"Today President Joe Biden used the anniversary of the Endangered Species Act to reclaim the spirit of the era in which it was written, urging Americans to protect ecosystems and biodiversity, “honor all the progress we have made toward protecting endangered species,” and to “come together to conserve our planet.” "
And, the other guy said he wants to "DRILL, DRILL, DRILL".
I would like to see President Biden put solar panels back on the White House roof, or wherever they can be placed.
“Rachel Carson was right.” Pesticides are dangerous. We’ve gone back to using formerly banned pesticides because —duh, who knew?— weeds are becoming immune. Plus glyphosate has never been banned in the US. “New research from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health shows that childhood exposure to the world’s most widely used weed killer, glyphosate, is linked to liver inflammation and metabolic disorder in early adulthood, which could lead to liver cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease later in life.
My only brother had lifelong exposure to glyphosate. At age 70, he has myelodysplastic syndrome (precursor to Myeloid leukemia). True, true and unrelated? Maybe, but I doubt it.
Here's a thought; if CO2 levels in the air rise far enough, we'll be less and less able to exhale CO2. The human race will become drowsy, forgetful, stupid and then obtunded. We'll all be gone within weeks and the world can then revert back to something more compatible with life.
The fraction of CO2 in the atmosphere is only 0.04% or so. Asphyxiation isn't a threat. CO2 is, indeed, increasing rapidly and in my formerly super snowy town in the North East, we have had essentially ZERO snow so far this year and our temperature on Christmas was 53F. About 17F above normal.
A little bit of CO2 goes a LOOONG way toward warming the earth. It really traps heat well.
Regarding the extinction of humans though, what normally happens to dominant species in closed systems is starvation. The dominant species typically consumes all of the food source and natural resources in the closed system and follows a curve that looks long and flat, followed by a more rapid than exponential increase, followed by a very rapid die off and extinction. Almost a straight line down.
I learned this at a PhD biology seminar at UT Austin in their grad biology department (my future wife was PhD student there) and I attended that department's seminars rather than my ChE department seminars because they were more interesting.
At any rate, below is a graph of human population.
As you can see, we are on the very rapid population ramp up as we clear all of our forests and use up all of our oil to do farming.
----> But, farming (and water parks) will result in using up all of the ground water as well,
--->and when oil runs out, which, in spite of American heads planted firmly in the dirt or up their arse....... it will, ---> the fertilizer source will vanish and?
So will we.
I used to worry about this and try to help people understand that we should NOT be driving huge pickup trucks back and forth the car wash and Walmart.
But, nobody listens. So, I don't try anymore. Humans are too dumb for long term survival.
Now, since it is New Year's and we all should try to be positive, I will post this positive essay from the NY Times. Gift Link
The administration is pouring tens of millions into capping abandoned oil and natural gas wells which is already reducing the amount of methane in the atmosphere.
So often a fly by night oil company, which are often funded by the majors, run the oil or gas wells until they are dry and then they declare bankruptcy and walk away. There are over 120,000 documented orphan wells in the US
The infrastructure bill has funding to cap some of these wells. Another group in Montana has a foundation to cap orphan wells started with the biggest polluters. This is the foundation behind this effort.
Mike, you sound like me, another Mike. This year is the first in many years that I passed on giving my Climate Change lecture at an adult nature camp I attend every summer. It was just a waste of time as the listeners would virtually get up from the lecture and begin to discuss their upcoming vacations on the other side of the planet. I also don't discuss the subject with my grown children (same reason, they are forever flying for the fun of it) though I rarely will mention it to the grandchildren just to see if they have any idea what is heading their way. I want them to be able to look back when they are trying to cope and remember that grandpa told them about this 50 years ago. Nature's beginning to do my job for me. Had a major power failure occurred in the South or Southwest last summer the heat related death toll would have been nasty.
I live here in the country, heat the house with dead timber, travel very little (except by the roads on Google Earth, love that feature), and eat at the bottom of the food chain with much grown in the back yard. Almost all of the place is forest which is the home of the other critters who entertain me regularly by parading through my little yard. Life is good. I wish I could believe my grandchildren would get the same opportunity but don't.
As to the CO2, it's not the real greatest danger. That belongs to water vapor which increases in the atmosphere exponentially with heat. The water vapor capacity of the atmosphere is the greatest danger it is also a greenhouse gas so it is a positive feedback. More water vapor, more heat, more water vapor, and on and on. In addition the water vapor capacity means there is more to fall as precipitation, greater floods and snowfall, plus a greater demand on the supply side so droughts are also more severe. And the planet is about 70% covered in water so the water vapor supply is virtually infinite. Finally the additional water vapor produces an atmosphere with more potential energy as the vapor condenses so storms are much more severe. CO2 is much more long-lasting and we do have theoretically some control about how much we dump in the air. With our addiction to fossil fuels this "control" doesn't help much.
Strange how water vapor is never mentioned - only CO2. Possibly a few of our brightest minds should glance that way???
Lots of water, no snow & WARM in December - NOT a good thing - ground not frozen, all those ticks not dying off - well, you get the picture and so, I'm sure, do most of us here.
Lots of bright minds are looking at water vapor but CO2 is something that we could have a lot more control over. Once the atmosphere heats up for whatever reason, water vapor is almost always available because the planet's surface is water and covering the ocean or lake to prevent evaporation isn't feasible. Also water vapor is a short-lived greenhouse gas. It falls out of the air as precipitation. CO2, on the other hand is a very long-lived greenhouse gas with some of it being rapidly absorbed by the ocean but some of the rest lasting as long as 1000 years before being absorbed by weathering rocks. CO2 is the gas we need to work to control; unfortunately fossil fuel companies want us to use as much of their product as possible and I can find NO evidence that they give a rat's about the future.
An interesting fact. Each gallon of petroleum product that is burned puts about 20 pounds of fossilized CO2 into the atmosphere. Fossilized CO2 comes from burning fossilized carbon, carbon that was last in the atmosphere about 350 million years ago.
Thank you for this informative post, Michael. I haven't thought about water vapor and I will now. Right now here in Oregon, we have little snow in the mountains, but several atmospheric rivers which gave us lots of warm rain. It must be warm in southern Indiana too as my great niece posted Christmas pics with the smallest ones running around in diapers. We do have a Prius and since we travel very rarely out of the city, we can go for a long time without visiting the gas station. We have solar panels on our roof and a battery system in the garage which fills completely when there is a weather warning. Otherwise, what we don't use goes into the grid. We have a garden and make an effort to buy locally from farmers. We do eat meat, but it is usually local pork and lamb. My LMT does fish and he is generous with his catch. We don't travel anymore and I confess it is partly because are too old. We have plenty of friends who do and I think they don't give a thought to their contribution in this respect to global warming. We have just finished the season of consume, consume, consume which makes me ill.
Yes, the path I outline is almost exactly what will happen UNLESS Jeri,
We kill ourselves with A-Bombs in some dumb war that some Republican thought was a good idea to go into to get some payoff from a Military Contractor.
This might be more likely than starvation of the species. Because, either way you cut it Jeri, humans are too dumb to survive.
Also, Jeri, I am converting two of my farm fields to diverse hardwood forest. My state has a program where if I pay 35% the state pays the rest to do a planting. So, I am doing it.
I am lucky. I don't HAVE to farm to survive. For now.
How mind-blowing--this amazing planet was created where just a 3% shift of its tilt would not allow human existence, where a plentitude of flora and fauna coexist, and a plethora of seascapes, landscapes and colors contribute to its beauty. And along comes man and his will. And man-made destruction follows, not only in destroying this sublime natural environment, but also in obliterating each other. Praying....
Mike - thanks so much for the Times link. She says it all - sad how few will read and comprehend and LISTEN!
Honestly - Reagan's solar panel removal should have opened some eyes back then. But then there were the "welfare queens" - more catchy news items. Better to blame the "others" - just look at where we are right now!
Humans are far too adaptable to go extinct any time soon. But I would agree that our population is headed for a crash with collapse of civilization in the next century or less. We'll have a Mad Max remainder.
There you go. I agree. Human extinction? I think not unless a very communicable deadly disease accompanies other strife. But life for survivors would be Mad Max difficult. I would not wish that upon my kids or theirs.
The biggest disruption will be forced migration around coastal populations. The stressors will/are be on changing economics, food supply, and fuel to move that food fast enough. Land underwater will reduce available space for homes and farms. Less and more unpredictable rainfall will making productive farming very challenging, first gradually, then suddenly, then catastrophically.
Read “The Parrot and the Igloo”. Great book on history and propaganda of the CO2.
The higher the level of CO2 the faster and bigger plants will grow. That fact is NO justification for not taking the scientists' warning when something could have been done. But those who are privy to the science of global warming know it is too late -the die is cast. Sorry, but facts are facts.
Sadly, Harvey, it would appear that for large swaths of Americans (and I suppose entrepreneurs and big business in countries around the world) the "pursuit of happiness" is all the justification they need to ignore science and its predictions. We might as well have adopted our signature phrase and life goal to "make merry today for tomorrow we die!"
LOL, I dont think C02 levels have anything to do with "drowsy, forgetful, stupid", that's already baked into the GOP and allies. Climate catastrophe will long precede Dopy. You'd think Floridians and Texans of all people would appreciate climate change better than most, considering the weather trends of late ...
My mother-in-law used glyphosate liberally beginning when they moved to their retirement home on 10 acres outside of Ashland. She died 20 years ago (25 years after moving there) from non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
My mom also died of non-Hadgkins lymphoma at age 70. She and dad established a large vegetable garden at their new home in 1970. Glyphosate was liberally used; I partly blame it for my later diabetes diagnosis also.
My sister and brother in law lived in Crestwood Illinois for many years. My b.i.l. was had a "hobby" farm on the last, so to speak. He started a small farm there and sold vegetables, had chickens, turkeys, even a few cows and horses. Over the decades, the community sprung up around them. They first had well water, then the community brought in "city water" from Chicago. They bathed in and drank the water. My sister put up a lot of their garden, again, using the water.
There was a scandal over the "city" water being contaminated with ground water. (You can google this case, it got a lot of news coverage.)
My sister was diagnosed with Primary Peritoneal Cancer (a form of Ovarian CA) and a few months after she died, my brother in law also had what was first conseidered MDS, but then he was diagnosed as Acute Myelo-Monocytic Leukemia.
Coincidence? I don't believe so.
When she was well into her disease, my sister texted a photo of two saplings they had planted. One was on lower ground and got plenty of rainwater. The other was on the other side of their lot, and higher, so they would water it. It did poorly. More and more and more they watered, thinking it needed water. It was shriveling up and looked quite sickly. She said, what do you think???
My sister and brother in law were truly good people in any way you could define it.
I miss them daily. When am beyond anger now: when I hear about cuts to the EPA, it just makes me incredibly sad.
"drowsy, forgetful, stupid and then obtunded"? Well, listening & reading some of what is considered "news" right now would make one believe the description fits quite a few humans right now!
I’m so sorry about your brother. I’ve stopped eating non-organic soy because there is so much Roundup Ready soy out there. It used to be that someone had to walk between the rows of soybeans and spray the weeds carefully because any Roundup (glyphosate) that got on the soybean plants would kill them. Now, with Roundup Ready soybeans, they can spray whole fields from the air because only the weeds die; so all the soybeans have glyphosate sprayed on them.
But until then short term profits, especially for fossil fuel companies, will continue to roll in. And anyway, those of us who live on the top of the hill, with our air purifiers, can watch the pollution settle over the neighborhoods of the undeserving poor.
Glyphosate, aka Roundup, was originally developed as a drain cleaner, so using it as a weed killer is actually an "off label" use. All major cereal crops - corn, wheat, and rice, plus soy beans have been genetically modified (GMOs) to withstand dosing with Roundup. To make it easier to harvest, Roundup resistant GMO wheat is sprayed with large doses of this known carcinogen to essentially kill the plants so they ripen all at once. The sharp increase in gluten sensitivity over the past couple of decades I believe is actually people developing a "Roundup sensitivity", as many people's gluten sensitivities are reduced or even disappear when they are given wheat products made from Roundup free wheat.
I had to stop eating gluten and soy 10 years ago due to an Autoimmune disease. It’s very difficult because almost EVERYTHING contains either gluten or soy. But I am healing and feel stronger than ever. It’s been 10 years.
We noticed a difference between wheat products consumed in Europe (no gastric issues) and wheat products in the U.S. it’s not gluten because we can eat other grains like oats. We thought it might be the wheat variety grown here, but it’s quite possible that it’s both the variety and Roundup.
This. This is what I, too, believe is happening inside all humans; a sensitivity to gluten that never existed before is a direct result of the chemicals in our lives.
I had the opportunity to assist a lost elder (who was wandering late at night in his pjs) back to his home. Turns out he had ‘invented’ glyphosate. Nice man. But kind of symptomatic of our ignorance of effects.
Carter had solar hot water panels installed (see caption for photo), used to heat water for the WH kitchen. Reagan had them removed. Those panels were subsequently moved to a college, who used them until 2004. During the HWB administration, other thermal water panels were installed on the grounds for utility use, along with some photovoltaic panels on roofs of maintenance buildings, but not on the White House. In 2010, Obama proposed installing photovoltaic panels on the WH, and panels were installed in 2013. This marked the first time solar electicity had been used for the Presidential quarters.
Thank you for posting this, Linda. . It’s a very interesting article and good news that buildings are going up with more thought about the effect on migratory birds.
