Kristi Noem, Dog Assassin

 

SD Gov. Kristi Noem is getting a roasting over her depiction of killing a backwards "untrainable" puppy as well as a smelly goat that came from her political memoir No Going Back: Descriptive Stuff After the Colon. A lot of people on social media are posting pictures of their own good doggos--and that's great. But to give her her due, sometimes a dog just is either traumatized or dimwitted, or for some other reason has misplaced aggression issues, and they aren't fit to their environment. You could try rehoming them with a family--hopefully in a "single pet, no small children" situation, but once they have demonstrated they will kill livestock, like a neighbor's chickens, there's a real chance they aren't "fixable". She may have simply made a pragmatic choice with the dog because she didn't want to see it turn and attack a human--especially not a little one. 

There's more humane ways to put down an animal, though--we aren't living in Little House on the Prairie times. And also killing (poorly) a goat because it is smelly and misbehaved just feels gratuitous, because what do you expect from adult goat? And wasn't she responsible for how the dog was trained and controlled (crated or fenced?) Feels like she might have set that pup up by not preparing it for success.

There Will Be No New Normal

 

At least five people have been found dead in Italy following violent storms in the north and wildfires in Sicily.

The government is considering declaring a state of emergency in the hardest-hit regionshttps://t.co/5JRVjmA9jv pic.twitter.com/sWzTqYBRHV

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 26, 2023

I've been to Sicily a couple of times and it is fiercely beautiful. I am heartbroken for what is happening. The temperature in Palermo a couple of days ago was 47°C, which is astonishing not only because it is a local record, but because it is a record likely to be demolished soon. 

(Giorgia Meloni has said fine things about environmentalism that she certainly doesn't believe because the fascisti attitude is ne me frego.)

Algeria is facing wildfires and temperatures of about 120° F. The heat index at the Persian Gulf airport in Iran reached 152° F. These are conditions that suggest an unlivable future. 

Scientists are saying that there is no "new normal"--the term is a lie. We won't really have time to acclimate to anything we are seeing because it will just change faster than we can get used to it. I've been staring at this idea unable to strike another mode than elegiac. Or at least poetic. I don't want to succumb to "doomerism". The problem is that I understand enough of biology to know that if ocean temps are over 100° F this is very bad for cold-blooded things. And then, warm-blooded things. It's like feeling a mass disturbance in the Force. 

But back to the presentiment of doom--I don't know how we walk back tipping points we might have already crossed. The idea that the Gulf Stream collapses during my lifetime is not something I have words for. Poetic or otherwise.

Those things are hard to fathom (though we need to figure out how to), but in the meantime, if we value eating, if we value culture, if we value any of the standard of living we associate with civilization, we need to reckon with the idea that some sacrifices must be made now to prevent the losses of things beyond price. Not for the sake of our great-grandchildren. I'm talking about the intolerable conditions we will spend what we have of our old age in. 

While We Wait for Trump's Arrest, The IPCC Report is Dire

 

I never wanted to spend my senior years on a dying planet, but that's what it looks like to me. The supposed leadership of the most industrialized countries are doing the very least to curb global warming, and have even decided, it seems, to promote the short-term benefits of fossil fuel usage for their electoral cycle (yes, I'm criticizing Biden over the Willow project). 

We're looking at the results of climate change in the eye all the time--take the weird winter of California's discontent: that isn't some freak global cooling, but a predictable weirding of the weather because patterns are disrupted. But we are still stuck with the effects of warming in the usually cooler places. We can see the devastation of our ecosystems in the deaths of fish due to heat waves in Australia. The southern hemisphere has been through it this past season. 

Climate change isn't predicting the future, but describing our present, now. And we are still jaded and in denial. Lives will be lost if action is not taken, but a look around social media indicates that loads of people still believe climate science is some kind of hoax. A conspiracy theory. 

I'm just a D-list blogger--I don't expect what I say to gain any traction and actually, my climate-related posts aren't even the ones that do any numbers. But what I do know is, changing people's POV via messaging and "flooding the zone" can be done--because the denialists have been doing it all this time. Solutions exist and funding them (like actually just fully comping changeover to solar energy or heat pumps) are within the reach of government actions. (Programs totally exist and are inadequate for many homeowners.) 

We can do more, and more aggressively. The political will has to be there, and the idea that the fossil fuel industry and the denialist-propagandist complex (like Fox News, who are known liars) needs to be called out for being the problem that they are. 

