Is Earth safe from asteroids like 2019 CN2 ?

The asteroid is written in the center of this photograph in gold letters. Go to the interactive map and it can be enlarged to provide better visual understanding.

Interactive star map of the sky visible from: Greenwich, United Kingdom
Time: 11-Feb-2019 16:25 Europe/London
Object: 2019 CN2 (click here)
Right Asc: 06h 54m 20.9s Decl: -56° 36' 35.2" (J2000) [HMS|Dec]
Magnitude: 19.01 Altitude: -35° Solar Elongation: 101.5° Constellation: Leo 

Sun distance: 147.80 Million Km Earth distance: 0.61 Million Km
Below the horizon

The world is watching.

February 11, 2019

NASA's Asteroid 2019 CN2 (click here) determines the asteroid today. Earth's close approach. NASA's astronomers have narrowed the course just before 11 days of GMT (UTC), and the uncertainty is about four minutes. As NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California varies, Asteroid CN2 estimates that it is almost losing ground between Earth and Moon. The incredibly close flyby comes exactly one week after JPL first discovered the space rock in its radar.

According to NASA Research Center, Asteroid CN2 was first detected on Monday, February 4, 2019.

NASA has since calculated that the orbit of space rock has been defined as CN2 approaches the country at least after October 1901.

This is because the asteroid is so-called. Middle Earth Object – An asteroid or comet on an orbit that crosses the Earth.

NASA explained: “NEO targets are comets and asteroids that have been hidden by the attraction of nearby planets to orbit....


NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The 2019 PDC Hypothetical Asteroid Impact Scenario (click here)

February 11, 2019
By Sebastian Kettley

TWO monstrous asteroids (click here) will barrel past the planet within hours of one another tomorrow, NASA’s asteroid trackers have revealed.

Both asteroids are expected to make a so-called “Earth Close Approach” on Tuesday, February 12. The first of the two space rocks, Asteroid 2019 CY2, will zip by in the wee morning hours around 3.34am GMT (UTC). Asteroid 2017 PV25 will follow soon after, shooting past our home world around 12.42pm GMT. Neither of the two rocks will slam into the planet but their near-miss trajectories are being keenly monitored by NASA’s asteroid-tracking systems.

Asteroid CY2 is the smaller and faster of the two space rocks and is also the most recently discovered one....

FACTS. Just the facts, please.

The corruption of the Michigan Republican legislators is obvious. If they sincerely cared about the citizens of the state they would have passed a bill that upheld the Governor's directives, not destroyed them.

To be crystal clear; the Michigan Republicans are grandstanding on the process and not the will of the people.

We already have the facts regarding the MDEQ. They were complicit in the Flint Water Crisis. Governor Whitmer needs a new slate of state employees until the corruption is completely removed from the Michigan DEQ.

The state government of Michigan was corrupted by Snyder and there is no way of knowing the extent of the corruption without building a co-government structure that PLAYS BY THE RULES. If Governor Whitmer NEEDS people she can trust to assist the citizens of Michigan while simultaneously there is a complete review of MDEQ ADHERENCE to laws and STANDARDS to protect the people of Michigan, then that is what is required.

Enforcement by the MDEQ has been destroyed. It is completely obvious. Governor Whitmer knows what she is doing for the people of Michigan. The Republican majority in the legislature is acting against the will of the people and continue to put them in peril.

Reform of any government has to be handled by TRUSTWORTHY people. The Michigan State Republican majority is proving to be "power players" rather than "governance" to benefit the people of Michigan.

The corruption MUST be ripped out by the roots and the Michigan State Legislature is proving they can obstruct the will of the people. They are just as complicit as the Snyder MDEQ.

I believe Governor Whitmer has the EXECUTIVE power to instill the AGENCY of her office to form regulatory structures to carry out the laws to benefit the people. She has the right to have people she can trust. Her ideas are good ideas and I believe she has the right to take her directives to the courts for enforcement to benefit the people of Michigan.

