Greenlight | OnEarth Magazine, from NRDC

The End of the Tour But the Beginning of the Fight

Rocky Kistner — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:49:05 -0600

On Oct 12, military veterans of OperationFree boarded two large biodiesel buses in two different states to begin a historic journey crisscrossing the country to talk to citizens, political leaders and fellow veterans about the national security implications of climate change and the need for Congress to enact comprehensive new clean energy legislation.

The brilliant blue coach buses were wrapped with the names of more than 70 cities and towns in 21 states that the buses visited over a two-week period. Veterans of wars from all services participated in the tour, some jumping on board for a few days while a few others stayed on board for the entire period.

I served as communications staff aboard the "southern" bus, blogging at various points along the way for the Operation Free and the NRDC Greenlight websites. We started our trek in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and then headed north through Missouri and Nebraska until we veered east and rolled through Iowa, Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia. After stopping overnight in the nation's capitol, we then roared down Interstate 95, visiting communities in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and ultimately in Florida, where we ended up aboard the WWII cargo ship SS American Victory in Tampa.

It was a memorable, exciting and exhausting trip as we stopped in communities large and small. We visited town hall meetings at VFW Halls and American Legion Posts, met with editorial boards and individual print and broadcast reporters, and we joined civic leaders and mayors to discuss how to fight the security threats of climate change. We stopped three or four times a day, often beginning early in the morning and ending late at night as we cruised from state to state.

Although it was a grueling schedule with tight quarters at times, we developed a camaraderie that made the trip a rewarding experience. I also gained a special insight into why these veterans took the time to make this tour. All were motivated to help humanity deal with one of the most serious threats civilization has ever known. But there was also another important reason-no one wanted to put a single service member in harm's way due to the international security threats posed by climate change.

Looking back, I will remember most our stops at veterans' war memorials along the way. This was "hallowed ground," as Army vet Rafael Noboa described it, a testament to the lifelong service each veteran gives his or her country. Many said this tour was one of the most important battles of their military careers. It was an honor to serve beside them.

The Arctic Circle: Science at the End of the Earth

David Rothenberg — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:29:26 -0600

Oct. 18th, Ny Ålesund, Arctic Science Village

In Ny Ålesund, a former mining village that is now an international center for climate research, most of the two hundred researchers and technicians have left for the season. But at the Alfred Wegener Polar Institute, a German engineer still remains, for a whole year in this inaccessible outpost, to repeat the same experiments every day. In one he releases a large white weather balloon, each day at 1pm, which rises and drifts into the stratosphere before exploding when it gets too high, but not before transmitting essential data from its disposable radio which will never be found. Then at night he shoots a high energy laser beam straight up into the clouds, of such power that even a tiny fraction of its bright beam is diffused back through the cloud cover and can be registered by the naked eye. The beam bounces through the building inside a complex and irregular rectilinear box, down to the floor off a large telescope mirror, then straight up through a hole in the roof. The green ray heading skyward looks like it is strong enough to reach the moon.

The German engineer speaks extremely precisely. He will not answer any questions around which he has even the slightest doubt. "Why do the stars here in the North flicker with such visible multiple spectra of color?" I ask, "shimmering from red then to green and to blue."

"I know of what you speak," he nods. "But I do not know enough astronomy to say anything more."

"And what," I point, "is that big wooden contrabass case doing next to the laser mirror, the beaten-up box that says ‘Berliner Philharmonische Orchester' on it?"

"Oh," he smiles. "Usually there is a instrument in there, but not right now. It is not mine."

Road to Copenhagen: Fears Arise Outside Closed Doors

Ben Jervey — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:44:15 -0600

From all I can gather, the actual on-paper negotiations are moving this week, progressing in some way towards some kind of agreement. (We'll get to what kind of agreement soon.) But we wouldn't have much way of knowing, since proceedings largely disappeared behind closed doors this week. I've been told by plenty of folks--including two former US negotiators--that I shouldn't complain about the lack of access, because it's the closed-door meetings where things really get done. Still, it's frustrating that an institution that prides itself on openness seems to operate best through closed meetings. The American delegation does seem more confident at this stage that there's an agreement out there to be achieved.

Whether that agreement will be anything close to what the science tells us is necessary is another question (hint: it won't be). And what form that agreement will take has become the story of the week. Will it be a "legally-binding" treaty that is enforceable by international law, or will it--as many high profile figures have recently commented--be some kind of "political" agreement that critics say would be toothless.

Politics, not law, could govern agreement

<a href="http://adoptanegotiator.org/2009/11/04/this-weeks-tripping-points/">On Tuesday I wrote </a>that this political/legal face-off was "looking to be the hottest-button item for the rest of the week, and possibly straight through December" and that remains true. So what has caused the fervor and fretting over the "lowering of expectations for the Copenhagen negotiations," as was cited in today's satirical "Fossil of the Day" prize that's awarded by <a href="http://www.climatenetwork.org/">CAN-International</a> to the nation(s) that have done the "best" at blocking or stalling the talks. Here's US Special Envoy on Climate Change Todd Stern's comment that helped earn the award: "We should make progress towards a political agreement that hits each of the main elements."
<ul>
 <li><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL2439624">Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen</a>: "it is a challenge for every single industrialised country in the world to deal with the climate change issue and that's why we are working very strongly to reach a politically binding agreement in Copenhagen..."</li>
 <li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/01/climate-change-world-leaders-accused">UNFCCC Chair Yvo de Boer</a>: "It is absolutely clear that Copenhagen must deliver a strong political agreement and nail down the essentials."</li>
 <li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/01/climate-change-world-leaders-accused">UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon</a>: "several key countries were not ready to sign up to binding targets and that the best the world could hope for from the summit would be 'political commitments.'"</li>
 <li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/01/climate-change-world-leaders-accused">Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark</a>: "We do not think it will be possible to decide all the finer details for a legally binding regime."</li>
</ul>
And the list could go on.

What's so bad about a politically-binding agreement?

The obvious concern is compliance. What reason does any sovereign nation have to meet the commitments of the agreement if there are no legal repercussions for non-compliance. "Political agreements "are worth very little," <a href="http://solveclimate.com/blog/20091104/poor-demand-binding-treaty-copenhagen-rich-squash-hope">said Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping</a>, the Sudanese chair of the Group of 77 and China. "Tell me of any politician who delivered on his political manifesto?"

Or, as <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-grandia/a-politically-binding-cli_b_345047.html">Kevin Grandia wrote</a>, "With all the long hours I've been putting into to covering these climate talks, I'm sure my wife is wishing our marriage was a politically binding agreement, as opposed to a legal one."

The gray area between legal and political

There is, however, more nuance than most of these quotes indicate, and between the "politically-binding" final agreement feared by so many and the "legally-binding" COP15 outcome, there's quite a bit of gray space. Most of the parties cited still believe that a legal agreement is necessary and possible, just not before December 18th when the Copenhagen talks wrap up. Their thinking, rather, is that some kind of political framework is possible within six weeks, and then the legal aspects can be hammered out soon after.

It could be dangerous to ignore this gray area and turn the legal/political argument into an all-or-nothing, black-and-white issue. By all practical accounts, it would be simply and technically impossible to hammer out the finer details of a true legally-binding treaty by the end of Copenhagen. But that doesn't mean that it's never possible--that in three or six months more time the legal jargon couldn't be pulled together--that the world would be doomed to a toothless, unenforceable handshake agreement-in-words-only that no nation would ever feel compelled to live up to. The actual outcome will almost certainly fall somewhere between the two, but if we write a temporary political commitment off as failure in December, we risk the reality falling somewhere further down the dangerous end of the "binding" spectrum.

Tomorrow I'm going to work on figuring out just how a temporary political agreement could carry us towards a legally-binding deal sometime next year. Stay tuned.

From September through December, I'll be tracking the American positions in the international climate treaty negotiations for the <a href="http://adoptanegotiator.org/category/united-states-of-america/">Adopt-A-Negotiator project</a>. Together, we're tracking the negotiators from twelve key countries up to and through the December COP15 meetings in Copenhagen.

Join the Campaign to “Kill the Drill” and Keep NYC’s Drinking Water Free of Toxic Chemicals

Scott Stringer — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:30:08 -0600

Last month, Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon vowed that his company will not drill for natural gas in New York City's upstate watershed. This may seem like a victory for the "Kill the Drill" campaign, but it's only a partial one: In five years' time, Chesapeake's leases in the watershed will expire, and even before then there is no guarantee that McClendon will remain the head of the company. That's why I am calling on the State Department of Environmental Conservation to implement a complete and permanent ban on hydrofracture drilling in the Catskill / Delaware watershed.

As McClendon himself stated, "How could any one well be so profitable that it would be worth damaging the New York City water system?" Now the State environmental agency finds itself in the uncomfortable position of lagging behind the industry it regulates in protecting the City's drinking water.

