Koch Brothers
Way Beyond Greenwashing: Have Corporations Captured “Big Conservation”?
Imagine an international mega-deal. The global organic food industry agrees to support international agribusiness in clearing as much tropical rainforest as they want for farming. In return, agribusiness agrees to farm the now-deforested land using organic methods, and the organic industry encourages its supporters to buy the resulting timber and food under the newly devised “Rainforest Plus” label. There would surely be an international outcry.
Naomi Klein: A crisis this big changes everything
The world's collective failure to tackle climate change comes down to one big problem, says Naomi Klein: the clash of climate necessities against corporate power and a triumphant neo-liberal world order. So after decades of government dithering, she told Oliver Tickell, it's time for civil society to unite and build a radical justice-based movement for climate action.
Humanity has exceeded 4 of 9 ‘planetary boundaries,’ according to researchers
For the last 11,700 years until roughly 100 years ago, Earth had been in a "remarkably stable state," says Carpenter. During this time, known as the Holocene epoch, "everything important to civilization" has occurred. From the development of agriculture, to the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, to the Industrial Revolution, the Holocene has been a good time for human endeavors. But over the last century, some of the parameters that made the Holocene so hospitable have changed.
Heavyweight Response to Local Fracking Bans
Longmont a northern Colorado city vaulted onto the front lines of the battle over oil and gas drilling two years ago, when residents voted to ban hydraulic fracturing from their grassy open spaces and a snow-fed reservoir where anglers catch smallmouth bass. But these days, Longmont has become a cautionary tale of what can happen when cities decide to confront the oil and gas industry. In an aggressive response to a wave of citizen-led drilling bans, state officials, energy companies and industry groups are taking Longmont and other municipalities to court, forcing local governments into what critics say are expensive, long-shot efforts to defend the measures.
Climate’s Impact on Agriculture Could Lead to Calamity
Ebay joins Google and others in dumping Alec over climate stance
Bear Town USA
Brower is 81 years old, a great-grandmother who has lived all her life along the northern coast of the Beaufort Sea, the last 60 years in this Inupiat village of about 250 people on Barter Island. In the mid-1990s, summer ice began to disappear, she said recently, speaking in Inupiaq as her daughter Marie Rexford interpreted. The period of open water grew longer, she said. And then came the bears. Polar bears used to spend time on the ice far from shore hunting seals, she said. But when the ice vanished, they began ambling on land more often than before. Soon villagers were seeing more of them than anybody could remember, especially the last few years.
Bipartisan Report Tallies High Toll on Economy From Global Warming
More than a million homes and businesses along the nation s coasts could flood repeatedly before ultimately being destroyed. Entire states in the Southeast and the Corn Belt may lose much of their agriculture as farming shifts northward in a warming world. Heat and humidity will probably grow so intense that spending time outside will become physically dangerous, throwing industries like construction and tourism into turmoil. That is the picture of what may happen to the United States economy in a world of unchecked global warming, according to a major new report being put forward Tuesday by a coalition of senior political and economic figures from the left, right and center, including three Treasury secretaries stretching back to the Nixon administration.
Rate of US honeybee deaths ‘too high for long-term survival’
Honeybees are dying off at too high a rate to guarantee their long-term survival, even though fewer were lost last winter, a US government report said on Thursday. A number of studies - including one from Harvard researchers last week - have linked the collapse of honeybee populations to a widely used class of insecticides, which either kill the bees outright or make them more susceptible to pests and disease.
IPCC report: climate change felt ‘on all continents and across the oceans’
Climate change has already left its mark "on all continents and across the oceans", damaging food crops, spreading disease, and melting glaciers, according to the leaked text of a blockbuster UN climate science report due out on Monday. Government officials and scientists are gathered in Yokohama this week to wrangle over every line of a summary of the report before the final wording is released on Monday - the first update in seven years.
