writeaboutwarming

August 23, 2019 The Amazon is an enormous rainforest in South America. It covers forty percent of the South American continent, and can be found in eight countries. If it were laid over a map of the 48 contiguous states of the United States, it would encompass nearly two-thirds of it. Because trees breathe in carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, it is essential that we protect them, wherever they grow. In Brazil, where much of the Amazon is located, the president of that country has been encouraging farmers, ranchers, and loggers to exploit the riches that can be found there. That means clearing away the trees by incinerating them. So hellbent are farmers on enlarging their holdings and growing more food, they organized a "fire day" last week. In order to accommodate them, President Bolsonaro of Brazil has weakened regulations intended to protect forests and indigenous lands. His failure to halt deforestation, in keeping with the Paris Climate Accords, has caused Germany and...

August 16, 2019 The Trump Administration is proposing a freeze on federal fuel economy standards at 2020 levels. The state of California has reached an agreement with four automakers that would call for average fuel economy of 51 miles per gallon by 2026.  Automakers are siding with California, because they don't want to have to build two different cars to meet two different standards. In fact, 17 car companies informed Trump by letter in June that the weakening of fuel economy standards could destabilize the entire auto-making industry. The good news? More and more states support California's higher standards. States like New Jersey, Connecticut, Washington, Vermont, New York, Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. The District of Columbia also backs California's clean air standards, and Colorado, an oil-producing state, has just joined this farsighted group. They are what is considered a "Section 177 state," in refe...

August 10, 2019 Did you know that, globally, farmers produce 1.5 times the amount of food consumers need? Because farmers must sink so much money into food production in the way of chemicals and seed, they have little choice but to overproduce, in order to recoup what they've overspent. As things stand, far too much of what farmers spend to grow food winds up in the hands of chemical and seed companies. Needless to say, farmers can't stay in business if they can't make money. Farmers in Iowa are grappling, not only with prices that are too low, but with flooded fields. In fact, farmers throughout the Plains and the South have dealt with the effects of spring floods and summer downpours this year. That's why the time is right for parity pricing. Did you know that the American agricultural economy contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than all forms of transportation combined? Stop overproduction of food and you limit production of these gases. Another ...