For those who may be unfamiliar with the drilling technique known as "hydraulic fracturing," it is already being used in at least nine states to extract great quantities of natural gas from underground formations. By fracturing the shale with the aid of chemically-treated water pumped deep into the ground, natural gas can be captured in a commercially viable way.

Experts estimate that New York State's natural gas reserves may be large enough to meet national demand for a period of 20 years. The economic payoff for upstate New York's recession-strapped families and municipal governments would be substantial.

For a nation needing to diversify its energy resources, hydrofracture drilling sounds on the surface like a positive thing. However, the potential environmental impact could be devastating. One need only to look across the New York border to Dimock, Pennsylvania, where hydraulic fracturing is underway. Families there turn on their faucets to find water that separates into sludge, sediment, brown liquid and bubbles. This is exactly what could happen to New York City's unfiltered drinking water supply if drilling is permitted, leading to a serious public health crisis.

So why doesn't the State just build a filtration system to safeguard the City's water supply? The cost. It's estimated to be in excess of $10 billion, and that figure doesn't even take into account the cost of ongoing operation and maintenance of the filtration system, which is expected to cost about $1 million per day.

The stakes are too high to rely on buffer zones and special permits, such as the State proposed in draft regulations at the end of September. Those amount to half measures. We are in the middle of a 90-day public comment period where citizens will get to voice their concern about drilling in the Marcellus Shale, an underground formation stretching across the southern tier of New York State.

Other states are looking to New York to set the environmental agenda on this issue. It's time for the State environmental agency to "Kill the Drill."

We urge you to take immediate action by joining our letter-writing campaign and Facebook group. For anyone in the New York City area on November 10th, we are holding a rally and press conference ahead of the 6:30 p.m. DEC hearing on the proposed drilling. This will be the only opportunity that New York City residents will have to make their voices heard on the issue. For more information, go to www.mbpo.org/killthedrill.

Scott M. Stringer is the Manhattan Borough President.

The Arctic Circle: The Graves of Failed Dreams

David Rothenberg — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:24:42 -0600

Oct. 17th, Blomstrand halvøya, Krossfjorden

In 1910 Ernest Mansfield was convinced that this was going to be the site of the greatest marble quarry in the world, so he set up the Northern Exploration Company to cut all the stone out. He named the spot New London. Some of his machines remain right on the rails, having never even been used. The whole project fell apart, there was nothing worth taking.

The more we experience this distance the place, the less it seems it's a wilderness. Spitsbergen is the warmest place in the Arctic, because it's the end of the gulf stream, so much of the sea surrounding remains ice-free most of the year. Already by 1700 the Dutch had killed all the whales here, and after that came trappers, hunters, miners, still trying to extract something useful out of the landscape. What might remain most useful today is strategy-a few years ago a cable was laid all the way from Norway under the sea, bringing fast communication to the outside world. There are now hundreds of scientists stationed up here keeping track of what will happen to a warming world.

The mining sputters on, the locals still hang onto it with pride. Greenpeace was up here just before we arrived demanding that the coal mines just down. Of course they are wasteful, hopeless, destined to fail like the quarry at Blomstrand. Coal mining has no place in the Arctic, no place anywhere. If we work hard enough we'll soon find better sources of energy: from the sun, the wind, the waves.

Is that a workable dream? Spitsbergen is full of the graves of dreams that failed. The beauty of the place is a success, it cannot be tamed. Or is that only because we cannot see deep into history?

The Arctic Circle: The Cruel Beauty of Nature

David Rothenberg — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:35:00 -0600

October 14th, Sailing toward Magdalena Fjord, 79.6°N, 11°E

The bell rings on deck, that means there's something to see. "Ayeaah," says the captain, usually a man of few words, "seven polar bears eating an old whale carcass. I have only seen something like this a few times in all my journeys in the North."

Every artist rushes to our cabins, grabs our latest-model cameras, and runs up on deck. The bears don't seem interested in us, that slimy whale backbone looks so delicious. We can smell it easily a few hundred yards away, it's probably been there for months.

"Ooohhh..." someone says, "it looks like something out of a Matthew Barney film." "Hey," someone else has a bright idea, "let's put those binoculars over a camera lens, see what kind of effect comes out."

We watch the bears eating and playing for hours. It's impossible to pull our eyes away. The raw reality of nature holds us transfixed. A couple of us remember Werner Herzog's line in Grizzly Man, where the great director announces, coldly, "People think nature is beautiful, but I do not agree. To me it is nothing but a realm of cruelty, survival, and the relentless search for food." With his beautiful documentaries Herzog shows that notion is just a pose, for he loves nature and has truly succeeded in revealing it in art, cutting far beyond the clichés and the preset stories of the wild we are all so used to.

Sure, I could tell you them all: the sea was rough, the cameras and computers were pitching to the floor. Wine glasses were breaking, milk spilled onto the floor. Waves from the sea sprayed us head to toe in the tiny zodiac as we made rough we landings on shore. The light is indescribable, the snowy peaks stretched into the distance forever. The immense loneliness zeros straight in on the sublime, where the land is great because we are so small.

I tell you those things and all of them are true. But we are artists, not tourists, so it should not be enough to be impressed by walruses and polar bears. But we all love the polar bears! Their bloody faces smile as they chew on rancid whale meat. You don't become an artist by denying any tourist instincts. We all want to see and love the world.

Just as artists in the Age of Exploration were the only ones to offer up images grand and graphic enough to show people back home what the far reaches of the globe can offer, today we must cut through a world saturated with images and stories to see if there can still be a fresh way of expressing one's experiences on the journey, careening through the sea and back and forth from the frozen, empty land.

Road to Copenhagen: No Senate Bill Before Copenhagen, What's Next?

Ben Jervey — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:04:56 -0600

Well that's settled. There won't be a Senate bill before Copenhagen. Which means a lot of things: the US won't have concrete numbers on mitigation targets and finance commitments before COP15 convenes; the difficult job of the American negotiators just got even harder; the international community has even more cause to accuse the US of coming up short; the chances of a fair, ambitious and binding deal coming out of Copenhagen have taken a serious blow; and finally, any hope for the talks to succeed depends on a dramatic shift in how the State Department approaches the negotiations.

A new (and very controversial) way forward?

Up until now, the thinking was that the best course towards any sort of deal in Copenhagen was through a good bill passing on Capitol Hill. Now this changes-we know that a Senate bill isn't coming. The conventional wisdom has long held that the US needs to bring numbers from our domestic policies to the UNFCCC, and not vice versa. Doing so, we're often warned, would be a recipe for disaster, as it was with Kyoto when the Senate wouldn't even consider ratifying the treaty that was widely interpreted as being restrictions forced on the US from abroad. Lead negotiator Jonathan Pershing has long maintained that he intends to bring home a treaty that will absolutely be signed and ratified. The State Department hasn't wanted to write a check that our domestic politics can't cash.

So now what? It would seem that a major shift in the US approach is necessary if there's any hope for a deal in December. Such a shift would involve the Administration committing to a target-or at least to a range-before things shake out in the Upper Chamber. Stepping in front of Congress would be an incredibly bold-and amazingly controversial-move with serious potential to backfire. As Kevin Grandia wrote, "historically there's only one thing Congress dislikes more than science and that's international treaties," and moderate Senators certainly wouldn't take such a brazen move well.

The only option left?

But what if this is the only possible course to a successful outcome in Copenhagen? Should the State Department, with the best interests of the American economy and national security in mind, be handcuffed by a dozen senators from coal states?

Consider then the potential "nuclear option" of Obama making bold commitments ahead of Congress. There is a legitimate chance that all the convention wisdom is wrong, and that Kyoto's failure was as much a sign of the times as it was a political miscalculation. Climate science is certainly more advanced than it was ten years ago, now essentially bulletproof. The American public is better informed (though still woefully climate illiterate compared to just about anywhere else in the world.) Is it really entirely out of the question for the State Department to now do what every other nation is doing and bring international commitments home? It's not so hard to envision a massive domestic outreach campaign following Copenhagen to show the American public-and their senators-that ratifying this treaty isn't at all an option, but a necessity for the good of the nation.

Over the next three months, I'll be tracking the American positions in the international climate treaty negotiations for the Adopt-A-Negotiator project. Together, we're tracking the negotiators from twelve key countries up to and through the December COP15 meetings in Copenhagen.

Road to Copenhagen: This Week's Tripping Points

Ben Jervey — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:53:08 -0600

With the US still holding out on a couple crucial bits of information (mitigation targets and finance numbers) that make real progress on the Long-term Cooperative Agreement (LCA) track just about impossible, the UN talks this week in Barcelona are circling around a couple other troubling tripping points.

First, there’s the question of what’s to become of the Kyoto Protocol. Many developing countries are accusing industrialized nations of sabotaging the agreement, which isn’t–as many believe–supposed to end in 2012, but requires new commitments to be agreed upon for a second phase that runs through 2020. Brendan Demille’s got a solid account of the fireworks the erupted Monday over this when 50 African nations “suspended” any further Kyoto Protocol talks until developed countries start taking them more seriously and deliver some numbers that are long overdue.

