Climate Crossroads Blog

Tax the Guy Behind the Tree

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:41:43 GMT

I was the second witness Wednesday morning as the EPA opened its hearing process on Clean Air Act regulation of greenhouse pollutants. The first was from the American Petroleum Institute (API). He made one point over and over: the EPA shouldn't use the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide and other climate pollutants; it should wait for Congress to act. Of course, just across the Potomac River, on Capitol Hill, API lobbyists were fanning out even as he spoke, telling senators just why it would be a really terrible idea to enact the Kerry-Boxer climate bill, which would do precisely what the API is telling the EPA it favors.

This all reminds me of the old adage, "don't tax me, don't tax thee, tax the guy behind the tree." Big Carbon is fighting for its life and seems determined to do as much damage as it can before it faces the inevitable. The world will move on to a clean-energy, post- coal-and-oil economy. But these last-ditch efforts are hugely damaging, because although the EPA is moving to regulate climate pollution, the API has made it clear that those regulations will be challenged in court, resisted in Congress, and contested in next year's mid-term elections.

My own message to the EPA was much simpler: It's good that the agency is keeping a major presidential campaign promise to use the Clean Air Act to regulate big power plants, refineries, and other emitters of carbon pollution -- even if the President who made that promise is no longer in office. (Yes, it was George Bush who, back in 2000, ran on a platform of cleaning up carbon pollution using EPA regulatory authority. Undoing that promise was the first of Dick Cheney's unacknowledged coups during the Bush years.)

I also pointed out that, for those who want certainty for business, the Clean Air Act has a lot of advantages: the operators of a power plant know what emission standard they must meet, what equipment or technology or fuel will enable them to meet it, and by when they must comply. And citizens benefit by knowing that, if government fails to enforce the rules, health and environmental organizations can act on their own. All in all, it's a very powerful cleanup tool.

Which may be why the American Petroleum Institute is so afraid of it.

This Week's Blogosphere Soup: Panic Copenhagen

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:15:31 GMT

A quick review of this past week's happenings in the blog world

Bloggers who pay attention to climate change were going crazy this week after Dot Earth's Aaron Revkin reported that the big Copenhagen get-together next month is expected to be a big diplomatic stinker. You can read some knee-jerk reactions here, here, and here: "It is both ironic and sad that as climate change reform is watered down, the sea levels will rise even more."

Grist's Sarah Robinson says we all need to take a chill pill:

Copenhagen’s still three weeks away, but climate activists are already voicing their enormous disappointment about everything that’s not going to get done there. The heat is rising, and we’re all feeling the overwhelming urgency to get a strong global agreement that will get the laggards off their butts and launch the structural reformations most of us know we need to fix the problem. A lot of us, it seems, loaded all our highest hopes onto this one conference, wanting desperately to believe that this would finally be the moment the long-awaited Grand Transformation would occur.

But the hard truth of the matter is this: change of this magnitude never happens with a single conference, a single treaty, or even a single disaster. The structural changes required to get us off carbon and onto a truly sustainable footing challenge the economic assumptions that humans have lived by for 2500 years. Change that wide and deep will be the work of an entire century, maybe two. (If we’re smart and lucky, our grandchildren may live to see it mostly done.) All of us are well aware of the precarious time crunch we’re under here; but humans change only as fast as they change, and forcing the issue isn’t likely to help. And it may even hurt us in the long run.

By the way, 1Sky has a good round-up of what's to come out of Copenhagen.

Also in the blogosphere:

-- Methane (CH4) is starting to outshine carbon (CO2) as a climate-change culprit.

-- What kind of food are we serving to our men and women in the military?

I’ve been reliably informed that the cafeteria of the Blackwater training center in Moyock, North Carolina provides a lovely multi-fruit drink called Passo-Orange-Guava. Once we brought baseball wherever the Marines landed; now, high-fructose corn syrup.

-- And last but not least, GM reported a $1.2 billion loss. What does that mean for the Volt? Well, Earth2Tech seems to think the electric vehicle is here to stay.

Hundreds Speak Out In Support of EPA Global Warming Rule

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:53:07 GMT

This is a guest post by Greg Haegele, deputy executive director of the Sierra Club, who has a regular weekly column on Treehugger.com.

Sierra Club's Mary Anne Hitt, Carl Pope and Lyndsay Moseley (R to L) stake out the front row of the Arlington EPA hearing.

This week we saw some amazing public action as part of the two Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hearings on its proposed tailoring rule, which we call the "Big Polluters" rule.

Right now only a handful of pollution sources, including coal-fired power plants, are responsible for more than half of all of the global warming pollution in the United States. Cleaning these up is a large step towards stopping global warming, so EPA is proposing a new rule to start cleaning up these Big Polluters under the Clean Air Act. By targeting the worst offenders, the Big Polluters rule is an important step that will cut global warming pollution while still helping our economy grow.

EPA held a public hearing on this Big Polluters rule in Arlington, Virginia, on Wednesday, and then another in Chicago, Illinois, on Thursday. The Sierra Club got the word out, and that resulted in great crowds at each hearing who testified in support of this rule that marks one of EPA’s most important commitments yet to moving us toward a clean energy economy and away from dirty power sources like coal.

