Long Island Climate Solutions Network: Videos, Poster Contest, and News Stories

Interesting Videos:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3557315784468867688&hl=en

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO0sCs8jI4k]

Poster Contest

The Green Party of Suffolk invites everyone to showcase their artistic talent and their commitment to end global warming by entering its second annual poster contest. The contest is open to everyone. The deadline for entry is April 9, 2008. Rules and a release form are available on-line at www.gpsuffolk.org. Or, you may contact the Green Party of Suffolk at (631) 351-5763. There is a different poster contest theme each year based on the four pillars of the Green Party: non-violence; grassroots democracy; social and economic justice; and ecological wisdom. Four prizes of $25 will be awarded with the first category for Fifth Grade and under; the second for Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade; the third for Ninth Grade through Twelfth Grade; and the last for Adult.

News Stories:

U.S. Ranked at Bottom of G8 for Environmental Performance. By Felicity Barringer, NYTimes, January 23, 2008. “A new international ranking of environmental performance puts the United States at the bottom of the Groups of 8 industrialized nations and 39th among the 149 countries on the list. European nations dominate the top places in the ranking, which evaluates sanitation, greenhouse gas emissions, agricultural policies, air pollution and 20 other measures to formulate an overall score, with 100 the best possible. The top 10 countries, with scores of 87 or better, were led by Switzerland , Sweden , Norway and Finland . The others at the top were Austria , France , Latvia , Costa Rica , Colombia and New Zealand , the leader in the 2006 version of the analysis, which is conducted by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities . ‘We are putting more weight on climate change,’ said Daniel Esty, the report’s lead author, who is the director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. ‘ Switzerland is the most greenhouse gas efficient economy in the developed world,’ he said, in part because of its use of hydroelectric power and its transportation system, which relies more on trains than individual cars or trucks. The list [will] be released today at the World Economic Forum in Davos.”

Israel Looks to Electric Cars. By Barbara Kiviat, Time, January 20, 2008. “The Israeli government [has] announced a major initiative to push the nation’s drivers toward electric cars, a move meant to both lessen dependence on foreign oil and address the environmental and health hazards of gas-burning vehicles… Automaker Renault-Nissan will manufacture the cars and Project Better Place, a California start-up… will build the infrastructure, which may eventually consist of 500,000 charging points and up to 200 battery-exchange stations. A pilot involving a few dozen cars will start later this year in Tel Aviv. A few hundred vehicles are expected to be on the road by 2009, with production scaled to the mass market by 2011. On Jan. 13, Israel slashed the tax rate on cars powered by electricity to 10% in order to encourage consumers to buy the vehicles once they are available.”

A New Blueprint for Levittown NY. By Bryan Walsh, NYTimes, January 17, 2008. “The blueprint for the postwar American way of life was written in the culs-de-sac of new developments like Levittown , N.Y. , the Long Island community that calls itself the country’s first suburb… Low-cost and low-interest loans enabled the working class to flee dense cities for the new suburbs, while cheap cars and cheaper gasoline supported their long commutes to urban workplaces. Three-bedroom houses, two cars in the driveway? The suburbs were about having more, and more became the American Dream. But that manifestation of the American Dream came at a cost: soaring energy use, which is higher per capita in the U.S. than in almost any other country. ‘What is causing global warming is the lifestyle of the American middle class,’ says Miami-based architect Andres Duany, a longtime proponent of sustainable design. That makes what is happening in Levittown today so important. County officials, along with environmentalists and local businesses, recently launched the Green Levittown program, which aims to persuade residents to upgrade their homes, improving energy efficiency and cutting fuel bills.”

