Spotlight on Green News & Views: Frackonomics, exploding oil trains, hidden history of Yosemite ::posted Wed, 09 Jul 2014 22:43:43 +0000:: ift.tt/1jrm5ol rss@dailykos (Meteor Blades) Brown pelicans ponder lifes wonders in the Pacific Northwests Westport Harbor. Many environmentally related posts appearing at Daily Kos each week dont attract the attention they deserve. To help get more eyeballs, Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The most recent Saturday Spotlight can be seen here. So far, more than 18,600 environmentally oriented diaries have been rescued for inclusion in this weekly collection since 2006. Inclusion of a diary in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it. How a Housewife Transformed an Open Sewer into a Swimmable River—by Ellen Moyer: In the 1960s the Nashua River was starved of oxygen, biologically dead, and one of the ten most polluted rivers in the United States. The sludge-filled river, which flows through New Hampshire and Massachusetts, was a different color every day, depending on what was discharged that day. People could smell its stench from a mile away. In 1962, Marion Stoddart moved to the area with her family. Stoddart made it her life mission to restore the river to its pre-industrial condition—running clean and clear, teeming with fish and wildlife. She mobilized industry leaders, government officials, and concerned citizens and ultimately accomplished her goal. At that time in the United States, it was legal to dump sewage and industrial waste into rivers. One of Stoddarts initial tasks was to push hard for federal and state legislation. Agricultural pesticides cause autism. Dont hold your breath.—by SkepticalRaptor: Recently, I was pointed to an article that attempted to outline an epidemiological correlation between agricultural pesticides and neurodevelopmental disorders, published in the journal, Environmental Health Perspectives. Before examining the methods, data and analysis, its important to ascertain the overall quality of the journal and the researchers. The journal itself, Environmental Health Perspectives, has an impact factor of 7.26, which is not low, but certainly is not in the upper tier of journals. In many academic environments, any article published in journals with an impact factor less than 10 may not be used in consideration of tenure (although this guideline is not universally accepted). [...] The Cliff Notes version of this study is that it appears to be a kilometer wide and a few mm deep. Theres a lot of data, but Im dubious that it supports the conclusions that pesticide use is correlated to (or even causal to) autism spectrum disorders. Of course, the popular press and the anti-chemical crowd is all over this article. Its so frustrating that they accept this research without actually examining it carefully. But Ill try. Greg Abbott: Not doing the Kochs bidding means the terrorists win—by TDDVandy: Oh, Greg Abbott. Your opponent in the race for Governor points out that your office is now hiding information about where dangerous chemicals are stored, that youve received a bunch of money from the Koch brothers (because, really, what Republican hasnt?), and that the Koch brothers really dont want people to know where dangerous chemicals are stored because freedom and asks Texas voters to connect the dots. Your first response, that people should just go ask if there are dangerous chemicals being stored next to their houses, was roundly ridiculed, so its back to the drawing board: Texans deserve to know what kinds of chemicals are being stored in their communities. At the same time, the Texas Legislature is equally concerned about providing terrorists a road map to all facilities in Texas that could be used to build bombs and destroy communities. In passing the Texas Homeland Security Act in 2003, the Legislature recognized that, in a post-9/11 world, there should be a balance to accessing sensitive information about where terrorists could locate bomb-making materials or targets to attack. That is why the Legislature unanimously agreed that providing a database of information about chemical facilities was a danger too great. Yeah, thats the ticket. Terrorists. Because we should be concerned about terrorists figuring out where the dangerous chemicals are being stored in our state, and not about, oh, I dont know, the dangerous chemicals spontaneously combusting and leveling a nearby town because thats what dangerous chemicals sometimes do when theyre stored that close to human habitation and the state doesnt bother to even inspect the plant to make sure its safe. Taking applied ecology to the seas: Philip Hoare on Whales and Climate Change—by FinchJ: The oceans represent perhaps greatest potential source of carbon sequestration, food security, and untold other resources if only we will take the actions necessary to bring this about: Declaring marine preservation zones and backing up the decision through whatever means necessary. Preferably through integrated, whole systems approaches that will provide a means of living for the local fishers who rely up on these tracts of ocean- whether they be off the coast of the United States or Thailand or West Africa. Local communities should be supported by the rest of us while the fishing grounds recuperate from centuries of abuse. Communities should be involved in education, reskilling, organism hatchery jobs, establishment and running of marine veterinary hospitals, establishment of infrastructure where necessary (artificial reefs where appropriate), and maintenance of marginal ecosystems (between the ocean and land- estuaries and such). None of this is anything that appropriate taxation of the richest among us could not pay for at the drop of a hat. Nor is it anything that even a small fraction of our- or the worlds- military budgets could accomplish. You can find more rescued green diaries below the sustainable squiggle. [Forwarded by the MyLeftBlogosphere news engine. Link to original post below:]
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 04:23:36 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015