What happened in Cancun: necessary but not sufficient.

by RLMiller

The UN negotiators reached a deal in Cancun very early this morning. It's being praised from virtually all angles, and it's being labeled as "modest" at the same time.

continued at Daily Kos....

We can do this

by LaughingPlanet

OK, so my previous post might have been a teeny bit alarmist. But, hey. We need a good slap in the face right now.

The good news is that those bleak scenarios need not become reality. The future has not yet been written. We are at what many call the jumping off point. We can stand on the edge of the diving board for hours, wetting ourselves, skeerd about diving in. We can succumb to cowardice & crawl backwards and give up.

OR, we can jump forward boldly and proudly. Who cares if we dive gracefully, cannonball, or belly flop? We will be in the pool where we wanted to be in the first place.

And, yes, if we don't jump in the pool, and quickly, the water will indeed rise and engulf us eventually anyway.

Hope for mankind is there to be found. Below are a few examples for those feeling exasperated and doomed. If we ramp up our efforts, the sky is the limit. Heck, we might even leave a world for our kids about which we can be proud!

continued at Daily Kos....

NYC Gov going "Locavore" Big Time!

by Eddie C

Today on The Leonard Lopate Show the lead story was called Feeding The Soul and for anyone seeking to restore their faith in good government, it did just that. Two guest in an interview to discuss Food Works in New York City that would have seemed an unlikely pair as recently as yesterday.

One was Chef Dan Barber who has been a great advocate in the New York area for the local food movement. The other was City Council speaker Christine Quinn. Today they were on the same page. It was amazing to hear Christine Quinn's introduction sounding more like Marion Nestle in talks about what the government needs to do, hearing a powerful politician discussing things being done now and progressive plans for a sustainable future. I've never heard such a merger of bottom up activism and top down good government action before.

The city has already moved $4.5 million in public school food spending over to local farms and is trying to change the $300,000 spent on school lettuce to money being pumped into the Rockland County farm economy and processing facilities in the economically depressed Bronx. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.

continued at Daily Kos....

Time to Keep Fighting, Mr. President

by Michael Brune

Has someone discovered a way to travel back in time to the Bush administration? On Tuesday, the EPA asked for a one-year delay on new rules for air pollution from industrial boilers. The very next day, the agency announced it wants to wait for another half year before setting new standards for ozone smog. Both actions defy every kind of logic but one -- pandering to polluters and their scare-mongering political allies.

Barack Obama ran and was elected on a promise to protect Americans by cleaning up the air that we breathe every single day. But to clean the air, you have to get your hands dirty. If the polluters who are complaining today had gotten their way for the past 40 years, there never would have been a Clean Air Act, and millions more Americans would have been sickened or died. Many of these polluters -- and their allies in Congress -- have fought progress to improve people's health at every opportunity. We need our president to fight back.

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Blackened Pork: Liquid Coal Subsidies Sneak into Senate Tax Bill

by Target Global Warming

Is regular coal not dirty enough for you? Meet liquid coal fuel! Destructive to mine, water-intensive to manufacture, devastating to our climate at every step of the way – liquid coal is one of the world’s dirtiest fuels. Liquid coal production emits twice as much global warming pollution as gasoline & requires at least four gallons of water per gallon of fuel produced.  

Today the National Wildlife Federation has learned the Senate version of tax legislation includes subsidies for liquid coal fuels.

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Help Me Improve a Letter to Sens. Pryor and Lincoln

by sustainable

Subject: Please support Clean Renewable Energy Companies in Arkansas through the extension of Treasury Grant Program 1603 and 48c Clean Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit because "Renewable Energy is Homeland Security"

(The following is freely ripped off, rewritten and combined from emails of suggested letters to politicians compiled by Arkansas Business Leaders for a Clean Economy and Infocast)

Dear Senator _,

I believe that Treasury Grant Program 1603 and 48c Clean Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit are critical to the continuing development of solar power, wind power, and other forms of renewable energy, which are important to the secure economic and environmental future of the United States of America. The ability to create these clean renewable power sources, however, is being seriously threatened by the lapsing of key U.S. government supports of the Treasury 1603 (Treasury Grant) program and the 48c Clean Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit, originating in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

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Village Green: Retrofitting a DC neighborhood for deep sustainability

by Kaid at NRDC

Having already begun a comprehensive energy and environmental retrofit of a key part of Denver’s Lower Downtown, the nonprofit organization Living City Block is now looking to do the same in a neighborhood in the heart of Washington, DC.  It is a fantastic project that stands to become a model for the greening of mixed-use urban neighborhoods across the country.

