The Climate Minute

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

The MCAN Climate Minute - You can't manage what you don't measure.

Good morning everybody and welcome to the MCAN Climate Minute. We come to you this week via the wonders of Skype, but we've got our homebrew in the pot and we're sufficiently caffeinated to bring you this week's Climate Minute. Big week in Massachusetts, as announcements and good news abound. First, the state was able to announce that they have met their solar power goals ahead of schedule, as over 250MW of installed capacity has gone online since setting the goals in 2007. That figure should reach 400MW this year or early next, and the Governor has announced a new goal of 1,600MW by 2020. For a map of renewable energy sites in the Commonwealth, check out the Museum of Science's interactive map here.  (Note though: it's not complete, there's a certain 1.6MW facility in my town that doesn't seem to be on the map...) The state's new goal would be easily met if every community was like Dartmouth, Mass, which leads the state in 9.28MW of capacity, beating out every other town in the state. In other good news the state unveiled their Greenhouse Gas Dashboard.  The site provides interesting and valuable data about the state’s emissions profiles and good historical comparisons of the various drivers of ghg emissions.  The site provides useful information to policy makers as they make sure the state’s Clean Energy and Climate Plan is working to accomplish the strict requirements of the Global Warming Solutions Act. On the national front, a new poll out suggests that over half (58%) of Americans link extreme weather to climate change.

It's got a reputation as the originator of "McNews," but USA Today has a fairly in-depth series on climate change and particularly its impact on rain extreme weather that's a good read for newbies to climate change.  Check it out here.

You may recall us talking about the Keeling Curve and the Mauna Loa observatory several weeks ago.  Well, it's on our radar screen again as news comes out that we're very close to hitting a new milestone.  In the next month it's expected that the observatory will being getting sustained readings of over 400ppm of CO2.  This is just another sobering milestone on the planet's climate journey.

This being the 2010's, the observatory has a twitter feed of daily numbers, follow it here. For charts on any scale from the last week to the last 50 years, you can check out UC San Diego's Scripps Insitution of Oceanography's site here.

We reflect on some larger issues in today's podcast, including a discussion of a perpetual carbon future.  This was inspired by an article in The Atlantic that looks at a world that never moves beyond petroleum.

Of course we know that's not going to happen, and climate change will force further restrictions on fossil fuels.  That has it's own set of consequences, including the considerable threat to traditional fossil fuel companies whose values are currently based on petroleum, gas, and coal reserves that (we hope) can never be exploited.

Two big things to think about: who actually owns fossil fuel stocks? (Answer: if you've got a pension or a mutual fund -- probably you.)  And, what's going to happen when those restrictions on fossil fuels we're all working toward are actually put in place?  Here's an interesting (and sobering) article on the potential coming carbon bubble.

(Of course you can get out of fossils entirely through divestment and socially responsible investing.  Our good friend Eric Packer at Progressive Asset Management specializes in these kinds of investments.)

So, what's going on locally? The authors of the proposed carbon tax for Massachusetts, State Representative Tom Conroy (Lincoln, Wayland, Sudbury) and State Senator Mike Barrett (Lexington, Bedford, Concord etc.) will be at Cary Memorial Library tomorrow, Saturday, May 4th, along with an experts in the field (including Kerry Emmanuel of MIT) who will provide background on the issue including how it works and the economic impact. Tom and Mike will provide more information on their proposal. State Senator Will Brownsberger and State Representative Dave Rogers will also be part of the panel discussion. Saturday night is also Earth Night, a great event put on each year by the Environmental League of Massachusetts.  The evening starts at 8pm at the Back Bay Events Center.  Here's their website for more information. Finally, we've rescheduled our Climate Education Meeting on the state Clean Energy and Climate Plan and Green Communities Program for Wednesday, May 29th.  We will be announcing the location next week, hope to see you there! 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 – thoughts on Activism.

