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Weekly spotlight on DK climate and eco-diaries (8/20/2023) [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Daily Kos Staff Emeritus']

Date: 2023-08-20  

The Spotlight is a weekly compilation of links and excerpts from DK environmentally related posts. Any posts that are included in the collection do not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of them. Because of the interconnectedness of the subject matter, some of these posts could be placed in more than one category.

CLIMATE

Judge Rules MT's Climate Denial 'Unconstitutional On Its Face' In 'Sweeping Win' For Climate by ClimateDenierRoundup. Hey, what was the most impressive thing you accomplished before turning 22? Doesn't matter, because it'll never be as incredible as the 16 young people who just won the US' first constitutional climate trial, forcing the state of Montana to acknowledge the climate impacts of fossil fuel projects, for which the state has never once denied a permit. A now-overturned state law had prevented Montana’s regulators from considering climate change and greenhouse gas pollution when reviewing a project. It turns out that's depriving the state's citizens' right to enjoy the "right to a clean and healthful environment," as enshrined in the state’s constitution.

The fossil fuel industry just suffered a major setback in a Montana court by Dartagnan. Sixteen young Montanans just delivered a profound blow to the fossil fuel industry and its enablers in the Republican Party. As Kate Selig reports, the young plaintiffs provided testimony explaining how the effects of climate change have adversely affected their own lives. For example, one 15-year-old testified how the impact of wildfire smoke exacerbated his asthma, while another plaintiff described how “extreme weather has hurt her family’s ranch.” Interestingly, the state did not contest the reality of climate change (as many had expected) but instead argued that Montana, which (as Selig points out) boasts the nation’s largest recoverable coal reserves, had minimal, if any, impact on global greenhouse emissions. The state also argued that the issue was properly within the purview of Montana’s Republican “supermajority” in the legislature.But as noted by Dharna Noor, reporting on the decision for The Guardian, that Republican legislature’s actions were the impetus for the suit in the first place. Significantly, Judge Kathy Seeley, writing for the Montana First Judicial District Court, rejected the state’s argument.

Fantastic court ruling in Montana blocks one of the most destructive Republican policies by Mark Sumner. [T]he importance of the case goes way beyond “aw, look at those cute kids winning a case.” This is the first time that any court has ruled that young people have a right to a healthy environment and that consideration of climate change is part of that right. It’s a case that could have effects well beyond the Big Sky State. Policies like the one in Montana that attempted to exclude considerations of climate change from state policies have been widespread in red states. Florida went as far as banning state employees from using the terms “climate change” or “global warming.” Donald Trump did the same thing in federal agencies and instituted a rule preventing agencies from considering climate change in infrastructure projects. So maybe it’s a good thing Trump was always having Infrastructure Week, but never passed an infrastructure bill. President Joe Biden swiftly removed these federal limitations when he took office, but crushing climate change policy at the state level remains a top Republican priority, or at least a top oil and gas company policy, which Republicans are only too happy to support.

Former Vice President Al Gore

Every elected Democrat should be talking like this ... and acting on it by Meteor Blades. Al Gore gave a recent TED Talk: “What the Fossil Fuel Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know.“ Too bad he isn’t the senior senator from West Virginia instead of the guy who is. As good and direct and urgent as his talk is, I wish its missing piece wasn’t how specifically to get the fossil fuel lobbyists out of the way of what must be done if we are going to avoid some of the worst impacts of climate change. We need a new strategy and right now we seem to be stuck on tactics. The fact that the COP28 in November-December is being chaired by the Abu Dhabi oil executive ought to provide evidence enough that our current strategy is not up to the difficult task ahead. Every Democratic candidate in the coming elections should be asked what policy that does not now exist would they initiate or support to address the situation Gore describes in order to deal with the climate crisis. Any candidate who doesn’t have a ready answer should sure as hell get one.

Now You've Done It: Even Al Gore Is Getting Pissed At The Fossil Fuel Industry! by ClimateDenierRoundup. In a new TED Talk , Gore gives a "searing indictment of fossil fuel companies for walking back their climate commitments” and calls “for a global rethink of the roles of polluting industries in politics and finance." It's 25 minutes of recognition that, given the constant onslaught of fossil-funded disinformation, it's not enough to just present people with accurate information. If it were, Gore wouldn't still have to be out here giving a "blistering" talk on "what the fossil fuel industry doesn't want you to know." Apparently fed up with being a punching bag, Gore's finally punching back. (Proverbially, of course, and still via slideshow.)

We’re Killing Ourselves with Comfort by Stephen Dreyfus. Today, climate change, or as I prefer to call it, catastrophic climate change, is here and now, deadly and dangerous. But it has become increasingly apparent to me that virtually nobody is going to do a damn thing about preventing or ameliorating catastrophic climate change, if they have to do anything that might interfere with being perfectly comfortable. My parents didn’t argue about whether air-conditioning was bad for life on the planet. They argued about what temperature provided the most comfort. Americans are notoriously spoiled and selfish. Republicans either deny climate change and global warming altogether, or simply don’t want to do anything about it. Democrats have a better attitude toward this issue, but even Democrats don’t want to anything about catastrophic climate change if it means being the least bit uncomfortable. Instead, we luxuriate in air-conditioned comfort, content that Biden has already done all we need to do to stop deadly global burning. Dream on.

