Thursday, April 30, 2009
N.E.R.D. "Spazz"
This came on my Ipod and I just had to post the video. It makes the song better. Love this ish.
I'm a little tea-pot blowing off steam,
You put me on the heat I don't whistle I scream,
.....
The shit they spray attack my lungs everyday
With a creeping decay, I gotta get it off
By attacking these things, I earnt my wings
And my halo but first I gotta, get it off
Kid Cudi goes GREEN
The Man on the Moon is moving in the right direction for the Earth. Borrowed from GreenJar.net
I'm not the only hip hop fan who is a treehugger. Now I just need to get someone else into sailing to find a soulmate.
I'm not the only hip hop fan who is a treehugger. Now I just need to get someone else into sailing to find a soulmate.
ChevronToxico
www.chevrontoxico.com
I met with the attorneys from this case yesterday, and it is shocking that this was allowed to go on. Beyond the emissions, this is the cost of driving your car, flying, buying things that aren't locally produced. This is capitalism at its best. HOOOORAY! This goes way beyond just an environmental issue. This is also a fundamental human rights issue.
From the WashingtonPost: Deep in the northern Ecuadoran rain forest, next to pits filled with noxious sludge, a lawyer on his very first case argued that a U.S. oil company had deliberately fouled a swath of jungle nearly the size of Delaware during two decades of production.
Wearing a straw hat for the recent outdoor hearing, Pablo Fajardo was delivering the final arguments in a lawsuit that began in New York in 1993 against Texaco but is wrapping up here against Chevron, which bought Texaco in 2001. The stakes are high -- and so tinged with nationalism that Ecuador's President Rafael Correa has openly sided with the plaintiffs, 48 individuals representing tens of thousands of people in the region.
If the judge rules against Chevron, the company could face the largest damages award ever handed down in an environmental case, dwarfing the $3.9 billion awarded against ExxonMobil for the 1989 spill in Alaska.
A report by a court-appointed team last year concluded that pollution caused mainly by Texaco's Ecuadoran affiliate, Texaco Petroleum, had led to 1,401 cancer deaths in this stretch of Amazonian jungle. The team's leader, Ecuadoran geologist Richard Cabrera, reported finding high levels of toxins in soil and water samples near Texaco's production sites and assessed damages at up to $27.3 billion....(continues)
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Colin Munroe - Will I Stay feat. Wale - Rehearsal Footage
On the topic of Colin Munroe, here is by far the best version of his song, done with Wale. Other versions sound too pop, but this hits it just right with heavy percussion.
Colbert Study: Conservatives Don't Know He's Joking
I'm in a way surprised, and not at all surprised by this study done by Ohio State University on how Stephen Colbert's parody of a conservative talk show host is received by true conservatives:
This study investigated biased message processing of political satire in The Colbert Report and the influence of political ideology on perceptions of Stephen Colbert. Results indicate that political ideology influences biased processing of ambiguous political messages and source in late-night comedy. Using data from an experiment (N = 332), we found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert's political ideology. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements. Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism. Finally, a post hoc analysis revealed that perceptions of Colbert's political opinions fully mediated the relationship between political ideology and individual-level opinion.
Full study.
Maybe they forgot this:
Monday, April 27, 2009
Okayplayer T-Shirt Competition
So Okayplay is doing a t-shirt contest. They have some pretty badass t-shirts, mostly designed by the Roots.
Here is my submission:
Front
Back
Logo
Here is my submission:
Front
Back
Logo
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Kanye West - Amazin' (feat. Young Jeezy)
This is one of my favorite tracks off of 808s. Not sure how I feel about the video. Looks like Planet Earth with splices of Kanye and Young Jeezy at a beach bonfire. Looks like it was filmed in Kaui and the Grand Canyon.
Republicans flinging bullsh!t at the Climate Bill
Functioning infant Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill) had this to say about the draft climate bill now being heard in Congress:
He went on to say that global warming is God's will:
From Grist.org
How are these really our elected officials?
This is the largest assault on democracy and freedom in this country that I’ve ever experienced. I’ve lived through some tough times in Congress. We’ve seen two wars, terrorist attacks. I fear this more than all of the above.
He went on to say that global warming is God's will:
From Grist.org
Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) chimed in with his own analysis: “Adapting is a common natural way for people to adapt to their environment ... I believe that the earth’s climate is changing, but I think it’s changing for natural variation reasons,” he said. “And I think mankind has been adopting, or adapting to climate as long as man has walked the earth. When it rains, we find shelter. When it’s hot, we get shade. When it’s cold, we find a warm place to stay.”
(And if you think that’s bad, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told ABC on Sunday that “the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. ... Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you’ve got more carbon dioxide.”)
The witness skepticism program
The witnesses Republicans bring to hearings are just as out of touch with climate science.
Democrats, who control Congress and thus chair its committees, schedule hearings on topics of their choosing and invite witnesses. A committee chair isn’t required to grant the minority party their pick of witnesses, but if the minority objects to the panel, they can request a second day of the hearing for which they pick all the witnesses. To avoid that messiness, chairs tend to let the minority pick at least one or two panelists.
At the March 25 hearing, Democrats’ five witnesses included the director of the National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the director of natural resources and environment at the Government Accountability Office, and leaders from the National Wildlife Federation, the National Council of Churches, and Oxfam America.
The NOAA representative, Tom Karl, presented on the trends toward increased droughts and forest fires, and an uptick in the frequency and severity of coastal storms that the agency forecasts. John Stephenson from the GAO talked about the “growing understanding” at his agency that the costs of inaction could be greater than the costs of mitigating climate change. Even the witnesses who don’t work in climate science or government stuck to the topic at hand—adapting to a warmed world—without claiming expertise they don’t possess. Bishop Callon Holloway of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, speaking on behalf of the National Council of Churches, testified about the “call to be good stewards of the earth,” reflecting on the values of “stewardship and justice” that should compel us to protect the poor who would be affected by climate change.
In stark contrast, the Republicans’ witnesses challenged the very idea of climate change, and thus the whole basis for the hearing. First up was E. Calvin Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, who warned that “fear of catastrophic, man-made global warming is a mistake,” and argued that because the “biblical worldview sees the world and ecosystems as the work of a wise God,” humankind couldn’t possibly be affecting the climate. Going further, he warned that restricting the amount of carbon put into the atmosphere would harm the poor, and that Americans are “morally obligated to provide access for the poor to affordable, abundant fossil fuels.”