Good morning everybody, it's time for the MCAN Climate Minute! Rob's sitting at home under blankets working through a 102 degree fever, so Ted flies solo today and talks about the climate week in review. First, last Sunday night thousands upon thousands of people linked up to participate in a viewing and discussion of Bill McKibben's "Do the Math" movie and talk about what may be next.  If you didn't get to see the movie, or want to see it again, it's still online; here's the link to see the movie.  If you haven't read it yet, here's Bill's original Rolling Stone piece from last July. The Keystone SDEIS comment period closed on Monday, with over 1,000,000 comments.   The EPA's comments found the State Department's work as insufficient.  You can read more about this at Grist.  Naturally certain Republican legislators are incensed that the EPA would do its job... The lousy thing about being an activist is being right when you worry about worst-case scenarios.  Here's a story about a waste truck being turned away from a landfill in Pennsylvania due to radioactivity.  I think it was just last week that Ted spoke about the occurance of radiation in fracking wastewater. As for this week in history, there are a couple of important milestones this week.  In April 1938 Guy Callendar, an amateur weatherman from England linked fossil fuel use to climate change.  Also, this is the anniversary of the British Petroleum Gulf of Mexico spill.  Here's a sobering piece on the lingering health and environmental effects of the pipeline spill. The events of the past several weeks have brought to the fore several sombering and troubled facts about America.  The recent failure of Congress to address the continued gun violence in this country points to a congress that is in the thrall of special interests.  In some equally troubling news is word that the Koch brothers are contemplating putting together a newspaper chain to pursue their ideology. However, on the other hand laws are being passed to penalize folks just trying to make thing better.  "Big Ag" is going after those crusaders looking to improve the short lives of factory farmed animals; did nobody read "The Jungle" in high school?  And as the climate activists (including Bill McKibben and Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune) will testify to, may place you at odds with authority. It's gotten to the point where Rush Limbuagh - who has 14 million listeners per week - posits that "environmental extremists" could have been responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings...  Here's a Youtube of his rant, proceed at you're own risk...) If we contemplate civil disobedience, it must be transparent, ennobling and non-violent. It must be consistent with Thoreau, Gandhi and King.  Here's a wonderful piece from McKibben expressing his continued admiration for the challenges King faced. The story of Gandhi's salt march draws interesting parallels to the contemporary fight over Keystone XL, and of course King's letter from Birmingham jail is required reading for all activists. As you know, the need for a carbon tax to establish clear signals and encourage a reduction in carbon emissions is one of our favorite topics.  Tom Friedman was the subject of an NPR "On Point" episode giving his thoughts as to why a carbon tax would be a benefit for the country.  More locally, the authors of the proposed carbon tax for Massachusetts, State Representative Tom Conroy (Lincoln, Wayland, Sudbury) and State Senator Mike Barrett (Lexington, Bedford, Concord etc.) will be at Cary Memorial Library on Saturday, May 4th, along with an expert in the field who will provide background on the issue including how it works and the economic impact. Tom and Mike will provide more information on their proposal. State Senator Will Brownsberger and State Representative Dave Rogers will also be part of the panel discussion. 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.  Stay safe.  We will see you next week.

The MCAN Climate Minute – Capping a dark week…

Defenseless under the night Our world in stupor lies;

Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages:

May I, composed like them Of Eros and of dust, Beleaguered by the same Negation and despair,

Show an affirming flame.

W.H. Auden, Sept 1, 1939

As we put an end to a week of horror and hope, we can only offer our deepest condolences to the victims of the mindless terror attack at the Boston Marathon.  As we write this two more victims have been added to the toll, MIT Police Officer Sean Collier who was killed and MBTA Police Officer Richard H. Donahue Jr., who was seriously wounded. There are things happening in the climate world, and Rob and Ted talk about the climate doings as we wait some resolution to this nightmare.  A bright spot for us are the continued tales of heroism, from the first responders, to "normal people" who leant a hand.  I'd like to think that the same instinct to help our fellow human is what motivates all of us concerned with climate change.  Thank you for all you do, and thank you for visiting with us today. As always, you can also go to our iTunes page and download or subscribe to the podcast. Some links that will enhance your listening experience: On Sunday, April 21st several locations in the area will hold screenings of a movie about Bill McKibben's "Do The Math" tour.  For a screening near you check out our calendar. EPA has postponed their long-expected powerplant emission rules.  Several states have announced their intention to sue if the agency does not issue its final rules on new powerplant emissions. A new series of earthquakes in Oklahoma heighten suspicions about the ties between fossil fuel extraction and seismic events.  Scientists suspect that a series of quakes in 2011 we connected to practices undertaken in oil drilling.  In connected news, apparently fracking has been dislodging and surfacing significant amounts of uranium... In the congress, Republican Congressman Lee Terry of Nebraska has filed legislation which would take the decision about Keystone out of the President's hands and basically rubber stamp the Keystone pipeline. Joe Romm and Vann Jones have an interesting piece on ThinkProgress about Martin Luther King and his thoughts on direct action and how that relates to climate activists. Has The President given up on Climate?  Some think so. Finally, it's Earth Day Plus 43.  The New Yorker has an interesting piece on the changing nature of the day and the movement. 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.  Much thanks to D from Arlington who helped support us this week! 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.  Stay safe.  We will see you next week.

