Climate Files 64 / Al Gore’s Call to Action
Al Gore fills us in on facts and strategy to help our lawmakers to accomplish something useful on climate change, for a change. We need to either change our legislators minds on global warming, or plan for the worst now. Unfortunately, we probably can’t adapt to the 4 or more degree temperature rise in global average temperature that seems inevitable. What is the U.S. doing about it? What they are doing is being done in secret to avoid advertising problems (This is how it is being described). Senator John Kerry and two other senators have shown industry leaders their 8-page draft bill on climate and energy. We don’t get to see it, but it has been discussed and this episode lets you in on what is known about it so far. Reportedly, it contains targets that are a bit lowered than the bill that passed in Congress, and more allowances for industry, energy, coal, natural gas and oil. From what I have read about it, it emphasizes jobs, but sounds like a planetary train-wreck on climate change.
The U.S. government is planning for adaptation and ‘resilience’ for the government — not necessarily for us. Yet they won’t act decisively to stop carbon emissions.
On March 16, 2010, the Task Force released an Interim Progress Report which outlines the Task Force’s progress to date and recommends key components to include in a national strategy on climate change adaptation.
The Interim Progress Report is available for 60 days of public comment. Submit comments here.
Al Gore spoke to supporters and the public in an open conference call on Monday, March 15th, in conjunction with Repower America. Senator Sherrod Brown also spoke. Hear Al Gore’s call to activist action in this episode, and find out what you can do to help push climate legislation in the U.S. along. One suggestion he had is to write letters to Senators. See more at Repower America. Write letters to your congressmen!
Finally, the last talk in this episode is an interview with Lester Brown, author of his newly revised book, Plan B 4.0. This is the premier Post Carbon Exchange interview, and they plan a series of these in the future. You can check out his book and read more at the Post Carbon Institute.
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Climate Files 62 / EPA Priorities
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Discusses 2010 EPA Priorities
On March 8, 2010, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson spoke to the National Press Club on progress made by the agency in 2009 and priorities for 2010. She discussed actions on climate change, America’s waters and EPA’s efforts to expand the conversation on environmentalism.
She was asked why the EPA doesn’t stop surface mining (mountaintop removal) and she basically said because the EPA regulates pollution and water quality; the EPA does not and cannot regulate mining. That is a political excuse. They are the Environmental Protection Agency — it’s their job to protect the environment. Mountaintop removal is one of the most environmentally destructive practices in the U.S. and they must have the authority to stop it. Apparently, this is the EPA’s way of stalling a decision on mountaintop removal. Surface coal mining is especially destructive, not just to our water but to the trees, the ecology of the area, and to the land itself. There is no way to put the top back on a hill or mountain once it has been removed, and no way to completely reinstate the wildlife and balance of the ecology of the area once it has been ruined.
Unfortunately today, in conjunction with this talk, the EPA approved a surface mining operation in Ohio. They imposed supposed stringent rules on the mining operation so that it doesn’t pollute the water, but nowhere are there requirements of a carbon fee or any way for this mining to take responsibility for how it adds to global warming. This is where the EPA has to change. The EPA’s responsibilities should include protecting the human race’s ability to live in its environment–which would necessarily render coal mining obsolete. Read about the EPA’s new permit below. To see the video of this talk, visit CSPAN.org.
Below is the press release released by the EPA today in its approval of the Ohio surface mining permit. This is a blow to the environment, and it’s hard to see how this is the EPA “protecting” the country’s land and water.
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Climate Files 56 / Answering Skeptics
Dead coral and sea shells washed up on beach, Mexico, 2007.
