December 27, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: 8 Comments
Climate change means “global warming”, so how can severe winter storms and excessively cold breezes be evidence of a warming climate? The key is in the word “global”: the warming of the overall global average temperature need not manifest in all places at all times as warmer weather. Throughout the history of human civilization, the Earth’s climate has remained relatively stable, due to optimal global average temperatures; as global average temperatures slip outside that optimal range, the warmer air makes the interaction between climate systems more inconsistent and more severe.
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July 3, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) this week called for a move toward building consensus for a scaled back version of the climate legislation pending in the United States Senate. Two possible models, given the nature of the Kerry-Lieberman proposal, as written, would be to either establish at the federal level the kind of cooperative emissions reduction strategy already adopted by a coalition of states across the northeast or a limit on total carbon emissions from power plants only.
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July 3, 2010 :: Eva Scherson :: Comments Off
Sen. Olympia Snowe, Republican of Maine, is known for being a moderate, a pragmatist, and often the key to determining what gets done in a hotly divided partisan environment. She has consistently sought to take responsible positions on environmental policy, but has supported her party in many key votes. Now, she is pledging to push for a broader coalition of support for a scaled-back climate bill. Her approach is being called “utility-only”, focusing carbon emissions capping on power generation utilities, something supporters say will make the pending legislation more viable economically and administratively.
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June 29, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Between June 21 and 25, Citizens Climate Lobby took its message to Capitol Hill, meeting with 52 different members of Congress, or their energy and climate staff, in both the House and the Senate. The first CCL national conference was fortuitously timed, as the ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has brought into stark relief the nature of the carbon-fuel problem and the urgent need for action to achieve a civilization-wide overhaul of energy infrastructure, and the climate bill pending in the Senate may not have the votes to override a filibuster.
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June 16, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
There is nothing ideological about the issue of renewable energy resources. Proponents tend to care about the health of the natural environment, which motivates their wish to see renewables replace high-polluting resources like oil and coal, but the technologies, the fact of their economic viability and their usefulness for society at large, are not in any way a matter of ideology.
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June 10, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is today trying to push through the United States Senate an amendment to proposed legislation which would limit the power of the EPA to regulate carbon emissions. Murkowski claims the constraint on EPA authority is necessary to protect future economic growth and job creation, though it is in fact an effort to deliver huge amounts of public funding to the oil industry and an attempt to establish federal government policy ignoring the Supreme Court.
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April 22, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Earth Day 2010 finds our world, in many ways, at a moment of crucial historical importance, on the issue of climate destabilization and environmental stewardship. The combined effects of major scientific advances, which have brought a wealth of hard evidence, the global campaign to raise awareness, and the deteriorating conditions of the carbon fuel sector’s relationship with consumers’ interest, now mean awareness of the urgent need to achieve a more sustainable global economic infrastructure has spread rapidly.
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February 20, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
In response to a recent article, explaining that record snowfall in certain places does not equate to a proof that global warming is not happening, but rather, that global warming is an apt explanation for why the record snowfalls would occur there, a number of climate skeptics chose to attack certain points in the piece, using what they take to be established science. In some cases, the evidence cited was simply misrepresented or misinterpreted, according to the wishes of the skeptics themselves.
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February 16, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: 7 Comments
Climate-science skeptics have been gleeful in their assault on climate change theory, the hard research and tens of thousands of scientists behind it and the very concept of human responsibility to the environment, because there has been snowfall. In a stunning display of ignorance, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) openly claimed the record snows that hit Washington, DC, were evidence there was in fact no climate change, that the whole idea is just a myth.
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January 8, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
After decades of environmental scientists seeking to raise awareness about the detrimental impacts of burning ever more carbon-based fuels, the Copenhagen Accord shows a global willingness to recognize the gravity of the issue and to take concrete —if as yet unnamed— policy actions to address the challenges of coming decades.