I think we still have the opportunity to make a better future. But that opportunity can't be pissed away--it must be vigorously and intelligently seized. 

Climate Sunday: Rough Winds do Shake the Early Buds of...February?

 

At some point this past week, I exited my car for the half-block walk from the parking lot to my office building without a jacket at all, because it was well and truly warm enough. I even ran the fan in my car on my commute home because it got warm in the parking lot sun. And there have been a few days like this--in February. This isn't usual--my early remembrances of February here in the upper Mid-Atlantic is it snows and gets really freaking cold.

It did not do that here. Well, not yet, but as we mosey into March and advance into April, while I know we've had bad storms in these months, I feel like the ghost of winter starts to vanish--and maybe it isn't a good augur for those of us aware of climate change. Spring has been springing early for a while--as if some areas aren't getting the winter we've been used to. 

Now, California--they are having a winter! That's also not a great sign.

Both of these scenarios feed into the denialist vortex in that they create possible "debunking" narratives: either mild winters in the NE aren't so bad, or blizzards in California prove there's no climate change at all. I guess the question is: when does weird weather get weird enough for the jaded and denialist mind to see it? 

And how do changing weather patterns affect wildlife? When crops and flowers start to habitually bloom too early, and the actual wild of winter bullshit starts a bit too late? 

The rhythm we expected from nature is thrown off, and the dancers can't pick up the pace when it too rapidly changes. This will affect crops we eat and animals like wild fish we rely upon for food. We will notice higher prices for foods--at first, because most people don't understand the relationship between nature and what's at the end of their fork. Then we will be scared. 

I don't want to wait until we are scared about where our food is coming from to get concerned about climate change. It's bad enough we tolerate the growing threat of disease and violence. We should not be so stupid we forget that we need to eat. 

Climate Sunday: The Die-Off Horror Show

 

We have a problem in the sea with our crustaceans.  It isn't a local thing--it is happening elsewhere as well.  I've long worried that the worst of the current extinction event would focus on the sea, because land-based humans don't understand the seriousness of the nautical ecosystem to their existence. 

But it is real, and necessary. And parts of our necessary aquaculture are dying. 

A lot of this is about dumping waste into the ecosystem. And this is something we could easily stop doing. But we are in an extinction event currently we didn"t even plan to be in,  and have only so many ways to sort ourselves out of. I am 50 years old and know that half the world's species have stopped being viable in my lifetime. 

We need to become more mindful custodians of the planet we live on. I don't think we can survive any other way. 

Primates are Curious

Although it seems like many people are apt to fault the mother of the child who climbed down into the gorilla display at the Cincinnati Zoo for inattention, I find it very hard to do so.  A lot of parents become momentarily distracted--and find to their shock that a moment is all it takes for their child to cover some distance on an impulse its highly-curious mind hasn't the brakes to quell. The horror at what had happened to her child was genuine; I don't think she was negligent and I definitely think that the Cincinnati Zoo should consider some way to make the enclosure more curious-child proof.

As for Harambe, I kind of understand the idea some animal-lovers have that he was not acting in an especially threatening way, or they want to recall an incident where a gorilla in a similar situation seemed to be protecting a fallen child. I think they might be missing that the last seconds before the animal was shot happened very rapidly and the child was dragged--even if in the gorilla's mind he was just moving a juvenile primate from a treacherous moat, the reality is that human children are fragile, and a 450 lb gorilla could easily rip out a child's arm or bash its head. There was no way for the zoo personnel to be sure what would happen, so they had to make sure that a disaster was avoided. It is a shame that Harambe's natural curiosity drew him towards the toddler. But once the child was being dragged, I don't think the Cincinnati Zoo folks were wrong not to take any chances with the baby's life.

Some people comment that this is a problem with the whole idea of zoos altogether, and the forced incarceration of sentient beasts for human visual consumption. We treat them as spectacle, even though they are wild and should be free. We've inherited a notion about our mastery as humans over the various other lifeforms on this planet and treat them as exotic spectacles--and while we try to be well-educated in their care and protection, we can fail spectacularly because they were not meant to live in our world.  I can see this point, but also recognize that the education and conservation aspects of zoo culture in some ways has been protective for endangered species, and gives people access to understanding them in an immediate way that informs their understanding and ability to care about them, which would only be more remote and abstract otherwise.

