Last year, Pentagon defense adviser Andrew Marshall issued aharsh warning of the consequences of climate change: mass chaos,national security crises and food shortages. If climate changeoccurs abruptly, the report declared, there could be acatastrophic breakdown in international security. Wars overaccess to food, water, and energy would likely break out betweenstates. Even if is more gradual, recent studieshave argued that as many as one million plant and animal speciescould be rendered extinct by 2050 due to the effects of globalwarming. is the most serious challenge facingthe international community. In order to plan for a sustainablefuture - one that meets needs today without compromising meetingthe needs of future generations - global warming must beaddressed. We have arrived at a stage in human evolution thatrequires international cooperation - a stage which demands thatworld leaders put world priorities ahead of national politicalagendas in order to halt the peril threatening humanity. In1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED)asked all nations to renew their commitment to implementpolicies based on the three pillars of sustainable development -economic, environmental and social - in order to arrestenvironmental deterioration and revive world economic growth. Inparticular, the report stated, poverty has played a major rolein environmental degradation. Not only is it our moralobligation to eliminate poverty, the report revealed it isessential to protecting and improving the environment. Furtherreports have concluded that environmentally unsound technologyhas been exponentially far more detrimental to sustainabledevelopment than even population growth. In order to achievesustainable development, the Commission reported, our citiesmust be considered in the global concerted effort. Sincethree-fourths of the global warming pollution could be solved ifwe decreased burning fossil fuels, one of the most effectiveways to transform urban growth is by switching to alternativeenergy sources. Fortunately, there are many means of harnessingenergy which have less damaging impacts on our environment thanfossil fuels, and we already have developed all thetechnological resources needed. Now we must admit there is aproblem and start working in the direction to make thistransition. If our current leaders do not want to face thispressing challenge with integrity, then as Leonardo Dicapriourges, we need to vote for leaders who care about theenvironment and our health and the future generations who willbear the burden long after the Administration is gone.
A Call to Action
On October 25, 2005, Senator Hillary Clinton (NY) called for anational energy strategy enlisting the oil industry in a processthat would help consumers while making the transition toalternative energy technologies. Her plan redirects the hidden"tax" that Americans are already paying to OPEC and the oilcompanies, but lasts only long enough to" kick-start thealternative energy market that we all know is out there," sheexplained. Speaking to Cleantech Venture Network, a group ofventure capitalists who recently were named by Wall StreetJournal reports for their success in developing clean energy asa viable investment category, Clinton emphasized the immediateconcern which is how to help citizens pay their bills and keepthe economy moving in the face of dramatically higher energycosts. There is no question, she said, that our failure to makebetter energy choices is sapping our pocketbooks, limiting ourcompetitiveness, threatening our environment and even ournational security. "Hurricanes Katrina and Rita made thatbrutally clear." The far reaching problem we face, SenatorClinton stated, is coping with the impacts of massive economicdevelopment and competition for oil in other parts of the worldsuch as India and China in the next twenty years. "Looseningenvironmental standards or opening up a new oil field or two isnot going to offset this seismic shift in energy demand," sheexplained. Her plan unburdens the American people of foreign oildependence, investing a portion of the profits into the U.S.energy future, instead of regimes we would never choose tosubsidize. The oil industries can choose to either reinvesttheir profits into America's energy future or contribute to anew Strategic Energy Fund, she said. The Strategic Energy Fundwould help consumers cope with spiraling energy costs, promoteadoption of existing clean energy and conservation technologies,while stimulating research and investment by the private sector.She also recommends assessing an alternative energy developmentfee for those companies deciding not to directly reinvest in ourenergy future. That fee, she explained would help fund energytransition. "The Fund could generate as much as $20 billion ayear to help with home heating oil costs and develop new energystrategies." In this way, she explained, we would reduce ourreliance on fossil fuel, make existing alternative technologiesmore affordable, jump start our technology, and regain U.S.world leadership. It's got "Made in America" written on it, inaddition to providing a role model for developing nations. The"energy revolution" can be as big and important as theindustrial revolution and the explosion of the information age.However, we have to do what America has always done when facedwith a big challenge, she said, "roll up our sleeves anddedicate this country to finding a solution." In effect, sheexplained, "the country that put a man on the moon can be thecountry to find new lower cost and cleaner forms of energy. Ournation needs it. Our planet needs it."
