Yes, the beginning of the trailer is a bit scary, but the movie has some good stuff to offer and a message of hope for the futre if we all act now. Check out the full version here.
Live Sustainably
Dave
Showing posts with label CO2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CO2. Show all posts
Monday, June 30, 2008
The 11th Hour
Friday, June 6, 2008
US Falling Short on Greenhouse Gas Emmisions
From Democracy Now
Four Nations Attempt to Become Carbon Neutral
World Environment Day is being marked around the world today. It comes as four countries are competing to become the first nation to go entirely carbon neutral. Iceland, Norway, Costa Rica and New Zealand are all attempting to reduce their net emissions of greenhouse gases to zero. Jeanette Fitzsimons of the Green Party in New Zealand said great progress has already been made.
Jeanette Fitzsimons: “Our electricity system is nearly 70 percent renewable now, mainly from hydro, but with some geothermal and increasingly a little bit of wind. We have a goal, a government goal, to raise that to 90 percent renewable by 2025.”
Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting the United States will announce next month that it cannot meet an international goal of making big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Chief US climate negotiator Harlan Watson said, “It’s frankly not do-able for us.”
Sunday, March 30, 2008
The White House Manipulating Climate Change Info?
Cleaning out the old emails and I came across this gem from Rep. Henry Waxman about evidence asserting the White House knowingly censored scientists on Global Warming info. It may be old news, but still just as relevant.
Gambling in Casablanca? Shocking.
Live Sustainably
Dave
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Sometimes ya just drop the ball
So tonight was Earth Day and I totally dropped the ball. I knew about it, had it in my mind to post about, and somehow totally missed posting about it. Hopefully folks picked up on it on there own. Basically at 8 PM local time they asked folks to turn off all unnecessary power for an hour to show what an effect this can have on CO2. The first one a year ago was highly successful and they were hoping for 100 million to do so this year.
While this may seem gimmicky, and don't get me wrong, it is, I think it's great cuz it proves that people across all spectrum's can pull together to show that they support a common goal. I'll post up the results when they are available.
Sorry i missed ya on this one.
Live Sustainably
Dave
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Nah, there's really no climate change happening
Here's a heartwarming story from CNN today about a 220 square mile ice sheet in Antartica that is about to break off.
Whaddya think? Time we started changing things a bit?
Live Sustainably
Dave
Monday, February 18, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Think your power is clean? Think again.
Holy connect the dots batman. I just came across this great site where you can type in your zip code and it will give you detailed info about where your local power is coming from and if it is involved in mountaintop stripping, a massively destructive coal extracting method that turns mountains into mole hills. We pay extra for green power so I need to run this by my power company to see what's what.
That said, apparently DWP buys power from Intermountian Power in Utah, who get their coal from Cumberland River Coal in Virginia and Black Thunder in Wyoming. So every time a regular DWP customer turns on the TV, it starts a chain where these companies destroy mountains in other states, ship coal across the country, turn it into electricity in Utah, and shoot it over the grid to their house so they can enjoy Sweatin' With The Oldies.
Makes sense huh?
If only there were some magical roof covering that could us a local power source, ya know, like the sun for instance, and turn it into electricity that would only have to be passed on down to the living room. If only......
Check it out, sign their petition, contact your local electric company, and pass it on.
Live Sustainably
Dave
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Why Aren't Journalists Asking Politicians About Global Warming?
Seeing as Climate Change may be the single greatest threat to the planet, don't you think journalists have a responsibility to us to be asking hard questions about what our leaders are going to do about it? I do. Please take a minute and check out the petition at What Are They Waiting For? It'll only take a second or two of your time. While you are there, click on Get The Facts and see how often some of our top journalists ask politicians these important questions. The answers will most likely upset you.
Here's the wording from the petition:
As a political reporter, you hold a particular public responsibility to ask politicians tough questions about the nation’s most pressing problems.
The world’s scientific community has unequivocally determined that global warming is a man-made crisis of the highest order, threatening our economic prosperity, international security, environmental stability, and the survival of millions. It is also one of the most pressing concerns, with the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stating, “If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two or three years will determine our future.”
Yet your reporting on the 2008 elections has ignored the climate crisis.
• We demand that you publicly acknowledge that the science of global warming is settled and that the climate crisis is an urgent threat.
• We insist that you prioritize global warming in your interviews with all candidates through the 2008 election.
The American public deserves to know where all the candidates stand on the climate crisis and the solutions they propose to address it.
Asking those questions is your responsibility. We call on you to do it.
Thanks
Live Sustainably
Dave
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
UCS' Bali Wrap Up
Check out the Union Of Concerned Scientists coverage of what went well and what went wrong at the Bali Climate Conference last week. My personal favorite quote was this one.
"One of the most unconscionable actions of the U.S. delegation here has been continuing to question the clarity and urgency of climate change science.”
