While politicians are busy arguing over the exact degree to which humans have impacted climate change, innovative designers are diving into clever new energy technologies and green designs.
The Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) competition, sponsored by the United Arab Emirates’ “clean technology zone” Masdar City, generated one theoretical wind power generation design that draws its inspiration and its visual appeal directly from field of grass. Continue reading
This letter to the editor appeared in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch.
At Gov. Bob McDonnell’s energy conference, the participation spoke for itself. Virginians want renewable energy. As an attendee at the conference, I was struck by the fact that the sessions covering renewable energy topics were relegated to tiny meeting rooms, while the sessions about traditional fossil fuel sources were granted huge spaces similar to a college lecture hall.
The irony of this? The renewable energy sessions were jam-packed while the fossil fuel sessions were nearly empty. After the first day, event organizers moved the “dirty energy” sessions into much smaller spaces, but a common theme emerged during the three-day conference: We want clean energy but the state is falling behind the pack.
Presenter Cody Nystrom from SJF Ventures noted that companies located in states with mandatory renewable portfolio standards (RPS) have a much greater chance of receiving funding for clean energy projects than non-RPS states like Virginia.
Meanwhile, McDonnell claims to be fully committed to his “energy capital of the East Coast” idea. If he’s serious about that, he must not sit idly by and continue to allow surrounding states to reap the benefits of tax revenue and jobs from new clean energy projects.
Following the conference, it became more clear than ever that Virginia is ready to move beyond dirty fossil fuels and we have the strong economic incentives and necessary support from state energy professionals to make this overdue shift. It’s high time McDonnell and the General Assembly stopped planning energy conferences and started acting to give the burgeoning clean energy sector the support it sorely needs. We’re ready.
Chelsea Harnish
Richmond
For the last several months CCAN has been actively involved with a new national alliance of climate, religious, environmental, labor, public interest and community-based groups. It was formed after the passage of the cap-and-trade, Waxman-Markey climate legislation in the House of Representatives last June to advocate for “solutions to climate change that withstand the reality check of the best scientific evidence, the precautionary principle, the values of fairness and justice, the polluter pays principle, and the need for U.S. policies to be consistent with robust international responses.”
The CRC alliance’s statement of purpose went on to say:
“We are committed to speaking out about these failures of leadership, supporting real progress from elected officials and regulatory agencies, and doing all we can to change our country’s political response until it is consistent with environmental justice and the reality of what is needed to avoid potentially catastrophic climate change and energy impacts.
“Our groups have a variety of strengths, and we believe that by working together, we can leverage these strengths to contribute to a broader movement for climate justice and true climate and energy solutions.”
One of CRC’s first actions was to organize an open letter to Senator Barbara Boxer and others in the Senate in late August, 2009 signed by close to 400 organizations. It called for Senate legislation on climate much stronger than Waxman-Markey, legislation that “provides the transformational change and greenhouse emissions reductions required to avert catastrophic climate impacts.”
In mid-July of 2010 CRC coordinated a July-August “No More Oil Spills” month of action, which included a demonstration on the three month anniversary of the BP Gulf disaster by about 150 people on Capitol Hill. CCAN played a major role in this action.
About 25 organizations have joined so far, with an outreach campaign to enlist additional groups about to be launched. Some of the member groups include: Friends of the Earth, Center for Biological Diversity, 350.org, Church World Service, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Greenpeace, Labor Network for Sustainability and Public Citizen.
The coalition has established several active committees to advance its work. It meets weekly via national conference calls. It is an important new development and shows every indication that it will be a growing and increasingly visible part of the climate movement next year and in coming years.
For more information go to http://www.climaterealitycheck.org.
Coal is having a rough year.
One thousand artists from around the globe participated in the CoolClimate Art Contest to create an iconic, powerful image addressing the impacts of climate change.
On November 2, Californians will vote on Proposition 23, a ballot initiative to abolish the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act.
There are many awesome things about my job. But getting to talk to rock stars about clean energy is near the top of the list. Check out this video of Grace Potter from Grace Potter and the Nocturnals signing the Power Vote pledge. And then go sign the Power Vote pledge!
This is an op-ed for the Washington Post by Michael Mann, professor at Penn State University.
Get the anti-science bent out of politics
October 8, 2010
As a scientist, I shouldn’t have a stake in the upcoming midterm elections, but unfortunately, it seems that I — and indeed all my fellow climate scientists — do.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has threatened that, if he becomes chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, he will launch what would be a hostile investigation of climate science. The focus would be on e-mails stolen from scientists at the University of East Anglia in Britain last fall that climate-change deniers have falsely claimed demonstrate wrongdoing by scientists, including me. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) may do the same if he takes over a committee on climate change and energy security.
