Climate 411

This post is by Lisa Moore, Ph.D., a scientist in the Climate and Air program at Environmental Defense Fund. You can meet Lisa at the Netroots Nation conference, July 17-20.

Congress and producer groups are pressuring the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to release millions of acres from Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts and open them up to crop production. Supporters say this move would increase production and bring down food prices.

Wrong! Ripping up conservation lands would not make a big dent in commodity supplies or prices, but it would waste billions of taxpayer dollars that have been invested in conservation on these lands.

It also would be a tragedy for wildlife, water quality, and climate.

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

The June 2008 issue of Treasury and Risk lists Gwen Ruta, vice president for Corporate Partnerships at Environmental Defense Fund, as one of the year’s 100 most influential people in finance, along with movers and shakers like Al Gore and Carl Icahn:

Gwen Ruta, Director of Corporate Partnerships, Environmental Defense Fund
Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts put the nonprofit group on the corporate map when it asked EDF to assess the environmental performance of its U.S. companies. It’s Ruta’s job to help business partners create best practices when it comes to protecting the earth.

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This post is by Andy Darrell, vice president for Living Cities at Environmental Defense Fund.

The high cost of gas has pushed retail gas purchases down 2 to 3 percent. What are people doing instead? Taking public transportation!

The first quarter report from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) found that use of public transportation is skyrocketing in tandem with gas prices. Last year 10.3 billion trips were taken on U.S. public transportation — the highest in 50 years. Ridership on streetcars, trolleys, commuter rails, subways, and buses are all up. Even Amtrak ridership is soaring.

This shift presents an historic opportunity.

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

According to a poll conducted in June by the Pew Research Center, soaring gas prices have caused a significant shift in American attitudes in just four months. American priorities, they say, have shifted strongly towards energy exploration and drilling, and away from conservation.

Is environmentalism dead, or is this result mainly due to how Pew framed the survey questions? I think the latter.

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This post is by Carol Andress, who manages outreach to the U.S. House of Representatives at Environmental Defense Fund.

Two new cap-and-trade bills were introduced in the House in June:

• Investing in Climate Action & Protection Act (Markey, D-MA, H.R. 6186)
• Climate MATTERS Act (Doggett/Blumenauer/Van Hollen, H.R. 6316)

They aren’t the first cap-and-trade bills to be introduced in this Congress, but they bring the discussion to a new level.

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

Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) use 75 percent less electricity than incandescent light bulbs for the same amount of light. (For why, see Bill’s post "Why Switch to Compact Fluorescents".) But some people fear CFLs because of the tiny amount of mercury they contain. The risk from a broken CFL is extremely small, but CFLs should be disposed of properly so landfills aren’t polluted. Sealing used bulbs in plastic bags before placing them in the trash can slow the release of mercury if the bulb breaks. But recycling is ideal.

The problem, until now, has been that recycling CFLs was inconvenient for post people. That’s about to change, thanks to Home Depot. The New York Times reported this week that Home Depot will offer CFL recycling at all of its nearly 2000 U.S. stores. That puts 75 percent of Americans within 10 miles of a CFL recycling location.

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