Michael Klare

Collapse 2.0 What a 2005 Bestseller Tells Us About Climate Change and Human Survival by Michael Klare. In his 2005 bestseller Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, geographer Jared Diamond focused on past civilizations that confronted severe climate shocks, either adapting and surviving or failing to adapt and disintegrating. Among those were the Puebloan culture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, the ancient Mayan civilization of Mesoamerica, and the Viking settlers of Greenland. Such societies, having achieved great success, imploded when their governing elites failed to adopt new survival mechanisms to face radically changing climate conditions. Bear in mind that, for their time and place, the societies Diamond studied supported large, sophisticated populations. Pueblo Bonito, a six-story structure in Chaco Canyon, contained up to 600 rooms, making it the largest building in North America until the first skyscrapers rose in New York some 800 years later. Mayan civilization is believed to have supported a population of more than 10 million people at its peak between 250 and 900 A.D., while the Norse Greenlanders established a distinctively European society around 1000 A.D. in the middle of a frozen wasteland. Still, in the end, each collapsed utterly and their inhabitants either died of starvation, slaughtered each other, or migrated elsewhere, leaving nothing but ruins behind. The question today is: Will our own elites perform any better than the rulers of Chaco Canyon, the Mayan heartland, and Viking Greenland?

How hot is too hot? by Dooey. Most of us will be dying from climate change — sooner rather than later.If you think this is doomer porn — I won’t go to your funeral if you don’t go to mine. I am being upfront about where the reactions to climate change are and noting that we: are what we do, not what we say.If the NOAA climate dashboard were the instruments on display in the cockpit of your aircraft — you would be putting on the parachute. But every time this dashboard is posted the extinction deniers insist that this is no proof that we are in extinction, demand better science refrences and chastise the poster as a …. wait for it … doomer. So here’s the NOAA dashboard, you get the willy wonka golden ticket if you can thread a way to avoid your impending climate death.

Kitchen Table Kibitzing: Where Should I Live? by boatsie. It is always comforting to read Bill McKibben because he always holds onto a sense of optimism when writing about global warming. Even now, when monumental floods earlier this summer devastated parts of his home state of Vermont (causing the closure of roads into his county), and despite the depth of his understanding of the climate crisis and the tipping points we have already surpassed, he manages to elicit hope. Just this week in the column Where Should I Live in his The Crucible substack, McKibben discusses the questions he routinely answers at talks he gives, and notes that after his talks he is privately and invariably asked by someone “Should I have a child?” or “Where should I move?” McKibben doesn’t go into his response to those asking about giving birth, but he does go into great detail about how we can handle adjusting to the smaller “size of the board on which humans can play the game of life.”

CRITTERS & THE GREAT OUTDOORS

Climate Brief Animals: Cats should be kept indoors especially seasonally for their safety and others by Angmar. "Most people who own cats are animal people. They don’t want to have this impact on wildlife." 70% of US cat owners now keep their cats inside, up from 35% in the late 1990s. Why Keeping Cats Inside Is Better For Them—And The Environment. Indoor cats live longer ... Free-roaming pet cats have an average lifespan of three years, while indoor cats live 12-18 years.

“Friendly Seal” with her pup.

The Daily Bucket - Friendly Seal's 2023 pup by OceanDiver. Friendly Seal is the name we gave the Harbor Seal we met in 2013, a mischievous playful youngster following us in our kayaks, playing tag and peekaboo. I estimate she was one or two years old that year, by her size and behavior. A decade later she still roams my local bay regularly, fishing, hauling out onto the dinghy dock for a night or day’s snooze, watching people on shore, the docks, boats. While she doesn’t interact playfully as she did in those early days, the fact that she spends so much time in this bay means she’s still friendly, in her own unique way. This diary about her 2019 pup has lots more info about Friendly Seal, including links to many diaries I’ve written about her and our local Harbor seals. She often rests on the dock where we keep our boat. Here’s a clip of her back in June from trailcam footage. I now know she was pregnant; at the time it was impossible to tell, given how stretchy and flexible seals are. She’d likely have given birth a couple of weeks later (after a 10-month pregnancy).

This has really been a birding hot spot lately. Very convenient for me, only 1/10 mile from my house, and built-in seating with the sun at my back in the early morning. The trees at center are Narrow-leafed Willow and Western Chokecherry.

The Daily Bucket. Sequence Friday. Outdoor Classroom, Quincy, CA by funningforest.It’s what I call a good morning. I’ve come to really enjoy going over to the Feather River Learning Landscape Outdoor Classroom and just sitting with my coffee and camera for an hour or so in the mornings, sometimes pedaling off after awhile to another location or two to change things up. Today provided me with a couple of bird species that even though I already have them in my pocket I had not yet photographed either of them at this location.Those are the Cedar Waxwing and Rufous Hummingbird, which you will see in sequence as you go through.Enjoy!