January 7, 2019

Flint - Another Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (click here) employee has pleaded no contest to charges related to the Flint water crisis.

Liane Shekter-Smith, the department's former chief of drinking water and municipal assistance, originally was charged in July 2016 with two felonies and one misdemeanor charge.

She pleaded to a misdemeanor charge of disturbing a lawful meeting, which carries a possible penalty of 90 days in jail and a $500 fine. The other charges were dropped in exchange for her plea.

As part of the plea agreement with Special Prosecutor Todd Flood, Shekter-Smith must testify against other government officials charged in the Flint water cases. She likely will be a witness in the upcoming preliminary hearing for former Emergency Manager Darnell Earley and former Flint Water Department Manager Howard Croft.

If she provides misleading statements or fails to cooperate with prosecutors, Flood said a guilty plea to a five-year felony charge of misconduct in office will automatically be entered on her behalf. A review to determine whether she complied with the plea agreement is scheduled for April....

The Democrats facing another government shutdown need to scale back their immigration ambitions with a funding bill.

I think the initial focus on oversight will result in the best outcomes for the detainees. The extent the Trump administration has broken the laws of the USA and expanded its plans to control border crossers through detentions has to be known. To simply legislate to try to obtain control at the cost of the federal employees is wrong.

The fact finding has to be the focus of the Democratic majority in the US House. It won't be easy simply because the Trump administration are obstructionists as demonstrated by the Acting Attorney General Whitaker. He had no intention of being transparent. He exhibited profound disrespect for the USA democracy in his recent testimony with the US House. Committee Republicans tried their best to provide cover for his irreverent attitudes.

The idea the Democrats could be responsible for adding to the next government shutdown through demands on a funding bill is inappropriate. If the Democrats and the American people find Mr. Trump's demands political and wrong, the new demands by the Democrats to add for government funding are not appropriate either. There needs to be a bill that limits the political spending by Trump, but, also needs to be free of Democratic demands that belong in legislation for immigration reform.

If the Senate Republicans and Trump refuse to pass immigration reform after the fact finding is on the Congressional record, then attaching "asylum detainee relief" to a funding bill will have better standing with the country. The Democrats need to make it clear to the public their bills to provide better health care and relief for immigration detainees are passed and before the Senate or in need of a presidential signature.

The Democrats need to build a strong base of facts that will make any House legislation strong. Legislation is supposed to be based in fact and need, not politics that make the USA weaker.

I thank the US House for it's ambitions. They have the best interest of the country at the center of their legislative efforts. Unfortunately, the president has invoked horrible and inhumane demands of our Border Guards, the National Guard and the USA military. The American people know that and they know it needs strong legislation that ends it. The current state of affairs at the USA southern border is not the problem of the US House, but, if it continues after legislation is passed then the ownership of such insults to law and human dignity will be placed on those directly responsible.

The USA democracy needs to work the way it was intended to work. If it doesn't then the corruption is obvious and needs to end.

December 6, 2018
By Suzanne Gamboa and Gwen Aviles

Democrats poised to hold committee positions in Congress (click here) that will give them jurisdiction over agencies in charge of keeping immigrants in custody, especially children, said Thursday they plan to step up scrutiny of immigration detention next year.

Democrats won control of the House in November, which means they take over leadership of committees and subcommittees in the next Congress, which opens in early January.

"There's a lot of work to be done," said Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard of California, who as the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations' subcommittee on Homeland Security is in line to become its chairwoman.

On her to-do list: provide better access to legal counsel; use alternatives to detention, particularly for families; ensure that immigration facilities are more regularly inspected; and secure more funding for the hiring of social workers to work with unaccompanied child migrants.

"Mainly it's going to be oversight, pushing for fairness and justice for these immigrants," Roybal-Allard said....

This is an excellent example of institutionalized corruption and how difficult it is to get rid of it.

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

There are many newly elected state representatives in Michigan that ran on cleaning up the waters of the state. The Governor vowed to have clean water and environmental justice for the state.

