[Our podcast of the interview is HERE ] Greetings Earthlings. Have you heard the news? His Malignancy is now a convicted felon. On with the Show! You may recall we recently featured the potential logging threat in the Green Mountain National Forest with our friend Zack Porter of Standing Trees ? Well, Zack is back this time with Standing Trees active member Jerry Curran. We'll be looking at a similar mindless threat to the neighboring White Mountains National Forest in New Hampshire. The U.S. Forest Service (who actually only serve the logging industry) continues business-as-usual with mind-numbing climate crimes across the nation. Once again, their sights are on New England. We say: No Way! As usual, we will also introduce you to this week's Fool-on-the-Hill and Those Who Brains Were Small, as well as another Critter of the Week and more but first it's time for........Revenge of the Critters! They're baaaack! Orcas attack.....again.
Let's get right to this Enviro Show Echo Chamber announcement regarding a struggle some of us have been engaged in for nearly four decades here in the Commonwealth. Since 1985 there has been an effort to change the state seal & flag from racist imagery to something respecting the Native people who were murdered and oppressed by so-called Puritans and other Europeans in the 17th & 18th centuries. We've covered this repeatedly on the show and now "The Massachusetts Senate voted 30 – 9 on Thursday, May 23rd to require Governor Maura Healey to take the next step in the historic process of replacing the violent imagery of the Massachusetts flag and seal." That said, it still needs to get through the conference committee with House members and be included in the final state budget. There is some misguided opposition to this much needed change on Beacon Hill "where good legislation goes to die". Stay tuned to this historic effort. And since we're on the subject of historic flags let's talk about the Pine Tree flag that Washington's troops flew in the War of Independence and the Shaysites flew in Shays' Rebellion. Both were honorable struggles for justice and independence against oppression but that flag has been adopted by MAGA fascists in our time, people who seek the overthrow of the very Constitutional democracy our ancestors fought and died for. One such person is Samuel Alito of the U.S. Supreme Court. History is in the making. Watch this space.
This week's Fool-on-the-Hill is, once again, smarmy fratboy Rep. Matt Gaetz, Repugnican from Florida who showed up with other MAGA toadies at the NYC trial of His Malignancy and stated “Standing back and standing by, Mr. President” thus echoing the infamous phrase The Mad King used as a signal to the fascist Proud Boys during one of the presidential debates in 2020. Another dangerous fascist fool in our midst.
Since we're on about bad players how about we nominate Florida and failed Presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis for our Brains Were Small segment? Like the dino he is, Climate Crisis denier DeSantis fails to see the asteroid of climate chaos coming his way and instead .."signed a bill that erases most references to climate change in state law, deprioritizes it in policy decisions, and eases regulations for natural gas pipelines while banning offshore wind installations in state waters" reports Common Dreams .
None of the above pay any heed to THE existential threat of the ages but we'll never stop reminding them "It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!" Maybe they only watch Faux "News"? Maybe they should checkout this from CNN: "Ocean water is pushing miles beneath Antarctica’s “Doomsday Glacier,” making it more vulnerable to melting than previously thought, according to new research which used radar data from space to perform an X-ray of the crucial glacier. As the salty, relatively warm ocean water meets the ice, it’s causing “vigorous melting” underneath the glacier and could mean global sea level rise projections are being underestimated, according to the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." The article goes on to say: "Thwaites [Glacier], which already contributes 4% to global sea level rise, holds enough ice to raise sea levels by more than 2 feet. But because it also acts as a natural dam to the surrounding ice in West Antarctica, scientists have estimated its complete collapse could ultimately lead to around 10 feet of sea level rise — a catastrophe for the world’s coastal communities." Sound serious? Well.....yeah! Here's a fascinating piece from Grist that Glen came upon. "Of the millions of enzymes on earth, RuBisCO might be the most important. It’s essential to photosynthesis, and without it, plants would be unable to grow. Without RuBisCO, nearly all life on Earth would starve. But even though it’s everywhere, and has been around for billions of years, RuBisCO kind of sucks at its job. And it’s getting worse as the world gets hotter." It was 90 degrees in the middle of May when I read it.
This Critter of the Week has been in the news a lot this year. "The spectacular emergence of a double brood of cicadas in 2024, with some 1.5 million of the harmless insects emerging per acre in some places, will result in cicadas landing on people's shirts, arms, hair, and...beyond.......Even on an Air Force base tarmac, a cicada landed on the president's neck. Let's take that as a good sign.
Our Enviro Show Quote of the Week comes from on of our own in Massachusetts:
- Sen. Ed Markey introducing the recent Trees as a Public Good Earth Day forum.
After our conversation with our guests it's on to the Bus Stop Billboard:
Wednesday June 12, 10:00 - 11:30am. Join the Salata Institute, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, and climate editors from The Washington Post, Grist, The New York Times, and the Boston Globe for an exclusive conversation about media coverage of climate change. [A good opportunity to call out The Globe for its bogus climate reporting!!] Haller Hall, Harvard Museum of Natural History 26 Oxford St, Cambridge, MA 02138 Register HERE.
Wednesday June 12, 1pm. Protecting our waters from plastic pellet pollution. learn more about the impact plastic pellets are having on the environment, hear from the people standing up to plastic facilities that are dumping pellets in local waterways and from advocates about a new bill in Congress that can help stop this pollution in the first place. RSVP for "Protecting our waters from plastic pellet pollution"
Thursday June 13, 12:00 - 1:30 pm. Taking Action to Confront Authoritarianism. Elders for Social Justice continue exploring what actions that we, as elders, can take to push back against extremist attacks. We’re focusing on right-wing efforts to undermine public education, including restricting curricula, punishing discussion of targeted topics, and eliminating programs (like DEI) that make a school environment safe and welcoming for all students. Go HERE.
Monday June 17, 4 p.m. A conversation with John Perlin, "A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in the Fate of Civilization." which chronicles the rise and fall of great civilizations throughout history, paralleling the fate of the forests they depended upon. It offers a compelling narrative through time and serves as a stark warning about the consequences of mismanaging our forests. Please register here.
Sunday June 23 at 12 noon. BIGGER THAN DOBBS: THE WAR ON WOMEN AND DEMOCRACY RALLY on the Greenfield Town Common, on the second anniversary of the Supreme Court Dobbs decision which took away women's right to abortion and threatens the future of our democracy.
Monday June 24, 7 p.m. World EHS Day. We are so grateful to colleagues in France who seven years ago established June 16 as the World Day of Intolerance to Electromagnetic Pollution! That falls on Father's Day this year in the U.S. so Courtney Gilardi and Cece Doucette will be hosting a U.S.-based Zoom event. Go HERE.
That's all, folks......except to remember to listen to your Mother!
.
