A Transparent Enviro Show

Greetings Earthlings. Longtime listeners already know we're not hiding much of anything on this show but we DO have a big problem with the lack of transparency on Beacon Hill (you know: "The place where legislation goes to die"?).  Matt Miller, Co-Founder of Act on Mass joins us to talk about "A serious lack of transparency on Beacon Hill means you usually don’t know how your representatives voted . It means you can go to a hearing to support legislation but then watch helplessly while the committee kills that bill without any reason given." and more. Act on Mass is a rapidly growing campaign that seeks to undo the seemingly endless lack of transparency in our state government, something we've been going on about here seemingly forever. As always, we will bring you along to visit this week's Fool-on-the-Hill and to witness His Malignancy The Mad King and his lunatic enablers as they rampage through government and the planet. We'll also remind anyone who has not been listening that "It's the Climate crisis, Stupid!" but first it's time for.......Revenge of the Critters! Be thankful you didn't suffer from a TURKEY ATTACK this year?

This week's Fool-on-the-Hill Tommy Tuberville, the incoming Repugnican senator from Alabama, didn’t seem to learn much about World War II while in school or from his father who actually was there. Intelligencer reports: Tuberville's father was "an American G.I. who landed on Normandy Beach in D-Day and drove a tank across western Europe, earning five bronze stars and a Purple Heart at the Battle of the Bulge during his deployment." Maybe Tommy was estranged from his dad and they seldom spoke?
Tuberville did not seem familiar with the politics of the European theater: In his speech, the new senator described how his father took part in “liberating Paris from socialism and communism.” [insert hysterical laughter here]

Speaking of fascists, His Malignancy The Mad King has appointed two white nationalists to government  since losing the election. HuffPo reports: "Darren J. Beattie, a former White House speechwriter fired in 2018 after it was revealed he’d spoken at a white nationalist conference, announced Wednesday that Trump had appointed him to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. [!] On Nov. 13, [His Malignancy] also appointed Jason Richwine — a policy analyst pushed out of a conservative think tank for writing that Mexican and other Latino immigrants have lower IQs than white people — to a senior position at the National Institute of Standards and Technology." Not to be outdone by small time racist nazis, The Mad King's U.S. Forest Service "in its waning days, has embarked on a rushed effort to transfer ownership of Arizona’s Oak Flat to a mining company with ties to the destruction of an Aboriginal site in Australia, the Guardian has learned." And, of course, this: "The Arctic is the latest victim of the outgoing president’s post-defeat tantrum, as the Trump administration takes steps to advance oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. [Last] Tuesday, the Bureau of Land Management’s Alaska office [was] set to publish request for nominations on the refuge’s coastal plain, letting fossil fuel companies suggest which pieces of the protected land should be auctioned off for extraction."  Presumably the winner of our recent election will reverse all this in spite of his friendliness with the fossil fools? Why not ask! Let's close with this obvious observation in the New York Times: "A succession of Trump policies reflected the administration’s spite and heartlessness." In others words: Classic Fascism.

Just in case you've been off planet for the last five or six decades it's time to point out "It's the Climate crisis, Stupid!" With that in mind, it looks like our old arch nemesis, Will Nukem is out there pimping for fake "climate action" in this locally produced video . We know about his tricks and so does Deb Katz one of our favorite nukebusters and sometime guest on this show. And this in case you missed it, this from Inside Climate News: "President-elect Joe Biden affirmed climate change as a top priority on Monday, selecting former Secretary of State John Kerry to serve as a special envoy for climate, and giving him a seat on the National Security Council. Kerry, who served 28 years in the U.S. Senate before becoming secretary of state under President Barack Obama, was in France five years ago helping negotiate  the landmark Paris climate accord. Now his task will be not only to bring the United States back into that deal but to lead a push for more ambitious commitments to cut carbon emissions worldwide, as Biden has said he hopes to do."  

After our conversation with Matt it's off to the Bus Stop Billboard: 

Tuesday Decemberb 15, 4 to 5:30pm.  Saying Yes to Wildlands & Woodlands.  How can New England best protect its forests as the region sits at the precipice of climate change, biodiversity loss, development, and forest fragmentation? The answer to this question often falls in one of two camps: either conserve forests as working lands that provide timber and other forest products, or protect them as wildlands without timber harvesting. In this critical and timely discussion, two region-wide conservation organizations who approach forest protection from seemingly opposite ends of the spectrum will show how the strategies of protecting wildlands (forests largely left in a natural and undisturbed condition) and woodlands (forests managed to provide wood products) are not in conflict, but can in fact be complementary. Zoom registration HERE. 

