Wild Ferrets

                                                                                                                 Kimberly Fraser/USDA

Each summer, at active ferret reintroduction sites across the Great Plains, experts survey the animals to count populations and conduct their health checks. With endangered species recovery, it’s important to know how many ferrets are at each site and whether they are having kits in the wild. For 2019, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has documented ferret populations at 15 active sites out of the 30 where ferret recovery has been attempted. --- Defenders of Wildlife

Harmless or Government Plot - Contrails

Contrails over Westminster

Short for “condensation trails,” contrails are are man-made cirrus clouds that appear when the jet hits a patch of wet air. It’s a similar phenomenon to seeing your own breath during a cold winter day.

Jets emit both solid particles (aerosols) and gas (vapor). The heady mix includes soot, metal particles, carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons such as methane, and sulfates. Contrails form when vapor freezes around the solid particles from a plane’s exhaust.  ---  Quartz

I Am Thankful for This Place

"I first travelled there around 15 years ago and like anybody that has been there will know I was amazed by the magic of the shear cliffs of El Capitan and Cathedral.  The view as you come through the tunnel is straight from lord of the rings. I returned there once more and then got the opportunity to return more often as I moved to San Francisco, California in 2016.  I was also lucky enough to visit in the winter of 2016/17 which was incredible."  --- Nigel Danson

Of Wolves and Dogs

                                                                                     100% Wolf

                                                                                   98.8% Wolf

Dogs and wolves share 98.8% of their DNA.  Minor variations in the dog’s genome, possibly effecting 0.1% of dog’s DNA are believed to account for most of the variation between household pet and wild creature.  Scientist hope that this well preserved ancient puppy holds clues to how and when that process of change occurred.

The 18,000-year-old body of a near perfectly preserved puppy has left scientists puzzled.

Russian scientists discovered the body of the canine near Yakutsk, in eastern Siberia. Preserved by permafrost, the specimen's nose, fur and teeth are remarkably intact.Using carbon dating on the creature's rib bone, experts from Sweden's Centre for Palaeogenetics were able to confirm that the specimen had been frozen for around 18,000 years, but extensive DNA tests have so far been unable to show whether the animal was a dog or a wolf. 

Measuring a Whales Heart Beat

Blue whales are the largest animals that have ever lived on the earth.  Full grown adults can reach 100 feet in length and weigh up to 330,000 pounds.  They dive hundreds of feet below the surface to hunt krill, staying submerged for as long as 20 minutes. Their hearts are the size of golf carts and have been weighed at as much as 400 pounds.

Marine scientists in California were able to attach a heart monitor sensors to one adult whale off the state’s central coast and monitor the whales heart rate for over 8 hours as it swam and fed. When the whale was diving to hunt for food its heart rate slowed to as low as 2 beats per minute, while at the surface its heart beat reached a maximum of 37 beats per minute.

The sensor showed that, at the lowest depths of each dive, the whale's heart was beating an average of four to eight times a minute, with a low of just two beats per minute. Between these low-tempo beats, the whale's stretchy aortic artery slowly contracted to keep oxygenated blood slowly moving through the animal's body, the researchers wrote.

Back at the surface, the whale's heart rate accelerated to a blistering 25 to 37 beats per minute, rapidly charging the animal's bloodstream with enough oxygen to support the next deep dive. During these rapid refueling stops, the whale's heart was working close to its physical limits, the study authors wrote — it's unlikely a whale's heart could beat any faster than that.

Whaling reduced the blue whale population by 99%, with hundreds of thousands of blue whales slaughtered through the mid-1970s.  Whaling bans have allowed for a modest rebound of their population, but the current global population is estimated between 10,000 and 25,000.  “The IUCN Red List counts the blue whale as"endangered", as it has since the list's inception. In the United States, the National Marine Fisheries Service lists them as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.”

Modern Age of Babel

Babel - Cildo Meireles, Tate Modern, London

Cildo Meireles refers to Babel as a ‘tower of incomprehension’. Comprising hundreds of radios, each tuned to a different station, the sculpture relates to the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, a tower tall enough to reach the heavens. God was offended by this structure, and caused the builders to speak in different languages. No longer able to understand one another, they became divided and scattered across the earth, and so began all mankind’s conflicts.

