"Hundreds of Ukrainians attended a neo-Nazi march celebrating Nazi SS soldiers in Kiev on Wednesday, sparking condemnation from around the world.
The Embroidery March, which was conducted legally, marked the 78th anniversary of the creation of the SS Galicia, a force set up under German occupation of predominantly Ukrainian and German volunteers who wished to take up arms for Nazi Germany.
The SS, the military branch of Hitler’s Nazi Party, was the force responsible for the Holocaust.
About 300 marchers carried the Galicia division’s lion-emblazoned banner as well as flags of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The march follows a much larger one a day before in the city of Lviv.
Ukrainian nationalists received state recognition in the early 2000s for collaborators as heroes for their actions against the Soviet Union. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the popularity of the collaborators has increased dramatically since the 2014 war with Russia.
The German Embassy in Kiev condemned the march.
“Waffen SS units participated in the worst war crimes and the Holocaust during World War II. No volunteer organizations fighting and working for Ukraine today should be associated with them,” German Ambassador to the Ukraine Anka Feldhusen wrote on her Twitter page on Wednesday."
2021 m. gegužės 4 d., antradienis
Tai ką konkrečiai reikia daryti, kad ūkininkai mažiau terštų aplinką?
"Netoli Lojalo, Okla valstijoje, ūkininkas Clay Pope'as daugelį metų laikėsi kai kurių anglies dioksido mažinimo būdų, kuriuos skatino Bideno administracija, įskaitant augmenijos laikymą savo laukuose, net jei jo įprastos kultūros, pavyzdžiui, kviečiai, neauga. jo derlius padidėjo, sakė jis, taip pat ir jo išlaidos. „Tai nėra pigu“, - sakė p. Clay Pope'as. Savo kalboje trečiadienį prieš kongresą ponas Bidenas teigė, kad ūkininkams gali būti mokama už dirvožemį padengiančių augalų pasodinimą, kurie pašalina daugiau anglies iš atmosferos.
Žemės ūkio sektoriuje išmetama apie 10% šiltnamio efektą sukeliančių dujų, o aplinkosaugos agentūros duomenimis, trąšų naudojimas ir gyvulininkystė yra svarbiausi šaltiniai. Kai kurios JAV žemės ūkio departamento programos gali padėti sumažinti ūkių šiltnamio efektą sukeliančių dujų išmetimą, įskaitant paskatas sodinti medžius, mažinti dirvožemio eroziją ir pažaboti pernely ddidelių kiekių trąšų naudojimą. JAV žemės ūkio departamentas balandžio mėnesį padidino mokėjimus ir pridėjo naujų paskatų pagal savo apsaugos rezervo programą, kuri, agentūros teigimu, gali sušvelninti klimato pokyčius.
Didelės žemės ūkio bendrovės, reaguodamos į vartotojų ir investuotojų spaudimą, savanoriškai įsipareigojo sumažinti išmetamų teršalų kiekį. Vadovai teigė, kad naudoja daugiau atsinaujinančios energijos, finansuoja klimatui palankų ūkininkavimą ir pertvarko dalį savo veiklos, pavyzdžiui, nuotekų lagūnas ir trąšų gamybos įmones.
Turėdami dažnai mažas pelno maržas, atskiri ūkininkai linkę būti atsargūs dėl taisyklių, kurios padidina jų veiklos sąnaudas ir sudėtingumą.
Čikagos priemiesčio trąšų milžinė „CF Industries“ investuoja į sistemas, kurios sumažina gamyklų azoto oksido išmetimą, maždaug 300 kartų stipresnį nei anglies dioksidas. CF vadovas Tony'as Willas sakė, kad Bideno administracija turi apsvarstyti su anglimi susijusius mokesčius ar mokesčius už importuojamas prekes, kad užtikrintų, jog užjūrio konkurentai, kurie nesiima panašių aplinkosaugos veiksmų, negalėtų parduoti pigesnių žemės ūkio produktų į JAV, mažindami naudą iš tokių pastangų, kaip CF. JAV prekybos atstovo biuras svarsto prekybos priemones, pvz., mokesčių prie sienos koregavimą, kad pasiektų Bideno administracijos tikslą, sakė agentūros atstovas. "[1]
1. U.S. News: Farmers Want Help Cutting Emissions
Bunge, Jacob. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y] 03 May 2021: A.3.
