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And the Oscar Goes to…
-- Mike -- 02/26/2007
Anyone reading this blog is probably already aware of this, but it's still worth acknowledging...
Congratulations to former Vice President Al Gore and the rest of the "An Inconvenient Truth" team on winning an Academy Award for Best Documentary Film. As we've said before, no one has done more to turn up the heat on our need to cool down the planet than Al Gore.
And, if by some chance you have not seen (!) "An Inconvenient Truth" yet, then by all means please stop by the video store on your way home today and rent it.
Cheney Still in Denial
-- Mike -- 02/26/2007
Despite the fact that a panel of international scientists recently issued a report, edited by representatives of 113 governments, that said human activity is "very likely" the cause of global warming, Vice President Cheney continues to deny the inconvenient truth about global climate change. Note this exchange during the vice president's recent interview with ABC News (emphasis added):
Question: But what's your sense, where is the science on this? Is global warming a fact? And is it human activity that is causing global warming?
Cheney: Those are the two key questions. I think there's an emerging consensus that we do have global warming. You can look at the data on that, and I think clearly we're in a period of warming. Where there does not appear to be a consensus, where it begins to break down, is the extent to which that's part of a normal cycle versus the extent to which it's caused by man, greenhouse gases, et cetera.
This is yet another reminder of the need to use the 2008 presidential nomination process as an opportunity to cultivate new national leadership on the issue of global warming.
Oceans Out of Balance
-- Adam -- 02/23/2007
Two Canadian news stories today highlight the shifts ocean ecosystems are experiencing due to increasing average temperatures. The Vancouver Sun article explores the relationship with increases in dead zones. Warmer water causes the metabolic rate of fish to increase and decreases the amount of oxygen that can be absorbed into solution. The report notes that seasonal dead zones appear along the Pacific Coast during warmer months and may become more numerous as temperatures continue to rise. Meanwhile, according to CBC News, the Atlantic coastal waters are now subject to warming-induced decreases in salinity and shifts in currents. The result there has been explosions of species lower in the food chain, even as predatory populations decline. These "secondary" ocean impacts haven't received quite the attention as other related problems, but as both pieces demonstrate they still constitute major ecological shifts beyond what we have observed before.
Romney Issues Statement on ‘Current Environmental Debate’
-- Mike -- 02/23/2007
Keying off a editorial on climate change from South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford in today's Washington Post, Mitt Romney issued the following statement:
"Governor Mark Sanford is right. Unfortunately, some in the Republican Party are embracing the radical environmental ideas of the liberal left. As governor, I found that thoughtful environmentalism need not be anti-growth and anti-jobs. But Kyoto-style sweeping mandates, imposed unilaterally in the United States, would kill jobs, depress growth and shift manufacturing to the dirtiest developing nations.
"Republicans should never abandon pro-growth conservative principles in an effort to embrace the ideas of Al Gore. Instead of sweeping mandates, we must use America's power of innovation to develop alternative sources of energy and new technologies that use energy more efficiently."
It's good that the candidates are engaged in a debate about climate change and the issues central to finding solutions to it, such as energy efficient, job-growing technologies. I look forward to hearing more details about Governor Romney's plan to address global warming.
Reporters Continue to Recognize the Importance of Global Warming
-- Mike -- 02/23/2007
John McCain's recent appearance with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger highlighting California's efforts to curb greenhouse gases certainly is a worthwhile news story, but the lead paragraph to Newsweek's article on it is worth noting not so much for what the reporter writes about McCain, but for what she writes about the issue of global warming (emphasis added):
Sen. John McCain got a little lost in the shuffle Wednesday. His appearance in California with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was all but eclipsed by the hissing match between Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. True, the reason for McCain's appearance-to call for a nationwide low-carbon fuel standard, similar to the one Schwarzenegger imposed in California earlier this year-isn't quite as sexy as a fight over the affections of Hollywood mogul and Democratic moneyman David Geffen, or McCain's own spat with Vice President Cheney. But the few dozen reporters willing to don ridiculous-looking neon orange safety smocks to join McCain and Schwarzenegger at a loading dock at the Port of Long Beach were on to a story far more significant to the 2008 presidential campaign-and beyond. How will the United States adapt its energy policies to cope with the potentially catastrophic economic consequences of climate change? "No matter who runs for president," said McCain, who has yet to officially announce his candidacy, "this will be a very, very big issue."