Wednesday December 9 10:00am–12:30pm. AG Healey's Virtual Teach-in on Energy Markets. Meant to help electricity users like you better understand the role of ISO New England, and how decisions are made about the markets today and in the future as we transition to affordable clean energy. To learn more, check out our new informational video, which includes a link to register for the event.  Registration is free and open to all. 

Wednesday, December 9, 7-8:45 pm. Pioneer Valley Citizen's Climate Lobby Monthly Meeting  
Where: By Zoom, click here for link.  Contact lorasandhusen@gmail.com, peterthunfors@hotmail.com; adonson@umass.edu, or markdhart56@gmail.com. 

Wednesday, December 16, 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm. “Protecting the Mystic River Watershed from Climate Change”.  Mystic River Watershed Association (MyWRA), facilitates outstanding research, citizen science, and regional collaboration to protect and restore the Mystic, mitigate climate change, and protect people and places in the watershed by Boston from the negative consequences of climate change. Register here!  

Monday December 28, 7 to 9pm. Monthly Climate Action Now! Gathering. We’ve been have wonderful virtual gatherings via ZOOM during the time of COVID closure. Look out for zoom registration details before the next meeting in our newsletter or on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/ClimateActionNowMA 

That is all.......for now. Please remember to listen to your Mother.

Another 5G Enviro Show

Greetings Earthlings. A Verizon ad just popped up on our screen this morning reading, “The 5G America’s been waiting for”......really?? Does "America" actually know much about 5G? "5G is the fifth generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks, which cellular phone companies began deploying worldwide in 2019, and is the planned successor to the 4G networks which provide connectivity to most current cellphones", Wikipedia tells us. Our guests on this show, Cecelia (Cece) Doucette, Technology Safety Educator Director at Massachusetts for Safe Technology and Founder of Understanding EMFs and Kirstin Beatty of Last Tree Laws will tell us what outfits like Verison probably won't. Of course, we'll also bring you along to witness this week's Fool-on-the-Hill and His Malignancy the Sore Loser Mad King and the enablers do their worst for this beleaguered nation and the planet. And then we remind anyone who thinks otherwise that"It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!" That and more but first it's time for.........Revenge of the Critters! This week it's kind of a one degree of separation revenge?

We have a special Thanksgiving Enviro Show Echo Chamber moment in the form of a video interview between Larry Spotted Crow and State Senator Jo Comerford speaking about Larry's book "The Mourning Road to Thanksgiving".  While you are giving thanks, hopefully with some of your loved ones, take time to consider America's Original Sin on this 400th anniversary of the Mayflower landing on our shores. 

This week's Fool-on-the-Hill is Repugnican Representative Don Bacon who managed to get reelected in Nebraska in spite of his foolishness.  Grist informs us: "Bacon’s campaign has received more donations from agribusiness than almost any other industry this year, including $11,000 from chemical giant Honeywell International Inc. and $1,000 apiece from fertilizer manufacturers Corteva Agriscience and Syngenta Corp., according to data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. In Congress, he has repeatedly voted against water infrastructure bills, including legislation in January to mandate federal support to clean up and regulate perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, the cancer-causing pollutants known as PFAS, or “forever chemicals.” The chemicals, which do not biodegrade, are as yet unregulated in Nebraska."  Another fool returns to The Hill! 

After all we've been through these past years it's hard to believe we may, in theory, be finally rid of His Malignancy The Mad King and his enablers in less than two months, but not before he spews his off-the-rails b.s. all over the map, encourages his delusional followers to do their worst, and perhaps even tries to declare a national emergency and marshal law to cling to power. On the other hand, if His Malignancy is not able to garner enough support for a coup from the usual suspects he just might flee the country to avoid likely prosecution in New York and hole up in some other country run by one of his favorite autocrats. Frankly, here on The Enviro Show we're hoping for a good old fashioned alien abduction in which The Grays descend in the dead of night and take off with the lot of them.....are you guys reading this? Hello out there! 

Finally, is there anyone out there who doesn't know "It's the Climate crisis, Stupid!"?  That's not counting most of the Repugnican Party of course, a party that may well be doomed for a much deserved fall into oblivion, not just for their climate denial but for their traitorous disregard for the Constitution and common human decency. Speaking of climate denial how about its exact opposite, Climate Crisis acceptance? It seems Australia’s top climate scientist, "Australian National University emeritus professor Will Steffen says 'we are already deep into the trajectory towards collapse' of civilization, which may now be inevitable because 9 of the 15 known global climate tipping points that regulate the state of the planet have been activated. This is not a unique view – leading Stanford University biologists, who were first to reveal that we are already experiencing the sixth mass extinction on Earth, released new research this week showing species extinctions are accelerating in an unprecedented manner, which may be a tipping point for the collapse of human civilisation." reports Resilience.org 

Perhaps the best response to the above grim report is our Quote of the Week!  

