The Climate Minute

The Climate Minute - Marching Through History

This week Ted flies solo without Rob, and not from the Pink and Orange coffeehouse, but has all the latest news and views on Climate Change nonetheless. 

For the latest statement from the American Geophysical Union about human-casued climate change, go here.  Ted also reads the statement at the end of the podcast. 

One of our favorite podcasters, Tom Bowman, has a good interview with Chris Hope and Peter Wadhams, an economist and oceanographer respectively, about the possiblity of massive methane release over the next 10-15 years and the consequences of that potentiality. 

The scariest part of the conversation is the idea that this tipping point may already be passed and there's not much we can do about it at this point. Another of our recent new listens, The Energy Gang over at Greentech Media, discussed "Gaslands 2" and spoke with a reporter who has been following what has been happening on the ground (and beneath) in Pennsylvania.  They also discussed the role of the US Department of State in exporting support of fracking overseas. 

One of Ted's favorite themes is the role of art in helping mankind understand how to think about human events. The Civil War, westward migration, Cold war all gave us art.  A few weeks ago we discussed the question of whether art responds to demand ( think social protest music) or the artist educates her audience. At any rate, here's a good article about a recent spate of storm and weather inspired music. 

There's also a good piece from Alex Ross, The New Yorker's music critic about John Luther Adam's 42-minute orchestral work Become Ocean, which is the latest of his “climate pieces.” Given its premiere on June 20 by the Seattle Symphony, the work is prefaced with the words: “As the polar ice melts and sea level rises, we humans find ourselves facing the prospect that once again we may quite literally become ocean.” 

“We now see lightning and thunder in December, and we’ve seen winter come a full month later than usual, and spring arrive a full month earlier,” Adams said. “We hear red-winged blackbirds in the little marsh below our house, and that has never been a bird present in interior Alaska.” 

In a similar vein, there's been some interesting writing lately on how to approach climate psychology.  Many feel the most effective method is to create a positive narrative - not just inundate the target audience with facts and figures, but create "accessible narratives" that reinforce mankind's place within nature as a part of the whole web of creation. Which is quite a heavy thought if you haven't had your morning coffee yet... The idea is to create methods of reaction to climate change that do not lead to despair and burnout.  Psychology Tomorrow (yup, that's right) has more on that here. For much more on this discussion be sure to check out the podcast.

Well, the next big climate action in New England is the Energy Exodus, a march from coal to renewable power (from Brayton Point to Cape Wind) starting on August 28th.  On that morning On August 28, 2013, a large group of New Englanders will converge in Fall River, MA, near the largest coal-fired plant in the region. There they will begin a 6-day march to Barnstable, MA, the seat of opposition to Cape Wind, the nation’s first off-shore wind project. 

This historic event will dramatize the urgency with which we must turn away from fossil fuels and march toward a future full of sustainable jobs, clean air, healthy communities, and local, renewable energy. Along the way we will rally, sing, learn, hatch new plans, and make new friends. And by the end of our journey, we will have gained so much more than 70 miles; we will have built our movement stronger than it’s ever been before, and will have shown the way to the safe clean energy future that we so desperately need to ensure a liveable climate. 

Marches have a long history of being part of protest movements.  Ted talks about several historical marches, here's the cites so you can read more yourself: 

1894, Coxey's Army: marched from Ohio to Washington, getting themselves arrested on the lawn of the US Capitol.  They were calling for increased public employment through public works projects. 

The Suffrage Hikes, 1912 - 1914.  In the two more notable marches, suffragettes marched from New York City to Albany (1912) and New York City to Washington DC (1913). 

January 1932, "Cox's Army," from Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C.  Up to 25,000 unemployed people marched to the Capitol calling for increased public works to alleviate unemployment, as well as an increase in the inheritance tax up to 70%.  It was the largest demonstration in Washington DC up to that date.  (Later that year the Bonus Army of 43,000 marched on the Capitol -- and got themselves rousted by General Douglas McArthur...) 

And as we've mention before, Gandhi led the "Salt March" across India in 1930 sparking a movement of non-violent civil disobedience that was a milestone of Indian independence. 

(Interestingly, the Salt March was an action in direct opposition to British laws that granted the government a monopoly on salt which required Indians to buy salt only from the government -- as opposed to just making their own by evaporation, as they had been for years... What is it about the British and their stupid monopolies on basic necessities -- you would have thought they'd have learned something after that little incident with the tea in Boston in 1750...) 

 And of course the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 were a crucial point in this country's civil right journey.The route is memorialized as the Selma To Montgomery Voting Rights Trail, and is a U.S. National Historic Trail. 

Listen to archive editions on the podcast page, or subscribe to us on iTunes, or find us on Stitcher. 

As always, it’s been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email.  You can even follow us on twitter @MassClimate, so there are lots of ways for you to listen and participate in the dialog. 

 Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. 

When you are on the website, please contribute to MCAN. Every dollar you give will be doubled by a generous supporter.

