Too Progressive

This is not news. Not new news, at least.

A new Census of Agriculture report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that Virginia lost 521,000 acres of farmland from 2002 to 2007, the largest decline in the past 20 years. That’s more than the combined land area of Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield and Henrico.

“We’ve been losing 50,000 to 70,000 acres on average every year for decades,” said Jonah Bowles, the agricultural risk analyst for the Farm Bureau. “Now it’s accelerating.”

Some lost farm acres have been rolled into conservation programs, but most were used for development.

The amount of urban and suburban sprawl in Virginia, especially in the Richmond area, is out of control and has been for some time now. In fact, I wrote extensively about Virginia’s excessive retail problem back in 2006.

In the United States, on average, there is about 20 square feet of retail space per person. The average for the Richmond metro area is OVER tripled that, at about 67 square FEET OF RETAIL SPACE FOR EVERY MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD!

This is absurd, especially since walking around local malls (on the rare occasion that I go to them), makes me believe that some retailers aren’t having an easy time of things! It seems like many stores (especially the smaller ones) do not stay open long, and at Short Pump Town Center (despite their blatant LIE claiming otherwise) I can’t help but notice there are A LOT OF EMPTY SUITES, from where a business has packed up and left the mall (presumably due to a lack of business).

While SOME growth clearly CAN be a good thing, UNNECESSARY GROWTH NEVER IS! Richmond CANNOT support all of this retail. Not only that, but when either new homes, or retail centers are thrown up hastily, and/or in areas where they are not needed, in time, the building becomes empty, or unkempt, and the area becomes essentially a SLUM, which will no doubt happen to Short Pump, and other suburbs within the next 10 years.

It’s time for U.S. and Viriginia lawmakers to step up and get the situation under control before the entire country is left looking like New Jersey.

I’m assuming George Bush will be number one on this list, right?

WASHINGTON – The government is starting a different kind of most-wanted list — for environmental fugitives accused of assaulting nature.

These fugitives allegedly smuggled chemicals that eat away the Earth’s protective ozone layer, dumped hazardous waste into oceans and rivers and trafficked in polluting cars.

And now the government wants help in tracking them down.

“They are charged with environmental crimes and they should be brought before the criminal justice system and have their day in court,” said Pete Rosenberg, a director in the agency’s criminal enforcement division.

Check out this article from Red, Green and Blue which includes a quote from your’s truly on Virginia’s resident energy policy dunce and potential Republican VP candidate Eric Cantor:

Terry Carter of Too Progressive: “Eric Cantor has a history of blindly following the failed regressive policies of the Bush administration and the Republican party as a whole, voting nearly 100 percent of the time with the Bush administration throughout his (Cantor’s) Congressional career.  That having been said it pretty much goes without saying that Cantor is once again siding with the Republican party (and the big oil companies) and promoting a regressive energy policy that will provide virtually no long OR short term relief for average American’s struggling with gas and energy prices.  Cantor, a potential VP candidate, Republican presidential nominee John McCain and the Republican party as a whole are once again showing where their true allegiance lies - with the big oil companies that have upported their party for years.a prolific fundraiser for the campaign.”

Video I took earlier today at MoveOn.org’s emergency rally to tell Republicans to stop their big oil trickery and start telling the American public the truth.  Photo gallery can be found here.

As promised here are some photos from today’s MoveOn.org rally to stop Republican trickery and big oil gimmicks as well as some photos of the surrounding areas in the Imperial District.  I’ll have some videos later tonight after they finish uploading.

As some of you may have heard, MoveOn.org is holding an emergency rally today to stop House Republican “big oil gimmicks.”  Via The Hill:

Although the House is in recess, several Republicans on Friday and Monday have taken to the floor of the chamber to discuss the country’s energy woes and demand that Pelosi bring back the House and give the GOP an up or down vote on expanding domestic oil production.

Now MoveOn is planning to get involved.

“Republicans have been escalating their attacks on [Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.)] and the Democrats over oil drilling, and we need to push back hard,” the group said in an e-mail to supporters, asking them to come to a 4 p.m. rally at the Capitol.

“Speaker Pelosi blocked their plan because it won’t help lower gas prices—but it will line the pockets of Big Oil executives, the same people donating millions of dollars to Republicans,” the e-mail said. “But Republicans are working hard to make it seem like they’re fighting for cash-strapped commuters—and not the oil companies who wrote their plan.”

