writeaboutwarming

January 22, 2014 -   Business leaders are catching on, even in the United States.   Yesterday, a report authored, in part, by over 100   academics, energy experts, government officials, and business leaders called upon the President to address climate change by taking measures that do not require congressional approval. Spear-headed by the Center for the New Energy Economy (CNEE) at Colorado State University, the report grew out of a meeting convened last March, attended by the President and 14 corporate and private sector leaders.   They spoke for hundreds of like-minded individuals who want to reshape the country’s energy policy. The resulting 207-page report contains around 200 recommendations regarding the use of executive authority to enact the climate change action plan the President announced last June.   Former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter released the report, briefing cabinet officials and senior policy staff whose focus is ene...

April 25, 2013 - In the world as we presently know it, the truth seems to sneak up on us.   Media of every description trumpet their version of reality, and after hearing it long enough and often enough, it becomes as familiar as an old sweater.    Yes, there’s a niggling at the back of the brain that asks “But what about A, B, or C?”   That question, along with so many others, never gets asked – or answered – in the media, and that is supposed to help us forget our doubts.   Time passes, doubts fade away to nothing, then all of a sudden – there it is!   THAT’S what we thought all long.     The truth has snuck up on us once again. Such, I would contend, is the case with the story of renewable energy.   HA! says the fossil fuel industry.   They can never catch up with us.   We have all those lovely government subsidies, people love to drive all those gas-guzzling cars, we are the most profitable business in the world.   Consu...

June 14, 2010 - BP is now talking about capturing 50,000 barrels of oil a day. When did they admit that more than that was gushing out of the well? By mid-July, they say they’ll be diverting 80,000 barrels. Dear G-d in Heaven, how much oil is coming out of that thing? They don’t know, but they apparently know it’s more than that. These are the same people upon whom we are relying to drill 18,000 feet and hit the existing well in order to relieve pressure. You know, the same folks who said “there aren’t any plumes.” Heaven help us, they feel confident about being able to drill the relief wells accurately. That cannot possibly be a good sign. During his speech tomorrow night, President Obama is expected to call for BP to create an escrow account in the amount of $20 billion which would be used to pay for damage claims filed by businesses and individuals. He's also expected to recommend that an independent third party oversee the claims process. Now there’s an idea with merit, except ...

My apologies for taking so long to write this article. I hope you'll find it worth the wait! November 19, 2009 – I’m learning more about Transition Towns (see my Oct. 20 blog). Read on to learn more about the concept and its current status. First, though, let’s get started with some transition vocabulary. Two ideas that are central to understanding this grassroots movement are relocalizing and permaculture. Relocalization is, in fact, the United States’ own version of transitioning. While transition takes its name from the need for communities to make the transition from being carbon-based to post-carbon, relocalization focuses on the need for communities to make basic goods and services available locally. This, in turn, necessitates re-skilling. More vocabulary! Let’s go back over this paragraph and make some sense of it. What is meant by saying that a community is carbon-based? Simply this: communities throughout the world derive their energy from fuels containing lots of carbon:...

July 4, 2009 – My apologies, once again, for the dark print. You know, Cincinnati has the reputation of being 10 years behind the rest of the country. That reputation is well earned, in my opinion. It came to the fore on yesterday’s Op Ed page of The Cincinnati Enquirer . The newspaper, like the area it serves, is a bit stodgy and fairly conservative. It’s not a bad paper, though the quality of journalism, like everywhere else, continues the general trend downward. So I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I read Peter Bronson’s column regarding the energy bill passed by the House this week. Bronson contends the bill is “awful,” and besides, it addresses a problem “that might happen in 100 years – if ever.” Good grief - where to start. Mr. Bronson fails to grasp that the members of Congress who wrote the bill are experts on the subject. They have many years of studying the subject under their belts. How could they have had all that time to study? Why, thanks to the Bus...