You can find us on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/MassClimateAction where you can listen to our show just be clicking on the icon. Please like our page AND like our show. This lets your friends know about us. You can even follow us on twitter @MassClimate , so there are lots of ways for you to listen and participate in the dialog.

So we will close the way we always close, by saying that because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions,  because we accept responsibility for building a durable future and because we believe it is a patriotic duty as citizens, we insist that  the US put a price on carbon. 

Good bye and see you next week…

The Climate Minute - Showdown in Somerset

Hi, and welcome to the Climate Minute; news and reflections on climate change and climate change action from a Massachusetts viewpoint.  Quite a week for the climate conscious in New England!

Last Sunday the groups Better Future Project and 350Massachusetts. organized a march on Somerset's Brayton Point coal power plant.  About 400 people showed their support for clean energy and desire to have this coal plant, one of the last three still running in Massachusetts, closed down.

We did a roundup of the news coverage of the march here, including  a number of YouTube videos of the march and interviews with participants found by the intrepid DR Tucker.  Wen Stephenson also had a good piece on The Nation's blog.

One issue that did provide some degree of amusement was the changing position of the Fall River Herald, which went from publishing rather romantic pictures of riot-gear clad police ready for the inevitable violence of the protest, to publishing a tut-tutting editorial accusing the police chief of over-reacting and his "excessive and expensive" response.

On the one hand, the paper is absolutely correct.  The organizers of the protest had been in close communication with the community and were very explicit about the actions that were going to happen that day, and that there was not going to be any violence.  The folks volunteering to get arrested all went through training on how to appropriately act, and many of the protesters were people in their 60's and 70's -- hardly the "WTO meeting in Seattle" types throwing Molotov cocktails...

That being said, had something gone wrong and a police officer or a protester had been hurt, the paper would have had the chief's hide for not taking the protests seriously enough.  The lesson here is that these days many public officials are in distinctly no-win positions, and a little understanding of the situation they're facing goes a long way.  That and: if a police department has access to $30,000 in drug forfeiture money and they have the opportunity they're going to spend it on frightening-looking equipment...

(This is a pretty interesting issue, the "militarization of the police," and not a topic for this blog, but take a look here for more on it.)

Well, the event at Brayton was just part of a series of protests and actions set for this summer across the country called Summer Heat.  Summer Heat is sponsored by the national 350.org group and includes actions from coast to coast.  The next big one in Massachusetts will be the Energy Exodus march from coal (Brayton) to wind (the shores of Cape Cod).

The march will start on August 28th and go through the weekend to September 2nd and will cover about 60 miles across southcoast Massachusetts.  Walkers will be doing 10-12 miles a day, with stops along the way.  For more info and to sign-up go to their website here.

Here are some links to other things we talked about this week:

For our roundup of the natural gas leaks report issued this week, as well as a rant about gas flaring (also known as lighting money on fire while screwing with the climate), go to our post here.

The letter from four previous Republican heads of the EPA calling for action on climate change was in the New York Times here.

The book "The Attacking Ocean" was discussed in the "Writer's Voice" podcast here.

Your congressperson is about to be on recess (August 5th).  Why don't you give them a buzz and see where they're going to be holding office hours so you can go and tell them just how important climate change is -- and that they should join Rep. Waxman's Safe Climate Caucus.  You can look up your congressman here.

Read more about the offshore wind auctions or listen to NPR's podcast here.

Finally, for the point of view of a NASA Space Shuttle booster rocket, check out this story on the Daily Mail.

Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do.

As always, it’s been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email.  You can even follow us on twitter @MassClimate , so there are lots of ways for you to listen and participate in the dialog.

When you are on the website, please contribute to MCAN. Every dollar you give will be doubled by a generous supporter.

So we will close the way we always close, by saying that because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions,  because we accept responsibility for building a durable future, and because we believe it is a patriotic duty as citizens, we insist that the US put a price on carbon. Good bye and see you next week!

The Climate Minute - Two (and more) for the road, Arctic Icemelt, and -news flash- fossil fuels leak

Welcome to this week's edition of the Climate Minute.  The heat finally broke last weekend and it's been much cooler this week here in New England: last night felt almost like October!  (Of course, after last week getting back to the '80s would cause you to break out the windbreaker...)

This week we're at the Pink and Orange coffee house reflecting on transportation, arctic sea ice, and more examples of the folly of fossil fuels.

Ted's a little concerned about his "epistomoligical bubbe" in other words (that a political science major like Rob can understand), he's a little concerned that he's getting all his news from the same place.

(UPDATE: Ted sent me some additional links that talk about the "epistomological bubbles."  New Republic, Bigthink, and Rachel Maddow.  Enjoy!)

So to try and widen his windows Ted's been heavy on Twitter following the #climate hashtag.  This week he noticed a whole slew of action about Arctic ice and the Arctic ice minimum.

In particular there was a post in a blog from New Zealand commenting about a new paper connecting Arctic sea temperatures and land temperatures in the arctic circle which raises the frightening prospect of permafrost melting and the abundant amounts of methane which would be released by that.  Here's another article which suggests the cost of this melting could run into the trillions.

