Blog Archive

Thursday, January 20, 2022

An Interesting Divesting Enviro Show

Greetings Earthlings. We covered various enviro related divestment campaigns over the years, often created by student groups, but there's a new take on this tool in the toolbox here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts calleSign4DivestingMassachusetts .  James Fleming, a leader in mass ballot questions, and former campaign staffer to Congressman John Olver joins us to open the box and look within.  Also, Gary Menin, Sr. Independent Advocate / Dedicated Ally Towards Living Toxin Free checks in with regard to  H.3991 An Act relative to pesticides. [UPDATE: Interviews HERE] As always we will also take you to see this week's Fool-on-the-Hill and to remind slackers that "It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!"and way more but first it's time for..........Revenge of the Critters! Most golf courses are environmental disasters. Maybe this Canadian Goose has issues with that? 


Time to meet this week's Fool-on-the-Hill who often acts and even dresses for the part. Yes, it's the walking disaster from Arizona, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, she of the traitorous tag team that blocked voter rights allegedly over some romance with the filibuster?  “While I continue to support these [voting rights] bills, I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country,” says Sinema as divisive Repugs prepare to further their anti-democratic insurrection by subverting the ballot through any means necessary. History will not treat them kindly.


On to The Enviro Show Echo Chamber where Earth Justice informs us of  "an exciting moment for marine science, researchers announced in January 2021 that they’ve identified a distinct, new-to-us whale species, tentatively being called the Rice’s whale (named after one of its researchers), or simply the Gulf of Mexico whale. There may be only 50 of these whales on the planet, and most sightings have been documented." Not sure why we are just learning about this a year later but we'll take it! Here's another one of those Echo Chamber Action links from Environment Massachusetts regarding the....plight of the Bumblebee? Also, Politico informs us a study found that growing enough bud for a joint — a gram — consumes as much electricity as driving about 20 miles in a fuel-efficient car.  Whoa man, bummer.


We guess we were Abidin' with Biden last week when pounding his hand on the podium, The Prez challenged certain senators to stand against voter suppression by changing Senate rules to pass voting rights legislation that Repugs were blocking from debate and votes.  “I’m tired of being quiet!” he shouted to cheers from the crowd. Meanwhile our friends at Grist send some tough love Biden's way with this: "The Department of Energy reversed Trump’s rules on dishwashers, washers, and dryers, but is behind on reviewing more than 30 standards."  Looking back to His Malignancy's War on Science we are glad to report "The Biden administration released a comprehensive plan [last week] aimed at restoring integrity to governmental science agencies and preventing political interference."  No more Sharpie edits to weather maps? No more  disinfectant injections or  "we hit the body with a tremendous ultraviolet or just very powerful light,"? 


 Just in case your misinformed Uncle with the MAGA ball cap is complaining about the weather why not tell him "It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!" ?  Maybe show him this: "Now, through a new mapping project, scientists have estimated how much irrecoverable carbon resides in peatlands, mangroves, forests and elsewhere around the globe — and which areas need protection. The new estimate puts the total amount of irrecoverable carbon at 139 gigatons, researchers report November 18 in Nature Sustainability. That’s equivalent to about 15 years of human carbon dioxide emissions at current levels. And if all that carbon were released, it’s almost certainly enough to push the planet past 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels." ?   Nah! Too much science, right?  

 

How about an Enviro Show Quote of the Week? :

"Divestment has a tangible financial impact. In 2019, Royal Dutch Shell listed the success of divestment campaigns as having “a material adverse effect on the price of our securities and our ability to access capital markets”.  

    - Rianna Gargiulo, Divestment Campaigner, Friends of the Earth UK


Time for the Bus Stop Billboard:


Saturday, February 5, 10:00 - 11:30am.  450 Million Years Old and Vulnerable: Horseshoe Crabs in MassachusettsThis live virtual forum will give you the chance to ask questions and share your own interests in horseshoe crabs. Join Zoom Meeting:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9896300188?pwd=UXlHU3N3ZndqQTVJQ0dyR3dGenpKQT09

Meeting ID: 989 630 0188.   Passcode: pine



SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2022, 1pm. .  Stand Up for Public Forests! Burlington, VT City Hall on Church Street. This April, the U.S. Forest Service is expected to propose logging of at least 11,000 acres in the Green Mountain National Forest - Vermont's national forest - in an area called Telephone Gap, near the town of Chittenden. The climate and ecological crises demand that our mature forests remain wild and able to sequester as much carbon from the atmosphere as possible. Now is the time to save the trees of Telephone Gap, most of which are at least a century old.  Read more here: https://www.savepublicforests.org/

Tuesday February 8, Noon to 1pm. "Stump the Forester: Crowdsourced Tree ID" Have you ever wished you had someone knowledgeable with you when you were out in the woods trying to figure out whether the bark on that tree was red or sugar maple? This is your chance to get your most vexing tree ID questions answered ONLINE! Go HERE. 