We know that CO2 causes climate change, but how? Believe it or not, credit card debt can help explain how CO2 causes global warming, even if the graphics show CO2 kind of non-synchronized with temperatures, at times. Hear Richard Alley talk about CO2 causing global warming at the AGU Annual Meeting. (Full video with graphics is here)
Also hear Stephen Colbert talk about mountaintop removal with Dr. Margaret Palmer, and the latest crock of the week, the claim of a petition with 32,000 signatures on it from scientists. It’s a hoax, of course. From Peter Sinclair of the Greenman’s Climate Crock video series. Sinclair is a longtime advocate of environmental awareness and energy alternatives and he runs Greenman Studio from his home in Midland, Michigan.
Richard Alley is an American geologist and Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at the Pennsylvania State University. He has authored more than 170 refereed scientific publications about the relationships between Earth’s cryosphere and global climate change, and is recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information as a “highly cited researcher.” (wikipedia)
More information on how to speak to deniers and skeptics that should be useful to everyone is here and here.
New climate change meetings/conferences after COP15:
In Abu Dhabi, the World Future Energy Summit.
Another climate change meeting is coming up on January 24th. Read about it here.
“…key groups of developing countries will meet to try to explore ways to get to agree a legally binding final agreement. As the dust settles on the stormy Danish meeting, environment ministers from the so-called “Basic countries” – Brazil, South Africa, India and China – will meet on January 24 in New Delhi. No formal agenda has been set, but observers expect the emerging geopolitical alliance between the four large developing countries who brokered the final “deal” with the US in Denmark will define a common position on emission reductions and climate aid money, and seek ways to convince other countries to sign up to the Copenhagen accord that emerged last month.”
You have to wonder what the carbon footprint is of all these meetings, especially given what they accomplish.
Transportation emissions information from Science Insider:
“. . . . projections spelled out in a new report reviewing the issue by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change suggests that by 2050 the total amount of carbon pollution from these sources could increase tenfold, depending on population, economics, and technology trends. Were that to happen, emissions would be as high as the entire transportation sector, which takes up 14% of global greenhouse emissions, currently dominated by pollution from cars and trucks.
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Music dedicated to all skeptics and deniers at the end: Pants on the Ground, by ‘General’ Larry Platt.
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Climate Files 55 / Drop the Nuke Bias
Being antinuclear is like a religion to many environmentalists. But solving climate change will be a compromise of what is possible and needed. We are not going to get a green utopian world to emerge and solve climate change with windmills. Even environmentalists want to be able to charge their cell phones and laptops. Should we throw it all away, or find out a realistic way to power it all once the coal plants are gone? We should be supporting nuclear plants over CCS any day. The last thing we want to do is spend billions locking in coal for another 50 years, something that could kill us all.
The Clean Air Act is under attack by Republicans with new legislation trying to block EPA again again. You can help save it by contacting your Reps. here.
Some news discussed in this episode includes information on and quotes from the books Storms of My Grandchildren by James Hansen and the Vanishing Face of Gaia by James Lovelock. Hansen’s letter to Obama is here (PDF). The UK must raise its CO2 emissions target to a 42% cut, says a new report. Read why our endless consumerism needs to be replaced with sustainable living here. The story about Bell Labs greening the internet by 2015 is here. There is a lot more in this episode including an audio description of what a thorium reactor is and how it works.
Read another interview with Stewart Brand, whose interview is played in this episode, here at e360.
More info on thorium reactors:
- How a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) works
- Energy from Thorium blog
- Uranium is so Last Century
Contact CF using the contact form at the top or email CF at news @ climatefilesradio (dot) com
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Music at end: Nuclear Power Plant by Zen Eyes
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Climate Files 46 / Cap and Raid
Earth's damaged climate is a bit BIG to be fixed using capitalism products and trading schemes.
The cap and trade legislation has been “put off” until well after the Copenhagen summit in December. It’s pushed into spring, 2010, if then. If you want to read some better bills than cap and trade, which should be called Cap and RAID, you can check out all the other bills that intend to mitigate climate change. There are a lot of them!
This episode contains recent news and the “Huge Mistake” by the EPA attorneys gone rogue who have lots of information about cap and trade. The same rogue EPA attorneys interview on DemocracyNow here. Many environmentalists are very disappointed with the whole concept of capping and trading permits to pollute. The Carbon Tax Center site has a great list of the other, better bills here.