Oil Sands and the Post-Apocalyptic Wonderland
With the Keystone decision pending, and the kerfuffle over the potential environmental impact of the pipeline on American soil, I wanted to give my readers some idea of what it looked like where the oil that the pipeline will transport is sourced from. Most of you know that the oil will come from Canada's oil sands, located in the northeastern corner of Alberta, Canada's petro-province.
Noam Chomsky slams Canada’s shale gas energy plans
Canada's rush to exploit its tar sands and shale gas resources will destroy the environment "as fast as possible", according to Noam Chomsky. He said: "It means taking every drop of hydrocarbon out of the ground, whether it's shale gas in New Brunswick or tar sands in Alberta and trying to destroy the environment as fast as possible, with barely a question raised about what the world will look like as a result."
Human role in warming ‘more certain’ – UN climate chief
Scientists are more certain than ever that greenhouse gases from human activities are heating the planet, the head of the UN's climate panel says. Rajendra Pachauri made the comments in an interview with BBC News. The panel is due to deliver its latest report on the state of the climate later this week in Stockholm, Sweden.
What Do the Koch Brothers and Hurricane Sandy Have in Common
If you believe that these two extreme storms, a hurricane colliding with a massive winter storm in late October, are typical Mother Nature activity, you re living in a Dick Cheney fantasy world. Before trapped emissions created the greenhouse effect and rapid glacier ice melts played havoc with cyclical weather, what is now categorical evidence of climate change disasters, hurricanes would hit southern Florida once every ten years. It was regarded as exceptional and rare. Fast forward to 2008, and on the average, five to ten hurricanes hit the U.S. shores during hurricane season. As late as the 1980s, the idea of a hurricane smashing the northeast coast from New Jersey to Maine would be unthinkable or totally exceptional.
Koch-funded climate change skeptic reverses course
The verdict is in: Global warming is occurring and emissions of greenhouse gases caused by human activity are the main cause. This, according to Richard A. Muller, professor of physics at UC Berkeley, MacArthur Fellow and co-founder of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project. Never mind that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and hundreds of other climatologists around the world came to such conclusions years ago. The difference now is the source: Muller is a long-standing, colorful critic of prevailing climate science, and the Berkeley project was heavily funded by the Charles Koch Charitable Foundation, which, along with its libertarian petrochemical billionaire founder Charles G. Koch, has a considerable history of backing groups that deny climate change.
Loading the Climate Dice
Climate change denial is a major industry, lavishly financed by Exxon, the Koch brothers and others with a financial stake in the continued burning of fossil fuels. And exploiting variability is one of the key tricks of that industry s trade. Applications range from the Fox News perennial - "It's cold outside! Al Gore was wrong!" - to the constant claims that we re experiencing global cooling, not warming, because it's not as hot right now as it was a few years back.
Iceberg breaks off from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier
The Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland has calved an iceberg twice the size of Manhattan, scientists say. Images from a Nasa satellite show the island breaking off a tongue of ice that extends at the end of the glacier. In 2010 an ice island measuring 250 square km (100 square miles) broke off the same glacier.
Gulf Shrimp Widely Contaminated With Carcinogens
Conservative estimates indicate that the 2010 BP oil disaster released over 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf, followed by at least 1.8 million gallons of dispersants. While the use of dispersants helped mitigate the public relations disaster by preventing the persistent formation of surface oil, as well as keeping many beaches visibly untouched, they also drove the oil deeper into the water column (and food chain) rendering a 2-dimensional problem (surface oil) into a 3-dimensional one. Additionally, research indicates that dispersants prevent the biodegradation of toxic oil components, as well as increasing dispersant absorption into fish from between 6 to 1100 fold higher levels.
Schneiderman crushes Koch Brothers in climate-change lawsuit
Some Asian glaciers ‘putting on mass’
Some glaciers on Asia's Karakoram mountains are defying the global trend and getting thicker, say researchers. A French team used satellite data to show that glaciers in part of the Karakoram range, to the west of the Himalayan region, are putting on mass. The reason is unclear, as glaciers in other parts of the Himalayas are losing mass - which also is the global trend
We’ve Fracked So Much Gas We’ve Got No Place to Put It
House votes to expand drilling, approve Keystone XL
House lawmakers on Thursday approved a plan to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline and expand drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The 237-187 victory for Republican leaders - as part of one portion of a much larger energy and infrastructure strategy - was a relatively painless start to what has become a difficult endeavor for the overall package.
