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"The earth is not dying. It is being killed, and the people killing it have names and addresses." --Utah Phillips
At this moment we are flying over the continent of Africa on our way to the UN Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa. In a cruel twist of cosmic and human injustice, the residents of the continent of Africa who have contributed so little to the glut of greenhouse gases how heating our planet are among those hardest hit by climate change.
Desertification, drought, floods and famine are now caused and intensified by climate change. These not so natural disasters only worsen the political instability and the human suffering in many parts of Africa. These severe weather events only stand to get worse until my country, the USA, gets serious about addressing climate change.
This is the 17th UN Climate Conference and the 4th I have attended at the urging of my wife Tyla Matteson. At each conference, we learn that climate science is yielding ever more dire warnings at the same time that the political will among our "leaders" to take meaningful action only seems to diminish. We meet people from all over the world working for climate justice, many of whom are already impacted by climate change.
It might be easy for Americans to be depressed, fatalistic, feel guilty or practice denial about the looming disasters associated with the major shifts in the climate that are only a generation or two in the future. After all, as Americans and as the planet's all time big polluters what can we do in the face of a well-financed disinformation campaign sponsored by the wealthiest corporations in the world - the oil companies?
The political influence of the oil and coal industry allows them to destroy the planet and inflict incalculable suffering on present and future generations while the fossil fuel sector makes exorbitant profits that they plow back in to lobbying, campaign contributions and outright bribery in some countries to sabotage political progress on climate change. You have to wonder how they can sleep at night.
The top strategic priority of the Sierra Club is to confront the dominance of coal and oil on the American economy, politics, and our environment. That is exactly what we must do: confront and defeat a oil and coal industry that puts greed over the long term well being of our planet and all the people and living things that inhabit her.
So get motivated, get involved and work to save the planet and to defend present and future generations that are counting on us. We have allies across the world--get to know them. Failure is not an option. Let's go!
On Thursday, the conservative American Tradition Institute (ATI) announced that the University of Virginia (UVA) handed over a disc containing 3,827 pages to the ATI's Environmental Law Center.
The over 3,800 pages of documents were produced by Prof. Michael E. Mann, a former climate change researcher at UVA. ATI didn't state however what the documents contained.
The documents were given to ATI after a Prince William Circuit Court judge ordered UVA to supply the documents requested by ATI and conservative Del. Robert G. Marshall (as if he could actually understand them).
The continuance of this witch-hunt for climate-change "supporters" seems like a scenario taken out of George Orwell's 1984. Mann saw too clearly, he spoke too plainly...
It appears that to many conservatives in the U.S., science is a play-thing to support one's own policy position(s) or to undermine that of an opponents. That is, science for these individuals is a subjective line of investigation.
But for anyone who cares to look at the data and evaluate the facts on their face, they'll see clearly that climate change is a real phenomenon, a consequence in no small part of human behaviors.
The attack on Michael Mann and his science is not just an attack on climate science, it's an attack on every intellectual's ability to go against the political winds of the moment.
These happenings are not supposed to occur in the "freest country in the world."
But what is particularly ironic is that the same individuals persecuting Mann and UVA are some of the same individuals who religiously tout the virtues of individual freedom and liberty. Like kings who ruled centuries ago, what these individuals really mean is individual freedom and liberty which does not disrupt their own parochial interests.
An Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming PREAMBLE
As governments consider policies to fight alleged man-made global warming, evangelical leaders have a responsibility to be well informed, and then to speak out. A Renewed Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Examination of the Theology, Science, and Economics of Global Warming demonstrates that many of these proposed policies would destroy jobs and impose trillions of dollars in costs to achieve no net benefits. They could be implemented only by enormous and dangerous expansion of government control over private life. Worst of all, by raising energy prices and hindering economic development, they would slow or stop the rise of the world's poor out of poverty and so condemn millions to premature death.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
1. We believe Earth and its ecosystems-created by God's intelligent design and infinite power and sustained by His faithful providence are robust, resilient, selfregulating, and self-correcting, admirably suited for human flourishing, and displaying His glory. Earth's climate system is no exception. Recent global warming is one of many natural cycles of warming and cooling in geologic history.