A Dirty Photo Contest

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:42:16 GMT

The Sierra Student Coalition is holding a 2Dirty4College photo contest. It's easy to win. Take a picture of a dirty dorm room, submit it here by Dec. 6, and become eligible to win some free eco-friendly cleaning service for said room! Get involved with SSC and tell your college (or former college) that coal energy is too dirty.

Palin: Are We Warming or Cooling?

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:09:31 GMT

Sarah Palin has been on the book selling circuit (or circus?). And with that, the interviews. She recently commented on global warming:

It’s kind of tough to figure out with the shady science right now, what are we supposed to be doing right now with our climate. Are we warming or are we cooling? I don’t think Americans are even told anymore if it’s global warming or just climate change. And I don’t attribute all the changes to man’s activities. I think that this is, in a lot of respects, cyclical and the earth does cool and it warms.

For related items, join the Skeptics Say Stupid Crap group here on Climate Crossroads.

Hold Big Polluters Accountable

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:56:44 GMT

I like the music in this video.

Survivaball

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:55:34 GMT

The Yes Men, the brains behind the Survivaball, which I wrote about last month, were recently interviewed in New York City:

EPA's Chicago Big Polluters Hearing Underway

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:19:19 GMT

The Chicago public hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency's Big Polluters (tailoring) rule is now underway, and we've got folks tweeting from inside. Follow the #bigpolluters hashtag all day on Twitter to stay up to date on it all. Also, later today we'll have a nice wrap-up from both hearings. If you need more details on just what this rule is about, check out our fact sheet (PDF).

And don't forget to submit your own comments on the rule!

Canada Plans to Profit Off Warming Planet

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:34:02 GMT

Canadian Tourism Federation Welcome Video from Canadian Tourism Federation on Vimeo.

Canada's tourism industry is taking advantage of the warming planet.

(Psst, there is no Canadian Tourism Federation.) (h/t Island of Doubt.)

Home Energy Efficiency Program: Cash for Caulkers

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:30:22 GMT

This post was written by Jeff Speir, apprentice for the Sierra Club Clean Energy Solutions Campaign.

Following in the wake of the consumer, economic, and environmental success of the "Cash for Clunkers" program this summer, the Obama administration is considering using stimulus cash to fund another ambitious, rewarding "Cash for" project. This time? Caulkers.

Though conveniently coined with a consistent catchphrase, the program would involve much more than just caulking. The program would provide funding for homeowners to contract energy auditors and construction workers to assess areas for energy efficiency improvement in their homes. These points of air infiltration and "exfiltration," such as leaky doors, windows, and ducts, dramatically increase the amount of heated or cooled air that is necessary to make a home livable. After the assessment, construction workers would conduct an energy efficiency upgrade of the home by installing insulation, replacing inefficient windows, and sealing leaky breaches of the home's overall envelope (like the door-frame sealing in the photo above, or the insulating of hot water pipes in the photo below).

As a result, less energy would be needed to make a home comfortable, thereby reducing energy consumption and cutting energy bills. The program would also create good jobs with skills that are transferable to a wide variety of applications in the green economic recovery. In addition to helping consumers and creating jobs, the program would also help the environment.

Studies estimate that improving the energy efficiency of a home can reduce energy consumption by 28%, energy that comes largely from polluting coal-fired power plants. As the New York Times reports, this kind of reduction of energy usage is equivalent in magnitude to the carbon emissions from half of the vehicles in the country on the road today.

Want to learn more about what you can do to increase the energy efficiency of your home? Check out the Sierra Club Cool Cities Checklist of Home Energy Solutions.

Brief Update from Today's EPA Big Polluters Rule Hearing

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:04:18 GMT

That's a photo of Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope (left) testifying at today's Environmental Protection Agency public hearing on the Big Polluters rule. We'll have more of a wrap-up blog post tomorrow, once the Chicago hearing is complete (today's hearing was in Arlington, Virginia), but I thought I'd give a very brief recap on how today's went.

Carl testified second and was excellent - especially after listening to the nay-saying negativity of Howard Feldman of the American Petroleum Institute (on the right in the above photo). You see, EPA brought up two speakers at at time. Carl and Howard started the hearing off well as far as seeing very different sides of the argument.

We also had quite a few great volunteers there to testify in support of this EPA rule. The testimony I saw was overwhelmingly in favor of the EPA rule, with only a couple of polluting industry-folks there to whine and complain and use words like "absurd," "flawed," and "unnecessary."

Sierra Club volunteer Bob Pearson (green blazer) testifies in favor of the Big Polluters rule.

Our volunteers and other fantastic regular ol' members of the public used words like "necessary," "stop global warming," and "this rule is common sense." They also frequently pointed out that unlike the industry folks, no one paid them to be there - they came because they see how important this rule is in the fight to stop global warming and clean up the biggest polluters in the US.

More to come tomorrow! And don't forget, if you aren't able to attend these hearings in person, you can send in your comments online.

Carl Pope talks to reporters at the hearing.

