Blog Archive

Thursday, September 12, 2024

A Pushing Back Enviro Show

 Listen to the entire show  HERE.

Greetings Earthlings. Sick & tired of governments overstepping their bounds? When it comes to trashing Mother Earth we sure are. Our roots go back to Earth First! and support for edgy groups like ALF & ELF. Perhaps one of the Highest profile defenders of the planet is Capt. Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation who is now imprisoned by the Danish Government in Greenland for interfering with the Japanese whaling fleet. Closer to home (and closer to legal), we were gratified to discover our Massachusetts Auditor Diana DiZoglio was interested in running an audit "to promote accountability and transparency, improve performance, and make government work better." She even sings about it. Enviro Show listeners well know our concerns about the lack of accountability on Beacon Hill and with agencies like the DCR and MassWildlife (to name a few). Auditor DiZoglio joins us with the interview. As always, we will also introduce you to this week's Fool-on-the-Hill and "Those who Brains Were Small" and more but first it's time for.......Revenge of the Critters! Lions take pride in consuming poachers


This week's Fool-on-the-Hill is Ohio Senator JD Vance, scourge of the "childlless cat ladies" and His Malignancy's pick for Veep in a dreaded imaginary Mad King's administration.  It's hard to decide which examples of incompetence or foolishness to bring up with this phony given how many such examples are out there. Since this is The Enviro Show let's stick with his far-right positions on energy and climate. "JD Vance's positions on climate change, the environment, and clean energy reflect a significant evolution from initial acknowledgment to skepticism and opposition. These positions have earned him a 0% Lifetime Score from the League of Conservation Voters. His alignment with fossil fuel interests and market-driven policies underscores a commitment to energy independence through deregulation and expansion of traditional energy sources" notes Clean Choice Energy. 0% says it all, This fool is a big zero.....and a danger to humanity.


As noted, JD once acknowledged that "It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!" but now? Not so much. It matters not, the Crisis continues on and a fitting example of its ongoing threat is science's perplexity about what to do about the "Doomsday Glacier" ?  One of The proposal calls for a series of giant overlapping plastic or fiber curtains tethered to concrete foundations. To hold the warm current at bay, the curtain would stretch for 50 miles across the entrance to the Amundsen Sea and extend upwards for much of the 2,000 feet from the sea floor to the surface.” That should go well, no? You think the storm torn Antarctic around the Thwaites Glacier will be kind to a massive.....curtain? 🤔. It seems most of our neighbors here in the USA don't think about it at all!  "In a 2024 Pew poll on Americans’ top concerns, the economy landed at the top while protecting the environment came in 14th and dealing with climate change came in 18th. In a 2024 Gallup poll of Americans’ most pressing problems, the environment didn’t even make the list." There it is. No wonder nobody listens to this show. Finally this sobering headline from Al Jazeera: "UN chief issues climate SOS, warns of ‘unimaginable’ catastrophe" and this from Axios: "The globe just had its hottest summer on record."


On to those "Whose Brains Were small and They Died" since we're talking about dinosaurs, wannabe corporado, Gerard Barron, Chairman & CEO of The Metals Company comes to mind. He and his fellow plunderers want to mine the ocean floors for magical balls that will save the world. Really?? "Manganese nodules are roughly the size of potatoes and can be found across vast areas of seafloor in parts of the Pacific and Indian oceans and deep abyssal plains in the Atlantic. They are valuable because they are exceptionally rich in 37 metals, including nickel, cobalt and copper, which are essential for most large batteries and several renewable energy technologies" The Conversation notes. That said, Scientific American points out, "Now researchers have discovered that the valuable nodules do something remarkable: they produce oxygen and do so without sunlight. “This is a totally new and unexpected finding,” says Lisa Levin, an emeritus professor of biological oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography..." With that we turn to this: "..Scientists have begun studying the potential impacts of disturbing a largely unexplored ecosystem. [A] Nature Geoscience paper contributes insights about the baseline conditions of the area before any large-scale mining begins. “We don’t know the full implications, but to me this finding suggests that we should deeply consider what altering these systems would do to the animal community,” a researcher says, "since all animals need oxygen to survive." We guess! Perhaps, Capt. Paul Watson & friends will pay The Metals Company a visit on the High Seas after we #FreePaulWatson ?


On that last note let's head over to The Enviro Show Echo Chamber where we repeat actions you can take to #FreePaulWatson. You can contact Denmark’s Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard Phone: +45 7226 8400, Email: jm@jm.dk and demand he free Capt. Watson.  And don’t forget to tag Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen @mette on social media with the same message. If this edgy video doesn't convince you to step up we don't know what else will??  Also here's a LINK for YOU to help protect endangered whales.