Addressing in the Environment of a Hostile U.S.Administration One of the most important outcomes of the 2002World Sustainable Summit Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg,South Africa, was the decision to address at theglobal level, starting at the local level-- all mandates thatmust be enacted locally as well as globally in order to begin toimpact the effects of climate change. A decade earlier, the Riode Janeiro Summit articulated the need to include humanity aswell as environmental protection in the sustainability equation.Hence, it concluded, the critical problem of poverty must alsobe addressed. When the United Nations authorized the WorldSummit on Sustainable Development in 2002, it had alreadyrealized poverty had deepened and environmental degradation hadworsened since the 1992 Summit. The world needed a new summit ofactions with results, and not just intent. Managing urbanenvironmental conditions ultimately belongs with nationalgovernments, businesses, scientific bodies, and communitiesworking together; but history shows us U.S. involvement hasalways sped and strengthened global progress in improving urbanenvironmental conditions for sustainable development. AlthoughU.S. partnership is needed to meet the increasingly urgentdemands to make cities livable, the Bush Administration has notbeen forthcoming. While the 2002 WSSD Johannesburg Summit wasthe highest attended conference by world leaders, President Bushwas sorely missed. According to original plans, explainedparticipant Kaarin Taipale, "the 2002 WSSD summit would havecoincided with the first anniversary of 9/11." Conference dateswere changed at that the last minute in order to make it easierfor the President to attend. Instead, Secretary of State ColinPowell traveled to Johannesburg to speak on the President'sbehalf, where as Taipale recalls, "he was infamously booed."Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobrianskysoon retorted by telling Summit attendees to focus on actions,"actions being better than words." U.S. action has been remiss.Vice Chairman of Friends of the Earth Tony Juniper said theUnited States has a lot to answer for what has gone wrong sincethe Rio de Janeiro Summit in 1992. Many trends that werecategorized as urgent at that summit - such as poverty,biodiversity loss, deforestation, and overexploitation ofrenewable resources - had either stayed the same or becomeworse. First, the U.S. refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol atthe 2002 Summit - the single most important environmental treatyto stop Climate Change. In addition, Juniper reported, the BushAdministration had been telling the world about the importanceof free trade while protecting its own steel industry and hikingagricultural subsidies to the degree of harming other nations.In fact, heavy pressure on the U.S. Administration for Bush notto attend the Summit, said Juniper, seemed to originate with thebig business and corporate lobby. U. S. representatives to theSummit proposed business friendly partnerships, but opposed thevery necessary targetive actions on sustainable development.Although the United States makes up four percent of the world'spopulation and produces 22 percent of the world's greenhousegases, it's refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol's call forreductions in the greenhouse gases merely underscores Federalunwillingness to address climate change. Claiming that thetreaty would raise energy prices and kill five million U.S.jobs, the Administration has even raised questions about thescientific legitimacy of climate change. As British PetroleumCEO John Browne put it, "The time to consider the policydimensions of is not when the link isconclusively proven, but when the possibility cannot bediscounted." The Union of Concerned Scientists, a group of 6,000scientists, including 48 Nobel laureates, warns that the Bushadministration's overtly anti-science bias undercuts scientificintegrity. This bias was clear when the The New York Timesreported that a White House official who once led the oilindustry's fight against limits on greenhouse gases hadrepeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that playdown links between such emission and global warming. The WhiteHouse response: the reports were "scientifically sound." AsJournalist and author Chris Mooney explained, the Administrationrelied on those energy interests who have a documented historyof muddying the role that humanity plays in whileconsciously strategizing to "sow confusion on the issue and swayjournalists." According to a study published by Princetonprofessors Robert Socolow and Stephen Pacala, the U.S. couldreduce emissions to below the 1970 levels just with its currenttechnology. "We in fact already have everything we need to facethis challenge," Vice President Gore has said, "save perhapspolitical will. But in our democracy political will is arenewable resource." Because the Federal government has failedto get involved internationally, state and local officials havebeen left alone to address the gravity of excess greenhouse gasemissions. Without Federal direction, Senator Clinton haswarned, the varying standards that result from the differencesin local policies could create havoc for the private sector. Tomake matters worse, approximately 100 high-level Administrationofficials who help regulate industries they once represented -as lobbyists, lawyers, or company advocates - are all part of aneffort to avoid addressing global warming. (2004, NaturalResources Defense Council (NRDC)). London's "Guardian" hasfurther reported that the environmental group Greenpeaceobtained documents indicating President Bush's global climatepolicy was heavily influenced by