LiveBlog: Big Polluters Hearing - Virginia

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:54:48 GMT

Our folks are on the ground Tweeting from the EPA's first of two hearing on their proposed "Big Polluters" rule that would regulate pollution from large polluters. You can contribute to the discussion through Twitter using the hashtag #bigpolluters

Click Here to follow the LiveBlog

Clean Energy Solutions

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:49:21 GMT

Clean Energy Solutions is a campaign with visions. They are:

1. Energy sector reform: Support policies that encourage clean energy solutions and discourage carbon-intensive energy generation and waste.

2. Implement national energy performance upgrades: Reduce carbon-based energy demand in new homes and buildings 100 percent and in existing buildings 50 percent by 2030.

3. Lead renewable energy revolution: Push for energy infrastructure that generates most of the nation's power from renewable energy by 2040 (and at least 25 percent by 2025).

The campaign has an active group here on Crossroads with a great blog. Right now the blog is focusing on home weatherization. Perfect considering how cold it's getting out there!

This Park Is Not So Green

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:55:39 GMT

So I was in Park City, Utah, last week expecting to find a green haven among the pristine white winter wonderland. As one of the world’s most desira le ski areas with upscale communities and lodging to rival Vail and Aspen, Park City is truly a special place. Imagine my surprise, then, to discover that despite an a undance of natural and man-made beauty – not to mention a population of educated, nature-loving outdoors enthusiasts – Park City is seemingly behind the times in going green.

Some of the finest hiking in the world, great whitewater rafting, and of course world class skiing. You’d think those pursuits would transfer over to local policies that are fairly restrictive on development, and an overall culture of green. Certainly everybody I met on the hiking trails and at the river looked the part, and it seemed that they were concerned about all things environmental. It wasn’t until I got to really tour the area, which includes the ski mountain as well as Old Town, the main drag filled with businesses and shopping, that some practices I observed began to raise my eyebrows.

Most of the upscale lodges offer shuttle service from Empire Pass and upper Deer Valley, particularly luxurious parts of Park City near the top of the main ski mountain, down to Old Town. Even when the weather is warmer, they all seem to leave their shuttle vehicles – mostly larger SUVs of course – running, for hours if need be, burning fuel and emitting car on all the while. Recycling bins are often difficult to locate. Many of the pricier homes in and around Park City are enormous, six to twelve thousand square footers. These palaces often serve as third or fourth homes for their well-to-do owners. We toured some empty ones and while beautiful, I noticed many of the thermostats were set to a toasty 74 degrees despite being empty most of the year (with the exception of peak ski season).

Perhaps most disturbing was hearing about a troubled residential fourplex project that was built to state-of-the-art green standards. According to reliable sources in the local real estate community, it seems that buyers are avoiding it like the plague because they immediately assume the green features add cost not value. The project is very well designed, sets a standard for energy efficiency and thoughtful construction, and it is priced commensurate with similar higher end properties in the area. Yet its designation as a green design property has made it more albatross than swan. Hard to figure that this would be the case in Park City, Utah, an outdoorsman’s paradise?

Also surprising is to see the huge amount of residential inventory available in the area, yet there are construction projects planned for what seems like every empty lot. Hasn’t the housing crisis taught us anything? Here’s hoping that a revelation will occur and the developers of these coming projects will at least design and build them using sustainable materials.

I am not trying to attack Park City, I actually love the place. But it was a real surprise, and disappointment, to find that this gorgeous resort community has a long way to go before it can claim to be not only a white but green wonderland.

(Visit Sierra Club Green Home.)

Why Don't Teenage Girls Ride Bikes?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:18:56 GMT

The Guardian recently asked, "What's stopping teenage girls from riding bikes?"

Teenage girls don't ride bikes. Or so says the Darlington Media Group, who have set about trying to rectify the problem with a campaign to get young women cycling.

Several years ago, the National Children's Bureau published research that revealed that on average, boys cycle 138 miles a year and girls only 24 miles. This still rings true. Christie Rae, 16, from Newcastle told me: "I do have a bike, but I don't really use it. Only sometimes in the summer when my friends and I cycle round to see each other. I don't know many girls that do, actually."

Last week, Crossroads featured a blog post on women and bike commuting. It's a must-read. And If you like to bike, join the bike group.

Look At Me! I Haz a Carrot!

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:27:47 GMT

Get carrots and other veggies from the local farmers' market. Or from your backyard! If you're a lover of sustainable recipes and tips, join the Green Eggs and (Faux) Ham group.

Time to Speak Out Against the Biggest Polluters

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:58:15 GMT

Wednesday and Thursday of this week are big days if you live in Arlington, Virginia, or Chicago, Illinois. Those are the two days of public hearings on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “Big Polluters” rule. But of course, this whole issue is huge whether you live in Virginia, Illinois, or anywhere else in the U.S. – it affects everyone.

Right now only a handful of pollution sources, including coal-fired power plants, are responsible for more than half of all of the global warming pollution in the United States. Cleaning these up is a large step towards stopping global warming, so EPA is proposing a new rule to start cleaning up these Big Polluters under the Clean Air Act. By targeting the worst offenders, the Big Polluters rule is an important step that will cut global warming pollution while still helping our economy grow.