Linda, Thanks for the article. Quite interesting. There was a reference to Jeanne Gang(?) experimenting with bird feeders "around her house" in her effort to discourage avian residential collisions. I wonder if that was that a reference to bird feeders attached to windows or feeders placed around the property to distract? I have always assumed that window feeders increased collisions and have wistfully veered away from window feeders assuming they increased collisions.
The American Bird Conservancy has a ton of information on its website about techniques and products to reduce bird collisions with windows and buildings. The organization has tested a variety of products to determine what's most effective. Here's a link: https://abcbirds.org/glass-collisions/
In most studies I've seen metabolic disease is blamed fructose, wheat and insulin. Prebiotic and probiotics mitigates the problem by turning sugars into more beneficial fatty acids.
"Of the OECD members, South Koreans' life expectancy was the second highest after Japan, with 84.5 years. The figure for Mexico and the United States stood at 75.4 years and 76.4 years, respectively.Jul 25, 2023"
Kimchi, kefir, and yogurt instead of cereal, and seed oils.
Aaron, might the longer life expectancies in Japan, & South Korea also have something to do with more coherent national health care systems than ours in the USA?
About the time that President Carter put the solar panels on the White House I worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which built and operates dams on the Tennessee River bringing electricity to the TN valley. I worked on the TVA program to encourage residents to install solar panels on their homes. This program provided the panels and the installation at a very reasonable payment plan. I worked on developing the models to determine the payment plan and interest rate and to monitor its effectiveness. It was a successful program until Reagan got into the White House and shut it down. Among the numerous things that Reagan got wrong.
Just to be clear, pesticides (e.g., DDT, Atrazine) kill insects. Herbicides (e.g., glyphosate, diquat) kill grass and weeds. Both are harmful to the environment and people, but their uses are clearly different.
I actually wrote Dianne Feinstein about the WH solar panels years ago. There are now numerous “structures” for protection and communications on the roof that weren’t there under Carter.
She didn’t use the word, but fortifications were implied. There are now a contingent of sharpshooters on the WH roof 24/7.
I have personally known of a couple of people who are our farm laborers (Mexicans) who worked in various harvest exposes to pesticides who ended up dying from severe Parkinson’s disease. A painful and life disrupting disease. They were young!
Gigi, while I inderstand the gist of your comment (pesticides are bad, glyphosate is a health hazard) I wonder if you can name any pesticides which were previously banned and are now allowed?
I had also suggested that FEMA only fund rebuilds of passive houses. Meaning their department should be developing several passive house plans, and then use those in rebuilding houses, also not rebuilding them in fire zones or flood planes. Laws making new houses passive houses would help too, but I guess Biden cannot do that alone.
People have to desire the change needed, subscribe best possible individually to act , revamp , and promote change through all facits , recycling, eating, travel, work, play...prosumers vs consumers ..its comprehensive ,foreign to most especially entrenched corporate demands. So the demand must be lessened by us. Many tried in the movement back-to-the-land . Few stayed. Its adaptation is made contrary to ease,profiteering, and propagation of consuming deemed the materialistic world of the corporate power module. To make what needs to happen is becoming more obvious Johnny come lately theoretically . Too late? Afternoon the fact( cataclysmic devastation )? And is the basic folly of gain through greed/power moves vs smart togetherness for communal benefit...not even humorous to use the Mr.and Mrs. Rich’s end game .
I think that if getting a fema subsidized passive house is a problem for people they can pay for their own place. Culture is changed from within and without. This is the kind of initiative you find in other countries. I can see it being a problem in Florida a state that embraces a devil for a governor, and yet, they really need this sort of not building in wetlands, smart house change.
The codes need changed to passive designs implemented, should be mandatory , not quick developers ,not cheap costs & shoddy , not big and gaudy, rain collection for toilets,solar /LED/ gardens vs lawns/fruit trees lining sidewalk/parks, and no invasive landscaping .SOOO much can be built in saving$. Small homes.com types of developments for singles,aged, challenged communities equipped with ADA conveniences.
They have such communities in Ca ( maybe other states, too?) $55,000 and monthly lot fee my SIL looked into them, well set up , trailer park style. Gated. Not for everyone. But… it’s novelty, innovative, better built than metal trailers. A start. We can do better.
Just Sayin’, Given the still-rampant collective denial, at home and abroad, of environmental threats, particularly among those with heavy stakes in the status quo, typically the most powerful, my question is whether we fully grasp how much will be asked of ourselves and our leaders if we’re to intervene on a large enough scale to exert a meaningful impact.
You can be pretty sure that many among "those with heavy stakes" are, and have been, building their personal fire escapes. Some are actually doing something about climate change. Despite the GOP stuff, USA overall... "The 1% increase in U.S. CO2 emissions in 2022 was much slower than the previous year's 7% increase. Nevertheless, the United States produced 4% less energy-related CO2 emissions in 2022 than just before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. Less use of coal was the largest contribution to U.S. emissions reductions in 2022." "In 2023, wind represented 28.6 percent of Texas energy generation, second to natural gas (41.8 percent). There are 239 wind-related projects in Texas and more than 15,300 wind turbines, the most of any state.|"
Frank, Thank you for writing. Your comment reminded me of an October, 2020 discussion between NYT Editorialist Tom Friedman and then-CNN Host Chris Cuomo, wherein Friedman walked us through numerous examples of an oil industry already in transition. He concluded:
“The argument is over. The industry is in transition and the companies that aren’t are the ones that are going to go the way of the Stone Age. And Democrats should want to own this. We as a country should want to own this. I don’t want to go from importing oil from the Middle East to importing clean energy efficiency tools from China and missing the whole thing because we are not in transition; because we have a president (referring to Trump) who is so wedded to the Stone Age, he wants to go down with oil. And I don’t care to go with him.”
Biden is not drilling. The Biden administration is obeying the law. Oil companies have thousands of leases that they legally purchased years ago to drill for oil in various places. The majority of these leases are being held and not close to being used; they are not being drilled today and there are no preparations being made to drill them anytime soon. However, they are legally owned by oil companies and until Congress passes some law that will get past the Supreme Court that will allow those leases to be cancelled, there is nothing any President can do. Trump can talk all he wants about drilling but it's up to the oil companies and at this time the oil companies are not in any great hurry to drill any more than they already are.
The 10s of thousands of years of wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of this continent lost thru genocide and displacement could have preserved this continent's exceptional nature. Yellowstone NP Supt Cam Sholley is the first in his role to engage the original human inhabitants of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in determining the region's future. The results have been a watershed for wildlife.
Indigenous tribes in Northern California are reclaiming their heritage. They're taking down dams and using long-established practices to care for the land, especially the forests.
Maybe the super volcano under the Yellowstone Caldera will come to life again and prove in a day that we humans haven't got a clue about "controlling the Earth."
TCinLA I think Iceland will already attest to that. Icelandic scientists have fine- tuned monitoring the earth, but seem to acknowledge human limitations in trying to control it.
Ronald Reagan once reportedly said, "... we've got to recognize that where the preservation of a natural resource like the redwoods is concerned, that there is a common sense limit. I mean, if you've looked at a hundred thousand acres or so of trees — you know, a tree is a tree, how many more do you need to look at?"
I would argue there is a common sense limit to how much we can drill, burn, toss, and consume. The forest is where the sum of the parts make up a special place to simply wander, to let our spirits soar and thrive. Humans have become the takers of the planet; it's time we give back.
The world's forests are LITERALLY the planet's lungs. In addition to the marvelous wonder we experience when we walk within them, they are inhaling carbon, exhaling oxygen and pumping complex molecules into the earth, 24/7, to be consumed and distributed by microbes of multiple orders of complexity, insects and other invertebrates, who in turn feed and support the lives of higher order living beings, including...us. They are creating humidity and moderating, creating favorable weather. They are producing, storing biomass and increasing soil fertility while providing home and shelter for a great portion of the world's biodiversity inventory. Thanks for reminding me what an intellectual giant (NOT) we had in Mr. Reagan.
Just sayin’, Amen to that. The Hidden Life of Trees beautifully describes the magical powers of trees. It’s impossible to overestimate their contribution to earth’s ecology as well as our psychic well being.
Bonnie, back when Reagan was CA governor, he said “if you’ve seen one redwood tree, you’ve seen ‘em all”. Well, at the time in Arcata, CA one of the off-ramps into town had a single kinda scrawny redwood & some brilliant person(s) made & installed what looked like CA State Park sign—the rough-hewn wood w/ routed letters painted in deep yellow—that said “Ronald Reagan Memorial Redwood Grove”. Was lucky I got to see the sign before it was quickly taken down! Good trouble indeed!
Steve, did you ever see the altered billboard near the Mad river by the exit to McKinleyville where someone changed the wording on the image of a horseback riding cowboy smoking a cigarette from “Marlborough Man” to “Marijuana Man”? They used the same font & size as the original wording & was not as obvious in passing, so lasted a wee bit longer than the redwood sign. Hooray for the riff-raff!! Part graffiti, part social commentary, part art installation! Have wondered if it was the same person(s) who did both.
I would urge all of us to read: "The Hidden Life of Trees" by Peter Wohlleben. Read this book and your concept of a "forest" will never be the same!! Wohlleben (a German forester) tells us that trees feel and communicate!
If you ever get out to Oregon with the intent of visiting Crater Lake National Park, there's another very worthwhile stop to make. As you head northeast out of Medford on Hwy 62, there is a Siskiyou National Forest Park at the Rogue River Gorge. The gorge itself is a beautiful testament to the power of water and lava, but there is also the "living stump". A tree was cut down, and the stump connected with a tree next to it via their root systems.
I could never live anywhere else, and our trees are the major reason. I'm proud that we have good forest management regulatons. Are they perfect? Probably not. But we do love our trees!!
Yes, I live and sit with the redwoods here by the No. CA coast. They are part of my community of beings and it is very comforting to be among them. Love reading about the neurotransmitters that we have in common with plants and their mycelial neighbors.
Bonnie...on one of our Road Scholar trips, we visited California. I promised my mother that one day I would HUG General Sherman! Jumped over the fence and did so! Then, our son attended WVU (West Virginia University) in Morgantown, WV. Guess what...a "baby redwood" which is an offspring of General Sherman is planted in their arboretum! (Won't grow as large due to our winter dormancy...) You are blessed to live there. I count it a blessing to have had this connection.
Teddy Roosevelt was the last Republican president who seriously cared about the Earth at all, and yes, I’m not ignoring or condoning his big game hunting.
Oddly, I found "Tricky Dick", for all of his treachery, more environmentally minded than most. Reagan marked a dramatic departure point; everything for sale to the highest bidder, including America's soul.
Just like today's republican narcissist/criminal trying to become America's first dictator. Pay per view of our national secrets, totally transactional.
His comment wasn’t only incredibly selfish, but incredibly stupid, too. It shows he honestly had no idea how Nature works, and worse, he hadn’t even the slightest bit of interest to learn about it. Exactly like the Orange Goober.
Annie, yes. Reagan and tffg share(d) that inability to understand or connect with any existence outside their own. It's beyond narcissism - it's solipsism. Other people and creatures simply don't exist.
Look at or grind up and sell. The ecosphere, like the human body is, of physical necessity a masterpiece of balance. Over exploitation results in a population crash. We are not immune to that. Apart from their waste product problems, fossil fuel resources are easily captured by the few, hence enable anti-democratic distribution of power. Many aspects of alternative energy sources are more decentralized. That can have social and economic implication, as well as political implications.
St. Ronnie Raygun was just about as stupid as it's possible to get and still be able to walk upright. Even his 'special handlers'--provided by his movement conservative puppeteers-- admitted he was very intellectually "disinterested". Shepherding Raygun during his campaigns and the years in office was a serious challenge.
If you have any doubts about the idiocies he spewed on a near daily basis, resurrect and read Molly Ivins columns about Raygun and his merry band of liars and thieves, written during Raygun's endless 8 years and Andy Borowitz' book, "Profiles in Ignorance". Eye-opening.
There has never been another Trump. Reagan was just very conservative; he was an eloquent speaker and loyal to big business. I would take him back in a minute, even having protested him as governor. Trump made everyone cry out in disbelief, but he is frightening and off the rails at a whole next level. I mean truly unbalanced, dangerous, and unpredictable; blinded by his ego, vengeance, and Machiavellian craze. Did I say dangerous?
I hope I can reinforce your point. The purpose of a forest, or any other biological system, is not simply to entertain humans. They play vital roles of habitat, erosion control, and watershed protection, to name just a few. As for the common sense limit on fossil fuel consumption, having a planet that is too polluted to live on is a limit, one that was reached when the Cuyahoga River caught fire (not for the first time, mind you).
Reagan was an actor pretending to be human. A pretty good one but no Oscar from me. He just had a good speech writer (Peggy Noonan) and good PR (Michael Deaver), always with the flag in tow. The man knew how to use props
Just another reason to never vote Republican for those interested in leaving a viable planet for their children and grandchildren. Oh, there are some sane ones, but despite them, the G.O.P. should never be left in charge of anything, certainly not the environment, especially the House of Representatives !
If we’d only listened to Carter and led the world in protecting the environment , instead of “drill,baby, drill” (as proposed by Trump in his first day in office). Fracking was touted as a safe way to make spent sources profitable again. Instead, parts of western Texas now experience more earthquakes than any state other than Alaska or California. Hopefully, it’s not too late to keep most of the world livable.
