New US Bill Opens State Land and Parks to Fracking / Fossil Gas now labeled as “Green Energy”

By B.N. Frank on December 19, 2022 from activistpost.com shared with thanks thefreeonline

Fracking has been and continues to be associated with causing significant biological and environmental harm in the U.S. (see 1, 2, 3). Despite growing American opposition to it as well as legal disputes, this controversial practice isn’t going away at least in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

From Cleveland.com:

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Legislation to spur fracking in state parks and on other state-owned land, define natural gas as a “green energy,” and prohibit local pesticide bans is on its way to Gov. Mike DeWine after clearing a final legislative vote on Tuesday.

Dec 18, 2022 | County Solar Project Proposal Denied Based on Opposition by Local Governments and Constituents

The Ohio House voted 59-33 to pass House Bill 507, which was initially introduced as a bill to reduce the number of poultry chicks that can be sold in lots before the Ohio Senate added the natural gas, drilling and pesticide provisions.

Toxic fracking waste illegally dumped in BC water treatment system

The legislation, brought by the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, seeks to push the Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission to stop dragging its feet on approving rules for oil and gas drilling on state lands by requiring all state agencies to open up land they control to drilling until the commission puts such rules in place.

In 2011, state lawmakers opened state parks to oil and natural gas drilling and set up the commission to handle drilling applications. However, the commission has been slow to approve projects and missed a deadline last January to put leasing rules in place.

Ohio’s production of natural gas has soared in recent years thanks to fracking activity in Eastern Ohio.

It’s not yet clear exactly what the full effect will be of designating natural gas – a fossil fuel that is mostly methane, a powerful heat-trapping greenhouse gas – as a “green energy,” a term that’s typically used for renewable power sources such as sun, wind and water.

Forever Chemicals (PFAS) are a highly useful water repellant widely included in the secret toxic chemical mixtures added to billions of gallons of water pumped into the fracking wells, with zero oversight and exemption from Clean Water Laws, by the notorious ‘Cowboy Frackers’ who have then abandoned 3.2 million orphaned and abandoned wells (2021) and toxic ponds, often declaring bankruptcy to drill again with a new name, and thus pumping in ever more Forever Chemicals that can be lethal to humans at one part per trillion.

All this beneath US flags and claims to Make America Great Again, selling frack gas as LNG at astronomical prices to desperate nations deprived by the Pentagon’s wars, sanctions, cuts of Russian Gas and sabotage of Nordstream…..

State Sen. Mark Romanchuk, a Richland County Republican who successfully added the energy-related provisions to the bill, told the Energy News Network that he hoped the designation would help Ohio companies meet “ESG” investing practices. ESG standards are used by investors to identify companies that have socially conscious environmental, social and governance policies.

“I don’t know if it will work,” Romanchuk told the outlet.

The bill specifically states that natural gas projects aren’t eligible for renewable energy credits.

Guardians, Allies File Enormous Fracking Suit

Stephanie O’Grady, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said the department didn’t request the amendment regarding drilling at state parks but has no position on its merits.

She said in the last four years, ODNR hasn’t signed any new leases for oil and gas drilling on its lands, though other state agencies may have done so. She did not offer data for previous years.

As Biodiversity Degrades, Nature’s Solutions Are Lost for Ever

from Human Wrongs Watch by Baher Kamal on 18th Dec 2022 via thefreeonline

18 December 2022 (UN News)* — Humanity faces unprecedented engineering challenges if it is to survive. Solutions to these challenges are waiting to be discovered in plants, animals, and microbes, but these are lost forever, if we do not preserve the rich diversity of life on Earth.

But all life forms are unique and must have the right to thrive, with or without dubious benefits to humans.

UNDP: Nature has inspired a wide range of engineering solutions

The UN biodiversity conference, COP15, is due to wrap up on 19 December. This weekend, we are looking at some of the ways that humanity is reliant on biodiversity for a healthy and thriving global ecosystem.

When a species goes extinct, it takes with it all of the physical, chemical, biological, and behavioural attributes that have been selected for that species, after having been tested and re-tested in countless evolutionary experiments over many thousands, and perhaps millions, of years of evolution.

