NewsTrust - Climate Change - Most Recent Stories: Opinion

20 Weird, Crazy Ideas for Helping the Earth | Environment

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By WebEcoist. - Nov. 21 (Editorial) - Global warming. Food shortages and water scarcity Dennis Baker penticton bc canada V2A6Z3 dennisbaker2003@hotmail.com RE : The solution to climate change. ( human excrement + nuclear waste = hydrogen ) The USA discharges Trillions of tons of sewage annually, sufficient quantity to sustain electrical generation requirements of the USA. Redirecting existing sewage systems to containment facilities would be a considerable infrastructure modification project. It is the intense radiation that causes the conversion of organic material into hydrogen, therefore what some would consider the most dangerous waste because of its radiation would be the best for this utilization. I believe the combination of clean water and clean air, will increase the life expectance of humans. yours sincerely Dennis Baker

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Opinion: Obama Has Failed the World on Climate Change

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Der Spiegel - By Christian Schwägerl - Nov. 17 (Opinion) - US President Barack Obama came to office promising hope and change. But on climate change, he has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor George W. Bush. Now, should the climate summit in Copenhagen fail, the blame will lie squarely with Obama.

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Copenhagen summit: Change we can't yet believe in

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - Nov. 16 (Editorial) - Confirming yesterday what had already been apparent for some months, Barack Obama and other leaders yesterday said that time had run out to secure a legally binding climate deal at Copenhagen. They said the 22 remaining days were just too few in number to secure binding emissions targets and overcome the divisions between the developed and developing world. This could be viewed as a realistic assessment. Mr Obama said that we must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. The British government's view is also optimistic. As long as political targets and outline commitments are agreed at Copenhagen, why should it matter that a few more months are taken to thrash out the details, if the end result is a package that is workable and enforceable? Rather a good package later than a weak package now. After all, the same thing happened to the Montreal protocol on CFCs, which took a year to harden up but remains the best of its kind.

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The Copenhagen Collapse

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - Nov. 16 (Opinion) - Over the weekend Mr. Obama bowed to reality and admitted that little of substance will come of the climate-change summit in Copenhagen next month. For the last year the President has been promising a binding international carbon-regulation treaty a la the Kyoto Protocol, but instead negotiators from 192 countries now hope to reach a preliminary agreement that they'll sign such a treaty when they meet in Mexico City in 2010. No doubt.

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'Right to dry' could wean Americans off consumption - opinion - 29 October 2009

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Scientist - By Alexander,Lee - Nov. 14 (Editorial) - It is time to put an end to crazy lows that mean millions of Americans use energy hungry tumble dryers rather than a clothes line.

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Climate Rage

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Rolling Stone - By Naomi Klein - Nov. 11 (Opinion) - With Copenhagen now likely to begin before Congress has passed even a weak-ass climate bill co-authored by the coal lobby, U.S. politicians have dropped the superhero metaphors and are scrambling to lower expectations for achieving a serious deal at the climate summit. It's just one meeting, says U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, not "the be-all and end-all." As faith in government action dwindles, however, climate activists are treating Copenhagen as an opportunity of a different kind. On track to be the largest environmental gathering in history, the summit represents a chance to seize the political terrain back from business-friendly half-measures, such as carbon offsets and emissions trading, and introduce some effective, common-sense proposals — ideas that have less to do with creating complex new markets for pollution and more to do with keeping coal and oil in the ground.

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The psychology of climate change

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Australian Broadcasting - By argot O'Neill - Nov. 10 (Opinion) - Organisers of a youth rally told me earlier this year that climate change was the activist issue for their generation and that young people would turn out to protest in record numbers. When hundreds of young people showed up on the anointed day I thought - where are the rest? If this is the issue, where is the mass demonstration of dissent?

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Copenhagen already a success

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Globe and Mail - By Bruce Anderson - Nov. 10 (Opinion) - There is a huge dysfunction between the way the average voter comes at these issues and the way policy spokespeople in the corporate, environmental NGO and government worlds often do. And at no time is this more visible than when mega climate/carbon events like Copenhagen come around. Most people are worried that the planet is under a lot of pressure, and many believe the climate is changing as a result. Considerably fewer have examined the science behind climate change, and fewer still the complex formulae that are at the heart of greenhouse-gas reduction targets.

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EPA orders employees to remove YouTube Climate Video

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

peer.org - By Kirsten Stade - Nov. 09 (Press Release) - The video, entitled “The Huge Mistake”, is by Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, two EPA enforcement attorneys speaking as private citizens. The video explains why the cap & trade plan endorsed by President Obama will not accomplish its goals,

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The missing link in the climate change debate

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Adam Corner - Nov. 09 (Opinion) - From 10:10 to the government's Act On CO2 campaign, it is now widely accepted that tackling climate change will require tackling behaviour change too. But until now, a key piece has been missing from the puzzle – psychology. The study of human behaviour has been conspicuous by its absence from the climate change debate.

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Rethinking Green

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Long Now Foundation - By Stewart Brand - Nov. 09 (Speech) - Insightful talk about new approaches to protecting the environment, by Stewart Brand, of former Whole Earth Catalog fame, speaking at a Long Now Foundation seminar. Stewart recommends a new "Whole Earth Discipline" focusing on smart urban development, nuclear power and genetic engineering to address some of our most pressing environmental issues.

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How to boost fuel efficiency? Raise taxes, executives say

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Reuters - By Scott Malone - Nov. 06 (Opinion) - While politically unpalatable, gasoline that costs at least $4 a gallon would have a far greater effect on American fuel usage than Washington's $25 billion loan program meant to spark investment in new technologies

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GOP Senators on Environment Committee Hit All-Time Low, Third-Graders Have More Maturity

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Tara Lohan - Nov. 06 (Opinion) - 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.