We have more means of communication and fewer avenues of understanding than in all of mankind's history.  

Lion Cubs Frolic

Energetic lion cubs during a game of chase in Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, South Africa.  ---  Africa Geographic

Change People to Save Rhinos

A few weeks ago we posted a story about scientists who were developing fake rhino horns.  Their assumption is the by flooding the black market with fake horns prices would be depressed and rhino poaching would be unprofitable.  A large number of conservationist believe that feeding more material fake or real into the horn market will have the opposite effect - it will encourage market growth.  Their argument is that we must change human behavior throughout the rhino horn supply chain.  

Perhaps most obviously, selling fake rhino horn doesn’t do anything to address the end-user demand for these illegal products, which are driven by either fortunes or phony medicinal claims. These are ultimately the reasons rhinos and many other species are poached in the first place. As a result the best way to eliminate the financial incentive to sell these wildlife products is to get consumers to understand why they shouldn’t be buying them in the first place.

They Knew and Didn't Care - Coal Industry Monsters

Yes, the coal industry was aware of the environmental impact of burning coal and it was a topic of discussion in at least one coal mining and processing research organization, Bituminous Coal Research Inc [BCRI] as early as 1966.

“There is evidence that the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere is increasing rapidly as a result of the combustion of fossil fuels,” wrote Garvey [president of BCRI] . “If the future rate of increase continues as it is at the present, it has been predicted that, because the CO2 envelope reduces radiation, the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere will increase and that vast changes in the climates of the earth will result.”

This article was the first know industry reference to CO2 driven global warming, but it wasn’t the first time this topic had been discussed at the highest levels of the US government.

All of this was taking place well after climate change had become a commonly understood idea in the scientific community. A 1965 report from President Lyndon Johnson’s Science Advisory Committee was the first from the White House to address climate change (and is likely what precipitated the Mining Congress Journal article). “The climate changes that may be produced by the increased CO2 content could be deleterious from the point of view of human beings,” it warned.

As history shows, the coal industry immediately made their research information public and embarked on a concerted policy to drive down the use of coal for power generation and heating.  

Oh wait, that didn’t happen.  Something else happened and it’s still happening today. The coal industry joined with the oil and gas folks to fund and entire astro-turf galaxy of industry funded “think tanks” and opinion drivers to create the climate change denial complex.  Funded by the fossil fuel industry and working to ensure the industry can continue to proper even at the cost of the planet. 

They knew and they worked to hide that knowledge and then to discredit it.  It will turn out that history's greatest monsters sat behind their desks and let the planet burn.

An Ancient Performance of "Cats"

                                                                                                                                                                   Hayam Adel/Reuters

Egyptologists are thrilled at the cache, which includes dozens of mummified cats, 75 wooden and bronze cat statues, mummified birds, and an enormous mummified beetle three to four times the normal size.

The mummified large cats were found close to the remains of an adult mummified lion discovered beneath the Saqqara necropolis in 2004, and provide more information about the ancient Egyptians’ use of animals in worship.  --- The Guardian

Beer Will Save Us

Climate change and increased industrial scale usage of chemically laden fertilizers is turning out to be a lethal combination.  Toxic algae blooms have increased significantly in freshwater bodies around the world.  A study published in Nature reported on an evaluation of 71 lakes in 33 countries across six continents over a nearly 30-year period, that found notable increases in blue green algae (cyanobacteria) in 68% of the lakes studied.  These lakes were large bodies of water, but cyanobacteria blooms is smaller bodies of are the new normal everywhere and cyanobacteria is dangerous.  

A woman in North Carolina lost three dogs after they went swimming in a pond this summer. And experts have been warning dog owners in other states, from Washington to Texas, that toxic algae might be lurking in their local waters. The problem is cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, which can be highly toxic to animals of all kinds.

It will be difficult to reverse the already prevalent impact of global warming on algae blooms.  Reduced use of industrial fertilizers would be helpful, but that isn't going to happen soon.  So, is there any safe way to mitigate the impact of this toxic algae?  

