UPDATE: Entire Enviro Show Podcast - Listen Anytime!
Greetings Earthlings. It's time for Part II of our coverage of the"Report of the Climate Forestry Committee: Recommendations for Climate-Oriented Forest Management Guidelines."This time with excerpts from three of the scientists on that Committee who participated in a Trees as a Public Good event recently: Richard Birdsey, Senior Scientist, Woodwell Climate Research Center; David Foster, Former Harvard Forest Director; Professor, Harvard University; and William Moomaw, Professor Emeritus, International Environmental Policy, Fletcher School, Tufts University and Distinguished Visiting Scientist Woodwell Climate Research Center. They will be responding to questions from TreesPG and area legislators. As always, we will also present you with this week's Fool-on-the-Hill and Those Whose Brains are Small, along with a reminder that "It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!" and more but first it's time for..........Revenge of the Critters! Dogs 'take revenge' on man who kicked canine by attacking his car.
This week's Fool-on-the-Hill is Texas extremist Repugnican Tommy Tuberville (He of the blocking military promotions schemes). Here's a conversation between him and Defense Secretary Austin in the NY Post: "Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin became visibly frustrated Tuesday as Republicans on the Senate Armed Services committee criticized him for leftist Pentagon policies and programs, including a 2021 stand down to address extremism in the ranks. “As one of your first acts, Mr. Secretary, you put our military – every single member, active duty and Reserve – to a mandatory training to root out extremists,” [Extremist] Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said during a hearing on the Defense Department’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2024. “That sent a message … that our military is filled with extremists.” “Our military is one of the most diverse organizations in the world,” Tuberville added. “It is full of patriots.” Defending the stand down, Austin said, “we’ve always had regulations against extremist behavior.” It is what it is, Tommy.
Remember our reports on the COP28 shit show presided over by some oil sheik who seems not to really know "It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!" ? Well, guess whose supposed to head the next shit show, COP29? "another veteran of the oil and gas industry. Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s ecology and natural resources minister, has been appointed the president-in-waiting for the Cop29 climate talks when they take place in the country in November. Before his entry into politics in the autocratic country in western Asia, once a Soviet republic, Babayev spent 26 years working for the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic." Surprise! And this: Climate Chaos brings flooding nearly everywhere. Checkout this story from Grist: "Climate change means communities along the Mississippi River are experiencing longer and higher floods in springtime, flash flooding from heavy rains, as well as prolonged droughts.". Much of has to do with working against Nature in the past instead of working with it. Finally this: "In a scorching year, scientists wonder if climate change is speeding up" Really? Wonder no more, folks!
AND, no surprise here: "Davos puts climate on the back burner" seems like a perfect candidate for "There Brains Were Small and They Died" but they didn't....yet. Why stop there? "The Rich Are the Ones Burning the Planet" Where we read: "Research repeatedly shows that expanding inequality is intimately tied up with the destruction of the planet. We can’t save the world without taking on the rich." Game on!
A quick trip to our Enviro Show Echo Chamber here. Remember that new fracked gas pipeline Evilsource ........err, we mean Eversource wants to ram through Springfield & Longmeadow? Guess what? It's still a thing. Checkout this excellent video. There is a FINAL CALL to sign their petition to the Gov. HERE.
Here's our Enviro Show Quote of the Week from some of the climate scientists quoted above:
"Allowing mature and old-growth forests to continue growing will remove from the air and store the largest amount of atmospheric carbon in the critical decades ahead. The sooner logging of these forests ceases, the more climate protection they can provide."
After hearing from our science panel it's on to the Bus Stop Billboard:
Thursday February 1, 8:30pm. There are bills now before the MA legislature that will protect public forests and expand the urban tree canopy. Trees As A Public Good will be sponsoring a phone-banking session to call legislators all over the state. We will provide phone scripts and assist participants in calling and leaving messages for their state legislators. Use this link to join our phone-banking session.