The group plans to point to the ties between the GOP and Big Oil.

As stated above, the rally is planned to begin at 4pm at the Capitol building and supporters are asked to meet in front of the Grant Memorial on the mall (1st street, between Pennsylvania Ave and Maryland Ave.  I am planning to attend and will hopefully have some photos and videos to share later on this evening.

Potential Republican VP Eric Cantor continues his assault on all things that make sense by once again calling for offshore drilling.

“If we in America demonstrate that we are serious about unleashing our energy resources, we will send a significant signal to the global markets that the supply issue will be addressed . . . ,” Cantor said during a news conference at a local gas station.

Cantor said more drilling in the United States will send a signal to the global markets that the U.S. is not so dependent on foreign sources of oil.

Cantor stood in front of the Village Exxon station at Three Chopt and Patterson Avenues to make his plea. He was joined by two other Republican officials, Del. William R. Janis of Henrico County and Henrico Sheriff Mike Wade, and by John Cox, who owns an Ashland trucking company.

Cantor went on to declare that drilling should be party of an energy “plan”that also includes, what else, “clean coal.”  Haha.

So not only is he using oxymoron’s like “clean coal” but he’s also advocating that we pursue an energy “plan” that pretty much everyone agrees won’t have any affect on gas prices what so ever.

Mr. Cantor, how about we invest more resources into real alternative forms of clean energy rather than some fictional BS?

This is awesome!

Youth Climate Activists confront Exxon-Mobil Executive, Stephen Simon, after he testified to the US House on his record-high profits. The hearing was held on April 1st, so in celebration of “Fossil Fools” day young people wanted to present him with a “Fossil Foolie” Piggy Bank Award.

A chuck of ice in western Antarctica measuring nine times the size of Manhattan collapsed earlier today and an even larger glacial area is now at risk. The collapsed chunk was about 220 square miles wide, and is a result of global warming according to British scientist David Vaughan:

Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 220-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica. British scientist David Vaughan says it’s the result of global warming.

The rest of the Connecticut-sized ice shelf is holding on by a narrow beam of thin ice and scientists worry that it too may collapse. Larger, more dramatic ice collapses occurred in 2002 and 1995.

So, so sad. Can we please come together and start taking global warming seriously now?

2:45pm UPDATE: BBC News reports that the affected shelf is part of the larger Wilkins Ice Shelf which has been stable for the better part of the past century. The shelf began retreating during the 1990’s and is now on the brink of total collapse.

Six ice shelves in the same part of the continent have already been lost, says the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

Professor David Vaughan of BAS said: “Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened.

“I didn’t expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread - we’ll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be.”

According to the same article, unprecedented warming is to blame for the collapse of not only the Wilkins Ice Shelf, but another six complete collapsed over the past 30 years:

“This is not a sea level rise issue, but is yet another indication of climate change in the Antarctic Peninsula and how it is affecting the environment.”

Scientists say the Antarctic Peninsula, which juts out into the Southern Ocean towards the tip of South America, has experienced unprecedented warming over the last 50 years.

Several ice shelves have retreated in the past 30 years - six of them collapsing completely.

Like me I’m sure most of you get far more junk mail than legitimate mail when you open your mail box each day. There have been some days where I’ve received up to five pre-approved credit card offers! FIVE! IN ONE DAY! Not to mention other things such as catalogues addressed to “resident, ” 1800 Val-Pak envelopes daily, insurance offers, advertisements and business magazines you never even asked for and immediately throw in the trash or recycle bin. It may not seem like much but think about it, these things go out to every household across America. Think about how many trees we’re killing and basically throwing in to our garbage cans.

Well the U.S. Postal Service has a message for you and the environment: screw you, we’re making too much money off of what basically amounts to harassment.

Continue reading about the insanity after the jump.

Wasn’t too much of a Winter here in Washington, DC. I think we had one pretty decent snow at the beginning of December and that was just about it. It’s mid March now and some of the trees are already in full bloom, including some of the famous cherry blossom trees. Not only that, but I’m already suffering from Spring time allergies, something that normally doesn’t happen until at least mid April. Yay global warming!

Pollen is bursting. Critters are stirring. Buds are swelling. Biologists are worrying.

“The alarm clock that all the plants and animals are listening to is running too fast,” Stanford University biologist Terry Root said.