There’s quite a bit of research showing the promise of barley straw in controlling certain types of algae—especially the bad stuff. They’ll throw whole bales into the water, sometimes attached to rods or ropes so it stays in one place. As the straw breaks down, it releases phenolic acids and flavonoids, organic compounds that inhibit the growth of algae. 

Unfortunately, bales of barley straw take a long time to breakdown and release the necessary chemicals.  The straw bales need to be placed well in advance and anchored so that the straw stays put to break down.  Scientists sat down for a beer to ponder if another source of more soluble barley might be available.

Spent grain—the leftovers after brewers extract sugars needed to make beer—is “the number-one waste product of breweries,” says Armstrong, so there’s a lot of it available, and many brewers give it away for free. Plus, brewers make their beer with barley hulls, which have more phenolic acids and flavonoids than are found in barley straw. Best of all, during the brewing process, the barley begins to degrade. This could mean a much shorter lead time than the weeks or months required of barley straw. 

So, a waste by-product of brewing has the potential to break-up algae blooms.  Lots of research still needs to be done to make this a viable solution and the work is in progress.  I'll drink to that.

Students Demand Divestment - Who Won the Game?

Harvard and Yale are hardly football powers so a climate crisis protest demonstration in the middle of their annual football game is hardly big news.  But, it does highlight the close relationship between elite universities and fossil fuel companies. 

The Yale-Harvard football game on Saturday was disrupted by climate protesters storming the field during halftime to demand that the two Ivy League universities divest from fossil fuels. Photos shared on social media show a large crowd sitting on the field at Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut, while others stand behind them with a large sign that read: "Nobody Wins: Yale & Harvard are complicit in climate injustice."

The protesting students were demanding that their schools which have massive financial endowments ensure that those billions dollar funds stop investing in and divest themselves from all fossil fuel companies.  School administrators claim that their investments in these companies can be used as leverage to move those companies to change.  This young lady see her school’s position as something quite different:

“They believe that they can engage with these companies and get them to change their fundamentally extractive business models, which we think comes from a place of naivety amounting to gross negligence,” Nora Heaphy, an undergraduate at Yale, said.

“It’s absurd to make those kinds of claims. So since then our campaign has moved away from administrative engagement, recognizing that it is often a stalling tactic.”

An on-field protest like this at an Alabama-Auburn football game would give me hope that Americans  actually understand the nature of the climate emergency the planet is facing.  Still, I guess Harvard-Yale is a start.

Big Waves at Nazaré

                                                                                                                                                   MIGUEL BARREIRA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Nazaré in Portugal hosts one the two World Surfing League’s Big Wave surfing contests, with waves reaching up to 30 metres during winter. For anyone seeking heart-pounding action, Big Wave is a place where humans constantly push the boundaries of what’s possible.  --- The Guardian

Pangolin Peril

Pangolins are the most trafficked mammal in the world — poachers kill as many as 2.7 million African pangolins every year. Although pangolins are a protected species in China, there is a thriving black market for pangolin meat and especially for scales, which account for 20 percent of body weight. The scales are in high demand for use in traditional Chinese medicine. People believe the scales cure arthritis and cancer, promote breast-feeding for lactating mothers, improve poor circulation, and even enhance male vitality — despite no scientific backing for any of these “cures.” In fact, pangolin scales are made of keratin — the same material in human fingernails. --- African Wildlife Foundation

Einstein Played the Fiddle and Kafka Told Jokes

Some people are like the wind and the waves for me; they refresh me, disturb the surface of my being for a while, and then disappear for ever.

Berta Fanta, Diary

At the turn of the century, Berta Fanta, the wife of a pharmacist, ran a literary and philosophical salon on the Old Town Square. Her guests included such famous figures of the time as Albert Einstein, Franz Werfel, Max Brod, and, from time to time, Franz Kafka. Here they discussed wise Indian sayings and spiritual ideas, debated Fichte, Kant, and Hegel and thrilled to the secret teachings of Helena Blavatsky. Else Lasker-Schüler also sometimes visited the salon as an honoured guest. --- Vitalis

Can Fire Save Us?

