Hot Mess explains the problems with making our food system more sustainable and climate-friendly

When I last looked at my most popular environmental topics to blog about, I identified them as energy, food, and water.  That may have changed, as I also blog a lot about climate, but I consider that closely linked to energy.  It's just focusing on the output instead of the input.  Yesterday, Hot Mess uploaded a video that examines the connections among all these topics, Our Food System is Rigged feat. Sheril Kirshenbaum.  Please watch.

The way we eat is unsustainable for the climate. Our food system contributes a massive amount of greenhouse gas emissions and touches basically every facet of our life. Modern diets also contribute to millions of lost lives every year from all the negative health outcomes. The answer is pretty simple on paper: We need to convert more of our diet to plant-based foods, and away from red meat. But in practice? It’s nowhere near that easy. How can something so necessary be so hard? We talked to food policy expert Sheril Kirshenbaum to learn more.
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The answer is pretty simple on paper: To help fight climate change, we need to convert more of our diet to plant-based foods and away from red meat. But in practice? It is REALLY hard to do, because the global food system is so huge, so wasteful, and so unequal, that in some ways it’s rigged against healthy eating. We didn’t make this video in order to sound hopeless, though. We just want everyone to have an honest look at how hard a problem this is to solve.

Yes, unraveling the issue is difficult, but I agree with Hot Mess that it needs to be done.  That's why I keep blogging about all parts of the problem.

This isn't the first time Hot Mess has examined the connections between food and the climate.  Last year, the channel posted Beef is Bad for the Climate… But How Bad?

Beef production emits more greenhouse gases than basically anything else we eat, so let’s look at the scale and impact of our bovine pals - and importantly, what we can actually do to make beef less bad.

Every semester, I point out how environmentally unfriendly beef is.  The thought of it made me buy turkey hot dogs the last time I went to the store.  I've also been trying to eat less meat overall to reduce my environmental footprint.  Here's to hoping I serve as a good example.

Devita Davison explains how urban agriculture is transforming Detroit — Student Sustainability Video Festival 81

I know that I wrote "Tuesday I expect to be updating On The Issues shows most of the Democratic candidates have moved left during the campaign, too," but I have a stack of final exams to grade, so I will give my readers a rain check on that topic.  Maybe tomorrow.  Instead, I'm posting the latest episode of Student Sustainability Video Festival, my go-to blogging theme for when I'm correcting final exams or traveling.

Today's video combines two staples of the early years of the blog, urban agriculture and TED talks, How urban agriculture is transforming Detroit | Devita Davison.

There's something amazing growing in the city of Detroit: healthy, accessible, delicious, fresh food. In a spirited talk, fearless farmer Devita Davison explains how features of Detroit's decay actually make it an ideal spot for urban agriculture. Join Davison for a walk through neighborhoods in transformation as she shares stories of opportunity and hope. "These aren't plots of land where we're just growing tomatoes and carrots," Davison says. "We're building social cohesion as well as providing healthy, fresh food.

When I read the topic, I was expecting Davison to mention Brightmoor, one of the neighborhoods featured in HOUR Detroit displays its green thumb; she did not disappoint me.

With luck, I'll return to regular blogging tomorrow.  If not, I have plenty of videos from my students' presentations to choose from.  Either way, off to correct final exams!

The third Saturday of August is World Honey Bee Day

Happy World Honey Bee Day!*  Here's the updated holiday description from National Day Calendar.

World Honey Bee Day on the third Saturday in August brings a buzzing celebration for beekeepers, honey lovers, and all blooming things.

The day recognizes both the honey bee and the beekeepers who tend the hives. It also encourages everyone to enjoy and buy locally grown honey.

Another important part of the day includes learning about honey bees and providing them with a supportive environment. When we plant wildflowers, orchards, and other flowering plants, we support pollinators such as honey bees. They depend on the nectar of a variety of plants for their survival. Conversely, we depend on honeybees for our survival! Without their pollinating abilities, many nutritious plans wouldn’t reproduce.

Besides, their delicious honey is an added bonus. We enjoy it in our baking, teas, and confections.

Honey bees do sting, but only if they perceive a threat – damage to their hive or being swatted at. Since they seek sweet nectar, sugary drinks and sweets will attract honey bees when flowers are not blooming yet.  Keep beverages covered. If a honey bee comes close, either hold still or move slowly away. The honey bee will fly along to the next sweet thing as long as it doesn’t feel threatened.

