Climate 411

Florida Report: Capping Carbon Saves Money

Sheryl CanterThe State of Florida just issued a final report on energy and climate change with some hopeful findings. Its policy recommendations would not only reduce Florida’s greenhouse gas emissions 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, but also save the state $28 billion:

The total net cost savings of all Action Team recommendations combined is more than $28 billion from 2009 to 2025. Additionally, the recommendations would increase Florida’s energy security by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels resulting in a total fuel savings of 53.5 billion gallons of petroleum, 200.2 million short tons of coal, and 6.394 billion ft.³ of natural gas during the period of 2009 through 2025.

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Posted in Economics / Read 1 Response

Climate Legislation Buried by Economic Meltdown?

Sheryl CanterThere’s been a lot of buzz lately about the financial meltdown making lawmakers think that climate change legislation is less urgent. But while we worry about the financial markets, global warming marches relentlessly on. The science knows nothing of credit markets and there will be no pause in the march towards catastrophe while we work that out.

In fact, climate change legislation could well solve both problems. David Roberts talked about this at length in a post this week on Gristmill. Here’s an excerpt:

Greens and economists need to be making the point that these green investments are not something we need to do in spite of economic woes, or in conjunction with measures to turn the economy around. They are the measures to turn the economy around. Kudos to Cathy Zoi of We for making the case, but she could use some backup.

There won’t be much time to do something serious on climate. The news from scientists looks worse and worse every day.

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Posted in Economics / Read 5 Responses

Fight Global Warming with Our New Toolbar

Sheryl CanterWe’ve been getting some good reactions to our new Fight Global Warming Toolbar. Treehugger describes it as “a very easy way to be green”. GoodCleanTech says “If only fighting global warming were as easy as surfing the web, surely our ailing blue planet would be on a fast track to recovery. If you think nothing is that easy, you better hold on to your browsers.”

Our free toolbar lets you raise money to stop global warming simply by using the search box, get our latest action alerts, share environmental news, and quickly access tips and tools for reducing your carbon footprint. We have versions for Internet Explorer and Firefox. Try it out and tell us what you think!

Global Warming Toolbar

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Posted in News / Read 1 Response

South Pacific Island Evacuating Due to Global Warming

Sheryl CanterKiribatiIn March 2007, we blogged about the dire situation of the South Pacific islands Kiribati and Tuvalu. The sea is rising due to global warming, and two uninhabited islands nearby have already sunk. Now Kiribati is preparing for extinction:

The leader of the South Pacific island nation of Kiribati laid out an extraordinary plan Monday (Sept. 22) that would scatter his people through the nations of the world as rising sea levels submerge the islands they have called home for centuries.

Rising sea levels are submerging the land. Land not yet submerged is being rendered uninhabitable by salty ground water.

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Posted in News / Read 11 Responses

Eight Lost Years: An Interactive Timeline

Sheryl CanterWhat has the federal government done over the last eight years to stop global warming? Sadly, not much, despite numerous, dire warnings. Our new interactive timeline gives an at-a-glance overview of the scientific reports, lost policy opportunities, and environmental impacts over the last eight years. Click the forward and backward arrows to move through time, and click on a color-coded event box to learn more about it.

Besides giving a succinct summary of the last eight years, the timeline is fun to click around – lots of interesting information all in one place. And it makes it very clear what we need to do when the new administration comes in. There’s no time to waste.

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Posted in Climate Change Legislation / Comments are closed

A Profusion of Green Jobs is Just a Carbon Cap Away

Sheryl CanterThis Sunday’s New York Times Magazine had a cover story on green investment titled "Capitalism to the Rescue". We’ve mentioned in other posts that venture capital investment in clean energy is on the rise. This article was interesting in that it profiled one particular venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins. The author interviewed the firm’s partners about why they see clean energy as such a good investment.

To start with, explained partner Randy Komisar, the current energy market is so large and outdated that "green-tech" is a huge and relatively low-risk opportunity. And we’re not, as many think, waiting for the new inventions to come. We’re waiting for federal policy to give private investment incentive. That is, we’re waiting for a mandatory carbon cap.

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Posted in Economics, Energy / Read 2 Responses