Let’s eat more local food and cut down on food miles!
via Planet Green.com
Excerpt: “WASHINGTON — As millions of people along the East Coast hole up in their snowbound homes, the two sides in the climate-change debate are seizing on the mounting drifts to bolster their arguments.
Skeptics of global warming are using the record-setting snows to mock those who warn of dangerous human-driven climate change — this looks more like global cooling, they taunt.
Most climate scientists respond that the ferocious storms are consistent with forecasts that a heating planet will produce more frequent and more intense weather events.
But some independent climate experts say the blizzards in the Northeast no more prove that the planet is cooling than the lack of snow in Vancouver or the downpours in Southern California prove that it is warming.”
via NYTimes.com
Here you can find an interesting video showing the US perspective of the recent COP15 meeting in Copenhagen.
from: Center of American Progress
- Timeline:
- 08:10 Stern begins speech
- 26:40 speech ends, Q&A begins. First question: What is the process for climate negotiations in 2010?
- 30:15 What is the effect of the lack of U.S. climate legislation on international negotiations?
- 33:00 What is the role of heads of state in climate negotiations in 2010?
- 33:40 Do we need a new forum for climate negotiations?
- 35:50 Can we reach a binding climate agreement in 2010?
- 37:56 What has been the impact on international negotiations and on U.S. domestic legislation by the loss of credibility of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on climate change – the scientific panel)?
- 41:00 What are China’s preferences between the Copenhagen Accord, the Kyoto Protocol track under UNFCCC, and the Long-Term Cooperative Actions track under UNFCCC?
- 44:00 END Q&A. Begin panel discussion that does not include Todd Stern.
- 1:22:00 End of video
Excerpt: ”Just over two years ago, Rajendra K. Pachauri seemed destined for a scientist’s version of sainthood: A vegetarian economist-engineer who leads the United Nations’ climate change panel, he accepted the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the panel, sharing the honor with former Vice President Al Gore.”
via NYTimes.com
Excerpt: ”Last year, when Jonathan Smith was still the president of Earth911.com, a Web site dedicated to recycling, he said he would often board a plane after a speaking engagement or a day of meetings with a dead cellphone in hand.
With limited recharging options available, “it was really frustrating,” he said. “Having access to a working port or finding an open plug during layovers at the airport was just too unpredictable.”
Hoping to solve his problem, Mr. Smith bought a portable solar charger he could prop up in the window of a plane. “I’d plug it into my phone and when we landed, I was ready to go again.” The charger meshed well with his environmental values, of course. Still, “when I first started using solar to charge my devices,” he said, “it was out of convenience.”
In fact, Mr. Smith is one of a growing number of business travelers who, out of practicality or concern for the environment, use portable renewable energy devices — primarily portable solar panels, but also hand-cranked electricity generators known as dynamos or freeplay devices — to power up their electronics when they work in places that offer little or no access to electricity.”
via NYTimes.com
