The Climate Minute

The Climate Minute - The Energy Exodus, and Vermont Yankee's Long Goodbye.

If it's Friday it's the Climate Minute, your source of climate news and views from Massachusetts and beyond.  This week Rob and Ted talk about the Energy Exodus march, Vermont Yankee's closing and decommissioning, and naming hurricanes after climate denier politicians. Ted marched on the first day of the Energy Exodus march, and brought along a voice recorder and captured some interviews which we put in a podcast yesterday.

photo by Wen Stephenson

The kick-off was covered in the media, you can check it out here.  In a supremely ironic twist, there was a small diesel spill in New Bedford harbor the same day the march reached that city. In other news, the Vermont Yankee plant will be closing by the end of 2014.  According to this story, the owners will have up to 60 years to fully decommission the plant and remediate the site.  Two generations to clean up the site of a plant that's only run for 40 years! From Vermont, we segued to the arctic ice melt.  Ted found this neat video showing the melt from May to mid-August.  Here's an interesting Slate piece about the quadrupling of commercial sea traffic along Russian's northern coast, made more accessible due to shrinking icecaps. Speaking of videos, here's a touching / funny / serious piece suggesting we stop picking on innocent people names Sandy and Katrina, and begin naming hurricanes after climate change-denying politicians. You can sign their petition at ClimateNameChange.org. Finally, there was a story in the Globe this week highlighting the environmental positions of the candidates for Mayor of Boston.  You can also watch the video below, this is from the forum sponsored by several environmental groups in Boston back in July.  There will be another forum in late October before the final election.

Mayoral Forum from Ken Pruitt on Vimeo.

Likewise, there will be a forum for the candidates for Senator Markey's old congressional seat, which will occur in late September.  Keep tuned in for more details! Remember, for more 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, so long we reach our fundraising goal.  We’re three quarters of the way there, can you help? 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…

Climate Hawk's Companion: Voices from the Energy Exodus march

Ted McIntyre, MCAN's Board President, took part in the first day of the Energy Exodus march yesterday, and talked to a number of people during the 10 mile first leg. His first discussion is with Mike, who is with the Polluters Pay Initiative, a group pushing for a price on carbon. Next he spoke with Shanti, who is a part of Climate Action Now, a central and western Massachusetts group.  Shanti has marched all over the world for climate action, and lives his beliefs in Sirius, an eco-village in Shutesbury. Alex, a young man who has lived in Guatemala and has worked in sustainable development through the Social Entrepreneur Corps.  Quite a bit of life experience for someone who just graduated from college only last year! Carolyn, from Mendon, is marching because we need to do something to change government policy to ensure a sustainable future.  She speaks about "Mothers Out Front," a group of mothers taking action to ensure their children a future. A young Quaker, Catherine, speaks about her work within her faith to activate people on climate change, while Jordan talks about the greenhouse gas impacts of not only coal, but also the false promise of natural gas. Ted caught up with Turner, who is mad!  Particularly with the fossil fuel industry and their pursuit of profit in complete disregard for the fate of the planet.  Turner and Ted talk about divestment, a growing movement in the climate world. Alex from Ipswich is a student who's fed up with the lack of political action, and realizes people must take action now to show political leaders the way. Thanks to all the folks who allowd themselves to be taped.  The march will be going until next Monday, so there's still time for folks to take part.  Again, for more information, go to the Energy Exodus site here. Thanks for listening, and remember: for the reasons all these folks mentioned, the United States must put a price on carbon.

The Climate Minute - IPCC leaks, safe cars, and Barack Obama: number one coal dealer.

