Another Earth Week Enviro Show

Greetings Earthlings. Yes, we know every day is Earth Day and every week is Earth Week, in fact every year is Earth Year here on The Enviro Show but what's anyone doing about it?? Christene DeJong, Kate O'Connor and a Parrot named Sophie of Extinction Rebellion WMass join us to find out. [UPDATE! Checkout our "Trees as a Public Good" E-Week event HERE ]  As always, we will also bring you along to learn about this week's Fool-on-the-Hill and to see if we are Abidin' with Biden, as well as another peak at the Charlie Baker Good Riddance Countdown Timer and more, but first it's time for...........Revenge of the Critters! You may have heard about Jonah and the Whale but who believes anything in that book written so long ago by unknowns? Today we have recorded evidence! (though it probably wasn't anyone named Jonah)

 We have Breaking News!   AG Healey's  position paper on climate for her bid as Gov states: "Burning wood for bioenergy depletes our forests, increases greenhouse gas emissions, and is a threat to human health. Maura will end subsidies for forest bioenergy for electricity and commercial-scale heat.  Maura will place a temporary moratorium on commercial harvesting on state-owned public forest land. Within her first year as Governor, she will develop and implement a science-based state forest management plan that accounts for the impacts of climate change on our forest resources and the role our forests can play in protecting the climate."

 

This week's Fool-on-the-Hill is another dangerous fool, the worst kind in fact 'cuz he's a bona fide fascist tool. Yes, it's a return appearance for Rep. Paul Gosar (Repugnican-AZ) who, after five weeks of silence, blames his staff for him showing up to speak at a white nationalist conference.  Gosar claims "there was a miscommunication" even though Gosar attended the same event last year. 😏

We were Abidin' with Biden the other day when he referred to Putin's murderous war on Ukraine as genocide, and for being true to his word about putting an African-American woman on the Supreme Court as well as Low-income families will be able to lower their utility bills with $3.16 billion in funding for home retrofits made available by the Biden administration. However, that said, we also learned the "Biden administration announced it would uphold former President Donald Trump's decision to not regulate drinking water levels of a chemical used to make rocket fuel and explosives."? What's THAT about??  

 

 

There it is!  Our relatively new  Charlie Baker Good Riddance Countdown Timer and Glen will most likely have something to say about that.

 

We've said it before, we'll say it again: Biomass Baker needs to wake-up 'cuz "It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!"  And with that in mind there's this: "Our data show that global emissions continue to move in the wrong direction at a rapid pace," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement. "The evidence is consistent, alarming, and undeniable." As NOAA notes, carbon dioxide remains the biggest climate change threat. However, scientists say that reducing methane emissions—the largest anthropogenic sources of which are animal agriculture and energy production—is relatively easy."  [Full story HERE]  And here is yet another example of climate criminals at work: "The publication of the third and final part of the United Nations' latest comprehensive climate assessment... was postponed by several hours after a contentious weekend of negotiations in which wealthy governments attempted to weaken statements about green financing for low-income nations and fossil fuel-producing countries objected to unequivocal language about the need to quickly ditch coal, oil, and gas." 

 

On to The Enviro Show Echo Chamber where Laura Haight, U.S. Policy Director at Partnership for Policy Integrity passes on the good news, "..the Massachusetts Senate passed a climate package (S.2819) that includes, for the first time ever, provisions to remove subsidies for woody biomass energy. We are thrilled that the Senate has affirmed that burning woody biomass is not clean energy and should not receive the same subsidies as clean renewable energy like wind and solar." That said, the next hurdle is in the House so, Enviro Show listeners, be sure to "call your State Representative and urge them to join the Senate in taking woody biomass out of the definition of clean energy sources. They can show their support in two ways: 1. Co-sponsoring H3333, and 2. Asking House TUE Chair Jeff Roy and House leadership to include the same biomass provisions in the House climate bill." Finally, an Enviro Show Blog Action link on Endangered Species is HERE. 

