State fiddles while Lake George chokes

Invasive species are becoming a significant threat to the water quality of Lake George. There are fears that further expansion of the Asian clam population will cause algae blooms that will menace the quality of drinking water that lake communities rely on and render beaches unfit for swimming, menacing the tourism that lake communities rely on. 
  
Regional organizations Lake George Association and Fund for Lake George have recognized this serious threat but the state Department of Environmental Conservation has been accused of not spending the money and attention that the issue deserves. The LGA recently proposed the mandatory washing of all boats entering the lake but DEC put the brakes on that idea, it would study the idea when they bothered to get around to it. They added that no such plan could not be implemented in 2013. Yet, there is no indication that DEC has the intention of implementing ANY serious plan in 2013. Disgusted, the town of Bolton is trying to implement its own boat washing plan.

The Post-Star recently published an interview with DEC chief Joe Martens. In it, he said that the state would not shift any money from the part of the Environmental Protection Fund dedicated to land purchases to the underfunded invasive species program. This despite the fact that the EPF's stated purpose is not solely to buy land but also to 'develop and preserve these resources.'

In other words, the state wants to buy more land but is unwilling or unable to properly take care of the land (and water) it already owns. 

I know the DEC is being gutted by the budget process and is under serious pressure by Emperor Andrew's regime to mindlessly rubber stamp hydrofracking in the state's Southern Tier. But the agency should focus first on properly preserving the land and water they're already responsible for before adding more.

I have no ideological objection to the state owning land (provided they actually pay local property taxes on it as legally required), but this is a suicidal approach. Their name is not the Department of State Land Acquisition. It's the Department of *Environmental Conservation*. Protecting the ecology is their most important job. Buying more land is secondary.

Careless development worsened impact of Hurricane Sandy

While the false dichotomy narrative pretends that environmental concern and development are antithetical, a public radio report reminds us otherwise. WNYC ran a good report exploring how overdevelopment and careless, thoughtless development significantly exacerbated the impact on New Jersey of Hurricane Sandy.

Climate change denialists will flip flop

I predict that within 5 or 6 years, conservative ideology will drop its Flat Earther denial of climate change. Instead, they will start saying, “There’s nothing we can do to reverse it (because they’ve stonewalled for 20 years) so let’s benefit while we can.” 

Here’s why.

A good barometer of reality is to look at how big business invests large sums of money. Big business is amoral. It is not burdened by ethics - except when it makes for good PR and thus good for the overall bottom line - or by ideology. It does not wear rose-colored glasses. Its primary objective is to make money. Everything else is based toward that goal.

As such, it make decisions on how to make that money based on a cold-hearted unsentimental analysis of reality. I’m not saying it’s bad or good. It’s just how they do things. 

If big energy companies are investing hugesums of money in exploiting the areas of the Arctic, it is because they are adapting to the reality that the ice is melting and what’s underneath is more easily accessible. 

If they’re adapting to the reality, maybe we should start doing so as well.

Southern NY's environment

I just discovered an interesting new blog entitled: Thoughts From Mount Moses. It's a blog written apparently by someone from New York's Southern Tier and devoted to environmental issues. Not surprisingly, the controversial issue of hydrofracking is one that it tackles. Check it out here.

Update: on a visit to the Southern Tier, I saw that the fracking industry's propaganda was in full force, and quite clever.

Hydrofracking's 'toxic legacy'

Initially, it may have been nothing more than stalling to appease public opinion, but New York state's controversial temporary moratorium on hydrofracking is looking increasingly wise. The Diane Rehm Show had a comprehensive discussion on the benefits and dangers of the process. Officials from the Southern Tier who want fracking at any costs should check out this NPR All Things Considered story on its 'toxic legacy' in neighboring Pennsylvania.


Reminder: the excellent site Pro Publica has done some comprehensive investigative journalism on hydrofracking, its dangers and state government complicity with gas polluters.

Update: A few days ago, Vermont became the first state in the nation to ban hydrofracking.

The health of the Hudson River: a mixed bag

A couple of recent stories on the health of the Hudson River gave a picture of two steps forward, one step back.

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation reported on the consequences of the spring 2011 flooding in much of upstate New York. It concluded that the release of PCBs during flooding was actually much less, due to the much-contested dredging of the Hudson in Fort Edward. 

By contrast, a report by the group Environment New York noted that, despite clean up efforts in recent years, the Hudson remains one of the most polluted waterways in the nation. The river's biggest polluter: Finch Paper in Glens Falls, just upriver from Fort Edward.

According to a search, neither story appears to have been covered by The Post-Star, the only daily newspaper in the Glens Falls/Fort Edward area.


