OntheWilderSide

UPCOMING EVENTS

Monday November 10 7-9 pm. With Seth Watkins. How can you cut your energy bill and live more sustainably without sacrificing your quality of  life?  What’s new (and old) in “alternative” energy: solar, wind, hydrogen, biofuels…?  Is our government dragging its feet in the face of  mounting evidence of  global warming?  And so much more….This promises to be an informative program addressing the concerns we all have on a daily basis. Southold Free Library. 765-2077

Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2:00 p.m. Sag Harbor Library. War on Cancer. Beth Fiteni from the Neighborhood Network introduces the film War on Cancer. A discussion will follow the film.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008.  7:00 p.m.  Southold Town Hall . Lecture by Isidore Doroski of Riverhead, NY on “Peak Oil.”  This is a community awareness lecture on the growing problem of world oil depletion known as Peak Oil.  Learn how Peak Oil is causing economic problems in our lives and what measures we can take to mitigate this coming dilemma. Peak Oil is the term that refers to the fact oil production in the world will reach a maxim point of production and then go into an irreversible decline.  Mr. Doroski is a member of the Riverhead Town Energy Advisory Committee.  Click here for earlier Radio Interview

Wednesday, Nov 12th, 7:30pm.  Clean energy options for school districts.  – Sierra Club and Town of Oyster Bay host seminar. A panel of experts will cover how energy performance assessments of schools and renewable energy can help reduce energy consumption and energy bills while teaching students about energy conservation and the environment.   Doors open at 7:00pm for refreshments, panel starts at 7:30pm.  Panel Includes: Energy Efficiency, Financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy, School Facilities and Operations. Massapequa High School Auditorium.

Nov. 19 and 20. Advanced Energy Conference: Solutions for a Global Crisis. Hyatt Regency Hotel. http://www.aertc.org/ 134 global energy experts will be presenting and speaking: United Nations, Sandia, Pacific Northwest , Los Alamos, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University, Farmingdale State College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Polytechnic Institute of NYU, NYIT, Cornell, Columbia University and the Imperial College of London,  Representatives from NYSERDA, NYSTAR, NYPA and LIPA will also be participating.

METRO NY REGION NEWS

1. NY’s American Museum of Natural History Mounts Exhibit on Causes and Solutions to Climate Crisis. By Claudia Parsons, Reuters, October 14, 2008. “The American Museum of Natural History in New York is mounting a show called Climate Change: The Threat to Life and A New Energy Future… The exhibition runs in New York through August 2009… The exhibition is set to travel to Spain , Denmark , Mexico and Abu Dhabi .”

2. Energy Plan for N.J. Comes Clean. By Tom Johnson, Newark Star-Ledger. October 23, 2008. “By 2020, New Jersey should have 30 percent of its electricity produced from solar and wind power and other sources of renewable energy, according to a recommendation in the state’s new energy mater plan [PDF, 101 pp]. In unveiling the plan at a news conference in Trenton , Gov. Jon Corzine said it amounts to a blueprint for creating up to 20,000 so-called green jobs in energy conservation and renewable energy.”

3. New York AG Establishes Code of Conduct for Wind Turbine Permitting Process. By Ken Belson, NYTimes, October 31, 2008. “Two of the state’s largest developers of wind power agreed on Thursday to follow a new, stringent code of conduct created by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, who has been investigating the companies over allegations that they bribed or intimidated municipal officials to approve wind projects.

GLOBAL NEWS

1. WWF Report: It’s ‘Accelerating Far Beyond the IPCC’s Forecasts’. By Paul Eccleston, Telegraph ( UK ), October 20, 2008. “A new WWF report, Climate Change: Faster, Stronger, Sooner [PDF, 8 pp], has updated all the scientific data and concluded that global warming is accelerating far beyond the IPCC’s forecasts… The findings include: 1) Global sea level rise could more than double from the IPCC’s estimate of 0.59m by the end of the century; 2) Natural carbon sinks, such as forests and oceans, are losing their ability to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere faster than expected; 3) Rising temperatures have already led to a major reduction in food crops.

2. Rachel’s Democracy & Health News #984 The world pumped up its pollution of the chief man-made global warming gas last year, setting a course that could push beyond leading scientists’ projected worst-case scenario, international researchers said.  Carbon dioxide output jumped 3 percent from 2006 to 2007 – an amount that exceeds the most dire outlook for emissions.

3. The Planet is Barreling Toward Ecological ‘Credit Crunch’. BBC, October 29, 2008. “The planet is headed for an ecological ‘credit crunch,’ – our demands on natural resources overreach what the Earth can sustain by almost a third. Living Planet Report 2008 [PDF, 48 pp] is the work of WWF, the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network. It says that more than three quarters of the world’s population lives in countries where consumption levels are outstripping environmental renewal. ‘If our demands on the planet continue to increase at the same rate, by the mid-2030s we would need the equivalent of two planets to maintain our lifestyles,’ said WWF International director-general James Leape.”

4. U.N. Announces Green ‘New Deal’ Plan to Rescue World Economies. By Paul Eccleston, London Telegraph, October 23, 2008. “A global green ‘New Deal’ is needed to transform the world’s economies, according to a new UN report…According to The Green Economy Initiative from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) the worldwide financial crisis had created an historic opportunity to replace a system which had seen the world’s GDP double between 1981-2005 but which had resulted in 60% of the Earth’s ecosystem being degraded while 2.6bn people were still living on less than $2 per day.”

5. Electric Car Network Planned for Australia.By Angela Macdonald-Smith, BloombergNews, October 23, 2008. The first mass-market cars are expected to be available in Australia by the 2012 model year, a year after a similar start- up in Israel and Denmark, Palo Alto, California-based Better Place said today in an e-mailed statement.

US NEWS STORIES

1. Climate Activists on Maryland State Police Terrorist List. By Pamela Wood and Liam Farrell, Annapolis Capital, October 23, 2008. “Three staffers for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network have learned they were on a [Maryland State Police list of suspected terrorists] police, which also included nonviolent peace activists and anti-death penalty advocates, said Mike Tidwell, the group’s founder and executive director… The surveillance and the existence of peace activists on the suspected terrorist list were exposed this summer after the ACLU sought documents under the Maryland Public Information Act.

2. U.S. Wind Energy Surged in 2nd Quarter. By Dirk Lammers, AP, October 22, 2008. “The U.S. added nearly 1,400 megawatts of new wind energy capacity during the second quarter of 2008, providing enough electricity to power more than 400,000 homes, according to an industry report released Wednesday. The American Wind Energy Association said new wind turbines this year will generate some 7,500 megawatts of additional electricity, far surpassing the 5,249 megawatts installed in 2007.