Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 30 - "The End Of Life As We Know It"

"Disaster Transitionism" - Energy Bulletin

"...The thinking is that even if we do have a few quarters of growth, this growth will still not raise GDP to pre-recession levels. And if demand does again pick up, peak oil will quickly put the kibosh on any meaningful economic growth. The graph above shows what may be the first of a number of steps we'll take down to a much lower level of global economic activity. In other words, a Depression from which we'll never come out."....

Today, we begin on the local front of topics....
NPR
Is drilling to blame for Texas quakes?
The most amusing aspect of this is that many of the opinions are based on whether or not you're collecting revenue checks, or not, or if you lean to the right (it's 'natural') or to the left (it's 'drilling'). It pretty much follows the same line of the global warming debate. Heck, an earthquake is an earthquake - minor or not. It shakes the butt of Democrats and Republicans alike. Unlike global warming, the threat is probably benign. But who really knows? By the time we find out, the guys raking it in might be dead from old age. It won't really matter then, will it?

DALLAS OBSERVER (UNFAIR PARK BLOG)
In East Dallas, wrestling with how to turn a neighborhood into a conservation district.

Just why IS the EPA considering Waste Management's lobbyist for Dallas director?

DALLAS MORNING NEWS
US postpones decision on Trinity toll road to evaluate levee problems.

DMN (DALLAS CITY HALL BLOG)
Mary Suhm to Dallas employees: We are bigger than this budget. We are better than this budget.
Meanwhile, across town, the stage was being set for the next county budget.....
Dallas County budget director: property values to fall by 9% next year.
Are you seeing a bad trend here? Well, then, just keep reading....


DALLAS BUSINESS JOURNAL
Survey: Employers cutting benefit costs.

Oncor seeks $300M in stimulus funds.
Electric service provider Oncor Electric Delivery, a subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings, said Tuesday the Dallas-based company intends to apply for $300 million in stimulus funds to push ahead with the company’s smart grid initiative — a plan in which Oncor intends to expand its smart grid to improve energy efficiency and electric metering technology in Oncor service areas.

Citing data from the Council of Economic Advisers, Oncor believes the stimulus funds would support the creation of 1,600 jobs in 2010.

If the funding is approved, Oncor will spend the money to deploy more smart switches, which will help the energy company isolate problems in neighborhoods and reconfigure power lines. Other enhancements will include controlling the feeder voltage through the company’s capacitor control and enhancements that will help the electric provider locate electric delivery problems in a faster, more efficient manner, Oncor said. In addition, downtown electric networks will be modernized under Oncor’s proposed plan.

Oncor also is aiming to improve its telecommunications network, an improvement that will enhance the company’s power grid.

...and then on to the global affairs of life, the universe and everything.
THE WONK ROOM
The WonkLine - June 30
A daily round-up on health care, national security, climate, immigration, and economy.
Why Wal Mart is now supporting an employer mandate.

CLIMATE PROGRESS
ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING NEWS FOR JUNE 30

Study finds "mass biodiversity collapse" at 900 ppm, and possibly a 'threshold response ... to relatively minor increases in CO2 concentration and/or global temperature.'

“Examining the 200 million year old fossil leaves from East Greenland, we discovered that the ancient biodiversity crash happened at atmospheric greenhouse gas levels of approximately 900 parts per million,” said Dr Jenny McElwain from the UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science at University College Dublin, Ireland, the lead researcher on the project.

“If we continue with the current intensive use of fossil fuel energy, some estimates calculate that carbon dioxide levels in the earth’s atmosphere will reach 900 parts per million by the year 2100. This is exactly the same levels at which our study identified the mass biodiversity collapse in ancient Greenland.” But according to Dr McElwain, this is a worst case scenario.
“Clearly, our study on ancient ecosystems shows that we must take heed of the early warning signs of deterioration within modern ecosystems, as we have seen from the past that very high levels of species extinctions — as high as 80% — can take place very suddenly although preceded by long intervals of ecological change,” she explains."


Obama confident Senate will pass climate bill, asserts "My strong belief is that innovation and technology are going to accelerate our process beyond these targets, and that we're going to look back and say we can do even more."

"So I think that at the end of the day this bill represents an important first step. There are critics from the left as well as the right; some who say who doesn’t go far enough, some who say it goes too far. I am convinced that after a long period of inaction, for us to have taken such a significant step means that we’re going to be in a position to advance technologically, obtain huge gains in efficiency. I think what we’re going to see is that if we’re able to get this in place that it’s going to be very similar to the Clean Air Act of ‘91 or how we approached acid rain, where all the nay-sayers are proven wrong because American ingenuity and technology moves a lot faster when incentives are in place.


That’s part of the reason why I think you saw a lot of businesses supporting this bill — everybody from Starbucks to GE, because what business is looking for is clarity and certainty, and what this bill signals is that we’re not going to keep on being a prisoner of the past, we’re going to reach for the future. The country that is able to lead on clean energy is the country that ultimately is going to be able to compete effectively in the 21st century." - President Obama


Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) has a differing opinion. Who would've thought that?
Quote of the day: "I can absolutely guarantee you it's not going to happen in the Senate." - TREEHUGGER

""It's dead on arrival in the Senate. It will not happen," Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe told Enid Rotarians during their noon meeting Monday. "I can absolutely guarantee you it's not going to happen in the Senate."

One commenter on the News & Eagle article characterizes the potential passage of the climate bill as bringing about 'the end of life as we know it.'

Memo to media: When the EPA ignores internal non-expert comments filled with falsehoods cut-and-paste from anti-science deniers, that isn't "suppressing a report." And why have you completely ignored a major scientific report revealing what a sham that "EPA report" is? - CLIMATE PROGRESS

"Many of the top climate scientists in the world issued a major synthesis report reviewing the scientific literature since the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). They found “greenhouse gas emissions and many aspects of the climate are changing near the upper boundary of the IPCC range of projections.” In short, actual observations show things are much worse than the IPPC found. Duh!and Duh! and Duh! Media coverage level — bupkis! Technorati links to report released June 18 — 6.
One EPA economist, Alan Carlin, cuts and pastes some disinformation from a denier blog post in order to (falsely) assert that the EPA’s endangerment finding is flawed because

• “In the rapidly evolving field of climate change, by grounding its TSD Technical Support Documents in the IPCC AR4 the EPA is largely relying on scientific findings that are, by early 2009, largely 3 years or more out of date.”
• “Important developments” since the IPCC cast doubt on its conclusions

You can read a thorough debunking of these “comments” at the RealClimate Post, “Bubkes” and a brilliant piece by Deep Climate, which showed that this so-called “suppressed report” is

largely lifted from an attack on the EPA published last November in climate science disinformation specialist Pat Michaels’ World Climate Report [WCR]. And all this came without any attribution of the large swathes of copied material to WCR or the original author (presumably either Michaels or sidekick Chip Knappenberger)."

.... and again, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) has an opinion on this matter. Enjoy stupidity in print. Again, this speaks to the politics behind the matters that may undermine any efforts on climate change. If they can find any science to put forward to challenge global warming, then fine. But if they continue with these groundless challenges based on personal gain, bias and politics without scientific support, they should be held accountable. Again, this isn't health care or child lunches we're talking about. This goes into a global crisis and it's time people started figuring this out.


RED GREEN AND BLUE
Senator Inhofe vows a "full investigation" into "suppressed" EPA report on climate change.

"What is a little surprising is how Inhofe doesn’t appear to learn any lessons from his past adventures in list building, scandal and fear mongering, andcharacter assassination. Inhofe is either really not very bright, or purposely and cynically deceitful. Either option isn’t pretty."



81% of African Americans support climate action.

ENERGY BULLETIN
CLIMATE BILL - JUNE 30
"...Well, sometimes even the most authoritative analyses get things wrong. And if dissenting opinion-makers and politicians based their dissent on hard work and hard thinking — if they had carefully studied the issue, consulted with experts and concluded that the overwhelming scientific consensus was misguided — they could at least claim to be acting responsibly.

But if you watched the debate on Friday, you didn’t see people who’ve thought hard about a crucial issue, and are trying to do the right thing. What you saw, instead, were people who show no sign of being interested in the truth. They don’t like the political and policy implications of climate change, so they’ve decided not to believe in it — and they’ll grab any argument, no matter how disreputable, that feeds their denial."... - Paul Krugman

Disaster Transitionism

TREEHUGGER
Smog is increasing risks of premature births by 128%.

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG
Peer pressure plays major role in environmental behavior.
People are more likely to enroll in conservation programs if their neighbors do – a tendency that should be exploited when it comes to protecting the environment, according to a pioneering study from Michigan State University.


Your own private global warming.
A group of researchers from the British Antarctic Survey have collected individuals from a wide range of species commonly found in Antarctic waters and subjected them to increasing levels of water temperature to learn how each species is prepared to cope with the conditions that they are likely to experience in the future. The study showed that several of these species are already living really close to their upper temperature range, and that further increases caused by global warming could easily provoke serious ecological imbalances in this region. These results will be presented by Dr. Lloyd S. Peck at the Society of Experimental Biology Annual Meeting in Glasgow on Tuesday 30th June 2009.

So What'll It Be? Death Valley, Eden or Places In Between?

"Moody Crossroad" by Catherine Jamieson (Flickr)

I think perhaps we have reached a point in the road where everyone needs to stop, take a look around, gather their senses, and make some important decisions for a course direction on our trip to the future.

Of course, I'm referring to climate change. Perhaps you're one of the many who are not certain that climate change is a real issue or not. Perhaps you're one of those who have already determined that it's not an issue for political reasons, or because you just don't believe anything that comes out of the mouth of a scientist. Fair enough. You're in this car with us and we'll let you have some say in this. I'm just not sure I want you behind the wheel.

It's time to make choices. The House has just voted on Waxman-Markey and the Senate will be up next to take a vote on an energy bill. Is the current product a good one? It has its drawbacks and I for one don't know that any legislation is going to make a real dent in the climate change issue or not - but it's a possible dent. There is hope that the global community will be able to make some directions in curbing greenhouse gases when they meet in Copenhagen in December. I am hopeful, but I am inherently pessimistic about the chances. But the question I'm posing to you is this: what do you believe?

You can't stall on this anymore. You have a senator to contact - one way or the other. We also have to make personal decisions about how we will live our lives as we keep marching forward. I'm as bad as anyone in not doing 'my part' in making personal choices. I've lived, like you, with conveniences and have probably already consumed my fair share of the world's energy for any lifetime.

So what do you believe? Is climate change real or not? More importantly: why do you believe what you believe? On what basis, either way, do you make your judgment? Are you listening to political rhetoric of 'lobbied' congressmen or foppish radio heads to make your decision (one side or the other), or are you reading the analysis of scientists on either side? Is climate change legislation really tyranny? Are you being real about your bias in the matter? I am. If you read my blog, you probably know where I stand on these issues. But this isn't about me. It's about you. Are you being open minded or have you closed off any side of the discussion that doesn't agree with your understanding? I'm a moderate sort and I'll look at any information cast before me, even with my bias, and with my limited ability to understand the science. That's another good question. How much of this do you really understand?

I say that much is at stake for the future of our nation. Do you believe this? Do you believe that there is no climate crisis on the horizon? Do you believe that if there is a crisis it has nothing to do with human involvement? These aren't just simple questions and answers to wade through. What you believe, and more importantly, what our lawmakers believe, will - or will not? - have an impact on the future generations of this nation. You have to decide if you believe strongly enough that the climate scientists are wrong to risk your children's future.

Will Waxman-Markey, or any other legislation, make a dent in climate change? Well, we won't know if there is no legislation. Will it matter? Time will tell. That's the real kicker then, isn't it? Do we sit here and wait to see who's right? My friends, this isn't a decision to go to war on a current crisis situation to be debated in the halls of Congress. It's not a morality discussion nor even a Constitutional issue. In the end, it's about what kind of nation and world will remain in the coming years, decades and centuries. You might not give a damn about the people of the future. I do and am not willing to risk the future on political posturing.

But, strangely, I often think our nation's founding fathers thought about future generations when they formed our Union. Ironically, some of the people who stand to their spirit and sacrifice most fervently (what I admire most about conservatives) are also the most outspoken against addressing climate change and call it a hoax. If their opposition is really based on competing science, then the debate can go forward on those merits. But if they look within themselves and see this debate as a political stand against the people across the aisle, then I will look upon them with contempt. The evidence from many of the most outspoken from the right shows me that the issues are political, efforts to gain political points today and to undermine the opposition, based on personal opinions and bias'. I think this is why so many are turning their backs on the parties in the first place. But our decisions today may very well determine choices for quality of life and perhaps even where life or death will prevail.

What everyone really needs to consider as we sit here, looking cross at each other, sweltering in our big Hummer at this crossroads, is this: who's going back to the fuel station we passed twelve miles back to get some gas?

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 29 - It's About Choices

"Climate change is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." - Mouth of Inhofe

There is plenty of bitterness going around between the partisans who have chosen to make climate change a 'political' division and an attacking post. It has some on the Left wanting to fight back. I can't say I can blame them. For instance, House GOP members repeatedly came out with the usual language of 'hoax' and 'tyranny' to dispute the climate change bill. However, they could not counter climate change itself with anything but outdated and disproven political jargon and - at best - half-truths. The ignorance of the GOP leadership and their 'Mouths of Sauron" have shown that they will do whatever it takes to seek a short-term political advantage, but at the ultimate cost of the American people for generations to come.

Now they also seek to turn a so-called "buried" study by a long-time EPA economist that appears to be challenging some of the US's climate change research and turning it into a conspiracy and criminal investigation. Inhofe calls for criminal investigation into why EPA 'suppressed' a global warming denier. - The Wonk Room. The issue will come down to the fact that people will believe what they want to believe and choose to follow ignorance and rhetoric (and money) or to be enlightened by facts.

We all have choices to make and I hope each choice you make will be made by advancing learning of the facts (whichever information you believe) and not by listening to partisan rancor.

CLIMATE PROGRESS
Nobelist Krugman calls climate science denial by House conservatives "a form of treason - treason against the planet."

"Well, sometimes even the most authoritative analyses get things wrong. And if dissenting opinion-makers and politicians based their dissent on hard work and hard thinking — if they had carefully studied the issue, consulted with experts and concluded that the overwhelming scientific consensus was misguided — they could at least claim to be acting responsibly.
But if you watched the debate on Friday, you didn’t see people who’ve thought hard about a crucial issue, and are trying to do the right thing. What you saw, instead, werepeople who show no sign of being interested in the truth. They don’t like the political and policy implications of climate change, so they’ve decided not to believe in it — and they’ll grab any argument, no matter how disreputable, that feeds their denial.
Indeed, if there was a defining moment in Friday’s debate, it was the declaration by Representative Paul Broun of Georgia that climate change is nothing but a “hoax” that has been “perpetrated out of the scientific community.” I’d call this a crazy conspiracy theory, but doing so would actually be unfair to crazy conspiracy theorists. After all, to believe that global warming is a hoax you have to believe in a vast cabal consisting of thousands of scientists — a cabal so powerful that it has managed to create false records on everything from global temperatures to Arctic sea ice.
Yet Mr. Broun’s declaration was met with applause."


ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING NEWS OF THE DAY - JUNE 29

Tackling climate change by saving forests.

US EPA
FACT SHEET: Coal Combustion Residues (CCR) - Surface Impoundments with high hazard potential ratings.

DALLAS OBSERVER (UNFAIR PARK BLOG)
Environmentalists plenty steamed about possible nominee to head EPA's Dallas office.

ENERGY BULLETIN
PEAK OIL REVIEW - JUNE 29
"Crude prices gyrated within a dollar or two of $70 a barrel last week as weaker equity prices and sluggish economies trumped unrest in lran and damaging insurgent attacks in Nigeria. There seems to be a growing sentiment that hints of an economic recovery someday have already been priced into the oil market, which has doubled in the last six months, and that it will take either evidence of substantially increased demand or serious reductions in supply before the market goes higher."


Prices and Supplies - June 29
"In the last 37 years, the US has suffered six recessions. From the beginning, oil played a central role.

...In every case when oil consumption breeched 4% of GDP, the US has suffered a recession, and indeed, the current US recession began within two months of oil hitting the 4% threshold, that is, when oil reached $80/bbl."

Food and Agriculture - June 29

THE OIL DRUM
THE OIL INTENSITY OF FOOD
"In short, with higher energy prices and a limited supply of fossil fuels, the modern food system that evolved when oil was cheap will not survive as it is now structured."


DrumBeat - June 29

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS NETWORK
Dams are thwarting Louisiana marsh restoration, study says.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
The Arctic thaw could make global warming worse.
"Whether a total or more moderate release is in store is still anyone’s guess. But pound for pound, methane in the atmosphere traps 25 times more of the sun’s heat than CO₂ does. Consequently, even a modest thaw of the perennially frozen soil that lies under these ephemeral lakes and caps the dry land around them could trigger a vicious cycle: warming releases methane and creates lakes, which thaw permafrost and liberate more gas, which intensifies warming, which creates more lakes, and so on. Some Arctic lakes are growing larger, and researchers are eyeing them suspiciously as a reason why global methane concentrations shot up in 2007 and have stayed high ever since. Other signs indicate that permafrost thawing on the Arctic seafloor may be loosening the cap on large pockets of methane stored deeper down."


DOCUTICKER
Dr. Coburn releases report criticizing Congress' infrastructure priorities

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG
Water should be a human right.

Three reasons are outlined for why access to clean water should be declared a basic human right. Firstly, access to clean water can substantially reduce the global burden disease caused by water-borne infections. Millions of people are affected each year by a range of water-borne diseases including diarrhea, which is responsible for 1.8 million potentially preventable deaths per year, mostly among children under the age of five. Secondly, the privatization of water—as witnessed in Bolivia, Ghana and other countries—has not effectively served the poor, who suffer the most from lack of access to clean water. As Maude Barlow, senior advisor on water issues to the president of the General Assembly of the UN, has argued, "high water rates, cut-offs to the poor, reduced services, broken promises and pollution have been the legacy of privatization."

Thirdly, the prospect of global water scarcity—exacerbated by climate change, industrial pollution, and population growth—means that no country is immune to a water crisis. The United States is facing the greatest water shortages of its history, and in Australia severe drought has caused dangerous water shortages in the Murray-Darling river basin, which provides the bulk of its food supply.

Seasonal hunger devastating and under-recognized.
Bapu Vaitla (Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA), Stephen Devereux (Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK), and Samuel Hauenstein Swan (Action Against Hunger UK) describe how currently nearly seven out of every ten hungry people in the world, or about six hundred million, are either members of small farm households or landless rural laborers. Many of these six hundred million people live in areas where water or temperature constraints allow only one crop harvest per year, say the authors. Their poverty is driven by seasonal cycles, worsening especially in the preharvest months. During this "hunger season" period, household food stocks from the last harvest begin to run out; while low production levels, inadequate storage facilities, and accumulated debt all combine to force families to sell or consume their agricultural production well before the new harvest.


Ozone depletes oil seed rape productivity.

New crops needed for new climate.

Global food security in a changing climate depends on the nutritional value and yield of staple food crops. Researchers at Monash University in Victoria, Australia have found an increase in toxic compounds, a decrease in protein content and a decreased yield in plants grown under high CO₂ and drought conditions.