What exactly doesn't the majority Michigan Republicans understand? I say they CAN'T even begin to understand the brevity of water and clean air when it comes to the State of Michigan.

The obvious answer to the brevity of clean air and water in Michigan are the Great Lakes. That is only part of the picture.

The State of Michigan has over 11,000 inland lakes. They are the source of great pleasure for Michiganders and it's resort and vacation economy. Governor Whitmer wants to end the pollution that results in contamination as the Flint River. The people of Michigan want these bad habits to end as well. There are many methods to remove dangers for air and water and Governor Whitmer is correct; Michigan needs a strong oversight through the government to bring pollution in Michigan under control.

The majority Republicans in the Michigan Congress got used to a Governor that put one man in charge of deregulation of the state's laws. He eliminated protections at every turn and the Flint Crisis is one of them. No one considered the "Snyder Regulation Czar" was also at the heart of the switch to the Flint River without proper controls in place to protect people? Wow.

Then, of course, the corrupt Rich Snyder administration conducted their traditional post election power grab.

December 11, 2019
By Emily Lawler

Lansing – The House of Representatives (click here) on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill limiting the ability of the state to set stricter rules than any federal standard, sending it to Gov. Rick Snyder for consideration.

The bill, HB 4205, sponsored by Rep. Triston Cole, R-Mancelona, would make it so that, in most cases, state agencies could not set rules that were stricter than what the federal government has in place....

This is the level of corruption that still exists with the Michigan legislature. The Snyder Administration and his Republican state congress has always disregarded the voice of the voter. Instead, he destroyed vital regulation that is indicative of Republican administrations since Reagan. The profit taking is simply dangling there in the air for Republicans to tap to pretend to understand what the meaning of an economy actually means.

This is the mess Governor Whitmer has inherited. The changes in the laws to benefit the citizen is going to be a challenge to her and others, but, it needs to go forward. The REAL Michigan economy demands it.

February 6, 2019
By Beth LaBlanc and Jonathan Oosting

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, environmental department director Liesl Clark and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist on Feb 4, 2019.

Lansing — House Republicans (click here) voted Wednesday to overturn Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order revamping the Michigan environmental department, arguing she usurped their power by abolishing oversight panels they created last year.

In her first partisan feud with lawmakers, Whitmer countered by asking Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel for a formal opinion on the legality of the panels. They “create unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles that get in the way of our state government responding to problems with drinking water quickly," she argued.

The concurrent resolution approved by the House in a 58-51 vote and now headed to the GOP-led Senate would nullify Whitmer's executive order to create a new Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. The order would also eliminate new commissions Republicans created to give businesses a greater say in environmental rule-making and permit reviews.

"The governor exercised her constitutional authority; the House has now exercised its constitutional authority," House Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, said after Wednesday's vote. "I look forward to finding a compromise to ensure the people of our state are served.”

"Good Night, Moon" (click here for NASA's recordings and article of the same lunar eclipse - thank you)

The waxing crescent

5.7 days old

32.3 percent lit








This is some of the footage i got from NKY of The 2019 Total Lunar Blood Moon Event. The Totality is said to last around 1 hour. If you have any images or video you want me to share, let me know a dahboo7@yahoo.com.

The Trump Administration is a power grab for the benefit of unconscionable and highly immoral profits.

Insects are considered "cold blooded" as opposed to mammals that maintain their internal temperatures regardless of the temperature around them. Why is that important? Because, if you understand Darwin's "Origin of Species" it is easy to understand that temperature change is a huge issue when it comes to creatures without power over their climate.

Insects, for as much as humans like to exterminate them, are vital to ecosystems. They even enhance soil quality at times. I am sure everyone knows how worms aerate the soil, yes?

When the air temperature and the soil temperatures become to warm for the insects they die and/or they aren't able to reproduce. That is not a good thing. Organic farmers are very careful to protect their soils from chemicals to provide better crops and crop yields that consumers like and value.