The fingerprints of man-made climate change are evident in seasonal timing changes for thousands of species on Earth, according to dozens of studies and last year’s authoritative report by the Nobel Prize-winning international climate scientists. More than 30 scientists told The Associated Press how global warming is affecting plants and animals at springtime across the country, in nearly every state.

What’s happening is so noticeable that scientists can track it from space. Satellites measuring when land turns green found that spring “green-up” is arriving eight hours earlier every year on average since 1982 north of the Mason-Dixon line. In much of Florida and southern Texas and Louisiana, the satellites show spring coming a tad later, and bizarrely, in a complicated way, global warming can explain that too, the scientists said.

How much longer before Republicans and political “leaders” wake up and face facts? How much longer is it going to take a bunch of bloggers to speak out against disgusting coal power plants? How much longer before we start pursuing cleaner energy? What more does it take?

Dominion Virginia power is now planning to build a new $619 million gas-fired power plant about 60 miles west of Richmond in Buckingham county. While gas is a bit cleaner than coal, why isn’t Dominion exploring solar and wind powered plants that will carry Virginia into a new and cleaner age of electrical consumption? All of this while Dominion continues it’s push to build a coal power plant in Wise county (despite growing and overwhelming public opposition) and continues to claim to be a friend of the environment (yeah right).

The company purchased the proposed project from Tenaska a Nebraska power-plant developer, this month. The plant would generate 580 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power roughly 150,000 homes.

Dominion says it hopes to have the plant in operation by 2011 to help meet growing energy demands. The project submitted for approval to the State Corporation Commission already has air and water emissions permits.

Expanding on Lowell’s post from earlier this morning regarding Dominion Virginia power pretending to be “good environmental stewards” I want to pose the question as to why Dominion continues to pretend like they care about the environment?  According to the Daily Press Dominion plans to launch nine energy conservation pilot programs:

The PowerCost Monitor program provides customers with a free in-home display that gives real-time feedback on energy consumption and cost. Dominion says 1,000 residential customers will be part of the program that monitors the electricity being used.

Customers will be selected randomly and cannot participate in more than one pilot program. The programs are part of Dominion’s efforts to reduce electrical consumption 10 percent by 2022 as outlined in the state’s Virginia Energy Plan.

That’s all fine and well but Dominion should really stop this all out assault on the intelligence of Virginians.  We all know they could care less about the environment otherwise they wouldn’t be full steam ahead with plans to build a coal power plan in Wise county despite overwhelming public opposition.

 

Both Virginia and Maryland have agreed to delay the ban until 2010 at the request of detergent companies. Personally I don’t agree with the delay because if the companies knew they were hurting the environment why should we reward them for continuing to do so until they were forced to change their ways?

Dishwasher detergent may make your stemware sparkle, but the phosphates contained in most brands are among the most damaging pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay.

Now, Virginia is poised to ban phosphates from all home dishwasher detergents, a move environmental groups say will reduce one of the major contaminants dumped in the bay each year.

“The reduction of phosphates is one of the key efforts in trying to clean up the Chesapeake Bay,” said Del. John A. Cosgrove (R-Chesapeake), a co-sponsor of the legislation, which the General Assembly approved this year. “Every time we put in new and better technology that further reduces [nutrient pollution], we take a step closer to that goal.”

9pm Update: Democratic Central has more. 

Raising Kaine has provided brilliant coverage over the past several months (most recently see here, here and here) of Dominion’s plan to build a coal power plant in Wise county, but here’s a great video I haven’t seen posted elsewhere in the blogosphere from Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) urging Virginians to call Governor Kaine, who supports the plant and ask him why he supports it despite overwhelming public opposition.

Hundreds of reasons to go green. Enjoy!

It was 63 degrees down in Richmond today, while we got to around 55 here in the DC area (the normal high is 44). It was 55 degrees yesterday, and the forecast high for tomorrow in DC is 68, and 75 in Richmond. The average low for tomorrow in DC is 28 degrees. Tomorrow’s forecast low is 59 degrees (that’s 15 degrees above our average high temperature. The forecast high for DC on Wednesday is 70 degrees. SEVENTY! On February 6!! And it’s not like an isolated event either, we hit 70 degrees here three times last month.

The problem is so undeniable, and so alarming, that last week Governor Tim Kaine called it “beyond debate” and said “this is the environmental issue of this and the next generation.”

