COTW: A Trend That Matters

This chart from the EPA shows the trends in carbon dioxide emissions with and without the new clean power rule announced this week:

The rule makes clear difference in the amount of greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere.  Why should this concern you?  Just one impact of a hotter planet besides the higher sea levels, more intense precipitation and more violent storms is shown by this chart, the growing federal cost of fighting wildfires:

source: Mother Jones

Localities and states are experiencing similar increasing costs of wildfires.  The size of wildfires on federal land has quadrupled since 1985. Of the top ten largest burns, nine have occurred since 2000.  The cost statistics of these fires are undeniable:

The bad news just keeps getting worse. Scientists have been telling us for decades that droughts will be more common. According to one model from the University of California-Santa Cruz, melting sea ice will cause a 30% decrease in the southwest United States. The most at risk for wildfires are some of the most populated regions of the nation: Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties of drought striken California.

Putin Renews Arctic Territory Claim

President Vladimir Putin is renewing Russia territorial claim to a vast region (463,000 sq. miles) of the Arctic. Its claim was rejected by a UN commission because of insufficient evidence in 2001. Russia went so far as to plant a small Russian flag on the seabead by robotic device [photo] in 2007. Despite the stunt, all other countries bordering the Arctic Ocean [map]--Norway, Canada, Denmark and the US--reject Russia's claim. Not surprisingly, all are members of NATO. The competition for jurisdiction over parts of the Arctic is becoming heated as the region is thought to contain a quarter of the world's unexploited oil and gas. Russia's claim is based on the extent of its continental shelf. It is also backing the territorial claim with military might. A new doctrine emphasizing Arctic forces including a new fleet of icebreakers was proclaimed on the nation's Navy Day. Earlier this year military exercises conducted in the Arctic involved 38,000 servicemen, fifty vessels and 110 aircraft. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said the new doctrine is formulated in response to increased NATO activity along Russia's European borders.

EPA Sets Power Plant CO₂ Standards

The EPA is finally setting carbon dioxide standards for fossil fueled power plants after their authority under the Clean Air Act to do so was decided by the Supreme Court years ago. The rule, announced by Administrator Gina McCarthy and the White House, is ambitious with a goal to cut carbon emissions 32% below 2005 levels by 2030. EPA projects that the share of the nation's electricity produced by burning dirty coal will eventually drop to 27% The scheme allows individual states to meet national goals based on their power mix and unique opportunities to cut their pollution. They may use interstate trading of credits to met their goals, and take advantage of a federal matching fund for investment in clear energy projects.  In response to concerns raised by plant owners during the extensive public consultation process, the EPA extended the timeframe for mandantory reductions to begin to 2022. Public health and climate related benefits are estimated to be worth $45 billion. The agency also expects 3600 fewer premature deaths caused by air pollution while reducing the average monthly electric bill by 7%. The Supreme Court required analysis of cost versus benefits shows the rule will cost industry $8.4 billion.  For details see epa.gov/cleanpowerplan.

The United States claims to be leading the solution to a global problem. Since the government announced it was formulating a clean energy plan, Brazil and China have also announced commitments to significantly reduce carbon polution.  Predictably the reactionaries in Congress have labeled the rule "radical".  A Repugnant homeboy from fossil-fueled Oklahoma went so far as to hysterically claim, "The Obama administration has no concern for costs, no concept of reality and no respect for the rule of law."  Such hot-headed rhetoric only proves they are unfit to lead this nation.  To begin effective worldwide action preventing catastrophic climate change, governments must come together over the US initiative in Paris this year ready to reach an international agreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

JERICHO LIVES!

Oxford University has twitted this photo of Jericho, Cecils' brother, who is now head of the pride.  Reports were coming out of Africa that he had been killed on Saturday:

Jericho is being tracked by researchers in Hwange National Park.