                                                                                   Jim Bahn via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 2.0

Without question, climate change has turned California into a tinderbox. Wildfire has always been part of the state’s landscape, but never have fires been more intense and, with massive populations living in the urban-wildland interface, fires have never been so destructive and dangerous. The indigenous peoples of what is now California not only lived with wildfire but used fire as a tool and as part of their social fabric. The Yurok, Karuk, Hupa, Miwok, Chumash and others routinely set controlled fires to clear land for agriculture, wildlife and ceremonies. The arrival of the European colonists and subsequent suppression of the native tribes included making fire suppression a formal policy of government.

Early National Forest Service officials considered “the Indian way” of “light-burning” to be a primitive, “essentially destructive theory”. Championed by the Forest Service, ecologists and conservationists, new colonial notions of what is “natural” won the day. The valuable timber trees would be protected and burns would be extinguished at all costs. Fire was a killer, and America would make war on this new enemy for most of the next 100 years.

This change in policy and practice has persisted to today despite overwhelming evidence that controlled burns are one of the most effective tools to reduce the risk of wildfires.  California’s giant sequoias are the largest and oldest trees on earth.  They are fire and disease resistant, but it wasn’t until 1968 that Forest Service scientists realized that these mammoth trees require fire to propagate.  Wildfire provides the heat to open their seed bearing cones, the fire burns away undergrowth to allow the seeds to fall into the fertile ash covered soil.  Native American realized that fire in the forest, particularly when controlled was crucial to the health of the forest.   

After suppressing fire in all forms, and the traditional ecological knowledge that went along with it, California’s top politicians and fire officials are now seeking out tribal guidance on fire policy as state agencies gear up to burn more than ever burn before. The state’s air quality managers are tasked with outreach to educate the public on the benefits of fire, as regions hand out more and more burn permits. In one particularly busy month in 2018, the north coast air quality management district permitted over 250 prescribed fires in the region.

Climate change has created this intense fire jeopardy for California and many other parts of the country and, in reality the world, and it’s too late for the traditional ways to salvage the situation, but they can be used to mitigate the problem and save lives and property. 

Black-backed Jackals

                                                                                                                                                                  © Toro Yaka Bush Lodge

What was to follow was one of my best sightings of jackal pups! Out in the open, no more than 30 feet from the vehicle, five pups came out to suckle from the female. After suckling for a few minutes the pups moved towards her mouth and by mouthing and pawing her managed to get her to regurgitate some meat for them. After a brief feeding frenzy they all settled down and started to make their way back to the den. --- Africa Geographic

99.8% Face Climate Change Driven Extinction

                                                                                                      Chuck Graham/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The government agencies responsible for the protection of endangered species in the US aren’t prepared for the impact of climate change on those species.  The threat is understood, but there has been a limited to non-existent response to that treat.

Of the 459 animal species listed as endangered by the US government, researchers found that all but one, or 99.8%, have characteristics that will make it difficult for them to adapt to rising temperatures.

"This study confirms that the climate crisis could make it even harder for nearly all of our country’s endangered species to avoid extinction,” said Astrid Caldas, a study co-author and a climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“While agencies have increasingly listed climate change as a growing threat to species whose survival is already precarious, many have not translated this concern into tangible actions, meaning a significant protection gap still exists.”

Galloping to the Rescue

Using feral horses to help rewild national park grasslands in the Czech Republic has had an unanticipated positive result for several threatened butterfly species.  These Exmoor ponies are acting as “ecological engineers” by altering the landscape in a way that provide environments more conducive to the needs of these butterflies.

In the Czech Republic, horses have become the knights in shining armor. A study published in the Journal for Nature Conservation suggests that returning feral horses to grasslands in Podyjí National Park could help boost the numbers of several threatened butterfly species.

It turns out that horses encourage habitats that many butterflies flock to. By trampling and feeding on tall shrubs, young twigs and fruits, horses keep the grasslands short, which some butterfly species prefer. They also don't disturb the land as much as mowing or more intensive livestock grazing would.