2. We believe abundant, affordable energy is indispensable to human flourishing, particularly to societies which are rising out of abject poverty and the high rates of disease and premature death that accompany it. With present technologies, fossil and nuclear fuels are indispensable if energy is to be abundant and affordable.
3. We believe mandatory reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, achievable mainly by greatly reduced use of fossil fuels, will greatly increase the price of energy and harm economies.
4. We believe such policies will harm the poor more than others because the poor spend a higher percentage of their income on energy and desperately need economic growth to rise out of poverty and overcome its miseries.
WHAT WE DENY
1. We deny that Earth and its ecosystems are the fragile and unstable products of chance, and particularly that Earth's climate system is vulnerable to dangerous alteration because of minuscule changes in atmospheric chemistry. Recent warming was neither abnormally large nor abnormally rapid. There is no convincing scientific evidence that human contribution to greenhouse gases is causing dangerous global warming.
2. We deny that alternative, renewable fuels can, with present or near-term technology, replace fossil and nuclear fuels, either wholly or in significant part, to provide the abundant, affordable energy necessary to sustain prosperous economies or overcome poverty.
3. We deny that carbon dioxide-essential to all plant growth-is a pollutant. Reducing greenhouse gases cannot achieve significant reductions in future global temperatures, and the costs of the policies would far exceed the benefits.
4. We deny that such policies, which amount to a regressive tax, comply with the Biblical requirement of protecting the poor from harm and oppression.
A CALL TO ACTION
In light of these facts,
1. We call on our fellow Christians to practice creation stewardship out of Biblical conviction, adoration for our Creator, and love for our fellow man-especially the poor.
2. We call on Christian leaders to understand the truth about climate change and embrace Biblical thinking, sound science, and careful economic analysis in creation stewardship.
3. We call on political leaders to adopt policies that protect human liberty, make energy more affordable, and free the poor to rise out of poverty, while abandoning fruitless, indeed harmful policies to control global temperature.
This afternoon, the Virginia House of Delegates voted along mostly party lines to give Attorney General Cuccinelli an additional $300,000 to spend in his fight against science. Specifically, the money can be spent on a lawsuit against the EPA's endangerment finding and related global warming rules.
If you'll recall Ken Kochinelli claims that this lawsuit isn't costing Virginia taxpayers a dime. At least, that's what our FOIA request in February 2010 showed. Kochinelli and Texaco Bob McDonnell are trying to hide the truth from Virginians. While their denial of climate change appeals to their base it doesn't prepare Virginians for the looming threats of the future.
For the past year, they've cloaked patriotism in a flag of climate denial. Big oil companies, the Tea Party and their allies in elected office have argued that drilling here and now will protect America's freedom. They've argued that addressing our energy consumption will limit individual freedom, or raise energy prices.
The true threat to our freedom comes in our over reliance on fossil fuels. As Patrick Henry said in his famous "Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death" speech:
Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.
For more than a year, the environmental community has been asking Senator Jim Webb, "whose side are you on," when it comes to addressing carbon pollution. Time and again, he has forced us to ask this question as he has flirted with different efforts to strip EPA authority when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Here's the quick background:
In April 2007, the Supreme Court determined that greenhouse gases are air pollutants subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act. The Court authorized the EPA to determine whether emission of greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health. This process began under the Bush Administration, and was concluded under the Obama Administration when in the spring of 2009 EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced that the science supported a link between increased greenhouse gas emissions and threats to public health as a result of the increased air pollution.
The Supreme Court of Virginia recently agreed to judge a case involving Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's effort to obtain documents related to former University of Virginia climate-change researcher Michael Mann.
Cuccinelli's investigation into Professor Mann opened on the belief that Mann had defrauded taxpayers in Virginia by using manipulated data to obtain government grants.
The University of Virginia, much to their credit, has resisted Cuccinelli's demand for the records.
After a Virginia judge struck down Cuccinelli's first attempt to obtain Mann's documents on climate change, Cuccinelli appealed the ruling.
According to The Daily Progress, both Mann and Cuccinelli are pleased that the case will be reviewed by the Supreme Court.
Regardless of the final outcome, however, Cuccinelli's witch-hunt for believers of climate change in the academic community is an illustrative case study of just how far right Virginia has gone in important respects.