Leak Offers Glimpse of Campaign Against Climate Science
The documents, from a nonprofit organization in Chicago called the Heartland Institute, outline plans to promote a curriculum that would cast doubt on the scientific finding that fossil fuel emissions endanger the long-term welfare of the planet. "Principals and teachers are heavily biased toward the alarmist perspective" one document said.
Melting Arctic link to cold, snowy UK winters
Global warming James Delingpole claims green zealots are destroying the planet
Just imagine a world where you never had to worry about global warming, where the ice caps, the drowning Maldives and the polar bears were all doing just fine. Imagine a world where CO2 was our friend, fossil fuels were a miracle we should cherish, and economic growth made the planet cleaner, healthier, happier and with more open spaces. Actually, there s no need to imagine: it already exists. So why do so many people still believe otherwise?
Island nations want climate change in world court
Johnson Toribiong, president of Palau, said Friday his country and other island nations had formed an expert advisory committee to bring the issue before the U.N. General Assembly. That would allow the world court in the Hague to determine the legal ramifications of climate change under international law
Global Warming Engine Unexpectedly Slows
Preliminary reports from the Energy Information Administration's "Annual Energy Outlook" (which will be fully published in April) suggest that any carbon crisis may not be quite as imminent as thought. Not so long ago, the EIA predicted carbon emissions levels would rise by 37 percent between 2005 and 2035. The EIA - get this - now thinks that global CO2 emissions in 2025 will be 6 percent lower than they were in 2005.
So, why are the plant zones changing?
The interesting front-page story about the shifts in the Agriculture Department s plant hardiness zone maps since 1990 [ New plant map shifts area to warmer zone, Jan. 26] included this headline on the continuing page: Plant map doesn t measure climate change. However, nothing in the article discusses the relationship of the zone changes to climate change, whether global, national or regional. The nearly uniformly northward shifting zones reflect increases in average winter low temperatures between 1976 and 2005 at 8,000 weather stations. While this doesn t fully measure all the changes in climate, if this nationwide pattern is not attributable to global climate change - specifically to the global warming that scientists have concluded is unequivocal - what, pray tell, is responsible? The failure of The Post, not only to make the connection with global climate change but also to seemingly disavow it, is most puzzling.
Michael Oppenheimer on Global Warming
John Boehner’s Keystone XL conflict of interest
Songbirds as a Casualty of Warming
Former pipeline inspector calls Keystone XL a potential ‘disaster’
By forcing the White House to make a decision on the politically and environmentally toxic Keystone XL pipeline as part of an agreement reached in December to extend the payroll tax cut, Republicans are being lambasted by environmental groups for undercutting the federal environmental review process. Now, a whistleblower is claiming that the company overseeing the development of the proposed project, TransCanada, also has a track record of undercutting quality at the expense of the environment -- further calling into question the decision by Congress to prevent a new federal environmental impact study for Keystone XL.
The History of MIT’s Blatant Suppression of Cold Fusion
PBS Covers Link Between 2011’s Mind-Boggling Extreme Weather and Global Warming It’s Like Being on Steroids
Mainstream news outlets spent a lot of time in 2011 covering the record-breaking year for extreme weather in the U.S. But only a few of them spent much time exploring the link between those events and global warming (see With No End in Sight for Texas Drought, ABC News Explains: Every Farmer in the World Will Be Affected by Climate Change and links below).
Climate Cognitive Dissonance: The Profound Contradiction Between Science and Markets on the Road to 10°F Warming
On one side, the world s governments have pledged to hold temperature rise to 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F). To have even a 50/50 shot at meeting that target, humanity has a carbon budget of about 1,400 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide between now and 2050. The more we exceed that budget, the more the 2 degrees target slips out of reach. Here s the thing, though: The world s proven fossil fuel reserves, if burned, would create about 2.8 trillion tonnes of CO2, double that carbon budget. If countries are serious about 2 degrees, they must be planning to leave a lot of fossil fuels in the ground. Right?