I also see a lot of opinion-pieces along the lines of "So much human-on-human violence has occurred, but we focus on this story about a gorilla." That, too, makes a lot of sense to me, though--it's unusual. We don't hear stories about gorilla-involved shootings every day, even though we hear about several human-involved shootings every day.

Primates are, after all, very curious. We are drawn to things that are exotic. It's a bit of a gift and a curse.

Climate Sunday: Recycle your Xmas Trees!

I celebrate a secular Christmas, but I decorate minimally and never have a Christmas tree--my house is just too small and since we don't have kids it's just not that big a deal. My husband sometimes brings home a rosemary bush. That's plenty festive for us--and we use the rosemary in lots of great food! But for those of you who do use cut evergreens for your holiday decorations--please recycle! The sight of dry fire hazards on the sidewalk waiting for a trip to the landfill in mid-January is one depressing sight every year that ends the holiday season on a downbeat.

So one thing I'd recommend is checking with your local municipality to see if they have a tree recycling program. We have one here in Philadelphia, and if you're in a pretty good-sized town, your community should also have one (and if your community doesn't--see what you can do about getting one started).

But that's not all that can be done with old trees. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has a use for your old trees, at least, in GA--they use them for fish-habitats in a local lake. You may want to check if they have such a program in your neck of the woods.

You know who loves disposing of evergreen trees? Goats. They find them delicious and it's a pretty good dietary change for them. But they aren't the only critters that enjoy trees. As above, zoos also sometimes take trees as recreational enhancements (big old toys) for their big cats and other animals.

But that's not all! Here's a list of some other cool ideas to get more use out of your tree.

Of course, if you use an artificial tree, you will get years of use out of it. But if you are looking to downsize or are moving and want to unload your artificial tree, be sure to see if a local charity can take it as a donation so it can continue to give holiday cheer.

Stick with Demon Sheep

Carly Fiorina makes a joke about Obama eating dog meat and then chews on a Milkbone. From the kind of political instincts that approved of an ad that has gone down in political advertising history for its sheer bizarreness, comes a spot that should make her seem more loose and likeable.

It doesn't. Maybe it would take an awful lot of work to change the established impression we already have of her.

Climate Sunday: The Pumpkin Spice Edition

I know, regular readers of my Climate Sunday posts were probably expecting me to elaborate on the claim made in yesterday's Democratic Debate that climate change directly leads to terrorism, but I've touched on the national security risks related to climate change before, and also, Brad Plumer has written a very nice Vox 'splainer on the topic. So, I feel like I don't have to go there--instead I want to talk pumpkins.

I like them. I'm a huge fan of pumpkin seeds, pumpkin pie, assorted savory gourd preparations. But climate change and the pumpkin go together like things that don't go together. For one thing, naturally, climate matters when it comes to pumpkin crops. Just like climate change could have a lousy impact on Christmases of the future, climate change could ruin Thanksgiving. (This is something that has been known for some time.)

But wait, there's more! While climate change could cause pumpkin scarcity on one end, on the other hand, pumpkins are often completely wasted, and food waste contributes to methane as the fruit simply rots.

That doesn't seem wise.

I've never been keen on jack o'lanterns myself. When I purchase a gourd, while I may decorate it (as you can see), I pretty much intend for that food to get eaten. Sure, part of the rind is going to "waste" (likely mulch for the grapevines, even though they've gone into their winter's slumber), but the bits we don't eat for ourselves we have the tradition of cracking and leaving for deer at a local park. (Not carving them also keeps "trash pandas"--raccoons--off them until I'm ready to surrender them back to nature.)

Paolo Bacigalupi and the Coywolv

I had to read The Drowned Cities because I loved The Windup Girl. The future that Bacigalupi creates makes utter sense within the context of global climate change. I've never felt, when reading science fiction, such a sense that I was reading something very akin to what our future would be like. I loved The Windup Girl in part for the same reason I love The Drowned Cities: the made girl, and the half-man, are human-created artifacts that might actually survive our deep human foolishness. We are shortsighted and emotional and do stupid shit, but humans adapt, and we also create tech that adapts--a dubious gift, but a gift nonetheless.

The coywolv, a species existing in the spec-fic future of The Drowned Cities, is potentially happening just now. Just as a similar landscape is taking place.