A Carbon Tax, Not a Cap and Trade
EU emissions trading scheme an ‘embarrassing failure’
Peru is losing its sacred glaciers to climate change. Slideshow of amazing photos is here.
Floods and Droughts: How Climate Change is Impacting Africa.
Also discussed in this episode: The Brammo Enertia electric motorcycle is now on sale at Best Buy.
Click below for the feature:
Initial Report: 2009 Brammo Enertia
One of the new, sneaky greenwash sites: GERrrrr (don’t take it seriously, folks).
Payal Parekh’s blog is here. Her interview on the Real News network, if you want to see it (the entire interview audio is in this episode) is at the Real News network ‘Cap-and-trade won’t cut it’ Pt. 2.
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Climate Files 39 / Science & Tech News
Robot Fish?
This was NaPodPoMo5, the fifth installment of this podcast’s marathon.
Covered in this episode: Deep-sea Ecosystems Affected By Climate Change.
Trees in the desert, maybe the Sahara, might solve climate change? Well, it’s a plan.
Liquid Granite and the hunt for a carbon-neutral cement, Foldable 3D Solar Cells, robot fish and more, in some science and tech news for this episode.
Some Futurism in this interview at CleanTech, too.
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Climate Files 27 / National Clean Energy Summit 2.0
Bright Source energy solar array
How best to mitigate climate change legislatively, and jobs and energy–specifically renewable energy discussed at the National Clean Energy Summit (website here). (The subtitle of this episode is “Dog and Pony Show”) See the news items I discussed on the FN news site here.
The most disappointing bit of news was that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (and Obama, by inference) OK’d the Alberta Clipper pipeline that was discussed last week. There is also new evidence that the methane in the oceans is beginning to bubble to the surface. Methane is a super-potent greenhouse gas that is stored in very cold slushy pools at the bottoms of the oceans and now, it’s escaping. And it’s not just methane.
Research finds higher acidity in Alaska waters
The Age of Stupid, will launch in America on September 21st 2009 from a solar-powered cinema tent in New York LIVE to over 400 movie theatres across the country. This One Night Only live event is your only chance to see The Age of Stupid on the big screen and is timed for the day before the UN’s climate meeting on September 22nd, when 80 Heads of State – and therefore the world’s media – will gather in New York. This movie also kicks off the UN’s Climate Week.
Speakers from the Direct Carbon Pricing senate briefing on July 13, 2009:
- James Hansen, PhD: Leading climate scientist
- Robert Shapiro, PhD: Co-Founder and Chairman, Sonecon; former U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs; economist, author
- Prof. Janet E. Milne, JD: Professor of Law, Vermont Law School, author of “The Reality of Carbon Taxes in the 21st Century”
- Cecil Corbin-Mark, Deputy Director, WE ACT for Environmental Justice and Co-Coordinator, Environmental Justice Leadership Forum on Climate Change
- Moderated by Brent Blackwelder, PhD: President, Friends of the Earth
See the video and find out more at http://www.pricecarbon.org
The National Clean Energy Summit 2.0 was the real dog and pony show. Half of the people there were hawking their particular form of energy they have invested in, in their attempts to sell it to us. Some of it was very good, such as the real renewable energy like solar. The other people there played supporting roles, except for Bill Clinton and Al Gore and a few others. There were many speakers, it was hours and hours long, and this episode only plays a few excerpts from the following.
- Denise Bode – CEO, American Wind Energy Association
- Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
- Secretary Steven Chu – U.S. Department of Energy
- Former Vice President Al Gore
- Rose McKinney James – Energy Foundation
- John Woolard – President and CEO, Bright Source Energy
- Steve Roell – Chairman and CEO, Johnson Controls
- Former Senator Tim Wirth (D-CO) – United Nations Foundation, Moderator
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Music: Waterslide by The Bonedaddys and Rush, 2112 with Lessons at the end. (Yes, I just saw I Love You, Man, which contains “Waterslide” and mucho Rush, hilariously too, though not this stuff.)