German Energy Consumption Drops 4.8% in 2011, With Renewables Providing 20% of Electricity
According to new figures released from Germany s energy working group, AGEB, energy consumption in the country dropped 4.8% in 2011 from 2010. German consumption of oil fell 3%, gas by 10.2%, lignite coal by 0.7% (although hard coal rose 3.7%), and nuclear by 22.9%. At the same time, use of renewable energy climbed by 4.1% and represented about 20% of the country s electricity and 10.8% of total energy in 2011.
Occupy BP – Oil spill aftermath
I continue to be astounded by the lack of coverage of the consequences of the BP oil spill. The underlying concern, was anxiety about how the spill would impact the region's economy, health, wildlife, and habitats, both human and animal.. So if that was our concern then, why do we seem to have zero concern now, since now is when we are beginning to learn what those consequences actually are: a failed shrimp harvest, dolphin deaths, sea turtle deaths, dire worries about human health, an ocean floor deadened by blankets of oil and dispersants, and long-term damage to Gulf fish, including possible cellular damage.
Warming-Driven Drought and Extreme Weather Emerge as Key Threat to Global Food Security
Google’s Solar Flair $94 Million Investment in PV Projects
Here's more evidence of Google's flair for renewable energy deployment. Adding to the $850 million in clean energy deployment investments, Google is putting another $94 million into four solar photovoltaic projects representing 88 MW of capacity around California. The projects will be built by a leading North American developer Recurrent Energy.
Climate Change – THE greatest scientific frauds ever foisted
It s been a while since we ve had a good, old-fashioned, knock-down, drag-out discussion about the whole topic of climate change. My own feeling, as many regulars on this blog know, is that the issue of global warming/climate change is one of, if not THE greatest scientific frauds ever foisted on mankind, and now information is becoming public at an increasing rate that backs up that assertion.
Beisner Rejects Koch-Funded Study Confirming Climate Change Science
Calvin Beisner is running low on allies in his effort to deny climate change. Beisner, the head of the Cornwall Alliance, is trying to stop other evangelical Christians from supporting efforts to curtail climate change with warnings that scientists are liars and environmental protection will destroy Christianity, promote mass genocide and hurt the poor.
Pollution locator for Koch Industries
See the pollution record of various Koch owned and operated idustries around the country brouht to you by Scorecard -- Scorecard is the web's most popular resource for information about pollution problems and toxic chemicals. Find out about the pollution problems in your community and learn who is responsible.
The Wall Street-climate change connection
Think "climate change" and the companies that come to mind are oil giants like Exxon Mobil or BP - not JP Morgan or Bank of America. But a new study by Urgewald, a German environmental organization, establishes a strong link between large multinational banks and the coal industry, one of the biggest contributors to climate change
Climate Change Threatens Western States Water Supplies
by Tom Kenworthy Western states that rely on snowpack for their water supplies are going to face a challenging future because of climate change, a senior Department of Interior official warned a Senate subcommittee Thursday. "Warming and associated loss of snowpack will persist over much of the western United States," Assistant DOI secretary Anne Castle [...]
Australian Green Party Leader: U.S. Climate Denial Machine “Being Directed Straight into Australia” Via Murdoch’s News Corp
The Winning Aussie Strategy: Fighting Back Against Deniers and Talking About Climate Change If President Obama needs a role model for his stance (or lack thereof) on climate change, he should look no further than the Deputy Leader of Australia’s Green Party, Christine Milne. In a wide-ranging interview with Climate Progress at the COP 17 [...]
EPA Implicates Fracking in Groundwater Pollution at Wyoming Gas Field
CHEYENNE, Wyo. "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday for the first time that fracking " a controversial method of improving the productivity of oil and gas wells may be to blame for causing groundwater pollution. The draft finding could have a chilling effect in states trying to determine how to regulate the [...]