Exxon, Mobil and other oilcompanies. In briefing papers given to U.S. Under Secretary ofState Paula Dobriansky between 2001 and 2004, "theadministration is found thanking Exxon executives for thecompany's 'active involvement' in helping to determine climatechange policy, and also seeking its advice on what climatechange policies the company might find acceptable." Quietly, inthe background of policy change, by mid August 2004 theAdministration had already rolled back more than 400 majorenvironmental mandates, causing the protection of our nation'sair, water, public land and wildlife to be severely weakened.This anti-environment spirit, reports Robert Kennedy, Jr.,pervades virtually all of the Sub-secretariats today, includingthe Department of Agriculture, Interior, and Energy. In contrastto entering public service for the public interest, theseofficials are motivated by the intent to specifically subvertthe very law they are now charged with enforcing. "The currentAdministration," he says, "has put the most insidious pollutersin charge of all the agencies that are supposed to protect theAmerican people from pollution." One notable exception wasChristine Whitman, appointed by Bush to head the EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA). In 2002, she released a report statingthat was an urgent problem created by humanactivity that would quickly create other problems unlessimmediately addressed. A public relations crisis ensued whenMyron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute declared"someone should be fired" over this. Apparently, White HouseChief of Staff on Environmental Quality and former lobbyist forthe American Petroleum Institute Philip Cooney did not see(edit) the report before it was released. President Bushpublicly discounted the report by calling it a report from "thebureaucracy." Whitman resigned from the EPA soon after. At theClinton Global Initiative, a summit of actions and results heldby President Clinton in New York last September, Al Gorereported that some of those who benefit from unrestrainedpollution from global warming also spend millions of dollarseach year creating pseudo-studies that cloud the issue. This isnot the first time this type of swaying from industry lobbyistshas occurred. After the Surgeon General warning of the dangersof smoking, Gore noted, the tobacco industry hired 'scientificprostitutes' to argue that smoking was good for people. Whilesuch actions can be understood, he said, they are notacceptable, "not when the fate of the earth - rather, the fateof a habitable earth for human beings -- is at stake." He quotedmuckraker Upton Sinclair who wrote more than a century ago: "Itis difficult to get a man to understand something when hissalary depends upon him not understanding it."
Article Continues at: http://www.elizabethautumn.com/id97.html
About the author:Elizabeth Autumn, MBA, is a freelance reporter. She coversenvironment and corporate governance issues. Completing herMasters in Environmental Management at Harvard University,Elizabeth also writes for Crane's Magazine, Create Magazine, andPublishers Weekly. Prior to this she was a freelance producerfor Fox News, in addition she worked for CBS News on theEmmy-Award winning CBS Documentary "9-11", The Early Show, and60 Minutes.
Electricity from Trash
Capturing methane from rotting garbage will help reduce climate change due to greenhouse gases.
Waste Management is creating electricity from rotting garbage at 100 of its landfills, and plans more such projects. This is a double win, as the methane gas produced by the garbage has a 21 times worse greenhouse gas effect than carbon dioxide. But now it can be captured to create energy rather than being emitted into the atmosphere.
Read more: Electricity from trash
]]>
Astrologer Fails to Predict Cyclone
It wouldn't be important that an astrologer failed to predict the Myanmar cyclone if astrology weren't important there.
Continuing on the theme of what can and cannot be predicted, the weather is the next logical topic and evidently a noted Burmese astrologer has publicly apologized for his failure to predict Cyclone Nargis. But in a country like Myanmar where they take astrology seriously, evidently the citizenry depends on their astrologers for this kind of thing:
Read more: Astrologer is sorry for failure to predict cyclone
]]>
Climate Analysis
From a post on calculating CO2 impacts correctly.
?m using this as an example of the kind of armchair analysis I would love to see more consumers and voters do on their own when faced with any buying or voting decision that has significant energy and/or environmental implications. Does this candidate?s claim make sense? How much money can I save by adjusting my thermostat a couple of degree or car pooling? How much CO2 can I avoid by signing up for 100% green electricity?
Read more: Analysis, done right
]]>
Angelo's Is Back
Angelo's Restaurant in St. Marks was swept away by Hurricane Dennis.
Angelo?s was washed away by Hurricane Dennis in 2005 and just recently reopened this winter. It?s a beautiful place, lovely view and great food, but not the place to grab a quick and cheap bite to eat. We had enjoyable meal, though, sitting on the deck and watching the boats and birds over the bay.
Read more: Saint Marks Lighthouse
]]>
Is Carbon Neutrality Actually Possible?
A look at whether products can achieve carbon neutrality.
The big question is where do you draw the line and say that this company is carbon neutral/negative and this one is not when they all rely heavily on carbon positive support?
Read more: Is Carbon Neutrality Actually Possible?
]]>
Review: The End Of Suburbia
Will climate change force us to re-think suburban development?
