OntheWilderSide

Long Island Climate Solutions Network CALENDAR OF EVENTS:

• Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 7:30PM. A Broadwater Forum with Lauren Melodia, Center for Constitutional Rights, Peter Maniscalco , Renew Community Earth, and Adrienne Esposito , Citizens Campaign for the Environment. The Huntington Cinema Arts Centre 423 Park Avenue, Huntington, NY www.cinemaartscentre.org

Last week FERC released its Final Environmental Impact Statement giving Broadwater its conditional support. Yet most on Long Island disagree!!! Please support this important event. I Hope to see you there tomorrow night. (see attachment)

• January 30 and 31 – Focus the Nation events at CW Post and Hofstra – see www.licsn.org .
• Tuesday, March 4, 2008. 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Topic: Levittown – Greening the Suburbs. Speakers: Adrienne Esposito (confirmed) & Nassau County Rep. W. Islip Public Library – LICSN’s monthly meetings resume!
• Tuesday, April 1, 2008. 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Tentative: Energy, Faith Communities, & Action Networks. Speakers: Beth Fiteni (confirmed) and Gordian Raacke (invited). W. Islip Public Library – LICSN monthly meeting.
• April 10. 7 pm. Energy Independence Day with Bill Lauto. Green Living Seminar at the Melville Branch of the Half Hollow Hills Library, 510 Sweet Hollow Road . Sponsored by Starflower Experiences.
• Tuesday, May 6, 2008. 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Tentative: The Great Turning Video Presentation by David Korten & Discussion. W. Islip Public Library – LICSN monthly meeting.

RegionalCape Wind Blows Through Regulatory Obstacle. By Beth Daley, Boston Globe, January 15, 2008. ” The nation’s first proposed offshore wind-energy project cleared its most formidable hurdle yesterday as the U.S. Minerals Management Service declared that the wind farm off Cape Cod would have little lasting impact on wildlife, navigation, and tourism.The agency’s nearly 2,000-page draft environmental impact statement makes clear that the federal government is inclined to approve construction of the 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound, 5 miles from the nearest coastline, unless major new concerns arise during a public comment period. Federal approval would probably come late this year or early next year, and remaining state permits are not expected to be a major obstacle, given that Governor Deval Patrick is in favor of the project… Jim Gordon, president of Cape Wind, expressed glee… saying, ‘Any rational observer will understand that this project is not going to produce a negative environmental impact… This report validates that this is the right project in the right place at the right time’… A spokeswoman for the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the lead opposition group… said the federal agency’s report ‘missed the mark’ and the group was assembling a team of specialists to review the project… Jack Clarke [of] Massachusetts Audubon said the federal report appears to satisfy his group’s concerns. ‘They have done an adequate and thorough job of reviewing the potential environmental impacts with regard to avian life,’ he said.”

Leader of Group Fighting Cape Wind Becomes Wind Advocate. By Patrick Cassidy, Cape Cod Times, January 10, 2008. “[Charles Vinick, president of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, which has led a seven-year fight over the wind farm proposed for the Sound] will ‘transition’ out of that position within a month… The Alliance was formed to combat…130 wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal in the sound, [a project of Boston-based Cape Wind Associates]… Vinick [who has called the project] an ‘industrial blight on the horizon’… made $203,099 as president of the Alliance … ‘We’re glad to hear that Charles Vinick has decided to stop blocking wind power and to champion it instead,’ Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers wrote in an e-mail to the Times. ‘ Cape Wind will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make America more energy independent and we hope that Mr. Vinick’s wind projects will too.’ [Vinick] said his consulting work for Clipper Windpower, which assembles 2.5-megawatt turbines at its Iowa plant, was in no way ironic. ‘I am very much committed to all of these technologies being used in the right ways,’ he said.”

Cape Wind Blows Through Regulatory Obstacle. By Beth Daley, Boston Globe, January 15, 2008. ” The nation’s first proposed offshore wind-energy project cleared its most formidable hurdle yesterday as the U.S. Minerals Management Service declared that the wind farm off Cape Cod would have little lasting impact on wildlife, navigation, and tourism.The agency’s nearly 2,000-page draft environmental impact statement makes clear that the federal government is inclined to approve construction of the 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound, 5 miles from the nearest coastline, unless major new concerns arise during a public comment period. Federal approval would probably come late this year or early next year, and remaining state permits are not expected to be a major obstacle, given that Governor Deval Patrick is in favor of the project… Jim Gordon, president of Cape Wind, expressed glee… saying, ‘Any rational observer will understand that this project is not going to produce a negative environmental impact… This report validates that this is the right project in the right place at the right time’… A spokeswoman for the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the lead opposition group… said the federal agency’s report ‘missed the mark’ and the group was assembling a team of specialists to review the project… Jack Clarke [of] Massachusetts Audubon said the federal report appears to satisfy his group’s concerns. ‘They have done an adequate and thorough job of reviewing the potential environmental impacts with regard to avian life,’ he said.”

