Environmental News

[Hollylane]

Logging Bill Passes House With Democrats Joining GOP To Cut Rural Education Funding



WASHINGTON -- The partisan drama surrounding the House GOP's defund-Obamacare bill on Friday obscured the passage of another piece of legislation with modest bipartisan support. Shortly after the Obamacare vote, the House approved a logging bill that would effectively privatize broad swaths of national forest land, mandate the logging of national forests, and cut education funding for some rural schools.

The bill, aggressively opposed by environmental groups and President Barack Obama, passed with bipartisan support by a vote of 244-172, with 17 Democrats joining 227 Republicans to approve it. Democrats were pressed hard to vote for the bill by, among others, the National Education Association, a teachers union with 3 million members, and by the typically environmentally friendly Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.). Four Republicans and 11 Democrats did not vote.

The creatively titled "Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act" would require most national forest land with at least 20 cubic feet of available timber -- roughly one mid-sized tree -- to be designated as available for logging. The land would be subject to aggressive annual logging quotas, except for territory in the National Wilderness Preservation System and where federal rules prohibit the removal of vegetation. The measure would require at least 200,000 additional acres of national forest to be opened for development to generate revenue for local governments.

Obama has threatened to veto the bill. Every major U.S. environmental group views the legislation as an ecological nightmare.

"It's arguably one of the worst forestry bills our nation has seen in decades," said Ani Kame'enui, a Washington Sierra Club representative. "It overrides essentially all laws and regulations of 100 years of professional forest management."

Alex Taurel, deputy legislative director with the League of Conservation Voters, called the bill "extreme."

"Threatening a government shutdown over Obamacare isn't the only radical proposal House Republicans put forward this week," Taurel said. "Their extreme forestry bill would spur massive amounts of logging that would decimate forests Americans count on for clean drinking water, recreation, and healthy fish and wildlife habitat."

School districts that include national forest land face chronic funding problems. Land development is restricted in national forests, leaving little for the school districts to tax to fund local schools. For decades, funding for these districts came from logging.

After years of declining logging revenue, Congress switched to a different funding scheme in 2000, giving rural counties the option to receive direct payments from the federal government. Counties typically accept the direct payments because it means more money than a 25 percent share of logging proceeds. The bill that cleared the House on Friday will end the direct aid program after one year, leaving schools dependent on logging money.

The NEA and the National Association of Counties -- which typically support Democratic spending priorities -- joined industrial logging companies lobbying in favor of the bill.

"We refer to this as 'active management,'" said NEA's Mary Kusler. "We knew that this safety net was not going to last forever. So this is a transition bill from a safety net to a path forward."

The bill nevertheless would cut funding for rural schools and counties. County governments will see a funding decline of $70 million a year under the bill, with rural school districts losing $65 million, according to an analysis of Congressional Budget Office data by Headwaters Economics, a Montana-based economic research firm. While such numbers are minuscule in the context of the federal budget, they are significant for local governments, which have been forced to cut teachers and other government workers in recent years.

"You can't cut enough to make up for what they're getting from the treasury now," Chris Mehl, Headwaters Economics policy director, told HuffPost.

The American Federation of Teachers did not take a position on the bill.

The bill's promises of new forest fire prevention policies helped persuade some Democrats to cross the aisle. Ten of the 17 Democrats who voted for the bill come from Western states susceptible to wildfires. DeFazio authored a provision that would exempt land in 18 Oregon counties from federal environmental laws, allowing higher logging revenues. The Sierra Club, Earthjustice, Defenders of Wildlife and other groups said DeFazio's bill would "privatize" national forest land by exempting it from federal regulations and turning it over to industrial production. A DeFazio representative was not available for comment.

"It makes no sense from a conservation standpoint and it makes no sense from a community standpoint," said Rebecca Judd, legislative counsel for Earthjustice. Judd called the bill "one of the most terrible pieces of forest legislation that we've seen in a long time."

Even the anti-wildfire provisions pose problems for environmentalists, who argued that the bill is an irresponsible version of a decade-old GOP bill signed into law by President George W. Bush. That legislation gave the government wide authority to engage in logging on public land for fire prevention purposes, but targeted projects that would protect communities most in danger of wildfires and included safeguards for ecologically sensitive areas.

U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell told a congressional committee hearing April 11 there was no need for more laws addressing wildfires. DeFazio asked Tidwell if the forest service was impeded by any environmental law constraints or budgetary concerns. Tidwell replied: "It's a capacity issue right now."