The minority’s second witness was Lord Christopher Monckton, aka the 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, a British hereditary peer who’s become a minor star in the climate-skeptic world. “The right response to the non-problem of global warming is to have the courage to do nothing,” he told the panel. He readily agreed with Rep. Shimkus: “We are a carbon-starved planet.”
Monckton argued that if Congress moved to address climate change, it would “create green jobs by the thousands and eliminate real jobs by the millions ... Green jobs are the new euphemism for vast unemployment.”
He also contended that aggressive environmental regulation in California has prompted a vast exodus from the state. “Everyone with the means to get up and go is getting up and going, and unlike their robotic governor, they won’t be back,” Monckton said—though he offered no evidence of a mass migration. (In reality, the state’s overall population continues to grow, even though the number of people moving out of California has slightly surpassed the number moving in.)
Monckton has a colorful history—journalist by training, advisor to Margaret Thatcher, business consultant, and developer of the high-selling Eternity puzzle—but no background in climate science. Nonetheless, he’s touted by climate deniers as an “expert” on the topic, and serves as chief policy adviser to the Science & Public Policy Institute, a climate-skeptic group. Republicans also trotted Monckton out as a witness at a Ways and Means Committee hearing on climate change in February, and he appeared at the climate skeptics summit sponsored by the conservative Heartland Institute in early March. (See George Monbiot, DeSmogBlog, and Deltoid for more on Monckton.)
“This was a serious hearing on a serious issue,” an aide to the Energy and Commerce Committee told Grist of the March 25 panel. “We gave the other side advance notice on the kinds of witnesses [Democratic leaders] were choosing. They chose to invite Monckton. ... If this is the witness that they want to choose, even though he’s contradicted by U.S. government scientists, then we’re going to move forward.”
Will the GOP play ball or throw sand?
Climate legislation will be highly complex, with society-wide ramifications. So far this year, there have been 11 hearings on the topic in the Energy and Environment Subcommittee alone, and there will be a number of additional hearings over the coming weeks focusing specifically on the draft climate plan from Markey and Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). Markey has said they left many specifics out of their draft because they “want to hear from all affected parties” on, for instance, how to minimize impacts on citizens and help energy-intensive businesses adapt to a new regulatory scheme.
But instead of inviting witnesses who could speak to these critical concerns, the Republican committee members have thus far preferred to invite climate skeptics.
Asked about the prospects for meaningful Republican participation in crafting a climate bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) acknowledged recently that there might not be much, if any. “We would hope to have Republican votes as we go forward on this,” she said. “Will I not put it forth unless I do? No. There’s an inevitability to this that everyone has to understand.”
The Energy and Commerce Committee will hold its first four hearings on the Waxman-Markey bill this week, starting on Tuesday. Democratic leaders aim to pass the legislation out of committee by Memorial Day, and out of the full House by July. If you want to know how seriously Republicans are taking the process, keep an eye on these hearings.
How are these really our elected officials?
World’s first climate refugees"
Environmentalists predict that climate change will affect more than 375 million people every year by 2015, due to natural disasters and rising sea levels.
Thousands of people in Bangladesh are thought to be the world’s first “climate refugees” due to severe flooding.
Shaun Boothe: Unauthorized Biography of BOB MARLEY (2nd of 12)
Robert Nesta Marley is definitely an inspiration; musically, politically, spiritually, and especially because he is also biracial like myself. This unauthorized biography touches on his early life with an absent white dad, but a strong black mother.
Shaun Boothe: Unauthorized Biography of James Brown (1st of 12)
So I just discovered this guy Shaun Boothe, who writes and makes videos for unauthorized biographies of famous, influential, and inspirational historic figures from different spectrums of society. He is doing a series of twelve, and here is the first on James Brown. I will post the next four shortly.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Foreclosing the Future: Coal, Climate and International Public Finance
I've been working on this for the last 2 months for work. Check it out.
http://www.edf.org/coalfinance
An Environmental Defense Fund report has found that the World Bank and other international public financial institutions are continuing a 15-year trend of supporting coal-fired power plant construction throughout the developing world and economies in transition.
By financing this new carbon-intensive infrastructure, multilateral development banks (MDBs) and export credit agencies (ECAs) of the industrialized world are hamstringing the fight against global warming and setting back longer term efforts to alleviate poverty in the world's poorest countries.
* Since 1994, the World Bank, other MDBs and ECAs financed new construction or expansion of 88 coal-fired power plants.
* These plants will generate roughly 791 million tons of CO2 emissions per year, or more than 75% of the current emissions for coal-fired power in the entire European Union.
* According to the International Energy Agency, without a decisive reorientation of energy investment from carbon-intensive sources in developing and emerging economies, atmospheric CO2 will overshoot the point of no return for dangerous global warming, even if the industrialized world were to reduce its CO2 emissions to zero by 2030.
The time for change is now
EDF urges the MDBs and ECAs to hasten the shift to renewable energy by adopting the following recommendations:
1. Deploy public international finance in support of renewable energy, energy efficiency and other alternatives to coal. Scarce public international resources should go to renewable technologies and energy efficiency programs, which will help countries grow and alleviate poverty while reducing the impacts of global warming on the poor.
2. Calculate coal's true cost; MDBs and ECAs should institute comprehensive Greenhouse Gas Screening and Accounting and Shadow Carbon Pricing for all projects that emit greenhouse gases. (Shadow Carbon Pricing includes the external cost of carbon emissions to society and the economy.)
3. Create under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change the first international database of GHG-intensive investments (including coal plants) and their emissions by public finance institutions. No such database currently exists.
4. Negotiate as soon as possible, an international agreement among OECD member nations on a common climate/GHG policy for their ECAs.
Read the summary [PDF] of "Foreclosing the Future" to learn more about the financing behind these plants and their impact on the fight against global warming.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
NYULocal: Nyle is Not Just a River in Egypt: An Interview with an NYU Student on the Verge of Graduating as a Hip-Hop Star
So after hearing is cover of Lil Wayne's "Let the Beat Build," I was wondering who this guy Nyle was. He's a senior at NYU, and an up and coming star. Granted, he'll need a producer with fresh beats, but with a resume such as the "Let the beat Build" video (posted earlier today), he shouldnt have an problems with that when he graduates.
