[ Our podcast of this show is https://rss.com/podcasts/enviroshow/1606260 ]
Greetings Earthlings. The term "Natural Solutions" has been coming up quite a bit lately here in the old Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at Elders Climate Action there's a Natural Solutions Working Group and at the ever dubious Nature Conservancy they were quick to co-opt the term for their own corporate ends. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology was paying attention during COVID but what about here & now as the Climate Crisis ramps up and bogus or no solutions press in on us? Marta Vicarelli, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst joins us to explore the obvious and more (1) & (2). As always, we will also introduce you to this week's Fool-on-the-Hill and "Those Whose Brains Were small" as well as to our Critter of the Week and more but first it's time for........Revenge of the Critters! Yet another poacher learns the hard way.
Here's a headline that might grab some attention for those who refuse to believe "It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!" It reads: "Study finds major Earth systems likely on track to collapse". Now, here on The Enviro Show we try somewhat to be calm and levelheaded. We don't feel doom & gloom is really constructive, that said LOOK AT THIS!! (Sorry, it's actually how we roll). The findings? "The Nature study found that the four “pillars” it focused on — the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current (AMOC), the Amazon rainforest and the vast but melting Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets — are interconnected, like a row of dominoes." Game on.....but where? It turns out the dictatorial petrostate Azerbaijan is hosting the next annual climate summit, COP29. What could possibly go wrong? Maybe a "a technique that encourages the growth of microscopic algae, which eat carbon dioxide and then squirrel it away in the ocean’s depths for decades or even centuries"? Read the op-ed. You decide. Finally, can we get back to talking about increased methane emissions?Guess which corporados are responsible for the increase? Guess what we can do about but are not doing it?
Thanks to Michael Kellett of Restore the North Woods for bringing this to our attention. The MA Department of Fish & Game gets our "Their Brains Were Small and they Died" dinosaur award for backward thinking. Michael points out in their 2025-2030 Strategic Plan the hook & bullet crowd "..is all-in on logging, burning, and other intensive forest
“management” to increase “resilience.” This includes “exploring” the
experimental and unproven concept of “assisted migration” (i.e., cutting
down native trees and planting exotic species instead) and almost
quadrupling the acreage of “prescribed” burning from 1,300 to 5,000 acres per year by 2030" That's just one example of the small minded ideas coming from that bunch who don't need an asteroid to destroy our environment, they can do it on their own. 😒 O wait, we have the West Coast edition HERE!
We are still Abidin' with Biden this week and his Veep, the soon to be first woman President of the United States of America. According to The Guardian Harris is all in on fighting climate change and more: "When we spoke, Harris demonstrated a depth I didn’t expect – she geeked out over heat pumps, confessed her love of electric school buses and described the heavy burdens poorer communities face from air pollution. The more I learned about her background, the more I found a clear pattern: policy ideas that she championed became central to federal legislation. Our nation’s landmark climate law, which is turning two years old this month, has Harris’s signature all over it." wrote columnist Leah Stokes. With a few disturbing exceptions, Biden's recent climate record is a welcome change. As for Harris' choice for her own Veep, Tim Walz gets points from the NY Times: "Walz “has quietly emerged as one of the nation’s most forceful advocates for tackling climate change.”
Our Critter of the Week this time around? Sharks, all sorts of sharks as featured in this amazing piece in the New Yorker. We wish we could just repost it in full here but space does not allow. How about we just give you a taste: "The sharks have been guided not just by their keen sense of smell (they can detect odor molecules in dilutions as low as ten parts per billion) but also by their lateral line, sensors along the body which alert them to infinitesimal changes in pressure hundreds of yards away—they, more than any of us, can read the pulse of the ocean. They are guided, too, as Daniel C. Abel notes in his lively new book, “Sharkpedia”..., by their ampullae of Lorenzini, receptors that pick up those electric fields which all animals emit." Did I mention Sharks have on the planet long before us Humans?