I'm basically saying read all his stuff because he gets what the future looks like because I really think he is looking at the world we live in right now. And his vision of the future should give you all the pause you ever wanted.

Climate Sunday: I've Seen the Future and It's Murder

I'm back with another Pessimist's Club update about the planet and what we're doing to it--and this one is going out to the EPA, who couldn't very well dump bunches of heavy metal-laden mining waste into the Animas River unless it was there to be dumped, not that I'm letting them off the hook. Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper drank that weird yellow water, but then he has guzzled fracking water, too. He might be a little weird. But basically, mining is dirty business for water, and the risk of contamination can continue long after mines have gone defunct.

But anyway, did you know we hit Earth Overshoot Day just recently? We're taking more from the planet then it can afford to give. When we get the bill for the overdraft fees, it's gonna be a headache.

Air pollution in China is determined to be the cause of over 4,000 deaths a day.  That's 1.6 million people a year. That's worse than a war. A lot of that problem is coal--there is no tech that makes burning that stuff 100% clean.

Rolling Stone has a pretty good article on the abundant evidence that global warming is totally a thing, which is a lot of what I've been talking about on this humble surfactant container. The title has the scariest words: The Point of No Return.

If you were wondering, was this July hot enough for ya? Goddamn it was hot enough. The hottest on record. The global heat wave is good for germs. But if you aren't a bacillus, it kind of sucks to be you. Especially if that "you" is in one of those canary in a coal mine countries that is especially hard-hit by climate change.

What do we have to do about this? Change everything. When do we have to do this? Yesterday. But I'll settle for more coalmines going bankrupt, more solar power everywhere, and a drive to treat conservation sort of how people dealt with sweetless, wheatless and meatless days during WWI and the recycling drives of WWII.  We can lick climate change! Win the global war on US with Us-Power! And let's get it done with the help of the Sun!

Climate Sunday: In Honor of Ted Cruz

 



I've been remiss in not doing more "Climate Sunday" pieces, but just recently 2016 Presidential Primary Candidate, Senator Ted Cruz explained at the Koch brothers' Freedom Partners' forum that "the facts and data don't support" climate change. He dismissed it as a hoax and also probably worked that "not a scientist" thing in there, too. Cruz isn't uneducated and he isn't stupid--but the only bit of that I'll agree with is, well, no, he certainly isn't a scientist.

So in honor of Ted Cruz and the other politicians hewing to basically that same line--this post's for you!

 

With no further ado:

Climate models are proving to be deadly accurate. We can joke about the accuracy of weather people, but in the broader sense of being accurate about overall climate, we've seen conditions shape up pretty much as climatologists have predicted. They may have actually understated the case on ocean level rising, but it certainly has happened that, while pockets like the US east coast haven't been unusually warm, most of the planet has had successively warmer years. (The impact on oceans from the melting of ice can have impacts well beyond mere water-level rises, as well.)

 

We think of the Middle East in general as pretty hot, but this week Iran's heat index was an enormous 163 degrees. I'm not sure how people can breathe or move in that kind of swelter. In neighboring Iraq, people took to the street to protest electricity shortages that have cut A/C, which is absolutely a requirement to deal with day time temperatures that have reached 120 degrees. (The electricity has never been reliable since the US invasion.) Thailand has also suffered terrible heat and drought this year, with a terrible likelihood of crop failure for their essential staple, rice.

 

Here in the US, despite some rains, the Pacific coast is still suffering from extraordinary heat conditions. It's hot enough to cause a couple hundred thousands of salmon to die. Part of the problem seems to be a "blob" of unusually warm water, which is causing the deaths of many animals in the Pacific NE ecosystem, although this condition seems to be ideal for producing a toxic algal bloom. (The West Coast isn't alone--severe algal bloom is likely for Lake Erie, as well.) Things are tellingly bad when wildfire rips through rainforest. 

Basically, the facts and data from news stories that are pretty current actually very well support the idea that the planet is warming and lots of weird stuff is going on as a result. But I'm sure the comments of Cruz and his denialist coterie sounded awfully nice to the billionaire campaign donors who were likely in attendance at that forum. And the fact that they can buy an awful lot of air time for the candidates that they favor certainly contributes something to the cause--more hot air.