The research, to be presented by Dr Ros Gleadow on 29 June 2009 at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Meeting in Glasgow, has shown that the concentration of cyanogenic glycosides, which break down to release toxic hydrogen cyanide, increased in plants in elevated CO₂. This was compounded by the fact that protein content decreased, making the plants overall more toxic as the ability of herbivores to break down cyanide depends largely on the ingestion of sufficient quantities of protein.

Data have also shown that cassava, a staple food crop in tropical and subtropical regions due to its tolerance of arid conditions, may experience yield reductions in high CO₂. Combined with an increase in cyanogenic glycosides, this has major implications for the types of crops that can be grown in the future if CO₂ levels continue to rise: "We need to be preparing for the predicted reduction in nutritional value of many plants in the coming century by developing and growing different cultivars which, for cassava in particular, may not be easy' says Dr Gleadow.

Picture from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

The Sunshine Makers

Provided through Internet Archive.

This animation short was produced by the Van Beuren Studios in the mid-1930's. I remembered this little piece from when I was but a youngster but I was most impressed with the liquid sunshine. It's too bad I never developed the ability to market that myself.

So I thought this would make for some great propaganda for the alternative fuels industry. All the little industrious sun gnomes are bottling up sunshiny goodness and sets out on a war with the dark and evil oil barons who remind me of Dick Cheney. They shoot like him anyway. Well, enjoy. Have a good day.

Transitioning Dallas?

“The people who see the value of changing the system are ordinary people, doing it for their children,” says Naresh Giangrande, who was involved in setting up the first Transition Town. “The political process is corrupted by money, power, and vested interests. I’m not writing off large corporations and government, but because they have such an investment in this system, they haven’t got an incentive to change. I can only see us getting sustainable societies from the grassroots, bottom-up, and only that way can we get governments to change.”  - "The Transition Initiative by Jay Griffiths


Anyone who follows this blog may recognize the many links I provide to other resources of information on climate change, peak oil, alternative energy sources, water resources and conservation, aging infrastructure, and on and on. I sometimes will write on an issue that warrants my attention, but much of my E-News and posting is based on other people's work. I'm not a journalist and don't want to pretend to be one either.  What you see in this blog is much of what I run across each day trying to keep alert to the global discussion. There is a reason that I actually take the time to do this. It is my hope that if you have easy access to the information, that may be half the battle to helping you stay tuned to the many issues that are impacting you - beyond the Dallas Cowboys, of course. Eventually, you MAY decide to pay attention if you aren't already.  I'm hoping you'll only build upon what you find here. Think of this as a starter kit.

You may ask - as I'm sure many have - why don't you write more about tree issues?  This may be a failing of mine - or not - but there are many resources available on oak wilt, root rot, tallow trees and palms. I write on them as needed, but I also link to a vast number of resources on the blog page as well as the Support Pages. I prefer to write on things you can't get every day like Article X discussions or other Dallas ordinance issues. Written resources in a blog can be lost quickly in the passage of days. I try to keep current.

The greatest frustrations that I feel is that there is not enough concern for, or even consideration given to, the looming matters that will be coming upon us as a society. However, these are not just national or global issues. These problems will impact you directly in your home, in time, if they haven't already. I don't blame people for not recognizing these issues when you don't see the obvious signs of change on a day by day basis. We are not wired to look to global supply issues or climate implications, or even mass starvation, when we have our own lives to lead and just trying to put food on our own tables. I'm as human as you are on that matter. However, with the exception of just some interesting (and sometimes entertaining tidbits of news, most items I link to everyday in E-News have a bearing in your everyday lives - if not now, then in the future. Even with all that IS presented here, there's so much that is not introduced.

There are many who will challenge the science of climate change, or argue against the growing consensus on the impact of the current or future problem of "peak oil."  Perhaps you don't consider that the nation's aging infrastructure is a dire issue or that water conservation and supply must be attacked now and not a generation from now.  Arguing against them doesn't remove their existing physical impacts on our environment. Growth for growth's sake is a luxury we can no longer afford. Our ability to maintain cheap resources (not just oil) is being reduced and the resulting crises are not generations or centuries away. What has not yet begun may only be a few years and -at best - decades away.  I can accept reasoned and defensible challenges to the information presented here and I try to keep an open door to all discussion.  I rarely get any real feedback myself, which is fine with me. Some of the commentary in The Oil Drum are doozies though.

But this site is not about fear for the future. I want it to be about hope. If there are solutions, I believe humanity can find them if we find it within ourselves to pursue them. But many of the challenges before us are not going to be won in the high offices of Washington - and, God help us, Austin. They begin with us working together to find answers at the grassroots level.  The politicians cannot see beyond defending their political machine or the industrial lobby. If American liberty is to be about American citizens (who must be the masters over the corporations and not the reverse), then it falls on the American citizens to create the initiatives to transform their nation into one in which the people can live in freedom and prosperity - as it is to be defined by the citizens, not by the corporate giants or politicians.

Dallas, Texas will be in the epicenter of the battle for a sustainable America. Texas consumes more energy than any other state, but it also produces more energy than any other state. It is defiantly independent, but it is also a central part of the Union in wealth and resources. The state is the leading producer of wind energy (by a long shot) and yet politically it is driven to fight against the currents of change toward alternative fuels. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), the currents that are driving us to alternative fuels are no longer driven just by politics but rather the gravity imposed by future costs and reductions of future available resources. Political maneuvering today is a waste of energy that will only lead to future complications.

Around the globe, including here in America, many communities are taking on transition initiatives. Local communities are taking it upon themselves to make the difference that governments and agencies fail to lead and are likely to not succeed. It starts small, but with a great effort, the people will find their way to bringing the communities back to life and to being communities of neighbors - not developers and not corporations and not city governments.

Jay Griffiths wrote in the July/August 2009 Orion Magazine on  "The Transition Initiative."  It's a good read. Is Dallas ready for any such initiatives? It's hard to say. There are many people ready to take up the challenges of creating their own answers. Politically and industrially, North Texas is not ready to move out of the 20th century and transition away from our reliance on fossil fuels or to withdraw from massive sprawl. In time (likely to be drawn out as long as possible), the people will recognize that our over-consumption and living 'high on the hog' days are coming to an end and we will need to begin to draw back, and come together, and look to our neighbors - again - and for the first time.

Is now the time?  Let's find out.
Excerpt:

"People never need communities more than when there are threats to security, food, and lives. The Transition Initiative recognizes how much we need this scale now, because of peak oil and climate change. But beyond this concrete need, the lack of a sense of community has negative psychological impacts on individuals across the “developed” world, as people report persistent and widespread feelings of loneliness, isolation, dispossession, alienation, and depression. Beyond a certain threshold, increased income does not create increased happiness, and the false promise of consumerism (buy this: be happy) sets the individual on a quest for a constantly receding goal of their own private fulfillment, while sober evidence repeatedly suggests that happiness is more surely found in contributing toward a community endeavor. (The Buddha smiles a tired, patient smile: “I’ve been telling you that for years.”) Community endeavor increases “social capital,” that captivating idea expressing the value of local relationships, networks, help, and friendships. A rise in social capital could be the positive concomitant of a fall in financial capital that a low-carbon future may entail.

Many people today experience a strange hollow in the psyche, a hole the size of a village. Mandy Dean alludes to this when she explains why she was drawn to the Transition Initiative: “One of the awful things about modern culture is separation and isolation; we’ve broken down almost every social bond, so the one bond left is between parent and child. In this extreme isolation, we don’t interact except with the television and the computer. We’ve lost something, and we don’t know what it is, and we try to fill it with food and alcohol and shopping but it’s never filled—what we’ve lost is our connection to our community, our place, and nature. Stepping back away from that isolation is very healing for people; getting people into groups where they can do things together starts to reverse that isolation.”

Article X: Landscaping - MANDATORY LANDSCAPING REQUIREMENTS (10.125) - Part 4 - "Off-Street Loading Spaces"

Some loading docks are harder to screen than others. (Shrubs need air.)

As we continue through the Mandatory Provisions of the Landscape portion of Article X, we get to a minor, and yet important, provision that deserves some attention. In this process, we will also look at one of the related ordinances that governs screening uses. Section 51A-4.602 is referenced in many Planned Developments and has ties to other ordinances, including Article X.

Section 51A-10.125

(2) Screening of off-street loading spaces.

(A) All off-street loading spaces on a lot with residential adjacency must be screened from that residential adjacency.

(B) In all districts except CS and industrial districts, all off-street loading spaces on a lot must be screened from all public streets adjacent to that lot.

(C) The screening required under Subparagraphs (A) and (B) must be at least six feet in height measured from the horizontal plane passing through the nearest point of the off-street loading space and may be provided by using any of the methods for providing screening described in Section 51A-4.602(b)(3).

Section 51A-4.602(b)(3) gives us the materials that can be used for screening.

(b) Required screening. Unless otherwise specifically provided for in this chapter, screening must be constructed and maintained in accordance with the following regulations.

(1) Screening required in this article must be not less than six feet in height.

(2) The board may grant a special exception to the height requirement for screening when, in the opinion of the board, the special exception will not adversely affect neighboring property, except that the board may not grant a special exception to the height requirements for screening around off-street parking.

(3) Required screening must be constructed of:

(A) brick, stone, or concrete masonry, stucco, concrete, or wood;

(B) earthen berm planted with turf grass or ground cover recommended for local area use by the director of parks and recreation. The berm may not have a slope that exceeds one foot of height for each two feet of width;

(C) evergreen plant materials recommended for local area use by the director of parks and recreation. The plant materials must be located in a bed that is at least three feet wide with a minimum soil depth of 24 inches. Initial plantings must be capable of obtaining a solid appearance within three years. Plant materials must be placed a maximum of 24 inches on center over the entire length of the bed unless the building official approves an alternative planting density that a landscape authority certifies as being capable of providing a solid appearance within three years; or

(D) any combination of the above.

You should note that when you read this or any other ordinance, you should pay attention to the details. When the code specifies "evergreen plant materials," it does not necessarily mean shrubs, though that would be the common selection. If someone can come across another plant material that would be evergreen and obtain the heights and 'solid appearance' as called for, they can be applied. However, the city officials may reject a plant that is not recommended for our area, especially if it is considered an invasive plant by an office of the State of Texas.

NEXT: Site Trees.

Climate Denial Crock of the Week: This Year's Model

In this installment, Peter Sinclair discusses and defends the use of the many climate models that are only a portion of the scientific data and physical affirmations of the knowledge on climate change.

Referenced:

"Mount Agung eruption provides test of a global climatic perturbation," Hansen, Wang, Lacis, 1978. Goddard Institute for Space Studies. (pdf)

"Climate impact of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide," Hansen, et al., 1981. Goddard Institute for Space Studies. (pdf)

Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC)

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 26 - Climate Bill Passes House

The Global Energy Situation - "Inflection Point?" - Energy Bulletin

THINK PROGRESS
HOUSE PASSES AMERICAN CLEAN ENERGY AND SECURITY ACT

"In a 219-to-212 vote this evening, the House passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which will “for the first time put a price on carbon emissions” in the U.S." - It will now go up for a fight in the Senate.

ENERGY BULLETIN
Have we reached an inflection point in economics history?

"A fierce debate now rages among economists, investors, pundits and the puppetmasters of fiscal policy: What’s next, inflation or deflation?

Has the most massive money-printing spree in history successfully stimulated the global economy and put it back on an upward course with rising inflation? Or are we still in a global downturn, temporarily masked by the stimulus, with prices, wages and employment still falling?

A comforting 30% gain in the major stock market indexes since the March lows has given renewed confidence to the “green shoots” trumpeters who dominate the airwaves and the press.

But grayer and wiser heads in the investing community—like Dave Rosenberg, John Mauldin, Nouriel Roubini, Gary Shilling, Peter Schiff, and Dave Cohen—have a more bearish view. The financial sector must now deleverage, they argue, which means liquidating assets, repaying debt, saving instead of borrowing, and contracting in general. In their view, the process will take years, not months, and what we have seen since March is a classic bear market rally.

....We now appear to be bumping our heads against an invisible ceiling, where the decline in real energy meets our pain tolerance for high prices. When gasoline hit $4 last year, it created real demand destruction because people simply couldn’t afford it with their evaporating dollars. Likewise, the spike in natural gas and coal prices ultimately translated into such high prices for basic building materials like cement and steel that demand was curtailed.

It now seems possible that we have reached an inflection point in economic history, where the price at which energy is high enough to sustain new production is the same price at which things become too expensive, leaving us no option but to downsize.

Until we understand this key point, we are going to continue to go through wrenching cycles like we experienced over the last year. Spiking energy and commodity prices lead to destruction of the economy, which then gathers itself at a lower overall level until prices spike again, and back around the wheel we go. As energy declines, the ceiling will get lower and lower, and it will take more and more money to buy the same things.

No amount of tinkering with monetary policy can change that. Unlike money, Btus can’t be printed out of thin air.

Unfortunately, neither the Fed nor Congress seems to have learned this lesson.

....So what does all this mean for investors?

First, it means long-term investing in a diversified portfolio of stocks is probably not going to be a good strategy for a long time to come (if ever); it’s time to play defense and look for low-risk yield. Second, it means that investing in oil and commodities will continue to be the name of the game for many years, but investors must watch the signs I have identified here carefully to know when it’s time to dive in and time to jump out as we churn through these cycles under a dropping ceiling. And third, it means that we all need to learn to live at a lower level, eliminate debt, build savings, and buckle up for a long and bumpy ride."

Peak Oil, Prices and Supplies - June 26
To respond by saying that we have a huge amount of oil and natural gas left in the ground misses the point. The key issue is how fast that remaining underground inventory can be extracted and turned into usable fuel. In other words, it is the size of the tap that matters more than the size of the tank.


Climate and Environment - June 26

THE OIL DRUM
DrumBeat - June 26

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 25 - So What Do You REALLY Think?

"Just out of reach" - The Oil Drum

How much money we make (red)

How much money we say we need (black)

TEXAS ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT BLOG (DALLAS MORNING NEWS)
Americans want carbon regulations, but they're not sure about cap and trade.

ABC NEWS
Poll finds support for action on global warming.

CNS NEWS
African Americans Cool On Global Warming, Survey Shows

CLIMATE PROGRESS
ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING NEWS for JUNE 25

Game Changer 3: New Natural Gas Supplies - Great for Low-Cost Climate Action, Bad for Coal.

ENERGY BULLETIN
Peak Oil Notes - June 25
"The oil price rally which started last winter remained stalled in the high $60s a barrel this week as the markets balanced faltering consumption against the strength or weakness of the dollar. On Wednesday prices fell after the Department of Energy reported that domestic demand for oil fell by 1.1 million b/d last week. Crude inventories declined by 3.8 million barrels from the previous week, but gasoline inventories increased by 3.6 million. Total demand for petroleum products in the US is now down by 6.6 percent compared with last year. Distillate demand, which is mostly diesel at this time of year, is down by 9.3 percent and jet fuel demand is down by 13.9 percent. Gasoline consumption is still up slightly, but gas prices are $1.40 a gallon cheaper than they were at this time last year.

The increase in gasoline inventories comes at a time when increased summer driving usually draws down gasoline stocks. Surveys indicate that driving will be down over the 4th of July holiday. Gasoline futures have fallen nearly 20 cents a gallon in the last week suggesting that we may have seen the summer high for gas prices."


The Peak Oil Crisis: Stifling A Rebound
"Now there is no question that very high oil prices would quickly choke off economic growth. Every dollar per gallon increase in the price of oil products drains about $800 million each day from the pockets of consumers in America. Worldwide it drains about $3.5 billion each day. Most observers believe that as soon as worldwide demand for oil gets ahead of supply there will be multi-dollar per gallon increases in the prices of oil products.

There seems to be little doubt that over the next few years, the world's oil supply will be forced into irretrievable decline from a combination of geologic and geopolitical reasons coupled with a lack of adequate investment. Should the demand for oil increase in the next year or so, there will still be some room for increased production without unacceptable prices increases for a while. The longer a recovery is delayed, however, the better the chances that oil prices will quickly surge to recovery-choking levels. While there are long-term solutions to this problem they will take decades to implement."

A Shale Gas Boom?

THE OIL DRUM
The Psychological and Evolutionary Roots of Resource Overconsumption Revisited
"This essay has explored some of the underlying drivers of resource depletion and human consumption: more humans competing for more stuff that has more novelty. The self-ambition and curiosity that Adam Smith hailed as twin engines of economic growth have been quite effective over the past 200 years. But Adam Smith did caution in "Moral Sentiments" that human envy and a tendency toward compulsions, if left unchecked, could undermine the empathic social relationships that would be essential to his economic model and the successful long term operation of free markets. Smith lived before the creation of the megacorporation, before 24 hour global commerce and before stock options and NASCAR. Amidst so much choice and wealth, we are discovering some uncomfortable facts backed up by modern neurobiology that confirm Adam Smiths fears. In an era of material affluence, when wants have not yet been fully constrained by limited resources, the evidence from our modern American experiment suggests that humans have trouble setting limits on their instinctual cravings. And our rational brains have an equally hard time acknowledging this glaring fact."


DrumBeat - June 25

LEGAL PLANET
The Costs and Benefits of Coal


COMMON DREAMS
Mountaintop Removal Damage "Irreversible", Senate Hears (The Charleston Gazette)

REUTERS
US to spend $3.9 billion on "smart" power grid: Chu

MONGABAY
Russia pledges to raise carbon emissions to combat global warming.
"In a bizarre announcement that threatens to further weaken the international community’s ability to come together on climate change, Russia has said it will reduce its emissions 10-15 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. The problem is that in 1990 Russia’s carbon emissions were much higher than they are today, so this 'lowering' of carbon emissions actually means that Russia will raise its emissions by 2 to 2.5 percent annually until 2020." 


Over 30 percent of open ocean sharks and rays face extinction.

TREEHUGGER
Why Passing The Climate Bill Is An Ethical Necessity
"Coal and oil state politicians are worried that the climate bill will be too hard on industry. Republicans (misleadingly) accuse the bill of raising taxes. Democrats from rural areas say it'll be too much of a burden to big agriculture. Words have been flying, tensions rising, and allegiances shifting--it's been a loud, chaotic conversation over on Capitol Hill. But there's been one thing sorely missing from the debate--a sense of ethics. The fact that inaction on climate change will have disastrous consequences remains curiously absent from the dialogue. Here's why politicians need to start considering the ethical necessity of fighting global warming--and why they need to do it now.



...The sad truth is that the concept of climate change is largely abstract and intangible to many, many people--including leading politicians. Even if the majority of Americans believe it's occurring, and think that we should curb greenhouse gases as a nation (which they do), more tangible and immediate concerns like rising taxes and personal job security will almost always be held as a priority. And it's not for a lack of education or personal wherewithal--it's just how human beings are wired.


...Which is why it's of the utmost importance that the ethical question is raised more vocally and visibly--the fact is, climate change will become a tangible force that we all are going to be affected by, though it will happen incrementally. And though I'm not advocating more doomsaying or fear mongering, I do believe the true risks should be taken into account when legislators are weighing which provisions to compromise in order to make the bill more palatable. And I'm sure the ethical component does factor into the representatives' decision making, but lately we've seen a veritable cascade of compromises and sacrifices which have weakened the bill's efficacy."



