Annie Leonard has done it again with her follow-up video to “The Story of Stuff” called The Story of Cap and Trade. Even though she is clearly biased against cap and trade, her points are very clear and factual.
I will post more about cap and trade soon.
This video is from Dipdive and you can find others like it here: http://takeourplanetback.dipdive.com/
The Copenhagen climate talks are fast approaching and the world is making last minute preparations. Copenhagen has equipped itself with the best environmental technology including a “Climate Express” train that carried 450 UN related visitors to Copenhagen from Brussels, another effort of the UN to show what they are trying to accomplish in regard to the environment (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121119510). Following the lead of the Maldives, Nepal’s cabinet also met in an exotic place very touched by global warming: Mr. Everest! (http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=2830) President Obama shifted his visit of the climate talks to the end, a more crucial point in the conference. Here are some articles that are good preparatory treatments:
NRP: For Public, Climate Change Not A Priority Issue
Washington Post: To really save the planet, stop going green
AFP: Climate deal certain, but won’t be enough: IPCC scientist
The people at iLoveMountians.org proclaim loudly a distress call for people to help stop blasting on Coal River Mountain in West Virginia. The blasting is to start strip-mining the land for coal. Since this concerns greenhouse gas (specifically CO2) emissions into the atmosphere, we are just as upset about it. Here is their promotional video:
http://www.ilovemountains.org/coalriver/
A $400 billon solar collection project based in the Sahara desert has been started by various European countries to provide solar energy to power Europe. Since it was announced in July of this year, 12 companies have been chosen to erect the solar collectors. The group is led by major German engineering companies calling themselves the Desertec Industrial Initiative, or DDI. They have been accepted openly by many of the countries in Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa. The DDI hopes to have their systems running by 2015 and sending out 15% of Europe’s power by the year 2050. The power lines would stretch across the desert and the Mediterranean sea to reach their destination.
The DDI plans to utilize Concentrated Solar Power (or CSP) systems to accomplish their goals. These collection devices use large mirrors to direct the sun’s heat to a central location. There are three types of CSP: linear concentrator, dish/engine, and power tower systems. Linear concentrators use curved mirrors to focus light on tubes of liquid that in turn boils water to turn a steam turbine. Dish/engine systems use a large satellite dish to concentrate the rays onto a thermal reciever that moves a heat engine (usually a Stirling engine) that runs an electrical generator. Power tower systems use sun-tracking mirrors (heliostats) to focus the sun on a reciever located at the top of a central tower. The reciever uses a transfer fluid to boils water and turn a steam turbine.
Learn more links:
ENN – Using the Sahara Sun to Power Europe
NREL – Concentrated Solar Power
UPDATE:
Here is a differing opinion on the subject that I didn’t have time to incorporate:
Title: 350 – International Day of Climate Action
Location: Everywhere
Link out: Click here
Description:
October 24th is the national day of climate action sponsored by 350.org. 350 is an organization formed soley to combate climate change globally. (learn more about them here) Their main way of connecting people is through the internet, and on October 24th, they call on people all over the world to organize something incorporating the number 350 and then upload a photo of it to the 350.org website.
Like many other major environmental entities, 350 encourages all people to cut down on their carbon footprint to reduce the amount of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Three hundred and fifty parts per million is the “safe limit” for the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. We need to get back to that number and stay there, and 350 helps in accomplishing this by attempting to unite the populations of the world under one banner.
One of the advocated proposals (which many around the world echo) is to gain an international agreement to drastically reduce carbon emissions. One of those they deem promising is the United Nation’s December 2009 meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.
To learn more about this day, go to:
http://www.350.org/oct24
Date: 2009-10-24
Title: Global Climate Week!
Location: Everywhere
Link out: Click here
Description: Global Climate Week is planned to coincide with the United Nations Secretary-General’s High Level Summit on Climate Change on 22 September 2009.
This important week and the lead-up weekend will be marked by synchronized activities in more than 100 cities to urge world leaders to seal a fair and effective climate agreement at the UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen this December.
(from http://www.sealthedeal2009.org/global-climate-week)
Start Date: 2009-09-21
End Date: 2009-09-25
According to a recent article by Ayisha Yahya, BBC Newsproclaims that the world may not be covered with expanding deserts as a result of global warming. As of now it is still just a theory with little to back it up, but scientists have seen some areas of the Sahara shrinking on satalite images. Read the whole article to get a better idea.
More information:
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/40226
PBS Nature is known for it’s amazing nature documentaries. Another amazing episode paints us a picture of the polar bear from their grizzly roots and their ever more complicated challenge to stay alive in a warming climate and changing arctic. Watch for your local showing times at PBS.org
More information on this show can be found here:http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/arctic-bears/introduction/778/
In case you haven’t heard, our feathery friends at Greenpeace climbed Mount Rushmore on July 8th (2009) and displayed a banner reading: “America Honors Leaders, Not Politicians. Stop Global Warming. Greenpeace.” Here is the official video:
“Bill Moyers talked with Erich Pica of Friends of the Earth and Mary Sweeters of Greenpeace USA about why they oppose the legislation in its current form and are calling on President Obama to change tack. Erich Pica lists among the faults of the legislation: ‘One, the bill doesn’t reduce global warming emissions in the United States fast enough. Two, it strips away the EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions [...] Three, it gives away a tremendous amount of money — hundreds of billions of dollars — to the polluting industries that have, essentially, caused the problem of global warming [...] Four, and this is kind of overwhelming the entire system, is that it relies on Wall Street to help solve the problem of global warming.’”
More about this at these links:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07172009/profile2.html
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/america-honors-leaders-07-08-09