DeFazio responded: "So it's a budgetary constraint. You don't have enough money to do the projects, the projects you could do under the existing laws … Is that correct?"

Tidwell said DeFazio had it right. The Forest Service just needed more funding.

[Cin]

Greenpeace Activists May Be Charged with Terrorism After Russian Coastguard Storms Ship in Arctic
Activists trying to stop the work of an oil rig in Arctic waters are being held on board at gunpoint.


Jumping from helicopters and slithering down ropes, more than a dozen armed Russian coastguard workers boarded a Greenpeace ship and took custody of the activists on board, to stop them from disrupting the work of a controversial oil rig.

After a scuffle between the activists and the Russian security forces, the 29 activists, including six British nationals, are apparently being held on board at gunpoint, while the ship is forcibly towed to the Arctic port of Murmansk.

The Russian coastguard, which is controlled by the FSB security services, boarded the Arctic Sunrise late on Thursday night near Prirazlomnaya, a drilling platform in the Pechora Sea, close to the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.

The activists were protesting against the rig, operated by the Russian energy giant Gazprom, which is due to come online soon, and had attempted to climb aboard it and stop work.

The ship's crew remain in the custody of armed Russian security forces and could be charged with terrorism.

The FSB said it had been tracking the vessel since it left the Norwegian port of Kirkenes last Saturday, and turned off its radio signals. Once the ship had changed course and began heading for the Prirazlomnaya platform, the FSB decided to act. Warning shots were fired and two climbers on the rig were arrested earlier in the week.

When the ship's captain refused to turn back or respond to commands on Thursday, the FSB said it took the decision to act. About 15 armed men boarded the boat via helicopter, according to activists on board.

Ben Ayliffe, the head of Greenpeace International's Arctic oil campaign, said he was speaking to one of the activists via satellite phone during the storming, and could hear shouts and banging.

"They used violence against some of us. They were hitting people, kicking people down, pushing people," Faiza Oulahsen, one of the activists aboard the ship, said in a call to Reuters on Thursday evening.

Nothing has been heard from the activists since. The Russian coastguard said that the ship's captain was refusing to operate the ship, so an official boat was towing the Arctic Sunrise west towards Murmansk.

Greenpeace insists the ship was in international waters when it was boarded, and said there had been no formal notification of possible charges, nor offers of access to legal or consular assistance. The ship was 34 nautical miles from the closest Russian shore, according to the activists, which would put it in an area known as the Exclusive Economic Zone of Russia but not in the country's territorial waters.

The FSB said it was co-ordinating actions with the foreign ministry, Gazprom and oil company Rosneft "to protect the safety of the crew on the platform and defend the interests of the Russian Federation in the Arctic region".

The regional press office of the FSB in Murmansk told Russian agencies that it had received information from representatives of the Prirazlomnaya platform earlier in the week that they feared a terrorist act was about to be carried out, and said that activists were approaching the rig with an "unidentified object that looks like an explosive device". Greenpeace claimed this was disingenuous, as its "safety pod" is brightly coloured and branded with the organisation's logo.

Greenpeace has long warned that the start of oil drilling at Prirazlomnaya could have disastrous environmental repercussions. "The rig is a rusting hulk in the middle of the Arctic that is about to start pumping oil from the Arctic for the first time," said Ayliffe. "Gazprom has no way to clean up an oil spill if it happened, and it would cause huge damage to one of the most fragile natural environments on the planet."

The Arctic Sunrise ran a similar mission to Prirazlomnaya last year, and several activists again climbed on to the rig, but although they were observed by Russian authorities, there was none of the forceful reaction that occurred this time, Ayliffe said.

Vladimir Chuprov, the head of Greenpeace Russia's Arctic programmes, says the organisation is trying to arrange meetings with Russian officials to discuss the situation. A Greenpeace team is already in Murmansk awaiting the arrival of the boat, expected at some point on Monday.

http://www.alternet.org/activism/gre...tic?paging=off

[Cin]

Naomi Klein: Why Big Green Groups Can Be More Damaging Than Right-Wing Climate Deniers
In a new interview Klein says that it’s important to question why some big green groups have been so unwilling to follow science to its logical conclusions.


It's a long article. Here's a link:
http://www.alternet.org/environment/...limate-deniers

[Cin]

http://www.globalpossibilities.org/k...pipeline-deal/


A new study released Sunday concludes that Koch Industries and its subsidiaries stand to make as much as $100 billion in profits if the controversial Keystone XL pipeline is given the go-ahead by President Obama.