These include designs for heating, cooling, and ventilation; for being able to move most effectively and efficiently through water or air; for producing and storing energy; for making the strongest, lightest, most biodegradable and recyclable materials; and for many, many other functions essential for life.

Nature’s value is not limited to human applications, but the loss of nature and biodiversity represents major losses to human potential as well.

Here are some examples of the ways that nature has inspired engineering solutions.

Professor Akira Obata designed micro-wind turbines that turn and generate electricity, at wind speeds as low as 3 kph, inspired by dragonfly wings

Way of the dragonfly

Inspired by the energy efficiency of dragonfly wings, particularly at low wind speeds, Professor Akira Obata, formerly from Japan’s Nippon Bunri University, designed corrugated blades for micro-wind turbines that turn and generate electricity, at wind speeds as low as 3 kph.

Most wind turbines perform poorly when speeds are less than 10 kph; some will not turn at all. By lowering the minimum wind speed requirements, these micro-wind turbines can harness wind energy in easily accessible locations like rooftops and balconies, and not need expensive towers to capture the higher speed winds found at higher elevations.

By studying and understanding the aerodynamics of dragonfly flight, Obata was able to make inexpensive, lightweight, stable, and efficient micro-wind turbines that can be used in off-grid locations in developing countries.

Our Rulers Promote BOTH ‘Identity Politics’ and ‘Anti-Wokeism’ to make us Fight Each Other

December 17, 2022 by : Caitlin Johnstone at caitlinjohnstone.com via thefreeonline

Listen to a reading of this article:

The Ruling Class Promotes Identity Politics And ‘Anti-Wokeism’ For The Exact Same Reasons

It’s an interesting time for culture war red herrings in the shadow of the empire. There are no major electoral races currently underway. Government Covid regulations have been mostly rolled back. The empire is waging an extremely dangerous and continually escalating proxy war with Russia that should be getting a lot of scrutiny. If one didn’t know better one might expect this to be a time when the rank-and-file public would be doing a bit less barking and snarling at one another and a bit more at the people in charge.

But if one is reading this, one probably knows better.

The world is roaring toward multipolarity and the empire is doing everything it can to slam on the brakes, up to and including ramping up for a global confrontation with noncompliant nuclear-armed powers, and meanwhile the public is growing more and more disaffected with stagnant wages and soaring inequality even as concerns grow that we are headed toward environmental collapse.

So of course, at this crucial point in history, they’ve got everyone arguing about “wokeness”.

The woke mind virus is either defeated or nothing else matters
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 12, 2022

What “woke” means depends on who you ask. According to the original AAVE definition, it means “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination”. If you ask Ron DeSantis’ lawyers when they were made to define the term in court, it means “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.” Both of which sound entirely reasonable.

‘Anti-woke’ hysteria dominates Tory leadership campaigns

If you ask members of the rank-and-file right wing, though, the answers range from the incoherent to the insanely bigoted to the profoundly stupid. You’ll hear gibberish about “Cultural Marxism” (not a real thing), about communist conspiracies to give your child puberty blockers and gender reassignment surgery, about a liberal plot to normalize child molestation and erase women as a gender, and about the agenda to deteriorate society and plunge western culture into chaos and disorder because it makes Satan happy. In my experience the arguments are often intensely emotional — hysterical, even— yet entirely lacking in substance.

You’ll also run into the occasional good faith actor who sincerely believes “wokeism” needs to be aggressively opposed because the obsession with racial and sexual justice is sucking all the oxygen out of the room for more important matters and being used as a weapon to ram through pernicious power-serving agendas. It’s this category that I am mainly addressing here, because I view the previous category as generally beyond redemption.

It is entirely true that identity politics are being used to ram through establishment-serving agendas and subvert real dissent. We saw a very in-your-face example of this in 2016 with the extremely aggressive push to elect America’s first woman president, when anyone who pointed out her horrifyingly awful track record on things like war and militarism was shouted down as a misogynist.

The entire Democratic Party is essentially one big psyop designed to kill any attempt to redress income and wealth inequality, poverty, wars, militarism, money in politics, surveillance, government secrecy, police militarization and every other control mechanism designed to hold the status quo in place, while herding any revolutionary zeitgeist back toward establishment loyalism with false promises to make life better for women and marginalized groups.

