crossposted @ rednalsiofvermont.blogspot.com

Yep that’s right folks you heard about it here first. That tiny town in Vermont on a small island in Lake Champlain signed a settlement agreement with their former town clerk and treasurer. After being involved in litigation and lawsuits, and being raked over the coals by the Burlington Free Press, it looks like the town might be able to regain some sense of normalcy.

This past Wednesday the settlement was passed by the selectboard, with one abstention which we all know counts toward the majority. With the addition of some words at an executive session the night before, the lawyer for the townspeople suing the town and selectboard members, said it would appease his clients. May that poor town once again return to its sleepy existance.

( – promoted by odum)

(Also posted at DailyKos)

Today is the Centennial of Rachel Carson’s birth, and event that deserves to be recognized, especially in these times of struggle to speak truth to power and to overturn the damaging decisions being made by powerful corporate interests.

Rachel Carson proved that a single person can rally a country to see the truth. Even more important than her accomplishments towards banning the use of DDT, she showed the nation that People Power can be a force to be reckoned with.

Do we have a new Rachel Carson in our midst? My thoughts on that after some quotes about Carson below…

Today is the Centennial of Rachel Carson’s birth, and event that deserves to be recognized, especially in these times of struggle to speak truth to power and to overturn the damaging decisions being made by powerful corporate interests.

Rachel Carson proved that a single person can rally a country to see the truth. Even more important than her accomplishments towards banning the use of DDT, she showed the nation that People Power can be a force to be reckoned with.

Do we have a new Rachel Carson in our midst? Thoughts on that after some quotes about Carson below…

Her main accomplishments and her legacy are her books. They are well worth the read, both her first 3 “naturalist” books and her epic, activist Silent Spring.

Books Written By Rachel Carson

The biography by Linda Lear also adds a perspective on how remarkable and inspiring it was that Carson was able to move so many readers through her words.

This rather quiet spoken woman used the power of eloquently written words to literally change the world.

Time Top 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century

Before there was an environmental movement, there was one brave woman and her very brave book

Her legacy endures, with Republicans fighting her still:

Boston Globe article

Her place in the American imagination is enduring: “Silent Spring,” published in 1962, led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and to banning the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT.

…

But revisionists are busy besmirching Carson’s legacy. In Washington, Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, has placed a stop on an innocuous resolution praising Carson on the centennial occasion. The resolution notes her “legacy of scientific rigor coupled with poetic sensibility.”

Al Gore has been mentioned as the “new Rachel Carson” for his work on Global Climate Change with “An Inconvenient Truth”. I think that’s a fair comparison. I wonder if his newest book, “The Assault on Reason” will be another significant voice on the state of our political “ecosystem”?

Greg Palast, author and progressive journalist, has joined the list of speakers for the 4th Annual DemocracyFest. Other speakers include Sen. John Edwards, Gov. Howard Dean (free and open to the public), Sen. Mike Gravel, Bev Harris, and more! See the schedule and get your tickets at http://www.Democracy…

Trainings and panels offered include Impeachment, Creating Community Websites, Service Politics, Anatomy of a Grassroots Campaign, Framing, Peak Oil, Election Law, Democracy and the Religious Right, Pollworker Training, Making the Most of Grassroots Volunteers, the DFA Training Academy, and more!

All this plus lots of live music, films, and most importantly, networking with liberal activists from across the country. Don’t miss this chance to form working relationships that will have a lasting effect on our issue-based activities and our efforts to elect fiscally responsible and socially progressive candidates.

The 4th Annual DemocracyFest will take place June 9-10 at the Wayfarer Inn near Manchester, NH. More information is available at http://www.Democracy…

( – promoted by odum)

Imagine two scenarios.

In the first, your electric company charges you a premium rate for power when demand is highest – typically on a super-hot summer afternoon when air conditioners everywhere are churning out cold air.

In the second, the utility gives you a refund for not consuming electricity during those peak-demand hours.

Which one would you be more likely to accept?

This is the question being asked by Robert Letzler, as reported in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, and its a fascinating one. 

What do you think would be more motivational?  How do you think this sort of approach could be used to influence how we deal with the task of encouraging people to be more responsible in their consumption habits?

I ask about all of this because it’s clear that something needs to change and while people, in the abstract, seem to like the idea of conservation, we don’t seem to be motivated in the more concrete fashions.  I’d like to see what people think in terms of what we can do to change things. 

The photo shown, by the way, is of a long-tailed duck.  It’s from earlier this week, the first time I’ve ever managed to successfully photograph one.

You can learn a lot about the effects of climate change by getting into bird watching.  Every thing is happening much earlier this year (i.e., nesting and breeding) than usual and who knows what effect that’s going to have on the broader ecosystem? 

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