Tuesday, February 8, 12pm. How do electric vehicles (EVs) handle the cold weather and snow? Really well! There are thousands of EV drivers who drive through winters in New York and New England (and even colder places like Canada and Norway). We're welcoming several of these drivers to this webinar to chat with you about their EV's winter range, handling, and more. Register HERE. 


Thursday, February 10 from 4 - 6 p.m. Massachusetts Mosquito Control Opt Out program public listening session. The listening session will focus on the subcommittee's draft recommendations, which can be read here, as they become available. To sign up to speak at the listening session, please use this form: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=Fh2GPrdIDkqYBowE2Bt7Kr2WugEo8r5Lk_JeQKUGOA9UNFpTNjhCVEdBSzBERFdKNFdQSktQRjAySS4u.  Written comments pertaining to draft recommendations will be accepted through 5pm on February 14, 2021. Please submit comments at the following link: https://www.mass.gov/forms/comments-for-the-mosquito-control-task-force    


Sunday, February 13. (TBA) We will gather outside in Plymouth for a protect our bays from radioactive water dumping rally. Contact me if you would like to help organize/carpool: Diane Turco tturco@comcast.net  


Tuesday, February 15, 3 to 5pm.  State Farmland Listening Sessions To provide input for the development of the MA Farmland Action Plan. The purpose of the MA Farmland Action plan is to develop state level goals and recommendations for increasing farmland protection, farmland access, food security, and the long-term economic and environmental viability of farms across all regions of the state. The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) is supporting the development of the plan, and has engaged the UMass Donahue Institute to gather the input and recommendations from farmers, advocates, investors, landowners, land trusts, agricultural technical assistance providers, scientists, public officials, policy makers, and other agricultural stakeholders. Click HERE to register for the Listening Sessions by February 14.  


February 16, 12:00 - 1:30 pm. Energy Storage Webinar. Via Zoom. Please RSVP to bpotter@princelobel.com. We will send you the Zoom login information under separate cover. Go HERE


 Tuesday February 22, 8:30pm. for the latest Heading for Extinction climate annihilation science update with Dr. Peter Carter, and an introduction to the Global Climate Crimes Project. Register here: https://mobilize.xramerica.org/global_crimes_project_the_talk


OK,  that's it for now but remember........ listen to your Mother!


 

Friday, January 07, 2022

A More Beacon Hill's Bills Enviro Show

Greetings Earthlings. We venture back up to Beacon Hill this week to delve into some more bills such as S.1880 An Act to create a forest carbon incentive program to enhance carbon storage on private timber lands.  Sen. Adam Hinds joins us to explore the details on that one. Also  H. 1003 An Act to Ensure Accountability and Public Rights Regarding Commercial Tree Harvesting on Commonwealth-owned Lands. Here's a deep dive into H.1003.  And finally, S.2596 / H4331 An Act allowing municipalities to reasonably regulate solar siting, presented by our own Sen. Jo Comerford. Michael DeChiara a resident of Shutesbury and co-author of its most recent solar bylaw speaks to that bill. [UPDATE:  Interviews HERE] As always we will also take you along to meet this week's Fool-on-the-Hill (no, that other Hill) and to see if we are either Ridin' with Biden or Backslidin', as well as a reminder to folks who remain in denial that "It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!" and more, but first it's time for..........Revenge of the Critters! Emus back in '32 win a battle with Australian army? 

This week's Fool-on-the-Hill has somehow managed to escape our ire over time but now Senator Ron Johnson (Repugnican-WI) has gone and stepped in it when he said at a town hall event last month: “Standard gargle, mouthwash, has been proven to kill the coronavirus. If you get it, you may reduce viral replication. Why not try all these things?” What other things, Ron? Inquiring minds need to know! 😏

Our favorite Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg said recently it is "strange" that some consider U.S. President Joe Biden a climate leader even as his administration fails to take the ambitious steps necessary to tackle the intensifying planetary crisis. We guess she means The Prez is Backslidin' when it comes to actually confronting the Climate Crisis and given his announcement last November that oil and gas companies should pay more to drill for oil and gas on public lands rather than not drill at all, she seems to be on to something.  How about a cartoon recap of whatever happened to Bidin's climate policy plans? Spoiler Alert: something to do with a certain senator from West Virginia!  And how about this headline from Grist: "The Biden administration said its drilling-lease spree in the Gulf was court-ordered. It wasn’t."  Ouch!  