Climate Change is escalating and we rearrange the deck chairs and fiddle while the world burns. Too little too late. I am sad to know that the beautiful world I loved will be gone. However, although the earth may change to the point where humans become extinct, Earth will endure and evolve into something different, and no doubt beautiful in some new and exciting form.
I still have hope we can preserve something in this mess. Clime change is beginning to bite, and humans can move their behinds when the have to. I ave no idea what today's children may see, but there their may be psychological tipping points as well as physical ones. Anyway, I hope we can do the right things before forced to.
Another good book on the subject is The Ends of the World by Brannen. It recounts what has happened in previous mass extinction events and draws parallels with our current trajectory. May be the first auto-mass extinction we are precipitating.
Flood risks grow. Sea levels rise. Droughts force migrations. And the billionaires lie.
The have done so through their post-Powell memo foundations since that memo united them to their predator priorities.
Our schools, higher and K-12, could be rich in the literacies of humanities and nature. But the billionaires' foundations (see Jane Mayer's "Dark Money") actively promote another entire nation's dumbing down fit for the serfdom the billionaires aspire in the U.S. also to lock in.
Putin did it in Russia -- and the whole population there has suffered in rising rates of TB, alcoholism, and other ill health, along with falling birth rates.
U.S. billionaires fight good health care for all in the same proportion that they defend AR-15s in the hands of all our most unstable.
They have their perfect illiterate in the heavily-cosmetized orange guy in his fouled diapers.
The world when the commercialized vulgar run it threatens us all. And if we lack the higher rates of literacy in humanities and nature adequately to call out the predators?
We’re probably toast. Team Blue rants against Trump and Drill, Baby, Drill, while Biden opens up new leases on land and offshore for drilling and you don’t hear a peep, except from Sunrise and climate activists who are marginalized when criticizing Joe because Trump is the bigger threat to democracy. Obama talked a good game to the Dem base on climate, and pushed fracking like a madman, spearheaded by SOS Clinton, who tried to force it on European nations whose publics said no. Why did we blow up Nordstream? To help us regime change the Russians, yes, but by forcing Europe to buy American LNG from us instead of Russia, climate be damned.
Corporations own us, Democrats and Republicans alike. Until that changes, we’ll continue on the path to extinction, and most everyone in America is ok with that, as evidenced by their belief that just because they recycle they’re somehow doing something about climate. Denial of reality is one strong drug when it comes to what is coming down the pike.
Their money arranges interlocking links among foundations, lobbyists, and politicians who all cluster-f the schools.
The teachers? Beset on all sides by those manipulated by corporate money, by preachers, ideologues, and a public with no respect for teachers.
Look at Finland. It had mediocre schools until it decided it wanted quality. And got it. Got it by investing in teachers. Hiring only the best. Giving all power to them. Not to admin. Not partisan school boards. Not the billionaire standardized testers. Not the social media of group identity silos, hate, and divisiveness.
America had great schools (some qualifications by racism), certainly from the well-funded higher ed put into effect from the Justin Morrill land grant bill of 1862 to the Powell memo death trip since 1971. We can have great schools again.
But we need to decide: do we want to be owned by those you note owning most of the U.S. (and the world), or do we want to be allied with classes of great teachers we respect and to whom we defer?
Phil, I am a retired teacher and am grateful everyday that I am. (Retired).
I would be fired today because I could not and would not bow down to the likes of DeSantis and parents-who- burn -books.
It's hard enough for children to realize and appreciate their uniqueness, and now there's no room anymore for the encouragement of individualism.
We're being lumped into a dangerous cadre of non-thinking, biased, fearful people by non-thinking, biased, and fearful people.
I think FEARFUL is a good way to describe the "do-gooders" who want to impose THEIR way of thinking on the rest of us.
Don't tell me I can't use my creativity, my uniqueness, my beliefs to get me through this life.
Don't tell our students that they can't be themselves.
I had to stop teaching when my state implemented "teach the test" policies. The almighty "end-of-grade" test became the focus of our teaching. Scores were all that mattered. It was a trickle-down situation. Superindents didn't want to look bad, principals didn't want to look bad with low scores, teachers certainly didn't want to be judged by a bunch of numbers, and who suffered the most? The children of course.
I quit earlier than I would have because we had no time to talk to or engage with the children. We dared not promote their innate abilities and talents. We dared not stray from teaching just reading and math, which the End-of-Grade test was all about. No more science, (I received an $1800 grant to buy science equipment, then was told that I should concentrate on teaching reading and math skills). No more social studies, and heaven forbid teaching cursive writing or spelling.
Sure, teachers today face disrespectful kids who have no stability in their lives and I so respect teachers who can thrive despite that.
There's the saying, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."
It should read, "Those who can, do. Those who can do MORE, teach.
Many countries of the world today have good people like you, also pushed out of the teaching profession.
Go to your local library. Get a copy of the English translation of Minae Mizumura's "The Fall of Language in the Age of English." Columbia University in the U.S. arranged this translation in 2016. It looks at the many cultures of the world also endangered by the juggernaut of reduced, commercialized, neutered language, and the dehumanization of standardized testing, which oligarchs, billionaires, and nationalists everywhere conspire to push.
Phil, you’ll have the answer to your question just by looking at the pregame of the Super Bowl.
When the focus is on teachers (and nurses) instead of an orgy of military hardware and salutes to ‘the troops’, you’ll know we’ve turned a corner. Not holding my breath.
And corporations provide the standard of living 99% of Americans refuse to give up. Would we agree to take busses and trains?turn down thermostats? Eat less meat ? Buy less crap at Sprawl Mart? We have to look at our entitled selves and chose to live more simply and purposefully wasting much less
We didn't blow up Nordstream. But it's an interesting story to know the truth rather than some yuppie fantasy like "JFK was going to end the Vietnam war and that's why they killed him." Nope, he wasn't. I discovered that using the Fifty Year Rule to find the real declassified papers when I wrote my two Vietnam histories and lost my last bit of love for that pig. There's a good article on the real Nordstream sabotage, which I am not going to hand to you with a link. Do some Actual Research someplace besides YouTube your own self.
You don’t think we had a hand in it, you’ve got way more faith in the integrity of our government than I do. I’ve read plenty of articles on Nordstream, some naming culprits other than the U.S. So what? Denying wrongdoing is a skill every nation has. Who do you think did it, smarty pants, the Russians?
Until you can get Congress to pass a law that will survive the Supreme Court that allows a President to cancel a lease that was legally purchased years ago, it is unfair to blame Biden for following the laws as written.
Presidents, of both parties, deny, get around, usurp, ignore, fudge, obfuscate the law when it suits their fancy, or at least attempt to.
The question is, in whose interest is the law being subverted/ignored? If Biden had declared a climate emergency, as he should have done day one, his denying the drilling permits at least would have had a puncher’s chance at holding up.
You call it following the law. I call it gutless; yet another cave to the fossil fuel vampires.
No. I will not vote for Biden, and I’m leaning towards not voting for my congressional representative either. Support for Israeli genocide in Gaza, the proxy war in Ukraine, support for social media censorship, refusal to declare a climate emergency, botching the student debt issue, refusal to advocate for Medicare for All…. the list of policy decisions antithetical to my moral compass is long.
I never vote Republican; neither do I vote for Democrats whose allegiance to corporations and monied interests supersedes that given to the working class.
Wow, Tim, "We're probably toast" caught my eye. Actually, more like a gut punch. Aimed at me and all of our cohorts here .. and we're the good guys. So sad ...
It is sad. To paraphrase the Jensen character in ‘Network’, there are no good guys, there are no bad guys, there are only consumers and pundits, and the 1%.
Watch this Christian preacher’s brief speech on Gaza, from a church in the West Bank in Israel, regarding the collective silence from the West to a genocide. And then extrapolate it to our collective silence as we decided it was more important to have the latest digital device, or have a fresh raspberry in a grocery store in January, than save the planet, or address poverty/homelessness in a meaningful way.
I just returned from a scuba trip on the second largest reef system in the world In Caribbean. I return there every year at the same time. The condition of that ecosystem can only be described as apocalyptic. The change in condition in just one year is devastating. I am sorry to have witnessed such devastation.
For many years, we vacationed on St. John in the Virgin Islands. Snorkeling permitted me to make the same observations you did while you dived, David. The reefs chronicle the heavy footprint of humankind. They are ailing.
The devastation of the reefs here in the Keys is tragic. Torrential rains since beginning of December. But we have a brown shirt private army for the guv.
That's very sad. I will probably never see a coral reef in my lifetime, but to know that such a critical ecosystem is being destroyed is devastating. What will happen to the species that rely on it?
I remember when Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law. It was one of the few things he got right. Jimmy Carter, I always said to myself, would be known as an outstanding human being and look, he is still with us while the others have faded! Reagan that POS, removed the solar panels from the WH. He removed other things too that hurt our environment. Joe is spending our money the right way and that’s on us. He is bound and determined to save our planet and so are other countries.
I'm not so sure Biden has it right, much as I hate to admit it, but it's clear that any Republican will speed up our path of doom. It's always saddened me that Carter was shunned by other Democrats as though being associated with him was toxic. Integrity is a rare thing in politics, but Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter had it.
How can anyone expect good government under current circumstances? MAGA obstruction is everywhere, with the help of Manchin and Sinema and others at the state level too numerous to list. How can anyone not be aware of that? Vote in all Democrats up and down the ticket in 2024, then start pushing demands.
"Agenda47," the closest thing to a "platform statement" of a future Trump Administration, has this from the Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025" on the list of things Sauron, er, I mean Trump, would do on Day One: issue an executive order gutting the Environmental Protection Administration. That would include “explicit language requiring reconsideration of the agency’s structure with reference to fulfilling its mission to create a better environmental tomorrow with clean air, safe water, healthy soil, and thriving communities.”
Fear is a good reason to get off one's dead ass and onto their dying feet, to take action to prevent the calamity engendering the fear. If you need additional energy to power your work over the next ten months, think of a Trump victory as the world that would have happened if the good guys hadn't won in "The Return of the King."
Yes, even a cursory review of what Project 2025 and Agenda 47 promise, which is easily found withe simplest Google search, shows how extreme it is. Three references:
An article in The Guardian from July about ultra-conservative, climate-denying Project 2025 discusses would impact efforts to address carbon emissions. This is the link:
The details in Project 2025 are in the nearly 1000-page publication called the Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise. ~350 authors from the full range of far-right ideologies describe how to dismantle government, including anything to do with responding to the climate emergency. The various authors are well-known anti-science anti-environmentalists of all stripes.
Naomi Oreskes, co-author of Merchants of Doubt, said about the Heritage Foundation:
“What troubles me is the Heritage Foundation’s long history … of working to undermine environmental protection at the expense of health and wellbeing of the American people, at the expense of life on Earth.”
Here are just four highlights:
1) Elimination of three offices in the Dept. of Energy that are crucial to the energy transition to clean energy
2) Slash funding to the Dept. of Energy’s grid deployment office to stymie renewable energy development
3) Huge expansion of gas infrastructure
4) Cut the EPA’s environmental justice and public engagement functions, and terminating new hires
In my view, this information makes voting "Against" Trump, regardless of the Democratic candidate for President, absolutely defensible.
Still unconvinced? If you compare Biden's Christmas message with Trump's, this becomes even more of a no-brainer.
I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that these people are doing literally _everything_ they can to kill the planet and every living thing on it. I simply refuse to believe they are SO blind as to see what is happening to the climate; they must know it, too. But what is in it for them? Why are they so adamant to hasten the process?
They believe that they will die of old age before the climate kills them. In the meantime they’ll fill their Scrooge McDuck’s money bunker fatter than Smaug’s
I have a friend from high school who has worked in oil and gas for his whole life, and despite his intelligence he is fully convinced that fossil fuels are absolutely necessary to society, that the global warming issue is manageable, and that the threats are overblown. He is not in the least amenable to any rational discussion of the science. And I am sure that in his work, in Texas, that the only people he deals with on a professional level are of the exact same mindset. He has internalized the arguments of the "merchants of doubt" and any suggestion to the contrary triggers a psychologically-driven, closed-loop defense that cannot be pierced short of a deprogramming such as is needed for interventions with people who have been seduced into a cult. Outside of this topic alone, he is a congenial, loving Dad and family man. Perhaps this is one variation of Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil." Sadly, his industry employers have the dark money that influences elected officials, which explains how so many in the Congress are equally dismissive of the scientific consensus and 100% behind supporting the fossil fuel and related industries (plastics, chemicals, Big Ag, etc.).
Unbelievable... I understand the programming thing, and I understand it worked well in the 80s until perhaps the 10s... But now, you just have to pop your head outside your own window to see the climate catastrophe happening in real-time. I mean, it's no longer just Haiti having to cope with floods, or India having to cope with temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius. It's no longer, as we call it, a "ver-van-mijn-bed-show"...
Right - it is obvious, and that's why the denial campaign has shifted to delay and distract, rather than deny. It's ingenious but diabolical, and especially cynical since it is so calculated in light of what they know as well as you do what the truth is, based upon the consensus of the most advanced scientific modeling. The totally unfounded claims that offshore wind turbines are killing whales is a perfect example: throw out a baseless claim and let the traditional media struggle to convince everyone it isn't true, which they do, patiently and rationally, meanwhile, the distraction machine is already coming up with new fabrications to tie us down with fighting the lies. The effort should not be so focused on rebutting the lies - that should be a one sentence factual statement that the lie has no basis whatever. Then immediately shift to going after the source - who is saying this, what organizations are they tied to, what is their funding??? It is astounding how quickly how a large percentage of these allegedly unrelated claims from various "grassroots" organizations and media outlets can be tracked back to the funding of a handful of billionaire oligarchs like the Kochs, Scaifes, Mellons, Coors, Devos, etc. Books to read: Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean, and Dark Money, by Jane Mayer. It's not like any of this is a secret, but your average reader of traditional media isn't aware of it.