The free-wheeling democratic nature of twitter has led to some unexpected finds as well...  If you read the blog you know that earlier this week Ted took NECN meteorologist Tim Kelley for his apparent confusion about "settled science," the physics "standard model" and climate change.  You can read more about that here.

For more about the water impact of coal and nuclear power production, listen to this podcast Ted found, "The Energy Gang," which did their July 18th episode on how water considerations impact energy development.  You should also check out UCS' analysis here. Energy.gov has an interesting interactive page showing a number of climate change related impacts for energy development.

In tar sands news, new analysis suggests that the oil coming through the pipeline is up to four times more carbon intense than the State Department SEIS suggests.

Here's the story on the ongoing (secret!) leak of tar sands in Alberta.  In short, some 30,000 barrels of bitumen and bitumen / water mix have seeped to the surface and impacted acres of boreal forest.  Speaking of leaking fossil fuels, there was yet another rig in the Gulf had an accident and lit the ocean afire...

Tesla is poised to become an rousing success story, and signals the "norming" of electric vehicles.  We talked about how the first real successful hybrid, the Prius, was designed to look markedly different from "normal" cars, and Chevy Volt and the Tesla S show the market is maturing and moving beyond the early adopter community.  Here's a Freakonomics article and podcast about what they call "conspicuous conservation," or the early adopter desire to look different and send social messages.

In big local news, new EPA Administrator (FINALLY) will be coming to Boston to speak at Harvard Law School.  The speech is open to the public, registration required, or you can watch it live.  Go here for more information.

Finally, here's our little blue dot in the wide vast universe: so small in the grand scheme of things, but really, the only planet we have (for the moment!).  Photo courtesy of the Cassini spacecraft, currently hanging around Saturn.

For more information about 350MA's program of "Summer Heat" focused on the Brayton Point coal plant, check out their site here.

Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do.

As always, it’s been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email.  You can even follow us on twitter @MassClimate , so there are lots of ways for you to listen and participate in the dialog.

When you are on the website, please contribute to MCAN. Every dollar you give will be doubled by a generous supporter.

So we will close the way we always close, by saying that because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions,  because we accept responsibility for building a durable future, and because we believe it is a patriotic duty as citizens, we insist that the US put a price on carbon. Good bye and see you next week!

The Climate Minute - Way to go, homeslice!

Welcome to this week's edition of the Climate Minute.  This week Ted and Rob talk about hometown hero Gina McCarthy's confirmation as EPA administrator, the spectacular heat we're experiencing in Massachusetts and how it might just be a tease for things to come, and our usual potpurri of climate news and views. 

Regular listeners will know we're huge fans of new EPA administrator Gina McCarthy.  Rob had the distinct pleasure of working with her twice in state government and has no shortage of admiration for her talent and drive. 

Gina was finally confirmed by the Senate yesterday in a bi-partisan 59-40 vote.  You can read Washington watching blog The Hill's coverage here.  If you're not familiar with Gina, check out this sampling of what some pro-McCarthy business and organizational leaders had to say about Gina on a website which was produced to support her nomination. 

We spoke abafe Climate Caucus" put together by California Representative Henry Waxman.  At this moment there are no Massachusetts members of congress on it, perhaps you should contact your Representative and ask them to them join?

The coal industry has finally caught on to something we've known for ages: we're winning.  Mother Jones recently obtained a copy of slides used during a webinar this spring where industry leaders discussed the "strength of the environmental narrative" and the community's ability to "drive national attention." 

We spoke about the heat, and how these sort of temperatures could become the norm in New England.  Several years ago the Union of Concerned Scientists did a report called the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment which highlighted likely outcomes under high and low emissions scenarios.  The long and short of it is: get ready for more of this.  Even under the low emissions scenario, New England is projected to have 6 days a year over 100 degrees -- as opposed to the historical average of one day per year.  You can check out the summary of the Massachusetts report here. 

Climate Central did a piece about 90 degree days in Boston a couple of years ago, and likewise took a look in their crystal ball to see what 2050 might be like.  You can read it here, if you dare...  Might just be too depressing... 

For some background on our chat about conservative support for carbon taxes, check out this piece.  And the story about the local Tea Party supporting renewable energy in George is here.  Finally, here's the story about a current congressional aide who makes the case for conservatives to be on top of climate and clean energy -- but has to stay anonymous given the atmosphere in his party. 

For more information about 350MA's program of "Summer Heat" focused on the Brayton Point coal plant, check out their site here. 

 Finally, what would the temperature record over the last 130 years sound like?  Read more about this here.  Here's our temperature record, as interpreted by cello:

   

Sounds pretty ominous right there at the end, no? 

Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. As always, it’s been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you.  

You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email.  You can even follow us on twitter @MassClimate , so there are lots of ways for you to listen and participate in the dialog. When you are on the website, please contribute to MCAN. Every dollar you give will be doubled by a generous supporter

.  