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With tax break, a big carbon footprint

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Boston Globe - By Edward L. Glaeser - Nov. 05 (Opinion) - ENVIRONMENTALISTS who are worried about global warming should pay attention to the congressional debate about extending the home buyers tax credit. Federal tax policies toward housing have long encouraged Americans to emit more carbon. President Obama could do the country, and the planet, a service by either refusing to sign the extension of the $8,000 credit or by insisting that it be accompanied by offsetting reductions in the home mortgage interest deduction.

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Newsweek And Oil Lobby Team Up To Host Climate Change Event With Lawmakers

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Talking Points Memo - By Zachary Roth - Nov. 05 (Opinion) - Newsweek magazine is teaming up with an oil-industry lobbying group to host an event on climate-change and energy issues involving lawmakers, just as the Senate gets set to take up legislation on the subject. The panel discussion, entitled "Climate and Energy Policy: Moving?," will feature Jack Gerard, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, and, as moderator, Newsweek columnist Howard Fineman, according to an email invitation sent by a Newsweek business staffer and obtained by TPMmuckraker. "Newsweek is pleased to be co-hosting this panel discussion with API," says the email, which adds that "notable members of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate" have been invited. The event is scheduled to be held December 1 in a Senate meeting room.

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Climate Change Deniers Are Not Skeptics - They're Suckers

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By George Monbiot - Nov. 03 (Opinion) - My fiercest opponents on global warming tend to be in their 60s and 70s. This offers a fascinating, if chilling, insight into human psychology There is no point in denying it: we're losing. Climate change denial is spreading like a contagious disease. It exists in a sphere that cannot be reached by evidence or reasoned argument; any attempt to draw attention to scientific findings is greeted with furious invective. This sphere is expanding with astonishing speed. A survey last month by the Pew Research Centre suggests that the proportion of Americans who believe there is solid evidence that the world has been warming over the last few decades has fallen from 71% to 57% in just 18 months.

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Michael Specter’s new book ‘Denialism’ misses its targets

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Tom Philpott - Oct. 31 (Review) - Like the great institutions of European Christianity, modern science has amassed tremendous power—and not always lived up to its founding creeds. Science needs a Gibbon—someone who appreciates its intellectual grandeur and potential, but who also can train a cold eye on the “inevitable mixture of error and corruption” that has accompanied its tenure since the Enlightenment. That Gibbon is not Michael Specter, a New Yorker staff writer and author of the new book Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives. His book purports to defend science from its philistine critics—people who, in Specter’s view, reflexively deny the validity of the scientific process. In his intro, Specter sets up the defining focus of the book. He contrasts the “rigorous and open-minded skepticism of science” with “the inflexible certainty of ideological commitment” (i.e., “denialism”). Already, we’re on thin intellectual ice; Specter evidently believes in a pure science, one that exists completely apart from ideology. In Gibbon’s phrasing, he’s defending a science as “she descended from Heaven [read: the Enlightenment], arrayed in her native purity.”

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Obama may face fight on treaties

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Boston Globe - By Bender, Bryan - Oct. 25 (Opinion) - President Obama's vision of global cooperation - symbolized by his surprise Nobel Peace Prize - is in for a crucial test in the months ahead when he begins sending a series of treaties to the US Senate, where skepticism ...Questions for Thorbjorn Jagland Peace Be With YouNew York TimesWSJIDEBATE: Was It Premature to Honor Obama with the Nobel Peace Prize?Wall Street JournalObama Gets 'Incomplete' as Decisions on War, Joblessness LoomBloombergBellingham Herald?-Niles Daily Star?-The MIT Techall 165 news articles??

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Rebranding America

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:09:36 -0700

New York Times - Oct. 18 (Opinion) - President Obama reminds us that America is not just a country but an idea, a great idea about opportunity for all and responsibility to your fellow man.

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The wetware imperative: Stopping small-mindedness before it kills us

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Psychology Today - By Jeremy Sherman, Ph.D - Oct. 18 (Research) - In other words, the limiting agent isn't hardware or software but wetware, the human mind, or more specifically the human small mind.

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The world's future is being decided this weekend

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Nicholas Stern - Oct. 18 (Opinion) - We must agree to halt deforestation and curtail air travel now if the Copenhagen summit is to succeed Energy and environment ministers from the world?s major economies are meeting in London today to try to accelerate crucial negotiations over an international treaty on climate change. Strong progress has been made in the past few weeks, with Japan, for example, announcing that it will cut its emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 25% by 2020 relative to levels in 1990. But there are still major obstacles and some doubt whether a strong global deal can be hammered out in time for the United Nations?s conference on climate change in Copenhagen, now just seven weeks away. Agreement can be reached if governments now ...

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Real-world problems turn climate-change debate pragmatic

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - Oct. 16 (Opinion) - As the health-care debate was transformed by the urgency of insurance reform, climate-change legislation is shaped by the business and financial consequences of global warming.

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Population Action International : Population and Reproductive Health in National Adaptation Programs of Action

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Population Action International - By Clive Mutunga, Karen Hardee - Oct. 15 (Advocacy) - This paper reviews 41 National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) submitted by Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and identifies the range of interventions included in countries’ priority adaptation actions. The review found near-universal recognition among the NAPAs of the importance of population considerations as a central pillar in climate change adaptation.

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How we feed the world on 85p

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Alex Renton, John Vidal - Oct. 11 -

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Acting Like a Bunch of Christies

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

American Spectator - By Peter Ferrara - Oct. 07 - Acting Like a Bunch of Christies

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