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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!
One year of above-average temperatures or extreme weather events are not enough to confirm the theory of global warming, but to some farmers in Virginia, the heat is taking a large toll.
In Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, corn growers claim their crops are suffering due to the extreme heat.
While the rain has been sufficient, the extreme heat has caused the moisture to evaporate quicker than normal. Consequently, some corn stocks are not getting the water they need.
According to the News Leader of Staunton, a number of farmers have started to rotate irrigation systems that spray water over fields. Others, however, can't afford these expensive irrigation systems and are therefore at an extreme competitive disadvantage.
Corn requires moisture to pollinate and start forming ears full of kernels.
While most of the corn in the valley is used as feed for cattle, the market impact of less corn being brought to the market will still have an effect on the prices consumers pay for a number of grocery items.
The increasing global temperatures can be abated however if grassroots and political action is taken now and on a sustained basis. We have the tools to halt the Earth's warming process, but do have the sense of urgency necessary to keep working towards a sustainable planet?
Don't let the voices who deny global warming outright foul you. This phenomenon is real and I hope it doesn't take us decades more to realize it.
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.
Virginia State Delegate Adam Ebbin today condemned the recent efforts by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to undo key Federal environmental standards put in place to combat global warming.
"Once again, Ken Cuccinelli has put his partisan political goals ahead of the needs of Virginia families. In opposing Federal efforts to protect our environment, Cuccinelli is displaying the sort of blind fervor that has defined his tenure as Attorney General. At a time when Virginians are looking to the government of our Commonwealth for protection from real criminals, Ken Cuccinelli is focusing his efforts on dead-end lawsuits and political posturing," said Ebbin.
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 VA Sierra Club PAC launched a new campaign today with two goals: uncover the extreme agenda of the McDonnell-Cuccinelli Administration and raise money to elect environmentally minded candidates to the General Assembly in 2011. The following is a statement from Virginia Chapter-Sierra Club Assistant Director J.R. Tolbert about the launch of this new initiative.
"Attorney General Cuccinelli and Governor McDonnell have taken Virginia down a dangerous path since taking office. The Attorney General's barrage of attacks against climate science, and the men and women who study that science, as well as the governor's complicity in sitting quietly as these attacks occur are not representative of Virginian values.
"The Virginia Chapter-Sierra Club is committed to fighting back against these attacks. Heading into this election year, we know that the out-of-touch policies of the McDonnell Administration and their allies in the legislature will be on full display. Already, Delegate Bob Marshall has put forward more climate denial bills. Legislation that if passed would see Virginia slip even further behind in the race for 21st century jobs.
"Members of the General Assembly have a choice. They can stand with Cuccinelli, or they can stand up for basic Virginia values like clean air and clean water. We look forward to working with those that share our values, and defeating those that do not.
"By working together, Virginians can stop the extreme agenda of the McDonnell-Cuccinelli Administration and ensure a brighter future for the Commonwealth."
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.
There are many things that are being said about the shortcomings of the Copenhagen negotiations, but with the science telling us we must take action now if we are to protect our climate as well as the people impacted by climate change and the rich bio-diversity of this planet we call home, there is little time to debate the outcome. The time has come to act.
Coming out of Copenhagen, we have a political agreement by the leaders of the largest emitter nations who, eye ball to eye ball, hammered out the Copenhagen Accord; an agreement that goes beyond Kyoto to secure first time commitments to reduce emissions from the US as well as developing countries like China, India and Brazil.
Admittedly, the agreement does not go far enough to keep the average temperature of the earth from exceeding two degrees centigrade, but these new commitments by the US and by developing countries are a historic step forward, as President Obama noted in comments after the agreement was struck. The objection to the agreement of small island nations like Tuvalu, that face extinction if further progress is not achieved, is understandable. Clearly, this first step can not be the last.
For Americans who recognize the risks of climate change, there is one overwhelmingly important task that flows from this agreement: we must pass a clean energy and climate bill in 2010, and with mid-term elections bearing down on us, it is essential that Congress act before Earth Day, April 22, 2010.
President Obama has taken the political risk to commit the United States to the vision of a clean energy future with greenhouse gas emission reductions consistent with the legislation now pending before the Congress. It is now up to us to compel the Senate to act. We must not fail, we can not fail, in taking this first step toward a clean energy future protected from the risks of climate change.
Glen Besa, has spent the last two weeks in Copenhagen as a member of the Sierra Club's delegation to the UN Climate Conference. He is the director of the Virginia Chapter of Sierra Club.
