HALLIE GOLDEN – Salmon return to lay eggs in historic habitat after largest dam removal project in US history
Category: Big Picture
The BRICS Summit Should Mark The End Of Neocon Delusions
JEFFREY D, SACHS – The majority of the world does not want or accept U.S. hegemony.
An Open Letter to Vice President Kamala Harris on US Middle East Policy
MEL GURTOV – The Palestinian people have the right to a peaceful future, and you, candidate for President of the United States, might well say, “it is my intention, as President, to do everything possible to give them that. They, the Israeli people, and all others in the Middle East cannot benefit from endless war.”
Vote Climate U.S. PAC Announces Release of 2024 National Climate Change Voter’s Guide
KARYN STRICKLER – Because American voters want to prioritize climate-action in the voting booth, Vote Climate U.S. PAC is releasing our 2024 Presidential, Congressional and Gubernatorial, Voter’s Guide, making us the only website in the country to provide a climate change Voter’s Guide for candidates for POTUS, Governors, U.S. House, U.S. Senate and Statehouses (partial) all in one convenient, user friendly site.
Court Rules U.S. Nuclear Weapons Production Plan Violates Federal Law
MEDIA CONTACTS FOR NEWS RELEASE – On September 30, United States District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis ruled that the United States Department of Energy (“DOE”) and its semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration (“NNSA”), violated the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) by failing to properly consider alternatives before proceeding with their plan to produce plutonium pits, a critical component of nuclear weapons, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (“LANL”) in New Mexico and, for the first time ever, at the Savannah River Site (“SRS”) in South Carolina. The Court found that the plan’s purpose had fundamentally changed from NNSA’s earlier analyses which had not considered simultaneous pit production at two sites. These changes necessitated a reevaluation of alternatives, including site alternatives, which Defendants failed to undertake prior to moving forward while spending tens of billions of taxpayers’ dollars.
The Economy: Things You Believe That Are Not True
ARNOLD OLIVER – If you are among those legions of Americans who think that Republicans are better economic stewards, please rethink your views. And if you hear someone make such a claim, please correct them politely but firmly.
United Nations adopts ground-breaking Pact for the Future to transform global governance
UNITED NATIONS – United Nations adopts ground-breaking Pact for the Future to transform global governance.
New metric in OR will make social-emotional health care more accessible
ERIC TEGETHOFF – Oregon aims to make social and emotional health care for young children more available with a new metric.
Crucial Election Question: What do the candidates think about nuclear weapons?
WINSLOW MYERS – How can Annie Jacobsen’s enthralling “Nuclear War: A Scenario” be a NY Times bestseller while there continues to be zero candidate conversation around fundamentally nutty U.S. policies like “launch on warning”? Why don’t we hear anything on the subject from the politicians? The silence is deafening.
French nuclear giant scraps SMR plans due to soaring costs, will start over
GILES PARKINSON – The federal Coalition has argued that nuclear might be expensive to build, but will deliver cheaper power to consumers. It has not explained how, but it has said that its reactors would be government owned, suggesting that – like France and Ontario – the costs would be borne by taxpayers and the supply of power to customers would be heavily subsidized.
Air Pollution Is Killing Millions and Rising Exponentially—A Shift in Agriculture Can Solve It
JIMMY VIDELE – Today’s biggest epidemic is the exponential rise of CO2-equivalent atmospheric emissions. With COVID-19, the world changed protocols within weeks of the outbreak. This shows that we can change today to stop the harm inflicted on the planet, the more than 8 billion humans, and countless other Earthlings. We need to realize that there is no bigger threat facing us currently.
Israeli Government Funded Covert Influence Campaign Targeting US Lawmakers: NYT
EDWARD CARVER – Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs organized and paid for a digital campaign to influence U.S. lawmakers, especially Democrats who are Black, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, June 3rd.
Facing a Surge in Wildfires, the U.S. Government Turned to Native Wisdom and Advanced Archaeology
IRINA MATUZAVA – Collaborative efforts between forest agencies and Indigenous communities are improving wildfire management by combining oral histories with long-term archaeological datasets, demonstrating the value of integrating an understanding of the past into solutions for a better future.
We Must Face Down the Expanding Anti-Reality Industry
BRYN NELSON – Exposing the antiscience playbook reveals the antiregulatory motives of its deep-pocketed bankrollers
What Biden Could/Should Be Saying…
WINSLOW MYERS – Imagine what a U.S. president might say to the nation if he or she were willing to break ironclad political taboos and admit some self-evident truths . . .
How Can People Actually Protect Their Privacy in an Era of Total Digital Surveillance?
JOHN P. RUEHL – Governments and private entities have steadily eroded privacy on the internet. The trend toward internet functions centralizing within national borders and fragmenting internationally reinforces the need to safeguard both openness and security in cyberspace.
Plastic Pollution Is a Crime Against People and the Planet
ERICA CIRINO – Plastic particles and chemicals pollute all of our bodies. But people living on the fencelines of the fossil fuel, plastic, and waste industries face even more life-threatening pollution.
