Man, oh man did it get cold over the course of this week. On Monday it was 50-ish degrees and Wednesday was so foggy that school got delayed by two hours. Come Thursday it was in the low teens and the mercury was still dropping. Why do I think that this is going to be one of those bone chilling cold winters?
On to the links…
Secretive Right-Wing Group Continues Its War On Clean Energy—ALEC has a whole host of problems right now, including campaign finance violations and sponsor loss, but that has not stopped these darlings if the right wing from continuing to fight solar power. Clowns.
Missouri Gas Pipeline Explosion Causes 300-Foot Fireball—No matter how many times the pipeline industry tries to sell the public the line about safety, a story comes out where a pipeline has leaked or worse exploded.
Mounting Microplastic Pollution Harms “Earthworms of the Sea”—Is there any place that the plastic pollution from humans is not impacting? I cannot think of any place. I bet it is even on the freaking moon.
Marine Reserves Enhance Resilience to Climate Change—So little of the oceans are protected in marine reserves, but the value of these reserves is becoming more apparent every day.
Unless Your Pot is Organic, You’re Probably Inhaling Pesticides—I found it really interesting in Doug Fine’s Too High to Fail that many of the above board growers were trying to do away with the nasty chemicals. If it’s going to be medicine, it should probably not have pesticides sprayed all over it.
In the FDA’s Action on Trans Fats are there Lessons for GMO Labeling—Grass roots effort beat back trans fats, maybe something can be done about GMOs.
As Hospital Prices Soar, a Stitch Tops $500—I am a huge single payer fan. As a matter of fact, I want the system to be Medicare for all because the insanity that is talked about in this article goes away. For anyone who thinks that the private sector is always more efficient has never been involved in hospital billing.
Scientists Warn Obama Against Burning Trees To Produce Electricity—Cutting down trees, specifically to burn them for electricity is insane. It’s not going to be a net positive outcome no matter what way you slice it. Here in eastern Iowa biomass from trees was used recently to power the University of Iowa, but that source was from trees felled and damaged in a strong summer storm.
Are Bio-Fuels Worse than Fossil Fuels—This debate will probably never disappear from the public sphere. It is my belief that if second generation bio-fuels can be brought to commercial scale that there is a place in the future energy portfolio for them.
Why It Makes No Sense To Call Wind Tax Credits “Welfare”—Conservatives love using the word welfare to describe things that they are opposed to because they spent the better part of 25 years creating a series of erroneous images to describe its recipients. It just does not happen to be welfare when it is something being given to their donors. That’s just hypocrisy.
Free Mike Roselle From Jail: Free Appalachia From Mountaintop Removal— Government will silence voices of dissent even when those voices are merely asking that the government enforce the laws, rules, and regulations that are already on the books.
15 Gorgeous Photos Of The Old Cincinnati Library—The pictures from this long gone library are amazing. It’s also sad that we have lost so many of these buildings to wrecking balls in the name of progress. Will anyone lament the cookie cutter buildings that replaced these amazing old structures?
My Green Misadventure 