(Great job! Peebles is a summer intern with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network aka CCAN. - promoted by Eileen)
Surry, Virginia, is about as picturesque as they come. A portrait of the rural south, Surry and its neighbor, Dendron, offer testament to the unique charm and unavoidable beauty that accompanies the idea of small-town America. Wary of outsiders and exceptionally warm toward neighbors and friends, the residents of Surry County understand the inherent splendor of a life that is unhindered by external influence.
Naturally, it comes as no surprise that Old Dominion Electric Cooperative's proposed dirty, unhealthy, coal-fired power plant has been received with very few open arms in the community. Of course, this has not dampened the large cooperative's desire to take advantage of a small town with its share of economic difficulties.
With the promise of new jobs and increased tax revenue, ODEC has repeatedly stressed the so-called benefits to be won from the massive plant's construction. On Monday evening, Dendron's town council brought these claims to task during their regular meeting. Dendronites are engaged in a fight to save the health of their community, their children, and the irreplaceable beauty of the surrounding environment.
The Coalition to Keep Surry Clean, spearheaded by a group of energized residents and neighbors, has brought the fight against dirty coal to a national level. The evening kicked off with an outdoor potluck, featuring democratic gubernatorial candidate, Brian Moran (the only of the three in opposition to the plant). Under the watchful eye of national and local media, citizens called for a Surry that would be free of excess pollution, harmful chemicals and obtrusive, dangerous, 600-foot smokestacks. Coalition spokeswoman, Beth Roach, cast an air of humility over the audience as she called on all people to consider and ensure the health and happiness of future generations. Through the timeless words of Iroquois leader, Peacemaker, the message requires little interpretation:
"Think not forever of yourselves, O Chiefs, nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families, think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground."
At yesterday's community meeting on Virginia offshore wind development, I opened my remarks by talking about the crisis of global warming and how that weighed into the Sierra Club's support for clean renewable energy development.
The crisis we face with global warming is real, here and happening faster than most had predicted.
- Virginia communities rank highest in the world in terms of total assets vulnerable to sea level rise. Virginia Beach is ranked in the top 10 cities in terms of high exposure and vulnerability to climate extremes.
- According to an Ernst & Young survey, the top insurance risk in 2008 is climate change. Fifty-five percent (55%) of insurance companies in the mid-Atlantic area have stopped writing new policies in Virginia's 19 coastal communities.
- Sea level rise, higher salinity and water temperature increases caused by global warming are already having a devastating effect on fish and wildlife in Virginia. Keep in mind that in 2005, Virginia's fishing industry alone took in more than $1.23 billion.
- Global warming is already affecting people's health. Virginia is seeing an increasing number of severe heat waves. Warmer temperatures lead to greater smog levels which damages lung tissue, increases respiratory and heart disease and death, and causes asthma in children. It causes spread of illnesses, allergens, mosquito-borne disease like West Nile virus, and food- and water-borne diseases like salmonella.
- Sea level rise combined with greater storm surges hitting Virginia's coast areas create nightmare scenarios for evacuation efforts, taxing greatly our already sub-standard public infrastructure.
Here's Pierce Brosnan on the same subject:
We're writing to you as parents and Sierra Club supporters to ask you to join us in helping President Obama's administration as they take an important first step to combat global warming and reduce our dependence on dirty coal and oil.
Dylan, our oldest son, was born just twelve years ago in 1997, and in his lifetime, U.S. global warming pollution has grown by nearly eight percent. Now, after years of delay President Obama's EPA is proposing to acknowledge what the scientific community has long known - that global warming pollution threatens us all. Quickly finalizing this finding will give the EPA both the authority and the obligation to regulate the global warming pollution that endangers children like Dylan and future generations.
This was not a terrible accident, but an act of desperation: suicide. These were Indian farmers who lost everything due to drought.
Whats just as bad is that this is only the beginning. What was once a tragic act of mother nature is now on our hands...with climate change these problems are only expected to continue.
"The water level has gone down below 250 feet here. It used to be at 40 feet a few years ago," Shatrughan Sahu
A few of you may remember our posts about the deadly Australian fires this summer. They were a phenomenon many blamed on climate change, and all agree are likely to become more common over the years.
Lets never forget the stakes are high...
Read the full story here
The following is a letter to the editor (lte) appearing in the Virginia Gazette, a local paper not available online. The following was transcribed by Dr. Chris Llewellyn with Williamsburg Climate Action Network.
