It's Almost Valentine's Day, and Time for Harvard to Get A Date...For Climate Neutrality

In a classic "Shock and Awe" campaign, except this one is actually working, the Harvard College Environmental Action Committee has recently been collecting signatures for a petition to let President Faust know that while some administrations might get away with ignoring global warming, this one won't. Over 2000 undergrads have all ready put their names on the letter to Drew Faust asking her to reduce Harvard's carbon emissions and set a date for Harvard going climate neutral.

And tomorrow the party continues! In honor of Valentine's Day, the EAC will be holding a Get-A-Date event outside the Science Center where there will petitions, information about climate neutrality, and plenty of classy EAC members to spread the word. If you want to sign the petition, know more or get involved, go to www.greencrimson.com or come tomorrow 10 - 3!

A (week before) Christmas Miracle!

After this dismal entry last week, the NYT is reporting today that the House not only passed the energy bill to increase efficiency standards for automobiles (314-100), but Bush is planning on signing it.

In addition to the cars, the bill also increases standards for household appliances and government buildings. Nancy Pelosi described the bill as "groundbreaking" while Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) complains that "it could have been stronger," hoping for a renewable energy clause.

The bill will still decrease oil consumption by 2.8 million barrels/day by 2020.

The next bill should get on holiday decoration efficiency. Those yard-blow-up Winnie the Pooh things cannot be good.

"Hey kids, now ALL of Disney World will be a water park!"

The New York Times reports that there is a bill which has been passed in Congress and is currently pending in the Senate requiring that by 2020 car manufacturers get their average mile/gallon up to 35.

Considering the impending doom that all scientists say will occur if we don't get our act together, this seems pretty sweet. But--we almost made some progress, so of course there's a but-- the bill does not specify which government agency should be in charge of this little endeavor. The idea seems caught between the jurisdictions of the EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NWTSA? not nearly as neat an acronym).

Allan B. Hubbard informed Congressional leaders that Pres. Bush was likely to veto the bill due to the fact that it "creates substantial amounts of regulatory uncertainty and confusion." And don't you worry about the fact that the White House is "echoing a position taken by auto manufacturers and a coalition of industry groups" by preferring that the NWTSA take over the role as opposed to the EPA, which might actually do something at least to pretend to make sure that Florida doesn't look like this in 20 years:

I'll just tell my kids they can't go to Disney World because of Bush's bureaucratic bullshit. It'll be great.

(looking at photos like this is the only time I wish I weren't from Miami)

Fun Fact that I learned today in OEB 10: Remember the Northwest Passage, that semi-mythical passage that should allow you to travel around the globe without going around Argentina? The one that all those funny-named Europeans were looking for? But it turned out it was frozen solid and impossible to pass through? And how it hasn't been melted since...ever? Well, as of Sept 2007, all those Europeans will be satisfied to know that you can now pass through it! Hurrah!

Captain America, He's Our Hero!

Did You Know?

• We sent $2.6 billion dollars in oil money to Hugo Chavez in July 2007 alone!
• Global Warming also results in more intense hurricanes, malaria at higher altitudes, more frequent wildfires and droughts.
• The oil demands of China are funding the genocide in Darfur
• Even oil producing countries like Abu Dhabi are developing green technology because of its profitability.
• The average American emits five times as much greenhouse gas as the world average.
• China is constructing the equivalent of one large coal-fueled power station per week. Some estimates put it closer to three.
• If the U.S. constructed enough wind farms to fully tap the resources of the Great Plains, the turbines could generate nearly three times the total amount produced from ALL energy sources in the nation last year.
• A simple CFL (compact fluorescent bulb) lasts 10x longer and uses 1/4 the energy of a conventional incandescent bulb.
• If everyone in the US recycled the Sunday paper, we could save over half a million trees every week!

Learn more!! Read the Dems Energy Policy Paper, written by the Legislative Committee!

http://www.harvarddems.com/files/energy-policy.pdf

THE WINNER, of the CNN/YouTube Democratic Debate...

...Billiam the Snowman.

Seriously, if you didn't see this, you missed one of the great moments in political history. (Not to mention, Dennis Kucinich answered him.)

Vegetarian atheist Adolf Hitler toootally would've loved "An Inconvenient Truth"

Ann Coulter's on to us: Liberals want EVERYONE TO DIE.

A priceless excerpt:

""Global warming" is the left's pagan rage against mankind. If we can't produce industrial waste, then we can't produce. Some of us -- not the ones with mansions in Malibu and Nashville is my guess -- are going to have to die. To say we need to reduce our energy consumption is like saying we need to reduce our oxygen consumption.

