And no, it’s not global warming. It’s the myriad humanitarian crises that plague the third world.

That I am writing about it here though, obviously speaks to a link to one of PlanetSave’s main topics; climate science.

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U.S. schools spend more on utilities than books and computers combined.

Public schools spent $8 billion on utilities in 2002, up by $2 billion from 2000. When taking diesel costs into account for school buses, the recent spike in energy costs is more daunting.

“Electricity is up approximate 12%, heating oil is up 65%, and natural gas is up 40%,” said Supt. Dr. Patricia Grenier of Barnstable School District. “This is nothing that anyone has done, but this is an impact that must be addressed.”

Some school districts are cutting staff or increasing taxes. Others are even considering a 4 day school week to save on fuel costs. No matter how the budgets are ultimately balanced, it is hard for anyone to get excited about paying more for energy.

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And thanks to Captain Cook and Lord Nelson and the East India Trading Company, a wealth of information has been uncovered by experts from the British Meteorological Office.

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In a paper that is available online and will be published in an upcoming issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Goldberg and his colleagues write about how a basalt formation off of the coast of Oregon and Washington could potentially store anywhere from 120-150 years of carbon produced by the United States in its cavities (assuming current U.S. emission rates do not increase).

While initially I was extremely skeptical of this idea (because I thought that it might cause all kinds of unintended ecological havoc), by the end of the interview, I was somewhat more optimistic.

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In the US, 17.5 gigawatts of coal-fueled generating capacity are under construction, and 7.3 more gigawatts are on the way.

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Emerging out of thin air, it has already surpassed solar and wind as the largest cleantech industry. Carbon credits were worth a staggering $63 billion in 2007 and $59 billion in the first half of 2008 alone.

Europe has dominating the carbon market since its creation less than five years ago. EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) was responsible for 70% of the trading in the first half of this year, totaling $47 billion. This dollar amount is likely to increase as the cost of carbon credits soars and with the inclusion of aviation emissions in 2012.

Obviously an industry of this amount of rapid growth opens many business opportunities. Companies are needed to provide verified emissions offsets, energy efficiency audits, greenhouse gas emission audits, and to design carbon software. This industry has gained considerable interest from venture capitalists.

Carbonetworks of Victoria, British Columbia provides software to evaluate carbon footprints and reduction options for businesses, governments, project developers, and consultants. They are located in one of the few areas in North America with a carbon tax. They recently announced the first close of a $5 million Series A round from NGEN Partners.

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Over the past 12 months there has been one big fear lingering over the environmental community. It was a year ago that we were watching the Arctic ice disappearing at a tremendous rate, and saw it slip to its lowest levels in recorded history. Subsequently, we also saw the complete opening of the Northwest Passage for the first time in recorded history.

With the dawn of 2008’s northern summer, fears were that that minimum level of ice would once again be broken. However according to experts, no new records will be broken this year.

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“Even now, man may be unwittingly changing the world’s climate through the waste products of his civilization. Due to our release through factories and automobiles every year, of more than 6 billion tons of carbon dioxide… our atmosphere seems to be getting warmer.”

According to Wikipedia, the Bell Labs Science Series:

“[C]ombined scientific footage, live actors and animation to convey scientific concepts and history in a lively, entertaining way, and the bald, bespectacled and affable Dr. Baxter served as narrator, lecturer and Master of Ceremonies.”

Okay, so they were teaching this stuff in schools in the late 50’s and early 60’s? Granted, Dr. Research was a professor of English, but it is clear he’s not making the stuff up himself. It seems that “the bald, bespectacled and affable” Dr. Baxter was on to something, huh? See for yourself (Running time: 1 min., 19 sec.). This story contains additional media. Click here to view the media.

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Shortcuts can work. Sometimes, they get the better of even the brightest business minds. And, sometimes, they bite us in the posterior as we completely miss the train.

A soundbyte is that modern age, Blackberry-fueled shortcut: a way to stand on the shoulders of giants and give the appearance that we have done our research on complex, science informed concerns like climate change when, in fact, we only Googled the issue’s peripheral details and quotes.

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“Livestock production is one of the major causes of the world’s most pressing environmental problems, including global warming, land degradation, air and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Using a methodology that considers the entire commodity chain, it estimates that livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, a bigger share than that of transport.”

The things we choose to eat can obviously have an enormous impact on the planet and everything on it, including ourselves. Naturally then, our diet choices can say a lot about our ethics and beliefs. They can even be a political statement and a form of activism. I think that every choice we make has the potential to change the world, and certainly what I choose to eat has an impact.

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The drones are flying out of Ilulissat, half way up Greenland’s west coast, for three weeks through the end of this month. Scientists studying the rapidly vanishing Greenland ice sheet need to fill gaps in their data that was collected through satellite imagery.

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The watchdog this week ruled The Great Global Warming Swindle unfairly portrays several scientists and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and that it broke rules in the Broadcasting Code.

Ofcom’s investigation found that the IPCC, the former government chief scientist, Sir David King, and Professor Carl Wunsch, were treated unfairly in the documentary that attempted to use a cast of the world’s top scientists to debunk the global warming theory.

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Free trade puts corporations and profits first, ahead of environmental and social concerns.  McCain thinks this is not a problem, “As never before, the market would reward any person or company that seeks to invent, improve, or acquire alternatives to carbon-based energy…”  Will the market reward alternative energy companies with profit?  The US and EU are already calling on the elimination of tariffs for goods and services that protect the environment and fight climate change to help these companies profit.

