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Gore: Climate Crisis Should Be Top Issue
-- Mike -- 06/15/2007
Speaking at an event in Milan, Italy, Al Gore again reiterated that he is seeking to make global warming the key issue in the presidential campaign, according to the Associated Press. Said Gore:
"'In general, the debates have not featured prominently an exchange of views on the climate crisis. If I do my job, it will be the No. 1 issue in 500 days."
Gore also said that grassroots action is needed, saying it will take a "massive change of public opinion" for the political establishment to act.
Dodd Campaign Goes Carbon Neutral
-- Mike -- 06/14/2007
Chris Dodd announced yesterday that his campaign offices in the early voting states, as well as his Washington, D.C., and Connecticut headquarters, have become carbon neutral. Said Dodd in a statement:
"All Americans have a role to play in securing our energy independence, and I'm excited that our campaign will do its part. We must all do our share to begin turning the clock back on global warming and reducing our carbon footprint will go along way in stopping global climate change."
Obama Addresses Issue of Liquid Coal
-- Mike -- 06/12/2007
The United States Senate has been debating energy legislation this week, and one of the issues being discussed is liquid coal. Senator Barack Obama's office has issued a statement clarifying his position on the issue. It says:
"Today's incorrect story in CongressDaily 'Senate Debate Is Likely To Test Party, Regional Priorities,' misstates Senator Obama's position on the development of coal-to-liquid fuels. Senator Obama recognizes that global warming is one of the most significant problems that we face. He supports an 80% reduction in carbon emissions from all sources by 2050 and a 10% reduction in the carbon emissions of transportation fuels by 2020. Senator Obama supports research into all technologies to help solve our climate change and energy dependence problems, including shifting our energy use to renewable fuels and investing in technology that could make coal a clean burning source of energy. However, unless and until this technology is perfected, Senator Obama will not support the development of any coal-to-liquid fuels unless they emit at least 20% less life-cycle carbon than conventional fuels. If an amendment is offered on the Senate floor that would provide incentives for - or mandate the use of - coal-to-liquid fuels without these environmental safeguards, Senator Obama will oppose the amendment."
We'll continue to monitor the Senate's debate on energy policy and provide additional updates on candidates' positions on this and other important issues.
Richardson ‘Job Interview’ Ad Features Global Warming
-- Mike -- 06/12/2007
Bill Richardson has released a series of "job interview" TV ads, and his latest ad features him talking about global warming. In the ad, Richardson says:
"Global warming is critical for the next president. And no other state has done as much as New Mexico. We passed tax credits for wind, solar and bio fuels. Utility companies have to use renewable sources. And I set tough standards to reduce greenhouse emissions. President Bush doesn't follow the Kyoto Treaty, but my state does. I can do all that as president."
This ad comes on the heels of another recent Richardson ad that also focuses on global warming and energy.
Global Warming discussed at Forum on Faith & Politics
-- Anthony -- 06/11/2007
During the Sojourners Forum on Faith and Politics at The George Washington University in Washington, DC last Monday, global warming was highlighted in a discussion focused on the need for individual "sacrifice and restraint" with respect to issues that affect the common good.
In addition to other "critical" issues such as healthcare and taxes, Monsignor Kevin Sullivan of Catholic Charities USA included energy consumption in his question to Senator Hillary Clinton. Consistent with the theme of the discussion, Clinton stated that she is trying to inject faith into policy and further explained that "political consensus" is required to overcome the "extraordinarily complicated" road leading to solutions on these critical issues. Referring to global warming specifically, she said:
"We can't keep talking about our dependence on foreign oil, and the need to deal with global warming, and the challenge that it poses to our climate and to God's creation, and just let business as usual go on."
The inclusion of global warming into the forum's conversation on faith and politics not only emphasizes the relevance of this issue as a moral one, it also elevates the issue itself as a top concern to voters in the 2008 presidential election.
To view Clinton's reponse, click here.
Developing World Feeling The Heat
-- Mark -- 06/08/2007
When is a good time to take action on global warming, now or after the fact? As the presidential race starts to heat up, voters are getting a better understanding of where most candidates stand on the issue of global climate change. However, global warming's impact on the developing world is something that should be more thoroughly discussed.
According to the Daily Times, the threat of global warming as a result of anthropomorphic activity and, while it traces back to the Industrial Revolution, has increased dramatically in recent decades. Several countries are already feeling the effects.
