Category Archives: environmental news

environmental news

Remember the chill? Me neither!

Memories are too short, given that we rarely remember what we bitched about when the weather outside was the extreme opposite of what it is at this moment.

I am complaining a lot these days about the North Texas blast furnace that has brought us record heat, with no relief in short-term sight … although I heard a TV weather forecaster this morning say something about a “cold front” that might be heading our way.

It wasn’t that long ago when my complaints concerned winter’s grip over North Texas and how it wouldn’t let go. We had daily temps at or near freezing. Oh, and then we remembered what it was like around here a year ago, when the killer freeze swept in over the entire state. It killed hundreds of Texans and forced our junior U.S. senator, Republican Ted Cruz, to flee to Cancun while the rest of us were shivering.

The winter of 2021-22 did let go. Boy, did it ever!

We are just now entering summer. This is Day Two? Holy smokes, man! What is gonna happen when the dog days arrive?

This much is certain. I won’t wish for winter to clamp its icy grip on us. I also will refrain from complaining about “climate change,” because I know that today’s weather has little do with Earth’s climate.

Stay cool, folks.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

environmental news

Where is John Kerry?

President Biden made quite a show of announcing the appointment of John Kerry as the administration’s special envoy specializing in climate change. Do you recall it? Of course you do!

Kerry served as a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, ran for president in 2004, served as secretary of state during Barack Obama’s second presidential term. He fought for his country during the Vietnam War and has been an eloquent spokesman for whatever cause piques his fancy.

Biden wanted to bring him back into public life and gave him a special title with an extra-special responsibility: chief envoy representing our nation in the fight to combat the existential threat posed by climate change.

But, wait! He’s vanished. I think he has anyway.

Yes, I get that the Ukraine War has eclipsed a lot of issues. We have this inflationary fight erupting. Fossil fuel prices are skyrocketing, which to my way of thinking only elevates the importance of climate-change initiatives that Kerry should be promoting, pushing and arguing.

Joe Biden was right to declare climate change a key threat to our national security and our way of life. He wants to promote green energy initiatives. John Kerry is an important worldwide figure to make the case around the world.

But … dammit! We need to keep this guy front and center!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

environmental news

Hey, it’s still just spring!

You’ll remember, I am sure, when we all were bitching about the freezing temperatures, about how winter just wouldn’t release its grip on North Texas.

It wasn’t that long ago, right?

Well, we don’t have to gripe about shivering at night.

The weather guys and gals are telling us we’re going to set heat records this weekend in the greater Dallas/Fort Worth area. Temps are going to approach 100 degrees Fahrenheit!

Now, let me be clear about something. I am not going to launch into a climate change rant; I’ll save that for another day.

I just want to remind everyone — I hope you’re sitting down for this — that the start of summer is still five weeks away!

Stay cool, y’all.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

environmental news

Earth deserves more than a ‘day’

Mother Earth is going to have her “day” at the end of this work week.

They set aside April 22 as Earth Day each year, when we humans are supposed to keep Earth at the top of our awareness. We’re asked to commit to do whatever we can to save our planet from the destruction we have brought to it.

My goodness! Our fragile planet deserves far more than a single day to earn our honor, our attention and our concern over its health.

It’s the only planet we can inhabit! We have eight other planets circling our sun. None of them contains the combination of air, water and just the right atmospheric pressure and composition to allow human beings to live and prosper.

Beyond our solar system? Who knows what’s out there?

I know there’s nothing I can do from my cheap-seat perch to elevate this day, to turn it into something more meaningful. I only can lament that we dedicate only one calendar day to recognizing that Mother Earth deserves to be protected always.

The U.S. government founded the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970; Earth Day came into being that same year. The planet’s overall health has deteriorated since Earth Day’s founding. Our climate is warming and it is changing. Sea levels are rising. Ice caps are melting. Wildlife is threatened. Our air quality makes us cough and gasp.

OK, I don’t want to leave you with a total downer. We live in a community — Princeton, Texas — that encourages us to recycle material that otherwise would go into the landfill; we do so gladly. We live in a state that over the past 20 years has become a leading supplier of wind energy, which is a far better alternative than the very fossil fuels that contribute to our climate change.

