Disqus - Latest Comments for UpperLeftCoast

Re: Deep Cut

UpperLeftCoast — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 22:25:02 -0000

"Since becoming governor in 2013, Inslee has doubled down on his bet favoring shifting carbon from forests to wood products, as witnessed by how Washington’s state-owned forests are managed under his leadership"

This is incorrect and inaccurate. Logging on state Trust Lands in Washington is overseen and controlled by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). DNR is run by the independently elected Commissioner of Public Lands, not the Governor. You can fault Gov. Inslee for signing this particular bill, but not for determining, overseeing, planning, and approving logging on WA State Trust Lands. That is entirely up to the Commissioner of Public Lands, the Board of Natural Resources, and DNR. This trifecta has been notorious for many many decades as industry captured agencies,. There have been some progressive Commissioners of Public Lands who have tried to reform DNR; all have failed.

Commissioner of Public Lands Hillary Franz is the elected politician who should be called out here, not Gov. Inslee.. Franz previously was executive director of the statewide planning org 1000 Friends of Washington (now renamed FutureWise). She has been an abject disappointment to those who hoped she would reform the DNR, a nest of old school timber beasts.

This article is crappy, inaccurate journalism.

~Steve Erickson
Whidbey Environmental Action Network

PS: Tomorrow a court in Jefferson County will hear an appeal of two state Trust Lands logging sales based on the Commissioner of Public Lands, DNR's, and the Board of Natural Resources failure to consider the impacts of these timber sales on climate change.

Re: As Climate Warms, a Rearrangement of World’s Plant Life Looms

UpperLeftCoast — Sun, 14 Nov 2021 20:02:17 -0000

Well, you can go all the way back to Pangaea or any of the other super continents if you like. But the reality is that modern human commerce has accelerated the rate and quantity of trans-oceanic and trans-continental transfer by orders of magnitude.
Can you name even a single plant species considered problematic since the European invasion in the US (or both americas) that were newly established due to volcanic event, rafting (but not on a modern human artifact or a boat), drifting, or via the atmosphere (without airplane assistance)?
I am curious which species of rhododendron now considered alien in the UK occurred there 30,000 years ago. Reference, please.
Again, the rate of inter-continental and oceanic transfer due to modern human commerce and travel is orders of magnitude greater than the background rate.

Re: As Climate Warms, a Rearrangement of World’s Plant Life Looms

UpperLeftCoast — Sun, 14 Nov 2021 16:35:26 -0000

Again, the rate and quantity of trans-continental dispersal by novel organisms by modern human transportation networks is orders of magnitude greater than the background rate before those networks existed. And these networks enable transport of organisms that normally would not be able to survive migration between continents via atmospheric transport (i.e., spores), rafting (i.e. terrestrial organisms), or movement under their own power.

Re: As Climate Warms, a Rearrangement of World’s Plant Life Looms

UpperLeftCoast — Sat, 13 Nov 2021 15:20:47 -0000

The long distance transport from Japan to the US west coast post tsunami has been entirely(? - do you know otherwise?) associated with human structures that float, such as docks, styrofoam floats, etc.
Yes, long distance dispersal, colonization and eventual establishment have occurred, but the background rates of these events are orders of magnitude slower than that occurring from transport via modern human commerce.
Against, the qualitative and quantitative effects due to the difference from the background (~natural) rate is similar to the effects from the rapid during of fossil fuels. Were it spread out over a longer period of time it would be considerably less destabilizing.

Re: As Climate Warms, a Rearrangement of World’s Plant Life Looms

UpperLeftCoast — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 17:22:09 -0000

Much much slower. Analogous to the difference between the rate of GHG emissions for the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum and now.

Re: As Climate Warms, a Rearrangement of World’s Plant Life Looms

UpperLeftCoast — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 15:01:42 -0000

Nature doesn't use airplanes, cargo ships, car tires, etc. to disperse propagules.

Re: Combating climate change: A study of embodied carbon

UpperLeftCoast — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 23:20:41 -0000

No new buildings should be constructed that are not designed eventually be taken apart.

Re: The persecution of Steven Donziger

UpperLeftCoast — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 17:12:35 -0000

As confirmed by FN's response here. Some sort of fixated cyber stalking, I guess.

Re: Greta Thunberg on climate promises versus actions

UpperLeftCoast — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 20:58:47 -0000

I'll let you in on a secret: CO2, methane, ad there GHGs don't have any political ideology at all.

Re: The persecution of Steven Donziger

UpperLeftCoast — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 17:59:42 -0000

At this point, Chevron has spent over $100 million fighting the Ecuadorian judgement outside Ecuador. How much Chevron has spent persecuting Donsiger specifically is unknown.

Re: The persecution of Steven Donziger

UpperLeftCoast — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 17:56:32 -0000

You have to understand that aprescoup and fuck_no are everywhere - if it gives them the opportunity to bash Thunberg, no matter how far the stretch from the subject of the article. Apparently, its their major activity.

Re: Greta Thunberg on climate promises versus actions

UpperLeftCoast — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 16:16:43 -0000

Most of the comments below are textbook examples of why the ultra left-anarchist faction in the US is so amazingly ineffective. Their ideology: the enemy are those who do not agree 100% with me; they are to be attacked mercilessly for their failure to hew to my ideological line which is the only true path and which only I can see, so get in line behind me and follow while cheering me on over the cliff.

