Return of the ivory-billed woodpecker
Wed Apr 27, 2005 at 08:43:50 PM PDT
I haven't had the time to do my "Good environmental news of the week" diaries lately, but I think this qualifies as the best environmental news of the year. Maybe even my entire lifetime:
For nearly 60 years, bird lovers have slogged through the swampwaters of the Deep South, along the bayous and rivers feeding the Mississippi River, searching in vain for a spectacular bird long thought to be extinct - the ivory-billed woodpecker.
In news bound to electrify bird lovers worldwide, scientists are expected to announce today the "rediscovery" of the ivory-billed woodpecker in a remote swampy area of northeast Arkansas known as the Big Woods. link
If true, this is really astounding news. Details will be forthcoming at a
news conference Thursday at 11:30 eastern time.
Update [2005-4-28 1:15:17 by Scott in NAZ]:NPR has the story up now (just a teaser), and will air it tomorrow morning. So, it sounds like this is legit.
Good environmental news of the week, Mar. 28 - Apr. 3
Mon Apr 04, 2005 at 08:45:16 AM PDT
So much good news week, that I'm doing this a week early...
As always, cross-posted on GreenState
India bans chemical linked to vulture deaths
In early 2004, The U.S. based Peregrine Fund working in Pakistan found that a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac, was responsible for declines in white-rumped vultures in Pakistan.[...]Diclofenac, widely sold over the counter in southern Asia for use as a livestock treatment, is toxic to vultures when the birds feed on the carcasses of treated cattle. The drug causes fatal kidney failure in the vultures.
At a board meeting of the Indian government's National Board for Wildlife on March 17, a decision was taken to phase out the use of diclofenac for veterinary use within the next six months. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has endorsed the board's recommendation.
Link
Winning the debate on global warming
Mon Mar 14, 2005 at 04:02:23 PM PDT
I'm glad to see that global warming is getting some serious coverage here on dKos. For the Democratic Party, the environment is a big-time winner as an issue, and I hope that it's a key issue in upcoming elections. Beyond that, the health and safety of the human population and the rest of the planet's biodiversity depend on our tackling climate change before it gets out of control.
We in the blogosphere have the power to help shape the direction of our party and the national debate. But when it comes to global warming, we're spinning our wheels. The many, many recent "chicken little" diaries telling us that "the sky is falling" when it comes to global warming are, quite simply, a waste of space (and I'll admit to posting a few of these myself in the past). Until we - environmentalists, lefties, Democrats - learn to talk about global warming in a way that has the power to change hearts and minds, we're not going to get anywhere.
Good environmental news of the fortnight, Feb. 28 - March 13
Mon Mar 14, 2005 at 08:20:29 AM PDT
Back after a week's delay, but now with even more content!
As always, cross-posted on GreenState
Bush's "Clear Skies" initiative dies in committee
President Bush's bid to rewrite the nation's air pollution laws ground to a halt in Congress yesterday when Republicans were unable to overcome objections in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that the bill would weaken central pillars of environmental protection.
The setback dealt a body blow to the administration's highly touted plan and handed a victory to environmental groups that viewed the "Clear Skies" bill as rolling back safeguards at the behest of industry interests.
Link
Arizona Republicans in favor of spousal rape
Fri Mar 11, 2005 at 09:53:25 AM PDT
Arizona republicans tend to be pretty hard-core wingers, but
this just makes my blood boil:
Four Republicans united Thursday to kill legislation to say that the penalty for raping a spouse should be the same as assaulting anyone else.
The vote of the House Committee on Human Services came after foes said they feared boosting the penalty would provide incentives for a wife to charge rape.
"That's going to be much more likely to happen in a scenario where two people are normally having sexual relations and then, if one person decides for whatever reason that they would like to attack the other person this is a very serious way to get it done," said Rep. Mark Anderson, R-Mesa.
Good environmental news of the week
Fri Feb 11, 2005 at 05:07:36 PM PDT
Has anyone else noticed that pratically all the environmental news we get here on dKos (or anywhere else, really) is negative? Sure, there's a lot of bad stuff going down, but good things are happening, too. So, to keep everyone's spirits up, I give you this week's Good Environmental News. (I expect this will become a regular weekly feature, assuming I manage to keep up with it)
Big trouble in Oregon: sprawl and property rights
Tue Feb 08, 2005 at 08:01:50 PM PDT
Cross-posted at GreenState
Oregon has some of the nation's best land-use planning laws. For 30 years, each city or county has been required to plan the usage of its lands lands in a way that meets 19 goals including things like housing and economic development along with preservation of forests, farmlands, and water resources.
As a result, Oregon has largely won the battle against sprawl. Suburbs are kept in check by urban growth boundaries which keep development out of rural areas. Farmland is protected from development in exclusive farm zones. The planning laws have helped Oregon to limit suburban sprawl and its attendant problems - traffic, pollution, loss of natural habitat and farmland, inability to keep up with growing demands for services, and the stress that sprawl causes.
But all of that may soon become a thing of the past...
Howard Dean and dKos idolatry
Tue Feb 01, 2005 at 09:07:10 PM PDT
I've always thought that one of the left wing's biggest virtues is that we don't buy into the cult of personality. For the right wing, Bush, Reagan, Gingrich, and possibly even Rush are god-like figures (just look at what happened when Reagan died). For us, we accept our leaders as human, fallible and sometimes even wrong.