In The Enviro Show Echo Chamber we repeat the words of Mass Audubon's "Growing Solar, Protecting Nature" Given the group's past history with support for logging, I was skeptical but a careful reading of the site has me wondering, did I miss something? Let's ask Glen what he thinks when he reads text like this: "Unfortunately, Massachusetts’ current pattern of solar development is causing unnecessary harm to nature. Since 2010, over 5,000 acres of natural and working lands have been destroyed for solar development in Massachusetts". And this: "New Leaf Energy nixes battery Storage Project" in Wendell, MA. New Leaf was going for old-school deforestation to site hazard prone battery storage but locals pushed back proving yet again "When we fight we win". And this: "The Center for Biological Diversity and allies just won a lawsuit against a federal program allowing insecticide spraying on millions of acres in 17 western states. 👍
Time for our Quote of the Week:
“Climate change isn’t an ‘issue’ to add to the list of things to worry about, next to health care and taxes. It is a civilizational wake-up call. A powerful message – spoken in the language of fires, floods, droughts, and extinctions – telling us that we need an entirely new economic model and a new way of sharing this planet. Telling us we need to evolve”
– Naomi Klein,
After our conversation with Marta it's on to the Bus Stop Billboard:
Saturday Aug 24, 10am - 3:30 pm. Please join the Sierra Club Massachusetts Chapter, RESTORE: The North Woods, and Save Massachusetts Forests on an educational 2 mile walk through an undisturbed forest and a recent logging site on the Quabbin Watershed public lands. After the walk, we will be offering an option to take a 3 - 5 mi hike through a beautiful northern hardwood forest with stunning views of the Quabbin Reservoir. We will be discussing at the event the Quabbin Reservoir, its history, the watershed public lands, their benefits, as well as floral, fauna and climate action. We will also be speaking about the MA Chapter Forest Protection team’s campaign to end logging on the state lands of the Quabbin, Ware, and Wachusett watersheds. Sign the petition here. RSVP Here.
Tuesday August 27, 7pm. Climate Action Now Summer Gathering via zoom. Vote for the Climate and a Livable Future: Mobilizing for the 2024 Elections. The 2024 election will determine the fate of our climate, our democracy and our lives. How can we fully engage our networks to act strategically at this pivotal moment? Go HERE.
Friday August 30, Noon. Boston XR Bourne Bridge Standout. Bourne Bridge, Bourne, MA. Every Labor Day Weekend the traffic heading into Cape Cod brings the entrance to the Cape at Bourne Bridge to a halt. Thousands of people in their cars sit in idling traffic heading to their vacation weekend on one of the country's most vulnerable geographical areas to the effects of climate change. This is a great opportunity to get some outreach to the thousands of people that have nothing else do while they idle but give us their attention. Let's give them some entertainment and alert them to the fragility of the beach areas we know and love and want to protect. It's a climate emergency: declare it and act like it. Go HERE.
Monday September 2, 6 pm to 7:30 pm. XR Boston's next online Non-Violent Direct Action training You will learn how to engage in non-violent civil disobedience. We'll cover some theory behind direct actions, discuss the logistics of arrest and potential legal implications, and talk about the many different roles (beyond risking arrest) that are crucial to successful actions. You will get to talk to a few people who have gone through the arrest process and ask questions you might have. Register here for your Zoom info.
September 7 - 12, 2024. How to Help End Plastic Pollution. Plastic pollution is problem we can solve together. Our online grassroots organizing training consists of two sessions (each two hours long). Go HERE.
Wednesday September 18, 1pm. Artificial Turf: Research on Plastic Pollution, PFAS, and Health Concerns. Recent research has shed additional light on the loss of plastic fragments and particles into the environment, health and environmental threats associated with chemicals in waste tire materials, and the presence of PFAS in artificial turf. In this webinar, Dr. William de Haan will discuss a 2023 study that measured the presence of artificial turf fibers in surface waters, Susan Chapnick will explore how individual communities are working to monitor and protect wetlands and water resources, and Dr. Rachel Massey will briefly summarize human health concerns and explain efforts to test artificial turf for the presence of PFAS. RSVP here.
Saturday 21 September 2024. Global Protest, Mothers Rebellion for Climate Justice. The climate crisis is not slowing down! Mothers* Rebellion is planning our next global protest, save the date and check in our social media outlets and here for updates. Go HERE.
Monday September 23, 2 pm. The Global Stakes. No story is more global than climate change. No story is as consequential for future generations. As world leaders gather for the United Nations General Assembly this September, Washington Post Live will explore the course of climate change across all seven continents, one at a time. Register HERE.
All that's it BUT remember to listen to your Mother!
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