The report, titled “Billionaires’ Carbon Bomb,” and produced by the think tank International Forum on Globalization, finds that David and Charles Koch and their privately owned company, Koch Industries, own more than 2 million acres of land in Northern Alberta, the source of the tar-sands oil that will be pumped to the United States via the Keystone XL pipeline.

IFG also finds that more than 1,000 reports and statements in support of the Keystone XL pipeline project have been made by policy groups and think tanks that receive funding from the Koch brothers and their philanthropic foundations.

“The Kochs have repeatedly claimed that they have no interest in the Keystone XL Pipeline, this report shows that is false.” Said Nathalie Lowenthal-Savy, a researcher with IFG. “We noticed Koch Funded Tea Party members and think tanks pushing for the pipeline. We dug deeper and found $100 billion in potential profit, $50 million sent to organizations supporting the pipeline, and perhaps 2 million acres of land. That sounds like an interest to me.” Nathalie continued, “We all know they will use that money to fund and expand their influence network, subvert democracy, crush unions like in Wisconsin, and get more extremists elected to congress.”

[Cin]

Monsanto's Very Bad Week: 3 Big Blows for GMO Food
Why are Monsanto and the junk food industry willing to spend many tens of millions of dollars every year trying to keep you in the dark about your food?

http://www.alternet.org/food/monsant...blows-gmo-food

[Cin]

Groups Sue FDA Over 'Unlawful and Irresponsible' Approval of Frankenfish
'This case is about protecting our fisheries and ocean ecosystems from the foreseeable harms of the first-ever GE fish.'

A coalition of environmental, consumer, and fishing organizations on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approving the first-ever genetically engineered (GE) animal for commercial sale and consumption—an Atlantic salmon, known colloquially as the "Frankenfish."

The lawsuit (pdf), filed by the Center for Food Safety, Food and Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, Earthjustice, and other groups, states that the FDA does not have the authority to regulate GE animals and that approving the salmon paves the way for other GE fish, as well as farm animals like chickens, cows, and pigs, which the coalition says are currently in development.

The administration has previously claimed it did have the power, under the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which was crafted to ensure safety of veterinary drugs administered to treat disease in livestock.

"FDA's decision is as unlawful as it is irresponsible," said George Kimbrell, senior attorney at the Center for Food Safety and one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs. "This case is about protecting our fisheries and ocean ecosystems from the foreseeable harms of the first-ever GE fish, harms FDA refused to even consider, let alone prevent."

The salmon, which is being engineered by the biotechnology firm AquaBounty, was approved in November despite widespread outcry from advocates who said the fish pose too many risks to public health and the environment to authorize. The company plans to manufacture the eggs on Prince Edward Island in Canada, then ship them to laboratories in Panama, where they will be grown to full size.

From there, they will be sent to the U.S. for sale and consumption.

The journey in total comprises about 5,000 miles.

The Center for Food Safety and other groups threatened at the time to file an "emergency lawsuit" against the FDA for the move.

As Common Dreams reported:
For years, critics have warned that GMO salmon threaten wildlife populations, particularly through the potential for cross-breeding. Indeed, just a day before the FDA's announcement, a coalition of environmental groups sued the Canadian government for approving AquaBounty's request to manufacture the salmon eggs on Prince Edward Island (PEI) and ship them to laboratories in Panama, where they will be grown to adult size.

The plaintiffs in that case said the government ignored its own scientific findings to approve the bid, after the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans reported in May that GMO salmon were more susceptible to disease-causing bacteria and had other inconsistent performance issues.

"FDA has not answered crucial questions about the environmental risks posed by these fish or what can happen when these fish escape," Brettny Hardy, an attorney for Earthjustice and another of the coalition's counsels, said Thursday. "We need these answers now and the FDA must be held to a higher standard."

"We are talking about the mass production of a highly migratory GE fish that could threaten some of the last remaining wild salmon on the planet," Hardy said. "This isn't the time to skimp on analysis and simply hope for the best."

http://commondreams.org/news/2016/03...al-frankenfish

[*Anya*]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

Groups Sue FDA Over 'Unlawful and Irresponsible' Approval of Frankenfish
'This case is about protecting our fisheries and ocean ecosystems from the foreseeable harms of the first-ever GE fish.'

A coalition of environmental, consumer, and fishing organizations on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approving the first-ever genetically engineered (GE) animal for commercial sale and consumption—an Atlantic salmon, known colloquially as the "Frankenfish."

