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- Energy and Global Warming News for September 29: Boxer, Kerry set to introduce climate bill in Senate; China leads way for solar energy: "If the U.S. doesn't get serious, China's going to own this industry."
- Google Earth 3D climate change simulator unveiled — starring Al Gore
- From Cope to Hope: Twitter to the rescue?
- UK Met Office: Catastrophic climate change, 13-18°F over most of U.S. and 27°F in the Arctic, could happen in 50 years, but "we do have time to stop it if we cut greenhouse gas emissions soon."
- Nation's largest utility pulls the plug on the Chamber over climate denial. Exelon CEO Rowe says, "Putting a price on carbon is essential, because it will force us to do the cheapest things, like energy efficiency, first."
- Energy and Global Warming News for September 28: G20 leaders agree to phase-out fossil fuel subsides; China sees emissions trading in next economic plan
| Posted: 29 Sep 2009 09:37 AM PDT Boxer, Kerry Set to Introduce Climate Bill in Senate
China leads way for solar energy
East Africa Drought In Fifth Year, Millions Hungry
EU, U.S. eye green goods tax pact in climate fight
Britain to host pre-Copenhagen climate talks
Going green at Whitey's, with aid from government
U.N. warns deadline imminent on climate change agreement
CIA opens center for climate change
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| Google Earth 3D climate change simulator unveiled — starring Al Gore Posted: 29 Sep 2009 09:19 AM PDT
The Sydney Morning Herald further reports these "new tools were introduced in partnership with the Danish Government ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Convention in December." And as as HuffingtonPost reports, "Al Gore stars" in the Google Earth climate simulator video: |
| From Cope to Hope: Twitter to the rescue? Posted: 29 Sep 2009 07:55 AM PDT
As the clock winds down on the big climate negotiation in Copenhagen this December (formally known as the 15th Conference of the Parties, or COP-15), the future of the planet and its inhabitants may be in the hands of tweeters, especially tots, teens and twenty-somethings. Several groups are attempting to mobilize a worldwide mandate for action in Copenhagen, calling for boots to hit streets and thumbs to hit keyboards, to harness the power of Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, You Tube, FlickR, text messaging and the potential power of the PDA Nation. One of my favorites (in part because I've been a sometime advisor on it) is a campaign called Hopenhagen, launched last week during "climate week" in New York City. At the request of the United Nations, the International Advertising Association is applying its creative powers to a viral effort in which young people will petition for a "definitive, equitable and effective" climate agreement at COP-15. Led by the global communications powerhouse Ogilvy & Mather, the campaign urges young people to become citizens of a Hopenhagen community, complete with a virtual passport. With help from corporate giants Coca Cola, Siemens and SAP, and with support from a growing list of "Friends of Hopenhagen" who range from Reader's Digest and the Wall Street Journal to Mother Jones magazine, Ogilvy will deploy media and billboards in major cities to promote the power of the grassroots. Rather than complaining about an infringement on its name, the City of Copenhagen has agreed enthusiastically to rename itself "Hopenhagen" in December, replacing Cs with Hs where the city's name appears at the airport and on highway signs leading to COP-15. Hopenhagen is one of several current opportunities for youth to help shape the future they will inherit, and for old-timers like me to improve the future we will pass along. Here are some of the others: Tck Tck Tck: Organized by the Global Campaign for Climate Action, Tck Tck Tck is an alliance of civil society organizations, trade unions, faith groups and individuals using social media and the internet to demand a "fair, ambitious and binding" climate treaty.. Partners include the World Wildlife Fund, Oxfam and Amnesty International, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the World Council of Churches and the Global Campaign Against Poverty, among others. International Day of Climate Action – Oct. 24, 2009: 350.org is a coalition of more than 200 organizations encouraging local people to hold thousands of events around the world on Oct. 24 to "show our world and its decision-makers just how big, beautiful and unified the climate movement really is". The group's web site offers a tool kit to help local activists organize their events. So far, 1,578 events are scheduled in 125 countries. The goal is to push for a global agreement that reduces atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases to a maximum of 350 parts per million – the ambitious emissions reduction target advocated by Dr. James Hansen, the outspoken chief climate scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. 