Carolina Saddlebags — Tramea carolina

Daily Bucket - Wall Doxey State Park, Mississippi by CaptBLI. Wall Doxey State Park is 22 miles north of my home, and is a niche of wildlife delights. I arrived hoping to find some early migrating __ ? ? ? __ (fill in the blank). The reports by members here of animals coming and going in their areas, gave my adventure seeking urges a boost. I parked down by the lake (a huge pond in reality) and got to the action in under a minute. A bird lit and scampered through the branches as I tried to focus the camera. This is the best photo I could get. I went through all my research materials to attempt an Id. I am sure it is a Vireo, but not one I’m familiar with. There are always dragonflies flying at Wall Doxey. I was able to catch a few while I was there. The first was easy to spot because it looked like a dark red bullet zooming overhead. It lit higher than I wanted so I wasn’t able to get the rich Ruby tones of it’s upper wings and body

The Daily Bucket -- What's the Buzz? by Clickadee. Even though backyard birds are scarce during the dog days of summer, there’s still lots of action out there. So I grabbed my macro lens one afternoon last week and had a look see. This Bucket is long on photos and short on text. I’m in SE Michigan, in a metro Detroit suburb, and have a perennial flower garden in the backyard. There were many many more buzzers and flitterers out there that escaped focus or sometimes even the viewfinder. I have a very rudimentary garden insect guide, so any corrections or assistance with ID is welcome.

Daily Bucket - Hot Dry August Days at Gray Lodge State Wildlife Refuge by Cal Birdbrain. August is a quiet time at Gray Lodge. Some of the dry ponds had heavy equipment working on restoration efforts. Others had very shallow waters or were dry with bright green vegetation carpeting the pond’s bottom. Despite the lack of water, a number of birds could be seen. As I stopped at the permit station I noticed several turkey vultures gliding in a classic circle. Gray Lodge charges a small entrance fee ($5 per person) to visit the wildlife refuge area and drive the auto tour. Hunters pay significantly higher fees that substantially support the refuge.

What one of the ponds looked liked last February. I could only fit half of the flock of snow geese in the photo.

The Daily Bucket -- What's the Buzz? by Clickadee. Even though backyard birds are scarce during the dog days of summer, there’s still lots of action out there. So I grabbed my macro lens one afternoon last week and had a look see. This Bucket is long on photos and short on text. I’m in SE Michigan, in a metro Detroit suburb, and have a perennial flower garden in the backyard. There were many many more buzzers and flitterers out there that escaped focus or sometimes even the viewfinder. I have a very rudimentary garden insect guide, so any corrections or assistance with ID is welcome.

ENERGY & EMISSIONS

The Planet Burns by UrbanCurmudgeon. For those of you who believe in climate change and understand the urgency of doing something about it, this story will really grind your ulcer. If you appreciated the work that Biden did on the Infrastructure bill and the Climate bill and can see how the two in combination can do a lot for the country in terms of helping climate problems, creating good paying jobs and lowering our energy costs long term, you will go out of your minds over the work of a group of completely fucked up idiots who are attempting to destroy the series of wind farms the previously mentioned bills have set in motion all along the east coast. Right now, the target area is off the Jersey shore but if the hit men for the fossil fuel industry are successful there, they will move to destroy the chain of wind farms planned for the entire east coast and you can kiss that huge piece of climate change infrastructure goodbye.

Renewable Tuesday: Global Boiling by Mokurai. When the UN talks of Global Boiling, it’s serious. But we are implementing solutions faster than ever. National goals have risen from nowhere near good enough to real plans for Net Zero. And whatever our opponents have screamed about, we have done more of it. We are investing trillions of dollars in trees, EVs, renewable energy, battery storage, and education. So we are overcoming the professional denialists who still claim that we can’t AFFORD cheaper and cleaner energy and a livable planet, and the Greenwashers who still claim that gas is part of the solution, not part of the problem. We did all of that with Republicans since Reagan viciously resisting anything to do with the solutions. And with officials in China and India declaring that they would never go off coal, NEVER, do you hear me? And with the claim that nobody, but nobody, would fund renewable energy in the poorest countries.

Finally, the FSO Safer is in fact, safer by strawbale. It has been nearly two years since the New Yorker published its story on the Safer, which I diaried Here. The aging tanker was in danger of leaking, sinking, or catching fire, any of which could have released a massive oil spill and shut down the Red Sea, causing a massive ecological disaster. Politics was in the way of rational solutions, but persistence has finally paid off. US News reports that the tanker has been emptied, and will be (if I understand correctly) towed for salvage. The United Nations managed the deal, which was quite complex and is not fully complete: Steiner said the U.N. raised more than $120 million for the operation, which required the purchase of a second tanker for the offloaded crude, aircraft waiting on standby to release chemicals to dissipate the oil in case of a spill and policies with more than dozen insurers to underwrite the operation.