Only a decade ago, it would have been highly improbable that an Attorney General would have drug out a former University of Virginia professor to accuse him of fraud and intellectual dishonesty. All this, as Cuccinelli has made clear in other statements, because he does not believe in the conclusions that Professor Mann drew from his research.
This whole ordeal is, of course, a political stunt made primarily for the purpose of bolstering Cuccinelli's conservative credentials. But while Cuccinelli is playing a Machiavellian game of politics, the world is literally heating up.
Cuccinelli may not believe in the science of climate change, but his disbelief certainly does not change the fact of climate change or its negative effects on living organisms.
On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rejected the petitions of AG Ken Cuccinelli and 9 other groups that challeneged their finding that carbon dioxide is a threat to human health. EPA declared that "the petitioners' arguments and evidence are inadequate, generally unscientific, and do not show that the underlying science supporting the Endangerment Finding is flawed."
As we suffer through what is likely to be our hottest July on record after experiencing the hottest first six months of a year on record, VA Attorney General Cuccinelli continues to persist in his flat earth denial of climate change.
Cuccinelli will continue to pursue his challenges to climate change in federal court as well as in suing UVA alleging fraud by respected climate scientist Michael Mann, but today the US EPA came out officially to deny Cuccinelli's petition that the EPA reconsider its regulation of green house gases. That is welcome but not unexpected news. The only fraud involved in this matter is the fraud Cuccinelli is perpetrating on the tax payers of Virginia who are incurring the costs of this frivilous litigation.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch recently asked Virginia's US Senators, Congressmen, and Gov. McDonnell for their opinions on climate change.
Some of the responses are fascinating and give great insight into the politics that have thus far prevented meaningful action from taking place. There seems to be broad acknowledgment that climate change is happening (though not universal buy-in to the idea that humans contribute to it).
The real divergence comes when you get to the "What do we do about it" part. Opponent's of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, passed last year by the House, fall reflexively into "Cap-and-Tax!" mode without offering any real alternatives that would change the current dynamics of the energy sector to the point where real investments in renewable energy and efficiency would emerge. Assigning real cost to the environmental, health, and societal damage caused by the buring of fossil fuels seems to be necessary to shake us out of the status quo in which we find ourselves stuck.
What are your thoughts on how best to tackle the problem of climate change?
Over one hundred Virginia Clergy have united to send a message to Senators Webb and Warner that climate change is moral issue and their action is required. Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light's release on the letter's delivery:
RICHMOND, Va. -- As the US Senate prepares to take up climate and energy legislation, over 100 religious
leaders from across Virginia delivered letters to Senators Webb and Warner today, making a moral case for comprehensive
climate legislation that includes strong emission reductions, international adaptation assistance, and protections for low-income families.
The letters were delivered in person to senate staff during meetings in Richmond today by a representative group of signers. Numerous others are calling the Senators' DC offices to deliver their message. Transcending the intense lobbying from special interest groups, the faith community is calling on lawmakers to honor the values of caring both for our neighbors and for God's creation.
"As religious leaders from across the Commonwealth, we are writing to express our alarm at the state of environmental stewardship here in Virginia, and nationwide," the letter states. "For us as people of faith, this is an issue of basic fairness and justice; not only because we are called to care for Creation, but because of who will be harmed most by inaction: the poor and voiceless."
The clergy who joined this effort reflect tremendous religious and geographical diversity. They are speaking out from five religious traditions - Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Unitarian Universalism and seven denominations of Christianity -- and hail from all corners of the Commonwealth.
"Our senators might get the impression from recent headlines that the basic science of climate change remains controversial in our state," says Joseph R. Stanley III, the director of the Virginia Interfaith Center's Interfaith Power & Light program. "But the fact that more than 100 local leaders of sacred communities are acting together speaks volumes. For them, the facts are in. They see what's happening to our world. Climate change is real, and they feel called as people of faith to respond."
"When you ask the pastors, rabbis, and imams who joined this letter why they signed on, not one of them mentions politics. It's much bigger than politics," says Joelle Novey, the director of Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light, which works with congregations across Northern Virginia. "We are calling on Senators Webb and Warner to pass comprehensive climate legislation out of a sense of moral responsibility to care for our neighbors and for Creation. And we are asking that any legislation do right by the poor around the world, and close to home."
