UK Solar Capacity Grows 900% in 18 Months. Letter To Super-Committee: End Oil Subsidies.
Algal energy: Venice turns green. Why Nobody Does Anything About Climate Change, As Explained by The Onion. Bill Clinton Slams GOP Climate Deniers During Global Initiative Conference. "We look like a joke, right? " Former President Bill Clinton wasted no time at his annual philanthropic conference with an attack on GOP climate deniers. At the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual NYC meeting, Politico reports that the former president said, "If you’re an American, the best thing you can do is to make it politically unacceptable for people to engage in denial ... I mean, it makes us – we look like a joke, right? You can’t win the nomination of one of the major parties in the country if you admit that the scientists are right?
" Clinton went on to say that the U.S. needs to debate more over strategies to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. TreeHugger reports: "If you listen to Rush Limbaugh," Clinton said, and "he tells you that climate change is a hoax ... Not all GOP candidates disagree with scientists. Clinton's remarks come on the heels of Former Vice President Al Gore's climate change campaign, "24 Hours of Reality.
" Keystone XL could be a terrorist target—and more from my post in the N.Y. Times.
Senate Dems finally move disaster aid - On Congress. September 13, 2011 Senate Democrats were successful the second time around Tuesday, narrowly advancing a $7 billion disaster aid package that Republicans blocked a day earlier. On a 61-38 vote, all 53 members of the Democratic caucus and eight Republicans from disaster-afflicted states agreed to move forward on legislation that would help areas of the country hit by Hurricane Irene and recent tornadoes, flooding and wildfires. Sixty votes were needed. Republicans who cast an “aye” vote were Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri; Scott Brown of Massachusetts; John Hoeven of North Dakota; Dean Heller of Nevada; Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania; David Vitter of Louisiana; and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both of Maine. In Monday’s failed 53-33 vote, Toomey had voted no, while Sen. Tuesday’s Senate vote came after Reid hammered Republicans for holding up funding that would replenish the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s nearly exhausted disaster relief fund.
Is A Just And Sustainable Global Governance Possible? Globalization is a fact of our daily life. A decision made in the US, China or Europe by governments or corporate entities will affect what we eat, the energy we use, what we buy, and can even have an impact on how we are kept informed of world events. This is, of course, considering that a large fraction of news outlets are controlled by diversified mega-corporations with either an economic or a political agenda at stake in reporting the news.
The Globalization Of The Corporate Empire In this American lead corporate empire world order, wars and prisons are for profit, and good education and decent health care are for the rich. This world order operates as a wealth and power concentrator for the few. Recently, billionaire Warren Buffett said:“Yes, there is a class warfare, all right. But the class warfare mentioned by Warren Buffett is not limited to the United States, it is a global phenomenon.
Arab Revolution: A Contagious Force For Global Change Related Articles. Don't Get Fracked! Click on the map for a closer look at oil and gas wells in the United States and offshore. Click on the map for a larger view of shale gas plays in the continental U.S. Drilling for oil and natural gas is growing across the United States. The use of hydraulic fracturing has opened up resources in many parts of the country where drilling was not previously occurring. Although drilling can create jobs and income, many fear the effects of drilling on their health, land and quality of life. Current laws need to be changed to catch up with the drilling explosion. In the meantime, you can act now to protect yourself and your family. The drilling planned for your communityThe harm drilling can causeSteps you can take to limit the dangers to yourself and your familyResources in each state in which drilling is happening or is likely to occur.
Report a Spill or Other Problem Report to the U.S. Role of Natural Gas in America's Energy Future Top of page The U.S. Yes. The Planning Stage: The Leasing Stage: Despite Solyndra scandal, DOE set to guarantee $9.3B more in loans - Darius Dixon. China Goes Solar as America Stumbles. SOURCE: AP/Alexander F. Yuan A worker transports a cart of cement in front of a building covered in a wall of solar panels at a factory of Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. in Baoding. This city southwest of Beijing is promoting itself as a manufacturing center for solar, wind, and other gear by transforming into a living showcase of environmental technology.
By Melanie Hart | September 7, 2011 Download this brief (pdf) Read this brief in your web browser (Scribd) The U.S. media is abuzz over last week’s bankruptcy of thin-film solar manufacturer Solyndra LLC, with some conservative politicians trying to use the demise of the start-up to argue against federal financing for green energy.
