Environment

Governor Terry McAuliffe of Virginia campaigned on green energy (and I hear some people may have believed him, though I haven’t met one) and then immediately backed the proposed construction of a giant fracked-gas pipeline through the mountains and farms of Virginia to carry fossil fuels from West Virginia to North Carolina.

Dominion Virginia Power paid $1.3 million this year in legal bribes to candidates’ election campaigns, more than anyone else in Virginia except the two Parties. read more

“What a horrible idea! Leave this magnificent place as nature made it!” — Mikell Werder

“NO! NO! NO! Leave our natural wonder ALONE!” — cathy blaivas

RootsAction.org has posted a lot of petitions, but most have not gathered 30,000 signatures in the first day. This one‘s off to an enthusiastic start and includes comments like these.

“The Grand Canyon is a world treasure; leave it alone!” — Carol & David Moudry

“Developing the Grand Canyon would read more

A snowstorm is the ideal time to write about climate disruption, as it allows us to immediately set-aside the cartoonish claim that if any spot on earth isn’t warmer than it was yesterday then all is well. The following things we know:

There are giant snowflakes falling outside my window.

Five-year averages of temperature in Virginia began a significant and steady increase in the early 1970s, rising from 54.6 degrees Fahrenheit then to 56.2 degrees F in 2012.

The Piedmont area, where I live, read more

Angels by the River: A Memoir by James Gustave Speth is pleasantly written but painful to read. Speth knew about the dangers of global warming before the majority of today’s climate change deniers were born. He was an advisor to President Jimmy Carter and advised him and the public to address the matter before it became a crisis.

Carter and the U.S. capital of his day weren’t about to take the sort of action needed. Remember, Carter was despised for a speech promoting green energy and read more

This is not a radical idea. A nonviolent protest march expressing popular opinion should be allowed to march to the place it is protesting. The idea that insisting on that constitutes something radical or extremist bewilders me. The New York Times refers to “protest or terror groups” as a category of people, but has a protest group read more

A pipeline has worked wonders for Michigan (see above).

The U.S. Coast Guard is guarding the coasts of the Persian Gulf but says it can’t help with oil spills on the coasts of the U.S.

Meanwhile Burlington, Vermont, now uses 100% renewable energy, thereby losing interest in foreign oil wars or local oil spills. Why can’t other cities and states do the same? 

Because we’re too busy trying to pay for the wars and build more pipelines.

There’s a meeting to read more