Paging Dr. Pelton -- call your lawyers

The thing about crimes against humanity is that there are a LOT of potential plaintiffs out there. Image via Wikipedia

In what will be just the first of many suits, Katrina victims have received the go-ahead to file suit against the companies most responsible for disrupting climate stability . . . companies like PGE, Oregon's foulest polluter, which merrily pumps millions of TONS of CO2 into the atmosphere every year, where it will stay for thousands of years.

Dr. Pelton, head of Willamette University and a well-paid board member for PGE, might want to ask his attorneys whether aiding and abetting the destruction of Earth's livability comes under the "sound business judgment" rule in corporate law.

Gigantic brass ones award for Salem

Image by Jim Frazier via Flickr

After trying (and very nearly succeeding) to sneak through the sale of easements that will permanently bar agriculture from 200 acres of rich farmland in Minto-Brown Island Park and then ramming it through at the last minute over the objections of a diverse group of citizens and the city's own parks and recreation advisory board, NOW the city is all about public outreach.

In other words, it's like telling a homeowner "We really want your input, would you prefer that we bulldoze your house or use it as a fire department training site?"

Truly shameful. With the price of brass so high, you'd think Salem wouldn't have such a money problem.

All,

The status of the Minto Brown Park Restoration Project as of October 22, 2009 is as follows:
• On August 24, 2009, the Mayor and City Council agreed to enter into the easement agreement.
• A survey of the property to define boundaries and setbacks is underway and should be completed soon.
• The current pumpkin crop is scheduled to be harvested during the last week of October.
• Once the harvest is complete, the area will be planted with a cover crop of barley. This will prevent erosion during the winter and provide food for the annual geese population.
• The consultant will begin planting plan soon. We are seeking input from Salem residents.

Reminder that the public involvement meetings to participate in helping develop the planting plan for the Minto Brown Park Restoration Project begin next week. An invitation is attached to this email.

The meetings will take place in three phases as described below. Child-friendly activities will be available at all meetings.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Leslie Middle School, 3850 Pringle Road SE or
Saturday, October 31, 2009, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Pringle Hall, 606 Church Street SE.

These initial meetings are to introduce Vigil-Agrimis, a local design firm that specializes in planning, analysis, and design of water and natural resources projects. Vigil-Agrimis will be working with Natural Resources Conservation Service, the City of Salem and the community to develop the restoration plan for this project. We would also like to take this opportunity to solicit your input regarding some overall planting concepts. Our goal is to work toward restoring the floodplain to a more natural condition and your feedback regarding the level of open space and types of natural habitat is an important part of the development process.

The second set of meetings scheduled on:
Thursday, November 12, 2009, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Leslie Middle School, 3850 Pringle Road SE or
Saturday, November 14, 2009, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Pringle Hall, 606 Church Street SE.

At these meetings, two or three alternatives based on the input received at the first meetings will be presented. Attendees will have the opportunity to provide input on these alternatives.

A final meeting is scheduled on November 24, 2009, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Salem Conference Center, 200 Commercial Street SE. It is anticipated that the consultant will present a first draft of the design (50 percent completed) to the public and solicit feedback.

We look forward to seeing you at the public meetings.

For more information go to http://www.cityofsalem.net/Residents/Parks/Pages/Minto-BrownIslandParkEasementProposal.aspx or contact Mike Gotterba or Nitin Joshi at 503-588-6211.

Salem university, headed by board member of states worst polluter, wins Nation Wildlife Federation sustainability award

Interesting. Willamette University -- headed by Dr. M. Lee Pelton, who sits on the board of PGE, Oregon's worst polluter and the operator of Oregon's worst greenhouse gas source, the Boardman Coal Plant --

PGE's coal-fired power plant in Boardman, Oregon is the dirtiest power plant in the Northwest. Studies have shown that up to 50% of the haze on smoggiest days in the Columbia Gorge comes from Boardman. Air pollution can ruin stunning views (see photo below) in the Gorge and affect the health of residents and habitats alike.

But in addition to air quality problems, Boardman emits five million tons of carbon dioxide a year, making it Oregon's #1 source of the climate-changing pollutants.

We need your help to convince PGE to join the rest of the region in preparing for a clean energy future, a future that protects the Columbia Gorge.

-- has won an award from the National Wildlife Federation for campus sustainability work.
In announcing the award, Willamette says:

All of these activities are designed to enhance Willamette University’s central mission of research and teaching, advance the critical understanding and adoption of sustainability, and demonstrate the fundamental role higher education must play in resolving the fundamental issues of the 21st Century.

You can read Dr. Pelton's thoughts on sustainability here. And you can write to him here in case you want to ask how him how he manages to square any of that with his work for Oregon's worst polluter, a company that is fighting tooth and nail to keep on destroying climate stability by burning coal.