The first is the 12th Five Year Plan for Renewable Energy Development, covering 2011 to 2015, which focuses on sources of renewable energy such as hydropower, wind, solar, and biomass. The United States is currently ahead of China, with 2.6 GW installed solar capacity at year-end 2010. And here in America? S Newest Fellows are Innovating for the Environment. Submitted by: John Converse Townsend on 09/13/11 Our hearts and minds have been focused on nature’s power after the recent earthquake in Virginia, and the major blow from Hurricane Irene that tore up the Atlantic coast. But if we look past these most recent disasters, we can see signs of opportunity in the environmental recovery and conservation efforts of Ashoka’s change agents.
Ashoka’s French Fellow, Julien Noé, is helping transform the existing electricity market in France with Enercoop, a grassroots cooperative model for incentivizing citizens to rethink their consumption practices while boosting France’s renewable energy production capacity. In the Indian Himalayas, Pushkin Phartiyal is building a green economy through the Global Community Carbon Forestry Alliance. Finally, in the Amazon, conservation expert Vitória da Riva Carvalho is building new value chains around geotourism to stimulate economic growth while protecting the forests. Japanese Seniors: Send Us To Damaged Nuclear Plant. Hide captionWorkers decontaminate the roof of a kindergarten about 12 miles from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan last month. Several hundred Japanese seniors have volunteered to take part in the cleanup effort. Hiro Komae/AP They are all retirees, and they have all volunteered for a single, dangerous mission: to replace younger workers at the badly damaged Fukushima nuclear plant.
The Skilled Veterans Corps for Fukushima consists of more than 500 seniors who have signed up for a job that has been called courageous — and suicidal. Kazuko Sasaki, a 72-year-old grandmother, is one of those ready to serve. "My generation built these nuclear plants. The founder of Skilled Veterans is Yasuteru Yamada, a slight, soft-spoken man of 72. An engineer who has spent his life around industrial plants, Yamada says he and his retired colleagues quickly realized after the March 11 disaster that conditions at Fukushima were far bleaker than the government was letting on.
An Alternative to Coal Jobs. Photo courtesy of Paul K Anderson. Used with permission. If coal export terminals are too risky for many ports because of their checkered past on the West Coast, there is a alternative strategy for economic development: clean up and redevelopment of polluted port sites. It’s a strategy that is proving to create many more jobs than coal, and with far less pollution. First, though, to understand how poorly coal export stacks up, let’s consider the facts at Longview.
Millennium Bulk Logistics proposes to use a former mill site owned by Alcoa to export coal. The site, which occupies prime waterfront industrial land, is contaminated with pollution from the mill operation. In fact, Alcoa has a good track record cleaning up aluminum mills and selling the land for more productive uses. In Troutdale, the recently cleaned site is now the home of a FedEx Ground regional distribution center that employs over 750 people. The employment numbers for coal exports don’t stack up well either. Moving Planet Event for Saturday to Draw Thousands from Around the World -- Will You Be There?
I love a big enviro event that doesn't require thousands of flight to Washington DC. Heading to the capitol is not the only way for us to be heard. That's why on Saturday I'll be at the Moving Planet event that's in my home city of San Francisco -- and chances are there is an event in or near your community , too (or you can start your own event). So what's Moving Planet? It's the latest consciousness-raising action from Bill McKibben and the good folks at 350.org. Here's how they describe it: For too long, our leaders have denied and delayed, compromised and caved. Moving Planet will be a day to put our demands for climate action into motion -- marching, biking, skating -- calling for the world to go beyond fossil fuels.
Writing on the NRDC's blog Switchboard, Apollo Gonzales explains why this event is so important: It is easy to believe that we are mired in conflict, indecision, and fear. When faced with this reality, it is easy to despair. Environment: Ten Things Obama Must Do | Rolling Stone Politics. Denver companies pledge solar assistance to Navajo Nation at United Nations confab. Two Denver companies announced Tuesday at the United Nations Private Sector Forum in New York City that they will team up to tackle the lack of electrical grid connectivity on the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners region.
Nokero International, which supplies solar-powered lights and mobile chargers, will work with Eagle Energy, a non-profit formed by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s son, Doug. The two companies will work with Navajo Nation leaders to provide light in homes that often go dark when the sun sets, hopefully replacing dangerous and unhealthy kerosene lanterns and heaters. The project was announced as the U.N. brought together numerous alternative energy experts and advocates to discuss the organization’s “International Year of Sustainable Energy For All” in 2012.
