Report: Venture Capitalists, Food Companies Among 1,160 Businesses Lobbying on Climate Change

DemocracyNow!
December 29, 2009

We take a look at some of the more unusual businesses and interest groups lobbying Congress on climate change issues. A new Center for Public Integrity analysis of federal records shows that the 140 companies that joined the fray for the first time late this year include venture capitalists, the natural gas lobby, and America’s most iconic soup maker, Campbell Soup...

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Chief G-77 Negotiator Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping: US-Backed Proposals Mean Death for Millions of Africans

Democracy Now!
December 18, 2009

With the talks entering the final twenty-four hours, a leaked UN document—exposed yesterday on Democracy Now! with French news website Mediapart—has created a firestorm of controversy here at the summit. The UN memo determines that global temperatures would rise by an alarming three degrees Celsius, or 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit, under the current emissions targets being discussed. We speak to Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, the chief negotiator for the G-77, the largest developing country bloc represented at the COP15.

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Citing Its Survival, Pacific Island of Tuvalu Interrupts Copenhagen Summit to Call for Binding Climate Commitments

DemocracyNow!
December 10, 2009

The Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu has taken a firm stand at the climate talks here in Copenhagen, citing its very survival as being at stake. Tuvalu is among the world’s most vulnerable to rising sea levels due to climate change. On Wednesday, Tuvalu tried to get the full conference to consider a legally binding new protocol that would require more aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and a more ambitious climate target than is being considered...

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By Harvey Wasserman
Online Journal Guest Writer
November 27, 2009

...As always, official announcements emphasize that the public was “in no danger.” That was an epic lie in 1979. This time Exelon’s Ralph DeSantis said things were rapidly “back to normal.”

DeSantis then said radiation could be quickly wiped off protective outfits, while “it takes two to three days for radiation to naturally leave the body of anyone who breathed it in.”

This is a ghastly lie. Among other isotopes, alpha and beta emitters -- especially from radioactive dust -- can easily lodge in the lungs and other internal organs long enough to damage cells and cause numerous forms of cancer, often lethal...

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Naomi Klein on Climate Debt: Why Rich Countries Should Pay Reparations To Poor Countries For The Climate Crisis.

DemocracyNow!
November 23, 2009

With the Copenhagen climate summit two weeks ago, best-selling journalist Naomi Klein examines the grass-roots movement behind the climate debate proposal that argues all the costs associated with adapting to a more hostile ecology—everything from building stronger sea walls to switching to cleaner, more expensive technologies—are the responsibility of the countries that created the crisis. Klein also discusses the 10th anniversary of the Seattle WTO protests and the 10th anniversary of her first book, “No Logo.”...

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Watchdog: New York State Regulation of Natural Gas Wells Has Been “Woefully Insufficient for Decades.”

DemocracyNow!
November 10, 2009

The New York-based Toxics Targeting went through the Department of Environmental Conservation’s own database of hazardous substances spills over the past thirty years. They found 270 cases documenting fires, explosions, wastewater spills, well contamination and ecological damage related to gas drilling. Many of the cases remain unresolved. The findings are contrary to repeated government assurances that existing natural gas well regulations are sufficient to safeguard the environment and public health. The state is considering allowing for gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale watershed, the source of drinking water for 15 million people, including nine million New Yorkers...

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EPA Drafts Chesapeake Bay Cleanup Strategy

by Richard Harris
National Public Radio
November 9, 2009

Monday, the Federal government announced the outlines of a new effort to help restore the seafood and wildlife in the nation's largest estuary: the Chesapeake Bay.

The plan injects the federal government into an issue that was largely left up to the states that surround the bay, such as Maryland and Virginia. And it targets the root causes of the trouble: runoff...

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Simple people

by Andrée Zaleska
Grist Magazine
November 4, 2009

I learned a lot about the relative definitions of prosperity by living in Europe in my twenties. (Czechoslovakia, 1990-92, the Czech Republic 1992-95. Same town, same apartment.) When I arrived, shortly after the Velvet Revolution in 1989, a four-member family was typically living in a high-rise apartment with one or two bedrooms. No kudos to the repressive and corrupt regimes of communist Eastern Europe, but material prosperity was adequate, and no one seems much happier 20 years later now that they all have new cars and TVs and debt...