For International Climate Action Day, think globally and act locally: Ask Dr. Pelton why he backs coal, the meth of the energy world.

RISE AND SHINE for sustainability this Monday night!

One of the most important emergency preparedness steps Salem could take is promoting poultry keeping. Image by thomas pix via Flickr

The long ordeal over letting a little common sense prevail is --- with luck --- drawing to a close, and the Salem City Council will consider three separate means of permitting a few urban hens in single-family-residential zones.

Please attend -- and bring your children, parents, and friends to pack City Hall with advocates for urban hens. The Salem City Council can't quite bring itself to think that people in Salem are every bit as competent or as neighborly as people in almost all other cities in Oregon, despite this low opinion of us reflecting poorly on them and us both.

Monday, October 26, Salem City Hall, Room 240 (Council Chambers) 6:30 PM
Please come and show your support!

THIS IS IT! There are three draft chicken ordinances to be voted on Monday night by our elected officials. It's a bit complicated, but you can read for yourself the various options by going to the following website and clicking on the third Future Report listed:

http://www.cityofsalem.net/CityCouncil/FutureReports/Pages/default.aspx.

Five pro-hen speakers are lined up to address important issues. Nobody else has to speak if you don't want to. In fact, it might be best to keep the number of speakers down to a minimum because they are tired of hearing about chickens. But we definitely need to fill the room with people so that when I ask all supporters to stand, the Mayor will see that we have NOT lost momentum or support. At the September 14th meeting she said the chicken issue is "losing momentum to show there's enough community support and therefore Salem is just not ready for chickens." Let's prove her wrong!



(Almost didn't post that clip because of the crowing, which of course won't be an issue in Salem, because the proposed ordinances all forbid roosters, which urban hen keepers don't need as the hens are for eggs and as pets, not for breeding.)

Also, this Saturday (October 24) there will be a 350 Health Faire at the Tea Party Book Shop on the corner of Liberty & Ferry from 10:00 to 5:00. Chickens In The Yard (C.I.T.Y.) will be there recruiting support and selling our Viva La Chicken Revolution T-shirts and window decals. Please consider stopping by and picking one up. (And wearing it to City Hall Monday night!)

Thank you.

Coal is the Meth of the Energy World

"Cheap" coal comes with (a very, very conservatively estimated) $62 BILLION dollar annual hidden price tag.

Why doesn't government get Peak Oil?

Image by n2teaching via Flickr

Good article on peak oil in the Christian Science Monitor. And even the execrable "Marketplace" program has one here. The question is this: Why are such articles otherwise so rare and so little discussed by governments?

This is from an interview with Colin Campbell, one of the founders of the Assn. for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) after the recent ASPO international conference in Denver:

Question: The peak oil message doesn’t seem to be heard in the halls of government and in corporate board rooms. Why?

Colin Campbell: The question of peak oil is a difficult, sensitive one. There are many people, especially in government and industry, who’d prefer not to know it. The reason is quite logical: they’re looking for expansion, for economic growth, for prosperity, and for a continuation of the successful epoch we’ve lived in. To suddenly wake up and say, well, things are changing radically and we don’t really know what it means, is not something an executive would wish to say. And yet I think behind the scenes they are beginning to plan and prepare in sensible ways. You’ll find the oil companies, for example, are selling and disposing of secondary marketing chains, secondary refineries and so on, because they know full well that the supply is going to lead to surplus refining capacity. I think if you look elsewhere, the airline businesses is changing radically because it’s so dependent on cheap oil. We see hidden messages that do deliver the correct reading of all of this, but it’s not something people really want to talk about.

Question: What about the notion of making America energy independent?

Campbell: It can’t be done voluntarily. To make America energy-independent is not something I think any government can achieve. But within 50 years that’s what nature will deliver. Countries will have to be energy independent. They have no alternative. Some may get there quicker than others, but it’s not something some government will say, well this is our plan of action. It will delivered to them by the force of nature. So America will indeed be energy independent and probably quite soon if these imports dry out. What that means and how they react to such a situation is another day’s work.

Given the way we've organized industrial oil-dependent societies, government officials who ignore the looming rapid collapse of oil exports (as producing nations keep more and more of their oil for their own uses) is guilty of gross negligence and supreme indifference to risks of harm to the people they supposedly serve.

New magazine of note for people who want to eat better food at lower cost with less risk

Cool.

URBAN FARM^TM

New from the editors of Hobby Farms and Hobby Farm Home!

It doesn’t take a farm to have the heart of a farmer. Now, due to a burgeoning sustainable-living movement, you don’t have to own acreage to fulfill your dream of raising your own food. The new Urban Farm™ magazine, from the editors of Hobby Farms, will walk you down the path to self sustainability.