Here is an NYULocal article about him:
Nyle Emerson, an NYU senior, has recently begun to make a name for himself across the internet for his impressive and catchy video “Let the Beat Build.” The video has swept its way across hip hop blogs and gone legitimately viral, garnering over 10,000 hits in just three days. Though it’s this video that caught NYU Local’s attention, Emerson has been working hard since high school to achieve his dream of becoming the next rap superstar, performing shows at the Bowery Poetry Club and compiling audio and video EPs. The first thing you’ll notice about Emerson is that he’s not your stereotypical hip hop hopeful. Thoughtful, incredibly intelligent and endlessly passionate about his art, I had to restrain myself from wanting to jump across the room and hug him. Entertainment Editor Joe Coscarelli and I sat down with Nyle yesterday at the Clive Davis Recording Studio at 194 Mercer to discuss music, hip hop nonprofits and the making of “Let the Beat Build.”
Joe: When did you record the video for your version of Lil Wayne’s “Let the Beat Build”?
Nyle: The video was recorded the 2nd week in March, I believe. About a month and a half ago. A friend hit me up and said that they wanted to do a video, my friend Jo Gallino was just like, “Yo, there’s this Lil’ Wayne track, I don’t know if you’ve heard it but when we get back to school we should record it with my band and do a video for it. And I was like okay, cool. And I heard it, and it got stuck in my head…
Joe: It’s a catchy beat.
Nyle: It’s a really catchy beat. and I immediately wrote a bunch of stuff that night. I wrote 3 verses for it and um, I don’t know, the video thing just kind of fell through. While I was writing I kept getting all these ideas and while I was sitting on it and waiting to hear back from them I just kept getting all these ideas built up in my head. So I knew I wanted to milk NYU for some money before I graduated, so I applied for pro funds with 194 Recordings which is the label club of Clive Davis.
continued.....
Ed Markey response to John Boehner
Here is Ed Markey, co-author with Henry Waxman of the renewable energy draft bill which will go before Congress at the Green Apple Festival in DC explaining why the EPA's finding that greenhouse gases were harmful to humans is "the most important decision in the history of environmental decisions."
Props
Nyle "Let the Beat Build"
Nyle "Let The Beat Build" from Last Pictures on Vimeo.
There are far too many Lil Wayne covers out there, but this one is inspired.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Boehner: It's 'comical' to say carbon dioxide is dangerous
I hate to be partisan, but Jesus H. Christ............republicans..........
The video speaks for itself. Transcript below.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me ask you then about energy. We showed your statement on the president's decision through the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases. Also, you've come out against the president's proposal to cap-and-trade carbon emissions.
So what is the Republican answer to climate change? Is it a problem? Do you have a plan to address it?
BOEHNER: George, we believe that our -- all of the above energy strategy from last year continues to be the right approach on energy. That we ought to make sure that we have new sources of energy, green energy, but we need nuclear energy, we need other types of alternatives, and, yes, we need American-made oil and gas.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But that doesn't do anything when it comes to emissions, sir.
BOEHNER: When it comes to the issue of climate change, George, it's pretty clear that if we don't work with other industrialized nations around the world, what's going to happen is that we're going to ship millions of American jobs overseas. We have to deal with this in a responsible way.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So what is the responsible way? That's my question. What is the Republican plan to deal with carbon emissions, which every major scientific organization has said is contributing to climate change?
BOEHNER: George, the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you've got more carbon dioxide. And so I think it's clear...
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you don't believe that greenhouse gases are a problem in creating climate change?
BOEHNER: ... we've had climate change over the last 100 years -- listen, it's clear we've had change in our climate. The question is how much does man have to do with it, and what is the proper way to deal with this? We can't do it alone as one nation. If we got India, China and other industrialized countries not working with us, all we're going to do is ship millions of American jobs overseas.
WP: Somalia's Godfathers: Ransom-Rich Pirates - Coastal Villagers Find Blessings And Ruin at Hands of Sea Robbers
NAIROBI -- The young Somali couple had plans. Ilka Ase Mohamed and the love of his life, tall, bright-eyed Fatima Mukhtar, were going to leave their little fishing town of Harardhere, attend university and, when Mohamed had enough cows for a dowry, get married.
But a little over a year ago, the woman Mohamed still calls "my beloved girl" was betrothed to a Somali pirate who wears a black cowboy hat, drives a Land Cruiser and paid $50,000 cash in what Mohamed described as a soulless deal with her mother.
"This man was like a small king who came to Harardhere," said Mohamed, 23. "He was dressed like a president. So many people attended him. I got so angry -- I said, 'Why do they accept this situation? You know this is pirate money!' "
The story of Mohamed, Fatima and the brazen Somali pirate -- based on an interview with Mohamed after he moved to Kenya -- underscores how entrenched piracy and its flashy new-money culture have become in the tiny, worn-out fishing villages that dot Somalia's coast.
As the world's most powerful navies patrol the vast shipping lanes of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, Somali pirates are commanding millions in ransom for the massive cargo vessels they seize. Even since a U.S. show of force last week, when Navy snipers killed three pirates and freed an American captain being held hostage, pirates have seized several more ships with dozens of hostages.
Given the challenge of patrolling more than a million square miles of ocean, attention is turning toward fighting piracy from the Somali shore, where ransoms that totaled about $50 million last year are pouring into fishing villages such as Harardhere, and well-armed pirates are overwhelming what little local authority exists in a country that has been without a functioning central government since 1991......continued...
Friday, April 17, 2009
Skyzoo - The Power of Words (Mixtape)
Skyzoo Mixtape featuring Maino, Young Chris, Talib Kweli, Reks, Rapper Big Pooh, Naledge, Wale & EPMD. Production coming from the likes of Jake One, Illmind, Khrysis, 9th Wonder, Dilla and Statik!
Download
WP: EPA to Propose Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The Environmental Protection Agency today plans to propose regulating greenhouse gas emissions on the grounds that these pollutants pose a danger to the public's health and welfare, according to several sources who asked not to be identified.
The move, coming almost exactly two years after the Supreme Court ordered the agency to examine whether emissions linked to climate change should be curbed under the Clean Air Act, would mark a major shift in the federal government's approach to global warming.
Former President George W. Bush and his deputies opposed putting mandatory limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases for years on the grounds that it would harm the economy; Congress is considering legislation that would do so but it remains unclear whether it can pass the proposal and enact it into law in the near future.
Late last month EPA sent the White House a formal finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare; the Office of Management and Budget signed off on the determination Monday.