The lawsuit (pdf), filed by the Center for Food Safety, Food and Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, Earthjustice, and other groups, states that the FDA does not have the authority to regulate GE animals and that approving the salmon paves the way for other GE fish, as well as farm animals like chickens, cows, and pigs, which the coalition says are currently in development.

The administration has previously claimed it did have the power, under the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which was crafted to ensure safety of veterinary drugs administered to treat disease in livestock.

"FDA's decision is as unlawful as it is irresponsible," said George Kimbrell, senior attorney at the Center for Food Safety and one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs. "This case is about protecting our fisheries and ocean ecosystems from the foreseeable harms of the first-ever GE fish, harms FDA refused to even consider, let alone prevent."

The salmon, which is being engineered by the biotechnology firm AquaBounty, was approved in November despite widespread outcry from advocates who said the fish pose too many risks to public health and the environment to authorize. The company plans to manufacture the eggs on Prince Edward Island in Canada, then ship them to laboratories in Panama, where they will be grown to full size.

From there, they will be sent to the U.S. for sale and consumption.

The journey in total comprises about 5,000 miles.

The Center for Food Safety and other groups threatened at the time to file an "emergency lawsuit" against the FDA for the move.

As Common Dreams reported:
For years, critics have warned that GMO salmon threaten wildlife populations, particularly through the potential for cross-breeding. Indeed, just a day before the FDA's announcement, a coalition of environmental groups sued the Canadian government for approving AquaBounty's request to manufacture the salmon eggs on Prince Edward Island (PEI) and ship them to laboratories in Panama, where they will be grown to adult size.

The plaintiffs in that case said the government ignored its own scientific findings to approve the bid, after the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans reported in May that GMO salmon were more susceptible to disease-causing bacteria and had other inconsistent performance issues.

"FDA has not answered crucial questions about the environmental risks posed by these fish or what can happen when these fish escape," Brettny Hardy, an attorney for Earthjustice and another of the coalition's counsels, said Thursday. "We need these answers now and the FDA must be held to a higher standard."

"We are talking about the mass production of a highly migratory GE fish that could threaten some of the last remaining wild salmon on the planet," Hardy said. "This isn't the time to skimp on analysis and simply hope for the best."

http://commondreams.org/news/2016/03...al-frankenfish

This freaks me out.

I pay more for wild salmon than buying farm-raised after I read why the color in farm-raised salmon looks different than wild salmon. I am sure that it is just as good for you (hopefully) but sometimes when I find out the truth of things; I can't get it past my gag reflex.

I won't be buying the frankenfish either.


So why is wild salmon a deeper red than farmed salmon?

Unlike beef, which acquires its distinct red hue from contact with oxygen in the air, salmon meat gains its color through the fish’s diet. Out in the ocean, salmon eat lots of small free-floating crustaceans, such as tiny shrimp.

These crustaceans are filled with molecules called carotenoids, which show up as pigments all over the tree of life. In fact, if you’ve ever known a kid who turned orange from eating too many carrots, you’ve seen carotenoids in action. It’s these carotenoids that account for the reddish color of the salmon, as well as the pink color of flamingoes and the red of a boiled lobster.

Farmed salmon, however, aren’t fed crustaceans. Instead, they eat dry pellets that look like dog food. According to the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association, salmon chow includes ingredients such as “soybean meal, corn gluten meal, canola meal, wheat gluten and poultry by-products.” Carotenoids, which are also essential for regular growth, can also be added to help give the fish its distinctive color.

http://scienceline.org/2013/09/ever-...farmed-salmon/

[Cin]

How Big Pharma’s Industrial Waste Is Fueling the Rise in Superbugs Worldwide

Pharmaceutical companies are fuelling the rise of superbugs by manufacturing drugs in factories that leak industrial waste, says a new report which calls on them to radically improve their supply chains.

Factories in China and India – where the majority of the world’s antibiotics are produced – are releasing untreated waste fluid containing active ingredients into surrounding areas, highlights the report by a coalition of environmental and public health organisations.

Ingredients used in antibiotics get into the local soil and water systems, leading to bacteria in the environment becoming resistant to the drugs. They are able to exchange genetic material with other nearby germs, spreading antibiotic resistance around the world, the report claims.

Ahead of a United Nations summit on antimicrobial resistance in New York next week, the report – by the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) and pressure group Changing Markets – calls on major drug companies to tackle the pollution which is one of its root causes.