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December 21, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
(1) [W]e shall, recognizing the scientific view that the increase in global temperature should be below 2 degrees Celsius, on the basis ofequity and in the context of sustainable development, enhance our long-term cooperative action to combat climate change. … (2) We agree that deep cuts in global emissions are required according to science, and as documented by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report with a view to reduce global emissions so as to hold the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius … (10) We decide that the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund shall be established as an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the Convention to support projects, programme, policies and other activities in developing countries related to mitigation including REDD-plus, adaptation, capacity-building, technology development and transfer….
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December 19, 2009 :: Eva Scherson :: One Comment
After two weeks of intense and sometimes bitter negotiations, US president Barack Obama arrived in Copenhagen to marshal all his diplomatic skills in brokering the beginnings of a viable framework for global carbon emissions reductions. Late Friday, it was announced that five nations —the United States, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa— had carved out a deal that would, for the first time, bring all the world’s major economies into the same camp on efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
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December 19, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The Philippines looks upon these negotiations in Copenhagen with a critical sense of urgency. The average world per capita CO2 equivalent emission is 6 tons and must be brought down to 3 tons to stabilize at 450 ppm in 2050. The Philippines is already doing better than that. Our emissions are only 1.6 tons per capita and we are committed to further deviate from our business-as-usual growth path.
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December 19, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
When Pres. Obama and Pres. Medvedev meet, their agenda will reach beyond carbon emissions and climate change negotiations, however.They are expected to discuss ongoing negotiations on a new nuclear arms reduction treaty. US and Russian negotiations have been meeting in Geneva, holding talks described as “intense”, in the interests of mutual nuclear disarmament. The plan will be a second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (StART 2), aimed at moving the world closer to Pres. Obama’s vision of “a world without nuclear weapons”.
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December 18, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
When US president Barack Obama arrived in Copenhagen, there was no global agreement on how to address climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, and talks were described as being “in a state of chaos”. His morning schedule of face to face meetings was reorganized so he could attend an emergency conference of key leaders. Talks were scheduled to continue through the weekend, and yet before midnight, agreement had been reached.
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December 18, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The above video highlights the Danish city of Frederikshavn’s ongoing comprehensive plan to achieve 100% carbon neutral status by 2015, by focusing on wind and other renewable resources to produce its entire municipal energy supply. Mikael Kau, the director of the Frederikshavn energy project explains that other, larger cities in Denmark could adopt similar plans and from the local level help Denmark achieve 100% energy independence and carbon neutrality by 2015.
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December 18, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Gordon Brown plans “plan b” 2nd round of talks if Copenhagen conference fails to achieve global pact. The plan would call for a smaller number of nations to meet to agree to concrete steps to curb emissions and move their contribution to the world economy toward a green energy future.
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December 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
With the US promising to commit $100 billion over ten years to help fund mitigation efforts against the impacts of climate destabilization and China all but refusing outright to agree to any pact that requires international verification of emissions reductions and/or how international funds are spent, the technological solution remains a key priority.
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December 18, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Good morning. It’s an honor to for me to join this distinguished group of leaders from nations around the world. We come together here in Copenhagen because climate change poses a grave and growing danger to our people. You would not be here unless you —like me— were convinced that this danger is real. This is not fiction, this is science. Unchecked, climate change will pose unacceptable risks to our security, our economies, and our planet. That much we know.
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December 18, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
The furious negotiations of the final days of the Copenhagen conference on climate change has produced another draft of a potential Copenhagen Accord, which would drop the 2010 deadline for establishing a binding global treaty, but would keep the absolute upper limit of an eventual 2ºC global average temperature rise above pre-industrial levels.
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December 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The Copenhagen climate conference is intended to round out two weeks of global negotiations with an agreement of some sort aimed at securing major progress on carbon emissions limits. It remains uncertain whether an agreement will be reached, so Pres. Obama’s trip is being treated as a “high-stakes gamble” in the US media. In fact, Obama will be one of 115 heads of government in attendance, and the White House’s statement that while his attendance cannot guarantee agreement, a decision not to could scuttle negotiations, seems the most level-headed.