1Sky: Back in the United States, the meta-group 1Sky is mobilizing people to shower Senators with telephone calls in call for action on a climate bill this year. 1Sky has set up a system that makes it easy to let your fingers to do the marching straight into the offices of your Senators. Raise Your Voice: The Danish government, YouTube and Google have created a web site for people to post their own videos and "raise their voices" about global climate change. The best of the videos will be featured Dec. 15 during a CNN/YouTube "debate" at Copenhagen and on an Earth Globe at the conference. Focus the Nation: FTN has created a network to help climate activists communicate about their plans and to join groups working on climate campaigns this fall. FTN also helps local groups organize Clean Energy Forums. Apollo Alliance: The Apollo Alliance is working with Ceres, the Clean Economy Network and others to help businesses lobby the Senate Oct. 6-7 for clean energy and climate legislation. (To point out that businesses have a stake in climate action is a vast understatement. Converting the world to clean energy technologies is likely to be the biggest market opportunity in the history of commerce.) For more information, go to www.wecanlead.org. Power Shift 2009: A project of the Energy Action Coalition, Power Shift has organized tens of thousands of young people to march in Washington, D.C. in the past. This fall, it is organizing regional summits – 11 so far — to "exercise the political power of young voters and ask President Obama and Congress to pass a clean energy jobs plan by December to rebuild our economy, end our dependence on dirty energy, and bring America lasting security." To veterans of the Vietnam era like me, social networking seems less impressive than taking to the streets. For my generation, social commitment meant braving enlistment in a war, or a concussion and jail time to protest the war. Some old-fashioned protest still is underway today in acts of civil disobedience, lately against coal mining and coal power plants. Ask Jim Hansen, who is one of several people facing jail time for a protest against mountain top removal in Appalachia. When I asked a friend of mine – a young mother with pre-teen children – why more of today's youth aren't marching in the old way, she replied: "Kids today don't march. They network." Clearly, we need both. To us wonks and wags emerged in climate policy, a campaign like Hopenhagen may seem light on substance. I think we'll be surprised. Boiling global warming's esoterica into a simple but true choice between "hope" and "cope" might be the key to engaging the masses.
With opponents of action fighting to maintain a status quo that cannot be sustained, it apparently will take a planetary village to deal with climate change. – Bill Becker |
| Posted: 28 Sep 2009 07:41 PM PDT Finally, some of the top climate modelers in the world have done a "plausible worst case scenario," as Dr Richard Betts, Head of Climate Impacts at the Met Office Hadley Centre, put it today in a terrific and terrifying talk (audio here, PPT here). No, I'm not taking about a simple analysis of what happens if the nation and the world just keep on our current emissions path. We've known that end-of-century catastrophe for a while (see "M.I.T. doubles its 2095 warming projection to 10°F — with 866 ppm and Arctic warming of 20°F"). I'm talking about running a high emissions scenario (i.e. business as usual) in one of the few global climate models capable of analyzing strong carbon cycle feedbacks. This is what you get [temperature in degrees Celsius, multiple by 1.8 for Fahrenheit]:
The key point is that while this warming occurs between 1961-1990 and 2090-2099 for the high-end scenarios without carbon cycle feedbacks, in about 10% of Hadley's model runs with the feedbacks, it occurs around 2060. Betts calls that the "plausible worst case scenario.." It is something the IPCC and the rest of the scientific community should have laid out a long time ago. As the Met Office notes here, "In some areas warming could be significantly higher (10 degrees [C = 15F] or more)":
Large parts of the inland United States would warm by 15°F to 18°F, even worse than the NOAA-led 13-agency impacts report found "Our hellish future: Definitive NOAA-led report on U.S. climate impacts warns of scorching 9 to 11°F warming over most of inland U.S. by 2090 with Kansas above 90°F some 120 days a year — and that isn't the worst case, it's business as usual!"
