ONLY GOOD NEWS

ONLY GOOD NEWS
JUNE/SEPTEMBER 2009 / VOLUME 17 ~ NUMBER 1 / PUBLISHED: 7 JUN 2009

ONLY GOOD NEWS INDEX: THE DAWN OF AMERICA'S SOLAR FUTURE + ENERGY STORM + BIG CAT RESCUE + 200,000 CITIZENS, MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND SCIENTISTS CALL FOR SECRETARY SALAZAR TO RESCIND RULES WEAKENING THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT + CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY PRESS RELEASES + FRAGILE FISH: NRDC FIGHTS FOR CALIFORNIA'S ENDANGERED TIDEWATER GOBY + NEW YORK BALLAST WATER DECISION: GOOD FOR THE GREAT LAKES + U.S. AND CANADIAN GREEN LEADERS UNITE JOINT DECLARATION OUTLINES COLLABORATION ON CLIMATE NEGOTIATIONS, DIRTY FUELS AND ARCTIC PROTECTION + DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE TO HALT ROAD BUILDING, LOGGING IN AMERICA'S FORESTS + NEW REPORT RECOMMENDS NULEAR POLICY ON THE PATH TOWARD NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT + NRDC PRESS RELEASES

ROPER WISDOM: 'IDIOCY OFTEN DEFINES IDIOSYNCRASY'...

THE DAWN OF AMERICA'S SOLAR FUTURE -- In 2003, Jigar Shah launched SunEdison to smash the decades-old paradigm that required anyone wanting solar to pay huge installation costs up front. Depending on its size, a rooftop array or a ground-based solar farm can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $10 million. This infuriated Shah, who has always believed that having to own the means of producing solar power is woefully out of step with how the energy industry operates. "Do you want to be in the power-plant business?" he asks. "Or do you just want to buy solar power?" Imagine having to own and operate a satellite to get DirecTV and you begin to understand why Shah scorned the prevailing model for solar energy -- go to: http://www.onearth.org/article/selling-the-sun

ENERGY STORM @
http://energystorm.us/

BIG CAT RESCUE @ http://BigCatRescue.org

200,000 CITIZENS, MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND SCIENTISTS CALL FOR SECRETARY SALAZAR TO RESCIND RULES WEAKENING THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT -- WASHINGTON, D.C.— Conservationists, scientific organizations, and Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) recently joined together on Capitol Hill for a press conference to call on Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to rescind two rules passed in the final days of the Bush administration that weaken the Endangered Species Act. One exempts thousands of federal activities, including those that generate greenhouse gases, from review under the Endangered Species Act. The other expressly bans federal agencies from examining the effect of greenhouse gas emissions on the threatened polar bear, despite the fact that the species was protected under the Endangered Species Act in 2008 due to global warming -- In March 2009, Congress passed the Omnibus Appropriations Bill, giving Secretary Salazar the authority to rescind both regulations if he acts by May 9 - He has not yet revoked, or indicated an intent to revoke, the rules -- READ THE 200,000 CITIZEN PETITION + LETTERS FROM 44 MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + LETTERS FROM 1300 SCIENTISTS + PRESS RELEASE ARCHIVES

FRAGILE FISH: NRDC FIGHTS FOR CALIFORNIA'S ENDANGERED TIDEWATER GOBY
California's Endangered Goby fish is key to protecting coast's most fragile ecosystems

> In an attempt to save a unique and endangered fish found only in the most fragile of California coastal habitats, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a suit against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service after habitat protections were needlessly limited. NRDC fought to keep the fish on the Endangered Species List in 2000, and now a removal of habitat that the Service had previously labeled as essential to the species’ survival have forced a return to the courts > “Tidewater gobies are uniquely Californian,” said NRDC attorney Rebecca Riley. “They live in pockets of brackish habitat along the coastline that have become increasingly fragmented over the years. The Fish and Wildlife Service needs to protect more of these fragile marshes, estuaries, and lagoons to ensure the recovery of this exceptional species.” -- Tidewater gobies are only found in small pockets along the California coastline; from Del Norte County in the north, to San Diego County in the south. The small fish is uniquely adapted to living in the brackish waters that characterize one of the Golden State’s most imperiled ecosystems -- its coastal salt water marshes and lagoons. The fish’s reliance on these disappearing spaces is central to the Service’s “critical habitat designation” (the areas that receive special protections under the Endangered Species Act). In 2008, the Service revised this designation and excluded all brackish habitat that was currently unoccupied by the fish. This change was contrary to clear language discussing the need to protect unoccupied habitat in both the original habitat designation and the Service’s 2005 recovery plan for the goby. No explanation for the change was made -- read more @ http://www.nrdc.org/media/2009/090415.asp

NEW YORK BALLAST WATER DECISION: GOOD FOR THE GREAT LAKES -- A New York State Supreme Court Justice recently dismissed a challenge brought by shipping interests against the state’s tough new ballast water requirements, which are designed to limit the introduction of more invasive species into the Great Lakes. Legal experts at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and National Wildlife Federation (NWF) hail the win as a huge victory for states in the region that have taken an aggressive stand to limit dumping of water containing biological pollution from ocean going vessels. Alien species have already cost the Great Lakes economy billions of dollars - go to: http://www.nrdc.org/media/2009/090601.asp

U.S. AND CANADIAN GREEN LEADERS UNITE JOINT DECLARATION OUTLINES COLLABORATION ON CLIMATE NEGOTIATIONS, DIRTY FUELS AND ARCTIC PROTECTION -- For the first time, CEOs from 30 environmental groups based in the United States and Canada have agreed to work together to address key environmental problems threatening both countries. Their collaboration parallels the emerging threats that intertwine Canadian and American economic and environmental health, including the impacts of climate change, tar sands oil production and Arctic development. The groups will also work in partnership during the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen later this year -- The joint-declaration can be found here: http://docs.nrdc.org/energy/ene_09060301.asp + go to : http://www.nrdc.org/media/2009/090604.asp

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE TO HALT ROAD BUILDING, LOGGING IN AMERICA'S FORESTS -- The Obama administration recently announced it is issuing a one-year moratorium on road building and development on about 50 million acres of remote national forests, including the Tongass National Forest in Alaska -- check out: http://www.nrdc.org/media/2009/090528.asp

NEW REPORT RECOMMENDS NULEAR POLICY ON THE PATH TOWARD NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT -- In Prague, President Barack Obama recently called for a world without nuclear weapons. Today, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a report calling for fundamental changes to U.S. nuclear war planning, a vital prerequisite if smaller nuclear arsenals are to be achieved -- “From Counterforce to Minimal Deterrence -- A New Nuclear Policy on the Path Toward Eliminating Nuclear Weapons” calls to abandon the almost five-decade-long central mission for U.S. nuclear forces, which has been and continues to be “counterforce,” the capability for U.S. forces to destroy an enemy’s military forces, its weapons, its command and control facilities and its key leaders -- “The current rationale for maintaining an arsenal of nuclear weapons no longer exists.” said Ivan Oelrich, vice president of the Strategic Security Program at FAS and one of the report authors. “And to get future reductions in the number of weapons, we have to eliminate the missions they are assigned.” -- go to: http://www.nrdc.org/media/2009/090407.asp

'HARM NONE ~ HAVE FUN'