Amazing.
Live Sustainably
Dave
Thursday, December 13, 2007
US Impeding Bali Climate Talks
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair
Yes, I get the irony of the post following a post on how I don't talk about Global Warming is about Global Warming but that's on a personal level. On a national governmental level it is of the utmost importance and agreement on this fact is what is going to make all the difference. So how sad am I as an American that my government is one of the biggest problems and at the same time is refusing to be a part of the solution.
Check out this article in the NY Times which illustrates how much of the problem we in the US are
or the one in The International Herald Tribune
or in The Australian
and then sign the petition here to tell them that you won't stand for this
And then pass this on to everyone you know who has a child or grandchild and ask them to do the same.
Thanks
Live Sustainably
Dave
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Why I Don't Really Talk About Global Warming
"When one argues with a fool, there are two." -anonymous
Global Warming is in my opinion the single greatest threat we as a species have ever encountered and we are presently at a tipping point of no return. Having said that, I rarely discuss it with anyone, and here's why.
It's not necessary.
There are two ways to look at this. The first is that you believe what the Nobel Prize winning IPCC says, what science tells us, and what experts warn, that we are causing global warming and that the only way to reverse it is to radically and quickly rethink our priorities and the way we live. If you fall into this camp, than you're already on the right road and I'm preaching to the choir. The second option is that for some reason you buy into the spin, don't believe the science, and don't think you have anything to do with the whole global warming issue. Here's what I usually tell these folks, something which the 9 minute video above explains quite well and in much more detail.
Let's look at the four scenarios of global warming, assuming that you actually believe in thermometers and agree that the world is getting warmer as we speak.
- Global Warming IS caused by human activity and we continue living unsustainably - Lose/Lose situation. We could have turned things around and we didn't, and we are still addicted to fossil fuels, creating political instability, and destroying the environment.
- Global Warming IS NOT caused by human activity and we continue living unsustainably - Lose/Lose situation. On the Global Warming front we will have to ride it out, and we've missed the opportunity to clean up our acts.
- Global Warming IS NOT caused by human activity and we start living sustainably - Lose/Win situation. On the Global Warming front we'll just have to wait and see, but we pollute less, wean ourselves from cheap oil, take better care of the earth and help in a whole host of other ways.
- Global Warming IS caused by human activity and we start living sustainably - Win/Win situation. If we have acted in time and do enough, we could avert a major climate disaster, and at the same time, we get all the benefits of working towards a cleaner way of living.
For some more info and a good overview on what's going on and what can be done, check out the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Live Sustainably
Dave
Monday, December 10, 2007
Al Gore Receives Nobel Peace Prize
""We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive." -Albert Einstein
Today in Oslo, Norway, Vice President Al Gore, was given the Nobel Peace Prize along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."
As Gore noted in his speech (which I highly recommend checking out) "today, we dumped another 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer. And tomorrow, we will dump a slightly larger amount, with the cumulative concentrations now trapping more and more heat from the sun.
As a result, the earth has a fever. And the fever is rising. The experts have told us it is not a passing affliction that will heal by itself. We asked for a second opinion. And a third. And a fourth. And the consistent conclusion, restated with increasing alarm, is that something basic is wrong.
We are what is wrong, and we must make it right."
Now there are a lot of people who will put Gore down for his carbon credit buying, his jetplane travel, and the mansion that he lives in, all points that I think are fair but possibly not balanced. Having said that, he's put climate change on the map and done more for the sustainability movement by doing so than just about anyone out there. And the first step is to acknowledge the problem, which he now has most of us doing.
So a hail and hearty Huzzah to Mr. Gore for his past, present, and future accomplishments and for helping make this global problem one that everyone is (finally) talking about.
Live Sustainably
Dave
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Awesome Well To Wheels Calculator
"Considering the many productive uses of petroleum, burning it for fuel is like burning a Picasso for heat" - Anonymous Dave
One of the best things from yesterdays show was at the Daimler/Chrysler exhibit and thankfully it is available on the web as well. It's a really awesome graphically simple well to wheels study, a graph that shows the energy used and CO2 created by a certain vehicle from creating the fuel to using it to power the vehicle. The great thing about this is you can mix and match and compare so if you want to see the difference between a regular car and a hybrid for instance, you can compare them to each other.After you access the main page here, look down on the right side and you'll see a little blue wave thingy under the heading "Interactive". It's a little slow but click on it, let it load and off you go. Choose your energy source, energy process, fuel, and type of engine, and you're good to go. I'd suggest starting with sun, photovoltaic, electricity, and electric engine for starters. You'll notice on the graphs that they show that to the right there are some white lines. These represent what a similar gas model car would create so you always have a point of reference. It's way cool if you ask me. Enjoy.
Live Sustainably!
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