conservation

"Agriculture is not just about putting things in the ground and then harvesting them...it is increasingly about the social and environmental variables that will in large part determine the future capacity of agriculture to provide for eight or nine billion people in a manner that is sustainable" - Achim Steiner, Executive Director, UNEP

This Earth Day, I thought it important to consider an often unsung hero of the environmental movement that remains our best line of defense in securing the ultimate goal of environmentalism - our sustainable existence. That unsung hero is the local family farmer, and must be an integral part of the solution to the tsunami of interrelated epidemics on the global horizon from the world food crisis to the world energy crisis and every imported fruit and vegetable driven home from a Supercenter in a plastic shopping bag in between.

GOV. EASLEY ANNOUNCES LEGISLATIVE PLAN TO MODERNIZE WATER SYSTEMS, MANDATE CONSERVATION AND UPGRADE EMERGENCY RESPONSE

Unveils SaveWaterNC.org Website to Raise Public Awareness on Drought

RALEIGH – Gov. Mike Easley today announced a three-part legislative package to modernize North Carolina’s public water systems, mandate water conservation and efficiency, and upgrade the response to water emergencies. The governor also unveiled a new website, SaveWaterNC.org, aimed at continued water conservation.

Today's News & Observer printed an op-ed authored by representatives of the John Locke Foundation, NC PIRG and NC WARN. Their common foe? Duke Energy.

This atrocious news came across my desk a few minutes ago and I'd like to pass it on. It used to be that "conservative" meant being good stewards of the bounty our land had, its beauty and promise, to be able to hand down to our childen and grandchildren. By ample demonstration, the term has been co-opted by a few self-servatives whose greed and lack of concern over the consequences of their actions have soured the taste of the very word in the mouths of a growing majority.

Vastly different House and Senate versions of the reauthorization of the federal farm bill. The big issue is funding for conservation programs. Senate, yes. House, no. Via Medill:

WASHINGTON – The chairmen of the Senate and the House Agriculture Committees unveiled drastically different plans for funding farm conservation programs last week, setting the stage for a debate that may last well into September with billions of subsidy dollars for farmers at stake.

Today the Utilities Commissions announced its decision to allow Duke Energy only one of the two coal fired plants at Cliffside.

All the news all month long, from the Oscars, from Texas, from e v e r y w h e r e,
was not supporting the application by Duke Energy.

Apparently one of the Commissioners was opposed to both of the plants. Since Duke Energy had already stated that they would not build just one, this provides some wrinkles in the rush to add more coal fired plants.

Thanks to the growth in public concern for global warming and for the effects of CO2 emissions from coal fired plants.

Via Ex

Longleaf pines at Weymouth Woods

Reminders from Land for Tomorrow and NC Conservation Network that there are a series of hearings coming up on land and water conservation.

After the failure in the last session of what seemed like a well-supported effort to get a conservation bond before the voters, the GA set up a Land and Water Conservation Study Commission to look at the best approach and gather a little feedback. (Here's a link to the commission's last set of discussions.)

The study commission is holding a series of hearings starting Thursday in Asheville and moving across the state.