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Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai: If US Moves Forward on Climate Change, Rest of World Will Follow

DemocracyNow!
September 25, 2009

A new overview of research on global warming has found climate change is happening faster and on a broader scale than scientists projected in 2007. The new findings come in a week where the issue of global warming is at the fore with a one-day UN summit on climate change and the G-20 in Pittsburgh. We speak with the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai, who was chosen to speak on behalf of international civil society at the UN summit...

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With Copenhagen Summit Approaching, Leading Polluters US and China Undercut Hopes of Substantial Pollution Cuts

DemocracyNow!
September 23, 2009

World leaders gathered at the United Nations on Tuesday for a one-day global summit on climate change. But with little on specifics and emerging signs the world’s biggest polluters will try to determine their own emissions reductions, poorer nations most threatened by global warming are warning they’re being left behind. We speak with award-winning New York Times reporter Andy Revkin, environmental activist Ted Glick, and Anna Pinto, an indigenous rights activist from India who’s traveled to Pittsburgh to call on G-20 leaders to tackle global warming...

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The Ninja Miners Of Mongolia

Mongolians Seek Fortune In Gold, But At A Cost
by Louisa Lim

National Public Radio
September 7, 2009

A 21st-century gold rush is taking place in Mongolia.

Its huge gold reserves were only discovered after the former Soviet satellite started democratic reforms in 1990. Now, gold fever has gripped the country, with an estimated 100,000 Mongolians working as informal miners, many of them herders who have left their flocks behind.

But the work of these miners is causing untold damage to the environment...

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Technology for a Low-Carbon Future

GreenBiz.com
July 6, 2009

This report from The Climate Group finds that scaling up energy efficiency and renewable energy while avoiding deforestation can dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the short term, and are much-needed steps to achieve global climate goals...

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We Need More Than ACES

Future Hope column, June 27, 2009
By Ted Glick

Yesterday morning, on the day that the House of Representatives very narrowly passed a very problematic—a bad—climate bill, I finally became clear in my mind what I was hoping for.

My first choice was that the House leadership cancel the planned floor vote because they would decide that they didn’t have enough votes to pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. If this happened, I reasoned, it could lead to a serious reconsideration of the coal-industry-and-Wall-Street-friendly, cap-and-trade framework of this particular piece of climate legislation. It could mean a much closer look by Congresspeople and civil society organizations at the better frameworks of cap-and-dividend, carbon tax and rebates, or some hybrid of those two.

This, of course, didn’t happen. The House leadership rolled the dice and just barely prevailed, 219-212. Four changed votes would have meant defeat for ACES.

This was my second choice, the passage of ACES by a narrow margin. My reasoning was that this would keep open the possibility of coming up with a stronger bill as it moved from the House to the Senate but without “big mo,” lots of momentum behind this particular way of addressing the climate crisis.

But climate and environmental activists who know the Capitol Hill scene are very aware that the odds of our getting anything better than ACES out of the Senate are very long. Indeed, the more likely result of Senate consideration is that ACES will get even weaker UNLESS this near-defeat in the House leads to an urgent reconsideration of the approach and the tactics used over the next 3-4-5 months.

Having been in the midst of the campaign to get a good bill out of the House for the last seven or so months—a campaign that failed, we have to honestly acknowledge—these are the four things I would see as essential to the possibility of getting something out of the Senate that comes much closer to what the climate science says is needed:


First, we have to call upon Barack Obama to “lead from the front, not the rear,” as Mike Tidwell has put it. During his 2008 Presidential campaign and up until four months ago, Obama was publicly strong in support of a 100% auction, with no giveaways, of permits for polluters to emit carbon. He supported the return of 80-85% of the hundreds of billions raised by this auction to American taxpayers and consumers to help us deal with the higher prices this would bring, with the remainder used for various clean energy/green jobs/international assistance programs.

Second, many more of our groups have to be less willing to align so closely with the desires of the Democratic Party leadership, more willing to say “no” when asked to support a really bad political compromise. Indeed, we need to be willing to do what a number of groups—to their credit—did before the House vote yesterday, come out saying publicly that we are against this way-too-weak, polluter-influenced piece of legislation.

Our power to force the political powers-that-be in Washington , D.C. to take our demands seriously is directly proportional to our willingness to refuse to go along with bad things.

Third, those scores of groups which have already come out publicly in support of either cap and dividend or carbon tax and rebates have to move immediately to find the ways to work together more collaboratively and more effectively as the struggle moves to the Senate. Groups which have been unwilling to break with the cap and trade orthodoxy need to take a much harder look at these clearly preferable policy alternatives.