They say the industry is ignoring the pollution in its supply chain while it drives the proliferation of drug resistant bacteria – a phenomenon which kills an estimated 25,000 people across Europe and globally poses “as big a threat as terrorism,” according to NHS England’s Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies.

If no action is taken antimicrobial resistance (AMR) will kill 10 million people worldwide every year – more than cancer – according to an independent review into AMR last year led by economist Professor Jim O’Neill.

Changing Markets compiled previous detailed reports and conducted its own on-the-ground research looking at a range of Chinese and Indian drug manufacturing plants making products for some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies. One of the world’s biggest antibiotic production plants, in Inner Mongolia, was found in 2014 to be “pumping tonnes of toxic and antibiotic-rich effluent waste into the fields and waterways surrounding the factory,” according to Chinese state television.

In India, where much of the raw material produced by Chinese factories is turned into finished drugs, various studies have found “high levels of hazardous waste” and “large volumes of effluent waste” being dumped into the environment. About a quarter of UK medicines are made in India.

The factory pollution mixes with waste from farms and sewage plants, providing an ideal breeding ground for the drug-resistant bacteria. Once established in the environment, the germs can spread around the world through air and water, and by travellers visiting countries where the bacteria are prevalent.

A drug-resistant bacteria first found in India in 2014 has since been found in more than 70 countries around the world, the report highlights.

Most major drug companies display a “shocking lack of concern” about pollution in their supply chains, Changing Markets claims. It is calling for companies that fail to demand environmentally sound manufacturing and waste treatment techniques from their suppliers to be blacklisted.

Large purchasers of medicines, including health services, hospitals and pharmacies should push for cleaner production processes, it adds.

Natasha Hurley, a spokeswoman for Changing Markets, said: “Big Pharma’s role in fuelling drug resistance is all too often overlooked when policies to curb the spread of AMR are being discussed.

“Our research has shown that the industry is failing to take the necessary action to address the threat of a looming environmental and public health crisis in which it is playing a key part.”

Modern medical systems rely on antibiotics to prevent people becoming ill with bacterial infections.

The drugs also prevent infection during surgery and treatments like chemotherapy, which can wipe out the body’s immune system.

As the bugs become resistant to the drugs used to treat them, experts fear more people will die of infections – and common medical procedures will become high risk.

Next week global leaders will meet for a United Nations conference in New York to discuss the growing problem of AMR.

Resistance is fuelled by the overuse of antibiotics in farming as well as in human medicine, a topic the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has been researching for more than six months.

Earlier this year, the Bureau analysed figures released by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, which regulates what drugs vets prescribe for use in British farming and agriculture, and revealed a significant increase in sales of some critically important antibiotics.

A “critically important” antibiotic is one which is either the sole treatment option or one of few alternatives for a serious infectious disease in humans.

They also treat diseases humans can catch from non-human sources such as animals, water, food or the environment, including some drug-resistant diseases.

The rise in sales of critically important antibiotics is happening despite the fact it is now known that resistant forms of certain food poisoning illnesses, including campylobacter, and some variations of the superbug MRSA, are directly linked to antibiotic use on farms.

In April, the Bureau revealed growing levels of resistance among campylobacter bacteria, which is commonly found in supermarket chickens. The bug infects up to 300,000 people in the UK each year, hospitalising about 1,000 and killing about 100.

Previously unpublished data collated by Public Health England showed almost one in two of all human campylobacter cases tested in England was resistant to the antibiotic ciprofloxacin.

Ciprofloxacin is one of several drugs doctors can turn to when victims of food poisoning develop complications, and is also used to treat other conditions such as urinary tract infections.

Responding the EPHA and Changing Markets’ report, Emma Rose from the campaign group the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics said: “Today’s briefing casts light on how big polluting factories are fueling the emergence of drug resistant bacteria.

“With prescribers of both human and veterinary medicine increasingly urged to take action on antibiotics, the pharmaceutical industry must now play its part in tackling this crisis.”

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.co...ugs-worldwide/

[MysticOceansFL]

I'm really worried about the Dekota Indians and how they are being treated just because they want too protect the sacret ground bariels there. :-(

[Kätzchen]

It looks like Ecotoxicology scientists and researchers found tons of trash on an deserted island in the South Pacific; yet the island is uninhabited by human's, yet the human footprint of tons of trash wash up on the shores daily.

https://weather.com/science/environm...istine-garbage

[Kätzchen]

Just the other day, scientists studying a super volcano issue, over on the Italian coastline of Naples, Italy said that the 24 crater Caldera might likely explode and wipe out millions of people nearby. They don't know when it will happen, but there is a lot of red flags present in the environment, that point to the fact that the explosion will happen soon.

https://weather.com/science/nature/n...-campi-flegrei

[Kätzchen]

Mayer Hillman is the Senior Policy Emeritus expert who has served at The Policy Institute for over 60 years. Hillman was the leading voice on challenging all types of social policy in his prolific career as an social scientist.

