Category: Environment

Alaskans recently had a charged public debate over whether mining companies should be able to discharge toxic waste into drinking water supplies. The issue was submitted to the voters with a ballot measure. Polling by supporters showed public strongly favored the measure, even obtaining the support of persons who never supported environmental measures because this issue also affected the livelihood of fishermen. The tide then quickly changed days before the election when Palin violated state law by advocating for the defeat of the measure. Working within the rules of the system, a complaint was filed, and a state agency found that both the state regulators and Palin had violated the law. However, the damage was already done and the measure was defeated. A win by any means at any cost. Is this what lies ahead for our presidential election?

Cross-posted from THE ENVIRONMENTALIST

Officials have warned that Hurricane Ike, with its expected imminent landfall along the Galveston-Houston, Texas coast, may present the feared worse-case-scenario, which includes the ominous prediction of “certain death” for those who ignore mandatory evacuation.

Residents living in single-family homes in some parts of coastal Texas face “certain death” if they do not heed orders to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Ike’s arrival, the National Weather Service said Thursday night.

The unusually strong wording came in a weather advisory regarding storm surge along the shoreline of Galveston Bay, which could see maximum water levels of 15 to 22 feet, the agency said.

“All neighborhoods … and possibly entire coastal communities … will be inundated during the period of peak storm tide,” the advisory said. “Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single-family one- or two-story homes will face certain death.”

There are concerns about people ignoring the mandatory evacuation order due to “hurricane fatigue.” This 700 mile-wide storm may not be the event upon which to take that chance.

Here are some facts:

• Ike is receiving the same surge warnings as Katrina. This was the surge that wiped out parts of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In Ike’s case, the likeliest surge landfall is in Texas.
• Tidal surges could exceed 20 feet; greater than Katrina.
• The cone is narrowing toward Galveston and Houston, but it is a very large storm.
• The entire storm is building up and blowing water toward Galveston Bay – that is the reason for the dire warnings about a high surge.
• Because of the wide area for the storm surge, mandatory evacuation zones extend to a wide area of the Gulf Coast with Galveston Bay being the center of the surge’s focus.
• Everywhere there is a mandatory warning, it is estimated that the surge could be up and or exceed 20 feet.
• Hurricane Ike has already proven to be a storm surge generator in the Caribbean, where tidal surges pounded into shore above five story buildings.
• The Barrier Islands are too low to stop this surge.

More below the fold…

Yesterday, Sep. 10, 2008 a UK court acquitted six defendants from Greenpeace of all charges for their actions on Oct. 8, 2007, when they scaled a smokestack at the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station and attempted to shut it down. The defendants, accused of doing £30,000 in damage to the smokestack by  painting “Gordon Bin It” on its side, did not deny the damage but relied instead for their defense on the principle of lawful excuse. (For more on “lawful excuse” see here.)

In essence they argued that the plant was doing damage to other property through its greenhouse gas emissions on such a scale as to justify their damaging it.

Do you prefer wind turbines to scarred mountaintops? A new study shows that some mountains in Appalachia are prime resources for wind energy.  During the transitional stage from coal to clean energy, traditional subterranean mining can occur simultaneously with wind farms that provide sustainable environmental and economic benefits not possible with MTR.  

For years, defensive strategies were used to oppose MTR mining. Now we have offensive measures. An environmental group commissioned a study by Wind Logics firm to determine viability of wind farms replacing MTR in Appalachia. Coal River Mountain Watch (CRMW) is working with a Coal River Wind campaign to achieve that goal.

There is a mountaintop that would make a great wind farm, but a mining company wants to raze the mountain with MTR, which will preclude wind farms forever.  We only have days to stop this insanity, so we need your help.  

The data just keep pouring in (quite literally,) on ice-melting around the world.

Most people have focused their attention on Arctic sea-ice melt, but the heating of the water and the air that is driving the breakup of Arctic ice shelves is also taking down all of the regions ice sheets as well. Similarly, increased melt rates have been noted in Greenland and Antarctica, while mountain glaciers are also losing mass at unprecedented rates.  See chart below:

There can be no doubt that we are now past the tipping point for ice melt worldwide.

Cross-posted from my blog, The Wild Wild Left.

My friend went to The Dominican Republic a few years back. Staying at a Gated Resort, she mentioned how the worst part was getting there. Apparently the tour bus had to pass nearby the machine gun border areas with Haiti, and the driver reiterated how dangerous it was to even go near their border.

