Protection of Desert Land Faces Off With New Energy Sources - NYTimes.com

Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced utterly idiotic legislation to protect a million acres of the Mojave Desert in California by scuttling some 13 big solar plants and wind farms planned for the region. This sort of thing flies in the face of other actions she takes. Even with the bill not yet being passed in congress it has resulted in developers postponing several proposals or abandoning them entirely. The California agency charged with planning a renewable energy transmission grid has rerouted proposed power lines to avoid the monument.

On the one hand there is environmental protection to be considered. While the Mojave desert is a lot of land and underutilized by human habitation, it apparently has some sensitive environmental issues.

On the other hand there is the question of how the heck this society is going to power all the gizmos we live with.

For example in a podcast I recorded earlier this year, "Offshore drilling on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, an Interior Department hearing, held in San Francisco, April 16, 2009," includes strong statements by this same Sen. Feinstein saying no-way-no-how will we allow for oil drilling off California's coast. In that podcast I make a connection that by opposing oil drilling she has to have policies that somehow make up for the "energy" resource lost by not tapping the oil known to be off California's coast.

Our society has an insatiable and ever increasing need for energy. That "energy" has to come from somewhere. Currently it's coming from nasty fossil fuel resources and the mining of those resources has nasty side effects. Of course banning oil drilling means the nasty side effects from oil drilling do not occur.

During that same podcast she is recorded being in support of renewable energy resources such as wind and solar energy. But here she is introducing a bill that scuttles the opportunity of deploying renewable energy resources.

This sort of hypocrisy is stupid and outrageous.

Article Reference: 

Protection of Desert Land Faces Off With New Energy Sources - NYTimes.com

The Energy Collective | NATURE: Sea level rise may exceed worst expectations

A brand new paper released in Nature suggests that the polar ice sheets are more vulnerable to global warming than previously feared. 2 degrees Celsius of global warming could commit us to 6-9 meters (20-30 feet) of long-term sea level rise. The study is based an extensive database of geological indicators for the last interglacial period, roughly 125,000 years ago, when polar temperatures were about 3-5 degrees Celsius warmer than today, as is expected if global warming hits 2-3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The findings reinforce that the developed world needs to be prepared to fund significant adaptation support, particularly for low-lying countries such as Bangladesh.

Article Reference: 

http://theenergycollective.com/TheEnergyCollective/54721?utm_source=feedburner&u...

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Copenhagen Won't Be Enough -- Only a 'Human Movement' Can Save Civilization from the Climate Crisis | Environment | AlterNet

A strange cloud envelops human civilization as its leaders fail to take the measures to protect it in Copenhagen that they themselves endorsed just five months ago. A child under 13 today can expect to live into the 2080s, by which time civilization as we know it will have disappeared if we continue to fail to reduce carbon emissions by 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and 80 percent by 2050, according to our climate scientists. What will occur in Copenhagen thus continues a pattern seen since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Scientists there were anguished that the treaty only sought to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2012. None foresaw that the treaty would be ignored and that world emissions would be 40.8 percent higher (and U.S. emissions 19.8 percent higher) in 2007 than in 1990. We live today as if in a trance, conducting business as usual in times so unusual that they pose an even greater threat than 20th-century wars that killed more than 100 million people.

Article Reference: 

http://www.alternet.org/environment/144451/copenhagen_won't_be_enough_--_only_a_...

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2000–2009, THE WARMEST DECADE - World Meteorological Organization

The year 2009 is likely to rank in the top 10 warmest on record since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850, according to data sources compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The global combined sea surface and land surface air temperature for 2009 (January–October) is currently estimated at 0.44°C ± 0.11°C (0.79°F ± 0.20°F) above the 1961–1990 annual average of 14.00°C/57.2°F. The current nominal ranking of 2009, which does not account for uncertainties in the annual averages, places it as the fifth-warmest year. The decade of the 2000s (2000–2009) was warmer than the decade spanning the 1990s (1990–1999), which in turn was warmer than the 1980s (1980–1989). More complete data for the remainder of the year 2009 will be analysed at the beginning of 2010 to update the current assessment.

Article Reference: 

http://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/press_releases/pr_869_en.html

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Canada has target on its back headed into Copenhagen summit

“The tarsands are the roadblock to Canada signing onto a meaningful target,” said Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, a climate-change activist and member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in Alberta. The point is that the tarsands are a bad bad bad bad story, and it's on Canada's head. The world on the one hand is looking to Canada to fill in the gap between oil demand and oil production with those tar sands. Environmentalists would prefer that oil simply go away, and tarsands will act to keep the oil business alive, plus the tarsands are just a nasty way of producing oil. “The issue is seriously underplayed on the (Canadian) government’s part because they are afraid.” Activists like Deranger — and their ability to sway international opinion about Canada’s burgeoning oilsands sector — are what concern some industry observers. “God help us if this becomes like baby seals,” said University of Alberta energy economist Joseph Doucet.

Article Reference: 

http://www.canada.com/business/Canada+target+back+headed+into+Copenhagen+summit/...