Those matters give me a glimmer of hope that we might be able to forestall the destruction of our planet. I don’t want to believe human beings’ conduct will result in the inevitable demise of Planet Earth.

If we could devote more than a single day to honor our fragile world, then perhaps we can increase my hope from a glimmer to a bright light.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news, environmental news

Biden energy policy undergoes big shift

It pains me to say this, but it appears that President Biden is flailing as he seeks to grapple with skyrocketing energy prices.

The president made a vigorous pledge during the 2020 campaign that there would “never” be drilling for oil on federal land were he elected to the nation’s highest office. I applauded the pledge when he made it.

Now he has changed his mind in a major fashion. The president now will allow that drilling to boost the supply of fossil fuel. He said times have changed since the 2020 campaign, requiring a pivot from that environmentally sound policy pronouncement.

The price of gasoline, diesel and other petroleum products has zoomed skyward, causing considerable pain at the pump for millions of Americans.

Still, Biden’s decision has angered environmental activists. I am not officially one of the “angry” Americans. I am just disappointed in the president’s policy reversal, which isn’t likely to have much of an impact on the price of fuel we are paying.

Joe Biden has sought to steer the nation toward a more renewable energy posture. Critics suggest any diminishing of the fossil fuel industry deprives Americans of jobs. What they ignore, though, is that green-energy job creation can help soften such job losses.

What’s more, efforts to rely more on alternatives to fossil fuels free the nation of any dependence on foreign sources of oil … while creating a cleaner environment that helps stem the damage caused by climate change.

President Biden is feeling the heat — no pun intended — from those who want relief from high fuel prices. If only he could stop flailing.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

environmental news, local news

Weather changes … rapidly!

You know how it goes if you live in Texas; if you don’t like the weather, just wait a few minutes … it’ll change.

Man, oh man. Did it ever change Monday!

We had been battling dry wind. Well, last night the dry wind turned wet and really violent! Twisters destroyed schools in Jacksboro and homes there and in Bowie. The rain pummeled us in Collin County and in all points throughout the Metroplex.

We are hearing this morning about stricken communities digging themselves out of the rubble and lending a hand to help those in trouble. That became an old story long ago around here, but it’s always one worth re-telling.

Spring arrived this past weekend and it got here with a vengeance.

We are counting our blessings today and we are wishing, hoping and praying for all the very best for our stricken neighbors.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

business news, environmental news, International news, local news, national news

Long-term solution needs attention

The immediate impact of the world’s current crisis in Ukraine has been profound and powerful with the skyrocketing cost of fossil fuels — the gasoline and diesel we pour into our motor vehicles to get us from place to place.

It is affecting our plans here in North Texas, forcing my wife and me to rethink our travel plans as we move through this challenging year.

With that I want to offer a brief look at how this nation ought to deal with the immediate crisis. We ought not worry ourselves sick over immediate solutions but look ahead farther down the proverbial road at longer-term fixes. I refer to “green energy.”

We still consume a lot of oil-based products we pump out of the ground. That energy source is finite. There’s only so much of it we can remove from beneath Earth’s surface. Once it’s gone, it’s gone … forever.

Texas, though, has taken the lead on renewable energy sources, along with continuing to be among the world’s leaders in producing fossil fuels. We are continuing to invest in wind energy and in solar energy.

As far as I can tell, that old wind is going to keep blowing until the end of time. Take it from me, as someone who spent 23 years on the West Texas Caprock, I am well-acquainted with the power of wind and the potential it brings to keep the lights on. Any kilowatt hour we can generate from a wind turbine takes away what we need to produce from fossil fuel.

The Russians keep talking about cutting off oil supplies to Europe and beyond. The United States still imports some oil from Russia. If the Russians make good on a threat to cut us off, too, then the price is going to skyrocket to even higher levels.

The climate-change deniers debunk green energy as the stuff of washed-up hippies. Baloney! It is a serious alternative to the way we fuel our current lifestyle. Is there a short-term repair to the damage we are feeling at this moment? Not really. If we look at the longer term, we can keep our eyes on the bigger prize, which is the harvesting of energy from endless sources.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

environmental news, local news

Getting ready for worst

As I write this blog post, I am sitting in my North Texas home prepared for the worst from the latest winter storm to roll in over us.