 

Time for our Quote of the Week and given it's Earth Week how about this:

"For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver." —Martin Luther King Jr

 

Following our conversation with this week's guests we go to the Bus Stop Billboard: 

Friday April 29, 6pm. Vigil for Wynn Bruce. Extinction Rebellion Western Massachusetts will be conducting a reflective and regenerative vigil this Friday at 6 pm to honor the life of climate activist Wynn Bruce. This event will involve silent contemplation. We will gather outside the Northampton District Court.  Go here for trigger warning and details 

 

Saturday April 30, 8:30 to 11:30am. Community Tree Planting in Greenfield, MA. SAVE THE DATE! Please join us for our all-volunteer community tree planting on April 30th. We will plant about two dozen trees, with your help. Great family event and opportunity to meet new people and do something good for our City and our environment.  Meeting place TBA.  For updates go HERE. 

 

Monday May 2, 7pm.  This is Not a Drill: Climate Poetry Vigil. Northampton High School, 380 Elm Street, Northampton, MA. Join us for a celebratory night to hear creative climate poetry from young activists, inspiring protest songs & more connections between art & activism. Go HERE.

Tuesday May 3, 7pm.  Deep Roots for Food Justice: Grow Food Northampton Nourishing the Community and the Earth. Grow Food Northampton's (GFN) mission is to build a resilient local food system rooted in racial, economic, and environmental justice. The organization's food access, land access and stewardship, and community education endeavors not only meet the immediate needs of community members experiencing food insecurity, but provide long-term, foundational solutions for food justice and increased climate resilience. With a 121-acre Community Farm in Florence as the heart of all GFN does, the organization is working comprehensively to ensure that everyone can garden, farm, and grow and access food in ways that nourish our community and the earth. Go HERE   

 

Have a good Earth Week folks and remember to listen to your Mother, OK?  

 

 

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Another Carbon Capture Enviro Show

Greetings Earthlings. You may have run across more than a few stories from Corporate America about the wonders of industrial carbon capture even though none of it seems to work or is still on the drawing board. Hey, how about carbon capture that actually does work! You know, things like oceans, intact prairies and wetlands, regenerative farming and gardening, forests and yes, the trees in your neighborhood. Michael Kellett of Restore the North Woods returns to the show to help us catch the latest on carbon capture. As usual, we will also bring you along to meet this week's Fool-on-the-Hill and to checkout our new Charlie Baker Good Riddance Countdown Timer, as well as a reminder to the Gov and whomever "It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!". That and more but first it's time for........Revenge of the Critters!"  Is it really wise to imprison a highly deadly African Pit Viper as a pet? We don't think so!

This week's Fool-on-the-Hill is Repugnican Chip Roy from Texas who apparently is fool enough to believe everything he sees on Twitter. Recently he convinced himself Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had fled to the States in fear of a group of truck drivers who are protesting vaccine mandates. Rather than do a bit of double checking, Chip forged ahead with classic far-right trolling like “Is there a more gutless and cowardly display than a tyrant on the run?” A day later, he posted: “If Justin Trudeau is hiding in the United States, we should return him to Canada and make him face his own people immediately.” Trudeau never left home, whereas Chip spiraled off into the Qmosphere 😉

 We bet Chip Roy is welded to his party line when it comes to climate chaos but we can't stop reminding them......."It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!"  And with that, how about this: "Marine scientists have discovered deep sinkholes -- one larger than a city block of six-story buildings -- and ice-filled hills that have formed "extraordinarily" rapidly on a remote part of the Arctic seafloor."  We've talked about sink holes opening up in the permafrost up north numerous times in the past but sink holes in the bottom of the Arctic?? Also, somebody tell Joe Manchin his f'ing coal mines are emitting more "super polluting methane than venting & flaring from gas & oil wells"! According to a study in Global Energy Monitor, "Coal mining emits 52 million metric tons of methane per year, more than is emitted from either the oil sector, which emits 39 million tons, or the gas industry, which emits 45 million tons, according to the report.." How about some potential good news?  "Scientists have discovered a new and tiny marine predator which is capable of naturally sequestering carbon. They say the single-celled microbe could be "a secret weapon in the battle against climate change" as oceans get warmer and more acidic. According to the team at the University of Technology Sydney, in Australia, the critter could be cultivated to help offset carbon emissions." Chances are good the microbe in this finding isn't "new", only new to us suicidal humans but we'll take help from anyone no matter how small! 