American agriculture can't do without pollinators. While, commercial beekeepers are transporting bees from orchard to orchard, they are also transporting disease and it hurts the bees and the crops. 

If the climate crisis isn't bad enough, the US EPA under Trump is deregulating all kinds of nasty stuff and it is making it's way into the food chain of people as well as insects.

He is even assaulting Earth's ozone layer with abandon.

Stopped enforcing a 2015 rule (click here) that prohibited the use of hydrofluorocarbons, powerful greenhouse gases, in air-conditioners and refrigerators.

The return of acid rain.

Reverted to a weaker 2009 pollution permitting program for new power plants and expansions.

The petroleum industry is rejoicing over this one.

Proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan, which would have set strict limits on carbon emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants. In August 2018, the E.P.A. drafted a replacement plan, called the Affordable Clean Energy rule, that would let states set their own rules.

Ever hear the word schadenfreude? You have now. Look it up. It will help explain the gaslighting of this administration in the White House.

California leads the way on climate and their knowledge may be applied globally, too.

By Todd R. Hansen

Fairfield — The man (click here) who has come to be known as the Walnut King in Solano County and around Northern California said he has not experienced a great deal of problems related to climate change.

But Raj Kumar Sharma is very much aware of the potential threat, not only to his 700 acres of walnuts in Solano, but to all fruit and nut orchards in the region.

“This year seems OK. We are getting a lot of rain and cooler nights,” Sharma, owner of Sunrise Orchards, said in a phone interview Friday.

Those wintertime temperatures, and specifically the number of “chilling hours” the trees get during the dormant periods, are critical. Warmer temperatures associated with climate change could negatively affect production.

Walnuts, the top money crop in Solano County, had a gross value of $47.36 million in 2017, according to the county crop report. Fruit and nuts as a crop group had a gross value of $116.62 million. At 32 percent, the group was the largest share of the overall $362.82 million crop and livestock value in the county.

Wendy Rash, district conservationist at the Vacaville U.S. Department of Agriculture Service Center, said climate change can affect different crops and livestock in different ways, so the solutions must be equally diverse....

...“Climate change has taken a toll on farmers throughout the state and in my district,” Limón said in a statement released by the California Climate & Agricultural Network – or CalCAN. “To protect our agricultural businesses, the livelihoods of hardworking Californians and address a changing climate, we need to invest in our farmers and support their effort to face these growing challenges. I’m proud to author this bill.”...

When China lost their bee population is was do to chemical pesticides that made the land sterile. Now China has to pollinate crops by hand. Somehow I don't see that happening in Iowa.

10 February 2019
By Damion Carrington

According (click here for Yale article as well) to global monitoring data for 452 species, there has been a 45 percent decline in invertebrate populations over the past 40 years.DIRZO, SCIENCE (2014)

The world’s insects (click here) are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, according to the first global scientific review.

More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.

The planet is at the start of a sixth mass extinction in its history, with huge losses already reported in larger animals that are easier to study. But insects are by far the most varied and abundant animals, outweighing humanity by 17 times. They are “essential” for the proper functioning of all ecosystems, the researchers say, as food for other creatures, pollinators and recyclers of nutrients.

Insect population collapses have recently been reported in Germany and Puerto Rico, but the review strongly indicates the crisis is global. The researchers set out their conclusions in unusually forceful terms for a peer-reviewed scientific paper: “The [insect] trends confirm that the sixth major extinction event is profoundly impacting [on] life forms on our planet.

“Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades,” they write. “The repercussions this will have for the planet’s ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least."...

Beautiful water colors of years past are telling the tale of environmental degradation.

February 10, 2019
By Erin Blakemore

English artist Edward Francis Burney’s “Road in the Forest,” an undated painting in watercolor and pen and black ink. The Watercolour World, financed by the London-based Marandi Foundation, is a free online database of watercolors painted before 1900 documents a world before the ravages of climate change, overhunting, urbanization and other human activity.