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According to an article in the Jakarta Post, an official from the Indonesian government has spilled the beans on Samsung’s plans to invest up to $1.63 billion dollars in what’s sure to be a controversial acquisition of land for growing oil palms and construction of a biodiesel plant in Indonesia.

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Carbon offsetting has been around for a while now, giving you the opportunity to reduce your “carbon footprint” by trading cash for your personal carbon output. In most cases, this quid pro quo occurs through a donation to an organization that plants trees of some sort in some place where, hopefully (but not always), they are both needed and helpful to the original habitat. In theory, these trees then sequester carbon dioxide in the air–a major cause of global warming, acid rain, and other current environmental problems.

Let me say upfront that so far I have been skeptical of carbon offsetting. However good the underlying intentions, this sort of tradeoff can be used as an excuse to keep on stomping around on the Earth and avoid making real changes in our lifestyles. If we pay for the things we step on, then that absolves us from guilt or responsibility, right? If we can buy our way out of guilt, then we can buy our way out of changing ourselves, right?

Also problematic is the fact that many offsetting programs may or may not be reliable; it is often hard to tell how trustworthy one organization is or how true its claims are about its use of funds. Even if the organization does use offsetting donations to plant trees or do something similar, how can we be sure that the measures employed are indeed helpful overall (e.g., the right types of trees are planted, needy/imperiled habitats are targeted, sustainable methods are used, etc.)?

In light of this skepticism, I am surprisingly excited now that The Nature Conservancy has launched its own Voluntary Carbon Offset Program. I find this to be a really noteworthy venture for TNC, since it is a global leader in habitat and species preservation, research, advocacy, and general stewardship–or, as its new motto puts it, “Protecting Nature. Preserving Life.”

The Conservancy’s Program is actually going to involve a collection of individual projects focused on restoring and preserving specific areas using the funds contributed through voluntary carbon offsets. The first is the Tensas River Basin Project, which seeks to restore and preserve a key tract of land in Louisiana encompassing forests once populated by ivory-billed woodpeckers (hopefully there are still a few of these flying around!), Florida panthers, and Red Wolves.

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My husband and I got a free cab ride while we were in Dublin on vacation. Yes, free. And even better, it was eco-friendly. After exploring the city on foot for two days straight, we decided we wanted to be chauffeured to our final tourist destination. So we hopped in an Ecocab.

What’s an Ecocab? It’s part bicycle, part taxi-cab that runs mainly on pedal power. It also has a small electric motor that assists the driver/cyclist when going up hills. With a top speed of 7 1/2 mph, it takes passengers short distances in eco-friendly style.

These Ecocabs have been popping up in major cities over the past two years. Dublin has a fleet of Ecocabs that run throughout the city centre from 10 AM to 7 PM. According to their website, Ecocabs is committed to providing these emission free cabs because “the problems of global warming and traffic pollution continue to threaten our future.”

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Some Democrats would dislike the choice of Hagel though, as it would put a Republican in good position to win the White House the next time around should Obama win. Of course there is also the possibility that John McCain might select the Independent and primarily liberal Senator Joe Lieberman as his vice president pick. So a dual-party ticket is possible on both sides.

Hagel’s opposition to the Iraq War is the principle reason why many Democrats label him the “new John McCain.” (the 2000ish John McCain that is– not the soulless hack we see now). From Nebraska, Hagel is one of the few prominent Republican politicians that Democrats like because he speaks with conviction and does not always file in with his party’s line. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Florida Governor Charlie Crist also to some extent fit into this category.

Hagel, along with Rhode Island Democratic Senator Jack Reed, is currently joining Barack Obama on his international world tour to places like Afghanistan and Iraq. By having Hagel accept Obama’s invitation to join him on the trip, it has only fueled additional speculation that his chances of being selected as vice president are real. Hagel has also said previously that he is open to the possibility of running with Obama: a bold gesture. Hagel’s status as a Vietnam War veteran and his foreign policy experience would add a lot to Obama’s candidacy, in addition to perhaps winning over some independent voters and moderate Republicans to Obama’s side.

So given this possibility, I thought it would be cool and exciting if Obama made Hagel his choice. Although I have read that Hagel’s positions on almost all issues other than the Iraq War seriously differ from those of Obama. Their differences of opinion on abortion is the one difference most commonly mentioned by reporters. So I asked myself earlier today, where is Hagel on environmental issues?

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30 steps to a more sustainable you!

7-22-2008. A quarter of a year has gone by since I posted my Earth Day blog offering 22 suggestions to change your lifestyle

Have you made any changes in the last 3 months?

I’ll trust that you have, and in case you’ve done so well that you’ve incorporated ALL 22 suggestions into your daily routine, I have added 8 more in this post (following the original 22) to make it an even 30.

After going through the list please use the comments section to add to my list and/or to explain why you’ve done so well (or poorly) in the last 3 months.

From Earth Day post:
1. Buy a rain barrel. You can’t drink the collected water, but you can water your lawn and wash your car with it. You’ll save thousands of gallons per year in the process!
2. Turn off your TV!!! At least limit your TV watching!
3. Drive less. Walk, bike, skip, skate, and stroll, more. This way you can get some fresh air while running an errand, and you’ll feel (and look) better in the long run.
4. Use natural fertilizers on your lawn and garden. Harsh chemicals found in conventional fertilizers are bad for your lawn and all who play on it. Also, it harms our groundwater supply.
5. Replace old bulbs with CFL’s and/or LED’s.

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In a report (pdf) compiled by the International Council on Human Rights Policy (ICHRP) entitled ‘Climate Change and Human Rights: A Rough Guide’, the authors argue that human rights have the ability to act as a compass to determine what research must be done and what policies must be implemented, as a result of climate change.

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