"I believe that we have a responsibility to care for, and not destroy, the miraculous world God created," says Rabbi Jeffrey Saxe in Falls Church.
"This world is God's creation, beloved and whole, and we are charged with its care," says Rev. Mollie Douglas Turner, an Episcopal priest in Williamsburg.
"As a faith leader, the scriptures instruct us that human beings have been placed on Earth to be the trustees and guardians of this planet and its people," says Imam Johari Abdul-Malik of Falls Church. We believe that in order for us to have a sustainable planet ... personal stewardship and community efforts are not enough. Systemic change regarding climate requires legislation in order to guide our corporate societal behavior."
"I signed onto this letter because all of creation praises God: the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, the animals of the forest, the wind, the rain, even the trees," says Rev. Diane Walton Hendricks, a Presbyterian minister in Falls Church. As stewards of creation we must enable the voices of all creation to continue to be raised in their own unique songs of praise. We dare not allow our actions to silence the song."
"The Creation, all of it, not just our own little part, is meant to be lived in full community," says Rev. Mochel Morris, a Methodist minister in Falls Church. "We who are stewards must care for all of it, especially for the 'least of these' who have little or no voice -- people, creatures, plants -- all of it."
"Each of us bears a personal moral responsibility and imperative to be a positive contributor to sustaining life," says Rev. Kate Walker in Fairfax County. "My ordination compels me as a minister; I take on the responsibility to lead."
The letter effort was convened jointly by the Virginia and Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light programs, and was circulated initially by five clergy: Imam Johari Abdul-Malik (Muslim, Falls Church), Rev. Dr. Morris Hudgins (Unitarian Universalist, Charlottesville), Bishop Charlene Kammerer (United Methodist, Richmond), Rev. Dr. Janet Parker, (United Church of Christ, Arlington), and Rabbi Jeffrey Saxe (Jewish, Falls Church). The letter is signed by Rt. Rev. Holly Hollerith, the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia, and Rev. Dr. G. Wilson Gunn, Jr., General Presbyter of the National Capital Presbytery (which includes Northern Virginia).
Delegate Albert Pollard joined sixteen Democratic General Assembly members at a press conference yesterday in the Capitol, urging Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to withdraw challenges to a federal decision on global warming, claiming that questioning established science is a frivolous waste of tax money. Two legal actions were filed last month by Cuccinelli seeking to block the federal move to regular emissions and gases linked to global warming.
Delegate Pollard's comments reminded Cuccinelli that global warming is an "established fact."
I just attended a press conference with other legislators urging Attorney General Cuccinelli to reconsider his position on his lawsuit against the Federal government over whether the EPA has the authority to regulate sources of carbon dioxide as a pollutant.
Mr. Speaker, there are plenty of reasons to be upset about Federal overreach, but their efforts to control pollution is not one of them. At a time when the Federal government is doing everything from trying to establish standards for local schools to dictating how our fishing licenses are written - there are very legitimate reasons to be concerned about federal overreach. But, Mr. Speaker, it is an established fact that the earth is warming - that our climate is changing.
Democratic legislators held a press conference in the Capitol on Tuesday in what was a sharp rebuke of the Attorney General's decision to challenge the EPA's authority to regulate green house gas emissions. We are proud of the leadership and committment that these seventeen legislators showed in the fight to combat climate change. Here are a few stories that discuss what went on at the press conference:
In the Richmond Times-Dispatch today, Glenda Booth, with the National Audubon Society, wrote that about the reasons why Virginia should be taking climate change seriously. Our position on the coast and at a relatively low sea level makes us particularly vulnerable to its negative effects. Glenda lays out the national security, wildlife/hunter/fisher and economic reasons why Virginia must act soon.
Given the state's $4 billion budget shortfall, perhaps legislators could be convinced by a cost-saving argument. Virginia, ranking 34th in energy efficiency, can cut emissions, reduce energy use, and save money in state operations.
It was particularly great to read this well-reasoned and thoughtful call to action, coming on the heels of Virginia's new Attorney General's less than well-reasoned or thoughtful action taken against the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday.
Read about Ken Cuccinelli's petition to the EPA in Chelsea's previous post, view the first part of his press conference after the jump and then view part 2, part 3 and part 4.