“It is a great honor for Nokero to be invited to this event,” said Steve Katsaros, founder and CEO of Nokero Internaional. Navajo Nation activists have been pushing hard for more renewable energy and greater U.S. General Assembly opens new session with plea for unity to tackle global crises. 13 September 2011 – The General Assembly today opened its annual session with a fervent plea for cooperation in tackling looming crises from conflicts to climate change, and a nostalgic look back to a former secretary-general who died 50 years ago in the service of peace.
“Moving forward the myriad of issues before us will require hard work, integrity, and partnership,” the Assembly’s President for its 66th session, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser of Qatar, told the meeting, which was dedicated to the memory of Dag Hammarskjöld, who died in a plane crash in 1961 while trying to bring peace to the nascent country now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). “The sands are shifting. We have before us a unique opportunity to shape change and ensure that our next chapter will be safer for the most vulnerable, more prosperous for those in need, and kinder to Planet Earth.” He outlined four main areas of focus for this year’s session. Turning to UN reform, Mr. In a separate speech Mr. For a waterwise landscape, consider Mediterranean garden design. Many in California and elsewhere are looking for inspiration in creating a gorgeous, low-water landscape, and the traditional Mediterranean garden provides ample ideas for those with a sunny garden and good drainage.
Skip to next paragraph The bold, lavender-lined gardens of Tuscany are lovely without using much water. Courtesy of Genevieve Schmidt Recent posts Subscribe Today to the Monitor Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS ofThe Christian Science MonitorWeekly Digital Edition If you've seen the bold, lavender-lined gardens of Tuscany in books and magazines, you may have wondered how to get the look in your own space.
A Mediterranean garden design incorporates a number of iconic elements, such as the terra-cotta hue of the hardscaping and paint, the grayish-green foliage of so many Mediterranean plants, and the vase-shaped pots with bold flowers spilling from them. One of the strongest elements, however, is a reliance on traditional Mediterranean garden plants. U.S. Senate approves new FEMA funding. Washington, D.C. - September 14, 2011 The U.S. Senate has approved new funding for FEMA, just as Vermont is turning to the agency for aid.
The cleanup from Irene across the Northeast is expected to top $1.5 billion, but FEMA's coffers are down to about $800 million. Tuesday, Democrats broke a filibuster to get the funding bill passed. Vermont's congressional delegation has repeatedly called on both the House and Senate to put politics aside to help people in need. "Americans should be worried about Americans. The money still needs approval in the Republican-controlled House and leaders there are demanding that any new spending be offset by cuts in other programs so the budget deficit doesn't deepen. WCAX News. David Timperio: EU to monitor French nucle... Year of the River video project: Elwha River dam removal. INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT: CANADA: Native Land...
Fighting for a radiation-free Japan - Features. Namie Town, Fukushima Prefecture - The deeply lush, green canopy that is Namie is the stuff of tourism brochures advertising paradise. Dense, stunning forests line narrow, winding roads hugging crystalline rivers. Mountains packed with trees pour into green valleys and farms. It’s breath-taking, yes, but unfortunately, this gorgeous town is also considered dangerously radioactive and deemed uninhabitable by the authorities at the moment. It’s nearly rice harvesting season, but in Namie, which once held 21,000 residents, the rice paddies are neglected, overrun with weeds and dry patches.
It is now a ghost town, evacuated since the Daiichi nuclear power plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), caught fire, exploded and started leaking radiation into the air, water and soil after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit Japan six months ago. For now, it’s just emptiness. One Namie farmer, Haruji Suenaga, was forced to abandon his farm six months ago. The long haul. HAWAI'I’S NEW $7 MILLION FEDERAL GRANTS AIM TO INCREASE SOLAR AND RENEWABLE ENERGY INTEGRATION INTO ELECTRIC GRIDS. Honolulu – The State of Hawai'i was awarded more than $7 million in federal grants for renewable energy projects that include increasing solar energy and electric vehicles in Hawai'i, Governor Neil Abercrombie announced at today’s opening of the 2011 Asia Pacific Clean Energy Summit and Expo. The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced the following grants: $6.1 million to the University of Hawai'i (UH) to work with industry partners to allow the electric grid to take on more solar energy by developing and demonstrating state of the art photovoltaic (PV) inverters $750,000 to state Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism (DBEDT) to provide technical assistance to the Public Utilities Commission and ultimately help remove barriers to allow for more renewable energy on the electric grid $300,000 to the UH Maui College in partnership with DBEDT and private industry to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles in Hawai'i This morning’s speakers also included R.
Ten Things Obama Must Do to Help Slow the Rise of the Oceans and Heal the Planet – Without Waiting for Congress. Drool-worthy homes from this year’s Solar Decathlon, part 1 [VIDEO]