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<<We're following urban farming in the news>>

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Urban Farm™ magazine’s mission is to promote the benefits of self sustainability and to provide the tools with which to do it on any size property. Urban Farm™ reaches out to those in the city and suburbs, those who are inspired by the local food movement and who want to start raising chickens and growing food for themselves, supporting local agriculture and living more sustainably.

Urban farms are popping up all over America. However, things are different on an urban farm, versus a rural hobby farm. With less space to work with, projects must be scaled down, efficiency becomes crucial, and one must be resourceful to use every inch of space and recycle every unused object into something useful.

Urban Farm™ is informational and inspirational, filled with how-to projects, profiles of urban farmers across America, “green” and innovative products, and of course, recipes for preparing your homegrown vegetables, eggs and other farm bounty.

Green Holiday Fair

Workers sorting fair-trade coffee in Guatemala. Image via Wikipedia

Get nice things for others to celebrate any of the holidays that come in the dark times leading up to Solstice, when we mark the commencement of the return of the light.

Sunday, Nov. 22, 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Sustainable Holiday Market
Cone Field House at Sparks Field, Willamette University (Corner 12th & Bellevue Sts)

Shop for recycled, chemical-free, locally made, fair trade, and energy- and water-saving gifts to give to your friends and family this holiday season. Also, learn about tips to make your holiday celebrations more earth-friendly, have the kids make gifts for family members at our "Earth-Friendly Elves" station, and enjoy live music! Buy raffle tickets to win sustainable gifts donated by our vendors; all proceeds benefit FSELC's environmental education programs. No admission fee.

NOTE: Vendor spaces still available; please contact Lisa, 503-391-4145 for more info.

A "must-have" for your reader: Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air

Image by ~~ zorro ~~ via Flickr

"Numbers are better than adjectives."

If you are confused by corporate greenwashing or uncertain about all the soothing claims you hear floating around about how this or that innovation is going to make all this concern about climate unnecessary, or how this or that breakthrough will solve the peak oil predicament, it's always good to check in with David Mackay, author of "Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air," which you can download for free if you like.

A very worthwhile site to add to your newsreader.

The Old Misdirection Play by PGE (Pollution Generating Enterprise)

The #1 polluter in Oregon, happily profiting by destroying the climate. Image via Wikipedia

Magicians trick us by getting us to watch the wrong thing. So too with corporations. When challenged for numerous bad acts, they like to focus your attention on the one that they have a ready response for, which has the effect of directing the conversation away from the most serious problems and focusing it on the one that they'd prefer you think about:

PGE did right thing
A letter to the editor Oct. 10 regarding the Boardman power plant ("Boardman must close") makes a good point: Pollution from mercury is a significant environmental and health concern.

That's why Portland General Electric participated in and supported the most comprehensive study of the sources of mercury pollution in Oregon to date, several years ago, in cooperation with the Oregon Environmental Council. That's also why we've agreed to install new emissions equipment that will allow the Boardman plant to meet one of the most stringent mercury control standards in the nation.

Cleaning up mercury in our environment from human sources -- mine wastes, cement kilns, power plants and other industrial activities -- is good public policy. We're working hard to aggressively reduce the Boardman plant's environmental impact while keeping this dependable source of electricity available for our customers.

REUBEN PLANTICO
Southwest Portland
Plantico is director of environmental policy for Portland General Electric.

Thus, with PGE, which is starting to grudgingly come out of the dark ages on the neurotoxic mercury emissions from its Boardman coal plant---the better to avoid discussion of the plant's CO2 emissions (the biggest in the entire state of Oregon) . . . emissions that the mercury control equipment will actually increase!

That's because all the exhaust-pollution control equipment on the emissions stream at Boardman will reduce the plant's operating efficiency, meaning that it will burn more coal to produce the same amount of power. For PGE, the goal is ensuring high profits from combustion of "cheap" coal (only cheap because they don't have to include the cost of sending the climate into a chaotic new unstable state) for decades more -- even as they pass every dime of the cost of the p0llution controls onto ratepayers.

It's lemon socialism at its finest --- PGE creates the problem, we have to pay to clean it up, and they get to profit even MORE from both creating the problem AND from what we spend to clean it up (the cost of the pollution control equipment is considered "capital investment" by PGE, so it shows up as "their" investment when rates are set, so they get a bigger flow of cash every year in return for using our money to fix only the smallest part of their pollution problem and ignoring the truly critical CO2 problem). Nice, eh!

The letter also shows how nicely Oregon's environmental groups have been coopted and outplayed by PGE--- they do most of the misdirection work for PGE for free, persuading people to focus on tiny incremental improvements in the plant's pollution output, while not mentioning the only solution that makes sense from an economic or environmental point of view: shutting down Boardman ASAP.