Spotlight on green news & views: 'Green New Deal' gathers more advocates; butterfly battlefield
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This is the 587th edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue). Here is the January 30 edition. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it. OSpotlight on green news & views: 'Green New Deal' gathers more advocates; butterfly battlefield
This is the 587th edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue). Here is the January 30 edition. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it. OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES miarson59 writes—Greta Thunberg on rumors and hate: “There is one other argument that I can’t do anything about. And that is the fact that I’m ‘just a child and we shouldn’t be listening to children.’ But that is easily fixed - just start to listen to the rock solid science instead. Because if everyone listened to the scientists and the facts that I constantly refer to - then no one would have to listen to me or any of the other hundreds of thousands of school children on strike for the climate across the world. Then we could all go back to school. I am just a messenger, and yet I get all this hate. I am not saying anything new, I am just saying what scientists have repeatedly said for decades. And I agree with you, I’m too young to do this. We children shouldn’t have to do this. But since almost no one is doing anything, and our very future is at risk, we feel like we have to continue. And if you have any other concern or doubt about me, then you can listen to my TED talk ( https://www.ted.com/…/greta_thunberg_the_disarming_…/up-next ), in which I talk about how my interest for the climate and environment began.” RonK writes—The Daily Bucket: Nature Scenes of Orcas Island – One of the Jewels of the San Juans: “Orcas Island, San Juan Islands. Salish Sea, Washington State. Ms. K. and I were treated to a couple of days in January at Deer Harbor Resort on Orcas Island by my brother who belongs to a timeshare condo group. It wasn’t as though it was an exotic vacation as it was less than 25 miles from home as the crow flies. However, after an hour’s drive south along the coast and another hour’s ferry ride through scenic islands, we could have been a thousand miles away. And we really lucked out on the weather for mid January - mostly sunny, temps in the 40s with just a bit of rain at night. The San Juan Islands are an archipelago that lies between the north western coasts of WA state and Vancouver Island within the Salish Sea. Orcas Island is the horseshoe shaped one in the upper center of the map. You can see part of Vancouver Island with Victoria in the lower left side. Bellingham and Bellingham Bay where we live are on the upper right. The ferry ride took us past Lopez Island where Ocean Diver keeps us up to date on the goings-on along her beaches, bays and ponds. Lopez is just below Orcas.” Michael Brune writes—Building More and Doing Better: “Like many metropolitan areas in the U.S., the Twin Cities are adding people faster than they’re adding housing -- especially affordable housing. The plan for Minneapolis, which was supported by the Sierra Club, recognizes that if you want to increase the density (and affordability) of housing, you need to be flexible about residential zoning. For Minneapolis, that means allowing multifamily units like triplexes in every neighborhood, which would make it the first major city in the U.S. to completely eliminate single-family home zoning.[...] Healthy hearts and safer streets are nice outcomes, but it’s also important to look at what the Minneapolis plan doesn't do. It doesn't eliminate commonsense environmental safeguards or sacrifice the city's precious green spaces. And crucially, it doesn't place unfair burdens on people of color and low-income communities (nor does it excuse more-privileged communities from participating). Instead, it recognizes that because problems like the housing crisis affect all of us (including those of us fortunate enough to already have homes), we all need to be part of the solution. As the great Minnesotan Paul Wellstone once said, “We all do better when we all do better.” For problems as important as housing, let’s be sure we do our best. Read more