Liberals have always had a thing about eliminating humans. Stalin wanted to eliminate the kulaks and Ukranians, vegetarian atheist Adolf Hitler wanted to eliminate the Jews, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger wanted to eliminate poor blacks, DDT opponent Rachel Carson wanted to eliminate Africans (introduction to her book "Silent Spring" written by ... Al Gore!), and population-control guru Paul Ehrlich wants to eliminate all humans. "

See the whole, unbelievable thing here.

Surprise, Surprise

Oh! Look!

The Americans and Europeans are screwing over Africa and other developing nations!  Well, that's a first...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/science/earth/01climate.html 

My favorite quote is:

 “Like the sinking of the Titanic, catastrophes are not democratic,” said Henry I. Miller, a fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. “A much higher fraction of passengers from the cheaper decks were lost. We’ll see the same phenomenon with global warming.”

If only the Titanic had set sail a while in the future, when there might be no icebergs. 

It's a Moral Issue

Recent flooding in Jakarta, Indonesia has resulted in mass evacuations, and today around 220,000 people in the city are still homeless, some being forced to live in makeshift, often unsanitary camps.

Some flooding happens in the city every year, but this year has been some of the worst flooding that has even been seen.  This is another instance of the trend we are seeing worldwide: more dramatic weather patterns and extreme storms with much greater frequency.  According to the IPCC Report that I mentioned before (and, for that matter, according to some basic common sense), the new intensity and frequency of these storms in very likely caused by greenhouse gases emitted through human activity.

I've mentioned all of this before.  But the thing that is really getting me this time is these two lines from today's NYT article about the disaster:  

"Much of the flooding was concentrated in low-lying parts of the city populated mostly by the poor. But well-to-do residents were also affected, and the city’s major hotels were overbooked with five-star refugees."

Worldwide, it is mostly lower-income families who live in low-lying coastal areas.  These are the families that will be most affected by extreme storms and higher ocean levels.  These are the families that cannot just hop on over to the nearest five-star hotel and wait out the storm and the flooding.  These are the families that are now living in graveyards in Jakarta because they "have no other place to go" and are forced into "sleeping with the dead."

In the U.S., massive racial and economic inequalities were dug up because of Hurricane Katrina.  But Hurricane Katrinas are happening all around the world now, and we are seeing more and more how global climate change is disproportionately affecting the poor.  This isn't just obscure science anymore - it's a moral issue.      

Stuck in an Environmentally-Friendly Rut

I just got back from a lecture at the Graduate School of Design, with the stated subject, "Living on a Shrinking Planet: Challenges for a Sustainable Future." But I kind of feel like I just got back from a presentation called, "A Summary of 'An Inconvenient Truth' in Some Different Words."

I am in no way declaring the Death of Environmentalism, although it seems that many people have. But I'm sick of every presentation about sustainability saying more or less the exact same thing and showing the exact same graphs that Al Gore showed in his film. Don't get me wrong, those of you who know me know that I love Al Gore (I mean, who wouldn't?) but, even though he has gotten everyone talking about global climate change, no one seems to be saying anything.

So let's move on past the talk about the basics of global climate change - if someone hasn't gotten it yet, they probably won't get it anytime soon. The IPCC is going to come out with their report on global climate change tomorrow, and various news sources have obtained early drafts and reported on some of the findings, including:
-global climate change is "very likely" (over 90% certainty) caused by humans and the combustion of fossil fueld
-the increase in hurricane number and strength is caused by global climate change and there will continue to be an increase in violent storms worlwide

There were also some leaks from the report due out in April, which mentioned things such as (from Reuters):
-Higher temperatures will leave millions starving and cause critical water shortages in China, Australia, parts of Europe and parts of the United States by 2080.
-By 2100, a lack of water will affect between 1.1 and 3.2 billion people due to temperatures being 2 to 3 degrees Celcius higher
-200-600 million people will face food shortage and 7 million homes will be affected by coastal flooding in the next 70 years

We obviously need to continue fighting the good fight against climate change through reduction in carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions. But I think that two things are clear now:

-Spreading the feel-good message that you can stop global climate change by turning off the lights isn't going to cut it. Individual contributions make a difference, and it is every individual's responsibility to reduce their impact on the environment, but we need to start seriously demanding that our government strictly regulates the industries that can largely affect our country's carbon emissions, like car manufacturers.

-Some dramatic warming is inevitable, regardless of our actions now. We need to start planning for the new environmental era into which we are entering. How exactly? To be honest, I'm not sure. But let's move past the basic all-about-global-warming conversation to the one that we all need to be having - what are the absolutely necessary measures that we need to be taking?

The United States is at a moral crossroads now. Our consumptive and irresponsible lifestyle is leading to destruction, starvation, coral reef bleaching, and flooding across the globe. Let's start talking realistically - about industry regulations and innovations that will actually make a difference and about what we are going to do, internationally, when our carbon emissions cause seven million families to lose their homes to coastal flooding.