When reached this morning, EPA spokesman Allyn Brooks-LaSure declined to comment on the matter.
President Obama pledged to limit greenhouse gases as a candidate, but has urged Congress to send him a bill that would cap them and allow emitters to trade pollution allowances nationwide. EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson, in a speech at the Aspen Environment Forum last month, emphasized that the administration still hopes the country will develop a legislative answer to the question of how best to limit greenhouse gases.
"The best solution, and I believe this in my heart, is to work with Congress to form and pass comprehensive legislation to deal with climate change," Jackson said. " We hope to avert a regulatory thicket where governments and businesses spend an inordinate amount of time fighting. We are not looking for a doomsday solution."
Some business groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have warned that if the federal government regulates carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act it will end up imposing an enormous regulatory burden on small operations such as individual stores and even some office buildings.............Continued....
Thursday, April 16, 2009
DJ Night: Lyricist Draft 3/18/09
Aight, so we did an MC draft a few weeks back at our DJ night, which is basically a hip hop/DJing book club. Our crew name is "Working Title: When Fish Rides Bicycles." Here are the results.
Round 1
1. Mark Antoniewicz - Andre 3000
2. Trey Lord - Black Thought
3. Tom Costello - Nas
Round 2
1. Tom - Mos Def
2. Trey - Talib Kweli
3. Marx - Big L
Round 3
1. Marx - Rakim
2. Trey - Notorious B.I.G.
3. Tom - Eminem
Round 4
1. Tom - 2pac
2. Trey - Q-tip
3. Marx - Lil Wayne
Round 5
1. Marx - Lupe Fiasco
2. Trey - Guru
3. Tom - Wale
Round 6
1. Tom - Del
2. Trey - Murs
3. Marx - Snoop Dogg
Round 7
1. Marx - Busta Rhymes
2. Trey - Easy-E
3. Tom - Lauryn Hill
Round 8
1. Tom - Big Boi
2. Trey - Gift of Gab
3. Marx - Jay Z
Round 9
1. Marx - Ghostface
2. Trey - B.o.B
3. Tom - Big Pun
Round 10
1. Tom - Raekwon
2. Trey - Wafeek
3. Marx - Gza
The Roots Ft Chrisette Michele & Wale - Rising Up
Choice line: Good rapper's ain't eating, they're Olsen twinning.
Respect to the Roots, especially for bringing on a new star, Wale.
WP: Renewable Energy's Environmental Paradox
The SunZia transmission line that would link sun and wind power from central New Mexico with cities in Arizona is just the sort of energy project an environmentalist could love -- or hate. And it is just the sort of line the Interior Department has been tasked with promoting -- or guarding against.
If built, the 460-mile line would carry about 3,000 megawatts of power, enough to avoid the need for a handful of coal-fired plants and to help utilities meet mandated targets for use of renewable fuel. "We have to connect the sun of the deserts and the winds of the plains to places where people live," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said recently.
But the line would also cross grasslands, skirt two national wildlife refuges and traverse the Rio Grande, all habitat areas rich in wildlife. The graceful sandhill crane, for example, makes its winter home in the wetlands of New Mexico's Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, right next to the path of the proposed power line. And much of the area falls under the protection of the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
Renewable-energy development, which the Obama administration has made a priority, is posing conflicts between economic interests and environmental concerns, not entirely unlike the way offshore oil and gas development pits economics against environment. But because of concerns about climate, many environmentalists and government agencies could find themselves straddling both sides, especially in Western states where the federal government is a major landowner.
"Everybody in New Mexico loves the sandhill cranes," said Ned Farquhar, a former aide to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D). "We also love our renewable energy. So we have to figure this out."
Farquhar made that comment a month ago when he was working for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Since then, he has been appointed head of the BLM -- in charge of figuring it out.
As the push for renewable-energy development intensifies across the United States, scientists and activists have begun to voice concern that policymakers have underestimated the environmental impact of projects that are otherwise "green."
"There is no free lunch when it comes to meeting our energy needs," said Johanna Wald, a senior lawyer at the Natural Resources Defense Council. She added, however, that the renewables boom "offers a chance to do it right."
"We want to do it differently compared to how we did oil and gas development," she said.
There is no question that permit applications for renewable-energy projects are on the rise, especially on federal land in the West. According to Ray Brady, leader of the BLM's energy policy team, the bureau has received 199 applications for solar projects encompassing 1.7 million acres of land, though only two of them have undergone environmental assessments.
The agency has already authorized 206 wind projects -- 28 of them to generate power, the rest primarily to test a region's wind-generation capacity -- and at least 200 more are awaiting approval.
The fact that eight Western states have established "renewable portfolio standards" has accelerated the push for new projects, Brady said, because those policies are forcing utilities to find additional renewable sources of electricity.
"For all of these reasons, BLM does have a challenge because of the additional work involved," said Brady, who predicted that the agency may hire as many as 100 people just to work on renewable-energy permits. "Clearly there's an interest in expediting and streamlining the process. However, we need to make the right decisions that are based on the best science."
One of the biggest challenges renewable-energy projects pose is that they often take up much more land than conventional sources, such as coal-fired power plants. A team of scientists, several of whom work for the Nature Conservancy, has written a paper that will appear in the journal PLoS One showing that it can take 300 times as much land to produce a given amount of energy from soy biodiesel as from a nuclear power plant. Regardless of the climate policy the nation adopts, the paper predicts that by 2030, energy production will occupy an additional 79,537 square miles of land.
The impact will be "substantial," said Jimmie Powell, the Nature Conservancy's national energy leader and one of the paper's co-authors. "It's important to know where the footprint is going to be."
In some cases, scientists are just beginning to discover the unintended effect of projects such as wind turbines. Grassland birds such as the lesser prairie chicken and the greater sage grouse, both of which are candidates for listing under the Endangered Species Act, appear to avoid vertical structures such as wind turbines and transmission-line towers. This is proving to be a problem in states such as Kansas, an ideal site for wind power, because as more turbines are built, lesser prairie chickens will confine themselves to narrow ranges, fragmenting a population that must be connected to survive.
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"Nobody knows what's in the bird's head, but presumably there's an inherited behavior that allows the birds to avoid avian predators who could perch overhead," said Michael Bean, wildlife director for the Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed requiring that developers keep wind turbines at least five miles away from a prairie grouse lek, or mating area, but the wind industry has resisted this idea.
