Todays Earth Day! Please take a few minutes to act as well as reflect on the threat of climate change, and what you can do to lower the risks from nuclear weapons production at Hanford.
Your comments toady on Washington Department of Ecology's proposed permit for the US Department of Energy - Hanford's "Test Bed Initiative" can make a difference in REMOVING waste threatening the Columbia from Hanford for the first time! BUT we have to ensure that the waste is not trucked as a liquid through Spokane.
Hanford’s leaking High Level Nuclear Waste tanks cannot continue to be ignored.
The Test Bed Initiative (TBI) offers the opportunity to remove leakable liquids from tanks that are leaking today or are likely to start leaking soon.
Hanford’s groundwater and the Columbia River will be contaminated for thousands of years if all the waste that is currently planned to be removed from Hanford’s tanks is disposed in landfills onsite.
The “Test Bed Initiative” (TBI) offers the first hope for speeding up removal of leakable liquids from High Level Nuclear waste tanks decades ahead of current plans for vitrification (glassification) and for reducing how much waste is disposed in landfills along our Columbia River at Hanford.
TBI will test if 2,000 gallons can be removed from a High Level Waste Tank, solidified and treated to be disposed at sites where there is no drinkable groundwater that can ever be contaminated (the sites are in West Texas or Utah).
The US Department of Energy (USDOE) can solidify and treat the waste at a licensed facility next to Hanford so that there is no risk from spilling liquid waste in a truck accident on I-90.
Instead, USDOE wants to ship the waste as a liquid through Spokane for either 900 or 1,900 miles to be treated in Utah or Texas.
The Umatilla Indian Tribe (CTUIR) objects strongly to shipping the liquid wastes through their Reservation or through Spokane:
“The current plan to transport waste in liquid form poses for us an unacceptable risk of spills and harm to the environment, First Foods, and our citizens. The current proposal is especially disappointing given that shipping waste in a grouted, immobile, solid form is a viable and much safer option.
*******
“To be clear, the CTUIR requests the following:
1. Do NOT ship liquid Hanford tank waste across the Columbia Basin. Only ship this waste in GROUTED/SOLID form.
2. Move forward with large-scale grouting and out-of-state disposal as soon as reasonably allowable to decrease the risk of leaking Hanford tanks on the CTUIR's treaty-protected resources.”
*******
We agree with the Umatilla Tribe (CTUIR). The Tribe and we need your comments to help make this happen.
Heart of America Northwest has spent decades fighting USDOE’s plans to truck more waste to be dumped at Hanford, including successfully stopping shipments through Spokane. The TBI is our first hope to remove waste from Hanford, instead of adding more risk to the Columbia River.
But it has to be done safely by only trucking solid, treated waste with very low radioactivity – not trucking untreated liquids through Spokane and other vulnerable communities and Indian Reservations.
Use our sample comments from the section below to Washington’s Department of Ecology, but please add in your words why this is important to you. Perhaps you live near I-90 in Spokane. Or, you have hoped for years that we could remove waste from Hanford.
Use these sample comments - adding a few words on why removing waste from Hanford or not shipping liquid waste through Spokane are important to you.
(Comment period closes Thursday 4/25/2024.)
To Washington Ecology and Governor Inslee:
* Ecology should not permit the US Department of Energy (USDOE) to truck untreated liquid wastes from Hanford’s High Level Nuclear Waste tanks through Spokane or across Oregon and the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
* I strongly support moving forward with the test to remove and treat 2,000 gallons from Hanford’s tanks for disposal offsite in licensed facilities where the waste does not create any risk to groundwater, Ecology has a duty to consider and take "mitigation" action to prevent the risk from a truck accident in Spokane or anywhere on the 900-1,900 mile truck routes. This is an environmental justice issue as well as a risk to the Spokane River.
* I agree with the Umatilla Tribe whose Chair wrote to USDOE:
“The current plan to transport waste in liquid form poses for us an unacceptable risk of spills and harm to the environment, First Foods, and our citizens. The current proposal is especially disappointing given that shipping waste in a grouted, immobile, solid form is a viable and much safer option.
“To be clear, the CTUIR requests the following:
1. Do NOT ship liquid Hanford tank waste across the Columbia Basin. Only ship this waste in GROUTED/SOLID form.
2. Move forward with large-scale grouting and out-of-state disposal as soon as reasonably allowable to decrease the risk of leaking Hanford tanks on the CTUIR's treaty-protected resources.”
