Environment

Global warming, healthy food, clean water, population control, and nature protection. Comprehensive coverage on Environment here.

PETA Teams Up With Glenn Beck to Bash Al Gore
Posted by Tara Lohan, AlterNet on November 6, 2009 at 5:39 PM.

I know it's easy to get jealous when someone's got an Oscar, a Nobel, and some pretty big job titles on their resume, but really, the Gore bashing has got to end.

The New York Times took a swipe at Al Gore and his new book this week and now Glenn Beck and PETA's Ingrid Newkirk are teaming up. In some ways it is a perfect match between two people who seem to thrive on generating controversy.

Beck chastised Gore for not giving up meat eating altogether (even though he's admitted to cutting back a lot) and told him it was time for soy milk and tofurkey. Then he invited Newkirk on the show to tag team even though Beck admitted that he doesn't agree with a thing PETA says. Although he did give PETA and the NRA a shout out for not catering to special interests (huh?), so I guess Newkirk should feel good about that.

I know that PETA's main task seems to be to get people really pissed off, but I still think it's a shame to see Newkirk sinking so low as to cozy up to Glenn Beck. The truth is though, what they're talking about is actually a tough issue. There's a lot of really good evidence that eating meat -- at least the way we mostly do it in factory farms -- is bad for the planet. If you've ever seen a factory farm (or smelled one) that would probably seem like a no-brainer.

But there's also some good evidence pointing out that growing soy -- at least the way we do it but slashing rainforests and piling on the pesticides -- is actually bad for ecosystems, water, climate and the whole shebang. And some of that soy we area eating (actually in the US 87 percent of it is genetically modified), some of it is being used for biofuel and some of it is being fed to livestock. But mostly all of it is an environmental disaster.

Umbra Fisk from Grist breaks down a lot of the research and writes:

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Climate Change: The Grown-Ups Are Back In Charge
Posted by Raquel Brown, The Media Consortium on November 6, 2009 at 5:00 PM.

Senate Democrats in the Environment and Public Works Committee finally squelched Republican boycotts and passed a version of the climate bill Wednesday morning. Last week, Republican senators refused to show up to committee hearings in an attempt to stall the bill. Brian Beutler of Talking Points Memo notes that EPW has now set “the stage for other panels to amend the legislation.”

To no one’s surprise, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., immediately complained about the legislation on Fox News. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., was the lone Democrat that did not vote, which Inhofe interpreted as a sign that the bill is “dead.”

Chairman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., was much more upbeat and argued that the Republican boycott actually marred their credibility. “The absence of the Republicans during the Environmental Protection Agency’s presentation was a clear message that their criticism of the EPA analysis was not a substantive one,” Boxer said. “We are pleased that despite the Republican boycott, we have been able to move the bill.”

Inhofe also condemned Boxer for passing the bill through the committee unconventionally. Aaron Wiener writes for The Washington Independent that “Without a quorum that included at least two Republicans, the committee was unable to open formal debate on amendments to the bill. But passage requires just a simple majority, and Chairman Boxer and the Democratic leadership chose to forgo amendments in order to move the legislation quickly, given that the end of the GOP boycott was nowhere in sight.”  Luckily, now that the bill is moving on to other committees, Inhofe and his Republican EPW colleagues will no longer have much of a say on the bill’s final outcome.

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On the Lookout for Attempts to Indoctrinate Our Schoolchildren? Try the American Coal Industry!
Posted by Amanda Terkel, Think Progress on November 6, 2009 at 2:57 PM.

Friends of Coal (FOC) is a front group created by the West Virginia Coal Association. Its mission is to “inform and educate West Virginia citizens about the coal industry” and “provide a united voice” for the industry. To make dirty coal seem appealing, FOC has sponsored or initiated license plates, football games, basketball practices, plane jumps, fishing events, and scholarships.

FOC is now selling coal to children. ThinkProgress obtained the “Let’s Learn About Coal” coloring book, which asks children to unscramble statements about the “advantages” of coal, such as “Than coal other cheaper is fuels” (”Coal is cheaper than other fuels”). Kids also learn that coal is “important” and “provides jobs for lots of people!”:

The FOC Ladies Auxiliary has been handing the coloring book out to children around West Virginia as part of a “Coal in the Classroom” campaign.