Time for our new improved Charlie Baker Good Riddance Countdown Timer!

      

Glen will have something to say about this, for sure. In fact, some ears must still be burning from his recent tirade during a DOER Zoom hearing on dirty biomass. Stay tuned!😏

How about an Enviro Show Quote of the Week? 

"I think it is quite responsible to support robust research into whether or not it might in the future become possible to safely capture and sequester CO2 from coal plants. But we should not delude ourselves about the likelihood that that´s going to occur in the near term or even in the mid term. It is extremely expensive. There is not a single large scale demonstration plant anywhere in the US. The research is one thing. We must avoid becoming vulnerable to the illusion that this is near at hand. It is not." 

                                                                      - Al Gore 

In The Enviro Show Echo Chamber we find this eye opening quote that deals directly with the theme of this show: "With his climate agenda stalled in Congress, President Joe Biden has managed to win billions in federal spending for one pillar of his platform that is gaining increased attention globally: carbon capture. In a major win for oil, coal, utilities and other industries, the federal government is poised to make its largest investment ever—more than $12 billion from last year’s infrastructure bill—in technologies that capture carbon dioxide from smokestack emissions or straight from the air."  We'll ask our guest about his thoughts on that one. 

In our conversation with Michael about the effort to get H.912 & H.1002 passed on Beacon Hill the subject of funding came up. With that in mind please go to  https://www.restore.org/donate    and help support their critical work saving forests in the Commonwealth, OK? Thanks. Now,  it's on to the Bus Stop Billboard: 

 

 

Wednesday April 20, 7-8:30pm. "Native Plants for your Garden" with Uli Lorimer
Director of Horticulture at Native Plant Trust. Please join Uli Lorimer, Native Plant Trust’s Director of Horticulture, for a presentation highlighting our region’s spectacular plant diversity and varied habitats. With so much under threat from a changing climate, invasive species, habitat loss and fragmentation, and declining numbers of birds and insects, planting natives in your garden is one step we can each take to make a difference. Register here! 

 

Thursday April 21, 7pm. "A Liveable Commonwealth: Trees as a Public Good" A Zoom forum with Representative of the Wampanoag Nation Darius Coombs; Bob Leverett, co-founder of the Native Tree Society, the co-founder and President of   Friends of Mohawk Trail State Forest, a senior advisor to American Forests on the Champion Tree Program, co-founder of the Champion Tree Certification Cadre, and Chair of the Massachusetts DCR Forest Reserves Science Advisory ; Yvonne Lalyre, Friends of Melnea Cass Boulevard; Marc R Welch, Deputy Commissioner City of Forester, City of Newton Parks, Recreation & Culture and Quinton Zondervan, Cambridge City Councilor. This online forum will educate people about (1) the community services and climate mitigation that mature trees provide and (2) how to strengthen legal protections for urban and rural tree canopies. Like water and air, trees are public goods that must be protected because the loss of even a single tree impacts air quality, heat levels, and storm water drainage for half a city block. This is an environmental justice issue. Neighborhoods and towns with less wealth and more people of color have fewer trees and thus are “heat islands” with poorer air quality and more flooding, putting residents at greater risk for health and climate emergencies. Zoom link TBA. Contact:  climate@ourrevolutionma.com  

 

 

Earth Day, Friday, April 22, 3:30 pm Freedom From Fossil Fuels Tour to visit the various local institutions that collaborate with the fossil fuel industry. We will call out the financial, legal, and governmental powers most guilty, march, and dance in the streets à la discobedience style. That's right, get ready to dance for climate action! This is the beginning of XR Boston's 2022 "No New Fossil Fuel Infrastructure" campaign. RSVP here. 

