The Climate Minute

The Politics of Disaster - The Climate Minute Podcast

Should Climate Hawk point out the connection between extreme weather events and global warming? Ted Cruz says no, Bill Nye says yes. We discuss.

The reading list:
•    Why we need to politicize disasters
•    Ted Cruz's thoughts
•    Bill Nye
•    Scientists

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 our patriotic duty as citizens to speak out, we must insist that the United States put a price on carbon.

Thanks for listening.
…Ted McIntyre

Supply and Demand for Climate Hawks - The Climate Minute Podcast

If our efforts at reducing emissions represent control of the “demand” for fossil fuel, what about the “supply?” Should Climate Hawks push for reductions in greenhouse gas emission from, say, coal plants, or should we focus on reducing the supply of fossil fuels, such as the KXL pipeline or stopping Royal Dutch Shell in the Arctic. We discuss. Listen in!.

The reading list:
•    DR on the Bradcast
•    Big coal leases
•    Dave Roberts on the Powder River leases.
•    Bill McKibben on approval of Royal Dutch Shell's artic exploration
•    Bill McKibben's groundbreaking "Do the Math" article
•    Oil CEOs call for a carbon fee

Check out live  links at our blog,  https://massclimateaction.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/supply-and-demand-for-climate-hawks-the-climate-minute-podcast/
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 our patriotic duty as citizens to speak out, we must insist that the United States put a price on carbon.

Thanks for listening.
…Ted McIntyre

Democracy and Climate Intertwined - The Climate Minute Podcast

“Want climate action? Don’t be a fool;
It’s never gonna happen under corporate rule!”
“Want climate justice? Here’s step one:
Build a democracy to get it done!”

Those were among the slogans we chanted as we marched down Central Park West last September. From the moment the march was announced, I knew I would make the trip down from Boston, and I also knew that there among the scores of climate activists of every imaginable stripe, from anarchists to educators to evangelicals, from scientists to socialists, I would be marching with a cadre representing the growing “democracy movement.”
I see the battle for climate action as being waged basically on two fronts, reflective of the twin root causes of the crisis. On the one hand, at the heart of all the drivers of climate change we find a short-sighted and rapacious consumer culture, global in scope but distilled most clearly here in America. The work of addressing this fundamental malaise is a “hearts and minds” campaign of sorts – educating and shaping the habits of the general public – and it’s absolutely critical; from buying efficient light bulbs and hybrid cars to eating locally and turning down the thermostat, the choices we make in our individual daily lives add up to make a real difference.

But we cannot ignore the profound impact that public policy decisions have on our energy use. Even in the world’s freest markets, the invisible hand is constrained and influenced by the rules set in place by governments. In theory, that means that you and I – all of us, collectively as citizens – have a say in determining the incentives and restrictions that give shape to U.S. energy policy on both the supply side and the demand side:  Should we be giving subsidies to Exxon and Shell because it’s somehow good for the economy? Tax credits to homeowners who install renewable capacity or upgrade the energy efficiency of their homes? Both? In what amounts and for how long? Should we be capping emissions on CO2 from power plants? Loosening rules on fracking to provide jobs and lower energy prices? Or providing low-cost loans to companies developing renewable energy technology? Perhaps most significantly, should we be pricing carbon at a level that reflects its true costs, to make up for what will likely be viewed in hindsight as the most costly market failure of human history?

Most of these questions, to me, have clear answers, and many of them we continue to get wrong. While some progress is made in fits and starts, at the margins, I can’t imagine anyone who understands the climate crisis making the case that the U.S., no longer the top emitter but still firmly in the #2 slot and a leader on world policy, has developed anything remotely resembling an adequate, comprehensive climate policy. Some of the inaction, or the actively destructive policy, is enabled by misunderstanding and complacency among the public. But much of the mess we’re in today can be traced to a gradual consolidation of power, over the last few decades, in the hands of fewer individuals and, most notably, global corporations. As these forces representing the production and accumulation of tremendous private wealth among CEOs and the investor class exert more and more control over public policy, the chances for effective action on climate, in the name of the public good but at the expense of some of the lucre being raked in by industrial titans and investors, become vanishingly slim.
There is, however, hope in our history! The American experiment has been punctuated by moments that have clarified crises and exposed injustices, and in those moments people have mobilized to force action, to right wrongs, to continue the work of building a more perfect union. Grassroots campaigns have emerged to tackle the darkest problems we've faced, from the abolitionists to the suffragettes, to the protests that eventually forced reconsideration of the Vietnam War. Out of the disparity of the Gilded Age arose a tide of progressive reforms, including the labor movement that fought a bloody campaign to win rights for workers. And of course, the 20 million Americans who took to the streets as citizens and stakeholders on the first Earth Day spurred a raft of legislation that still forms the framework of our environmental protections today.

