Green diary rescue: Fracktivists across several states, #Up4Climate talkathon, climate storytelling

Every week Daily Kos diarists write dozens of environmentally related posts. Many don’t get the readership they deserve. Helping improve the odds is the motivation behind the Green Diary Rescue. In the past seven years, there have been 266 of these spotlighting more than 16,367 eco-diaries. Below are categorized links and excerpts to 83 more that appeared in the past seven days. That makes for lots of good reading during the spare moments of your weekend. [Disclaimer: Inclusion of a diary in the rescue does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.]

Climate Change – Now For The Real Challenge—by xaxnar: “The science debate about Global Warming and Climate Change is over. The science is conclusive. The problem now isn’t the science; it’s the politics and we need to engage on that basis. We have the facts on our side: every day brings more evidence. Every day it gets harder for the deniers to pretend nothing is happening. Their excuses are increasingly threadbare and their desperation is increasingly frantic. If anything they’re becoming more blatant about their obstructionism as the stakes increase. What we need to do now is more than just communicate the facts of Climate Change to people. We have to inspire them in ways that engage their emotions as well as their minds, give them true stories they can understand in terms of their own lives and daily routines, find ways for them to engage on the issue to force action while there is still time, and give them hope for a better future. It’s not rocket science—it’s political science.”

Dawn Chorus: Birding the Great Indoors (Part 1)—by Eddie C: “This is a Bronx Tale from an ersatz birder. As most real bird watchers are all excited about the spring arrival of those funny colored sparrows, my birding season is coming to an end. I’m like one of those old winter mall walkers but since I don’t care much for shopping, I go all ‘Animal House’ each winter. You know what they say ‘You never know who you’ll run into in the Bronx.’ Actually this is part one in the story of three exotic bird buildings in the Bronx Zoo. For you wild birders, the 265 acres of the Bronx Zoo is ‘an important rest stop along the mid-Atlantic flyway and a green oasis in the midst of the big city.’ In the wintertime when the pickings are slim you can always learn a thing or two about and try your hand at capturing some images of birds from very far away neighborhoods.”

Inca terns

From peddling cigarettes to youth to peddling fracking to Californians—by TXsharon: “David Quast worked for Philip Morris from 1997 to 1998 as manager of media affairs. He still brags about writing their Youth Smoking Prevention program that was designed to subtly lure youth to smoke. [...] Quast has a new job now. He goes by Dave Quast and is senior director in the Strategic Communications segment at FTI Consulting, the same consulting firm that promoted destabilization and violence in Venezuela. He is Director of Energy In Depth’s California division, where he does the same tasks he did at Philip Morris. Quast made his presence known in California at public comments sessions, as he berated environmentalists looking to strengthen the states scientific study on fracking. Calling them extremists, and out of touch, he proceeded to reassure Californians that fracking is a safe practice that has been done in California for decades with full transparency. The fact is that is that California regulators didn’t even know fracking was happening in the state, and didn’t acknowledge its full existence until 2012.”

Why I am not (much) here any more.—by RLMiller: “I set foot in the real world of California Democratic Party politics—’tis a scary and dangerous place. I injected myself into a party resolution, originally calling for a moratorium on fracking, to keep it from being watered down to calling for a wait-and-see-about-regulations. I networked with party activists and trusted smart people to get the strong moratorium passed through the party—it was, last year. At the same time, I ran for chair of the party’s environmental caucus, and won, thanks in large part to the netroots. We had a nice meeting last Friday night at my caucus before going on to the general session on Saturday. UnfrackCal at CDP. Fracking has shot up to the top of California Democrats’ environmental concerns. Water use worries us—we’re in a drought. Earthquakes related to wastewater injection concern us—our state’s messy geologic beds don’t need to be the site of an uncontrolled scientific experiment. Worst of all for a state priding itself on climate leadership, California is being fracked for dirty oil, not natural gas—the most carbon-intensive oil in the world, dirtier than the Canadian tar sands, are found just off the 101 freeway. If we could stop fracking anywhere, we could stop it in California…or could we?”

What’s an Oil Spill Between Friends?—by Liberty Equality Fraternity and Trees: “In response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, when BP spilled five million barrels of oil into the Gulf and caused lasting, far-reaching economic damage to region as well as the deaths of 11 people, the EPA suspended and debarred 25 BP entities from obtaining new federal contracts in a November 2012 settlement. Until now, that is. The EPA just announced a new deal that allows the oil-drenched corporate criminal to start bidding for and receiving new federal contracts. Federal contracts have been a major source of revenue for BP. At the time of the ban, BP held at least $ 1.34 billion in federal contracts. The five-year agreement will require BP to retain an independent auditor approved by the EPA to conduct an annual review and report on the company’s compliance. BP will also drop a lawsuit filed against the EPA in federal court in Texas tied to the suspension. The deal conveniently comes just in time for the Interior Department’s scheduled lease sale for 40 million acres in the Gulf.”

You can find more rescued green diaries below the sustainable squiggle.

Daily Kos

Green diary rescue: Fracktivists across several states, #Up4Climate talkathon, climate storytelling