Good morning, and welcome to the Climate Minute for August 23rd, 2013.  Rob and Ted come at you "live" from the Pink and Orange coffeehouse talking about the latest leaks about the next IPCC report, whither sunspots, and is it even worth talking to deniers? We start this week talking about the recent spate of leaks of the latest version of the IPCC 5th Assessment Report. The report is notable in that it ups the degree of certainty it reports that human activities are contributing to climate change, from 90% in the last (2007) assessment, to 95%.  That link is to a ThinkProgress piece that highlights several troubling aspects of the report. For the short attention span types (like me), here's a Washington Post story with "Ten Nuggets Worth Knowing" about the leaked report. Of course as a former college professor of mine loved to say, where you stand depends upon where you sit, and the skeptic community was over-the-moon pulling isolated parts of the report out of context.  For those with strong stomaches and advanced BS-meters, here's Watt's Up With That?'s take on the report. One of the things the tinfoil hat bridge (I'm sorry, feeling particularly snarky today...) likes to tout is the impact of change in solar output effects climate.  Okay, first: duh.   The sun has a large impact on our environment.  But even if you want to by in to the "solar minimum" argument that we are entering an extended solar minimum (a period with few sunspots), at best that *temporary* solar change will only serve to give a brief respite from even higher temperatures. Some folks were even trotting out a recent study that we could be entering a new "Grand Solar Minimum" period like that which coincided with the "little ice age" of the 17th and 18th century.  Facts however must intrude; even those doing the study suggest that the impact of a solar minimum, even a grand one, could mean little more than .3 degree of cooling.  And again, it would be temporary -- unlike the CO2 we're pumping into the atmosphere which could be there for centuries. We talked a bit about the futility or necessity to spread the climate message to non-believers, the skeptics.  Dave Roberts expresses his frustration with attempts to reach out to the right here, and feels that maybe it's just reached the point where some folks are just about unreachable.  Ted is very sympathetic to this position.  Rob, however, is ever the optimist and falls in line with HuffPost's Kate Sheppard, and thinks that you can still talk to deniers, you just need to find that common ground, and maybe that means not using the "c" word. (And here's Dave Roberts' post on what is a "Climate Hawk.")  We wish Dave all the best on his sabbatical, and look forward to an energized and rested Mr. Roberts when he comes back. While talking about values, this MIT Technology Review piece about the moral responsibility to act on climate change, and how a positive narrative can make a huge difference in advocacy. Now.  Dealing with deniers is one thing, what do you do with the people who believe as you do, who do the "wrong" thing? Exhibit A: The Bureau of Land Management is about to auction off up to 316 tons of coal under public lands in Wyoming's Powder River Basin.  As it turns out, 42 percent of all coal mined in this country comes from public lands.  How does this square with the President's speech back in June? Exhibit B: BLM is also finalizing regulations to regulate fracking on public lands.  Never mind how tough the regs are (and, as usual, industry is howling); should this administration which has declared war on climate change allow fracking at all? For a scintillating read about the "flow battery" and its potential as a utility-scale battery, read Electrical Engineering Times' piece here. (And if Ted the nuclear physicist doesn't really understand how this battery works, you can imagine how Rob the political science major's head exploded trying to read the piece...) [caption id="attachment_3496" align="alignright" width="377"] But Honey, it's safer than a Volvo![/caption]

Thanks to the good folks at Tesla, they've just given me a little more ammunition in my efforts to have my spouse let me get a nifty Tesla S.  The model S has just scored the highest score every on crash safety testing!

There are a couple of interesting things coming up next week in the area.

First, Iowa State Senator is doing a book tour supporting his new book, “America’s Climate Century,” and will be in Brookline the evening of the 26th.  Here’s our calendar entry with all of his New England stops. 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. We’re just a week and a half away from 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. 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, so long we reach our fundraising goal.  We’re three quarters of the way there, can you help? 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 - Natural Gas, the gangplank fuel...

It's a beautiful August friday, and Ted and Rob are back together again after a bit of vacationing. Well, we were full of natural gas (talk) today.  There's a crude joke in there, but we will refrain, this is after all a serious podcast.  So as you listen to today's podcast, here are some links to enrich your knowledge and understanding, and hopefully mine a couple of nuggets of information to provide your family and friends. Anthony Ingraffia, a professor of civil engineering at Cornell who also helped develop fracking techniques for the Department of Energy, wrote the article which inspired our title, "Gangplank to a Warm Future," for the New York Times.  It's an eye-opener of a read. We discussed the dramatically increased output of the Marcellus Shale gas fields.  You can read more about that here. You can listen to the conversation with Jeremy Rifkin where he talks about the next industrial revolution which will be powered with distributed renewable energy.  (Just make sure to go there after you finish listening to our podcast!) Here are some of the stories about the "Green Tea Party," (here, and here) the alliance of Tea Party and environmentalist groups in George fighting the large power monopoly keeping distributed renewable energy from the people. Kudos to the five institutions receiving Clean Energy Education grants which were awarded by the Mass Clean Energy Center this week.  You can learn more about them here. Finally, the Falmouth turbines are in the news again, this time due to discussions at the Board of Selectmen about how long they should run.  You can read more about this at the Southcoast Today site. Chris Hayes's "The Politics of Power" runs on MSNBC tonight at 8pm.  You can catch a sneak peak of it here. Boston's Greenfest is going through Saturday.  Find out more about what you can do and see there at their website. For more information on the film "Elemental" playing at Boston Common AMC Loews this Wednesday night, you can read more and sign up for tickets here. Iowa State Senator is doing a book tour supporting his new book, "America's Climate Century," and will be in Brookline the evening of the 26th.  Here's our calendar entry with all of his New England stops. 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. We're just a week and a half away from 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. 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, so long we reach our fundraising goal.  We're three quarters of the way there, can you help? 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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.

The MCAN Climate Minute - Victory in Falmouth!

