Supreme court weighs in on Exxon Valdez case

This should be an interesting case to watch. Justice Samuel Alito, who owns Exxon stock, is not taking part in the case. A 4-4 split on that or any issue would leave the appeals court ruling in place. If punitive damages are not harsh, this will send a signal to oil companies around the world that they can lower their standards for environmental safety. If Exxon is hurt in the wallet, then oil companies will exercise due diligence in their practices. Corporations are accountable to their shareholders and the only thing that influences their behavior is the bottom line. I'm sure that the neocons that have been trying to stack the courts are hoping their judges deliver along in accordance to the ideology that permeates the Bush administration.

A Picture is worth a million words

The Wildlife Clubs on Kenya: a reason to support the International Humane Society. When you watch this, you can see how hungry they are for knowledge about their own backyard. Many of these children do not understand the value of the wildlife they have in Africa. Many of these children grow up to care and to protect the wildlife from poachers. It's very touching to watch.

A Site for Scientific Debate on Climate Issues

Prometheus is a website where you can read the latest on scientific policies that are being considered in the US. I've read some really good, level headed debates and reports by the scientific community. It's an interesting site that allows you to bypass some of the hype.

I poked around while looking at the comments and found a visitor who had posted an analysis of what was making the snow melt on Mt. Mount Kilimanjaro:

Deforestation seems to be causing Mount Kilimanjaro’s shrinking glacier. Researchers think deforestation of the mountain’s foothills is the most likely culprit. Without the forests’ evapotranspiration of humidity into the air, previously moisture-laden winds blowing across those forests now blow drier. The summit, no longer replenished with water from those winds, started shrinking. Studies show the ice is evaporating through a process called sublimation. You can witness this effect at home, have you ever noticed that ice cubes left in your freezer tend to shrink with time?

I'm not sure what is causing the deforestation. It could be caused by climate change as pointed out by Tim Flanery in "Weather Makers". I think it must be hard for the scientific community to come to any real consensus on anything when they have to tip toe around the issue because of political pressures by the Bush administration and corporate funding which tries to influence their results. But I like to read all sides of the argument. We need to know what is true and not what the ruling elite what us to believe.

Is NASA hiding the truth?

Dr. James Hansen

From Architecture 2030 :

A Global Emergency... and a Call to Action! Recently, it was reported in The New York Times that (it appears) procedures are being put in place at NASA to prevent "the public from fully grasping recent findings regarding climate change". This comes in response to a lecture recently delivered at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco by Dr. James Hansen, NASA's director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. In his lecture titled "Is There Time to Avoid 'Dangerous Anthropogenic Interference' With Global Climate?" Dr. Hansen presented two startling conclusions regarding recent research conducted at NASA.

Global Crop Diversity Trust

Europe is building an ark. A site to store all of the seeds on earth in the event the worse case scenario happens, what ever that happens to be. The US on the other hand is building a facility to store nuclear waste. Seems like there is something wrong with this picture.

Florida rates high on Green Scale

Wow, Florida's is greener than Washington State, California and Al Gore's state, Tennessee. This is impressive. Yeah Florida! This is very encouraging.

Green Senior Citizombies please

I just spent about eight hours surfing the web today and six hours yesterday researching green trends, green blogs, green venture capitalists websites, green family blogs, green baby blogs, green activism websites, etc,. And I have to admit that sometimes I get rather discouraged. The blogs that really stand out to me are the blogs written by young people who are really making an effort to change their lifestyle and make a difference.

A few that good examples are No Impact Man , Green as a Thistle and Breakthrough Generation I am so awed by the enthusiasm, passion and dedication of so many young people I read about on the Internet. Though I was too young to be anything other than a passive observer during the 60’s, I feel conflicted by the youth zeal spilling out all over the electronic pages I read on the Internet. It is about their furture and their their children. I am sad because I know that this zeal is no longer burning inside me as it once did in my own youth days. The fire that burns now is more like a slow simmer.

