The Daily Climate: Charismatic Macrofauna Edition

by Emily Gertz

Published October 21, 2008 @ 08:50AM PT

In today's edition: Global warming hurts kittens -- kittens, people!; the Bush administration tells wildlife officials to ignore climate change; bison re-roam Iowa prairie; and more climate + animal news.

• A Flood of Kittens, Thanks to Global Warming (The Environment Report)
• Wildlife Officials Should Ignore Global Warming In Plans to Protect Wildlife, Says Bush Administration (McClatchy Newspapers)
• Bison Return to Iowa's Native Prairie (ENS Newswire)
• Climate Change Is Driving Increase in Tiger Attacks (New Scientist)
• Zoos Vow To Protect Animals From Climate Change (Australia Broadcasting Corporation)

Image: kittenwar screen grab

Less-Meat Monday: Vegetables with Chicken

by Emily Gertz

Published October 20, 2008 @ 05:33PM PT

I've blogged lately about why eating less meat can help stop global warming, or at least slow it down: livestock agriculture creates nearly 20% of the world's human-caused greenhouse gas pollution. That's a full fifth of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

You might want to cut back on meat for other reasons, too: health, frugality, ethics.

Whatever your reason, Less-Meat Monday is a new feature on Stop Global Warming that will talk about how. Please join me in creating this feature by joining this action pledge here at Change.org: Eat Less Meat on Mondays (or any day).

I'm looking for links to other blogs that feature great less-meat cooking, and recipes to post here.  Please send in your pointers and ideas!

The inspiration for Less-Meat Monday is "Putting Meat in Its Place," by Mark Bittman, which ran on June 11, 2008 in The New York Times. One featured recipe reversed the chicken with vegetables equation, appropriately enough called Vegetables with Chicken. I can't post the whole recipe here due to copyright, so here's a summary of the basic approach to this delish-sounding stew, after the jump:

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The Daily Climate, October 20, 2008: Canada's $100M climate aid pledge, Jersey shore windpower, more

by Emily Gertz

Published October 20, 2008 @ 08:39AM PT

• Canada Pledges $100M to Help Poorer Nations Fight Global Warming
• Off New Jersey Shore, Offshore Wind May Power the Future (Scientific American)
• Green Policies in California Generated Jobs, Study Finds (The New York Times)
• Climate Change Leads to $300 Billion in Business (The Economic Times/The India Times)
• Mexico City Turns to Green Roofs to Save Energy, Cut Smog (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Video: Canadian Broadcasting System report on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's $100 million pledge of global warming aid to developing nations. Mr. Harper made the announcement at the end of the annual Sommet de la Francophonie in Quebec City, attended by 52 member nations and 13 observer countries.

Global Warming and the Financial Crisis

by Emily Gertz

Published October 19, 2008 @ 08:19PM PT

Stopping global warming -- more than any other issue short of the economy itself -- has taken a front row seat at the Global Financial Meltdown Spectacular.  Trying to keep up with the action might induce whiplash.  Here's a headline from Friday's Independent (UK) newspaper:  "European states plead poverty as credit crisis threatens 'son of Kyoto' agreement,"

The global downturn could scupper plans for a landmark "son of Kyoto" deal to combat climate change, green campaigners have warned.

The warning came after the European Union's ambitious plans to combat climate change were left in disarray at the close of its summit in Brussels yesterday. Some member states are calling for the programme to be watered down on the grounds that it cannot be afforded in a downturn.

And here's one from Sunday, two day's later: "Green energy is not a middle-class conceit, more the only way forward" was the headline:

Developing a new green economy is our most promising path out of the present crisis. It is the best available new engine of growth, with the best chance of creating the tens of millions of jobs that will soon be desperately needed.

Who's right?  Who's wrong?  Understanding the meltdown is a good way to begin making sense of these wildly divergent storylines.  

Global Financial Crisis 101 and Ecological Economics 101 after the jump...

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The Daily Climate: SEJ08 Award-Winning Reporting on Global Warming Edition

by Emily Gertz

Published October 18, 2008 @ 11:28AM PT

Today's edition of The Daily Climate is devoted to environmental reporting that's been recognized as the best of 2007 by the Society of Environmental Journalists. The awards were handed out this week at SEJ's annual meeting, being hosted by Virginia Tech.

Below I've listed the winners that cover global warming, and linked to the reports which are available online -- but I hope you'll click through to the full list and check out all the amazing environmental reporting that's been honored this year.

[[Ever wondered what a confab of environmental journalists looks like? No?...well, now that I've piqued your curiosity, check out the SEJ08 conference blog and Flickr group, for reports and photos from the many excellent field trips, which have included a rare look inside a nuclear power plant, kayaking through cattle country along the James River, and a tour of Joel Salatin's permacultural farm (made famous by Michael Pollan in his book The Omnivore's Dilemma), as well as the top-notch panels and keynotes happening at the conference.]]

Award-winning reporting on global warming of 2007 after the jump...

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Defending Obama's Support for Clean Coal, Offshore Drilling

by Emily Gertz

Published October 17, 2008 @ 10:24PM PT

Over at Gristmill, Dave Roberts has posted "part the first" of his "defense of Obama's dirty-energy rhetoric." 

"Needless to say I have no brief for dirty energy," writes Dave, "but politically speaking, I think Obama's campaign strategy on energy has been both necessary and quite brilliant, if largely unheralded."

First: Barack Obama is a black liberal with a Muslim name and a Kenyan father whose political career was born in inner city Chicago.

Contemplate that for a moment. It's easy to forget just how wildly, cosmically unlikely it is for someone like that to be competing in, much less on the verge of winning, a presidential election in the United States. It defies logic, history, and, I don't know, physics. It's a miracle...

Second, a fact that many enviros are loathe to recognize: most Americans do not hate dirty energy. They hate oil companies in a populist sort of way, but they do not hate oil, or coal, nuclear power, natural gas, or anything else they think might boost supply and lower prices. To the extent they've thought about energy at all, they have a vaguely all-of-the-above outlook, which strikes them as common sense. They're sure as hell not ready to bet their future on solar and wind...

...In short, Obama simply cannot, as a matter of political strategy, afford to take the kinds of positions and say the kinds of things enviros want.

Read the whole thing over at Gristmill.

I've noted, in one of my posts about the second presidential debate, that in seemingly going into the tank for offshore drilling, Sen. Obama was actually doing exactly what the "American public" says it wants from politicians: he made a compromise to get bipartisan support for a bill that also included support for alternative energy.

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The Daily Climate, October 17, 2008: Top Tornado Season, Debunking Clean Coal, more

by Emily Gertz

Published October 17, 2008 @ 07:51AM PT

• 2008 Tornado Season Could Blow Away Records (USA Today)
• Is There Such a Thing as 'Clean Coal'? (Solve Climate)
• Economy Doesn’t Trump Climate : EU Sticks by GHG Plan, UK Goes for 80% Cut (Climate Progress)
• Rated on Scientific Openness, EPA, OSHA Flunk the Test (Washington Post)
• Why Global Warming Could Save Some of Our Most Endangered Animals, Plants (BBC News)
• Bioenergy Could Lift West Africa Out of Poverty: UN Foundation (Biopact)

Image: "Occluded mesocyclone tornado. Occluded means old circulation on a storm; this tornado was forming while the new circulation was beginning to form the tornadoes which preceeded the F5 Oklahoma City tornado." May 3, 1999. Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration