Climate 411

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.

The current issue of U.S. News and World Report has a special report on America’s Best Leaders. Among the sixteen individuals chosen was our own Fred Krupp, President of Environmental Defense. From the article:

“The signature achievement of Krupp’s philosophy came out of amendments to the Clean Air Act in the George H. W. Bush administration. While other groups pushed for rigid restrictions on sulfur dioxide, an agent of acid rain, Krupp argued for a unique cap-and-trade system that would permit utilities to swap pollution credits to help bring down their emissions as an aggregate. Utilities that found ways to reduce emissions could sell their credits, at a hefty price, to dirtier plants. Utilities favored the idea, which meant that among the green community, "Fred was taking some serious risks," recalls William Reilly, Bush’s EPA chief. Reilly made the deal in return for Environmental Defense’s support of the legislation. "That helped us in Congress and in the eyes of the public," Reilly says. The plan achieved reductions at one-tenth the estimated cost.
…
Fittingly, Krupp’s work has framed the global warming debate. He played a key role in enlisting corporate support for government action. And because of the success of the acid-rain program, a cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gases is the basis for proposals in Congress to combat warming.”

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.

Have you ever been on weight-loss diet, gone to a function with delicious-looking desserts, and told yourself, "One cookie isn’t going to make me fat"? One cookie may not make you fat, but how many "cookie moments" occur during your day, your week? If your answer is always that this one little cookie can’t hurt, you will not lose weight.

Conserving energy is sort of like going on a group diet where every person, dozens of times a day, has a "cookie moment". Does it really matter if I leave on the lights in my home when I go out? Does it really matter if I don’t recycle this container? Does it really matter if I keep my chargers plugged in when not in use?

The short answer is yes, it matters. There are a myriad of things you can do to conserve energy and fight global warming. Each action by itself is small and painless, but taken together the effect can be huge. Here’s a list of easy things you can do that will make a big difference.

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This post is by Mary Kelly, Attorney and Co-Director, Land, Water, and Wildlife Program at Environmental Defense.

If you’ve been watching the news, you know we have a climate problem, and you may also know we have a drinking water problem in some parts of the country. What you may not realize is that these two problems are related. Yes, global warming can impact rainfall, but that’s not all. The water supply sector uses large amounts of energy to transport, treat, and deliver water. On the flip side, vast quantities of water are required to generate power.

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This post is by Lisa Moore, Ph.D., a scientist in the Climate and Air program at Environmental Defense.

Last month, Michael explained why we need to cut emissions as soon as possible. A new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences adds even more urgency. It says that:

• Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from fossil fuel use have accelerated since 2000, and
• Earth’s oceans may be taking up an increasingly smaller fraction of the extra CO₂.

This paper received coverage even before it was published. Now that it’s out, let’s take a closer look.

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This post is by Sheryl Canter, an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.

Americans have a love affair with coastal living. Waterfront property is highly coveted and highly priced. And now may be nearly impossible to insure due to skyrocketing damage costs from hurricanes.

These are some of the findings in a new report from Environmental Defense titled Blown Away: How Global Warming is Eroding the Availability of Insurance Coverage in America’s Coastal States [PDF]. "Across the board, the nation’s largest carriers have declared their intentions to reduce exposure in high-risk areas by raising rates, hiking deductibles, limiting coverage and in many cases, pulling out of risky markets altogether."

Here are some more highlights from the report.

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This post is by Elizabeth Thompson, Legislative Director at Environmental Defense.

Climate Vote 2007

Part of a series on the work of the Environmental Defense Action Fund to enact an effective climate law. You can help by writing to Congress.

November 1, 2007, may go down as America’s D-Day in the fight to avert the global warming crisis. A key Senate subcommittee just passed the Lieberman-Warner America’s Climate Security Act (S.2191) – a bipartisan bill to cap and reduce America’s global warming pollution.

The full Environment & Public Works Committee is expected to take up the legislation the week of November 12, so it could come to a vote by the end of the month. With this bill we have a real chance of passing a mandatory cap on emissions in this Congress!

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