Update: Several days after this blog entry appeared, The Post-Star finally got around to doing a piece on this story.

Another look at the hydofracking debate

The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the hydofracking debate here in New York. Some residents of the Catskills and Southern Tier want to lease their land to natural gas drilling companies to stimulate the economy, while others warn of devastation to the supply of clean drinking water and more broad concerns about losing control of their land, concerns that would counteract any positive economic effect.

APA critic pleads guilty to pollution charges

Last year, the Post-Star published a controversial story on Adirondack Park Agency critic Leroy Douglas and his battles with the agency. A follow up: Adirondack Almanack reports that Douglas recently plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of pollution.

Like any other drug, hydrofracking has serious side effects

As if poisoned drinking water isn't enough, the controversial natural gas extraction process known as hydrofracking has another serious side effect. Although backers pass it off as an economic panacea, WAMC is reporting that fracking lowers property values and, in the event you want to move away to a place with clean drinking water. it can make it almost impossible to sell your house.

Hydofracking worse for environment than coal?

Hydraulic fracturing (know as 'fracking') is the controversial natural gas extraction process that's being proposed for much of central and southern New York. It's been controversial because the fracking represents a serious threat to safe drinking water. 


However, The Cornell Daily Sun reports on other major side effects of the extraction process. A university study concluded that hydrofracking may harm the environment even more than the mining of coal and will exacerbate the effects of climate change. This is significant because natural gas has long been touted as the cleanest fossil fuel.


“We looked at the greenhouse gas in comparison to conventional natural gas,” [Cornell Prof. Robert] Howarth said. “Our research showed that carbon dioxide is only part of the problem, and natural gas, which is mostly methane, is far more potent. Even small leakages have a large footprint, leading to our conclusion that natural gas actually has a bigger impact on global warming.”

Homeowners sue hydrofracker over poisoned drinking water

There is plenty of debate in New York about hydraulic fracturing (known as hydrofracking) in the southern part of the state. Fracking is a form of drilling which fractures the rock underneath the surface of the Earth to release natural gas. Supporters say that the hydrofracking industry would create countless jobs in southern New York. Opponents claim that the procedure has been shown to be a several threat to clean drinking water.

The non-partisan, non-profit journalism organization Pro Publica has covered this issue quite well (its excellent articles on the topic can be accessed here). It includes some pieces of the hydrofracking industry’s strident opposition to any sort of transparency.

Recently, the city of Buffalo became the first municipality in the state to ban the procedure. The vote was more symbolic than anything, given the city’s location, but opponents hope it triggers a loud wave of opposition to the dangerous procedure.

Many newspapers such as the Watertown Daily Times and Glens Falls Post-Star have editorialized for a ban on hydrofracking.

Nine homeowners in Elmira, near New York’s border with Pennsylvania (where fracking has been pursued with reckless abandon), have filed a lawsuit against a Colorado-based company claiming it was negligent in its drilling, construction and operation of two [hydrofracking] gas wells in Big Flats and that the company’s actions resulted in contamination to nearby water wells.

As government officials in Albany consider how to deal with the industry, they should remember that jobs and easy money are of little use if it destroys something as basic and fundamental as drinking water.

Bits and pieces

LA VICTIMA DE DELITO HABLA ESPANOL
A few towns in rural Washington County, NY recently passed laws mandating English as the sole official language of government communication; though to his credit, the Green mayor of village of Greenwich, David Doonan, categorically refused to entertain such a proposition.

Recently, police in Saratoga Springs responded to a stabbing near the city's famous racetrack. But officers who responded to the scene could not communicate with the victim or any of the witnesses, because they spoke only Spanish. The track attracts a lot short-term workers during the summer, many from Latin American countries.

In response, the city's police department is implementing Spanish-language training for its force and is contemplating giving preference to bilingual officers in future hiring.

It's a good thing for the safety of city residents that the Saratoga Springs PD isn't hampered by an English-only law preventing them from effectively investigating crimes.

***

LEGISLATORS ON VACATION FROM THEIR NON-WORK
In my last post, I lamented the poor state legislators who, unpaid due to the unfinished budget, have to survive on a meager $171 a day per diem. I guess some of them are managing to survive.

Gov. Paterson called a special session of the legislature yesterday and the Senate merely gaveled in and out rather than do its job and work on a budget. The majority Democrats complained that the governor called the session when several of them were on vacation and thus wouldn't have the votes to pass anything anyway. Of course, if they'd passed the budget when it was due on April 1, or any time since, there wouldn't be an issue. The idea that they felt they had done anything to earn a vacation is, in and of itself, appalling.

