Author: Greg Olmsted

Greg Olmsted is an author and photographer. He has Master of Science degrees in Environmental Health Science and Public Health Management. Greg uses the arts to increase public awareness of current affairs. Olmsted resides with his wife in Washington, DC.

FIRE DRILL FRIDAYS

By GREG OLMSTED — On October 11, 2019, Jane Fonda was arrested leading a climate crisis protest at the U.S. Capitol. Fifteen citizens concerned about climate change were arrested with her. Jane Fonda invites you to attend Fire Drill Fridays at 11am for the next  four months. She said “Every Friday in front of the capitol we are having a fire drill where we will speak about a specific issue having to do with climate change.” Watch Fire Drill Fridays videos here.

March for Our Lives, Washington, DC – Never Again!

Love > NRA

By GREG OLMSTED – On March 24, 2018, hundreds of thousands of students across the country demonstrated to demand stricter gun laws. The rally in DC was organized by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and funded by Oprah Winfred, Amal and George Clooney, Kate and Steven Spielberg, and others. I recorded Cameron Kasky’s speech at the beginning of the rally. Kasky is a student (a junior when the shooting occurred) at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and co-founder of Never Again MSD. Listen to Kasky’s speech and view some of the posters.

Women’s March DC – Normalize Empathy

By GREG OLMSTED – On January 21, 2017, the Women’s March on DC and around the world was an outpouring of energy and democracy.  The march was a rebuke to Donald Trump the day after he became President.  The Women’s March is one of the biggest political protests in US history.    The march was much larger than President Trump’s Inaguration – by hundreds of thousands.  Leading figures of women’s rights movement attending included Gloria Steinem, Cecile Richards and many others.  Visit the Women’s March homepage for a complete list of more than two dozen presenters.

Watch Michael Moore’s speech on his Facebook Page or the CBS video here.  He said to call your representatives at 202 – 225-3121 each day.  Public outcry stopped Congress from shutting down the Office of Government and Congressional Ethics.  Speak out against Donald Trump and take a more active role in local and national politics.

The Women’s March is just a beginning.   Join groups.  Join Planned Parenthood.  Increase your donations to Planned Parenthood and environmental organizations.

Chevron sells Hawaii Crude Oil Refinery

By GREG OLMSTED – After a six-year effort Chevron finally sold their refinery on Oahu. It was probably a fire sale – you may remember that Tesoro sold their Hawaii refinery in 2013 for only $75 million cash and it was almost twice as large.   Chevron started hemorrhaging last year (lost more than a half billion dollars in one quarter) and is furiously selling assets. Word in the industry is that they are slashing spending by 40 percent for each of the next two years. Ouch! Long story short: according to the Star-Advertiser, Island Energy Services LLC, a subsidiary of One Rock Capital Partners of New York, now owns a 58,000 barrels per day refinery, 58 gasoline stations (to be rebranded as Texaco, really?), and four fossil fuel distribution terminals (one on each main island) in Hawaii. That’s right, HAWAII.

Transporting crude to Hawaii for refining is a disaster waiting to happen. Read the first four chapters of my book Under Threat, A Strong Current Trilogy Book 3.  Under Threat describes the dramatic effect of a catastrophic oil spill when a supertanker breaks it’s back off the coast of Waikiki after colliding with a longliner fishing vessel.

Before the sale, Chevron had promoted a future utility-scale solar photovoltaic project on Oahu that would produce 1 megawatt, displacing 10,000 barrels of oil per year. Will Island Energy Services continue that project? Any hope for the solar thermal demonstration project that Chevron had considered for the refinery?

USGS releases fracking earthquake hazard maps

By GREG OLMSTED

Fracking update: In my earlier blog (Fracking Earthquake Wakes Journalists, October 13, 2015), I described what it was like to wake up to tremors while sleeping in a nice hotel in Oklahoma. The earthquake was caused by hydro-fracking. On Monday, the  USGS released maps showing new earthquake hazard areas.  The map includes Norman, Oklahoma and the hotel where I was staying.

During the recent Environmental Film Festival in Washington DC “Dear President Obama: The Clean Energy Revolution is Now” premiered at the National Geographic Society. “Dear President Obama” is a documentary about the fracking industry and harm inflicted on Americans.  To learn more about the film read the Huffington Post review and visit https://www.facebook.com/dearobamafilm.  To take action visit Americans Against Fracking.  And keep an eye out this fall for a screening of Dear President Obama film in a theater near you!

Free Subscription to The Daily Climate

By GREG OLMSTED

Each morning I read the NY Times and the Washington Post, and then I refill my coffee and peruse my email.  I always open my free subscription to The Daily Climate, knowing that the top climate news from around the world will be at my fingertips.  I encourage you to subscribe, too.   The folks at the Daily Climate do a wonderful job, reporting not only the top news stories but also solutions, consequences, and causes and politics — all relating to Climate Change.  Today, they featured an interview by Judy Woodruff, PBS News Hour called “Has Exxon Mobile mislead the public about its climate change research?”

Drone-eyed view of a melting ice sheet: Greenland

By GREG OLMSTED

Greenland, the world’s largest island, supports “one of the biggest and fastest-melting chunks of ice on earth,” according to an article in the New York Times.  And it’s quickly melting away.  The ice melts and forms lakes.  The lakes feed rivers.  The rivers flow into moulins or giant holes in the ice.  And the sea level rises.  Watch Josh Haner, a Pulitzer Prize winner in feature photography, drone along a beautiful, fast flowing river that vanishes into a moulin. 

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Drone update:  In my earlier blog (Breakfast with weather researchers and drones, October 17), I reported on the difference between hobby and commercial drones.  Since then, Anthony Fox, U.S. Secretary of Transportation announced that the Department of Transportation will be “Having a national registry of folks who are owners of drones and users of drones.”  Drone owners and users be advised: According to Mr. Fox, the Federal Drone Registry will include retro-active registration, too.  In fact, the control of drones is being fast-tracked: a task force will make recommendations before Thanksgiving and the federal government will require registration before Christmas sales of drones.  This is a major undertaking.  Both Amazon Prime Air and Google X’s drone delivery programs/businesses are task force members, along with Best Buy and Walmart.  But who is representing journalists and videographers?  In addition to the registration requirement, the FAA is working with CACI to develop a program that will track use of drones near airports and identify their owners.