Ditlev Engel, president and chief executive of the Danish wind-energy company Vestas, said anecdotal evidence about birds being caught in turbine blades and other environmental horror stories do not usually hold up under scrutiny.
"Do people think it's better all those birds are breathing CO2? I'm not a scientist, but I doubt it," said Engel, whose company is expanding its U.S. manufacturing and distribution operations. "Let's get the facts on the table and not the feelings. The fact is, these are not issues."
In many instances, producers of renewable energy are coordinating with environmental groups and federal agencies to try to map out the best locations for energy production, whether in the West or offshore. The Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Audubon Society have created an online mapping project, using Google Earth, of 13 Western states to show where renewable projects would have the most impact. Out of the 860 million acres in those states, for example, there are 10,000 conservation areas, and 128 million acres are off limits to energy development.
In the case of SunZia, the company has been working to minimize the impact of its proposed transmission line. Tom Wray, manager of generation and transmission projects, said that as much as 80 percent of the line's path would parallel existing lines. He said that it would cross the Rio Grande north of the sandhill crane's flyway and that it would zig and zag to skirt environmentally sensitive areas. Every mile added to the length of the line, however, would add about $1 million to the project.
"We're not aware of any threatened or endangered species habitat or impact issues that we can't mitigate or deal with," Wray said.
Lawrence A. Selzer, president of the Conservation Fund, said the new administration is eager to advance these projects without alienating environmentalists. "The answer from President Obama can't be no," he said. "They've got to find a way to say yes."
If built, the 460-mile line would carry about 3,000 megawatts of power, enough to avoid the need for a handful of coal-fired plants and to help utilities meet mandated targets for use of renewable fuel. "We have to connect the sun of the deserts and the winds of the plains to places where people live," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said recently.
But the line would also cross grasslands, skirt two national wildlife refuges and traverse the Rio Grande, all habitat areas rich in wildlife. The graceful sandhill crane, for example, makes its winter home in the wetlands of New Mexico's Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, right next to the path of the proposed power line. And much of the area falls under the protection of the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
Renewable-energy development, which the Obama administration has made a priority, is posing conflicts between economic interests and environmental concerns, not entirely unlike the way offshore oil and gas development pits economics against environment. But because of concerns about climate, many environmentalists and government agencies could find themselves straddling both sides, especially in Western states where the federal government is a major landowner.
"Everybody in New Mexico loves the sandhill cranes," said Ned Farquhar, a former aide to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D). "We also love our renewable energy. So we have to figure this out."
Farquhar made that comment a month ago when he was working for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Since then, he has been appointed head of the BLM -- in charge of figuring it out.
As the push for renewable-energy development intensifies across the United States, scientists and activists have begun to voice concern that policymakers have underestimated the environmental impact of projects that are otherwise "green."
"There is no free lunch when it comes to meeting our energy needs," said Johanna Wald, a senior lawyer at the Natural Resources Defense Council. She added, however, that the renewables boom "offers a chance to do it right."
"We want to do it differently compared to how we did oil and gas development," she said.
There is no question that permit applications for renewable-energy projects are on the rise, especially on federal land in the West. According to Ray Brady, leader of the BLM's energy policy team, the bureau has received 199 applications for solar projects encompassing 1.7 million acres of land, though only two of them have undergone environmental assessments.
The agency has already authorized 206 wind projects -- 28 of them to generate power, the rest primarily to test a region's wind-generation capacity -- and at least 200 more are awaiting approval.
The fact that eight Western states have established "renewable portfolio standards" has accelerated the push for new projects, Brady said, because those policies are forcing utilities to find additional renewable sources of electricity.
"For all of these reasons, BLM does have a challenge because of the additional work involved," said Brady, who predicted that the agency may hire as many as 100 people just to work on renewable-energy permits. "Clearly there's an interest in expediting and streamlining the process. However, we need to make the right decisions that are based on the best science."
One of the biggest challenges renewable-energy projects pose is that they often take up much more land than conventional sources, such as coal-fired power plants. A team of scientists, several of whom work for the Nature Conservancy, has written a paper that will appear in the journal PLoS One showing that it can take 300 times as much land to produce a given amount of energy from soy biodiesel as from a nuclear power plant. Regardless of the climate policy the nation adopts, the paper predicts that by 2030, energy production will occupy an additional 79,537 square miles of land.
The impact will be "substantial," said Jimmie Powell, the Nature Conservancy's national energy leader and one of the paper's co-authors. "It's important to know where the footprint is going to be."
In some cases, scientists are just beginning to discover the unintended effect of projects such as wind turbines. Grassland birds such as the lesser prairie chicken and the greater sage grouse, both of which are candidates for listing under the Endangered Species Act, appear to avoid vertical structures such as wind turbines and transmission-line towers. This is proving to be a problem in states such as Kansas, an ideal site for wind power, because as more turbines are built, lesser prairie chickens will confine themselves to narrow ranges, fragmenting a population that must be connected to survive.
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"Nobody knows what's in the bird's head, but presumably there's an inherited behavior that allows the birds to avoid avian predators who could perch overhead," said Michael Bean, wildlife director for the Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed requiring that developers keep wind turbines at least five miles away from a prairie grouse lek, or mating area, but the wind industry has resisted this idea.
Ditlev Engel, president and chief executive of the Danish wind-energy company Vestas, said anecdotal evidence about birds being caught in turbine blades and other environmental horror stories do not usually hold up under scrutiny.
"Do people think it's better all those birds are breathing CO2? I'm not a scientist, but I doubt it," said Engel, whose company is expanding its U.S. manufacturing and distribution operations. "Let's get the facts on the table and not the feelings. The fact is, these are not issues."
In many instances, producers of renewable energy are coordinating with environmental groups and federal agencies to try to map out the best locations for energy production, whether in the West or offshore. The Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Audubon Society have created an online mapping project, using Google Earth, of 13 Western states to show where renewable projects would have the most impact. Out of the 860 million acres in those states, for example, there are 10,000 conservation areas, and 128 million acres are off limits to energy development.
In the case of SunZia, the company has been working to minimize the impact of its proposed transmission line. Tom Wray, manager of generation and transmission projects, said that as much as 80 percent of the line's path would parallel existing lines. He said that it would cross the Rio Grande north of the sandhill crane's flyway and that it would zig and zag to skirt environmentally sensitive areas. Every mile added to the length of the line, however, would add about $1 million to the project.
