All the News That's Fit to Share
A bona-fide member of the Fifth Estate, practicing Mobile Journalism (MoJo) every chance we get...
The brightest and largest full moon of 2012 came over the horizon Saturday night in what is being billed by scientists as the rare appearance of a “supermoon” when the celestial body is closest to Earth this year.
At 11:34 p.m., about the time these photos were taken, the moon was about 221,802 miles from Earth — 15,300 miles closer than average.
More below…
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The rose-breasted grosbeaks and other migratory bird species are passing through the South on the way north for the summer. I managed to get a few decent shots today.
The rose-breasted grosbeak [pheucticus ludovicianus] making a stop in the backyard bird sanctuary in middle Alabama during the spring bird migration of 2012.
Click here or on the image to see more photos from Wednesday’s shoot.
Thrown into activism by the BP oil disaster, Cherri Foytlin has become a dedicated advocate for justice for Gulf Coast citizens, as demonstrated through her work with Gulf Change.
She recently spoke with Bridge the Gulf and the Institute for Southern Studies for the report Troubled Waters: Two Years After the BP Oil Disaster, a Struggling Gulf Coast Calls for National Leadership for Recovery (see above). Foytlin talked about how she’s been able to amplify the voices of overlooked Gulf residents, how she works to hold the oil industry accountable and why the health problems after the BP oil disaster need to be addressed immediately.
Bridge the Gulf / Institute for Southern Studies: Tell us a little about Rayne, La., where you live.
More here and at the Institute for Southern Studies
by Glynn Wilson
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday issued the final regulations required by the Clean Air Act to reduce harmful air pollution from the oil and natural gas industry while allowing “continued, responsible growth” in U.S. oil and natural gas production.
The final rules include the first federal air standards for natural gas wells that are hydraulically fractured, along with requirements for several other sources of pollution in the oil and gas industry that currently are not regulated at the federal level.
Based on public comment, EPA made a number of changes to the proposed rules to increase compliance flexibility while maintaining comparable environmental benefits, streamline notification, recordkeeping and reporting requirements, and strengthen accountability, according to the official announcement posted on the agency’s Website.
Part of this decision involves delaying key requirements until 2015 – a delay sought by the oil and gas industries, according to environmental experts who have been following the development of the regulations closely.
An Eastern towhee [pipilo erythrophthalmus] taking a bath in the backyard on a beautiful Easter Sunday in Central Alabama. Notice the red eyes. No, that’s not red eye from a camera flash. These interesting birds around all year long in the South have red eyes. They rustle around in the leaves to unearth seeds and insects to eat, and they hop along the ground and sing “tow-hee, tow-hee,” and then let out a long trill.
A mountain meadow along the Davidson River during the spring blooming season.
(Click on the images for a larger view. More photos and videos below.)
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Secret Vistas
by Glynn Wilson
ASHEVILLE, N.C., March 25 — Sitting in a camp chair in front of the computer by the French Broad River, one of those rare stretches of water that flows north — from the Eastern Continental Divide through the Appalachian Mountains to Tennessee — I witnessed a true optical illusion, without the need of a magician or a television set.
While watching the cold water run fast over the rocks through the shallows, a section of river too treacherous for a man and a dog in a canoe, I watched a freight train loaded with coal for TVA’s power plants traverse the track on the other side of the river heading south. With the water running north and the train moving south, when I held my head and eyes just right I got the feeling I was moving sideways — while sitting still.
It reminded me of being a kid again, watching puffy pink and white clouds move across a cobalt blue sky on a beautiful spring day, while laying back in a moving swing looking at the world upside down.
You can’t experience something like that sitting in the suburbs watching television or staring at the news feed on Facebook. Although I guess you could get a similar thrill playing computerized video games.
The point being: This is why we travel. This is why we camp. For a change of perspective on the world that makes us think.
EPA Backs Down on Secondary Air Quality Standards
WASHINGTON – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson will testify before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on EPA’s proposed Fiscal Year 2013 budget at 10 a.m., Thursday, March 22. The Obama Administration proposed a budget of $8.344 on February 13, $105 million below last year’s budget, reflecting a government-wide effort to reduce spending and find cost-savings, according to a press release announcing the hearing in Room 406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
Meanwhile, according to Frank O’Donnell of Clean Air Watch, the EPA has declined to set tougher new clean air standards aimed at reducing the damage caused by acid rain
“It comes as no great shock – though it is disappointing,” he said in an e-mail blast.
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The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The dogwoods, azaleas and cherry blossoms are in full bloom a full three weeks before Easter here, but of course that’s no sign of global warming and climate change, according to the Republicans and the media in Alabamaland.
The so-called Christians could care less. It must all be part of god’s plan. Right.
Nevermind that if there was a god, even the people who know a little about science yet believe say he gave the human species free will, which has led him to greedy pursuits that in fact do impact the climate.
Now if I was a Christian and I was searching for an answer to this riddle, I would conclude that if there were any such thing as a plan based on a “creation” event, if there was a god he would hold man in contempt for screwing up that creation.
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich address a sympathetic crowd at the Alabama Theater (click here to see more photos)
by Glynn Wilson
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich came out swinging against President Obama on energy policy at the Alabama Theater Monday night, the day before the primary election in the state, due to comments by the president’s press secretary responding to Gingrich’s provocative statement on the campaign trail: “I’ve been talking about the need for an American energy policy, and the idea that we should develop our capacity for oil to the point where no American president would ever again bow to a Saudi King.”
That’s a great applause line for the Republican base, like those gathered at the theater in downtown Birmingham, but it also suffers the same problem with most of Rick Santorum’s rhetoric and that of Mitt Romney as well. Those kinds of oil reserves do not exist on American soil even if we sent drillers in places even they do not want to go and to depths that cannot be reached. New Gingrich knows this, or he should.
He also knows this: The only way we are ever going to get past our dependence on oil from the Middle East is to develop alternative energy sources. That strategy also just happens to be in our national interest to reduce air pollution to improve our health, and to reduce our dependence on burning fossil fuels for energy that leads to global warming and climate change.
But the Republican base believes in God and in bringin’ on the “End Times,” so not only do they not “believe” in global warming, they are not interested in saving the planet. According to their book, the earth is going to be destroyed anyway so why worry?
Harper’s No Comment
