“I should not have been there.”
General Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “my presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.” General Milley and the top U.S. commanders will not “send in the troops” to kill Americans with the constitutional right to protest.
Methane kills
Last October, “Methane Kills” discussed the EPA proposal to ignore methane emissions from oil and gas exploration and production. More than 950,000 comments were sent by tribes, organizations, and people. The 2019 docket was closed for comments but not decided.
According to the Environmental Defense Fund, EPA added additional rollbacks last month for all facilities. Unless the EPA methane “license to kill” is stopped, 5 million additional tons of methane per year will be released into the atmosphere.
Petrochemical companies are meeting with the Office of Management and Budget “selling new jobs” for plastic manufacturers using methane as feedstock.
Deforestation
Why is Sonny Perdue, head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) blindly following orders to destroy federal forests for logging, fracking, and mining? Last week Perdue announced a “blueprint” to ensure national forests and grasslands continue to meet “the needs of the American people.”
“Under this administration, the Forest Service has sold more timber than we have in the last 22 years and made significant increases in our hazardous fuels treatments and active management of our national forests. The reforms will provide further relief from burdensome regulations and boost the productivity of our national forest system,” said Purdue.
USDA is violating our Constitutional rights by selling the forests for timber, fracking, and mining.
Democracy undermined
EPA and USDA, like our military, work for the people, not political parties. Elected officials make a sacred oath to perform their duties for the people, and preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. In other words, they represent and work for the people. When they do, they earn our respect. When they don’t, they must go.
The national forests are owned by the American people. The U.S. Forest Service, a USDA agency, should be protecting the forests, not selling the trees.
Forests and climate
Forests are our best hope to mitigate the climate breakdown by capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, using it to grow, and storing carbon in the soil. Industrial agriculture using heavy machines to kill and till the soil are driven by greed and ignorance.
Last month, alarming reports in Science Magazine, found higher temperatures reduce growth rates and shorten the time that carbon resides in forest ecosystems. Like the ice melting in the Arctic, all life systems function within a temperature range. Higher temperatures drive faster melting and create more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, accelerating the climate emergency as if profits and “going back to normal” justifies death and destruction.
Rise up, make your voice heard
Please contact Gov. Hutchinson and the Arkansas Congressional Delegation, they work for the people. Contact EPA, USDA, and the U.S. Forest Service to let them know we are watching what they do. Keep focused on protecting the forests and eliminating greenhouse gas emissions.
FERC will decide the future of distributed solar. Solar storage is the key technology to decarbonize the Grid. A Tesla battery with 1.2 million miles and 16-year lifespan, and decentralized microgrid technologies are on the way. Higher efficiency air conditioning equipment and creative ways to eliminate energy waste will reduce peak demand.
Burned: Are Trees the New Coal? Please check out this free powerful film online about the U.S. Southern forests being burned at the U.K. Drax 4,000-megawatt power station.
The road to hell
Timeless songs express raw feelings with simple lyrics about the needless pollution and senseless violence around the world.
“Well, I’m standing by a river, but the water doesn’t flow. It boils with every poison you can think of. … And the perverted fear of violence chokes a smile on every face. And common sense is ringing out the bells. This ain’t no technological breakdown. Oh no, this is the road to hell.” Chris Rea
Dr. Luis Contreras
Great article, Luis
Charles
Please be kind, protect the forests
Don’t burn the trees
Please turn your volume up
https://youtu.be/tahUK_-Auvg?t=50
This was not a mistake … Sonny Perdue vows to make American agriculture great again – but for whom?
2017 – President Trump wants Perdue to lead the agriculture department – but the head of a global agribusiness could favor Big Ag over many family farmers
A telling signal of what to expect from Perdue is the reaction to his appointment from commodity associations, traders and brokers.
The National Chicken Council called him “a welcomed choice from the ‘Broiler Belt,’” while The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association praised his “unique and expert understanding of both the business and scientific sides of agriculture”.
The American Farm Bureau Federation celebrated the “outstanding nominee … a businessman who recognizes the impact immigration reform, trade agreements and regulation have on a farmer’s bottom line”.
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jan/29/sonny-perdue-agriculture-secretary-farming-american-agribusiness
USDA hides climate research findings — This is the Road to Hell
June 2019 – Agriculture Department buries studies showing dangers of climate change
The Trump administration has stopped government-funded research into how higher temperatures can damage crops and pose health risks, and has refused to publicize dozens of government-funded studies that carry warnings about the effects of climate change, defying a longstanding practice of touting such findings by the Agriculture Department’s acclaimed in-house scientists.
The studies range from a groundbreaking discovery that rice loses vitamins in a carbon-rich environment — a potentially serious health concern for the 600 million people world-wide whose diet consists mostly of rice — to a finding that climate change could exacerbate allergy seasons to a warning to farmers about the reduction in quality of grasses important for raising cattle.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/23/agriculture-department-climate-change-1376413
USDA denies the climate breakdown, as if was something to laugh about
June 2019 – Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue cited weather patterns and said “it rained yesterday, it’s a nice pretty day today” when asked about the cause of the global climate crisis in an interview with CNN.
Perdue joins President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence as the latest senior administration official to question the near universal consensus in the scientific community that the global climate crisis is man-made.
Perdue told CNN’s Vanessa Yurkevich in the interview released Tuesday that “we don’t know” the cause of climate change, adding, “and obviously scientists — many scientists believe that it’s human caused, other scientists believe it’s not,” Perdue
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” Sunday, Pence repeatedly refused to say if he views the global climate crisis as a threat to the United States.
Last week, the Trump administration rolled back an Obama-era rule that limited coal-fired power plant emissions and would have reduced greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to the climate crisis, by up to 32% compared to 2005.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/25/politics/sonny-perdue-agriculture-secretary-climate-crisis/index.html