Overnight News Digest: Top 10% responsible for 40% of U.S. climate emissions by Magnifico. The Washington Post: The richest 10 percent of U.S. households are responsible for 40 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study released Thursday in PLOS Climate. The study, which looked at how a household’s income generated emissions, underlines the stark divide between those who benefit most from fossil fuels and those who are most burdened by its effects. […] “It just seems morally and politically problematic to have one group of people reaping so much benefit from emissions while the poorer groups in society are asked to disproportionately deal with the harms of those emissions,” [Jared Starr, lead author of the study, and] a sustainability scientist at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, said. Previous research has shown that extreme weather events made worse because of climate change, from flooding to hurricanes, often have a greater effect on lower-income communities.

Jeff Springman was injured while manually gauging at a Diamondback Energy site in the Texas Permian Basin.

How the oil and gas industry causes preventable worker deaths and pollution by Txsharon. Workers are dying in U.S. oilfields and the industry is not taking steps to prevent these deaths.Manual gauging and sampling aka "thieving" is when workers open tank hatches to determine liquid levels in the tanks and to sample fluids. When the hatches are opened, methane and volatile organic compounds blast out. Workers die. Some die immediately and some, like Jeff Springman, suffer horribly and die slowly. The American Petroleum Institute “recommends” an alternative practice that would keep workers and nearby neighbors safe. The industry rarely follows any recommendation and only follows mandates if there are stiff penalties. Jeff reached out to me in April for help telling his story. He was fatally injured when performing manual gauging on tanks at a Diamondback Energy site in the Texas Permian Basin. When he opened the tank hatch, it flew out of his hand from the force of the gas blasting out. Jeff remembers nothing else because he was knocked unconscious and nearly fell of the catwalk. He is only alive today because his trainee, who was standing several feet away, dragged his body out of the plume. Jeff did not know about the NIOSH-OSHA Hazard alert about the dangers of manual gauging until I sent it to him.

ACTION

All-California zoom session on income-based fixed-charge electricity: 5:30pm Wed. Aug 30 by mettle fatigue. We are excited to invite you to an engaging and informative community conversation hosted by TURN (The Utility Reform Network) that delves into the intricacies of California's groundbreaking income-based fixed charge scheme. As valued members of our network, your insights and perspectives are crucial in fostering a thorough understanding of this new initiative's implications. Date: Wednesday, August 30, 2023, Time: 5:30 PM (PDT). Platform: Zoom. Register Here.

ShelterBox Diary #2: Maui: Plus more Maui relief links! World Central Kitchen link by TexMex. It’s been devastating watching the destruction in Maui in one of the deadliest wildfires in our country’s history. The catastrophe has created tragic situations for those who have lost loved ones, for those who have lost homes and livelihoods, and for wildlife and the environment. As the search and rescue continues, our thoughts are with the people of Maui and their friends and families. At times like these, we have to make tough decisions about the role ShelterBox can play. ShelterBox aid is not the right fit for the families affected in Maui right now, and there are other organizations, including state and federal agencies, that are better positioned to respond to the immediate displacement needs. However, ShelterBox USA is determined to stand with those affected and is working with our Rotary partners on the ground. As Rotary is our official partner in disaster relief, local Rotarians are vital to enabling the recovery of communities in times of emergency. Additionally, Rotary District 5000, which covers Maui, is on the frontlines of the crisis and supporting the affected communities. [Note: The climate strike action began at San Francisco City Hall in 2019. The following entries are excerpts from “letters” that were issued each week of the action.] Climate Strike -- Blackwater Recycling Now (week 52) by birches. This week’s topic is BLACKWATER RECYCLING NOW. “Who needs a blackwater recycling plant?! Not us! No one recycles water! Namibia and San Diego do? Come on! San Diego’s a desert and Namibia’s in Africa! SF is surrounded by water on three sides! Look around, we don’t need water recycling here!” We Use A Lot Of Water. San Franciscans use roughly 273 liters of water per person per day. The water use goals of SB 606 and AB 1668 call for us to use fewer than 208 liters per person per day indoors by 2025. Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, has an average daily indoors water consumption of 193 liters per person. SF’s climate is heating to temperatures akin to Nashville’s, but SF will be a lot drier than Tennessee (more on just how dry below). Aridity, temperatures, and Namibia’s stark environmental racism make Windhoek an excellent model of what’s to come for us. We Waste A Lot Of Water. Compared to Palm Springs, we may seem to be doing a good job, but we’re nowhere near what’s needed for what’s coming. How do we waste water? Climate Strike — Fiddling While Home Burns (week 53) by birches. Are You Waiting For “This Crisis To Pass Before Tackling Climate Change”? This crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, is a result of human-caused climate change and human-caused mass extinction. We created this pandemic through our rape of the biosphere, and we’re primed to start many more, even worse pandemics by pursuing “business as usual.” Are You Planning To Return To “Business As Usual” After This is Over? Business as usual is destroying the ability of the planet to support life. But San Francisco Does It Right. Do we? How are we any different than LA? They killed Owen’s Valley15 but we murdered Hetch Hetchy, and neither city has made restitution or reparations. And those projects, supposedly put in place to protect SF and LA, actually hurt both locations much more in the long-run. Nature turns out to have developed a better system for water and resource distribution than capitalists did. But that was all a long time ago, you say? Climate Strike -- Creating A Process For Fast Action (week 54) by birches. Why Do We Have To Act Fast? By now, the following list should haunt your days and infect your sleep; it is the stuff of nightmares. It is our present and our immediate future. UN reports : We have slightly under 10 years before climate change becomes runaway and irreversible, we are in an accelerating mass extinction event, we are destroying our ability to feed ourselves, and this is resulting in increasing mass displacements of people and wars over resources.