To be clear, it’s not that I expect the worst. It’s just that after what we endured a year ago when millions of Texans froze in the dark during zero-degree winter blasts, no one I am aware of is taking any chances this year.

A member of our family told us this morning she ventured to the grocery store to buy some food and found the shelves “terribly picked over.” Seems that others in her neighborhood had the same thought. Oh, by the way, she said she and her family are well-stocked and ready for what is coming.

The Texas Tribune reports: The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the grid, issued a winter storm watch through Sunday, saying it expects high energy demand through the duration of the cold front. But even with sleet, snow and ice predicted for a large swath of the state, ERCOT says it has sufficient power generation to meet the anticipated demand.

What a Texas winter storm means for the power grid | The Texas Tribune

The weather forecasters and the TV news presenters over the past couple of days have spoken to viewers with a twinge of frantic urgency in their voices. The blast that is rolling in isn’t as dramatic as what we endured a year ago, but our experience from February 2021 is too fresh in our memories for us to take it too lightly.

My wife has sheltered some of her treasured plants around the front of our house; she has filled several containers with fresh water; we’ve secured some candles; oh, and Toby the Puppy is going nowhere outside unless he insists that he has to relieve himself (he’ll let us know).

We didn’t suffer nearly the misery that many other Texans endured a year ago. Our lights were out for a few hours; we lost water for a little more than a day. Yes, there were those who suffered through several dark and waterless days in 2021. Still, we are prepared for the worst of this next winter blast.

We are going to hope for the best. We might even offer a prayer.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

environmental news, local news

Nervous about the chill

This past winter’s big freeze and the misery it created has inflicted me with the nervous jerks as we prepare for this winter’s first big chill.

The temperature in North Texas is going to dip tonight into the low 20s, with wind chills registering in the low to mid-teens. There once was a time when I didn’t worry too much about whether the electricity and the water would hold up.

The disaster brought by the February 2021 freeze has disabused me of the complacency. We’re taking extra steps tonight to ensure we don’t lose water if the power goes out.

We likely should have been prepared better this past winter. We weren’t, I am ashamed to acknowledge. This year it’s different.

We also have that issue dealing with whether our electrical grid will hold up if Mother Nature returns another killer blast this winter. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the managers of our electrical grid, assure us — along with Gov. Greg Abbott — that our grid will hold up. ERCOT says we won’t suffer the misery we endured nearly a year ago.

ERCOT and Abbott had better be right on this one.

We aren’t going to place all our faith in their promises, though. We’ll hunker down and be ready for the worst if it comes.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

environmental news

Citizens need comfort in times of trouble

(AP Photo/Noah Berger)

It occurs to me that one of the things we aren’t hearing from the White House in response to wildfires that are destroying people’s homes and dashing their dreams are lectures from the president about “better management” of the land.

Recall how Donald Trump once scolded Californians over the forest management as fires were decimating communities in the Sierra Nevada region. We aren’t hearing such a thing these days as Colorado battles fires and, yes, California faces the potential for more fires.

President Joe Biden isn’t wired to chastise political leaders of states that didn’t grant him their electoral votes in the previous election. Indeed, he ventured to Kentucky — a decidedly red state — after tornadoes tore through several towns; he hugged people’s necks and prayed with them.

You won’t hear this president follow the path blazed by his immediate predecessor. We should never hear that kind of churlishness from our head of state as people suffer such misery and heartache.

Let me be clear about something. There is an element of human management that needs to be examined. As Politico reports: California’s wildfire problems are fueled by decades of fire suppression, climate change and a persistent desire to escape city life. The state has seen some 40,000 structures destroyed since 2017 and the largest conflagrations in state history.

The fire suppression accounted for the immense destruction at Yellowstone National Park in the late 1980s. Yet one did not hear President Reagan chastise parks officials for “forest management” policies in1988.

My point is that when Americans are hurting, we need comfort and empathy from the president. We do not need to hear our national leader lecture state and local officials while their constituents are crying out for help.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com