That’s why we’ve helped organize crowds of folks to turn out to the Wednesday and Thursday hearings: These mega-polluters should be held responsible for their share. (You can also check in on the hearings by following the #bigpolluters hashtag on twitter. We’ll have lots of folks tweeting from inside the hearing rooms)

This rule will bring the most bang for the buck—resulting in real pollution reductions and helping spur growth and development of clean energy technologies.

And forget the nay-sayers spreading false information about the government trying to regulate churches, hospitals, schools and Dunkin Donuts (why do they always bring up Dunkin Donuts?): The rule would only apply to offenders emitting at least 25,000 tons of greenhouse gases each year, exempting small businesses, churches and apartment buildings, while addressing the bulk of the nation’s global warming pollution.

Under the Big Polluters rule, big new facilities that would create large amounts of global warming pollution—like new coal plants—would have to install technology to clean up their carbon emissions. These safeguards would also be required for large existing facilities when they are expanded or modified.

Again, this proposed EPA rule uses the time-tested Clean Air Act, which has already succeeded at cleaning up other sorts of pollution all over the country, to help control global warming pollution.

To provide a little more detail about EPA’s proposal: The Clean Air Act requires all new ‘major emitting facilities’ – big sources – to use the ‘best available control technology’ to limit their emissions. Existing polluters that make big physical changes to their plants and increase their emissions in the process have to update their controls to meet this standard, too.

This best available control technology requirement has been used for decades to reduce many other types of air pollution. EPA must consider the “energy, environmental, and economic impacts” before deciding on the right controls for any particular plant. There are a number of simple, proven methods for controlling global warming pollution, including using energy more efficiently, replacing old equipment, or burning cleaner fuels.

The sources that EPA will focus on under this rule already have decades of experience with this process. Having used best available control technology to reduce many other types of pollution, they have the engineering expertise to work with EPA and community groups to select appropriate, cost-effective controls.

Global warming pollution controls will also reduce emissions of other pollutants, including those that cause smog, heart attacks, and lung disease.

By focusing on these big sources, EPA is spending its resources wisely. Although global warming pollution comes from many places, EPA can cut down on the lion’s share by taking on the largest sources first.

The Big Polluters Rule marks one of EPA’s most important commitments yet to moving us towards a clean energy economy and away from dirty power sources like coal.

If you can’t make it in person to the hearings Wednesday and Thursday, you can still send in your comments to EPA on this important rule – simply use our Big Polluters website:

And don’t forget to follow along with the #bigpolluters hashtag on Twitter for tweets from inside the hearing.

For a recap of how these hearings went, be sure to check in on my colleague Greg Haegele’s column later this week for photos and a wrap-up.

Mexico City Breathes a Little Easier

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:56:27 GMT

Mexico City has some of most polluted air in the world. And until recently, there were few public transportation options available to commuters looking for a cleaner, easier way to get around the city. Seeing the need for more options, EMBARQ, a project of the World Resources Institute, stepped in to help the city create a thriving public bus system, the Metrobus.

In 2002, EMBARQ established a Mexican nongovernmental group, CTS-México, whose goal was to create a new bus system. It opened in 2005. Commuters who had previously sat in traffic for up to two hours to get across town are now able to make the same trip in 30 minutes. The buses have been so popular that the system was expanded in 2008, and now serves 450,000 passengers a day.

The Mexico City project shows how any city can improve its air quality and reduce its emissions — and also make its citizens' commutes more bearable — by focusing on public transportation. And for its work in Mexico, EMBARQ recently won the 2009 Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership from Harvard University.

Kelton On Planet Green

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:15:51 GMT

Sarah Kelton, who has offered a free downloadable song here on Climate Crossroads, has been featured over at Planet Green. Right on!

Kelton is living in her hometown of West Chester, Pennsylvania. She eats mostly organic foods and dances to keep herself in shape.

"Health and wellness is the foundation of my life," she says. "Wellness is a broad word that can cover so many topics, but it seems that wellness of the body and wellness of the natural environment inextricably go together. Paying attention to the earth, to our animals, to each other, to our own bodies, minds and spirits is what I find to be most important above all else."

Kelton plans to record a full-length album in Colorado in the spring with three-time Grammy award-winning producer Tom Wasinger of Lost Angel Studios.

Hey, there's a Green Music group here on Crossroads. Join it!

Beyond Coal

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:09:37 GMT

Yesterday I wrote about Resilient Habitats. Today I'd like to highlight another Climate Recovery Partnership -- Beyond Coal. Dirty coal is one of the biggest culprits behind climate change and one of the more challenging obstacles in reducing emissions 80 percent by 2050. Beyond Coal has a group here on Crossroads -- 180 members strong! There's also an excellent forum thread. So check them out.

For more info about Beyond Coal, click here.

Nissan's Leaf Falls Gently to Earth in L.A.

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:00:38 GMT

Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault/Nissan, was on hand to introduce the new Nissan Leaf electric car this morning at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. A large crowd of media and EV enthusiasts were on hand to drive the Nissan Versa test vehicle sporting the electric drive train of the Leaf.

