The Weblog Awards are going to be issued tomorrow for the best science blog. Currently, a climate denial site called climateaudit.com is winning. To ensure that Climate Audit does not win this award, we need as many people as possible to vote for Bad Astronomy today. To be clear, Bad Astronomy is not a climate blog, but it is running 2nd behind Climate Audit – if we can get a bunch of people to click on Bad Astronomy, we can defeat Climate Audit.
Click away!
Here’s the voting link:
Personally, I was only able to attend Power Shift Friday night – I was working at Step It Up on Saturday and then, well, I needed a day off. But it was incredible to watch all the students arrive from all over the country. The excitement was palpable, and the speakers were great.
Van Jones kissing Bill McKibben on the cheek after they gave two of Saturday’s keynote speeches. Photo courtesy of Liz Veazey.
USCEC coordinator Ted Glick was one of the first speakers. He walked up to the stage and announced that he was on the 60th day of a “Climate Emergency Fast.” I was sitting in the audience and watched everyone around me do a double take, turn to their friends and whisper, “did he just say what I think he said?” and “60 days, is that even possible?”
It is possible, apparently. For the first 27 days, Ted subsisted on water and vitamins (27 days is longer than Mahatma Gandhi ever fasted. Gandhi was generally thin and had very little fat to lose). After 27 days Ted switched over to drinking juices and broths. Ted’s fasting to pressure Congress to pass significant and meaningful global warming legislation. He has been to Capitol Hill to lobby key representatives numerous times and plans to continue the fast until Congress adjourns for the year. Continue reading
On Saturday, Oct. 27, I was privileged to attend a truly historic event. Activists, politicians, students and citizens from all over the Commonwealth of Virginia converged on Charlottesville to participate in the first-ever Virginia Climate Action Conference. The conference represented the first time in the history of the state that Virginian’s had come together with the sole purpose of fighting disastrous climate change right in their own backyard.
There were lectures and panel discussions on a wide range of topics, from biofuels to state energy policy, from coal mining to engaging the faith community, from wind farms to environmental legislation.
The Green Miles even did some live blogging from the event, which you can see here.
For me, it was a great opportunity to learn about the science and politics of climate change in Virginia, with experts panelists drawn from numerous disciplines. Did you know, for example, that with over 3,000 miles of shoreline (as much as California!) Virginia is one of the states most vulnerable to sea-level rise? Or did you know that Virginia is ranked dead-last in state spending on energy efficiency? Or how about the fact that Virginia’s per capita energy usage is 40% percent higher than California’s? Sobering statistics, especially when you consider the efforts of Dominion Power to build even more coal-fired plants.
Perhaps more importantly, though, the Virginia Climate Action Conference was an opportunity to see the passion that Virginian’s have for the well-being of their state, and to witness the kind of progress that can be made when people get together, form coalitions and fight hard for what is right. Already there is a diverse group of people fighting to protect Virginia’s environment. When we come together on a regional level, just as we did last Saturday, there’s no limit to what we can achieve. Continue reading
Between 1970 and 2003, the average length of the active wildfire season (from the start of the first reported fire to the day the last reported fire is controlled) increased by 64 percent, or 78 days. Wildfires between 1987 and 2003 burned for an average of 37.1 days before being controlled
The following post was written by my dad, Paul Douglass, who is on vacation in Coronado, a town in Southern California…
The wildfires that sweep through Southern California this week, blackening over 400,000 acres and displacing a half a million residents from their homes, may be cited correctly as evidence of global warming, all right. But the well-organized response to the disaster by local authorities, firefighters, volunteers, and ordinary citizens in San Diego County may signal that people here have crossed a milestone in their thinking about climate change.
San Diegans remember the Cedar Fire that devastated the county only three years ago. San Diegans know that more fire-related disasters are sure to be coming their way living in this arid corner of the country because they know what climate change is likely to mean for them. The increasingly frequent wildfires in recent years seemed to have taught San Diegans to be prepared when the next fires hit.
They were prepared this time. Fortunately for my wife and me, we were staying at a house on the beach in Coronado, a quiet village located on the narrow finger of sand that forms San Diego Harbor, when the fires raged in the hills to the east. Watching the local TV stations’ non-stop coverage of efforts by firefighters and air tankers to stave off the advancing walls of fire burning everything in its path only a few miles away was surreal.
Comparisons of the response to the wildfires with Katrina by the media were inevitable. By all accounts San Diegans did a superlative job of dealing with the thousands of evacuees, saving homes, providing supplies to those in need, even arranging live entertainment for the kids at the county’s central relief station, Qualcom Stadium, home of the San Diego Chargers. Continue reading
Great news for the climate. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment yesterday became the first government agency in the United States to cite carbon dioxide emissions as the reason for rejecting an air permit for a proposed coal-fired electricity generating plant, saying that the greenhouse gas threatens public health and the environment. Read the Washington Post story here.
Kansas has stepped up to help lead the nation away from the dirty energy technologies and towards smart energy solutions. Virginia should follow Kansas’ lead and do its part to help fight global warming by finding cleaner, better ways to produce energy, a goal that does not include allowing Dominion Virginia Power build their proposed coal-fired power plant in Wise County. As most of you probably know, CCAN is part of a major effort to stop Dominion’s proposed power plant.
Kansas’s Sunflower Electric Power, a rural electrical cooperative, wanted to build the pair of big, 700-megawatt, coal-fired plants in order to supply power to parts of Kansas and fast-growing eastern Colorado. Similarly, Dominion claims they need to build the Wise County power plant to meet the growing demand for electricity in Virginia, especially as the population in Northern Virginia explodes.