The Kyoto Protocol and the High Cost of Fighting Climate Change
The key barrier to fighting climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions is that any such scheme is likely to be expensive. Some people find that argument straightforward, even obvious; to others, it s na ve and incorrect. For those in the former camp, recent news has provided an instructive example.
Obama:: Any Effort to Tie Keystone to the Payroll Tax Cut, I Will Reject
Politico reports this news coming from President Obama's joint appearance with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper: "Any effort to tie Keystone to the payroll tax cut, I will reject. So everybody can be on notice," Obama said in a warning to Congressional Republicans. "If the payroll tax cut is attached to a whole bunch of [...]
ALEC Deems Kids Eating Rat Poison An ‘Acceptable Risk’
Politicians Need to Listen to the People, Not the Polluters
Corporations who bear the most responsibility for contributing to climate change emissions - and then profiting from those activities - are campaigning to increase their access to international negotiations like the upcoming COP17 meeting in Durban. At the same time, these carbon-intensive industries are working to defeat progressive legislation on climate change and energy around the world.
Canada eyes Asia after U.S. delays Keystone project
Clean Energy Has Highest Documented Rate of Return of Any Federal Program, But the WashPost Cluelessly Smears the Effort
Utility CEO on Solar: In 3 to 5 Years You’ll Be Able to Get Power Cheaper from the Roof of Your House Than From the Grid
The fundamental issue of our day [is] climate change....The people who were opposed to climate change legislation used one of two tactics. They either said, "Well, we don't believe it's happening." Which, of course, is just a bald-faced lie. Or the second part of the one/two punch is, "We can't afford to do anything about it because a synonym for the word "green" is "expensive." But looking forward, electric vehicles will be far cheaper to operate than internal combustion engine vehicles. And solar panels on the roof will provide power more cheaply than taking power from the grid.
A Gold Rush of Subsidies in Clean Energy Search
Unanimous agreement among scientists Earth to suffer major loss in species
The thylacine, the dodo, the great auk, the passenger pigeon, the golden toad: these species have become symbols of extinction. But they are only the tip of the recent extinction crisis, and according to a survey of 583 conservation scientists, they are only the beginning. In a new survey in Conservation Biology, 99.5 percent of conservation scientists said a serious loss in biodiversity was either 'likely', 'very likely', or 'virtually certain'.
Keystone XL pipeline debate Canada to the Gulf – inform yourself
The Keystone Pipeline transports synthetic crude oil and diluted bitumen from the Athabasca Oil Sands in northeastern Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma, and on to the U.S. Gulf Coast. (See Map) The "XL" designation is the expansion plan indicated in red. This is a hugely controversial expansion both environmentally and politically. Keystone XL has faced lawsuits from oil refineries and criticism from environmentalists and some members of the U.S. Congress.
Thousands gather to protest TransCanada pipeline by encircling the White House
Last Two Winters’ Warm Extremes More Severe Than Their Cold Snaps, Study Finds
The Coolest Solar Manufacturing Technology You’ve Never Heard Of The Optical Cavity Furnace
The Optical Cavity Furnace is a new piece of equipment for making solar cells that is about to rock the photovoltaic industry by slashing costs and increasing efficiency. The news should not just excite tech nerds-by reducing the cost of producing solar cells by nearly three-quarters, this new technology represents another big step on the path to making clean energy the cheap kind of energy.
BP gets Gulf oil drilling permit amid 28,000 unmonitored abandoned wells
A skeptical physicist ends up confirming climate data
Back in 2010, Richard Muller, a Berkeley physicist and self-proclaimed climate skeptic, decided to launch the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) project to review the temperature data that underpinned global-warming claims. Remember, this was not long after the Climategate affair had erupted, at a time when skeptics were griping that climatologists had based their claims on faulty temperature data.
