Earlier this week leaders from 185 businesses and organizations, along with 77 individual activists, delivered to Congress a letter urging members that “greenhouse gas emissions can be cut swiftly and in an economically and environmentally sound way by means of a national emissions cap that is realized through a combination of aggressive energy efficiency and renewable energy standards.”
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For many, it's time that climate scientists took off their white coats and stood up to the ongoing broadside against their work and the near-constant drumbeat from right-wing pundits and politicians that have added derision of global warming to their conservative litmus test, disavowing anyone who might dare take seriously the work of the climate science community.
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EarthTalk® is a weekly environmental column made available to our readers from the editors of E/The Environmental Magazine
Dear EarthTalk: Isn’t the interest in electric cars and plug-in hybrids going to spur increased reliance on coal as a power source? And is that really any better than gasoline/oil in terms of environmental impact? - Graham Rankin, via e-mail
Continue Reading EarthTalk: Will Hybrid Plug-ins Lead to Greater Reliance on Coal?
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The controversial new book SuperFreakonomics has stirred vociferous and vehement responses, with many accusing authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner of "getting it all wrong" in their chapter about global warming. In that chapter, Levitt and Dubner referenced the work of climatologist Ken Caldeira's work studying the implications of geoengineering – large-scale, deliberate manipulation of Earth's climate system – as a "solution" to the climate crisis that is poised to consume the 21st century. Many see geoengineering is a dangerous and hubristic path to take, exacerbating the damage already done in our attempts to manage and manipulate nature on a global scale.
Continue Reading Geoengineering: Will Attempts to "Play God" Lead to Ruin or Salvation?
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By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium blogger
(reposted with permissions – with edits and additions)
Americans don’t know what to think about climate change anymore. A few years ago, the public more or less trusted the science that said human activity was raising global temperatures, but now that Congress and the Obama administration have hemmed and hawed about climate issues, we're not longer so sure.
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It is almost 3 months after the Copenhagen Accord was hammered out by 28 of the world’s key countries that represent over 80% of the world’s global warming pollution and some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change (as I discussed here). Given the state of the Accord just after Copenhagen with some calling it a failure, some outlining the foundations in the Accord for international efforts (and as my colleague discussed here), and others…well not quite sure what to make of it, where do things stand on international efforts to address global warming?
Continue Reading Where Do Things Stand on International Efforts to Address Global Warming?
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America is rife with confusion and contradictions about climate change. Contrary to what some may be thinking, a green oxymoron is not a colorful appellation for climate change deniers. An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines normally contradictory terms. A green oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines normally contradictory terms in an environmental context.
Continue Reading Green Oxymorons – Coming to Grips with Being Green
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Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced last week that Alaska will be home to the nation's first regional climate center, one of eight to be established throughout the country. The new center will be located at the University of Alaska in Anchorage, and should be formally underway within six to eight weeks.
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It's the big pink elephant in the room that few others wish to acknowledge, but a central theme in a new report by former climate negotiator Nigel Purvis: An international climate change treaty isn't likely to be signed anytime soon.
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By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger
(reposted with permission)
Climate legislation is returning to the Senate's docket, and leaders on Capitol Hill are hoping that this version, a compromise bill spearheaded by Sens. John Kerry (D-MA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT), can pass without getting caught in the morass of money and politics that has delayed action so far.
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