Major American businesses are pushing Washington to act boldly and quickly on climate change, because it will be better for the planet, and for business. The signers of the new Climate Declaration wield some muscle, employing nearly half a million Americans. See who belongs to this new green group.
Tags: · business leaders, clean economy, climate action, Global economy, green businesses, renewables, sustainability, sustainable businesses, Washington
U of Conn students collect sneakers to donate to Nike's Reuse-a-Shoe program, which turns them into track and playground surfaces.
Sierra magazine’s top 10 “Coolest Schools” are working hard to solve global warming, and their students are literally taking on the world by developing more sustainable food, buildings, energy sources and transportation.
Tags: · climate action, Cool Schools, green college rankings, green colleges, Sierra magazine, sustainability, universities
From Green Right Now Reports Thousands of climate activists and concerned citizens rallied all over the world on Saturday for Climate Impacts Day (May 5) to show that climate change is already degrading their communities and to call for solutions. Groups around the world, in Canada, Israel, Germany, Australia, South Africa, Thailand, India and dozens [...]
Tags: · 350.org, climate action, climate activists, Climate Change, Climate Impacts, Connect the Dots, demonstrations
Activists at 350.org hope to expose the biggest financiers of lawmakers who are stalling on climate change.
Fed up with Congress, where many members deny that climate change exists and fight measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and switch to renewable energy, 350.org is targeting those officials biggest bankroller: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“For many years, everyone has assumed that if we simply manage to communicate the problem (of climate change), it will lead to action. It hasn’t, for one simple reason: there’s too much money in the way. A wall of money that separates politicians from the scientific truth that we’re in a desperate crisis,” said 350.org founder and noted environmentalist Bill McKibben said in a statement today.
Industry groups, McKibben explained, have been raising doubts about climate change, thwarting Congressional action to mitigate it, and now they’re also trying to stop the EPA from protecting the air, water and atmosphere from polluters.
Tags: · 350.org, Bill McKibben. U.S. Chamber of Commerce, campaign finances, climate action, Climate Change, climate deniers, Congress on climate action, energy solutions, finance reform, Green Energy, greenrightnow.com, U.S. Congress
This week brought news that Texas will likely be opening its nuclear waste dump in Andrews, near the New Mexico border, to radioactive waste from states across the nation.
Meanwhile, China announced that it has developed new technology to reprocess used fuel from nuclear power plants, potentially greatly extending the amount of power that existing nuclear plants can generate, according to an AP news report. The story noted that the U.S. stopped reprocessing nuclear fuel in the 1970s because of fears that freed plutonium would add to nuclear weapons proliferation. (That was a legitimate concern, but no end run around the problem was ever developed in the interest of keeping our nuclear power processes up to date.)
Tags: · BarbaraKesslerBlog, Carbon Emissions, China energy development, climate action, climate deniers, EPA, First Solar's solar installation in China, greenrightnow.com, Inner Mongolia, nuclear waste, Renewable Electricity Standard, Renewable Energy, reprocessing nuclear fuel, RES, Solar Power, U.S. energy policy
Eight cities and counties have committed to prepare for climate change effects and will be participating in a new program on adapting to a new warmer world set up by ICLEI, an association devoted to helping cities and counties become more sustainable.
By working with ICLEI’s program — called Climate Resilient Communities (CRC) — the cities will to to find ways to keep their infrastructure, roads, water sources and citizens safe from the effects of climate change. For instance, in Miami-Dade County, officials will look at ways to protect freshwater aquifers from intrusion by salt water caused by rising sea levels and storm-related flooding, problems that are already beginning to affect the area, according to ICLEI.
Tags: · Cambridge, climate action, Climate Change, Climate Resilient Communities, Dade County, Fla., Flagstaff, Grand Rapids, greenrightnow.com, ICLEI, Lee County, local climate action, Miami, rising temperatures, San Francisco Bay Area Conservation and Development Commission, sea level rise, sustainable cities
Climate change has been a matter of debate in government circles and a talking point on news channels for many years now. But increasingly, the climate change discussion — the need to slow global warming pollution, deforestation and the loss of wildlife — is becoming a citizens’ round table.
This past weekend’s 10-10-10 work parties, rallied people of all ages, economic strata and religious beliefs who turned out in groups of 5, 10, or 100 to build gardens, promote carbon neutral transportation, plant trees and protest fossil fuels.
Tags: · 10-10-10 work party, 350.org, climate action, Climate Change, climate mitigation, reduce carbon emissions
350.org demo in Xalapa Mexico 2009 (Photo: 350.org)
Tags: · 10-10-10 work party, 350.org, Bill McKibben, climate action, Climate Change, climate events, global climate action
The Center for American Progress Action Fund published an article this week highlighting the millions that energy and utility companies have spent lobbying Congress.
The article contends that this downpour of money into Washington — half of a billion dollars since 2008 — has been the key factor in stalling climate action by Congress.
The chart above shows that the top fossil fuel industries and electric power companies have spent heavily in Washington. What their lobbyists have been saying is not revealed in the dollar amounts, but CAPAF report outlines how most of these companies are on the record as opposing climate legislation, fees for carbon pollution and EPA regulation of greenhouse gases.
Tags: · cap-and-trade, Carbon Emissions, carbon pricing, climate action, climate action opponents, Congress, electric companies, lobbyists, oil and gas industry, politics, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington D.C.
Climate action group 350.org announced today that it has logged more than 5,200 events that are planned for this year’s work party on Oct. 10, 2010.
That means the 10-10-10 work party will likely surpass participation in last year’s worldwide demonstration in which people in 181 countries turned out for 5248 events aimed at raising consciousness about climate change. CNN called that 350.org event the “most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history,” noted 350.org founder Bill McKibben.
Tags: · 10-10-10 work party, 350.org, Bill McKibben, climate action, Ellen Page
America’s public health leaders have raised their voices against Congressional waffling over climate action, releasing a letter today signed by 120 top public health groups that urges Congress not to interfere with the EPA’s plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The EPA’s mandate to regulate carbon emissions has been a lightning rod in Washington, with some in Congress saying the agency does not have the authority to set carbon guidelines and penalize violators. States, such as Texas, have sued over the issue, also trying to stop the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases.
Tags: · American Public Health Association, Carbon Emissions, carbon regulation, climate action, Congress, Environmental Protection Agency, Greenhouse Gases, Public Health
By Asher Miller
Asher Miller, executive director, Post Carbon Institute
Back in December in blisteringly cold Copenhagen, tens of thousands of activists, government workers, lobbyists, and world leaders came together for what many hoped would be a diplomatic breakthrough. Though the weather was cold, conditions seemed ripe: Environmental groups across the globe had worked hard to generate a strong display of public will, culminating in 350.org’s Day of Action earlier in October, which CNN called “the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history.” Bolstered by the announcement that President Obama would attend the talks personally, hopes were high for meaningful engagement on the part of the United States after more than a decade of inaction.
Tags: · Asher Miller, climate action, Congress, no climate bill, Obama, OtherVoicesBlog, Post Carbon Institute
Barbara Kessler
Andrew Winston
Danielle Nierenberg
Anthony Swift