Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 1148
September 8, 2017
New Zealand: Polluted Paradise
New Zealand: Polluted Paradise
Directed by Naashon Zalk (2017)
This documentary is about the extreme degradation of New Zealand rivers and streams, regarded by many environmentalists as the most contaminated in the world.* The international OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development blames this country water contamination on dairy intensification subsidized by the government’s free irrigation scheme. In a country of 4.5 million people, dairy cows produce as much effluent as 90 million people. All this directly contradicts the “100% Pure” image promoted by New Zealand’s tourism industry.
The problem is aggravated by a fair amount of government corruption, which the film documents. For example, in 2010 the New Zealand government sacked the democratically elected Canterbury Regional Council when they opposed an intensive government irrigation project in a region totally unsuitable to dairying due to poor soil and low rainfall. The Council was replaced by government-appointed commissioners who implemented the irrigation project.
*Every year over 45,000 New Zealanders have their tap water contaminated with animal feces. In 2016 5,000 residents of Hawke’s Bay became seriously ill with feces-related pathogens.
September 7, 2017
This is Big. Batteries Edging Out Gas Turbines on Price.
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According to the University of Minnesota’s Energy Transition Lab, starting in 2019 and for the foreseeable future, the overall cost of building grid-scale storage will be less than that of building natural-gas plants to meet future energy demand.
Climate Denial Crock of the Week
A 60-acre solar farm in Camp Ripley, a National Guard base in Minnesota.
One reason mainstream predictions for the uptake of solar energy have been historically so wrong, is that they were always predicated on the high price of solar panels for the average business or homeowner.
What was missed was that solar didn’t have to be the cheapest source of energy at the beginning, all it had to do was start beating out the most expensive sources – which in the utility world, are the “peaking” units that produce power during the highest demand hours of the year. These units, which sometimes are run only a few days, or a few hours a year, represent the highest cost part of the electric grid system.
About a decade ago, a milestone was crossed for solar energy when PV solar installations in California started beating gas turbine peaker plants on price.
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Showdown in Spain: I Wholeheartedly Endorse the Catalonia Independence Vote
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Catalan has their own language and culture and was briefly independent during the Spanish Civil War. Spain’s central government opposes the referendum – but has no way of stopping it short of declaring war on Catalan.
In a move many people thought would never happen, the Catalan parliament approved a referendum that would allow a vote on the region’s independence from Spain. The central government seeks intervention from the Constitutional Court. But short of invasion who is going to stop the vote?
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USA threatens Sweden because Sweden signed UN treaty banning nuclear weapons.
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US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis reportedly warned Sweden of severe consequences if the country followed through on signing a UN treaty banning nuclear weapons.
Mattis reportedly threatened Sweden with retaliation over signing a nuclear-weapons ban, Business Insider CHRISTOPHER WOODY, SEP 6, 2017 US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis reportedly warned Sweden of severe consequences if the country followed through on signing a UN treaty banning nuclear weapons.
The Scandinavian country is one of 122 states backing the treaty, and Stockholm also recently signed a statement of intent to increase military cooperation with the US.
But a letter from Mattis reportedly warned Sweden’s defence minister, Peter Hultqvist, that signing on to the treaty could affect US-Sweden military cooperation as well as US military support in the event of war.
Mattis’ letter also suggested signing the treaty could have an impact on the country’s ties to NATO, of which it is a Gold Card program member, meaning it has some privileges within the defence alliance even though it is not a full member.
Sweden’s Gold Card program…
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September 6, 2017
Venezuela’s Citgo provides free gas to Harvey rescue teams
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At gas stations in Texas and Louisiana owned by Citgo Holding Inc. — a subsidiary of the country’s state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela — rescue forces have been able to fill up for free.
teleSUR/mrs-RT | 03 September, 2017
Residents use a truck to navigate through floodwaters from Harvey in Houston, Texas. | Photo: Reuters
Houston’s mayor expressed his appreciation for the generous donation, stating, “We are overwhelmed by the support from our corporate partners including Citgo.”
Venezuela has provided free gas to rescues workers, firefighters and police in their efforts to help victims in areas affected by Harvey, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.
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As Hurricanes Slam the South, the Western US Is Literally on Fire
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The other side of catastrophic climate change.
http://www.renegadetribune.com/hurricanes-slam-south-western-us-literally-fire/
By Carey Wedler
Amid the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and the impending destruction of Hurricane Irma, many Americans may not be aware that the western region of the country is suffering the opposite wrath of mother nature. From southern California to Washington, wildfires are engulfing thousands of acres of land and prompting thousands of evacuations. Many of the states battling the wildfires have been doing so all summer.