Are you wondering why WPRI ran a story about New England warming more than anywhere else on Earth?  Could it be that......."It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!"  We guess. "...research published in the journal “Climate” looked at temperature data from the last 120 years in New England and found the region warmed by an average of 3.29 degrees Fahrenheit. The rest of the planet saw an average rise of about 2 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures in Massachusetts increased even faster than the other states in New England: rising 3.55 degrees Fahrenheit." We are waiting for the study that tells us exactly why this is happening here in the Commonwealth but perhaps this explains why we can't even seem to stop cutting down forests that capture CO2 emissions? We need a surge in enlightenment not in COVID.  O wait, could this be part of the problem?  "A recent analysis led by several Nobel-laureate economists has put concrete numbers to the “emissions inequalities” around the world. The richest individuals, it found — the world’s “10 percent”– collectively emit nearly half of all global emissions. Meanwhile, the poorer half of the global population is responsible for just 12 percent." 

 Time for the Enviro Show Quote of the Week. You won't have to go too far for this one:

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


After our conversations with our guests we head over to the Bus Stop Billboard


Monday, January 24, 7-8:30pm.  Climate Action Now MonthlyOnline  Gathering. Campaign updates & actions, small group conversations & more. Go HERE.  


Monday January 24, 7pm. CT River Dam Relicensing – New Opportunity to Speak Up. Join us for a short on-line conversation about an ACTION we can take NOW to impact the future of the Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Project. REGISTER HERE. (Registration limited to 100 people.) 


Tuesday, January 25, 7pm. A conversation with Daniel Bullen around his new book: Daniel Shays's Honorable Rebellion: An American Story. This date is the 235th anniversary of the beginning of the rebellion. Register Here  


Wednesday, January 26, 9:30am. Rising to the Challenge of Climate Change - How the Peacebuilding Community Can Help Fragile Societies Manage Coming Disruptions. REGISTER HERE to attend the panel discussion 


Wednesday January 26, 3pm.  Stop  the Eversource Pipeline Stand Out! Join our weekly stand-outs in Springfield Wednesdays at 3:00 for 45 minutes/Thursday snow date . Sumner Ave intersection with Forest Park Ave .  Contact lmoconnell@gmail.com or call 610-295-3125 


Wednesday, January 26, 11 am - 12pm. MA Legislative briefing: Ecologically Sound Mosquito Control (S.556/H.937). Please register at this link, bit.ly/126massquito and contact marty@nofamass.org with any questions.


Thursday Jan 27 7pm. Standing Trees film night "Understory: A Journey Into the Tongass. All of the details are here: https://actionnetwork.org/events/standing-trees-film-night-understory-a-journey-into-the-tongass-2  



Saturday  January 29, 12:30pm. Stand Up for Public Forests! Burlington, VT City Hall on Church Street. This April, the U.S. Forest Service is expected to propose logging of at least 11,000 acres in the Green Mountain National Forest - Vermont's national forest - in an area called Telephone Gap, near the town of Chittenden. The climate and ecological crises demand that our mature forests remain wild and able to sequester as much carbon from the atmosphere as possible. Now is the time to save the trees of Telephone Gap, most of which are at least a century old.  Read more here: https://www.savepublicforests.org/


Monday, January 31, 5-6:15pm. Speakout with elected officials, Aquaculture and Fishermen Associations, Environmental Organizations, and concerned citizens. Plymouth Town Hall Great Room, 26 Court Street, Plymouth, MAAs part of the decommissioning of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant, Holtec-Pilgrim plans to dump a million gallons of radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay. We call on Holtec to be responsible and immediately remove dumping into the bay from their business plan. Currently, Holtec has the ability to dump at any time without prior approval of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. CONTACT: Diane Turco, Cape Downwinders, tturco@comcast.net or 508.776.3132

January events relating to  Forests & Solar can be found HERE


Tuesday February 8, Noon to 1pm. "Stump the Forester: Crowdsourced Tree ID" Have you ever wished you had someone knowledgeable with you when you were out in the woods trying to figure out whether the bark on that tree was red or sugar maple? This is your chance to get your most vexing tree ID questions answered ONLINE! Go HERE.


OK,  remember to listen to your Mother!