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.    ~ John F. Kennedy

After our conversation with Cecelia and Kirstin we take you to the Bus Stop Billboard:

 

Friday November 27 Black Earth Friday (online) - Join us for a night of community-oriented fun. We are creating a space which promotes gratitude in place of consumerism. We will fold origami of endangered species and write what we are most grateful for. 

Sunday November 29 Santa's Underwater (Newburyport) Newburyport Market Square is a quaint area for Christmas shopping. Come dress up as an elf or reindeer (we have costumes) to paddle around the square in cardboard kayaks. We will connect to people through humor and the maybe too real joke that Santa's workshop will be underwater soon.

Monday November 30, 7 to 8:30pm. Climate Action Now Monthly Meeting - Our Path Forward, Intensifying Our Efforts from the Local to the National.  Register here in advance:
https://us02web.zoom.us/.../tZMtcuGsqT8vEtGpw5eF6Tz6ZhAot
You will receive a confirmation email containing your link for joining the meeting 

Tuesday, December 1, 7:00 to 8:30pm. Soil Health and Carbon Sequestration, Beyond Stopping Emissions: How Healthy Soil and Plants Can Help Restore Climate Balance. Register in advance for this meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing the link for joining the meeting.  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcpdeugqT4sGtQQC6WGPuSflT-DpvWV5XIo  

Thursday December 3, 12 to 1pm. "Small Dam Removal: Lessons Learned from 20 Years Worth of Dam Removal in Massachusetts". Speaker: Nick Wildman (CERP), Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration. Regulations and funding sources for river restoration vary considerably across each of the 50 United States of America. In Massachusetts, a state with over 3,000 dams, dam removal has been employed as a means to restore riverine ecological processes and eliminate public safety liabilities since around 1999. Over the last 20 years, more than 60 dams have been removed in the state with approximately 50 of those involving the state’s Division of Ecological Restoration. This presentation will describe the evolution of the practice of dam removal in Massachusetts including lessons learned, ecological and community benefits realized, and the goals and challenges for expanding the practice in the future. MORE & REGISTER

Wednesday December 9 10:00am–12:30pm. AG Healey's Virtual Teach-in on Energy Markets. Meant to help electricity users like you better understand the role of ISO New England, and how decisions are made about the markets today and in the future as we transition to affordable clean energy. To learn more, check out our new informational video, which includes a link to register for the event.  Registration is free and open to all. 

Wednesday, December 9, 7-8:45 pm. Pioneer Valley Citizen's Climate Lobby Monthly Meeting  
Where: By Zoom, click here for link.  Contact lorasandhusen@gmail.com, peterthunfors@hotmail.com; adonson@umass.edu, or markdhart56@gmail.com. 

Wednesday, December 16, 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm. “Protecting the Mystic River Watershed from Climate Change”.  Mystic River Watershed Association (MyWRA), facilitates outstanding research, citizen science, and regional collaboration to protect and restore the Mystic, mitigate climate change, and protect people and places in the watershed by Boston from the negative consequences of climate change. Register here! 

That is all.......for now. Please remember to listen to your Mother.

 

Pay the Piper Enviro Show 2020

Greetings Earthlings. Once again it's time to pay the piper, that being our flagship station WXOJ-lp, Valley Free Radio where this show began 15 years ago. It's VFR's Fall Fund Drive and we are hoping you will step up and help support the place "Where Free Speech is In the Air" by going HERE and making your pledge to help us keep on keeping on. With that in mind, we'll keep this blog going on about this week's Fool-on-the-Hill and that loser, His Malignancy The Mad King, not to mention his climate criminal enablers as. Did someone say climate? Yes, we'll also remind anyone who may have been off-planet that "It's Still the Climate Crisis, Stupid!" All that and more on the blog but first it's time for........Revenge of the Critters! Golfers Beware: Critters may be onto your game.