Since I enjoy including clips from local news shows about national and world days, I'm sharing two videos from Good Morning Sacramento that were uploaded for last year's celebration.

Here's part one, World Honey Bee Day.

Sara Foust from The Bee Box is teaching us about the Bees, on World Honey Bee Day!

In case that wasn't enough, here's World Honey Bee Day Pt. 2!

Sara Foust from The Bee Box is teaching us recipes using local honey!

I thought both clips made for a fun combination of learning from the guest and goofiness from the hosts.

CNN joined in celebrating the day by offering Seven simple things you can do to save the bees on National Honeybee Day.

Bee lovers are abuzz on National Honeybee Day, the time of year when we honor nature's hardest-working pollinator.

People owe a lot to bees -- namely, many of the foods we enjoy, like strawberries, avocados and broccoli. The US Department of Agriculture estimates that every 1 in 3 bites of food exists because of animal pollinators, and bees lead the charge.

Luckily, honeybees aren't in danger of extinction like other bee species, but their health is critical to the survival of all bees. When honeybees are infected with pathogens or parasites, they infect native bees that are more vulnerable to extinction, said Alixandra Prybyla, science director of the Honeybee Conservancy.

"Saving the bees" seems like a lofty goal, but you don't have to be a beekeeper to make an impact. Here are some small changes you can make to keep bees healthy.

• Plant a garden of any size
• Keep the mowing to a minimum
• Get to know your local beekeeper
• Make a bee bath
• Join a citizen science project
• Avoid products grown with pesticides
• Don't call pest control if you see a swarm

All good advice.

Don't forget that today is also National Nonprofit Day.  To celebrate, I'm asking my readers to please match my $5.00 donation to Coffee Party USA.  Thank you.

*There is also a World Bee Day.  Since bees have been a continuing topic of this blog, they can have two days to celebrate them on this blog.

Silly and serious about student loan debt from Samantha Bee and NBC News

I've mentioned student loan debt as an issue only twice before on this blog, most recently in Ten years ago, we were partying like it was 1929. Are we about to do it again?

Student loan debt is indeed a problem, one that I've mentioned only once on this blog thanks to Benie Sanders campaigning on the issue in Ann Arbor two years ago.  However, I doubt it will send the economy into recession the way the housing bust did in 2007-2008, as the value of housing declining contributed to reduced consumption then caused a financial crisis, which made the recession worse.  That's because the value of a college education will not decline before a recession, so that won't drag down the valuation of the debt as an asset, putting strain on the financial system and causing a panic to start a recession.  Instead, the causality will go the other way; the recession will hit first, causing people to lose their jobs and make them unable to pay.  That will cause a debt crisis in the financial system.  At least banks can't foreclose on and repossess people's educations, so the students will still have them, unlike all the people who lost their homes, although that's small consolation to the graduate whose increased earnings from their education have gone to paying off the debt to get their education.  That alone is reducing consumption and home ownership, slowing down the economy.

My last point showed up in two videos last week, one funny, the other dead serious.  I begin with the funny one, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee's Student Loan Debt: It’s Not Just For Millennials Anymore!*

Student loans: Is it time to forgive and forget? When it comes to 2020 election issues, nothing unites voters like crushing student loan debt. Just take it from Extremely Young™ Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg: student loan debt sucks, fam!

That was the silly video; now for the serious one from NBC News, How Student Debt Is Crippling Young Farmers And The Future Of Agriculture.

Young farmers like Lauren Manning struggle to prosper because they are buried in student loan debt, yet the average age of U.S. farmers approaches 60 and they have no one to pass the torch to.

I couldn't resist the connection between student loan debt and farming.  As someone who is fond of Commoner's Laws, I think it's a good example of two them; everything is connected to everything else and there is no free lunch.  It's not just the graduates who are paying for those loans; it's all the rest of us, too.  The only question is how.

*Bee has another video about last week's Democratic debates that covers immigration.  I might get to that one later this week.

A belated World Oceans Day 2018

A belated World Oceans Day to my readers!  I was so wrapped up in June 8 being a Throwback Thursday so I could post a retrospective then distressed by the death of Anthony Bourdain that I completely forgot about it being World Oceans Day.  To make up for it, I'm sharing CBS News' A look at the dangers our oceans are facing ahead of World Oceans Day.*

Friday is World Oceans Day, which comes at a time our oceans face threats from plastic pollution as well as the growing effects of climate change. Gaelin Rosenwaks, a marine scientist and founder of Global Ocean Exploration, joins CBSN to discuss the dangers oceans face and how people can take small but significant steps to make a difference.