The Versa is very close in size and weight of the Leaf, so the driving characteristics are pretty much what you'll see in the Leaf itself when Nissan brings it to market next fall.

Acceleration was quite good even when going uphill with the weight of three adults. Nissan's Larry Dominique says 0-60 is under 10 seconds, quick enough for most folks. Regenerative braking will be automatic with two levels, a very mild deceleration similar to what you feel when you lift your foot from a gas pedal in an internal combustion car, and a slightly stronger regen you can employ by moving a lever. It wasn't clear if the car will be enabled to "freewheel" like my RAV. For hypermilers such as myself, freewheeling is very important. I assume they'll incorporate it eventually if it's not already there.

I found the car to be a bit more attractive in person than in the photos. It's distinctive without being bizarre. The lines are clearly drawn with a low drag coefficient in mind and this accounts for the ability to average about 4 miles per kWh.

The car comes equipped with a lithium manganese battery pack made by Nissan partner, NEC. The capacity is a mere 24 kWh, 3 less than my RAV's NiMH battery holds.

Yosemite's Future

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:37:04 GMT

Last weekend my wife and I were in Yosemite -- which was my first trip to the park in some 15 years. During the visit, I couldn't help but look around and think about the next 15 years. Every national park will have to endure changes. For example, Glacier National Park will see its glaciers go. Joshua trees in Joshua Tree National Park will be migrating north beyond the park's boundaries.

This is the whole point of Sierra Club's Resilient Habitats program -- the need to save these gems by creating wild corridors and strengthening existing habitats. There's a Resilient Habitats group here on Crossroads. Join it and stay informed!

I'm not the only one thinking of Yosemite's future. Recently KQED's climate blog dissected what's to come for this majestic place:

California’s Yosemite National Park has been scarred by several big fires in recent years—the latest contained less than two months ago. But new research affirms that this crown jewel among national parks is likely to have even more fire in its future.

In late August, when fire crews attacked the Big Meadow Fire in Yosemite, it was hard to blame nature for the 74-hundred acres lost. That was a "prescribed burn" that got out of hand (or "escaped," as the official report puts it). But nine out of ten wildland fires in the Sierra start with a lightning strike. Newly published work suggests that as California’s climate changes, the combination of warmer temperatures, less snow and more lightning strikes could mean 20% more fires by mid-century.

USGS research forester emeritus Jan van Wagtendonk co-authored the study with James Lutz at the University of Washington. He says they studied 20 years of Yosemite fire data to identify a trend. The mechanism starts with the oft-cited warming scenario, causing more rain and less snow at upper elevations.

"What happens in the mountains is that, as snow recedes in the spring the moisture in the fuels follows," says van Wagtendonk. "The fuel starts drying out earlier and we extend the fire season by having more days available for fires to burn."

But there’s another wildcard in the deck: lightning. Separate studies suggest that higher concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide will set the stage for more lightning strikes.

The falls dried up in August, but were rolling again last weekend thanks to some early Autumn downpours. What's to come for beautiful Bridalveil Fall?

Energy & Global Warming News Round-Up

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:10:42 GMT

Time again for a round-up of energy and global warming news from the past few days.

First up, this weekend we heard the news that for the upcoming major international climate talks in Copenhagen slated for December, there will be no legally-binding treaty created. Rather, the countries will create a politically-binding agreement that sets out a timeline for a legally-binding agreement. This is not bad news - check out this Climate Progress blog post from Joe Romm about how this agreement bodes very well for an international climate treaty.

Second, according to a new a report from three universities, "...U.S. renewable energy policies could create as many as 1.9 million new jobs around the country. In addition, the study shows that those policies would account for an increase in annual household income of more than $1,000 and that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could increase $111 billion by 2020."

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a new web tool today that will help consumers make their homes cleaner and greener - which will lower energy bills and help the environment. Check out EPA's Green Homes site to learn more.

And look at the good work coalitions can do - last week the Sierra Club Cool Cities program and the U.S. Green Building Council announced a new partnership called "Green Buildings for Cool Cities." The purpose of the partnership is to bring together local Cool Cities activists with local USGBC members to advocate together on bringing practical and cost-effective green building administrative policies to Cool Communities across the country.

If you want to help out with this new partnership, you can take part in a conference call this week for activists wanting to start a green building movement in their communities. Learn more about the call here.

Finally, Forbes launched a new online map this week that show's the world's 200 dirtiest power plants.

Cool Cuisine at CUESA

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:08:21 GMT

Welcome to Cool Cuisine, a new blog looking at the connections between food, environment and cooking. As a private chef and culinary health educator for Kaiser Permenente, I've found that a great way to teach people about these connections is not by the use of words, but pictures. If we really want to change the world with great tasting food - we need to stop reading about it and start spending more time learning how to shop for, and cook with, the foods. So this blog tells stories and shares lessons through pictures taken during my classes and events.

SPECIAL NOTE: Unfortunately many people don't know a lot about food and cooking. So - if you want to change the way anyone (or society) eats - don't talk to them about what NOT to eat. Teach them what TO eat. Give them options.