Second, there’s quite of bit of unease in the air over the flood of recent comments–from everyone from the Danish Prime Minister to the U.N. Secretary General–that a “legally-binding agreement” isn’t likely by the time Copenhagen wraps up. From Reuters:

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told Reuters he was optimistic that a politically-binding agreement could be agreed at the conference next month in Copenhagen but that the final legally-binding decisions would have to be taken later.

Observer orgs, activists, and the world’s more vulnerable nations are furious about this, seeing these statements as a lowering of expectations that more or less ensures a weak, toothless, and ineffective agreement. And, to be sure, a “politically-binding agreement” is ultimately worthless. But as others have pointed out, a “politically-binding” agreement isn’t the ultimate goal, but rather a temporary patch while the legal aspects are worked out early next year.

So where does this all leave the US? Well, American delegates don’t have much business being an influential part of the Kyoto discussion, though the delegation has called for a single treaty going forward, to the outrage of plenty. On the “legally-binding” bit, Pershing & Co. are being pragmatic as always, agreeing that time is likely too tight to negotiate a legal structure that’s acceptable to all, but urging that this doesn’t mean the legal aspects can’t be agreed on later.

Tomorrow I’ll follow up with some more feedback on the legal issue–it’s looking to be the hottest-button item for the rest of the week, and possibly straight through December. At least until Congress shows us a little something and the heat is turned up on the US again for those pesky missing numbers.

A Great Year for Growing Green

Fedele Bauccio — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:57:30 -0600

Farmers and producers: take note! The Natural Resources Defense Council has announced its groundbreaking annual Growing Green Awards, honoring those who work to strengthen our national food system. In the year since I was honored with the 2009 Growing Green Business Leader Award, food has been given a prominent place on the national agenda -- in a way that I only could have dreamed of when I encouraged our chefs to start sourcing direct from small owner-operated farms more than 10 years ago.

Among the highlights of the year: A vegetable garden was planted on the White House Lawn to promote the benefits of local, seasonal food; First Lady Michelle Obama loudly endorsed an urgent focus to bring fresh food into national school lunch programs; a TIME Magazine cover article decried the high cost of cheap food for human and environmental health; a student garden movement bloomed to help young farmers hit pay dirt on college campuses, tomato pickers in Florida began winning their quest for fair wages and treatment with dignity -- and just last week, a revoking of the industry-driven Smart Choices label which endorsed high sugar foods as healthy proved that Coco Puffs do not belong on a healthy breakfast menu. I could go on and on. What an encouraging year it has been for advocates of sustainable food!

The Growing Green Awards for 2010 was announced just last week, and I expect the nominations will begin pouring in immediately. The Growing Green Awards recognize the extraordinary contributions that advance ecologically integrated farming practices, climate stewardship, water stewardship, farmland preservation, and social responsibility from farm to fork. NRDC has asked me and all of us at Bon Appétit to spread the word to farmers and farmer partners, encouraging them to nominate candidates for this year's award.

If you know an outstanding individual in any of the four categories, including Food Producer, Business Leader, Thought Leader, and Water Steward, I strongly urge you to nominate that person. The application process is thorough and will take some of your time. With a $10,000 cash prize awarded in the Food Producer category and all winners widely celebrated through outreach to media and NRDC's networks, it's worth reaching out to your network of food system leaders to apply. Next year, Bon Appétit predicts that we'll see even more progress towards sustainable, socially responsible food systems.

More on the Growing Green Awards: http://www.nrdc.org/health/growinggreen.asp

Fedele Bauccio
Bon Appetit Management Co.
2009 Growing Green Awards Business Leader Winner

Of Bears and Men: Does the public have a say?

Whitney Leonard — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:56:58 -0600

In my first month as an intern with NRDC’s wildlife team in Montana, I had already heard many tales of the complex world of grizzly bear management, where it is safe to say that not everybody sees eye-to-eye with each other, and even fewer people see eye-to-eye with the bears. Adding fuel to the fire, a federal court had recently put grizzly bears back on the endangered species list, as my colleagues Louisa Willcox and Matt Skoglund have discussed.

So it was with quite a bit of curiosity, mixed with a touch of intimidation, that I hopped into a car with NRDC’s three other Montana staff and headed down to Jackson, Wyoming last week, for the latest round of meetings of the Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Coordinating Committee (YGCC). What I found in Jackson was, in some ways, better than I had expected. Everyone at the meeting was cordial despite the tense atmosphere, which I gather is an improvement over some past meetings. But in other ways, this meeting clearly showed me that the current system of grizzly bear management—whether bears are on the endangered species list or not—still leaves much to be desired.

The Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Coordinating Committee is a subcommittee of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, created in 1983 “to lead the effort to recover the grizzly bear in the lower 48 states.” In choosing the members of the committee, an admirable attempt was made to include a range of stakeholders, so the committee now includes representatives from the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, as well as county commissioners (a recent addition) and game and fish officials from the three states and two tribal reservations within the Greater Yellowstone region.

But on such a large committee, there is one glaring absence: the public has no direct representation. NGO’s and the broader public, including many people who have spent decades working on grizzly bears, are left out of the committee and literally relegated to the outer circle of the meeting room, where they are forced to squeeze their suggestions into a twenty-minute public comment period at the end of each day.

This is not for lack of ideas to contribute. With all the recent controversy surrounding the bears’ re-listing, the public was eager to join the discussion at last week’s meeting. I was thoroughly impressed by both the breadth and depth of the thoughts voiced by the public, ranging from the former head of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance listing the reasons why grizzly bears should stay on the endangered species list, to a Teton County attorney explaining how and why he wants to require all hunters to carry bear spray.

With so much experience and such a valuable (and often overlooked) perspective, the public has shown that it deserves to be included in the grizzly bear management process. The Information and Education subcommittee of the YGCC has already taken important steps in this direction, forming an Information and Education Working Group that includes both committee members and NGO representatives. Focusing on areas of common interest between government agencies and the NGO community, the group has been able to make concrete progress and foster collaboration where traditional interactions tended to breed mistrust and animosity. This example shows without a doubt that it is possible for groups with differing perspectives to work together toward common goals, even in the highly contentious atmosphere surrounding grizzly bear management.

Building on this success, I hope that the public may soon be allowed to have a larger voice—on a broader scale—in the world of men and bears. As members of the public, we strive to make bear management process more transparent, someday, and we continue to call for the eventual inclusion of public representatives on the IGBC. Yet even in the meantime, there is great potential for collaboration, and the agencies and the public must be willing to work together to tackle common challenges. As Homo sapiens who are lucky enough to share this beautiful country with grizzlies, we owe it to the bears.

NRDC’s Montana team, enjoying a sunny trip home from Jackson, WY

Road to Copenhagen: Waiting for America

Ben Jervey — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:16:26 -0600

As the last round of “intersessional” climate talks before Copenhagen opened today in Barcelona, all eyes were looking in the same direction they were when we left Bangkok three weeks earlier: at the United States. Without American numbers on mitigation (or emissions reductions) and finance (for developing nations to build their own clean energy economies, and also to adapt to the impacts of climate change), any real forward progress in the talks is just about impossible. “We need a clear target from the United States in Copenhagen,” urged Yvo de Boer, who’s trying to steer this UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) process to some kind of December resolution.” “That is an essential component of the puzzle.” The problem is that the U.S. isn’t putting anything out there. At least not yet. Not while the Kerry-Boxer bill limps through Senate subcommittees back on Capital Hill.

And that’s really where De Boer’s comment–-and most criticism of the American position-–is directed. Not at the negotiating team here, but towards Washington. In the U.S. delegation’s defense–their hands have been tied pretty tight. The State Department hasn’t wanted to write a check that our domestic politics can’t cash. If Kyoto taught us anything, it’s that nobody can trust the U.S. until they see what’s actually written into law. (Quick history lesson–the U.S. signed the Kyoto Protocol back in 1998; eleven years later, it still hasn’t been ratified. At least 185 countries have ratified the Protocol, from Russia to Rwanda to Australia to Iraq. Iraq!) So there’s a massive trust gap. To be a credible player going into Copenhagen, the U.S. has to show something concrete coming from the home front. Lead negotiatior Jonathan Pershing has not been at all coy about the fact that he needs to bring home a treaty that will be signed and ratified. (And, yes, if all this sounds familiar, that’s because it is. The story was more or less the same last month in Bangkok.)

