Juan Cole | On Thanksgiving, Let's Be Thankful We Can Still Address Our Climate Emergency: And Then Do It
28 November 19
Thanksgiving Day 2019
Thanksgiving is supposed to be a time to give thanks. We are fortunate in that we have the means to do that by reaching out and thanking each and every one of you for your support.
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May you enjoy a happy and peaceful Thanksgiving.
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28 November 19
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
Cole writes: "The popular story about Thanksgiving is an environmental parable that we would do well to remember today."
It was a harvest festival in 1621, participated in by the 50 (out of 100) survivors at Plymouth Plantation and 90 Native Americans. Some of these latter, such as Squanto, had shared with the undocumented aliens arriving in Wampanoag territory their local techniques of fishing and corn farming. In some subsequent years there were droughts that threatened the colony.
The pilgrims faced a harsher climate than had Leif Erikson when he came to North America during the European medieval warming period (900-1250). From 1550 to 1850, temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere fell by an average of about 1.3 degrees F (1 degree C.). This fall in temperature was exacerbated in the 1500s and 1600s by a slight decrease in atmospheric carbon of 6 to 10 parts per million. Stanford University geochemist Richard Nevle has argued that the great die-off of Native Americans, who were exposed to European diseases for which they had no antibodies, contributed to this decrease of carbon dioxide and fall in temperature. They ceased burning trees for fuel, and the forests recovered, with millions of new trees absorbing CO2.
Science News explains:
“By the end of the 15th century, between 40 million and 100 million people are thought to have been living in the Americas. Many of them burned trees to make room for crops, leaving behind charcoal deposits that have been found in the soils of Mexico, Nicaragua and other countries.About 500 years ago, this charcoal accumulation plummeted as the people themselves disappeared. Smallpox, diphtheria and other diseases from Europe ultimately wiped out as much as 90 percent of the indigenous population.Trees returned, reforesting an area at least the size of California, Nevle estimated. This new growth could have soaked up between 2 billion and 17 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air.”
That is, the cold winters that challenged the English immigrants (and which they played down in their letters back home) had in part been caused by the very European influx of which they were a part!
From about 1750, however, Europeans started substantially increasing their burning of wood and coal so as to drive steam engines and make the industrial revolution. In that year, there were roughly 278 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and it was relatively cold. This past spring, 2019, we hit 415 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere for the first time in human history and actually for the first time in millions of years. It is on average over 2 degrees F. (1.5 degrees C.) warmer now than then.
If the Pilgrims faced Coldworld and its weather and agricultural challenges, today we face Hotworld. Just as they looked to the Native Americans for cues on how to survive in that cold environment, we should look at indigenous peoples’ current environmental initiatives to understand how to avoid heating the earth more than the further nearly 4 degrees F. that we already certainly will. (4 degrees F. is a global average, including the oceans–which are cold– and some places will experience a much greater increase in heat than that).
Native leaders from the Pine Ridge reservation are dedicated to decolonizing green energy and “greening the rez through solar panels,” ending a dependence on coal. Henry Red Cloud has formed a non-profit for the provision of panels to residents, 40% of whom still lack electricity.
The Oglala Sioux and other tribes are banding together around a 500 megawatt wind farm to provide green electricity. They also have launched a lawsuit to stop oil pipelines from North Dakota. Petroleum when burned produces carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that stops the sun’s heat from escaping back out to space and so heats up the earth.
The Navajo, partnering with the Salt River Project, are planning 500 megawatts of new solar power for the reservation, after a successful trial of the Kayenta 1 solar project. The Navajo have closed their coal plant, massively reducing their carbon footprint. But they need to train the former coal workers as solar panel installers to replace the jobs lost.
The Sioux and the Navajo are our modern-day Squantos, teaching us how to live sustainably in a North America they have inhabited for thousands of years longer than have post-Columbus arrivals. The Pilgrims, despite their conviction of European superiority, were humble enough to learn what they could from the natives, which was the only way they could survive. Can we be as humble, today?
We can make our Thanksgivings greener and greener in coming years.
We cannot address the climate emergency without large-scale, government-led changes in big infrastructure. The most important thing we can do is to vote in politicians who will in turn support investments in solar, wind, batteries, mass transit and electric vehicles. And, we need to get out there and demonstrate to keep the heat on elected officials.
But it is good for morale for us also to try to do what we can as individuals in the meantime.
We can make sure our homes are insulated, which will cut down on our fuel costs and carbon production, and will make them more cozy for guests.
