Improving Washington's Climate Change Action Plan

Sierra Club’s Cool State Campaign goal is to bring Washington state's climate change goals to a higher level. If you are a Washington State resident, email or write a letter to Governor Gregoire asking her to lead WA to 80% reductions of greenhouse gases by 2050.

The governor has made some progress but we can do more:

• A legally binding commitment to reduce global warming pollution 60-80% of current levels by 2050.

• Reduce the use of coal and other fossil fuels in our electricity generation
• Evaluate and assess all state-funded projects -- particularly transportation projects -- to ensure they are helping us reduce global warming pollution.

Email Governor Gregoire today!

Technocrati tags: global warming, climatechange,washington state, seattle, Governor Gregoire

And the Winners are...

Environmental Defense has announced the winners (and looser) of it's Globies: 2007 Global Warming Globie Awards. A surprise winner of local mover and a shaker on the climate change front was our own hometown hero: Mayor Greg Nickels. No surprise was the two winners of best villian was Senator James Inhofe and ExxonMobil. Check out all the winners on their site.


Technocrati tags: global warming, climatechange

Global warming heats up in Washington

Washington state politicians tackled climate change with increased gusto today.
From the state to the local level, calls were made for various solutions including conservation, emission caps and plugin-hybrids.

They have some catch up to do with their sister states, California and Oregon. There is talk of a Carbon trading system that between Oregon and Washington . The governor, Gregoire called for the tripling funding for clean energy jobs. There is a comparison of the efforts of the three states.

For the full story: Plans to combat global warming heat up


Technorati tags: climate change, global warming, politics

David Attenbourough - The Truth about Global Warming

Alright, you don't want to watch a whole movie to get the 411 on how we are effecting climate change. Here watch this:



See earlier post for the full video

Technorati tags: climate change, global warming

Fox news sees the light on climate change

What!!! I must be dreaming. Fox news just released a poll: Most Americans Believe in Global Warming.

"When those who believe in global warming are asked what they think is the main cause of the situation, there is widespread belief that human behavior — such as driving and burning too much fossil fuel like coal and oil — is a contributor to the problem. Four in ten Americans say people are to blame outright (41 percent) and another 38 percent think it is a combination of human action and normal climate patterns. Few believe that global warming is an entirely natural occurrence (14 percent)."

The tide is really starting to turn when Fox is talking about global warming as reality.

Technocrati tags: global warming, climate change

Recap of the week

Worldchanging.com has a great overview of the Climate Change 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Now that 90% of two thousand world scientists agree we can get on with implementing solutions to this problem.

But wait, think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is offering a $10,000 bribe reward to any scientist that disagrees. They are financed by ExxonMobil.

On the positive side there is a note about BP and the University of California sweet deal: $500 million biofuels development grant

An of course Walmart, who is now going for the gold with 100% renewable energy, zero waster and sustainable products. If they can see the light, there's hope after all.

Making presidential candidates take a stand on climate change

The League of Conservation Voters is launching a campaign to gather 100,000 petitions to raise presidential hopefuls awareness of global warming. They hope to make it a major issue in the upcoming election. Let's hope canidates recognize the seriousness of the issue. You can sign the petition here

Alternatives to An Inconvient Truth

With the controversy of showing An Inconvenient Truth spreading to other schools. Also with the knowledge that there are some that will be turned off by Al Gore for political reasons. I thought I would highlight some alternative sources for learning about global warming*:

Global Warming: The Signs and the Science by PBS
On this DVD by talking to a variety of people - farmers, doctors, schoolchildren, teens, police officers, bicycle couriers and a cadre of respected researchers - they explore the science and signs of that climate change is happening.

Too Hot Not to Handle
This video shows specifically how global warming is effecting the united states.

Global Warming: A Formal Debate (2006)
A discussion at Union University presented in the light of evangelical christians. What is interesting is this takes the view that it is a moral debate and how we need to think how it will affect the world's poorest populations.

* Please note I haven't seen any of these but I plan on updating this posts with reviews for now the Amazon reviews are linked


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Bush finally addresses climate change

Last night in his state of the union address, Bush publicly admitted we need to address climate change. In the past, Bush has said there was debate whether global warming was caused by human activity. The solution he previously proposed was using technology to solve this problem but did not define how or what technology would be used.

In the state of the union, Bush connected it to our dependence on foreign oil. How by improving fuel efficiency standards, the use of plug-in hybrids and increasing ethanol and biodiesel production we can reduce our oil consumption and address climate change. He also mention using nuclear power, "clean coal", solar and wind as other energy solutions.

How much of this rhetoric will impact legislation is debatable since Bush's power has subsided with his lack of public support and the Democratic controlled congress. I believe his change in tune is a reaction to the external pressure of corporations and individuals that believe the time is now for the US to address climate change.

Better than Inconvient Truth?

Al Gore might have some competition for the hollywood spotlight . David Attenborough has his own compelling video on climate change. Using a mix of archival and new footage he explores how carbon dioxide is changing our environment. What I like in particular is how he talks to the scientists and shows their finding. Takes me back to those great public television nature shows.

If you have some friends that are still skeptical of global warming show them this video.

Ten Major Companies call for action on global warming

Ten companies have issued a statement urging the US government to implement a cap on greenhouse gases that cause climate change. The companies are: Alcoa, BP America, Caterpillar, Duke Energy, DuPont, Florida Power & Light, General Electric, Lehman Brothers, Pacific Gas & Electric, and PNM Resources.

They have joined Environmental Defense, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Natural Resources Defense Council and the World Resources Institute to form a group called — the United States Climate Action Partnership (US-CAP).

With rumors of Bush to include action on global warming in his state of the union speech. We may yet have some change in US policy.

Via Environmental Defense

globalwarming awareness2007 SEO contest

In an effort to increase global warming awareness. A Swiss company, Getupdate has launched a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) contest - The SEO World Championship. The challenge is to show up in the top results for the following search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN.

I applaud the idea but unfortunately so far most the top entries are lacking in content that address the problem of global warming. I am throwing my hat in the ring with this site by providing relevant content about global warming awareness and solutions.

global-warming

Kicking into full gear - 2007, the year we get serious about global warming

I predict that 2007 will be remembered as the year Global Warming became a central issue in the United States. True, 2006 was a turning point in awareness. Hurricanes in the States reached an all time high. Films like Inconvenient Truthand Too Hot to Handle were released. Religious evangelists called for action. American Companies such as Walmart and Google invested in and promoted "green" practices.

But now with the change in congress we could finally see a carbon tax or other solutions. There are currently a few different bills introduced to solve this problem.

First is the Lieberman, McCain and now Obama solution. It calls for caps on emissions from power plants, industry and oil refineries. Unfortunately President Bush is not in favor of caps for the fear of hurting the economy. At least by having two potential presidential candidates on this bill, we can expect climate change to be an issue in the 2008 election.

Second is the bills sponsored by Senators Dianne Feinstein of California and Thomas R. Carper of Delaware which are sponsored by the utility companies. These bills also include caps.

Third is the bill sponsored by Barbara Boxer which also mentions caps but also includes funding for renewable and new emission standards for cars. Senator Boxer now the the head of the head of the U.S. Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee. She replaced Sen. James Inhofe who was skeptical of global warming. He even once called it a "hoax". Senator Boxer also recognizes that we can go beyond caps by increasing the efficiency of buildings and cars.

Hopefully this will be the year the federal government addresses global warming. We have the technology to stop it now we just need the political will.