On 5 November 1965 climate scientists summarized the risks associated with rising carbon pollution in a report for Lyndon Baines Johnson. As the American Association for the Advancement of Science highlighted, US president Lyndon Johnson’s science advisory committee sent him a report entitled Restoring the Quality of Our Environment. The introduction to the report noted: Pollutants have altered on a global …
Marion Wright Edelman Challenges Us to a Personal Audit on Justice, Consistency, and Commitment to Kids
I am often asked what’s wrong with our children and I almost always answer, adults are what’s wrong. We tell our children to control themselves while slapping and spanking and ejecting them violently in our homes, child care centers, schools, detention facilities and prisons. Adults tell children to be honest while lying and cheating and not to be violent while …
6 States Considering Carbon Pricing
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington all have proposed legislation exploring carbon pricing as option for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Although the idea of a carbon price is not new, it is increasingly seen as a key climate solution in the leadup to the U.N. climate talks in Paris in December. Six major oil and gas companies, including …
Community Purchase/Collective Buying of Leafs Made Prices $8600 Cheaper before Tax Credits
Boulder County invited Adams and Denver counties to team up with Vote Solar—a nonprofit advocacy organization that administers programs to facilitate residential solar group purchases*—to create Solar Benefits Colorado and engage EV manufacturers and dealers to see if the same rationale could be applied to pooled purchases of EVs. It turns out it can: Originally through October 31, 2015 and …
A $4.8tr opportunity not yet grasped – steps for banks to protect clients from climate change risks, tap historic dividend
Cross-posted from Business Green, by Lauren Compere, Boston Common Asset Management on 30 Oct 2015 The build-up to a new international climate agreement has seen 55 countries specify the amount of funding they require to deliver the mitigation and adaptation projects needed to keep global warming below 2°C. This totals $4.8tr, more than the entire GDP of Japan or Germany, and represents …
New study finds damage climate change will do to the economy has been dramatically underestimated
A new study published in Nature by scientists at Stanford and UC Berkeley has made waves for its finding that thus far we have dramatically underestimated the damage human-caused climate change will do to the global economy. By looking at data from 160 countries across the 50-year period from 1960 to 2010, the authors found that an average local temperature of 13°C (55°F) is …
Ed Maibach on Climate Change Communications: Focus on What We Agree On – Fossil Fuels Are Harming Our Health
An interview with Ed Maibach director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University Fifteen years ago, there was very little difference between the way that Democrats and Republicans viewed climate change. About two out of three out of each group saw it as real and human-caused and serious. Now we’re down to about a third …
Countries who limit emissions will gain much more than they lose
Countries stand to gain more than they would lose in economic terms from almost all of the actions needed to meet an agreed global warming limit of no more than 2C above pre-industrial levels, according to a paper published by two research institutes at the London School of Economics. It is the latest research to underscore the apparent economic gains from limiting …
A world powered 100% by renewable energy is no fantasy…it’s happening
So much power was produced by Denmark’s windfarms on a Thursday in July this year that the country was able to meet its domestic electricity demand and export power to Norway, Germany and Sweden. On an unusually windy day, Denmark found itself producing 116% of its national electricity needs from wind turbines yesterday evening. By 3am on Friday, when electricity demand dropped, …
Dallas jumps Houston as top green power government
The City of Dallas has yanked the title of top green power user from Houston, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA on Monday said the City of Dallas is now the largest local government user of green power in the nation, taking the top spot away from the City of Houston, which still ranks second above the District …