* USDOE agreed not to truck the waste through Oregon and the Umatilla Reservation. Unselfishly, the Umatilla Tribe has continued to advocate that liquid wastes should not be trucked at all when there is a licensed facility that can solidify and treat the waste next door to Hanford and avoid trucking wastes through Spokane on I-90 for 900 miles to Utah or 1,900 miles to Texas for disposal.
* I want the test for 2,000 gallons of waste to proceed. But if it succeeds there will be thousands of shipments. Ecology has a duty under SEPA and the HEAL Act to consider and mitigate the risks from truck shipments through low income “overburdened” communities in Spokane or on Indian Reservations by requiring that the waste is solidified and treated at the licensed facility adjacent to Hanford instead of trucking untreated liquid waste.
Any spill of liquids from Hanford will be an international news incident as well as putting residents and the environment at risk.
* USDOE did not even consider risks from the chemicals in the liquid wastes and acknowledges that there is a risk of one “accidental crash” for a truck with these wastes every 884 shipments from Hanford to Texas. That is too high a risk to go without Washington requiring that the waste be solidified before being trucked through Spokane or Oregon and the Umatilla Reservation.
I strongly reccomend the book on climate change called Not Too Late, written by activists Rebecca Solnit and Roberta An energizing case for hope about the climate, from Rebecca Solnit, the voice of climate resistance and activist Thelma Young Lutunatabua. Like these two activists, I believe much is known and spoken of in relation to climate change. The hour is now. We're being called to action. What are you changing in your personal life style? What are you doing with and in relation to community action? What are you consuming? It's not about stopping it..but more about altering and shifting the tempo, the places, using what tools. Especially, in community. I'm reminded of Mao's quote.. the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. In relation to climate, it begins and then shifts when individual steps are taken. And even more important in community. An idea that is already in an active state. He asks 'what the economy is for', and offers alternative approaches. In actuality, the change starts with each one of us, then our neighborhoods. Neighborhood, ommunity action is vital! It may start with one person and then expand out to friends. Sure it's important to contact and push for change within cities and states. But instead of talking about the issue, moaning and critizing, gather a handful of friends and invest in alternative energy. Share knowledge about products that are taxing the system by email or meeing. once a week or month. We're fortunate that we can do that online! Put less time into 'moaning' and outrage talk and put more into actions that provide hope and attract others to your cause. Create an ad in a local giveaway about what you and your group are doing. Invite others to join you. Instead of writing to your congress person on your own, craft a letter of neighbors to that person who isn't properly representing your needs and hopes.
Create a 'storm' of written or in person responses to a local 'bad boy' energy group. Let them know what they're doing is not invisible. Write letters to the local news. Gather together and shine a spotlight on the actual outcomes locally. The great thing is you WILL attract others.. Get your teenagers, your Gen Zers involved.. even the littles to hand out pamphlets. They'll admire you for that. You'll become their heroes. And there's a chance you'll find energetic unity and even have fun together.
The technology we need most badly is the technology of community. The knowledge about how to cooperate to get things done. Bill McKibben
The last time CO2 was this high in the atmosphere, the oceans were 75 feet higher than they are now. According to two studies published in the National Academy of Sciences, by 2070, nineteen percent of the planet’s population will live in a place that hasn’t traditionally supported human life. That will cause enormous migration. For the US, it is expected that 30 million people will try to cross our southern border.
It is not too late to keep the worst outcomes of global warming from happening, but we must act now. The problem with taking action is that everyone must participate, which can mean a level of change that could include sacrifice. People will always do what is in their own personal best interests. That means they will resist change unless it is in their best interests. So, this is where the government is in the perfect position to incent changes that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other behaviors that contribute to the climate change problem.
The government can incent changes by making driving a gasoline car more expensive by progressively increasing the tax on gasoline. This is working in Europe, and it can work here. In Europe, cars are smaller and more efficient than in the US because smaller cars are in the best interests of the common people. Similarly, the government can provide tax incentives to any process that slows climate change. There are literally hundreds of ways the government could impose changes that reduce the causes of climate change.