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Grist on the NYT's "Baseless Hit Job on Al Gore"
Posted by Dr. Joseph Romm, Climate Progress on November 5, 2009 at 3:30 PM.

Al Gore is in the spotlight again with his must-read solutions book — "Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis." And that means the daggers are out.  But who would have imagined that one of the first pieces would be by the NYT's John Broder, who repeats the false claims by "Critics, mostly on the political right and among global warming skeptics," that "Mr. Gore is poised to become the world's first ‘carbon billionaire,' profiteering from government policies he supports that would direct billions of dollars to the business ventures he has invested in."  I'm going to repost a piece by Media Matters from May that looks at one of the despicable origins of this smear, "O'Reilly Factor guest host Laura Ingraham presented clips of Al Gore's recent congressional testimony that had been edited to remove his statements that he donates the money he makes from his climate-related work to a non-profit organization."

But first I'm going to repost a response to the NYT piece by Grist's Dave Roberts:

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GOP Senators on Environment Committee Hit All-Time Low, Third-Graders Have More Maturity
Posted by Tara Lohan, AlterNet on November 4, 2009 at 1:59 PM.

Keeping in step with the rest of the Party of No, this week 6 of the 7 Republicans on the Senate's Environment and Public Works committee are refusing to show up in a desperate attempt to stall action on the climate and clean energy bill.

Reminder me again why these people are paid public servants?

Their apparent gripe is that they want EPA to do more extensive modeling runs on the proposed legislation. But really, what they want is to make sure we never have a viable climate bill and most certainly not before Copenhagen.

Of course, the EPA has already done modeling on all of this -- 90 percent is the same as the House bill from last Spring. The Washington Post reported that the data was analyzed closely by EPA, the Congressional Budget Office, the Energy Information Administration and many NGOs. "Indeed, EPA Associate Administrator David McIntosh said Tuesday that the differences wouldn't even show up in the agency's computer modeling, leaving little reason to conduct a completely new analysis before committee work commences," the Washington Post reported.

So, their stunt is pure bogus and their motivation is equally sad. Noreen Nielson, Director for Energy Communications at Progressive Media writes:

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Meet Some of the People Who Have Jobs Thanks to Obama's Recovery Act
Posted by Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, AlterNet on November 4, 2009 at 11:46 AM.

640,329

That figure represents the number of jobs that have been created or saved so far through the Recovery Act, according to a report released by the Obama administration on Friday.

But the true significance of this number lies in the people behind it.

People like Thalia Williams. Thalia is a single mother of a 3-year-old son, in Brooklyn, NY. "Construction is something that I wanted to do for a long time," she said. "I had no way of knowing how to get into this field because I always heard it was a man's world."

Now, thanks to an organization that is able to expand and recruit women using Recovery Act funds, Thalia has a job weatherizing homes in New York.

Watch her story here.

Thalia is just one of thousands of people who are finding jobs, hope, and opportunity in the clean-energy economy.

Their stories show the true return on investment that America’s communities are reaping from Recovery Act funding. (You can see more stories from the growing green economy on Green For All’s Green Economy Roadmap).

With just over one-quarter of the Recovery funds paid out, the jobs and opportunity created will only grow in the coming months.

In addition to creating jobs in the short term, the Recovery Act is proving to be an essential jumpstart to the clean-energy economy, seeding new programs and expanding successful models across the country.

But the Recovery Act was primarily meant to stabilize our economy in the midst of a sweeping recession, and most funding from the Act will end by 2011. To build a thriving, healthy economy for future generations, we need long-term investment and policies.

Congress now has the historic opportunity to provide that long-term stability, and build on the foundation laid by the Recovery Act through climate and clean-energy legislation.

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Can Boxer Deliver Real Reform on Climate Change?
Posted by Raquel Brown, The Media Consortium on November 3, 2009 at 9:10 AM.