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Big Oil Praises Latest Obama Cave on EPA Regs.

by TomP

The caves keep coming.  The Obama adminstration is delaying new rules governing smog and toxic emissions from industrial boilers, and keeping the Bush standards for now.  Big Oil loves it, but wants even more.  

The Obama administration is retreating on long-delayed environmental regulations — new rules governing smog and toxic emissions from industrial boilers — as it adjusts to a changed political dynamic in Washington with a more muscular Republican opposition.

The move to delay the rules, announced this week by the Environmental Protection Agency, will leave in place policies set by President George W. Bush. President Obama ran for office promising tougher standards, and the new rules were set to take effect over the next several weeks.

snip

But in a striking turnabout, the National Association of Manufacturers and the  American Petroleum Institute — which have been anything but friendly to Mr. Obama — are praising his administration.

NY Times: E.P.A. Delays Tougher Rules on Emissions

continued at Daily Kos....

Gulf Watchers Friday - Double Inspections, For Now - BP Catastrophe AUV #439

by Lorinda Pike

You are in the current Gulf Watchers BP Catastrophe - AUV #439. ROV #438 is here.

Bookmark this link to find the latest Gulf Watchers diaries.

Please RECOMMEND THIS DIARY, the motherships have been discontinued.
   
Gulf Watchers Diary Schedule
Monday - evening drive time
Wednesday - morning
Friday - morning
Friday Block Party - evening
Sunday - morning

Part one of the digest of diaries is here and part two is here.

Please be kind to kossacks with bandwidth issues. Please do not post images or videos. Again, many thanks for this.

continued at Daily Kos....

I Love You But You're Full of Shi... Poop

by Jill Richardson

This diary is about the Cancun summit, saving the rainforests, the climate crisis, and Jane Goodall. I love Jane Goodall, but right now, she's full of shit. If you're one of the world's leading conservationists and you find yourself agreeing with the head of Wal-mart and the head of the World Bank on something, you need to ask yourself why whatever you're for is probably something you oughta be against. And that's where Jane Goodall finds herself right now.

Now, she's not the only one to point a finger at. There are an awful lot of total sleezebags who are all for the same thing. She's the one in the group who shouldn't be there. She's the one who oughta know better.

I'm a newbie when it comes to learning about saving the rainforests and the rights of indigenous people's in the Global South. I've only just visited the Amazon for the very first time, this year. But it doesn't take a lot of time there to learn to recognize bullshit when you see it.

continued at Daily Kos....

bangladesh & COP16: "real people don't live underwater"

by boatsie

फ़ेस् फ़ीयर् विथौत् फ़ीयर्

"Fear the threat until it comes. When it comes, turn and face it without fear." Sanskrit.

In no uncertain terms, officials and scientists representing Bangladesh at the Cancun talks made it clear yesterday that their country, which unabashedly occupies Ground Zero in the climate wars, is fearless and righteously proud in its determination to save itself by ensuring it receives an equitable share of fast track financing to assist developing countries in adapting to climate change.

"Loans are not an option for my country," said Bangladesh Minister of State for the Environment Dr. Hasan Mahmud. "We did nothing to create this problem and we should not be charged in solving it."

Unless something is done now, chances are in less than 40 years you will look at the map and Bangladesh will no longer be there. What will remain of this country will not be recognizable.

continued at Daily Kos....

eKos: Acidifying Oceans Endanger Web of Life

by FishOutofWater

Oceans acidifying at the highest rate since the last great mass extinction 65 million years ago, threaten marine life, coral reefs and nutrition for over a billion people according to a report (PDF)just released by the UN. Fossil fuel burning, cement production, deforestation and land use changes have increased atmospheric CO2 from 280 to 390 PPMs. Increasing atmospheric CO2 has dissolved in the oceans, increasing the acidity (decreasing the pH) by 30%. Increasing acidity is destabilizing shells and corals, threatening the web of life in the ocean.

Recent studies of a Mediterranean vent in shallow waters revealed key ecosystem changes in high CO2 areas compared to normal CO2 areas. Certain algae and seagrasses were found to grow more efficiently closer to the vents where there was also a large reduction in biodiversity, notably a loss of calcifying organisms adjacent to the vents where the pH was lowest.

continued at Daily Kos....

