Here you'll find...
General Environmental News
- Transportation by the Numbers
- Tell Toyota to move forward on fuel economy
- Mothers Facing Pollution Risks Find Allies in the Religious Right
- Environmental
News
Briefs
Religion & Environment
Action Alerts
- Tell Toyota to move forward on fuel economy
- Urge Congress to support human right of access to water
Allies for Earth
Global
Warming
- Briefs from the Center for American Progress
- Gulf Stream Conveyer Slows
-
Arbor Day Foundation has redrawn the gardening zones
in the United States. Check your climate zone here.
- Center for American Progress: Environmental Action from the Right
- Is God Green? http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/green/index.html
- Religion and Politics: How does your faith or religion or spirituality affect your perspective of environmentalism or creation care?
- Religion & Environment: What do you believe is your responsibility, if any, to the environment?
- Pew Forum Report: American Religion and the Environment
- Pat Robertson: "The growing threat of far-left environmentalism," CBN News
- Some Evangelicals are Turning Green
- Eco-Magick!
General Environmental News
- Earth Day 2007
- Greening American Tax Policy
- Sick Transit
- Bringing Issues Together
- Fueling Global Prosperity: Worldwide Gains for Farmers Are in Reach
- Citizen Forestry in LA! www.treepeople.org
- British Schools Show "An Inconvenient Truth"
- Attn: gardeners & citizen
foresters:
Arbor Day Foundation has redrawn US gardening zones.
Check your climate zone here. - Water: Got Yours?
Archives
- The Long Emergency: This will change everything!
- Calculate YOUR Carbon Load Quickly
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/infographics/pop_carbon.htm - Major Temperature Rise Recorded in Arctic This Year
- Pentagon Warns Bush: Climate Change Could Destroy Us
- Midwinter Spring is the New Season in the British Isles
APRIL 6, 2007
The UN report on Global Warming released today announced that Global Warming is an even
greater threat than had been recognized.
New and confirmed data predict water shortages affecting billions of people
and a rise in ocean levels that could go on for centuries.
Grim as the UN analysis is, The Los Angeles Times reported that some of the scientists involved in the panel felt that the document was too optimistic.
SUPREMES Tell EPA to Regulate Car Emission
April 6, 2007
The US Supreme Court declared that the Clean Air Act gives the
Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate global warming
causing emissions from cars.
TAKE ACTION!
Send a message to the EPA and Administrator Stephen Johnson urging them to do their job and join the movement to
stop global warming.
Stephen
Johnson
USEPA Headquarters
Ariel Rios Building
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N. W.
Mail Code: 1101A
Washington, DC 20460
202-564-4700
Business Warms to Climate Change
by Ana Unruh Cohen, March 1, 2007
Deal-making among energy, labor, and green groups is welcome news, but we need carbon cap-and-trade programs to protect consumers.
On the Run from Global Warming
March
1, 2007
New U.N. report affirms what CAP has been saying: We can not continue to
ignore the growing environmental refugee crisis.
Down the Green Carpet
February 27, 2007
An Inconvenient Truth’s two wins were highlighted by a commitment
from the Academy to curb global warming by reducing its own ecological
footprint.
State of the Climate
by
Ana Unruh Cohen, February 22, 2007
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change Report Demands Change on Global Warming
February 5, 2007
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report repeats what CAP has been
saying: It is time for us to take serious action to curb global warming.
The material above was created for the Progress
Report, the daily e-mail publication of the
Center for American
Progress. Click here to subscribe.
Global Warming: The Conveyer Slows
By Jim Motavalli
I wanted to know more about the Gulf Stream, and so went to Answers.com , which informed me that this warm, slow-moving current was first described by Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon in 1513. "The Gulf Stream originates in the Gulf of Mexico and, as the Florida Current, passes through the Straits of Florida and along the coast of the southeastern United States with a breadth of 50 miles."
Read full article. Go to all articles
The Arbor Day Foundation has
redrawn the gardening zones in US
Check your climate
zone here
Calculate YOUR Carbon Load Quickly
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/infographics/pop_carbon.htm
Wanna
Know how to BEAT THE HEAT?
Wanna Know how to BEAT THE HEAT?
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), in
partnership with StopGlobalWarming.org , has
launched Beat the Heat,
an interactive map that highlights the global warming solutions and
consequences that matter most to people across the country.
This site helps people share their concerns about global warming and their desire for solutions -- on an individual and a national scale. The site highlights concrete actions that will drastically cut global warming pollution, such as boosting energy efficiency, supporting renewable energy, driving better cars and passing strong laws to cap global warming pollution.