If it's Friday, it's the Climate Minute.  Big news this week, as the voters of Falmouth reject the ballot question to tear down the two turbines at the wastewater treatment plant.  Not only did the voters choose not to remove the turbines, they elected the one candidate who had spoken in favor of the turbines, as well as returning the member of the board who had previously been supportive of the installation. During this edition we talk to Megan Amsler, a Falmouth resident who has been a leading supporter of the turbines.  Megan discusses her thoughts on what the vote means and where Falmouth goes from here. In Keystone news this week the House approved yet another attempt to short circuit the environmental review of the pipeline, this time with fewer Democratic members in support.  Congressman Stephen Lynch, who had previously supported Keystone, voted "no" this time. The tornado in Moore, Oklahoma got many people thinking about climate change.  We have to be careful about attributing climate change to every instance of extreme weather, as there are good reasons why climate change shouldn't be blamed for the rising number of, and damage caused by, tornadoes.  Read NOAA's two page fact sheet and impress your friends with your tornado knowledge. Locally, two business groups took out a full-page ad in the Boston Globe  decrying the cost of the Cape Wind project.  Mark Rogers penned an op-ed counterpoint you should read here.  New Bedford has a large stake in the construction of Cape Wind, as the deep water port will be a major staging area for the construction, and would also serve efforts to develop deep wind resources further south of Nantucket. We'd love to see you at our Climate Education Meeting on the state Clean Energy and Climate Plan and Green Communities Program on Wednesday, May 29th, at 8pm in the Arlington Senior Center. 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 MCAN Climate Minute - Brother can you spare $350 million?

Good morning everybody and welcome to the MCAN Climate Minute.  This morning Ted and Rob talk climate action far and near, while ambient noise levels at the pink and orange coffeehouse reach epic proportions.  Oh, and Rob drops his laptop and makes loud angry squeaks moving his chair.  NPR we are not this morning, folks... Let's start off with a little fun.  Tomorrow night's Powerball prize is projected to be $550 million, which is about $350 million in the cash option (there's that magic number again!).  Let's ignore the taxes for a minute (Wait, that's how they got Al Capone, isn't it?) and do a little fantasizing.  How would you spend $350 million to address climate change? [contact-form][contact-field label='Name' type='name' required='1'/][contact-field label='I would spend $300 to fix the climate by...' type='textarea' required='1'/][contact-field label='New Field' type='email'/][/contact-form] Whichever entry we deem best, based on a completely arbitrary decision on our part of which idea sounds the "neatest," will get two complimentary admissions to the New England Grassroots Environment Fund Rootskills event on  Saturday, June 8th (Friday night event not included, although I'm sure you could sign up for that separately).  Listen to the podcast for our ideas, or you can check out the Grist story that got Ted and I thinking about this.  Please include your email if you want to be considered for the prize, if not feel free to leave that field blank. Okay, on to the other things we covered this week: In Keystone news, unnamed Administration sources have told Reuters that a White House decision on Keystone is unlikely until this fall at the earliest, and maybe not even until 2014.  Depending on your level of cynicism you either applaud this as the President giving thoughtful consideration to the project, or wonder if he's just waiting for Congress to take the decision away from him entirely... Local climate hero Wen Stephenson (quitting your job and putting your professional future in doubt because of your belief in the media's lack of serious attention to climate change rates in my book as heroism) has piece in The Nation again discussing the need for parallels between the abolition movement and the climate movement, particularly the need to become the radicals  strong enough to support a revolution, not a simple change. Interestingly enough, a couple of local activists embodied that spirit earlier this week when they anchored their (relatively small) boat in the path of (somewhat gigantic) freighter bringing a coal shipment to the Brayton Point powerplant.  Jay O'Hara and Ken Ward blocked the freighter for hours before finally moving on at the behest of the Coast Guard.  Check out the Globe story here.  My favorite line?  Brayton spokesperson called the powerplant “one of the cleanest electricity generators of its kind," which is kind of like, oh, I dunno, calling Hurricane Katrina one of the least damaging superstorms of its kind, as it didn't cause as much monetary damage as Superstorm Sandy... Here's our previous blogpost on the movement to bar "do gooders" from filming agricultural industry violations which is likely to be used against those recording fracking problems in Pennsylvania. The Falmouth town election which will decide the fate of the two turbines at the wastewater treatment plant will take place this Tuesday.  Here's an informative and thought provoking article from the perspective of a turbine supporter.  If you'd like to give the pro-turbine folks a little love you could visit their Facebook page. The UNESCO document which discusses the "Ethical Principles and Responsibilities for Climate Change Policies" can be found here.  It's a long read, but a valuable filter to apply as you pursue your local climate action. Big week for climate related stories on WBUR.  For more on the Boston Greenovate program, go here.  You can also listen to a the BUR report about Millennials forsaking the car, or  read their discussion of how energy efficiency is working in the Northeast to lower energy demand during the summer.  (For those of you really into this kind of thing, feel free to peruse the Energy Efficiency market reports put out by the Division of Energy Resources in the early 2000's -- we were noticing the beneificial economic impacts of efficiency way back then.  Here's the 2000 report. Good luck to Gina McCarthy as her nomination progresses to the floor of the Senate.  If there is a more capable and effective choice for EPA, I don't know who that would be. For the local events we mentioned, including the Green Needham Collaborative discussion with officials from the City of Boston about their climate action plan this Monday, check out our Climate Action Calendar. We'd also love to see you at our Climate Education Meeting on the state Clean Energy and Climate Plan and Green Communities Program on Wednesday, May 29th, at 8pm in the Arlington Senior Center. 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.