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FN09 / The EPA Rules
The EPA rules! Last Friday, April 17th, the EPA released a preliminary ruling on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse emissions, at last. These greenhouse gases are pollutants, and they are harming human health, now and for future generations. Finally the U.S. has the opportunity to lead on something worthwhile again. We need to attack this problem aggressively, creating green jobs and a green economy, now that the Obama administration is taking steps to solve the climate crisis. Read the EPA finding here and download the 133 page explanation on this page, as well as instructions to submit comments.
A portion of an interview about cap and dividend is included, from Congressman Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat representing Maryland’s Eighth District, who was interviewed on Earthbeat Radio. Here are the bills discussed: H.R. 1862– Cap and Dividend Act of 2009 (Van Hollen’s bill) and H.R. 1337 — America’s Energy Security Trust Fund Act of 2009 (Larsen’s bill).
You will also hear from Friends of the Earth — Michelle Chan — on the subject of why cap and trade isn’t so great.
European cap and trade works, a little bit at least — they have cut emissions 4-5%, but that’s not enough.
Climate Change Congress — where you can find videos there of all three days of the conference, including a transcript of Sir Nicolas Stern’s speech that is played in this episode.
LA Times story — What will global warming look like? Look to Australia. They are seeing droughts, wildfires, and floods, just like what is starting in the U.S.
Cap and trade problems are abundant — From Counterpunch.org
The Stern Report — The Economics of Climate Change — can be found here.
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FN08 / The Last Gasps of Capitalism
These may be the dying gasps of capitalism — or not. The governments of the world, as shown at the G20, seem determined to preserve a very reckless brand of capitalism all the while infusing trillions of dollars of “stimulus” into banks and institutions, instead of people. When are the people going to get some stimulus?
Well, it might come in the way of green jobs — or not. We need climate change action, and we get super capitalism. We get a lot of promises and nice catchphrases and sound bytes from the “world leaders”, but whether any of this will pan out is anyone’s guess.
This episode talks about the G20, the climate conferences in Bonn, Energy, and news from the Republican Road to Ruin. Also, why T. Boone Pickens and the Republicans are lying to us.
Interested in the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009? Henry Waxman says it will create thousands of green jobs.
Info. on the Bonn climate conference from Greenpeace and from the UNFCCC website about the Bonn conference here.
The Republicans are really distorting reality as to what Cap and Trade will cost the average family (if such a thing exists anymore)
Final mix cut of Solutions from the podcast Radio Ecoshock. You will enjoy the good news, for a change.
You can download this episode here or subscribe on the right. Or, you can do both!
Read the Republican Road to Ruin if you want a good laugh — or cry.
Music clips from the movie Revolutionary Road.
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FN06 / A Criminal Enterprise
Highlights from Powershift09 sending a message to end the use of coal — and as speaker Robert Kennedy put it, coal is a criminal enterprise. What they are doing to mountains and our air is nothing short of criminal. It’s time to take action to stop coal. It’s time for a citizens arrest of coal. Speakers from Powershift09 include RFK Jr., Van Jones and Lisa Jackson; also Bill McKibben and Jimmy Carter in the second half.
The Age of Stupid movie trailer can be seen here.
Interested in the Clean Energy Corp — story link about green jobs from the Environment News Service:
“Clean Energy Corps Proposed to Create Jobs, Fight Global Warming”
In the 2nd half, you’ll hear about why natural gas isn’t such a great fuel, why it’s not “clean” like Pelosi is claiming, and whatever happened to Jimmy Carter’s solar panels, and his dream of clean energy.
It’s not a happy story, but 30 years later, we have another realistic chance at it. And at the end, bits of a speech from 32 years ago, much of which President Obama could be saying today.
