Monday, April 25, 2011
A step toward improving the emissions accounting for nations !
Friday, June 4, 2010
A small detail about environmental monitoring in the Gulf
BP got a company to monitor the coastline, to see how bad the effects of their spill are there. The company, CTEH, is the same that found Chevron/Texaco not liable for the bad effects they caused while getting oil out of Ecuador.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming
Friday, March 19, 2010
California is in the process of updating and revising its science curriculum to include much more information about Climate Change pursuant to the Education and Environment Initiative (EEI http://www.calepa.ca.gov/Education/EEI/default.htm) . This curriculum update is still in process but the California Air Resources Board has posted the following page as an interim resource for Teachers who want more curriculum on climate change now: http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/curriculum/curriculum.htm Meanwhile, the final drafts of the new EEI curriculum (for K through 12) is available for review here: http://www.calepa.ca.gov/Education/EEI/Curriculum/Default.htm
Great stuff!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Cap-and-Dividend: Congress has a bill for climate change? really? yes indeed; a great start to one, at least!
THE CARBON LIMITS AND ENERGY FOR AMERICA’S RENEWAL (CLEAR) ACT:
How the CLEAR Act Works:
Beginning in 2012, the President sets the initial target amount of carbon from fossil fuels
that can be emitted to the atmosphere without disrupting the economy, using a gradually
declining “cap.” The concept is to gradually accelerate emission reductions.
Revenue generated by carbon permits comes from producers and importers of coal, natural
gas and oil. In other words, a power plant that burns coal does not buy carbon permits; it is
paid by the mining company that mined the coal.
Carbon permit prices will be determined by the bidding process among fossil fuel
companies participating in monthly auctions. Only entities with a compliance obligation are
eligible to participate in auctions—no Wall Street traders or speculators are allowed in.
To minimize price volatility for consumers, fuel producers, and investors in new energy
technologies, a price collar governs carbon permit prices.
75% of auction revenues are given back to consumers directly each month on an equal per
capita basis to offset energy cost increases.
o Average annual refunds for a family of four are estimated to be approximately
$1000.
o Sending auction revenues directly to consumers means 80% of the American public
will incur no net costs and the lowest income population will receive net positive
benefits. The remaining 20% percent – the highest income earners—will see less
than a 0.3% decrease in income.
The Attack on Climate-Change Science Why It’s the O.J. Moment of the Twenty-First Century by Bill McKibben
Sunday, February 14, 2010
How climate change is increasing our vulnerability to chemical pollution
from Joe Romm's blog, http://climateprogress.org (Joe Romm? U.S. News & World Report call Joe Romm "one of the most influential energy and environmental policymakers in the Obama era"
"I trust Joe Romm on climate" — Paul Krugman, New York Times)
December 3, 2009
"...At a November 19 briefing in Washington, researchers from the Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment, representatives of the American Medical Association and American Public Health Association detailed the likely negative health effects of global warming. These are conditions, reported Paul Epstein, Associate Director of the Harvard center, to which children, the elderly, and poor are especially vulnerable.
Rising temperatures, ozone and sulfur dioxide levels, along with particulate and other pollutants released by forest fires, will create conditions that are expected to increase rates of hospitalization for respiratory diseases, among them pneumonia, asthma, and chronic lung disease...
...our reliance on fossil fuels has helped make petrochemicals the foundation for the overwhelming majority of our synthetic materials – manufactured substances that go into everything from computers to cosmetics. And petrochemicals have particularly problematic environmental and health impacts. To begin stem this tide, as we begin to shift away from fossil fuels and create new materials – alternatives to those with adverse environmental and health impacts – among the questions we must ask to help ensure new materials’ safety must be: how a substance behaves biologically – its impact on living cells – and how it behaves physically, including its possible contribution to the impacts of climate change."