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. 

-->

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?