Of course, no one knows what?ll happen to the suburbs we have now. Will they become the slums of the future? At least one expert in the film predicts a scarier scenario where we may not even have time to build new ?hoods with new urbanist design principles; we may just need to salvage what we have left in the face of global climate change.
Read more: Film review: The End of Suburbia
]]>
Why Do They Hate Us?
A look at climate change and politics.
Yet another hot button topic these days is climate change and the environment. On the surface, you wouldn't think that this should be a conservative vs. liberal topic. After all, climate change is either happening or it isn't. And yet this is an issue that divides conservatives from liberals as much as any other.
Read more: Why do they hate us?
]]>
The Perfectly Timed Vacation
Hurricane Ivan and other hurricanes have changed travel economics.
The best deals on lodging aren?t necessarily found in the hotels, but the low-rise condos. Thank Hurricane Ivan for that, she says. Many hotels were damaged by the 2004 storm, and have recently been repaired and reopened. So if you don?t mind staying in a condo, low season ? at least when it comes to saving money ? may last longer than a season. It could extend months, or longer.
Read more: 4 secrets for the perfectly timed vacation
]]>
We Interrupt This Program
Has the federal government lost all credibility in natural disaster recovery?
Excuse me, while I open a space in the political discussion to point out something beyond the primaries on Tuesday - a powerful series of thunderstorms ripped through the Mid-South with tornadoes that killed at least 54 people and injured hundreds. They have been promised help by George W. Bush, which I can tell you as someone who lives in an area struck by hurricane Ivan in 2004 and knows what the Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas Gulf Coast still looks like after Katrina and Rita in 2005, is not going to happen any time soon.
Read more: We Interrupt This Program
]]>
Anatomy Of A Local Breaking News Story
A great behind-the-scenes look at coverage of Hurricane Wilma from the local point-of-view.
Back in 2005, when Hurricane Wilma was about to smack the Naples area, our news organization made a commitment that when it came to real-time coverage, we were not going to get beat on this story by CNN or The Weather Channel or any other news organizations.
Read more: Anatomy of a local breaking news story
]]>
Hurricane Felix Making Landfall
Is the quote machine broken:
The Nicaragua coast is experiencing powerful winds and surge at this time, as the wrath of a catastrophic monster category 5 hurricane Felix with winds of 160mph and gusts close to 190mph moves inland over Nicaragua very close to Punta Gorda and Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua. Felix is the second category 5 hurricane to make landfall this year, and before Hurricane Dean a week or so ago, there were no land falling hurricanes at category 5 status for 15 years.
Read more: Hurricane Felix Making Landfall In Nicaragua
]]>
Save The World From Your Desktop
Seven good tips to reduce climate change from the comfort of your computer.
Use GoLoco to make carpooling a whole lot easier, and do your part to reduce CO2 emissions and lessen traffic congestion.
Read more: 7 Ways to Save the World Using Your Desktop
]]>
Dean Update - Monday, Aug 20, 11 AM
Waiting for Hurricane Dean.
Everybody?s talking about the hurricane and now everyone?s saying that it looks like it?s going south. We?re continuing our preparations (and so is everyone else, apparently), but we?re less worried. We?re reminded that with both Hurricane Emily and Hurricane Wilma, it barely even rained in Merida. It?s good to keep in mind that what happens on one end of the Yucatan Peninsula, doesn?t necessarily effect the whole peninsula.
Read more: Dean Update - Monday, Aug 20, 11 AM
]]>
600 Naked People On A Vanishing Glacier
Click through for pictures of the living sculpture atop the vanishing glacier.
Installation artist Spencer Tunick and Greenpeace Switzerland present a living sculpture: hundreds of naked people symbolise the vulnerability of the glaciers under climate change.
Read more: 600 naked people on a vanishing glacier
]]>
Bad Climate Change News Was Too Optimistic
The news on iceberg meltdowns is bad.
However, China is preparing for climate change induced disasters and plans 24 hour response with food and water for any emergency. Too bad the US isn?t doing the same.
Read more: That bad news about climate change was too optimistic
]]>
Additional Resources
Renewable Energy & Environmental Jobs
Recruitment within the Climate Change and Energy division has seen a boom within the first half of 2006. Consultancies, Developers and Utilities are all facing the challenge of how the can compete Read more...
|
Additional Resources
Climate Change – What’s All That About?
By Davis Green
Well….. The greenhouse effect is the natural process by which the atmosphere traps some of the Sun's energy, warming the Earth enough to support life as we know it!When humans cut down trees Read more...
|
We strive to provide only quality articles, so if
there is a specific topic related to climate change that you would
like us to cover, please contact us at any time.
And again, thank you to those contributing daily to
our climate change website.