: We have slightly under 10 years before climate change becomes runaway and irreversible, we are in an accelerating mass extinction event, we are destroying our ability to feed ourselves, and this is resulting in increasing mass displacements of people and wars over resources. Ice : Ice is rapidly vanishing. This is an immediate issue because glaciers provide freshwater supplies for over 1/6 th of the human population.

: Ice is rapidly vanishing. This is an immediate issue because glaciers provide freshwater supplies for over 1/6 of the human population. Water : Our freshwater sources are both increasingly contaminated (with assistance from the American federal government) and shrinking.

: Our freshwater sources are both increasingly contaminated (with assistance from the American federal government) and shrinking. Pandemics : Climate change and ecosystem destruction create human pandemics. Covid-19 was caused by humans. There will be an increasing number of pandemics because of our past and current actions.

: Climate change and ecosystem destruction create human pandemics. Covid-19 was caused by humans. There will be an increasing number of pandemics because of our past and current actions. Extinctions : We are in, causing, and accelerating the rate of the 6 th mass extinction event.

: We are in, causing, and accelerating the rate of the 6 mass extinction event. The Ocean: We are killing the ocean at an astonishing speed. [...] Climate Strike -- Biosphere Collapse (week 55) by birches. Climate change has caused cities to collapse before and it will again. We Must Act Now. Blackwater recycling,

Plant an SF native urban forest,

Switch to all electric and clean energy transportation,

Ban all plastics in SF,

Make all our energy local, and carbon-neutral or carbon-negative, and

Make SF resilient and self-sufficient. Climate Strike -- What Have You Done (week 56) by birches. There are a wide range of ways to make this all so much better, ways that are cheap or save substantial amounts of money, that create jobs, that aren’t hard, that increase our chances of surviving, and that use science we already know. So let’s look at what needs to be done and what you’ve done so far. Consider this a job performance review, or a report card. Climate Strike -- A Livable World Is Still Possible (week 57) by birches. A Livable World Is Still Possible. The Old World Is Dead. If sowing salt into the soil of conquered cities was a ritual curse 3000 years ago, today it is actually happening worldwide; it is killing us (Kesterson, the Aral Sea, Owens Valley, the San Joaquin Valley, and at least 20% of all irrigated lands). Capitalism is literally salting the planet. Don’t you get it yet? Life requires life to endure and continue; capitalism is an endgame that requires destruction and death. One way or another, the world we used to live on—a world that easily supported life—that world is dead. Capitalism, aka unrestrained greed exhibited in sociopathic activities, killed it. Continuing as we are is moral insanity and physical and societal suicide. What We Need To Survive Is Clear. We need clean, renewable power;

A rich and diverse biosphere;

Adequate on-going preparations for rising waters, drought, and heat;

True equity; and

An SF as self-sufficient and sustainable as possible.

INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORTATION, & THE GREEN TRANSITION

The Inflation Reduction Act benefits red states more than blue states by stlgeek. What are Democrats going to do about it? Democrats’ climate law set off a wave of energy projects in GOP districts. While Republicans on the campaign trail and in Congress regularly bash the law — which Biden signed a year ago Wednesday — as big-government overreach by Democrats bent on killing off fossil fuels, its benefits are disproportionately landing in their communities. And as the measure supercharges efforts to combat climate change, it’s also rekindling economies where people have felt forgotten, potentially softening how some voters view Biden as he seeks reelection. People think that these projects are benefitting China. How are Democrats going to change this perception?

UH-OH! Biden Has OUTRAGED FOX News By Raising Taxes on the Rich and Funding to Fight Climate Change by News Corpse.OMG! Biden is raising taxes on billionaires, who currently pay little or nothing. And he's providing funds to mitigate climate change, which is threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions around the country and the world. Impeach him now! Never mind that broad majorities of Americans support these policies. What's more, the Fox News analysis of Bidenomics couldn't be more off target. There is ample evidence that Bidenomics is benefiting most Americans and especially the working-class. It is improving the U.S. economy, which is leading the world. The Biden administration is responsible for the nation's record job growth, restoration of domestic manufacturing, inflation that has been declining for the past twelve consecutive months, expanding healthcare and making it more affordable, and much more. All while reducing the deficit.