The African country of Malawi, for example, is already experiencing the impacts of global warming. As scientists have predicted, with global warming comes more wildly fluctuating weather patterns, and Malawi's severe droughts in the 1990s were followed by intense flooding in 2000-2001. According to the Malawi Daily Times, these droughts have had irreversible and damaging effects on crop and livestock production. The country depends now more and more on imported maize to feed its people. The cruel twist is that corn prices are increasing worldwide because of the increased market for corn-based ethanol. Corn itself is a fertilizer and water-intensive crop that is hard on the soil. So Africa, which contributes on a per capita basis the least amount to global warming, has become among the first to experience its damaging repercussions.
Clearly, then, global warming is an environmental justice issue, something presidential candidates will have to take into account as they formulate their solutions.
Conservationists Follow Edwards Around South Carolina
-- Emma -- 06/07/2007
A presidential candidate finally visited South Carolina today, for the first time in what feels like weeks and giving many of us who work and volunteer for the Heat Is On project a welcome opportunity to travel to Florence, SC, to see John Edwards speak to a crowd in a local restaurant. There, we met local conservationists, and one of them asked the first question of the event: what is Edwards's position on new coal power plants, in particular the new one planned in Kingsburg, SC?
"I believe that until—and if—we have true carbon capture technology available, and in place, we should ban the building of any more of these coal-fired power plants,"Edwards said. "We need to be moving in the other direction. We have a serious problem facing America and the world, and that would move us in the wrong direction."
Edwards also took the opportunity to elaborate on the issue of climate change: "Global warming is a very serious issue facing America and the rest of the world. It's actually nearing crisis proportions now. And America has got to take action to deal with it. What I believe we need to do is I think we ought to cap carbon emissions in this country."
Edwards then enumerated a number of his energy positions, including a cap on carbon emissions that would achieve at least 80 percent reductions by 2050; investments in alternative energy sources like wind, solar, and cellulose-based biofuels; investments in carbon sequestration technology; and increasing fuel-efficiency standards.
Despite his lengthy answer, if Edwards was expecting to move on from environmental issues, he was mistaken. A woman none of us even knew asked if he considers nuclear fuel "clean energy." Edwards responded that he does not, citing waste and costs.
The event was such a success that Megan, Dubose, and I decided to follow Edwards to his next event of the day, in Bishopville, S.C., where Megan asked for his position on ethanol. The answer: he's not sure about the environmental impacts, but supports it in the short term. "For sure, corn-based ethanol plays an important role. I do think, over time, we're going to have to transition to other cellulose-based alternative biofuels."
Although I wasn't as adept with the camera as Megan was at getting Edwards's attention, we do have videos of both events posted here.
Candidates Discuss Global Warming, Oil
-- Mike -- 06/06/2007
The media sponsors of last night's Republican debate in New Hampshire generated the most significant discussion in a presidential debate yet on global warming, including a specific question on climate change directed to Rudy Giuliani.
Tom Fahey: Mayor Giuliani, sea levels around the world are rising. Average temperatures are increasing. A U.N. report written by scientists from 113 countries recently said that climate change is very likely man-made and may affect us for centuries to come.
Is science wrong on global warming? And what, if any, steps would you take as president to address the issue of climate change?
Rudy Giuliani: I think we have to accept the view that scientists have that there is global warming and that human operation, human condition, contributes to that. And the fact is that there is a way to deal with it and to address it in a way that we can also accomplish energy independence, which we need as a matter of national security.
It's frustrating and really dangerous for us to see money going to our enemies because we have to buy oil from certain countries. We should be supporting all the alternatives. We need a project similar to putting a man on the moon. That project started with Eisenhower. It was carried out by Kennedy and then Johnson and then Nixon. And that was two Democrats and two Republicans working - (audio difficulties) - working in the national interest.
Following that exchange, the media sponsors shifted the focus to a discussion on oil, in which Mitt Romney, John McCain, Jim Gilmore and Ron Paul were asked to weigh in.
Wolf Blitzer: I want Governor Romney to weigh in as well. There's a perception, at least among some, that Republicans are - at least the Republican Party - very close to big oil. A lot of Americans are suffering now from the price of gasoline, the high price of gasoline.
What do you say to that - the audience out there who believes that there's too much of an alliance, if you will, between the big oil companies and Republicans?
Mitt Romney: Well, first of all, Rudy Giuliani is right in terms of an Apollo project to get us energy independent, and the effects of that on global warming are positive. It's a no-regrets policy. It's a great idea.