Of course, the first step for Congress is to accept the science and embrace the need for change. Ted Cruze, for example, has repeatedly quoted Fred Singer’s book, saying that global warming is a hoax. Fred Singer also wrote that tobacco smoking does not cause cancer, and UV exposure does not cause melanoma. This kind of climate denial, often funded by big oil, must stop. Of course, Ted Cruz is doing what is in his best interest, as Big Oil is one of his significant supporters. If Congress doesn’t get past this first step now and take action, they will have ruined the lives of our children.
Haaland is smart and tough! Americans MUST support the necessary changes to royalties and taxes and to follow Nixon's wake-up moment! This is our time to have a nation that "does the RIGHT things" for Earth.
Thank you Professor, for tilling the soils of this critical issue ... if I may, I need to take a few minutes to turn the compost - hoping people will take note - and action here, as difficult as it may be to see ... we ignore this dynamic at our peril:
From today's Letter:
"Republicans, especially those from states like Wyoming, which collects more than a billion dollars a year in royalties and taxes from the oil, gas, and coal produced on federal lands in the state, opposed Haaland’s focus on responsible management of natural resources for the future and warned that the Biden administration is “taking a sledgehammer to Western states’ economies.”"
"Western state leaders oppose the Biden administration’s efforts to change the Interior Department’s past practices, calling them “colonial forces of national environmental groups who are pushing an agenda” onto states like Wyoming."
*****
Reeeally? Is this the legacy of All-American free men in this free world?
So, Western states' colonial forces never 'pushed an agenda' on anyone - except maybe just those unincorporated folks not registered as "states?"
... Or maybe any living entity not recognized as hominoid, melatonin deficient, mostly hairless members of the local home team?
OH, BIDEN BE WARNED: TH0U SHALT NOT 'TAKE A SLEDGEHAMMER TO WESTERN STATES' ECONOMIES!'
We allow murder, rape, firearms, traps, toxic substances, snares, man-camps, helicopters, tanks and other vehicles (including snowmobiles) to vanquish any living entity that stands in the way of Western states' economic expansion - and the right of almighty man to be forever free ...,
BUT NO SLEDGEHAMMERS!!
Please find time to read this account of one "free man in America" exercising his right to assert dominance without conscience or integrity, and take a moment to hold him accountable for his actions ...:
*******
SIGN: JUSTICE FOR WOLF RUN DOWN BY SNOWMOBILE, TORTURED, AND KILLED AT WYOMING BAR
PETITION TARGET: Sublette County Sheriff and County Attorney
A wolf in Wyoming was allegedly horrifically disabled after being hit by a snowmobile. The animal’s pain was drawn-out when the man responsible allegedly taped the wolf’s snout shut, brought the injured wolf home, took pictures posing with the abused animal, took the terrified wolf to a bar, and later killed the wolf outside the business in Sublette County, as reported by Cowboy State Daily.
The wolf was kept alive and in pain — apparently so the man could take pictures of the wolf’s suffering and subject the frightened animal to an audience before killing the animal.
Wyoming law permits what it calls “humane destruction” of certain animals. What this wolf endured was not humane.
Wyoming Game and Fish Department cited a man — but only for possession of the live animal.
“Animal cruelty charges are not applicable to predatory animals,” Wyoming Game and Fish Department said in a statement about the incident.
The law which Wyoming Game and Fish Department cites – Title Six – does not prohibit the “hunting, capture, killing or destruction of any predatory animal, pest or other wildlife in any manner not otherwise prohibited by law.” However, tormenting animals is otherwise prohibited by law. Title Six goes on to describe felony cruelty to animals as “knowingly, and with intent to cause death or undue suffering, beats with cruelty, tortures, torments or mutilates an animal.”
Other hunters have reportedly agreed that the circumstances under which this wolf was captured and killed were inhumane, according to Wyoming Public Radio.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has come under question for their handling of this case and we are calling on prosecutors to treat it with the severity it deserves.
No animal deserves to be tortured and suffer prolonged pain before death. Wolves are sentient, intelligent animals. They deserve to be protected from merciless acts of cruelty.
This wolf was made to suffer tremendous pain and fear before being killed in a manner resembling a public execution. Animal cruelty charges must be filed against the person responsible for mercilessly tormenting this wolf to send the message that Wyoming does not condone animal cruelty and to prevent others from inflicting similarly inhumane violence against animals.
Sign our petition to urge Sublette County officials to investigate and pursue felony animal cruelty charges against the person responsible for torturing this wolf to set a precedent that animal cruelty will not be permitted in Wyoming.