My employer, Penn State University, exonerated me after a thorough investigation of my e-mails in the East Anglia archive. Five independent investigations in Britain and the United States, and a thorough recent review by the Environmental Protection Agency, also have cleared the scientists of accusations of impropriety.
Nonetheless, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is investigating my previous employer, the University of Virginia, based on the stolen e-mails. A judge rejected his initial subpoena, finding that Cuccinelli had failed to provide objective evidence of wrongdoing. Undeterred, Cuccinelli appealed the decision to the Virginia Supreme Court and this week issued a new civil subpoena.
What could Issa, Sensenbrenner and Cuccinelli possibly think they might uncover now, a year after the e-mails were published?
The truth is that they don’t expect to uncover anything. Instead, they want to continue a 20-year assault on climate research, questioning basic science and promoting doubt where there is none.
Cuccinelli, in fact, rests his case largely on discredited claims that Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) made during hearings in 2005 at which he attacked me and my fellow researchers. Then-Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) had the courage and character to challenge Barton’s attacks. We need more political leaders like him today.
We have lived through the pseudo-science that questioned the link between smoking cigarettes and lung cancer, and the false claims questioning the science of acid rain and the hole in the ozone layer. The same dynamics and many of the same players are still hard at work, questioning the reality of climate change.
The basic physics and chemistry of how carbon dioxide and other human-produced greenhouse gases trap heat in the lower atmosphere have been understood for nearly two centuries. Overloading the atmosphere with carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is heating the planet, shrinking the Arctic ice cap, melting glaciers and raising sea levels. It is leading to more widespread drought, more frequent heat waves and more powerful hurricanes. Even without my work, or that of the entire sub-field of studying past climates, scientists are in broad agreement on the reality of these changes and their near-certain link to human activity.
Burying our heads in the sand would leave future generations at the mercy of potentially dangerous changes in our climate. The only sure way to mitigate these threats is to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions dramatically over the next few decades. But even if we don’t reduce emissions, the reality of adapting to climate change will require responses from government at all levels.
Challenges to policy proposals for how to deal with this problem should be welcome — indeed, a good-faith debate is essential for wise public policymaking.
But the attacks against the science must stop. They are not good-faith questioning of scientific research. They are anti-science.
How can I assure young researchers in climate science that if they make a breakthrough in our understanding about how human activity is altering our climate that they, too, will not be dragged through a show trial at a congressional hearing?
America has led the world in science for decades. It has benefited our culture, our economy and our understanding of the world.
My fellow scientists and I must be ready to stand up to blatant abuse from politicians who seek to mislead and distract the public. They are hurting American science. And their failure to accept the reality of climate change will hurt our children and grandchildren, too.
Michael E. Mann, the author of “Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming,” is a professor in the meteorology department at Penn State University and director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center.
If anyone has any doubt that the climate movement is forging ahead after the rocky road we’ve traveled from Copenhagen to the Senate dead-end, they should just consider what happened on October 10th, 2010. The sheer mind-blowing scale of 350.org’s 10/10/10 Global Work Party shows that far from losing momentum, the global climate movement has only picked up steam in countries across the world. Indeed, despite all the political blows we’ve been dealt this past year, people rallied behind climate action like never before
It’s been a great week for wind power, with the signing of the first permit for offshore wind in the U.S. and, more locally, Northrop Grumman’s announcement that they will be building offshore wind turbines in Hampton Roads. Unfortunately, the only down side is that these developments are such big news in the U.S. While exciting developments, they also go to show how far behind we are in the global clean energy economy. Last year, China doubled its wind power capacity, accounting for a third of all new capacity around the world. Their market grew over 100%, while the U.S. market grew by less than half that.
That’s why Virginia is welcoming Northop Grumman’s announcement and the jobs it will bring to the Hampton Roads area. Even Gov. McDonnell praised the project as a source of new jobs for Virginians. The best part? It is just the start of what offshore wind can offer the state.
According to the Virginia Coastal Energy Resources Consortium, developing offshore wind in Virginia would create over 10,000 jobs. There’s enough wind potential off Virginia’s coasts to replace half a dozen of your average, dirty coal-fired power plants. Furthermore, when over 100 coal plant proposals have been taken off the table since 2001, developers are actively pursuing investing in offshore wind in Virginia.
From individual climate activists to big-time businesses like Northop Grumman, support is growing for offshore wind. We’re getting to where we need to be, but not nearly fast enough. That’s why this Sunday, supporters from Alexandria to Virginia Beach will be erecting mock wind turbines with a united message: It’s time to get to work promoting offshore wind and a clean energy economy! At this crucial time for wind power, will you join us?