Betts "presented the new findings at a special conference" today. "4 degrees and beyond at Oxford University, attended by 130 international scientists and policy specialists, is the first to consider the global consequences of climate change beyond 2 °C." You can find all the talks here. The UK Telegraph story is here. The Guardian story is "Met Office warns of catastrophic global warming in our lifetimes: Study says 4C rise in temperature could happen by 2060, Increase could threaten water supply of half world population":
Again, this is not the likely impact for 2060 if we fail to act aggressively, but it is a plausible worst-case scenario that should invalidate all economic cost-benefit analysis done to date (see "Harvard economist disses most climate cost-benefit analyses"). Kudos to Betts and the Met Office for this important, uncharacteristically blunt, and long-overdue analysis. |
| Posted: 28 Sep 2009 05:24 PM PDT
More and more utilities have cut the power to the Chamber (see "Will last company to leave the Chamber's Boardroom please turn off the lights!") — though they have been in the dark a long time (see "Chamber admits calling for 'Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century' was dumb — but it still apes the deniers"). Okay, enough puns. Here's the background, from Wonk Room:
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| Posted: 28 Sep 2009 03:21 PM PDT G20 Leaders Agree to Phase Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies World leaders gathered in Pittsburgh for the Group of 20 summit agreed Friday afternoon to phase out fossil fuel subsidies over time, approving language that does not outline a specific timetable for the phase-out and makes clear that poorer citizens may still receive help in paying their energy bills. But the wording of the statement, championed by the Obama administration, signals the world's most influential nations are taking an initial, tentative step away from the fossil fuels that power their economies. "We commit to rationalize and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption," the statement said. "As we do that, we recognize the importance of providing those in need with essential energy services, including through the use of targeted cash transfers and other appropriate mechanisms. This reform will not apply to our support for clean energy, renewables and technologies that dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions." The United States and many other countries around the world provide financial aid — in the form of both direct payments and tax breaks — to help produce oil, natural gas and other fuels that produce carbon dioxide, which has contributed to rapid climate change over the past half century. According to the Environmental Law Institute, the U.S. government provided $72 billion in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry between 2002 and 2008. China Sees Emissions Trading in Next Economic Plan
China plans to include a pilot emissions trading system in its five-year plan for economic development until 2015, the Environment Ministry said on Sunday, but declined to comment on whether it would cover carbon dioxide. The government is already experimenting with small-scale schemes to tackle acid-rain causing sulphur dioxide and other pollutants using market mechanisms. It has been coy about the potential for expanding these, or adding greenhouse gases to the list of pollutants that can be controlled and traded, but is apparently keen to at least continue exploring their potential. A trial system for trading in permits to pollute was listed as one of four main emissions reductions goals in official comments about a blueprint for growth in China from 2011 to 2015, which bureaucrats are still thrashing out. China is now the world's top annual emitter, and President Hu Jintao pledged at the United Nations to take on a "carbon intensity" goal that would oblige it to cut the amount of carbon dioxide produced for each dollar of its economic output. Many carbon traders hope this could pave the way for a market like the one currently used in Europe, and have been rushing to secure a potentially lucrative foothold in China even though it is unclear how easy it will be to make money there. Religious Groups Push For Climate Change Legislation When Orthodox Jews met with top White House adviser David Axelrod and a handful of U.S. senators this month as part of an annual lobbying effort, they talked up climate change legislation as a way to improve security for the United States and Israel. "America's reliance on imported oil from the Arab Middle East has been a grave concern for a very long time," says Nathan Diament, public policy director for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. "The Jewish community is interested in energy independence." But the Jewish delegation also based its case for a climate change bill, which cleared the House earlier this year, on another premise: the Bible. "We are getting ready to read Genesis and the creation story in our synagogues in a few weeks," Diament says. "Our responsibility to tend the garden is part of our understanding of the Torah and of our worship." Indeed, some Jews have begun referring to their green activism as "creation care," a term coined by environmentally inclined evangelical Christians. As environmental interests begin pressing the Senate to pass major climate legislation before next year's midterm elections, groups and activists from across the spectrum of American religious traditions have emerged as an integral part of the effort. Some denominations and faith-based organizations are planning grass-roots campaigns around the bill for this fall. The White House's faith-based advisory council has convened a climate change task force. And Pope Benedict XVI's environmental proclamations, including writing recently that "the environment is God's gift to everyone," have earned him the nickname the "green pope." At a time when many senators are skittish about adopting the House climate bill's cap-and-trade provision because of fears it could further slow the economy, religious activists may prove crucial to building support, or at least dampening opposition, among important religious constituencies. Religious conservatives, for instance, generally oppose more government regulation. And many African-Americans, among the most religious demographic groups in the country, worry about cap-and-trade's impact on manufacturing jobs. Faith-based environmentalists have responded to such doubts with a moral case that climate change will disproportionally affect the world's poor by causing food shortages, drought, and coastal flooding. "The faith community talks about climate legislation differently than scientists or environmentalists," says Cassandra Carmichael, director of the Washington office of the National Council of Churches. "We frame it in terms of the people impacted, which can bring in legislators who hadn't thought in those terms." n the House, religious activists helped to narrowly pass a climate bill in June. A group called the American Values Network, founded by the religious outreach director for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, Burns Strider, bought Christian radio ads promoting the bill in conservative congressional districts. The progressive group Faith in Public Life funded polling that showed most evangelicals and Catholics support efforts to combat climate change. Religious lobbyists, meanwhile, won a provision in the House bill guaranteeing that houses of worship are eligible for federal subsidies for retrofitting energy-inefficient buildings. The stepped-up environmental efforts of religious groups in Washington have paralleled a grass-roots effort among religious Americans to green their congregations. An ecumenical group called GreenFaith recently launched a program to certify green houses of worship. Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a tool kit to help churches, synagogues, and mosques earn its Energy Star ratings for their facilities. The Obama administration is reportedly considering the idea of a faith-based office at the EPA to expand its work with religious communities. |
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