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December 17, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Devoting valuable grain crops to fuel production has had an immediate negative impact on the global food supply, reducing supply and pushing prices higher, even as one billion people suffer from chronic hunger. In the United States, high prices and economic crisis mean on in eight are now insufficiently able to access adequate food supplies. But a new generation of crop-based biofuels will be more efficient and need not interfere with the food supply.
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December 16, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The dispute over whether or not wealthy industrialized nations like the US can agree with fast-developing nations, still in the process of industrialization, like China and India, on how best to formulate global emissions policies to combat climate change has been explained backwards. It is commonly said that China and India want the right to continue burning ever-increasing amounts of carbon-based fuels until they catch up to the US and the industrialized nations in per-capita emissions levels. But the problem is more a matter of what cuts the industrial nations are willing to undertake.
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December 10, 2009 :: Eva Scherson :: Comments Off
Big business interests have come out in fierce opposition to the proposed EPA regulation of emissions that contribute to the greenhouse effect, and the fundamental destabilization of global climate patterns. The opponents of new regulatory measures allege such regulation would unduly hamper the ability of businesses responsible for the emissions to profit from their existing business model. Supporters of heavy investment in carbon-based industries are, without any pretense otherwise, seeking a free pass on harm to human health.
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December 9, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The United States’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ruled that carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to human health, two years after the US Supreme Court gave it the authority to regulate carbon emissions for that very reason, under the Clean Air Act. The finding gives new weight to the American administration’s efforts to help achieve international consensus on aggressive emissions reductions at Copenhagen.
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December 9, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
With a population of over 150 million people, and much of its land below sea level, Bangladesh is already losing significant amounts of cropland to rising seas related to persistent warming in global average temperatures and polar and glacial ice melt. It is expected that in 10 to 20 years, Bangladesh could lose 20% of its land mass to rising seas or chronic flooding.
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December 7, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
The Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change opened today, with 192 nations in attendance, making it the most significant event ever staged to bring governments together to fashion a global response to climate destabilization. 15,000 participants representing governments and the fields of science, economics and public policy research, are gathered to try to reach agreement on the first true global protocol for curbing emissions and countering the threat of comprehensive climate destabilization.
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November 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Pres. Obama has reportedly secured Chinese president Hu Jintao’s pledge of cooperation on global economic recovery, efforts to curb emissions and combat climate destabilization, and nuclear non-proliferation, both in Iran and North Korea. The pledge of cooperation came despite Obama’s demand that China honor the “universal” human rights of its people, alongside differences over how strongly to pressure Iran to guarantee its nuclear pursuits are legal and peaceful in nature.
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September 29, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The field of ecological research and reporting is a part of the basic human urge to engage the world through reason and a quest for understanding. It is not about seizing control of society’s urges and services and limiting the freedom of anyone, but rather about making sure we have the information we need to make the best choices, then advocating for those choices, when inertia and custom stand in the way of better health — for individuals and in the manner in which human individuals respond to their social and natural environments.
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September 22, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Pres. Barack Obama today delivered his first address to the UN General Assembly, promoting cooperation to green the global economy and combat climate change. He pledged the US would lead by example, and called on other nations to find common ground and work to secure the global environment against irreversible degradation.
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July 19, 2009 :: staff :: 7 Comments
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is back on the world stage, making a major visit to India, to discuss strategic issues, energy, diplomacy and counter-terrorism. She used her arrival to warn India not to make the same mistakes the US has made in delaying action to reduce emissions and combat climate change. She suggested “a great country like India” has the resources and ingenuity to avoid falling into the same traps of political inaction.
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July 19, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Carbon offsets allow the use of carbon-emitting processes to help fund and develop clean alternatives, which can then compete with and possibly replace the offending carbon-emitters. But there are also ways in which carbon offsetting can be used to combat poverty around the world. If offsets are focused on reducing bad habits, resulting from those engaging in those habits having either no alternative or no training to find alternatives, people living in the poorest conditions can find themselves benefitting from the clean energy revolution.