So everyone’s waiting on America.Waiting for those crucial U.S. cards to land on the table. Without them, we’re seeing the kickoff of a couple diplomatic games: the guessing game and the shame game. In the absence of official figures from the U.S. delegation, some folks are speculating as to what they might look like when and if they do. “If you look at Obama’s election indications of what he thinks the U.S. can do,” de Boer said in his press conference, “and look at the legislation that came out of the House and see what it is in the Senate now, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see where the U.S. is likely to end up.” For the record, the Kerry-Boxer bill would commit a roughly 7-percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2020. This is well below the comparable midterm mitigation targets set out by the European Union (20- or 30-percent, depending on whether or not other rich nations sign on) and Japan (25-percent), and not even close to the 40-percent cuts called for by most developing countries.

But even such a modest (to put it very gently) commitment would be more productive than no numbers at all. Thus the shaming. De Boer openly praised some key developing nations, thanking China, India, Mexico and Brazil for bringing their respective and ambitious goals to the table. “Today, already China is the world leader in terms of reducing emissions,” de Boer offered. “The world is lacking similar clarity from industrial nations.” It was clear who he was referring to. Piling on, the Chair of the COP15 talks, Danish minister for climate and energy Connie Hedegaard, added that “[it's] hard to imagine how the American president can be receiving the Nobel Peace Prize on Dec. 10 in Oslo, 100 kilometers from Copenhagen, and at the same time send an empty-handed delegation to Copenhagen.”

It’s lining up to be a tough week for the U.S. team, as these barbs will likely sharpen and delegates are forced onto the diplomatic defensive. The best hope for some truly productive dialogue this week in Barcelona actually comes from back in D.C. tomorrow. President Obama will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, and other key E.U. foreign policy players for a U.S.-E.U. Summit in the White House, and climate finance is on the agenda. After European leaders laid out their first finance proposal on Friday, pressure is on the States to make a formal offer. We’ll soon find out whether the White House is comfortable stepping in front of Congress on the critical issue of finance.

Chromium 6 Still Threatens California's Drinking Water

Erin Brockovich — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:05:03 -0600

Polluters who contaminate drinking water and make people sick shouldn't get off easy. That has been the focus of my work for two decades, and I'm not planning to stop now. My work focused the attention of the world on a carcinogen called hexavalent chromium (hex chrome). In 1996, PG&E -- a multi-billion dollar corporation -- paid $333 million in damages to the people of Hinkley, Calif., for contaminating their drinking water and covering up the problem for decades while people got sick and died. This victory for was immortalized in film. But the story doesn't end there.

More than 500 California communities and 30 million state residents drank water contaminated with hexavalent chromium at levels above safe levels between 1998 and 2003. Hex chrome has been detected in nearly 60 percent of the drinking water sources sampled in California. These problems are especially widespread in the Central Valley and the Inland Empire regions of the state. The PG&E Kettleman case was settled in 2006 for $335 million. Another PG&E site in Topock, Calif., affected the Colorado River -- a drinking water source for millions of people. In Burbank, contamination by Lockheed Martin affected thousands, and in Riverside, TXI Corp's cement kiln contaminated the soil in the local community. Even Disney is responsible for chromium contamination in the San Fernando Valley.

Communities all over the United States and around the world have been poisoned by this chemical. I am currently working on a case in Midland, Texas, with enormous levels of hexavalent chromium in the well water. Chromium polluters include a "who's who" of major corporations. It doesn't take a genius to know that these polluters don't want people to realize the extent of the problem, because then they'd be on the hook for an expensive cleanup.

So it doesn't surprise me that five years after California regulatory agencies were required by law to set an up-to-date enforceable standard for hex chrome in drinking water, consumers are still not protected. I've fought these powerful interests for years, and I know first hand how good they are at delay tactics.

The good news is that Cal/EPA's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment -- the public health agency that the governor tried unsuccessfully to eliminate in the last budget cycle -- has just come out with a proposed drinking water level that would protect Californians. The new assessment uses research from the National Toxicology Program to identify the levels of hex chrome that cause cancer and then calculates a safe level for vulnerable populations, including children. A public meeting was held Oct. 19 in Oakland to accept comments on this proposal; written public input is welcome until Nov. 2. You can send a message through the NRDC Action Center.

I read through the 140 page Cal/EPA document with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I felt vindicated -- but I also felt saddened. The National Toxicology Program concluded in its 2007 study that hexavalent chromium is considered carcinogenic not only by inhalation, but also by ingestion. Gosh, who knew? Maybe if someone had believed all these people in Hinkley, Calif., many years ago, many more lives would have been saved. I was saddened by the descriptions of liver and kidney degeneration, blood abnormalities including anemia, testicular damage, infertility, miscarriage, fetal toxicity, chromosomal abnormalities and a litany of cancers. The clinical descriptions in the Cal/EPA document weren't abstract to me -- they brought back to me the names and faces of people that I know who have lived and died with these illnesses.

Roberta Walker, the original client in the movie, was poisoned once by Chromium 6 -- and may be again. PG&E recently tested Roberta's well at her new home and found levels of hexavalent chromium at 1.26 ppb, well over the proposed action level of .06 ppb.

I congratulate the long hard work of attorneys who fought on behalf of those poisoned by this chemical, and I applaud agencies and scientists for overseeing, setting and hopefully enforcing stricter standards. My fight for the people of Hinkley isn't over. To bring this dark chapter of history to a close, California must adopt a legally enforceable and truly health-protective standard for hex chrome in drinking water. I cannot personally protect every community with contaminated water, but if we have a uniform standard, I will be able to rest easier knowing that people won't be drinking this dangerous substance without knowing it. This chemical is a serious problem and one that I am glad to see being addressed. California has always led the way in setting standards that other states follow. We need to make prevention the goal of the future.

A version of this editorial previously appeared in The Sacramento Bee.

Mercury: EPA Puts Health First

Wendy Gordon — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:22:43 -0500

EPA has announced it will set standards limiting mercury emissions from coal-and oil-burning power plants by late 2011, resolving a lawsuit filed by a dozen public health and environmental groups in December of 2008.

This is great news. Exposure to mercury, even at low levels, can cause neurological damage, memory and learning problems, and delays in speech and reading ability, making it a particular concern during pregnancy and early childhood. The most common source of human mercury exposure is through eating fish contaminated with methylmercury, an organic—and highly toxic—form of the heavy metal. How does mercury get into fish? Airborne mercury pollution, emitted from coal-fired power plants, waste incineration, cement kilns, among other sources, is carried by precipitation into waterways. There it is absorbed by plants and aquatic life and converted to methylmercury. As bigger fish eat contaminated smaller fish, it concentrates in their flesh.

According to the EPA, American power plants emit close to 50 tons of mercury a year. But mercury is not the only health-damaging pollutant they spew into the air. In fact, a study released this month by the National Academy of Sciences revealed that burning fossil fuels, coal and oil primarily, costs the United States about $120 billion a year, mostly because of thousands of premature deaths from air pollutants, such as small soot particles, which cause lung damage; nitrogen oxides, which contribute to smog; and sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain.

The study’s authors set out to measure the costs not incorporated into the price of a kilowatt-hour or a gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel. Coal burning was the biggest single source of such external costs. The damages averaged 3.2 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared with 0.16 cents for gas. But the variation among coal plants was enormous.

The worst plants, generally the oldest and those that burn coal with the highest sulfur content, were 3.6 times worse than the average. John Walke of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of a dozen groups involved in the mercury litigation mentioned above, said that as of 2008, only 28 percent of the coal-burning power plants in the United States had basic scrubbers for such pollution, which he called “two-decade-old technology.” Mr. Walke said big cuts in these emissions would have tremendous economic benefits, because of the lives saved from reduced pollution.

Much of this year has been spent debating health care reform. An undisputed measure would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to anyone with pre-existing conditions or potentially life-threatening illnesses. Will this mean that one day, insurers will side with the public and demand pollution be reduced? It’s possible that incentives could be given to individuals who exercise and eat a healthy diet, but none of us can dodge harmful pollutants when they are in the air we breathe. And while consumers can carefully read labels and pick and choose those fish that are lowest in mercury, should our children bear the cost in neurological damage and learning disabilities of the pollution we’ve allowed?

No. That’s why EPA was created 40 years ago, to ensure our shared resources upon which we depend for life – the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land and sea from which we get our food - are safe. And that’s why it is encouraging to see the EPA take such steps as it is now, to control mercury emissions from coal- and oil-burning power plants. If we can cut health care costs, save lives and improve our kids chances to do well in school, all by preventing pollution, let’s just do it.

Whatever Happened To 'Save the Whales'?

Charles Annenberg Weingarten — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:48:49 -0500

It used to be such a good catchphrase. "Save the Whales!" But then, as legislators and enforcement seems to be cracking down on illegal whaling and blatant toxic pollution of our oceans, it lost its lustre, and people turned to other, newer, more exciting and pressing issues.

But they're back. Well, the whales issue never really left, but with releases of films like The Cove that turned people's eyes back to the problem of large-scale, long-term loss of marine mammal life, the whales are getting our attention once again. For instance, see what The Whaleman Foundation is doing, with their Save the Whales Again campaign. Reports from scientists who have been studying the effects of human actions on whale populations are beginning to make the news, again.