One interesting note is that Kansas, like Virginia, is not exactly committed to the idea of conserving energy. In fact Kansas and Virginia are in a three-way tie (along with Wyoming) for last in the nation in spending on demand-side management programs according to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. Those three are the only states that spent absolutely nothing on demand-side conservation.
Despite their lack of interest in energy efficiency and conservation programs in the past, Kansas yesterday reversed course and put climate and health concerns first. Instead of a new coal plant, Kansas has committed to taking a path to a clean energy future.
Dominion has been using the threat of rolling blackouts for a while now. Yet Dominion’s threats are unfounded. Virginia can do better — much better – on energy efficiency and renewable energy, making a new coal plant unnecessary.
CCAN and its coalition members — the Sierra Club, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, Appalachian Voices, and the Southern Environmental Law Center — are fighting Dominion’s proposed coal plant in the courtroom, at the statehouse, and on the street. The victory in Kansas gives us something to point to to show that wise energy decisions are being made in the U.S. right now!
Today is the big day. Senators Warner and Lieberman announced their climate bill (The Climate Security Act of 2007) which may be the only “passable” climate bill to come out Congress this year or next year for that matter. CCAN, as a key climate organization in Virginia, would like to thank Senator Warner for his efforts on drafting climate legislation and doing a 180 on this issue in Congress. HOWEVER, after assessing the meat of the bill, it is clear that there is no true LEADER in Congress pushing an AGGRESSIVE climate pollution reduction bill. We are staring in the face of a true climate crisis, and there is no movement on the only piece of climate legislation that will really make a difference (Sanders-Boxer Bill or the Safe Climate Act in the House). Here are our concerns and critiques of the Warner-Lieberman bill in a nutshell (with help from our friends at USPIRG and Friends of the Earth):
In a gala session at the National Building Museum, Virginia Tech and 
partners announced the Energy Efficiency Partnership for Greater Washington.
The goal is to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions 20 to 50% from existing buildings”, using financing for energy efficiency and have the energy efficiency savings provide more than enough money to pay back the loan.Sound familiar to anyone? (Reminder: Energize America’s Energy Smart Communities Act.)This is a great initiative. The type of project that can be replicated across the country and pushed aggressively to significantly cut existing buildings’ energy use and the associated greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading
Today is “Blog Action Day,” a unique day where 15,000 blogs have signed up to write about something related to the environment. While that’s nothing different for CCAN, there will be lots of blogs that don’t normally focus on the environment who will be today, so keep your eyes peeled for some interesting and different environmental discussions on the web.
It seems quite appropriate that today, being “Blog Action Day” and all, there will be some BIG environmental news.
So here it is. Step It Up, which will take place on November 3rd and is going to be a day when Americans from coast to coast will rally in their communities and invite their politicians to join them. So far, 8 different members of Congress have committed to attending a Step It Up event, but no presidential candidates have, despite receiving 17 invites. No presidential candidates, that is, until now…
Over the weekend, three presidential candidates committed to coming to a Nov. 3rd Step It Up rally. Who are they? Democrats John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich and Republican John McCain.
This information hasn’t even been posted on their website yet but it comes for a very reliable source so stay tuned to the Step It Up blog throughout the day to learn more.
There are still plenty of candidates left to invite. Do so using this simple “invite tool:”
Last year students in Maryland won significant clean energy victories at their universities as part of the first year of the Campus Climate Challenge. However, with all of their successes on their individual campuses the students were hitting some road blocks with institutional policy for the entire University System of Maryland (USM). So, empowered by their past victories they had a great idea: why not get all of the USM schools to band together in one big grassroots coalition and push for one big comprehensive policy? It just seemed crazy enough to work.
So, on October 5th-7th these students planned the first ever USM Student State Summit to address the climate crisis. Students from across Maryland converged at Towson University for this big event. Over 30 students from 8 of the 11 USM institutions came together to hold activist skills trainings, strategize, and plan their campaign.
All of their labor paid off when on Saturday October 6th at 8:48PM the Maryland Student Climate Coalition (MSCC) was born! From the very start the MSCC has some ambitious goals and they are asking the state of Maryland to rise to the challenge. Their inaugural campaign is to make the entire University System of Maryland carbon neutral. Which means they want to neutralize the USM’s impact on climate change by reducing all possible emissions through energy efficiency, LEED certified buildings, and have all remaining energy use provided by clean energy sources. Their catchy campaign slogan: “Invest in our future: Make carbon neutrality a Maryland reality” is already taking off.
To realize this impressive mission they have set ambitious goals to get all 15 institutions in the USM to send endorsement letters to the Board of Regents and collect a total of 13,000 petition signatures!
Their efforts are already gaining notoriety from the USM Chancellor Kirwin who said that he is “dazzled” by the dedication and coordination of the student campaign. On December 14th MSCC will make their big presentation to the Board of Regents to urge them to pass a policy for carbon neutrality. (The USM is the 13th largest university system in the world and if the policy passes it will be the second system in the nation, following California, to have such a comprehensive policy).
Last week, the Maryland Student Climate Coalition hit the ground running and launched their campaign in a joint press conference with the Sierra Club of Maryland. On an unnatural and blisteringly hot October day they gathered in Federal Hill Park in Baltimore and unveiled their newly formed coalition to the press and the public. Read the coverage in the Baltimore Examiner and the Baltimore Sun Blog. Congratulations MSCC!