The Ethics of Being First Among Animals

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
                                       ~George Orwell,  Animal Farm

“I never yet heard of a useless thing that was not ground out of
existence by evolution sooner or later. Did you? And pain gets needless.”
― H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau      

The slaying of the 13 year old lion, Cecil, by a Midwestern American dentist who paid $54K for the privilege of being able to say he killed a lion, and to parade its head and pelt around, has generated a certain amount of outrage. I can't say I'm not appalled by it, also. But the reasons are complicated.

I'm not a vegetarian, although I tried it for a few years because of my belief that most animal husbandry is ecologically unstable, wasteful and cruel. Here's what I realized by this experiment--humans are culturally omnivores for a reason. I came to the conclusion that while some people may do well on a vegetable-based diet, some of us are better-served with animal proteins, and Lord, I know, I'm one. I've since done what I can to be sure that the meat, dairy, and eggs I eat are sustainably sourced to the best of my ability. But I believe that, especially city-raised people like myself, need to get a grip on the idea that the deaths of animals is the price paid for keeping your ass alive. (Lierre Keith's The Vegetarian Myth is a great meditation on this conundrum about being a meat-eater, and concerned about the act of killing and being ecological.)

What Walter Palmer did in taking his fancy trip to Africa to kill a lion just because he could pay enough for the privilege of doing so, turns a lot of the idea of responsible hunting on its head. It wasn't for food--the corpse of Cecil lay rotting. It wasn't for self-defense as can occur with bear and other predator animals. It was for solely privilege. To be able to say he was one of the guys who did kill a lion. It's probably no surprise that more liberal-leaning people are appalled by this, because that is naked conspicuous consumption, right there. But more than that, there is a spiritual notion behind it, beyond economics: this creature's life was given up for a sick trophy that had nothing to do with cunning or skill, but an asshole's desire to say he dominated this half-tame, lured, majestic beast. The life of the pride that Cecil lead itself is jeopardized because of this ignorant and unbalanced move. This "mighty hunter" wouldn't have disgusted me if he shot deer, rabbits, moose--that's meat. But he did this for balls and because he liked the killing bits. (This "skillful" and "responsible" guy wounded the lion and took 40 hours to track and finish him--so that's certainly not an ideal way to earn a trophy is it?)

Still Mad About the BP Spill

 

Deepwater Horizon oil spill contributed to high number of Gulf dolphin deaths

They are also dying because of the pipeline spill in California. 

Our petroleum addiction is no good for other living things. (It's also not so great for us.)

Antibiotic-Resistant and Airborne--It's Evolution, Baby

I don't think I give as much shrift to my concerns about sustainable agriculture and the many problems of our agricultural-industrial complex on this blog as I should, but if you wanted a glimpse into the kind of thing that really haunts me, why, this would be it:

Texas Tech University researchers examined particulate matter in the air, finding both antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria in samples taken downwind from cattle ranches. Investigators are worried that this material could be carried by wind into populated areas, hindering treatments for potentially dangerous diseases. Over 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the United States are used in cattle to lengthen lives and improve yields.  

The 10 ranches examined in the study were all located within 200 miles of the city of Lubbock, with samples being taken over a period of six months. The investigation focused on feedlots in the South Plains and Panhandle of Texas. Cattle at these facilities are exposed to large quantities of antibiotics as they are fattened up before they are brought to market.  

"To our knowledge, this study is among the first to detect and quantify antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant genes ... associated with airborne PM emitted from beef cattle feed yards," environmental toxicology researchers at Texas Tech University said.

Sometimes there are scares about "avian flu" (a viral agent) and masses of poultry get slaughtered, usually in some Asian market. The idea that a bacteriological agent could infect large numbers of cattle in the US, and the accompanying notion of what might be needed to combat a massive outbreak of the same, here, and what it would cost the meat industry, here, strikes me as potentially very devastating to a significant portion of the US. To an extent, it's only possible because of the high concentrations of antibiotics already in use in regular feedlot treatment of food livestock. But an epidemic would affect all cattle ranchers, including organic non-CAFO operations. Basically, it could financially wipe some farmers out, especially if they had to find some way to cull part of or all of their stocks and isolate some other parts--under these conditions, how is that even--?

It's not an unexpected turn of biological events, but knowing some "worst case" scenario has been instantiated is pretty depressing.

The G20 Summit Summed Up

Right about now, I'm thinking I might like to be a world leader of some kind if it means I get to cuddle actual koalas. They are, in a word, adorable. But then there's Putin.

