Area Legislators Return to Sacramento for a Final Push
By Doug Porter
If you want to understand the issues at play in California politics, keep an eye on the last 20 working days of this year’s legislative session in Sacramento.
Bills will be debated, lobbied and amended. Some will face vetoes from the Governor.
San Diego’s delegation to the statehouse has done an impressive job in this session with several measures remaining to be voted on. Today we’ll take a look at some of the legislation, with an emphasis on our local legislators, up for consideration in the coming days. [Read more…]
Death by a Thousand Cuts
Losing species to climate change
It’s common knowledge that polar bears, and their primary prey the ringed seal, might go extinct this century as the Arctic sea ice melts because rising levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHG) are warming the planet.
Hearing this news, many Americans likely felt something akin to, “Gee, that’s a shame,” but the country did little more than shrug its collective shoulders before getting back to business as usual.
But news keeps coming about species threatened by climate change via habitats becoming unlivable or collapsing of food webs. The latest sting came from Canadian researchers at the University of Ottawa who concluded that dozens of bumblebee species in North America and Europe could be headed for extinction because the southern reach of their habitat is becoming too hot. The study appeared in the July 10 issue of Science magazine. [Read more…]
A Driving Force: Electric Vehicles are on the Verge of Disrupting Energy Markets
By Emily Schwartz Greco /OtherWords
Back in 1898, New York City hosted a global environmental summit. Flummoxed, the assembled experts disbanded early without agreeing on workable solutions.
What daunting crisis brought about this precursor of today’s big UN climate conferences?
Fast-growing cities were propelling travel via horse-drawn buggies and wagons to unprecedented and unsustainable levels. Staggering quantities of equine manure and urine made urban life hazardous and stinky, Clemson University assistant professor Eric Morris explains in his colorful essay From Horse Power to Horsepower.
[Read more…]
Staring Over the Brink: Obama, Brown, and High Stakes Climate Politics
By Jim Miller
President Obama made big news last week when he unveiled his plan to significantly reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants as part of his strategy to address the climate crisis. His speech was urgent, moving in fact, and showed that, at least rhetorically, he is committed to making this part of his legacy:
[W]e’re the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it. And that’s why I committed the United States to leading the world on this challenge, because I believe there is such a thing as being too late.
He noted that our time is short and the stakes are high. He evoked the future of our grandchildren and the fate of the poor and powerless around the world at this very moment. For this we should applaud him.
[Read more…]
Repulsed by Animal Cruelty, Attendance (and Profits) at SeaWorld Plummet
“People don’t want to watch abused animals being forced to perform pointless circus tricks,” says animal rights group
By Nadia Prupis / Common Dreams
Since the 2013 release of Blackfish, a bombshell documentary exposing animal cruelty at SeaWorld, the aquatic theme park has lost increasing levels of both profits and visitors, reporting an 84 percent plunge in net income in just three months.
SeaWorld announced its quarterly earnings on Thursday, acknowledging the steep drop in profits as a result of “brand challenges.”
Blackfish chronicled sustained abuse of orcas at SeaWorld and the consequences of keeping the animals in captivity. It focused on the case of one whale in particular, Tilikum, and how his mistreatment and confinement contributed to the deaths of three people, including his trainer. [Read more…]
A Driving Force
Electric vehicles are on the verge of disrupting energy markets.
By Emily Schwartz Greco / OtherWords
Back in 1898, New York City hosted a global environmental summit. Flummoxed, the assembled experts disbanded early without agreeing on workable solutions.
What daunting crisis brought about this precursor of today’s big UN climate conferences?
Fast-growing cities were propelling travel via horse-drawn buggies and wagons to unprecedented and unsustainable levels. Staggering quantities of equine manure and urine made urban life hazardous and stinky, Clemson University assistant professor Eric Morris explains in his colorful essay From Horse Power to Horsepower. [Read more…]
Opposition to Clean Power Plan Penned at San Diego ALEC Meeting
By Doug Porter
States will be required to dramatically cut emissions from power plants over the next 15 years under the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, announced on Monday. The stage is now set for a major political showdown, reminiscent of the battle over Obamacare.
Given that the burden of implementing these regulations will fall upon the states, the role of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is crafting a counterattack should surprise no one. Details of the pushback were finalized at the group’s meeting in San Diego just two weeks ago.
Today we’ll look at how the opposition to the plan is shaping up, along with the strengths and weaknesses of what are being called a landmark set of regulations to combat climate change. [Read more…]
Extreme Weather Watch: July 2015 – Huge Number of Wildfires in CA Force Evacuations
By John Lawrence
As July drew to a close, 8000 firefighters were battling 18 large fires in the state of California. A lot of people are being forced to evacuate their homes. In fact evacuations are becoming a way of life. Triple digit temperatures, bone-dry vegetation and gusty winds are spreading fires everywhere.
A fast-spreading wildfire north of San Francisco has torched homes and is threatening more than 450 structures. At least 650 residents have been evacuated from their homes as the blaze raged in hills covered in dense brush and oak trees and dotted with ranch homes. 23 square miles near Lower Lake, south of Clear Lake, have been charred.
A separate fire near the small town of Isleton in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta burned six or seven mobile homes. Residents of 200 homes in the central California community of Cascadel Woods were ordered to evacuate last Thursday. [Read more…]
As ‘Do-Or-Die’ Talks End In Failure, Could TPP Be Derailed for Good?
Global justice campaigners say disintegration of Maui negotiations ‘good news for people and the planet’
By Sarah Lazare / Common Dreams
The closed-door Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations in Maui, which President Barack Obama hoped would be the last round, ended Friday in failure to reach a final agreement, thereby pushing a U.S. ratification fight into the tumultuous 2016 presidential election cycle at the earliest—and raising hopes that the corporate-friendly accord could be derailed for good.
Global justice campaigners, who will now have more time to organize against the pact, were buoyed by the development, with Sujata Dey of Council of Canadians declaring on Saturday: “This stall in talks could mean the death of the deal, and a win for the public interest all over the world.”
The TPP ministers claimed in a joint statement released Friday that they have “made significant progress and will continue work on resolving a limited number of remaining issues.” [Read more…]
Nuclear Shutdown News – July 2015
By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press
In this issue of Nuclear Shutdown News we continue our summer travels in pursuit of no nukes stories… Of course we’d love to be in Greece, checking out the unfolding “Brother can you spare a few billion drachmas” melodrama. But Greece doesn’t have any nuclear reactors to shut down, or nuclear weapons to dismantle.
Not so in Germany, one of Greece’s major predators, uh, creditors, that is. [Read more…]
A New Wrinkle on the Chargers Stadium Story: Summer Olympics in LA?
By Doug Porter
The city of Boston, Massachusetts bailed on its grand plans for hosting the 2024 Olympics yesterday and Los Angeles immediately became the next contender.
This development could be a game changer when it comes to the NFL’s thought processes on the future of the San Diego Chargers franchise. An Olympic bid would provide additional impetus towards getting another venue built in LA.
The United State Olympic Committee has until September to figure out an alternative location. The chatter in the press is that the best option remaining is Los Angeles, host to the 1932 and 1984 games. LA’s proposed a bid centered on several clusters of venues including Exposition Park, Downtown, one along the LA River, the Westside, Long Beach, and –ta! da! –Carson. [Read more…]
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