Al Gore? Never heard of 'im.

Apparently 13 percent of Americans have "never heard or read anything about global warming."

Do they not talk about global warming on ESPN2?

And there goes Greenland...

It amazes me that people can still believe that global warming is a scam.

Scientists observing Greenland have been amazed to find new islands - islands that were assumed to be attached to the mainland, but are now appearing due to the rapid melting of ice sheets. The scary part is that, until very recently, climate scientists did not think that ice sheets would be greatly affected by warming in this century, but now are realizing that more than eighty cubic miles of ice could be melting off of Greenland per year. The effects of this could include a foot or two sea level rise in just a few decades - a catastrophic event for the population centers in low-lying areas.

What more evidence could you want? As many other countries around the world are debating about the best ways to adapt to warming, some Americans are still quibbling over "scientific falsities" that are being diffused by the "liberal media."

Ridiculous. It is high time that the "skeptics" admit that global climate change is no joke, and start their reform by trading in their tanks for earth-friendly transportation options.

Exxon Mobil + Philip Morris = LOVE

What do the tobacco industry and Exxon Mobil have in common? Apparently, a history of misinforming the public.

From today’s New York Times, “The Union of Concerned Scientists released a report on Wednesday accusing Exxon Mobil of spending millions of dollars to manipulate public opinion on the seriousness of global warming.”

While these accusations are nothing new for the oil and gas company, home of the actual Fat Bastard, this is the first time such a comprehensive description of erroneous misinformation has emerged to the general public.

Previously, Exxon Mobil has given ample financial support to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (Wall Street Journal is a big fan – ‘nuff said) and the George C. Marshall Institute, which sponsored the congressional briefing in which Senator Inhofe heaped mountains of praise upon Michael “Jurassic Prick” Crichton’s novel State of Fear.

(Sea) Lions, and Penguins, and (Polar) Bears! Oh my!

The Bush administration is slowly taking steps in acknowledging global warming. And you know what caused such a political shift? Polar bears. Behold the power of the cute animal. Due to the climactic changes in the Arctic, the beloved figure of winter Coca-Cola commercials everywhere is in a real-life battle to survive. Tom Brokaw had a special about this a few months ago, and steadily the polar bear is getting more coverage.

Cute animals have a way of tugging at our heartstrings that is almost mythical. I’ve made a list of movies that have made me cry and most deal exclusively with a cute animal: Bambi, Homeward Bound, Black Beauty, White Fang, and Babe. [Sidenote: I am actually shocked a Bambi defense hasn’t emerged in a court of law. If I was sitting on a jury for a murder case and the defense brought up the fact that the defendant saw Bambi when s/he was five and was traumatized for life – I would buy it.] And I refuse to see Old Yeller.

I reckon most people are the same. At the multiplex some little penguins in their own tuxes beat out the famous tux-clad James Bond. Well one explanation is that the penguins in Happy Feet are just a lot cuter than Daniel Craig.

Considering that 2007 is an El Nino year, I think we should all brace for some dicey weather. And according to this poll, 70% of Americans aren’t optimistic about the climate. [Sidenote: Also this poll claims 25% of Americans expect Jesus Christ to return... um, yeah.] But if the cute animals are what it takes to get the Bush administration doing anything about global warming, more power to them.  

Global Warming Debate, Michael Crichton Stoop to New Low

Wow. If you thought political discource in this country was rough, you aint seen nothing yet.

Michael Crichton, a popular novelist, has been one of the GOP's favorite "global warming is a hoax" pundits. In a recent TNR cover story, columnist Michael Crowley criticized Crichton for his very unscientific position.

In response Crichton made up a character in his next book named "Mick Crowley, a Washington-based political columnist." And... well, you have to click the link to find out just how low Crichton went to smear Crowley. It's not suitable for our family establishment here at Dem Apples.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002156.php

No, seriously, I read it in a Michael Crichton Novel..

Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, outgoing chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, famous for having called global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on mankind" and decrying the "minority" scientific community for coming up with "chicken little" disaster situations, while taking thousands in campaign donations from big oil (read Haley's post on it: http://www.harvarddems.com/node/775#comment) is at it again.

He's holding a committee hearing tomorrow on "Climate Change and the Media," to discuss the "poorly conceived policy decisions [that] will result from the media's nonstop hyping of 'extreme scenarios' and dire climate change predictions," according to his communications director.

PLEASE. No word yet on whether Michael Crichton's putting in an appearance, but Harvard's own Daniel Schrag is. I don't know anything about his position on climate change.

The only paper that found this worth mentioning appears to be the Washington Times, and, surprise, surprise, the conservative paper (owned by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, self proclaimed Messiah: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Myung_Moon) reports it without a trace of skepticism, nary an an environmentalist quoted.