The fact is that there is a lot of concern among U.S. Senators about cap and trade. At a Senate Finance Committee hearing in mid-May the major question asked in various ways by a number of Senators had to do with if a carbon tax is a better, simpler and more efficient way of putting a price on carbon. The four people who were testifying all agreed that yes, it was.

Finally, we need street heat!! We need people visibly demonstrating for science-based, strong legislation. We need sit-ins and marches. Actions on October 24th (http://www.350.org) all over the world need to be big and strong. We need to act as if the next six months, leading up to the big United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen , is the most important half-year of our lives for those of us who get it on the urgency of the climate crisis.

We Need More. We need a strong, not just any, climate bill. We need to take what happened yesterday in the House and turn it into something that history will record as not so much the culmination of our many years of hard work but a breakthrough that opened the way for a flood of people power, a broad and deep clean energy revolution in the months and years ahead.


Ted Glick is the Policy Director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and is a co-founder of the Climate Crisis Coalition, but these views are solely his own. Past writings and other information can be found at http://www.tedglick.com.

Tell Secretary of State Clinton to Stop Tar Sands Pipelines.

RainForest Action Network
June 25, 2009

There is a massive, stealthy dirty oil project threatening the United States. It's called the Canadian tar sands. It is sneaking into the United States pipeline by pipeline, refinery by refinery, permit by permit. A major pipeline for this project is up for review very soon.


Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has the power to stop this project. You can send her the message below today. Please add your own comments to personalize your message.

Click on Title above to take action!

Tell the EPA to Give Obama the Power to Rescue the Climate

GreenPeace

The EPA has concluded that there is overwhelming evidence that greenhouse gases from fossil fuels endanger our health and welfare -- which means that by law they have the ability to regulate those emissions.

Until June 23rd, they’ll be accepting public comments to help them decide what to do. We want to get as many comments supporting the position of regulating these gases as possible before the deadline...

Click on Title above to take action! (Easy)

A common person’s guide to the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009

by Ted Glick
June 3, 2009
grist.org

...There is no question but that there are positive things in this piece of legislation. There are also many negative things, some of which environmental, climate, labor and other groups will attempt to correct as this bill moves through various House committees and onto the House floor

What’s Wrong With the New Climate Bill

By Daphne Wysham
In These Times
May 21, 2009

"The windmills and solar panels of our renewable energy dreams are being supplanted by the smokestacks of our nightmares."

Environmental Groups See Divide over Landmark Climate, Energy Bill Weakened by Industry Lobbying

DemocracyNow.org
May 22, 2009

After months of debate and millions of dollars in lobbying, a House panel has approved a climate and energy bill to reduce greenhouse gases. While several environmental groups have welcomed the bill, others remain critical of its concessions to the coal, nuclear, gas and oil lobbies, the scaling back of the greenhouse gas reduction target, and the giving away of the majority of pollution credits for free, instead of auctioning them. We host a discussion with Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen and Dan Lashof of the Natural Resources Defense Council...

Hold Shell Oil Accountable for Its Environmental and Human Rights Crimes

Shell Oil will stand trial on May 26 on charges it was complicit in the murders of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Nigerian activists. ShellGuilty.com is a collective of environmental and human rights groups who have formed a global campaign to hold Shell accountable and demand that it stop gas flaring in Nigeria.

Call for Shell to come clean about its corporate irresponsibility, human rights abuses, and record of environmental devastation...click on title above!

Time For Renewable Energy

Nader.org
May 16, 2009

...The problem is that all energy sources are not created equal for purposes of efficiency, and the well being of consumers, workers, the environment and posterity. Regardless of their BTU production, different kinds of energy produce different levels of harms and benefits, short and long term...

A Global Warming Story You Haven't Heard

EarthJustice

Black carbon casts a deadly shadow worldwide, from the sprawl of Los Angeles, to the slums of Mumbai, to the Arctic ice that sustains polar bears and other wildlife. Quick action to cut black carbon can slow Arctic melting, fight global warming and save lives.

And you can help make it happen.

Starting next Tuesday, April 28, the nations of the Arctic Council, including the United States, will meet in Tromsø, Norway, where action to slow Arctic warming will be a major focus.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is sending a team to represent the United States at Tromsø. As a senator, she co-sponsored a bill on black carbon and visited the Arctic to see the devastating effects of climate change first hand. Now, as her team prepares for the Arctic Council Ministerial, we must let her and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson know how important it is for the United States to lead the way.