"On February 28th of this year--just 26 days after the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service denied gray wolves protections--Cody Roberts of Daniel Wyoming tortured and killed a female yearling gray wolf after running her down with a snowmobile and taping her mouth shut.
This abhorrent act of cruelty cannot become normal or acceptable. The wildlife that you and I fight for every day face enough threats from habitat loss, climate change, and over consumption by lawful hunters. Torture cannot be added to that already-grave list."
Share this story to build pressure on decision-makers to act.
"While this disgusting action likely shocks you as much as it does me, Mr. Roberts is currently facing a mere $250 fine for possessing a live wild animal. To put a fine point on that: running a wolf to exhaustion with a snowmobile and incapacitating her, taping her mouth shut, parading the still-live wolf around a bar, and finally killing and skinning her do not violate state law. Only the possession of the live animal is a low-level infraction."
***
Wyoming resident fined $250 for torturing and killing a wild gray wolf
Just weeks after the Biden Administration announced it was denying conservation organization's petitions to protect wolves in the Northern Rockies from unsustainable killing, a Wyoming resident ran a wolf down with a snowmobile, taped its mouth shut, and tortured it--before killing it.
"While this disgusting action likely shocks you as much as it does me, Mr. Roberts is currently facing a mere $250 fine for possessing a live wild animal . To put a fine point on that: running a wolf to exhaustion with a snowmobile and incapacitating her, taping her mouth shut, parading the still-live wolf around a bar, and finally killing and skinning her do not violate state law. Only the possession of the live animal is a low-level infraction."
"Wyoming's Governor,1 the local sheriff,2 the Director of the state's fish and wildlife agency, and former U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) Director Dan Ashe3 have issued statements condemning this brutal attack. But to date, the current Director of the USFWS, Martha Williams, and her boss, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, have had no comment.
"The USFWS could have prevented this. We worked for more than two years to organize support for the protection of gray wolves in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana under the Endangered Species Act.4 Scientists, legal experts, activists, biologists, and Tribal representatives advocated to Secretary Haaland and Director Williams in support of protection.
And let’s be clear: Wyoming’s designated “predator zone,” 85 percent of the state where wolves can be shot on sight (without even a hunting license,) should never have been approved by the USFWS as an acceptable wolf management plan. Such a classification sends a message to the public that state wildlife officials consider wolves a pest and enables the type of horrific treatment of wolves that we witnessed last week.
"As I wrote above, their decision to deny those crucial safeguards preceded this act of cowardly torture by just 26 days. I do not know if Mr. Roberts felt empowered by the USFWS deciding that these wolves did not warrant protection--but I do know that the agency could have acted before it and it can surely act now.
"Today, I am asking you to share this story. The more people who know what happened to this wolf, the more the Administration will feel pressure to act. Please post to social media or share this story with a friend.
"We will be in touch soon with additional actions that we can all take to protect wolves in the Northern Rockies and Colorado from similar acts of torture."
"Thank you for your commitment to wildlife and wild places.
* I strongly support moving forward with the test to remove and treat 2,000 gallons from Hanford’s tanks for disposal offsite in licensed facilities where the waste does not create any risk to groundwater, Ecology has a duty to consider and take "mitigation" action to prevent the risk from a truck accident in Spokane or anywhere on the 900-1,900 mile truck routes. This is an environmental justice issue as well as a risk to the Spokane River.
*********
... well, ok - since it is EARTH DAY (why not every day?!) and this is an open page - unbroken ground ..., let's plant a seed and see what grows ...:
EARTH DAY: HANFORD ACTION
Your comments are needed this week on
Washington Department of Ecology's proposed
permit for USDOE - Hanford's "Test Bed Initiative"
Comment period closes Thursday 4/25/2024.
Comment today
* Remove leakable liquids from High Level Waste tanks
* Stop the US Department of Energy from trucking liquid radioactive chemical wastes through downtown Spokane
https://kathleenallen.substack.com/p/earth-day-hanford-action-your-comments
*******
One action for Earth Day:
Todays Earth Day! Please take a few minutes to act as well as reflect on the threat of climate change, and what you can do to lower the risks from nuclear weapons production at Hanford.
