Category Archives: environment

by

Cold rain and snow

What is your favorite type of weather?

Love the winters here in NY. I am a weather junkie. Always have been. Growing up in Memphis on the Mississippi River, weather was always happening. Mostly remember the hot wet summers but we would also get ice in the winter or spring. Maybe even a snow! Here in NY, the Catskill Mountains, on top of Old Clump, winter, fall, spring and summer are magical. Seems like it snows every day in the winter. This year. January was whether dry but END OF January and March have made up for it. We have a micro environment here. We get the end of the “Lake effect” snow and more. More rain and ice this year. Climate change is noticeable. Can’t deny it. Will see what spring and summer brings.

by

Victory for spotted owl as Trump-era plan to reduce habitat is struck down

Revisiting the spotted owl.. started it all… good news but not enough

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/09/biden-trump-plan-northern-spotted-owl-habitat?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

“We’re glad the Biden administration repealed the ridiculous and politically driven decision to strip 3m acres from the spotted owl’s critical habitat” said Noah Greenwald, the endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It needs all the habitat it can get if it’s going to make it.” But, he called the exclusions that remain, “disappointing”.

“The Biden administration is condoning the cutting of old growth forests on BLM land,” he said. “It is definitely not what the owl needs and it’s not what our climate needs.”

by

Thank you Hyatt

“Hyatt is the latest international hotel brand to ditch travel-sized toiletries from its rooms, following Holiday Inn-owner InterContinental Group and Marriott International.

Portable tubes of shampoo, conditioner and bath gel will be replaced with bulk-sized toiletries across Hyatt’s global chain of 220,000 rooms beginning in June 2021. The changes will affect Hyatt’s 900 hotels worldwide, encompassing 20 brands, including Park Hyatt, Hyatt Place and the Andaz.

“Plastic pollution is a global issue, and we hope our efforts will motivate guests, customers and, indeed, ourselves to think more critically about our use of plastic,” Mark Hoplamazian, president and CEO of Hyatt, said in a press release.”

It takes everybody working together to reduce plastics….why all the packaging? Ever since Tylenol scare back in the 1980s, companies have gone packaging crazy…time to ease up on Plastics. Buying local is a starting point…

by

New Mexico May Become Temporary Storage Site For Nuclear Waste : NPR

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/11/709600915/new-mexico-is-divided-over-the-perfect-site-to-store-nation-s-nuclear-waste

“In 1982 Congress got involved, passing the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which called for the development of repositories for the nation’s high-level nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel.

Five years later, it narrowed those efforts, focusing on a single area 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas: Yucca Mountain.

The federal government has spent billions of dollars assessing the viability of a deep underground storage facility there. For decades, Yucca looked like the destination for nuclear waste.”

Call for Congress to act on this urgent issue.

by

Most Endangered Rivers Victory: Washington’s Skykomish River | American Rivers

https://www.americanrivers.org/2018/04/most-endangered-rivers-victory-washingtons-skykomish-river/

“This week, after seven years of opposition to a hydropower proposal put forth by the Snohomish County Public Utility District (SnoPUD) for the South Fork Skykomish River, local activists, tribes, paddlers, river recreationists, and anglers got some good news at the April 10 SnoPUD meeting, when the SnoPUD commission and staff agreed to cancel the Sunset Falls hydropower project and request the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to close the docket on the current application.”

Finally! Falls would have been reduced to a trickle if hydro project approved.

by

Lake Ontario: Property owners updated on funding

https://www.wnypapers.com/news/article/featured/2018/04/21/132346/lake-ontario-property-owners-updated-on-funding

Problem was, officials assigned to dole out the funding soon realized the damage totals of claims filed far exceeded the $45 million total the state initially allocated, Welch said.
“Wouldn’t you know (it), that funding was $45-50 million short,” he said.
In response, after months of delay, state officials with the governor’s office began to allocate additional monies this year, Welch said. First came a combined state Assembly-Senate $10 million funding allocation in January, followed by an additional $40 million this spring as the state budget process moved along, bringing the entire total to more than $90 million – the amount initially requested, Welch pointed out.
“With the extra $50 million, it should cover everyone’s expenses. (So) what’s the issue (as to the delays)?” he asked.

Look like IJC could rectify this somehow with the state of NY.

by

2 gallons of radioactive nuclear waste done; 56M gallons to go | The Columbian

http://www.columbian.com/news/2018/may/16/2-gallons-of-radioactive-nuclear-waste-done-56m-gallons-to-go/

“It’s a big deal,” said Dawn Wellman, sector manager for environmental health and remediation at the national lab in Richland. “At a scaled version we have done what they will do at full scale at Hanford.”

The vitrification plant — or Waste Treatment Plant — at the Hanford nuclear reservation has been under construction since 2002, with a court-ordered deadline of 2023 to start treating some of the 56 million gallons of radioactive waste in underground tanks.

Much of the waste, which is left from the past production of plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program, is planned to be vitrified, or turned into a solid glass form for disposal.”