In the 18th century, (click here) watercolors became a popular way for professional and amateur artists alike to document the landscapes, animals and plants that were important to them. Portable and aesthetically pleasing, watercolors helped bring painters’ worlds to life.

Today, these works are precious and unwitting documents of a world altered by the ravages of climate change, overhunting, urbanization and other human activity. The Watercolour World, financed by the London-based Marandi Foundation, is a free online database of watercolors painted before 1900.

It’s the brainchild of Fred Hohler, a former British diplomat devoted to art preservation. His last project, the Public Catalogue Foundation, a charity that is also called Art UK, catalogued all of Britain’s publicly owned oil paintings....

To be completely clear, Europe loves the natural areas of the USA. Most of Europe are small countries with use for their forests. They have natural areas and many are beautiful and unique. Europe has many world famous forests like the Black Forest of Germany (click here). But, the European love of nature comes to America often in the way of tourism.

This project by a British diplomat does not surprise me, it honors the country and the love Europe and the USA have had for nature.

This is why the USA needs a federal climate plan for the entire country.

February 10, 2018

Nebraska state lawmakers and conservationists(click here) who have seen a major drought, historic flooding and gigantic wildfires over the last decade are pushing to prepare the state for climate change, but if history is an indicator, legislators won’t be warming to the idea anytime soon.

Nebraska is one of seven Plains states that haven’t created a formal plan to confront the local impact of more extreme weather, bucking the trend of 33 others and the District of Columbia that have done so since the mid-2000s.

A 2016 report endorsed by a bipartisan legislative committee called on lawmakers to write a plan “based on empirical evidence and Nebraska-based data.” But a bill that would have started the process died in the Legislature in 2017, leaving some supporters exasperated.

“I don’t know if it’s politics. I don’t know if it’s just climate deniers. I just think this is very serious for our generation and future generations,” said Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, of Lincoln. “Just winging it is not a plan.”

North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming also have no plans in place, according to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, a Virginia-based nonprofit that tracks state climate plans....

And why won't these states protect their agriculture with a comprehensive climate plan? For the same reason the USA is floundering under Trump. THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY!

North Dakota (click here) lies on top of a large geologic feature of North America called the Williston Basin. (See Map 1.) The Basin, more than 300,000 square miles in area, includes Saskatchewan, Manitoba (both in Canada), Montana, and South Dakota. The largest portion of the Williston Basin is located in North Dakota....

...We know today that the Williston Basin is a major source of coal, oil, and natural gas. These resources are located in the Basin area because the geologic history of the region. While the Basin was forming, shallow seas covered the area, but receded several times. Animal and plant organisms lived and died in or near the seas and their remains were deposited on the bottom of the sea. Some of this organic material became oil. The woody debris along the shores of the sea became coal....

AND

The pipelines that not only serve oil companies but, also Canadian tar sands companies.

The pipelines are very dangerous, especially with the climate crisis and here is why.

January 24, 2019
By Daniel Hill

Winter is wintery (click here) once again in the St. Louis area, as the last two weekends have seen the region blanketed in snow, rendering our grocery stores devoid of milk and eggs while simultaneously ensuring Art Hill is the the most happening spot in town. 

That's all well and good — after all, St. Louis looks great dressed in white. But next week a polar vortex (the best name for one of the worst weather events) will push temperatures in the region into bitter cold, icy-as-Frosty's-testicles territory. 

The National Weather Service says the arctic air will push into the region next Tuesday through Thursday, bringing temperatures in the single digits — even falling to below zero in some areas — with wind chill temperatures even lower still. It's set to be the coldest weather to hit the St. Louis area since the winter of 2014....

Everywhere along the path of the Polar Vortex there is more than ice jams in rivers. They are important because flooding causes peril to human life. But, there are reports of gas main leaks, fires because of gas leaks, water main breaks and now this.