This week the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held three hearings on the Kerry-Boxer clean energy bill and, as David Roberts reports for Grist, Republican Senators had an “adolescent tantrum” about the cost of emission reductions. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Congressional Budget Office, Energy Information Administration and other organizations have extensively debunked this line of debate.

Aaron Wiener agrees that the committee’s hearing was a “fairly one-sided debate” in The Washington Independent. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) has already threatened a Republican boycott of the Committee’s markup of the Kerry-Boxer bill, which would prevent the quorum needed to do business. And on Tuesday, every Republican cut out early while Democrats discussed energy policy details with members of the Obama administration. Considering that the bill isn’t even at the markup stage, we can expect more disruptive antics from the right in weeks to come.

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50 Things Restaurant Servers Should Never Do
Posted by Tara Lohan, AlterNet on October 30, 2009 at 3:00 PM.

The New York Times has a blog post up now (part 1 of "100 Things") that outlines the best etiquette for restaurant employees. And no, this is not a 'remember to wash your hands' or 'don't spit in the food' kind of list -- it's a bit above that. Having worked only briefly in food service at one of my first jobs, I have to say that being a great server is really hard and I definitely notice and appreciate immensely when it is done well.

I agree with just about everything on the list except for number 6: "Do not lead the witness with, 'Bottled water or just tap?' Both are fine. Remain neutral." Actually, unless you are some place where the tap water is not drinkable, then I'd say, ditch the bottled water, like so many high-end (and other) restaurants are starting to do. It's better for the environment and often is actually better quality water, too.

Here's one of my favorites from the list: "If someone likes a wine, steam the label off the bottle and give it to the guest with the bill. It has the year, the vintner, the importer, etc." I've never seen that done before, but I'd be super impressed!

Here's a couple more good ones:

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University Of Kentucky Approves New $7 Million Industry-Funded Dorm Named After Coal
Posted by Amanda Terkel, Think Progress on October 28, 2009 at 9:15 PM.

You can’t make this stuff up, as this Think Progress repost makes clear.

A group led by Alliance Coal CEO Joseph Craft recently proposed donating $7 million to the University of Kentucky for a new dorm for the men’s basketball team. The catch, however, is that the dorm would have to be named after Craft’s true love: coal. The proposed change sparked intense protests from local environmentalists and students. One professor said that as universities become “models for new energy sources,” putting “coal” on a prominent building could “make it difficult to attract top students and faculty members to the university.”

[JR:  Yes, coal industry will spend millions for a new dorm -- and yet Massey Energy refused to fund a new school so students can move away from coal processing plant!]

Yesterday afternoon, the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees voted 16-3 to approve the proposal for the new dorm, which will be named the “Wildcat Coal Lodge.” Significantly, two of the “no” votes were from faculty representative Ernie Yanarella and Student Government President Ryan Smith, who said he opposed the motion “as a voice for the student body.”

Students in the audience were reportedly not allowed to speak at the meeting. After the vote, people began chanting, “Move forward, not backward,” forcing the trustees to temporarily recess. More on the events at the meeting:

The vote set off shouts from about 30 protesters, mostly students, who attended the meeting.

“Big Coal is about to go down, and the university’s going down with them,” said Cor de Jong, who described himself as “a Lexingtonian and a basketball fan.”

A statement from students was passed out to board members moments before the vote. “They did not read our statement,” said Katie Goldey, a senior majoring in international studies. “They weren’t even given a chance to read it.”

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Sorry Deniers, There's No Such Thing as 'Global Cooling'
Posted by Tara Lohan, AlterNet on October 28, 2009 at 11:15 AM.

The latest plot by some global warming deniers is to push a bogus 'theory' that the earth is actually cooling, instead of warming. But the AP's Seth Borenstein took the hot air out of their sails. In his recent story, Borenstein explains that the AP gave temperature data to four independent statisticians to see what kinds of trends they found. "The experts found no true temperature declines over time," he reports. Instead, they found "a distinct decades-long upward trend," which of course has been backed up by the world's leading scientists for years.

So who's behind the global cooling charade? You may be surprised. The BBC recently ran a poorly researched news story and so did the New York Times' Andrew Revkin. But the most attention lately has come from the new book, Super Freakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. The authors wrote, "Then there's this little-discussed fact about global warming: While the drumbeat of doom has grown louder over the past several years, the average global temperature during that time has in fact decreased."