Should Harming Mother Earth Be a Crime? The Case for Ecocide
REYNARD LOKI – The destruction of nature might one day become a criminal offense adjudicated by the International Criminal Court.
How Unions and Joe Biden Are Launching a New Frontier in American Manufacturing
DAVID MCCALL – The Biden administration, in conjunction with unions and with clean energy aims, is supporting American manufacturing through substantial investments and grants coming from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act.
Congress Puts Taxpayers On the Hook for Nuclear Accidents
STOP NUCLEAR WORK GROUP – The Price-Anderson Act renewal is the most dramatic demonstration that the nuclear industry and its deluded champions have “no confidence” in their own insincere promotional rhetoric.
What’s So Green About Burning Trees? The False Promise of Biomass Energy
SAM DAVIS – Bioenergy companies are clear-cutting American forests to heat and electrify Europe. This broken system harms public health, the environment, and the climate.
Capitalism Has Left the Building. Enter Technofeudalism
MARK LESSERAUX – Over the last four or five years, like just about everyone else, I’ve been feeling that some kind of huge shift, some sort of sea change has taken place that I haven’t quite been able to define. There were certainly occurrences that stood out. There was the Trump presidency, there was the COVID pandemic, there are the horrible wars in Ukraine, in Gaza and elsewhere, etc.. However, none of these phenomena held up, by themselves or in conjunction with one another, as a satisfying answer to my query — What is Technofeudalism and what are its components that are vanguishing capitalism?
We Need a Plan for the Transition to Renewable Energy
DAVID FRIDLEY and RICHARD HEINBERG – It seems wise to channel society’s efforts toward no-regrets strategies—efforts that shift expectations, emphasize quality of life over consumption, and reinforce community resilience. Even though it may be impossible to envision the end result of the renewable energy transition, we must seek to understand its scope and general direction.
Global Pet Craze Is Becoming a Major Contributor to the Extinction Crisis
PETER CHRISTIE – Pets and the industry that supports them are fueling the loss of wildlife populations around the world.
Imperiling Climate Goals, Global Resource Extraction Set to Surge 60% by 2060
THOR BENSON – Wealthy nations are responsible for most of the consumption of natural resources, according to a new United Nations report.
Tell the Truth About Israel’s Crimes Against Humanity
SONALI KOLHATKAR – Western news bias in favor of Israel is more and more apparent as media outlets go out of their way to obscure the perpetrators of genocide.
Nearly 300,000 OR kids await approval of summer food benefits
ERIC TEGETHOFF – Oregon lawmakers have two weeks left in the session to approve funding for the Summer EBT (electronic benefit transfer) program that helps feed children when school’s out.
A galvanizing vision for Palestine-Israel could help stop the war in Gaza
ANDY BICHLBAUM – The leading “DAY AFTER” plans (after the Israel-Gaza/Hamas war) are doomed. “A Land for All” offers an imaginative, reality-based vision Palestinians and Israelis support.
Biden Hits “Pause” on New Gas Exports Following Pressure From Climate Activists
MIKE LUDWIG – The move is a win for the climate and Gulf Coast frontline communities, but activists warn a “pause” is easily undone.
Climate Change and Energy Transition: The 2023 Scorecard
RICHARD HEINBERG and J. DAVID HUGHES – The numbers are in, and it doesn’t look good.
US Foreign Policy Is a Scam Built on Corruption
JEFFREY D. SACHS – The $1.5 trillion in military outlays each year is the scam that keeps on giving—to the military-industrial complex and the Washington insiders—even as it impoverishes and endangers America and the world.
I Am Gaza City’s Mayor. Our Lives and Culture Are in Rubble
DR, YAHYA R. SARRAJ – The Israeli invasion has caused the deaths of more than 20,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and destroyed or damaged about half the buildings in the territory. The Israelis have also pulverized something else: Gaza City’s cultural riches and municipal institutions.
Unchecked Human Activity Is Pushing Ecosystems Toward the Brink
ERIKA SCHELBY – The planet is facing multiple severe challenges that require our immediate attention. Putting an end to the dirty and suffocating fossil fuel emissions may be the most significant global priority, but limiting the misuse of water and restoring degraded land are also essential projects. These two actions could help put the brakes on extreme weather events and slow down mounting losses in biodiversity, biocapacity, and the economy.
How to Make Recyclable Plastics Out of CO2 to Slow Climate Change
ANN LESLIE DAVIS – Chemists are manipulating carbon dioxide to make clothing, mattresses, shoes, and more. These products are already on the market around the world. And others are in the process of being developed. They’re part of a growing effort by academia and industry to reduce the damage caused by centuries of human activity that has sent CO2 and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.
COP28 pledge to triple nuclear energy production: ‘Trumpism enters energy policy’
FRANCOIS DIAZ-MAURIN – Last week, a group of independent energy consultants and analysts released the much-anticipated 2023 edition of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2023 (WNISR). The report provides a detailed assessment of the status and trends of the international nuclear industry, covering more than 40 countries. Now in its 18th edition, the report is known for its fact-based approach providing details on operation, construction, and decommissioning of the world’s nuclear reactors.