 

 

Friday April 22 , 4:30-6pm.  Earth Day Celebration in Greenfield Energy Park! Miles Street (off Main), Greenfield, MA.Empower yourself to care for this planet and prepare for a green future! Land Acknowledgement David Brule of Nolumbeka Project; Morris Dancers: Wake Robin &Juggler Meadow; Music with Annie Hassett and more; Tree Planting with the Greenfield Tree Committee; Community Art Project; Tables & more. 

 

 

Friday April 22,  6:30pm. Vigil for Truth. Pulaski Park, NorthamptonAs we mark another Earth Day, we reckon with both what we've accomplished and what's left to be done. In a month including a rally, a dance mob, street actions, and educational events, this Vigil will hold a space for us to stand together in our truths: what we love about the world we share, what we worry about for our collective future, and what we dedicate our action to in the year to come. This will be a space for sharing and ritual, possibly with an appearance by the ethereal Red Brigade. Everyone who loves the world and wants to build a better one is welcome to join us! 

 

Saturday April 23, 10am to 4pm. Hadley Climate Day at the Hadley Senior Center and Hadley Public Library complex. Limited capacity. To register for the day, go to: tinyurl.com/hadleyclimateday.  For more information about the event and to submit pieces of art, up to four per person, send email to hadleyclimatechangecommittee@gmail.com.

 

Saturday April 23, 11:00 - 11:30am. Earth Day Flash Mob. We will take downtown Amherst by surprise by bursting into dance on the Common. Come join us! Whoever you are, you are part of this! We dance to celebrate Our Nature: the environment around us. We love it and we need it. We protect nature because it sustains us. And we dance to express Our Nature: the spirit within us. Our nature is generous and strong. Our nature is to learn, grow, and adapt. RSVP to sign up as a dancer – no experience necessary! Contact: • info.ma.pioneervalley@mothersoutfront.org

 

Saturday April 23, 12:00pm – 4:00pm. Springfield Eart Day Celebration. Lawn and parking lot of 227 Mill Street, Springfield, MA 01108. Join us for a fun afternoon and see the work Springfield is doing to build a just, sustainable, and cooperative economy and world ! Info HERE. 

 

Monday April 25, 7 to 8:30pm. Climate Action Now Monthly Meeting via Zoom. All welcome. Register in advance HERE.  

Tuesday April 26, 7-8:15pm. Massachusetts Pollinator Network Monthly Meeting. We will hear from guest presenters from the Metrowest Conservation Alliance's Native Pollinator Task Force about their exciting Ambassador Program and other projects they have been taking on! Register here!

 

Wednesday, April 27, 12:00pm. The Dangers of Cooking with Gas - and the Benefits of Induction Stoves. More and more research is showing that gas stoves are dangerous for homeowners and the planet. A recently released paper from Stanford University finds that "the climate and health impacts of natural gas stoves are greater than previously thought."  Register HERE.  

 

Saturday April 30, 8:30 to 11:30am. Community Tree Planting in Greenfield, MA. SAVE THE DATE! Please join us for our all-volunteer community tree planting on April 30th. We will plant about two dozen trees, with your help. Great family event and opportunity to meet new people and do something good for our City and our environment.  Meeting place TBA.  For updates go HERE. 
 

 

 OK, we are out of here but one last thing: Please listen to your Mother, yes?  

A Fasting for a Future Enviro Show

Greetings Earthlings. Did you know "Six members of 350 Mass announced their intention to commence a hunger strike to demand an immediate transition to clean energy in Massachusetts, beginning with an end to the planned dirty oil/gas peaker facility in Peabody MA."? They are Fasting for a Future, part of a sustained effort to make that project go away and some of them will be joining us for this show. [ UPDATE: Interview HERE ]As always, we will also be bringing you along to meet our Fool-on-the-Hill and to remind anyone not paying attention that "It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!". That and more but first it's time for.........Revenge of the Critters! Hangin' with Hippos? Not a good idea!  They are wild animals, silly. 