This is your chance to have a voice in critical world affairs. But time is very short. You need to take action now by urging Sec. Clinton and Administrator Jackson to take the lead in Tromsø.

Doug & Andrea Peacock on Montana’s Grizzly Bears, the Late Edward Abbey and the Fight to Save the Wilderness

DemocracyNow!

We speak with environmentalists Doug and Andrea Peacock. Doug Peacock is a longtime naturalist, adventurer and writer. His books include Grizzly Years: In Search of the American Wilderness. He was a close friend of the late writer Edward Abbey. One of Abbey’s most famous characters, Hayduke, from his book The Monkey Wrench Gang, was based partly on Doug Peacock. Andrea Peacock is an independent journalist who has covered Montana politics and western environmental news for several years.

Applaud EPA for Taking a Giant Step in Addressing Global Warming

Be a part of the Big Picture - send a thank you message to the EPA to join the campaign. Determining that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare is a bold and necessary step towards solving the climate crisis and realizing President Obama’s vision for a prosperous clean energy economy. The world scientific community tells us that we must act now to combat climate change. Swiftly finalizing this decision will jumpstart that effort.

Seven Easy Ways to Rock Your Earth Day

Sierra Club

April 22, 2009 will be the 40th anniversary of Earth Day! We could easily come up with 40 amazing things to do to mark the occasion, but we know you're busy -- so we narrowed the list down to an easy seven. And you don't even have to do all of them. Just pick even one and you'll be giving something back to the lovely ball of blue that gives us all a place to hang our hats.

Communicating Climate Change

Policymakers, businesses, the media, and the public are increasingly interested in this complex issue. This generates a multitude of information and opinions about climate change, and presents significant challenges to accurately and effectively communicate the issue.

The information shared on this page aims to offer insights into these communications challenges and highlight credible, relevant sources of related information. This is not a comprehensive list of climate change communications materials. Rather, it is an evolving collection of useful resources to help advance an understanding of the communications challenges posed by the climate issue.

The findings and opinions expressed in these materials do not necessarily reflect views of the Pew Center. We do, however, find them all to offer interesting perspectives...click on post title above to read.

Global Civil Society Opposes Charred Earth Policy

Climate Ark
April 6, 2009

147 organisations from 44 countries warn against 'biochar' (large-scale charcoal) as a dangerous new false solution to climate change

What’s the matter with Earth Day?

Grist
Monday, April 13, 2009

Earth Day, then, is sort of like Christmas, Hannukah and Kwanzaa all in one: We Gristers love to talk about hating it, we say we’re only doing it for the kids, but in the end we grudgingly have to admit that we had fun, at least until crazy Uncle Ray started talking about the ozone layer being a myth…

The Struggle Against Mountaintop Removal: Leading Activist Mike Roselle Continues Fight Against Destructive Coal Mining

Democracy Now!
April 8, 2009

The Environmental Protection Agency recently dealt a blow to the coal mining industry when it delayed hundreds of mountaintop coal mining projects for a new review of their environmental impact. But the EPA decision still leaves in place hundreds of existing permits for mountaintop removal. The group Climate Ground Zero has been leading protests and peaceful direct actions against the company Massey Energy to prevent mountaintop removal at Coal River Mountain in West Virginia. We speak with leading activist Mike Roselle of Climate Ground Zero.

Consider Agrotourism for your Next Vacation

There is a new form of sustainable travel called agrotourism. The traveler is encouraged to experience life, agricultural life, firsthand. The vacationers work side-by-side with local farmers in the fields or as fishermen. It gives the agro-pilgrim an insight into how a sustainable community works...

Tell the EPA to Stop Mountaintop Removal

Earlier this week the Environmental Protection Agency announced that they'd be delaying and reviewing two permits for mountaintop removal mining operations and calling into question more that 100 pending permits that threaten mountains, waterways and communities across Appalachia.

But one day after the big announcement, the EPA released a clarification saying that although the permits were under review, they expected that "the bulk of these pending permit applications will not raise environmental concerns."

Why?

Because Big Coal has some deep pockets.

Send a letter to Lisa Jackson, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asking her to stand up to industry pressure and support a permanent moratorium on mountaintop removal coal mining.

Tell TVA to Take Responsibility for Toxic Coal Spills!

