The Climate Minute

Climate Hawk's Companion: Voices from Draw the Line

Yesterday in Providence Rhode Island, a band of concerned citizens marched from the City Hall to the Statehouse demanding an end to the Keystone XL pipeline. The attached “Climate Hawk’s Companion” podcast features discussion with some of the marchers who described why they made the effort to be part of the event. If you want to visualize just how big the tarsands pits really are, check out a recent MCAN blog post. There are great pictures from various “Draw the Line” events across the country collected here. As you tumble through them, the panoramic, ‘fish eye’ lens photo of folks holding hands in the air is from the Rhode Island Statehouse. For Huffington Posts' coverage of Saturday's events, check this out. For more background on the Keystone pipeline, check out our previous posts on the issue here.  One good place to start is our point-by-point refutation of many of the purported "benefits" of the pipeline here. Congratulations to all who attended!

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 - 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…

After thinking about it a bit... more thoughts on the President's climate plan

The President's speech at George Washington University today laid out his course of action  for the rest of his term as our government grapples with the threat of climate change. Ted and Rob sat down after considering the plan for a couple of hours and compared notes on what they think of the speech and the plan behind it. For the White House's climate plan page and, depending on your age, very neat or too busy, infographic, go here.  The full plan can be found here.  And for those of you who might have missed it, or just want to see it again, here you go:

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 - 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 - Technology shall set you free...

Good morning everybody and welcome to the MCAN Climate Minute.  It's a gloriously warm morning here in Massachusetts and Ted and Rob ponder the meaning of a heat wave in May (after a particularly chilly spring), the "climate change is stalled" meme, and thoughts about technology reversing what technology has wrought.  Grab yourself a morning cuppa and pull up a chair as we work our way through this week's Climate Minute. It's May 1st and we're looking at the second day of an expected three day 90 degree heatwave.  Weatherspark.com has some neat graphs and good information showing what an outlier this kind of weather is for May in Massachusetts. The earlier cooler weather this spring had some thinking global warming was on the wane, and a story in the BBC regarding evidence of a stall in projected temperature increases had some worried that this evidence would be used by climate change skeptics to further frustrate efforts to turn to clean energy and sustainable living.  Well, not only did the story itself promise no succor for sketpics;

"We would expect a single decade to jump around a bit but the overall trend is independent of it, and people should be exactly as concerned as before about what climate change is doing," said Dr Otto. Is there any succor in these findings for climate skeptics who say the slowdown over the past 14 years means the global warming is not real? "None. No comfort whatsoever," he said.

But if you look at the underlying data, which this post on Thinkprogress.org does, the long march toward a hotter planet is still pretty undeniable. In the face of this continued evidence and the mounting examples of the damage climate change will entail, perhaps it's time to start thinking about geoengineering?  Here's an interesting Slate article with some thoughts on getting carbon out of the atmosphere and slowing climate change. Now, of course, there's a tinfoil-hat bridge side to this argument as well...  According to some folks, geoengineering is a front for those nefarious black helicopter globalist trilateral folks who also want to fluoridate your water to turn you into a communist.  Alright, moving on... CBS' "Face the Nation" had a segment on climate change and possible connections to extreme weather.  It was a fascinating discussion and well worth the fifteen minutes it takes.  This is where Ted got his "Weather is your mood, climate is your personality" quote. As we discussed during a previous episode, the carbon bubble bears watching.  Last week China announced steps they are taking to cap greenhouse gas emissions.  Those initiatives, including a cap on carbon emissions, are another "attack" upon the value of the large fossil fuel companies.  As their reserves of fossil fuels become less valuable (because they are less likely to be used), these companies values will fall and will have a significant impact on the stock market, and thus many Americans' retirements. One way to protect your investments is to diversify (or divest entirely!) into "green investments."  Massachusetts just announced a program to make that much easier with the announcement of the Green Bond program.  These tax-exempt bonds will support green, renewable, and efficient energy projects throughout the state. Here are the quick-hit links Ted talked about: Terracide, the act of killing the planet.  (So the oil companies are Terraists...) Here's Elizabeth Kolbert's excellent New Yorker piece on Keystone XL and why the President must show leadership and reject the pipeline. Here's an interesting story on how Keystone played a major role in the primary for the US Senate race here in Massachusetts. And finally, here's a good take on how Keystone has moved the mainline climate organizations to value grassroots efforts. Looking for something to do this weekend?  Our friends at Mass Interfaith Power and Light are holding a great event this Sunday in Framingham where they'll talk about how to move the Commonwealth to a future beyond fossil fuels.  For more details go to our calendar listing 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 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.

The MCAN Climate Minute - News from Hotlanta, DC, and Boston

Good morning everybody and welcome to the MCAN Climate Minute(s).  (Old friend Susan suggested we're being misleading by calling this the Climate Minute, when in fact it's pretty close to the Climate Half-Hour.  We'll, that just doesn't have the zip of "Climate Minute," so we'll stick with that and thank you for sparing the time for our ramblings.) So Ted's back in New England after a few days in Atlanta at the USCAN annual meeting.  He's filled with new ideas and interesting tidbits, here are a few links to things we mentioned in the coversation: To find the Climate Reality Project's videos, go here.  They're YouTube videos and easily embedable and shareable, perfect to send to that Uncle Joe who just doesn't quite get it yet... We've also found definitions for solastalgia, and petcoke - one is the after-product of distilling dilbit and burned as coal would be, but 5-10% more carbon intensive, while the former is the psychological distress people feel about climate change and environmental destruction.   For extra credit, there's metallurgical coal, which is the stuff you need for steel -- which we will still need even if we move off coal power. Ted picked up a couple of new catchphrases in Atlanta, for instance: "Keystone Pipeline is a pipeline through the US, not to the US," and "Stop making electricity by burning stuff," and finally "We need a FAB treaty; Fair, Ambitious  and Binding" at the next Conference of the Parties meeting in Poland in 2013. For more information about the European airlines emission trading process, check this out. Vice President Biden spilled the beans on his opposition to the Keystone pipeline, telling an activist he was personally opposed but in a minority in the administration.  Recalling when the Veep jumped the gun and supported gay marriage before the President did, is this another Biden "gaffe" which will turn out for the best? Meanwhile, at home in Massachusetts the Boston City Council adopted a building energy labeling ordinance this week which will require commercial building owners to assess their energy use which will be publicly rated.  Building owners will get assistance in increasing their efficiency and tenants will get information that will help them make educated decisions about where they would locate.  For a good write-up of the benefits of such a program, look here. Old friend (perhaps we should say "long term friend") Gina McCarthy, the President's nominee for EPA administrator, had her nomination vote delayed when the republicans "took their ball and went home" and boycotted the committee vote to move her to full Senate consideration.  The nomination will move ahead (the threshold quorum is 10 votes, which is the number of democrats, but one was traveling), but this is just another example of the troubling polarization of congress. For the local events we mentioned, including the Somerville Depaving party this Sunday, check out our Climate Action Calendar. We've rescheduled our Climate Education Meeting on the state Clean Energy and Climate Plan and Green Communities Program for 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.