- 'Cool Globes' on Parade, by Fran Spielman (2/7/2007)
- Hot Topic, by Elizabeth Kolbert (2/6/2007)
- China Sweats in Warmest Temperatures on Record, by Dan Martin (2/6/2007)
- On the Climate Change Beat, Doubt Gives Way to Certainty, by William K. Stevens (2/6/2007)
- Who Owns the Planet? by Deepak Chopra (2/5/2007)
- Yale Steps up Efforts to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions, by John Christoffersen (2/4/2007)
- Exxon Linked to Climate Change Pay Out, by Steve Hargreaves (2/3/2007)
Experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, announced that they had detected a major temperature increase in the Arctic waters between Greenland and Spitsbergen in Norway. They link this increase to the "clear recession" of sea ice edges, both in the strait and the Barents Sea, documented by satellite telescope photography over the past 3 years.
This
year, in the upper 500 meters (1,625 feet) of sea in the Fram Strait they
recorded temperatures up to 0.6 C (1.08 F) higher than in 2003. This
increase was detectable to a water depth of 2,000 meters (6,500 feet),
"representing an exceptionally strong signal by ocean standards." Water in
the Fram Strait has been warming steadily since 1990. The research was
conducted for six weeks on a specialized vessel, the Polarstern (Pole Star),
which sampled the West Spitsbergen Current, which carries warm water from
the Atlantic into the Arctic Ocean.
In June 2004, American scientists announced at a renewalble energies
conference in Bonn that they had detected an "alarmingly rapid growth" this
year in airborne concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the fossil-fuel
pollutant blamed for global warming. CO2 levels recorded in March 2004 at
Hawaii measured 379 parts per million (ppm), an increase of three ppm over
the previous year. In the past decade, the annual increase was only 1.8 ppm
per year. Before the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric concentrations of
CO2 were 280 ppm.
CO2
is the most important of the six "greenhouse" gases blamed for driving
changes to the world's delicate climate system. These gases hang like an
invisible shroud in the atmosphere, trapping the Sun's heat and inflicting
what many scientists predict will be serious changes to icecaps, glaciers
and weather patterns.
Before the Industrial Revolution, climate change has occurred naturally, by
emissions of CO2 disgorged by volcanoes and other phenomena. But the
overwhelming majority of climate experts say CO2 levels are rising fast
today because of the unbridled burning of oil, gas and coal. Opinions
differ, though, as to how fast the effects will occur and how bad they will
be.
This 2004 article was written before Katrina and the Sunami.
Pentagon
Warns Bush: "Climate Change Could Destroy Us
· Secret report warns of
rioting and nuclear war
· Threat to the world is greater than terrorism
By Christa Landon
After
being suppressed for four months, a
secret Pentagon report produced warns that the threat to global
stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism.
Abrupt climate change over the next 20 years could result in a
global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural
disasters. Major European cities will inundated beneath rising
seas; mega-droughts and famine could devastate economies.
Desperation could generate widespread rioting across the world
as people seek to defend and secure dwindling food, water and
energy.
Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at
Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the
California-based Global Business Network were among the
authors.
They argue that the
planet is already carrying an unsustainably high population. By
2020 'catastrophic' shortages of water and energy supply will
plunge the planet into war. 8,200 years ago climatic
conditions brought widespread crop failure, famine, disease and
mass migration of populations that could soon be repeated.
The potential ramifications of rapid climate change would create
global chaos. "This is depressing stuff,' he said. 'It is a
national security threat that is unique because there is no
enemy to point your guns at and we have no control over the
threat.' Worse, it might already be too late to prevent a
disaster happening. 'We don't know exactly where we are in the
process. It could start tomorrow and we would not know for
another five years," he said.
Immanent and catastrophic climate change is "plausible and
would challenge United States national security in ways that
should be considered immediately." As
early as next year widespread flooding by a rise in sea levels
will create major upheaval for millions.
Symons,
who left the EPA in protest at political interference, announced
that "This administration is ignoring the evidence in order
to placate a handful of large energy and oil
companies." A
large body of respected scientists claim that the White
House has cherry-picked science to suit its policy agenda and
suppressed studies that it did not like. This
Pentagon report itself was suppressed for 4 months.
Some climatologists hope that this report could convince Bush
recognize global warming and to sign up to global treaties to
reduce the rate of climatic change:
Bob Watson, chief scientist for the World Bank and former chair
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is hopeful.
"Can Bush ignore the Pentagon? It's going be hard to blow off this sort of document. Its hugely embarrassing. After all, Bush's single highest priority is national defense. The Pentagon is no wacko, liberal group, generally speaking it is conservative. If climate change is a threat to national security and the economy, then he has to act. There are two groups the Bush Administration tend to listen to, the oil lobby and the Pentagon,' added Watson.
Watson
believes that this report may be a factor in the US elections.
Democratic frontrunner John Kerry is known to accept climate
change as a real problem. Scientists disillusioned with Bush's
stance are threatening to help Kerry use the Pentagon report in
his campaign.