Climate change, plastic pollution, and overfishing make a deadly trifecta of threats to all the world's oceans, not just the coral reefs.  Here's to hoping World Oceans Day makes people more aware of their impact on the oceans.

Verge Science updates bees on the endangered species list plus environmental policy for the seventh year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News

Once again, it's Throwback Thursday, so it's time for another retrospective of the blogging year just past.  As I promised in The Primetime Emmy Awards for the seventh year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, today's review of last year's top posts is about environmental issues other than climate change.

The top entry on that topic was Rusty-Patched Bumblebee finally placed on the Endangered Species List from March 22, 2017.  That was the second day of the seventh year of this blog, so this entry became the first to enter the all-time top ten, which I noted in Holidays for the sixth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.  The post earned 3863 raw page views over the year, enough to place it 16th overall and 14th among entries actually written during the blogging year.  It was also the most read entry during April 2017 with 3491 default page views.

Before I explain how the entry earned its page views and place, I am sharing an update on the topic from Verge Science: Bees are going extinct...but not the ones you think.

You’ve probably heard for years that bees are in dire straights. Which is true…but it’s probably not the bees you’re thinking of. We talk to a bee researcher about what’s really at stake for bees, global agriculture, and all the almonds you’ve ever eaten.

For more, read all the entries with the bees label.

Follow over the jump for how this entry earned its page views as well as the other top non-climate environmental story of the past year.

Seeker/DNews and Vox on food waste: Student Sustainability Video Festival 76

For the final post of April 2018, I am briefly returning to the Student Sustainability Video Festival series, which I post when I'm busy traveling or grading papers. I left off at the series at Episode 75: Hurricane Andrew so today's entry is Episode 76.

The final video my students presented this semester was Seeker/DNews asking Why Do We Waste $1 Trillion Of Food A Year?

"Ugly" and deformed food often gets left in fields to rot. How can we help reduce this food waste?

If this really were purely a Student Sustainability Video Festival entry, I'd stop here.  Instead, I'm tying this entry to Vox on going green by reducing waste for Earth Day 2018 by posting another video from that same Vox series: Food waste is the world's dumbest problem.

Eat your peas! It’s the easiest way to fight climate change.

That's it for this series for now, as I've finished grading final exams and have posted the grades by now.  The series should return in August or September.

That's also it for April 2018.  Stay tuned for another drum corps May Day entry to start the new month.

2017 Environmental Media Association Awards for film and television

At the end of 'Chasing Coral': awards and nominations and looking forward to next year's Emmys 4, I told my readers I found another set of entertainment awards right up my alley.

I discovered the Environmental Media Awards, USA during my research.  This is an event I should have known about already as well.  I plan on writing about them, too.  Stay tuned.

The  Environmental Media Association Awards page states the purpose for these awards: "The EMA Awards honor film and television productions and individuals that increase public awareness of environmental issues and inspire personal action on these issues."  That's exactly the kind of purpose I thought these awards would have and why I'm glad I finally stumbled across them.  These are the films and television shows I should be featuring here.

The Environmental Media Association Awards YouTube channel does not have separate clips of the movie and television winners being announced, but it does have a sizzle reel showing all the celebrity honorees and their presenters.

Relive the excitement of the 2017 EMA Awards, Hosted by Jaden Smith, with our sizzle reel. Toyota and Lexus presented the Awards.

Variety listed the honorees.

Jaden Smith, a member of the EMA board, will host the awards. The show will also honor Russell Simmons with EMA’s Mission in Music Award, Natalie Portman with the EMA Ongoing Commitment Award, John Paul DeJoria with the Innovator Award, and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg will be given the org’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Now I know which celebrities have a green reputation.

It was cool to see the green stars, but I'm interested in the green shows.  Here are this year's nominees and winners from Variety and the Environmental Media Association.

Feature Film

“Moana” (Disney)
“Okja” (Netflix)

Winner: "Okja."