5 Documentaries You Must See To Understand The Water Crisis

BLUEPRINT AMERICA
DC Metro Accident Update: The Aging US Transit System

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG
New fossil tells how piranhas got their teeth.

Online ethics and the bloggers' code revealed.

How It All Started....

WHEREAS, the City of Dallas desires to recognize the 20th Anniversary of Earth Day; and

WHEREAS, the City recognizes that trees are valuable assets to the environmental character of all city properties; and

WHEREAS, significant individual trees and stands of trees are found throughout the city; and

WHEREAS, many citizens of Dallas have expressed concern for the protection and preservation of trees in the city; and

WHEREAS, existing ordinances which contain tree protection elements apply to geographically specific areas with the city; Now, Therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF DALLAS:

Section 1. That the City of Dallas shall support the protection and preservation of trees throughout the entire city.

Section 2. That the City Council directs Park and Recreation Department, in cooperation with other appropriate departments, to design a mechanism to achieve this end.

Section 3. That this resolution shall take effect immediately from and after its passage in accordance with the provisions of the City of Dallas, and it is accordingly so resolved.

Dallas City Council, April 25, 1990

Resolution 901496

A result of this action, a year later, was a preliminary "City of Dallas Tree Preservation Policy." The city staff worked for two years to work up ordinance recommendations to alter the existing Article X landscape code and attach the tree preservation policies. The Park Board approved their recommendations on December 12, 1991. After that, the real discussion began.

It's the place the mind dare not dwell.

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 23 - Waxman-Markey Viewpoints

The Next Grid - Popular Science

COMMON SENSE STIMULUS by Tony Allison (Financial Sense Observations)
Build a productive infrastructure before the currency is destroyed.

"Time is critical and common sense is essential. If the U.S. loses its tremendous advantage of having the world’s reserve currency, we will not be able to simply print money and force the world to accept it to service our massive foreign debt. We will be forced to build up our savings and pay down our debts, which will greatly slow our growth rate. With an aging, inefficient infrastructure, this will make the process of revamping and restructuring our economy extremely difficult.

We need to rebuild the infrastructure of this country quickly (very difficult) and intelligently (even more difficult). Mindlessly dumping hundreds of billions into roads and bridges is not thinking strategically. We need a full-court press, all-out national effort to re-build intelligently and focus on areas with the most benefit. In addition, effective regulatory oversight must ensure open competition among market players in executing the projects. Unfortunately, our slow-moving, politically-motivated bureaucracy is more likely to dither away this last critical opportunity...."

• Upgrade and modernize the electrical grid.
• Modernize the port system
• Electrify and expand the nation's rail system.
• Build nuclear, wind and solar projects ASAP
• Develop more sources of natural gas and build more pipelines.
• Drill for more domestic oil.

Perhaps time will run out. This may prove too high a mountain to climb. But if we don’t at least try to solve our massive debt and infrastructure problems soon, we will very surely usher in an era of significantly lower living standards. And with time in short supply, leadership going forward will be critical.

Regaining our energy independence and creating a more efficient and modern infrastructure will of course ultimately save many trillions of dollars over the balance of this century and beyond. And it may just give our grandchildren a fighting chance at their own version of the American Dream. At the end of the day, isn’t that why we are here? The clock is ticking."

REUTERS
House Democrats Reach Deal On Climate Bill.

THE WONK ROOM
EPA: Waxman-Markey will lower electricity bills.

PEW CENTER on GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE
Seven Myths About The Waxman-Markey Clean Energy Bill.

CLIMATE PROGRESS
ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING NEWS for JUNE 23

ENERGY BULLETIN
Peak Oil, Prices, and Supplies - June 23
United States - June 23
Iraq - June 23

THE OIL DRUM
The Financial Return On Energy Invested.

TEXAS ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT BLOG (DALLAS MORNING NEWS)
US needs a national energy strategy, and here's what we think should be in it.

LEGAL PLANET
Couer Alaska and mountaintop removal mining.

"The bottom line after this decision is that Coeur Alaska is better off because it was able to find a convenient nearby lake (which by the way sits in a national forest) to dump its waste in than it would have been somewhere else. That means that destroying a lake gives the mine a competitive advantage, which is exactly what the section 404 permit requirement is meant to prevent. And it means that the nation’s highest court has endorsed the use of its waterways for waste dumps, which is exactly what the section 402 permit requirement is meant to prevent.

The way out of this topsy-turvy world lies with Congress and the executive branch. H.R. 1310, which has attracted some 150 co-sponsors, would take care of it by defining “fill material” for purposes of section 404 to exclude “any pollutant discharged into the water primarily to dispose of waste.” The administration could do the same thing through a rulemaking. And with the stroke of a pen it could disavow the internal memo on which the Court majority relied, making it clear that when EPA has issued technology-based standards for an industry those standards apply whether a permit is issued through section 402 or section 404.

UPDATE: NRDC’s Rob Perks notes that there is also a Senate bill pending to revise the definition of fill, and that the  Environment and Public Works Committee’s subcommittee on water and wildlife will hold a hearing on that bill this Thursday, 6/25."

TREEHUGGER
Supreme Court Shock: Ruling Says Lethal Mining Waste Can Be Dumped In Lakes.
How it happened.

Newt Rips Climate Bill With Silly, Scary Commercial.



REUTERS
Birth Defects Show Human Price of Coal

China arable land fears end reforestation drive.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
Weed-Whacking Herbicide Proves Deadly To Human Cells.

"...Until now, most health studies have focused on the safety of glyphosate, rather than the mixture of ingredients found in Roundup. But in the new study, scientists found that Roundup’s inert ingredients amplified the toxic effect on human cells—even at concentrations much more diluted than those used on farms and lawns.

One specific inert ingredient, polyethoxylated tallowamine, or POEA, was more deadly to human embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells than the herbicide itself – a finding the researchers call “astonishing.”

“This clearly confirms that the [inert ingredients] in Roundup formulations are not inert,” wrote the study authors from France’s University of Caen. “Moreover, the proprietary mixtures available on the market could cause cell damage and even death [at the] residual levels” found on Roundup-treated crops, such as soybeans, alfalfa and corn, or lawns and gardens...."

POPULAR SCIENCE
The Plan To Build The Next Electic Grid
"The American electric grid is an engineering marvel, arguably the single largest and most complex machine in the world. It's also 40 years old and so rickety that power interruptions and blackouts cost the economy some $150 billion a year. The idea of building a connected "smart" grid that can route power intelligently is beyond daunting, no matter how much stimulus money gets thrown at it. But if we want to cut carbon, we have no choice. Today's grid simply cannot handle a large-scale rollout of the clean-energy sources outlined in this series.
...The idea behind the smart grid is to embed the system with sensors and computers so that utilities and consumers can precisely control power usage and delivery. Wireless nodes (on substations, transformers and wires) and smart meters (on homes and businesses) will communicate over the Internet to you and your electrical supplier. That way, when everyone turns on the A/C, the electric company can lower the power headed for other appliances, or even draw electricity stored in the battery of your plug-in hybrid, which, when parked, would act as a backup power source."

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 22 - The Cost of Doing Business

The cost of Appalachian mountaintop mining is more than mountaintops. (Climate Progress)

We're on a financial spin here today as we jump into the economic fray of the climate bill, the stimulus, nuclear energy and human life.

It Can Happen Here - SLATE (Bruce Reed)

"At the height of the Ownership Society, when George W. Bush was pushing private accounts for Social Security, Grover Norquist explained the political rationale in the Washington Monthly: "Owning $5,000 worth of stock makes you 18% more Republican." Last November the GOP learned that Norquist's math worked just as well in reverse. Americans watched the value of their 401(k)s drop by half, and between 2004 and 2008, the electorate became 9 percent more Democratic.

Now chastened Republicans have scaled back their plans in order to make Americans a more modest offer. Mitt Romney and Sen. Lamar Alexander recently proposed turning over the federal government's 60 percent temporary stake in General Motors to the American people so that every household would own shares in GM. The company's current market capitalization is just $800 million, but even at its June peak of $1 billion, America's 120 million households would each receive GM stock worth $5. The Bush years may have wiped out your life savings, but the party of Lincoln will send you a five-spot to start over.

It will take conservatives a little longer to transform the political landscape now that the Ownership Society has been reduced to the Ownership Rebate Offer. (Buy now and get $5 back!) According to Grover Norquist's formula, owning $5 worth of stock will make you only eighteen-one-thousands of 1 percent more Republican. At that annual rate, the 7.2 percent difference between Democrats and Republicans in the 2008 presidential election will disappear in exactly 200 years. On the other hand, the downside risk is smaller as well. GM stock, like GOP stock, has nowhere to go but up."

Sanford Predicts Stimulus Will Result In 'A Thing Called Slavery' - THINK PROGRESS

"Speaking to the Lexington County GOP last week, Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) lamented his defeat in his quest to reject American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for schools, the unemployed, and for job creation and retention. On June 4, the South Carolina Supreme Court ordered Sanford to accept the $700 million in stimulus funds he had opposed.
To defend his grandstanding, Sanford has previously lashed out at his critics, saying it would be tantamount to “fiscal child abuse” to accept the federal money. He has also compared President Obama to Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, because of his fiscal policies. But now Sanford is taking his hyperbolic rhetoric to another level, claiming that the stimulus will result in “a thing called slavery.”



US Climate Fix to Cost Consumers $175 a Year: CBO - CLIMATE ARK (REUTERS)

CLIMATE PROGRESS
ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING NEWS for JUNE 22

"Consumers could pay $1.9 trillion to $4.4 trillion in excess costs if 100 new nuclear reactors are built instead of using renewable energy and energy efficiency to provide the same electricity, according to a new report by a consumer advocate and senior fellow at Vermont Law School.

The report released yesterday said cost estimates for new nuclear reactors are currently four times as high as estimates made at the beginning of the “nuclear renaissance.” New reactors will cost 12 to 20 cents per kilowatt-hour — at least 6 cents per kilowatt-hour more than electricity provided by renewable energy and energy efficiency, the report says.

“The nuclear industry cannot live up to the hope and hype because nuclear reactors are mega projects … that are site-specific and prone to delay and disruption,” Mark Cooper, a senior fellow for economic analysis at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School and director of research at the Consumer Federation of America, said during a teleconference yesterday."

Nobelist Krugman takes on the "fantasists" of the "burn-baby-burn crowd" for opposing climate action that costs Americans 18 cents a day.

Coal mining costs Appalachians five times more in early deaths than it provides in economic benefits.

"The Appalachian region has been supplying American with cheap energy for generations, a duty it has performed with a sense of pride and patriotism. But while electricity from the region’s coal has been cheap for the rest of us, the price has been extraordinarily high for the people of the mountains.
That price took on a new dimension this week in a peer-reviewed study (subs. req’d) from the Health Policy Institute at West Virginia University. Researcher Michael Hendryx reports that coal mining costs the region five times more in early deaths than it provides in economic benefits.
Hendryx’s sobering calculation is that the coal industry provides about $8 billion annually in jobs, taxes and other economic benefits — but premature deaths attributed to coal mining and its impacts, including local air and water pollution, cost the region $42 billion."


ENERGY BULLETIN
Peak Oil News - June 22
Most oil traders continue to say that oil is over-priced, given the weak fundamentals. In recent weeks gasoline prices have moved up to a current national average of $2.69, a rate high enough to suggest that the increase in consumption we saw in April and May could be coming to an end. While some are looking at oil as a commodity to be consumed, others see oil as a store of value that can be used to offset a falling dollar and inflation. This struggle between oil as a commodity and oil as a financial tool is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, or until governments put restrictions on speculation.


Peak Oil and Supplies - June 22

THE OIL DRUM
The Net Hubbert Curve: What does it mean?

Drum Beat - June 22

INHABITAT
US Government may bulldoze 50 cities; create more green space.

ACCUWEATHER
Global Temperatures So Far This Year

TREEHUGGER
There's no way to stabilize CO2 without tackling coal emissions: MIT study

Climatologist James Hansen urges Obama to ban Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining.

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS NETWORK
Destroying Levees In Louisiana

UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM
New scientific report warns that climate change is real.

EPA
EPA issues Clean Energy Guidebook to help states save money, reduce greenhouse gas emissions

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG
Beyond CO2: Study reveals growing importance of HFC's in climate warming.
The authors took a fresh look at how the global use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) is expected to grow in coming decades. Using updated usage estimates and looking farther ahead than past projections (to the year 2050), they found that HFCs—especially from developing countries—will become an increasingly larger factor in future climate warming.


Close relationship between past warming and sea level rise.


Total knee replacement appears cost-effective in older adults.
Approximately 12 percent of adults older than 60 have symptoms of knee osteoarthritis, and their direct medical costs are estimated to range from $1,000 to $4,100 per person per year, according to background information in the article. "Total knee arthroplasty is a frequently performed and effective procedure that relieves pain and improves functional status in patients with end-stage knee osteoarthritis," the authors write. "Almost 500,000 total knee arthroplasties were performed in the United States in 2005 at a cost exceeding $11 billion. Projections indicate dramatic growth in the use of total knee arthroplasty over the next two decades."


Less frequent social activity linked to more rapid loss of motor function in older adults.
Loss of muscle strength, speed and dexterity is a common consequence of aging, and a well-established risk factor for death, disability and dementia. Yet little is known about how and why motor decline occurs when it is not a symptom of disease.

Now, researchers at Rush University Medical Center have found that, among the elderly, less frequent participation in social activities is associated with a more rapid decline in motor function. The study is published in the June 22 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"It's not just running around the track that is good for you," said Dr. Aron Buchman, associate professor of neurological sciences at Rush University Medical Center. "Our findings suggest that engaging in social activities may also be protective against loss of motor abilities."

"If the causal relationship is confirmed by others, the implications are enormous for interventions that can help the elderly. Our data raise the possibility that we can slow motor decline and possibly delay its adverse health outcomes by supporting social engagement – a relatively low-cost solution to a very large public health problem."

ARCHIVE: Article V - Escarpment Ordinance (3/5/08) with Added Information

The White Rock Escarpment is an ancient geological feature but only 'protected' under a city ordinance for a few decades. In 1973, Dallas was facing a large growth spurt and determined to conduct an ecological study of the entire metropolitan area. The city sought to "assess the relative significance of the city's natural environment and its tolerance to urbanization." Multiple sources were brought together to collect information on "earth, water, and life systems," map them and put them on a computerized system. Anne Whiston Spirn in "The Granite Garden" said "computer models were then designed to measure the relative tolerance of these systems to urbanization. A major benefit of the study has been the identification of the region's significant resources and hazards: headwater streams and aquifer recharge areas that are sensitive to pollution, floodplains, and the White Rock Escarpment - an area of unstable slopes and swelling soils, diverse wildlife habitat and great scenic beauty." 

If anyone knows of THIS information, I'm interested. 

According to Ms. Spirn, "the regulations governing development on the escarpment are based upon an understanding of earth, water, and life systems, and the interrelationships among them as well as the inferred effects of urbanization." The escarpment ordinance is a "model of sound regulations derived from an understanding  of ecosystem processes."

Unfortunately, I think much of the "understanding of ecosystem processes" inherent in the derived regulations are clouded by the "effects of urbanization" and time.

It was on May 24, 2005, that the latest ordinance amendments (ordinance 26000) were enacted on the division of Article V governing development within the City of Dallas near the escarpment, a geological formation that traverses the western portion of the city near Loop 12 and Spur 1382 (Patriot Parkway). The main emphasis of the ordinance stayed intact. Along with the Article V ordinance amendments, minor changes were made to the platting regulations to conform with the Article V adjustments.  

Amendments to the ordinance were made to take into account the relatively new state and federal guidelines for stormwater pollution management and for coordinating best management practices on that basis. Section 51A-5.202 that prohibits any development or site alteration within the escarpment zone was not changed. There is no provision within the ordinance that would allow any new structure to be built on any portion of the area considered 'escarpment zone.'

Both the Grading Plan and the Vegetation Plan must conform to specific performance standards. The emphasis on both is for minimal disturbance of the Geological Similar Area (GSA) and to maintain the existing physical characteristics of the site where possible. The design for development should seek the 'least disturbance on the area's natural topography, watercourses, vegetation and wildlife." To emphasize that issue, the ordinance states that the protection of those areas "may preclude all development in certain areas."  Existing topsoil is required to be stockpiled for later use. This would be a feature that would be helpful in almost all developments with suitable soil. Indigenous vegetation is required to be retained and protected except in areas of immediate development. If removed, similar varieties are to be replaced.  Existing shrub boundaries are required to be retained.

The escarpment is a unique geologic feature for Dallas and was heavily scarred before the ordinance ever took effect with the creation of the Spur to Interstate 20. This has become a major (and highly efficient) transit route for trucking to circumvent the central core of Dallas and link back up to Interstate 35 to the north of downtown. The escarpment feature itself shows up on many of the old Dallas maps and had to be handled carefully by early travelers. Perhaps not as significant a feature to Dallas as the river that flows through it (I'll stay open to discussion on that matter), the escarpment is still a geologic wonder in Southwest Dallas that deserves respect. The purpose of the ordinance is not defined, but it was clear by the researchers who studied the science behind it, the region around the escarpment zone was treacherous and some who built before the ordinance found out the hard way. This same geological feature goes further north and south of Dallas and is a major physical feature in Waco. The escarpment and its surrounding landscapes is also favorable habitat for numerous bird species including a couple of endangered species, the black-capped vireo and the golden-cheeked warbler.

From March 5, 2008:

Article V is divided up into two divisions: the floodplain ordinance and the escarpment ordinance. This ordinance has several concepts that are not widely recognized or understood and are often sources of contention. I'd like to address a few of these concepts for your review and for further discussion later. The success and failure of the ordinance is open to debate. However, any viewpoint requires some understanding of basic concepts.

1) Escarpment ZONE - Within the ordinance, it is located ONLY south of Interstate 30 between a) the CREST side of the escarpment line and measuring horizontally from the line 125 feet, or 35 feet beyond the crest, whichever is farther from the line, and, b) the TOE side of the line and measuring horizontally from the line 85 feet from the line, or 10 feet beyond the toe, whichever is farther from the line.

2) Escarpment LINE - The line formed by the intersection of the plane of the stratigraphic contact between the Austin Chalk and the Eagle Ford shale formations and the surface of the land. This line may or may not be obvious in any particular area. One of the best places to observe the contact line is from Kiest Boulevard near the Patriot Parkway.

3) Escarpment FACE - The portion of the escarpment zone between the crest and the toe.

4) Crest - The LINE above the escarpment line where the slope becomes less than 4:1.

5) Toe - The LINE below the escarpment line where the slope becomes flatter than 5:1.

6) Geologically Similar Area - (GSA) This is a definition that is most often debated and least understood.
A) Area adjacent to and similar to the escarpment ZONE by virtue of their SLOPES, SOILS, and GEOLOGY; AND
B) The drainage basins containing the escarpment ZONE, EXCLUDING those portions of the basins which are i) downstream from the areas described in A, or ii) NORTH of Interstate 30.