Konvička said he believes many projects neglect the role of missing "ecological engineers" — sometimes called "ecosystem" engineers — that is, species that serve significant functions through the alteration, maintenance or destruction of habitats. As with the Exmoor ponies in this case, they may not be the original inhabitants, but the aim of rewilding is to get the ecosystem functioning again.

One Man's Dung, Another Beetle's Gold

                                                                                                                                                      © Tailor Made Safaris

There are four broad categories of dung beetle: rollers, tunnellers, dwellers and stealers. Rollers shape dung into balls and roll them away from the pile, which they then bury to either munch on later or to use as a place to lay their eggs. Tunnellers dive into the dung pile, usually working in a male-female pair, and dig a tunnel beneath it. Dwellers, on the other hand, simply live inside the dung pile. Then there are the stealers – these lazy beetles will just steal the dung balls from the rollers for their own use. --- Africa Geographic

FBI Looking at Democratic Pennsylvania Governor

                                                               Jeremy Long/Lebanon Daily News

More evidence that despite the world literally facing a climate emergency directly related to the emission of greenhouse gases politicians of both parties will do the bidding of the fossil fuel industry.  In this case, the politician in question may even be willing to break the law in service of the natural gas industry.

The FBI has begun a corruption investigation into how Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration came to issue permits for construction on a multibillion-dollar pipeline project to carry highly volatile natural gas liquids across Pennsylvania, The Associated Press has learned.

FBI agents have interviewed current or former state employees in recent weeks about the Mariner East project and the construction permits, according to three people who have direct knowledge of the agents’ line of questioning.

The focus of the agents’ questions involves the permitting of the pipeline, whether Wolf and his administration forced environmental protection staff to approve construction permits and whether Wolf or his administration received anything in return, those people say.

The pipelines run past houses, parks and schools in southeastern Pennsylvania, and have been met with protests by alarmed neighbors worried that one leak could ignite a deadly explosion. Sinkholes along the pipelines’ route have opened on lawns and construction has contaminated streams and private water wells.

The planet is literally awash with natural gas.  The US is pulling so much out of the ground via fracking that US markets are saturated.  This is one reason for this pipeline – moving the gas to terminals for overseas shipments.  Shipments to places like Scotland, where fracking is banned but single use plastics are a growth industry.

Since 2016, natural gas from the U.S. has been feeding the Grangemouth petrochemical plant, a vast complex of cooling towers, flaring towers and pipelines. The gas is originally harvested in Western Pennsylvania, sent through a pipeline to Philadelphia, and put on ships across the Atlantic.

Natural gas is mostly used for heating homes or fueling power plants. But when it comes out of the ground it contains another key ingredient — ethane, a building block of plastics — that is now fueling another booming industry.

So, while the planet and its inhabitants face the potential for a massive dislocation resulting from worldwide climate change, fossil fuel companies still play the tune to which politicians all over the world dance.

Fossil Fuel Tool - Rick Perry

Former Texas governor, Rick Perry, is the US Secretary of Energy.  His Department of Energy has decided that it’s time to change the energy standards for dishwashers.  Not to make them more energy and water use efficient, but to turn back the clock and make them far less energy efficient.  Suggesting that consumers want machines that work faster, the DOE is proposing to lift all energy efficient standards.

Under the guise of responding to consumer complaints that today's energy- and water-efficient dishwashers take too long, the Department of Energy has proposed creating a new class of dishwashers that wouldn't be subject to any water or energy efficiency standards at all. The move would not only undermine three decades of progress for consumers and the environment, it is based on serious distortions of fact regarding today's dishwashers.

According to a large consortium of consumer groups and appliance manufacturers, there is no ground swell of demand for a “new class of dishwashers”.  In fact, even the most basic machines currently on the market have fast wash and dry modes that provide users with a speedy option if they need a rapid turn around of plates and glasses.  This DOE move is just another effort to attack energy standards in general by creating a false demand for a product no one really wants. 

When it all comes out in the wash, DOE's attempts to carve out a class of dishwashers exempt from energy efficiency standards are unlawful and unsupported by the facts. If they succeed, the result would be less-efficient dishwashers, less guardrails on energy and water waste, and higher energy and water bills for households across the U.S.