The USA cannot afford to lose valuable agricultural land to leaks, like the one discussed in this article that occurred in very cold North Dakota. With the climate getting hotter every year, there is a real potential for peril to agricultural land. It is vital the USA maintain it's land with a pristine condition and OIL IS NOT THE WAY IT IS DONE!

February 7, 2019

A portion of TransCanada Corp's Keystone oil pipeline (click here) remained shut on Thursday for investigation of a possible leak on its right-of-way near St. Louis, Missouri, a company spokesman said.

TransCanada shut the pipeline on Wednesday between Steele City, Nebraska and Patoka, Illinois and sent crews to assess the situation, spokesman Terry Cunha said in an email.

The 590,000 barrels-per-day Keystone pipeline is a critical artery taking Canadian crude from northern Alberta to U.S. refineries.

Two pipelines operating near the release site will be excavated on Friday to determine the source of the leak, said Darius Kirkwood, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The agency is monitoring the response to the reported leak, he said....

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (click here) in the United States was worth 19390.60 billion US dollars in 2017. The GDP value of the United States represents 31.28 percent of the world economy. GDP in the United States averaged 6991.52 USD Billion from 1960 until 2017, reaching an all time high of 19390.60 USD Billion in 2017 and a record low of 543.30 USD Billion in 1960.

The current population of the United States of America is 328,189,389 as of Sunday, February 10, 2019, based on the latest United Nations estimates.

The United States population is equivalent to 4.27% of the total world population.

The U.S.A. ranks number 3 in the list of countries (and dependencies) by population.

The population density in the United States is 36 per Km2 (93 people per mi2).

The total land area is 9,147,420 Km2 (3,531,837 sq. miles)

83.9 % of the population is urban (276,062,331 people in 2019)

The median age in the United States is 37.8 years.

GDP per capita in the USA is $59,531.662 according to the world bank.

But, that doesn't really show the true picture of the GDP per capita in the USA.

United States Net Worth Brackets, and the top One Percent in 2017 (click here)

If the Trump Administration is going to eliminate the federal government WHOM in the USA will be able to afford clean air and water. The Trump Administration is very guilty of Environmental Injustice.

I doubt Scott Pruitt's incompetence and arrogance can be matched by anyone, but, Wheeler may be the one to surpass him.

Wheeler is a lawyer. He has a business degree as well. He is not qualified to be EPA Director, but, then neither was Pruitt. They would not know a chemical assay of polluted water to save their own lives.

This is what the Trump administration calls qualified. A man that can write the law differently to enhance profits and place the responsibility for clean air and water in the hands of each American.

One of the reasons Americans have a federal government is to carry out such high level decisions regarding protection of their health and well being.

Trump, in every instance I can see, has erased morality and conscience from the demands of his cabinet. This is a prime example.

Andrew Wheeler has worked in government most of his career with many years spent as counsel to Jim Inhofe. Don't expect much in the way of caring about Americans' health or any inkling of humanity. I won't happen.

Nixon created the US EPA. Now, Trump wants to destroy it.

16 November 2018
By Kevin Breuninger and Tom DeChristopher

Andrew Wheeler (click here) will be nominated to permanently lead the Environmental Protection Agency, President Donald Trump said Friday.

Wheeler, 53, has served as the acting head of the EPA since his predecessor, former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, resigned under a cloud of ethics investigations in July.

Trump made the announcement at the White House while welcoming various administration officials before awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to seven people.

Trump introduced Wheeler as the "acting administrator who, I will tell you, is going to be made permanent. He's done a fantastic job, and I want to congratulate him."...

The US EPA Secretary Lisa Jackson was a chemical engineer well prepared for the job.