Election Defenders’ Top 2024 Worry: Online Rumors, Deceptions, Lies Swaying Masses
STEVEN ROSENFELD – Rumors, misperceptions, mischaracterizations, deceptions, lies, and violence in politics are as old as America itself, as political historians like Heather Cox Richardson have noted. There is no simple or single solution, said Starbird. Nonetheless, she ended her Stanford address with a “call to action” urging everyone to redouble their efforts in 2024: “We’re not going to solve the problem with misinformation, disinformation, manipulation… with one new label, or a new educational initiative, or a new research program,” she told trust and safety researchers. “It’s going to have to be all of the above… It’s going to be all these different things coming at it from different directions.”
Predicting Pestilence in Gaza
KATHY KELLY – Calling the Israeli-Gaza War a war on children, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder warned that “inaction by those with influence is allowing the killing of children.” We, the citizens of the world, are those with influence as well as our elected officials. It is the citizens of the world who came out by the hundreds of thousands in recent weeks that caused the seven day truce to happen. Now we must urgently pay heed to another persecution of Gaza’s children and families, waged by one of war’s more silent partners: disease.
The Brotherhood of Billionaires
LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – In recent decades, a growing similarity has developed between the Chinese and U.S. economic systems. Despite the Chinese Communist Party’s talk of “socialism,” the rapidly-expanding Chinese economy has become increasingly capitalist, with the private sector accounting for about two-thirds of China’s Gross Domestic Product in 2021. Not surprisingly, then, the two countries currently lead the rest of the world’s nations in their number of billionaires. This March, according to Forbes, the United States had 735 billionaires (worth a collective $4.5 trillion) and China had 562 (worth $2 trillion) out of a global total of 2,640.
Merkley Just Second US Senator to Demand Gaza Cease-Fire
JESSICA CORBETT – U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley on Monday became just the second member of the Senate to demand a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, over six weeks into Israel’s brutal bombardment and ground operations that have killed over 13,000 Palestinians, including 5,500 children.
Does Modern Science Already Allow Us to Manage the Weather?
JOHN P. RUEHL – Weather manipulation is increasingly common around the world, but the dangers of privatization and weaponization abound.
Reactor Plans Smashed by Costs
WILL WADE – NuScale Power Corp., the first company with US approval for a small nuclear reactor design, is canceling plans to build a power plant for a Utah provider as costs surge. The move is a major setback to the burgeoning technology that has been heralded as the next era for atomic energy.
The Osage want you to know their story doesn’t end with Killers of the Flower Moon
GREG PALAST – Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon describes the struggles of the Osage people. Here’s why they are still fighting.
Texas nuclear waste storage permit invalidated by US appeals court
CLARK MINDOCK – A U.S. appeals court canceled a license granted by a federal agency to a company to build a temporary nuclear waste storage facility in western Texas, which the Republican-led state has argued would be dangerous to build in one of the nation’s largest oil basins.
NATO’s Steadfast Noon Is Ready-made Doom
JOHN LAFORGE – Steadfast Noon is not just code language, or public relations. The event is a large-scale, psychological operation intended to teach us to pretend that nuclear attacks can do good. Of course if nuclear firestorms saved lives and ended war — as U.S. mythology goes with Hiroshima and Nagasaki — then the Pentagon would have used them in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. People love to be fooled.
800+ Legal Scholars Say Israel May Be Perpetrating ‘Crime of Genocide’ in Gaza
JAKE JOHNSON – “The ongoing and imminent Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip are being conducted with potentially genocidal intent.”
U.S. Plan to Put Weapons-Grade Uranium in a Civilian Reactor Is Dangerous and Unnecessary
ALAN J. KUPERMAN – The Biden administration’s intention to use dozens of bombs’ worth of highly enriched uranium as fuel in a new civilian reactor sets a dangerous precedent, one that could help our foes get nuclear weapons.
Why China’s New Map of Its Borders Has Stirred Regional Tensions
JOHN P. RUEHLE – China’s release of its standard map has produced outrage and alarm in several countries, yet Beijing remains steadfast in continuing its historical approach toward its borders.
FCC details plan to restore the net neutrality rules repealed by Ajit Pai
JON BRODKIN – Democrats finally have 3-2 majority needed to regulate ISPs as common carriers, but the road ahead is challenging.
Ecuador Just Showed the World What It Means To Take Climate Change Seriously
NICK GOTTLIEB – Ecuador just showed the world what it means to take climate change, biodiversity loss, and Indigenous sovereignty seriously, all with one national referendum, and at significant cost in a country wrestling with the challenging reality of being a resource producer in the Global South.
Small reactors at Hanford: Déjà vu all over again
JOHN ABBOTTS – Will small reactors be the vehicle by which Energy Northwest “rhymes” with its earlier nuclear fiasco? Stay tuned.