Senator Joe Manchin

Joe Manchin is big mad because Biden is using climate bill to fight climate change by Aldous J. Pennyfarthing. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin—who at best could be described as a “frenemy” of the environment—will never be accused of overthinking things. Then again, if his brain were working at full capacity, it would likely be rollin’ coal on the Senate floor every single day, so maybe it’s a good thing he’s not quite firing on every cylinder. That said, a new Washington Post story on Manchin’s disputes with the Biden administration over its execution of the Inflation Reduction Act, also known as the IRA, which Manchin was instrumental in creating, is pretty funny. It’s also quite telling: “Biden administration officials believe Manchin has at times misunderstood provisions of the legislation he wrote, and in some instances see his demands as requiring them to violate the law, according to three people familiar with the administration’s thinking.” In other words, this bituminous gob has no clue what he’s talking about. But we can’t say that directly because, well, he’s still a Democrat and we need him. Regardless, Manchin is big mad. He thinks the Biden administration tricked him, and he’s now rather down on the big bill he brought into being through his intense negotiations with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer last summer. Why is he suddenly against the IRA?

Biden comes out swinging on IRA. Brett Edkins discusses the SCOTUS. Climate denier challenged by Egberto Willes. Biden highlights the Inflation Reduction Act on its anniversary. Brett Edkins of Stand Up America speaks about SCOTUS. Here is how to address and bring harmony with a climate change denier.

Bullet Train - Cascade style!! by umbra. Bah Bah ha!! After writing multiple pro-European train articles, I finally get to write about the US! About the proposed Portland-Seattle-Vancouver Bullet train! Washington's (D) governor and supporting Democrats are asking the Federal government for $198 million to plan the route and make it a shovel ready project. Oregon Reps are introducing A bill to add even more funds to expand the route down to Eugene to cover the whole I-5 Cascade corridor. Washington’s transportation department in partnership with Oregon and B.C. is preparing to apply this spring for more than half a billion dollars in federal funding to make the Vancouver-through-Seattle-to-Portland “ultra-high speed” train “shovel ready.” The project is for a train with a top speed of at least 250 mph operating on a dedicated track. That could whisk travelers from Vancouver, B.C., to Seattle in one hour and from Seattle to Portland in another hour, in a climate-friendly manner to boot.

Are increased toll prices going to make you personally drive less? by IndiePundit. New York City is moving forward with implementing a congestion pricing plan that will see a significant toll increase across the bridges connected to Manhattan. This measure is promoted as one way to deal with climate change and traffic congestion in the city but will have far reaching effects for NYC residents and visitors alike. People headed into Manhattan already pay big tolls to use many of the bridges and tunnels connecting commuters across the Hudson, East and Harlem Rivers. The special tolls for the southern half of Manhattan would come on top of those existing charges. — Lawmakers, labor workers speak out against MTA's congestion pricing plan. The new tolls could be increased to “$23 for a rush-hour trip and $17 in off-peak hours”. As expected, there had already been over 120 exemption requests from various interested parties as of June. If all of the exemptions were granted, almost no one would be paying the inflated tolls.

Proterra Bankruptcy Shows Politics Trumps Economics Every Time Clean Tech Innovation Isn't Easy by ClimateDenierRoundup. Should government subsidies go to well-established technologies, industries, and companies (that make people sick and pollute the atmosphere)? Or should they be used to nurture emerging technologies, nascent industries, and fledgling companies (that protect the public from pollution)? This shouldn't be a tough question. Public funds should be used for the public good, so if there's an issue where a new technology needs to supplant an old one, it makes sense for the government to subsidize those companies by taking on bets that are perhaps too risky or not profitable enough for the market. When it comes to a challenge as big as climate change, there are plenty of potential technological solutions out there, but it can be difficult to figure out the path from research and development across the infamous " valley of death " to widespread adoption. Yes, some companies will fail, but as long as others succeed, then overall, the technology and investments are a success.That's exactly what happened a decade ago, when Republicans turned the bankruptcy of Solyndra, a solar panel startup, into an indictment of the Obama-era investments in clean energy. They of course ignored the fact that the overall loan program that Solyndra was part of went on to recoup all its costs and make a ton of money for taxpayers .

Worthless Progressives by pnwskeptic. Seattle City Council has endured a lot of criticism as of late, mostly deserved. That’s because this group of progressives have implemented a score of new dysfunctional programs, while failing to achieve the aims of those programs. Think homelessness. Think addiction. Think retail/property crime. Think random violence. All while failing to follow the lead of senior state-level democrats, to codify state drug laws that would be a great first step to addressing a lot of these problems. But this week, Seattle City Council, has something wayyyy more important to address. According to our city council, the problem is global warming, and we’ve got another dysfunctional fix! Tuesday, Seattle city council passed an ordinance to pay private companies to lease space to install 10-20 public EV charging stations. I’m not saying people shouldn’t be able to charge their cars, but what problem is this solving?