Secondly, with regards to big oil, big oil is making a lot of money right now, and I'd like to see them using that money to invest in refineries. Don't forget that when companies earn profit, that money is supposed to be reinvested in growth. And our refineries are old. Someone said to me - Matt Simons, an investment banker down in Houston, he said our refineries today are rust with paint holding them up. And we need to see these companies, if they're making that kind of money, reinvest in capital equipment.
But let's not forget, where the money is being made this year is not just - throughout these years is not just in Exxon and Shell and the major oil companies, it's in the countries that own this oil. Russia last year took in $500 billion by selling oil. Ahmadinejad, Putin, Chavez - these people are getting rich off of people buying too much oil. And that's why we have to pursue, as a strategic imperative, energy independence for America. And it takes that Apollo project. It also takes biodiesel, biofuel, ethanol, cellulosic ethanol, nuclear power, more drilling in ANWR. We have to be serious also about efficiency - and that's going to allow us to become energy independent.
Wolf Blitzer: Senator McCain, do you have a problem at this time with these oil companies making these huge profits?
John McCain: Sure, I think we all do. And they ought to be reinvesting it. And one of the areas that they ought to be involved in is nuclear power. Nuclear power is safe, nuclear power is green - does not green - emit greenhouse gases. Nuclear power is used on Navy ships which have sailed around the world for 60 years without an accident. And of course we ought to be investing in alternate energy sources.
Recently there was a group of retired military officers who said that climate change an energy independence is a national security issue. It is. We've got to reduce our dependence on imported oil. We can do it through a wide variety of alternative fuels. But we have to be serious about it, and we're going to have to go places where we have never gone before. And nuclear power is one of the major issues, but also all kinds of ethanol as well, so.
Wolf Blitzer: Thank you. Thank you, Senator. Let me bring Congressman Paul back into this conversation. In 2005, President Bush signed an energy bill that provided billions of dollars in tax breaks, subsidies to the oil companies with the goal of boosting domestic production at a time of these record profits. Do you believe these companies need a helping hand from the federal government?
Ron Paul: I don't think the profits is the issue. The profits are okay if they're legitimately earned in a free market.
What I object to are subsidies to big corporations when we subsidize them and give them R&D money. I don't think that should be that way. They should take it out of the funds that they earn.
But I'm also - you can't discuss energy without discussing our foreign policy. Why - why do we go to the Middle East? You know that oil is very important about the Middle East and why we're there. Why did we, our government, help overthrow Mossadeq in 1953? It had to do with oil. So our foreign policy is designed to protect our oil interests. The profits - that's not the problem. It's the problem that we succumb to the temptation to protect oil interests by literally going out and fighting wars over oil.
Wolf Blitzer: Governor Gilmore, you agree?
Jim Gilmore: I agree that if you make profits in the open marketplace that that's an appropriate thing to do. I also believe that they should be going in, putting this additional money into additional drilling, into additional exploration, but it's going to have to be bigger than that. We're going to have to in fact look to all sources: ethanol, biomass, all coal, clean coal, the opportunities for natural gas, and nuclear power. And by the way, nuclear power will help this whole issue of global warming.
And one more point in direct answer to your question, the Kyoto Treaty was in fact fatally flawed. That was a treaty that in fact was going to basically just transfer money directly to Russia for nothing because they were going to get credits because simply that their economy had declined. The truth is, we're going to have to get a program in place, an international diplomatic answer that is going to include every nation of the world in this entire project, and that includes China and India.
Going forward, it's crucial we learn how all the candidates would work to solve the climate crisis.
What emissions reduction targets do they support? What would they do about our nation's stagnant fuel efficiency standards? What concrete goals would they set when it comes to improving our country's energy efficiency? What is the role of clean, renewable energy sources like wind and solar power?
Let's hope the candidates continue to discuss the issue of global warming on the campaign trail and in future debates.
Pre-Debate Visibility in New Hampshire
-- Mike -- 06/06/2007
Himalayan Glaciers Melting
-- Emma -- 06/06/2007
The Himalayan glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, according to pictures by the environmental organization Greenpeace, which show that a large piece of the giant Rongbuk Glacier on Mt. Everest has disappeared. "The demise of the ice towers is the most significant sign of global warming in the Himalayas," said Li Yan, a climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace in China. "But this is just one example of what is happening right across the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. All the glaciers are depleting, threatening the livelihoods of millions of people."
Glaciers on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau are the source of Asia's largest rivers, including the Yangtze, Yellow, Indus, and Ganges Rivers. In addition to threatening the water supply of local villages, large-scale melting also creates a flooding threat for the region, when small lakes that have collected runoff water flood their banks.
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