Nancy Pelosi’s conflict of interest is her financial interest in T. Boone Picken’s natural gas venture.
From the Wall Street Journal.
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband invested between $50,000 and $100,000 in T. Boone Pickens’s Clean Energy Fuels Corp., which could benefit from legislation the California Democrat favors to boost U.S. use of natural gas.
Nancy Pelosi’s letter about switching the CPP to natural gas: Read the whole thing here.
Pelosi has a conflict of interest with natural gas, being an investor in T. Boone Pickens natural gas company. She’s an investor in natural gas, so she is pushing the use of natural gas on the nation’s capitol, insinuating that it’s “clean” and renewable, which it most certainly is not. She should be installing solar panels instead. — like our president did 30 years ago. The drilling process for natural gas contains the use of toxic chemicals, including Benzene which causes cancer. And get this — the company who perfected this deadly technique was Halliburton.
“Sublette County is the home of one of the nation’s largest natural gas fields, and many of its 6,000 wells have undergone a process pioneered by Halliburton called hydraulic fracturing, which shoots vast amounts of water, sand and chemicals several miles underground to break apart rock and release the gas. The process has been considered safe since a 2004 study by the Environmental Protection Agency found that it posed no risk to drinking water. After that study, Congress even exempted hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act. Today fracturing is used in 9 out of 10 natural gas wells in the United States.”
And Jimmy Carter’s solar panels–they were removed by the Reaganites, and now you can hear why.
I read much of the story, but you can read the rest of it here.
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FN04 / The Smart Grid Summit Part II
This episode is part 2 of the Center for American Progress’s forum entitled “National Clean Energy Project: Building the New Economy–Wired for Progress” that was held on Monday, February 23, 2009 in Washington, DC.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; . . . . it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us. . . .
– that’s from a Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
I think that quote describes the challenges we are facing. Al Gore asks: What is our generation’s purpose? And he answers: to save the habitability of the earth.
This National Clean Energy Project brought together a select group of high-level government, business, labor and advocacy group leaders focused on developing a plan and guiding principles to lead the transformation of U.S. energy policy.
The speakers continue with their discussion of transmission, the smart grid, and how climate change will affect us. Mostly they focus on energy because without energy the whole world stops. Energy efficiency was discussed a lot, and it’s considered the fifth fuel, but efficiency is a hard sell in a culture like that of a western country where energy has been so taken for granted.
Speakers in part two of this conference include Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Congressman Ed Markey, Attorney Robert Kennedy Jr., Sea Change Foundation President Nat Simons, Former Governor George Pataki (R-NY), Owens-Corning CEO Michael Thaman, American Wind Energy Association CEO Denise Bode, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Acting Chairman Jon Wellinghoff, SEIU president Andy Stern and more from Boone Pickens, Al Gore and Bill Clinton.
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News and Commentary #03
Before this was a climate podcast . . . it was a news broadcast. This episode covers climate change, news about Karl Rove, news about diplomatic efforts, and the 819 billion dollar stimulus package that Obama wants passed. No Republicans voted to pass it in the House on Wednesday night and it passed anyway. That’s because President Obama has a mandate and intelligence on his side. Anyway, I defend the spending bill and one reason is the money for transportation and energy and the new electric grid, all of which we need badly. However, it’s true this spending bill won’t be nearly enough because it doesn’t yet tackle climate change seriously.
See this train? Other countries have super-fast commuter trains and we don’t. Why is that? Could it be due to Exxon or BP? We need super-fast, super-efficient transit in the U.S. and it’s ridiculous that we don’t have any. Something or someone must be obstructing their development. There are even solar-powered bullet trains in development, but I bet the U.S. will be one of the last countries to get one, thanks to the obstructionist Republicans.
I play a short clip of Al Gore’s very long testimony in front of Congress on Wednesday. I will have the entire recording (3 hours) shortly, and it will be available on Podcast Liberally (here) only.
Music: Runaway Train by Eliza Gilkyson
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