As the crisis of our unresponsive and unrepresentative political system comes into sharper focus, a new movement is rapidly coalescing to take the reins and build a better system, closer to our American ideals, equipped to tackle our biggest problems, foremost among them the disruption of the planetary systems that support our civilization. And as that movement for democracy grows, there's a concrete opportunity to help it along here in Massachusetts.

There’s a bill pending in the Massachusetts legislature, H. 3127, called the We the People Act, that would take a bold step toward reversing the erosion of our democracy and putting all of us, not just those with the most wealth and power, in the driver’s seat to set our nation’s policies.

The We the People Act is the product of a homegrown democracy movement, the local expression of a growing national movement to address two fundamentally destructive legal doctrines created by the Supreme Court, in the Citizens United decision and a long string of cases that came before it, that have enabled today’s unresponsive political system. The bill calls on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment asserting that the rights protected by the Constitution are the rights of actual human beings, not corporations, and also that we can and should place limits on the way money is raised and spent in our elections, because money is not speech, and campaign finance rules are not incompatible with the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.

Massachusetts has already called on Congress for an amendment, with a near unanimous resolution in 2012 (joining a list of 16 states and counting), but the reality is that the prospect of action in today’s Congress is basically nil, so the We the People Act brings out the big guns – a tool that has been used successfully in the past to pressure a corrupt and intractable Congress into constitutional reform. The tool is a convention of the states, outlined in Article V of the Constitution, and it’s the only way that we, as citizens and state legislators, can exert the kind of leverage that will force Congress to listen.
Once corporations can no longer overturn environmental regulations and other public health and safety laws by claiming constitutional rights, and once our elections have been wrested away from the system of legalized bribery that has been codified in recent years, a whole new realm of positive change becomes possible. To address the climate crisis, we need a revolution in our energy policy. That change depends on the success of a political revolution to build a functioning democracy.

- Taylor Gaar, volunteer, Greater Boston Move to Amend

Read more at www.wethepeoplemass.org

India to Texas - The Climate Minute Podcast

This weeks analysis of the news takes us from Exxon shareholder meetings to the Heat wave in India. Listen in to the Climate Minute!

The reading list:
•    Exxon shareholder meetings
•    Heat waver in India
•    Bill Nye tweets a truth
•    Pogo redux

Check out live  links at our blog,  https://massclimateaction.wordpress.com/2015/05/29/india-to-texas-the-climate-minute-podcast/
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 our patriotic duty as citizens to speak out, we must insist that the United States put a price on carbon.

Thanks for listening.
…Ted McIntyre

A dereliction of duty?- The Climate Minute Podcast

The President gave the Commencement Speech at the Coast Guard Academy recently, and by all accounts made a fine speech, indicating he fully understands the gravity of the climate problem. He even went so far as to say : “And if you see storm clouds gathering, or dangerous shoals ahead, you don't sit back and do nothing.  You take action -- to protect your ship, to keep your crew safe.  Anything less is negligence.  It is a dereliction of duty.  And so, too, with climate change. “  However if he really believes what he said, why then his approval of Shell’s plan to endanger the arctic in a search for more oil we cannot burn? What’s up Mr. President? We discuss Shell, the TPP and Santa Barbara where, oops, they had an oil spill even without any ice floes in the neighborhood.

The reading list:
•    Obama speaks to the Coast Guard Academy
•    WAPO
•    Kayaktivists in Seattle
•    $10M per minute, all day long
•    Santa Barbara
•    The Guardian campaign: Keep it in the ground!
•    WTO Changes US law.
•    Sheldon Whitehouse on Climate and the TPP
•    Sheldon Whitehouse's best burns-"They're not gynecologists either....."

Check out live  links at our blog,  https://massclimateaction.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/a-dereliction-of-duty-the-climate-minute-podcast/

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 our patriotic duty as citizens to speak out, we must insist that the United States put a price on carbon.

Thanks for listening.
…Ted McIntyre

What is the real “truth” and is it really awful?- The Climate Minute Podcast

It is always fascinating to see two really smart people challenge each other’s analysis of events. Dave Roberts of  Vox and  Joe Romm of  ThinkProgress/Climate are two such people, and their dialog about the role of scientists and our hopes for the future makes great reading. We try to keep up!

