OntheWilderSide

For updates from the Long Island Climate Solutions Network visit – www.licsn.org

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Long Island Climate Solutions Network

Presents

Levittown – Greening the Suburbs

Tuesday, March 4, 2008 – 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm.

Speakers: Adrienne Esposito (CCE) & Brad Tito ( Nassau County ).

W. Islip Public Library

Come learn about Green Levittown . What is this exciting new project? Is Levittown poised to lead the nation again as it goes green? The project has already received regional and national attention – coverage from Time magazine to various internet web sites. Check out the new web site – http://www.greenlevittown.com/

The Library is located at 3 Higbie Lane, West Islip , NY 11795 , (631)661-7080 http://www.wipublib.org/libinfo.htm

• Thursday March 6th from 6 to 9 pm – the next Hamptons Green Drinks Gathering will be held at 75 Main Restaurant on Main Street in Southampton Village . More information about the event is available at http://www.ligreen.com/greendrinks.

NEWS STORIES

Bill would require California ‘s science curriculum to cover climate change. A Silicon Valley lawmaker is gaining momentum with a bill that would require “climate change” to be among the science topics that all California public school students are taught. The measure, by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, also would mandate that future science textbooks approved for California public schools include climate change. (Bill is attached). You can’t have a science curriculum that is relevant and current if it doesn’t deal with the science behind climate change,” Simitian said. “This is a phenomenon of global importance and our kids ought to understand the science behind that phenomenon.” The state Senate approved the bill, SB 908, Jan. 30 by a 26-13 vote. It heads now to the state Assembly. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken numerous actions to reduce global warming, but he has yet to weigh in on Simitian’s bill. Other Republicans in the Capitol, however, are not happy about the proposal.

U.S. MOVING TOWARD BAN ON NEW COAL-FIRED POWER PLANTS. Department of Energy listed 151 coal-fired power plants in the planning stages and talked about a resurgence in coal-fired electricity. But during 2007, 59 proposed U.S. coal-fired power plants were either refused licenses by state governments or quietly abandoned. In addition to the 59 plants that were dropped, close to 50 more coal plants are being contested in the courts, and the remaining plants will likely be challenged as they reach the permitting stage. http://www.earthpolicy.org/Updates/2008/Update70.htm

Maryland Adopts Ambitious Carbon Cap Plan. By Kristen Wyatt, AP, February 19, 2008. “[ Maryland ] Gov. Martin O’Malley is preparing to back a sweeping plan to confront global warming through a state carbon cap… Mr. O’Malley, a Democrat who has said he wants to be a leader in dealing with sea-level rise, planned an announcement today to back a bill that would set the nation’s toughest limits on carbon emissions — a 90 percent drop from 2006 levels by 2050… [and requiring] a 25 percent drop by 2020. Mr. O’Malley planned to suggest changes to the bill, and those changes weren’t made public in advance of his announcement, but people with knowledge of the governor’s plans said the main points of the global warming bill would get his backing. ‘The spirit is upheld, absolutely,’ said Brad Heavner, director of Environment Maryland, who has been in talks with the administration… The governor’s announcement was planned as a Senate committee prepares to take up the global warming bill Thursday… New Jersey , California and Florida have set goals of reducing carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050.”

Keene, NH: Testing How Adaptation to Climate Change Can Work. By Judy Keen, USA Today, February 18, 2008. “The harbingers of climate change trouble residents of [ Keene , NH ]… [a] picturesque city… [home to] vivid autumn leaves, [a] pumpkin festival, skiing and snowboarding, [all of which] are a source of pride and attract tourists… Already, though, some sugar maples are dying as the climate grows warmer. A catastrophic flood in 2005 was followed by a series of spring and fall storms that some here worry marks a permanent shift in weather patterns. Those changes conjure images of an ominous future for Mikaela Engert, a city planner here. ‘If we lose our maples, part of our cultural identification and heritage would be missing,’ she says… For years, Keene has tried to prevent that from happening by reducing emissions and conserving energy. Fire trucks, snowplows and other city vehicles run on biodiesel fuel. Methane gas at the municipal landfill is converted into electricity. Streetlights use energy-efficient LED bulbs. Three traffic roundabouts keep vehicles moving, minimizing emissions from idling cars. In 2006, [the town] was recruited by Local Governments for Sustainability [ICLEI], an international association, to be a test case for what’s being called adaptation planning… Keene ‘s experience, the group hopes, will serve as a template.”