‘It Makes Good Economic Sense to Reduce Emissions’
-- Mike -- 02/23/2007
Foster's Daily Democrat reported yesterday on a global warming panel discussion at the University of New Hampshire earlier this week. Lots of interesting stuff, but I think this is particularly worth highlighting:
Tom Kelly, director of the university's Office of Sustainability, said the university is hard at work on reducing emissions on campus. UNH has been identified as a "climate protection campus," and interim president J. Bonnie Newman recently joined 67 other schools in signing the University President's Climate Commitment, which asks colleges and universities to identify their greenhouse gas output and develop a plan to reduce those emissions over the next three years.
"It makes good economic sense to reduce emissions. It also makes good ecological sense and good public health sense," Kelly said.
Flow Woes on the Colorado
-- Adam -- 02/22/2007
A National Research Council panel released a report yesterday that predicts dire impacts to the Colorado River from global warming, Rocky Mountain News reports. Competition over its water has been intense over several decades and the report indicates that issue will get only more heated as climate change brings significant flow reductions. "Regional drying and reduced stream flows" mean that less water will make it to growing urban centers and commercial farms. The article cites a 2005 study that projects a 20 percent decline from current flow levels. All of this is expected to have crippling effects on the economies of the seven user states and regional agricultural production.
Giuliani on Energy Independence in Spartanburg, SC
-- John -- 02/22/2007
On Wednesday, February 21, Mayor Rudi Giuliani spoke to supporters at a Spartanburg, SC fire station. According to Dan Hoover, staff reporter for the Greenville News, Mayor Giuliani addressed America’s need to achieve energy independence:
In calling for energy independence, Giuliani said everything must be on the table, including exploratory drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and in potential seabed fields off the East Coast."We have to look at all these things a second time, with more of an emphasis of solving this problem of energy independence," including greater use of nuclear, wind and solar power, cleaning up coal and stepped-up ethanol use, he said.
In proposing an Apollo-like program similar to the crash plan to land on the moon in the 1960s, Giuliani said, "Even if it costs more money, that money is being spent in our economy, it all gets produced here. Americans get to build it, Americans get to run it, Americans get to profit from it and we're in control of it.
"The sooner we get to energy independence, the safer we're going to be."
According to one NH newspaper, Global Warming is “Everyone’s Business”
-- Jim -- 02/22/2007
New Hampshire's Carroll County Independent newspaper weighed in this morning on Global Warming in an editorial in support of a resolution that will appear when over 180 towns meets across the state next month at town meeting. The resolution, put on town warrants by volunteers and organized by the Carbon Coalition, asks residents "to address the issue of climate change which is increasingly harmful to the environment and economy of New Hampshire and to the future well being of the people of [petitions fill in the individual town name]," sending results of the vote to the state's Congressional delegation, the President of the United States, and any declared candidates for those offices. It also supports establishment of a national program requiring reductions of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions while protecting the U.S. economy, and creation of a major national research initiative to foster rapid development of sustainable energy technologies.
The newspaper opined "Common sense says we can and do affect our environment. It has been demonstrated that green house gases trap heat in our atmosphere. It has been demonstrated that we are producing more and more of these gases, particularly carbon dioxide. If by some chance, part of the global warming phenomenon is caused by something other than human activity, that does not mean that human activities are not also playing a role. It would seem obvious that we can affect this issue by "cleaning up" our act, and equally obvious that we need to address this issue and that supporting the Carbon Coalition article will effectively help bring attention to it.
The goal of the Carbon Coalition is to have the resolution on Global Warming pass in at least 150 towns across the state. With the help of newspapers like the Carroll County Independent, that is likely to happen.
International leaders, business cut in
-- Adam -- 02/21/2007
Even with the Hill buzzing on the issue, many leaders in the private sector are continuing to be aggressive in promoting better climate-change policy. "Nearly 100 corporations, international organizations and experts agreed to a plan on Tuesday to cut greenhouse gas emissions, calling on governments to act urgently against global warming," Reuters reported. The plan seeks to do, in one respect, what the U.S. government has yet to achieve: significant reductions in the greenhouse gas. "Global Roundtable on Climate Change" participants have yet to settle on how differently limits would be set between rich and developing countries. In a trend becoming increasing more common, several of the companies involved have joined the cause after avoiding or denying the issue in the past. Some of the big names include Volvo, Citigroup, DuPont and AEP. Volvo's president said, "We feel strongly that as an industry we are part of the problem... We are also part of the solution."
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