Yeah, the "astroturfing" strategy... Good point, the media should directly shift to the source: what are they saying, why, and who pays them? Would be a good idea for scientific publications, too, to make this aspect more clear in the press.
But still I wonder: to what end are the Kochs et al doing this? It seems they are hell-bent on seeing earth's ecology perish. But why? Do they think they can "ride it out"? Do they think they can make a heap of cash off of civilization's crash, and then "wait out" the climate catastrophe and biodiversity collapse in their bunkers? No one is going to live that long: it will take Earth millions of years to recover. And what kind of outlook is living out the rest of your life in a bunker? If it's even feasible... I mean, there's no way you can stash food for 50 or 100 years (let alone have enough for your children or grandchildren to live on), and it won't be possible to grow new food with earth's ecology gone. They can't be that naive or stupid to see these problems. What future do they envision for themselves then? Escape to Mars? Salvation by the AI God named "Singularity" they are trying to summon? I really wonder...
“The proposals come as waters off the Florida coast reach levels of heat more commonly found in hot tubs, and as much of the nation continues to swelter under triple-digit temperatures.”
Florida is the ONLY state to reject federal 💲 to help curb emissions. Wouldn’t want to “politicize the weather”….sigh.
For those who want to know more about "Project 2025" but don't want to wade through the 100+ pages of the document, the Wikipedia article referenced by Gary is an excellent overview, quite sufficient to scare the pants off of you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025
TC, I am doing my darnedest to sound the alarm and spread the word (and factual links) about this movement to family and friends….some shrug their shoulders (what?!) and others lean in to learn more. Now is not the time to let our attention wander and efforts lag.
Great insight. Pretty jolting, HCR’s crafty pivot from existential concerns of our Republic to those of our planet. You offer a wonderful bridge to see the aims of Heritage's Project 25 clearly via Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, a depiction of fascism in the fundamental terms of a battle of good v. evil. Before Trump, Heritage Foundation and baby PAC Heritage Action were shamelessly antithetical to equal voting rights, the foundation of our Republic. Today, team Heritage is the very face of fascism, the face of the epic evil to which Tolkien devoted Lord of the Rings, a co-conspirator of Trump in his banal effort to reduce our Republic to ashes. It ain’t gonna happen.
What if the fossil fuel industry hadn’t bought up all of the Republican Party and three quarters of the Democrats?
Most of the Democrats have since come to environmental sanity. Not so the Republicans.
Even now, with every dire prediction of climate scientists coming true, there is a staggeringly large political constituency, encouraged by the usual industry villains, believing it’s all a lot of nonsense. A hoax. Such a large voting bloc of willful ignorance and prideful stupidity stands a good chance of bringing it all down around us all.
Perhaps if next summer is anything like last summer come November the election will sweep in a strong majority of environmental sanity.
As a vegan activist, just let me say that the link between Veganism and environmental preservation takes center stage, especially given the urgent need to tackle global warming and the ongoing sixth mass extinction. Veganism, with its emphasis on a plant-based diet excluding animal products like meat, dairy, and eggs, plays a pivotal role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, preventing deforestation, and conserving water resources.
Choosing plant-based alternatives isn't just a dietary preference; it's a meaningful step toward mitigating the environmental impact of animal agriculture. We're well aware of the significant role that livestock farming plays in deforestation, water pollution, and heightened greenhouse gas emissions. Embracing Veganism aligns seamlessly with our broader mission of promoting sustainability and eco-friendly practices.
In the face of today's ecological challenges, particularly the imminent threats of global warming and the ongoing mass extinction event, the importance of making sustainable choices becomes even more evident. While the Endangered Species Act may not have a direct link to Veganism, it serves as a powerful reminder of our shared commitment to making responsible and sustainable decisions. This commitment is essential for safeguarding our planet's biodiversity and ecosystems in the face of urgent environmental threats.
Found this in a Google search for "Soylent Green":
A proverb attributed to the Cree, a Native American tribe from what is now Canada: “Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.”
I urge everyone to watch a 1 hour 47 minute movie “Kiss The Ground”. It is currently on Netflix. It is the most hopeful piece I have seen for the future of mankind. While I doubt that we will wake up, this movie shows a cheap positive path forward.
Mike, I watched it. Yes! Regenerative soil. It makes sense to me. This has nothing to do with the type of work that I did, and may have nothing to do with what the movie is talking about, because it was volcanic and has nothing to do with farming, but I was working in southern Washington in 1982, near Mt St Helens, not long after the explosive volcanic eruption there. A very large area was devastated. People were saying that it would always look like a moonscape. But life came sprouting back up there after a while. That made an impression on me. It was like a smaller version of the recovery experiment in China that is shown in the movie.
My husband and I visited Mount St Helens in the early 1990s. It did look like a moonscape, but you could see things were starting to emerge from the soil. I'd love to go back and see what it's like today.
Yeah I remember hearing about the predictions about the damage from Mount Saint Helens. However, I had lived in Hawaii for several year, which is all volcanic soil so it was easy to doubt those prognosticators. Lots of stuff grows quite well there.😎. I have no farming or soil experience but, like you say it just makes sense.
Steve, I am not sure but, it is the same subject. I noticed several local farmers going all in on the principals espoused in the movie. I’m older than dirt myself so don’t feel I can had much except to cheer for these “new pioneers”. I am very hopeful about this approach. Course there will be a big fight from big ag.
The American bald eagle, the majestic and revered bird represented on the great seal of this nation, was saved by the Endangered Species Act. This and other iconic birds like the peregrine falcon, California condor and sandhill crane have been saved because of this legislation and regulation. So too have the American bison, grey wolves, pronghorn, grizzly bears, even salmon have been brought back from the brink of extinction only to be hunted down or driven out by people again in certain states.
Like Ansel Adams said, "It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment"! The Republicans don't seem to care at all about environmental degradation and pollution, about preserving any wilderness or wildlife, or about even having a habitable planet for their grandchildren...
An American bald eagle 🦅 flew within 50 feet of me once. A majestic surprise indeed. The bird dropped it's lunch, which appeared to have been a smaller bird. It appeared that we were surprised to see each other.
I think the Endangered Species Act was one of the most important pieces of legislation in the last century. It has saved many species, but there are others that are just hanging on, the victims of habitat loss, oil and gas drilling, etc. The sage grouse is one that comes to mind.
Yes I wholeheartedly agree with you that the Endangered Species Act is one of the most important laws enacted in our lifetimes. It has always amazed me that Richard Nixon of all people was the one to sign it into law. How could anyone try to rescind or constantly attack or chip away at this law after 50 years of proven success and benefit to our nation's flora and fauna? It's just another thing that really illustrates how much worse the Republicans are now, even more nefarious than Nixon.
I also want to acknowledge what you say about so many species hanging on by a thread. The North Atlantic Right whale population is down to less than 400 individuals off the east coast. The red wolf barely making it in North Carolina, jaguars and lobos in the southwest cutoff by border wall construction, Florida panthers having to deal with Florida, vaquitas vanishing before any of us have ever had a chance to actually see one. It's an endless list, as species are continually being added to it if they even get a chance to be recognized as endangered.
The willful blindness of those who wish to deny human caused environmental damage and global warming puzzles me. Selfishness and greed pulse through their veins. Fifty years of denial, of disregard wreak havoc on ecosystems. For a short time into the future, wealth shields its holders. The poor suffer most. "Too late" looms so close! I fear the world my grandchildren inherit will be inhospitable and may even be difficult to survive.
"Today President Joe Biden used the anniversary of the Endangered Species Act to reclaim the spirit of the era in which it was written, urging Americans to protect ecosystems and biodiversity, “honor all the progress we have made toward protecting endangered species,” and to “come together to conserve our planet.” "
And, the other guy said he wants to "DRILL, DRILL, DRILL".
Some contrast, huh?
I would like to see President Biden put solar panels back on the White House roof, or wherever they can be placed.
“Rachel Carson was right.” Pesticides are dangerous. We’ve gone back to using formerly banned pesticides because —duh, who knew?— weeds are becoming immune. Plus glyphosate has never been banned in the US. “New research from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health shows that childhood exposure to the world’s most widely used weed killer, glyphosate, is linked to liver inflammation and metabolic disorder in early adulthood, which could lead to liver cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease later in life.
https://publichealth.berkeley.edu/news-media/research-highlights/childhood-exposure-to-common-herbicide-may-increase-the-risk-of-disease-in-young-adulthood/
PLUS—it’s a known endocrine disruptor. 🤬😢😡
My only brother had lifelong exposure to glyphosate. At age 70, he has myelodysplastic syndrome (precursor to Myeloid leukemia). True, true and unrelated? Maybe, but I doubt it.
Here's a thought; if CO2 levels in the air rise far enough, we'll be less and less able to exhale CO2. The human race will become drowsy, forgetful, stupid and then obtunded. We'll all be gone within weeks and the world can then revert back to something more compatible with life.
JS,
The fraction of CO2 in the atmosphere is only 0.04% or so. Asphyxiation isn't a threat. CO2 is, indeed, increasing rapidly and in my formerly super snowy town in the North East, we have had essentially ZERO snow so far this year and our temperature on Christmas was 53F. About 17F above normal.
A little bit of CO2 goes a LOOONG way toward warming the earth. It really traps heat well.
Regarding the extinction of humans though, what normally happens to dominant species in closed systems is starvation. The dominant species typically consumes all of the food source and natural resources in the closed system and follows a curve that looks long and flat, followed by a more rapid than exponential increase, followed by a very rapid die off and extinction. Almost a straight line down.
I learned this at a PhD biology seminar at UT Austin in their grad biology department (my future wife was PhD student there) and I attended that department's seminars rather than my ChE department seminars because they were more interesting.
At any rate, below is a graph of human population.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1006502/global-population-ten-thousand-bc-to-2050/
As you can see, we are on the very rapid population ramp up as we clear all of our forests and use up all of our oil to do farming.
----> But, farming (and water parks) will result in using up all of the ground water as well,
--->and when oil runs out, which, in spite of American heads planted firmly in the dirt or up their arse....... it will, ---> the fertilizer source will vanish and?
So will we.
I used to worry about this and try to help people understand that we should NOT be driving huge pickup trucks back and forth the car wash and Walmart.
But, nobody listens. So, I don't try anymore. Humans are too dumb for long term survival.
Now, since it is New Year's and we all should try to be positive, I will post this positive essay from the NY Times. Gift Link
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/opinion/love-rage-evolution-pandemic.html?unlocked_article_code=1.JU0.KaP7.2BXtYf0-36WU&smid=url-share
All good points Mike.
The administration is pouring tens of millions into capping abandoned oil and natural gas wells which is already reducing the amount of methane in the atmosphere.
So often a fly by night oil company, which are often funded by the majors, run the oil or gas wells until they are dry and then they declare bankruptcy and walk away. There are over 120,000 documented orphan wells in the US
https://www.edf.org/orphanwellmap
The infrastructure bill has funding to cap some of these wells. Another group in Montana has a foundation to cap orphan wells started with the biggest polluters. This is the foundation behind this effort.
https://welldonefoundation.org
They mention 3.5 million orphan wells so most of the wells are undocumented.
This is totally a project supported by Democrats and the WH for the most part.
Drill baby drill -- indeed.
We should stop buying and eating so much meat. Buy an electric car and a bicycle. Instal solar on your house. Vote Dem. Life insurance policy choice
Ted we're with you, the solar panels are being installed once the snow dissipates.
https://www.wired.com/story/beef-consumption-boomers/
It seems the younger generation isn't eating as much beef and the beef industry is panicking.
Montana has a reclamation economy.
What does that mean?
Mike, you sound like me, another Mike. This year is the first in many years that I passed on giving my Climate Change lecture at an adult nature camp I attend every summer. It was just a waste of time as the listeners would virtually get up from the lecture and begin to discuss their upcoming vacations on the other side of the planet. I also don't discuss the subject with my grown children (same reason, they are forever flying for the fun of it) though I rarely will mention it to the grandchildren just to see if they have any idea what is heading their way. I want them to be able to look back when they are trying to cope and remember that grandpa told them about this 50 years ago. Nature's beginning to do my job for me. Had a major power failure occurred in the South or Southwest last summer the heat related death toll would have been nasty.
I live here in the country, heat the house with dead timber, travel very little (except by the roads on Google Earth, love that feature), and eat at the bottom of the food chain with much grown in the back yard. Almost all of the place is forest which is the home of the other critters who entertain me regularly by parading through my little yard. Life is good. I wish I could believe my grandchildren would get the same opportunity but don't.
As to the CO2, it's not the real greatest danger. That belongs to water vapor which increases in the atmosphere exponentially with heat. The water vapor capacity of the atmosphere is the greatest danger it is also a greenhouse gas so it is a positive feedback. More water vapor, more heat, more water vapor, and on and on. In addition the water vapor capacity means there is more to fall as precipitation, greater floods and snowfall, plus a greater demand on the supply side so droughts are also more severe. And the planet is about 70% covered in water so the water vapor supply is virtually infinite. Finally the additional water vapor produces an atmosphere with more potential energy as the vapor condenses so storms are much more severe. CO2 is much more long-lasting and we do have theoretically some control about how much we dump in the air. With our addiction to fossil fuels this "control" doesn't help much.