On the one hand, it's a pretty weak year for environmental themes in feature films that only two were nominated between August 2016 and July 2017.  On the other hand, I don't disagree with either the nominees or the winner one bit.  It doesn't hurt that both are speculative fiction. "Moana" is an animated musical fantasy with two Grammy nominations and was nominated for Best Animated Film at the Saturn Awards.  "Okja" is a action/adventure film with fantastic elements about the excesses of industrial agriculture.  I fully expect to see "Okja" nominated for some category at the Saturn Awards, whether in film, presentation on television, or streaming television.  If it's not nominated, I will consider it an oversight, as it could fall between the cracks of the categories.  I also expect nominations for "Okja" in special effects and movie for television at next year's Emmys.  My readers and I will have to wait until the middle of next year to see how all these predictions fare.  Maybe by that time, I'll have an entry devoted to it.

Next, the category that led me to these awards.

Documentary Film

“An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” (Paramount Pictures)
“Before The Flood” (Fox & National Geographic)
“Chasing Coral” (Netflix)
“From The Ashes” (Fox & National Geographic)

Winner: "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power."

Wow, that's a worthy list of nominees, all of which I can recommend to my students and all on related topics of climate change and the energy sources that cause it.  "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power" is also a worthy winner.  Now I'm looking forward to how it fares at the Academy Awards.  Next month.

Follow over the jump for the television nominees and winners.

Trump declares the downsizing of two national monuments in Utah

Just this past January, I wrote National monuments, more of Obama's environmental legacy about Former President Obama creating Gold Butte National Monument and Bears Ears National Monument.  While I reported on the controversy surrounding the designation of Bears Ears, I concluded "the monument will be a good thing and that it will last."  I should not have been so sanguine.  I still think it's a good thing, but Bears Ears may mostly go away, surviving in two smaller parts under a different name.  CBS News reports Trump drastically downsizes nationally protected land in Utah.

President Trump announced that he cutting nearly two million acres from the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah. National Geographic's environment editor, Brian Howard, joins CBSN to discuss the impact and the expected legal response.

As Howard said, this move is unprecedented and will face stiff legal resistance.  I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up in the Supreme Court, which means that it will take years for this move to take effect, if ever.  I expect to be posting updates on this terrible move for the environment, as well as another attempt to obliterate Obama's legacy, right up to the end of the decade.  It should be fun to watch.

By the way, I had no idea how many paleontological resources there were inside both national monuments until I stumbled across these two images from the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP).  They're out of date, as they were designed to prompt people to use them during the comment period, which expired a while ago, but they're still interesting.

First, Bears Ears, which SVP wrote should be expanded, not reduced.


Next, Escalante-Grand Staircase.


As a paleontologist who worked at Rancho La Brea and gave presentations about Pigmy Mammoths at Channel Island National Park, I'm impressed, as the topic of fossils in National Parks and Monuments is one that is near and dear to my heart.  I wish I had known earlier, but I doubt my input would have made a difference to this administration.  Sigh.  At least I have its space policy, which is cold comfort for all the ill Trump and Zinke have done for the environment.

An animated 'Star Trek' PSA for America Recycles Day 2017

Happy America Recycles Day!  For today's celebration of a holiday I first (and last) observed in 2013, I'm sharing StarTrek Keep America Beautiful PSA.

As we celebrate Keep America Beautiful Month, let's throwback to the mid-1970s when Captain Kirk, Spock, Sulu and the rest of the StarTrek crew supported our work. #DoBeautifulThings #TBT

It's not just Keep America Beautiful, it's keep the universe beautiful, too.

While the above certainly fits several of the themes of this blog, especially as it has evolved over the years, it's not a conventional America Recycles Day message.  The City of Lake Forest, California has one of those, complete with lots of good tips.

On November 15, join the City of Lake of Forest in making a#BeRecycled  pledge for America Recycles Day and demonstrate how it's #Easy2bGreen!

All that advice means today is not just America Recycles Day, but also America Reuses and Reduces Day as well.

Sylvia Earle's TED Talk for World Oceans Day 2017

Happy World Oceans Day!  To celebrate the holiday, I'm sharing a TED talk from the same sesson that produced Captain Charles Moore on the seas of plastic in 2009, which I embedded in Student sustainability video festival 11: Great Pacific Garbage Patch: Sylvia Earle: How to protect the oceans (TED Prize winner!).

Legendary ocean researcher Sylvia Earle shares astonishing images of the ocean -- and shocking stats about its rapid decline -- as she makes her TED Prize wish: that we will join her in protecting the vital blue heart of the planet.

That's inspiring.  If anything, I think her message is even more urgent than it was eight years ago.