If my energy bill goes up, who benefits?

In The Room Where It Happens

The original London West End cast of Hamilton says good-bye with an assist from an appreciative audience on Saturday, November 16.

A new cast has been announced for the West End production of Hamilton, currently at the Victoria Palace Theatre. The new cast will begin performances from 18th November, with an extended booking period to 28th March 2020. 

Hamilton tells the story of America’s Founding Father Alexander Hamilton in a sung-through musical with an original book, music and lyrics by Lin Manuel-Miranda. Opening at the Victoria Palace Theatre from December 2017, Hamilton won seven Olivier Awards from 13 nominations.

Donald Trump is a Climate Idiot

Why fuse climate change and comedy? Anthropogenic climate change is one of the most prominent and existential challenges of the 21st century. Consequently, public discourses typically consider climate change as ‘threat’ with doom, gloom and psychological duress sprinkled throughout. Humor and comedy have been increasingly mobilized as culturally-resonant vehicles for effective climate change communications, as everyday forms of resistance and tools of social movements, while providing some levity along the way.  --- Science Policy

Autonomous Congestion

Proponents of autonomous, self-driving, vehicles (AVs) argue that they will reduce roadway congestion and by doing so also reduce greenhouse gas production.  Much of the improvement that proponents anticipate is based on the assumption that autonomous vehicles will allow for higher vehicle densities on highways.  This is predicated on physically changing roadways by reducing lane widths and the assumption that computer and sensor-controlled vehicles can be safely packed on roadways in these higher densities.

…AVs could, using more precise control systems, follow one another at much closer distances. Similarly, lanes could be narrowed, accommodating perhaps six lanes where there are only five today. These promises were, and remain, the foundation upon which AV utopianism has been built: a greener, safer, faster, and more pleasant transportation future just around the corner.

On the other hand, studies of potential AV owners suggest a different scenario:

These studies, flawed as they were, found something very different from the rosy future AV companies wanted investors and the public to imagine. They found reason to believe AVs would drastically increase the number of vehicle miles travelled, commonly shortened to “VMT” in academic literature.

 And the more vehicles miles travelled, all else being equal, the more traffic and emissions we can expect, cancelling out many of the AV’s touted benefits.

The problem with those studies was their basis on surveys where drivers indicated their potential behavior, not actual on road activity for an obvious reason – there is no real-world experience with AVs.  Tough to predict how people in the real world will utilize AVs.  However, one researcher came up with a method to model that behavior. 

What if they hired chauffeurs to drive random people around? The chauffeur, Walker outlined, will do the driving for you. And, just like the most optimistic AV future of fully autonomous robot cars zooming around, you don’t even have to be in the car. “All these things the self-driving car can do for you in the future,” Harb summarized, “a chauffeur can do for you today.”

A small sample experiment was devised where a week of normal driving behavior was tracked, followed by a week of chauffeured vehicle availability.  The chauffeured vehicle was available in the same way an AV would be available including being dispatched independently to run errands or pick up children at school.   The results demonstrated a much higher number of vehicle miles travelled (VMT) for the pseudo-autonomous vehicles.

Harb thought they would see people sending their cars out more than if they were driving themselves, something like a 20 or 30 percent increase in VMT with the chauffeurs. Nothing to sneeze at, of course, but towards the middle of the wide range of the results the surveys had suggested. He was wrong. The subjects increased how many miles their cars covered by a collective 83 percent when they had the chauffeur versus the week prior.

As long as community planners believe that personal vehicles are to be the primary means of transportation our cities and towns will be dedicated to vehicles not people and everyone should be prepared for the congestion that will result.

“The Arapaho Way"

“I was working out there, I was getting to know the people and I was adopted into an Arapaho family,” she said. “My background is in anthropology, and I was just really fascinated by the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone ways of life.”  ---  Sara Wiles, WyoFile

The Arapaho Way

Continuity and Change on the Wind River Reservation

Palais du Luxembourg

After the death of Henry IV in 1610, his widow, Marie de' Medici, became regent to her son, Louis XIII. Having acceded to a much more powerful position, she decided to erect a new palace for herself, adjacent to an old hôtel particulier owned by François de Luxembourg, Duc de Piney, which is now called the Petit Luxembourg and is the residence of the president of the French Senate.

