Last week, I heard presentations from the chief climate person at the World Bank on the outlook for international agreement in Cancun, a Harvard economist on the national outlook under the new Congress, and an MIT systems dynamicist on an online model of climate change anybody can play, C-LEARN http://forio.com/...
That's what scientists give the tiger. 12 years.
After that, look to textbooks and zoos to learn what a tiger was. The world our children will be inheriting will be an increasingly lonely one as we slowly (not so slowly it seems in terms of "normal" extinction rates) kill off the only planet we have.
Very simply, across the economy, energy efficiency is almost certainly the top investment option -- as individuals, businesses, communities, government ... The rate of return possibilities are tremendous and unlike gambles to grow business or play the stock market, this is 'guaranteed' cash in the bank.
And, it is 'cash in the bank' in terms of cost savings. It is 'cash in the bank' in terms of job creation. It is 'cash in the bank' due to improved resiliency in the face of (manmade or natural) disaster. It is 'cash in the bank' due to reduced pollution impacts and reduced GHG emissions. It is 'cash in the bank' many times over in many different ways.
Sadly, too many people buy into the concept that we need some great invention to do anything meaningful on climate change.
Sadly, too many people falsely believe that there is some great unaffordable cost to Energy Smart practices.
We need to push those false notions aside to enable transformational opportunities toward a prosperous, climate-friendly future.
USA Today ventured into investigative journalism in covering plagiarism in the Wegman report, which was commissioned by Texas Republican Joe Barton in 2006 when he was chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The USA story was covered in detail in a diary by Keith Pickering. However, plagiarism is really the tip of the proverbial iceberg in the Wegman report.
Barton and staff brushed off the plagiarism in the Wegman report, claiming the conclusions were valid.
Lisa Miller, a spokeswoman for Barton, reiterated the congressman's support of the Wegman report on Monday, saying it "found significant statistical issues" with climate studies.
False. Absolutely false.
Today I am officially turning over the blog reins to Mary Anne Hitt, the new Director of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign. She will now be blogging weekly on important coal and clean energy issues - so I urge you to bookmark her blog. Her first post is up now.
Mary Anne has been with the Sierra Club for two years, serving first as the Deputy Director of the Beyond Coal Campaign. Before coming to the Club, she was the Executive Director of Appalachian Voices and co-founded ILoveMountains.org, an online campaign to end mountaintop removal coal mining that received national recognition for innovation and impact.
This is my first post as director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, and I'm focusing on mountaintop removal because I've lived in Appalachia for most of my life.
My new baby daughter is an 11th generation West Virginian, and I often wonder how many mountains will be left standing in the Mountain State by the time she has a family of her own. For too long, mining companies have enjoyed loopholes and rubber-stamped permits that have allowed them to flatten over 500 mountains across Appalachia.
Earlier this year, though, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued new guidance aimed at consistently protecting Americans from the pollution caused by mountaintop removal coal mining. I welcome these common-sense protections by EPA.
In 2005, the Amazon region of Brazil confronted its worst drought in over a century. Now in 2010, an even worse drought has struck. The Rio Negro, the largest tributary of the Amazon above the city of Manaus, reached its lowest level since the beginning of record keeping in the 1800s.
Deforestation may not be the rain-forest's biggest enemy after all. As weather patterns change due to global warming, more frequent and more severe droughts are punishing the Amazon basin. Interspersed with these intense droughts are massive floods caused by record snow melt in the Andes - the Rio Negro reached its highest flood stage ever in 2009! The annual rise and fall of the rivers that have been a part of Amazon life for centuries are being driven to greater and greater extremes. How far before the balance is finally disrupted?
I apologize for the brevity of this diary, but as a picture is worth 1,000 words, I will leave you with this:
Follow this link for another "44,000 words."
Cross-posted at Eclectablog.com.
Last week in Ann Arbor, Van Jones spoke at the Ecology Center's 40th anniversary. Held on the campus of the University of Michigan, the event was a fundraiser but also an opportunity for Van Jones to share his thoughts on Michigan's role in the environmental movement, the success of places like the Ecology Center and why now is not the time for progressive liberals to give in to despair. In fact, NOW, he said, is the time when we're most needed.
Ecology Center 40th Anniversary Celebration at the UofM Michigan League