It\’s Getting Hot In Here

By 1Sky blogger Nick Santos. See Nick’s bio at the end of this post. – Alex

It should come as no surprise to the readers of this blog that education is a cornerstone of building a movement and, ultimately, getting strong action taken on an issue like climate change. Educating decision makers is extremely important, but with so much disinformation flying around, we also need to ensure that voters understand the problem more than adequately as well so they can hold their decision-makers accountable.

It seems that we lack that understanding though. A full 52 percent of Americans would flunk a (admittedly difficult) test on climate change. The full study from Yale also reveals that only one percent of Americans would receive an A. And climate change won’t curve the test, I promise you. The full study, with an excellent executive summary, is worth looking over.

Some of the more interesting nuggets for me, as someone whose day job is climate change education (and who wants to see Congress address the issue immediately, or better yet, yesterday), involve our concept of what causes global warming. While 66% of Americans understand the greenhouse effect in concept, only 45% seem to understand that carbon dioxide traps heat. To  me, that’s a major problem that a full majority of the United States doesn’t understand the mechanism by which the Earth is warming. In fact, majorities of Americans believe that almost every other atmospheric problem we have, from the hole in the ozone layer to acid rain and aerosols (and, interestingly, the space program), causes global warming. Continue reading ‘America flunks Climate 101′

By 1Sky blogger Nick Santos.

By now, most of you have probably heard the double dose of bad news coming out of the Senate (It seems like political bad news too frequently comes from there). Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has indefinitely delayed action on a climate bill and is still talking of scheduling floor time for Senator Rockefeller’s (D-WV) reprise of Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) Dirty Air Act.

There’s a lot of implications to both of those actions, and I’m now beyond frustrated with the Senate, so let’s step through why this extra delay from the Senate is absolutely dangerous for public health and welfare.

Continue reading ‘They’re coming for the Clean Air Act — again’

Nick Santos was formerly a policy fellow with 1Sky and now heads up consumer information group The Environmental Consumer in California. The author’s opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the 1Sky campaign.– Alex

We’re a month into the biggest oil spill in decades with no signs ahead of true abatement, cleanup, or even admission of guilt from the involved parties. This spill involves three main categories of problems to solve — technological, social, and governmental — in order to clean up this mess and prevent future ones like it.

The technological problem currently captures most of the attention as efforts like the failed containment dome, the “junk shot“, the cleanup dream team, and even centrifuges are attempted or advocated. Meanwhile, BP has been championing its success with the Riser Insertion Tube which is currently siphoning off 2,000 gallons a day (of a low end estimate of 200,000). The technological problem only captures the short term difficulties though. Unlike the technological problem, we may be solving the social problems of this spill for decades. There is talk of an entire generation of industry being lost on the Gulf Coast with around 100,000 jobs at risk from this spill. Continue reading ‘The best oil spill cleanup tool: political will’

Cross-posted from the 1Sky Skywriter blog

Have you ever heard that the best way to reach someone is through their personal network? This is the principle behind sharing blog posts and videos via email, Facebook, and other social networks. Clicking a button is an easy way to share with your friends, but a more effective way is directly face-to-face; of course, face-to-face doesn’t have to mean “in their face.”

On Tuesday night, I joined much of America in watching the final season premiere of Lost. Thankfully I chose my roommates well last year, as evidenced by them wanting to watch with me. As we sat together in the living room, we were distracted during each commercial break by the steady snowfall outside our window.

A discussion began about how Washington, D.C. has been getting an unusual amount of snow this winter. Without really thinking, I uttered emphatically, “global warming.” Continue reading ‘Finding little moments for climate ed’

– 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’