AGRICULTURE, GARDENING & PUBLIC LANDS

Kansas cucumber patch, ca 1983

Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 19.33: Gardening Heritage and the Ancestral Pickle Crock by AnnieJo. Today I’m musing about garden history in my family. My parents, and my parents’ parents, all helped feed the family from substantial fruit-and-vegetable gardens. My dad’s parents were farmers, and my mom’s parents were one generation away from the farm, so it’s definitely something that’s part of the heritage. The vegetable preparation that most dramatically blends the ancestral heritage on both sides of my family is the crock-full of pickles (sometimes two) that I brine up every year, to sit on my counter and devolve into delightful funky dill-pickle goodness. The recipe comes from my father’s mother. Here I am with my aunt and my mother picking cucumbers in grandma’s garden. [...] My dad spent many summers on an on-and-off quest to make dill pickles that tasted just like his mom’s. Some batches were better than others; if it was going to work out, the brine would start to get cloudy about two or three days in, and then in another day or two the pickles would reach that lovely ancestral perfection. Sometimes, though, the clouding up just never happened, and then eventually the whole mess would rot and need to be cast away.

EXTREME WEATHER

Baja California Flooding should be a warning to our west coast friends to be as safe as they can. by Pakalolo. All of Southern California is at risk of devastating flooding. Remember, due to the climate emergency; the atmosphere holds more water than it used to. I assume we will see videos out of California soon. Be sure to recommend the diaries the West Coast Kossacks will post. Like other climate-related disasters, the media rarely covers damage that started before the US border, and when the calamity moves north to Canada, the crisis stops there. Journalists don’t realize we are in a planetary crisis, not just an east coast problem. So at this point, there is no reporting that I can find specifically on Baja.

Maui, Yellowknife, Tenerife, and a scary out-of-control wildfire now burning Kelowna, BC. by Pakalolo. The world is waking up to yet another wildfire calamity. An alarming situation in south-central British Columbia unfolds as wildfires break out in Kelowna, a rather large city in British Columbia’s wine country. The metropolitan area had a population of 223,000 in 2020, the city roughly 178,000, and people have either been ordered to evacuate or put on notice to evacuate at a moment's notice due to the now out-of-control McDougall Creek wildfire. The region has been windy, and embers have ignited a second forest fire near the city. Some residents had to flee into Okanagan Lake as flames blocked any possible exit by car. Alerts have been sent to boaters to rescue those people. A state of Emergency was issued last night for West Kelowna and the Westbank First Nation. Strong winds are only intensifying the firestorm. Pray for Kelowna. They are surrounded.

The Heat Crisis shows no signs of slowing down by Pakalolo. A collection of tweets regarding heat-related events around the world.

AccuWeather forecasts a life-threatening, flooding disaster in mountains and deserts of SoCal, NV by Dan Bacher. As U.S. and global oil production is projected to reach record levels in 2023 and 2024, climate change is resulting in increasingly catastrophic weather disasters throughout the world, including the hottest summer on record. The AccuWeather Global Weather Center is now forecasting “a life-threatening, flooding disaster in the mountains and deserts of Southern California and far southwest Nevada due to Hilary.” AccuWeather stated, “In this area, mainly east of Palm Springs and northward toward Death Valley, an area of 4 to 8 inches of rain is expected which can quickly cause numerous washouts and mudslides. The rain can fall rapidly at times, putting significant strain on infrastructure including interstates and rail lines. This infrastructure may not be able to handle the historic rain amounts which have the potential to surpass the yearly historical average in just a few days!”

Tropical Storm Watch issued for portions of southern California as Hurricane Hilary strengthens by AKALib. A Tropical Storm Watch has been issued for San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles counties and parts of Ventura county. Tropical storm warnings and hurricane watches/warnings are in effect for parts of the Baja Peninsula. This is the first time NHC has issued a watch for that region; the NHC did not exist in the 1930s; regional hurricane offices had hurricane warning/advisory responsibilities then.

California Storm Watch - Hilary is on the way, and so are the Hurricane Hunters by xaxnar. First, some history. Tropical Storms in California Are Rare. The Last to Make Landfall Killed Nearly 100.The last time a tropical storm came ashore in the state was in 1939. It capsized boats, cut power and phone service and destroyed homes along the coast. ...The 1939 storm, which made landfall in Long Beach, Calif., tore through Los Angeles County and the surrounding area, destroying coastal homes, cutting power and disrupting rail and highway traffic, according to an article published in The New York Times the next day. ...More than a dozen boats were declared missing, and the wreckage of an 80-foot yacht washed up near Huntington Beach, a usually picturesque surf spot. Around 200 people had to be rescued from wrecked leisure and fishing boats. Twenty-three people drowned when a sport fishing boat capsized just 500 feet from a pier at Point Mugu, near Oxnard. And several bodies were recovered from the water, including those of a man and a woman that washed ashore. In Los Angeles, 5.41 inches of rain fell in 24 hours, the heaviest September rain in the city’s history at the time.

