Climate 411

Enter Our Visual Design Competition – $10,000 to Winner

By Sheryl Canter / Published: September 24, 2008

Sheryl Canter A cap on greenhouse gases could solve our addiction to oil, but it’s hard to explain this succinctly. Can you convey this concept in a vivid and memorable way through a video or still image? If so, you could win a $10,000 professional fee. We’re also offering cash prizes for the second and third place entries.

Details on what we’re looking for and the rules of the competition are on our Web site.

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

Posted in News / Read 3 Responses

Could Green Investment Have Prevented the Economic Meltdown?

By Sheryl Canter / Published: September 23, 2008

Sheryl Canter Former President Bill Clinton gave an interesting analysis last night on the Late Show with David Letterman of how we got into our current economic mess. It all started at the beginning of the decade with lots of money to invest and no place to invest it. (For more on this, listen to the excellent report from This American Life on "The Giant Pool of Money".) Since most of the economic activity at this time was in real estate, investment bankers invented something called "mortgage-backed securities". This worked well and they wanted more, so lenders started giving mortgages to people with no ability to repay them – leading to the current mess.

We could have avoided this problem, Clinton said, if government had provided incentives for investment in the next big thing – clean energy.

EDF’s position is that the green economy is our best hope for the future. The incentive we need to make this happen is a cap on global warming pollution.

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

Posted in Economics / Read 2 Responses

White House Fax Flippant on Grim Impacts of Global Warming

By Vickie Patton / Published: September 22, 2008

Tomorrow, the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold an important hearing on the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. On April 2, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the power of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to address global warming under existing law. Unfortunately, EPA’s progress has been stymied by stiff winds blowing from the White House.

Environmental Defense Fund has uncovered a document that provides a disturbing look at the White House’s views on global warming science, views that were revealed as part of White House efforts to interfere with progress at EPA. On June 20, the White House Office of Management and Budget transmitted a fax to EPA with numerous comments on a critically important EPA technical document examining how global warming endangers human health and the environment.

The summary below highlights a few remarkable examples from the White House fax [PDF].

Posted in Cars and Pollution / Comments are closed

Redefining Green for Corporate Fleets

By Jason Mathers / Published: September 22, 2008

Nearly 7 million passenger vehicles on the road today are in commercial operations. These vehicles are driven hard, averaging nearly double the mileage, fuel consumption and emissions of personal vehicles. As a result, fleets are not only expensive to operate, but are also a major source of global warming pollution.

Environmental Defense Fund has been working with some of the largest commercial fleets – including Fortune 500 titans Abbott, DuPont and Owens Corning – to identify ways to reduce fuel consumption, costs, and greenhouse gas emissions. Our efforts have delivered results. Fleets that fully implemented the program outlined below reduced their emissions by an average of 14 percent, and reduced lifecycle operating costs by 4 percent.

Posted in Cars and Pollution / Comments are closed

Old-Growth Forests Still Taking Up Carbon

By Lisa Moore / Published: September 19, 2008

Old-growth forests hold vast amounts of carbon from centuries of growth, and this carbon would be released into the atmosphere if the trees were cut down. That much has been known for a long time, which is why Environmental Defense Fund so strongly advocates a plan to reduce deforestation in developing countries.

But new research shows that old-growth forests are even more important than previously thought. According to a new study in Nature, old-growth forests aren’t just standing there maintaining the status quo. They still actively take up CO₂ from the atmosphere.

Posted in International, Plants & Animals / Comments are closed

Climate Change Insights from Mohonk Weather Station

By Lisa Moore / Published: September 18, 2008

There was an interesting story in Tuesday’s New York Times about a unique weather station in upstate New York next to the Mohonk House resort. Most cooperative observer stations move over time, or the area around them is built up, or the observers and observing methods change. Not so at Mohonk.

At Mohonk, the weather observations are done as they were 112 years ago, and only a handful of people have recorded the over 41,000 readings. Plus Mohonk has an extensive database of wildlife sightings, a 77-year record of Mohonk Lake water quality, and an 83-year record of local phenology (the timing of events such as frost, blooms and migrations) – all observed by the same handful of people. This makes the site’s data uniquely valuable:

Posted in News / Read 3 Responses

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