So what specifically needs to be done to make farmers less polluting?
"Near Loyal, Okla., farmer Clay Pope for years has followed some of the carbon-reduction practices being promoted by the Biden administration, including keeping vegetation on his fields even when his usual crops, such as wheat, aren't growing. While his harvests have increased, he said, so have his costs. "It's not cheap," Mr. Pope said.
In his speech Wednesday before Congress, Mr. Biden said farmers could be paid for planting cover crops that remove more carbon from the atmosphere.
The farm sector produces about 10% of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions, with fertilizer application and livestock operations representing top sources, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Some U.S. Department of Agriculture programs can help reduce farms' greenhouse-gas emissions, including incentives to plant trees, reduce soil erosion and curb overuse of fertilizer. The USDA in April increased payments and added new incentives under its Conservation Reserve Program, which the agency said can mitigate climate change.
Big agricultural companies, responding to consumer and investor pressure, have made voluntary commitments to cut emissions. Executives said they are using more renewable power, funding climate-friendly farming and overhauling parts of their operations, such as wastewater lagoons and fertilizer-production plants.
With often-thin profit margins, individual farmers have tended to be wary of regulations that add costs and complexity to their operations.
Suburban Chicago fertilizer giant CF Industries is investing in systems that reduce its plants' emissions of nitrous oxide, roughly 300 times as potent as carbon dioxide. CF Chief Executive Tony Will said the Biden administration needed to consider carbon-related fees or taxes on imported goods to ensure that overseas rivals that aren't taking similar environmental steps can't sell cheaper agricultural products into the U.S., undercutting efforts like CF's.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is considering trade tools like border-adjustment taxes to achieve the Biden administration's goal, an agency spokesman said." [1]
1. U.S. News: Farmers Want Help Cutting Emissions
Bunge, Jacob. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y] 03 May 2021: A.3.
2021 m. gegužės 3 d., pirmadienis
About tree collaboration, not competition
„A forest is not a mere collection of individual trees competing for light and nutrients, but rather a sentient, interacting community. At the center of a healthy forest stands a Mother Tree: an old-growth matriarch that acts as a hub of nutrients shared by trees of different ages and species linked together via a vast underground fungal network.
Sustainable forestry wasn’t as simple as replanting trees after others were cut; the puzzle of which to harvest and which to retain had massive implications on a forest’s ability to recover and remain healthy.
A status quo assumed cultivating fast-growing, single species plantations was the most cost-effective and profitable way to log. It was easier for foresters to think on a small scale and prioritize fast returns, pointing the way to the monoculture approach. But over time without the protection that only a community can provide, trees would be vulnerable to threats such as the mountain pine beetle, a potential catastrophe for the industry that could wipe out any short-term gains.
The policy silverbacks ridiculed ideas about trees cooperating rather than competing.
We stumble onto some of the Indigenous ideals: Diversity matters.
Peter Wohlleben’s “The Hidden Life of Trees” promoted many of the same concepts as Simard does here. However, Wohlleben was met with considerable criticism from the scientific community for drawing conclusions beyond what the data showed. His facts were blended with supposition. Simard doesn’t make the same mistake. Her arguments are supported by rigorous, decades-long research following the movement of radioactive carbon compounds.
Simard can confidently write that “the trees were connected, cooperating” by pointing to charts of two-way carbon flow between paper birch and Douglas fir, then explaining the significance of these elemental transfers. Birch can provide fir with enough carbon to actually make seeds and reproduce, and the amount transferred depends on access to light. That is, a birch doles out resources based on need, not as a single, one-size-fits-all fire hose stream. The more shade a birch casts over a fir, the more carbon is transferred to it to help it survive. Later, once the fir outgrows the birch and shades it, the energy flow is reversed.
Protecting the Mother Trees is of pinnacle importance. “Elders that survived climate changes in the past ought to be kept around because they can spread their seed into the disturbed areas and pass their genes and energy and resilience into the future.””