The
report was influenced by Pentagon defense adviser Andrew
Marshall, a powerful voice in US military thinking over the past
three decades, and currently head of the Office of Net
Assessment, a secretive think-tank dedicated to weighing risks
to national security. Highly regarded at the Pentagon, he is credited with being
behind the Department of Defense's push on ballistic-missile
defense, and
a sweeping recent review aimed at transforming the American
military under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Related Stories and Resources
For a somewhat more sensationalist story, see:
"NOW
THE PENTAGON TELLS BUSH: CLIMATE CHANGE WILL DESTROY US"
By Mark Townsend and Paul Harris in New York
The Observer
Sunday, February 22, 2004
- Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war
- Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years
- Threat to the world is greater than terrorism
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1153513,00.html
THE GUARDIAN'S GLOBAL WARMING SPECIAL TRACKING SECTION:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/0,12374,782494,00.html
1.1 billion people don't have safe drinking water. The U.N.'s goal is to provide it for half of those people by 2015, but it's already falling behind. What is spent for bottled drinking water is many times more than what it should cost to provide safe drinking water for all 1.1 billion people.
See Bush's plan to sell water from the Great Lakes.
Check out the green issue of Vanity Fair, featuring Grist founder Chip Giller.
Earth Day Network launches ‘Earth Day on the Hill’ -
Brings Diverse Voices to the Global Warming Discussion
WASHINGTON, DC – On Tuesday, April 17, 2007, Earth Day Network (EDN) kicks off ‘Earth Day on the Hill,’ a platform for diverse voices and perspectives on the most critical environmental issue of our time: global warming. The news conference from 9-11a.m. in the Zenger Room of the National Press Club will open with remarks from Congresswoman Hilda Solis, who represent’s California’s 32nd District (Los Angeles).
The launch event will include Earth Day Network President Kathleen Rogers, Step It Up’s Bill McKibben, William C. Velasquez Institute (WCVI) President Antonio Gonzalez, Dr. Robert Bullard of the Environmental Justice Resource Center, and Rev. Peter Moore-Kochlacs of the Religious Coalition on Creation Care.
“This week, April 16th through the 20th, Earth Day Network is bringing new and diverse voices from across America to Capitol Hill to catalyze immediate action on climate change,” said EDN President Kathleen Rogers. “We want to talk about the health, economic, and social impacts of climate and our proposed solutions for their inclusion in global warming legislation.”
Participants in ‘Earth Day on the Hill’ will be visiting Congress this week, pushing for programs to help those most vulnerable cope with the impacts of global warming. They will also urge legislation to speed up our transition to renewable energy and help economically disadvantaged individuals participate in the new green economy. In addition, Earth Day Network is calling on Congress to require that companies purchase emission permits, and not to allow any permits to be "grandfathered" or given away.
"Building on the momentum on the 1400 rallies that took place in all 50 states on Saturday, it's time for Congress to finally, after 20 years, pass serious climate legislation,” said Step It Up’s Bill McKibben. “Across America, people agreed that 80% carbon emission reductions by 2050 is a good starting point for what needs to be done."
"Global warming poses special environmental justice challenges for communities that are already overburdened with pollution and environmentally-related illnesses,” added Dr. Robert Bullard of the Environmental Justice Resource Center. “Those most affected must have a voice at the table in shaping the solutions."
"Latinos have long been concerned with the environment,” said WCVI President Antonio Gonzalez. “As a group consistently disproportionately affected by policies that force them to live in highly polluted neighborhoods, in areas with an alarming lack of green space, the Latino community is ready to take charge and show that it is environmentally conscious by pushing for positive urban development and agricultural development policies."
Environment
http://www.pluralism.org/news/intl/index.php?xref=Religion+and+the+Environment&sort=DESC
Contact: Laurie Howell, 703-717-3983
Howell@earthday.net
About Earth Day Network
Earth Day Network, www.earthday.net , seeks to grow and diversify the
environmental movement worldwide, and to mobilize it as the most effective
vehicle for promoting a healthy, sustainable planet. It pursues these goals
through education, politics, cultural events, and consumer activism. Current
grassroots programs include the Climate Change Solutions Campaign, Campaign
for Communities, and the National Civic Education Project. Earth Day Network
works with more than 105,000 K-12 teachers in the United States alone. In
2006, EDN launched Earth Day Television, greatly expanding its reach to a
global network of more than 15,000 partners and organizations in 174
countries. More than one billion people are expected to participate in Earth
Day (April 22nd) civic activities, making it the largest secular civic event
in the world.
Greening American Tax Policy
February
26, 2007
Green programs could spur growth of new energy solutions and generate
revenue that will reduce the deficit and spur the economy.