"We're not aware of any threatened or endangered species habitat or impact issues that we can't mitigate or deal with," Wray said.
Lawrence A. Selzer, president of the Conservation Fund, said the new administration is eager to advance these projects without alienating environmentalists. "The answer from President Obama can't be no," he said. "They've got to find a way to say yes."
Economist: Rainfall and GDP - How rainfall can affect economic growth
DEVELOPING countries are more at risk from climate change because of their dependence on agriculture, especially the subsistence sort with poor irrigation. Climate variability has a more severe impact on the economies in which agriculture is a large share of GDP. In Ethiopia, around 75% of the population are dependent on farming, which is almost entirely small-scale and rain-fed. A further 10% earn their living from livestock. During the famine of the 1980s, rainfall was well below average and growth plunged. Whether rainfall is an accurate indicator of GDP growth is another matter, however. This chart from the United Nations appears to show changes in GDP growth preceding similar changes in rainfall in certain years.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Reuters: Most green products make some false claims
Just 2 percent of the growing number of self-proclaimed green products on store shelves make completely legitimate claims on their labels, a report by consulting firm TerraChoice Environmental Marketing said on Wednesday.
The remainder commit "greenwashing" sins, that is they mislead consumers about the environmental benefits of a product or the practices of a company, said TerraChoice, which runs the Canadian government's eco-labeling program and counts companies as diverse as Canon and Husky Energy among its customers.
The number of green products available in stores surveyed by TerraChoice increased dramatically between 2007 and 2009, the report said, and marketing claims became more creative.
TerraChoice increased its list of greenwashing sins this year to seven from six, adding "worship of false labels" for marketers who mimic third-party environmental certifications on their products to entice consumers.
Other sins in the report include lack of proof, vagueness, irrelevance and outright lying. Products that make environmental claims and are sold in big box stores in the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia were surveyed.
TerraChoice researchers recorded product details, claims, supporting information, and manufacturers' offers of more information or support.
They then tested the claims against best practice guidelines provided by the Canadian Competition Bureau, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission, and the standard for environmental labeling set by the International Organization for Standardization.
"The good news is that the growing availability of green products shows that consumers are demanding more environmentally responsible choices and that marketers and manufacturers are listening", said TerraChoice Chief Executive Scott McDougall.
"The bad news is that TerraChoice's survey of 2,219 consumer products in Canada and the U.S. shows that 98 percent committed at least one sin of greenwashing and that some marketers are exploiting consumers' demand for third-party certification by creating fake labels or false suggestions of third-party endorsement."
(Reporting by Susan Taylor; editing by Peter Galloway)
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE53E6RS20090415?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
NYtimes: Coral Fossils Suggest That Sea Level Can Rise Rapidly
Evidence from fossil coral reefs in Mexico underlines the potential for a sudden jump in sea levels because of global warming, scientists report in a new study. The study, published in the journal Nature, suggests that a sudden rise of 6.5 feet to 10 feet occurred within a span of 50 to 100 years about 121,000 years ago, at the end of the last warm interval between ice ages. “The potential for sustained rapid ice loss and catastrophic sea-level rise in the near future is confirmed by our discovery of sea-level instability” in that period, the authors write. Yet other experts on corals and climate are faulting the work, saying that big questions about coastal risks in a warming world remain unresolved. One of the most momentous and enduring questions related to human-caused global warming is how fast and far seas may rise. Studies of past climate shifts, particularly warm-ups at the ends of ice ages, show that fast-eroding ice sheets have sometimes raised sea levels worldwide in bursts of up to several yards in a century....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/science/earth/16coral.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Special Teamz - "One Call"
http://www.myspace.com/specialteamzboston
Jaysaun is my second cousin. He's in the Red Sox hat. Special Teamz are the only notable MCs out of Boston I can think of.
EPA: U.S. greenhouse emissions rose 1.4 percent in 2007
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions rose 1.4 percent in 2007, compared to the previous year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported on Wednesday. The report also indicates that U.S. emissions of climate-warming gases such as carbon dioxide and methane rose 17.2 percent from 1990 to 2007. The increase in 2007 was mainly due to a rise in carbon dioxide emissions related to fuel and energy consumption, the environmental agency said in a statement.
Shit.
DCist: Teabaggers Denied Their Hilarious Metaphor at Lafayette Park
This year's most double entendre-rich protest movement arrived in front of the White House this morning without the benefit of the objects of ridicule themselves. As the Post reported earlier, the so-called Tea Party protesters were greeted with bad news while they set up for planned protests at Lafayette Square and the U.S. Treasury building today: they didn't have permission to dump a million tea bags in the park, and they lacked a permit to demonstrate in front of Treasury. No massive public teabagging allowed, after all.
Still, the Lafayette Square event began on time, drawing at least 500 people in the first hour, despite the rain. DCist stopped by to survey the scene, which took on the tone of an anti-Obama, pro-capitalism protest, with relatively few actual teabags in sight. The rally is planned to continue until 3 p.m., but it's an awfully cold and wet day for teabagging outside, so we'll have to check back later to see how long the protesters make it. In our experience, teabagging isn't an activity many people can keep up all day.
The hypocrisy of the right astounds me.
Kid Cudi "Day 'N' Nite"
On the topic of sleepless nights, here is the long awaited Kid Cudi breakout song "Day 'N' Nite." He's gonna hit it big this summer with his debut album Man on the Moon: The Gaurdians.
Day and night
I toss and turn, I keep stressing my mind, mind
I look for peace but see I don't attain
What I need for keeps this silly game we play, play
Now look at this
Madness to magnet keeps attracting me, me
I try to run but see I'm not that fast
I think I'm first but surely finish last.
Day and night
I toss and turn, I keep stressing my mind, mind
I look for peace but see I don't attain
What I need for keeps this silly game we play, play
Now look at this
Madness to magnet keeps attracting me, me
I try to run but see I'm not that fast
I think I'm first but surely finish last.
Joe Budden "In my sleep"
I've had insomnia for the past two nights. No idea why, and I guess it's a better sleep disorder than sleep-walking out of the house. For the record, I've done that three times.
Here is a video about sleepless nights by Joe Budden. Back after a long hiatus, this is off his new album Padded Room, and doesn't disappoint. I'm a fan of MCs that can explain something out of the usual, so listen close to how he describes the dream. Props to Rik Cordero on the video.
