First Day in the Garden and Pipelines
Today was one of those perfect days with sun, mix of clouds, light breeze and high 50's. That kind of day, right up to 75 degrees makes for perfect weather to work outdoors. I took advantage of the weather to clean up and till the garden. The soil was light and dusty, even though it is heavy on last years trash and other mulch dug into the space. This El Nino, jacked by climate change winter has been dry as a bone. It is crazy enough on March 27th to be outside in just a shirt tilling a garden. To take the edge off the dryness, until we get some much needed moisture, I turned the sprinkler on to wet everything down and started thinking about water and the place where I live.
The Dakota Access Pipeline will cross the Missouri River just north of the Standing Rock Reservation, a location that immediately recalls the burdens placed on locals by the damming of the Missouri River that flooded their most productive lands. Again, the people of Standing Rock are asked to give more in a deal without an upside for them. In fact, nobody was even asked this time. The interests of money and power, like Donald Trump, do what they want. It is a fight not just for Standing Rock, but the planet as well.
Russia Today, known as RT, the often dubious mouthpiece of Putin's Russia, did three great pieces here about the situation, whick I will embed at the end of this piece. Interestingly, Ed Shultz, former show host, commentator and Fargo, North Dakota sportscaster in my youth, has a show on RT. I hope he hasn't sold his soul to the devil. Although, unlike Donald Trump, Putin is a smart devil--but I digress. Sometimes it takes a news network that isn't beholden to moneyed interests or afraid of upsetting people that has a vested interest in stories that "stir the pot" to break news. Of course we will never see a story about pipelines from Siberia or Russia, where ecology takes a back seat to the wholesale rape of nature, because that isn't good propaganda. The RT story goes against all the positive gladhanding (propaganda?) regarding the glorious shale revolution. One can literally watch a newscast where a story about the perils of climate change follows some sort of joy filled pronoucement about more oil.
For me, the bottom line on the pipeline is that we need to move away from fossil fuels as rapidly as possible for the sake of everything. I don't hear any of the presidential candidates talking about what is really needed in a coherent plan.
You can watch the videos one after the other here:
The Dakota Access Pipeline will cross the Missouri River just north of the Standing Rock Reservation, a location that immediately recalls the burdens placed on locals by the damming of the Missouri River that flooded their most productive lands. Again, the people of Standing Rock are asked to give more in a deal without an upside for them. In fact, nobody was even asked this time. The interests of money and power, like Donald Trump, do what they want. It is a fight not just for Standing Rock, but the planet as well.
Russia Today, known as RT, the often dubious mouthpiece of Putin's Russia, did three great pieces here about the situation, whick I will embed at the end of this piece. Interestingly, Ed Shultz, former show host, commentator and Fargo, North Dakota sportscaster in my youth, has a show on RT. I hope he hasn't sold his soul to the devil. Although, unlike Donald Trump, Putin is a smart devil--but I digress. Sometimes it takes a news network that isn't beholden to moneyed interests or afraid of upsetting people that has a vested interest in stories that "stir the pot" to break news. Of course we will never see a story about pipelines from Siberia or Russia, where ecology takes a back seat to the wholesale rape of nature, because that isn't good propaganda. The RT story goes against all the positive gladhanding (propaganda?) regarding the glorious shale revolution. One can literally watch a newscast where a story about the perils of climate change follows some sort of joy filled pronoucement about more oil.
For me, the bottom line on the pipeline is that we need to move away from fossil fuels as rapidly as possible for the sake of everything. I don't hear any of the presidential candidates talking about what is really needed in a coherent plan.
You can watch the videos one after the other here:
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