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is the biggest consumer of coal in the United States and last Christmas residents living near the TVA Kingston Steam Plant were flooded with approximately 1.6 billion gallons of coal waste after a retaining wall at the facility failed.

The spill was 40 times the size of the Exxon Valdez, has caused severe health problems, and polluted the water and the air quality throughout the region. So far the TVA hasn't taken full responsibility for the spill and another could happen at any time.

Please send a letter to TVA CEO Tom Kilgore and tell him that you support the residents of Tennessee who are calling for the TVA to be held accountable for this spill.


http://ga3.org/campaign/tva

On Day 45, this March keeps Marching

Sierra
March 5, 2009

So about those signs you held on Monday. The ones you had to grip so hard that your knuckles went stiff and numb in the cold. The ones with the sunburst, a young Rosie-the-riveter, and the words “Power Past Coal” boldly stenciled across the top.



Those words you saw hovering above the thousands that gathered for the Capitol Climate Action are more than just a sweet phrase someone thought to throw onto a placard.



The words Power Past Coal describe a movement.It’s a movement that’s been building in all corners of this country for years, maybe even decades, but that found it’s united voice on January 21st, when you and your organizations helped to launch the 100 Days of action, adding value to the work in which your communities and organizations have already been engaged.



In over forty days we’ve had nearly seventy actions -- citizens have packed courtrooms and flooded the streets to stop new strip mines and coal plants, while others have arranged community lobby trips to their statehouses and to Washington.



Many have chosen civil disobedience as their tactic – the Capitol Climate Action marked day 42 of Power Past Coal. It was an action of all actions, uniting from every corner of the country those who have founded the project: Navajo and Hopi from Black Mesa, retired miners from Appalachia, high schoolers from the Little Village of Chicago, and many others.


But we’re not even halfway there. We have neighbors to mobilize, congressmen to lobby, and a President to convince. And we have fifty-six days of action to fill. Help us pack the calendar. Click on our “Add an Action” tab to start publicizing your own work.



So resist the urge to go home and tack that placard to your wall. We know it looks cool, but it’ll look cooler in the streets, in front of that coal plant that’s making your family sick, outside the courtroom on the day of your hearing, or even in front of those wind turbines just built on your reservation.



Don’t stop in DC. Be part of the movement. Check in frequently for news and updates, and help us spread the words: Power Past Coal.

Capitol Climate Action: Mass Civil Disobedience in D.C. Against Use of Coal at Capitol Hill Power Plant

Over a thousand activists representing a broad alliance of civic groups are converging on Washington, D.C. today for the country’s largest mass civil disobedience against global warming. Dubbed the “Capitol Climate Action,” people are demonstrating against coal at the Capitol Hill Power Plant, which still uses coal to heat and cool several key buildings, including House and Senate offices, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, and Union Station. We speak with two well-known environmentalists: Bill McKibben and Judy Bonds.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/2/capitol_climate_action_thousands_converging_on

Towers in Manhattan Gather Heat for Power

"A small but growing number of commercial landlords in New York are installing energy-efficient power stationsknown as cogeneration plants, or cogens for short. Unlike conventional power stations, which let excess heat dissipate into the air as exhaust, cogens reuse that cast-off energy for heating and cooling. Given the improved efficiency, combined with government incentives and rising electricity costs, some landlords are now finding it cost-effective to install cogens and generate their own power."...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/realestate/commercial/25cogen.html?ref=science

Ancient Forests Absorb 20% of Human's Carbon, Logging and Other Industrial Destruction of Old Forests Must Stop Now

Rainforest Portal February 19, 2009

The myth that primary and old growth forests should be "sustainably" managed is dealt a mortal deathblow. Members and funders of RAN, FSC and others greenwashing ancient forest logging called upon to withdraw support in protest...

http://www.rainforestportal.org/issues/2009/02/release_ancient_forests_absorb.asp

National Guard goes green to conserve energy, cost

..."Energy's become one of our top priorities here in the National Guard," said Thomas Gurule, a retired Guard lieutenant colonel who is now its energy manager.

Every building under the military construction program must meet the U.S. Green Building Council's silver rating, said Elvin L. Shields, chief of the design-criteria branch for the Army National Guard's installations division in Washington, D.C....

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/02/20/2456844-national-guard-goes-green-to-conserve-energy-cost

Does the Post Fact-Check George Will?