By Lisa Depaulo

If there was one thing, (click here) one precious thing, that Lisa Jackson's mother wishes she could have saved before the hurricane came—when Lisa stood over her bed on the eve of Katrina and said, "Mama, wake up, we have to go, we have to go now," and gently helped her diabetic mother into her wheelchair and then to the car for an 18-hour drive out of hell—it wouldn't have been her sacred rosary beads or her silverware (both of which miraculously survived) but that photograph. Of Lisa at age 3. In Washington, D.C., in 1965. Oh, it was a big deal back then to go to Washington, D.C.—to drive all the way from the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, at a time when black people still had to worry about what might happen if they stopped at the wrong traffic light. But Lisa's parents were determined to show their daughter, "our little jewel," says her mother—the baby they brought home from an orphanage when she was two weeks old—everything they possibly could about the world....

...By the 1960s, American industries exploited an atmosphere of lawlessness, in which the dumping of industrial waste and the pumping of factory smokestack emissions went practically unchecked. But by 1970, consciousness had been sufficiently raised to turn environmentalism into a movement: On April 22 of that year, 20 million Americans hit the streets and parks for the first-ever Earth Day. (As Jackson likes to say, when it comes to the environment, the biggest strides start at the grassroots level, with people saying, Enough already.)...

...Jackson graduated summa cum laude in chemical engineering, the only female in her class to do so, and headed to Princeton for a master's (she has a photo of herself wearing large pink hair rollers while packing the car for the Ivy League: "That was the hot thing—pink rollers, baby")...

...she worked for the EPA, a few blocks from the World Trade Center. (On September 11, 2001, rushing out of the building after the first tower was hit, she saw a panicked coworker in a wheelchair and proceeded to push the woman 49 blocks to safety).....

...But even with lawmakers trying everything they can to curtail the EPA's efforts, Jackson is up for the fight. "The politics are one thing," she says. "I got used to tough politics in New Jersey," where she was commissioner of that state's Department of Environmental Protection. "And I like the give-and-take of a real democracy. But I like hearing from real people, not special interests. It's what I came to D.C. to do—to ensure that the EPA protects the average American, not corporate profits. The hardest fights are the ones that I see happening in a 'fact-free zone.' Facts matter. And politics shouldn't trump science and public health."...

Among the other challenges she's squaring up for: Jackson is determined to protect air quality and reduce greenhouse gas pollution, and to restore health to the Chesapeake Bay, a major waterway currently being smothered by nitrogen and phosphorous from agricultural runoff and air pollution. The cleanup is now 25 years behind schedule; House Republicans are proposing a 20 percent reduction in the funds it would require....

..."Our challenges are serious," she says. "The longer we wait to deal with our deteriorating atmosphere, the harder and more expensive it may get to address it. I am also a woman of faith, so I believe that we have a moral obligation to care for creation and future generations.

"The conundrum is that the richer and more prosperous we become, the more we think that the environment is all taken care of," Jackson says. It's simply not the case. "I have seen land completely ravaged by pollution. Environmental protection is not a spectator sport."...

How did we get here? Lack of political will, fear of change and a wealthy, powerful petroleum industry.

May 12, 2016

By Meg Jacobs

...Few political dividends (click here) seem to come from taking on conservation, it seems. Just ask Jimmy Carter.

During the 1970s, American leaders were forced to recognize for the first time that the nation used too much oil. In the late 1960s, the United States appeared to be reaching its geological peak of production. New environmental restrictions also limited the extent of production. Feeling the shrinking domestic supply and growing consumption demand, especially as his reelection battle was looming, President Richard Nixon lifted previous import prohibitions. Between 1970 and 1973, oil imports more than doubled, reaching one-third of all usage.

In 1973, the oil-producing Arab nations, through the OPEC cartel, imposed an embargo on the United States in response to its support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The impact was traumatic. In late October, Nixon’s presidential energy advisor, John Love, warned: “Considerable public fear and indignation, cries of industry conspiracy and government ineptitude, and possibly real hardships, appear imminent.” Americans “have an energy crisis,” Nixon said in a televised address to Americans that November. He called for mild conservation efforts combined with more fossil-fuel production, including the development of nuclear energy and coal. Congressional Democrats like Henry “Scoop” Jackson pushed for mandatory rationing....