So we will close the way we always close, by saying that because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions,  because we accept responsibility for building a durable future, and because we believe it is a patriotic duty as citizens, we insist that the US put a price on carbon. Good bye and see you next week!

The Climate Minute - Seven Score and Ten Years Ago...

With an end of the current weather pattern of crushing tropical heat in sight, at least for the day, things are good.  (Have no fear, the 90s return next week.) So, does the title give it away?  This is indeed the 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg, which has become thought of as the turning point in the Civil War. Lincoln at Gettysburg[/caption] We start our podcast today a reading of the Gettysburg Address, those simple and elegant two minutes, with a reading by “friend of the show” Tony Berg, a Thoreau enthusiast who does a great job with Lincoln’s words.  Thanks Tony, and thanks to Pamela McIntyre who ends this podcast with a bit of “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” We bring this up, not only because we're focused on the "arc of history" around here, but also because recently University of Arizona professor Jonathan Overpeck sent out a tweet suggesting that President Lincoln would have been a leader on climate change, as climate change is "the moral issue of our time," as slavery was of his. Well, as expected, the conservative blogocracy went a little nuts.  (Click here if you don't mind big 1/4 page ads for Glen Beck, or here, or here.) But, turning down the hyperbole a bit, there are some parallels to be drawn here.  Jon Clark, the Citizen Climate Lobby (the folks supporting a carbon tax ballot question in Massachusetts) wrote an interesting op-ed comparing the apologists of slavery who based their support of the practice as the only way the South was economically viable to those who talk about the great expense of moving off fossil fuels today. Ted Glick, who is much less impressed with the program President Obama laid out in his June 25^th speech, has suggested that this could be his evolutionary moment; as Lincoln evolved from prosecuting the Civil War primarily to save the Union to realizing ending the stain of slavery had to be the objective of the war, the President must evolve from what Glick calls “Obama’s Instrumentalism” to true and decisive action on climate. John Sterman has a thoughtful piece in ClimateProgress also trying to take lessons learned during the Civil War and apply them to the current Climate Crisis.  He discusses the tension between mitigation and adaptation, and the temptation for many to focus on adaptation, which is “easier” than mitigation, while mitigation – eliminating the human impact on the climate – is the only effective lasting and moral course.  He acknowledges the difficulty the fundamental shift in our society which would be necessary to properly mitigate climate change but cites the abolitionist movement as an inspiration.  From a very small number of absolutist advocates, the anti-slavery movement eventually became the dominant sentiment. (I love this piece in particular because he calls sea walls “the Maginot line of climate change,” which as we discuss in the podcast is an apt description for more than one reason.) In other news, it appears leading Senate Republicans have dropped their threats to filibuster Gina McCarthy’s nomination to lead the EPA, which is a cause for all thinking climate activists to celebrate.  It looks like Tuesday could be the day. We also speak briefly of the tragedy of Lac Megantic Quebec, you can read more up-to-date news about it here.  Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the dozens of dead and injured. I mentioned in the podcast “outside section 36” of the state budget, which would divert Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative funds from the energy efficiency and renewable energy purposes they were intended to reduce the impact on a certain host community of a certain coal power plant which could be closing in the near future.  Since we recorded this podcast, Governor Patrick sent Section 36 back to the legislature with amendments making it much more palatable.  When we find a news story about that issue we’ll post it. Last week the nine candidates for Mayor of Boston took part in a forum sponsored by a consortium of environmental groups (including MCAN).  Contested Mayoral elections don’t come around too often in Boston, so your choice is very important.  Here’s the video

Mayoral Forum from Ken Pruitt on Vimeo.

As for upcoming events; There’s Boston’s first “depaving party” in Jamaica Plain tomorrow.  Go here for more information.

At the end of August, 350ma.org is holding a march from Somerset to the Cape called the Energy Exodus, you can read more about it here.

Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. As always, it's been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email.  You can even follow us on twitter @MassClimate , so there are lots of ways for you to listen and participate in the dialog. When you are on the website, please contribute to MCAN. Every dollar you give will be doubled by a generous backer.  We're at the halfway point in our fiscal year and need help to be able to enter the second half of the year on a strong footing! So we will close the way we always close, by saying that because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions,  because we accept responsibility for building a durable future and because we believe it is a patriotic duty as citizens, we insist that the US put a price on carbon. Good bye and see you next week…

The Climate Minute - Happy Birthday America, and, hey, us too!