Corporate Welfare First

The 'free-marketeers' like to emit a lot of hot air about private enterprise and entrepreneurship, and there is no more hot air around than in a presidential campaign season. The fact is, according to Good Jobs First, there are 514 economic development programs in the country that have granted corporations more than 245,000 awards of public money or tax subsidies. These programs are corporate welfare. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has $458 billion in assets and $20 billion in profits, yet recieved over $1 billion in economic development money. The development going on is lining Buffett's pocketbook, who is worth $58 billion. Boeing, an integral part of the militiary-security-industrial complex, recieved $13 billion. The New York Times estimates that states and municipalities dole out $80 billion a year in so-called incentives to corporations and it is a welfare system infested by cronyism.

David Sirota writing at NationofChange tells us a prime example of the corporate gravy train is Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, running for president on the right. He has tortured Wisconsin's public sector with his right-wing economic policies. Contrary to free-market dogma, he has made public subsidies of the private sector a central feature of his agenda. He created the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation in 2011 to give businesses loans and grants with taxpayer money. Auditors of the program note that money was handed out "in ways that did not consistently comply" with state laws. For example, receipients were not requried to submit information showing that required jobs were created or retained. Much of the money went to political allies according to the Walker's liberal critics. Sixty percent of the $1.14 billion went to firms contributin to Walker's political campaigns. What has the Wisconsin economy achieved as a result of these subsidies? Not much. Wisconsin is 33rd among states in economic improvement during Walker's first term says Bloomberg News, and half of the 250,000 jobs Walker promised have been created. At the same time he is handing out money to his business friends, he is proposing to slash $300 million from of higher education funding.

But what about sports, you ask. Don't worry fan boy and girl, Walker is giving the same amount of money to the NBA Milwaukee Bucks for a new arena. One of the Buck's investors is national finance co-chair of his presidential campaign! Economic studies have repeatedly concluded these hyper-subsidized monuments to Mammon have little to no tangible economic benefits. Liberals are just as guilty of feeding the corporations at the expense of citizens. It was Barrack Obama who told bankers huddled at the White House in the aftermath of the Great Panic of 2008, "My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchfolks", and dlivered us into the political economy of TBTF*. Free-market, indeed--its more like free-for-all if you have the connections.

*see S. Johnson & J. Kwak, Epilogue, 13 Bankers (2011) for a description of how Dodd-Frank financial reform failed.

Shell Ship Returns to Port

More:  Protestors in Portland, OR failed to stop the Fennica from putting to sea despite hanging by ropes from a 200 foot high span over the Columbia River.  Their acrobatics earned a ruling from an Alaskan federal judge that the international enviornmental protest organization Greenpeace will be fined $2500/hr for every hour the protestors blocked the ship from exiting.  Just to make her authority perfectly clear she warned the fine would jump to $5000/hr. on Friday, $7500/hr. on Saturday and $10,000/hr. on Sunday.  The ship left yesterday.  Her demostration leaves little doubt which side the federal government is on in this developing environmental disaster.  Greenpeace has faced these heavy-handed legal tactics before.  When Greenpeace protestors briefly boarded a Russian drilling platform in Arctic waters.  Russian special police raided the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise and took 28 activists and the ship into custody. {18.11.15}  Months later the ship and the activists were released upon payment of €3.6m bond by the Netherlands.

Update: {25.07.15}The Fennica, a drilling support ship and ice breaker contracted to Royal Shell Oil, arrived at Swan Island in Portland, OR in the early morning Saturday for repairs to its hull. The ship apparently struck and underwater obstruction that gashed its hull upon leaving Dutch Harbor, Alaska for operations in the Chukchi Sea. Portland activists say protests are planned as the icebreaker is repaired. Shell is limited to drilling only the top sections of its exploratory wells since the Fennica carries the capping equipment to be used in case of a blowout or other emergency. Current federal permits require that a capping stack be on site within twenty-four hours. A capping stack was the equipment that initially failed to seal off the Macondo blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 which created the largest oil spill in US history. Critics of arctic drilling think the region's remoteness and adverse conditions will hamper any attempted clean up and therefore risk devastation of the Arctic's fragile environment.