7) Escarpment zone: Removing or injuring any tree or vegetation and any alteration of the physical condition of the land is an OFFENSE. There are some defenses to prosecution.

8) GSA: Removing or injuring any tree or vegetation or altering the physical condition of the land in any way is an OFFENSE without first obtaining an escarpment permit expressly authorizing the activity. There are defenses to prosecution.

9) A decision made by the director to grant or deny an escarpment permit may be appealled to the Board of Adjustment in the same manner that appeals are made from the decisions of the building official.

10) Slope Stability Analysis - For all proposed developments within the GSA, field and laboratory tests MUST be performed on samples taken from representative locations within the development site and must be certified by a registered professional engineer.

11) Soil Erosion Control Plan - MUST be submitted for all proposed development within the GSA. This would include a TIMING SCHEDULE indicating starting and completion dates of the development activities sequence and the time of exposure of each area prior to completion of control measures.

12) Development within the GSA PERFORMANCE STANDARDS:
A) MUST be fitted to the topography and soils to MINIMIZE cut and fill sections.
B) Grading is NOT permitted within the 100 year flood plain, with exceptions.
C) Indigenous vegetation MUST be retained and protected except in IMMEDIATE areas of development so that a MINIMAL amount of vegetation is removed or replaced.
D) Development MUST be accomplished in a manner which assures that as SMALL an area as possible is exposed to erosion at any one time. When land is exposed during development, the exposure MUST be kept to the SHORTEST PRACTICAL PERIOD OF TIME NOT TO EXCEED 6 MONTHS. In extraordinary cases, an extension of the six month time period MAY be granted by the director.
E) Areas where construction activities have ceased for more than 21 days MUST be stabilized by the developer to MINIMIZE erosion through the use of temporary or permanent vegetation, mulching, sod, geotextiles, or similar measures.
F) Temporary vegetation and mulching MUST be used to protect areas exposed during development.
There are ELEVEN total standards listed in the ordinance.

13) Development within the GSA GRADING STANDARDS
A) Grading must be PLANNED so as to have the LEAST disturbance on the area's natural topography, watercourses, vegetation, and wildlife. This MAY preclude ALL development in certain areas.
B) Topsoil MUST be stockpiled and redistributed on areas where vegetation will be grown after the grading is completed.
There are THREE total standards listed in the ordinance.

14) Development within the GSA VEGETATION STANDARDS
A) Indigenous vegetation MUST be retained and protected EXCEPT in IMMEDIATE areas of development so that a MINIMAL amount of vegetation is removed or replaced.
B) Shrub borders MUST be maintained around woodlands where practicable.
There are THREE total standards listed in the ordinance.

15) Platting: The property owner is encouraged, but not required, to dedicate the escarpment zone or GSA to the city as a park.

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 19 - Why Mark Davis Don't Want 'Angry Gay People'

As a fill-in on the Rush Limbaugh Show on Friday, June 19, radio personality extraordinaire Mark Davis spews his bile across the airways:

CALLER: What I'm suggesting is the Republican Party could do itself and the country a big favor by seeking to establish some credibility and taking the position that there -- no one has the right to deny any citizen of this country the right to the institution of marriage.

DAVIS: But that -- except for one thing: That's insane. Using that very argument, I can marry my dog. Using that argument, I can marry five women. And I'm not --

CALLER: That's another question.

DAVIS: -- and, please, no angry gay people.

...and on the issue for 'cash for clunkers', I hope you're not one of the 'countless examples' of crackhead people to have a clunker in your driveway and looking to improve your lot in life - or find your next hit. In any case, a tool to help people step up to a new cleaner vehicle that will help themselves, the auto industry, and the environment, is shown contempt by Mark because 'countless' people with addiction issues will abuse the system.  Damn vouchers are going to make common people make BAD decisions with tax payer money.  (I'll let that soak in for a second ........ ok) Yeah, let's give it to some crackhead investment guys up on Wall Street. I trust THEM a whole lot.  Heck, the biggest pain will be with the guys at the Dallas Can! Academy. Losing some potential car donations could be a big hit. I would've understood THAT discussion.

DAVIS: The way in which it will work in countless examples is people whose cars either don't work or barely work, and they're maybe doing a little less crack cocaine or maybe smoking a few -- fewer cartons of smokes, or maybe not quite filling the fridge as full with beer because they're saving for the car they gotta have, because if they don't have it, they'll get fired and then they'll really be up the creek. Guess what? No worries, mate!

Here comes $4,500 of taxpayer money, so you can head to the liquor store. You can go to the meth lab. You can get that carton of Lucky's. Go ahead. That $4,500 frees up your budget. - Media Matters

This is why I love 'Radio Republicans' so much. They know people so well and know everything they think is true, they MUST know what is better for us.  Listen for yourself, but load up on duct tape. On with the news....

DALLAS LOCAL

DALLAS OBSERVER (Unfair Park)

Re:Vising Re:Vision Dallas, yet another look at what might have been behind City Hall.

Build, America: City plans to use stimulus dough to help fund convention center hotel.

CLIMATE PROGRESS

ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING NEWS for JUNE 19

What is the clean energy bank and why is it in Waxman-Markey?

"The Green Bank, or Clean Energy Deployment Administration, is a key element of proposed clean-energy policies. The Green Bank would provide more favorable terms to companies—including lower interest rates and a lower cost of debt—to offset the high cost of financing new renewable energy projects through the private sector."

ENERGY BULLETIN

Peak Oil, Prices and Supplies - June 19

"We conclude from these reviews that the most alarmist of the peakoil claims are likely false. Still, we see some convincing reasons to think that global production could peak within 20 years, with demand outstripping production indefinitely."

IDA study on Peak Oil debate (August 2008) (review)

Depletion - June 19

Food and Agriculture - June 19

United States - June 19

PRESSCONNECTS.COM

Report: US Natural Gas reserves surge 35 percent

"Thanks to new technology that has allowed producers to drill for gas in shale rock, the Potential Gas Committee in Golden, Colo., said that the country's estimated reserves are 35 percent higher than just two years ago and have reached the highest level since the group started tracking the information 44 years ago."

MONGABAY

Fate of world's rainforests likely to be determined in next 2 years

REUTERS

Alaska polar bear numbers declining: US agency

"Polar bear populations in and around Alaska are declining due to continued melting of sea ice and Russian poaching, according to reports released Thursday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service."

Dam's near China's Yellow River fragile: media

"Several dams on tributaries of China's Yellow River are near collapse shortly after being built, highlighting risks that parts of China's hastily built infrastructure may not be safe, media reported on Friday.

At least five newly built dams in Huan county, in Gansu province in arid northeast China, are "in very fragile condition," the China Daily said, citing a report from the China Youth Daily.

Reports blamed improper construction and embezzlement of funds."

TREEHUGGER

How development is hurting, not helping, China's poor (video)

Climate change hurts China's poor from Greenpeace China on Vimeo.

EPA announces asbestos emergency in Libby, Montana

DISCOVERY NEWS

Ancient volcanic blasts kicked off modern ice ages

CLIMATE ARK

Oil industry cranks up lobbying effort (AP)

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

Nuclear power could cost trillions over renewables

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG

NOAA forecast predicts large 'dead zone' for Gulf of Mexico this summer.

The Great Texas Hunt For Soapberry Borers

A sure fire way to know you have a soapberry is the highly distinguishable gold summertime fruit.

The Forest Pest Management office of the Texas Forest Service has issued a statewide request to the state foresters for help in locating the current distribution of the soapberry borer in Texas. The urban foresters are looking for leads to possible infested sites in the North Texas region. The soapberry borer, Agrilus prionurus, is "an invasive wood-boring beetle recently introduced from Mexico that has been attacking and killing western soapberry trees in various counties in Texas."

If you believe you have spotted dead or dying western soapberry trees that you believe may be tied to an infestation, you can contact your regional Texas Forest Service forester or other regional contacts you can find at the Texas Forest Service website county contact page. In the Dallas County area, you can contact Micah Pace at mpace@tfs.tamu.edu. In the Tarrant County area, contact Courtney Blevins at cblevins@tfs.tamu.edu. If you have photos you can send with your contact information, it might be helpful.

You can find more information on how to identify soapberry trees and how to locate signs of infestation of borers at the Texas Forest Service. Some of this information (pdf file) is also available in the Dallas Trees Support Pages Citizen Forester InfoLinks in the Attachments.

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 18 - Sun Spotting

Above: A helioseismic map of the solar interior. Tilted red-yellow bands trace solar jet streams. Black contours denote sunspot activity. When the jet streams reach a critical latitude around 22 degrees, sunspot activity intensifies.

- Climate Progress (see below)

DALLAS LOCAL

DALLAS OBSERVER (Unfair Park)

Get Your Hot Rocks Off: SMU prof has found a way to get Texas off the grid.

Sorry, but no politicians have invested in hot rocks under Texas.

Strange and passionate emissions from yesterday's EPA cement kiln hearing.

"The proposed amendments would set specific emissions limits on emissions of mercury, hydrochloric acid and total hydrocarbons -- and lower the emissions limits for particulate matter (dust) -- from cement kilns. If passed, the new rules would represent the first time the EPA has set limits on mercury emissions from cement kilns, a step industry representatives argue would result in plant closures, job loss and a severe drain on the cement industry. But with pollution levels that have exceeded federal air quality standards since the 1990s, the DFW region can hardly argue that change isn't necessary, and industry representatives' offers of alternatives to the amendments they opposed were vague at best and nonexistent at worst."

TEXAS ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT BLOG (DMN)

Dallas Chamber to members: Call your Washington representatives.

DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Dallas leaders assured Trinity River project is still a priority.

“This is a $2 billion project, plus. If we do it right, it’s going to address transportation issues for 30 to 50 years. It’s going to identify the face of Dallas potentially for the next century,” Leppert said.

...you learn something new everyday. On with the global news....

CLIMATE PROGRESS

ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING NEWS for JUNE 18

Excellent National Wildlife Federation summary and "Toolbox Assessment" of Waxman-Markey.

National Solar Observatory, NASA say no "Maunder Minimum"

ENERGY BULLETIN

Peak Oil Notes - June 18

"Crude prices hovered around $71 a barrel this week, with the now-normal dips as the dollar strengthened and jumps as the dollar weakened. In between, news of the fundamentals contributed a bit to the movement. This week’s inventory report showed US crude stocks falling by 3.9 million barrels, nearly double what had been expected. Of more interest was the 1.3 percent jump in US fuel consumption to 19 million b/d. US gasoline consumption over the last four weeks is up by 1.1 percent over the same period last year. This increase is surprising given the slumping economy and rising gasoline prices which are approaching $2.70 a gallon nationwide. In California prices are already over $3 a gallon."

THE OIL DRUM

DrumBeat - June 18

Understanding Peak Oil - Why We Need the National Academy of Sciences to study Peak Oil.

SKEPTICAL SCIENCE

The CO2/Temperature correlation over the 20th Century.

"So we see that climate isn't controlled by a single factor - there are a number of influences that can change the planet's radiative balance. However, for the last 35 years, the dominant forcing has been CO2."

DISCOVERY NEWS

Sun: Just Warming Up Now.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS

CO2 Levels Highest in Two Million Years.

RED GREEN AND BLUE

What's the real story behind the Enbridge Pipeline?

YALE ENVIRONMENT 360

Pine Beetle Infestation Threatens Water Source for US Southwest.

"The destruction of 2.5 million acres of Rocky Mountain forest because of a pine beetle infestation could threaten the water supplies of 33 million people, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Rick Cables, chief forester for the Rocky Mountain region, told a congressional committee that the dead and dying forest at the headwaters of the Colorado River could burn extensively and reduce water supplies to residents in Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, and Tucson, Ariz. Roughly 25 percent of the water piped to these cities originates in national forests in the Rockies that have suffered extensive damage from infestations of pine bark beetles, Cables said. He said that the loss of the trees and subsequent wildfires would “literally bake the soil” and lead to excessive runoff and rapid snowmelt, both of which reduce flow to the Colorado River. The fires also could destroy reservoirs, pipes, and other infrastructure, Cables said. Outbreaks of pine beetles — which scientists attribute to warmer winters that fail to kill beetle larvae — have destroyed 8 million acres of trees in the western U.S. and 22 million acres in Canada."

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG

Sudden collapse in ancient biodiversity: Was global warming the culprit?

Global warming has long been considered as the culprit for extinctions--the surprise is that much less carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere may be needed to drive an ecosystem beyond its tipping point than previously thought.

Ancient drought and rapid cooling drastically altered climate.

Natural deep earth pump fuels earthquakes and ore

For the first time scientists have discovered the presence of a natural deep earth pump that is a crucial element in the formation of ore deposits and earthquakes.

The process, called creep cavitation, involves fluid being pumped through pores in deformed rock in mid-crustal sheer zones, which are approximately 15 km below the Earth's surface.

The fluid transfer through the middle crust also plays a key role in tectonic plate movement and mantle degassing.

People think bottled water is healthy....sort of

Scientists create first comprehensive computer model of sunspots.

The high-resolution simulations of sunspots open the way for scientists to learn more about the vast mysterious dark patches on the sun's surface, first studied by Galileo. Sunspots are associated with massive ejections of charged plasma that can cause geomagnetic storms and disrupt communications and navigational systems. They are also linked to variations in solar output that can affect weather on Earth and exert a subtle influence on climate patterns.

Norway, Japan prop up whaling industry with taxpayer money.

ARCHIVE: Capitalism + Socialism = Liberty and Union (10/5/08)

Prior to the election last year, I provided a commentary on the need for compromise and unity in our nation. I also spoke to the tribulations of the right-wing who travail over the concept of a socialist nation and how liberty would be curtailed by the lefty pinko's. Some things just don't change, do they? As much as a world progresses, must we still insist that everything around us is a plot to destroy our freedoms and cripple us? For all our efforts, too many of us are lost in the past and failing to recognize that it is our future that depends upon our concerted efforts to provide for sustainable change. Perhaps it's the messengers. Perhaps we should look to past leaders who remember life before Newt and the Contract On (or is it With?) America. Yesterday, three ex-senators from our past (including two Republicans) presented a healthcare plan that had the promise of compromise and that had caught the ear of the Obama Administration. Most importantly, they talked of unity and coming together to find solutions to a problem that must be addressed. Did they have all of the answers? Probably not, and in spite of many people's perceptions, no one man does. It takes understanding and reaching across aisles to form a union.

I suppose that it's ironic that it's the few people - the minority, the mob - those who follow the 'Dathan's' of the world, who speak of America, life, and freedom, and community upon the pulpit but skewer with a devilish righteous indignation, who preach greed is freedom, who place the might of industry above the life of humanity and cannot perceive the difference, who cannot see prosperity without growth and expansion and consumption- the one's hording guns and bullets - that I should fear above all of the enemies of America.

The following is from October 5, 2008:

When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single Star obscured, bearing for its motto, no such miserable interrogatory as "What is all this worth?" nor those other words of delusion and folly, "Liberty first and Union afterwards"; but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart,-- Liberty and Union, now and for ever, one and inseparable!

Daniel Webster, The Hayne-Webster Debate , January 26, 1830

Much greater minds than mine have argued over the following philosophical points since the establishment of our great Republic, so I won't pretend to know all. As it is, I'll probably regret writing this come tomorrow. I'm just a simple, concerned arborist and citizen using a privilege I have been handed from my great nation. These are simple opinions and I'm open to discussion - but not belligerence. I'll get back to tree issues later.

The one great equalizer in our Nation is often buried away behind partisan bickering, philosophical exchanges and threats to the old pocket book. Common Sense tells a person, who has used the liberty granted them to have an education and to pursue thought, that the Truth for this Nation will never stand on one extreme or the other. The Nation was built upon compromise - for better or worse, good and bad. We are clearly a divided nation split in the center and looking for a direction and leadership. Something we've lacked for some time.

Daniel Webster and Henry Clay built careers seeking compromises to keep the Nation united. They were peacemakers who realized that compromise was essential for the young Republic to stand and to grow. Unfortunately, there were, nationally, great differences in opinion that concerned universal suffrage, human slavery, commerce and the role of the states (were we a union or a loose confederacy?) that took their toll. The Nation struggled to keep itself together in the decades prior to the Civil War and both sides (southern aristocracy and northern industry) lived on borrowed time with laws neither liked but all honored (maybe not a good word here) to keep the Union intact. It can be argued that it would have been better to have it out decades before the Civil War actually occurred, but the likely result would have been no single republic, but multiple confederations of states. You can have your opinion on this. I'm more concerned now for the future.

I don't always agree with Webster. I believe he originally argued against universal suffrage holding to the position that only Property owners should be voters. Now, each state had their own rules about which property owners were more equal than others. What view was correct? The view of the rights of man were different in the days of our Founders than they are today - or are they? The southern state's large landowners (aristocracy) were the voters in their day and I imagine many current 'aristocrats' would like it that way now.

But, more on point, Webster also supported the tariffs that were the backbone of the Whig Party. The party supported the National Bank and state-owned infrastructure to support a growing nation. There had to be a framework on which all commerce could operate, and who better than the government to provide it?

A nation that builds infrastructure to serve its Republic and commerce (two separate things, thank you), is by act a socialist charge. Capitalists use these state-supported instruments of interstate transportation and commerce to live a life as self-regulated (or unregulated) as possible. A bank and government that is drawn upon to provide aid to the military wounded and veterans is a socialist charge. A government that provides subsidies to farmers is socialist. A government that provides subsidies for 'Big Oil' is socialist. Subsidy is just another word for 'government-sponsored'. It's just not owned by us. It's an 'encouragement' for capitalists to do work (such as exploration) for the common good. The people who operate our national economy are capitalists operating in a socialist environment in order to protect their own interests and profits and those of their competition. If our nation was solely capitalist, wouldn't we have toll roads all over the place? (pause) Well, let's think on that later.

My point is (finally) that capitalism cannot act on its own. Capitalism is based on INDIVIDUALS working hard for prosperity and then the COMMUNITY benefits. Socialism is based on the COMMUNITY working together to help each INDIVIDUAL reach prosperity. They work together in unison. The real catch is that socialism cuts into capitalist profit (Confound them!) in order to help sustain the system that allows the capitalism to work. Capitalism cannot act on its own because of the human element . We suck.

Our nation regards the term 'socialist' with scary images and nuclear explosions and tyranny because some people still regard it only as the way of the 'enemy'. We haven't been cut off from the Cold War and the propaganda of Soviet hostility for very long. We've lived with our brand of socialism as a nation for a long time though not openly. Socialism is active in this country working in the shadows of capitalism. Strangely enough, and much to our recent economic benefit, even nations we have always suspected have picked up on market socialism , which I view as the opposite stance of American capitalism but with the same goal - make lots of money. The real difference is what you do with it. Capitalism isn't going anywhere. But socialism in America is not in a role of opposition but rather in a supporting role. The two actually work side by side to provide for the common good while allowing for people to thrive in a market economy - just not thrive as much as they'd like if we'd leave them alone. It also provides regulation to keep people from destroying each other - though it really didn't work to well recently, eh? It was socialism that provided worker protections (including migrant farmworkers) in the 20th century that protect workers today. The two, individually, has proven to be disastrous (early industrialists taking advantage of cheap workers vs. Soviet Union after 70 years) on their own. Working together, they seek to maintain a balance - if possible. The elements of a nation that cannot be built by market forces alone are sustained by the state. Usually we're pissed off about it because they don't maintain the roads we have but they build new ones.