We hope everyone had a great day celebrating the 236th anniversary of the signing of Declaration of Independence.  This week also marks another anniversary/birthday, but we'll get into that later.   With Ted on vacation on the coast we met up at a different Pink and Orange Coffeehouse, this time dining and podcasting "al fresco," so enjoy the street sounds... or more accurately, the tractor-trailer braking sounds. Here's some quick links to the stuff we talked about today: Well, yesterday was the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  If you haven't read it in a while it's worth it to give it a read.  Don't cheat yourself'; dig into those descriptions of the acts of perfidy laid at the feet of the King.  Although try not to reflect too much on if any of the litany of complaints against the kind are relevant still today:

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

Hmm... Anybody want to talk about the growth of the Department of Homeland Security... Anyway, the Declaration sets about some very high ideals at the founding of this nation never quite expressed the same way before. Ted's very interested in Jefferson's core belief in "usufruct" which is an idea of the common ownership we all have in the planet -- and our responsibility to pass down to future generations a planet as healthy and bountiful as the one we were given.  Well, we're putting words in Jefferson's mouth here a bit, he was using the concept of usufruct to argue with Madison about the need to assure there was not the development of a new aristocracy the United States.  For a more indepth discussion of the concept and Jefferson's views on inter-generational responsibility, check out this, or ClimateProgress' take here. As to other anniversaries, it was one year ago that a fledgling little five-minute, forty-two second recording showed up on our blog here, basically giving a list of things to do from our MCAN Calendar. Since that auspicious beginning we've had our fits and starts' like missing several weeks with technological blow-ups, our first "remote" with Ted recording at the Vigil against Climate Silence last fall, and even our own theme music.  We've had a great time learning about podcasting and developing the "program," and we hope you've enjoyed listening. If you'd like to go back check out some old episodes, check out the category page here.  Or you can find our more recent recordings (since we began using Soundcloud) on our special podcast page. So again, thanks for listening, and [message from our sponsors] please consider donating if you're interested in helping support our continued efforts. [end message from sponsors] Here are more links delving deeper on some of the things we talked about today: For the discussion of the President's climate plan on WBUR, go here.  For the Diane Rehm Show episode discussing Keystone with Michale Brune of the Sierra Club, Coral Davenport of the National Journal, and Heritage Foundation analyst Nicholas Loris, go here. You can read an interesting discussion of the jet stream and its impact on local weather patterns on Dr. Jeff Master's (of WeatherUnderground) blog here.  Of course just how much of the jet stream's alterations are due to climate change is up for discussion, but more data becoming available makes it clear that warming is occurring, and accelerating.  According to the UN, land and ocean temperatures rose faster and higher in the 2001-2010 decade than in any other decade on record. For our take on the Fox25 Mark Ockerbloom story on Keystone (and how a little judicisous use of google could have improved it enormously), check out our blogpost from earlier in the week here. Congratulations to 350ma for their very successful People's Action Assembly in Worcester this weekend.  We look forward to working together on a great year of activism. So, if you're back from the beach, here are a couple of things to keep you occupied next week: The Boston Mayoral Candidate's Environmental Forum will take place on July 9th at Suffolk Law School.  The event might be "sold out" by now, but you can check out our calendar note here. Also on July 9th the Committee for Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy will be hearing H. 2741, "An Act further promoting energy efficiency and green jobs," which will create an oil heat efficiency program in Massachusetts.  Learn more about the bill here, or listen to our Climate Hawk Companion edition about it here. Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. As always, it's been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email.  You can even follow us on twitter @MassClimate , so there are lots of ways for you to listen and participate in the dialog. When you are on the website, please contribute to MCAN. Every dollar you give will be doubled by a generous backer.  We're at the halfway point in our fiscal year and need help to be able to enter the second half of the year on a strong footing! So we will close the way we always close, by saying that because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions,  because we accept responsibility for building a durable future and because we believe it is a patriotic duty as citizens, we insist that the US put a price on carbon. Good bye and see you next week…

The Climate Minute - Presidential Plans, Carbon Taxes, and Climate Hawks Celebrate a new US Senator

What a week! From Presidential climate pronouncements (yay!) to Supreme Court rulings (yay/boo), to tragic deaths and a local sport's figure's horrible unravelling...  It's been quite a week. Today we spend most of the podcast talking about the President's speech on Tuesday.  You can find our initial take on it here (along with a video of the speech), but a little more time has given us a little more perspective. Overall, it's "good stuff."  It is visionary, but in many ways still an outline, a picture in coloring book. We must fill it in. So...  will the speech help shift the "Overton Window" and put climate change back in the mainstream dialog -- Dave Roberts thinks so. And again, here's Dave Roberts on the Administration's coal proposals. In addition to the President's intention to cut off the financing of most overseas coal plants, the World Bank announced this week they will be halting support of most coal power projects. One of the more intriguing, and debated, sections of the speech was his treatment of Keystone XL.

Allowing the Keystone pipeline to be built requires a finding that doing so would be in our nation’s interest. And our national interest will be served only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution. (Applause.) The net effects of the pipeline’s impact on our climate will be absolutely critical to determining whether this project is allowed to go forward.

