Eric

The whiz kids at Stockholm Environment Institute have a killer new analysis that breaks down the effect of US government subsidies to the oil industry, and what it all means for carbon emissions.

Michael Riordan makes the case the era of Trump should also be the era of a Cascadia independence movement.

Aven

Revenge, a poem by Elisa Chavez, published in the Seattle Review of Books. I love love love every line, but my favorite comes at the end:

rest assured,
anxious America, you brought your fists to a glitter fight.
This is a taco truck rally and all you have is cole slaw.
You cannot deport our minds; we won’t
hold funerals for our potential. We have always been
what makes America great.

One way to protest Breitbart and other outrage peddlers: Step 1: “Go to Breitbart and take a screenshot of an ad next to some of their content.” Step 2: “Tweet the screenshot to the company with a polite, nonoffensive note.”

John

In several of Sightline’s articles on pesticides, including our latest, we refer to Rachel Carson’s ground-breaking 1962 book, Silent Spring. Her writings are often credited with advancing the global environmental movement. Well, some of her books were serialized in the New Yorker, and that distinguished journal recently posted its original 1962 three part series here, here, and here. (Rachel Carson acknowledged the positive influence of Wilhelm Hueper, whom she considered, “the first person to recognize the connection between pollution, occupationally-used chemicals and cancer.” His own work was suppressed by the DuPont Company, by the US National Cancer Institute, and by the US Atomic Energy Commission.)

  • Our work is made possible by the generosity of people like you!

    Thanks to Ethan Seltzer & Melanie Plaut for supporting a sustainable Cascadia.


    Donate Today

    • What might be the reason for this re-posting of the original series by Carson? Well, the re-posts are accompanied by ads from PBS on its plans to air an American Experience feature on Rachel Carson in late January. Or, it might be the New Yorker’s commitment, “To combat authoritarianism, to call out lies.” Or, it could be connected to the distinct possibility that the Executive and Congressional branches of the federal government, and maybe soon the judiciary as well, could all be controlled by science deniers and petrochemical industry appeasers.

    Readers may be interested to learn that President Obama is now published in the scientific literature. Here’s a link to the news item, which contains a link to the science article itself.

    John Abbotts is a former Sightline research consultant who occasionally submits material for Weekend Reading and other posts.