politics

Senator Jeff Bingaman delivers a speech on the Senate floor pointing out the flaws in the Senate Republican energy proposal and calling instead for bipartisan support of a plan to put more oil on the market.The Senate is to vote on a Republican plan that would, among other things, open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to drilling. In his speech, however, Bingaman says that there are millions of acres yet to be leased in areas poised for drilling. And, he says, millions of other acres have been leased, but no drilling has yet occurred.

The IMF's most recent World Economic Outlook study includes a climate change analysis. The report is one of the first to capture broad, deep data concerning the potential costs of climate change to the world economy and the economic result of a worldwide implementation of greenhouse gases mitigation strategies, such as cap-and-trade and carbon emissions tax. Tamirisa, co-author of that analysis, outlines the IMF's conclusions.

Is it possible to change the world by doing nothing? This blog post says it is and tells you exactly how to go about saving the world by doing absolutely squat!

John McCain has released the main details of what his environmental policy would be if he were elected president in November. He is supporting a cap-and-trade system, a big break from the current administration, but has targets below those of both potential Democratic candidates. See it on www.cutyourfootprint.com

Politicians are failing to comprehend the breadth of the US infrastructure crisis. Only disasters move our representatives to act — and in an election year, even those actions seem spotty at best and disingenuous at worst. The United States has much more than failing bridges to find, fund and fix. A comprehensive report by Dr. Denny Wilkins.

GreenCrawler.com's blog features a great article from Gist.com that gives a quick-and-dirty rundown of the candidates’ green positions, with current platforms, voting records, video, audio, and more.

Municipalities and their projects can generate credits in numerous ways, but they need to understand that having a project that reduces GHG emissions is only the first step. To generate credits, a municipality needs also to (1) have clear ownership of the reductions, and (2) be able to account for the emissions in a very detailed and accurate way.

Seems like the politicians in Canada are no longer getting behind a bill to support ethanol. The story, posted on http://www.cutyourfootprint.com, says they are having reservations due to rising world food prices and new science about ethanol made from corn.

Tom Friedman of the New York Times reports: Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production.

How to Boil a Frog presents a satirical mini-documentary surveying how people REALLY feel about taking action on global warming.

The Argentine Minister of the Environment (and activist) Romina Piccolotti talks about "environmental discrimination" -- the connections between global warming and social and economic justice.

Despite the massive amounts of scientific evidence showing humans are to blame for climate change, a new poll finds that only about half of Americans (47%) say the earth is warming because of human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels.

Part 2 of Justin van Kleek's musing on activism, anger and better ways to communicate an environmental agenda.

In Seoul, South Korea, this past Friday 10,000 people took to the streets in a candle light vigil to oppose US beef imports that many fear may be tainted with mad cow disease. Overnight, the number of peaceful protesters doubled and by Saturday night, 20,000 - 25,000 South Koreans held candles and raised their voices against American beef imports.