Hyper-individualism, the FAA, and the blame game

"…Trump's impulse to blame other people for the [DC air collision tragedy even before anything was known about its causes reflects his rejection of the concept of the American government in favor of the idea that the world is simply a collection of individuals. Since the early twentieth century, the U.S. government has performed an extensive and remarkably successful role in public safety. But Trump talks about the U.S. government—what he calls the "Deep State"—as if it is the enemy and must be destroyed, while elevating those operating outside of it as society's true leaders.

This rejection of the U.S. government began as soon as he took office as he purged officials and civil servants with the accusation that they had been poisoned by "Marxism," or diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Transportation safety officials were among those purged, and the loss of the person at the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) during former president Joe Biden's term, Mike Whitaker, after he clashed with Elon Musk captures Trump's antigovernment worldview. After Whitaker called for Musk's SpaceX company to be fined $633,009 over safety and environmental violations, Musk endorsed an employee's complaint that Whitaker required SpaceX "to consult on minor paperwork updates relating to previously approved non-safety issues that have already been determined to have zero environmental impact." Musk wrote: "He needs to resign."

Musk appears to believe that humans must colonize Mars in order to become a multiplanetary species as insurance against the end of life on Earth. As Jeffrey Kluger reported for Time magazine today, Musk has complained that the FAA's environmental and safety requirements were "unreasonable and exasperating" and that they "undercut American industry's ability to innovate." Musk publicly complained: "The fundamental problem is that humanity will forever be confined to Earth unless there is radical reform at the FAA!"

Whitaker resigned the day Trump took office. That same day, the administration froze the hiring of all federal employees, including air traffic controllers, although the U.S. Department of Transportation warned in June 2023 that 77% of air traffic control facilities critical to daily operations of the airline industry were short staffed. The next day, January 21, Trump fired Transportation Security Administration (TSA) chief David Pekoske, and administration officials removed all the members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, which Congress created after the 1988 PanAm 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. The Trump administration vacated the positions with an eye to "eliminating the misuse of resources."

Other vacant positions at the FAA, according to CNN's Alexandra Skores, are "the deputy administrator, an associate administrator of airports, an associate administrator for security and hazardous materials safety, chief counsel, assistant administrator of communications, assistant administrator of government and industry affairs, and assistant administrator for policy, international affairs, and environment."

…

HCR 

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/january-30-2025?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios

Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu

👣Solvitur ambulando

💭Sapere aude

Stoic ecology

One of the crucial Stoic concepts is that of oikeiôsis, which is often translated as "familiarization with" or "appropriation of" other people's concerns as if they were our own.

The root term is oikos, meaning "house, dwelling place, habitation," from which we get the modern words "ecology" (the study of the environment, that is, our house at large) and "economics" (initially, household management).

https://substack.com/@thephilosophygarden/note/c-89854349?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu

👣Solvitur ambulando

💭Sapere aude

The Coyote Hiding in the Produce Aisle

…Most of all we need to rethink our own relationship to the natural world. Learning to coexist peacefully — as individuals, families, neighborhoods and communities — isn't easy in the human realm, but it's almost effortless where wildlife is concerned. It's just a matter of remembering that this is their world, too. It costs us almost nothing to move over a little and make room. After all, they were here first.

—Margaret Renkl

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/opinion/chicago-coyote-aldi-wildlife-humans.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu

👣Solvitur ambulando

💭Sapere aude

The ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ Author Wants Us to Give Thanks Every Day

…The novelist Richard Powers said "Braiding Sweetgrass" moved him — he had to pull over when he was listening to the audiobook in his car because he was crying so hard. The book profoundly shaped his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Overstory," which centers on the lives of trees.

"So much of 'The Overstory' is imbued with Robin's vision of the agency of plants, seeing them as complex creatures that have a kind of intelligence," Powers said.

As her profile and influence have grown, Kimmerer has helped turn a lonely pursuit into a growing field of study and research.

Kimmerer now gives 80 to 100 talks a year, addressing universities, environmental groups, and state and federal conservation agencies. She founded the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Universities around the country have created programs and centers dedicated to traditional ecological knowledge. Some Indigenous leaders credit her with paving the way for more Indigenous people to pursue careers in science and ecology...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/29/books/braiding-sweetgrass-serviceberry-robin-wall-kimmerer.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu

👣Solvitur ambulando

💭Sapere aude

 U.S. News

Solar farms are booming in the US and putting thousands of hungry sheep to work

0 seconds of 1 minute, 25 secondsVolume 90%

 

By  NADIA LATHAN

Updated January 19, 2025

BUCKHOLTS, Texas (AP) — On rural Texas farmland, beneath hundreds of rows of solar panels, a troop of stocky sheep rummage through pasture, casually bumping into one another as they remain committed to a single task: chewing grass.

The booming solar industry has found an unlikely mascot in sheep as large-scale solar farms crop up across the U.S. and in the plain fields of Texas. In Milam County, outside Austin, SB Energy operates the fifth-largest solar project in the country, capable of generating 900 megawatts of power across 4,000 acres (1,618 hectares).

How do they manage all that grass? With the help of about 3,000 sheep, which are better suited than lawnmowers to fit between small crevices and chew away rain or shine.

The proliferation of sheep on solar farms is part of a broader trend — solar grazing — that has exploded alongside the solar industry.

Continues at: https://apnews.com/article/sheep-solar-texas-climate-333e72167bcf24047257e1be352ce1a9

On a Cold, Dark Inauguration Day, a Message From the Birds

"…Birds don't exist to serve as symbols, and yet they can't help but mean something to the symbol-making species watching them through a window or a storm door. On this Inauguration Day that brings no hope for help from elected officials to address climate change or to protect vulnerable species, including our own, the living world is showing us what to do: In the dark days already gathering, we will need to do our best to look out for one another and for the creatures we love."

Margaret Renkl 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/opinion/winter-birds-cooperation-survival.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Ground Up

+College students: register here for the next "Ground Up" advocacy bootcamp on how to make your campus more sustainable...

Bill McKibben https://open.substack.com/pub/billmckibben/p/for-reality?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web