It’s Getting Hot In Here

These mountains in the depths of district of Chamba in the state of Himachal Pradesh (India) used to have a lot more snow.

In recent times I’ve been reading a lot about climate change not being real. First the climate gate scandal followed by the many articles attacking the IPCC for incorrectly publishing information on the glaciers melting in the Himalayas by 2035. Climate scientists, economics, politicians and business persons are being interviewed left, right and centre.

The question on the lips of the public is – what is the truth? The truth is such an interesting thing – where more often than not, it is a human tendency for a person to believe what they want to hear.

I pose a question to all people who are jumping on the bandwagon of denying the Himalayan glacier melt due to an error made by the IPCC, and denying the existence of climate change. How many of you have been to the Himalayas? How many of you have spoken to the citizens in the mountains of India and Nepal who have spent their whole lives there?

Very few of you – if any. Continue reading ‘Are the Himalayan Glaciers melting? Why not see for yourself?’

It’s getting serious.  They are bringing out their big guns.  King Coal is getting ready to throw their kitchen sink at the pesky anti-mountaintop removal movement.

The coal industry’s top lobbyist, IMHO, WV Gov. Joe Manchin, is scheduled to meet President Obama and Vice-President Biden with ten other governors on the issue of energy.

Geez, I wonder what sort of energy he’ll be advocating for?

Manchin has been a major obstacle in ending mountaintop removal (MTR) in West Virginia and rails publicly against Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency taking stronger action to regulate and ban the practice.   Continue reading ‘King Coal’s Top Lobbyist to Meet Obama’

design: lizardelement.com

Environmental NGO’s have been uncritically thumping the green tech funding plank and they’re generating funding that could be harder to hold onto than a fistful of sand in the Iraqi oilfields.

There’s a coup underway in the environmental movement. But the golpistas (coup-makers) aren’t exactly the usual suspects. They’re not the consumer product manufacturers who co-opt our messaging and re-package the same old junk with green labels. The culprits are members of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). War profiteers are charging, guns-drawn, into the green tech sector and eyebrows should be raised. This is a hold-up!

The new gospel of “greening” the armed forces is drawing public money that makes domestic infrastructure handouts look like pennies in a fountain. “Green Jobs” means something else entirely to these folks.

Continue reading ‘Stop the Green Tech Coup, Military Industry on the Offensive’

Originally published by The Stanford Daily

One of the most powerful moments during last week’s State of the Union came when President Obama warned that while Washington stalls, other nations are moving quickly to dominate the global clean-energy industry.

“China is not waiting to revamp its economy,” Obama declared. “These nations aren’t playing for second place… They’re making serious investments in clean energy because they want those jobs. Well, I do not accept second place for the United States of America… The nation that leads the clean-energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation.”

Obama is right, and as always, his words were eloquent. Now his administration must get to work and advance a real strategy for global energy leadership.

The current proposals under consideration in Congress are far too weak. China, Japan and South Korea are launching massive, comprehensive clean-energy projects, investing a combined total of around $500 billion over the next five years. In contrast, the House-passed American Clean Energy & Security Act (ACESA), combined with the 2009 economic recovery package, poises the U.S. government to invest only $172 billion in this industry over the next five years, according to a recent report I co-authored with the Breakthrough Institute and Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.

That is hardly an effective strategy for energy leadership, and advocates should be careful about labeling the House and Senate climate bills as comprehensive solutions for U.S. clean-tech competitiveness.

Continue reading ‘A Critical Moment for Energy Leadership’

I wrote this the other day after I watched the State of the Union Address and wanted to share it with all of you. 2009 was a disappointing year in many ways, but we also accomplished a lot, and the President’s speech got me thinking. So here goes…

I’m running on empty. I’m exhausted. School plus my job plus the all of the environmental organizations I’m involved with equals something that’s probably not sustainable. But I’m going to keep working. Along with all of the rest of you amazing people, I’m going to keep making sure that my voice is heard.

Some (okay, many) of the things in the President’s address were disappointing. Coal and nuclear will never be clean sources of energy. But the fact that the President spoke about clean energy at all gives me hope. In his own words, he called for, “a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America.”

I’m going to go ahead and call that one a success. Continue reading ‘Response to the State of the Union Address’

Last October, John Kerry laid out the stakes in a call with over 300 youth climate leaders: a clean energy future is only possible if we — as a generation — make our voice heard.