But watching what's been happening on dKos here these last few months, I'm starting to think that the left and the right aren't so different. The worship (I can't think of a better word here) of Howard Dean exhibited on this site is just too much. Every diary mentioning Dean gets at least 30 comments, if not recommended. Every straw poll of one state's DNC members gets front-page airing. People who've seen Dean speak in person act like he's some kind of rock star.
Let's get a few things straight right now:
Global warming solutions: I. Lawsuits
Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 03:15:10 PM PDT
The last few weeks we've had diary after diary on global warming here, and they've generally had the same message: it's a big problem! So now that we agree that it's a problem, I think it's time to start looking for solutions. This is the first of a series of diaries that I'll be doing on solutions to global warming. This first post is actually an older post from greenState, an environmental blog created by kossacks. More to come...
One of the big problems with convincing people (and governments) that global warming is a problem is that you can't point to any specific weather event and say, "that was caused by global warming." While we know that the climate is changing due to atmospheric pollution, you can't assign causation of any single event to global climate change. Four hurricanes in Florida in one year? Record heat wave in Europe? Severe drought in the Southwest? Climate is dynamic and variable, and these could just be random variation. So, we can't blame them on global warming. At least we couldn't until now...
Environmental future shock: the end of easy answers
Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 10:12:01 AM PDT
NOTE: This diary is cross-posted at GreenState a community blog created by Kossacks to discuss environmental issues. Check us out!
Once upon a time environmental issues were simple. You were either for or against clearcutting. For or against wilderness preservation. For or against nuclear power. For or against DDT. The options were straightforward and dichotomous. I think the clarity of those ideas explains a lot of the environmental movement's success during its heyday in the 1960's and 1970's. The issues were simple, and the practical and moral virtues of each side were easy to distinguish.
Must-read NYTimes piece on social security
Sat Jan 15, 2005 at 08:17:05 PM PDT
There's a lengthy but
excellent piece on social security in Sunday's NY Times Magazine.
Dig this:
"The so-called reserve fund . . . is no reserve at all, because the fund will contain nothing but the government's promise to pay."
George Bush in the 2004 campaign? Not quite. That's from Alf Landon in the
1936 campaign against FDR.
The piece does a great job explaining the history of social security and showing how for 60+ years Republicans have hated this program and tried to kill it. After reading this, I'm not surprised at all at what's happening today.
Really bad news on global warming
Thu Jan 13, 2005 at 08:00:45 PM PDT
If you think the weather's bad now, just wait a few decades...
In the last few weeks, some new and very disturbing research on global warming has come out. If this research is correct, then global warming may turn out to be a much more serious problem than anyone had previously imagined (this is partly taken from wilfred's earlier diary that slipped off the main page quickly).
New Environmental Blog!
Tue Jan 04, 2005 at 09:57:25 AM PDT
Several Kossacks and I have put together a new environmental blog,
greenState.
Our goal is to cover a wide variety of environmental issues in depth and to encourage lots of discussion. We want to go beyond the newsfeed/action alert lists that characterize most environmental blogs. For instance, right now on the site you can read about:
We have several great contributors, from a variety of backgrounds, but we could use more. If you're interested, contact me at scott -at- greenstateblog.com.
Hope you'll check it out!
The dKos confessional: step into the booth!
Fri Dec 10, 2004 at 09:43:49 AM PDT
When it comes to our beliefs, our actions, even our use of this site, all of us have our failings. No one here is the perfect liberal democrat. Maybe you have sexual fantasies about Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity or Condie Rice. Maybe you secretly enjoy the idea of an autocratic theocracy. Maybe you think Iraq is going well for us. Maybe you think the DLC has the right ideas. Maybe you voted for Nader in 2000. Maybe in 2004. Maybe you spend 6 hours a day on this site. Maybe you hate Cheers & Jeers.
Whoever you are, you probably have something that you could confess. So, I give you The dKos Confessional: a place where everyone can confess their sins, major and minor, and be absolved of them. In the confessional spirit, let us refrain from criticizing one another's confessions. This should be a place where we can truly hate the sin but love the sinner.
National ID cards are HERE!!!
Wed Dec 08, 2004 at 09:11:01 PM PDT
A little-noticed provision in the new intelligence bill is going to create de facto national ID cards by mandating uniform, machine-readable standards for state driver's licenses. This has happened with almost no discussion or debate that I'm aware of. (Quotes below from tomorrow's
NYTimes)
The intelligence bill that just passed has two provisions dealing with driver's licenses. First:
Issuing driver's licenses has always been mostly a state function, but the new law requires the federal Department of Homeland Security to issue regulations on what documentation a state must require before it can grant a license.
I don't find this to be too problematic. At least under this bill states will still be able to determine
who is elegible to get a driver's license. So states that allow non-citizens to drive will still be free to do so.
The more frightening part is below.
A rare burst of color is softening the stark landscape of Death Valley, with clusters of purple, pink and white wildflowers dotting the black basalt mountainsides and great swaths of golden blooms bordering the blinding white salt flats on the valley floor.
The major oil companies are largely uninterested in drilling in the refuge, skeptical about the potential there. Even the plan's most optimistic backers agree that any oil from the refuge would meet only a tiny fraction of America's needs.[...]