Drink to a late drum corps Earth Day

When I wrote "I doubt I'll have much time for DOOM this week," I didn't realize how little there would be.  I was planning on posting something about the People's Climate March today, but I'm on break this week, so I'm just not feeling it.  Instead, I'm going to give Earth Day the same treatment I've given other holidays, celebrate it with a drink from Tipsy Bartender and music from drum corps.  It's past time I did, especially since Earth Day itself was more than a week ago.  Sometimes inspiration strikes late.

I'll start with the drink, Earth Day Ocean Water.

1 ½ oz. (45ml) Coconut Vodka
¾ oz. (22ml) Blue Curacao
½ oz. (15ml) Lemon Juice
2 oz. (60ml) Lemon Lime Soda
Lime Peel

PREPARATION
1. To an ice filled glass add coconut vodka, blue curacao, lemon juice and lemon lime soda. Stir well to mix. Set aside.
2. Using scissors or a small knife roughly cut the shapes of the continents out of lime peel. Place shapes inside a round glass and pack with crushed ice.
3. Pour mix into glass and serve. Enjoy responsibly!

Now that my readers have a drink, they can sip it while watching two clips of Crossmen's 1992 show, "Songs for the Planet Earth."  First, the official video from Drum Corps International: DVD Spotlight: 1992 Crossmen.

Crossmen's 6th place presentation of "Songs for the Planet Earth" visited our home planet as part one of a three-year song cycle; followed the next two years with "A Celebration of Humanity" and "Suite Children." The show was created with a sense of concern for environmental preservation.

I conclude with the final minute of the show.


I hope my readers found that as inspiring as I did.

I might have something serious tomorrow.  After that, Thursday is Star Wars Day, Friday is Cinco De Mayo, Saturday is Revenge of the Sixth, and Sunday will be an entertainment feature.   As I wrote, there will be very little time for DOOM this week and I'm O.K. with that.

People's Climate March 2017

Lately, it's become another Saturday, another protest by the Resistance.  Two weeks ago, it was the Tax March.  Last Saturday, which was also Earth Day, it was the March for Science.  Today, it's the People's Climate Movement's March for Climate, Jobs, and Justice.

The last People's Climate March was held on September 21, 2014, an event I mentioned in passing as part of the context for Climate and environment news from Colorado State University.  That event was in response to the U.N. Climate Summit in New York City two days later.  If anything, it was in support of the official event being productive, not a protest against it.  In a way, it worked, as the Paris Agreement on Climate was signed on Earth Day two years later.  That was good news that I celebrated in Climate change for the sixth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

Today's event is much more obviously one of resistance and opposition.  Just look at these three videos promoting it, beginning with 350.org's Peoples Climate March: We resist. We build. We rise.


Even the relatively staid Sierra Club takes a militant tone in its Peoples Climate March: Be Heard on Climate, Jobs and Justice.

Join the Peoples Climate March as we march for climate, jobs and justice in Washington, D.C. on April 29! If you can't make it to D.C., find a Sister March near you.

Tom Steyer of NextGen Climate is even more explicitly anti-Trump, if that's possible, in Why We March.

On April 29th, we're fighting back against Trump's polluter-friendly agenda. Join me and thousands of others across the country for the People's Climate March and stand up for our climate.

According to the People's Climate Movement, there is no event in Ann Arbor today.  Instead, the nearest one is in Ferndale, location of the Green Cruise.  I've said over and over again that I'd participate in that, but never have.  I think I'm going to show up today for the Ferndale Climate March.  If I do, I can thank Trump for motivating me.  Also, I might just report on it next week.  Stay tuned for that, after the last post of the month, which will be a Sunday entertainment feature, and the first post of next month, which will be on May Day.

Seeker/DNews on when and why environmentalism became a partisan issue

This is Earth Week and Saturday is Earth Day, which is also when the March for Science will be held.  To observe the first and build up to the second, I'm sharing When Did Environmentalism Become So Political?  In it, Seeker/DNews makes a point that I make about the environmental record of Richard Nixon; Tricky Dick signed into law much of the federal legislation of the modern environmental era, making him a very different Republican from the ones who induced me to leave the party in 2000.



When you think of environmentalism, does Richard Nixon come to mind?
Yes, but Nixon as the second greenest U.S. President?  That's something that surprises even me!