Strange how water vapor is never mentioned - only CO2. Possibly a few of our brightest minds should glance that way???
Lots of water, no snow & WARM in December - NOT a good thing - ground not frozen, all those ticks not dying off - well, you get the picture and so, I'm sure, do most of us here.
Lots of bright minds are looking at water vapor but CO2 is something that we could have a lot more control over. Once the atmosphere heats up for whatever reason, water vapor is almost always available because the planet's surface is water and covering the ocean or lake to prevent evaporation isn't feasible. Also water vapor is a short-lived greenhouse gas. It falls out of the air as precipitation. CO2, on the other hand is a very long-lived greenhouse gas with some of it being rapidly absorbed by the ocean but some of the rest lasting as long as 1000 years before being absorbed by weathering rocks. CO2 is the gas we need to work to control; unfortunately fossil fuel companies want us to use as much of their product as possible and I can find NO evidence that they give a rat's about the future.
An interesting fact. Each gallon of petroleum product that is burned puts about 20 pounds of fossilized CO2 into the atmosphere. Fossilized CO2 comes from burning fossilized carbon, carbon that was last in the atmosphere about 350 million years ago.
Thank you for this informative post, Michael. I haven't thought about water vapor and I will now. Right now here in Oregon, we have little snow in the mountains, but several atmospheric rivers which gave us lots of warm rain. It must be warm in southern Indiana too as my great niece posted Christmas pics with the smallest ones running around in diapers. We do have a Prius and since we travel very rarely out of the city, we can go for a long time without visiting the gas station. We have solar panels on our roof and a battery system in the garage which fills completely when there is a weather warning. Otherwise, what we don't use goes into the grid. We have a garden and make an effort to buy locally from farmers. We do eat meat, but it is usually local pork and lamb. My LMT does fish and he is generous with his catch. We don't travel anymore and I confess it is partly because are too old. We have plenty of friends who do and I think they don't give a thought to their contribution in this respect to global warming. We have just finished the season of consume, consume, consume which makes me ill.
Great comment. Thank you for sharing.
Sadly true
Yes, the path I outline is almost exactly what will happen UNLESS Jeri,
We kill ourselves with A-Bombs in some dumb war that some Republican thought was a good idea to go into to get some payoff from a Military Contractor.
This might be more likely than starvation of the species. Because, either way you cut it Jeri, humans are too dumb to survive.
Also, Jeri, I am converting two of my farm fields to diverse hardwood forest. My state has a program where if I pay 35% the state pays the rest to do a planting. So, I am doing it.
I am lucky. I don't HAVE to farm to survive. For now.
The deck is stacked, it seems
How mind-blowing--this amazing planet was created where just a 3% shift of its tilt would not allow human existence, where a plentitude of flora and fauna coexist, and a plethora of seascapes, landscapes and colors contribute to its beauty. And along comes man and his will. And man-made destruction follows, not only in destroying this sublime natural environment, but also in obliterating each other. Praying....
Interesting, the graph on human population growth mirrors that of NOAA's projected average global temperature rise for the period of 1900 - 2100. Here is a link: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature
Wiki does a nice job on CO2... ofhttps://www.wikiwand.com/en/Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth%27s_atmosphere
1950 !to 2050, the graph projects the human population, the Apex Predator, more than doubling
Mike - thanks so much for the Times link. She says it all - sad how few will read and comprehend and LISTEN!
Honestly - Reagan's solar panel removal should have opened some eyes back then. But then there were the "welfare queens" - more catchy news items. Better to blame the "others" - just look at where we are right now!
My pleasure! HNY!
Humans are far too adaptable to go extinct any time soon. But I would agree that our population is headed for a crash with collapse of civilization in the next century or less. We'll have a Mad Max remainder.
There you go. I agree. Human extinction? I think not unless a very communicable deadly disease accompanies other strife. But life for survivors would be Mad Max difficult. I would not wish that upon my kids or theirs.
The biggest disruption will be forced migration around coastal populations. The stressors will/are be on changing economics, food supply, and fuel to move that food fast enough. Land underwater will reduce available space for homes and farms. Less and more unpredictable rainfall will making productive farming very challenging, first gradually, then suddenly, then catastrophically.
Read “The Parrot and the Igloo”. Great book on history and propaganda of the CO2.
Agreed!
Mike S --- thanks for the delightful link! (And for your remarks too)
No problem. Thank you for reading.
I'm very sorry about your brother, Just Sayin'.
You just pitched a perfect movie storyline, though. Anger is such a powerful driver of art.
Consider using the theme song from 'Unforgotten', "All We Do". on the script:
🎶"All we do is chase the day...
All we d is play it safe ...
Can't find Paradise on the ground.🎶
Written & performed by Oh Wonder.
Love “Unforgotten”. Actually a deep philosophical British show.
Written & directed by Chris Lang. Love Lang's work & the endless supply of Stage trained British actors.
A favorite song of mine and here I thought I was the only one who appreciated the words and music of Oh Wonder.
The higher the level of CO2 the faster and bigger plants will grow. That fact is NO justification for not taking the scientists' warning when something could have been done. But those who are privy to the science of global warming know it is too late -the die is cast. Sorry, but facts are facts.
Sadly, Harvey, it would appear that for large swaths of Americans (and I suppose entrepreneurs and big business in countries around the world) the "pursuit of happiness" is all the justification they need to ignore science and its predictions. We might as well have adopted our signature phrase and life goal to "make merry today for tomorrow we die!"
LOL, I dont think C02 levels have anything to do with "drowsy, forgetful, stupid", that's already baked into the GOP and allies. Climate catastrophe will long precede Dopy. You'd think Floridians and Texans of all people would appreciate climate change better than most, considering the weather trends of late ...
Well yeah Frank, YOU'd think that of Floridians and Texans, but clearly THEY don't and haven't.
Then, all Floridians and Texans are NOT Maga Republicans.
LOL!
My mother-in-law used glyphosate liberally beginning when they moved to their retirement home on 10 acres outside of Ashland. She died 20 years ago (25 years after moving there) from non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
My mom also died of non-Hadgkins lymphoma at age 70. She and dad established a large vegetable garden at their new home in 1970. Glyphosate was liberally used; I partly blame it for my later diabetes diagnosis also.
My sister and brother in law lived in Crestwood Illinois for many years. My b.i.l. was had a "hobby" farm on the last, so to speak. He started a small farm there and sold vegetables, had chickens, turkeys, even a few cows and horses. Over the decades, the community sprung up around them. They first had well water, then the community brought in "city water" from Chicago. They bathed in and drank the water. My sister put up a lot of their garden, again, using the water.
There was a scandal over the "city" water being contaminated with ground water. (You can google this case, it got a lot of news coverage.)
My sister was diagnosed with Primary Peritoneal Cancer (a form of Ovarian CA) and a few months after she died, my brother in law also had what was first conseidered MDS, but then he was diagnosed as Acute Myelo-Monocytic Leukemia.
Coincidence? I don't believe so.
When she was well into her disease, my sister texted a photo of two saplings they had planted. One was on lower ground and got plenty of rainwater. The other was on the other side of their lot, and higher, so they would water it. It did poorly. More and more and more they watered, thinking it needed water. It was shriveling up and looked quite sickly. She said, what do you think???
My sister and brother in law were truly good people in any way you could define it.
I miss them daily. When am beyond anger now: when I hear about cuts to the EPA, it just makes me incredibly sad.
"drowsy, forgetful, stupid and then obtunded"? Well, listening & reading some of what is considered "news" right now would make one believe the description fits quite a few humans right now!
Gee, haven't many in the world already become drowsy, forgetful & stupid? Seems CO2 has a head start on us!!!!
Just sayin’
I’m so sorry about your brother. I’ve stopped eating non-organic soy because there is so much Roundup Ready soy out there. It used to be that someone had to walk between the rows of soybeans and spray the weeds carefully because any Roundup (glyphosate) that got on the soybean plants would kill them. Now, with Roundup Ready soybeans, they can spray whole fields from the air because only the weeds die; so all the soybeans have glyphosate sprayed on them.
But until then short term profits, especially for fossil fuel companies, will continue to roll in. And anyway, those of us who live on the top of the hill, with our air purifiers, can watch the pollution settle over the neighborhoods of the undeserving poor.
Already there. Dumb, stupid and lethargic while emitting CO2 as if facts.
Glyphosate, aka Roundup, was originally developed as a drain cleaner, so using it as a weed killer is actually an "off label" use. All major cereal crops - corn, wheat, and rice, plus soy beans have been genetically modified (GMOs) to withstand dosing with Roundup. To make it easier to harvest, Roundup resistant GMO wheat is sprayed with large doses of this known carcinogen to essentially kill the plants so they ripen all at once. The sharp increase in gluten sensitivity over the past couple of decades I believe is actually people developing a "Roundup sensitivity", as many people's gluten sensitivities are reduced or even disappear when they are given wheat products made from Roundup free wheat.
I had to stop eating gluten and soy 10 years ago due to an Autoimmune disease. It’s very difficult because almost EVERYTHING contains either gluten or soy. But I am healing and feel stronger than ever. It’s been 10 years.
Wow! Do you have a source for this? Thanks!
Here's one: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3945755/
Thank you so much Ally! I’ve a friend who suffers miserably from celiac. I’ll forward!
Very interesting. Celiac disease runs in my family.
We noticed a difference between wheat products consumed in Europe (no gastric issues) and wheat products in the U.S. it’s not gluten because we can eat other grains like oats. We thought it might be the wheat variety grown here, but it’s quite possible that it’s both the variety and Roundup.
This. This is what I, too, believe is happening inside all humans; a sensitivity to gluten that never existed before is a direct result of the chemicals in our lives.
I had the opportunity to assist a lost elder (who was wandering late at night in his pjs) back to his home. Turns out he had ‘invented’ glyphosate. Nice man. But kind of symptomatic of our ignorance of effects.
Three solar energy arrays were installed on White House grounds in 2002. They're still in operation.
Odd, we're not seeing pictures of them...?
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/photos/the-white-house-gets-solar-panels-photo-1
Carter had solar hot water panels installed (see caption for photo), used to heat water for the WH kitchen. Reagan had them removed. Those panels were subsequently moved to a college, who used them until 2004. During the HWB administration, other thermal water panels were installed on the grounds for utility use, along with some photovoltaic panels on roofs of maintenance buildings, but not on the White House. In 2010, Obama proposed installing photovoltaic panels on the WH, and panels were installed in 2013. This marked the first time solar electicity had been used for the Presidential quarters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_at_the_White_House
You might like an article in the Guardian today about bird friendly architecture. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/27/birds-buildings-collisions-architecture?utm_term=658d00d413de545ed9e10acaf93bd09e&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUK_email
I like that lots of info related postings are being made today. "learn, baby, learn"...
Thank you for posting this, Linda. . It’s a very interesting article and good news that buildings are going up with more thought about the effect on migratory birds.
Linda, Thanks for the article. Quite interesting. There was a reference to Jeanne Gang(?) experimenting with bird feeders "around her house" in her effort to discourage avian residential collisions. I wonder if that was that a reference to bird feeders attached to windows or feeders placed around the property to distract? I have always assumed that window feeders increased collisions and have wistfully veered away from window feeders assuming they increased collisions.
The American Bird Conservancy has a ton of information on its website about techniques and products to reduce bird collisions with windows and buildings. The organization has tested a variety of products to determine what's most effective. Here's a link: https://abcbirds.org/glass-collisions/
Thank you. I should have realized that.
In most studies I've seen metabolic disease is blamed fructose, wheat and insulin. Prebiotic and probiotics mitigates the problem by turning sugars into more beneficial fatty acids.
"Of the OECD members, South Koreans' life expectancy was the second highest after Japan, with 84.5 years. The figure for Mexico and the United States stood at 75.4 years and 76.4 years, respectively.Jul 25, 2023"
Kimchi, kefir, and yogurt instead of cereal, and seed oils.
https://youtu.be/n28W4AmvMDE?si=yaoHUxtt-eqpr8Gh
Aaron, might the longer life expectancies in Japan, & South Korea also have something to do with more coherent national health care systems than ours in the USA?
About the time that President Carter put the solar panels on the White House I worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which built and operates dams on the Tennessee River bringing electricity to the TN valley. I worked on the TVA program to encourage residents to install solar panels on their homes. This program provided the panels and the installation at a very reasonable payment plan. I worked on developing the models to determine the payment plan and interest rate and to monitor its effectiveness. It was a successful program until Reagan got into the White House and shut it down. Among the numerous things that Reagan got wrong.
Just to be clear, pesticides (e.g., DDT, Atrazine) kill insects. Herbicides (e.g., glyphosate, diquat) kill grass and weeds. Both are harmful to the environment and people, but their uses are clearly different.
I actually wrote Dianne Feinstein about the WH solar panels years ago. There are now numerous “structures” for protection and communications on the roof that weren’t there under Carter.
She didn’t use the word, but fortifications were implied. There are now a contingent of sharpshooters on the WH roof 24/7.
I have personally known of a couple of people who are our farm laborers (Mexicans) who worked in various harvest exposes to pesticides who ended up dying from severe Parkinson’s disease. A painful and life disrupting disease. They were young!