This first blog is about a seasonal cooking class taught at the San Francisco Ferry Building Farmers Market. The market is a wonderful place to spend a Saturday - if you're around San Francisco and haven't gone yet - make a date to visit soon. The market is run by the nonprofit group - The Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA) See CUESA.org.

On October 31, 2009, chef Rick Debeaord of Berkeley's Cafe Rouge and myself taught a community cooking class and the San Francisco Ferry Building Farmers Market.

The theme of the class (and the recipe) came from my recent book, Cool Cuisine - Taking the Bite Out of Global Warming.

The day started with a market trip shopping for the freshest, local ingredients around. All farms at the Ferry building are a 150 miles to the market or closer. What a dramatic improvement from the 1,500 mile trip that the average meal travels to get to your dinner plate.

Today's recipe is Autumn Tempeh Salad (recipe at the end of blog). It starts with Kabocha squash, known to be one of the sweetest winter squashes.

Superfreaky

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:56:48 GMT

The new book SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance has been getting a lot of attention lately, especially for its chapter on climate change. Via Kottke:

In a New Yorker book review this week, Elizabeth Kolbert tears Levitt and Dubner a new one over the geoengineering chapter of SuperFreakonomics, calling the pair's thinking on the issue "horsesh**".

Kolbert writes: "Given their emphasis on cold, hard numbers, it's noteworthy that Levitt and Dubner ignore what are, by now, whole libraries' worth of data on global warming. Indeed, just about everything they have to say on the topic is, factually speaking, wrong. Among the many matters they misrepresent are: the significance of carbon emissions as a climate-forcing agent, the mechanics of climate modeling, the temperature record of the past decade, and the climate history of the past several hundred thousand years."

Cool Girl Scouts

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:56:28 GMT

Watch this video, courtesy Young Voices on Climate Change

Coal Country Premiers Saturday

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:12:29 GMT

Across the country this week, people are coming together to watch a new documentary film called Coal Country. There have already been hundreds of house parties during which neighbors, school classes, and faith groups were treated to an advance screening and took action to urge the Obama administration to end mountaintop removal.

But that’s just the beginning. Coal Country premieres on Planet Green this Sat. at 8 p.m. ET; thousands are expected to tune in to see how mountaintop removal damages the environment and harms communities.

Plan to watch on Saturday, and tell your friends, family, and community about it today.

Climate Change, Politics and a Treaty in Copenhagen

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:28:50 GMT

The time to act on climate change is running out. The time to act on climate change is running out (yes, I wrote it twice). While the Senate is navigating itself through the intricacies of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, the international community is negotiating the nuanced details of a possible agreement in Copenhagen. The United States must demonstrate leadership in the Copenhagen talks, though whether or not it will have something to show in December when the talks begin is very unclear. While the negotiations happen, the world continues to warm and feel the affects of climate change.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) released their 2009 World Energy Outlook report this Tuesday (11/10). The conclusion of the 28-nation organization was that governments needed to act immediately to stem the affects of global warming or face costs of $500 billion per year going forward. The report reiterated that the main drivers of global warming are the burning of fossil fuels and the increased demand for those fuels in order to meet higher energy consumption. The report also mentioned that if we continue on our current path, we would see an increase on our dependence on fossil fuels, higher greenhouse emissions, and a decrease in availability of technology for the developing world and a decline in global security. The report recommended that we can keep global temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius by focusing on renewable energy technology (wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, etc.) and energy efficiency. Most importantly, the report stressed the importance of reaching an agreement in Copenhagen.

"Isn't Science Supposed to Be Objective?"

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:09:18 GMT

TNR sat down with climate scientist Stephen Schneider, who I saw speak last week. The interview explores the fine line between science and activism.

Q: You talk about subjectivity, but isn’t science supposed to be objective?

A: No. Science is truthful, which doesn’t necessarily mean objective. How can science be objective about the future? How much data do we have for 2100? Try zero. We have data for 2009 and previous years. We take that data, analyze where we think it’s high quality, analyze where we’re not so sure of the quality, show how well the data explains multiple phenomena from the past, and ask how closely related those phenomena are to the future.

Then we build a model. It could just be a set of rules between how many watts of energy per square meter of heating we get between winter and summer and how much the temperature differs between winter and summer. That’s a model. Then we use it to predict how many watts per square meter from a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere. Now, this model is not very good. We know enough to know it’s not very good. But that’s how you start thinking.

We then codify our knowledge in terms of the equations that best describe our understanding of each subsystem--atmosphere, oceans, chemistry, ecosystems, demography, economics, technology, etc. Every time we add a model, we add more uncertainty. This is called ‘theory,’ and everybody does theory, even data people. Then we create a super model, what we call an integrated system. None of the factors is known perfectly. But if we plot it as a bell curve we can bracket the answers. That’s why the IPCC says, "One to five degrees warming [by 2100]" for example. That is an expert judgment; it’s subjective, but built on objective modeling and data.

Our job is to examine our knowledge of the system and then make a diagnosis based on the way our models have predicted past events. If the models have done really well, we have more confidence. If they’ve done badly, we have low confidence. The models have done really well on temperature over a long time period so we trust that. They’ve done really badly on precipitation in the short run. We don’t trust that. So, we order the relative degree of credibility--not just in the model itself but in what the particular model predicts.