Want to know more? Here's some in-depth information on the Southern Resident communities of orca whales from explore's trip to the Pacific Northwest, guided by Ken Balcomb, who, like many engaged in studying and preserving these giant, beautiful creatures, never stopped saving them.

Veterans for American Power Tour Rolls to Finish Line in Florida

Rocky Kistner — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:00:58 -0500

After marching through more than 30 cities and towns in 12 states and the District of Columbia, the southern bus of the Veterans for American Power Tour criss-crossed the Sunshine State this weekend to convince people that America will be more secure by switching to a clean energy economy.

Our first stop was in the American Legion Hall Post 6 in Deland, FL. In a room appointed with military memorabilia and a wall-mounted M16, the vets mingled with fellow veterans of wars dating back to World War II.

Many in the room agreed with their message: we need to find other sources of clean energy here at home to keep American armed service members from having to deploy and fight in wars over oil and other energy sources. It's the best way to avoid future conflicts fueled by the increasing threats of climate change.

After ordering a takeout lunch, the vets boarded their navy blue bus and headed to the sprawling campus of the University of South Florida in Orlando. The veterans were invited to speak at the Florida Power Shift Summit, a conference sponsored by the Energy Action Coalition to reach out to youths and students and help fight against climate change.

"I'm here to tell you all this is a serious national security threat," Iraq War veteran Nick Breeze told the mostly college student audience. "I saw with my own eyes why it's important for us to get off oil and develop energy sources here in America that will make our county stronger and more secure."

Navy vet Ashkan Abayatpour echoed those sentiments to the audience. "The military takes the threat of climate disruption seriously. We can't ignore it any longer. I encourage you all to talk to your representatives and get them to take action now to make us more energy independent. Our country and our service members are depending on it."

After the veterans filed off the stage, they posed for pictures with a few volunteers and then were back on the highway to Tampa, their final destination of the two week tour. The balmy breezes of this Gulf coast city were a welcome respite from the bumpy cross-country tour. After days of feeding on meatball subs and chicken tenders, we treated ourselves to a steak and lobster dinner to celebrate our long journey's end.

But there still was work to do. After a good night's sleep, we loaded up the bus one last time and rumbled off to the last stop at the Tampa Mariners Memorial and Museum.

The veterans were given a tour of the WWII merchant marine ship USS American Victory, one of many that provided crucial supplies for troops overseas. As we gazed out at the harbor from the decks of the old supply ship, the blue waters of the Gulf provided a stark contrast to the fall colors of the midwest where the tour began two weeks earlier.

"We signed up to serve our country and we've traveled a long way to talk to the American people," said Rafael Noboa, an Army vet who joined the trip 12 days earlier in St. Louis. "This is just an extension of that service. And it's our most important mission yet."

After one last local television news interview, the team members of the Veterans for American Power Tour boarded their trusty blue transport for the final leg to the Tampa airport. We realized it was just the beginning of a long battle ahead. It would not be an easy fight to earn the hearts and minds of those who insist on maintaining the status quo.

But the vets had spread their message about the national security threats associated with climate change to citizens in cities and towns across the country. And the president himself had acknowledged their efforts on national television.

As we grabbed our bags and entered the busy Tampa airport terminal, we suspected we would see each other again. In a way, we knew it was a tour that would never end.

With a Presidential Push Vets March Through Florida

Rocky Kistner — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:31:02 -0500

It's not everyday that the commander in chief recognizes your actions in a major speech to the nation. But that's exactly what happened yesterday, and the ex-service members aboard the southern bus of the Veterans For American Power Tour gave out a loud rebel cheer when they heard the news (there were a few Yankee hollers as well).

"It's not everyday that the president acknowedges your accomplishments," said Army veteran Ed May, a South Carolina native now living in Tennessee. "I joined this tour because I love my country and this is the most important service I can give to it. It makes me proud to know our commander in chief feels the same way."

The vets started their tour yesterday morning when their distinctive logo-emblazoned blue bus pulled into the Sunshine State's capital grounds. After a thorough search of the bus by officers with security dogs, the bus began drawing a small crowd of well wishers and media. Numerous cars honked their horns in support.

Tallahassee native and Iraq war veteran Nick Breeze told the gathering crowd that developing clean energy alternatives was crucial for our country's national security interests. "I've watched my fellow Marines suffer because of the need to protect oil and fossil fuels around the world. We're Marines and we do what's necessary. But there is no reason we can't develop clean energy alternatives here at home to make America stronger and protect our fighting men and women from future conflicts. We can develop our own clean energy sources right here at home to create new jobs, a cleaner environment and a more secure America."

After interviews and greetings with the audience ended, the vets piled back into their home away from home and rolled on down the Florida highway to Jacksonville, where the gentle breezes of the ocean were a welcome relief from the stuffy interior of the bus.

At Memorial Park in Riverside we were met by a photographer and reporter with the Florida Times Union, the largest newspaper in the region. Vets continued to talk about the need for oil independence and to create a clean new energy economy.

"The Pentagon and the rest of the defense department takes this seriously," said Rafael Noboa. "There's no reason our society as a wholecan't either. It's time for America to get with the clean energy program and make us stronger in the process."

As the sun dipped in the horizon, the vets motored down the highway toward Daytona Beach, their last stop of the day. It had been a very rewarding one for these members of the tour. The President's "shout out" to their cause boosted their spirits and made them even more determined to fight on for a safer, more secure America. It was after all the reason they joined the armed forces. They were just continuing to fulfill their duty.

Meet Me At The Fair

Patricia Adams — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:50:02 -0500

"GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE, LIBERALS DO."

The banner flew over the National Rifle Association booth at the recent Delaware County Fair in Walton, New York. In front of the booth people milled about, listening as raffle tickets were being read off. There were families with young children, old people sitting on benches, some people in wheelchairs and many others robust and glowing in the health of hard farm work and rural living. There were also summer vacationers, dressed in casual urban attire.

I stopped for a moment and looked around at the people gathered under this banner. It was a week after Sarah Palin had announced that she did not support the Health Care Bill because of the "death panels" it would establish. This was clearly what had inspired the banner. Whether all the people there agreed with the message was unclear but, right or wrong, the message was simple and emotional. And it got me to thinking.

John and I go to this fair every summer and we always have fun. It was great circling up on the Ferris wheel seated next to our granddaughter, Zelda, with the bright lights below and the mountains in the distance.

In the animal tents, it was gratifying to see the many kids joking with each other as they cleaned and fed the cows, sheep, goats, chickens and rabbits. Cots had been set up by the stalls where these young people would spend the night to watch their charges. This is the rural America we all celebrate, the American that is part of the nostalgia we have.

We sat in the high bleachers waiting for the tractor pull. A young man in front of us was eating a plate filled with some slivers of a fried substance- glistening in the dim light. John thought it must be fried fish. Our son was convinced it was fried dough. I asked and learned that it was a whole onion, sliced into multiple sections and deep fried. He asked if I wanted to taste it. It was delicious. Fried, fried, fried! That is the County Fair, a place where we also love to celebrate excess as in fried dough, fried fish, French fries, fried Snickers, fried pickles and a new addition for this summer - fried Oreo cookies.

The Tractor Pull was also excessive. But there's good news here in that the tractor pull has replaced the draft horse pull. Not that long ago, great magnificent draft horses were harnessed up to thousands of pounds of dead weight - cement blocks -- and forced to pull with all their might. However, after the death of more than one of the horses, they were replaced with tractors. One doesn't have the same feeling for a tractor huffing and lurching as one does for a living animal. (And while it is good that living creatures are no longer abused this way, the tractors presented their own challenges: clouds of black smoke filled the sky as these heaving machines spouted diesel exhaust so intense that we literally had droplets of oil on our foreheads.)

County fairs are as American as Apple pie and represent a broad swath of the American populace. They celebrate and honor the hard working families who bring food to our tables. They are nostalgic, fun and over the top - everything is a little bit bigger and wilder at the fair.

Seeing the banner and watching the tractor pull, however, made me think of the challenge both our politicians and our own NRDC colleagues have in communicating environmental concerns with so many Americans. It would take more than just a brave person to stand before the families at the NRA booth and talk about health care. It would take more than someone just having the loud speaker in hand to talk about climate change or dirty diesels to the hundreds of people cheering the tractors on.

At the NRDC Board retreat in September, guest speaker Drew Westen, author of "The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation," talked about how Democrats, environmentalists - and yes, liberals -- must learn how to talk about their issues in a more productive way. He used gun control as an example of different ways of viewing an issue.

Consider the associations that are likely to appear when a city dweller hears the word "gun," Westen said, "handguns, murder, mugging, robbery, killing and crime. But for rural residents, "gun" is likely to activate an entirely different network that includes: my daddy, my son, gun collection, rifle, deer, buddies, protecting my family, my rights.