Today, we don't have a cold, or civil, war between North and South, but more of a philosophical Donnybrook between conservatism and liberalism, capitalism and socialism, Republicans and Democrats. There is a societal disagreement about Constitutionality of life and death and the liberties of people to decide - or not - either position. Racial and ethnic groups are increasingly distrustful of the others and are in open opposition. People attack people in ignorance using the comments of some to be the basis of truth rather than seeking the truth themselves. None of these partisan arguments can be settled by our current laws. This will only come with realization that all sides are wrong, and right, and somewhere in between. Inflated ego's, self-righteousness, partisanship, rhetoric, ignorance and 'righteous indignation' must be curtailed to make room for selflessness, independence, patriotism, diplomacy and unity. The answers are in compromise and common sense.

We have an important mission to move forward and to repair our bleeding economy and prepare for future challenges of climate change, global terrorism and other unforeseen catastrophes that await us. In order to confront them, we must be one and inseparable and not drenched in our own 'fraternal blood'.

ARTICLE X: Landscaping - MANDATORY LANDSCAPING REQUIREMENTS (10.125) - Part 3 - "Other Uses"

The Others

We have just briefly discussed the LANDSCAPING provisions within Article X as they apply to single family and duplex uses which include shared access developments. Up to this point, we talked mainly about trees only. I should clarify that on single family lots, existing trees may count toward the landscape requirements as long as the tree is healthy and protected from the construction, and is also one of the trees from the Approved Replacement Tree List. Oh, and on that point, I'll be addressing the actual tree list sooner than intended. Keep watching. Further, we trudge...

"Other uses," as described herein, are essentially about every use in the city other than single family and duplex. There are some uses that will have distinct landscape provisions, especially as planned developments and special districts are applied. Utility Services uses have their own distinct landscape requirements, if any. I'll try to go into that one of these days with some other obscure ordinances you probably didn't know about. At this point, I am going to address items 1 and 7 of this section on "Other uses."

(b) Other uses. Lots containing a use other than single family or duplex must comply with the following requirements:

(1) PERIMETER LANDSCAPE BUFFER STRIP. A landscape buffer strip must be provided along the entire length of the portion of the perimeter of the lot where a RESIDENTIAL ADJACENCY exists, exclusive of driveways and accessways at points of ingress and egress to and from the lot. The buffer strip MUST be at least 10 feet wide, except that:

(A) any portion of the buffer strip adjacent to public street frontage need not exceed 10 percent of the lot depth; and

(B) any portion of the buffer strip in the front yard and adjacent to the side lot line need not exceed 10 percent of the lot width.

This mandatory provision is one that often catches some commercial and non-residential uses, especially churches, off guard. It can especially be important for consideration when a church use sets in the midst of a residential district surrounding the property on all sides. In many cases, a property will end up losing 20 feet of development width and depth for buildings or parking lots (or gain 20 feet of landscape width and depth, depending on your point of view) that can bring the site into conflict with parking regulations or setback issues. These matters are sometimes handed to the Board of Adjustment for resolution if it cannot be worked out administratively.

The width of the buffer on any one side, or along the street frontage, is reduced based on the actual width of the lot. For instance, a 60'-wide lot would have a 6'-wide (10%) buffer on each side where residential adjacency existed. The residential adjacency, as defined previously....in the definitions, does include residential lots adjacent to, and across alleys and streets (up to 64'-wide) from, the lot. The rear yard buffer is always 10'-wide.

The perimeter landscape buffer also has mandatory planting requirements within the buffer planting area. These are spelled out in this section. Since we're on buffers at the moment, I might as well cover it now.

(7) Buffer plant materials.

(A) If a FENCE WITH A BUFFER STRIP IS REQUIRED along any part of the perimeter of a lot, the buffer strip must contain either ONE LARGE CANOPY TREE or TWO LARGE NON-CANOPY TREES at a minimum average density of ONE LARGE CANOPY TREE or TWO LARGE NON-CANOPY TREES for each 50 linear feet of the buffer strip, with new trees spaced no less than 25 feet apart.

(B) IN ALL OTHER CASES, a landscape buffer strip provided to comply with this section or Section 51A-10.126 (Design Standards) must contain one of the following GROUPS of plant materials at a minimum average density of ONE GROUP for each 50 linear feet of the buffer strip:

(i) One large canopy tree and one large non-canopy tree.

(ii) One large canopy tree and three small trees.

(iii) One large canopy tree and three large evergreen shrubs.

(iv) One large canopy tree, two small trees, and one large evergreen shrub.

(v) One large canopy tree, one small tree, and two large evergreen shrubs.

(vi) Two large non-canopy trees.

And a partridge in a pear tree.

I have several comments. First, there is no proper definition for a non-canopy tree. We can define a canopy tree, a large tree and a small tree. We can deduce that a large non-canopy tree is a tree that will grow at least 30 feet in height at maturity and can grow crown foliage above, and below, six feet above grade. You might consider a tree like the magnolia to represent a non-canopy tree where a cedar elm would be a canopy tree. Sure, you could prune it up above 6 feet, but why would you? Yeah, I'm looking at you.

Second, you should keep in mind that existing trees, including trees NOT on the approved replacement tree list, may be counted as buffer trees, site trees, etc. on lots with uses other than single family and duplex uses. The trees must be healthy and meet general guidelines of the city arborist's office.

Finally, the perimeter means it's on the edge of the property which is also the same place that utility companies and city services like to put nasty little utility lines and bury stuff so you can't plant trees without causing a mess and a lot of hurt feelings later. You should consider the locations of utilities when considering your future planting. Keep in mind the motto, "right tree, right place." Then turn into Carl Sagan and enter your 'Ship of the Imagination' and project yourself forward 30 years. How do you think that tree will look then? Do you see an Oncor hovercraft looming around your tree whacking half of the canopy? Then you need to consider a better tree. Choose wisely. The city arborists will help if you get stuck.

NEXT: Screening of off-street loading spaces. Yeah, it's a real energetic topic.

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 17 - Dear Climate Deniers:

An Open Letter To Climate Change Denialists by Dan Farber - LEGAL PLANET

Dear Climate Deniers:

From the point of view of the blog, it’s good news that you have found us — it means that we’re reaching readers who are well outside our usual circle of friends and acquaintances.  And we also welcome dissenting views, even when we think they’re unfounded, so you folks are welcome to keep on posting comments.

I continue to think that you’re absolutely wrong — about as wrong about climate change as Chamberlain was about Hitler’s benign intentions when he announced “peace in our time.”  If you want to see my reasons in some detail, you might look at this paper.

It’s obvious, however, that there’s no point in debating the science with you — if you’re not convinced by a virtually unanimous consensus from the world’s leading scientists, you’re not going to be convinced by a group of legal scholars. You might, however, give some further thought to the issue of uncertainty.  You’re taking a huge gamble. There are three possibilities:

1. The scientists are wrong: climate change isn’t real, isn’t caused by humans, or can’t be restrained by any practical policy.

2.  The scientists are right.

3.  The scientists are wrong because climate change will be much worse than they predict, so the need to act is far more urgent.

You may think that #1 is the most likely answer.  But are you willing to bet the lives and welfare of your descendants that #2 and #3 have zero probability, like the odds that the earth is flat? Are you completely certain about that? In my view, “yes” just is not a responsible answer.

This is not to say that there is no reasonable ground for dispute about climate policy.  Although I disagree with economists like Nordhaus who feel we should go slowly with mitigation, they are certainly well within the mainstream.  That’s where the debate should be taking place.

Sincerely,

Dan Farber

DALLAS LOCAL NEWS...
DFW has second-worst road rage in U.S., survey says.  FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
The city with the most courteous drivers? Portland, Ore. No Texas cities made that list.
AffinionGroup.com


CLIMATE PROGRESS
ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING NEWS for JUNE 17  


NOAA: Fourth warmest May on record, model predicts a long and strong El Nino.


TREEHUGGER
US Gov Launches New Agenda for Smart Growth and Sustainable Development.
The Department of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency have partnered together to emphasize environmental issues on housing and tranportation needs.

• Provide more transportation choices. Develop safe, reliable and economical transportation choices in order to decrease household transportation costs, reduce our nations' dependence on foreign oil, improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote public health.
• Promote equitable, affordable housing. Atlanta's Livable Centers Initiative was another EPA smart growth award winner (courtesy of USEPA)Expand location and energy efficient housing choices for people of all ages, incomes, races and ethnicities to increase mobility and lower the combined cost of housing and transportation.
• Increase economic competitiveness. Enhance economic competitiveness through reliable and timely access to employment centers, educational opportunities, services and other basic needs by workers as well as expanded business access to markets.
• Support existing communities. Target federal funding toward existing communities to increase community revitalization, the efficiency of public works investments and safeguard rural landscapes.
• Leverage federal investment. Cooperatively align federal policies and funding to remove barriers, leverage funding and increase the accountability and effectiveness of all levels of government to plan for future growth.
• Value communities and neighborhoods. Enhance the unique characteristics of all communities by investing in healthy, safe and walkable neighborhoods - rural, urban or suburban. - NRDC

ASIA TIMES ONLINE
The World Is Now Changed 
"...China possessed an underlying domestic demand component of considerable potency that most experts in the West either missed entirely or excessively discounted. This component of domestic demand can be throttled at will, and it was throttled back by China's leaders during the boom years so as to avoid over-heating of the economy.

When the present crisis caused export levels to collapse, China's leaders quickly throttled the domestic demand component forward, and China's economy avoided the collapse of GDP suffered by most of the rest of the under-developed export-based economies. Its GDP growth tumbled from 13% in 2007 and nearly 10% in 2008 before the crisis really began to bite, to 6.1% in the first quarter of 2009. While that is a significant fall, it isn't anywhere near a recession. China is widely forecast to accelerate its growth later this year to as much as 8%." 



Public Interest 
"Very soon now, the sad decline of TARP will be filling the syllabi of many civics and political classes, with the students being given assignments to write papers as to what went so horrifically wrong with the effort. Over the past nine months, I've written about the promise and shortcomings of the program as they have happened, but, as it is now obvious that the effort is reaching the full extent of its incompetence, watching it die is like being on a mountain top and watching an airplane careen out of the high sky to burn in the valley on the ground. "


REUTERS
Climate Change will have "severe" impact on China, UN


EUREKALERT GOODY BAG
When palm trees gave way to spruce trees.

"Fossils of land plants are excellent indicators of past climates," said Dr. Greenwood. "But the fossil plant localities from the Canadian Arctic and Greenland don't appear to record this major climate change, and pose problems for precisely dating their age, so we needed to look elsewhere."
The "where" was in marine sediments entombed when the North Atlantic Ocean was beginning to open, and lying now at the bottom of today's Norwegian-Greenland Sea. Sediment cores taken from there contained a record of ancient spores and pollen blown from the continent to the west.


Beaked, bird-like dinosaur tells story of finger evolution.
Scientists have discovered a unique beaked, plant-eating dinosaur in China. The finding, they say, demonstrates that theropod, or bird-footed, dinosaurs were more ecologically diverse in the Jurassic period than previously thought, and offers important evidence about how the three-fingered hand of birds evolved from the hand of dinosaurs.


University of Colorado team finds definitive evidence for ancient lake on Mars.

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 16 - It's A 'Game Changer'

Read THIS, Jer. - Energy Bulletin

DALLAS AREA

DALLAS BUSINESS JOURNAL

Study: Texas ranks first for business.

"Texas has been named the country's No. 1 state for business by Dictato--- Directorship, a publication that caters to corporate boardroom leaders." "Texas nabbed the No. 1 spot due to its ability to attract Fortune 500 companies, its solid economy, affordable cost of living, and its pro-business tax climate."

UNT Survey: Perception of gas well drilling varies based on distance, royalties.

"Most North Texans view the drilling of gas wells in a favorable light when they're told the well will be located at least a thousand feet away from their communities and come complete with the benefit of (wait for it....) ROYALTY PAYMENTS."

DALLAS OBSERVER (UNFAIR PARK)

Sure, only God can make a tree. But a new Dallas tree ordinance? That's man-made.

No comment.

Jerry Jones will figure out how to wring every last dollar out of Cowboys Stadium.

"Ford says Cisco's so-called "fan-facing technologies," as it's referred to in the release, will allow stadium officials to not only broadcast the on-the-field action throughout the joint, but also allow advertisers to pick and choose where their commercials are shown during breaks in the action at the stadium still in need of someone willing to buy the naming rights. "The Cowboys can now work with their sponsors to do targeted promotions and advertising in the stadium," Ford says, right before using the phrase "revenue stream," hint, hint. " - R Wilonsky

Do you mean to say that if I pay my monthly salary to have the privilege to sit in Jerry Jones' Delusion of Grandeur to watch a football game, I still have to watch the commercials? Don't think so.

GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS IN THE UNITED STATES - CLIMATE PROGRESS

This report is a game-changer.

All of the foot-dragging we’ve seen stems from the perception that climate change is a problem that is down the road, that it will happen sometime in the future, that the problem is remote. The report states unequivocally that climate change is happening now, and in our own backyards. It affects things people care about. The report is good science, science that informs policy. The science does not dictate policy. We must act sooner than later….

Climate change affects you and the things you care about.

GlobalChange.Gov--US Impacts Summary

View more OpenOffice presentations from GlobalChange.gov.

USGS Newsroom

Nutrient delivery to the Gulf of Mexico Among Highest Measured

Spring nutrient delivery to the northern Gulf of Mexico is among the highest measured by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in thirty years.

THE OIL DRUM

Oilwatch Monthly June 2009

Drum Beat - June 16

ENERGY BULLETIN

Definancialisation, deglobalisation, relocalisation

Deep Thought - June 16

TREEHUGGER

Food Crisis: "Today it's Oil, in Ten or Fifteen years, Food"

CBS News

Officials to warn Congress of Beetle threat.

May home construction soars 17.2 percent.

MUST SEE: United States Global Change Reseach Program

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 15 - Our hellish future

The average number of days per year when the maximum temperature exceeded 90°F from 1961-1979 (top) and the projected number of days per year above 90°F by the 2080s and 2090s for lower emissions (middle [550 ppm]) and higher emissions (bottom). Much of the southern United States is projected to have more than twice as many days per year above 90°F by the end of this century. - CLIMATE PROGRESS ("Our hellish future")

DALLAS AREA

WFAA

Dallas cuts park services to trim budget.

Dallas Observer (Unfair Park)

Fort Worth: Walkable and Bikeable

Dallas Morning News: Texas Energy and Environment Blog

Oil companies already investing in greenhouse gas mitigation

ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING NEWS FOR JUNE 15 - CLIMATE PROGRESS

Who, really, is inciting Americans to violence today? - CLIMATE PROGRESS

Our hellish future: NOAA-led report on U.S. climate impacts. - CLIMATE PROGRESS

THE OIL DRUM

Drum Beat - June 15

ENERGY BULLETIN

Peak Energy Review - June 15

"Increasing US gasoline prices are again raising fears of damage to an economic rebound. The nationwide price for regular is now $2.66 and just a hair below $3 in California. There is little indication that Americans are substantially curtailing their driving despite the additional $400 million per day the gas price increase since last December is costing them. While distillate (largely diesel) consumption is down by 8.4 percent this year over 2008, gasoline consumption over the last four weeks is down by only 0.4 percent. Given that some of the reduction in gasoline consumption must be related to decreased economic activity, the figures suggest that personal travel must still be close to last year’s level. Analysts are split as to how high oil prices have to go before economic consequences become starkly evident. Some say $80 a barrel, some say $100, and some say $125. At any rate tens of billions of additional dollars are going for gasoline in the US each month rather than to other purchases."

Economics - June 15

Oil and Coal - June 15

ASIA TIMES

It's official: cheap oil era is over.

DESMOGBLOG

Slamming the Climate Skeptic Scam

James Hoggan

"There is a line between public relations and propaganda - or there should be. And there is a difference between using your skills, in good faith, to help rescue a battered reputation and using them to twist the truth - to sow confusion and doubt on an issue that is critical to human survival.

And it is infuriating - as a public relations professional - to watch my colleagues use their skills, their training and their considerable intellect to poison the international debate on climate change.

That's what is happening today, and I think it's a disgrace. On one hand, you have the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – as well as the science academies of every developed nation in the world – confirming that:

• climate change is real;
• it is caused by human activity; and
• it is threatening the planet in ways we can only begin to imagine.

On the other hand, you have an ongoing public debate - not about how to respond, but about whether we should bother, about whether climate change is even a scientific certainty. While those who stand in denial of climate change have failed in the last 15 years to produce a single, peer-reviewed scientific journal article that challenges the theory and evidence of human-induced climate change, mainstream media was, until very recently, covering the story (in more than half the cases, according to the academic researchers Boykoff and Boykoff) by quoting one scientist talking about the risks and one purported expert saying that climate change was not happening – or might actually be a good thing.

Few PR offences have been so obvious, so successful and so despicable as this attack on the science of climate change. It has been a triumph of disinformation – one of the boldest and most extensive PR campaigns in history, primarily financed by the energy industry and executed by some of the best PR talent in the world. As a public relations practitioner, it is a marvel – and a deep humiliation – and I want to see it stop."

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG

Is the sky the limit for wind power?

In the future, will wind power tapped by high-flying kites light up New York? A new study by scientists at the Carnegie Institution and California State University identifies New York as a prime location for exploiting high-altitude winds, which globally contain enough energy to meet world demand 100 times over. The researchers found that the regions best suited for harvesting this energy match with population centers in the eastern U.S. and East Asia, but fluctuating wind strength still presents a challenge for exploiting this energy source on a large scale.

The Earth's magnetic field remains a charged mystery.

MIT slows concrete creep to a crawl.

MIT civil engineers have for the first time identified what causes the most frequently used building material on earth — concrete — to gradually deform, decreasing its durability and shortening the lifespan of infrastructures such as bridges and nuclear waste containment vessels.

Purdue-developed tool can get most pollution control for the money.

Indrajeet Chaubey, an associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, combined a best management practices tool with a complex genetic algorithm that can search out the best solutions for non-point source pollution control in a watershed. By analyzing data from an area, in just a few hours the tool can compute the most cost-effective pollution-control strategies for water resources affected by agriculture, a process that currently takes weeks or months.

Calcium - the secret to honeybees' memory.

Newborn weights affected by environmental contaminants.

Using statistical methods that control for changes over time of mother's age and parity, the investigators effectively show a sustained decrease in birth weight differences between boys and girls, which supports the hypothesis of growing endocrine disruption related to environmental contaminants. Contaminants found in plastic materials represent plausible candidates, since they are known to diminish the action of male hormones.

Complaints of fatigue and tiredness in people with OSA improve with CPAP treatment.

