It’s no secret that most Tea Baggers, many Republicans, and even some Democrats don’t believe that human activity has caused, and is increasingly causing, the Earth’s climate to change.
Apparently, neither the potential for economic recovery nor threats to U.S. national security can budge climate change deniers from their positions.
The U.S. military, on the other hand, operates in the fact-based world.
There's been a lot of tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth lately about the utter helplessness of the Obama Administration to even pretend to do something about the accelerating climate catastrophe.
And it's true. But, ummmm.... nobody is talking about what we do now.
I have a few suggestions.
As part of the Obama Administration's celebration of National Energy Awareness Month, there have been some great environmental news this week. First, the Obama administration announced they are putting U.S. built solar panels back on the White House, as well as a solar hot water heater on the roof of the White House Residence (see Lawrence's great diary on this subject).
Did you know that now you can put solar on your roof in New Jersey, and earn actual cash for 15 years for doing so? Even though you'll also get to use that clean power you make - because you can stop paying electric utility bills (that average 17 cents a kWh in the state) yet simultaneously: your solar home actually earns money for producing electricity, too. You get to have your cake and eat it too.
The money you can earn comes through legislation akin to the remarkable Feed-in Tariffs that shot Germany and Spain to solar leadership. You earn the money for sending clean sunshine power to the grid with Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs)that utilities have to buy.
The money you can make can be staggering. As much as $100,000 over 15 years.
The military has begun to deploy clean energy technology into combat zones. The reasons for the military's interest in clean energy are important because they undercut the disinformation campaign by the fossil fuels industry. For the military, clean renewable forms of energy are reliable, cheaper, and produce less supply chain vulnerability.
With insurgents increasingly attacking the American fuel supply convoys that lumber across the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan, the military is pushing aggressively to develop, test and deploy renewable energy to decrease its need to transport fossil fuels.
Last year I wrote a little noticed diary about a man who is bringing clean, potable water to thousands of folks in parts of the world where it's badly needed. Read about Scott Harrison's charity: water. I posted it on New Year's Eve and that might explain the slow traffic.
This story is personal to me as one of my uncles lived in the Central African Republic, in Bangui, where he was stationed in the fifties and sixties to teach farming. As a kid I remember watching in awe the grainy B&W films he used to send to us twice a year.
Despite the economic downturn, charity: water has managed to perform miracles for the Bayaka in the Central African Republic.
Just in time to give the Global Work Party a White House-sized boost, the Obama administration announced this morning that they are going to put solar panels on the First Family's living quarters, returning to a tradition begun by president Jimmy Carter and abandoned by Ronald Reagan.
You are in the current BP Catastrophe Morning Edition - AUV #403. ROV #402 is here.
The digest of diaries is here.
Please RECOMMEND THIS DIARY, the motherships have been discontinued.
Bookmark this link to find the latest Gulf Watchers diaries.
Please be kind to kossacks with bandwidth issues. Please do not post images or videos. Again, many thanks for this.
PLEASE visit Pam LaPier's diary to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!
Cross-posted at Eclectablog.com.
Last night, Rachel Maddow had actor Mark Ruffalo on last night to talk about fracking in New York and Pennsylvania. By now, you've surely seen the scene from "Gasland" where the guy lights his tap water on fire. This is due to fracking wells that pump chemicals and water into the bedrock shale to fracture it and release the natural gas. As Maddow points out, the fracking is done several thousands of feet below where the aquifer is which, apparently, leads to ignitable tap water.
According to Ruffalo, the Delaware River Commission is getting ready to put upwards of 30,000 wells in there.
Meanwhile, the "Energy Citizens" group, an astroturf group promoting status quo for clean energy sent me a very interesting email recently.
More after the jump.
Jimmy Carter started it all by installing solar panels on the White House and pushing hard for renewables and energy independence.
Then came Reagan/Bush and 30 years of a Republican-driven agenda and the U.S. went from being on the forefront of the renewables industry to being a laggard.