This week's Fool-on-the-Hill is Old King Coal Sen. Joe Manchin who said at an energy conference in Texas recently that "I'm very reluctant to go down the path of electric vehicles... I'm old enough to remember standing in line in 1974 trying to buy gas—I remember those days. I don't want to have to be standing in line waiting for a battery for my vehicle, because we're now dependent on a foreign supply chain—mostly China." 😏 Somebody doesn't quite get it!

Time for our Charlie Baker Good Riddance Countdown Timer! 

 

 

 Senator Joe Manchin is just one of many who missed (or more likely disregards) the memo titled, "It's the Climate Crisis, Stupid!" Our next show will be focusing on carbon capture but we can't resist commenting on a recent piece from Inside Climate News on the subject. The article states: "In a major win for oil, coal, utilities and other industries, the federal government is poised to make its largest investment ever—more than $12 billion from last year’s infrastructure bill—in technologies that capture carbon dioxide from smokestack emissions or straight from the air. ExxonMobil, Southern Company and other oil fossil fuel giants have promoted carbon capture and storage as a tool for cutting emissions for more than a decade, with little to show for it."  Exactly, the technology is in its infancy and largely unproven. On the other hand, natural carbon capture was pretty much blown off in the piece, prompting d.o. to fire off a comment on ICN's Facebook page, to whit: "The article gives short shrift to natural carbon capture Nature does for free 24/7/365. Truly protecting & preserving existing forests, bogs, wetlands, plains and oceans (all of which capture CO2 emissions among others) should be our A #1 priority."  Meanwhile, the Repugs are busy invoking the “major questions doctrine,” a seldom used judicial principle that in essence says, an issue is too big for any president to tackle without explicit direction from Congress. "In oral arguments before the Supreme Court West Virginia will argue on behalf of 20 states, with support from the coal industry, that the Environmental Protection Agency should be blocked from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants under the major questions doctrine."reports Inside Climate News. Sounds like all those state AGs want to kick the can down the road to ruin.

Anyway, speaking of presidents, we could be Abidin' with Biden if, as The Zero Hour tells us "There are a lot of ways that the Biden administration can take real action on emissions. Commercial heavy duty trucks alone are responsible for 24% of carbon emissions in this country. In fact, heavy trucks are regulated entirely separately from passenger vehicles—emission standards are much lower. In 2021, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order that moves us in the right direction: “Strengthening American Leadership in Clean Cars and Trucks". But until federal government agencies actually move on these goals and promotes electric trucks, this Order only pays lip service to a crisis that demands action." Here's an Action Link for you on that. Also this: The Prez banned oil and gas imports from Russia recently in one of the most far-reaching sanctions against the country after Putin sent troops to invade Ukraine. The move comes as gas prices soar and some in Congress hope to use the moment to push a clean energy agenda. We'll see how that turns out. Finally this from The Atlantic: "The White House unveiled a slew of policies aimed at overhauling the U.S. industrial sector in order to reduce its planet-warming carbon pollution. Many of the policies have bipartisan backing—they were authorized in last year’s infrastructure bill. These policies are a big deal because they could help solve one of decarbonization’s thorniest problems: how to make steel, concrete, chemicals, and other major industrial products in a zero-carbon way."

 In The Enviro Show Echo Camber the World Wildlife Fund informs us, "Countries from around the world took a major step toward ending plastic waste. The United Nations Environment Assembly unanimously agreed to develop a legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution, taking one of the world’s most ambitious environmental actions since the 1989 Montreal Protocol, which effectively phased out ozone-depleting substances." OK, "steps" are good, now how about enacting it! And this from the Sierra Club: Last week  "the Environmental Protection Agency heard testimony on one of the most important public health standards of our time: regulating hazardous air pollution from power plants. Many Sierra Club supporters and allies testified that they support the EPA’s proposal to restore the legal finding that this regulation is 'appropriate and necessary.' "  Add your voice HERE.   And finally this:  Why is The Nature Conservancy afraid of controversy?  They held a real lovefest on Zoom, " A Special Conversation with MA/EEA Secretary Katie Theoharides"  (who dares to refer to herself as "Climate Katie!) and Deb Markowitz, MA State Director of The Nature Conservancy in which any hard questions to the Secretary from the participants were totally ignored. That conversation was "special" alright, we call greenwashing by TNC!  