Since publication one of the authors has tried to explain that they were really just being ironic -- and they don't actually believe in so-called 'global cooling.' But the book is so rife with scientific errors (as Joe Romm explains in great detail) that their 'irony' just isn't a valid excuse.

Borenstein points to a better explanation from a climate scientist at the DOE's Lawrence Livermore Labs, who said it was "'a concerted strategy to obfuscate and generate confusion in the minds of the public and policymakers' ahead of international climate talks in December in Copenhagen."

Good thing that reporters like Seth Borenstein are still doing their job and actually reporting on the science. The last thing we need before Copenhagen is more media misinformation.

Lindsey Graham Drilled by Big Oil
Posted by Steven D., Booman Tribune on October 23, 2009 at 8:46 AM.

Republican Senator from the Great State of South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, apparently isn't chummy enough with one of the major constituencies of the Republican Party. Neoconservatives? No, not them. Religious Fundamentalists? Maybe, but he's still talking the talk. Glenn Beck and the tea-baggers? You betcha, but that's not the group that he's really offended. Offended enough that they are running advocacy ads against him in his home state. No the group that is really pissed off at Senator Graham is the group that thought he was always in their hip pocket, bought and paid for, as it were: Big Oil: 

WASHINGTON -- A Washington advocacy group with close ties to Big Oil started running ads Thursday on South Carolina radio stations, targeting Sen. Lindsey Graham for supporting taxes on carbon emissions.

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Limbaugh Calls for NYT Environmental Writer to Kill Himself
Posted by Tara Lohan on October 21, 2009 at 9:05 AM.

Once again, Rush Limbaugh is stoking the fires of hate. Yesterday he told millions of his listeners: "Mr. Revkin, why don't you just go kill yourself, and help the planet by dying."

He's talking about Andrew Revkin who writes the Dot Earth blog for the New York Times and is a prominent environmental writer.

What got Rush's pants all twisted? Some commentary Revkin had given at a symposium discussing the environment and population growth. Revkin explains on his blog, "I had talked, in part, about recent studies concluding that programs offering family planning information and services to women seeking smaller families, in essence, had a climate value by avoiding emissions of greenhouse gases that would come with more kids."

Revkin took the ideas forward and mused about what he saw as a "thought experiment" -- meaning something hypothetical to get us thinking.

I've written quite a bit about whether markets in carbon credits earned by cutting, avoiding or absorbing such emissions -- whether from avoided deforestation, tree planting, or leaving oil in the ground -- are credible, sensible or doable. So I mused on whether the next logical step, in a world increasingly fixated with carbon markets, would be carbon credits for avoided kids. This is something particularly relevant in the United States, which -- nearly unique for rich countries -- has a fast-growing population and very high rates of emissions per person.

As I put it in the Wilson event: "Should you get credit -- if we're going to become carbon-centric -- for having a one-child family when you could have had two or three. And obviously it's just a thought experiment, but it raises some interesting questions about all this."

Of course Limbaugh, unable to grasp the concept of "thought" took Revkin's comments, doused them in gasoline and set them on fire. Limbaugh equated Revkin to the 3-, 4-, and 6-year olds (that he believes) are recruited to the jihad and compared talking about climate change solutions to strapping yourself with explosives.

Here's Limbaugh's take:

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No Impact Week Has Begun: How Am I Doing?
Posted by Tara Lohan, AlterNet on October 20, 2009 at 10:54 AM.

As I wrote last week, I'm participating in a week-long "no-impact" challenge inspired by Colin Beavan's "No Impact Man" project (book, blog, and film) and is done in conjunction with the Huffington Post. This "carbon cleanse" week, as it has been dubbed, kicked off on Sunday.

The first day was dedicated to thinking about consumption. How much do I need to buy for the week -- what can I borrow or do without instead? This seemed like a relatively easy way to kick off the week, besides food, I generally don't buy much in an average week. That was until I realized that three of my closest friends are celebrating birthdays this week, including my partner.