Your comments toady on Washington Department of Ecology's proposed permit for the US Department of Energy - Hanford's "Test Bed Initiative" can make a difference in REMOVING waste threatening the Columbia from Hanford for the first time! BUT we have to ensure that the waste is not trucked as a liquid through Spokane.
Hanford’s leaking High Level Nuclear Waste tanks cannot continue to be ignored.
The Test Bed Initiative (TBI) offers the opportunity to remove leakable liquids from tanks that are leaking today or are likely to start leaking soon.
Hanford’s groundwater and the Columbia River will be contaminated for thousands of years if all the waste that is currently planned to be removed from Hanford’s tanks is disposed in landfills onsite.
The “Test Bed Initiative” (TBI) offers the first hope for speeding up removal of leakable liquids from High Level Nuclear waste tanks decades ahead of current plans for vitrification (glassification) and for reducing how much waste is disposed in landfills along our Columbia River at Hanford.
TBI will test if 2,000 gallons can be removed from a High Level Waste Tank, solidified and treated to be disposed at sites where there is no drinkable groundwater that can ever be contaminated (the sites are in West Texas or Utah).
The US Department of Energy (USDOE) can solidify and treat the waste at a licensed facility next to Hanford so that there is no risk from spilling liquid waste in a truck accident on I-90.
Instead, USDOE wants to ship the waste as a liquid through Spokane for either 900 or 1,900 miles to be treated in Utah or Texas.
The Umatilla Indian Tribe (CTUIR) objects strongly to shipping the liquid wastes through their Reservation or through Spokane:
“The current plan to transport waste in liquid form poses for us an unacceptable risk of spills and harm to the environment, First Foods, and our citizens. The current proposal is especially disappointing given that shipping waste in a grouted, immobile, solid form is a viable and much safer option.
*******
“To be clear, the CTUIR requests the following:
1. Do NOT ship liquid Hanford tank waste across the Columbia Basin. Only ship this waste in GROUTED/SOLID form.
2. Move forward with large-scale grouting and out-of-state disposal as soon as reasonably allowable to decrease the risk of leaking Hanford tanks on the CTUIR's treaty-protected resources.”
*******
We agree with the Umatilla Tribe (CTUIR). The Tribe and we need your comments to help make this happen.
Heart of America Northwest has spent decades fighting USDOE’s plans to truck more waste to be dumped at Hanford, including successfully stopping shipments through Spokane. The TBI is our first hope to remove waste from Hanford, instead of adding more risk to the Columbia River.
But it has to be done safely by only trucking solid, treated waste with very low radioactivity – not trucking untreated liquids through Spokane and other vulnerable communities and Indian Reservations.
Use our sample comments from the section below to Washington’s Department of Ecology, but please add in your words why this is important to you. Perhaps you live near I-90 in Spokane. Or, you have hoped for years that we could remove waste from Hanford.
*******
Ecology comment form:
https://nw.ecology.commentinput.com/?id=tNePGUiA5
*******
Use these sample comments - adding a few words on why removing waste from Hanford or not shipping liquid waste through Spokane are important to you.
(Comment period closes Thursday 4/25/2024.)
To Washington Ecology and Governor Inslee:
* Ecology should not permit the US Department of Energy (USDOE) to truck untreated liquid wastes from Hanford’s High Level Nuclear Waste tanks through Spokane or across Oregon and the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
* I strongly support moving forward with the test to remove and treat 2,000 gallons from Hanford’s tanks for disposal offsite in licensed facilities where the waste does not create any risk to groundwater, Ecology has a duty to consider and take "mitigation" action to prevent the risk from a truck accident in Spokane or anywhere on the 900-1,900 mile truck routes. This is an environmental justice issue as well as a risk to the Spokane River.
* I agree with the Umatilla Tribe whose Chair wrote to USDOE:
“The current plan to transport waste in liquid form poses for us an unacceptable risk of spills and harm to the environment, First Foods, and our citizens. The current proposal is especially disappointing given that shipping waste in a grouted, immobile, solid form is a viable and much safer option.
“To be clear, the CTUIR requests the following:
1. Do NOT ship liquid Hanford tank waste across the Columbia Basin. Only ship this waste in GROUTED/SOLID form.
2. Move forward with large-scale grouting and out-of-state disposal as soon as reasonably allowable to decrease the risk of leaking Hanford tanks on the CTUIR's treaty-protected resources.”