{21.07.15}Shell's Arctic drilling operations suffered another setback when the Finnish vessel, Fennica, was forced to return to Dutch Harbor, Alaska earlier this month. A breach in the ship's hull was discovered. What caused the 39" by 2" crack is unknown. Whether the ship must be repaired in dry dock is also not determined, but the Fennica was to play a significant role in drilling Shell's Chukchi Sea [USGS photo] Burger Prospect leases, about 70 northwest of Wainwright village. Fennica carried a "capping stack" to be used to shut down a well in an emergency. Shell only has a brief three month period until September 28th to complete its controversial operations. Shell wants to drill two wells simultaneously, nine miles apart. That plan violates its authorization for incidental taking of marine mammals that allows simultaneous drilling only if the wells are a minimum of 15 miles apart. The limitation is to protect walruses and whales that live there. Critics of the government's backing of corporate exploitation of Arctic hydrocarbon deposits say a major oil spill will be an unmitigated disaster in the Arctic since it cannot be effectively cleaned up in the icy and stormy Arctic waters. Very little infrastructure exists in the region to support major clean up operations.  Burning Arctic oil and gas is also incompatible with expressed committment to reducing climate warming  Wildlife will certainly suffer in a spill predicted to be a 75% likelyhood by the government. The NRDC is expected to litigate the approval of Shell's operations in federal court.

Zimbabwe Seeks US Poacher

Cecil, the lion king

Update:  So it turns out that the pillar of commerce, Dr. Palmer, is a previousl felon!  He was convicted of making false statements to US wildlife officials about a black bear he killed in Wisconsin.  The doctor was fined $3000 and put on probation.  Conservationists in Africa think that Palmer is unlikely to face criminal charges for his slaughter and decapitation of Cecil because he employed two Zimbabwean professional "hunters" to entice Cecil away from his protection within the boundaries of the national park.  Should that be the case if Palmer directed his employees to lay out bait and bring Cecil to him outside the park's boundaries?  US Person thinks Not.  The idiot obviously has a habit of killing protected animals. What he did in Zimbawe was the moral equivalent of shooting a zoo animal released from its cage to satisfy his blood lust. The possibility of extradition not being honored by the US or that he is not charged with another felony crime is all the more reason his dental practice should be closed down by economic action. Otherwise, his hideous callousness mayl go completely unpunished.

{31.07.2015}Although Zimbabwe maybe be considered a dysfunctional state {26.06.08, Zimbabwe Fights Back}, it still has enough collective sense to respond to international outrage over the killing of Cecil the Lion. To call what dentist Walter Palmer of Minnesota did in Zimbabwe hunting is to sanitize a craven act of moral cowardice for profit. Zimbabwe has an extradition treaty with the United States. A petition with 180,000 signatures on it is at the White House calling for the US government to comply with Zimbabwe's request for extradition. Palmer would face poaching charges in Zimbabwe's courts--a suitable resolution for his incredibly selfish and stupid act. US Person urges all of Palmer's clients to boycott his dental practice as a way of showing him his actions will not be tolerated by Americans, nor will they contribute to his means to perpetrate such depredations in the future. The brave dentist is currently in hiding.

Cecil was collared and a research subject of Oxford University when he was lured by food outside Hwange park boundaries to be shot with a bow and arrow by Palmer. It took Cecil forty hours to die. Palmer paid his guides $50,000 so he could kill a lion and prove his obvious lack of manhood. The panic stricken guides took the collar off Cecil, hid it in a tree, decapitated him, and skinned the popular icon since he was only a business transaction to them. Extraditing Palmer is the very least the United States can do to show the world it considers animal conservation a serious moral undertaking. Trophy killing further endagners animals already facing serious threats from climate change and human encroachment. It has to stop now. Legislation has been introduced in Congres to further restrict trophy importation under the Endangered Species Act. Call your representative and tell them you want trophy hunting made illegal, full stop or there will be many more dead Cecil the Lions. May he rest in peace.