The Guardian interviewed him recently and published the interview two days ago. Over his entire lifetime as an social scientist, he has lead valiantly the effort to address social policy impacts concerning the rapid effects leading to climate change and the "can't stop the crazy train" impacts of society dependent on burning fossil fuels.

As I read the article, I came to realize that maybe this is why the top legal eagle counsel for Lambda Legal (David Buckel, see Nat's post in the RIP thread) took such extreme measure in setting himself on fire (dying for the cause, literally) as a high impact statement on the prolific damage done to our planet by not committing sooner to ending social dependency on fossil fuels society burns in the name of creating jobs, in the name of convenience, in the name of removing human life from danger, yet not removing danger from humanity.

Here's the link to the most compelling article I've seen yet on climate change, and many of the reasons why society has been reluctant to aggressively adopt and utilize other means to prevent climate change.

It's an worthwhile read. I highly recommend reading the Mayer Hillman interview published by The Guardian on April 26th, 2018.

LINK:

https://www.theguardian.com/environm..._US_collection

[Kätzchen]

Yellowstone Superintendent is forced out of his job over Wildlife Advocacy by Trump administration as Trump administration dismantles agency wide programs administered by Dept of Interior (US Forest Service, BLM, et al).

The Guardian: Yellowstone Boss: Trump Officials Forced Me Out Over Wildlife Advocacy


https://www.theguardian.com/environm...ation-dan-wenk

[Kätzchen]

As many of you might know, my own work related injuries escalated into an all out war on not succumbing to an Diabetic trajectory. I've been successful in stemming the Diabetic Tide in my life by converting to an strict plant-based diet... because consumption of meat and diary products exacerbates and is believed to lead to full blown diabetes, not to mention consumption of any food which converts to sugar in the bloodstream (ie, pasta, rice, breads, sugar - itself, etc). Meat and Dairy production is a main contributor to global earth warming impacts - second only to the Oil industry.

But today, in an very important news release from Democracy Now!: Amy Goodman interviewed George Monbiot, journalist for The Guardian, with co-host of the interview Nermeen Shaikh.

Here is an excerpt of the interview (Link to full article and audio podcast, below):

We look at the link between climate change and meat consumption on the heels of a series of damning reports that say if humans don’t act now to halt climate change, the results will be catastrophic. A new study by the World Meteorological Organization shows the past four years have been the hottest on record. On Tuesday, the United Nations reported that carbon emissions reached record highs in 2017 and are on the rise for the first time in four years. Radical reductions are necessary to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, the level that would prevent the worst effects of catastrophic climate change. Livestock for meat and dairy products worldwide is responsible for almost 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, making it the second largest source of emissions after the fossil fuels industry. We speak with British author and journalist George Monbiot, who argues that the fate of the planet depends on the way we choose to eat.

Click Here for LINK to audio podcast and transcript @ Democracy Now!

[Kätzchen]

Originally Posted by Kätzchen

Yellowstone Superintendent is forced out of his job over Wildlife Advocacy by Trump administration as Trump administration dismantles agency wide programs administered by Dept of Interior (US Forest Service, BLM, et al).

The Guardian: Yellowstone Boss: Trump Officials Forced Me Out Over Wildlife Advocacy


https://www.theguardian.com/environm...ation-dan-wenk

I read back and found my post from two years ago. I sure do hope that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris clean house and undo what happened to the USFS, Fish & Game and the National Parks are restored to pre-terror-reign of current admin.

I feel so sad tonight for all the people whose life-long careers were upended and that everything they worked for before their entire lives went up in smoke.

All the wrongs committed against humanity, here and elsewhere, by one horribly deranged person and his supporters/puppet masters.

I hope no one forgets the past four years of utter hell and chaos.

Never Forget. I read somewhere that there might be a presidential crimes commission that comes into existence, due to what we've been through the past four years.

Just say no, right? (I'm being facetious)

Fascist rule is the opposite of Democracy. It's down right ugly and glaringly un-American.