How the West is Winning Against Coal

by Mary Anne Hitt

The past month across the western U.S. has been filled with victories against coal:

--After a two year campaign, we locked down the permanent retirement of the Oregon Boardman plant (600-megawatts of dirty coal power) by no later than 2020, and we continue to push for earlier date.

--Los Angeles recently released a draft plan for the nation's largest municipal utility that gets out of one of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the country - the Navajo Generating Station in Arizona (though the plan still needs a little work [PDF]).

continued at Daily Kos....

Unvarnished truth is hard to swallow

by Steve Masover

A summary for a study titled Global Warming Warnings Can Backfire begins:

From  Priuses to solar panels and plastic-bag bans (and even green dating!),  it seems that everyone’s going green. The message that our world is in  danger if we do not take action is also everywhere: from images of baby  polar bears drowning to frightening images of a parched barren future.  The push to go green is based in good intentions, but an upcoming study  in Psychological Science shows that the popular 'do or die'  global-warming messages can backfire if the situation is presented too  negatively.

continued at Daily Kos....

Gulf Seafood - It's what for dinner if you are military, a prisoner or a student.

by Pakalolo

BP is providing tens of millions of dollars for local gulf communities to nationally market and promote the seafood caught off of their coasts. A worthy goal to be sure considering how these communities were impacted because of BP's crimes.

BP is spending millions and the US Government has provided additional funds for local communites and the Gulf States to do the same. It is estimated that forty to fifty percent of Gulf Fisherman are back to work catching seafood in the Gulfs waters. Many of the docks hosting these fishing vessels are requiring the fisherman to sign waivers that their product is safe. I certainly can not blame the dock owners in requesting the waiver.

continued at Daily Kos....

Suntech CEO at MIT

by gmoke

On 12/7/10 Zhengrong Shi, the founder and CEO of Suntech, one of the largest PV manufacturers in the world spoke at MIT, which has about 45 faculty now involved in solar research.  The event was a joint presentation of the MIT China Energy and Environment Research Group, MIT Energy Initiative, and MIT Energy Club.

My telegraphic notes follow.

continued at Daily Kos....

COP16, hairy flies, and giant storks: a mishmash Earthship Wednesday

by eKos

Welcome to the eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for green diaries and series.

Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.

Peruse the eKos Library to find previously listed diaries. You can also follow eKos on Twitter.

Tonight's editor: patrickz

With contributions from: citisven and WarrenS

continued at Daily Kos....

While you were arguing about taxes...

by LaughingPlanet

primary challenges, and Dancing with the Stars, our planet is galloping one day closer to real-life Waterworld.

Yesterday on my local listener-supported radio, I heard a powerful & terrifying interview with the author of a book I am now afraid to read.

"The Flooded Earth" by University of Washington professor Peter D. Ward, paints a detailed picture of where we are headed in the not-distant future. If mankind does not change its ways, and quick, the reality of what our planet will look like is not pretty, to put it very mildly.

Hearing the facts about climate change, it is hard for me to watch our current discourse about minor day-to-day trifles when it is so clearly this one, singular issue which will supersede all else unless we turn our full attention to it right now.

continued at Daily Kos....

Nourishing the Planet TV: Banking on the Harvest

by NourishingthePlanet

Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.

In this week’s episode, Nourishing the Planet research intern, Abigail Massey, explains how women in Nigeria are using an innovative kind of bank to help their communities get through the hungry season between harvests. Instead of money, these banks give out credit in the form of cereal. And because they are managed entirely by women, the banks not only improve food security, but also help to improve overall gender equity.

continued at Daily Kos....

Gulf Watchers Wednesday - BP Contractor Thumbs Nose at Commission - BP Catastrophe AUV #438

by peraspera

You are in the current Gulf Watchers BP Catastrophe - AUV #438. ROV #437 is here.

Bookmark this link to find the latest Gulf Watchers diaries.

Please RECOMMEND THIS DIARY, the motherships have been discontinued.

Gulf Watchers Diary Schedule
Monday - evening drive time
Wednesday - morning
Friday - morning
Friday Block Party - evening
Sunday - morning

Part one of the digest of diaries is here and part two is here.

Please be kind to kossacks with bandwidth issues. Please do not post images or videos. Again, many thanks for this.

continued at Daily Kos....