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Gordon Brown attacks 'flat-earth' climate change sceptics | Environment | The Guardian

Sceptics in the UK and the US have moved to capitalise on a series of hacked emails (aka climategate) from climate change scientists at the University of East Anglia, claiming they show attempts to hide information that does not support the case for human activity causing rising temperatures. But tonight the UK prime minister, Gordon Brown, his environment secretary, Ed Miliband, and Ed Markey, the man who co-authored the US climate change bill, joined forces to condemn the sceptics. "With only days to go before Copenhagen we mustn't be distracted by the behind-the-times, anti-science, flat-earth climate sceptics," Brown told the Guardian. "We know the science. We know what we must do. We must now act and close the 5bn-tonne gap. That will seal the deal." Miliband said: "The approach of the climate saboteurs is to misuse data and mislead people. The're playing politics with science in a dangerous and deceitful manner...The evidence is clear and the time we have to act is short..."

Article Reference: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/04/flat-earth-climate-change-cope...

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How to create 1.7 million clean energy jobs « Climate Progress

The challenges facing President Obama and the U.S. Congress have not gone away. Paul Krugman worries that “unemployment is likely to stay near its current level for a year or more,” because “much of the political establishment now sees stimulus as having been discredited by events, so that it’s very hard to come back and scale the policy up to where it should have been in the first place.” But there remains a pathway out of Krugman’s dire vision of “a process of defining prosperity down” — if enough politicians embrace the alternative vision of a green economy, promoted by political leaders as far apart on the ideological spectrum as Van Jones and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). See a RepowerAmerica video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcg5XiE2GDk

Article Reference: 

http://climateprogress.org/2009/12/02/how-to-create-1-7-million-clean-energy-job...

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Factfile on UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, Copenhagen talks - Environment - The Independent

The December 7-18 UN climate conference in Copenhagen is tasked with framing a new deal for tackling global warming and its impacts beyond 2012. The Independent (of London) published a factfile on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol and the talks. The offshoot of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the UNFCCC provides a planetary arena for tackling climate change. Kyoto set down commitments for industrialised economies that would reduce overall emissions of six categories of greenhouse gases by "at least" five percent by a 2008-2012 timeframe compared to 1990. Under a "road map" launched in 2007, the Copenhagen conference will focus on an agreement that will take effect after Kyoto's present commitment period expires at the end of 2012.

Article Reference: 

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/factfile-on-unfccc-kyoto-protocol-copen...

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Google to Move Into Clean Energy Project Investing

Execs at Google have been very vocal about how they want to speed up the pace of innovation in the greentech industry — they’ve developed their own energy tools, invested in greentech startups and even engineered their own solar hardware. Google will soon make a step into clean energy project investing. Google wants to become more active in helping clean power projects cross the so-called “valley of death,” where promising technologies can easily flounder from lack of funding between the research and development stage and the commercialization stage.

Article Reference: 

http://earth2tech.com/2009/12/01/google-to-move-into-clean-energy-project-invest...

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Climate Change Is Inevitable — It’s Time to Adapt | Magazine

It may be too late to avoid catastrophic climate change. The really inconvenient truth: We’re toast. Fried. Steamed. Poached. More so than even many hand-wringing carbonistas admit. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, C02 that’s already in the air or in the pipeline will stoke “irreversible” warming for the next 1,000 years. Any scheme cobbled together in Copenhagen for slowing—forget reversing—the growth of greenhouse gases will be way too little, way too late. In the apt jargon of industry, a hotter planet is already “baked in.” But ... supposedly ... we're smart and adaptable animals, we are. We will survive and adapt and evolve. Hurm.

Article Reference: 

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/11/st_essay_globalwarming/

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Editorial: Global-warming zealots in control | warming, california, global - Opinion - The Orange County Register

This editorial in the Orange County Register demonstrates how deep is the global warming deniers willingness to ignore science and the need for change away from the prevailing paradigm. The prevailing paradigm is driving us into ecological and economic disaster that stands to cause widespread death and suffering. They do make a point that government regulation interferes with the natural organic process of the market. However history has shown that unregulated businesses tend to create horrible products and not care a whit about the wellbeing of the customers (us). Strong government is required to rein in the horrible excesses that businesses would otherwise create if left unregulated. For example the financial crisis of the last couple years was allowed to happen because of unregulated businesses.

Article Reference: 

http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/warming-221491-california-global.html

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BBC News - Major sea level rise likely as Antarctic ice melts

Sea levels are likely to rise by about 1.4m (4ft 6in) globally by 2100 as polar ice melts, according to a major review of climate change in Antarctica. Conducted by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), it says that warming seas are accelerating melting in the west of the continent. Ozone loss has cooled the region, it says, shielding it from global warming. Rising temperatures in the Antarctic Peninsula are making life suitable for invasive species on land and sea. The report - Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment - was written using contributions from 100 leading scientists in various disciplines, and reviewed by a further 200.

Article Reference: 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8387137.stm

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