Therefore, the IPCC can say with very high confidence that we’re going to warm up a lot, and that warming will create fires and rising sea levels. Yet it has very low confidence in which year the fires will start to take off, where they will happen, and how severe they will be. But those are not inconsistent.

Once we build our climate models, we must always make a subjective judgment, because it is going to be a prediction outside the realm of direct verifiability. We have to be able to predict whether this is a potential catastrophe for humanity. We can’t just hang around and wait.

This Week's Blogosphere Soup: Organic Gardening and Climate Change

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:04:05 GMT

A quick review of this past week's happenings in the blog world

This week I'm turning your attention to Sustainablog. It's a good site with all sorts of varying opinions and topics. A few days ago, this post about organic gardening and climate change caught my eye. Because sometimes, they don't mesh well, according to this blog post:

I’m probably going to irritate some people with this post. I apologize in advance because that is not at all my intention. For those readers that don’t think climate change is a real problem, I respect the fact that there is uncertainty in that science, but if the majority position of climate scientists is true, the stakes in terms of human suffering among the poor are too high not to act. For those who think Organic farming is the answer, I’m not trying to argue the whole issue here - I just want to talk about the science associated with climate change and farming. I have spent months reading the scientific literature on this topic. That science points to some very specific changes in how we need to farm. If those changes were compatible with Organic I’d be a big promoter. The short answer is organic farming is not the best option from a climate change point of view.

Read the whole article, consider the data that's given, and share your thoughts.

Other happenings in blog-ville:

-- Britain's Environment Agency has proposed individual carbon accounts.

-- This is a pretty ambitious idea: solar-powered roadways. Considering how much in real estate the U.S. highway system takes up, it's encouraging to see that some money is being invested into this vision.

-- Speaking of solar, an M&M's factory in New Jersey installed 2 MW of photovoltaic energy. But what caught my eye is the funny picture of M&M mascots dancing in front of panels.

-- Plains or trains. Which is greener?

-- Learn how to make the biggest, tastiest salad ever, in the history of the world!

-- Are you a die hard gardener in search of a good blog? Try Plants Are the Strangest People. Good pictures over there.

-- And last but not least, watch Michelle Obama on Sesame Street, where she talks with Elmo about gardening.

A "Peak" Into the Future - Not So Pretty

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:54:12 GMT

As if we needed anything more to worry about, we read today in The Guardian that the U.S. has pressured the International Energy Agency to lie about the level of worldwide oil reserves. Ostensibly, this was done because revealing the true level of reserves would cause a financial panic since, well, we don't have much of an alternative to turn to.

The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.

The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.

This is important because once the economy improves, and it becomes apparent that global oil production cannot meet increased demand, the radically increased price will wreak havoc with the world's economies. We're already weakened from the Great Recession. A dramatic run up in the price of oil will cause many jobs to disappear overnight just as consumer goods, food and energy costs rise.

And we're what, still a full year from the first wave of plug-ins to come to market?

I'll be curious to see how the media plays this one. Do they ignore it, or do they begin to inform people that we're about to go up a stinky creek, and um, you better take a paddle with you.

A second senior IEA source, who has now left but was also unwilling to give his name, said a key rule at the organisation was that it was "imperative not to anger the Americans" but the fact was that there was not as much oil in the world as had been admitted. "We have [already] entered the 'peak oil' zone. I think that the situation is really bad," he added.

If that comment doesn't send a chill down your spine, you should read it again.

This report should make the front page of every newspaper, but I fear it will be buried.

All I can say is we better push for viable plug-in cars to get to market sooner than later. Everyone should pay close attention to who's making what kind of EV and be ready to act when they do get to market. Once the peak is evident, it'll be too late to get one at MSRP.

Lazy Organic Gardener: Taming the Wild

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:11:08 GMT

We've had a run of gorgeous warm Indian Summer days here in the Bay Area, stretching now into the second week of November. But with daylight savings time ended and night falling before I get home from work, the only time to work in the garden is the weekend.

The spring-forward, fall-back is true for the garden. Spring is for planting, moving forward. Fall is for retreat. Getting ready for next spring.

I've managed to get in a few hours each of the past two weekends, and it's mostly cleanup time. I have some fall crops going that I planted in two raised beds along the fence, and the kale and lettuce seem to be doing fine.

So I concentrated my cleanup on the main garden areas, where I grew my summer crops — tomatoes, peppers, squashes, beans, and eggplants. I was still able to harvest a couple bowls of tomatoes and hot peppers, and the pepper plants seem to be thriving still. I've pulled most of the veggies, but will leave the peppers to ripen (and get hotter) before I yank them out.

I grew up in the Midwest where we had winters that made for a definite end to the growing season. We don't have that here. The sungold cherry tomatoes would keep blossoming into January and February if I left them in the ground (though the fruits would be small and long to ripen and nowhere near as sweet as in midsummer).