National Grid Changes Its Position on Renewable Energy Suppliers. By Benjamin N. Gedan, Providence Journal, January 15, 2008. “National Grid has dropped its objection to signing long-term contracts with suppliers of renewable energy, a decision that advocates of wind farms say could unleash a flood of proposals in the state. National Grid is the dominant energy provider in Rhode Island , and environmentalists have said its previous refusal to make long-term commitments to buy renewable energy has discouraged solar, wave- and wind-energy projects. Without a promised revenue source, the potential owners of wind farms have had difficulty raising money to build the infrastructure, according to Matt Auten, an advocate with Environment Rhode Island. ‘A lot of the cost of the project is up front,’ Auten said. ‘For developers, having a guaranteed income stream makes it easier for them to go out to investors.’The subject of long-term contracts has fueled a bitter dispute between National Grid, a British company headquartered in London, and regional environmental groups… This month [however,] National Grid abruptly changed its policy, and advocates are now praising their onetime nemesis. ‘I think it’s an incredibly great development for the state,’ said Cynthia Giles, director of the Conservation Law Foundation’s Rhode Island Advocacy Center. ‘This is a big deal in encouraging private developers to come into the state.’ [The state’s Renewable Energy Standard law requires National Grid to gradually increase the percentage of energy it buys from renewable sources, and gives the Public Utilities Commission the power to pass rules to promote compliance.]”

Northeast Winters Warming Fast. By Michael Hill, AP, January 12, 2008. “Signs that winters in the Northeast are losing their bite have been abundant in recent years and now researchers have nailed down numbers to show just how big the changes have been.A study of weather station data from across the Northeast from 1965 through 2005 found December-March temperatures increased by 2.5 degrees. Snowfall totals dropped by an average of 8.8 inches across the region over the same period, and the number of days with at least 1 inch of snow on the ground decreased by nine days on average. ‘Winter is warming greater than any other season,’ said Elizabeth Burakowski, who analyzed data from dozens of stations for her master’s thesis in collaboration with Cameron Wake, a professor at the University of New Hampshire’s Institute for the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space.”

National

Wind-Power Industry ‘Exploding,’ Says Report. By Nathan Isaacs, Salem Statesman Journal, January 10, 2008. “An explosion of new wind farms is happening throughout the U.S. and particularly in the Pacific Northwest with the region’s existing power system anticipating the addition of as much as 6,000 megawatts of wind energy by 2024 or sooner. Carried on those winds is an expected boost in jobs — as many as 15,000 in Oregon and Washington during the construction of new wind farms, according to a U.S. Department of Energy report… The study found that U.S. wind power capacity jumped 27 percent in 2006, the largest incremental jump on record and the highest incremental capacity in the world. ‘The wind power industry has entered an era of substantial growth, both globally and in the United States ,’ said Ryan Wiser, the co-author of the report. ‘The market is just exploding.'”

‘Wartime Mobilization’ Against Climate Change: Lester Brown’s Plan B. By Bryan Walsh, Time, January 10, 2008. “After detailing just how screwed our overpopulated, overconsuming world is — thanks to an economic system that rewards production without regard for environmental impact — Brown [president of Earth Policy Institute] lays out an alternate path that could save us from the worst consequences of climate change. At the heart is a call to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions 80% by 2020 — far more aggressive than anything you’ll hear from political leaders or even most activists. It’s an ambitious plan, one that is less concerned with political feasibility than the survivability of the planet. ‘This is… wartime mobilization, an all-out response proportionate to the threat that global warming presents to our future,’ [Brown says].”

Pachauri Urges Less Consumption and Vegetarian Diet. By Marlowe Hood, IPS, January 15, 2008. “Don’t eat meat, ride a bike, and be a frugal shopper — that’s how you can help brake global warming, the head of the United Nation’s Nobel Prize-winning scientific panel on climate change said Tuesday. The 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), issued last year, highlights ‘the importance of lifestyle changes,’ said Rajendra Pachauri at a press conference in Paris . ‘This is something that the IPCC was afraid to say earlier, but now we have said it.’ A vegetarian, the Indian economist made a plea for people around the world to tame their carnivorous impulses. ‘Please eat less meat — meat is a very carbon intensive commodity,’ he said, adding that consuming large quantities was also bad for one’s health… Pachauri praised the system of communal, subscriber-access bikes in Paris and other French cities as a ‘wonderful development’… Another lifestyle change that can help, he continued, was not buying things ‘simply because they are available.’ He urged consumers to only purchase what they really need… At 67, Pachauri said he has not yet decided whether to take on a second five-year mandate as IPCC head. Elections take place in September. On the one hand, he said, the experience he has acquired would serve him well. But the advantage of retiring, he said with a smile, is that his carbon footprint — the amount of C02 emissions generated by all this travels — would be greatly reduced.”

