Stephan: This is, I think, a pretty good assessment of the state of the South, and it describes a big part of the Great Schism Trend.
Atlanta
Credit: www.huffingtonpost.com
In addressing the growth of sprawling, low-density, autocentric communities around much of America, Joel Kotkin, a ‘New Suburbanist,’ states the case for a new outlook:
Rather than reject such cities, we are committed to their improvement. All of our analysis of current and likely future trends reveals that sprawling multipolar cities with overwhelmingly auto dependent suburbs will continue to enjoy economic and demographic growth over the next several decades. [1]
Despite what many New Urbanists might want to believe, Kotkin – though a sprawl apologist – is likely correct. Polycentric cities will continue to grow, and they will continue to attract new residents-for now. Much of that growth will occur in the South, now the most populous region in the United States.
Ultimately, however, this is an unsustainable trend. Attempting to sustain it will have enormous portends for one of the most complicated and ecologically fragile areas of the country. The American South, long a sparsely populated region with a unique agrarian culture and mindset, is transforming […]
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Emily Atkin, - Think Progress
Stephan: What amazes me is how docilely Americans tolerate the outrageous blatant evil of the Koch brothers.
Americans for Prosperity Foundation Chairman David Koch speaks in Orlando, Florida, in August, 2013.
Credit: AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack
Lawmakers from at least four states have introduced model legislation from the right-wing group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) seeking to prohibit state funding for the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to fight climate change.
On Thursday, Missouri state lawmaker Tim Remole introduced a resolution mimicking the text of AFP’s Reliable, Affordable and Safe Power (RASP) Act. Remole’s resolution “seeks to prohibit state agencies from using state money to implement EPA rules and guidelines,” specifically the EPA’s efforts to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
Nearly identical resolutions have also been introduced in Florida, Virginia, and South Carolina in 2015. Each one says the proposed limits on carbon emissions from power plants “will not measurably alter any impacts of climate change,” “conflicts with a literal reading of the law,” and would “effectively amount to a federal […]
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Michael T. Klare, - Salon/TomDispatch
Stephan: I think this is a pretty good assessment of where we are in the transition out of carbon, from carbon's perspective. In its current configuration the petroleum industry is dying. For the foreseeable future there will be a need for some petroleum. But it will be vastly scaled back, and not used for combustion.
Credit: Shutterstock
Many reasons have been provided for the dramatic plunge in the price of oil to about $60 per barrel (nearly half of what it was a year ago): slowing demand due to global economic stagnation; overproduction at shale fields in the United States; the decision of the Saudis and other Middle Eastern OPEC producers to maintain output at current levels (presumably to punish higher-cost producers in the U.S. and elsewhere); and the increased value of the dollar relative to other currencies. There is, however, one reason that’s not being discussed, and yet it could be the most important of all: the complete collapse of Big Oil’s production-maximizing business model.
Until last fall, when the price decline gathered momentum, the oil giants were operating at full throttle, pumping out more petroleum every day. They did so, of course, in part to profit from the high prices. For most of the previous six years, Brent crude, the international benchmark for crude oil, had been selling at $100 or higher. But Big Oil was also […]
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Saturday, March 14th, 2015
Jay Famiglietti, PhD, Senior Water Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech, Professor of Earth System Science at UC Irvine - The Los Angeles Times
Stephan: This is really an amazing story written by a major climate scientist, and published prominently in the largest paper in California. Is it an exaggeration; is it untrue as climate deniers maintain? We are going to know the answer by this time next year. The implications for agricultural, real estate, and industry could be catastrophic.
As I read this I learned from the television that the east side of the Cascade Mountains, where Washington's fruit is grown, the governor has just declared an emergency as a result of drought. What immediately occurred to me was that with both California and Washington agricultural areas in emergency drought food prices are going to be going up significantly, and even availability may become an issue.
Severe drought conditions reveal more than 600 empty docks sitting on dry, cracked dirt at Folsom Lake Marina, which is one of the largest inland marinas in California.
Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times
Given the historic low temperatures and snowfalls that pummeled the eastern U.S. this winter, it might be easy to overlook how devastating California’s winter was as well.
As our “wet” season draws to a close, it is clear that the paltry rain and snowfall have done almost nothing to alleviate epic drought conditions. January was the driest in California since record-keeping began in 1895. Groundwater and snowpack levels are at all-time lows. We’re not just up a creek without a paddle in California, we’re losing the creek too.
Snow Drought Bad News For California
Statewide, we’ve been dropping more than 12 million acre-feet of total […]
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