The reading list:
•    Dave Robert's original piece "The Awful Truth about Climate Change No One Wants to Admit"
•    Joe Romm's response "The Really Awful Truth..."
•    Robert's riposte
•    An analysis of the whole dialog
Check out live  links at our blog,  https://massclimateaction.wordpress.com/2015/05/22/what-is-the-real-truth-and-is-it-really-awful-the-climate-minute-podcast/
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 our patriotic duty as citizens to speak out, we must insist that the United States put a price on carbon.

Thanks for listening.
…Ted McIntyre

Kayaktivists challenge Shell, Obama misses boat- The Climate Minute Podcast-REPOST

The Obama Administration’s decision to allow oil exploration in the Chukchi Sea shows passivity where leadership is required. Climate hawks, like the “Kayaktivists” in Seattle, will just have to stop Shell by themselves. The framing of the TPP on the news is inaccurate. Instead of endless discussion of winners and losers, we should ask “Why can’t an environmental group have the same access to the negotiations as Exxon?”   Finally, consider if the current global refugee crisis is a harbinger of the future in a warming world.

The reading list:
Obama approves Arctic drilling
Seattle votes for a delay
Kayaktivists say "Shell No!"
Bill McKibben blasts the Administration on the Shell decision
Naomi Klein on Free Trade and Climate
How to connect climate damage to immigration

Check out live  links at our blog,  https://massclimateaction.wordpress.com/2015/05/17/kayaktivists-challenge-shell-obama-misses-boat-the-climate-minute-podcast/
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 our patriotic duty as citizens to speak out, we must insist that the United States put a price on carbon.

Thanks for listening.
…Ted McIntyr

Kayaktivists challenge Shell, Obama misses boat- The Climate Minute Podcast

The Obama Administration’s decision to allow oil exploration in the Chukchi Sea shows passivity where leadership is required. Climate hawks, like the “Kayaktivists” in Seattle, will just have to stop Shell by themselves. The framing of the TPP on the news is inaccurate. Instead of endless discussion of winners and losers, we should ask “Why can’t an environmental group have the same access to the negotiations as Exxon?”   Finally, consider if the current global refugee crisis is a harbinger of the future in a warming world.

The reading list:
Obama approves Arctic drilling
Seattle votes for a delay
Kayaktivists say "Shell No!"
Bill McKibben blasts the Administration on the Shell decision
Naomi Klein on Free Trade and Climate
How to connect climate damage to immigration

Check out live  links at our blog,  https://massclimateaction.wordpress.com/2015/05/17/kayaktivists-challenge-shell-obama-misses-boat-the-climate-minute-podcast/
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 our patriotic duty as citizens to speak out, we must insist that the United States put a price on carbon.

Thanks for listening.
…Ted McIntyre

Batteries Included- The Climate Minute Podcast

Elon Musk, of Tesla Motors fame, recently announced a new product called PowerWall which is intended to bring simple and low cost ‘energy storage’ (i.e. energy from your solar panels) to safe place in your home. It is a high tech battery that could change the economics of renewable power.

Nice, but here in Massachusetts the Baker Administration has sided with the minority opinion on a study committee which consequently  puts continued solar energy development in jeopardy.  Go here to find out how to contact your Rep, Senator or the Governor himself. They will be interested in your opinion. But first, listen to the podcast!

The reading list:
•    The Tesla Announcement
•    Do we have all the technology we need?
•    Net Metering FAQ
•    Solar Lethargy?
•    Solar in MA Limbo
•    Commonwealth Magazine's take on events

Check out live  links at our blog,  https://massclimateaction.wordpress.com/?p=4342&preview=true&preview_id=4342&preview_nonce=cf1cb6085f
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 our patriotic duty as citizens to speak out, we must insist that the United States put a price on carbon.

Thanks for listening.
…Ted McIntyre

Elections threaten KXL, TPP inches forward- The Climate Minute Podcast

Voters in Alberta elected a government that seems to be environmentally friendly. What does it mean for the iconic Keystone XL pipeline? Meanwhile in Washington, the US Senate plans to take up the debate on allowing secret negotiation on the TPP treaty. As Senator Warren said  "A rigged process will produce a rigged result." We discuss.
The reading list:
•    Canada's Globe and Mail on the Alberta elections
•    Some American Climate Hawks on the Alberta Elections
•    A vote on 'Fast Track' authority for the TPP to come up soon in the Senate
•    Senator Warren explains the secrecy around the TPP.
•    The planet's latest milestone: Greater than 400ppm for a month.
Check out live  links at our blog,  https://massclimateaction.wordpress.com/2015/05/08/elections-threaten-kxl-tpp-inches-forward-the-climate-minute-podcast/
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 our patriotic duty as citizens to speak out, we must insist that the United States put a price on carbon.

Thanks for listening.
…Ted McIntyre