Bloomberg joined many in suggesting that these comments are a form of ink blot test -- you see what you want to see.  Either they provide a path for Keystone approval, or an absolutely insurpassable obstacle... In other news, original Climate Hawk Ed Markey was elected to the US Senate from Massachusetts. And while we're talking home state news, Massachusetts could become the first state in the nation to impose a statewide carbon tax, should the folks at The Committee for a Green Economy, who are pushing for a carbon tax ballot question. The Committee is led by Gary Rucinski, who we interviewed for a Climate Hawk's Companion piece last year. Stuff to do: For more about the 350Massachusetts "People's Action Assembly on the Climate Crisis" on Sunday, June 30th in Worcester, check out their page here. For more about the Boston Mayoral Candidate's Environmental Forum on July 9th at Suffolk Law School check out our calendar note here. Also on July 9th the Committee for Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy will be hearing H. 2741, "An Act further promoting energy efficiency and green jobs," which will create an oil heat efficiency program in Massachusetts.  Learn more about the bill here, or listen to our Climate Hawk Companion edition about it here. Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. As always, it's been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email.  You can even follow us on twitter @MassClimate , so there are lots of ways for you to listen and participate in the dialog. When you are on the website, please contribute to MCAN. Every dollar you give will be doubled by a generous backer.  We're at the halfway point in our fiscal year and need help to be able to enter the second half of the year on a strong footing! So we will close the way we always close, by saying that because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions,  because we accept responsibility for building a durable future and because we believe it is a patriotic duty as citizens, we insist that the US put a price on carbon. Good bye and see you next week…

The Climate Minute - the Longest Day

Today is June 21, 2013, the summer solstice, the day of the year with the longest sunshine period. Here in Boston, the sun rose at 5:08AM and will set at 8:25PM, giving us 15hours, 17min and 5 seconds of daylight. It is literally a planetary event, and is one of the opportunities we are given to recognize our place in the cosmos. Thanks to Pamela Bongas McIntyre for the musical interlude.  More at end of the podcast. So, the Summer Solstice is upon us.  Solstice is derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), which the sun seems to do on this long day.  For more on the Solstice go here.  This is an opportunity to reflect on where we fit in and how the universe works… the big question is: Why do humans so resonate with this day/occurrence, even if it is little recognized? Well, ancient peoples were certainly connected to astronomical events like the Solstice.  Stonehenge, for example, is aligned so that the summer solstice comes through the arches…

For more on the various ways different cultures celebrate the solstice, or midsummer, go here. So let's kick off this week's link-a-thon with a little bit of Shakespeare:

"Oh what fools these mortals be."  Sadly apt when you think about the damage we've done to our climate and continue to do every day.

There's been a lot of chatter this week about the President kicking off a new round of climate action in July, possibly including new powerplant rules.  One very interesting issue will be how he will handle the Keystone approval.   Mounting events makes Keystone a harder and harder pill to swallow and make the State Department's draft EIS finding of no adverse environmental impact look more and more silly.  Take for example the drilling wastewater spill that the Canadian government kept under wraps for 11 days while it spilled 2.5 million gallons of wastewater.  The pipeline rupture, which actually may have occurred over the winter but was just noticed in early June, was in a pipeline only five years old. In good news, Energy Secretary Ernest Monitz chose Union of Concerned Scientist President Kevin Knobloch as his chief of staff this week.  As we wrote yesterday, we think Knobloch is an excellent pick and is another example of the Commonwealth's increasing influence on climate change leadership in Washington. Internationally, the Chinese city of Shenzhen kicked off a cap and trade system this week aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  Shenzhen, which is in a Chinese "special economic zone" (read proto-free market area) joins six other pilot city-based cap and trade programs as the country attempts to meet its commitment to reduce their carbon emissions to 40-45% below 2005 levels by 2020.  Interestingly they will be getting help from the California Air Resources Board. Apparently there will be a hearing on several carbon tax / climate bills this summer in Washington DC.  From Greenwire:

At a briefing with reporters, the California Democrat (Barbara Boxer) said the committee will hold a hearing on climate change next month as part of an effort to move forward on a bill that could potentially put a fee on carbon. Boxer said the committee will hold a hearing in July on climate change that will in part consider a bill she sponsored with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to levy a fee on large fossil fuels facilities, with 40 percent of the proceeds going to energy efficiency, renewable energy and deficit reduction

Meanwhile in New England, the recent RGGI auction showed our cap and trade system is alive, well, and producing benefits for all of New England.  And finally, since everyone else in the world is talking about Edward Snowden, we give a little thought to why Snowden's revelations of the "enhanced surveillance" techniques of the American intelligence community might get climate activist a little on edge.  Heck, the folks at Transcanda  already go around equating Keystone protesters with terrorists.  Check out their Powerpoint (when the history of our times it written it will be on three-bullet slides).  Not to be outdone, the Feds are apparently taking a larger interest in the potential intersection of social upheaval and climate change activism. It's enough to get anyone a little paranoid.  Made Ted think of an old song:

Must be because I had the flu for Christmas And I'm not feelin' up to par.  It increases my paranoia Like lookin' at my mirror and seein' a lit up police car.  But I'm not givin' in an inch to fear I promised myself this year.  I feel like I owe it to someone.