Time for our new Doublespeak of the Week segment. Ready? The forest management strategy in MAGA's 2025 Project says increasing timber sales could “play an important role in the effort to change the behavior of wildfire because there would be less biomass.” Wait, is that really doublespeak or just bullshit?


Are we Abidin' with Biden this week? Not if The Prez gets behind ideas like this: "Biden Administration Backs Plastic as Coal Replacement to Make Steel. One Critic Asks: ‘Have They Lost Their Minds?’ "  Thankfully, "That commitment is conditional: The company’s plans must undergo an environmental review and meet other financial and technical requirements. The [Biden] Energy Department asserts that swapping out coke, a coal-derived fuel, in blast furnaces used to make steel will reduce global heat-trapping emissions. But in their Aug. 26 letter to Energy Czar Granholm, [opposition] groups asserted that “burning plastic in place of coal is not a climate solution, it merely substitutes one form of fossil fuel with another.” Did someone say a form even more toxic?? Wait, there's more: what about continuing to send arms to the genocidal IDF?


Our Critter of the Week is none other than the beleaguered Monarch Butterfly. "In 2022, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the world’s foremost scientific authority on the status of species, listed the monarch butterfly as endangered, citing climate change, drought that limits the milkweed monarchs need to survive, and severe weather that killed millions of butterflies." One way we can help them to survive is to plant milkweed in sunny spots where deer won't eat them. "The National Wildlife Federation has a program that can teach people to turn any outside space into a complete habitat for monarch butterflies — whether in their own yards, at schools or churches or business courtyards. Entire communities are launching efforts to create monarch habitat, NWF said. Click here to learn how to create a wildlife-friendly garden. Or, create a monarch butterfly way station, a great option for city-dwellers who don’t have big back yards. Container gardens on balconies, rooftops and stoops will lure monarchs. Also, avoid using pesticides, many of which contain glyphosate, the compound found in Roundup, which has been linked to the collapse of monarch populations. Click here to learn how to garden organically."


Now for our Enviro Show Quote of the Week:

The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.

- Thomas Jefferson


 Time to visit the Bus Stop Billboard:


Friday September 27, 7pm. Save North Forest Coalition Public ForumAll-Saints Episcopal Church, 59 Summer Street, North Adams , MA.  Sign the petition by Save the North Forest CoalitionWe only have until September 30 for public comments and until November (1) to stop the planned logging operation and (2) to follow the climate science recommendations and make the Notch Reservoir Town Forest and Bellows Pipe Trail a permanent no-logging reserve area. More info HERE.   


Saturday September 28, 10am to Noon.  Fort River Cleanup & RiverFest 2024.   The Fort River Watershed Association is hosting a FREE community event in Amherst to clean-up and celebrate the Fort River. We’d be grateful to have you join us! To celebrate the amazing Fort River, we are going to clean it up! The Fort River Cleanup, part of the Connecticut River Conservancy’s 28th Annual Source to Sea Cleanup, will take place at Groff Park in Amherst, MA


Saturday September 28, 11am to 3pm. : [SOLIDARITY] Urban Agriculture & Climate Justice Fair.  Nightingale Community Garden, 512 Park St Dorchester MA. The event is sponsored by a large coalition of organizations, including Extinction Rebellion.This is a fun, educational, and family-friendly event with food, music, produce from local farms, fruit/vegetable/flower competitions with prizes, climate games, and demonstrations about making cider, beekeeping, raising chickens, composting, mushrooms, and gardening.


Saturday September 28 & Sunday the 29th. North Quabbin Garlic & Arts Festival, Forster's Farm, 60 Chestnut Hill Road, Orange, MA. Saturday 12:30: d.o. at The Word Stage. Sunday 2-3pm:   Anna Gyorgy, of NAB and Wendell Energy Committee, Ivan Ussach, director of the Millers River Watershed Council, and all present will discuss a "clean energy future." See the full Renewable Energy and Local Living Talks schedule.


Thursday October 10 6:00 pm Shea Theater, 71 Avenue A Great Falls MA
The public will have a very important opportunity to state their objections to the relicensing of Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage by participating in the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP)’s “Public Information Session”  at the Shea Theater, 71 Avenue A, Great Falls MA. Mass State officials will make presentations and answer questions from the public.
 


Monday Oct 21, 7:30pm. Save the 100yr. Old Arlington Pine! This might be the last meeting at the Community Center, 27 Maple Street where the ARB is reviewing the plan for 821 Mass Ave which will determine  the tree's fate. Of course, if you could help spread the word and tell your friends and family to do the same - and sign the petition if they did not yet (https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-the-centennial-scottish-pine-from-being-destroyed.html) - it would be great! Contact: marinap4arl@gmail.com 





That's all folks.......except to remember to listen to your Mother 

 


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