Westen argues that environmental issues are also viewed differently and before environmentalists can communicate with the majority of Americans, we need to understand our different audiences and change the very language we use everyday. Not that we need to "dumb down" our message, but instead we must use language other than reference to "CO2 emissions, cap and trade, market transformation, clean coal technologies or global warming controls."

One of the most transformative moments for me was when Westen noted that all Americans, in fact everyone on the planet, want the same things: clean water for our families, clean air for our grandchildren, healthy food for ourselves.

No one wants a global "melt down" - a time when even the most basic community and family structure will change because of the displacement of millions of people and a resulting scarcity of water and food.

But the question remains: how do we talk about this in a way that resonates with the majority of people throughout the world? That is the challenge.

Veterans For American Power Get Some Soothing Southern Hospitality

Rocky Kistner — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:23:44 -0500

With sunshine pouring down like liquid gold, veterans of Alpha bus continued their push south, making stops in Charlotte, NC, Greensboro, SC and Columbia, SC. News cameras and supporters welcomed the members of the Veterans for American Power Tour as they continued to encourage community leaders and citizens to support the development of clean energy technologies to make Americans more secure.

After boarding the bus yesterday in Greensboro, NC, the first stop was at the Vietnam War Veterans Memorial in Charlotte. In a secluded park shaded by tall oaks and elm trees, the veterans walked along a sloping wall of names of members of the area who gave their lives during the war.

"We are here giving testimony to those who served before us," said Army veteran Rafael Noboa. "We stand here together to bring an important message that will help reduce conflicts like these that cost the lives of so many patriotic Americans. Energy security is national security. We can build a clean energy economy that will reduce the threats our service members face abroad, and in the process create jobs and a cleaner environment for all Americans."

After interviews with local media, the veterans boarded their brilliant blue bus wrapped with the names of the more than 50 towns and cities they were visiting during the two week tour. Our sure-handed bus diver Ellis cranked up the engine, which can be powered by biodiesel fuel, and hit the highway to cross into the Palmetto State, South Carolina, the birthplace of Army vet Ed May, who has been with the tour since its start in Arkansas Oct.12th.

In Columbia, we were met by the mayor of the capital city, Robert Coble. Addressing a crowd at the American Legion Post 6, Mayor Coble strongly supported the veteran's efforts to bring a message of building a clean energy economy. Mayor Coble has been a leader in the region for promoting energy efficiency programs and helping build new clean energy industries such as fuel cell technologies to the area.

"These vets have an important message to tell," Mayor Coble told the crowd. "Energy independence is a national security issue and we need to encourage the development of new clean technologies to create new jobs in our community."

After the veterans addressed the assembled crowed and conducted several TV interviews, we once again boarded the bus and headed for Greenville, where we were met by another group of reporters and television cameras at the city's veteran's memorial park. It was a picture perfect day as the half dozen vets disembarked from the bus and lined up to talk about their mission. Nearby stood a large granite triangular wall etched with the names of service members killed in conflicts throughout the history of this proud southern city.

"I'm here because this is an important message to help protect my friends in the military and people here at home from the devastation of climate change," said Brian Van Riper, a Marine Corps vet. "These are difficult times for everyone but no one can dispute the fact that we need to prepare for the threats posed by a changing climate. The best way to do that is to create new clean energy jobs and become less dependent on fossil fuels. My buddies on the front lines are depending on it."

After a long series of interviews with local television crews and the Greenville News, the vets loaded up on the bus one last time and hit the road for a long 7 hour trek to Florida, the last state on their tour. When the bus pulled up to the hotel in Tallahassee, everyone grabbed their gear and headed for their rooms, tired, road weary, but content that their mission that day had been a success.

It was another long day for the Veterans for American Power Tour, but their objective had been met; more Americans were waking up to their message that a clean energy economy means greater security, more jobs and a healthier environment for all Americans. As former members of the military, all on board agreed there couldn't be a more important mission.

Veterans for American Power Tour Heads to Land of Dixie

Rocky Kistner — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:42:28 -0500

Today the Veterans for American Power tour continues it's southern swing deeper into the land of Dixie. Over the past several days, we've traveled from West Virginia to Washington DC, and then headed south all the way to Greensboro, NC, visiting Richmond, Norfolk, Raleigh, Fayetteville and over-nighting in Greensboro.

The vets continue to press their message of clean energy and oil independence to make our country more secure.

In Richmond on Tuesday, Oct 20, we were met by a reporter of the Richmond Times, who boarded the bus and had a roundtable discussion with the vets.

"It's really important that we let people know that what we learned in the military is to prepare for threats in advance," said Army vet Rafael Noboa, who served in Iraq. "With climate disruption, we know the threat is coming. Our own military is preparing for it. People need to understand that if we don't prepare for it and change to a clean energy economy then we will face a dangerous future."

On a crystal clear warm fall day, our blue bus emblazoned with slogan "More Jobs, Less Pollution, Greater Security," rambled into Norfolk, one of the largest Navy bases in the country. There we were met by members of the VFW and other dignitaries who embraced the veterans' message of energy and national security.

"We cannot allow foreign countries to control our energy sources, and we must create new ones here so we can protect our national interests, said Navy veteran Ashkan Bayatpour. "We can create more jobs and develop our own clean energy sources that will protect our national security interests and protect the American people from the threats of climate disruption."

From Norfolk, we boarded back on the bus and rolled down the highway for a four hour drive to the Raleigh, NC. As night fell, our bus narrowly avoided a serious accident on the highway. Just in front of our bus a car had collided with another and crashed into the guardrail. Veterans rushed to the aid of a passenger who was pinned inside. We comforted the man before emergency crews arrived. It was a sobering experience for all.

Yesterday another beautiful sunny day our intrepid veterans cruised through three cities in the Tarheel State. In Charlotte, Fayetteville and Greensboro, television media and local veteran officials and political leaders turned out to hear what they had to say about energy and national security.

"There is no greater threat to our country right now than climate disruption," Marine Corps vet Matt Victoriano told a large gathering of media outside Raleigh's VFW Hall. "That's why we're all out here today. It's not just an environmental issue; it's a national security threat. I don't want to have to see any more of my buddies go off to fight wars because of it. The Pentagon and the Marine Corps all know it's real. We need to do something about it now and build a clean energy economy to keep America secure."

Today, it's off to the Palmetto State, South Carolina, where the message of the Veterans for American Power Tour will continue its long journey south, riding like Paul Revere from town to town to warn citizens and leaders of the dangers ahead if we don't act now.

Beyond Green

Wendy Gordon — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:01:19 -0500

“Green is the new black” is so 2007. Oscars were won for a film about a slide show on global warming. Demand for hybrid cars outpaced production. Media companies, sports teams, everyone it seemed was turning green, toting thermoses and donning organic tees.

Was it all just a fad? Not entirely. A recent poll, conducted by Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, found that the percentage of Americans who believe there is solid evidence the earth is warming due to pollution, has dropped to 57 percent, down from 77 percent in 2006, and 71 percent in April 2008. However, despite their misgivings about the science, half the respondents still say they support limits on greenhouse gases, even if they could lead to higher energy prices, and a majority—56 percent—feel the United States should join other countries in setting standards to address global climate change.

With the economy and jobs foremost on people’s minds, no wonder they “see these issues as less grave” says Andrew Kohut, the director of the research center, which conducted the poll from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4, 2009. It should be no less surprising, given the economic stresses on the American family, that many are seeing green in a more serious light, not as a luxury to indulge in when times are good, but as a necessity to integrate into all aspects of life especially when times are tough.

Homeowners are realizing that it makes practical good sense to retrofit their homes so energy and money don’t go out the window or through the roof. And parents are choosing to avoid exposing their family to toxins in common household products that may trigger costly chronic illness later in life, especially when safer alternatives are available. Families are making more meals at home because it’s smarter, better for them and cheaper.

Cities and towns are getting smarter as well, and imposing sensible policies like congestion and parking pricing in their downtowns, knowing that this will yield the triple benefit of increased revenues, a more livable city in which more people walk or use public transportation, and a reduction in emissions of global heat-trapping pollution. Others of course are way ahead of the United States. Entire countries have begun tagging their food with the CO2 pollution generated in its production in the hopes of influencing consumers’ food choices.

The U.S. does have Colin Beavan, known now as No Impact Man, who made a year-long commitment to live without producing any net impact on the environment. In his own words: no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets…

These are serious actions being taken by real people to address real and very serious problems. Green may not be in anymore, but concern that is great enough to elicit action can’t be reduced to a color. Being smart, sensible, practical about every day living–this is what’s behind the attitudinal and behavioral shift we are seeing in homes and neighborhoods across America and around the world. Prevention is back – preventing waste, preventing harm, preventing illness–as is conservation, reminding many of us of our parents and grandparents who saved every piece of aluminum foil, who made meals with leftovers in mind, and who conserved because to be wasteful cost too much.