Solar market scouts for cash as subsidies fade
Oil lobby group got help from muzzled federal expert
Despite What You May Hear From the GOP, Businesses Still Think Clean Energy is Hot
In covering the Solyndra media circus, the press has been infatuated with the politics of clean energy. So they ve often missed - or misreported - the most important story about the business community s support of a sector that has had "explosive" jobs growth since 2003, as a recent Brookings Institution report found.
Melting ice is Earth’s warning signal – and we cannot ignore it
Ice is the white flag being waved by our planet, under fire from the atmospheric attack being mounted by humanity. From the frosted plains of the Arctic ice pack to the cool blue caverns of the mountain glaciers, the dripping away of frozen water is the most crystal clear of all the Earth's warning signals.
American divide over global warming getting deeper
Moving Planet Climate Rallies Around the World
Koch’s response actually agrees with Greenpeace Toxic Koch report
Well, ok, Koch didn t agree with everything we said in our report. Koch's so-called "response" in fact fails to even address the vast majority of our report's findings. They make no mention of their lobbying activities to block comprehensive chemical security legislation, their campaign contributions to key lawmakers, or why they have failed to convert their dangerous chemical facilities to safer processes
Despite Rick Perry, consensus on climate change keeps strengthening
Over the past few days, fact-checkers have been kept busy debunking this statement from Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), on why he doesn t believe that humans are heating the planet: "I think we're seeing it almost weekly or even daily, scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change."
What tar sands and the Keystone XL pipeline mean for climate change
Bill McKibben is leading what may be the largest green civil disobedience campaign in a generation, against the proposed construction of the 1,600-mile long Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline would transport oil from the Alberta tar sands in Canada to American refineries at the Gulf of Mexico, and many are concerned about the associated impacts on the climate. Digging up new sources of fossil fuels will inevitably increase the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, and the tar sands result in higher carbon emissions than even conventional oil.
Climate change and cooperation
The evidence is unmistakable: climate change is already occurring. South Asia with its delicately balanced ecology, its heavy reliance on monsoons, its critical dependence on agriculture and persistent mass poverty, is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to climate change. Increased variability in the magnitude and timing of rain fall during the monsoons could increase the instability of agriculture production and add to the burden of the poor.
Do scientists disagree about global warming?
Climate change has become a touchy subject in the Republican primary. Though some candidates once supported plans to reduce carbon emissions, such strategies have fallen out of favor with Republicans in recent years. Even acknowledging that human beings are causing climate change can be politically problematic for some Republicans.
Top Companies Claim To Fight Global Warming, But Sponsor ALEC’s Climate Denial
The fight against global warming pollution requires the investment of everyone, including the world s multinational corporate giants. Many companies have taken official stances on climate pollution, pledging to reduce their greenhouse footprint in order to reduce the threat of a destabilized climate
All 50 States See Record Highs in July
The horrible July heat wave , lasting weeks in some cities, the entire month in others, affected nearly 200 million people in the United States at some point. Preliminary data show that 2,712 high-temperature records were either tied or broken in July, compared with 1,444 last year, according to the NCDC. At least one weather station in all 50 states set or tied a daily high temperature record at some point during July.
Bloomberg Philanthropies Commits $50 million to Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign
Olbermann: News Corp. could be behind ‘Climate Gate’ hacking
On Nauru, a Sinking Feeling
Climate change also threatens the very existence of many countries in the Pacific, where the sea level is projected to rise three feet or more by the end of the century. Already, Nauru s coast, the only habitable area, is steadily eroding, and communities in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands have been forced to flee their homes to escape record tides.
Why Global Warming Alarmism Isn’t Science
Links to various climate sites
Global Warming Boosts Worst Wildfires ‘Since the Last Ice Age’
Misuse of Food and Climate Data at Forbes
Forbes, which regularly publishes biased, misleading, and distorted opinion pieces on climate issues, has just published a remarkable one by Patrick Michaels. Michaels is well known for his regular misleading statements about climate. And while his statements are mostly worth ignoring, this one contains a particularly remarkable combination of errors and falsehoods. He accuses a variety of other people (including Justin Gillis of the New York Times) of misrepresenting data on food production and climate risks while simultaneously doing exactly that.
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