The biggest chore for this time of year is to tame the wildness in the yard. I love the wild. I live in the flatlands of Berkeley, half a block from a main street, and I can hear the blaring horns of the frieght trains and Amtrak from my deck, so I'm not exactly talking about leave-nothing-but-footprints-and-take-nothing-but-pictures wilderness.

But there's a grand old knarled plum tree in the back of the yard. The fences are covered in morning glory and ivy. On the right of the flagstone path that curves through the yard is a clump of fruit trees and sambucus (elderberry) and sage and rasberries that looks and is wild.

My neighbors have big trees in their yards, so even though I live in the city, there is a feeling of being in the forest. Squirrels are always climbing around on the big trees. Hummingbirds come for all the purple and magenta flowers. I used to have regular visits from a raccoon, though I haven't seen him or her lately.

Here's a picture from the weekend before Halloween — still pretty lush and wild.

But, but...while this wildness can co-exist with the cultivated, "productive" garden, left to itself, the wild would take over. And over the past number of years, I have let that happen maybe more than is a good idea. Part of it is laziness, part of it is how much I like it.

But now is the time to prune it back. So in addition to harvesting and pulling up my veggies, I spent a few hours these past two weekends with clippers, cutting back the morning glory and ivy, pulling up the crabgrass, trimming back the lavatera and Peruvian lily, the shrubs and flowers that are in that fuzzy area between cultivated and wild.

I was thinking that what I ought to do is build a moat of sorts separating the wild around the outsides from the cultivated area inside. But of course a real moat would only feed the roots of the morning glory and other invasive plants. I've got more to do, but you can see that I got a start on the taming before running out of daylight.

I've been to Japanese gardens that are stunning and they're meticulously maintained. This summer I did a lot of hiking in the Sierra, in designated wildernesses like Desolation and other areas just as wild. More stunning, in my opinion, because they're not maintained. The harmonious chaos of nature. The forest floors are covered with rotting logs and dead branches. Maybe the Forest Service saws off a tree trunk when it's in the path, but no one collects the decaying plants and puts them in a compost bin. The forest floor is the compost.

But a backyard in the city is not a real wilderness and while the ivy is growing thick enough in the back ten feet that it's home some of my own dead branches, I do need to maintain the garden so that I can enjoy the wild without letting it take over.

The past few years, I've let the boundaries between the wild and cultivated parts of the yard blur, and the results are positive on the aesthetics and not so positive on the food production. There are other factors as well, like the weather and fertilizing and such, but I'm leaning now toward making those boundaries more solid.

One other reason being that I've got a pretty good drip irrigation system set up, but to reach all the plants that need water, I've created a spaghetti like maze of black tubes snaking through the yard. And it seems that I need to redo that maze every spring. Otherwise I'm watering weeds.

I recently knocked out a wall inside my house and I have lots of scrap wood, like the posts that went from floor to ceiling. My plan is to build raised beds out of them. That will allow for simple straight lines of drip tubes. The old wood won't last forever outside, though it lasted pretty well inside my walls for 80-plus years, so if I get 5 or more years, that's plenty. I may want to redesign things by then. That's what makes this lazy gardening not so lazy. There's always more to do.

So my plan is to get out there a few more times in the next few weeks with the clippers and the shovel, keep working on that "moat," pull up the remaining peppers and plant a cover crop for the winter. Primarily fava beans, which will grow a few feet high with white flowers. Then in the spring, I'll cut off the stem an inch above the ground and leave the nitrogen-fixing roots in the soil.

I'd like to build the garden beds before next spring, but that depends on my motivation and when the winter rains come.

Don't Mess With...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:35:09 GMT

...Barbara Boxer. Watch her reaction to Republican's boycott of the most recent Senatorial climate bill vote. And for more on that boycott, visit Speed Bumps.

Green Building = Jobs

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:55:30 GMT

A report out this week from the U.S. Green Building Council says that "(d)espite a challenging economic outlook, green building will support 7.9 million U.S. jobs and pump $554 billion into the American economy – including $396 billion in wages – over the next four years (2009-2013)..."

Phew! The report has many good stats in it besides that.

The economic impact of the total green construction market:
• Contribution to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP)
    o 2000-2008: $173 billion
    o 2009-2013 forecast: $554 billion
• Jobs created or saved (includes direct, indirect and induced jobs)
    o 2000-2008: 2.4 million
    o 2009-2013 forecast: 7.9 million
• Wages
    o 2000-2008: $123 billion
    o 2009-2013 forecast: $396 billion
• Energy savings
    o 2000-2008: $1.3 billion saved
    o 2009-2013 forecast: $6 billion saved

The economic impact of LEED-specific spending (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design):
• Contribution to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP)
    o 2000-2008: $830 million
    o 2009-2013 forecast: $12.5 billion
• Jobs created or saved (includes direct, indirect and induced jobs)
    o 2000-2008: 15,000
    o 2009-2013 forecast: 230,000
• Wages
    o 2000-2008: $703 million
    o 2009-2013 forecast: $10.7 billion
• Energy savings
    o 2000-2008: $281 million saved
    o 2009-2013 forecast: $4.8 billion saved

Read more in the press release (PDF) and download the full report here.