William Yardley, - Los Angeles Times
Stephan: Water is destiny.
Vegetation grows between boat slips at the now-defunct Echo Bay Marina in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Las Vegas.
Credit: John Locher / AP
This may be what the start of a water war looks like.
Drought is draining the West’s largest reservoir, Lake Mead, to historic low levels. Forecasts say climate change will make things worse. Headlines warn of water shortages and cutbacks. Members of Congress are moving to protect their states’ supplies.
Yet if war is really imminent, why is one of the region’s most experienced water managers doing the same thing he has done for years: tinkering?
“I like to describe this as another incremental step,” said Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources.
Buschatzke was talking about a plan he is helping develop, along with water managers in California, Nevada and Mexico, that would voluntarily reduce water allocations from the Colorado River to those three states and […]
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Orrin H. Pilkey And Keith C. Pilkey, ames B. Duke Professor Emeritus in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University - administrative law judge with the Social Security Administration - The News & Observer
Stephan: I am not the only one who believes that whether it is too little water as in California, or too much because of searise as in coastal states like North Carolina water is destiny. This essay accords with my own, and heartens me, because I read it to mean that mass consciousness is changing.
A North Carolina beach under threat Credit: Juli Leonard
Sea-level rise is upon us, and in the near future we will be forced to retreat from the shoreline. Two new peer-reviewed studies have suggested that a 3.5-to-6-foot sea-level rise by 2100 is a real possibility because of the increasing instability of the ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica.
Already in North Carolina, widespread killing of trees in the lowermost coastal plain is evidence of sea-level rise. The trees die when intruding salt water pushes up the lighter freshwater and drowns the roots.
Globally, coastal dwellers are beginning to pull back from low-elevation lands and eroding shorelines. For instance, coastal inhabitants of the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic shorelines are actively contemplating relocation. Thousands of Pacific islanders from coral atoll islands have already moved to safer high ground, many of them choosing to relocate to other countries since there is little high ground on atolls.
Retreat from river deltas, where hundreds of millions live, is just beginning. Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana, […]
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Sarah K. Burris, - The Raw Story
Stephan: One of the things that makes Associate Justice Ginsburg one of the most beloved figures in American public life is that she tells the truth. This story is I think quite remarkable. I cannot think of a precedent in my lifetime.
Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Credit: Wake Forest University’s Flickr
The notorious U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg doesn’t mess around when it comes to rulings, so it’s no surprise she didn’t pull any punches when talking about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
In an interview posted by the New York Times Sunday, Ginsburg said her late husband, who died in 2010, would have told her, “‘Now it’s time for us to move to New Zealand,’” if Trump is elected in November.
“I can’t imagine what the country would be with Donald Trump as our president,” she said. “For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be — I don’t even want to contemplate that.”
However, Ginsburg doesn’t want the right-wing to get too excited, she said that she will not be leaving her job “as long as I can do it full steam.” But it isn’t just her that is getting on in years. She mentioned both […]
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Frances Hubbard, - The Daily Press
Stephan: This story caught my attention because I grew up in Gloucester, Virginia, and I worked for the paper that published this, The Daily Press. This is Old Virginia, there are more 18th century homes in Gloucester than any other county in Virginia. This was originally colonial land grant property and Jefferson courted the fair Belinda at the beautiful White Marsh estate. Cornwallis surrendered to Washington on the other side of the York River. This area tends to be conservative, but not Evangelical as Virginia is further south in Virginia Beach and Norfolk. So the fact that Tidewater Virginia, rural and traditional in a state notably backward in pursuing alternative energy nonetheless is actively pursuing a model of how a community can incorporate solar I think is very interesting, and encouraging.
“Today is sunny and I’ve got a roof that could generate energy,” Maureen Fairbrother said at her home on Friday.
The Middlesex resident has a long-term goal of converting her home’s energy usage to solar power. She’s hoping other residents will consider it as well.
“The sun is an incredible source of power on this planet,” she said. “This is technology that is doable, long-term and a good investment.”
Fairbrother is working with Virginia Solar United Neighborhoods, known as VA SUN, to form a solar co-op on the Middle Peninsula. The co-op brings together homeowners who are interested in solar power and walks them through the process, according to Aaron Sutch, program director with VA SUN.
Co-ops, Sutch said, address two barriers that come with solar energy conversion: cost and education.
“The goal is so residents are educated consumers,” Sutch said.
The group hosts informational sessions for residents covering the basics of solar power and by soliciting bids for a bulk purchase with an installer, they are able to reduce the cost.
The co-ops aim to have about 100 qualified members, Sutch said. To start, once the co-op has 20 to 30 interested residents, VA SUN screens each roof using digital tools to see if it’s […]
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Thom Hartmann, - The Raw Story
Stephan: As we consider the state of the United States, a country that is now perceived as so dangerous that at least three nations are warning their citizens to be careful to avoid crowds or places were there is a heavy police presence for fear of harm, perhaps it is time to examine the Second Amendment again. I was going to write a essay for today's SR but Thom Hartmann beat me to it.
Image from the American anti-slavery almanac, 1836,
Credit: Flickr Commons
The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says “State” instead of “Country” (the Framers knew the difference – see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave patrol militias in the southern states, which was necessary to get Virginia’s vote. Founders Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Madison were totally clear on that . . . and we all should be too.
In the beginning, there were the militias. In the South, they were also called the “slave patrols,” and they were regulated by the states.
In Georgia, for example, a generation before the American Revolution, laws were passed in 1755 and 1757 that required all plantation owners or their male white employees to be members of the Georgia Militia, and for those armed militia members to make monthly inspections of the quarters of all slaves in the state. The law defined which counties had which armed militias and even required […]
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