Sick
Transit
by
Ben Adler, February 14, 2007
Bringing
Issues Together
February 13, 2007
CAP report details a strategy for addressing a broad
range of critical issues ranging from curbing global
warming to boosting agriculture worldwide.
Fueling
Global Prosperity: Worldwide Gains for Farmers Are in
Reach
by Jake Caldwell, February 7, 2007
CAP's Jake Caldwell spells out why congressional
action on the U.S. farm bill could translate into
global gains for farmers and the environment alike.
A coalition of environmental and public interest groups spotlighting ExxonMobil’s efforts to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, prevent action on global warming, and encourage America’s oil dependence.
ExxonMobil Double-Crossing America on Global Warming, Groups say (2/1/07)
Scientists' Report Documents ExxonMobil's Tobacco-like Disinformation Campaign on Global Warming Science (1/3/07)
Bush Administration's Appointment of ExxonMobil's Lee Raymond Draws Public Protest (10/25/06)
ExxonMobil Called Out By Scientists For Funding Global Warming Denial (9/20/06)
Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco's Tactics to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Change
January 3, 2006, Union of Concerned Scientists
Report documents how ExxonMobil adopted the tobacco industry’s disinformation tactics, as well as some of the same organizations and personnel, to cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action.
Executive Summary
Groups & Individuals Associated with ExxonMobil's Disinformation Campaign
Download Full Report (PDF Format)
Climate Change Litigation
Friends
of the Earth, Greenpeace and the City of Boulder, Colo. filed a lawsuit in
the U.S. District Court in San Francisco on behalf of their members and
citizens who are victims of global warming. The suit has been filed against two U.S. government
agencies – the Export Import Bank (ExIm) and the Overseas Private
Investment Corporation (OPIC). ExIm and OPIC are taxpayer funded agencies
that provide financing and loans to U.S. corporations for overseas
projects that commercial banks deem too risky. Find out more at: www.climatelawsuit.org
A MoveOn-supported site dedicated solely to tracking the Bush
Administration's environmental misdeeds.
Back Issues
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EPA Exempts Pesticides from Clean Water Act
....Under the new rule, if the pesticide will be used to control aquatic weeds, mosquitoes or other pests, no permit is needed and pesticides can be sprayed directly on a body of water or near it.
Full Article
"a blogful of
leafy green commentary"
"Grist Magazine's new blog is the place for continuous commentary from a stable of smarty-pants writers the likes of which the environmental world has never seen. "
"the environmental conscience of the GOP."
This site includes the Campaign for Change:
Action Plan
for a Green GOP Century.
Conservation is an original American idea. And no wonder. Our history and culture are rooted in America's wild land and waters.
Too often, however, America's environment suffers from partisan bickering. Misguided "conservatives" dismiss environmental protection as a "liberal" cause. "Liberals" claim the environment as an exclusive political preserve. But there is nothing partisan about practicing good stewardship of America's air, water, and natural resources.
British Secondary
Schools ordered to Show 'AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH'
As
part of a year-long environmental education campaign
to combat global warming, Al Gore's documentary will
be sent to every secondary school in England, over
3,385 schools.
As Education Secretary Alan Johnson explained, "Children are the key to changing society's long-term attitudes to the environment. Not only are they passionate about saving the planet, but children also have a big influence over their own families' lifestyles and behavior."
Amnesty International is gravely concerned for the lives of members of the organization Consejo de Ejidatarios y Comuneros Opositores a la Parota, which represents local communities in Cacahuatapec opposed to the construction of the Parota hydroelectric dam in Guerrero state. It is estimated that the Parota dam may result in the flooding of some 14,000 hectares of land, causing the eviction of 25,000 people and impacting the lands of 75,000 farmers living downstream.
Amnesty has documented the violence surrounding the Parota dam project since 2004 including the killing of three people, injuries to several others and death threats to a local activist. The authorities in Guerrero state have reportedly failed to consult local communities fairly and transparently, leading to an atmosphere of increasing tension and violence.
Activists are asking for a consultation process that includes all the
people affected, and accurate and impartial information on the impact of
the dam and compensation to be awarded to all those affected.
Around the
world, corporate and development projects like the Parota dam are having
widespread impacts on local and indigenous communities, and a disturbing
trend has emerged whereby environmental defenders like the members of Consejo de Ejidatarios y Comuneros Opositores a la Parota are
threatened for defending their basic human rights.
Please take action today to demand that Mexican officials ensure that community members in Cacahuatapec have access to complete information regarding the Parota dam project, and take steps to end violence and human rights abuses, including ensuring their right to peaceful public participation.
In
solidarity,
Amy O'Meara
Amnesty Corporate Action Network (CAN)
corpaction@aiusa.org
www.amnestyusa.org/business
Unitarian Universalist
Service Committee (UUSC)