Devastating poverty and war lords out of sight, though, she had a marvelous time in a lush resort with huge buffets and plentiful alcohol. When asked if it bothered her, her typical American response was “Not my problem. They obviously fucked their side of the Island up, so why shouldn’t I enjoy the Good Side?”

Much the same American response to how Gustav fucked Haiti like Katrina fucked NOLA, and is now fucked worse from the rains and flooding from Hanna in the area and Ike on its way.

“Not my Problem?”

The McCain campaign and Republican Party have both been aggressive in their use of music, clips from movies, etc without, it seems, even bothering to seek copyright permission despite the promise “to protect the creative industires from privacy.” They have gotten pushback, multiple times, for their unauthorized use (read “theft”) of intellectual property. In many of these cases, the involved artists are actually quite Green and environmentalist in their donation streams and stated interests.

A Daily Kos diary highlights Heart’s (Wilson sisters) reaction to the use of Barracuda as a theme song for Sarah “Pit Bull with Lipstick” Palin.  This abuse of Heart’s property rights is not, however, an isolated case.

In Bridge at the Edge of the World:  Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability, James Gustave Speth discusses how capitalism is inherently destructive to a sustainable environment, community and popular democracy.  The drive for economic expansion and accumulation is based on cost-benefit analyses for projects that do not include the economic, environmental or social costs caused by the destruction of natural resources.  This results in false price tags for projects because we either pay upfront or we pay much higher costs later.  Speth warns that we are now at the bridge of an environmental calamity and must choose between two paths: one path is business as usual and leads to certain destruction; the other path is a bridge that will help us cross to safety. This bridge stretches across America, but today we look at the Gulf Coast region.  

They say the best way to protect something is to personalize it.  So please, meet the Great Lakes…

The environment of the Great Lakes region is blessed with huge forests and wilderness areas, rich agricultural land, hundreds of tributaries and thousands of smaller lakes, and extensive mineral deposits. The region’s glacial history and the tremendous influence of the lakes themselves create unique conditions that support a wealth of biological diversity, including more than 130 rare species and ecosystems.

The environment supports a world-class fishery and a variety of wildlife, such as white-tailed deer, beaver, muskrat, weasel, fox, black bear, bobcat, moose and other furbearing animals. Bird populations thrive on the various terrains, some migrating south in the winter, others making permanent homes. An estimated 180 species of fish are native to the Great Lakes, including small- and large-mouth bass, muskellunge, northern pike, lake herring, whitefish, walleye and lake trout. Rare species making their home in the Great Lakes region include the world’s last known population of the white catspaw pearly mussel, the copper redhorse fish and the Kirtland’s warbler.

The region’s sand dunes, coastal marshes, rocky shorelines, lakeplain prairies, savannas, forests, fens, wetlands and other landscapes contain features that are either unique or best represented withink the Great Lakes basin. For example, the world’s largest freshwater dunes line the shores of Lake Michigan.

Over the course of history, many types of pollution have inflicted and been reduced in the region, yet significant challenges remain. These range from threats to divert water out of the Great Lakes basin to the introduction of nonindigenous invasive species and airborne toxics into the basin. Protection of water quality and sustainable development remain long-term goals.  Link

Unless otherwise specified, all pictures are courtesy of: SeaWiFS Project, NASA/FSFC, and GeoEye

Yesterday I had hit on the situation going on with the automakers.  Originally, I had intended to include some other stories, but the first piece was large enough (perhaps too large?) that I realized that I had to push the other pieces. Well, as promised, we got some interesting stuff. First on the auto front a cool piece on zero emission cars.  Next we got fallout from biofuels and water preservation.  Third, it seems the Chinese aren’t so thirsty for the black stuff right now. Lastly could the current woes Australia’s mining sector tell us something?  

Greetings folks, the start of new week and thus we kick off another episode of Manufacturing Monday!  Never a dull moment when it comes to covering stuff that either goes into the products you buy, or the impact that that consumption leads to. Now originally, I had these other items on bio-fuels, hydrogen cars, China and oil, and a few other things.  But I see now that my section on the bailout of the US automakers is so big, that the whole thing is too long.  So, if it is OK with you, I will post those items tomorrow.  

The contrarian in me is screaming that Reuters’ recent piece on food prices is the food inflation equivalent to Businessweek’s famous “Stocks are dead” headline from a 1982 issue.  Yet another piece is whispering in my hear “baby, it ain’t over yet!”