Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Gardener's Guide to Global Warming
The National Wildlife Federation has come up with a 40-page guide called "The Gardener's Guide to Global Warming: Challenges and Solutions" that is worth checking out. In addition, their website has a couple interesting maps--one indicating which states have either a state tree or state flower (or both) that are in peril due to global warming, and another showing the revised hardiness zones according to the National Arbor Day Foundation. Take a look.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Step It Up
There's been an interesting conversation going on at Garden Rant today regarding global warming, a subject I find myself thinking, reading, and obsessing about more and more these days.This Saturday, April 14, has been declared a National Day of Climate Action. The point of it is to gather people together in more than a thousand events across the country to send a message to Congress demanding carbon cuts of 80% by the year 2050. It's a serious goal and I think the time is right to demand action of our legislators.
To find a rally near you (or to plan one) go to the web site for Step It Up 2007. You'll find more than 1300 events already listed. I'll be attending one here in Alameda, which includes a rally, a march up the main street in town, and a town hall discussion and teach-in at the public library. It looks like it will offer a lot of information and, hopefully, a plan of action for us as a community.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Letting Congress Know Where You Stand on the Climate Crisis
Next Wednesday (March 21st) Al Gore will testify before Congress on the issue of global warming and the most immediate actions that the government needs to take to end the climate crisis. Gore has already gathered close to 300,000 signatures to present to Congress on Wednesday to demonstrate the public's concern on this issue. If you want to register your concern as well, click here to fill out a postcard to your representative that Al Gore will personally deliver. The goal is to gather at least 350,000 signatures, but it seems to me that there should be many, many more than that. Please consider adding your name to the roll.
Update 5/22/07: When Al Gore spoke to Congress yesterday, he took with him more than 519,000 postcards from the public telling them that it's time to take action. Gore's presentation at both the House and Senate committees was well-informed and passionate. Watching the committee hearings was both encouraging and aggravating--encouraging that the hearings are taking place, and aggravating to see dinosaurs like Sen. Inhoffe who are living high on funding from the oil lobby while they deny that global warning even exists. I found it interesting also to read that the House Republican leadership refused to appoint any Republican to the bipartisan Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming unless they would take the position that human activity is not causing global warming. Clearly, the Republicans are sticking to their oil-loving agenda no matter what the science says.
Update 5/22/07: When Al Gore spoke to Congress yesterday, he took with him more than 519,000 postcards from the public telling them that it's time to take action. Gore's presentation at both the House and Senate committees was well-informed and passionate. Watching the committee hearings was both encouraging and aggravating--encouraging that the hearings are taking place, and aggravating to see dinosaurs like Sen. Inhoffe who are living high on funding from the oil lobby while they deny that global warning even exists. I found it interesting also to read that the House Republican leadership refused to appoint any Republican to the bipartisan Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming unless they would take the position that human activity is not causing global warming. Clearly, the Republicans are sticking to their oil-loving agenda no matter what the science says.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Fighting Global Warming with Free City Trees
According to the Washington Post, one forward-thinking California city--Sacramento--is taking on the global warming challenge in a smart, simple way: free trees.
"About 375,000 shade trees have been given away to city residents in the past 16 years, and there are plans to plant at least 4 million more. To receive up to 10 free trees, residents simply call the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, a publicly owned power company."
The article discusses the reduction in tree canopies occurring in most major American cities as development has increased. Shade trees can lower summertime temperatures in cities, reduce air conditioning costs, and trap greenhouse gases.
So congratulations to Sacramento. I think we should all be nudging our own cities to follow suit.
"About 375,000 shade trees have been given away to city residents in the past 16 years, and there are plans to plant at least 4 million more. To receive up to 10 free trees, residents simply call the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, a publicly owned power company."
The article discusses the reduction in tree canopies occurring in most major American cities as development has increased. Shade trees can lower summertime temperatures in cities, reduce air conditioning costs, and trap greenhouse gases.
So congratulations to Sacramento. I think we should all be nudging our own cities to follow suit.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
An Inconvenient, Scary-As-Hell Truth
I finally got a chance to see the movie An Inconvenient Truth today. I'm sure many of you have already seen this documentary of Al Gore's lecture presentations on global warming. If you haven't, you must. The way I just described it in the previous sentence probably makes it sound very boring. It isn't--it's essential.
Let's put aside the issue that if the 2000 election had been settled by the voters instead of the Supreme Court we would have Al Gore, an intelligent, thinking man, in the White House instead of the inarticulate, simple-minded, chancellor-groping frat boy who currently resides there (when he's not playing cowboy in Texas). It's possible that Al Gore may actually have a more lasting and significant impact on the world by not being president and by instead doing exactly what he's doing now--explaining over and over again to audiences all over the world about the grave peril we face from global warming, how it is caused, how it is measured, what will happen if we do nothing, and what we can do in our own lives, every day, to make a difference.
There was so much good, clear information presented in the film and many experts have verified that the science behind it is very solid. The film uses terrific--and in some cases, terrifying--graphics to make clear exactly what is at stake. The part that hit me hardest was seeing a series of computer projections of how land maps will be redrawn over the next century by rising sea waters caused by melting glaciers. I watched a map of the San Francisco Bay Area completely change before my eyes as waters swept over much of the perimeter of San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and Marin County. And Alameda? Alameda will be completely underwater. My hometown erased--it doesn't get much more personal than that.
I won't go into a lot of detail about the issue--there's plenty of information out there and the movie has a great web site at www.climatecrisis.net with lots of suggestions for how each of us can take action. But begin with this: If you haven't seen the film, click the pledge icon on the right side of this blog page, and commit to seeing An Inconvenient Truth as soon as you can. (If you live outside of the U.S., click here for release dates overseas.) There is much to be done--and to undo.
Let's put aside the issue that if the 2000 election had been settled by the voters instead of the Supreme Court we would have Al Gore, an intelligent, thinking man, in the White House instead of the inarticulate, simple-minded, chancellor-groping frat boy who currently resides there (when he's not playing cowboy in Texas). It's possible that Al Gore may actually have a more lasting and significant impact on the world by not being president and by instead doing exactly what he's doing now--explaining over and over again to audiences all over the world about the grave peril we face from global warming, how it is caused, how it is measured, what will happen if we do nothing, and what we can do in our own lives, every day, to make a difference.
There was so much good, clear information presented in the film and many experts have verified that the science behind it is very solid. The film uses terrific--and in some cases, terrifying--graphics to make clear exactly what is at stake. The part that hit me hardest was seeing a series of computer projections of how land maps will be redrawn over the next century by rising sea waters caused by melting glaciers. I watched a map of the San Francisco Bay Area completely change before my eyes as waters swept over much of the perimeter of San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and Marin County. And Alameda? Alameda will be completely underwater. My hometown erased--it doesn't get much more personal than that.
I won't go into a lot of detail about the issue--there's plenty of information out there and the movie has a great web site at www.climatecrisis.net with lots of suggestions for how each of us can take action. But begin with this: If you haven't seen the film, click the pledge icon on the right side of this blog page, and commit to seeing An Inconvenient Truth as soon as you can. (If you live outside of the U.S., click here for release dates overseas.) There is much to be done--and to undo.
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