I’ve been involved in the green consumer movement for nearly 20 years, working to provide consumers the information they need to make the best choices for their health and the planet. There have been ebbs and flows, but basically a trending upward in interest in these issues–health, home, food, safety–and very recently a renewed sense that we’ve moved beyond the debate, the urgency of the problems demand action now. Even among entrenched Republicans in the Senate, there appears to be a thawing in attitude and a readiness for action, led most recently by Lindsey Graham, who declared his commitment to getting energy and climate legislation passed.

This renewed sense of urgency and readiness to act has been a motivator these past few months as I helped to update Simple Steps, NRDC’s news you-can-use web portal. We wanted to create a place where real people concerned about real things—their kids, their health, their community, their future - could find smart solutions to serious matters that affect and are affected by their everyday life decisions. There is no doubt in my mind that people care—what they want to know is what to do. Come check out Simple Steps and let us know what you think.

Bus Breaks Down But Our Spirits Stay High

Rocky Kistner — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:59:50 -0500

A beautiful Indian summer day greeted the veterans of Alpha bus Sunday morning. We left the hotel in Roanoke early to meet a Roanoke Times reporter for an interview.

"I remember the oil embargoes of the 70s," said Ed May, an Army veteran of Desert Storm in Kuwait and Iraq. "Everyone said we needed to get off oil and find another source of energy. Then I went and served in the Gulf War, and after that they said the same thing. It's time to get something done now, for our nation's security sake."

Then we fired up the bus and headed north to Charlottesville, the home of Thomas Jefferson. But within minutes of leaving Roanoke, the bus blew a hose and we were forced to pull over. Ellis, our veteran pilot, guided the wounded blue bus to a nearby service station for repairs. The breakdown forced us to cancel our appearance in Charlottesville, where the mayor and other dignitaries awaited us.

But by mid-afternoon we were back cruising through the green hills of Virginia for an interview with BBC America television at the Iwo Jima memorial in Arlington, a stones throw across the Potomac from DC. The setting sun painted a rosy glow on the famous military flag raising statue while the veterans conducted their interviews on the bus.

"Our dependence on foreign oil weakens our national security," said Ashkan After the interview we motored across Memorial bridge toward Washington. Ashkan Bayatpour, a former Marine who served in Iraq. "Never in American history have we been challenged in so many ways. By solving our dependence on fossil fuels we can create more jobs, cut pollution and make America stronger."BC cameraman rode shotgun in the front of the bus, filming the white columns of the Lincoln memorial lit up against the dark sky. Washington was an inspiring thing to see, a place where men like Lincoln led the country into a new era of freedom.

This band of veterans was hoping to help move the country in a better, more secure direction as well. Like the fight that Lincoln waged for freedom, finding solutions to oil dependence and building a cleaner, safer energy economy is a battle well worth fighting for.

Veterans for American Power Tour heads to DC

Rocky Kistner — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:14:38 -0500

After barnstorming through much of the midwsest the Veterans for American Power tour is heading to the nation's capitol today. Since the tour started in Arkansas Oct 12, we been to dozens to towns and cities in a half dozen states, including Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio and West Virgnia. The vets on the bus are from a wide range of services and tours, ranging from Operation Desert Storm in the Gulf to recent tours to Afghanistan. They all have been spreading the message that climate change is a national security threat, and that creating a new clean energy economy is the best way to keep our country safe and secure by getting off oil and creating more jobs in the US.

Army veteran Ed May plans to be with the tour the entire trip, ending up in Tampa October 25. "I'm on the trip because this is the most important mission in my life," he says. "I remember standing in the oily rain during the gulf War. I know what it's like to go to war over oil. We need to help explain to people why it's so important to build a new clean energy economy. Otherwise, we'll keep sending our armed forces to dangerous and unstable places, which will only get worse because of climate change. We need to become energy independent and do it in a way that creates jobs and cleans up the environment. That's something we all need to work toward and support, because it will make all American safer and more secure."

The bus tour has stopped in VFW Halls, held press conferences, and attended meetings with local officials across the midwest. We now head to our nation's capitol, where we plan to meet our representatives on the Capitol grounds today. After that, we will push south to continue to spread our message of improving our national security through building a clean energy economy right here at home.

No Lions in the Classroom, Please

Charles Annenberg Weingarten — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:30:01 -0500

A few years ago, the African Wildlife Foundation presented me with an unusual request: build a new school for Maasai children in Tanzania... one that is not right in the middle of an elephant breeding ground, preferably, and one in which the children would not have to share their playground with wandering lions, zebras, and other wild animals.

We thought that sounded pretty reasonable. And so began the Manyara Ranch school project. See the video below for the introduction to the project. Follow up with the rest of the videos from the series: Building the School, Manyara Dorms, and Classroom of Hope.

The Arctic Circle: Moffen Island

David Rothenberg — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:19:19 -0500

October 10th, Moffen Island, 80°N, 14.5°E

From this completely flat island on the horizon we see nothing, as if we are deposited in some alien sea. It is strangely warm and moist, nothing like the endless winter one might imagine at the end of the road of darkness. Through September it is forbidden to land on this island in case breeding walruses and seabirds might be disturbed. By October the law permits us, and it is now possible to walk right up to huddled walruses and tap them on the shoulder, inject them with tranquilizers, and take a sample of something. But we're not scientists, so we don't do that, though we do approach close enough to feel their eyes looking right at us, squinting, trying to see something of interest. Eye of the walrus-doesn't sound as romantic as ‘eye of the whale,' and I don't know how humans have been changed or touched by it.

The tiny human forms traipse across the white landscape, looking for something, as always, an idea, a creative spark, a mood borne out loneliness that might find a place in the civilized world after we return. On the islands flat snow-covered plain are old glass bottles with clear liquid inside that hasn't frozen. Vodka? Turpentine? We can't smell it, we can hardly tell. There are spheres the size of soccer balls, made of plastic, metal, buoys for fishing nets. "Once I picked up one of those," says our leader Jan, "and instead I found it was a human skull." If you die up here no one will come to take your body out.

Veterans for American Power Tour Motors Through Missouri and Nebraska

Rocky Kistner — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:23:37 -0500

On Wednesday, Oct 13, the Veterans for American Power pulled out of St Louis in its brilliant Navy blue bus, wrapped with the names of 66 cities and towns in the 22 states that the bus tours will visit this month.

Our busload of veterans, nicknamed "Team Alpha," assembled in the early morning darkness for a 6 am departure from St. Louis to Jefferson City, the capital of the Show Me State. There the vets were met by a variety of media, including the CBS station KRCG-TV, the Jefferson City News Tribune and St Louis Public Radio, KWMU, and the Brownfield Farm Radio network.

With the state capital dome looming in the background, the vets lined up outside the bus on a damp and gray fall morning. Billy Froeschner, an Army vet from Missouri, told the group of reporters,"We need to bring jobs back to Missouri and we think changing to a clean energy economy is vital to our national security. We want clean American power and we want it soon."

Others vets in the group chimed in. "We don't need to send more of our brothers and sisters to war for energy that we can create right here in the US," said Raphael Noboa, an Army veteran of a tour in Iraq. "People need to wake up to the fact that every time we use oil to power our cars, we're not only polluting the environment and increasing the threats from climate disruption, but we're putting our own national security interests at risk.

After a quick breakfast at a local coffee house, we climbed back onto our cozy home on wheels and headed to Kansas City. There we made a quick stop to talk to a group of citizens and several local reporters from the KCTribune.com and The Pitch.com. at Liberty Memorial park. As the vets braced themselves in a chilly wind, they made the case that clean energy was a clean and present danger.

"The Pentagon is already acting on this because our military commanders realize the time to act is now," said Marilyn Weakley, an Army veteran who served as a squad leader in Afghanistan. "That's reason enough for us to take action and create energy independence to make us safer."

The vets then jumped back on the bus and we headed north to talk about clean energy and national security with Ken Newton, a science reporter with the St Joseph Press. But that wasn't the last stop of the day. We still had a two hour drive ahead to a 6:30 town hall meeting at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

CBS affiliate KOLN filmed the discussion as Marine Corp veteran Matt Victoriano, who served two tours as a sniper in Iraq, told a group of students, veterans and local environmentalists that national security threats were the main reason they made this bus tour. "We didn't just come here to talk about clean energy and a clean environment. , , I came because I saw with my own two eyes what men and women are dying for over there. As a Marine, I can tell you don't wait until you're 100 percent sure of anything on the battlefield. The time to get off our oil economy and switch to clean energy sources is now."

It was after 8 pm when the weary vets reached their hotel and we all thought about getting a decent dinner under our belts. The next day would be another long day on the road. But none of the vets were complaining. They were soldiers and Marines after all.

