The traditional New Year's custom seems to include a recitation of the previous year, along with a laundry list of resolutions for the New Year.
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Most of the resolutions will be hastily abandoned, like 'exercise more' and 'loose weight,' but some won't.
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Had the "C" monster not intruded in the region's field of vision, monopolized the debate, focused attention on a dysfunctional town government that still exists and forced many to expend a great deal of time researching and explaining why casino gambling and slot machines weren't the nirvana supporters pretended, where would we be? What would we have discussed? Or would we have remained isolated, mostly ignoring town government, not knowing who was running for town elections and frankly, not caring about local governance because of the false conviction that it was unimportant?
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The focused attention heightened awareness of the Rockland Industries' waste site, owned by the Striar family, that several individual residents refused to allow to fade into memory. To his credit, Vic Sylvia left the enduring legacy of a committee of talented townspeople who may finally succeed in getting Danny Striar's mess cleaned up. (There are others who continued to raise the issue that I am aware of, but since one protested the inclusion of his name, their names won't be listed. Were it not for those few continually reminding the BOS of the issue, it would have remained buried with the toxic waste of the Striars.) CEHIC
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Thanks are deserved to the Feds for presenting a gift to the Town and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of an indictment and plea bargain of Glenn Marshall prior to Christmas. Their actions should allow the Tribe and the Town to reassess the Tribe's leadership, the original IGA, the relationship with investors and ultimately, how flawed IGRA was. Although it seems unlikely in the shadow of Carcieri v Kempthorne and the state of the economy that the casino will ever move forward, it has allowed time to review the relationship and the impacts.
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Fellow bloggers have explained the issues in praiseworthy fashion that needs no further comment:
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Massachusetts passed the Green Communities Act. But it did include provisions for Dirty Coal, the environmental oxymoron, apparently a politically necessary fairy tale to get the legislation passed. .
As the lame duck year ends, the news hasn't been good for the environment.
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Amy Goodman highlights Tim DeChristopher's disruption of the -- Bureau of Land Management land auction that the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance called “the Bush administration’s last great gift to the oil and gas industry.” .
Tim DeChristopher ...bought 22,000 acres of public land. That is, he successfully bid on the public properties, located near the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Dinosaur National Monument, and other pristine areas. The price tag: more than $1.7 million. (For those who balked at selling the Precinct St. property to casino investors for a comparable sum, that's ~ $77 per acre.).Earthjustice commented Coalition Calls for Administration to Halt Midnight Lease Auction of Utah Wilderness..
And lest we believe that this Administration would leave off without last minute, holiday shenanigans, after the news cycle, they behaved true to form --CEJournal - .
On late Wednesday afternoon — New Year’s Eve — the Interior Department announced that it would double the rate of logging on 2.6 million acres of public forests in southwestern Oregon.
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And the TVA performs as expected: too much public relations and not enough prevention and attention to public health! That sure is a surprise to anyone with a brain! ENN .
Repeat after me: The water is safe to drink. The water is safe to drink. The water is safe to drink.
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“Most of that material is inert,” said Gilbert Francis Jr., a spokesman for the authority. “It does have some heavy metals within it, but it’s not toxic or anything.”
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Mr. Francis said contaminants in water samples taken near the spill site and at the intake for the town of Kingston, six miles downstream, were within acceptable levels. NYT .
Appalachian Voices is reporting that levels of arsenic from the Kingston plant’s water intake canal are close to 300 times the allowable limit in drinking water. Two miles downstream, arsenic is 30 times the allowable level. In total, eight toxic chemicals were detected at excessive levels, the tests conducted at Appalachian State University have shown. .
“I have never seen levels of arsenic, lead and copper this high in natural waters,” Carol Babyak, an Appalachian state assistant professor of chemistry who helped conduct the tests, is quoted as saying in the Appalachian Voices article.
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The toxic heavy metals found in the water, which in addition to arsenic include barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, nickel and thallium, pose a risk not only to human health but also to aquatic life as well....
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Note to TVA: Could we see Gilbert Francis Jr., a spokesman for the authority or Tom Gilgore, President and Chief Executive Officer drinking that sludge on camera? Maybe you could bring some of that sludge with you to the Congressional hearings and drink it on-camera to preserve for posterity? Could you explain again about your environmental commitment when this pond has been allowed to leak in the past?
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With a new President who respects science about to be inaugurated, we can have a fact based discussion about what needs to be accomplished.
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Climate Code Red explained - Twenty per cent of the world’s land mass (half of it in Siberia) is covered by permafrost, or permanently frozen ground, rich in organic carbon and tens of metres in depth. As the ground thaws methane and carbon dioxide — the two principal greenhouse gases — are released into the atmosphere. .
“Permafrost areas [in Siberia] hold 500 billion tonnes of carbon, which can fast turn into greenhouse gases. The deposits of organic matter in these soils are so gigantic that they dwarf global oil reserves … If you don’t stop emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, this will lead to a type of global warming which will be impossible to stop [and it will make] the Kyoto Protocol seem like childish prattle… "
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In August 2008, Örjan Gustafsson, the Swedish leader of the International Siberian Shelf Study confirmed that methane was now also bubbling through seawater from permafrost on the seabed.
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Climate zones such as the tropics and temperate regions will continue to shift, and the oceans will become more acidic, endangering much marine life. We must begin to move rapidly to the post-fossil fuel clean-energy system. ...."
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"Sergei Zimov waded through knee-deep snow to reach a frozen lake where so much methane belches out of the melting permafrost that it spews from the ice like small geysers… the Russian scientist struck a match to make a jet of the greenhouse gas visible. The sudden plume of fire threw him backward. … 'Sometimes a big explosion happens, because the gas comes out like a bomb,' Zimov said. 'There are a million lakes like this in northern Siberia'."
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Keeping the Arctic permafrost largely intact is non-negotiable if we want to preserve the diversity of life on this planet, including our own. Australia’s climate policy must be based on this understanding. As oceanographer Richard Spinrad says, “What happens in the Arctic… does not stay in the Arctic.”
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The time has come to support projects like Cape Wind , to recognize that the opposition is funded by Dirty Energy Cape Wind Opposition In Perspective and accomplish what needs to be done for the environment.
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It is to the discredit of the Corporate Controlled Media that they have misrepresented and misinformed on these issues. Maybe it's time to re-think how poorly served we have been by our no longer 'Free Press,' but that's a future issue.
Sen. Michael R. Knapik, R-Westfield,.... also complained about opposition and delays in development of a proposed wind turbine farm in Nantucket Sound that would provide clean power to Cape Cod. “Wind power — God forbid, we help the Cape. We can’t even get that right” ....
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For some additional information:
NASA Study Illustrates How Peak Oil Impacts Climate Crisis
Climate change policies failing, Nasa scientist warns Obama
Climate scientists: it's time for 'Plan B'
What can we do to save our planet?
Score one for the environment
Happy New Year to All!
May we move forward in the New Year recognizing the TRUTH, the facts and fact-based science, support the projects we need to preserve our environment. May we restore FACTS to our discussions and decisions.
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