In response, we launched the Organize to be Heard Challenge, and thousands of young people have stepped up, generating thousands of phone calls, handwritten letters and petitions demanding action on climate and clean energy.

Unfortunately, despite the overwhelming call for action, there is one roadblock where all progress stops: our broken U.S. Senate. The Senate needs to know we’re sick of leaders who fail to lead and tired of government which fails to govern. They need to know that we’re not idealistic, we’re angry.

Call your Senator and tell them to stop standing in the way of our clean energy future! Continue reading ‘It’s Time to Get Angry’

– Guest post by 1Sky New York City Climate Precinct Captain Emily A. Fano.

I’m tired of fat cat bureaucrats and politicians gambling away our survival. Aren’t you? Copenhagen was a let-down, despite an impressive and coordinated effort by the global climate action movement. The deals hammered out in the UN talks would let CO2 increase well above the 350 ppm – the magic number to avoid catastrophe. Not good.

That’s why I’m putting my money on kids to solve this thing. After all, their future is at stake; and they’ve been watching the adults in the room act like children, so they’ve figured it’s time to take charge! And I say thank goodness. Child-led climate movements and initiatives are springing up everywhere, including in schools.

My children’s public elementary school – PS 166 – is one of 124 schools in 21 states participating in the 4th annual Green Cup Challenge (GCC) – an inter-school energy conservation competition sponsored by the Green Schools Alliance. The GCC helps schools measure their buildings’ energy use and find ways to reduce it. According to an April 2007 report released by New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, buildings account for 79% of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. Most school buildings run on some combination of electricity, oil and natural gas. Continue reading ‘Put the kids in charge of climate’

Dear President Obama,

According to a report released by Environment America in November, the long process to build nuclear plants along with the carbon intensity of production will set us back in the fight against global warming.  The next 5-10 years are CRITICAL for the future of my generation and the planet that your daughters will inherit.  Bring the boldness of your campaign to Capitol Hill in Washington and tell the truth.

Tell the Senators in Congress and the American people that nuclear power is the wrong way to go.  Lets invest the $54 billion dollars in your budget in energy efficiency  - which will save American families money and save energy at the same time.

I hope, that if you didn’t get the report when it was released in November, that you take a look at it now.  It makes a clear argument as to why Nuclear is the wrong choice for America and the world.

Sincerely,

Gabriel Elsner

Ex-Director, Students for Barack Obama, UC Berkeley

P.S. We sent over 300 Berkeley students who believed in your message for a CLEAN energy economy to swing states to “get out the vote”-  and those young leaders need the leadership you showed during the campaign more than ever.

Crossposted from Funding Our Future, the Campus Progress blog promoting policy that provides economic opportunities for our generation.

Right after the State of the Union, young climate activists submitted a question about the President’s remarks on clean energy and crossed their fingers hoping that it would get asked. The smiling faces of Energy Action Coalition activists made it in the the intro screen as the YouTube announcer explained the format.

During the CitizenTube State of the Union Q & A discussion, President Obama severely dodged a question submitted by young activists about his support of dirty energy.

His answer is unwise, and deceitful. I hate to say this about the President that has done more to invest in a clean energy economy than anyone before him (not a hard accomplishment since W, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, and Carter were the only presidents in office since  clean energy became an issue), but young people are tired of being lied to by the White House and congress.

Continue reading ‘Deflecting Questions Is Not A Form Of Clean Energy’

Cross-posted from LeadEnergy.org

In a promising development for aspiring clean energy scientists, engineers, and technicians, the Obama administration’s 2011 budget request includes a proposal for the nation’s first comprehensive federal education initiative focused on the clean energy sector, called RE-ENERGYSE (Regaining our Energy Science and Engineering Edge).

The initiative was originally proposed by President Obama in his April 2009 speech to the National Academy of Sciences, which he said would inspire and train young Americans to “tackle the single most important challenge of their generation — the need to develop cheap, abundant, clean energy and accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy.”

If appropriated by Congress, RE-ENERGYSE will be coordinated by the Department of Energy (DOE) and National Science Foundation (NSF), beginning with an initial investment of $74 million in clean energy-related education at universities, community and technical colleges, and K-12 schools. This will include a new $50 million program within DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (see full proposal), a $5 million program in DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (see full proposal), and a $19 million program within NSF (see overview and fact sheet). A summary of each program is included below. DOE’s well-known Solar Decathlon is also proposed to become part of RE-ENERGYSE in FY2011.

Continue reading ‘RE-ENERGYSE America: Obama’s proposal for clean-energy education’