Global

Spread of the World’s Cheapest Car Alarms Environmentalists. By Amelia Gentleman, London Observer, January 6, 2008. “After years of secret preparation, the world’s cheapest car will be unveiled in Delhi this week — delighting millions of Indians as much as it is horrifying environmentalists. At 100,000 rupees, the People’s Car, designed and manufactured by Tata, is being marketed as a safer way [than balancing whole families on] motorbikes… But Tata hopes also to create a ‘new market for cars which does not exist,’ making them accessible to India’s booming middle classes made recently rich by an economy growing at around 9% a year… [and due to grow] to 583 million by 2025. Last year just over one million cars and seven million motorbikes were sold in India . Tata wants to transform some of those motorbike buyers into car owners and believes that the company can eventually sell up to a million People’s Cars a year… These figures alarm environmentalists, already concerned by the congestion and rising pollution levels in India ‘s overcrowded cities.”

Gas Flaring Remains Unchecked in Nigeria. By Sam Olukoya, IPS, January 10, 2008. ” Nigeria flares the highest quantity of gas in the world. The practice takes place in the oil bearing Niger Delta region where huge balls of gas fires burning widely and noisily from the end of long stacks are a common sight. The gas, a by-product of oil exploitation, is being burnt off because oil companies neither utilize nor recycle it. NNPC says that about 40 percent of gas produced in the country — almost 23 billion cubic metres — is burned annually. The World Bank estimates that Nigeria loses about 2.5 billion dollars annually to gas flare. Some of the largest multinational oil companies in the world — including the U.K. and Dutch owned Shell, the French company Total, and the American companies Mobil and Chevron — are responsible for the bulk of the scores of gas flares burning in Nigeria … Responding to pressure from oil companies, the Nigerian government pushed the deadline… [to stop the practice] from December 2007 to December 2008… Environmentalists remain furious… Bode Olufemi, of the Nigerian advocacy group Environmental Rights Action, says the continuous flaring of gas in the Niger Delta is a demonstration of the fact that the Nigerian government and multinational oil companies are insensitive to the plight of the people of the region.”

Books

Book Review: Kerry Emanuel’s ‘What We Know About Climate Change’. By Gavin Schmidt. Nature, January 15, 2008. “Kerry Emanuel’s What We Know About Climate Change, a short introduction to global warming by a well known climate scientist, is an easy read and covers the basics well. More interesting from my point of view are the personal touches: a brief, if not fully worked through, discussion of environmental philosophies and how they shape views on climate change; an account of Emanuel’s initial scepticism; and, of course, his personal contributions to the science… It is difficult to convince people who spend all day looking at the devastating dynamics of individual storms that those dynamics could be affected by anything as puny as a few parts per million of carbon dioxide. But the lesson here is that small things can have a big influence given a long enough time.” MIT Press, 2007, 96 pp, $14.95. (Gavin Schmidt is a climate modeller at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies who is also working on a popular science book about climate change.)

News Story: Most censored in 2007: Silencing of traditional Indigenous

People

By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Excerpts from:

Most censored in 2007: Silencing of traditional Indigenous People

· The most censored issue of Indigenous Peoples by the media in 2007 was the “Silencing of traditional and grassroots’ voices by those in power,” according to readers voting on a poll at the Censored Blog.

· “Nuclear, uranium and coal genocide on Indigenous lands,” was the second most censored issue. Throughout the Americas , Indigenous lands and people are targeted by coal, uranium, copper and gold mining and toxic dumping that will poison their air, water and land.

·

· Navajos are fighting the new proposed power plant, Desert Rock, in New Mexico . While the power plants on the Navajo Nation continue to send electricity to non-Indian communities, many Navajos do not have electricity and their children must study by dim lantern light at night. Still, Navajos live with the pollution and sickness of unreclaimed uranium mines, power plants, coal mining and hundreds of oil and gas wells in the Four Corners area alone. The 88-member Navajo Nation Council, which enters into energy leases, relies on the revenues of polluting development to pay their salaries and travel expenses. While Navajos in local communities fight the power plants and mining, they battle the Navajo government and the Navajo president’s highly-paid press officer.

·
The Algonquin, Pueblos , Navajo, Lakota and others are also battling new uranium mining, while Goshute and Western Shoshone fight nuclear dumping on their lands which will be detrimental to future generations.

·
Yaqui in Sonora are opposing the use of pesticides in agricultural fields which are banned in the United States, but are still produced in the US and exported to other countries. These pesticides are causing deaths and “jelly babies,” Yaqui babies born without bones. O’odham are fighting a proposed waste dump in Sonora in their ceremonial community of Quitovac. Indigenous Peoples from Guatemala and Peru , now fighting copper, gold and coal mining in their communities, met with Navajos, Acoma Pueblo , Western Shoshone and others to create solidarity in action in 2007. As efforts intensified in the Americas , nuclear and mining corporations began targeting more communities in Africa .

Full story at http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2007/12/most-censored-in-2007-silencing-of.html

Story recommended by Peter Maniscalco

Filed under: events, Global Warming, News