Here is a video about sleepless nights by Joe Budden. Back after a long hiatus, this is off his new album Padded Room, and doesn't disappoint. I'm a fan of MCs that can explain something out of the usual, so listen close to how he describes the dream. Props to Rik Cordero on the video.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
DMV alternatives to PEPCO: Clean Currents
If you live in the DMV, you no doubt have been screwed over more than once by PEPCO. I'm currently disputing a PEPCO bill and will have a formal hearing next month with the DC Public Service Commission.
After I resolve that, I plan to switch to Clean Currents.
Chesapeake Green (C-Green) is a new carbon neutral electricity option for people in the Chesapeake region. C-Green combines standard electricity from the Mid Atlantic grid (the PJM grid) with Renewable Energy Credits (“RECs” or “green tags”) from wind farms situated across the United States, bundled together and supplied by Washington Gas Energy Services, a licensed retail energy supplier in MD and DC. This bundled product helps fight global warming by offsetting the carbon emissions from your electricity use with clean, renewable wind power.
Chesapeake Green current rates are lower than Pepco AND BGE's Summer rates!
All you need is your Pepco or BGE account number! (Note: If you don't know your account number, you can find out by calling Pepco at 202-833-7500 or BGE at 1-800-685-0123.)
Utility Service Area
50% 1-Year 50% 2-Year 100% 1-Year 100% 2-Year
For Maryland BGE Customers 11.1¢ per kWh 11.2¢ per kWh 11.5¢ per kWh 11.8¢ per kWh
For Maryland Pepco Customers 11.2¢ per kWh 11.3¢ per kWh 11.7¢ per kWh 11.8¢ per kWh
For District of Columbia Pepco Customers 11.1¢ per kWh 11.1¢ per kWh 11.6¢ per kWh 11.6¢ per kWh
Clean Currents rates cover all Generation and Transmission charges. The rate is the same at all times for the length of your contract. Distribution is still a regulated market (you do not have a choice). Your Distribution charges will stay with the utility in your area (Pepco or BGE). Your utility is still responsible for the reliability of your power, power line maintenance, and billing.
100% wind power will be 0.5¢ less, 50% wind power will be 0.25¢ less per kWh during the duration of the program's funding.
By the way..................I'm WALE
Wale "Nike Boots" video (Directed by Chris Robinson) from Elitaste on Vimeo.
Up-and-coming out of the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia). Keep your head on a swivel for his debut album out this summer.
Economist: Environmental values - How to ensure the environment is properly accounted for
ANY attempt to put an economic value on fresh air, clean water or tropical rainforests can offend the delicate sensibilities of those who argue that the conservation of nature is a moral duty. Yet although the best things in life appear to be free, that does not mean they are without financial value. It simply means that nobody asks you to pay when, for example, you watch a beautiful sunset over the hills. Putting a financial value on the environment, however, may be the most important thing that people can do to help nature conservation. When governments allocate money, they do so according to where it will bring benefit. If a government is unaware of the value of a landscape to its tourism, or of a swamp to its fishing industry—and thus its foreign-exchange income—then it will invest too little in managing these resources. Worse, if the true value of a forest or swamp is hidden, governments may destroy it by subsidising the conversion of the land to agriculture. The costs are unknown for now, but may appear eventually as the price of building a filtration plant to remove the sediment from the water that the forest once took care of, or the price of importing food when fish vanish.Some estimates of the annual contribution of coastal and marine ecosystems to the global economy exceed $20 trillion, over a third of the total gross national product (GNP) of all the countries of the world. Even so, says Katherine Sierra of the World Bank, such ecosystems are typically much undervalued when governments made decisions about development. Glenn-Marie Lange, also of the World Bank, attended a meeting in Washington DC organised by her employer to launch its report “Environment Matters” on April 6th. She told participants that one of the reasons why ecosystems become degraded is that their value to local people is often small. As a result, these people do not have much reason to manage their resources carefully. She estimates, for example, that only 36% of the income generated by the coastal and marine environments in Zanzibar goes to locals. Most of this comes from fishing; only a tiny fraction of the money from tourism ends up local hands. More broadly, Dr Lange wants the value of the environment to be integrated into national and local accounting. She argues that governments should identify the contributions that marine ecosystems make to their countries’ GNPs and foreign-exchange earnings. She also wants them to examine whether or not they are running down their countries’ “natural capital”. Emily Cooper of the World Resources Institute, an environmental think-tank, put some figures on the value of tourism, recreation, fisheries and shoreline protection in Belize. It was an impressive $395m to $559m. The entire economy was worth about $1.3 billion in 2007. These figures, she thinks, have allowed environmentalists to protect Belize’s threatened mangrove forests better. For too long, an absence of proper green accounting has allowed people to privatise the gains from the environment but socialise the costs, to paraphrase Carl Safina, an American scientist and environmentalist at the meeting. As Dr Safina puts it, “conservation is not a trade-off between the economy and the environment. It is a trade off between the short and long term.”
Annapolis NOOD, April 24-26
NOOD (National Offshore One-Design) regattas
Annapolis, MD
April 24-26, 2009, Annapolis Yacht Club, Annapolis, MD
I'll be on J/24 Wildcard, sail number 3293.
Monday, April 13, 2009
TreeHugger: Slow Freight: Sail Power is Actually Faster Than Containerships Today
The always fascinating Low-Tech Magazine notes that the big container ships are taking it very slow these days, cruising at ten knots instead of their usual 26 knots, to save fuel. They point out that this is actually slower than sailing freighters travelled a hundred years ago.
The German Preussen (picture above), the largest sailing ship ever built, was launched in 1902 and travelled mainly between Hamburg (Germany) and Iquique (Chile)....The best average speed over a one way trip was 13.7 knots.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/slow-freight-wind-powered-transport.php
NYtimes: Somali Pirates Tell Their Side: They Want Only Money
The Somali pirates who hijacked a Ukrainian freighter loaded with tanks, artillery, grenade launchers and ammunition said in an interview on Tuesday that they had no idea the ship was carrying arms when they seized it on the high seas. “We just saw a big ship,” the pirates’ spokesman, Sugule Ali, said in a telephone interview. “So we stopped it.” The pirates quickly learned, though, that their booty was an estimated $30 million worth of heavy weaponry, heading for Kenya or Sudan, depending on whom you ask. In a 45-minute interview, Mr. Sugule spoke on everything from what the pirates wanted (“just money”) to why they were doing this (“to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters”) to what they had to eat on board (rice, meat, bread, spaghetti, “you know, normal human-being food”).