ARTICLE X: Landscaping - MANDATORY LANDSCAPING REQUIREMENTS (10.125) - Part 2 - Shared Access Developments

If that isn't a long enough title for you, I could've added that there are two distinct provisions for projects that are called "shared access developments." The shared access development came about a few years ago to address various platting irregularities where tracts were platted into odd configurations in order to provide some kind of street frontage to each lot. These are similar to "residential development tracts" in the Oak Lawn (PD 193) ordinance. Simply put, the shared access development is a grouping of individual lots platted together with a common, or shared, access for mutual use. Originally, this had one landscape provision (similar to the current single family district standard) but was divided in 2006 to create two distinct sets of requirements.

10.125 (a) Single family and duplex uses.

(2) Shared access development.

(A) Single family districts. Shared access developments in single family districts must comply with the following requirements:

(i) Three trees with caliper equal to or exceeding two inches are required for each individual lot in the shared access development. One of the three required trees per lot MAY be located on the individual lot, but at least two trees per individual lot must be located in the front yard of the shared access development, where all of the property in the shared access development is considered to be one lot ("shared trees").

(ii) If there is more than one front yard to the shared access development, where all of the property in the shared access development is considered to be one lot, the shared trees must be evenly distributed within those front yards.

(iii) The trees must be species listed in Section 51A-10.134. The trees may be located in the public right-of-way if all private licensing requirements of the city code and charter are met.

An interesting point about the 'single family districts' SAD's is that long, narrow tracts create almost impossible complications to resolve. If you have a 60' wide SAD that runs 300' deep, you could end up with a requirement of masses of trees in an extremely narrow and confined space in the front yard that can be doubly compounded by overhead lines in the parkway. There has been more than one case that required Board of Adjustment action to resolve.

With the changes that were made for the 2006 amendment, the SAD's in districts in other single family districts have it a bit easier and with a unique landscaping style from the rest of Article X. This is one area in Article X that requires a minimum landscape area (20%) for the development. If the owner isn't trying to over-develop a lot, a trained eye could see that they could fairly easily meet this requirement. Alas, it isn't always so. It often appears that most sites are not designed with any landscaping in mind and, arguably, there is minimal space that is appropriate for ANY trees in proximity to the structures. Buildings come first, parking second.

(B) Districts other than single family districts. Shared access developments in districts other than single family districts must comply with the following requirements:

(i) A minimum of 20 percent of the shared access development must be designated as landscape area. Permeable pavement does not count as landscape area.

(ii) One site tree must be provided for every 4,000 square feet within the shared access development. Every site tree must have a planting area of at least 25 square feet. The trunk of any site tree must be located at least two-and-one-half feet from any pavement. Site trees must be species listed in Section 51A-10.134.

(iii) In addition to any site trees, one large canopy street tree must be provided for every 25 feet of street frontage, excluding shared access points, with a minimum of two street trees required. Street trees may be located within the front yard or parkway if all private licensing requirements of the city code and charter are met. In this subparagraph, parkway means the portion of a street right-of-way between the projected street curb and the front lot line or corner side lot line. If the director determines that a large canopy tree would interfere with utility lines, a substitute street tree from a species listed in Section 51A-10.134 may be provided.

This final provision at the end of the paragraph is unique in Article X but is a favorable addition. This provision allows for the Building Official to take actions to favor a more 'desirable' species when conflicts arise with overhead utility lines. Small trees can be placed in the location instead of the large canopy trees most often found.

Climate Denial Crock of the Week: The Big Swindle Movie

Peter Sinclair exposes fact shifting and lies in the 2007 British documentary film, "The Great Global Warming Swindle." It was a film produced with the intention to prove that global warming was a lie and "the biggest scam of modern times." Mr. Sinclair does a valiant job of disclosing the 'standards' that some less-than-moral denialists will go to in order to attempt to refute the science of global warming. If there is an argument to be made against global warming, then it should stand upon actual peer-reviewed science research and not be left in the clutches of disreputable fiends who then feed erroneous information to the masses - particularly right-wing media (and 'entertainment') types who will latch on to any source of information in an attempt to prove their point with half truths and garbled facts.

Arguments on both (indeed, all) sides of this issue should stand to the facts that are produced and stay away from mass media manipulation of the science being produced. If you have facts, don't manipulate - or allow to manipulate - it to invent an interpretation.

Resources:

USGS Volcanic Gases and their Effects

Environmental Effects Of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

NOAA Satellite and Information Service "The Mid-Holocene 'Warm Period'"

Temperature Trends In The Lower Atmosphere: Steps for Understanding and Reconciling Differences - April 2006

Just to be fair, an argument against the 'Temperature Trends' document: Temperature Trends In The Lower Atmosphere by Vincent Gray

The official website for the documentary film:

The Great Global Warming Swindle

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 12 - Wining About Texas With You

"There's no plateaus, there's nothing flat, there's nothing to build on," (Governor of West Virginia) Manchin said Friday, adding that creating buildable land is essential to adding renewable energy sources such as crops for making ethanol. "We need some agricultural land, we need wind farms, we need solar.

"We can start developing things from that and we can be part of this new greening of America."

- the stupidly laughable comments from Governor Joe Manchin when discussing the Obama administrations plans to tighten regulation of mountaintop removal coal mines. If he wants flat, buildable land, he should move to Texas and get his ass out of hilly West Virginny. Do you really think they're going to grow crops for ethanol on buildable land in hill country? It sounds to me like he has some rich developer buddies who want to make a mint off some devastated hilltops. Oh, right. We can't forget the tax base and the jobs for all the good people living there - and greed.

DALLAS AND TEXAS

West Dallas homes evacuated after Trinity River pump station fails. - Dallas Morning News. As bad as things got this week on the Trinity, it could have been much, much worse. All in all, I mark this minor deluge as a warning. A slap on the head, if you will.

• Irving based ExxonMobil to help build new Alaskan pipeline. - WFAA
• Don't want TXI to burn tires in Midlothian? Too bad. TCEQ doesn't wanna hear about it. - Dallas Observer (Unfair Park).
• EPA chief Lisa Jackson counters Gov. Rick Perry on carbon dioxide cap-and-trade costs. - Dallas Morning News (TX Energy and Environment Blog).
• Nuclear Power 101: What all those unintelligible letters and numbers mean. - Dallas Morning News (TX Energy and Environment Blog).
• API: Hydraulic fracturing fears could cut natural gas production. - Dallas Morning News (TX Energy and Environment Blog).

...and on that final subject, the question was asked at The Oil Drum. "Does federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing make sense?".

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS FOR JUNE 12 - CLIMATE PROGRESS

ENERGY BULLETIN

Peak oil, prices, and supplies - June 12

"Very simply, it indicates that the usually optimistic analysts at the Department of Energy now believe global fuel supplies will simply not be able to keep pace with rising world energy demands. For years now, assorted petroleum geologists and other energy types have been warning that world oil output is approaching a maximum sustainable daily level -- a peak -- and will subsequently go into decline, possibly producing global economic chaos. Whatever the timing of the arrival of peak oil's actual peak, there is growing agreement that we have, at last, made it into peak-oil territory, if not yet to the moment of irreversible decline."

Transition - June 13

"There is another way. A transition to another culture. It’s already beginning: We are using less electricity, producing less carbon dioxide, more people are riding bikes than ever before. America is learning again how to be frugal, how to garden, how to reconnect with family/friends/neighbors to rebuild their communities. We are slowly gaining the consciousness that for too long we’ve built up a throw-away society."

THE OIL DRUM

Drum Beat - June 12

LEGAL PLANET

NAFTA tribunal strikes a blow for mining regulation by U.S. states.

MONGABAY

Wal Mart bans beef illegally produced in the Amazon rainforest.

"Brazil's three largest supermarket chains, Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Pão de Açúcar, will suspend contracts with suppliers found to be involved in Amazon deforestation, reports O Globo.

The decision, announced at a meeting of the Brazilian Association of Supermarkets (Abras) this week, comes less than two weeks after Greenpeace's exposé of the Amazon cattle industry. The report, titled Slaughtering the Amazon, linked some of the world's most prominent brands — including Nike, Toyota, Carrefour, Wal-Mart, and Johnson & Johnson, among dozens of others — to destruction of the Amazon rainforest for cattle pasture."

DISCOVERY NEWS

Ozone hole worsens climate predictions.

HUFFINGTON POST

Obama announces Ocean Protection Plan.

Coal ash spills too dangerous to reveal to public, says DHS.

On that subject, TREEHUGGER asked "Who wants some coal ash? Tennessee's mess getting shipped out of state."

YAHOO! FINANCE

Federal mining plan may clash with W. Va. land law.

"The Obama administration's plan to tighten regulation of mountaintop removal coal mines may be at odds with a West Virginia land-use law aimed at creating economic opportunity from reclaimed surface mines.

The law passed earlier this month is aimed at creating developable land in West Virginia's coalfields. But Gov. Joe Manchin says that could conflict with the goals of the Environmental Protection Agency, Interior Department and Army Corps of Engineers. The agencies want to reduce environmental impact from mountaintop coal mining, a practice that generates excess material that must be disposed of in valleys atop streambeds."

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

Did the Rat Island restoration effort kill 41 bald eagles?

TREEHUGGER

Wind turbines fear for life: Scientists say wind speeds slowing down.

REUTERS

Ice loss could push sea levels above estimates: report.

Increasing loss of ice from Antarctica and Greenland could cause sea levels to exceed U.N. estimates by 2100, an Australian government-backed report says, with the extent of the rise still uncertain.

The U.N. Climate Panel says seas could rise by 18-59 cm (7-24 inches) by 2100. It also raised the possibility of an additional 20 cm rise if polar ice sheets dumped ever greater amounts of ice into the ocean.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Solar activity to have lowest high in 90 years?

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG

Individuals who apply pesticides are found to have double the risk of blood disorder.

A study involving 678 individuals who apply pesticides, culled from a U.S. Agricultural Health Study of over 50,000 farmers, recently found that exposure to certain pesticides doubles one's risk of developing an abnormal blood condition called MGUS (monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance) compared with individuals in the general population. The disorder, characterized by an abnormal level of a plasma protein, requires lifelong monitoring as it is a pre-cancerous condition that can lead to multiple myeloma, a painful cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow. The study will appear in the June 18 issue of Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology.

Study: Greenland ice sheet larger contributor to sea-level rise.

The Greenland ice sheet is melting faster than expected according to a new study led by a University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher and published in the journal Hydrological Processes.

Study results indicate that the ice sheet may be responsible for nearly 25 percent of global sea rise in the past 13 years. The study also shows that seas now are rising by more than 3 millimeters a year—more than 50 percent faster than the average for the 20th century.

Renewable energy: Report on status and prospects for the US.

Renewable energy resources – solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass – could potentially offer local, sustainable sources of electrical power in the U.S. Tapping into these resources requires new technologies, some of which are still in development. One issue facing the renewable-energy field is determining when the technologies that convert these resources into power can be ready for large-scale use, and estimating what it will take to get there.

A new report from the National Research Council, Electricity From Renewable Resources: Status, Prospects, and Impediments, evaluates renewable energy technologies along three time-frames: those that could be commercially deployed within the next 10 years, those that could be deployed within 10 to 25 years, and technologies that will likely take more than 25 years to be ready for the commercial market. For each technology, the report discusses cost, performance, environmental impact, and barriers to deployment. The report also makes recommendations for research and development investments.

Report will be available to the public on Monday.

and again, back to Texas....

Hear! Hear! Texas wines fight cancer growth.

It's happy hour for Texas wineries.

Research now shows that wines produced in the Lone Star State share the anti-cancer traits known to exist in wines from other producing regions.

Extracts from two Texas red wines decreased cancer cell growth in a comparable magnitude as other wines previously studied, according to Dr. Susanne Talcott, Texas AgriLife Research food and nutrition scientist.

Her study, which concluded in May, showed decreased growth of colon and breast cancer cells treated with port and syrah (or shiraz) wine. It was the first such study of the health components of Texas wines, she said.

ARTICLE X: Landscaping - MANDATORY LANDSCAPING REQUIREMENTS (10.125) - Part 1 - Single Family and Duplex Uses

We continue past Mordor and Minas Tirith to get to the really good part of the story, being Article the Tenth: Journals of the Dallas Development Code. Man, no matter how you juice it up, it just stays dry. Well, anyway, we now move into adventure, chaos, temptation, sword fights, etc., etc.  This section on the 'mandatory' provisions of the LANDSCAPING division of the code will be broken up into multiple parts based mainly on the depth of this section. It covers single family uses (which is its own festive talking point), shared access developments and then the standard requirements for all of the 'other uses.' Believe me, you don' t want all of this in one sitting. Beyond that, we'll jump into the Design Standards.  So, if you're ready, we'll be off.

10.125

(a) SINGLE FAMILY AND DUPLEX USES.

(1) General. Except as provided in Section 51A-10.127 ("when landscaping must be completed"), a lot containing a single family or duplex use established after May 29, 1994 (inception of this version of Article X), must comply with this subsection BEFORE the final inspection of any building on the lot. The lot must have at least three trees with a caliper equal to or exceeding two inches. At least two of these trees must be located in the front yard. The trees must be species listed in Section 51A-10.134 (approved replacement tree list). The trees may be located in the public right-of-way if all private licensing requirements of the city code and charter are met.

First, please remember that the landscape division is NOT the tree ordinance which addresses tree removals on single family lots. It provides only for the landscaping requirements. I'm not ready to talk about THAT issue....yet.

This does raise the red flag for many of you Dallas home owners out there who may not be in compliance at this moment. If your home USE was "established" after May 29, 1994, you are supposed to have at least three trees on your lot that are from that approved replacement tree list.  We'll discuss the list later...now pay attention.  I'm GUESSING that "established" means that a permit for construction was ISSUED after that date. If you have a concern about this point, you can call the city offices later.  You should also note that, if you fall in that category, and then you went and threw bradford pears or palm trees all over your property, you're probably not in compliance with current code either. Neither of those trees are on the 'approved' list.  All those hackberries on your fence row are nice shade but also don't meet code.  You can have all of the trees you want - or will tolerate. The city only looks for the one's on the list.

You also need to keep your trees healthy and in a growing condition. A dead tree that is dropping limbs all over the place is a sure-fire way to get your neighbor angry and a code compliance officer knocking on your door. Oh, and you can get hurt too, Sherlock.  A tree dying in the parkway is also the responsibility of the homeowner to address.  The code still says three trees on the lot.  So if a tree does die, your house was built after 1994, and you now have two trees?  You are now living in non-compliance with the city ordinance.  Enough on that.

The code does also say that two of those trees must be in the front yard, or parkway.  If the tree was already established, and is one of the trees on the list, it can count toward your landscape requirements. The third tree can be anywhere on the lot, being front, side or rear yards.  As always, I recommend "right tree, right place."  If you are building a new home and you can preserve a large canopy tree, we encourage you to try to save that tree if you can do so safely and keep the plague of construction workers off the tree roots.  Construction sites and trees are not the best of friends.

As for planting in the parkway, if you are planting a tree on your own behalf into the parkway, you must obtain the proper licensing and permitting from the City of Dallas. This licensing process would be initated in the Real Estate office at 320 E Jefferson Blvd, Room 203. This can be expensive to a new homeowner and you should also take notice of the location of pavement, utilities (overhead and underground) and visibility triangles from your, and your neighbor's, driveways. Planting in your yard is almost always the better option. 

There are difficulties with this particular code when it comes to lot sizes. Townhomes with tiny front yards have the same requirements as the largest mansion site.  I'm not going to judge the ordinance on this matter, it's just the nature of the beast.  Also, keep in mind that there are areas in Oak Lawn where the requirements can differ as well and staff must also look at sidewalk locations.  

We have not discussed here the issues of mitigation trees planted on single family lots and I think I'll reserve that for when we approach the tree ordinance in the near future.

NEXT:  Part 2: The Wrath of The Shared Access Development.

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 11 - Levee-ing It All Behind

"Our economic situation is turning into a maze of interconnected feedbacks. Government efforts to bail out and stimulate the economy have led to a massive increase in borrowing and now increasing interest rates. This in turn has caused investors to seek the safety of oil, thereby driving up gasoline prices, which could choke off the rebound the government was trying to foster in the first place." - Energy Bulletin, Peak Oil Notes - June 11.

DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Texas Energy and Environment Blog  (look for future blog updates from this DMN feature in the future).
Texas takes high rankings in Pew clean energy study.
Texas forest owners want incentives from Congress.

PEGASUS NEWS
New drought plan slated for Lancaster. (Bill Conrad - Lancaster Today).

ACCUWEATHER
DEFINITIVE LINK OF CO2 EMISSIONS TO GLOBAL WARMING FOUND.

"A professor from Concordia University's Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, along with colleagues from Victoria and the U.K. have found a direct relationship between carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and global warming.

The team, lead by Damon Matthews, used a combination of global climate models and historical climate data to show that there is a simple linear relationship between total cumulative emissions and global temperature change, according to the Concordia University press release.

...For every tonne of CO2 that is emitted there will be an increase of 0.0000000000015 degrees of global temperature change."

THE OIL DRUM
DrumBeat - June 11

ENERGY BULLETIN
Peak Oil Notes - June 11
"Weakness in the dollar, fear of inflation, and hopes for an economic recovery remain major factors in determining the course of oil prices. This week rising interest rates are a major contributor to higher prices as investors seek hedges against inflation.
This situation is starting to raise alarms. For every 10 cents a gallon gasoline that prices increase, consumers have $40 million a day or $1.3 billion a month less to spend on other things. Price increases in the last 5 months have reduced consumer spending power by $400 million a day as gasoline consumption during the period remained reasonably steady. The damage done by increasing gasoline prices is gradual and no particular price, such as $3 a gallon, is the point at which serious economic problems begin."


Peak Oil, Prices and Supplies - June 11


The Peak Oil Crisis: A Letter from Baghdad.
"The more likely consequence, that peaking of world oil production will cause severe economic hardships that will take decades to mitigate is simply not a future that most are willing to entertain. Arguments that oil consumption has grown so large in the last 100 years that once depletion starts the development of similar amounts of alternative energy will take a very long time are simply not believed. This micro-survey makes an important point because it mirrors the common sentiment across the land as reflected by the media and political leaders. Even if oil should go into depletion someday --- there is simply not a problem."


Peak Oil = Peak Demand?
Climate - June 11
Humanity's Choice: A series of exits - not a fork in the road.

LEGAL PLANET
Misfiring on fire policy
Executive Branch agreement on Mountaintop Removal: A positive step, but only a step.

PERU
Peru's tribal chief flees country after killings over oil, logging laws. - HUFFINGTON POST
Up to 250 Indigenous Peruvians killed in Bagua, says leader Miguel Palacin - HUFFINGTON POST
Peru suspends decree that triggered bloody conflict between Indians and police. CLIMATE ARK (MONGABAY)

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG
Abrupt global warming could shift monsoon patterns, hurt agriculture.

At times in the distant past, an abrupt change in climate has been associated with a shift of seasonal monsoons to the south, a new study concludes, causing more rain to fall over the oceans than in the Earth's tropical regions, and leading to a dramatic drop in global vegetation growth.
If similar changes were to happen to the Earth's climate today as a result of global warming – as scientists believe is possible - this might lead to drier tropics, more wildfires and declines in agricultural production in some of the world's most heavily populated regions.