France Meeting Kyoto Targets. AFP, January 22, 2008. “French greenhouse gas emissions fell sharply in 2006, helped by a warmer fall, leaving the country well on course to meet its goals under the UN’s Kyoto Protocol, France ‘s ecology minister said Tuesday. Carbon emissions were 2.5 percent lower in 2006 compared with 2005, and four percent lower than in 1990, the Protocol’s benchmark year, Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo told journalists at an annual reception. ‘ France will be one of the few big economies to meet its Kyoto Protocol targets,’ Borloo said… In addition to progress in energy efficiency and emissions reductions by industry, autumn 2006 in France was exceptionally warm — three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal — which saved burning fossil fuels for heating, Borloo said”

Pacific La Nina Obscuring Global Warming in ’07and ’08. By Jeremy Lovell, Reuters, January 4, 2008. “2008 will be slightly cooler than recent years globally but will still be among the top 10 warmest years on record since 1850 and should not be seen as a sign global warming was on the wane, British forecasters said. The Met Office and experts at the University of East Anglia on Thursday said global average temperatures this year would be 0.37 of a degree Celsius above the long-term 1961-1990 average of 14 degrees and be the coolest since 2000. They said the forecast took into account the annual Pacific Ocean La Nina weather phenomenon which was expected to be particularly strong this year and which would limit the warming trend. It also took account of rising atmospheric concentrations of so-called greenhouse gases, solar variations and natural changes in the ocean currents. ‘The fact that 2008 is forecast to be cooler than any of the last seven years does not mean that global warming has gone away,’ said Phil Jones, director of climate research at UEA. ‘What matters is the underlying rate of warming – the period 2001-2007 with an average of 0.44 degree C above the 1961-90 average was 0.21 degree C warmer than corresponding values for the period 1991-2000.’ La Nina and its opposite El Nino ocean-atmosphere phenomenon have strong influences on global temperatures. La Nina reduces the sea surface temperature by around 0.5 degrees Celsius while El Nino has the opposite effect. ‘Phenomena such as El Nino and La Nina have a significant influence on global surface temperature and the current strong La Nina will act to limit temperatures in 2008,’ said Chris Folland from the Met Office Hadley Centre. ‘However mean temperature is still expected to be significantly warmer than in 2000, when a similar strength La Nina pegged temperatures to 0.24 degree C above the 1961-90 average. Sharply renewed warming is likely once La Nina declines,’ he added.”

2007 SECOND WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD. Northern Hemisphere Temperature Highest Ever. With the record for 2007 now complete, it is clear that temperatures around the world are continuing their upward climb. The global average in 2007 was 14.73 degrees Celsius (58.5 degrees Fahrenheit) — the second warmest year on record, only 0.03 degrees Celsius behind the 2005 maximum. January 2007 was the hottest January ever measured, a full 0.23 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous record. August was also a record for that month, and September was the second warmest September recorded.

Global Warming by the Numbers

Economic opportunity and a clean energy future

Posted: 22-Jan-2008; Updated: 24-Jan-2008

Global warming is the most serious environmental threat of our time.

As these facts show, affordable options are available. And America cannot afford to fall behind any more in the race to invent clean, renewable energy sources.

· 45% – Increase in world’s solar generating capacity in 2005.

· 2 – Rank of China as global producer of solar cells, behind Japan ( U.S. ranks 4th).

· $1.5 billion – Amount US government spends a year on renewable energy research.

· $1 billion – Amount ExxonMobil earns in a day.

· $2 billion – Amount GE Energy Financial Services invested in wind, solar, biomass and geothermal energy in 2007.

· $200 billion – Amount China has committed to invest in renewable energy sources over the next 15 years.

· 0.74% – Projected cost of smart cap-and-trade climate policy on US economic output in 2030.

· 100% – Projected growth of the US economy by 2030.

· 53 – Number of senators supporting cap and trade legislation.

· 0 – Number of bills passed by Congress to cap and reduce America ‘s global warming pollution.

Sources: World Watch Institute, Earth Policy Institute, Department of Energy, CNN, GE Energy Financial Services, Reuters, Upcoming Report: Climate Policy and the U.S. Economy. Environmental Defense, 2008

http://www.environmentaldefense.org/article.cfm?contentID=7533

Filed under: activism, Global Warming, Green Party Websites, video Tagged: | greenhouse effect, isaac asimov, poster contest