Maybe that’s why, in addition to glucose syrup in everything (thanks, Big Ag) we have a diabetes epidemic.
Monsanto.
Gigi, while I inderstand the gist of your comment (pesticides are bad, glyphosate is a health hazard) I wonder if you can name any pesticides which were previously banned and are now allowed?
I had also suggested that FEMA only fund rebuilds of passive houses. Meaning their department should be developing several passive house plans, and then use those in rebuilding houses, also not rebuilding them in fire zones or flood planes. Laws making new houses passive houses would help too, but I guess Biden cannot do that alone.
I have never understood why FEMA and other agencies allow buildings to be rebuilt in flood plains. It makes no sense!
Yes. It is our tax dollars being put to bad use. Basically being flushed down the toilet.
Or into the ocean or river :)
Construction companies are just an arm of the mafias.
People have to desire the change needed, subscribe best possible individually to act , revamp , and promote change through all facits , recycling, eating, travel, work, play...prosumers vs consumers ..its comprehensive ,foreign to most especially entrenched corporate demands. So the demand must be lessened by us. Many tried in the movement back-to-the-land . Few stayed. Its adaptation is made contrary to ease,profiteering, and propagation of consuming deemed the materialistic world of the corporate power module. To make what needs to happen is becoming more obvious Johnny come lately theoretically . Too late? Afternoon the fact( cataclysmic devastation )? And is the basic folly of gain through greed/power moves vs smart togetherness for communal benefit...not even humorous to use the Mr.and Mrs. Rich’s end game .
Alas...<<SIGH>>
I think that if getting a fema subsidized passive house is a problem for people they can pay for their own place. Culture is changed from within and without. This is the kind of initiative you find in other countries. I can see it being a problem in Florida a state that embraces a devil for a governor, and yet, they really need this sort of not building in wetlands, smart house change.
Yes!!!
The codes need changed to passive designs implemented, should be mandatory , not quick developers ,not cheap costs & shoddy , not big and gaudy, rain collection for toilets,solar /LED/ gardens vs lawns/fruit trees lining sidewalk/parks, and no invasive landscaping .SOOO much can be built in saving$. Small homes.com types of developments for singles,aged, challenged communities equipped with ADA conveniences.
Yes. I have been keeping an eye on the small home industry. I think I have seen a very inexpensive one built in the Ukraine.
They have such communities in Ca ( maybe other states, too?) $55,000 and monthly lot fee my SIL looked into them, well set up , trailer park style. Gated. Not for everyone. But… it’s novelty, innovative, better built than metal trailers. A start. We can do better.
Just Sayin’, Given the still-rampant collective denial, at home and abroad, of environmental threats, particularly among those with heavy stakes in the status quo, typically the most powerful, my question is whether we fully grasp how much will be asked of ourselves and our leaders if we’re to intervene on a large enough scale to exert a meaningful impact.
You can be pretty sure that many among "those with heavy stakes" are, and have been, building their personal fire escapes. Some are actually doing something about climate change. Despite the GOP stuff, USA overall... "The 1% increase in U.S. CO2 emissions in 2022 was much slower than the previous year's 7% increase. Nevertheless, the United States produced 4% less energy-related CO2 emissions in 2022 than just before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. Less use of coal was the largest contribution to U.S. emissions reductions in 2022." "In 2023, wind represented 28.6 percent of Texas energy generation, second to natural gas (41.8 percent). There are 239 wind-related projects in Texas and more than 15,300 wind turbines, the most of any state.|"
Frank, Thank you for writing. Your comment reminded me of an October, 2020 discussion between NYT Editorialist Tom Friedman and then-CNN Host Chris Cuomo, wherein Friedman walked us through numerous examples of an oil industry already in transition. He concluded:
“The argument is over. The industry is in transition and the companies that aren’t are the ones that are going to go the way of the Stone Age. And Democrats should want to own this. We as a country should want to own this. I don’t want to go from importing oil from the Middle East to importing clean energy efficiency tools from China and missing the whole thing because we are not in transition; because we have a president (referring to Trump) who is so wedded to the Stone Age, he wants to go down with oil. And I don’t care to go with him.”
Just Sayin’. Re Drill; pronouncements from Cattle Prod Guy
In addition to The Ballad of the EPA I also wrote “Drill Baby Drill” in the days of Sarah Palin’s ascent under George W. Here’s that link: https://youtu.be/8ki6SSJlbW0?si=ccPcvbvfh-U2D3mI
Love this!
Thanks, Wendy! Feel free to share the link with friends!
While I support the spirit of your comment, Biden is continuing to drill as well.
Biden is not drilling. The Biden administration is obeying the law. Oil companies have thousands of leases that they legally purchased years ago to drill for oil in various places. The majority of these leases are being held and not close to being used; they are not being drilled today and there are no preparations being made to drill them anytime soon. However, they are legally owned by oil companies and until Congress passes some law that will get past the Supreme Court that will allow those leases to be cancelled, there is nothing any President can do. Trump can talk all he wants about drilling but it's up to the oil companies and at this time the oil companies are not in any great hurry to drill any more than they already are.
Brilliant and true comment.
The 10s of thousands of years of wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of this continent lost thru genocide and displacement could have preserved this continent's exceptional nature. Yellowstone NP Supt Cam Sholley is the first in his role to engage the original human inhabitants of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in determining the region's future. The results have been a watershed for wildlife.
Indigenous tribes in Northern California are reclaiming their heritage. They're taking down dams and using long-established practices to care for the land, especially the forests.
Glad I’ve lived to see the day the dams in California coming down.
Maybe the super volcano under the Yellowstone Caldera will come to life again and prove in a day that we humans haven't got a clue about "controlling the Earth."
TCinLA I think Iceland will already attest to that. Icelandic scientists have fine- tuned monitoring the earth, but seem to acknowledge human limitations in trying to control it.
major understatement, "the day" that happens!
How about the dinosaurs least favorite reindeer name - "Comet" Ancient history has had more than one planetary restart .
Wait. So you mean the “Enlightened West” does _not_ know everything better than these primitive heathens?? [/sarcasm]
Enlightenment has been railroaded by progress and riches. Took out Native practices also. Follow the money still says it all.
That, and a copious dose of both Western Enlightened arrogance and white colonialist supremacy...
Cam is a Good Guy.
Ronald Reagan once reportedly said, "... we've got to recognize that where the preservation of a natural resource like the redwoods is concerned, that there is a common sense limit. I mean, if you've looked at a hundred thousand acres or so of trees — you know, a tree is a tree, how many more do you need to look at?"
I would argue there is a common sense limit to how much we can drill, burn, toss, and consume. The forest is where the sum of the parts make up a special place to simply wander, to let our spirits soar and thrive. Humans have become the takers of the planet; it's time we give back.
The world's forests are LITERALLY the planet's lungs. In addition to the marvelous wonder we experience when we walk within them, they are inhaling carbon, exhaling oxygen and pumping complex molecules into the earth, 24/7, to be consumed and distributed by microbes of multiple orders of complexity, insects and other invertebrates, who in turn feed and support the lives of higher order living beings, including...us. They are creating humidity and moderating, creating favorable weather. They are producing, storing biomass and increasing soil fertility while providing home and shelter for a great portion of the world's biodiversity inventory. Thanks for reminding me what an intellectual giant (NOT) we had in Mr. Reagan.
Just sayin’, Amen to that. The Hidden Life of Trees beautifully describes the magical powers of trees. It’s impossible to overestimate their contribution to earth’s ecology as well as our psychic well being.
I just read your comment GMB! Yes, read that book!
As his comment, alluded to above, indicates ... Ronald Reagan was a fool.
Bonnie, back when Reagan was CA governor, he said “if you’ve seen one redwood tree, you’ve seen ‘em all”. Well, at the time in Arcata, CA one of the off-ramps into town had a single kinda scrawny redwood & some brilliant person(s) made & installed what looked like CA State Park sign—the rough-hewn wood w/ routed letters painted in deep yellow—that said “Ronald Reagan Memorial Redwood Grove”. Was lucky I got to see the sign before it was quickly taken down! Good trouble indeed!
I remember that sign!
Steve, did you ever see the altered billboard near the Mad river by the exit to McKinleyville where someone changed the wording on the image of a horseback riding cowboy smoking a cigarette from “Marlborough Man” to “Marijuana Man”? They used the same font & size as the original wording & was not as obvious in passing, so lasted a wee bit longer than the redwood sign. Hooray for the riff-raff!! Part graffiti, part social commentary, part art installation! Have wondered if it was the same person(s) who did both.
I would urge all of us to read: "The Hidden Life of Trees" by Peter Wohlleben. Read this book and your concept of a "forest" will never be the same!! Wohlleben (a German forester) tells us that trees feel and communicate!
If you ever get out to Oregon with the intent of visiting Crater Lake National Park, there's another very worthwhile stop to make. As you head northeast out of Medford on Hwy 62, there is a Siskiyou National Forest Park at the Rogue River Gorge. The gorge itself is a beautiful testament to the power of water and lava, but there is also the "living stump". A tree was cut down, and the stump connected with a tree next to it via their root systems.
https://www.nationalparksblog.com/living-tree-stump-rogue-river-gorge/
I could never live anywhere else, and our trees are the major reason. I'm proud that we have good forest management regulatons. Are they perfect? Probably not. But we do love our trees!!
Morning, Ally...I believe!
Morning, Lynell!
This old tree hugger agrees
As do I! This 2018 Smithsonian Magazine article provides an excellent introduction to Wohlleben's book. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-whispering-trees-180968084/
always loved Smithsonian Mag. I'll check it out.
Yes, I live and sit with the redwoods here by the No. CA coast. They are part of my community of beings and it is very comforting to be among them. Love reading about the neurotransmitters that we have in common with plants and their mycelial neighbors.
Bonnie...on one of our Road Scholar trips, we visited California. I promised my mother that one day I would HUG General Sherman! Jumped over the fence and did so! Then, our son attended WVU (West Virginia University) in Morgantown, WV. Guess what...a "baby redwood" which is an offspring of General Sherman is planted in their arboretum! (Won't grow as large due to our winter dormancy...) You are blessed to live there. I count it a blessing to have had this connection.
Love that book
Reagan’s comment was incredibly selfish! The natural world is there only for us to “look at”. Something like TV or films.
Teddy Roosevelt was the last Republican president who seriously cared about the Earth at all, and yes, I’m not ignoring or condoning his big game hunting.
Oddly, I found "Tricky Dick", for all of his treachery, more environmentally minded than most. Reagan marked a dramatic departure point; everything for sale to the highest bidder, including America's soul.
Just like today's republican narcissist/criminal trying to become America's first dictator. Pay per view of our national secrets, totally transactional.
Plus, it was 1900...
His comment wasn’t only incredibly selfish, but incredibly stupid, too. It shows he honestly had no idea how Nature works, and worse, he hadn’t even the slightest bit of interest to learn about it. Exactly like the Orange Goober.
It wasn’t in his script to memorize...
Yep, Peggy Noonan told him what to say
I haven’t heard her annoying smug voice in quite a while. Is she still around?
Apparently so. Writing for Murdoch....er.....WSJ.
Just remember James Garner's two word assessment of Sainted Ray Gun from their days in the leadership of SAG: "Amiable Dunce."
RR was a shill for corporations and oligarchs.
LOL! Damn, I miss James Garner!
Annie, yes. Reagan and tffg share(d) that inability to understand or connect with any existence outside their own. It's beyond narcissism - it's solipsism. Other people and creatures simply don't exist.
Is the second f in tffg, “fat”?
More likely a four letter word with ing added to it.
I think that there are a myriad of "f" adjectives that could be added there.
Indeed!! I have a few favorites. 😊
Howzabout fascist?
Alexandra,
My vocabulary increases every day reading in the forum! 😊
Mine too, Christine! Use it or lose it, and LFAAers use it.
Genesis misapplied... human beings are the masters of the earth"
Look at or grind up and sell. The ecosphere, like the human body is, of physical necessity a masterpiece of balance. Over exploitation results in a population crash. We are not immune to that. Apart from their waste product problems, fossil fuel resources are easily captured by the few, hence enable anti-democratic distribution of power. Many aspects of alternative energy sources are more decentralized. That can have social and economic implication, as well as political implications.
St. Ronnie Raygun was just about as stupid as it's possible to get and still be able to walk upright. Even his 'special handlers'--provided by his movement conservative puppeteers-- admitted he was very intellectually "disinterested". Shepherding Raygun during his campaigns and the years in office was a serious challenge.
If you have any doubts about the idiocies he spewed on a near daily basis, resurrect and read Molly Ivins columns about Raygun and his merry band of liars and thieves, written during Raygun's endless 8 years and Andy Borowitz' book, "Profiles in Ignorance". Eye-opening.
Reagan also said trees cause pollution - I believe he was commenting on the Smokey Mountains of NC.
OMG, Steve. For true!
Ronald Reagan was the Trump of the 1980's
Normal people around the world cried out in disbelief when he was first elected.
There has never been another Trump. Reagan was just very conservative; he was an eloquent speaker and loyal to big business. I would take him back in a minute, even having protested him as governor. Trump made everyone cry out in disbelief, but he is frightening and off the rails at a whole next level. I mean truly unbalanced, dangerous, and unpredictable; blinded by his ego, vengeance, and Machiavellian craze. Did I say dangerous?
Reagan was truly evil.
That's when it all started, Bonnie. I remember how surprised we were in Europe that somebody so extreme was POTUS. Even shocked.
Of course it was nothing like now, but it paved the way.
