Democrats blamed the oil industry, Republicans blamed President Joe Biden and oil executives blamed global market forces at a U.S. House hearing Wednesday on how to reverse a dramatic increase in gas prices.
Climate change
Watershed Voice’s Deborah Haak-Frost recently spoke with Three Rivers Park Manager/Zookeeper Britney Wendzel about her role with the City of Three Rivers, Wendzel’s take on Three Rivers’ new Parks and Recreation Master Plan, climate change, and her hopes for the city’s parks, zoo, and other recreational areas.
WSV columnist Deborah Haak-Frost writes, “In this list, I share my top five Sow Good Seeds columns of 2021. My hope is that they may invite you to see yourself more deeply in the context of this planet, to consider a perspective you may not have had previously, to plant some seeds in your mind about how our lives are so intricately interwoven with the natural world.”
WSV’s Dan Robinson writes, “There’s nothing like a good question. A good question can send us down paths of discovery, or surprise us with an answer out of left field, or point the way to a different future. As I discovered during my recent conversation with Seamus Norgaard, the Host and Director of Tara’s Meadow Retreat and Education Center on Beaver Island, a good question played a role in his own spiritual journey.”
George Ochenski writes, “For years now we’ve been subjected to an endless stream of nonsense from those who deny the inescapable reality that our planet is overheating due to human-caused pollution in the atmosphere. It’s now apparent that the cascading effects of global baking — and the concurrent lack of action by our politicians and lawmakers — are creating enormous societal, economic and environmental problems and threatening our very existence.”
WSV’s Dan Robinson writes about innovation, sacrifice, and spirituality in the face of climate change. “We have the needed resources to mitigate climate change, if those of us with more than we need have the political will – and spiritual will – to share some of it, to live more simply, so that others may have the innovation they need to simply live.”
The International Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) report “Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis” is described by United Nations Secretary General António Guterres as a “code red for humanity.” It is a centerpiece of the global climate summit that opened Monday in Glasgow, Scotland. Some 30,000 people from around the world are braving COVID-19 to gather for what is described as an historic and urgent mission.
President Joe Biden’s sprawling social spending and climate package has been slimmed down into a still-massive $1.75 trillion plan that he and top congressional Democrats are attempting to wrestle through after months of negotiations.
WSV’s Dan Robinson lays out an argument as to why the United States must “take a moral approach to infrastructure, and design it with justice and resiliency in mind.”
The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee late Thursday approved its first piece of Democrats’ sweeping $3.5 trillion spending blueprint on a party-line 24-13 vote. Here are four pieces of the Natural Resources Committee’s bill that could have a major climate impact if they’re passed into law.
For years, activists have been pushing for government recognition of what’s known as environmental justice, the broad movement to provide restitution to communities that have suffered disproportionate harm. The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that passed the Senate earlier this month fell short of their wishes, advocates say. But Congress gets another chance in the $3.5 trillion budget and spending plan lawmakers are now writing.
As Michigan lawmakers and environmentalists are working to mitigate the effects of recent natural disasters fueled by climate change across the state, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report last week highlighting that global warming is posing more of an immediate existential threat than previously thought.
Rick Haglund dissects whether Michigan can “grow its blue economy while being good stewards of the state’s most important natural resource.”
Charles Morris writes, “Our faith teaches us to look out for one another to address the crises before us, and as our nation continues to recover, we must now turn our attention to the climate crisis and environmental justice. A bold investment in clean energy infrastructure currently being discussed in Washington would do just that. This is an opportunity to invest in a clean energy future while addressing the injustices of the past.”
WSV’s Deborah Haak-Frost writes, “I’ve written about the future in a previous column, and the subject came up for me again, unsurprisingly, as I watched The Tomorrow War, an Amazon-exclusive film. If you haven’t seen it and you don’t want spoilers, stop reading now and come back after you’ve watched it.”
In a preview of the arguments likely to be repeated as the Biden administration and Congress work toward conservation goals, Democrats on a U.S. House panel earlier this month outlined what they say is a need for aggressive action on climate.
In his first week in office, President Joe Biden paused new oil and gas leasing on federal lands as his administration reviewed fossil fuel development policy. Now that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has taken office, the administration is gearing up to begin that process. A forum comprising the energy industry, conservation groups, labor organizations and others will meet virtually March 25 in the first public event of the review.
WSV’s Deborah Haak-Frost writes, “I’d like to make the case, on behalf of the planet, that less might be more. I am not a parent, and I don’t know if I can or will be, but I want to be conscious of the impact of my choices on the earth in terms of family size.”