His koala looks a bit skeert.

I don't think his struggling koala is why he left early though. There was some world leader drama, there, people.  The UK's David Cameron particularly got up in Putin's grill.

I sort of would have wanted to be a fly on the wall.

Climate Sunday: We're Losing Our Neighbors

This sounds like one of the most amazing and horrifying things, but wildlife numbers have declined by 50% in the last 44 years.  But when you consider that we are losing the coral reefs, we are losing the fish, and the frogs, and our fellow primates, and the majestic elephants,  and the birds. Oh, it starts to seem all too real.

And it's all because of various forms of human fuckery.

You know, even if asshats go out of their way to close their eyes to the reality of climate change, the idea that we are killing this planet species by species should really disturb us.

Nobody here but us chickens?

I hate to point and laugh at Mitch McConnell's preliminary palooka, but the claim that Matt Bevin was "shocked, just shocked" that cockfighting would be going on at an event hosted by the Gamefowl Defense Network, and then defends the practice as being a fine American tradition is a fascinating display of the principal that the problem with fence-straddling is the bloody pickets.

But it does make me a little wistful for the heyday of the Tea Party. If they were still partying like it was 2010, the "throw the bums out" wave might have overshadowed the appearance of McConnell's opponent being somewhat unfettered by feck.

Their TAILS fracking DROPPED OFF?

I know human beings have a pretty high tolerance for idiotic shit, but honestly, if flammable tapwater isn't enough to make you wonder if most fossil fuel companies aren't happy enough to outright kill somebody for a buck, than sweet Whistlin' Jesus on a Petrified Stegosaurus, think of the cows:

Schilke’s troubles began in the summer of 2010, when a crew working at this site continued to force drilling fluid down a well that had sprung a leak. Soon, Schilke’s cattle were limping, with swollen legs and infections. Cows quit producing milk for their calves; they lost from sixty to eighty pounds in a week; and their tails mysteriously dropped off. (Lab rats exposed to the carcinogen 2-butoxyethanol, a solvent used in fracking, have 
lost their tails, but a similar connection with cattle hasn’t been shown. In people, breathing, touching or consuming enough of the chemical can lead to pulmonary edema and coma.)  

An inveterate label reader who obsessively tracks her animals’ nutritional intake, Schilke couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Neither could local veterinarians. She nursed individual cows for weeks and, with much sorrow, put a $5,000 bull out of its misery with a bullet. Upon examination, the animal’s liver was found to be full of tunnels and its lungs congested with pneumonia. Before the year was out, five cows had died, in addition to several cats and two dogs. (Hair testing of Schilke's  cats and dogs revealed elevated selenium levels, while water tests showed sulfate at levels high enough, Schilke's vet told her, to cause polio in cattle.) Inside Schilke’s house today, where the china cabinets are kept empty for fear of a shattering drill-site explosion, nearly a dozen cats sneeze and cough, some with their heads tilted at a creepy angle. 

The article from The Nation explains that animals that die from environmental causes don't make it directly into our food chain, but are sometimes ground down to feed others...which do.  

Simply put--that's fucked up.

Save the Polyps--

Very few of our industries are sustainable--when we harm the least of our species on this planet, we stand to do harm to all of our species. We need to avoid overfishing, poor irrigation/fertilization farming methods and reduce CO2 emissions to cut down on ocean acidification, among other things, to preserve an important part of our oceanic ecosystem. Those goals are kind of overarching and remote to regular people, but what it means in little is--take a hard look at fish aquacultures and whether we can sustainably maintain our consumption of them (or whether we need to rely on better farming of land-based protein sources). We need to use land better and that does not mean "better living through chemicals." When I visited my folks in Calabria, I was surprised by the non-bougie use of composting. It was just a regular thing. Although in Pennsylvania I don't have quite the same climate benefit, I have determined yard wastes aren't a bad start for mulch. Seriously--we live in communities where organic material is bagged and landfilled like it somehow wasn't part of the circle of life. Peels and cores and whatnot are still full of minerals that could go back to the soils they came from.

And we need to be more energy-smart. Maybe it means conservation, or alternate fuel sources, or just lowering carbon use by making machines better. But if we can prevent whole ecosystems from dying--what shouldn't we do, really?  Doesn't it make sense to do all we can?