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; "Almost Cut My Hair"

(Personally my paranoia go-to song is "For What it's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield, each to his own.) We closed out the podcast with the full mantra from Pamela, make sure you hang on and give it a listen.  Learn more about chanting and mediation here. Stuff to do: For more about the 350Massachusetts "People's Action Assembly on the Climate Crisis" on Sunday, June 30th in Worcester, check out their Facebook page here. For more about the Boston Mayoral Candidate's Environmental Forum on July 9th at Suffolk Law School check out our calendar note here. Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. As always, it's been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email.  You can even follow us on twitter @MassClimate , so there are lots of ways for you to listen and participate in the dialog. When you are on the website, please contribute to MCAN. Every dollar you give will be doubled by a generous backer.  We're at the halfway point in our fiscal year and need help to be able to enter the second half of the year on a strong footing! So we will close the way we always close, by saying that because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions,  because we accept responsibility for building a durable future and because we believe it is a patriotic duty as citizens, we insist that the US put a price on carbon. Good bye and see you next week…

The Climate Minute - Leadership needed, apply within...

President Obama was in town this week stumping for local US Senate candidate Congressman Ed Markey, a climate stalwart in the House.  The President was met by a number of Keystone XL protesters, which has gotten Ted and Rob thinking about the President's leadership on climate change, among other things.  For more to read about that issue, and the other stuff we talked about, check out the links below. With the President in his second term and free from future elections many were hoping he would use his political capital to aggressively address climate change.  His lack of action over Keystone however, has some folks worried.  Here's ThinkProgress' take.  Al Gore has joined the growing number asking that the president move beyond rhetoric to action. The President needs to lead, and not hide from bullying insults like “job-killing regulations”. It is too late in his tenure to fool around… In an interesting twist, some 1.5 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions can be traced to fossil fuels extracted from federally leased public lands!  Forget the tar sands, US public lands are responsible for some 42% of all the coal produced in the United States.  Seems like a good place to start reductions... On the plus side, the administration recently began using a higher "Social Cost of carbon" calculation when determining the cost effectiveness of new projects and regulations. Why does it matter? Because the U.S. government uses it to assess the costs and benefits of regulatory action. The higher the social cost of carbon, the more action can be economically justified.  We discussed this this earlier this week, wondering why the administration would choose to do this pretty much below the radar screen. In Keystone news, a new Goldman Sachs report finds that without Keystone XL, lower tar sands prices and higher transport costs will result in the cancellation or deferment of tar sands expansion projects.  This again highlights how the State Department's analysis was flawed and argues against allowing the pipeline. Also this week the International Energy Agency released a report detailing CO2 emissions from power production in 2013, and their findings sound yet another alarm. Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA, and one of the world's most respected energy experts, told the Guardian that greenhouse gas emissions were continuing to rise so fast that pinning hopes on a replacement for the Kyoto protocol would set the world on a path to 5C of warming, which would be catastrophic. The IEA has calculated that making clean energy investments sooner would be cheaper than leaving them until after 2020. About $1.5 trillion should be spent before 2020 to meet climate targets, it found, but if the investments are left until after 2020 it will take $5tn to achieve the same results. Unfortunately the Boston Globe thought the story didn't rate the first page, so Ted sent in a letter.  Read our blog post about it here. Remember, were here for coherent and sustained coverage..we try to provide some kind of connection between the various events…sort of like the Sports or Business page or Ideas section of Globe! Along those lines, we recommend Chris Mooney's "Point of Inquiry" program.  Here are a couple of interesting issues, "environmental moderate" who laud fracking and Keystone,  Michael Levi, and our favorite Bill McKibben. For more about organic farming as geo-engineering, check out this Grist piece.  And here's the PBS NewsHour series on food we discussed on the podcast. As Ted talked about, he's got a serious mancrush on Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.  The Senator's been making almost weekly floor speeches regarding climate change.  Here's one from last month.  For all of the Senator's work on climate change, check out his site here. Finally, we contemplated Robert F. Kennedy's words on the nature of human happiness.  For a discussion of his speech, and snippets of audio, check out this Climateprogess piece.   RFK was assassinated 45 years ago last week, but while his references are a little dated it is sadly easy to insert new ones...

Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product – if we judge the United States of America by that – that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.

Dr. Halina Brown of Clark University sounded a similar theme in her speech at MCAN's conference in Worcester in 2010.  Part 1 of her speech is here on YouTube. Stuff to do: For more about the 350Massachusetts "People's Action Assembly on the Climate Crisis" on Sunday, June 30th in Worcester, check out their Facebook page here. For more about the Boston Mayoral Candidate's Environmental Forum on July 9th at Suffolk Law School check out our calendar note here. As always, it's been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email. You can donate and support the Climate Minute and all of MCAN's other climate change fighting activities by hitting that "donate now" button, or going to www.massclimateaction.net/donate. Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. As always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon. 

The Climate Minute - What does Northern Gateway mean for Keystone?

