AN EXCERPT:

In 2009, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that domestic wind turbines are killing about 440,000 birds per year. Since then, the wind industry has been riding a rapid growth spurt.

But that growth has slowed dramatically due to a tsunami of cheap natural gas and hefty taxpayer subsidies. Even worse: that cheap gas looks like it will last for many years, and Congress has, so far, been unwilling to extend the 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour subsidy for wind operators that expires at the end of this year.

And now, the wind industry is facing yet another big challenge: increasing resistance from environmental groups who are concerned about the effect that unrestrained construction of wind turbines is having on birds and bats. Ninety environmental groups, led by the American Bird Conservancy, have signed onto the “bird-smart wind petition” which has been submitted to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

It’s about time.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-bryce/eighty-six-environmental-_b_1339531.html

AN EXCERPT:   In creating dedicated departments, we made the environment another special interest, like education, health and agriculture. The environment subsumes every aspect of our activities, but we failed to make the point that our lives, health and livelihoods absolutely depend on the biosphere—air, water, soil, sunlight and biodiversity. Without them, we sicken and die. ..When we believe the entire world is filled with unlimited “resources” provided for our use, we act accordingly. This “anthropocentric” view envisions the world revolving around us. So we create departments of forests, fisheries and oceans, and environment whose ministers are less concerned with the health and well-being of forests, fish, oceans or the environment than with resources and the economies that depend on them.

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http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/03-3

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TO READ THE APR/MAY Z, CLICK THE COVER:

Zephyr Note:  You’ll have to look hard in this NYTimes article for any mention of climate change or the impacts of expanded fossil fuel production. Clearly these guys aren’t particularly swayed by the science of global warming…JS

AN EXCERPT:   THE reversal of fortune in America’s energy supplies in recent years holds the promise of abundant and cheaper fuel, and it could have profound effects on what people drive, domestic manufacturing and America’s foreign policy. ..Cheaper fuel produced domestically could reduce the cost of shipping and manufacturing, trim heating and cooling bills, improve the auto market and provide tens of thousands of new jobs…It might also pose new environmental challenges, both predictable and unforeseen, by damping enthusiasm for clean forms of energy and derailing efforts to wean the nation from its wasteful energy habits.

But for Americans battered by rising gasoline prices, frustrated by the dependence on foreign oil, skeptical of the benefits or practicality of renewable fuels and afraid of nuclear power, the appeal of plentiful domestic oil and gas could far outweigh the costs.

AN EXCERPT:   “When the most basic elements that sustain life are reduced to a cash product, life has no intrinsic value. The extinguishing of “primitive” societies, those that were defined by animism and mysticism, those that celebrated ambiguity and mystery, those that respected the centrality of the human imagination, removed the only ideological counterweight to a self-devouring capitalist ideology. Those who held on to pre-modern beliefs, such as Native Americans, who structured themselves around a communal life and self-sacrifice rather than hoarding and wage exploitation, could not be accommodated within the ethic of capitalist exploitation, the cult of the self and the lust for imperial expansion. The prosaic was pitted against the allegorical. And as we race toward the collapse of the planet’s ecosystem we must restore this older vision of life if we are to survive.”

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http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/04/30-2#.T6K_aejbCAg.facebook

A friend just sent me this link to an interview I did three years ago, with Christian Probasco, as we were gearing up the online Z…Click the cover to read the interview…

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AN EXCERPT:  ScienceDaily (May 2, 2012) — Loss of biodiversity appears to impact ecosystems as much as climate change, pollution and other major forms of environmental stress, according to a new study from an international research team.

The study is the first comprehensive effort to directly compare the impacts of biological diversity loss to the anticipated effects of a host of other human-caused environmental changes.

The results highlight the need for stronger local, national and international efforts to protect biodiversity and the benefits it provides, according to the researchers, who are based at nine institutions in the United States, Canada and Sweden.

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120502133106.htm?fb_ref=.T6K4BHrKQSQ.like&fb_source=home_multiline

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AN EXCERPT:  

LONDON (Reuters) – Plants are flowering faster than scientists predicted in response to climate change, research in the United States showed on Wednesday, which could have devastating knock-on effects for food chains and ecosystems.

Global warming is having a significant impact on hundreds of plant and animal species around the world, changing some breeding, migration and feeding patterns, scientists say.

Increased carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels can affect how plants produce oxygen, while higher temperatures and variable rainfall patterns can change their behavior.

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AN EXCERPT:

We’ve already had the story of the Japanese football and the Harley Davidson motorcycle swept away by the tsunami last March and washed up thousands of miles away on the US coast a year later. But soon, there may thousands of similar discoveries.

­Scientists say that a flotilla of 1.5 million tons of debris – equivalent to more than 200 Eiffel Towers in weight – is currently making its way across the Pacific Ocean.

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