On Saturday, Washington Governor Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency across the state due to the risk of wildfires, and the National Weather Service warned that 26 of the state’s 39 counties were at very high or extreme risk. According to the Washington Department of Ecology, “[a]lmost all of WA [was] awash in wildfire smoke” on Sunday. The department noted air quality in many areas had suffered as a result. According to NASA satellite imagery, smoke is…
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Industrial Salmon Farming and the Die-Off of Wild Salmon
Salmon Confidential
Directed by Twyla Roscovich (2013)
Film Review
Salmon Confidential is about the Pacific Canadian salmon farms that are killing millions of wild Frasier River salmon and the deliberate cover-up by the Canadian government.
Like land-based Concentrated Animal Feed Operations (CAFO), the rearing of salmon in crowded stationary pens creates a rich environment for fish pathogens such as sea lice and numerous salmon viruses. The most lethal include salmon anemia (ISA), which is also known as salmon flu; salmon alpha virus; and piscene reovirus.
All but one run that wild salmon use return to the Frasier River (to spawn) travels through commercial fish farms. The fish that swim through the farms are becoming sick and dying in massive numbers – while those that bypass the farms are thriving.
Because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) refuses to test either wild or farmed salmon for ISA, a grassroots group called the Department of Wild Salmon has sent numerous samples to independent labs. When a significant number tested positive, the CFIA tried to close down the labs rather than the fish farms. ISA is an internationally notifiable disease. For CFIA to acknowledge that Canadian salmon carry it would result in both the US and China banning all Canadian salmon exports.
In the most alarming part of the documentary, biologists test farmed salmon they buy in supermarkets that show obvious evidence of ISA (deformed heads and body shape, bleeding eyes and open lesions). Many test positive for ISA, as do raw salmon they obtain from sushi restaurants. Consuming raw fish infected with ISA, a type of influenza virus, has ominous implications for human health.
September 5, 2017
As US Dithers, World Charges Ahead to Renewables
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Charging ahead with renewable, India is vying with China for global leadership in the growth industry of the new century. Meanwhile, Washington (and New Zealand) look longingly to the 19th century.
Climate Denial Crock of the Week
India charging ahead on renewables. Vying with China for global leadership in the growth industry of the new century. Meanwhile, Washington looks longingly to the 19th century.
Watch for new video on this topic coming very soon.
Meanwhile, Denmark has decided to offload oil interests, and begin using current oil revenues from the North Sea to accelerate its renewable transition.
In another sign that the petroleum era is drawing to a close, Denmark is selling off its last oil company with barely a peep.
Once considered a strategic asset, on a par with national carriers or shipyards, the oil and gas division of A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S is being bought by French giant Total SA. The $7.45 billion deal is expected to be completed by 2018, pending regulatory approval.
Coming just three months after the sale of Dong Energy’s North Sea oil and gas production to German-based Ineos AG, Maersk’s move to offload its…
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Prisoners Drink Toilet Water in a Fight to Survive Under Lockdown
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How prisoners in Beaumont Federal Prison struggle to survey following Hurricane Harvey.
Inmates in Texas experience flooding and lack of food and water. They are drinking toilet water while under lockdown and two prisoners were reported dead. Left Voice interviews Rachel, whose husband is currently in Beaumont Federal Prison.
An evacuated Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison surrounded by floodwaters last year. (David J. Phillip / AP)
The following interview was conducted over a week after Hurricane Harvey hit. Rachel’s husband has been an inmate in Beaumont Federal Prison, located about an hour outside of Houston and 40 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico. Although some local media has denounced the conditions in the prison, in general, the media has remained silent on the plight of inmates.
Left Voice: Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you know about the conditions in Beaumont Federal Prison?
Rachel: My name is Rachel Villalobos, I’m married to my husband of 13+ years. We…
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A Cheap Effective Technology to Replace Roundup and Other Pesticides
In the last several years, organic farmers that do not use herbicides, in the northeast and other regions of the US, have shown interest in using cover crop rollers (for high residue conservation tillage)
Glyphosate is a cheap and easy tool for conservation agriculture. But it is not the only one. Farmers in France, the US and elsewhere are experimenting with great success with front rollers (large, bladed cylinders mounted on the front of the tractor). These crush the cover crop, leaving a fresh mulch into which seeds planted using a normal direct seed planter attached to the tractors’ back. Fragile seeds benefit from the additional moisture that fresh mulch provides.
The total cost of that solution is lower than that of glyphosate, since no input is required and one run of the tractor is enough (glyphosate requires two, one for spraying and one for planting, thus more time and diesel is needed). . .
via Can Cover Crop Rollers effectively replace Glyphosate (and pesticides) ? — DES Daughter Network
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