting the Trump administration from the threat posed by the coronavirus. 'It came up while we were tied down in the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government because everything every day was all about impeachment,' McConnell said." Maybe that's #MoscowMitchMcTraitor's idea of an April Fools joke but we doubt he's fooling anyone but the low-info Repug base.

On to The Mad King! For reasons we don't fully understand His Malignancy remains cloistered in his White Castle having yet to be dragged out by his wig (or weave, or what ever is in there) by the angry mobs.You won't be surprised to discover what he's been up to during that time (besides launching hateful tweets at any hour towards his perceived enemies). We covered The Mad King's CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE regarding COVID-19 on the last show but it continues, most recently with his minions seizing at least two shipments of badly-needed medical supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic headed for our state of Massachusetts!  His Malignancy's Environmental Protection Agency, headed by coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler, announced  a sweeping and indefinite suspension of environmental rules amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic [Action link HERE]. Did we forget to mention the rollback on auto emissions? We assume Corporate America responded with more campaign contributions and some uncorking of champagne in their heavily guarded survival mansions.  Not to be outdone, The Mad Kings Interior Department is using the present crisis to ram through its dirty laundry list  of anti-environmental/pro-industry items. So, how is this behavior during a horrific disaster not LOOTING? Granted we probably won't catch His Malignancy on camera running away from a trashed store with a stolen toaster oven, but aren't he and his enablers trashing the nation's safeguards and stealing medical equipment?? 

The Enviro Show Quote of the Week is spot-on with our theme but you will need to join us for a trip in the Wayback Machine:

"What are the natural features which make a township handsome? A river, with its waterfalls and meadows, a lake, a hill, a cliff or individual rocks, a forest, and ancient trees standing singly. Such things are beautiful; they have a high use which dollars and cents never represent. If the inhabitants of a town were wise, they would seek to preserve these things, though at a considerable expense; for such things educate far more than any hired teachers or preachers, or any at present recognized system of school education."
                                                                  - Henry David Thoreau  January 3, 1861


After our talk with Kyla we take you to the Bus Stop Billboard:


April Cyber Action on the proposed Weymouth Compressor Station. "OSHA has issued a letter to Enbridge after our many complaints to FERC and to OSHA regarding the continued construction during this time of pandemic. Using these talking points  (Word | PDF) or your own, submit your comment to FERC using their “Ecomment” portal online. For a step-by-step guide on how to submit comments to FERC, click here. We strongly encourage writing your comment in a Word document first, then copying and pasting your comment into the FERC ecomment box online because the FERC website often crashes.




Wednesday, April 15, 7:00 pm EDT.    Please join the International Fund for Animal Welfare for an explaination of the link between the current COVID-19 pandemic and wildlife trade, and how IFAW works every day to help mitigate the chances for another outbreak. Stay tuned for a live question + answer segment after a brief presentation. Go HERE to register. 


Wednesday April 22 at 3 p.m. there may be a climate march from the Brattleboro Town Common to the corner of Elliot and Main streets. One of the groups that's organizing the march has a web site at www.350Vermont.org   


Saturday, May 9, 1 – 3pm. Endangered Species Parade! Pulaski Park Northampton, MA.  

Join Extinction Rebellion WMass May 9 from 1:00-3:00 (rain date May 10) in Northampton, MA as we gather in honor of all species affected by our climate crisis.  Parade with lovingly created animal puppets, masks, costumes, headdresses, etc. Dance, march, in roars or in silence, melody and dissonance: A non speech, non violent Animal Uprising. We are offering animal puppet and mask workshops. Look for workshop dates throughout March and April. Go to: https://www.facebook.com/pg/XRwmass 


Stay safe and remember to listen to your Mother, OK?