Environment
Historical category no longer used.
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By Carmen Black (Editor’s Note: Iowa Farmers deal with an existential reality that is the weather. Regardless of increasingly polarized discussions about climate change, weather affects real people in tangible ways. Carmen recently wrote this piece to members of her Community Supported Agriculture project Local Harvest.) The weather has been consistently challenging from the late… Read more
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The Environmental Protection Agency is not what it once was as the Trump administration finishes year two. In addition to public renunciation of the words “climate change,” combined with promotion of fossil fuels which contribute to global warming, Trump’s minions are eating away at the foundation of protections the agency created since President Nixon formed… Read more
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Almost no one I know outside of politics is talking about the Nov. 6 election. That seems typical… and okay. Most of us try to be organized. At least we pretend to be. We seek to live lives of logic, reason and decency. We’ll organize to figure out for whom to vote later, maybe around… Read more
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I’ve been a gardener since we got married. We planted a few tomatoes near the duplex we rented in Iowa City the spring after the wedding. As we lived our lives, raised our daughter, and sought economic stability, we either planted a garden or harvested what was there. When we owned a home, first in… Read more
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Governor Kim Reynolds proclaimed counties in Iowa to be a disaster because of severe weather. It is time to act on climate. Tornadoes tore through Marshalltown, Pella and Bondurant last Thursday as I got off work at the home, farm and auto supply store. It doesn’t appear anyone was seriously injured or died, although damage… Read more
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Ed Fallon lives and works in Des Moines and has long been a friend of Blog for Iowa. Here’s an update on Ed’s current activities from an interview conducted last week via email. We noticed you are affiliated with Bold Iowa. What is Bold Iowa and what attracted you to pitching your tent with them?… Read more
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The Trump administration is giving away access to our public lands for discovery and exploitation of minerals and fossil fuel reserves. Conservatives and mining interests are setting a place at the table to get their share. “Trump signed a pair of proclamations late last year reducing the size of the 1.35-million-acre Bears Ears National Monument… Read more
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Independence Day at the home, farm and auto supply store was a time to catch-up with organizing the warehouse, process expired pet food, reposition tall pallets of wood shavings, and generally clean up. The usual receiving activities slowed down as delivery drivers had the day off. The store was pretty busy and comme d’habitude, management… Read more
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Clouds broke while I watched it rain through the west-facing garage door. It was a slow, steady, gentle and soaking rain of the kind remembered from childhood. Realizing there might be a rainbow I rushed upstairs and looked out an east-facing window. I saw a double rainbow framing the garden plots and our back yard.… Read more
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In the end it didn’t rain. The forecast had been rain for a couple of days. The weather radar looked ominous Saturday at 4 a.m. It was heading our way. At sunrise I went to the garden to beat the rain. Our garden is big enough to engage a person for hours — weeding, harvesting, planting,… Read more
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