Climate Bills and a Green Economy

English Town's Climate Lessons

December 13, 2009

Al Jazeera - As the discussions at the Copenhagen climate summit continue, life will go on as normal in one small English town, but delegates may be wise to spare a thought for Totnes.

It is an example of how one community is thinking ahead and altering its behavior in preparation for the changes that climate change might bring.

Totnes, in the county of Devon, in southern England, is home to about 8,000 people. It has long had a reputation as a town that embraces what some in the UK would call a 'bohemian' lifestyle.

However, Totnes offers much more than funky shops and art galleries. There is a cross section of people bound by a commitment to help preserve the planet for future generations.

The Transition movement in Totnes was co-founded by Rob Hopkins. He is an environmentalist whose passion for creating a lifestyle which has more positive impact on his surroundings, has enthused many people in Totnes and beyond.

The idea of the transition project is to prepare for, and make the community more resilient against, the potential impact of climate change, and a time when natural resources, such as oil become less readily available and so more expensive.

Instead of being downbeat, Rob remains positive. He says that instead of sending out miserable leaflets to scare people about the impact of climate change and peak oil, his campaign's energy is focused on being practical.

The aim is to create a vision of a lower carbon future which will take us to a better place from where we are today, he says.

Wherever you go in Totnes, there's evidence of the Transition project. Within an hour of arriving in the town, Al Jazeera cameraman Ben Mitchell and I found ourselves being driven around in a rickshaw, a three wheeled vehicle more likely to be seen in Thailand than Totnes.

The rickshaw is being used as a new taxi and run on bio-fuel made from old fish and chip oil. It was donated from a local fast food restaurant. Totnes lies in quite a hilly area, so the idea of getting to the top of the town by taxi is proving to be a hit.

In the hills surrounding the town nut and fruit trees are being planted on council land. These will take years to grow but project volunteers want to create a sustainable food source for future generations as well as their own. One where people don't have to rely on produce which might have travelled thousands of miles via air, sea and road to reach the supermarket shelves.

The transition project is widely supported. One local woman told us she had joined gardening co-operative and now grew some of her own food.

"In the past few years a huge amount has changed and people's consciousness about what's happening globally has changed through Transition town Totnes."

We also met a man who had built his own eco-house, partly out of straw. It wasn't difficult to find designer Jim Carfrae, his stylish home has become a local eco landmark. From the outside, you would never guess that part of the walls have been created from bales of straw.

"I always wanted to build my own home, but one made out of local organic materials as it uses a lot less energy. And building an eco-home doesn't mean living a more difficult lifestyle," Jim said.

Totnes has already inspired other cities and towns around the world to take matters into their own hands, to try to reduce their carbon footprint.

In the grand scheme of things the efforts may seem small in comparison with the potential problem.

But, with the UK government estimating that more than 40 per cent of CO2 emissions come from the actions we make as individuals, such as car travel and heating our homes, it would be fair to say that projects like the one in Totnes do have the power to make a difference.

Apocalypse Fatigue: Losing the Public on Climate Change

December 17, 2009

Guardian - Even as the climate science becomes more definitive, polls show that public concern in the United States about global warming has been declining. What will it take to rally Americans behind the need to take strong action on cutting carbon emissions?

Last month, the Pew Research Center released its latest poll of public attitudes on global warming. On its face, the news was not good: Belief that global warming is occurring had declined from 71 percent in April of 2008 to 56 percent in October — an astonishing drop in just 18 months. The belief that global warming is human-caused declined from 47 percent to 36 percent.

While some pollsters questioned these numbers, the Pew statistics are consistent with the findings by Gallup in March that public concern about global warming had declined, that the number of Americans who believed that news about global warming was exaggerated had increased, and that the number of Americans who believed that the effects of global warming had already begun had declined.

The reasons offered for these declines are as varied as opinion about climate change itself. Skeptics say the gig is up: Americans have finally figured out that global warming is a hoax. Climate activists blame skeptics for sowing doubts about climate science. Pew's Andrew Kohut, who conducted the survey, says it's (mostly) the economy, stupid. And some folks have concluded that Americans, with our high levels of disbelief in evolution, are just too stupid or too anti-science to sort it all out...

Analysis: Obama Won't Break New Ground at Summit

December 16, 2009

AP - ... Obama has said his commitment at Copenhagen would mirror legislation already before Congress, calling for 17 percent reduction in pollution by 2020 and 80 percent by mid-century. But even that target has been denounced by Republicans as a "jobs killer" that would lead to higher energy costs. Democrats from states with energy-intensive industries are complaining, too.

Opinion polls have shown people have limits on how much they want to pay to solve the problem.

A recent AP-Stanford University poll revealed that while three-quarters of respondents said they support action to address climate change, just as many said they would oppose the plans considered by Congress and backed by Obama if they raised their electricity bills by $25 a month. A majority — 59 percent — wouldn't support any action if it meant electricity would cost $10 more.

Even Democrats who support climate legislation have warned the White House against committing to something at Copenhagen that Congress can't deliver — while some Republican lawmakers have urged Obama to reject mandatory emission cuts altogether.

In Copenhagen, Stern, the U.S. delegation head, declared:

"Our commitment is tied to our anticipated legislation. We don't want to promise something we don't have."

At the same time, administration officials said — and are arguing in meetings in Copenhagen — that the U.S. is doing more to reduce the climate change threat than getting legislation passed by Congress.

In recent days, the White House has choreographed a series of announcements and events in Washington designed to highlight those efforts — from tax breaks for renewable energy manufacturers to the president visiting a home remodeling store to declare it is "sexy" to better insulate your home.

The White House distributed a memo noting that the economic recovery program contains $80 billion to help promote clean energy development including money for renewable energy projects, nuclear power plants, more fuel efficient motor vehicles and commercial development of carbon capture technologies to be used at coal burning power plants.

It was a message designed for both Copenhagen and domestic consumption.

Climategate: Who Are the ‘Deniers’ Now?

December 14, 2009

Kansas City Star - A couple of years ago, supporters of global warming theory began referring to skeptics as “deniers” — implying that anyone who doubted climate change should be lumped with Holocaust deniers.

Now the shoe is on the other foot, thanks to the eye-popping e-mail dump that hit the Internet recently and quickly became known as “Climategate.” The response of much of the global-warming “community” has been … denial.

A New York Times story on the Copenhagen climate summit declared, “In Face of Skeptics, Experts Affirm Climate Peril.” The U.S. negotiator at Copenhagen, Jonathan Pershing, said the hacked e-mails have “no fundamental bearing” on the summit. Al Gore waved off the controversy as so much “sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency went right ahead with its “endangerment finding,” laying the basis for the regulatory equivalent of a tax on greenhouse gases.

The e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, however, raise serious questions about the theory of anthropogenic global warming, or AGW...