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July 11, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Pres. Barack Obama praised African community values and called Africans to transcend conflict and promote government from the ground up and peaceful transfers of power, democratic values and international cooperation, in his first presidential visit to subsaharan Africa. Addressing Ghana’s parliament in Accra, Obama outlined US policy toward Africa and said endemic conflict was holding back African development.
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June 29, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
The US is considering a climate and energy bill, H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES), amid much controversy over competing methods of calculating costs and benefits. Climate skeptics that rule out global climate change as a real long-term cost are concerned that energy-industry economics will be “distorted” by this legislation, leading to massive losses across the economy; environmentalists are concerned that widespread rapid climatic variation could destabilize not only natural ecosystems and reliable agriculture, but political institutions, borders and nation states.
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June 26, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
Congressman Henry Waxman, one of the main sponsors of the “ACES” climate bill, H.R. 2454, has added the Titus-Giffords-Heinrich amendment, which would require the federal government to steadily ramp up contracted clean energy agreements over the next 20 years. The clean energy amendment had been pushed by a number environmental and progressive advocacy groups, including MoveOn.org, which urged millions of supporters to contact Congress to demand inclusion of the amendment.
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June 24, 2009 :: staff :: 4 Comments
In the past two and half years, the Committee has held dozens of hearings on energy and
climate change policy and has built a detailed factual record on the need for legislation in this
area. The nation’s dependence on foreign oil has significantly increased over the last decade.
Consumers have faced increasing and volatile energy prices. Other countries have overtaken us
in the manufacture of wind and solar energy. Energy company investments are paralyzed
because of uncertainty about what policies the Congress will establish. Meanwhile, global
warming pollution has increased unchecked.
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June 24, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
Major new climate legislation is pending before the United States Congress. The bill has been called the most important climate-related legislation ever to be voted on by the US House of Representatives, and has been the cause of intense policy negotiations among supporters, opponents and legislators. The League of Conservation Voters has taken the decision that it will not endorse any member of the House of Representatives that does not support the legislation.
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June 6, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The European Parliamentary elections are the world’s largest transnational democratic vote, with 375 million people across 27 nations, choosing among 650 parties for 785 seats in the Parliament. It is worth asking what effect these elections, held once every 5 years for all the seats in the European Parliament, will have on EU environmental policy. Will these elections speed the spread of clean energy resources, like wind, solar and wave power, across the EU member states and neighboring states?
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May 18, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
Today’s New York Times features an above-the-fold front-page story on the apparent probability that Congress will reach agreement on using a “cap and trade” approach to curbing carbon emissions. The massive industrial output of carbon dioxide (CO2) has been found to contribute to the destabilization of the global climate and a gradual warming effect which could lead to catastrophic risks to infrastructure and public health.
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April 25, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 4 Comments
Former US vice president Al Gore testified Friday in Congressional hearings on the subject of global climate destabilization. The hearings were linked to new legislation being considered that would establish regulatory measures that seek to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Gore said the legislation would serve to protect the environment, as well as national security, and urged unity in the interests of the country and the world.
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January 26, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
Pres. Barack Obama today addressed a room full of invited guests from the business community, to outline his position as to economic stimulus, energy innovation, climate destabilization and dependence on high-polluting combustible fuels. The president then signed more executive orders raising fuel-efficiency standards and ordering a review of the EPA’s barring California from raising tailpipe carbon-emissions standards. Striking a defiant tone, Obama declared that “America will not be held hostage to dwindling resources, hostile regimes and a warming planet”.
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November 25, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
The issue is not, as so many would like to believe, whether carbon-based fuels are affordable to the end-user. They are not. The total costs per gallon of gasoline are estimated at more than $11, covered by government subsidies, public-private research funding, tax incentives, military spending, public health funding, and funds devoted to cleaning up the ill effects of pollution. Capitalist markets need not be dependent on unsustainable excesses in resource use, but we are in the current global economic crunch, because they have been.
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