Re: Greta Thunberg on climate promises versus actions

UpperLeftCoast — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 16:08:54 -0000

Sorry, but I find aprescoup's post just that: buzz word gibberish. How is that "1% fluffery?"
But as long as I'm here, I'll throw out some buzz words about most of the posters on NOC:
ego driven mirror gazing purer than thou ranters with nothing constructive to say other than they are the only truly pure ones who have the solution to whatever the problem is if only they could communicate it but they sure can slam everyone else as tools and fools because something or other and that's the important thing.

Re: Greta Thunberg on climate promises versus actions

UpperLeftCoast — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 19:59:13 -0000

Speaking of gibberish . . .

Re: How green organizations can hire more people of color

UpperLeftCoast — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 17:33:04 -0000

Relevant to Big Green, but not most enviro orgs.

Re: It’s Code Red for the Climate. Will BC Do Anything about It?

UpperLeftCoast — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 13:10:55 -0000

Absolutely.This happens constantly. We all know that the sun revolves around the Earth. The silly claim that its the other way around has nothing behind it except for data and math, and we all know how prone to error those are!

Re: As Climate Warms, a Rearrangement of World’s Plant Life Looms

UpperLeftCoast — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 17:14:07 -0000

Why do you the think that invasives, all introduced (deliberately or otherwise) by humans, are better adapted to projected changing conditions than the natives that have existed for evolutionary time periods in these locales? Might they also simply place more stress on the natives, tipping them towards extirpation/extinction that the natives may have sufficient adaptive amplitude to weather (pun intended)?
The long term climate shifts created by anthropogenic fossil fuel burning argues that using recent past conditions as a rigid model for current management is flawed, but that does not necessarily speak to the existing and future new colonizers.

Re: All life is created equal - NationofChange

UpperLeftCoast — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 15:37:19 -0000

"within 100 years artificial intelligence and robotics will provide sustenance to all humanity."
And the Earth will happily support 10+ billion people regardless of any overshoot of almost every planetary biological and chemical system and cycle.

Re: Site C dam, oilsands pushing Canada’s largest national park closer to endangered list

UpperLeftCoast — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 23:29:57 -0000

Canada will actually act to protect this ecosystem about the same time it acts to actually protect Caribou or BC acts to protect Caribou or ancient forest. Canada is as bad as Brazil when it comes to nature conservation. Its time for a international boycott of the forest mining and petro state.

Re: B.C. failed to protect biodiversity, old-growth when auctioning off Nahmint forest: watchdog investigation

UpperLeftCoast — Thu, 13 May 2021 19:54:02 -0000

Log log log. Cut cut cut.Talk talk talk.

its time for an international boycott of BC. BC is worse than Brazil.

Re: As waste leaches from B.C. coal mines, experts worry rules will fall short

UpperLeftCoast — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 19:06:07 -0000

I used to think that the it comes to environmental law and policy Canada was as bad as Brazil under Bolsonaro. Now I realize I was wrong. Canada is worse.

Re: No New Money for Old Growth Protection in BC’s Budget

UpperLeftCoast — Sat, 24 Apr 2021 23:23:09 -0000

SHUT. IT. DOWN!
The way to stop logging ancient forest is to get in their way. Including the politicians. Don't let them have a moment's peace. If they are not actively working to immediately stop ancient forest logging they are committing ecocide. Hold them to account in every way possible. Disrupt their lives until they act. Make them miserable. That's what we did in the states and it works. Pleading and being nice do not. Of course, we also had the advantage of having laws to protect the environment, but there are no laws protecting the environment, forests, or rare species in Canada. At least, as in laws that are enforceable. Canada is as bad as Brazil under Bolsonaro.

Re: Your Weather Forecast Update: Warmer Climate Will Be The New 'Normal'

UpperLeftCoast — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 21:47:57 -0000

"That context is important. Research shows that as unusual weather events happen more frequently, people simply reset their perception of what's normal. One study found a common reference point for "normal conditions" was only two to eight years ago."

Its caed "shifting baselines" and is why people think a 3 foot diameter tree is huge.

Re: Pamplin Media Group - Opinion: Is clean energy racist? It doesn't have to be

UpperLeftCoast — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 12:45:52 -0000

This is nonsensical. There are more lower and middle income white people than POC who can't afford rooftop (distributed) solar or house-scale battery backup for the the grid goes down. The problem here is not racism or economic discrimination. The problem is the lack of financial systems to enable people to afford such systems.

Re: A law to reduce plastic waste, ban Styrofoam statewide is advancing in Legislature

UpperLeftCoast — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 16:37:55 -0000

To use your favorite trite phrase, you are spouting "virtue signaling nonsense." You seem to really like single use plastic bags, the kind that go flying around anytime the wind picks up. If these are not being sold, they won't be manufactured! Its called the "market." Are you anti-capitalist? Don't you want to correct the market inefficiencies single use plastic bags create? You know the plastic companies that manufacture these are heavily subsidized, right? Their health and pollution costs are offloaded onto the public and environment. They profit off the pollution they create. That's also very bad for their morals. You know about the "moral hazard" created when the manufacturers evade their personal responsibility for the pollution they create? Its not good for them at all. So take your plastic bags ad stuff them where the sun don't shine.