Coal Plant is Dangerous by Helen Cooke Eggleston, Wakefield
What is going on in Surry County? First we find that sewage sludge is being dumped on the cutover forest land behind a friend's house. Then we discover while attending Planning Commission meetings that the county is encouraging development will-nilly without any regard for greenspace. Next we find out the governor is trying to give our homes, farms and forestland to the Navy without consulting any of us*. Now, a power plant co-op wants to set a huge coal-fired power station in the tiny, quiet town of Dendron.
A coal-fired power plant? We had no idea of the dangers to health and the environment and were excited about potential benefits. We hadn't a clue about an article written by four research scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratories in a 1978 issue of Science magazine. The scientists concluded that Americans living near coal-fired power plants are exposed to higher radiation doses than those living near nuclear power plants that meet government regulations.
We started going to the Dendron Town Council meetings and met a group of men who owned a 2,900 acre tract of land that is partly in the town and partly in the county. They've logged every tree on the place and now want to sell what's left to another group of friendly guys who are proposing to build a coal-fired power plant on the property.
They tell town council that it will be the cleanest coal-fired plant on the East Coast. It will provide a lot of jobs and imply that it will generate taxes for the town and county.
Dendron has everything: space, transmission lines, water can be piped from the James River, and a rail spur can be run from Norfolk and Southern. Man, we were feeling good.
(Unfortunately that reality is lost on too many in Virginia! - promoted by Eileen)
The "Economist" looks at the difficult future of carbon capture and storage technology.
The folks at the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), a PR front group for the coal industry, are working hard to get us to believe that coal can be c!#@n. Their funders want us to believe it so badly that they have supplied tens of millions of dollars to run commercials on network television during the news hours, the Super Bowl, and presidential debates; ACCCE has launch an aggressive online advertising campaign on news websites, Gmail sidebars and through Google Adworks that all lead you to their website AmericasPower.org. The website's latest tag lines borrow from the Obama campaign saying (I'm paraphrasing) "'Yes We Can' capture carbon from coal plants". The reality is, we can't.
I used to not understand what they meant by 'c!#@n coal'. It certainly doesn't exist so what do they even mean? I thought their whole goal was just to put the words 'c!#@n' and 'coal' together in the media so many times that people just associated the two automatically. I still think this is a large part of their strategy however, more and more, I've noticed that the noxious phrase that I loathe to repeat is being tied specifically to carbon capture and sequestration (CCS).
While there are many reasons to believe CCS is at best 15 or so years away and at worst a completely false solution, a lot of the criticism of the experimental technology originally came from environmental groups but now is coming from economists and the economy itself. In the March 5th, 2009 edition of the Economist takes a good look at the issue saying:
"Now, it doesn't take a genius to realize that coal is a natural resource that has not been linked to any environmental harm. In fact, it is a clean burning alternative fuel source," writes the Virginia GOP House Caucus in trying to accuse gubernatorial candidate Brian Moran of "trying to skirt alternative energy" for believing that "a proposed coal plant in Surry County will cause global warming and harm the Chesapeake Bay".
Just as folks here in Virginia were getting over the good laugh we had over that blog entry, comes this little ditty from the folks who spent $10.5 million trying to sell us on "clean coal" c/o the This Is Reality blog.
[Question:] Can you just answer that yes or no? If you believe that burning coal causes global warming?
[Joe Lucas:] I don't know, I'm not a scientist.
All kidding aside, unfortunately it is this flat earth society existent still in Virginia that is going to make it difficult to pass climate legislation. Science is obviously not working on many in Virginia's House of No. But perhaps economics will.
As The Green Miles so aptly points out, Dominion's rates have gone up because of the cost of building Wise County coal plant. Meanwhile there's a 15% increase from last year in electricity cut-offs due to nonpayment. Meanwhile, ODEC proposes building a $6 billion coal plant 18 miles upwind of Williamsburg in Surry County, VA.
Something's gotta give pretty soon. Ignorance won't be bliss for too much longer.
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Surry, Virginia, is about as picturesque as they come. A portrait of the rural south, Surry and its neighbor, Dendron, offer testament to the unique charm and unavoidable beauty that accompanies the idea of small-town America. Wary of outsiders and exceptionally warm toward neighbors and friends, the residents of Surry County understand the inherent splendor of a life that is unhindered by external influence.
UPDATE: Another LTE is in the comments.