I hope I can reinforce your point. The purpose of a forest, or any other biological system, is not simply to entertain humans. They play vital roles of habitat, erosion control, and watershed protection, to name just a few. As for the common sense limit on fossil fuel consumption, having a planet that is too polluted to live on is a limit, one that was reached when the Cuyahoga River caught fire (not for the first time, mind you).
Reagan was an actor pretending to be human. A pretty good one but no Oscar from me. He just had a good speech writer (Peggy Noonan) and good PR (Michael Deaver), always with the flag in tow. The man knew how to use props
Excellent argument, Bonnie. But there is not common sense when it comes to the gluttony of acquisition so dominant in the world today.
Forests are major carbon sinks in the the global carbon cycle. So much for "how many more do you need to look at?"
Ronnie was truly a dumb fellow.
He really was despicable.
Just another reason to never vote Republican for those interested in leaving a viable planet for their children and grandchildren. Oh, there are some sane ones, but despite them, the G.O.P. should never be left in charge of anything, certainly not the environment, especially the House of Representatives !
If we’d only listened to Carter and led the world in protecting the environment , instead of “drill,baby, drill” (as proposed by Trump in his first day in office). Fracking was touted as a safe way to make spent sources profitable again. Instead, parts of western Texas now experience more earthquakes than any state other than Alaska or California. Hopefully, it’s not too late to keep most of the world livable.
https://klaq.com/texas-most-strongest-earthquakes/#:~:text=Alaska%20has%2C%20on%20average%2C%20over,56%20per%20year%20to%201.
Of course you mean “liveable” for humans.
And sewage sludge in the Denver Quake.
Climate Change is escalating and we rearrange the deck chairs and fiddle while the world burns. Too little too late. I am sad to know that the beautiful world I loved will be gone. However, although the earth may change to the point where humans become extinct, Earth will endure and evolve into something different, and no doubt beautiful in some new and exciting form.
I still have hope we can preserve something in this mess. Clime change is beginning to bite, and humans can move their behinds when the have to. I ave no idea what today's children may see, but there their may be psychological tipping points as well as physical ones. Anyway, I hope we can do the right things before forced to.
I hope you are right. I don’t see it tho.
Wherever it goes, it's gong to be a rough ride.
Another good book on the subject is The Ends of the World by Brannen. It recounts what has happened in previous mass extinction events and draws parallels with our current trajectory. May be the first auto-mass extinction we are precipitating.
Flood risks grow. Sea levels rise. Droughts force migrations. And the billionaires lie.
The have done so through their post-Powell memo foundations since that memo united them to their predator priorities.
Our schools, higher and K-12, could be rich in the literacies of humanities and nature. But the billionaires' foundations (see Jane Mayer's "Dark Money") actively promote another entire nation's dumbing down fit for the serfdom the billionaires aspire in the U.S. also to lock in.
Putin did it in Russia -- and the whole population there has suffered in rising rates of TB, alcoholism, and other ill health, along with falling birth rates.
U.S. billionaires fight good health care for all in the same proportion that they defend AR-15s in the hands of all our most unstable.
They have their perfect illiterate in the heavily-cosmetized orange guy in his fouled diapers.
The world when the commercialized vulgar run it threatens us all. And if we lack the higher rates of literacy in humanities and nature adequately to call out the predators?
We’re probably toast. Team Blue rants against Trump and Drill, Baby, Drill, while Biden opens up new leases on land and offshore for drilling and you don’t hear a peep, except from Sunrise and climate activists who are marginalized when criticizing Joe because Trump is the bigger threat to democracy. Obama talked a good game to the Dem base on climate, and pushed fracking like a madman, spearheaded by SOS Clinton, who tried to force it on European nations whose publics said no. Why did we blow up Nordstream? To help us regime change the Russians, yes, but by forcing Europe to buy American LNG from us instead of Russia, climate be damned.
Corporations own us, Democrats and Republicans alike. Until that changes, we’ll continue on the path to extinction, and most everyone in America is ok with that, as evidenced by their belief that just because they recycle they’re somehow doing something about climate. Denial of reality is one strong drug when it comes to what is coming down the pike.
Yes, Tom. "Corporations own us."
But isn't more important Q how they own us?
Their money arranges interlocking links among foundations, lobbyists, and politicians who all cluster-f the schools.
The teachers? Beset on all sides by those manipulated by corporate money, by preachers, ideologues, and a public with no respect for teachers.
Look at Finland. It had mediocre schools until it decided it wanted quality. And got it. Got it by investing in teachers. Hiring only the best. Giving all power to them. Not to admin. Not partisan school boards. Not the billionaire standardized testers. Not the social media of group identity silos, hate, and divisiveness.
America had great schools (some qualifications by racism), certainly from the well-funded higher ed put into effect from the Justin Morrill land grant bill of 1862 to the Powell memo death trip since 1971. We can have great schools again.
But we need to decide: do we want to be owned by those you note owning most of the U.S. (and the world), or do we want to be allied with classes of great teachers we respect and to whom we defer?
Phil, I am a retired teacher and am grateful everyday that I am. (Retired).
I would be fired today because I could not and would not bow down to the likes of DeSantis and parents-who- burn -books.
It's hard enough for children to realize and appreciate their uniqueness, and now there's no room anymore for the encouragement of individualism.
We're being lumped into a dangerous cadre of non-thinking, biased, fearful people by non-thinking, biased, and fearful people.
I think FEARFUL is a good way to describe the "do-gooders" who want to impose THEIR way of thinking on the rest of us.
Don't tell me I can't use my creativity, my uniqueness, my beliefs to get me through this life.
Don't tell our students that they can't be themselves.
I had to stop teaching when my state implemented "teach the test" policies. The almighty "end-of-grade" test became the focus of our teaching. Scores were all that mattered. It was a trickle-down situation. Superindents didn't want to look bad, principals didn't want to look bad with low scores, teachers certainly didn't want to be judged by a bunch of numbers, and who suffered the most? The children of course.
I quit earlier than I would have because we had no time to talk to or engage with the children. We dared not promote their innate abilities and talents. We dared not stray from teaching just reading and math, which the End-of-Grade test was all about. No more science, (I received an $1800 grant to buy science equipment, then was told that I should concentrate on teaching reading and math skills). No more social studies, and heaven forbid teaching cursive writing or spelling.
Sure, teachers today face disrespectful kids who have no stability in their lives and I so respect teachers who can thrive despite that.
There's the saying, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."
It should read, "Those who can, do. Those who can do MORE, teach.
Thank you, Pam.
Many countries of the world today have good people like you, also pushed out of the teaching profession.
Go to your local library. Get a copy of the English translation of Minae Mizumura's "The Fall of Language in the Age of English." Columbia University in the U.S. arranged this translation in 2016. It looks at the many cultures of the world also endangered by the juggernaut of reduced, commercialized, neutered language, and the dehumanization of standardized testing, which oligarchs, billionaires, and nationalists everywhere conspire to push.
Phil, thanks for the reply. I'll check out that book.
Phil, you’ll have the answer to your question just by looking at the pregame of the Super Bowl.
When the focus is on teachers (and nurses) instead of an orgy of military hardware and salutes to ‘the troops’, you’ll know we’ve turned a corner. Not holding my breath.
He likes to dis Dems on same level as repubs. Great strategy.
Yup. Pushing the “they’re all the same” cynicism. Ladybird had us change direction. We can do this again.
And you like to lesser evil your way to fascism, and think you’re saving democracy. Great strategy.
And corporations provide the standard of living 99% of Americans refuse to give up. Would we agree to take busses and trains?turn down thermostats? Eat less meat ? Buy less crap at Sprawl Mart? We have to look at our entitled selves and chose to live more simply and purposefully wasting much less
Yes we would agree to take busses and trains if they were as high quality as the rest of the developed world.
True. But the spiraling decay due to subsidies for air travel cars and highways and neglect of public transit infrastructure is the cause
"Sprawl Mart" -- love it.
Also love trains.
We didn't blow up Nordstream. But it's an interesting story to know the truth rather than some yuppie fantasy like "JFK was going to end the Vietnam war and that's why they killed him." Nope, he wasn't. I discovered that using the Fifty Year Rule to find the real declassified papers when I wrote my two Vietnam histories and lost my last bit of love for that pig. There's a good article on the real Nordstream sabotage, which I am not going to hand to you with a link. Do some Actual Research someplace besides YouTube your own self.
You don’t think we had a hand in it, you’ve got way more faith in the integrity of our government than I do. I’ve read plenty of articles on Nordstream, some naming culprits other than the U.S. So what? Denying wrongdoing is a skill every nation has. Who do you think did it, smarty pants, the Russians?
Hey, he called you smarty pants, a real compliment, ha
Yeah, that’s pretty funny. Haven’t heard that for a while but it sure sounds familiar.
I guess he decided to ditch “cute”.
Gail and Jeri, sittin’ in a tree…..
Cute.
https://open.substack.com/pub/seymourhersh/p/how-america-took-out-the-nord-stream?r=dw1an&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thanks, Jeff. Good to see a fellow Hersh/Racket/Hedges traveler here.
Until you can get Congress to pass a law that will survive the Supreme Court that allows a President to cancel a lease that was legally purchased years ago, it is unfair to blame Biden for following the laws as written.
“Laws are made by people
And people can be wrong
Once unions were against the law
But slavery was fine
Women were denied the vote
While children worked the mine
The more you study history
The less you can deny it
Say a rotten law stays on the books
'Til folks with guts defy it”
Presidents, of both parties, deny, get around, usurp, ignore, fudge, obfuscate the law when it suits their fancy, or at least attempt to.
The question is, in whose interest is the law being subverted/ignored? If Biden had declared a climate emergency, as he should have done day one, his denying the drilling permits at least would have had a puncher’s chance at holding up.
You call it following the law. I call it gutless; yet another cave to the fossil fuel vampires.
But you will vote for all Democrats in the next election. Right?
No. I will not vote for Biden, and I’m leaning towards not voting for my congressional representative either. Support for Israeli genocide in Gaza, the proxy war in Ukraine, support for social media censorship, refusal to declare a climate emergency, botching the student debt issue, refusal to advocate for Medicare for All…. the list of policy decisions antithetical to my moral compass is long.
I never vote Republican; neither do I vote for Democrats whose allegiance to corporations and monied interests supersedes that given to the working class.
I'm of course disappointed to hear that. Please think long and hard about your next votes.
Wow, Tim, "We're probably toast" caught my eye. Actually, more like a gut punch. Aimed at me and all of our cohorts here .. and we're the good guys. So sad ...
It is sad. To paraphrase the Jensen character in ‘Network’, there are no good guys, there are no bad guys, there are only consumers and pundits, and the 1%.
Watch this Christian preacher’s brief speech on Gaza, from a church in the West Bank in Israel, regarding the collective silence from the West to a genocide. And then extrapolate it to our collective silence as we decided it was more important to have the latest digital device, or have a fresh raspberry in a grocery store in January, than save the planet, or address poverty/homelessness in a meaningful way.
I’m as guilty as everyone else. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1vag_ys0Js
I just returned from a scuba trip on the second largest reef system in the world In Caribbean. I return there every year at the same time. The condition of that ecosystem can only be described as apocalyptic. The change in condition in just one year is devastating. I am sorry to have witnessed such devastation.
For many years, we vacationed on St. John in the Virgin Islands. Snorkeling permitted me to make the same observations you did while you dived, David. The reefs chronicle the heavy footprint of humankind. They are ailing.
One of the most gorgeous places I’ve ever been.
The devastation of the reefs here in the Keys is tragic. Torrential rains since beginning of December. But we have a brown shirt private army for the guv.
That's very sad. I will probably never see a coral reef in my lifetime, but to know that such a critical ecosystem is being destroyed is devastating. What will happen to the species that rely on it?
We know, some care, most don’t
I remember when Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law. It was one of the few things he got right. Jimmy Carter, I always said to myself, would be known as an outstanding human being and look, he is still with us while the others have faded! Reagan that POS, removed the solar panels from the WH. He removed other things too that hurt our environment. Joe is spending our money the right way and that’s on us. He is bound and determined to save our planet and so are other countries.
I'm not so sure Biden has it right, much as I hate to admit it, but it's clear that any Republican will speed up our path of doom. It's always saddened me that Carter was shunned by other Democrats as though being associated with him was toxic. Integrity is a rare thing in politics, but Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter had it.
How can anyone expect good government under current circumstances? MAGA obstruction is everywhere, with the help of Manchin and Sinema and others at the state level too numerous to list. How can anyone not be aware of that? Vote in all Democrats up and down the ticket in 2024, then start pushing demands.
My take on Nixon is, faced with a veto-proof majority he signed the ESA to avoid the bad press.
"Agenda47," the closest thing to a "platform statement" of a future Trump Administration, has this from the Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025" on the list of things Sauron, er, I mean Trump, would do on Day One: issue an executive order gutting the Environmental Protection Administration. That would include “explicit language requiring reconsideration of the agency’s structure with reference to fulfilling its mission to create a better environmental tomorrow with clean air, safe water, healthy soil, and thriving communities.”
Fear is a good reason to get off one's dead ass and onto their dying feet, to take action to prevent the calamity engendering the fear. If you need additional energy to power your work over the next ten months, think of a Trump victory as the world that would have happened if the good guys hadn't won in "The Return of the King."