The MCAN Climate Minute - Town Meetings on Turbines, Arctic Ice, Carbon Taxes, and Conservatives for

Town meeting season became all-turbine as Scituate and Falmouth both took up wind turbine related articles this week, while Washington was focused on the nomination hearings for Ernst Moniz and Gina McCarthy for Secretary of Energy and EPA Administrator, respectively. We've noticed it's Arctic Ice Maximum time, and Ted has a bit to say about carbon taxes, and not "go[ing] all wobbly," in the words of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who passed away this week at the age of 87. So grab a cuppa' and hit that orange arrow up there to enjoy this week's Climate Minute. As always, you can also go to our iTunes page and download or subscribe to the podcast. Some links that will enhance your listening experience: On Monday evening Falmouth voters declined to appropriate upwards of $14 million to take down the two town-owned turbines at the wastewater treatment plant. While a majority of town meeting did approve of the article (which would have been funded through a debt exclusion override at town election in May), the article did not garner the 2/3rd support required. The Selectmen offered another proposal the following evening, asking for $100,000 to study the true cost of dismantling the turbines. That request passed after the Board of Selectmen indicated it would be contingent upon the town voting to remove the turbines at the May election.  Last night the board placed a debt exclusion vote on the May 21st ballot, so Falmouth voters will have the opportunity to vote whether or not to tax themselves to remove the turbines. In Scituate, town meeting narrowly rejected an article that would have directed the town to rescind the permits necessary for the turbine to run.  In addition to noise, flicker has been cited as a prime concern of abutters to the Scituate turbine. With the end of winter comes the Arctic Ice Maximum -- the fullest extent of the arctic ice pack.   NOAA calculates that the arctic melt began March 15, and will proceed until we hit arctic minimum sometime this September or October.  Arctic cover heavily affects albedo, or the reflectivity of the Earth.  More ice cover means more solar radiation being bounced back out to space, less ice cover means the planet accepts more heat, worsening climate change.  It's all part of the cycle. The political cycle is on display in Washington, as hearings on President Obama's second term cabinet officials continued.  This week the Presdient's choices for Energy Secretary and EPA administrator, Ernst Moniz and Gina McCarthy, were vetted by the Energy and Natural Resources committee and Environment and Public Works committee, respectively. Dr. Moniz's hearing focused on the secretary-designee's thoughts on natural gas exploration, development and export.  The natural gas boom in the United States is certainly a game-changer, although from a climate standpoint gas is inferior to dramatically upscaling clean renewables.  (Though much, much superior to coal.) Gina McCarthy's hearing focused on other weighty and timely topics like.... phoney email addresses?  Senators took their precious time with the nominee to inquire about the use of email aliases or EPA instant messaging policies.  Well.  Yup.  There you go.  Senator Sanders did try to and refocus the hearing about climate change or other environmental policies, but really all his colleagues wanted to talk about was these super-secret emails, which obviously held clues to the vast international conspiracy of climate change...  Ye Gods. (My opinion is that given the fairly bipartisan support of Gina, and her sterling history of working with regulated communities to ensure government regulations were effective, fair, and sensible, left disgruntled Republicans little of substance to talk about so they had to talk about emails...) (Full disclosure, I had the pleasure of working in two separate state offices with/for Gina, and I found her to be among the finest public servants I've ever worked with.  If she had a partisan political opinion I never heard it, she was just about getting the job done and getting as many people as possible on-board with the decision.  Plus she's simultaneously the most fun and most no-bull[crap] person I worked with in state government.) Ted's thoughts about carbon taxes hit a chord with many.  You'll have to listen to the podcast to get the full argument, but this piece in the Globe about reframing how we think about taxes echoes many of the points Ted makes. In international news, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher passed away this week and left behind an impressive legacy.  One of the lesser-known aspects of her public career was her work to raise awareness and take action against climate change.  Befitting her background in science (she was trained as a research chemist) Thatcher argued that the cautious (and thus conservative) path was to address the problem rather than take  chances that it could be much worse in the future.

“It may be cheaper or more cost-effective to take action now,” she said, “than to wait and find we have to pay much more later.” Global warming was, she argued, “real enough for us to make changes and sacrifices, so that we do not live at the expense of future generations.”

Of course in her later years she moderated her stance and took a more traditional "right wing" position, but her example of faith in science and particularly her recognition that we are merely co-tenants on this planet with our children, grandchildren, and all future generations -- those are solidly "conservative" principles that have been forgotten by her ideological successors. In other "conservative" news, Gallup's latest poll on opinions about climate change show an increase in the number of Republicans who believe that climate change is occuring, up to 52% from 39% in 2011.  While that's great news, the number of R's who believe the change has a man-made cause is only 39%.  Expect poll-watching Republicans to jump on the sunspot bandwagon next election season... Finally, thank you for listening.  By listening you're a part of the climate change movement,   and we need every hand on deck to ensure a healthy and happy future for our kids, and their kids, and so on and so on.  Bill McKibben's latest Rolling Stone piece terms this movement as the Fossil Fuel Resistance, and in true 21st century fashion it's a dispersed and it's de-centralized.  You're a part of it and you resist with everything you do to cut fossil fuels and move to a more sustainable future. 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.  Much thanks to Nancy from Pittsfield who helped support us this week! 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.  See you next week.