We can put solar panels on our homes where we are homeowners, to generate electricity to run the television and other appliances for our family and guests.
Those who go to church, synagogue or mosque on Thanksgiving can make sure that their religious edifices are powered by solar panels. A temple that burns fossil fuels is paying dues to the devil, not glorifying the God of wisdom who commands good stewardship of earth.
We can drive to the homes of our family and friends for the dinner in electric cars or plug-in hybrids, fueled from the rooftop solar panels (which are falling steeply in price). If we fly, we can buy carbon offsets or eat vegetarian often enough to make up for it.
We can lobby our electric utility to turn to wind turbines, as Iowa and Texas increasingly have, which supplements the solar generation. Some 37% of Iowa’s electricity came from wind in 2018. Not all states are equally blessed with its wind resources. But Michigan, e.g., does have promising wind generation areas in the Thumb and on the Lake Michigan shore, which it has quite shamefully so far done almost nothing with.
We can avoid beef, the most carbon-intensive protein (not so hard, since who eats beef on Thanksgiving?) and can try to buy local produce to prepare the meal.
Some will say these steps are not enough; but they are more than most Americans have undertaken and would be a good start.
Thanksgiving in the American popular tradition hasn’t only been about being thankful for food abundance. It has been gratitude for survival and adaptation in an alien clime. We are all now entering an alien clime, of a warming globe– a world hotter than it has been since the mid-Pliocene some 3 million years ago, when the seas were 25 yards/ meters higher and the northern hemisphere 10-20 degrees hotter than now (it had 400 ppm of carbon dioxide in its atmosphere too). Survival and adaptation require us now to change a lot of habits and become sustainable, and ASAP. Like the Pilgrims, half of whom died in their first year, we face an emergency.
Vice President Joe Biden. (photo: Joshua Lott/Getty)
Joe Biden Clarifies His Stance on Weed, Which Still Sucks
Harry Cheadle, VICE
Cheadle writes: "Last week, 2020 frontrunner Joe Biden inspired a great deal of outrage when he said at a Las Vegas event he wasn't sure if weed should be legalized nationally."
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Harry Cheadle, VICE
Cheadle writes: "Last week, 2020 frontrunner Joe Biden inspired a great deal of outrage when he said at a Las Vegas event he wasn't sure if weed should be legalized nationally."
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A photo from 2005 shows a banner advertising 'The Apprentice' hanging outside Trump Tower. (photo: Flickr)
Trump Tax Records Reveal New Inconsistencies - This Time for Trump Tower
Heather Vogell, ProPublica
Vogell writes: "Donald Trump's business reported conflicting information about a key metric to New York City property tax officials and a lender who arranged financing for his signature building, Trump Tower in Manhattan, according to tax and loan documents obtained by ProPublica."
Heather Vogell, ProPublica
Vogell writes: "Donald Trump's business reported conflicting information about a key metric to New York City property tax officials and a lender who arranged financing for his signature building, Trump Tower in Manhattan, according to tax and loan documents obtained by ProPublica."
EXCERPTS:
In the latest case, the occupancy rate of the Trump Tower’s commercial space was listed, over three consecutive years, as 11, 16 and 16 percentage points higher in filings to a lender than in reports to city tax officials, records show.
For example, as of December 2011 and June 2012, respectively, Trump’s business told the lender that 99% and 98.7% of the tower’s commercial space was occupied, according to a prospectus for the loan. The figures were taken from “borrower financials,” the prospectus stated.
In tax filings, however, Trump’s business said the building’s occupancy was 83% in January 2012 and the same a year later. The 16 percentage point gap between the loan and tax filings is a “very significant difference,” said Susan Mancuso, an attorney who specializes in New York property tax.
Trump had much to gain by showing a high occupancy rate to lenders in 2012: He refinanced his share of Trump Tower that year and obtained a $100 million loan on favorable terms.
The vast majority of the gap between occupancy figures could be explained by diverging reports on how much space the Trump Organization used in Trump Tower. In loan documents, the company said it and its affiliates occupied 74,900 square feet in mid-2012, or 31% of the building. But tax reports from the January before and after listed the company and related parties as occupying 41,600 square feet — or about 18% of the tower.
Trump had much to gain by showing a high occupancy rate to lenders in 2012: He refinanced his share of Trump Tower that year and obtained a $100 million loan on favorable terms.
The vast majority of the gap between occupancy figures could be explained by diverging reports on how much space the Trump Organization used in Trump Tower. In loan documents, the company said it and its affiliates occupied 74,900 square feet in mid-2012, or 31% of the building. But tax reports from the January before and after listed the company and related parties as occupying 41,600 square feet — or about 18% of the tower.