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3722

Action Alert ~ Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

Does the Post Fact-Check George Will?
Columnist's climate change denial distorts reality

2/18/09

Washington Post columnist George Will is among the most widely syndicated in the newspaper business--which means that his recent error-filled column about climate change will misinform the readers of hundreds of papers across the country.

Will made several specious claims in his February 15 column in an attempt to argue that climate change is not a serious concern. (Will has a history of such denial--see Extra!, 5-6/07.)

He started by citing newsmagazine stories from the 1970s that warned of global cooling. The prevailing scientific consensus at that time did not support such claims (Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 9/08), but Will likes to pretend that it did--calling it another example of "predicted planetary calamities that did not happen"--in order to bolster the idea that scientists can be wildly off-base. (Will had actually been sent a copy of the BAMS piece by one of the authors after he made a similar false claim last year--Washington Post, 5/22/08. The author reports he "got a nice note back from him thanking me for sharing it"--ABQJournal.com, 2/15/09.)

Will then brought his climate denial up to date by writing:



As global levels of sea ice declined last year, many experts said this was evidence of man-made global warming. Since September, however, the increase in sea ice has been the fastest change, either up or down, since 1979, when satellite record-keeping began. According to the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center, global sea ice levels now equal those of 1979.
This came as news to the University of Illinois' Polar Research Group (the group's actual name), which posted the following response on its website (Cryosphere Today, 2/15/09):

We do not know where George Will is getting his information, but our data shows that on February 15, 1979, global sea ice area was 16.79 million sq. km and on February 15, 2009, global sea ice area was 15.45 million sq. km. Therefore, global sea ice levels are 1.34 million sq. km less in February 2009 than in February 1979. This decrease in sea ice area is roughly equal to the area of Texas, California and Oklahoma combined.

It is disturbing that the Washington Post would publish such information without first checking the facts.

(This inaccurate characterization of the university's work has been peddled elsewhere by right-wing media, including Fox News Channel's Special Report--1/5/09.)

Will closed his column with another inaccuracy:

Real calamities take our minds off hypothetical ones. Besides, according to the U.N. World Meteorological Organization, there has been no recorded global warming for more than a decade, or one-third of the span since the global cooling scare.
This is not the first time Will has misleadingly cited the U.N. body's work; he wrote in a June 1, 2008 column that "global temperatures have not risen in a decade." This is a simple statistical sleight-of-hand: 1998 was hotter than 2008, so by cherry-picking this year as your starting point, Will can claim that global warming isn't happening. Unfortunately for him, the World Meteorological Organization does not agree, explaining (12/13/07): "The decade of 1998-2007 is the warmest on record.... Since the start of the 20th century, the global average surface temperature has risen by 0.74°C." (See a striking chart showing the 21st century's string of record-breaking average temperatures at Climate Progress--12/16/08.)

Of course, Will is entitled to believe that climate change is a mere "hypothetical" worry. But does the Post really allow him to misstate the facts in order to make his political argument? If so, should the papers that run Will's column be made aware of this peculiar editorial decision? The website Talking Points Memo has tried to get a response from the Post, but so far has been given the cold shoulder (2/17/09).

ACTION:
Encourage the Washington Post to correct Will's erroneous column--for the benefit of its own readers, as well as those who read his column in other newspapers. And ask whether the paper has a system for checking factual assertions made by its columnists.

CONTACT:
Washington Post
Editorial Page Editor
Fred Hiatt
hiattf@washpost.com

If your local paper runs Will's commentaries, please pass this along to them.

Would you want dirty gold for Valentine's Day?

Urge Fred Meyer to sign the Bristol Bay Protection Pledge

(and, oh by the way, protect the world's greatest sockeye salmon fishery from irresponsible mining)

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/676/t/580/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=519&track=alert

Everything You Need for a Green Valentine's Day

Show your love with organic and fair trade chocolates, biodynamic and organic wines, sexy green lingerie, natural soy candles and much more!

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/valentines-day-47021401?src=nl&mag=tdg&list=dgr&kw=ist

Australian wildfire ferocity linked to climate change: experts

Australia is naturally the most fire-prone continent on earth but climate change appears to be making the wildfires that regularly sweep across the country more ferocious, scientists said Monday...

The intensity of the firestorm that killed at least 126 people in Victoria state has stunned Australians, even though they have a long history of dealing with bushfires.

...But the wildfires that hit Victoria on the weekend were the nation's deadliest and experts believe the problem is linked to climate change....

