environment: Boston Herald rain snow
by Warren
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Month 3, Day 15: Wet
Was wondering what to write about when I got involved in trying to fix some leaks that had developed in my basement. Dammit.
Anyway, I was good and pissed-off, so I thought I’d take it out on the Boston Herald. The swollen belly returns for another turn in this one. One day it’ll make it into print.
Hey, climate-change deniers! Do a few freak snowstorms disprove global warming? How about a few freak rainstorms? Climate scientists have long predicted that extreme weather will increase over the next decade as global temperature goes up: more heat means more water evaporating into the atmosphere, and that means more rain in spring, more snow in winter, and more weirdness and wetness all around. We can expect big effects on agriculture, faster deterioration of roads and infrastructure, more power outages and disruptions. It’s time for you to face the facts. An unseasonal snowstorm in Washington DC no more disproves global warming than the kwashiorkor-swollen belly of a starving child disproves world hunger.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Ed Markey John Kerry Scott Brown Tongass National Forest
by Warren
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Month 3, Day 14: It’s PI Day!
Heavy rain brought down our landline and FIOS internet last night. I’m piggybacking on my neighbor’s wireless at the moment. No time to write anything original; I’m sending my Senators and my Rep a version of yesterday’s letter, opposing the Tongass logging bills.
Dear Senators Kerry & Brown / Representative Markey,
This letter is to request you to oppose S. 881 and H.R. 2099, legislation addressing usage considerations with regard to land that is currently part of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. These bills will permit Sealaska, an Alaskan Native corporation, to log 80,000 acres of the Tongass. While it is important to secure economic benefits for Native Americans, it’s crucial to recognize that the Tongass is one of the country’s top “carbon banks” (carbon-storing forests).
Pacific Northwest forests, including the Tongass, store one and a half times as much carbon as this country burns in a year. It is an act of profound environmental irresponsibility to allow such a carbon bank to be logged off. Sealaska may need to cut 80,000 acres of trees to maintain their balance sheet, but our country’s environmental balance is far more endangered than theirs.
Maintaining and expanding our national forests is a crucial element of our national environmental policy. Not only are these forests crucial carbon banks (and therefore one of our first lines of defense against CO2 emissions), they possess inherent value as places of beauty, peace and respect for the natural world. When our country learns to stop thinking of them as commodities worth so much per board foot, we will have, perhaps, grown up a little.
Please oppose this legislation.
Thank you,
Warren Senders