The outspoken social conservative Democrat Sen. Ruben Diaz blasted the governor for wasting time and money. In other words, he said it's the governor's fault the he and his colleagues refuse to do their jobs.


***

SPEAKING OF USELESS POLITICIANS...
Given the morass in the legislature, it's not surprising little talent is seeking the governor's mansion. Democratic attorney general Andrew Cuomo, the consummate insider, is running as a fake agent of change. I think his campaign handlers have banned him to not mention one single specific or proposition of something, limiting him to mealy-mouthed vague platitudes. His Republican opponents, Rick Lazio and Carl Paladino, are even emptier suits. They've chosen the demagogue route.

Far behind Cuomo in the polls, they have seized on attempts by a moderate Muslim group to build a mosque and community center near Ground Zero in a pathetic attempt to get someone to pay attention to them. They've both expressed support of using eminent domain to block the construction. It's bad enough they're focusing on this issue rather than the state's fiscal mess or corruption in Albany. But now we have the spectacle of so-called conservatives and opponents of big government launching an assault not only on freedom of religion but also on private property rights.

At least the Greens are offering a serious candidate for governor worth your attention, Howie Hawkins, as well as a number of other good candidates for statewide and local office. I've heard Hawkins speak several times and was impressed. He's not nearly as eloquent as the aforementioned empty suits but he's not afraid to get specific and offer concrete ideas, not just empty mom-and-apple-pie platitudes. The current governor is doing a decent job, considering the entrenched opposition. His successor needs both a brain and a spine and Hawkins is, to my knowledge, the only candidate with both.


***

OIL COMPANIES HAVE RUINED AFRICA TOO
The catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico has made Americans aware of the environmental and economic devastation caused by reckless practices of petroleum multinationals. People of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria are far too aware of this, as the public radio show The Story recently explored.


***

40 YEARS OF EARTH DAY
On a more upbeat environmental note, Adirondack Almanack's John Warren has a good piece on the profound legacy of Earth Day, which was first celebrated in 1970.

***

WASTE LOCALLY
The Post-Star has a good editorial (hey it happens! law of averages) on Saturday about the state's now-defunct Empire Zone program, which was a slush fund for businesses. The current head of the Empire State Development Corporation told the daily's editorial board that out of the more than 8,500 companies that had received financial benefits under the old Empire Zone program, two-thirds of them probably would have done what they did anyway - without receiving any benefits at all. We would have gotten all the same economic benefits - jobs, local investment, tax revenue - without a single penny of taxpayer money.

The paper rightly bemoaned this huge waste of tax dollars for little appreciable benefit.

But there's even more waste than just that: the various quasi-public agencies.

The city of Glens Falls alone has: local development corporation, an industrial development agency, a tourism office and an urban renewal agency.

And yet it 'needs' to pay staff and fund these agencies even though they largely duplicate the work of the Warren County economic development corporation, the Warren County tourism office and the bi-county industrial development agency.

I'd urge Post-Star to continue its opposition to waste and do an investigation into the city EDC, IDA and tourism offices to see a) if their existences really justify what we're spending on them and b) if that benefit is really greater than what we'd get simply by using the parallel county agencies.

Bits and pieces

PR FOR DICTATORS
A New York Times' piece explores efforts by the world's worst dictator, Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema, to refashion his image.


OILY JUDGES
On January 20, 2009, most of America rejoiced at the end of the error that was the Bush/Cheney regime. However, the effects of the oil men's reign was always going to last far more than eight years. The BP/Gulf of Mexico oil cataclysm is the logical consequence of the Bush/Cheney/Tea Party ideology of letting industry regulate itself without the meddling of 'liberty snatching' government. An Associated Press analysis points out another consequence: the majority of federal judges in the Gulf coast have financial connections to the oil and gas industry. These are the judges that would hear lawsuits relating to the oil catastrophe.


PUNDITOCRCACY CONTINUES TO SUFFOCATE JOURNALISM
I've frequently commented on the manner in which the punditocracy suffocates the practice of journalism... specifically how polls, speculation and horse race crap is replacing the real news reporting. In defending this, corporate media types piously claim that it's not because the horse race crap is easy, lazy stuff but that they are just giving the people what they want. The Washington Post's excellent media critic Howard Kurtz gives lie to that claim. In a Tweet, he pointed out that 5 pct. of people were interested in last week's primaries but they got 18 pct. of the news coverage.


SHOULD HETEROSEXUALS BE ALLOWED TO ADOPT KIDS?
CNN reports on a quarter century long study published in the journal Pediatrics concluding that kids of lesbians have fewer behavioral problems than their powers. This will surely have no impact on the opinions of the far right, the Catholic Church and other groups who reject scientific analysis on principle. But it begs the question: should heterosexual adoption be banned? For the well-being of the children, of course.