Marie de' Medici desired to make a building similar to her native Florence's Palazzo Pitti; to this effect she had the architect Métezeau (either Louis Métezeau or his brother, Clément Métezeau) sent to Florence to make detailed drawings of the building. She bought the Hôtel de Luxembourg and its fairly extensive domain in 1612 and commissioned the new building, which she referred to as her Palais Médicis, in 1615. Its construction and furnishing formed her major artistic project, though nothing remains today of the interiors as they were created for her, save some architectural fragments reassembled in the Salle du Livre d'Or.  ---  WikiPedia

Cows Are Cheering Faux Meat

When fast food restaurants jumped on board the faux meat bandwagon alarm bells must have gone off for the “real” meat industry.  Veggi-burgers used to have all the appeal of a warmed hockey puck, but these new plant based burgers, sausages, etc. have demonstrated a broad appeal well beyond hardcore vegetarians.  So, the meat boys (and girls) are fighting back, even enlisting their pals in Congress to insure that faux meat has to bear a scarlet “I” on every label or package. 

Next-generation vegan "meat" like the Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat has become so popular, it’s available or being tested at more than a dozen chain restaurants ranging from Burger King and Dunkin’ to KFC. Now, some industry groups and others are pushing back. A pair of congressmen -- one Democrat and one Republican -- have introduced the Real MEAT Act of 2019, which would require faux-meat companies to use the word "imitation" on packaging.

There is no evidence that anyone is buying an “Impossible Burger” under the assumption that the “meat” between the buns came from a cow.  But, the cattlemen are certain that their cows are being cheated of their assigned fate at the slaughterhouse. 

“A growing number of fake meat products are clearly trying to mislead consumers about what they’re trying to get them to buy,” Jennifer Houston, president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, says in a statement. 

And, if consumers won’t buy the fraud argument.  The beef boys are now worried about consumer’s health. They have uncovered that faux meat is filled with ingredients. 

Last week, the food industry-backed Center for Consumer Freedom ran a full-page ad in The  New York Times with the headline, "What's Hiding in Your Plant-Based Meat?" The ad blasts vegan meats as "ultra-processed imitations with dozens of ingredients."

On the other hand, faux meat is also missing some key ingredients.

Nutritionally, plant-based meat is lower in fat and offers fiber that red meat doesn't have, without any of beef's cholesterol. It also won't have antibiotics or animal hormones, which are often found in beef.

Tastes good and might be better for you than real meat.  Let's ask the cows how they feel.

Giving Natural Gas the Boot

Cities all over the US are studying and, in some cases, implementing ordinances to eliminate the use of natural gas in homes and businesses.  These ordinances don’t impact existing natural gas installations but restrict the installation of natural gas lines for new construction.  The goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are inherent in the production and use of natural gas.  Berkeley, California was the first US city to put a natural gas ban in place, but they won’t be alone for long.

…Now San Francisco is following suit along with 12 other California cities and Marin County in California, including San Jose, Santa Monica, San Luis Obispo, Palo Alto, and Mountain View, according to Sierra Club. Major American cities, including Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Albuquerque are considering similar ordinances to discourage the use of natural gas. Cities in Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington are also considering an all-electric requirement…

Not surprisingly the natural gas industry is beginning to take notice.

Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the American Gas Association, said, "The idea that denying access to natural gas in new homes is necessary to meet emissions reduction goals is false. In fact, denying access to natural gas could make meeting emissions goals harder and more expensive." 

Another industry group, the American Public Gas Association, hopes to boost support for natural gas among 25- to 44-year-old homeowners with ads showing people enjoying hot showers, cooking on gas stoves and relaxing by a fire pit, Reuters reported. 

"We are trying to get ahead of it," said Stuart Saulters, the association's director of Government Affairs. "We think there is a chance this can domino."

Yes, saving the planet is an idea that might domino.