This week's Fool-on-the-Hill is none other than Georgia Repugnican Sen. David Perdue. Perdue was one of several Repugs who used information they gained in early briefings on The Hill about Covid-19 to sell and buy stocks. We used to call that insider trading but now it's just business-as-usual, apparently. Last Spring on a call with local business owners, Perdue defended his state's ill-advised reopening by downplaying the risks of the pandemic that then had claimed 80,000 U.S. citizens saying: "We've had ordinary flu seasons with more deaths than we're seeing now in this one."  A lie. 

On to His Malignancy The Mad King who has, since April, uttered more than 150 lies concerning "fraudulent ballots" or the alleged dangers of mail-in voting in the presidential election he thankfully lost. Many of Trump’s tweets have been covered by Twitter with a warning that they contain inaccurate information about the electoral process. Surprise! Besides being a liar and an outright monster in the twisted world of U.S. politics, His Malignancy and the enablers continue the vicious assault on Mother Earth, the most horrific example recently being opening the pristine Tongas National Forest to logging. But wait, there's more! Inside Climate New reports: "..climate scientists are bracing for the potential disruption of NOAA's climate work with the appointment of two prominent climate science deniers and a former campaign official for [His Malignancy] to top agency positions this fall." The piece names names starting with "David Legates, a University of Delaware geography and climatology professor who works closely with anti-climate action advocacy groups like the Heartland Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, [and] has been especially critical of the agency that he will now help run......
Legates has a mix of views on climate change that are particularly dismissive of the work of NOAA. He doesn't accept the accuracy of the data gathered by NOAA and others showing that the planet is warming, but he also argues that warming of the planet will help civilization to thrive." Read the piece linked above for more of these usual suspects. And this: Win Without War reports Thev Mad King "is rushing to build up the U.S. nuclear arsenal and laying groundwork that will last generations: considering restarting nuclear testing, exploring how long it takes to load weapons on to submarines, and starting a 30-year, trillion dollar spending spree on a new nuclear bomber, submarine, ICBM system, and air-launch cruise missile." We could go on and surely there will be outrages before he's driven out of the White House in January but let's take a moment to celebrate his dethroning by way of your votes and righteous anger. 

 

"It's Still the Climate Crisis, Stupid!" but the present occupants of the White House just officially pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement . A Biden presidency will, of course, rescind that lame-ass move. Meanwhile, as you were fixated on the U.S. elections, Grist reports: "While the U.S. Gulf Coast is poised to set a new record for the highest number of named storms in a single calendar year, the Pacific Ocean is dealing with its own superlative weather worries. Typhoon Goni slammed into the Philippines on Sunday with peak winds of nearly 200 mph, killing at least 20 people and displacing more than 350,000. It was Earth’s most powerful storm of 2020"  The report adds: "Thanks to...anomalous temperatures — which are a product of climate change — climate scientists say similar superstorms could happen eight times more often by the end of the century."  Enough.

Did we mention the Valley Free Radio Fall Fund Drive starts Sunday? You can help The Enviro Show and our mother ship WXOJ-lp by sending your much needed donation HERE. Then hit the back button and see about upcoming event here on the Bus Stop Billboard:  

Tuesday November 17, 6:30pm.   “Climate Policy: You Can Change It!” In 2021, we expect to have new opportunities to influence real legislative action on GHG emissions and climate change. NOW is the time to prepare for a big push!!The Elders Climate Action Education Committee will host three workshops to equip and inspire you to influence climate policies in your community, and at the state and federal levels. Whether you are an experienced advocate for change or new to this important work, YOU have the power to be influential. YOUR unique skills, built over a lifetime, are needed to create the future we want for our children and grandchildren. Each 90-minute workshop features a different level of government and corporate engagement. Register HERE  

 Monday November 23, 7 to 9pm.  Climate Action Now Monthly Gathering. We alternate between Northampton and Amherst on the 4th MONDAY evening of each month from 7-9 pm (or til 8:30 if it’s a virtual gathering).  All are welcome!  Go to: http://climateactionnowma.org/   

That is all.......for now. Please remember to listen to your Mother.

The See You In Court Enviro Show

Greetings Earthlings. We are devoting the entire show this week to an interview Glen and our friend Gia Neswald did with the crew at Occupy the Airwaves on Valley Free Radio in early September. The interview starts with an overview of the court case between members of the Wendell State Forest Alliance and the Department of Cut and Run......sorry, we mean "Conservation" and Recreation prompted by the action last year in the Wendell State Forest. That said, we will still treat you to the usual tricks by our Fool-on-the-Hill, His Malignancy The Mad King and his crazed enablers from the Super Spreader Repugnican Death Cult, but first it's time for...........Revenge of the Critters! Another selfie obsessed human takes a hit during the running of bulls.  