“This is the environmental issue of this and the next generation,” Kaine told his Commission on Climate Change during the panel’s initial meeting.

Rising sea levels caused by global warming, as well as other effects, threaten Virginia’s coastal communities, farmers, ports, military installations and tourism industry, Kaine said.

“The economic issues are very real.”

Virginia is one of nearly 30 states fighting global warming on their own, largely because the federal government is doing little, said James D. Marston, director of the state climate initiative for Environmental Defense, a national environmental group.

According to a report issued last week from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the year 2007 will go down as one of the 10 warmest years on record for not only the contiguous United States, but also the entire planet.

In the United States:

The preliminary annual average temperature for 2007 across the contiguous United States will likely be near 54.3° F- 1.5°F (0.8°C) above the twentieth century average of 52.8°F. This currently establishes 2007 as the eighth warmest on record. Only February and April were cooler-than-average, while March and August were second warmest in the 113-year record.

The warmer-than-average conditions in 2007 influenced residential energy demand in opposing ways, as measured by the nation’s Residential Energy Demand Temperature Index. Using this index, NOAA scientists determined that the U.S. residential energy demand was about three percent less during the winter and eight percent higher during the summer than what would have occurred under average climate conditions.

Exceptional warmth in late March was followed by a record cold outbreak from the central Plains to the Southeast in early April. The combination of premature growth from the March warmth and the record-breaking freeze behind it caused more than an estimated $1 billion in losses to crops (agricultural and horticultural).

A severe heat wave affected large parts of the central and southeastern U.S. in August, setting more than 2,500 new daily record highs.

Across the globe:

The global annual temperature − for combined land and ocean surfaces – for 2007 is expected to be near 58.0 F – and would be the fifth warmest since records began in 1880. Some of the largest and most widespread warm anomalies occurred from eastern Europe to central Asia.

Including 2007, seven of the eight warmest years on record have occurred since 2001 and the 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1997. The global average surface temperature has risen between 0.6°C and 0.7°C since the start of the twentieth century, and the rate of increase since 1976 has been approximately three times faster than the century-scale trend.

The greatest warming has taken place in high latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Anomalous warmth in 2007 contributed to the lowest Arctic sea ice extent since satellite records began in 1979, surpassing the previous record low set in 2005 by a remarkable 23 percent. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, this is part of a continuing trend in end-of-summer Arctic sea ice extent reductions of about 10 percent per decade since 1979.

Obviously a scary report. And when whack jobs on the right, and those who reject proven Science dismiss this as “hippie Liberal political games,” just remember the report came from the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration, not Al Gore, MoveOn.org or any other perceived “radical left” organizations that often land on the right wing’s list of favorite targets.

On the flip though, and to be fair, this single report does not by itself definitively prove anything. However, added to the mounting evidence that shows global warming to be very real, and a very serious threat to Earth as we know it, I think we can all agree that we must work to get it under control and adopt better environmental policies as a national and international community.

Why is it that there are still (some) people who believe the U.S. is fighting a true “global war on terror” while the Bush administration arms the entire fucking planet to the teeth? Checkout how our government essentially props up our GDP via A Nation of Firsts Arms the World:

-First in Sales of Surface-to-Air Missiles:

Between 2001 and 2005, the United States delivered 2,099 surface-to-air missiles to nations in the developing world, 20% more than Russia, the next largest supplier.

-First in Sales of Military Ships:

During that same period, the U.S. sent 10 “major surface combatants” like aircraft carriers and destroyers to developing nations. Collectively, the four major European weapons producers shipped thirteen. (And we were first in the anti-ship missiles that go along with such ships, with nearly double (338) the exports of the next largest supplier Russia (180).

First in Military Training:

A thoughtful empire knows that it is not enough to send weapons; you have to teach people how to use them. The Pentagon plans on training the militaries of 138 nations in 2008 at a cost of nearly $90 million. No other nation comes close.

First in Weapons Sales:

Since 2001, U.S. global military sales have normally totaled between $10 and $13 billion. That’s a lot of weapons, but in fiscal year 2006, the Pentagon broke its own recent record, inking arms sales agreements worth $21 billion. It almost goes without saying that this is significantly more than any other nation in the world.

The U.S. also ranks first in oil consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, external debt, military expenditures, private military personnel, and radical Christian extremists!

Thanks a lot George Bush and co.!

[Cross posted at Daily Kos, and Raising Kaine]