A new word I discovered yesterday on a cartoon website was “Senior Citizombie.” The cartoon cast the older folks as semi-villains. And I don’t want to be a Senior Citizimbie. I want to be a part of the solution not part of the problem. But there are some things that I’m just not willing to give up. Unlike “No Impact Man”, I want the corporations to fix these problems by offering consumer choices. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of things that I do daily to live a more sustainable lifestyle, but I believe that the corporations need to be good stewards of the environment and provide consumer solutions to the problems we face.

I live in Florida and we worry about hurricanes. In 2005, Central Floridians learned that like the coastal communities, we too were at risk. More than half of the homes in our subdivision had roofs torn off in the three storms that hit. We had just put a new roof on our house about three months before the storms. My husband decided to not reinstall pool solar panels for maintenance reasons. Our house was the only house on our cul-de-sac that did not have roof damage. A lot of people decided after the storms to NOT put solar heaters on their roofs and unfortunately opted for heat pumps instead. We did not choose to put a heat pump on our pool. What I want is a product or service that provides electricity from solar, wind, tidal, or any green energy that provides electricity.

Perhaps it is guilt that I feel when I read some of these blogs. I wonder if I’m just too old to care or to make a difference. But I'm comforted when I look read the bios of the speakers at the TED 2008 conference. Most of them are as old as I am! So maybe there is hope for my generation after all. Maybe we can use our talent, experience, and wisdom to help move our culture and economy towards a more sustainable future. Because like it or not we are all in this together.

Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us

What will future generations say?

• We had a chance to do something about climate change but we elected George Bush instead.
• We had a chance to invest in clean energy but what did we do instead? We went to war in Iraq so we could have plenty of oil.
• We had a chance to educate citizens about the need to modify our behavior and use less natural resources but what did we do instead? We went shopping and let the lobbyist run Washington and had our teachers "teach to the test."

That's what future generations will say. Now we find out the the Pentagon knew all along that Climate Change was real and that GW Bush knew all along. What a legacy he will leave behind.

The 2008 Greentech Market Taxonomy

Consolidation of information is an important step in bring order to this new movement toward a cleaner environment. Here is a great source for looking how the market is organzing.

WilderHill New Energy Index

Another big player in the new energy movement. This links to all the major research institutes on their investing list. All this has to be sorted out to find the real champions.

Greentech Media Blog

Now this blog looks like a heavy hitter in the world of Green Money. Good source to find out what's going on in the world for growing green businesses.

Gulf State builds on renewable energy sources

The world moves toward a carbon reduction economy of some sort. The are naysayers beginning to see the futility of their protest. Abu Dhabi will build the Masdar City, a zero-carbon, zero-waste zone. and sell their carbon trades or credits. Who do they turn to for assistance in building this magnificent new city? They are going to Germany. Where is the U.S. A in this new global economy. Let's get on board!

Understanding Carbon Makets

Found a good (and simple ) explaination about the differing proposals out there to reduce CO2. Carbon Credits, Carbon Trade, Carbon Caps, etc.

Insurance is starting to feel the pinch of Climate Change

Munich Re estimated that worldwide insured losses related to natural disasters doubled last year. Natural catastrophes consequently made up 5 percentage points of last year's combined ratio, compared with 1.3 percentage points in 2006, according to a presentation to investors filed on the company's Web site.

GreenDimes and EarthHour 2008

I signed up for GreenDimes to get rid of my junk mail. We get at least 3 pieces daily. I often wonder how in the world they got our names. We have been living here for 10 years and the person who lived her before still gets mail! In reading their blog today I found out about EarthHour. Everyone turns off their lights for one hour. Worked last year and had lots of participants. They are planning for 2008.

Clips from the UN Bali conference

Second Life had an island where people from around the globe could come and listen and participate in the Bali Roadmap for Climate Change Conference. The US (Bush admin) introduced an 11th hour proposal meant to sabatoge the conference.

Climate change: A guide for the perplexed

New Scientist Environment is a good resource to share with the skeptics that question whether or not there is a problem. It goes step by step through the different arguments. The question is whether or not you can get the skeptic to take the time to read the information.

UNEP Risoe Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development (URC)

Found another good index of links for the The UNEP Risoe Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development (URC) which supports the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). This organization aims to incorporate environmental aspects into energy planning and policy worldwide, with a special emphasis to assist developing countries.

