What is the true price of gasoline? It’s far more than you think when you step on the accelerator. This video shows the reckless reach of fossil fuel pollution.
Tags: · Air Pollution, Carbon Emissions, Cars, Fossil Fuels, gasoline
As they did in 2011, environmentalists will again gather at the White House to protest the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil from Canada across the U.S. to refineries in Houston.
Tags: · Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, environmentalists, Keystone XL, tar sands protest, White House
Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for president, has been arrested in Texas while helping protesters of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Stein, who was being detained at the Wood County Jail, was helping resupply members of the Tar Sands Blockade who’re encamped in the trees trying to stop the path of the pipeline through East Texas.
Before being detained by local authorities — joining dozens of protesters who’ve been arrested for civil disobedience against the pipeline project — Dr. Stein issued a statement linking Keystone XL to the climate change that’s causing havoc with the U.S. economy and environment.
Tags: · bitumen, Carbon Emissions, Dr. Jill Stein, Hurricane Sandy, tar sands, Tar Sands Blockade, tar sands pipeline, toxic oil
Disney, recognizing its heavy paper footprint as the world’s largest publisher of children’s books and magazines, has announced it will be changing its paper policies to try to stop the degradation of rainforests in Southeast Asia.
The change comes as a victory for indigenous Indonesians, rainforest wildlife and the atmosphere, which are all being harmed by the vociferous consumption of rainforests by logging in Indonesia.
Tags: · Asia Paper & Pulp, carbon dioxide pollution, Carbon Emissions, children's books, China, deforestation, Disney, Indonesia, Rainforest Action Network, sustainable paper
Landowners and activists have again forced a temporary work stoppage on the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas.
This morning three members of the Tar Sands Blockade group latched themselves to tree-clearing machinery, stopping work crews from creating the path for the transcontinental pipeline.
It was not immediately known if police had been called to the scene, as they were to a similar scene of civil disobedience by the group in late August.
Tags: · Carbon Emissions, carbon pollution, protesters in Texas, Tar Sands Blockade, tar sands pipeline
It’s often assumed that Texans, like the majority of their lawmakers, favor oil drilling and the expansion of the oil industry.
And it’s often true. But a small, scrappy group of protesters that has risen up against the construction of the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas and Oklahoma are showing that such stereotypes are just that.
Their protests began last week, with small groups brandishing protest signs at work sites, where pipeline operator TransCanada has begun laying the Southern portion of the 1,700 mile transcontinental pipeline from Alberta to the Houston area.
Tags: · Canadian tar sands, Carbon Emissions, Fossil Fuels, Keystone XL pipeline, oil extraction, Oklahoma, Tar Sands Blockade, tar sands oil, Texas, TransCanada
It’s the Fourth of July, and we must have food!
But the requisite menu — barbecue, hot dogs, potato salad — doesn’t have to be as fattening or environmentally questionable as always. You can buy grass-fed meat locally, make a lower-calorie potato salad and add fresh fruit and veggies from the summer garden.
Tags: · American foods, Carbon Emissions, Field Roast, hot dogs, Light Life, low-fat cuisine, summer foods, summer holidays, Tofurky, veggie dogs, Yves
Power plants subject to a regional cap-and-trade program in the northeastern U.S. known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) reduced their carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 23 percent during the first three years of the program, the…
Tags: · cap-and-trade, Carbon Emissions, Greenhouse Gases, RGGI
Warmer than average global surface temperatures in 2011 added up to make the year the 9th warmest on record, or since 1880, when modern record-keeping began, according to NASA.
The finding, according to NASA scientists at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), confirms that the Earth’s temperatures are warming overall, with 9 of the 10 warmest years occurring since 2000. The only 20th Century year in the top ten was 1998. (2005 and 2010 tied for the hottest year(s) on record.)
Tags: · 2011 9th warmest year, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, earth, El Nino, Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Greenhouse Gases, James Hansen, temperature rising, top hottest years
ess than a month since the Obama Administration delayed the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline for at least a year, a group of GOP senators is trying to force the project to begin anyway.
The partisan showdown is led by Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), minority chair of the Foreign Relations Committee. Supporters include 37 other senators, including those from Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, which would host segments of the 1,700 mile pipeline.
Tags: · bitumen oil, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, environmentalists, GOP senators promoting Keystone pipeline, Keystone pipeline, NRDC, oil, Sen. Richard Lugar, Tar Sand Action, tar sands
Super Bowl XLV, being played in the nearly new ginormous 80,000-seat Cowboys Stadium, which expands to a capacity of 110,000 counting standing-room spots, will be the biggest ever in terms of on-site audience.
This mega event — counting the Feb. 6 game and official hotel and related activities — will suck up enough energy to power 1,500 homes for a year, according to Just Energy.
The Toronto-based energy retailer is helping the National Football League buy green power to offset the energy that will be expended on all the hoopla and bright lights.
The NFL, which has a long history of making Super Bowls successively greener, bought offsets for last year’s match up, too. But this year’s offset purchase has grown to cover the expanding size of the event and more venues for a longer period of time, making this not just the Uber-of-All Super Bowls in terms of on-site audience, but “the greenest ever” as well, according to Just Energy.
Tags: · Carbon Emissions, carbon offsets, Daylighting, food donations, Green Energy, greenrightnow.com, Jack Groh, Mass Transit, sports stadiums, Super Bowl XLV, tree plantings, Wind Power
Sadly, as the threat of climate change worsens, U.S. lawmakers move further away from practical solutions.
Last week, NASA reported that 2010 was the second hottest year on record, capping the warmest decade in modern times. Climate change continues, despite our currently frozen fingers as we clear the windshield of ice and snow (these big snowstorms in fact could be part of the pattern of climate change’s more erratic and severe storm systems).
This news of temperatures continue their upward march is no surprise to climate scientists who’ve measured the atmospheric carbon dioxide that’s a key creator of the greenhouse effect here on Earth. Atmospheric CO2 once measured around 250 parts per million before the industrial revolution. Now, after 160 years of burning fossil fuels on an industrial scale, we’re at 390 ppm, well above the comfort zone of 350 ppm and on our way to levels that could be terribly unhealthy for humans. Scientists have set an upper limit of 450 ppm of CO2, above which is a vast unknown and before which, are a series of tipping points that could render the whole discussion moot.
Tags: · BarbaraKesslerBlog, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Congress, fast action, Greenhouse Gases
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