Nearly half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions come from sheep and cattle. To reduce them, the government is negotiating a plan to tax farmers for methane emissions, beginning in 2025. The tax is part of an effort to reduce agricultural emissions by 24 to 27 percent by 2050. “The proposal includes incentives for farmers…
Category: The Environmental Blog
The Atlantic’s Attack on Recycling Plastic Gets a Rebuttal
Two writers for the Atlantic hit a nerve when they argued recently that we should forget plastics recycling and, instead, push for an end to single-use plastic products. Steve Alexander, president of the Association of Plastic Recyclers, called the article “pitiful.” Writing in the Plastics Recycling Update, Alexander argued that the authors, Judith Enck and…
Reality Check: Coal Will Be Around for Awhile. A Long While.
“If you think the world is moving beyond coal, think again,” writes Robert Bryce in RealClearEnergy. India and China plan to increase their coal production by 700 million tons in the next two years. In comparison, total U.S. annual coal production is only 600 million tons. He writes: “In April, China announced it will increase…
Forest Service Halts Prescribed Burns. More Fire Danger Will Follow
The U.S. Forest Service has halted prescribed burns (fires deliberately started to reduce trees and brush that could fuel dangerous wildfires) for 90 days—that is, for most of the summer. The reason is that a prescribed burn in April led to the Hermits Peak Fire in New Mexico—which, by joining with the Calf Canyon fire—became…
How to Turn a Bee into an Endangered Fish
A Sacramento, California, court has ruled that bumble bees are included in the definition of “fish” in California’s Endangered Species Act. The court’s May 31, 2022, said: “The issue presented here is whether the bumble bee, a terrestrial invertebrate, falls within the definition of fish, as that term is used in the definitions of endangered…
Should We Even Try to Recycle Plastics?
Pressuring plastic producers to recycle their products has gone on for decades. But two writers at the Atlantic have now concluded, “Plastic recycling does not work and will never work.” In the U.S. in 2021 only 5 percent of all post-consumer plastic was recycled. Furthermore, they say that the plastic producers deny this and those denials…