September 2008
33 posts
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3Qs with Josh Dorfman, The Lazy Environmentalist
Josh Dorfman is an environmental renaissance man: he’s taking action on climate change through paths that range from business to book-writing to biking.
“It can be a pain in the butt to go green,” Dorfman said. His philosophy is that people want to make changes for the good of the planet but they won’t want to deal with inconveniences and expenses. And they don’t...
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Bloomberg's gunning for a third term →
The news is not at all unexpected. And I think I support him. I’m part of a top-notch coalition that is developing a policy roadmap for green-collar jobs in NYC — that is, recommendations for the next Administration for green job training and development programs. In our talks, we always acknowledge that there might not be a “next Administration” — it may be...
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WatchThis is my entry to the Climate Matters video contest: “Let’s Send a Message to the World!”
If I had 60 seconds with our next President, I would gather together all my friends, family, and neighbors, and this is what we’d say.
The video was shot mostly in my Brooklyn neighborhood. I walked around with my friends Jane and Andrea, going up to strangers who were out...
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WatchCheck out my friend Mark’s funny take on the Climate Matters message.
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3Qs with Dr. Nancy Anderson of The Sallan...
The Sallan Foundation, led by Dr. Nancy Anderson, is unique in the green movement. As an operating foundation, it doesn’t give grants. Instead, it promotes sustainable cities through education, outreach, and advocacy. A sustainable urban environment has energy-efficient buildings, transportation, and infrastructure: in industry parlance, this concept is known as “high...
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“On that oil rig […] you look down, and there’s fish everywhere! There’s...”
– John McCain has apparently visited that Exxon-Mobile-sponsored aquarium exhibit.
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Apollo and Upward
“Al Franken is fighting for green jobs in his home state of Minnesota. He’s proposing a national ‘Apollo project’ to fuel the development of new technologies in clean and renewable energy.”
— Al Gore in an email to MoveOn supporters.
This morning, I attended the second general meeting of a large-scale collaborative process to create a “road map”...
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We're oil junkies. We don't need another hit.
Last night, the House of Representatives approved a measure to ease restrictions on offshore drilling. Democrats, who have been wisely opposed to off-shore drilling, are spinning the bill as a compromise with Republicans, who have adopted “Drill, baby, drill” as a campaign motto.
The bill has some positive measures — “oil companies would lose some tax benefits, utilities...
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A note on electric waste
Let’s look at that energy flow chart again.
One thing I didn’t point out was the amount of energy wasted in the production of electricity: about two-thirds. In 2000, 29.1 quadrillion British Thermal Units (quads) of electricity were wasted just in the process of their creation, while 12.3 quads moved to the electric grid, eventually powering lights, appliances, electronics, etc. ...
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"A climatological treasure chest" in New Paltz,... →
The New York Times reports:
Every day for the last 112 years, people have trekked up the same gray outcropping to dutifully record temperatures and weather conditions. […]
The record shows that on this ridge in the Shawangunk Mountains, about 20 miles south of the better-known Catskills, the average annual temperature has risen 2.7 degrees in 112 years. Of the top 10 warmest years in that...
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WatchOn Saturday, Sept. 27th, people across the country will hold events as part of a national day of action to send our next president the message that we’re ready for “Green Jobs Now.”
With my colleagues at the CUNY Building Performance Lab, a program that focuses on green workforce development and industry-wide collaboration in the existing buildings sector, I’ll be doing...
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New York's Green-Collared Future
Over lunch yesterday, my friend Liz, a teacher at a Brooklyn public high school, told us about a student who can read only monosyllabic words. Liz works with students with learning disabilities, many of whom will end up in jail and/or chronically under- and unemployed (consider this: America has 5% of global population yet 25% of the world’s incarcerated, the direct result of the loss of...
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“We will see $300 a barrel — or roughly $250 in today’s dollars — because oil...”
– Charles Maxwell, What $300-a-Barrel Oil Will Mean for You (via mattlehrer)
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FactCheck.org: Energetically Wrong →
fuddmain:
Palin claims Alaska “produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy.” That’s not true.
Alaska did produce 14 percent of all the oil from U.S. wells last year, but that’s a far cry from all the “energy” produced in the U.S.
Alaska’s share of domestic energy production was 3.5 percent, according to the official figures kept by the U.S. Energy Information...
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WatchI know there are some talented mini-movie-makers on tumblr. Here’s a chance to reach a national audience…
Climate Matters Video Contest
If you had sixty seconds with the next President, what would you say to inspire him to take bold action on climate change? 1Sky and Brighter Planet are inviting Americans to create powerful video messages that deliver a clear message to...
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3Qs with Michael Silberman of 1Sky
The 1Sky campaign, a coalition of environmental organizations, leaders, and everyday people fighting for “bold federal action” on climate change by 2010, has devised innovative ways to inspire, motivate, and engage Americans. They’ve put out a call for short video messages for our next president, created a simple way to communicate with the candidates, lent support to the Green...
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WatchA sweet little clip featuring a Massachusetts fourth-grade class playing “Green Jeopardy,” one of the entries to 1Sky’s Climate Matters! video contest. This really brought back warm memories of playing team trivia games in school as a kid.
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Fight Big Water: Take the FilterForGood Pledge →
For more than a decade, a battle has raged. One one side we have Big Water, the corporations that have made bottled water a $46 billion a year industry, and on the other, what might be termed the Coalition of the Dripping, made up of the Earth’s resources, including water and petroleum (which is used to make, ship, and recycle water bottles), municipal services, and eco-warriors.
In 2001,...
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I'm going on a diet! Who's with me? →
In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, reported:
To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, States should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption….
Sixteen years have passed and our nation-state has done little on this front. But the good news is that reducing, even eliminating,...
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