Is the government of British Columbia signalling its opposition to the Northern Gateway pipeline the beginning of the end for Keystone?  All this and more in this week's edition of the Climate Minute. Good morning and welcome to the MCAN Climate Minute.  Ted and Rob are coming to you (relatively live) from the Pink and Orange coffeehouse talking about items from Keystone to divestment to The Fugitive... rather, fugitive emissions, and whether we get all our news the echo chamber of pro-climate news sites. Here are your weekly links, and thanks for tuning in! The Government of British Columbia announced its opposition to the Northern Gateway pipeline proposed by Enbridge which would have brought tar sands west over the Canadian Rockies. What does this mean?  Well, it makes it much harder for tar sands to go west, and makes our comment:

The State Department DSEIS “passed” the pipeline in part on the basis that the tar sands would be exploited even if Keystone XL wasn’t built – but that’s not necessarily the case.  Pipelines to the west from Alberta are stalled, and there are economic and environmental limits to non-pipeline transmission of the tar sands.  If the XL pipeline is not built the draw-down of the tar sands would continue, but likely at a much slower rate, providing valuable time to pursue other energy sources.

Look all the more prescient.  The possibility that the Northern Gateway pipeline will not be built gives lie to the SDEIS supposition that the impact of the carbon in the tar sands doesn't matter because the oil will just be exploited anyway. So the news is encouraging for foes of Keystone, but issue is not over,  There are, of course, other pipelines in the pipeline...  Enbridge is proposing a number of pipelines which would import as much tar sands as Keystone would. In other Keystone news, the public comments made on the SDEIS are being put online, you can search by name.  The comments are being made available over time, ours aren't up yet, but you can see the comment of 29 prominent scientists including James Hansen, Michael Mann, and Tuft's own Bill Moomaw. Keystone leads to talk of divestment.  Locally five New England colleges have met the challenge and are divesting their portfolios of carbon stocks.   Here's an interesting point / counterpoint on whether divestment is the vital approach, or whether using shareholder advocacy is a more fruitful path. In other words is it more useful to be inside the tent arguing for improvement, or on the outside? Dr. Richard Kimble was accused of a crime he did not commit...  Sorry, wrong fugitive.  Fugitive emissions is the new phrase of the day.  In today's podcast we talk about how the emissions from natural gas pipelines may make natural gas as bad an emitter as coal burning.  The Guardian has a story about new studies that suggest the emissions benefits of the natural gas boom will be offset by the climate impact of pipeline leaks. This corresponds with a report issued by the Conservation Law Foundation earlier this year that estimates 4% of all natural gas transported through pipelines in New England is lost. Methane is just one of several greenhouse gasses, and a potent one at that.  MIT professor Ron Prinn notes that counting all the various greenhouse gases the CO2 equivalent would be about 478ppm, rather than the 400ppm figure recently noted. In political news, President Obama is to appoint three judges to the DC circuit court, which has huge climate implications as appeals of EPA regulations go there.  Slate's gabfest podcast has an interesting conversation here.  (Listen to the whole thing for an interesting conversation of new Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz's hair...) In great news, the federal government is about to auction of tens of thousands of acres of space for offshore wind power, enough space for up to 3,400 megawatts of wind power. As we mentioned, a new fossil discovery found a 50 million year old primate, apparently the first ancestor of humankind they've found.  Think of that -- 50 million years ago the line began, three million years ago Lucy was hunting and gathering in modern day Ethiopia,   less than 100,000 years ago homo sapiens emerged, and "modern" civilization emerged probably 10,000 some odd years ago.  The point being -- all of the damaged we've done to our atmosphere has taken place in the last two hundred years, a blink of the eye in time.  We're like the millionaire's son who has squandered our inheritance in the six months since our dad's death.... Ted's deep thought of the week is about where we get our news, and how that might shape our opinions. This first struck him when reading a couple of stories, first about the Koch Brother's quasi-censorship of the PBS station in New York, and second after watching ClimateDesk's David Sasson on the Colbert Report.  Where you get your news impacts what you hear, which impacts your opinions. The concern is whether he's getting a broad enough spectrum of "news", or just hearing the same things over and over again... For his part, here's his list of common go-to news sites: Inside Climate News, Grist, Thinkprogress, ClimateDesk, and The Guardian (notice, the only traditional old-school newspaper on the list).  For Rob's part, he tends to get his news from google alerts and blogs. Climate change news is fragmented and disjointed, and often ignored entirely in the main stream media, which makes it a challenge to get good, unbiased, "fair and balanced" news.  Here's a question to you: where do you go for your climate news?  Maybe you know a good source we haven't figured out yet.  Drop us a line and let us know. As always, it's been a pleasure sharing climate news and views with you.  You know, you can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here.  Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email. You can donate and support the Climate Minute and all of MCAN's other climate change fighting activities by hitting that "donate now" button, or going to www.massclimateaction.net/donate. Remember, for climate activities near you check out our MCAN climate action calendar.  You can enter events as well as browse for interesting things to do. As always -- remember, for these reasons we have discussed, the United States must place a price on carbon.