A series of events took place yesterday all over the United States to indicate people’s concern about climate change. The Step It Up website said: “In all 50 states, at more than 1400 iconic places across the nation, we have united around a common call to action: “Step It Up Congress: Cut Carbon 80% by 2050.’” […]
… what about these people? California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) from a speech yesterday at the Council on Foreign Relations , “I can tell you, mainstream scientists are convinced, mainstream CEOs are convinced, and if you look at the surveys, mainstream Americans are convinced, that global warming and climate change is real, and that we […]
Does climate change matter as an issue for the presidential campaigns? See this from New Hampshire, giving a resounding yes to the question. "An overwhelming 96% of Democrats and 82% of Republicans favor taking action now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." I referred to the Carbon Coalition in my post "Smorgasbord" below. They are zeroed […]
I want to send you to my colleague Bonnie Boyd's terrific article on climate change in Central Asia. Bonnie is the FPA's blogger on Central Asia and has got some really interesting posts going up.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its second report of the year yesterday in Brussels. (I referenced this in "Headlines" below on April 3.) The IPCC Report is titled "Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability" , that's a mouthful. Go to the IPCC website for all the material relevant to this including the […]
I've been looking at renewable energy , we used to call it alternative energy , for a long time. When I went, as a high schooler, to the first Earth Day in 1970, I said, "Yeah, great. This is the future." When I read Barry Commoner's The Politics of Energy, published in 1979, I said […]
Supreme Court – As of noon Eastern time today, Google listed 1,127 news articles reporting on yesterday's U.S. Supreme Court decision, 5-4, in favor of the plaintiffs in probably the most important climate change case to be adjudicated anywhere in the world. Here's the story from "The Guardian" and from "The Online NewsHour." See this excellent analysis […]
As I've noted before, there is a lot going on! What follows is another smattering of items like my "Smorgasbord" post below. Politics – There is much to be discussed regarding the politics of climate change, internationally, between various stakeholders, and, of course, within countries. Two pieces from "The Economist," for instance, illustrate the intense […]
In my post from March 19 on some international polling results, one of the salient findings was that Americans' consciousness and concern regarding climate change has risen dramatically in the past few years. Two new polls confirm that. The first, released March 12 from the Yale Center of Environmental Law and Policy's Environmental Attitudes and […]
I've got a lot for respect for activists and what they do. I was one, and I like to think this blog is a form of activism. Today I will spare you the call to the barricades but I do want to flag some important programs that are going on and that merit your attention. First […]
Let's presume you have not just returned from an interplanetary expedition and have been unable to access any Earth media over the past several years. Then you know that former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has been leading a very public fight to apprise people of the reality and dangers of global warming. The documentary […]
I've been looking at energy and environmental issues for nearly 40 years and I've never before seen the proliferation of big news stories that I've been seeing for the past year or so, particularly, of course, on climate change. Maybe it was "An Inconvenient Truth," released on May 24 last year; maybe it was the 72° […]
As I said in my inaugural post on March 5, the good news on climate change is that " the recognition of the terrible problem we've created is deepening and solutions are being actively sought." People everywhere are tuned in to the issue. Recent polls indicate that this is very much the case. "Poll Finds […]
The big news last week was from Brussels. The European Union Summit meeting produced a truly historic agreement on greenhouse gas reduction, renewable energy, and energy efficiency, among other things. We'll get to some of the specifics in a moment. First, consider what we're talking about when we talk about the European Union. It is […]
A stunning report came out in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS): "The importance of the Montreal Protocol in protecting climate." The Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987 by virtually every nation on the planet, including the U.S., sought curbs on the production of stratospheric ozone-destroying chemicals such as the chlorofluorocarbons that […]