ICYMI: Thousands are being evacuated from fires in British Columbia, Canada by xaxnar. Wildfire Prompts Evacuations and Warnings in Washington State. The Gray Fire burned more than 3,000 acres on Friday near two communities southwest of Spokane. Critical fire conditions were expected on Saturday. A wildfire in eastern Washington State prompted evacuations and helicopter rescues on Friday as the authorities raced to contain blazes across the state and in the nearby Canadian province of British Columbia. The Gray Fire, which began in Washington State around noon on Friday, burned through 3,000 acres over a few hours and threatened the communities of Medical Lake and Four Lakes. The areas, less than 20 miles southwest of Spokane, have a combined population of more than 5,000.

Climate Change is a Hoax...Wait, a Hurricane in L.A.?!?! by RedTwo. Having grown up and lived the majority of my adult life in southern California, the threat of earthquakes was always an accepted part of life here, from big ones like the Northridge quake of 1994 to the many minor ones that many of us just slept through (yes, weirdly, you do actually get used to them). Nowhere in my wildest dreams did I think that hurricanes were something to worry about. Yet today my workplace notified me not to come into work next week since Los Angeles and the rest of southern California might get hit by Hurricane Hilary. Where the hell did this come from? [...] As a kid who grew up in the 80s amidst the Cold War with Russia, the threat of NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION was a bigger fear than hurricanes—heck, hurricanes weren’t even on my radar. Yet here we are.

Help those who lost homes, a plan to make the rebuilt Lahaina Maui a model for tropical towns by JEnviro.Some recommendations for regular Lahaina homeowners if your home burned down: Hire a public insurance adjuster to help you with your claim, in order to get respect from the insurance company. [...] Don’t be fooled by vulture developers and land buyers who offer to buy your lot. HI’s new and unproven Governor, physician turned politician Josh Green (D), has said “The State won’t be letting vulture buyers get rezoning for lots purchased after this tragedy”. That said, there aren’t enough startup businesses in the islands, and many hyper-ambitious people are real estate crazy in Hawai’i. They will be trying to work deals, if only from an excess of business zeal.

Tropics Heating Up by tampaedski. With Hurricane Hilary about to make a historic visit to Southern California, there’s already weather new besides the heat. The slow Atlantic season is starting to wake up.

MISCELLANY

Spotlight on DK climate and eco-diaries (8/7-13/23) by Meteor Blades.

Earth Matters: Tribes cheer Biden on new natl monument; more bad Antarctica news, but read it anyway by Meteor Blades. The designation of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni—Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument fulfills an abiding dream of tribal nations and environmental advocates alike. Baaj Nwavjo means “where tribes roam” in Havasupai, and I’tah Kukveni means “our ancestral footprints” in Hopi. Like Bears Ears National Monument, Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni will be co-managed by the tribes. Unlike Bears Ears, however, which Utah politicians and right-wing descendants of the Sagebrush Rebels of the 1970s and ‘80s ferociously opposed, polls show the monument has deep and broad support across the political spectrum in Arizona. Although the Havasupai and Hopi and several other tribes have sought the monument for decades, the proposal only started getting official attention in 2007 from Democratic Congressman Raúl Grijalva of Arizona. The 13-tribe Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition gave impetus to the proposal, a show of tribal unity that is not always so easy to come by. The White House has highlighted numerous tribal leaders’ responses to the designation of the monument.

Sunset in Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni—Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.

The Inoculation Project 8/20/2023: Gardens and Microscopes by belinda ridgewood. One of this week’s projects is Padron Elementary School, Austin, Texas, an Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households. Project description by Ms. G: I have an after school club and a classroom full of first graders that refer to themselves as Nature Explorers. They love learning about how we can take care of nature, so that it takes care of us. Our mission is to learn about sustainability and ways to feed our community, beautify our campus and help the monarchs via our gardens. We learn how to grow vegetables and herbs both indoors and outdoors that we get to eat and share with our school community. We need, soil. compost, fertilizers, watering cans, and cups to watch our seeds grow. We also maintain our Monarch Heroes Memorial Butterfly Garden in honor of one of our teachers, and can always use more milkweed plants. Finally, we keep our campus clean and free of trash with our dustpan, broom, trash grabbers and trash bags so that the beauty of our small green space can truly shine.

State Court blocks Trump contract with Westlands for a million acre-feet of Trinity River water by Dan Bacher. A State Appeals Court has blocked a Trump administration federal contract with the Westlands Water District for a million acre feet of Trinity River water, according to a statement from the Hoopa Valley Tribe. Westlands, nicknamed as the “Darth Vader of California water politics” by Tribes, environmentalists and anglers, is the largest agricultural water district in the U.S. The district is located on the arid west side of the San Joaquin Valley in Fresno and Kings counties.The case is Westlands Water District v. All Persons Interested, No. F083632 & F084202, Court of Appeals of the State of California, Fifth Appellate District (August 7, 2023). The Tribe said the door is now wide open for the Biden Administration to revise the contract and “make Westlands pay their longstanding debt to restore decimated salmon fisheries.”

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