Rusty-Patched Bumblebee finally placed on the Endangered Species List

I know I promised a statistics entry, but first I'm sharing this breaking news about the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee being placed on the Endangered Species List.  Wochit News reports Rusty Patched Bumblebee Officially Declared Endangered.

This week, the rusty patched bumblebee officially became the first bumblebee in the U.S. to make the endangered species list. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the bee is one of the pollinators experiencing serious population declines across the United States. The species was initially set to get protected status last month, but the listing was delayed after Donald Trump ordered a temporary freeze on new regulations following his win in the presidential election. Since the 1990s, the population of the rusty patched bumblebee has fallen over 87 percent, leaving tiny numbers in just 13 states.

That's probably the first good environmental news out of this administration.  I don't expect a lot more, based on what Trump said in Willow Run on the Ides of March.

Bees added to endangered species list

I've written a lot about bees on this blog beginning with Discovery News and PhysOrg on colony collapse disorder in 2013 and continuing through Space and sustainability news for the fifth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.  This week, more news came out about bees, but it wasn't about honeybees and colony collapse disorder.  Instead, it was that the Rusty Patched Bumblebee Is Officially Endangered.  Wochit News reports.

This week it has been declared that the rusty patched bumblebee is endangered in the United States. It is the first bee species to ever be put on the endangered list. The rusty patched bumblebee has seen it’s population diminish significantly over the past 20 years. Tom Melius, the regional director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, stated, “Pollinators are small but might parts of the natural mechanism that sustains us and our world. Without them, our forests, parks, meadows, and scrublands, and the abundant, vibrant life they support, cannot survive, and our crops require laborious, costly pollination by hand.” Environmentalists are ready to fight for the lives of rusty patched bumblebees.

While these are both the first bumblebees and mainland bees to be placed on the endangered species list, they aren't the first U.S. bees on the list.  Last September, several species of Hawaiian bees earned that dubious distinction.  KHON reports in Native bee species now protected under Endangered Species Act.

Seven yellow-faced bee species are now under protection, a first for any bees in the nation.

While these are not honeybees, this is still bad news.

Enough DOOM!  Stay tuned for two entertainment entries, one including the first celebration of the fake holiday Norther on Sunday and one celebrating Martin Luther King Day on Monday.

National monuments, more of Obama's environmental legacy

There's more to President Obama's environmental record than his actions on climate, energy, and oceans.  The outgoing President has also protected a lot of federal lands as national monuments.  His most recent actions created two of them in Nevada and Utah.  Newsy has the story in Obama declares more land for national monuments.

President Obama officially created the Gold Butte National Monument and the Bears Ears National Monument.

Just as I was in southern California for the Rose Parade, I was in Utah when this news broke and the local media covered the story intently.  KSL provides an example in Fight on over Bears Ears monument in Utah.

Utah's top leaders are seething over President Barack Obama's proclamation Wednesday to designate 1.35 million acres in southeast Utah as the Bears Ears National Monument, vowing to do everything they can to undo the presidential action. Andrew Adams reports.

I'm with the art store owner, both that the monument will be a good thing and that it will last.

President Obama reflects on his environmental record

Last night, President Obama gave his farewell address to the nation.  I could embed the video, but I decided to post two other videos from the outgoing administration that emphasize the issue I most care about, the environment.  First, The Record: President Obama on Climate and Energy.


This video shows that Obama's mentions of energy and climate in the 2014 State of the Union Address reflected a sincere interest.  I'd like to think his administration made a lasting impact in these fields.

Obama also showed his concern for the environment in Protecting Our Planet Means Protecting Our Ocean, which describes the President's visit to Midway Island mentioned in CNN visits Midway Island to promote documentary on plastic pollution.

President Obama designated the first-ever marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean, 4,913 square miles off the coast of New England. "It’s been said that we don’t inherit the Earth from our parents so much as we borrow it from our children."

Thank you, Mr. President, for your efforts on behalf of a sustainable future.

Chevrolet Bolt wins Green Car of the Year

I wrote a lot about the Chevrolet Volt during the first three years of this blog, including defending it against Newt Gingrich.  Now it's time to write about its little sister, the Bolt, which was just named Green Car of the Year.  Take it away, Detroit Free Press!

LOS ANGELES — General Motors'   long-range 2017 Chevrolet Bolt electric car was named Green Car of the Year Thursday at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

The Bolt's 238-mile range on a fully charged battery approaches that of a Tesla. Yet the Bolt, in many cases, is about half the price. It will be priced at $37,495 and is due to go on sale by the end of the year. After tax incentives, Bolt prices will start just under $30,000 out the door.