WORLD CUP STARTS TODAY!
And the world's most important sport event in its most beloved sport starts today. From now until July 11, the soccer World Cup will be held in sites throughout South Africa. For one month out of every four years, soccer fans in America get to be as insufferable as fans of the boring pointyball are for the other 47 months. My predicted semifinalists are Argentina, Spain, the Netherlands and Nigeria (though watch out for dark horses Serbia, Uruguay and Cameroon), with Spain beating the Netherlands in the final. The US plays the hated England tomorrow at 2:30p ET, Slovenia next Friday and Algeria the following Wednesday. The full World Cup broadcast schedule can be found here. C'mon USA!

Local mill leading national polluter, says group

The Post-Star reports that Glens Falls' paper mill Finch Pruyn is the nation's 6th largest polluter of cancer-causing chemicals, the leading polluter in New York state. According to the group Environment America, Finch released into the Hudson River 26,541 pounds of carcinogens, the vast majority of which was formaldehyde.

Bits and pieces

SOCCER NUMBERS
People like to point to Major League Soccer's attendance figures as 'proof' that the sport will never make it. Never mind that recent friendlies (exhibitions) by foreign teams in the US drew huge crowds, most in excess of 60,000. But even MLS' own numbers aren't bad, when you consider the relative youth of the league. This is MLS' 14th season and its average attendance is 15,559 per game. 1916 was the year of the 14th World Series. The highest average attendance of any single team in 1916 was 8,830 per game. It wasn't until the year of the 27th World Series that even a single Major League Baseball team average more than 15,559 per game. MLS average attendance is actually comparable to that of Brazilian soccer's top division and higher than Scotland's top flight (despite the distorting presence of two huge clubs) and only slightly less than the NBA and NHL, though their television figures remain far less than pro basketball's.



GOP SUPPORTS SOCIALIZED MEDICINE
North Country Public Radio's blog had a piece on a proposal by Democrats to eliminate "socialized medicine" in America and the GOP's rejection of that plan.


LET'S SEE IF I'M UNDERSTANDING THIS RIGHT...
The contention of the right-wing during BushCheney's war against civil liberties was that the government was competent enough to kidnap foreigners abroad and take away their freedom ad infinitum arbitrarily and without oversight (by randomly claiming they are 'suspected terrorists'), was competent enough to conquer and administer two foreign countries (obviously a piece of cake!) and competent enough to invade your privacy without law or oversight ("if you're not an evildoer, you have nothing to fear"), but not competent enough to ensure every American can get (and use!) decent health care without going bankrupt. Basically their contention is that our government is competent enough run social programs in foreign countries but not our own.


SARAH AND MAHMOUD
Salon.com muses the similarities between two theocratic, anti-elitist, right-wing populists: the "president" of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Sarah Palin, who recently cut and ran as Alaska's chief executive.


SARAH AND BIG GOVERNMENT
Speaking of the woman who couldn't handle a full term as governor of Alaska but thinks herself qualified to be president of the United States, Brian Mann of North Country Public Radio has a good blog piece exploring then-Gov. Palin's love for big government and for leeching of taxpayers in other parts of the country. Alaska was the number one state in the country in terms of total Federal spending per capita... The vast majority of that money came from taxpayers in other states, from California to New York. Mann's writing a number of pieces, both blog and magazine, exploring the disconnect between conservatives' professed antipathy toward government and public spending and their actual actions when push comes to shove.


NO CHILD LEFT INSIDE
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation website has a profile of Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Youth from Nature Deficit Disorder. He was in the state as part of his "No Child Left Inside" campaign.


FAIR TRADE
A segment on Radio Netherlands' Bridges With Africa program questions the real impact of fair trade on African farmers.


THE CASE FOR KINDNESS
The public radio program On Point had a good show exploring the nature of kindness and why it's important.

'Scouts' dishonor'

I like the concept of Boy Scouting. In an increasingly nasty, self-absorbed society, just about any organization that promotes respect and other-centered values is a good idea, which is why their national anti-gay policy is so mystifying and out of character.

In any case, that's why it's disheartening to read this investigation that details how many Scout locals are involved in environmental rape.

For decades, local Boy Scouts of America administrations across the country have clear-cut or otherwise conducted high-impact logging on tens of thousands of acres of forestland, often for the love of a different kind of green: Cash.

A Hearst Newspapers investigation has found dozens of cases over the last 20 years of local Boy Scout councils logging or selling prime woodlands to big timber interests, developers or others, turning quick money and often doing so instead of seeking ways to preserve such lands.

A very disappointing read.


Update: Planet Albany blog offers a different take on the issue