Global warming increasing the dispersal of flora in Northern forests.
Seed and pollen dispersal profoundly affects the dynamics and genetic variation of plant populations. Spreading into more favourable areas will help them survive in the warming climate. Wind conditions play a key role, as turbulent vertical streams, in particular, spread seeds very efficiently, even over long distances.


Isolated forest patches lose species, diversity.

Failing to see the forest for the trees may be causing us to overlook the declining health of Wisconsin's forest ecosystems.
Even areas with apparently robust trees and lush canopies are threatened as forests are increasingly fragmented by roads and development, becoming isolated green islands in a sea of agricultural fields, housing tracts, and strip malls, say University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.
A new study is revealing that decades of fragmentation of Wisconsin's forests have taken a largely unseen toll on the sustainability of these natural ecosystems.
The long generation times of trees and other plants have masked many of the ecological changes already under way in the patches of forest that remain, says study co-author Don Waller, a professor in the Department of Botany and Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at UW-Madison. "Things may look healthy, but over time we see an erosion of biodiversity," he says.


Deforestation causes 'boom-and-bust' development in the Amazon.
Since 2000, 155 thousand square kilometres of rainforest in the Brazilian Amazon have been cut down for timber, burnt, or cleared for agricultural use. Forest clearance rates have averaged more than 1.8 million hectares per year (roughly the area of Kuwait), and the deforestation frontier is advancing into the forest at a rate of more than four football fields every minute.

The researchers' analysis revealed that the quality of local people's lives –measured through levels of income, literacy and longevity, as mentioned above – increases quickly during the early stages of deforestation. This is probably because people capitalise on newly available natural resources, including timber, minerals and land for pasture, and higher incomes and new roads lead to improved access to education and medical care, and all round better living conditions.
However, the new results suggest that these improvements are transitory, and the level of development returns to below the national average once the area's natural resources have been exploited and the deforestation frontier expands to virgin land. Quality of life pre- and post-deforestation was both substantially lower than the Brazilian national average, and was indistinguishable from one another.


Maple seeds and animals exploit the same trick to fly.
Protein that triggers plant cell division revealed by researchers.
First ever worldwide census analysis of caribou/reindeer numbers reveals dramatic decline.

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 10 - The G-O-P wants to T-A-X you.

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Nuclear Power Costs - Climate Progress

A rarity for me, but I think we will start with a couple of local stories from our friends at the Dallas Morning News. I couldn't help but notice that one item was about trying to keep the flood waters out, while the other...well, is a flood. Oh, and both involve trees. Doesn't everything?

Dallas Council Approves $29 million for levee and toll road studies.

I'm curious to know how much it cost to build the levees in the first place back in the 1920's?

Dallas asks U.S. Supreme Court to hear appeal on East Texas Reservoir plan.

There are some things that get me fussy. A few of these general topics in any hypothetical discussion you might want to have on any topic are: 1) The loss of the last remnants of our national bottomland hardwood forests and its impact on wildlife and local communities, 2) Water conservation (and the lack thereof), 3) Human over-consumption of our natural resources, and 4) surly lawyers.

Of course, I have no opinion on this particular issue. 

CLIMATE PROGRESS

ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING NEWS FOR JUNE 10

Hotter planet means more underweight babies, China eyes 20% renewable energy by 2020, etc.

House GOP proposes 25% National Energy Tax, recycles Cheney energy plan. 

"The Atomic Energy Agency American Energy Act is “Identical To President Bush’s Failed Plan” as Media Matters demonstrates with a side-by-side comparison between AEA and the Cheney plan.  In April, the Center for American Progress (CAP) releaseda detailed analysis showing the main result of the Bush-Cheney plan was that energy costs rose more than $1,100 for the average American household:

Over this period, the typical annual American household expenditure on electricity rose more than $170, and the typical annual American expenditure on gasoline rose more than $960 (in 2007 dollars). Note that the gasoline price increases listed here do not include the unprecedented $147 per barrel of oil and $4.11 gasoline prices that occurred in the summer of 2008.

The new GOP plan is not just a 25% tax on electricity.  Since it does nothing whatsoever to deal with our dangerous and growing dependence on oil — whose global production is at or near the peak — it will inevitably lead to the same exact outcome that the Cheney-Bush plan did, a sharp rise in consumer fuel prices, the equivalent of a huge gasoline tax (except the “revenues” of this tax end up in the hands of OPEC)."


Gingrich sums up GOP ethos: "I am not a citizen of the world! I think the entire concept is intellectual nonsense and stunningly dangerous."

AP, Washington Times: "Experts suspect global warming may be driving wild climate swings that appear to be punishing the Amazon with increasing frequency."

ENERGY BULLETIN

CERA official acknowledges "peak oil is here."

Prices & Supplies - June 10

Climate fixes - June 10

Transport - June 10

RED GREEN AND BLUE

Interior Sued To Obtain Oil Royalty Revenue Information

PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS

Pew Finds Clean Energy Economy Generates Significant Job Growth

DISCOVERY NEWS

Warming to trigger vast human migrations.

BBC NEWS

Hummingbirds 'faster than jets'.

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG

Reviving American chestnuts may mitigate climate change.

Maybe it's raining less than we thought.

Milk goes 'green': Today's dairy farms use less land, feed and water.

Bisphenol A exposure increases risk of abnormal heart rhythms in female rodents.

Bisphenol A exposure in pregnant mice permanently changes DNA of offspring.

Clarifying Levee Tree Removal Requirements

As the discussion of removing trees along the Trinity River in Dallas goes forward, I thought I might try to clarify the issue of how tree removal on a floodway project might go forward by city ordinance standards.

Under the tree ordinance, all of the trees that are 8" caliper and greater, and that are not considered a 'non-protected' tree species, are normally protected and potentially subject to mitigation. The exception will usually apply to lots with current single family and duplex uses on lots under 2 acres and unless under a distinct City Council, or City Plan Commission, authorized plan.

There are then lists of possible exemptions, or 'Defenses to prosecution', stated in 51A-10.140 of the code. These defenses would be used to determine if a tree removal permit would be required for the removal of any of the trees.

If a tree was dead or had a disease or injury that threatened the life of the tree (and not cause by intentional act), the tree would, of course, be exempt from the requirement for a permit. Beyond the condition of the tree and its environment, other factors can come into play that pertain to the public safety and welfare.

If the existing tree was in a visibility triangle, or was to be removed specifically because it interfered with the service provided by a public utility in public right-of-way, the tree would not be subject to a permit for its removal.

Relevant to the issue of the river trees, the code states a defense in the following situations. The tree:

"threatened public health or safety, as determined by one of the city officials:

the chief of the police department;

the chief of the fire department;

the director of public works and transportation;

the director of street services;

the director of sanitation services;

the director of code compliance;

the director of park and recreation; or

the director of development services."

The city's primary task is to protect the citizens of Dallas and it will take the measures that is necessary to fulfill that mandate. The departments are generally guarded (at least from my perception) from using these defenses to prosecution unless necessary since the purpose of the city ordinance is also to "encourage the preservation of large trees which, once removed, can be replaced only after generations. (10.102)"

In the case of the levees, once the trees are removed, they are not likely to be replaced unless the Corps of Engineers' standards were to change. Mitigation is typically not applied in conditons of defenses to prosecution. Whether or not the trees "threatened the public health or safety", a determination which can be painted with a broad brush when it comes to flood protection systems, will be measured by the Corps of Engineers, and then the City Manager's office.

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 9 - Stand Up To The Power

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Coal production by region - WSJ

CLIMATE PROGRESS
ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING NEWS FOR JUNE 9

WSJ Front Page Shocker: "US foresees a thinner cushion of coal," warns rosy US coal estimates "may be wildly overconfident"
"Mining companies report they have to dig deeper and move more earth to extract coal from aging mines, driving up costs. Utilities have grown skittish about whether suppliers can ship promised coal on time. American Electric Power Co., the nation’s biggest coal buyer, says it has stepped up its due diligence to make sure its suppliers can make deliveries after some firms missed shipments last fall. It even bought a mine to lock down supplies."


The Washington Post launches a paranoid (and naive) attack on the House clean energy and climate bill for promoting efficient new buildings

The triumph of energy efficiency: Waxman-Markey could save $3,900 per household and create 650,000 jobs by 2030

ENERGY BULLETIN
Peak Oil & Supplies - June 9
Waste & Recycling - June 9
United States - June 9
Doctor, please don't turn your head away!
"The world’s unspoken final goal of generalizing the material welfare currently enjoyed in the most developed countries is a utopian extravaganza. An unbridgeable gulf of natural capital shortage separates collective myth from earthbound reality. But who should tell the billions on the outside to remain there forever; to watch with noses pressed against the window pane as a minority inside satisfies its appetites, has all the amenities of modern life, and squabbles over what seems to be a raft of unadulterated trivia?"
Why national health care is necessary for a viable food system

TREEHUGGER
OIL GIANT PAYS $15 MILLION TO SETTLE LAWSUIT BROUGHT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST'S MURDER.

Ken Saro-Wiwa of Nigeria stood up to Shell Oil and paid the price. - Photo: The Poor Mouth

"In one of the many tragic tales of environmental heroism, Ken Saro-Wiwa stood up to the oil giant Shell with peaceful demonstrations and vocal opposition—until he was executed by his own government on false charges. A legal battle was then waged for nearly 15 years, in which Saro-Wiwa's fellow Ogoni people charged Shell with funding the government backed security forces that lead to the violence against them. Now, Shell has just agreed to pay $15 million to settle the case out of court—though the company still says it did nothing wrong.

Ken Saro-Wiwa was an Ogoni, an ethnic group of Nigerians whose homes and health were (and still are) endangered by oil extraction practices in their native land. He took to organizing, writing, and activism to bring light to his people's plight."

Missing the Trees for the Forest: Carbon Emissions From Forest Degradation Can Be Just As Bad As From Deforestation.

Study reveals two biggest, deadliest kinds of marine trash.

MONGABAY
UN CALLS FOR GLOBAL BAN ON PLASTIC BAGS TO SAVE OCEANS
"The UN’s top environmental official called for a global ban on plastic bags yesterday. "Single use plastic bags which choke marine life, should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere. There is simply zero justification for manufacturing them anymore, anywhere," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program.
China and Bangladesh have both banned plastic bags, while Ireland has reduced plastic bag consumption by 90 percent by levying a fee on each bag. Such measures have only just reached the United States: San Francisco is the only city to ban plastic bags, although Los Angeles will have a ban in place next year. New York City rejected such a fee on bags last year, but Washington D.C. is considering a 5-cent-fee this week." 


FORESTS.ORG
VICTORY/RELEASE: Global Consensus Emerging Regarding Need to End Industrial Primary Forest Logging As Keystone Climate Change Response

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG
'Jellyfish joyride' a threat to the oceans.
"Mounting evidence suggests that open-ocean ecosystems can flip from being dominated by fish, to being dominated by jellyfish," Dr Richardson says "This would have lasting ecological, economic and social consequences.
Discovery raises new doubts about dinosaur-bird links.
Researchers at Oregon State University have made a fundamental new discovery about how birds breathe and have a lung capacity that allows for flight – and the finding means it's unlikely that birds descended from any known theropod dinosaurs.
'If you can't stand the heat' - how climate change could leave some species stuck in the kitchen.
Meditation may be an effective treatment for insomnia.
Dioxins in food chain linked to breastfeeding ills.
Exposure to dioxins during pregnancy harms the cells in rapidly-changing breast tissue, which may explain why some women have trouble breastfeeding or don't produce enough milk, according to a University of Rochester Medical Center study.
Are socialists happier than capitalists?

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 8 - The End of A Brief Epoch

Part 8 of 8 of "A Crude Awakening", a 2006 documentary on Peak Oil.

World Oceans Day: Protecting Oceans Around the World (UNEP).

ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING DAY FOR JUNE 8 - CLIMATE PROGRESS

THE OIL DRUM

The Trouble With Energy, Part 1

Drum Beat - June 8

ENERGY BULLETIN

PEAK OIL REVIEW - JUNE 8

"Disagreement over the course of prices remains high. Oil price bulls see the economic picture improving with prices moving higher by the end of the year and much higher over the next year or two. Last week Goldman Sachs sent prices surging with a forecast that oil would reach $85 by the end of the year. Most analysts, however, looking at falling demand and increasing stockpiles, expect prices to drop.

Many of the signs that the markets are choosing to interpret as a bottoming of the recession simply indicate a reduction in rates of decline and do not suggest that the demand for oil will increase in the foreseeable future. The Chinese say they are through filling their recently-built strategic reserve tanks and will not be in the market for oil to stockpile in the near future. Although Beijing is pumping large amounts of money into improving domestic infrastructure, it is difficult to see their exports increasing. US gasoline demand fell precipitously over the Memorial Day weekend, Japanese demand is down, and it is hard to imagine much growth in demand anywhere else."

Understanding Peak Oil - Why we need the national academy of sciences to study peak oil (petition)

"A growing number of international geologists and analysts warn of a looming catastrophe with the onset of the decline in the global supply of oil. Likewise, reports by several federal agencies, including the US Army Corps of Engineers, point to the need for immediate action, because the foreseeable impacts on our infrastructure and economy are without precedent."

• Renewables and Efficiency - JUNE 8
• Deep Thought - JUNE 8
• Geopolitics - JUNE 8
• Solutions and Sustainability - JUNE 8

WORLD BUSINESS COUNCIL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Invest in trees and soil, not just cleaner coal - UN (Reuters)

DALLAS LOCAL

DALLAS BUSINESS JOURNAL

TXU Energy Offers Enhanced iThermostat

DALLAS OBSERVER (Unfair Park Blog)

Gang Green: The City Council's looking to spread the seed of the community garden.

TREEHUGGER

Sowing the seeds of sustainability: Victory Gardens are back!

City of Austin mandates home energy audits to avoid building new power plant.

Cap and Trade won't break the bank: Climate Bill would actually cut US budget deficit.

MONGABAY.COM

Brazil to sanction illegal colonization in 230,000 sq mi. of Amazon rainforest.

YALE ENVIRONMENT 360

Peru declares curfew as violent Amazon clashes continue.

"The Peruvian government has declared a curfew in its Amazon region after several days of clashes have left more than 60 dead, including 23 policemen and approximately 40 Indians protesting the rapid development of the tropical forest. President Alan Garcia, a free-trade advocate, has been instrumental in allocating more than 70 percent of the Peruvian Amazon for oil and gas extraction, and indigenous tribes are protesting recent decrees that would break up their communal property and sell the parcels for development. Protests turned violent late last week as police and soldiers attempted to reoccupy roads and pipeline installations seized by the tribes. Meanwhile, the Brazilian Congress has approved a controversial law allowing companies and individuals who illegally deforested land in the Amazon before December 2004 to obtain legal title to those holdings. The law, which would bestow title on illegally cleared parcels up to 3,700 acres, has been sharply criticized by environmentalists, who say it will spur further deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon. President Lula da Silva is expected to sign the bill into law."

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG

More than just the tailpipe.

The researchers also touch on the effect of low passenger occupancy and show that we are naïve to automatically assume one form of transport is more environmentally friendly than another. They conclude from their calculations that a half-full Boston light railway is only as environmentally friendly, per kilometre traveled, as a midsize aircraft at 38 per cent occupancy.

Ecologists identify birds struck in Hudson River crash as migratory Canada geese.

More than 7,400 birdstrikes were reported in the US in 2007, but this represents only an estimated 20 percent of total collisions; the other estimated 80 percent go undocumented. Worldwide, birdstrikes cause an estimated $1.1 billion in damage per year, and since 1988 have caused 229 deaths.

Archaelogical evidence of human activity found beneath Lake Huron.

Fire mitigation work in western US misplaced, says new study led by CU-Boulder.

Only 11 percent of wildfire mitigation efforts undertaken as a result of a long-term federal fuels-reduction program to cut down catastrophic wildfire risk to communities have been undertaken near people's homes or offices in the past five years, says a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The analysis of the U.S. National Fire Plan shows that as more Americans live in or near fire-prone forests and more wildfires burn, most federally funded activities to reduce fuels and wildfire hazard have occurred far from the "wildland-urban interface," the area prioritized by federal wildfire policies. The result suggests that federal wildfire treatments are minimally effective at mitigating the threat of wildfire to homes and people in the western United States.

Scientists should look at their own carbon footprint.

Snakes use friction and redistribution of their weight to slither on flat terrain.

Is this the beginning of the end of plant breeding?

Let me sleep on it: Creative problem solving enhanced by REM sleep.

Research led by a leading expert on the positive benefits of napping at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine suggests that Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep enhances creative problem-solving. The findings may have important implications for how sleep, specifically REM sleep, fosters the formation of associative networks in the brain.

Understanding Peak Oil - Part 7 of 8 - Alternatives to Oil?

Part 7 (of 8) of "A Crude Awakening", a 2006 documentary about Peak Oil.

What are the alternatives to oil, and when will those alternative sources of energy be ready to replace oil? Don't hold your breath for the quick change up. "We have to look at all of these sources of energy." Oil is so essential to our existence, the ability to change out of oil dependency is a daunting task that cannot be completed by waiting for future generations to try to begin this task. The new green economy is essential for our continued prosperity - and survival.

Understanding Peak Oil - Adaptation

Part 6 of 8 of "A Crude Awakening", a documentary about Peak Oil.

For more information on the Peak Oil, I encourage you to look at the Energy Bulletin and The Oil Drum published daily online.

PEAK OIL - June 6

Peak oil's impact on energy policy, by Don Stowers (editor) Oil & Gas Financial Journal

"In the past week, I’ve read several interesting commentaries that give pause for thought. Just this morning, Raymond James sent out its weekly newsletter with an observation about peak oil. Marshall Adkins and the folks over at Raymond James’ Houston office noted that global oil production peaked sometime in the first quarter of last year.

How do they know this, you may ask. Well, here’s their rationale: OPEC oil production reached a high point in the first quarter of 2008, while non-OPEC production peaked even earlier in 2007. Worldwide, they note, total oil production rose to its highest level to date in 1Q08 (about 79.3 MMbpd).

Although no one knows what future oil production may be, Raymond James explains, “It is entirely intuitive to conclude that if both OPEC and non-OPEC production posted declines against the backdrop of $100-plus oil – when the obvious economic incentive was to pump full blast – those declines had to have come for involuntary reasons, such as the inherent geological limits of oil fields.”

This makes sense. Why would countries or companies curb production when they could make so much money by producing more and more oil?

Although energy demands have since declined due to the global economic recession, the reality is that the economy will come back and when it does there are serious doubts as to whether the supply of oil will be adequate to sustain the economic engine. So all those doubters who criticized Matt Simmons’ view about peak oil may soon have to come to grips with the reality that oil scarcity may become a fact of life in the near future.

...Paul Ziff suggests that management, including board members, need to “run their companies on a sound longer-term basis rather than bowing to short-sighted and inappropriate financial drivers from the (former) paragons of financial strategy. Several super-majors are pursuing a course of stability vs. kneejerk reaction. Respect for strong technical staff is a must, both as a principle, and due to the aging of the baby boom generation in OECD countries. The ‘hire and fire’ staff cycle creates a negative profile for the university graduates the industry needs to attract to replace the baby boomers.”