www.risingtidenorthamerica.org Earth First! Blockades Power Plant Construction Site, 27 ArrestedPalm Beach County – Early Monday morning dozens of concerned community members from Palm Beach County and all over the nation put their bodies on the line to halt construction of FPL’s West County Energy Center (WCEC), demanding energy efficiency, truly clean, renewable energy and a moratorium on development in south Florida. Everglades Earth First! blocked the main entrance to the WCEC site, a proposed massive 3800 MW gas-fired power plant that would emit 12 million tons of CO2, a leading greenhouse gas, every year.

That Newfangled Light Bulb. Editorial, NYTimes, February 17, 2008. “Across the world, consumers are being urged to stop buying outdated incandescent light bulbs and switch to new spiral fluorescent bulbs, which use about 25 percent of the energy and last 10 times longer. The United States Congress has set new energy efficiency standards that will make Edison ‘s magical invention obsolete by the year 2014. One of the main reasons to use these bulbs is that when they cut down on energy use, they also cut down on mercury emissions from power plants. And even with their mercury innards, these bulbs are still better for the environment than the old ones.

Lakes Mead and Powell Could Run Dry by 2021. By Peter N. Spotts, CSMonitor, February 13, 2008. “Lake Mead and Lake Powell , which supply water and power to millions in the American Southwest, stand a 50 percent chance of running dry by 2021 unless dramatic changes take place in how the region uses water, according to a new study. Causes include growing population, rising demand for Colorado River water, which feeds both lakes, and global warming, according to scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla , Calif. , who conducted the study [see news release]. The results underscore the importance of water-conservation measures that many communities throughout the region are putting into place. Other studies, some dating back nearly 20 years, have projected that Lake Mead could fall to virtually useless levels as climate warmed, but they lacked a sense of the timing. The new results, the Scripps scientists say, represent a first attempt to answer when lakes Mead and Powell would run dry, squeezing water supplies in Arizona , California , Nevada , and New Mexico . ‘We were stunned at the magnitude of the problem and how fast it is coming at us,’ notes Tim Barnett, a research physicist at Scripps who led the effort. By ‘dry,’ the team means that water levels fall so low behind the Hoover and Glenn Canyon Dams that the water fails to reach the gravity-fed intakes that guide it through turbines or out through spillways. In addition, the report estimates that the lakes stand a 50 percent chance of falling to the lowest levels required to generate electricity by 2017. Last week, Dr. Barnett published additional work in the journal Science attributing 60 percent of the reduction in snowpack, rising temperatures, and reduced river flows over the past 50 years to global warming.”

Climate ‘Code Red’ Report Issued. Posted by Phil Hart, Oil Drum Australia/New Zealand , February 10, 2008. “David Spratt from CarbonEquity and Philip Sutton from Greenleap Strategic Institute have published a pivotal report in Australia titled ‘Climate Code Red: The Case for a Sustainability Emergency.’ This post reproduces the report’s discussion of why peak oil and climate change must be treated together… The dominant theme of their report, and indeed their purpose behind it, is to recognize a climate and sustainability emergency, because we need to move at a pace far beyond business and politics as usual.”

Compressed Air Car Backed by India’s Tata Motors. By Roger Harrabin, BBC News, February 13, 2008. “An engineer has promised that within a year he will start selling a car that runs on compressed air… The OneCAT will be a five-seater with a glass fibre body, weighing just 350kg and could cost just over £2,500. It will be driven by compressed air stored in carbon-fibre tanks built into the chassis. The tanks can be filled with air from a compressor in just three minutes — much quicker than a battery car.

The Most Destructive Project on Earth. By Mike DeSouza, CanWest, February 17, 2008. “Federal and provincial health officials in Alberta are trying to cover up ‘the most destructive project on Earth,’ aboriginal leaders said yesterday during the release of a report on the oilsands sector. The report, called Canada’s Toxic Tar Sands: The Most Destructive Project on Earth (PDF, 32 pp),… Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation accused the federal and provincial health departments of harassing a local physician who has sounded alarm bells about rare cancers striking the community downriver from the oilsands. Both departments have filed complaints in an attempt to get Dr. John O’Connor’s licence revoked because they believe he was raising undue alarm, but locals say the physician was doing his job.”