* USDOE agreed not to truck the waste through Oregon and the Umatilla Reservation. Unselfishly, the Umatilla Tribe has continued to advocate that liquid wastes should not be trucked at all when there is a licensed facility that can solidify and treat the waste next door to Hanford and avoid trucking wastes through Spokane on I-90 for 900 miles to Utah or 1,900 miles to Texas for disposal.
* I want the test for 2,000 gallons of waste to proceed. But if it succeeds there will be thousands of shipments. Ecology has a duty under SEPA and the HEAL Act to consider and mitigate the risks from truck shipments through low income “overburdened” communities in Spokane or on Indian Reservations by requiring that the waste is solidified and treated at the licensed facility adjacent to Hanford instead of trucking untreated liquid waste.
Any spill of liquids from Hanford will be an international news incident as well as putting residents and the environment at risk.
* USDOE did not even consider risks from the chemicals in the liquid wastes and acknowledges that there is a risk of one “accidental crash” for a truck with these wastes every 884 shipments from Hanford to Texas. That is too high a risk to go without Washington requiring that the waste be solidified before being trucked through Spokane or Oregon and the Umatilla Reservation.
*******
Ecology comment form:
https://nw.ecology.commentinput.com/?id=tNePGUiA5
*******
Thank you,
Gerry Pollet
gerry@hoanw.ccsend.com
http://www.hanfordcleanup.org
Heart of America Northwest
10212 Fifth Ave NE Suite 255
Seattle, WA 98125 US
********^
The one good thing Nixon ever did.
I strongly reccomend the book on climate change called Not Too Late, written by activists Rebecca Solnit and Roberta An energizing case for hope about the climate, from Rebecca Solnit, the voice of climate resistance and activist Thelma Young Lutunatabua. Like these two activists, I believe much is known and spoken of in relation to climate change. The hour is now. We're being called to action. What are you changing in your personal life style? What are you doing with and in relation to community action? What are you consuming? It's not about stopping it..but more about altering and shifting the tempo, the places, using what tools. Especially, in community. I'm reminded of Mao's quote.. the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. In relation to climate, it begins and then shifts when individual steps are taken. And even more important in community. An idea that is already in an active state. He asks 'what the economy is for', and offers alternative approaches. In actuality, the change starts with each one of us, then our neighborhoods. Neighborhood, ommunity action is vital! It may start with one person and then expand out to friends. Sure it's important to contact and push for change within cities and states. But instead of talking about the issue, moaning and critizing, gather a handful of friends and invest in alternative energy. Share knowledge about products that are taxing the system by email or meeing. once a week or month. We're fortunate that we can do that online! Put less time into 'moaning' and outrage talk and put more into actions that provide hope and attract others to your cause. Create an ad in a local giveaway about what you and your group are doing. Invite others to join you. Instead of writing to your congress person on your own, craft a letter of neighbors to that person who isn't properly representing your needs and hopes.
Create a 'storm' of written or in person responses to a local 'bad boy' energy group. Let them know what they're doing is not invisible. Write letters to the local news. Gather together and shine a spotlight on the actual outcomes locally. The great thing is you WILL attract others.. Get your teenagers, your Gen Zers involved.. even the littles to hand out pamphlets. They'll admire you for that. You'll become their heroes. And there's a chance you'll find energetic unity and even have fun together.
The technology we need most badly is the technology of community. The knowledge about how to cooperate to get things done. Bill McKibben
Ready, set, go!
Note to Congress:
I can’t stop climate change, but you can.
The last time CO2 was this high in the atmosphere, the oceans were 75 feet higher than they are now. According to two studies published in the National Academy of Sciences, by 2070, nineteen percent of the planet’s population will live in a place that hasn’t traditionally supported human life. That will cause enormous migration. For the US, it is expected that 30 million people will try to cross our southern border.
It is not too late to keep the worst outcomes of global warming from happening, but we must act now. The problem with taking action is that everyone must participate, which can mean a level of change that could include sacrifice. People will always do what is in their own personal best interests. That means they will resist change unless it is in their best interests. So, this is where the government is in the perfect position to incent changes that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other behaviors that contribute to the climate change problem.
The government can incent changes by making driving a gasoline car more expensive by progressively increasing the tax on gasoline. This is working in Europe, and it can work here. In Europe, cars are smaller and more efficient than in the US because smaller cars are in the best interests of the common people. Similarly, the government can provide tax incentives to any process that slows climate change. There are literally hundreds of ways the government could impose changes that reduce the causes of climate change.