Interesting News Source for energy

Silobreaker

Just when I start to get hopeful, I read something like this

Renewable energy to the rescue? "The U.S. government says that, under current policies, renewable energy will only meet 2 to 5 percent of the country's total energy needs by 2030." This is a quote from CNN Money. My question is which US government? The oil people that Bush put in there, or real scientists? That is the problem with the current administration, no one trusts what they say.

Follow the money at Bali

All of the major players will be there. Here's a good press release that details those who will be present. Why does it feel like something is in the wind? Something is changing, something is happening....

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Keep you eye on the ball at the United Nations Bali Conference.

Here is their agenda.

• Emission trading
• Land Use
• Forestry
• Greenhouse gases
• Emissions

Wall Street Green Trading Summit

You know what they say... "Follow the money" and you'll find out what's really happening behind the scene. So that is what I have been doing. So, Keep your Eye on the Bali Conference.

We recently watched the National Geographic show called, "Six Degrees" which goes over the difference each degree makes for our planet. One thing stood out especially which said basically that we have to fight Global Warming, like we fought in World War II if we are going to have a chance to survive. In a way, I took heart at that. United States drug their feet when it came to entering WW II. But once we did, we entered the war with a vengeance. I was humbled when I watched Ken Burns recent series on World War II. I was overwhelmed by the selflessness of so many men and women who gave their lives for our country or lived through insufferable conditions in order to preserve our way of life. What we need is an awakening... Hopefully that awakening will occur before we have crossed the threshold of no return. Unlike my husband, I am an eternal optimist. I believe in the creative ingenuity of the human race. I believe in our basic goodness. I believe that we will work as one to combat our mistakes of the past. My family laughs at my naïveté. Oh well... we can only be who we are.

Where's the ice?

Am I missing something? I was looking at Google Earth today and noticed that there is no ice in the artic except for Greenland. Isn't there supposed to be ice year round up there? Hmm...

Could not take the black any more

I must be changing. I have been attached to the black background on my blog. But I just couldn't take it any longer so today when I logged in, I changed the background color to white! It felt heavy, way to heavy and I needed to brighten up the place. :-)

Another New Green Vocab word

Learned a new word today: Greenvangelist

Eco Labeling -- How to find true green

what’s an ecolabel?
ecolabelling.org is the global, independent database of ecolabels

Notice something missing at the World Future Energy Summit ?

During the presentation by the President of Iceland at the World Future Energy Summit, someone does a slow pan of the audience. Notice how there are no women at this very importants event? Not one woman in an audience of people talking about the future of energy for this world.

SolarPlaza provides free information and trade for PV market

Here is a link to the trading floor.

And their library

And their database

How do they make money?

2030 webcast

So what am I doing up at 3:00 AM in the morning posting on my blog? Well, I just watched this absolutely fantastic webcast by Architecture 2030 Executive Director, Edward Mazria. It was a little long but well worth the time. He really lays it out there, what the current thinking is on climate change, but has a very suprising twist on how we can solve this problem. It is doeable, but the public's help is needed. It's a GREAT WEBCAST!

3C CEO's talk about their roadmap for carbon reduction

See video

Artic Net

There are some amazing photos of the artic on this site.

Photo Gallery

Environmental New Bits

Found a Database of Sustainable Development Resources in USA. Use to be open only to the government. They have now opened it to the general public.

Six degrees make a difference

So what does it matter if the planet gets a little warmer? I keep hoping that the worse case scenario won't be as bad as we think it might be. I guess it's human to be optimistic. I'm nursing a bad cold hoping that if I ignore it, it will just go away. I'm doing everything I can NOT to think about it. But the stupid thing just won't leave me alone. I take medicine for it, which dampens the symptoms momentarily but they come back soon with a furry.

I think climate change is the same way. We try to ignore it, hoping it will just go away. But the scientist and climatologist just won't let us be... National Geographic put together a flash animation that shows how one degree in the global average temperature impacts our planet. Just like the symptoms of a bad cold, you see how the cumulative effect of each degree adds up to something much bigger. Our beautiful planet; our lovely home; all the goodness, love and hope in the world, at risk, for six lousy degrees...