Green Options

A plethora of corroborative data shows that this year’s sea ice levels in the Arctic are the lowest seen in 800 years.

The new research, published in the journal Climate Dynamics, doesn’t specify a cause or reason for the retreat, but it does note that if sea ice melt continues at this level, it’s likely that the North Pole will be completely ice-free during the summer months within a few decades.

According to a recent survey, more than three quarters of African Americans would back federal policy action on climate change.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) calls Waxman-Markey climate bill “ridiculous”, and a “piece of sh*t”.

Invoking the now-familiar messages heard throughout both his campaign and much of his presidency, President Obama implored the U.S. Senate to move forward with a climate bill.

Want to argue about the causes of global warming? OK… but as you do so, keep in mind this slideshow by a group of high school students in Kwigillingok, Alaska. The effects of climate change aren’t matters of theory for these kids and their families: they’re seeing them first-hand.

via Twilight Earth

The League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club launched a new television ad “amplifying President Obama’s call” for Congress to pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

I recently wrote a post concerning a report on climate change issued by the U.S. Government stating that “climate change has immediate and local impacts – it literally affects people in their backyards.” Well, as it turns out, there’s more to the story.

Hydrocarbon (HC) refrigerants are a “natural” cooler widely used in domestic and commercial refrigerators all over the world, except in the U.S. and Canada. HC refrigerants produce less greenhouse gasses than hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) technology, but they aren’t approved for the U.S. market - yet.  Now Greenfreeze, the Greenpeace-developed HC refrigerant, is poised to enter the U.S. thanks to a boost from an unlikely pair of companies, Ben & Jerry and General Electric.  It’s not a moment too soon: a new study has fingered HFC refrigerants and other so-called F-gasses as a rapidly growing source of emissions responsible for global warming.

It’s in the papers and on TV. It spreads across the Internet (including this very post), and it is finding its way into the classroom. Global climate change is nothing new. And it certainly isn’t going away. Not yet, anyway.

Goes one further….

If every building had a white roof, we would be able to cool the surrounding areas. That is the reasoning behind a California law about to go into effect next month requiring light reflective roofs on all new buildings. It is already the law for new flat roofs here.

Read the rest of this entry at GreenbuildingElements…

If you’ve followed the debate over climate change even a little, you likely know the main causes of global warming: concentrations of greenhouse gases build up in the Earth’s atmosphere, and create a “greenhouse,” or warming effect. You’re likely also aware that evidence of past warming periods has fueled the argument that natural causes are largely responsible for current global warming, and thus, our choices of ways to reduce global warming are limited. If Nature’s calling the shots, is there any reason to change human activities that increase levels of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases?

While arguments persist, there’s little doubt that human-produced greenhouse gas emissions play a major role in the current warming trend. Nature has a role, but it pales in the face of increasing emissions from human activity.

What are some of the natural causes of global warming?

Think back to science classes from school. You undoubtedly learned at some point that carbon dioxide is a naturally-occurring compound, that it provides food for plant life, and that animals breathe it out. You may have also learned that decaying organic material releases CO2. There’s no need to question these facts. Greenhouse gases can be emitted into the atmosphere from a variety of natural sources.