Of course, the first step for Congress is to accept the science and embrace the need for change. Ted Cruze, for example, has repeatedly quoted Fred Singer’s book, saying that global warming is a hoax. Fred Singer also wrote that tobacco smoking does not cause cancer, and UV exposure does not cause melanoma. This kind of climate denial, often funded by big oil, must stop. Of course, Ted Cruz is doing what is in his best interest, as Big Oil is one of his significant supporters. If Congress doesn’t get past this first step now and take action, they will have ruined the lives of our children.
Haaland is smart and tough! Americans MUST support the necessary changes to royalties and taxes and to follow Nixon's wake-up moment! This is our time to have a nation that "does the RIGHT things" for Earth.
4/21/24
Thank you Professor, for tilling the soils of this critical issue ... if I may, I need to take a few minutes to turn the compost - hoping people will take note - and action here, as difficult as it may be to see ... we ignore this dynamic at our peril:
From today's Letter:
"Republicans, especially those from states like Wyoming, which collects more than a billion dollars a year in royalties and taxes from the oil, gas, and coal produced on federal lands in the state, opposed Haaland’s focus on responsible management of natural resources for the future and warned that the Biden administration is “taking a sledgehammer to Western states’ economies.”"
"Western state leaders oppose the Biden administration’s efforts to change the Interior Department’s past practices, calling them “colonial forces of national environmental groups who are pushing an agenda” onto states like Wyoming."
*****
Reeeally? Is this the legacy of All-American free men in this free world?
So, Western states' colonial forces never 'pushed an agenda' on anyone - except maybe just those unincorporated folks not registered as "states?"
... Or maybe any living entity not recognized as hominoid, melatonin deficient, mostly hairless members of the local home team?
OH, BIDEN BE WARNED: TH0U SHALT NOT 'TAKE A SLEDGEHAMMER TO WESTERN STATES' ECONOMIES!'
We allow murder, rape, firearms, traps, toxic substances, snares, man-camps, helicopters, tanks and other vehicles (including snowmobiles) to vanquish any living entity that stands in the way of Western states' economic expansion - and the right of almighty man to be forever free ...,
BUT NO SLEDGEHAMMERS!!
Please find time to read this account of one "free man in America" exercising his right to assert dominance without conscience or integrity, and take a moment to hold him accountable for his actions ...:
*******
SIGN: JUSTICE FOR WOLF RUN DOWN BY SNOWMOBILE, TORTURED, AND KILLED AT WYOMING BAR
PETITION TARGET: Sublette County Sheriff and County Attorney
A wolf in Wyoming was allegedly horrifically disabled after being hit by a snowmobile. The animal’s pain was drawn-out when the man responsible allegedly taped the wolf’s snout shut, brought the injured wolf home, took pictures posing with the abused animal, took the terrified wolf to a bar, and later killed the wolf outside the business in Sublette County, as reported by Cowboy State Daily.
https://ladyfreethinker.org/sign-justice-for-wolf-run-down-by-snowmobile-tortured-and-killed-at-wyoming-bar/
The wolf was kept alive and in pain — apparently so the man could take pictures of the wolf’s suffering and subject the frightened animal to an audience before killing the animal.
Wyoming law permits what it calls “humane destruction” of certain animals. What this wolf endured was not humane.
Wyoming Game and Fish Department cited a man — but only for possession of the live animal.
“Animal cruelty charges are not applicable to predatory animals,” Wyoming Game and Fish Department said in a statement about the incident.
The law which Wyoming Game and Fish Department cites – Title Six – does not prohibit the “hunting, capture, killing or destruction of any predatory animal, pest or other wildlife in any manner not otherwise prohibited by law.” However, tormenting animals is otherwise prohibited by law. Title Six goes on to describe felony cruelty to animals as “knowingly, and with intent to cause death or undue suffering, beats with cruelty, tortures, torments or mutilates an animal.”
Other hunters have reportedly agreed that the circumstances under which this wolf was captured and killed were inhumane, according to Wyoming Public Radio.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has come under question for their handling of this case and we are calling on prosecutors to treat it with the severity it deserves.