The American people have wanted a change in strategy for the country and it's energy production and transportation for a long time. The best example of the will of the people is the "small car" market. Everyone can say it was the cost of fuel, but, there were also government legislation that included fuel efficiency.

...The era of the annually restyled road cruiser (click here) ended with the imposition of federal standards of automotive safety (1966), emission of pollutants (1965 and 1970), and energy consumption (1975); with escalating gasoline prices following the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979; and especially with the mounting penetration of both the U.S. and world markets first by the German Volkswagen “Bug” (a modern Model T) and then by Japanese fuel-efficient, functionally designed, well-built small cars.

After peaking at a record 12.87 million units in 1978, sales of American-made cars fell to 6.95 million in 1982, as imports increased their share of the U.S. market from 17.7 percent to 27.9 percent. In 1980 Japan became the world’s leading auto producer, a position it continues to hold....

From the US Department of Energy:

The oil shortages of the 1970s changed the energy environment (click here) for the United States and the world. The oil shortages created an interest in developing ways to use alternative energy sources, such as wind energy, to generate electricity. The U.S. federal government supported research and development of large wind turbines. In the early 1980s, thousands of wind turbines were installed in California, largely because of federal and state policies that encouraged the use of renewable energy sources.

I take issue with the idea the energy environment was changed in the USA with the advent of higher prices for oil. It wasn't until the US EPA under President Obama conducted a study of the greenhouse gas emissions was it finally decided coal fired plants in the USA were more than a third of the GHG emission problem.

Key findings (click here) from the 1990-2016 U.S. Inventory include:

• In 2016, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions totaled 6,511 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, or 5,795 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents after accounting for sequestration from the land sector.
• Emissions decreased from 2015 to 2016 by 2.5 percent (after accounting for sequestration from the land sector).  This decrease was largely driven by a decrease in emissions from fossil fuel combustion, which was a result of multiple factors including substitution from coal to natural gas consumption in the electric power sector, and warmer winter conditions that reduced demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors.
• Greenhouse gas emissions in 2016 (after accounting for sequestration from the land sector) were 12 percent below 2005 levels.

Continued from US Department of Energy above:

In the 1990s and 2000s, the U.S. federal government established incentives to use renewable energy sources in response to a renewed concern for the environment. The federal government also provided research and development funding to help reduce the cost of wind turbines and offered tax and investment incentives for wind power projects. In addition, state governments enacted new requirements for electricity generation from renewable sources, and electric power marketers and utilities began to offer electricity generated from wind and other renewable energy sources (sometimes called green power) to their customers. These policies and programs resulted in an increase in the number of wind turbines and in the amount of electricity generated from wind energy.

The share of U.S. electricity generation from wind in 1990 was less than 1%. In 2017, the share of U.S. electricity generation from wind was about 6%. Incentives in Europe have resulted in a large expansion of wind energy use there. China is investing heavily in wind energy and now has the world's largest wind electricity generation capacity.            

U.S. electricity generation by source, (click here) amount, and share of total in 20171
Energy source	Billion kWh	Share of total
Total - all sources	4,034
Fossil fuels (total)	2,536	62.9%
Natural gas	1,296	32.1%
Coal	1,206	29.9%
Petroleum (total)	21	0.5%
Petroleum liquids	12	0.3%
Petroleum coke	9	0.2%
Other gases	12	0.3%
Nuclear	805	20.0%
Renewables (total)	687	17.0%
Hydropower	300	7.4%
Wind	254	6.3%
Biomass (total)	63	1.6%
Wood	41	1.0%
Landfill gas	12	0.3%
Municipal solid waste (biogenic)	7	0.2%
Other biomass waste	3	0.1%
Solar (total)	53	1.3%
Photovoltaic	50	1.2%
Solar thermal	3	0.1%
Geothermal	16	0.4%
Pumped storage hydropower3	-6	-0.2%
Other sources	13	0.3%