Similarly, says Ziff, countries need to recognize that energy is critical for economic well-being and national stability. He notes that China is continuing its purchase of world assets and to forge strong relationships with suppliers. Arguably, he adds, the worst energy policy has been that of the United States, which has had virtually none, and which has done little to promote energy conservation or provide incentive to develop our hydrocarbon deposits."

What is the cost for a gallon of gas?

So how much did it cost to fill your tank? Our free trade agreement with Peru says otherwise.

MONGABAY.COM

June 6

Peruvian police kill at least 22 Indians in battle over Amazon oil drilling.

"At least 30 are dead following a clash between police and Indians protesting oil development in Peru's Amazon region.

The Associated Press (AP) and other sources are reporting the violence broke out when authorities attempted to penetrate a road blockade by some 5,000 Indians in the northern province of Utcubamba.

"Protest leaders said police opened fire from helicopters with bullets and tear gas, while national police director Jose Sanchez Farfan said Indians attacked officers with firearms," the AP reported. "He said they also set fire to government buildings."

At least 22 indians and eight police officers were killed. Another 50 protesters were injured according to Indian leader Alberto Pizango.

Indigenous groups have been blocking roads, waterways and a state oil pipeline in protest of the President Alan Garcia's attempt to open vast tracts of the Amazon to oil and gas developers as part of a free trade agreement with the United States. More than 70 percent of the Peruvian Amazon is now under foreign concession.

Garcia last month declared a state of emergency in four Amazon provinces affected by protests, suspending some constitutional rights and calling upon the army to help restore order so oil and gas operations could resume."

Other news sources:

Peru: Concern spreads about arrested natives, LivinginPeru.com

Peru: 18 hostages might have been killed, LivinginPeru.com

Peru says 9 more police killed by Amazon Indians protesting gas, oil exploration, The Gaea News

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 5 - The End Of The American Dream?

Part 5 of 8 of "A Crude Awakening", a documentary about Peak Oil.

CLIMATE PROGRESS
ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING NEWS FOR JUNE 5 

Breaking: NOAA puts out "El Nino Watch," so record temperatures are coming and this will be the hottest decade on record. 
"As the planet warms decade by decade thanks to human emissions of greenhouse gases, global temperature records tend to be set in El Niño years, like 1998, 2005, and 2007, whereas sustained La Niñas tend to cause relatively cooler years."


Better buildings soon?  Energy and climate bill would set national energy codes. 

Obama on climate action: "We're going to have to make some tough decisions and take concrete actions if we are going to deal with a potentially cataclysmic disaster." 

YALE ENVIRONMENT 360
Obama May Attend Global Climate Talks In Copenhagen.

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
Across Middle East, a sense of possibility after Obama speech.

ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS
I paid $2.75 a gallon yesterday. Must be time for a price gas chart.

ENERGY BULLETIN
Climate and Environment - June 5
Water and Environment - June 5
Solutions and Sustainability - June 5
Transport - June 5
Food and Agriculture - June 5


PROPUBLICA
Industry defends Federal loophole for drilling before packed Congressional hearing.


THE HUFFINGTON POST
Government won't label oil-spilling company "high risk".

TREEHUGGER
Stopping deforestation, greening agriculture better than carbon capture and storage, UNEP report says.

New flexible solar panels on stainless steel manufactured up to a mile long.

WORLD BUSINESS COUNCIL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
No climate change fix without new land use, farming policies. (GreenBiz.com)
"The world cannot effectively address climate change without altering our relationship with soil, the world's third largest carbon pool, according to a new report." 


EUREKALERT GOODY BAG
Asthma rates and where you live.
Geography and history shape genetic differences in humans.
New research indicates that natural selection may shape the human genome much more slowly than previously thought. Other factors -- the movements of humans within and among continents, the expansions and contractions of populations, and the vagaries of genetic chance – have heavily influenced the distribution of genetic variations in populations around the world. The study, conducted by a team from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the University of Chicago, the University of California and Stanford University, is published June 5 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

It ain't the river, it's those gosh durn levees

I think it would help sometimes for me to pay better attention. If I was a reporter, I'd have fired myself already. When the Corps of Engineers started talking about removing trees around the river, I thought they meant the river. No, they were talking about the levees, or embankments, that keep the river from spilling out all over the river valley and flooding up local properties for miles.  I keep forgetting they turned a long stretch of the Trinity River into a ditch a hundred years ago.

It turns out FEMA has already started working on re-writing the area floodmaps that would pretty much pretend the levees don't even exist because the Corps can no longer vouch for them. So now there is a short time span for the City of Dallas to take action to remedy this situation of stabilizing the levees before the new flood maps are complete.  The Corps will be there to help. This is long and drawn out and if you want more details of this long, sordid affair, I suggest you catch up with the local daily or the 'weekly cusser'.  Dallas City Hall is at least being open about the reports. They're interesting to read.

So, anyway, they were talking about removing 2800 trees along THE LEVEES which the Corps says need to go because they're a threat to their integrity. The levees, not the Corps.  

The cost for removing these trees would come to about $3 million by their estimates for everything within 50 feet or so from the toe of the levees. The basis for this requirement is a long held policy which says that anything that digs woody roots into an earthen embankment is a threat to the strength of that embankment.  This is usually the standard logic used in building earthen dams across the nation, that allowing trees on something that holds back the water is a recipe for potential disaster.  There are those who challenge this assessment and many government entities have challenged these directions in court. People like their trees and not everyone sees the impact of tree roots in a man-made containment dam as being dangerous.

There are some who challenge the wisdom of the Corps and their 'vegetation policy.' Many of the arguments spelled out by some of the challenging communities are taken up in a special peer-reviewed report by the Battelle Memorial Institute of Ohio , that was finished this past December, that pretty much told the Corps that their policy documents have some shortcomings and they should be revised. One of the issues was that the policy was too rigidly set with questionable 'science', for one region, and used across an entire nation without consideration of other regional factors. The 'science' behind their policies was lacking.  The Corps seemed to be doing a pretty good job of using the policy at hand with an iron fist (wrapped in velvet), but they weren't so handy at the PR side of the coin. Perhaps the April 2009 policy version is better. I'll have to read it.

Since the horrific floods of the Mississippi back in the early 1990's, there have been reports and challenges to the Corps' position that trees endanger the embankments. In some cases, the opposite was suggested due to some overgrown levees during those floods withstood the massive floodwaters while the fully exposed embankments broke.  However, I tend to follow the Corps of Engineers in their thinking on this, though I have the same concerns with their policy guidelines that the peer group had indicated this past winter.

I can see that it will be likely that many of the trees that have been cropping up on the levees over the years will need to be removed.  Man-made earthen embankments are crafted to specific standards that have to be respected. There may be some wiggle room with trees growing 50 feet from the base of the levees, but that will have to be determined by the Corps. Embankments that continually hold water may have different factors than dry embankments. The distance and the type of the tree may be very relevant factors they will want to consider.

Again, as I said in my post on Wednesday, the trees will keep coming back without any continuous maintenance to keep the trees off the levees. As it is with any infrastructure, the embankment can fail and time will prove that out.  Nature will put down anything we challenge before it.  Earth is patient. Infrastructure decline is a growing problem in this country that is a product of looming peak capital. We are failing to keep up with the degradation of our built industrious systems.  Losing a 'few' trees along these levees will, in the scale of things, become a minor inconvenience as it relates to the greater challenges of our city.  A collapsing flood protection system that is our inheritance is our greatest burden along with the streets, bridges and other floodway conveyances that will collapse in short time. 

I hate to see any tree go. But these were not intended to be there by those who built the system. The Corps may be able to change their strategy and juice up the model by thinking outside the box.  However, the safety of the public is a sacred trust that is placed upon them. They don't take it lightly. So, it's now up to the following generations from those who built the levees to be owning up to the responsibility of keeping with the 'oil changes and tune-ups of the family car' that has lots of miles on it.

It ain't gettin' any younger.

Revised Final Independent Peer Review Report for US Army Corps of Engineers Vegetation Policy for Local Flood Damage Reduction Systems, Battelle Memorial Institute, 12/08.

Engineer Technical Letter - USACE 

USACE VEGETATION POLICY  ETL 1110-2-571 April 10, 2009 

Technical Manual for Dam Owner, FEMA, 12/05 - Impacts of Plants on Earthen Dams

Levee Armoring: Woody biotechnical considerations for strengthening Midwest levee systems , June 1994


Corps: Trees on Hannibal levee must be removed, Hannibal.Net 

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 4

Part 4 of 8 of "A Crude Awakening" and the discussion on Peak Oil.

ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING NEWS FOR JUNE 4

A Stormy Forecast for US Agriculture - CLIMATE PROGRESS

PEAK OIL NOTES - JUNE 4  - ENERGY BULLETIN

"The weekly stocks report showed that contrary to analyst expectations, the US crude stockpile has resumed climbing; refinery utilization was at the highest level in six months; imports climbed; and the demand for petroleum products in the US is at the lowest level since May 1999. Gasoline consumption slipped over 500,000 b/d to 9.0 million b/d suggesting that the recent increase in gasoline prices which are now about $2.55 a gallon may be affecting discretionary driving --- even over the Memorial Day weekend.

While $2.50 a gallon did not seem to faze motorists last year, the employment situation in 2009 is considerably worse with millions out of work and millions more forced to take pay cuts or work reduced hours. In this environment, $2.50 or $3 gasoline may have a greater impact on discretionary driving and demand for gasoline than last year.

Analyst and oil company surveys show that OPEC oil production probably increased by as much as 400,000 b/d in May despite the rhetoric about adhering to quotas. The doubling of oil prices over the last four months likely has left OPEC members less concerned about quotas and more interested in cashing in while oil prices are high."

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

PHOSPHOROUS FAMINE: The Threat To Our Food Supply.

BBC NEWS

Origin of Antarctic ice revealed.

Due to technical difficulties, today's report is a bit shorter. Check out the MUST READS in the sidebar for the day's Eurekalert reports and other important e-news.  Apologies.

Trinity River Trees and the Cost of Nature

It used to be that the trees were a natural part of the river ecosystem. Now, they're an engineer's nuisance.

Something that usually gets me nervous is when 'deciders' and media start talking about trees. It's even worse when they talk about trees AND MONEY. The end result for the trees is usually never really promising. More often than not, thousands of trees are sacrificed on the bad end of legislation or on a developer's whim.

It never gets any better when engineers enter the fray. Money and whim turn into action. Imagine what happens with a whole corps of those guys.

As reported in minor detail in this morning's Dallas Morning News City Hall blog and Unfair Park , the Corps of Engineers placed in their big report recently that about 2800 trees along the banks of the Trinity River channel must go. However, there is some debate being tossed around that may allow for the conservation of a few of our sylvan friends. It's hard to say where this will go, but my money is on a full 'blow-and-go' mass removal. It would not surprise me, and under the circumstances, I would have mixed emotions on the issue.

Over a hundred years ago, the city elders decided that it would be better to channel the river between levees to try to limit the amount of flooding along the river that was costing serious property losses and, coincidently, lives. Lots of money went in to a massive engineering effort that had the bonus of resurrecting land out of the floodplain that would just happen to be prime for development. More money for the city. Why not?

I am expecting that most of the trees within the levees between the City of Irving and Corinth Avenue will be razed down for one reason or another. I believe that many will be removed (ironically?) to make park improvements that have been in the design works for years now. None of that should surprise anyone. Other trees on this channel, as I have stated in a previous report months ago, are a mathematical equation that is a nuisance on any engineer's chalkboard. Nature and human engineering are not the best of friends. But I guarantee you that Nature is much more patient. The trees have come back over all of these years with our lacking efforts to try to keep them out. Once you remove them, they'll come back and we humans will be having this very conversation again in another few generations.

So, the question will come down to 'when will the trees be removed?' 

I doubt that anyone, including the Corps, is in any hurry to spend loads of money on removing a bunch of trees that will make the river appear bare-naked. By the way, that's how the river looked 100 years ago when they engineered the damn thing in the first place.  Before that?  A river draws life. Trees are life. They also like water. Trees were hanging around creeks (many of those are now buried) and the river (now engineered) and were enjoying the good life away from the open savannah. All you can do is delay the inevitable reconquest by Nature. Look at our levees. Levees don't like water. If you're going to fight Nature, you'd better be willing to outlast it - and spend more resources on it than it does on you. I'll put my money on Nature when it comes to an endurance test.

Perhaps they might try digging a little deeper in some places to compensate for the existence of the trees on the banks. That might fix the equation on the chalk board. Look, some of my favorite people are engineers and they do a difficult task. They're asked by people with money (if not sense) to change things in a short time that it will take Nature ages to do. Why would we want to keep it the same? That's boring, right? You can't make money on boring.  

Either way, more money will be spent on this very issue again....and again.  The river says so.

Climate Denial Crock of the Week: Don't It Make My Green World Brown

Peter Sinclair returns with the denialist crock that an over-abundance of CO2 is a good thing.  For heaven's sake, we're trying to take the carbon dioxide from our plant friends?  How dare we?  

USGS - Volcano Hazards Program
Grassland responses to global environmental changes suppressed by elevated CO2 - report

Dallas Trees' E-News Of The Day, June 2 - The Numbers Don't Add Up

In Part 3, we explore the world of oil after Saddam Hussein. Where the 'numbers don't add up', the experts discuss quotas of OPEC nations and the 'plan'. For the longest time, the experts thought the United States would never reach a peak of oil. That peak hit in December 1970.

CLIMATE PROGRESS

What is a city of the future?

This is a question I pose to any city in North Texas - especially my own Grand Prairie.  Will this be a city that will prosper and adapt to the global changes that affect us locally, or will we rant, and politicize, and collapse from the tragedy of poor planning and poor economizing?  Is Dallas - or Fort Worth, Arlington, Frisco - a city of the future, or will it stand upon the old standards, old-world budgeting and self-fulfilling ways of thinking for the here-and-now, and fail to plan for the changes coming in the decades ahead? 

"The choice should be simple. A city official’s first responsibility is to ensure the health and safety of the people in his or her community. Insofar as stimulus funds are available to repair failing bridges, dams, roads and vital infrastructure, that’s where they should be invested.

That means building communities that are secure from energy supply disruptions and crippling energy prices; free from the air pollution that threatens the health of 186 million Americans today; laced with safe routes for people to walk and bicycle; able to provide a variety of mobility options so that everyone – including the young, old and disabled – has access to vital services. Cities of the future condemn no neighborhood to be the dumping ground for waste, pollution or traffic; conserve vital resources such as water; prepare to withstand the anticipated impacts of climate change, including heat waves and extreme weather; protect and restore natural places so that kids of all ages have contact with nature; foster social interaction; and avoid urban sprawl, to name a few criteria.

If the benefits of building for the future are not clear, the urban leaders should think of it this way: If they plan to invest in buildings, transit systems, streets or infrastructure and those improvements are meant to last more than a decade, they are not building the city for themselves. They’re building it for their children. The goal should be to create a community that remains competitive for generations to come as a wonderful place to live and do business."

THE OIL DRUM

Drum Beat - June 2

The Fifth Problem: Peak Capital

"When do we expect peak capital to occur? According to the "standard run" of the LTG report, it may arrive during the first two decades of the century. It may very well be that much of what we are seeing now is a symptom of peak capital approaching: airports, roads, bridges, dikes, dams, and about everything that goes under the name of "infrastructure" are decaying everywhere in the world. The whole economic system is becoming unable to maintain the level of complexity that it had reached just a few decades ago."

ENERGY BULLETIN

Peak Oil and Supplies - June 2

Oil and The Economy - June 2

Renewables and Efficiency - June 2

Media and Persuasion - June 2

United States and Canada - June 2

RESOURCESHELF

USGS and National Park Service Add Content to Data.Gov

NATIONAL SNOW AND ICE DATA CENTER

Satellite Update: Daily Images Now Available

UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME

Tree Planting Campaign Hits Four Billion Mark

"The Billion Tree Campaign has just passed the four billion mark, in a crucial step toward its target of seven billion by the end of 2009." See the "Twitter for Trees" widget on this blog to see how you can contribute to this cause.

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG

Nature parks can save species as climate changes.

Retaining a network of wildlife conservation areas is vital in helping to save up to 90 per cent of bird species in Africa affected by climate change, according to scientists.

Ethanol production could jeopardize soil productivity.

Climate change models find staple crops face ruin on up to one million square km of African farmland.

UF study finds ancient mammals shifted diets as climate changed.

Scientists create metal that pumps liquid uphill.

In nature, trees pull vast amounts of water from their roots up to their leaves hundreds of feet above the ground through capillary action, but now scientists at the University of Rochester have created a simple slab of metal that lifts liquid using the same principle—but does so at a speed that would make nature envious.

The metal, revealed in an upcoming issue of Applied Physics Letters, may prove invaluable in pumping microscopic amounts of liquid around a medical diagnostic chip, cooling a computer's processor, or turning almost any simple metal into an anti-bacterial surface.

Scientists map penguins from space.

In a new study, published this week in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, scientists from British Antarctic Survey, (BAS) describe how they used satellite images to survey the sea-ice around 90% of Antarctica's coast to search for emperor penguin colonies. The survey identified a total of 38. Ten of those were new. Of the previously known colonies six had re-located and six were not found.

Trading energy for safety, bees extend legs to stable in wind.

Cruel and inhuman treatment causes more mental damage than physical torture.

New research findings published today by Dr Metin Başoğlu, Head of Section of Trauma Studies at King's College London and the Istanbul Centre for Behaviour Research and Therapy, examines the psychological impact of war captivity, 'cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment' (CIDT) and physical torture. Findings revealed that being held captive in a hostile and life-threatening environment, deprivation of basic needs, sexual torture, psychological manipulations, humiliation, exposure to extreme temperatures, isolation, and forced stress positions appear to cause more psychological damage than physical torture.

This study at its essence concerns the question of what constitutes torture, is published on line in the April issue of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. Başoğlu writes that a priori assumptions of a distinction between torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments have led some to argue that the latter are associated with less mental suffering than torture and therefore more acceptable in exceptional circumstances.

Tweet for Trees!

Friday June 5 is World Environment Day and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) is celebrating this year’s event with the Twitter for Trees campaign.

UNEP will plant one tree for every new Twitter follower of the between now and June 5, so follow UNEPandYou now!

The goal of the campaign is to plant 100,000 trees for 100,000 followers (although more trees will be planted if more people follow). It’s part of UNEP’s larger Billion Tree Campaign, the goal of which is to plant one tree for every person on the planet - about 7 billion - by the end of the year.

We are so enthused to see the Twitter for Trees campaign and UNEP using social media for good. With programs like these, social networking platforms become important and effective tools for social awareness and social activism. It’s about time more and more people used social networking sites to promote good causes and get those messages across to their friends and family. UNEP and You is truly an example of what social media can – and should – be: a vehicle for social change.

So far the organization has about 3,000 followers so we have plenty of work to do to reach the goal of 100,000. Click here to begin following UNEP on Twitter and help get 100,000 new trees planted.

-courtesy Live Earth!