This is our LAST chance to go on record for the need to change the incentives - away from building solar on natural lands that offer resiliency and carbon storage and sequestration to building solar on disturbed lands and the built environment. Your action can make the difference between protecting or losing our forestlands! Go HERE. !
Friday, February 2, Groundhog Day Actions will draw on the theme of being stuck in place, making no progress. The Strategy and Action Circle is creating action plans, messaging, templates, and documents,
but chapters are encouraged to choose their own time, location, and
action specifics. We will be sending out regular updates as plans
develop, but in the meantime please contact the Chapter Support and
Engagement Working Group at xrus_chapter_engagement@
Friday February 2, 12pm. Keep Connecticut's Climate Promise March. Old Statehouse, 800 Main Street, Hartford, CT. For more info contact CT Sierra Club 860-773-2249 or ann.gadwah@sierraclub.org
Friday February 2, 2-3pm. Climate Accountability Community Briefing.
REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED for this event. The
agenda will include updates from both organizations and a specialized
presentation courtesy of UCS, followed by Q&A and discussion. Dr. Carly Phillips
will dive into an overview of attribution science, which works to
distinguish the role of climate change in particular weather events and
patterns, and what emission sources are contributing to climate change.
Attribution science also seeks to answer: How much did climate change
contribute to a wildfire, heat event, or hurricane; Where are the
sources of pollutants causing climate change; And, what role does this
research play in climate litigation? REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED for this event.
Sunday February 4, 3 p.m. Screening of the film "Burned" by Cummington native son, filmmaker Alan Dater and co-filmmaker Lisa Merton. Dater, Merton and Dr. Mary S. Booth will also participate in a round-table discussion at the Cummington Community House, 33 Main Street, Cummington, MA.
Monday February 5, 2pm. “Killed for Fashion: How to Help End Fur Farming in the US,” Animals
killed for their fur are confined to crowded, dirty cages for their
entire lives. They suffer from the moment they’re born until their
premature deaths. Advocates
around the world are fighting to end the fur industry through policy
and grassroots activism. Learn about their work at our next webinar. Go HERE.
February 7th, and February 21, 6:30pm. Feeling starved for discourse about climate philosophy? You're
in good company! Starting on January 10th, members of XR Boston are
leading a Climate Philosophy seminar every-other-Wednesday at the Democracy Center (45 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge, MA). RSVP at this calendar link for more information and to ensure that we order enough pizza for you!
Thursday, February 22, 7pm until 10pm (Doors open at 6pm). 50th Anniversary Celebration of Lovejoy's Nuclear War. 50 years of No Nukes on the Montague Plains. On February 22nd, 1974, Sam Lovejoy, on a dark and frosty night, brought down the 500 foot meteorological tower erected by Northeast Utilities on the Montague Plains and ignited a national movement against the construction of nuclear reactors and the use of atomic power. For Tickets & further info go HERE.
Friday February 23, 7pm. The Kwinitekw/Quonektikut: Rights of Nature for the Long River. Presented by Hartman Deetz, Mashpee Wampanoag citizen, activist, and artist.will give a presentation about the Rights of Nature work and successes he has been a part of. Greenfield Community College Dining Commons, College Drive, Greenfield, MA. Go HERE.
Sunday February 25, 2-3 pm. The MA Division of Water Supply Protection will hold a event called Understanding Watershed Forestry Management. This will be a hybrid event, with an in-person event held at the Quabbin Reservoir Visitor Center, broadcast virtually on Zoom. Have you ever wondered why trees are harvested on protected watershed land and why recently harvested areas look the way they do? Curious how active management of a forest can increase diversity and maintain forest health? Join DCR Quabbin-Ware Region Chief Forester Ken Canfield to learn about the benefits of a managed forest and the objectives and conditions that dictate when, where, and how trees are harvested. The event is free, but seating is limited and reservations are required. Click here for the registration form, and make sure to indicate if you plan to attend in person or remotely.
That all folks! Please remember to listen to your Mother, OK?
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