The Arctic Circle: A saxophone someplace far off played

David Rothenberg — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:19:29 -0500

October 9th, Sallyhamnen, 79.7° N 11.2°E

Today we saw three fat walruses asleep in front of an abandoned cabin. A wet snow fell from a dark gray sky. Later we came across seven polar bears eating the rotting carcass of a minke whale. From the peaks above they had slid down fat tracks indented in the snow, making the whole area look like a polar bear ski resort. Baby bears played in the snow with their parents and each other. Two arctic foxes padded by, hoping for a taste. The mouths of the bears were covered in blood as they came down to the shore and smiled again as they reached for the carcass to pull off another piece of rancid meat. We all snapped as many photos as we dared.

Later I played my soprano saxophone aboard the zodiac as we motored close to the whiteblue tongue of a glacier. The scene was being filmed by Italian artist Andrea Galvani for a giant photograph he would later print from a 4x5 or 6x7 camera. The one reproduced here is digital, ‘which I use,’ he said, ‘like a polaroid.’ I was wearing his Italian raincoat because it looked much more cool than my own high-tech gear. Everything was black. The boatmen lay down on the floor of the zodiac so we wouldn't be seen, making it look like I was out there all alone. A wire ran from my saxophone into the sea to make it look like I was playing right into the water, down to the hydrophone to broadcast my sound to any whales who might be listening below. I have done this many times before but this time, as winter approaches, there are no whales in the fjord. Plenty of blood-stained yellowish polar bears but their attentions were elsewhere, decimating that stinky dead whale.

The lone saxophone tones echoed off the stark mountain walls. Once I figured out the length of the reverberation I could time my phrases so a minimalist rhythm could be formed by the bouncing of the sounds off the two mountains. The echo turned time into space and made this one little instrument beat into the sides of the landscape, a golden reflection dancing off the descending light. Snow continued to fall, beginning to collect on the bell of the horn and the floor of the boat. The photographer was shouting instructions at me from the kayak as it faded away into the mist. All became soon invisible, I forgot where I was and who this music was for. A fulmar shrieked. A bear roared in the distance. He climbed into the still green water and started to swim.

The Arctic Circle: A Circle of Artists and Scientists in the Arctic

David Rothenberg — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:53:24 -0500

October 8th, Fourteenth of July Bay, Krossfjorden, Spisbergen 79.2Ą N 12ĄE

We have been out two nights, a hundred year old schooner populated by fourteen artists, two scientists, and a crew of four, and already we have met a phenonemon of nature that cannot be captured in an image. The aurora borealis is a beautiful piece of natural performance art cannot be filmed or photographed. A time-lapse photo reveals only fuzzy colors, and a moving image cannot get enough light to capture the dynamic strangeness of it all. The Northern lights have been painted as hanging, shimmering curtains of multicolored fire, and old engravings show an imaginary fierce luminosity that wants to leap from the page into our minds.

It is the aurora that makes me more than smile, but open my mouth into an astonished "O." I have seen it many times before but it is never less beautiful or surprising than before. We can make art out of it but we cannot ever replay it. The images we snap and flash can only be the starting point.

The sublime, said the philosophers, is not as fine as the beautiful, because it impresses us because of how giant it is, and how impossible to touch. That quality in nature that leaves us in awe because it is always beyond the fact of our gaze, the extent of our reach. We are as small as it is great, as we seem hardly to make any mark upon this grand arctic expanse. Beauty, instead, should be something more, something we can choose to contemplate, rather than be always humbled by.

And yet this giant beauty today seems ours to pollute, to warm, to melt out of existence. We must honor those facts of nature that are greater than any ability of us to destroy, or ignore. The force of the wilderness smacks us across the face, and its grandeur must always burn, in our hearts, in our thoughts.

Getting on the Bus with Veterans for American Power

Rocky Kistner — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:18:57 -0500

Greetings from the Veterans for American Power Tour! Over the next two weeks, I'll be travelling with a group of veterans through the Midwest and down the East Coast.

Why did these veterans, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, sign up to take a bus across America? Because they recognize that clean energy solutions are essential for America's economy, our climate and our national security.

The veterans have come together for an unprecedented 21-state journey organized by Operation Free to talk to citizens and community leaders about the looming crisis of climate change-which not only threatens our planet, but also threatens our national security. Operation Free is a coalition of veterans and national security groups working together to raise public awareness about the threats of climate change and our addiction to oil.

There are two buses of veterans heading out on the tour, one starting in Montana and one in the Arkansas. On my bus are five veterans from diverse backgrounds. Rafael Noboa is a former Army Sgt., who served in Iraq; George "Ed" May is a former Army Staff Sgt., and a veteran of Operation Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield; Chuck Tyler is a former Army Staff Sgt., and a veteran of Operation Desert Storm and Operation Enduring Freedom; Matt Victoriano is a former Marine Corps Sgt., who served two tours in Iraq; and Marilyn Weakley is a former Army Staff Sgt., who served as a squad leader in Afghanistan.

Our bus started in Arkansas on October 12, and stopped in four towns large and small across the Razorback state. The next day our intrepid vets headed to Missouri, stopping at a American Legion town hall meeting before rolling to the Gateway to the West, St Louis (my hometown), where they attended a town hall meeting at a local VFW hall. Several dozen people gathered to hear the veterans' discuss the importance of oil independence and the need to strengthen national security by investing in clean energy alternatives.

"I don't want oil period," said Chuck Tyler, a 10 year Army veteran of Operation Desert Storm and Operation Enduring Freedom. "As a threat multiplier, it doesn't even have to come from overseas. If you put it in your car, if you burn it, it contributes to carbon disruption...it's something that we don't want to deal with and it's something that 1.4 million people in uniform don't want to have to deal with."

The veterans also discussed the importance of passing clean energy and climate change legislation that would help protect Americans from the threats of climate change and its potential impacts on global security. The House passed clean energy and climate change legislation last June, and the Senate is now working on a similar bill.

On Wednesday Oct. 14, the veterans bus tour heads to Jefferson City, Kansas City and St Joseph, MO, before traveling to a town hall meeting in Lincoln, NE.

I'll be blogging throughout the tour and will add pictures and video along the way. You can follow my blog on NRDC's Greenlight and on the Operation Free website.

Swimming in a Sea of Acid

Sigourney Weaver — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:09:51 -0500

My latest film is a beautiful, independent documentary called "ACID TEST" that explores the urgent problem of rising ocean acidity caused by our burning of fossil fuels. The 22-minute film premiered in August on Discovery Planet Green and is now available online at www.acidtestmovie.com.

The website enables you to see the whole film, take action to reduce carbon dioxide pollution, see extended interviews with top ocean scientists, learn about the science of acidification, and request a free DVD and action kit for home screenings with friends and family. (I hope many people will take advantage of this. ACID TEST is a fascinating, frightening but ultimately hopeful film, and a home screening is a great way to begin making a difference for our oceans.)

Scientists have known for decades that when carbon dioxide mixes with ocean water it creates an acid, but only recently did they begin to realize what this growing quantity of acid would mean for ocean life. As you can see in the film, this new understanding has some of the world's leading ocean scientists quite freaked out.

What they can say with assurance is that if we continue burning fossil fuels as we are now, we will DOUBLE the ocean's natural acidity by the end of the century. What's less clear is how damaging that will be for ocean life.

Scientists believe many organisms may not survive so radical a shift in chemistry. And some of those organisms - plankton and corals, for instance - form the foundation of the ocean food web.

If they perish, what happens to the hundreds of thousands of species further up the chain?

Scientists just don't know. But their fear is summed up in the film by Dr. Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution: "We're moving from a world of rich biological diversity, essentially into a world of weeds."

The scientists are freaked out, but they still have hope, as do millions of other Americans. Hope that our policy makers, will listen to the scientific facts, take them to heart and begin America's transition to a clean energy economy. An economy based on efficiency and renewable power that will build a workable future for all living things. What could be more important now than telling our policy makers to move quickly and boldly to adopt strong, clean energy legislation? You can do that right here.

Watch ACID TEST online now:

Cold Cuts

Charles Annenberg Weingarten — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:47:57 -0500

With World Food Day approaching on the 16th, I started thinking — not about world hunger, but rather about how cultures approach food so differently.

Globalization has brought a lot of changes, especially in the world of food: pineapples in the dead of a Michigan winter, Belgian chocolates in Goa, peanut butter in sub-Saharan Africa. And that's just on the surface; I won't even get into the deeper economic impact of the global food trade.

But there are still some cultures that have maintained a strong mono-culinary tradition, partly because of geographic isolation, but in part of the connections it has with their history and culture.

Way, way up north, in the deep Arctic territory of Nunavut, Canada, and parts of Greenland, for example, the Inuit people still eat caribou, seal, walrus, and whale — the very animals they used to hunt in the backcountry, but don't anymore, as much of the Arctic's wildlife population recedes along with the permafrost, and modernization pushes activities like hunting into obscurity.

Watch this short video for more on how the Inuit have maintained their culinary traditions while also introducing new foods, like greenhouse-grown vegetables, into their diet.