“There’s been a lot of talk about building an affordable electric car with a 200-mile range that brings electric vehicles to the mainstream, but only one manufacturer has done that, and it’s us,” Chevrolet marketing manager Steve Majoros said.

It's the fourth triumph of the week for the audacious Chevy, which aims to steal the mantle of electric vehicle leadership from Tesla. The Bolt won Motor Trend magazine's car of the year award Monday, was named a finalist for North American Car of the Year Tuesday and made Car and Driver magazine's coveted 10 Best list Wednesday.

Agence France Presse shows the car and the reaction of the GM executives to winning the award in Chevrolet Bolt EV wins 'Green Car of the Year' award.

The Chevrolet Bolt EV wins the 2016 Green Car of the Year award in Los Angeles, beating out the BMW 330e iPerformance, the Chrysler Pacifica, the Kia Optima and the Toyota Prius Prime.

Congratulations!

CNNMoney has more about the car itself in Taking the Chevy Bolt out for a spin.

Chevrolet's newest all-electric vehicle is estimated to have a larger range than the similarly-priced Tesla. But will the cars be a hit with consumers?

The answer to the question is "I hope so."  In the meantime, I wish GM and the Bolt design team good luck with the judges for North American Car of the Year.

Some good news from last week's election

Despite Trump winning and public transportation losing last Tuesday, some good news came out of the election.  New York Magazine forecast that Progressives Are Headed for Big Election Day Wins on Wages, Weed, and Guns.

[I]if polls can be believed, America will have less marijuana prohibition, more gun control, and higher minimum wages a week from now than it does today. Which may be the closest thing to “change you can believe in” that progressives will get for a good while.

Sure enough, Marijuana, gun control, minimum wage hikes win at the polls as Wochit News reported.

Filling a void created by congressional inaction, voters in a scattering of states tightened gun control laws and approved increases in the minimum wage. The campaign to legalize marijuana achieved a major breakthrough, with victories in at least six states. In all, more than 150 measures appeared on statewide ballots in Tuesday's election. California, Nevada and Massachusetts approved measures legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, while Florida, Arkansas and North Dakota voted to allow pot for medical purposes. A recreational pot proposal lost in Arizona.

Shades of Meanwhile, at the bottom of the ballot!

Vox had more on the results in Trump won. But so did marijuana legalization, gun control, and minimum wage increases.

While Democrats lost big, liberals won some of the big initiatives that were on statewide ballots. It wasn’t a total sweep — several states, for example, affirmed the death penalty — but there were gains on some issues, including marijuana legalization, minimum wage, and gun control.

At least the polls weren't wrong on these measures.

Crooks and Liars found even more good news for public education, environment, and diversity in Some Good News - Progressives Win Key Ballot Initiatives beyond those victories above.

Massachusetts voters reject charter school expansion. MassLive: “In a devastating loss for supporters of charter schools, Massachusetts voters on Tuesday voted against a ballot question that would have allowed the state to approve up to 12 new or expanded charter schools a year, outside of an existing cap … The pro-charter school money came from a mix of Massachusetts corporations, individuals working in the financial industry, out-of-state donors like the Walton family who owns Wal-Mart and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.”

Washington State rejects “revenue-neutral” carbon tax. Seattle Times: “Initiative 732, which sought to apply a tax on energy-derived coal, oil gas garnered just 42 percent after ballot counts around the state … The measure had trouble marshaling consensus among progressive and environmental groups.”

“Florida voters say no to misleading solar amendment” reports Miami Herald: “Florida voters rejected Amendment 1 on Tuesday, the utility-backed measure to limit rooftop solar expansion, after a scrappy, grassroots campaign and last-minute revelations raised doubts about the proponents’ claims that their goal was to expand solar generation … with nearly three-quarters of precincts reporting, the vote was almost evenly split, falling short of the 60 percent needed for a state constitutional amendment to become law.”

Progressive rising star Pramila Jayapal wins House seat. Huffington Post: “…she will be the first Indian-American woman to hold a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives … Jayapal will also join Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), the first Indian-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

Hat/tip to Infidel753 for finding this story.

I can at least feel a little better after reading all that, although it won't make up for what I expect will be lost when Trump occupies the Oval Office next year.