Posts by Emily Gertz
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Film Review: "The Yes Men Fix the World"
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Bicycle Inspirations From Copenhagen to Portland
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Obama Administration Moves to Slash Industrial Emissions
Guest Bloggers on Stop Global Warming
Published October 06, 2009 @ 08:44PM PT
After a solid 52+ weeks of blogging, I am taking a break for the next two weeks.
Inevitably some incredible thing will happen -- the Senate climate bill will get a floor debate, the Bangkok treaty talks will see a breakthrough, dogs and cats sleeping together. Happily, guest bloggers will be here to keep up with the news and so much more in global warming, clean energy, and sustainability news.
Please welcome them to the blog. See you after October 20!
Obama Establishes Enviro, Energy Targets for Federal Government
Published October 05, 2009 @ 05:48PM PT
The Obama administration today ordered federal agencies to aim for aggressive targets to reduce energy use, and incorporate environmental sustainability in federal government operations.
The executive order "Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance," signed today by President Obama, builds off an executive order signed by President Bush in 2007, as well as momentum created by clean energy and energy-efficiency measures funded by the stimulus act.
Under this new mandate, federal agencies must set 10-year energy reduction and environmental sustainability goals within the next 90 days. Clearly identified targets in the order include:
- 30% reduction in vehicle fleet petroleum use by 2020;
- 26% improvement in water efficiency by 2020;
- 50% recycling and waste diversion by 2015;
- 95% of all applicable contracts will meet sustainability requirements;
- Implementation of the 2030 net-zero-energy building requirement;
- Implementation of the stormwater provisions of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, section 438; and
- Development of guidance for sustainable Federal building locations in alignment with the Livability Principles put forward by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Apple Quits Business Lobby Over Climate Opposition
Published October 05, 2009 @ 01:36PM PT
Today we iPod Touch addicts and MacBook users can claim one less guilt trip: Apple Computer has become the latest high-profile defection from the US Chamber of Commerce, over the group's opposition to curbing greenhouse gas pollution.
In a letter dated today, communicating the company's immediate resignation, Catherine A. Novelli, the vice-president of worldwide government affairs at Apple wrote, "We strongly object to the chamber's recent comments opposing the E.P.A.'s effort to limit greenhouse gases." Kate Galbraith at The New York Times' "Green Inc." blog snagged the letter and put it online:
As a company, we are working hard to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions by relying on renewable energy at our facilities and designing more energy-efficient products for our customers. We have undertaken this unilaterally and without government mandate, because we believe it is the right thing to do. For those companies who cannot or will not do the same, Apple supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it is frustrating to find the Chamber at odds with us on this effort.
Browner: Climate Bill Unlikely By December; US Will Act One Way or Another
Published October 02, 2009 @ 05:27PM PT
Above: Carol Browner on goals for December's climate treaty talks in Copenhagen.
President Obama's "climate czarina" told a Washington audience today that Senate passage of a climate bill in time for December's international climate talks was extremely unlikely.
Carol M. Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, said during the interview that "“Obviously we’d like to be through the process — that’s not going to happen,” reports Andrew Revkin in The New York Times. She continued, "I think we would all agree the likelihood you would have a bill signed by the president on comprehensive energy by the time we would go in early December is not likely."
The Senate version of the climate legislation was introduced only on Wednesday, a full three months after House passage of a climate bill. Yet Ms. Browner said that it was possible that the Senate could at least complete its rounds of hearings on the bill by the time the international climate talks open on Dec. 7 in Copenhagen. Those hearings, along with the Obama administration’s recent moves toward regulating greenhouse gases, would provide evidence that the nation is serious about cutting emissions, she said.
A show of resolve by the United States about doing its part in combating global warming is considered critical to the outcome of the Copenhagen talks.
“We will go to Copenhagen and manage with whatever we have,” Ms. Browner said.
Browner made her statement this morning at the First Draft of History Conference. Her comments made recently by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), as well as the growing "common wisdom" among politicos that between the domination of health care legislation in Congress, and the contention to come over the climate bill, that climate legislation won't make it to the president's desk before 2010.