"Climate change, weather and drought are altering the nature, ferocity and duration of bushfires," said Gary Morgan, head of the government-backed Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hCZR0o47pyQmTugqcds5ib6y-Esg

Setting climate priorities straight

If you accept that making clean energy cheap should be the primary objective for climate policy, you become largely indifferent about the revenue stream for public technology investments.

Put Your Sidewalk and Driveway On a Low Salt Diet

Keeping ice and snow off your driveway and sidewalks is important for safety. The following tips can help you choose the best deicing product for your home and the environment.

1. Buy Early. Make sure to buy your deicing product well before the big storm hits; otherwise, you could be looking at empty shelves and have few, if any, environmental choices to make at the store.

2. Check the Label. The table below provides a summary of the pros and cons of the various main ingredients of common deicing products. Check the package label closely to see what you are buying. Experts recommend using calcium chloride over sodium chloride (rock salt).

Check the Label For Works Down to: Cost is: Environmental Impacts
Calcium Magnesium Acetate (CMA) 22°F to
25°F 20x more than rock salt (+) Less toxic
Calcium Chloride (CaCl) -25°F 3x more than rock salt (+) Can use lower doses;
(+) No cyanide;
(-) Chloride impact
Urea 20°F to
25°F 5x more than rock salt (+) Less corrosion;
(-) Adds needless nutrients
Sand No melting effect ~$3 for a 50 lb. bag (-) Accumulates in streets and streams
Sodium Chloride (NaCl), aka rock salt 15°F ~$5 for a 50 lb. bag (-) Contains cyanide;
(-) Chloride impact


3. Avoid Kitty Litter and Ashes. Although these products are environmentally friendly, they aren't very effective. While they provide some traction, they do not melt snow and ice. Also, they tend to get real gooey and messy when it warms up, which often tracks in to the floors of your home. If traction is what you want, then stick with sand, which is much cheaper and easier to sweep up.

4. Shovel Early and Often. When it comes to snow removal, there is no substitute for muscle and elbow grease. Deicers work best when there is only a thin layer of snow or ice that must be melted. Get out the snow shovel and move as much snow as you can during the storm. A flat hoe can also help to scrape ice off the surface before any deicers are applied. Be careful when chopping the ice build-up that you don't damage your sidewalk. Also, be careful when shoveling snow. Snow is heavy and overexertion can lead to heart attacks.

5. Know Your Salt Risk Zone. You wouldn't want to kill your favorite tree, shrub or grass, so check out the plants that grow within five or ten feet of your driveway and sidewalk (and the road, for that matter). The table below summarizes some of the salt sensitive plants that might be at risk. If you have salt-sensitive trees, shrubs or grasses in this zone, you should avoid any deicing product that contains chlorides (rock salt and calcium chloride), or use very small doses. You may want to use CMA as a safer alternative, or stick with sand for traction.

Landscaping Areas Species at Risk from Salting
Deciduous Trees Tulip Polar, Green Ash, Hickory, Red Maple, Sugar Maple
Conifers Balsam Fir, White Pine, Hemlock, Norway Spruce
Shrubs Dogwood, Redbud, Hawthorn, Rose, Spirea
Grasses Kentucky Bluegrass, Red Fescue


6. Avoid Products that Contain Urea. Some folks recommend the use of urea as a safer alternative to more common deicing products, arguing that it does not contain chlorides and, as a form of nitrogen, will help fertilize your yard when it washes off. In reality, urea-based deicing products are a poor choice. To begin with, urea is fairly expensive and performs poorly when temperatures drop below 20°F. More importantly, the application rate for urea during a single deicing is ten times greater than that needed to fertilize the same area of your yard. Of course, very little of the urea will actually get to your lawn, but will end up washing into the street and storm drain. Given that nitrogen is a major problem in the Bay, it doesn't make sense to use nitrogen-based products, such as those containing urea, for deicing.

7. Apply Salt Early, but Sparingly. Remember what your Mom may have told you at the dinner table: "A little salt goes a long way." The recommended application rate for rock salt is about a handful per square yard treated (after you have scraped as much ice and snow as possible). Using more salt than this won't speed up the melting process. Even less salt is needed if you are using calcium chloride (about a handful for every three square yards treated - or about the area of a single bed). If you have a choice, pick calcium chloride over sodium chloride. Calcium chloride works at much lower temperatures and is applied at a much lower rate.