Get Energy Smart! NOW!

And, well, that includes America and Americans.

World Public Opinion just released a poll (full report, pdf, here)  that show that large majorities around the world:

• Understand that “human activity IS a significant cause” of Climate Change
• Agree that is is “Necessary to take major steps very soon to Address Climate Change”
• Believe taht wealthy countries should ive financial/technical assistance to less wealthy countries that agree to limit GHG emissions

While the US is, consisently, behind other developed nations in all three categories (thank you climate deniers sound machine), even the US records strong majorities in responding to all three.

[Read more →]

Last week, the White House sent out within the Adminstration talking points in advance of this week’s Climate Change discussions in the UN (which, as Meteor Blades reminds you, Bush won’t attend except for dinner tonight) and next week’s Climate Change Conference .

These talking points, as you will see, seek to turn day into night, top to bottom, and convince us that the sun sets in the east.

Just remember, Don’t Worry, Be Happy …

Or, if you live in the reality-based world, protest Friday!

[Read more →]

[Read more →]

Last week, a six page advertising supplement ran in The Washington Post.  In it were good (to excellent) articles about Global Warming and water; ocean power; vertical farming in urban areas; UN Climate talks; making green by going Green; bios of some Global Warming activists; and others.

A good set of articles … interesting, informative, and, perhaps, even persuasive.

And, well, juxtaposed with … advertisements with that ever so climate friendly corporation: General Motors.  

Ads promoting Chevy Tahoe.

Or, that ad bragging that Chevy has eight car models that top 30 miles per gallon.

Chevy Silvaerado offers the best v8 fuel economy of any full-size pickup. And the full-size Tahoe SUV has better standard highway fuel economy than 12 smaller SUVs.

Chevy.

GM.  

Global Warming heroes.

Who would’ve thunk it?

[Read more →]

This is something that we should hope to see spread globally, but it would be a tremendous step forward toward something like Architecture 2030 if California adopts its proposed building codes.  The proposal: 

• all new residential housing developments  energy self-sufficient by 2020
• all new commercial buildings be “zero net energy” by 2030.

Wow …

[Read more →]

The Heartland Institute is investing $1 million in advertisements that headline:

Freedom, not Climate, is at Risk

Global Warming is NOT A CRISIS

These ads will be promoting Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who rivals Dick Cheney for his climate denialist attitudes.

Klaus had a despicable OPED in Financial Times earlier this year, discussed by Jerome A Paris in the heavily recommended/visited diary Unbelievable: a fight to death for nuance.

Let us be clear, Global Warming might not be “a” crisis, only because it might turn out to be “the” crisis.

[Read more →]

As we consider our energy future, figuring out a path through the stormy seas of Peak Oil, Peak Natural Gas, and, not least, Global Warming, there are ways to capture our challenges, to think about the problems ahead that are (at least to me) compelling.

Richard E. Smalley’s The Terrawatt Challenge (pdf) is one of those.

Smalley, in just six short (okay, dense, single space) pages lays out the challenges and potential paths forward toward “future global energy prosperity”. Interesting, very interesting, even compelling material.

But, perhaps the most important part of this discussion is captured in just a few, short paragraphs.

[Read more →]

Well, it is getting reported, but seemingly not in the United States …

According to The Independent, the International Panel on Climate Change‘s latest study lets us know, it is now too late.

A rise of two degrees centigrade [3.6 degrees fahrenheit] in global temperatures – the point considered to be the threshold for catastrophic climate change which will expose millions to drought, hunger and flooding – is now “very unlikely” to be avoided …

To put it simply, this is not good news … not at all.

But, it is also news that should impassion us to do our part, to fight to Energize America and our own lives, to turn the “very unlikely” into reality.  

And, well, it is news the White House doesn’t want you to hear or pay attention to. They have Don’t Worry, Be Happy talking points to salve our concerns about Global Warming. [Read more →]

EcoGeek’s recent coverage of An Off-Grid Vertical Farm for Downtown Seattle garnered some attention and generated discussion. But we should recognize that it is far from the first or only really interesting concept for going vertical in growing food in urban areas.

A Columbia University microbiologist, Dickson Despommier, advocates 30-story skyscrapers that would, each, be able to grow food for 50,000 people, taking up roughly one city block.  From Plenty Magazine, The Farmer in the High-Rise

“It’s not just a way of generating food,” says Despommier. “It’s a way of dealing with municipal waste, recycling water, and using methane digestion to help a city be sustainable.”

While it is not happening, to me this concept is not ’science fiction’, but more an innovative concept waiting for the confluence of events that will make it into reality.   [Read more →]

Joe Lieberman has become persona non-grata for many liberal, even his name might drive some to hypertension.  For many, it is a name all too often connected with mistaken paths, whether on Iraq or Iraq or Habeas Corpus or …

Is this name about to take a shift and take a leading position in the US Senate on what is, quite likely, the defining issue of the century?

At the moment, there is the Lieberman-Warner bill on Global Warming.  It is, well, marginal and focus on seven years, rather than seven generations.  

Has Joe changed his mind on a critical issue, suggesting that he is placing Americans (and the globe’s) interests before the concerns of special interests?

[Read more →]