Yes, even a cursory review of what Project 2025 and Agenda 47 promise, which is easily found withe simplest Google search, shows how extreme it is. Three references:
1) HTTPS://APNEWS.COM/ARTICLE/TRUMP-POLICIES-AGENDA-ELECTION-2024-SECOND-TERM-D656D8F08629A8DA14A65C4075545E0F
2) THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE FOR THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY'S PROJECT 2025",
3) HTTPS://WWW.TBSNEWS.NET/WORLD/AGENDA-47-WHAT-TRUMP-HAS-PROMISED-IF-HE-WINS-2024-658382)
An article in The Guardian from July about ultra-conservative, climate-denying Project 2025 discusses would impact efforts to address carbon emissions. This is the link:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/27/project-2025-dismantle-us-climate-policy-next-republican-president?utm_term=658429f037fe802292b0aadc7dbb05ae&utm_campaign=DownToEarth&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=greenlight_email
This would be the worst disaster you can imagine.
The details in Project 2025 are in the nearly 1000-page publication called the Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise. ~350 authors from the full range of far-right ideologies describe how to dismantle government, including anything to do with responding to the climate emergency. The various authors are well-known anti-science anti-environmentalists of all stripes.
Naomi Oreskes, co-author of Merchants of Doubt, said about the Heritage Foundation:
“What troubles me is the Heritage Foundation’s long history … of working to undermine environmental protection at the expense of health and wellbeing of the American people, at the expense of life on Earth.”
Here are just four highlights:
1) Elimination of three offices in the Dept. of Energy that are crucial to the energy transition to clean energy
2) Slash funding to the Dept. of Energy’s grid deployment office to stymie renewable energy development
3) Huge expansion of gas infrastructure
4) Cut the EPA’s environmental justice and public engagement functions, and terminating new hires
In my view, this information makes voting "Against" Trump, regardless of the Democratic candidate for President, absolutely defensible.
Still unconvinced? If you compare Biden's Christmas message with Trump's, this becomes even more of a no-brainer.
Gary...your ability to boil down the facts to basic "highlights" is superb! Happy to see your comments here...YOU ROCK!
Thanks so much, Julie - it is gratifying to know someone finds what I am writing of value to them. Gary
I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that these people are doing literally _everything_ they can to kill the planet and every living thing on it. I simply refuse to believe they are SO blind as to see what is happening to the climate; they must know it, too. But what is in it for them? Why are they so adamant to hasten the process?
They believe their money will save them...
They believe that they will die of old age before the climate kills them. In the meantime they’ll fill their Scrooge McDuck’s money bunker fatter than Smaug’s
From what? The biodiversity collapse? They cannot be *that* stupid...
Hi Francine, they should watch the end of the movie, Don't Look Up, tto see how that idea works out!
Exactly
I have a friend from high school who has worked in oil and gas for his whole life, and despite his intelligence he is fully convinced that fossil fuels are absolutely necessary to society, that the global warming issue is manageable, and that the threats are overblown. He is not in the least amenable to any rational discussion of the science. And I am sure that in his work, in Texas, that the only people he deals with on a professional level are of the exact same mindset. He has internalized the arguments of the "merchants of doubt" and any suggestion to the contrary triggers a psychologically-driven, closed-loop defense that cannot be pierced short of a deprogramming such as is needed for interventions with people who have been seduced into a cult. Outside of this topic alone, he is a congenial, loving Dad and family man. Perhaps this is one variation of Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil." Sadly, his industry employers have the dark money that influences elected officials, which explains how so many in the Congress are equally dismissive of the scientific consensus and 100% behind supporting the fossil fuel and related industries (plastics, chemicals, Big Ag, etc.).
Unbelievable... I understand the programming thing, and I understand it worked well in the 80s until perhaps the 10s... But now, you just have to pop your head outside your own window to see the climate catastrophe happening in real-time. I mean, it's no longer just Haiti having to cope with floods, or India having to cope with temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius. It's no longer, as we call it, a "ver-van-mijn-bed-show"...
Right - it is obvious, and that's why the denial campaign has shifted to delay and distract, rather than deny. It's ingenious but diabolical, and especially cynical since it is so calculated in light of what they know as well as you do what the truth is, based upon the consensus of the most advanced scientific modeling. The totally unfounded claims that offshore wind turbines are killing whales is a perfect example: throw out a baseless claim and let the traditional media struggle to convince everyone it isn't true, which they do, patiently and rationally, meanwhile, the distraction machine is already coming up with new fabrications to tie us down with fighting the lies. The effort should not be so focused on rebutting the lies - that should be a one sentence factual statement that the lie has no basis whatever. Then immediately shift to going after the source - who is saying this, what organizations are they tied to, what is their funding??? It is astounding how quickly how a large percentage of these allegedly unrelated claims from various "grassroots" organizations and media outlets can be tracked back to the funding of a handful of billionaire oligarchs like the Kochs, Scaifes, Mellons, Coors, Devos, etc. Books to read: Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean, and Dark Money, by Jane Mayer. It's not like any of this is a secret, but your average reader of traditional media isn't aware of it.
Yeah, the "astroturfing" strategy... Good point, the media should directly shift to the source: what are they saying, why, and who pays them? Would be a good idea for scientific publications, too, to make this aspect more clear in the press.
But still I wonder: to what end are the Kochs et al doing this? It seems they are hell-bent on seeing earth's ecology perish. But why? Do they think they can "ride it out"? Do they think they can make a heap of cash off of civilization's crash, and then "wait out" the climate catastrophe and biodiversity collapse in their bunkers? No one is going to live that long: it will take Earth millions of years to recover. And what kind of outlook is living out the rest of your life in a bunker? If it's even feasible... I mean, there's no way you can stash food for 50 or 100 years (let alone have enough for your children or grandchildren to live on), and it won't be possible to grow new food with earth's ecology gone. They can't be that naive or stupid to see these problems. What future do they envision for themselves then? Escape to Mars? Salvation by the AI God named "Singularity" they are trying to summon? I really wonder...
Thanks, Gary ! From the Guardian article⬇️
“The proposals come as waters off the Florida coast reach levels of heat more commonly found in hot tubs, and as much of the nation continues to swelter under triple-digit temperatures.”
Florida is the ONLY state to reject federal 💲 to help curb emissions. Wouldn’t want to “politicize the weather”….sigh.
https://www.businessinsider.com/to-avoid-politicization-roadways-florida-declines-320m-federal-funds-2023-12
We’ve also been under tropical storm type weather for a month. Very weird for the time of year.
Yeah, looking out the window at what's happening is a political act in Florida. Watching Faux News is mo' better.
For those who want to know more about "Project 2025" but don't want to wade through the 100+ pages of the document, the Wikipedia article referenced by Gary is an excellent overview, quite sufficient to scare the pants off of you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025
Thanks, for both your post and the reminder that even "a cursory review" can be mind boggling. Well done, sir.
Oh, and that comparison of Christmas messages from fpotus and POTUS.... stunning.
TC, I am doing my darnedest to sound the alarm and spread the word (and factual links) about this movement to family and friends….some shrug their shoulders (what?!) and others lean in to learn more. Now is not the time to let our attention wander and efforts lag.
Great insight. Pretty jolting, HCR’s crafty pivot from existential concerns of our Republic to those of our planet. You offer a wonderful bridge to see the aims of Heritage's Project 25 clearly via Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, a depiction of fascism in the fundamental terms of a battle of good v. evil. Before Trump, Heritage Foundation and baby PAC Heritage Action were shamelessly antithetical to equal voting rights, the foundation of our Republic. Today, team Heritage is the very face of fascism, the face of the epic evil to which Tolkien devoted Lord of the Rings, a co-conspirator of Trump in his banal effort to reduce our Republic to ashes. It ain’t gonna happen.
TC, Who is the American Samwise?
Even Sam had to find out in the event, not before.
Should make one’s blood run cold
What if……
What if the fossil fuel industry hadn’t bought up all of the Republican Party and three quarters of the Democrats?
Most of the Democrats have since come to environmental sanity. Not so the Republicans.
Even now, with every dire prediction of climate scientists coming true, there is a staggeringly large political constituency, encouraged by the usual industry villains, believing it’s all a lot of nonsense. A hoax. Such a large voting bloc of willful ignorance and prideful stupidity stands a good chance of bringing it all down around us all.
Perhaps if next summer is anything like last summer come November the election will sweep in a strong majority of environmental sanity.
By sanity, I think you mean Democrats. And once in office, these Dems might need pushing.
“…these Dems might need pushing.”
Indeed. That is the fundamental principle of a “participatory democracy”.
You keep pushing!
As a vegan activist, just let me say that the link between Veganism and environmental preservation takes center stage, especially given the urgent need to tackle global warming and the ongoing sixth mass extinction. Veganism, with its emphasis on a plant-based diet excluding animal products like meat, dairy, and eggs, plays a pivotal role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, preventing deforestation, and conserving water resources.
Choosing plant-based alternatives isn't just a dietary preference; it's a meaningful step toward mitigating the environmental impact of animal agriculture. We're well aware of the significant role that livestock farming plays in deforestation, water pollution, and heightened greenhouse gas emissions. Embracing Veganism aligns seamlessly with our broader mission of promoting sustainability and eco-friendly practices.
In the face of today's ecological challenges, particularly the imminent threats of global warming and the ongoing mass extinction event, the importance of making sustainable choices becomes even more evident. While the Endangered Species Act may not have a direct link to Veganism, it serves as a powerful reminder of our shared commitment to making responsible and sustainable decisions. This commitment is essential for safeguarding our planet's biodiversity and ecosystems in the face of urgent environmental threats.
Found this in a Google search for "Soylent Green":
A proverb attributed to the Cree, a Native American tribe from what is now Canada: “Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.”
Sums up the end result.
I urge everyone to watch a 1 hour 47 minute movie “Kiss The Ground”. It is currently on Netflix. It is the most hopeful piece I have seen for the future of mankind. While I doubt that we will wake up, this movie shows a cheap positive path forward.
Mike, I watched it. Yes! Regenerative soil. It makes sense to me. This has nothing to do with the type of work that I did, and may have nothing to do with what the movie is talking about, because it was volcanic and has nothing to do with farming, but I was working in southern Washington in 1982, near Mt St Helens, not long after the explosive volcanic eruption there. A very large area was devastated. People were saying that it would always look like a moonscape. But life came sprouting back up there after a while. That made an impression on me. It was like a smaller version of the recovery experiment in China that is shown in the movie.
My husband and I visited Mount St Helens in the early 1990s. It did look like a moonscape, but you could see things were starting to emerge from the soil. I'd love to go back and see what it's like today.
Thanks. So would I.
Yeah I remember hearing about the predictions about the damage from Mount Saint Helens. However, I had lived in Hawaii for several year, which is all volcanic soil so it was easy to doubt those prognosticators. Lots of stuff grows quite well there.😎. I have no farming or soil experience but, like you say it just makes sense.
Thanks for the recommendation. Is this YouTube "Kiss the Ground" channel from the same people as who made that movie?
https://www.youtube.com/@KissTheGround/videos
I'll answer for Mike. Yes that appears to be excerpts from the movie.
Great! Thank you!
Steve, I am not sure but, it is the same subject. I noticed several local farmers going all in on the principals espoused in the movie. I’m older than dirt myself so don’t feel I can had much except to cheer for these “new pioneers”. I am very hopeful about this approach. Course there will be a big fight from big ag.
The American bald eagle, the majestic and revered bird represented on the great seal of this nation, was saved by the Endangered Species Act. This and other iconic birds like the peregrine falcon, California condor and sandhill crane have been saved because of this legislation and regulation. So too have the American bison, grey wolves, pronghorn, grizzly bears, even salmon have been brought back from the brink of extinction only to be hunted down or driven out by people again in certain states.
Like Ansel Adams said, "It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment"! The Republicans don't seem to care at all about environmental degradation and pollution, about preserving any wilderness or wildlife, or about even having a habitable planet for their grandchildren...
An American bald eagle 🦅 flew within 50 feet of me once. A majestic surprise indeed. The bird dropped it's lunch, which appeared to have been a smaller bird. It appeared that we were surprised to see each other.
I think the Endangered Species Act was one of the most important pieces of legislation in the last century. It has saved many species, but there are others that are just hanging on, the victims of habitat loss, oil and gas drilling, etc. The sage grouse is one that comes to mind.
Yes I wholeheartedly agree with you that the Endangered Species Act is one of the most important laws enacted in our lifetimes. It has always amazed me that Richard Nixon of all people was the one to sign it into law. How could anyone try to rescind or constantly attack or chip away at this law after 50 years of proven success and benefit to our nation's flora and fauna? It's just another thing that really illustrates how much worse the Republicans are now, even more nefarious than Nixon.
I also want to acknowledge what you say about so many species hanging on by a thread. The North Atlantic Right whale population is down to less than 400 individuals off the east coast. The red wolf barely making it in North Carolina, jaguars and lobos in the southwest cutoff by border wall construction, Florida panthers having to deal with Florida, vaquitas vanishing before any of us have ever had a chance to actually see one. It's an endless list, as species are continually being added to it if they even get a chance to be recognized as endangered.
The willful blindness of those who wish to deny human caused environmental damage and global warming puzzles me. Selfishness and greed pulse through their veins. Fifty years of denial, of disregard wreak havoc on ecosystems. For a short time into the future, wealth shields its holders. The poor suffer most. "Too late" looms so close! I fear the world my grandchildren inherit will be inhospitable and may even be difficult to survive.
The EPA and Republicans!!! How far we have drifted! SMDH