Assembly Room, Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where in 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed; and, in 1787, the U.S. Constitution was drafted. Image credit:Flockr,
Dailyville photostream. Excerpted.
Perhaps that title is becoming common from those of us who've been fighting for clean energy for the U.S. instead of the same old dirty fossil fuels, but as chants of "Drill, baby, drill!" continue to emanate from some corners, we must stick with it.
We've hit summer's stride - It's time for the 4th of July holiday weekend, people are traveling, and gas prices are rising. The dirty energy crowd is keeping up with its same old dirty business - calling for the same old energy sources that pollute our planet. Clean energy creates jobs, boosts the economy and lowers our global warming pollution.
That's why we're using this Independence Day weekend to wish the U.S. a happy birthday and tell our decision-makers that the best gift our country can get is a clean energy economy....
Image via friends v1
Stephen Colbert took on the Supreme Court case that outraged environmentalists everywhere--you know, the one that ruled that toxic waste from a gold mine
could be dumped in a lake, subsequently eradicating all life within. Colbert's take will most likely make you even more angry, but at least it's funny as hell. Watch the video after the jump....
Photo via the Takeaway
As fighting between the Taliban and the Pakistani military escalated in South Waziristan, millions of people were forced to flee their homes—it was Pakistan's biggest exodus since the country's founding in 1947. The two million refugees now face a slew of severe health risks—among them, a contaminated, damaged water supply and insufficient access to health care.
...
Image from Chelsea Football News
The winners of the
Green 500 awards have been announced--these are organisations taking part in a London-wide campaign to reduce carbon emissions.
The greenest football (soccer) team is Chelsea Football Club. Despite the fact that their captain drives a Ferrari, the team has a
serious environmental policy. It encourages supporters to use public transport to get to the games. They also have a car-sharing scheme for fans and 85% of the rubbish at games is recycled. At the training grounds recycled water is used on the fields and staff are given loans to buy bicycles ...
Outer-hallway meeting room, with privacy glass, allowing natural light penetration.
SAP, USA, newly constructed LEED "Platinum" headquarters building.
I recently had a chance to speak with representatives of the global business software company SAP, as well get a tour of the firm's nearly completed LEED Platinum US Headquarters building in Newtown Square Pennsylvania. The result, written as a composite interview, is a profile of SAP's global sustainability strategy, punctuated with a photographic tour of the new building.
There was a discussion of sustainability strategy with Scott Bolick, Vice President, SAP Sustainability, in Palo Alto, CA, USA; a tour and talk with Brian Barrett, building Manager, SAP, Newtown Square; and, finally a discussion with Bill McDermott, President of Global Field Operations, SAP AG, and member of the SAP Executive Board, and other members of his staff. Shall we begin?...
Photo: Flickr, CC
This is a Big Deal
A Californian regulation mandating that all ocean-going vessels within 24 miles of the state's coast must use cleaner burning low-sulfur diesel fuel is now in effect. This will have a big impact on air quality (
big cargo ships have terrible emissions, and we too often overlook them and focus on cars & trucks), reducing smog and saving an estimated 3,600 people from premature deaths between 2009 and 2015. "The requirement, adopted in 2008, will annually affect nearly 2,000 ocean-going vessels, both U.S. flagged and foreign-flagged, visiting California." Read on for more details....
Image via Senate.gov
Senator John Kerry says that unfortunately, that's a distinct possibility. Kerry is set to be one of the top voices championing
the climate bill in the Senate, and he's also the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee--so he's in a unique position to assess the international ramifications of the controversial legislation. So why is he concerned? It comes down to a simple numbers game. ...
photo: Paul & Aline Burland via flickr
The positive ripple effect of the
Greenpeace's
Slaughtering the Amazon report, which showed vividly the connection between cattle ranching and deforestation in Brazil, keeps moving:
Mongabay reports that Brazil's development bank
BNDES plans on requiring beef producers to track their products back to their place of origin in order to qualify for bank loans:...
