Before the EPA, the Clean Air Act or Clean Water Act, there were no legal or regulatory mechanisms to protect our environment. Rachael Carson’s profound book, “Silent Spring” opened many people’s eyes regarding the incredibly damaging effects of pesticides and the complacency of our goverment in blindly accepting industry talking points about their safety. In spring 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson created Earth Day as a way to force this and other environmental issues onto the national agenda.
This year, an outdoor festival is planned in SLT to celebrate earth day. It is scheduled for Sunday, April 24 from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. at Bijou Community Park. If you live in the Tahoe area or plan to visit, please stop by and visit a booth or two. There will be food, arts and crafts and more to celebrate this historic day.
By BILL McKIBBEN, The New Yorker – Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, had, he said, “seen many scientific reports in my time, but nothing like this.” Setting aside diplomatic language, he described the document as “an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership,” and added that “the world’s biggest polluters are guilty of arson of our only home.”
by SARAH KAPLAN and BRADY DENNIS, The Washington Post – To avoid a hotter, deadly future, U.N. climate report says. Latest IPCC report details escalating toll — but top scientists say the world still can choose a less catastrophic path
by GERMAN LOPEZ, The New York Times – Among the headline-grabbing wildfires, droughts and floods, it is easy to feel disheartened about climate change. So I called experts to find out whether my sense of doom was warranted. We have reason for hope on climate change.
by JOHN GARON, Placerville – Republican alarms about deficit spending and inflation reflect the party’s limitless capacity for hypocrisy. The GOP opposes the Build Back Better Act because it would cost $3.5 trillion and will “bankrupt the country” — conveniently forgetting the important qualifier: “$3.5 trillion spread over 10 years.” Mind you, it’s the same GOP that voted for $9.1 trillion Trump and Bush II tax cuts, spread over one year.
by LARA GULARTE, Diamond Springs – In a recent letter to the editor, “Housing first disaster,” I had much to disagree with. The words I found especially offensive — “Do you want to live next to a group of homeless people who have no accountability of not doing drugs or gaining meaningful employment?”
By SOMINI SENGUPTA, New York Times – Warming is “unambiguously worsening” conditions that contribute to clashes and deepen the pain for civilians, a new study says.
BY HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
CBS News has hired Mick Mulvaney as a paid on-air contributor. In his first official appearance on Tuesday morning to talk about President Joe Biden’s budget proposal, anchor Anne-Marie Green introduced Mulvaney as “a former Office of Management and Budget director,” and said, “So happy to have you here…. You’re the guy to ask about this.”
South Lake Tahoe has seen a drop in its homeless population over the past year with Project Homekey programs and the efforts of the Tahoe Coalition for the Homeless.
Right on cue, Republican Senator Mike Braun of Indiana today told a reporter that states not only should decide the issue of abortion but should also be able to decide the issues of whether interracial marriage should be legal and whether couples should have access to contraception.
BY THE SACRAMENTO BEE EDITORIAL BOARD
The decision to place a loved one in psychiatric care can be traumatic, let alone the more overwhelming possibility that they might decline the care they need. Left untreated, psychiatric disorders can lead to homelessness, crime and incarceration or isolation in which the conditions may worsen.
