The Last Frost

It looks like the city of San Francisco stepped up as the future home of the UN Global Compact Center. It will be built on a former naval yard which is listed by the EPA as a superfund site. It will be a few years before the area is cleaned up and construction can begin.

San Francisco to Provide Home for New UN Global Warming Center – via Gizmodo

 This past Monday, the US Supreme Court ruled that the EPA does in fact have the authority to regulate auto emissions that contribute to climate change such as carbon dioxide. It was a close vote, but in the end they did the right thing voting 5-4 in favor. Unfortunately those 4 votes stemmed from the 4 justices you would expect to vote against the ruling, all Bush appointees. 

 This ruling may have widespread impacts across the automotive industry as States and the EPA are now able to set mandatory emissions standards.  

Court rules against Bush in global warming case – [Reuters]

The US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has held hearings on the accusations that the White House has been "asserting it's will" on climate science. What they've found is that it's true, there are documented cases of so called 'editing' by White House aides. The goal of this editing process is to filter the information from the scientists in order to align it with the policies of the Bush administration before the information reaches the public. 

One of the defenders of the practice, Phil Cooney who was the chief of staff at the White House's Council on Environmental Quality and now conveniently works for ExxonMobile. So what were the specifics? In 10 years, 181 edits to highlight scientific uncertainties, 113 edits to diminish the role of humans in climate change.

Here's an example from the New Scientist article (which I encourage everyone to read):

For example, Cooney replaced "will" with "may" in the sentence: "Warming temperatures will also affect Arctic land areas." He also deleted this sentence: "Climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment." [New Scientist Environment, 2007]

Is this the way America conducts scientific research now? It's certainly not the behavior of the America I was raised to love.  

US fudging of climate science – details revealed – [New Scientist Environment]

Check out Al's statements during his congressional hearing on our climate crisis. Thanks to the help of all you Al not only made his initial goal of 350,000 signatures but then raised that goal to 500,000 and shattered that as well. It's wonderful to see people mobilizing around such a deeply important issue.

You can watch the you tube videos after the jump. 

Al's Journal – Hearing Highlights – [AlGore.com]

At a congressional hearing held this past Monday, scientists charged the administration with hiring uninformed oil-friendly lobbyists to edit climate change reports to soften their impact. 

Here's an example:

"greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures to rise and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise."

was changed to:

"Some activities emit greenhouse gases that directly or indirectly may affect the balance of incoming and outgoing radiation, thereby potentially affecting climate on regional and global scales."

I can see why the scientists are pissed.

Congressional hearing heats up over changes to climate reports – Los Angeles Times

Al Gore will be testifying before the United States Congress about Climate Change in just a couple more days. There's a petition to sign which will be delivered to Congress by Gore himself. Currently near 300,000 signatures, Gore hopes to get 350,000. So send this around to your friends which will send a message to Congress that action must be taken to curb global climate change while we still have the chance.

UPDATE: As of Saturday morning there were 405,758 signatures, so now the goal is 500,000 and there are two more days to do it. Please pass this along to your friends so they can sign if they're interested. You can even use the "Email This Post" link below to save you some trouble.

Sign The Petition [AlGore.com] 

A memo sent to The New York Times seems to show an obvious attempt to control the flow of information regarding climate change and polar wildlife by this administration. It was circulated at the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service and require a "spokesman" be named before any trip is conducted for the sake of climate change. The idea being that only people who agree with a certain view will be allowed to speak out on the issues.

Certainly sounds like a roundabout way of gagging federal employees who don't agree with the current administrations view, disturbing stuff.

Memos Tell Officials How to Discuss Climate [New York Times]

"It appears there may have been an orchestrated campaign to mislead the public about climate change" [Rep. Henry Waxman via CNN.com]

Well you don't say! I mean seriously, does this really surprise anyone? Disturbing, yes, surprising? Not in the least. 

Lawmakers hear of interference in global warming science – [CNN.com]

By 2012 California may ban the use of conventional light bulbs, requiring the use of much more efficient florescent bulbs.

I've replaced most of the bulbs in my apartment with new CFL bulbs, and they work wonderfully. First of all the quality of the light is much warmer as compared to the florescent bulbs that most people are used to in offices and the like. They turn on almost instantly now… no more of that annoying flickering. They also burn out much less often which saves money. 

In my opinion banning a specific type of technology is kind of silly, but perhaps what's really needed is efficiency standards. If your bulb isn't over a certain percentage of efficiency… no can sell. That would get my vote, if I lived in California that is. 

California may ban conventional lightbulbs by 2012 – [Reuters.com]

A senior policy official from the UK has said that climate change poses an even greater security threat to the world than ironically, the Cold War.

So how do you deal with an enemy when it's yourself?

He points to several recent and ongoing conflicts that may have a root cause in climate change, including the crisis in Darfur.

It's a good read that definitely got me thinking. 

Climate change creates security challenge 'more complex than Cold War' – [Janes.com]