Today was another day for Virginia to make headlines. Like most headlines of late, this wasn't a good one either. Our new Attorney General has made healthcare and the environment his top priorities. Shouldn't this be a GOOD thing you ask? In some instances, yes, but not when his priority is to make every federal law regulating green house gas emissions and mandating healthcare for all citizens illegal in our state. He is taking these issues full on as public enemies #1 and #2.
After sending out an email to his listserv last week disputing global warming all together, our AG, Ken Cuccinelli held a press conference today, announcing his petition to the EPA to reconsider its finding that global warming threatens our livelihood. His reasoning for this petition? Climategate. Remember that little mole hill climate deniers successfully made into a mountain? Our state government has decided this is such an important issue that we should spend staff time and taxpayer money on it. Meanwhile, we're looking at a $1.2 billion budget shortfall. Great idea guys. Let's spend money on this.
So let's recap here. While our new Governor is backroom wheeling and dealing over serious budget cuts, including a $730 million cut to K-12 education programs over 2 years, and more Virginians are out of work and without healthcare, the new Administration is spending money on frivolous lawsuits against the EPA because they are concerned the EPA is finally going to do its job. Whew, glad to see this Administration has their priorities in order.
An active association of forty-seven garden clubs, whose members collectively form a group of more than 3,300 civic leaders from around the Commonwealth, the Garden Club of Virginia exists to celebrate the beauty of the land, to conserve the gifts of nature and to challenge future generations to build on this heritage. We encourage our members to be informed advocates for proper land management practices, particularly those involving long-term protection of air, water, and soil qualities; and we encourage local organizations and governing bodies to support responsible residential and commercial development.
With these objectives in mind, the Garden Club of Virginia Board approved a resolution on December 11, 2009 to oppose the Cypress Creek Coal-Fired Power Plant proposed by ODEC for Dendron in Surry County. The resolution follows:
GCV Resolution
WHEREAS, the Garden Club of Virginia strives for the preservation of Virginia's beauty and natural heritage-including clean air and water, healthy terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and intact landscapes-from the Tidewater and the Chesapeake Bay to the mountains and streams in the western portion of the state;
WHEREAS, the coal-fired power plant proposed for Hampton Roads by Old Dominion Electric Co-operative could:
• Exacerbate mountaintop removal coal mining, a practice that permanently destroys the mountains, forests and headwater streams of southwest Virginia-treasured and irreplaceable parts of our natural heritage that provide clean water to communities, harbor a diversity of plants and animals unequaled in other regions of the United States, and enrich the lives of residents and visitors alike;
• Annually emit millions of tons of carbon dioxide, making it a major contributor to climate change, a severe threat to Virginia's more than 3,300 miles of tidal shoreline, its agricultural sector, and its sensitive wildlife habitats;
• Annually emit thousands of tons of the air pollutants that cause smog, soot, ground-level ozone, and acid rain, impairing human health and natural ecosystems;
• Contribute significantly to excessive levels of nitrogen in the Chesapeake Bay-the most serious problem facing the Bay-through deposition of airborne nitrogen oxide emissions, worsening algal blooms that deplete oxygen levels, killing fish and shellfish and creating "dead zones" in the Bay;
• Also emit a large quantity of airborne mercury in close proximity to the Chesapeake Bay and major tributaries, contributing to mercury deposition leading to the contamination of fish and other aquatic life in waters already subject to fish consumption advisories due to excessive mercury levels;
THEREFORE, be it resolved that the Garden Club of Virginia will work to oppose construction of the proposed plant and continue to advocate for investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy in the state.
With this move, the Garden Club of Virginia has joined the former Director of the VA DEQ and 2008 recipient of the GCV Dugdale Award Bob Burnley in opposing construction of the Cypress Creek plant. Groups fighting to stop the plant include the Chesapeake Bay Foundation; Chesapeake Climate Action Network; Wise Energy for Virginia; Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards; Sierra Club; Physicians for Social Responsibility; Surry Justice; and the Southern Environmental Law Center.
User comments or postings reflect the opinions of the responsible contributor only, and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Sierra Club and/or the League of Conservation Voters. The Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters do not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of any posting. The Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters accepts no obligation to review every posting, but reserves the right (but not the obligation) to delete postings that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate.
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