Twas the day before Christmas…
and all you wanted was more environmental news.
Since we will both be traveling on Sunday, we're going to take Monday off from posting and instead give you some green news on a Thursday. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and if you are traveling - do so safe. Season's greetings from DTE!
Here are some stories you might have missed recently.
News from a place DTE is both fond and familiar with, it was announced last week in the S-R that, the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge will receive $1.5 million to purchase nearly 500 additional acres of Eastern Washington’s Channeled Scablands. "Protecting the refuge’s water sources is one goal of buying more land," according to Mike Rule, the refuge’s wildlife biologist. In our experiences in Turnbull, we found it both interesting and peaceful, and recommend you checking it out for yourself. And now there's 500 additional acres to see. Read more HERE.
Pay attention local foodies and locavores. A Year of Plenty reports about some grants and scholarships that are available for developing local food systems. Washington’s Department of Health is offering 10 grants for local food advocates to partner with WIC offices to increase the intake of fruits and vegetables as part of the WIC program, Quillisascut Farm in Rice, WA is offering an educational event for those interested in starting a school garden, and the USDA is starting a project funding high tunnels (hoop houses) for farms in an effort to study the potential for increasing the supply of local food. Read more HERE. And for some inspiration on why caring about food matters for the environment, read this wonderful excerpt from Wendell Berry’s book “A Continuous Harmony,” that we were tipped off to by A Year of Plenty. "We will know that no person is free except in the freedom of other persons, and that our only freedom is to know and faithfully occupy our place - a much humbler place than we have been taught to think - in the order of creation...." Read more HERE.
This has to be one of the best headlines of the year, "Solar Power Is Wonderful, Really, Except When You Build It Anywhere Near Anything." It's from a story about California Senator Dianne Feinstein and legislation that she proposed in Congress on Monday to protect a million acres of the Mojave Desert in California by essentially blocking the development of solar plants and wind farms envisioned for the area. And you wonder why we can't accomplish anything globally when locally we're a total mess. Read more about this story HERE.
Photo from PC132349 via flickr
Now for a quick run through the blogosphere for ongoing reaction following Copenhagen. Chief climate activist, author, and tireless advocate for environental justice Bill McKibben held nothing back in his assessment of the conference and one President Obama - read McKibben's remarks HERE. Sharon Begley of Newsweek also chose not to mince words in her postmortem writeup of the conference, read her remarks HERE.
And if you're one of the many out there that wasn't surprised by the outcome, a column in the Victoria Times Colonist summed it up by simply saying, "Ten days of talks in Copenhagen have not solved the world's climate problem. This "failure" generated some petulance from the ill-informed, but nobody should be surprised. This is real life, and it's complicated." Read more HERE.
For one of the most thorough recaps of Copenhagen, check out Andrew Revkin of The New York Times' Dot Earth blog. We've been following Revkin for some time, and we have to say that over the last few weeks he's been on top of his game. His reporting and perspectives were the best coming out of Copenhagen, and with the technology and resources afforded to him from The Times, environmental coverage doesn't get much better. Read Revkin's recap HERE.
And finally, the cynic in us couldn't help but post this. The Breakthrough Institute compiled a round-up of news, er, spin that came out of Copenhagen following the announcement of the agreement, er, accord. Check it out HERE.