So, what to do? Here's a few ideas that I came up with. I know there are loads of really crafty people out there that have absolutely no problems just stitching together something for their loved ones, but unless my friends would like a blog post, they're out of luck on my end. Here's what I can offer though. I have lots of books, some of them really good, and I think a few of those would make an excellent gift. And although we are encouraged this week not to purchase anything, I did get one friend a gift certificate to a favorite restaurant in her neighborhood that serves delicious local food. Other ideas -- having some prints made of photos I've taken, baking a loaf of monkey bread (if I can convince one of my Southern buddies to give me his recipe), and planning a super beautiful nighttime bike ride through San Francisco.

In additional to just thinking about what I am buying, this consumption thing has also gotten me thinking about what I already have. What clothes, shoes and dusty camping gear can I donate some place? Are there electronics we aren't using that can be given away or taken to an e-recycling center? Are there other ways to minimize stuff?

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Is This 12-Year-Old the Next Michael Pollan?
Posted by Tara Lohan, AlterNet on October 16, 2009 at 4:04 PM.

It was extraordinarily refreshing to read a recent guest post (What the Heck is ProFood Anyway?) on one of the great food blogs, Every Kitchen Table. The author explains exactly what this new word, ProFood, is all about and why it's important we care. And better yet, this author, Orren Fox, is only 12 years old.

He says delightfully cute things like, "To be ProFood means you are FOR food. That sounds funny, but what I mean is that you think about food, you care about food and you will make an effort for good food. I am also Pro chocolate and Pro Red Sox."

While I may disagree with the Red Sox part of his assessment, he's spot on with everything else. Like calling out this country for being not being very ProFood right now:

People don't really think about food, we expect it to taste good, be available all the time, be convenient, be safe to eat and I guess not cost too much. People don't value good food. It seems as if people are always trying to find the cheapest food, not the best food. I think people might care more about the quality of the gas they put into their car than they do about what ingredients they put into their body. I don't think most people would say they are ProFood.

If America were ProFood we wouldn't accept food with dangerous ingredients in it. Unfortunately there are chemicals in our food that aren't good for us kids.

Well said, Orren. He's also got some great tips:

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Vote Now and Ensure $5,000 for Sustainable Energy and Economic Opportunities for Coal Country
Posted by Tara Lohan, AlterNet on October 14, 2009 at 4:35 PM.

It's not every day you can help some incredible visionaries get $5,000 just by doing exactly what you're doing now -- sitting in front of your computer. With you a few clicks you can vote on the Brighter Planet web site to award a grant for Sustainable Energy and Economic Diversification in the Coal River Valley in West Virginia.

This group is neck-and-neck for the prize money and the voting ends today, so take a few minutes and help make a difference.

Why is this important?

The Coal River Valley is at the epicenter of coal extraction in Appalachia. Ravaged by crushing force mountaintop removal and the corroding effects of black lung and industry-related ailments, community members in the Coal River Valley are ready for something new. Coal River Mountain Watch's mission is to end mountaintop removal and create a sustainable economy in its place. The Sustainable Energy and Economy Diversification program is working towards the second part of CRMW's mission.

What's the money for?

Despite the economic hardship and environmental degradation in this region, many of the elements of a sustainable economy are alive and well in the folk traditions of local residents. The SEED program seeks to combine these common sense traditions and ethics with 21st century concepts of sustainability and appropriate technology. Between November 2009 and August 2010 we will interview community members, identify community-led entrepreneurial projects, select five projects to support, document our work on the website www.journeyupcoalriver.org and adapt our results as lesson plans for distribution in regional high schools and colleges.

By creating economic alternatives, and presenting them in an educational format to a wide audience of young people, this project will reduce local economic dependency on fossil fuel extraction and help educate a new generation of sustainability and justice minded Americans.

Yes, we want to end the destructive practice of mountaintop removal mining, but it's also important to make sure the people of West Virginia have viable economic opportunities that support a clean environment. Get involved. Vote (you get 3 votes for each email address). Voting ends soon, so go and do it and do it now and tell your friends.

If you need to know more about how this area has been affected by mountaintop removal mining, check out this video.