Image via NRDC
A little while back, news spread that the Deptartment of Homeland Security was refusing to reveal the locations of 44 coal ash dump sites--on the grounds that it was
a matter of national security. Now, the EPA has revealed the locations of the sites that have a 'high hazard rating'--ash dumps sites where, if a
spill were to occur, would likely lead to the deaths of nearby residents. ...
photo: Nimrod Bar via flickr
Add India to the list of developing nations that will not be signing on to binding emissions reductions targets at December's
COP15 climate change conference in Copenhagen. That's the word coming from India's environment minister Jairam Ramesh through
Yale Environment 360:...
Photo via NeeDigest
What's this? The US issuing a semi-bold, almost-binding international directive on climate change? Doth my eyes deceive me? Nope--the US has just joined the other G-8 industrialized nations in pledging to halt the increase of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, and to keep the worldwide temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius....
photo: Colin via flickr
Despite pledges from
ExxonMobil that it would cease funding groups which question the scientific validity of global climate change, last year the company "handed over hundreds of thousands of pounds" to climate skeptic groups,
The Guardian reports:...
Photo: Michael Graham Richard
This Loophole Seriously Reduces Incentives for Production Electric Cars
Plug In America (we recently wrote about their
EV & plug in hybrid tracker) is asking the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to modify its regulations concerning zero emission vehicles in California. The problem is that their requirement that automakers put 7,500 ZEVs on the roads of California doesn't specify a minimum timeframe for compliance. This means that BMW is getting the same credit for
converting 500 MINIs into EVs and leasing them (for $850/month!) for a year as another automaker would get for actually selling production electric cars. This could also lead to a repeat of the EV1 story... And we know how that ended....
Photo via Parade
After one of the most grueling, most contentious Senate races in recent memory,
Al Franken has emerged as Minnesota's junior senator. The Minnesota Supreme Court decided 5-0 that a previous court's ruling that Franken had won by 312 votes was valid. His opponent Norm Coleman, has conceded. And of course, there's the magic number that's on everyone's mind: 60. Franken brings the number of Democratic senators to 60, meaning they'll have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. So what does all this mean for environmental policy--and just how green is Al Franken?...
image: Masdar
Abu Dhabi's
Masdar City can stick another green feather in its cap. The under-construction "carbon neutral" city in the desert will host the recently-formed
International Renewable Energy Agency. The city beat out locations in Germany, Austria and Denmark for the honor, and is the first time an international organization of this scope has chosen the Middle East for its headquarters:...
Photo via Daylife
An alarming new study has found that between 2010 and 2030, the US will spend an estimated record-breaking $23 trillion on
coal and oil. The report found that for the first time, the US spent over $1 trillion on fossil fuels in 2008--and the trend is only growing. By 2030, it warns there's a good chance we'll be spending a staggering $1.7 trillion
a year to sate our coal and oil demands. ...
Flickr user tom h
On Monday, New Yorkers riding the subway to work were met with a costlier spin of the turnstile: a 12 percent increase in their fares,
from $2 to $2.25, as the Metropolitan Transit Authority copes with a
severe $2 billion deficit.
But how does the new,
much-
bemoaned cost of admission to the country's biggest subway (and bus) network stack up against fares in other world-class cities? And how well in general does the New York City subway, well, fare?...
Photo via Engadget
Japan Pitches High Speed Rail to the US
Ever since Obama announced
plans for a massive high speed rail system in the US, speculation has run wild about how they’ll be executed. The
projected corridors were revealed a while back, but many details remain to be decided—perhaps most significantly, which high speed rail system will the president opt to use? Now, at least one compelling option is on the table: Japan’s cutting edge 186 mph N700 Bullet Train system may have just caught Obama’s eye.
...
Yaban TV's programming includes the shows (clockwise from top left) "Hunting World," "Wilderness Life," "Hunter's Album," and "Hunting Kitchen." Images via Yaban TV.
The Turkish hunting and fishing channel
Yaban TV (Wilderness TV) is on a mission to spread a message that should be fairly self-evident: If people who like to hunt and fish don't help protect the environment, there won't be any game left for them to pursue. "We are not hunters," says producer and board member Dr. Ali Bürkev. "We are nature's soldiers."...
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on 07. 5.09
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