Another Enviro Show first! We have the same Fool-on-the-Hill as last time. Yes, it's Utah Repugnican Mike Lee who may as well don the cap and bells 'cuz he is one sorry fool. During a Senate hearing last Wednesday, Sen. Mike Lee said fact-checking is a form of censorship. Say what?? You know the old saying about facts, right Mike? “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” 

Here's a fact: His Malignancy The Mad King is also the COVID Super Spreader-in-Chief.  We don't much care if his far-right supporters get sick and die but their freedom to go to these fascist bund rallies without masks and social distancing doesn't include the right to spread the pandemic to others who wouldn't dream of setting foot in their Repugnican Death Cult hate fests. Speaking of hate, we hate to inform you that The Mad King has just opened the gates to “fully exempt the Tongass National Forest from the 2001 Roadless Rule,” which would open the 9 million acres of pristine public land to extractive development. The NY Times reports: "Environmentalists say that it could devastate a vast wilderness of snowy peaks, rushing rivers and virgin old-growth forest that is widely viewed as one of America’s treasures. Climate scientists also point out that the Tongass, which is also one of the world’s largest temperate rain forests, offers an important service to the billions of people across the planet who are unlikely to ever set foot there: It is one of the world’s largest carbon sinks, absorbing about 8 percent of the planet-warming carbon dioxide pollution emitted by the United States." Here is an Enviro Show Action Link on that travesty. Wait there's more! His Malignancy is also fighting in federal court to block states from giving billions of dollars in emergency food stamps to the lowest-income Americans during the coronavirus crisis. We could go on and on with The Mads King's endless cruelties but we don't want to distract you from masking up and showing up to vote him out. Onward!

In The Enviro Show Echo Chamber we repeat Common Dreams coverage of a study "the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), released...in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, which has heightened warnings about the dire consequences of humanity's "absolute disrespect for animals and the environment," in the words of world renowned conservationist Jane Goodall earlier this year." The study
"shows an average 68% decrease in population sizes of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish between 1970 and 2016." So, with 4 more years under the reign of The Mad King you can bet it's far worse today. 

Finally, a reminder as if you needed it...."It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!"  Sticking with Common Dreams, we note this piece titled "Stark New Visualizations Show How Climate Change Is Fueling Worsening Western Wildfires" It seems "Every year, millions of acres of land are consumed by fire in the United States," the group says in a report....By raising temperatures, melting snow sooner, and drying soils and forests, climate change is fueling the problem." Surprised? Nah! 

Here's our Bus Stop Billboard for the immediate future: 

Saturday November 7, 1:30 to 3:30pm. Stand Up and March for Democracy. Northampton TBA. If the Trump administration tries to steal the election or prevent every vote from being counted, the grassroots Protect the Results organization will help mobilize citizen actions across the country, including this event, to demand that all the votes be counted and for the peaceful transition of power. Go HERE. 

g

Wednesday November 11, 7 to 8pm. Green Zoning Webinar.  MCAN is hosting a webinar on green zoning in Massachusetts, both current successes and future possibilities. Members of Green and Open Somerville will speak about their roles as advocates in pushing for increased green spaces and other sustainable policies in Somerville's most recent zoning overhaul. Dan Bartman, senior planner for the City of Somerville, will discuss his experience working within municipalities to create more sustainable and resilient cities through zoning. And Kathryn Wright, the Programs Director for Building Energy at the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, will talk about models of green zoning in other states and what that could mean for Massachusetts. Please join us for a thoughtful and inspiring evening to learn about how you can make your city even greener!  RSVP here for information about the sign-in and log-on information.

Thursday, November 12,  6 pm. Environmental Policy in Historical Perspective: The 2020 Elections & the Future of the Planet.  We have only a few years left to make deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. This event will reflect on the implications of the U.S. election results for meeting this imperative. What are the prospects for a Green New Deal and other urgently needed measures, in the United States and beyond?  How can the destructive power of the fossil fuel industries be neutralized?  Panelists like Bill McKibbens and others will analyze the current moment while also offering a historical perspective on environmental policy and movements.  REGISTER HERE TO JOIN BY ZOOM
bit.ly/feinberg-nov12  

 Monday November 23, 7 to 9pm.  Climate Action Now Monthly Gathering. We alternate between Northampton and Amherst on the 4th MONDAY evening of each month from 7-9 pm (or til 8:30 if it’s a virtual gathering).  All are welcome!  Go to: http://climateactionnowma.org/   

That is all.......for now. Please remember to listen to your Mother.