Trump Tower, however, fell shy of expectations for profit set out by underwriters working for Ladder Capital during the refinancing, tax and loan records show. They had pegged net operating income at roughly $20.4 million a year. In the years after the loan was made, the building hasn’t come close.
New York City real estate observers have suggested that the tight security needed at the tower because of the presidency has cut into Trump’s ability to make money from the building. This year, China’s biggest bank, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, made plans to reduce its space in Trump Tower when its lease ran out, according to Bloomberg News.
The financial institution that arranged the Trump Tower refinancing, Ladder Capital, is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that reports more than $6 billion in assets. It has a close Trump connection: Jack Weisselberg, an executive in loan origination, is the son of the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. Allen Weisselberg is under investigation by the Manhattan DA for his role in the Daniels payments.
A Walmart store. (photo: Getty Images)
Walmart Offers Thanksgiving Workers Measly Discount in Place of Holiday Pay
Michael Sainato, Guardian UK
Sainato writes: "Thanksgiving and Black Friday mark the beginning of the festive season in the US, but Walmart workers are not feeling the cheer."
Michael Sainato, Guardian UK
Sainato writes: "Thanksgiving and Black Friday mark the beginning of the festive season in the US, but Walmart workers are not feeling the cheer."
EXCERPT:
Several large retailers including Barnes & Noble, Costco and Trader Joe’s have decided to close on Thanksgiving in recent years, arguing staff should have time with their family on the national holiday. But Walmart is one of several big-box retailers who are open on Thanksgiving Day and will start its Black Friday sale at 6pm.
Walmart is also one of the few big companies that does not offer employees increased hourly wages for working shifts on a holiday. At Target and Amazon, workers are paid time and a half for each hour worked.
“Walmart doesn’t offer holiday pay. They have a discount you have to work certain days to receive and one discount only lasts two days,” said a Walmart worker in Idaho who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. They are re scheduled to work full-time shifts on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday this year.
“No one is getting paid extra. You can’t get overtime unless it’s approved.”
The worker shared a flyer promoting the 10% discount offered Walmart employees in December, with another 15% discount offered to workers who work shifts from Wednesday to Saturday, to use once on two specific days in December. A Walmart spokesperson confirmed the discount.
The company’s minimum wage was raised to $11 an hour in 2018, after the Trump tax cuts which provided Walmart with an estimated $2.2bn annual savings, a fraction of the cost-of-wage increases. Walmart also rolled out a $20bn stock buyback program after the wage increase was announced.
The first Thanksgiving 1621 by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. (photo: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)
Thanksgiving Honors Refugees Who Made a New Home in America. Trump's Policies Do the Opposite.
Rep. Jimmy Gomez, NBC News
Gomez writes: "In 1620, a group of refugees, persecuted because of their religious faith, set forth from Plymouth, England, for the 'New World' - which was, of course, not so new to the Indigenous people living there."
READ MORE
Rep. Jimmy Gomez, NBC News
Gomez writes: "In 1620, a group of refugees, persecuted because of their religious faith, set forth from Plymouth, England, for the 'New World' - which was, of course, not so new to the Indigenous people living there."
READ MORE
Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman. (photo: Fayez Nureldine/Getty Images)
Saudi Arabia Arrests More Journalists and Activists, Rights Group Says
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "Saudi Arabia has detained at least eight people, mostly intellectuals and writers, London-based Saudi rights group ALQST said, amid a two-year crackdown on free expression in the kingdom."
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Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "Saudi Arabia has detained at least eight people, mostly intellectuals and writers, London-based Saudi rights group ALQST said, amid a two-year crackdown on free expression in the kingdom."
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Mercury is a potentially lethal problem for cougars because it bioaccumulates in their fat and could eventually contribute to their demise. (photo: Michael Macor/The Chronicle 2008)
Fog Brings Poison Mercury to California's Santa Cruz Mountains - Mountain Lions Are Suffering
Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle
Fimrite writes: "Three times as much mercury has been found in mountain lions in the Santa Cruz Mountains than in their inland brethren, and the likely culprit is coastal fog, a first-of-its-kind study by UC Santa Cruz has found."
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Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle
Fimrite writes: "Three times as much mercury has been found in mountain lions in the Santa Cruz Mountains than in their inland brethren, and the likely culprit is coastal fog, a first-of-its-kind study by UC Santa Cruz has found."
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