Let's go for a Quote of the Week:

“We must always remember that the fossil fuel era began in violent kleptocracy, with those two foundational thefts of stolen people and stolen land that kick-started a new age of seemingly endless expansion. The route to renewal runs through reckoning and repair: reckoning with our past and repairing relationships with the people who paid the steepest price of the first industrial revolution.”
― Naomi Klein, On Fire: The Case for the Green New Deal  

 

After the conversation with our guests we move on to the Bus Stop Billboard:

Saturday April 2, 10am.  Protest and street theater calling on banks to stop funding fossil fuel companies. Bank of America and TD Bank on Main Street in Northampton, MA.  Members of Climate Action Now, Extinction Rebellion, and the UMass Amherst Environmental and Social Action Movement ask you to bring Large signs with messages;  giant model of an oil pipeline; money bags CONTACT: Kevin Young Kyoung1984@gmail.com (413) 777-0912 

 

Saturday, April 2, 11 am to 1 pm,  Stand-out on the Turners Falls Gill-Montague Bridge!! Participants will be dressed in black in observance of a Day of Mourning for the Connecticut River. The public is welcome to participate. Please, everyone who has ever fought for the truth about this river, the life of this river—all of you who have marched, stood out, written and shouted publicly “NO LICENSE TO KILL” for our ancient Connecticut and its living waters, come to the Gill/Montague Bridge above the River on April 2^nd.  We will stand in honor of the soul of this Valley--above FirstLight’s TF dam, controlled from inside Northfield Mountain, 5 miles away. We’ll be across from US Fish & Wildlife Service-funded and MA Division of Conservation and Recreation-run, Great Falls Discovery Center. Each one of these entities is culpable for allowing a four-state ecosystem to be turned into our river’s 23-mile mortuary by Northfield’s brutality in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Come, stand together and bear witness.  

 

Tuesday, April 5th, 4-6pm.   DCR's Strategic Readiness Initiative Public Listening Session. As the largest landowner in the state, DCR’s assets will play a critical role in adapting to and mitigating numerous threats of climate change, and we must be ready. Guided by internal
and external engagement, DCR will develop a set of core principles and priorities to fully realize the agency’s mission in the context of the 21st century. These principles will articulate how and why we carry out our mission, and why it matters. This process will incorporate and build off the recommendations in the DCR Special Commission Report.  Register HERE. If you have any questions or concerns, please email Daniel.cushing@mass.gov.

 

Saturday April 9, 1pm.  Rally to Stopo the Eversource Pipeline. No More Fossil Fuels! Rise Up for Our Climate Future! Federal Court House, 300 State Street, Springfield, MA. Go to: stopthetoxicpipeline.org  

 

April 13 - 23  Sign up to be part of the massive, sustained civil disobedience campaign in NYC announced by Extinction Rebellion NYC. See: https://www.xrebellion.nyc/campaign   

Local organizing link HERE. 

 

 

Earth Day, Friday, April 22nd at 3:30 pm to visit the various local institutions that collaborate with the fossil fuel industry. We will call out the financial, legal, and governmental powers most guilty, march, and dance in the streets à la discobedience style. That's right, get ready to dance for climate action! This is the beginning of XR Boston's 2022 "No New Fossil Fuel Infrastructure" campaign. RSVP here. 

 

 

Friday, April 22,  6:30pm. Vigil for Truth. Pulaski Park, NorthamptonAs we mark another Earth Day, we reckon with both what we've accomplished and what's left to be done. In a month including a rally, a dance mob, street actions, and educational events, this Vigil will hold a space for us to stand together in our truths: what we love about the world we share, what we worry about for our collective future, and what we dedicate our action to in the year to come. This will be a space for sharing and ritual, possibly with an appearance by the ethereal Red Brigade. Everyone who loves the world and wants to build a better one is welcome to join us! 

 

 

 

That's  all for now, folks. Please remember to listen to your mother!