If true, it makes Obama administration moves to regulate greenhouse gas pollution via the Clean Air Act even more important -- to curb climate change, demonstrate to negotiators in December that the US really will act on climate change, one way or another.
Further, "We need to give the business community certainty and predictability," Browner said today, to achieve "a whole new generation of jobs and a [stable] climate."
Per Joshua Green's write-up at the Atlantic,
To this she added the underappreciated point that the history of major changes in U.S. environmental law shows that new rules invariably turn out to be cheaper and easier to implement than almost anyone anticipates at the time.
Fatalistic Friday: Climate treaty still stalled, catastrophic climate change forecast, more
Published October 02, 2009 @ 03:53PM PT
Above: At a press conference held midway through the Climate Change Talks in Bangkok, Yvo de Boer told reporters that progress has been made key areas including adaptation, technology and capacity-building in developing countries. However, progress on rich nation emission reduction targets and financial support for climate change action in developing countries is still elusive.
Grab a stiff drink and take in this week's bad news about global warming:
Climate talks stall on targets, finance: Efforts to convince rich nations to toughen emissions cuts have failed to make much headway at climate talks in the Thai capital, the U.N. said on Friday. "Progress toward high industrialized world emissions cuts remains disappointing during these talks. We're not seeing real advances there," Yvo de Boer, the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told reporters. "Movement on the ways and means and institutions to raise, manage and deploy financing support for the developing world climate action also remains slow." (Reuters)
Catastrophic climate change could happen with 50 years: If average global temperatures arc toward a rise of 7.2 deg. F (4 deg. C) by 2100 (over those of the mid-19th century), according to a study released this week by the UK's Met Office, we'd be screwed in diverse ways as soon as 2060: Arctic temperatures would increase by 28.8 deg F (16 deg C), while parts of sub Saharan Africa and North America would be devastated by an increase in temperature of up to 18 deg F (10 deg C); rainfall could decrease by 20 per cent in Central America, the Mediterranean and parts of coastal Australia, causing mass drought; Temperature rises in the Amazon would cause the rainforests to die, while Alaska and Siberia would see the melting of the permafrost causing more carbon dioxide to be released. (The Telegraph)
McCain's Gripe: Climate change bills don't include nuclear power
Published October 01, 2009 @ 04:25PM PT
Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) used a morning yak with NBC's David Gregory to slam the Boxer-Kerry climate and energy bill, as well as the Waxman-Markey House bill that squeaked to passage in June, for not including nuclear energy in their mandates on "renewable," "clean" power.
Neither bill allows nuclear energy to count toward fulfilling mandated renewable energy generation goals, which arguably could dampen enthusiasm for nukes by states trying to meet these "renewable energy standards," or RES.
"It’s the left-wing environmental organizations that are not allowing us to move forward with nuclear power," groused the senator, at the "First Draft of History" forum sponsored by The Atlantic and the Aspen Institute.
Kofi Annan Rocks! 'Beds Are Burning' re-mixed as climate change anthem
Published October 01, 2009 @ 09:53AM PT
Above: Stirring climate anthem, or earnest do-good dirge?
Long Live Rock Dept: The Tck Tck Tck "countdown to Copenhagen" campaign has re-recorded the Midnight Oil guitar rock anthem "Beds Are Burning" into a call for action on climate change. The song is available for free download on the web and on iTunes, too.
"Every download will count as a unique digital petition with people adding their names to demand world leaders reach an ambitious, fair and global deal at the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen," says the campaign in a statement.
The star-studded video features Duran Duran, Mark Ronson, Jamie Cullum, Melanie Laurent, Marion Cotillard, Milla Jovovich, Fergie, Lily Allen, Manu Katche, Bob Geldof, Youssou N'Dour, Yannick Noah, Jet Li, Suketu Metha, Amadou et Mariam, and more -- all framed by voiceovers from Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations and now a big league anti-poverty advocate, and Bishop Desmond Tutu.