He said that so far, in the eyes of the world, the pirates had been misunderstood. “We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits,” he said. “We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/world/africa/01pirates.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
Also, on TreeHugger: How Overfishing Almost Got Capt. Phillips Killed by Pirates
B.o.B - Generation Lost + Lyrics
B.o.B aka Bobby Ray, one of the best young rappers on the scene. If you've been around me and a speaker at all recently you've no doubt heard me play this and his other songs. Debut album due out this summer. Not only does he have solid beats, but he is a complex and insightful lyricist. Listen to "Generation Lost" and his introspective verses.
skulls and cross bones and death bandanas
A liquor store on every corner in atlanta
cops ridin round tossin niggas in the slamer
tell me whats wrong i can really use some answers
now a days everybody wants to be a rapper
about 2 years ago everybody was a trapper
obviously money is what everybody is after cause slavery aint changed its a modern day disaster
now these are my words from me to you
everything you do from your shades to shoes from your chain to your coupe came from your......................
WP: Kill the Pirates
Washington Post: With the rescue of American Richard Phillips from the hands of pirates yesterday, there was a blip of good news from the Indian Ocean, but it remains a scandal that Somali pirates continue to routinely defeat the world's naval powers. And worse than this ongoing demonstration of cowardice is the financing of terrorists that results from the huge ransom payments these pirates are allowed to collect. It is naive to assume that the millions paid annually in ransom to pirates merely enables them to purchase villas and fancy automobiles. Somalia is a country without government, where anarchy is being exploited by terrorist organizations. Although the threat that pirates pose to commercial ships is increasingly known, little is being done to combat it. And we must consider the bigger picture: Terrorists are far more brutal than pirates and can easily force pirates -- petty thieves in comparison -- to share their ransom money.....http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/12/AR2009041202262.html
The bigger question should be how to stop the root cause of the poverty and lawlessness from which this piracy is born. Could it be a failed state that and neglected people that have been living in wild west conditions since the 90s? Untold numbers of innocent people live in poverty in Somalia with no hope of raising themselves out of their situation within their own borders. Foreign aid missions cannot function there without a functioning government, and the most lucrative source of income is piracy. I'd be willing to be that the top echelon of Somalian intellects work in piracy, simply because it is the most entrepreneurial business around. Do I have a solution? No. But I don't think simply patrolling the coast will solve all the problems. That is like sending more cops into a riot, instead of asking why the people are angry.
BBC News: UN demands more climate ambition
The year's first round of UN climate talks has ended with delegates talking of a clear split between the visions of developed and developing nations. Developing countries want big emission cuts from rich nations by 2020, as well as finance for climate protection and more transfer of "clean" technologies. The top UN climate official said richer nations should show "more ambition". The talks in Bonn were the first round in a series aimed at reaching a new global deal by December. This would supplant the Kyoto Protocol, whose targets for cutting emissions expire in 2012. Earlier in the meeting, President Barack Obama's lead negotiator, Jonathan Pershing, told BBC News that the US would only offer cuts that were "politically and technologically achievable". The president is looking at measures that would bring US emissions back down to 1990 levels by 2020. But the EU has already pledged a cut of at least 20% from 1990 levels by that date; and developing countries, backed by environment groups, are calling for the industrialised world to act on recommendations made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and make a reduction of 25-40% - some say the science now mandates at least 45%. Mr Pershing said the US wanted to concentrate on achieving larger cuts but over a longer period of time, saying some of the demands from developing countries were "implausible". But the calls for stronger action were backed by the executive secretary of the UN climate convention (UNFCCC), Yvo de Boer. "The numbers being discussed so far are still a significant distance from that range," he said. "More ambition is clearly needed on the part of industrialised countries.".......http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7991039.stm
Kenna, Lupe Fiasco, & Justin Timberlak to Climb Mount Kilimanjaro For Charity
As seen on Okayplayer.com:
The list of crisis' that affect this world of ours is ever growing, but one major one that is often overlooked would be the water crisis. Many third world countries are being decimated due to lack of clean water, while the rest of the world looks on with blind eyes. Ethiopian born Singer Kenna has decided to do something about this. He has recruited Lupe Fiasco and Justin Timberlake to join him in climbing Mount Kilimanjaro (the highest peak in Africa) this fall, in a bid to raise money and awareness for the worldwide water crisis. Lupe says he plans on turning the climb into a friendly competition saying: "Part of the motivation is beating Kenna to the top. Sabotaging his tent, taking the lining out of his coat, lacing it with ants or something like that." Wow, who would have thought you can accomplish good deeds via publicity, and not just senseless rap beef. For further perspective on the water crisis check BBC. After the jump watch a fan made video for Mos Def's "New World Water" to hammer the point in further.
Here is a thought though...........while there, also address the fact that the iconic glacier on top of Kilimanjaro is shrinking. There is a present controversy over whether it is shrinking from lack of precipitation or global warming. I remember seeing it when I was a kid from Kenya and Tanzania. You might remember it from pictures or The Lion King.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Economist: The Illusion of Clean Coal
“FACTORIES of death” is how James Hansen, a crusading American scientist, describes power stations that burn coal. Coal is the dirtiest of fossil fuels, producing twice the carbon dioxide that natural gas does when it is burned. That makes it a big cause of global warming. But some of the world’s biggest economies rely on coal. It provides almost 50% of America’s and Germany’s power, 70% of India’s and 80% of China’s. Digging up coal provides a livelihood for millions of people. And secure domestic sources of energy are particularly prized at a time when prices are volatile and many of the big oil and gas exporters are becoming worryingly nationalistic. It is hard to see how governments can turn their backs on such a cheap and reliable fuel.....
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13235041
Stay tuned for an EDF study (I researched and helped write) on how Multilateral Development Banks and Export Credit Agencies have been funding coal-fired power plants in the developing world, due out at the end of this month, just in time for the World Bank spring meetings.
Economist: The Maldives Goes Carbin-Neutral
ON MARCH 15th the president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, announced that his country would try to stop using fossil fuels—and thus eliminate most of its greenhouse-gas emissions—by 2020. The Maldives is not wealthy but it leads richer nations in tackling climate change.........
http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=7933604&story_id=13354355
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