Obsolete US Anti-ICBM warship “protects” French Carrier Group from Unstoppable Russian 33,337kph hypersonic missiles

Rick Rozoff is an anti-war specialist in NATO affairs who publishes daily the pompous nonsense jargon that NATO uses to dress up US campaigns to maintain their control over the world. Below we paste with comments a piece where they proudly boast of their useless and pathetic plans to WIN a NUCLEAR WAR by shooting down Russian and Chinese hypersonic missiles coming in at 27 times the speed of sound. Speed of sound = 1234.8 X 27 = 33,337.6 kph

Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles: “proud to sacrifice Spain militarily, economically and physically, to US criminals”

U.S. anti-ICBM warships assigned to NATO “allies” carrier strike groups

Date: December 17, 2022 Author: Rick Rozoff at Anti-bellum shared with thanks and snarky comments

USS Arleigh Burke hosts French Maritime Force Commander U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa/U.S. Sixth Fleet
December 16, 2022

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke hosted Rear Adm. Christophe Cluzel, commander of the French Maritime Force and French Carrier Strike Group, Dec. 5, 2022.

note: The Arleigh Burke is one of the newest US “ICBM destroyers”. Based at the NATO base in Rota, south of Spain, they make Spain a target for destruction in the first minutes of a Nuclear War, as they are a threat to thousands of Russian warheads that must be fired immediately due to the US First Strike Policy.

While aboard the ship, Cluzel held discussions with Arleigh Burke Sailors and toured the ship’s compartments including the combat information center, a main engine room, SONAR control room….

Cluzel, a 1994 graduate from the French Naval Academy, is well versed in Mediterranean Maritime Operations, providing expertise and experience operating in the Mediterranean Sea alongside Allied naval forces, including Arleigh Burke. The ship is currently under tactical control of the French carrier strike group and Cluzel.

note: joining the Arleigh Burke to the French Carrier Strike Group makes them a ‘sitting duck’ for a swarm of ‘unstoppable’ hypersonic missiles that can reach them in 10 minutes, coming in at up to 27 times the speed of sound. Speed of sound = 1234.8 X 27 = 33,337.6 kph. At this speed a missile really needs no warhead at all to destroy a ship.

‘Smart’ US nukes for ‘Nuclear First Strike’ coming to NATO fighters in Italy, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands…

“Rear Adm. Cluzel’s visit demonstrated to the crew the impact that the U.S. Navy has on operating with our NATO allies,” [Ensign Bray Zimmerman, Arleigh Burke’s Operations Intelligence Division Officer] said. “Our crew was able to see that what Arleigh Burke brings to the fight is significant to carrier strike group operations across all navies.”

Arleigh Burke recently began its integration period with the French Carrier Strike Group, supporting mission ANTARES. ANTARES aims to exert non-escalatory pressure against opposed forces of NATO in the Mediterranean Sea. Arleigh Burke is providing multi-warfare defense to the French carrier strike group while operating under tactical control of the French Navy.

note: just pompous jargon, more suited to a schoolboy’s war comic

Arleigh Burke is the second ship to operate as part of the French Carrier Strike Group during mission ANTARES. In November, fellow Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Roosevelt provided defense capabilities to the strike group’s phase I ANTARES mission set.

.. Integrating U.S. destroyers into Allied carrier strike groups pays dividends for all involved”…

Spain: first Target for Nuclear Annihilation as the Base of the 4 most advanced Ballistic Missile Destroyers in the US

Upon Arleigh Burke’s integration into the French Carrier Strike Group, the ship has already conducted multiple maneuverability exercises, helicopter operations, and a replenishment-at-sea evolution, highlighting the capability and capacity of Forward Deployed Naval Forces-Europe (FDNF-E) ships in the European theater. The versatile Arleigh-Burke class destroyer consistently demonstrates her inherent mobility and adaptability to operate anywhere on the waterfront, whether it be as an independent deployer or as a unit in a strike group.

***

Four U.S. Navy destroyers, including Arleigh Burke, are based in Rota, Spain and are assigned to Commander, Task Force 65 in support of NATO’s Integrated Air Missile Defense architecture. These FDNF-E ships have the flexibility to operate throughout the waters of Europe and Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to the Arctic Circle, demonstrating their mastery of the maritime domain.