No animal deserves to be tortured and suffer prolonged pain before death. Wolves are sentient, intelligent animals. They deserve to be protected from merciless acts of cruelty.
This wolf was made to suffer tremendous pain and fear before being killed in a manner resembling a public execution. Animal cruelty charges must be filed against the person responsible for mercilessly tormenting this wolf to send the message that Wyoming does not condone animal cruelty and to prevent others from inflicting similarly inhumane violence against animals.
Sign our petition to urge Sublette County officials to investigate and pursue felony animal cruelty charges against the person responsible for torturing this wolf to set a precedent that animal cruelty will not be permitted in Wyoming.
https://ladyfreethinker.org/sign-justice-for-wolf-run-down-by-snowmobile-tortured-and-killed-at-wyoming-bar/
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"On February 28th of this year--just 26 days after the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service denied gray wolves protections--Cody Roberts of Daniel Wyoming tortured and killed a female yearling gray wolf after running her down with a snowmobile and taping her mouth shut.
This abhorrent act of cruelty cannot become normal or acceptable. The wildlife that you and I fight for every day face enough threats from habitat loss, climate change, and over consumption by lawful hunters. Torture cannot be added to that already-grave list."
Share this story to build pressure on decision-makers to act.
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/wolves-are-not-safe
"While this disgusting action likely shocks you as much as it does me, Mr. Roberts is currently facing a mere $250 fine for possessing a live wild animal. To put a fine point on that: running a wolf to exhaustion with a snowmobile and incapacitating her, taping her mouth shut, parading the still-live wolf around a bar, and finally killing and skinning her do not violate state law. Only the possession of the live animal is a low-level infraction."
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Wyoming resident fined $250 for torturing and killing a wild gray wolf
Just weeks after the Biden Administration announced it was denying conservation organization's petitions to protect wolves in the Northern Rockies from unsustainable killing, a Wyoming resident ran a wolf down with a snowmobile, taped its mouth shut, and tortured it--before killing it.
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/wolves-are-not-safe
"While this disgusting action likely shocks you as much as it does me, Mr. Roberts is currently facing a mere $250 fine for possessing a live wild animal . To put a fine point on that: running a wolf to exhaustion with a snowmobile and incapacitating her, taping her mouth shut, parading the still-live wolf around a bar, and finally killing and skinning her do not violate state law. Only the possession of the live animal is a low-level infraction."
"Wyoming's Governor,1 the local sheriff,2 the Director of the state's fish and wildlife agency, and former U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) Director Dan Ashe3 have issued statements condemning this brutal attack. But to date, the current Director of the USFWS, Martha Williams, and her boss, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, have had no comment.
"The USFWS could have prevented this. We worked for more than two years to organize support for the protection of gray wolves in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana under the Endangered Species Act.4 Scientists, legal experts, activists, biologists, and Tribal representatives advocated to Secretary Haaland and Director Williams in support of protection.
And let’s be clear: Wyoming’s designated “predator zone,” 85 percent of the state where wolves can be shot on sight (without even a hunting license,) should never have been approved by the USFWS as an acceptable wolf management plan. Such a classification sends a message to the public that state wildlife officials consider wolves a pest and enables the type of horrific treatment of wolves that we witnessed last week.
"As I wrote above, their decision to deny those crucial safeguards preceded this act of cowardly torture by just 26 days. I do not know if Mr. Roberts felt empowered by the USFWS deciding that these wolves did not warrant protection--but I do know that the agency could have acted before it and it can surely act now.
"Today, I am asking you to share this story. The more people who know what happened to this wolf, the more the Administration will feel pressure to act. Please post to social media or share this story with a friend.
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/wolves-are-not-safe
"We will be in touch soon with additional actions that we can all take to protect wolves in the Northern Rockies and Colorado from similar acts of torture."
"Thank you for your commitment to wildlife and wild places.
Sincerely,"
Susan Holmes
Executive Director
Endangered Species Coalition
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Thank you, Heather, for omitting the audio of the URL bibliographic links.
* I strongly support moving forward with the test to remove and treat 2,000 gallons from Hanford’s tanks for disposal offsite in licensed facilities where the waste does not create any risk to groundwater, Ecology has a duty to consider and take "mitigation" action to prevent the risk from a truck accident in Spokane or anywhere on the 900-1,900 mile truck routes. This is an environmental justice issue as well as a risk to the Spokane River.