August 30th, California Governor Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders reached historic agreement on a bill that will place tough controls on that state's global warming pollution, with the ambitious goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent.
It's a spark that could ignite a nationwide chain reaction. With the Administration not acting on global warming, dozens of states have been looking to California to lead the way in combating the greatest environmental threat of our time.
And California has delivered. The California Global Warming Solutions Act will impose new controls on utilities, oil refineries, and other major global warming polluters, with the ambitious goal of rolling back the state's emissions to 1990 levels.
Co-sponsored by National Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense, this breakthrough bill will put a market-based system in place that provides incentives to businesses to comply with the new law and, just as important, that compliance will be closely monitored.
NRDC spearheaded a new coalition of clean-tech companies, venture capitalists, local governments, faith-based leaders and tens of thousands of citizens.
California's leaders saw the future and it was green. Global warming controls won't just be great for the environment, they will be great for the state's economy. This bill will allow California to start breaking its expensive dependence on fossil fuels and lead a revolution in energy technology that will create tens of thousands of jobs.
Who can doubt that other states will soon follow suit? This historic agreement may be the turning point in America's reckoning with catastrophic climate change. As states adopt similar legislation, Congress may also act.
"Global Warming: What You Need to Know," hosted by Tom Brokaw, the former NBC anchorman, premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. on the Discovery Channel. The show doubles as an explainer and call to action for average Americans.
The science that we are drawing upon is irrefutable, according to Brokaw, who has been on this issue for a long period of time. Discovery asked Brokaw what projects he would like to work on. When he said he was interested in the environment, Discovery mentioned its global-warming project, which it was making in partnership with the BBC.
Brokaw's wife, Meredith, is vice president of the environmental organization Conservation International. They have traveled to some of the places featured in the Discovery documentary, like Patagonia and Mongolia, and have seen firsthand the effects of global warming.
On the Discovery documentary, producers travel great distances to make the case that man has contributed to a rapid warming of the planet's atmosphere that has already had noticeable effects and will potentially have much more.
A scientist in the Arctic explains how the increased melting of summertime sea ice is slowly starving the polar bear population. Rising sea water seeping through the ground threatens to eventually swallow entirely the South Pacific island of Tuvalu. Drought threatens the giant Amazon rain forest. Explorers bring cameras beneath ice sheets in Patagonia to show the melting.
More frightening are the scenarios that scientists can see for the future: increased sea levels swallowing cities like New York, more vicious hurricanes like Katrina, more land turning to desert. One expert even envisions half of the planet's species disappearing by the end of this century.
"By the year 2100, in the lifetime of our children and grandchildren, our world will be a drastically different place," Brokaw says in the documentary.
In helping put together the film, Brokaw said he was surprised at the speed with which everything is happening and the growing agreement among scientists about what was once a controversial notion.
Producers speak to no one, at least on film, who believes the current warmth is part of the Earth's natural cycle and who minimizes the importance of what is happening.
"You go around the world and it is the overwhelming number of people in the science of climatology who say this is happening," Brokaw said.
The same scientists who warn of dire consequences also say that there are things that can be done to greatly slow the rate of global warming.
In the film, Brokaw presents examples big and small - from New York City promoting more energy-efficient mass transportation and environmentally friendly building construction to families that can save a remarkable amount of energy by simply unplugging television sets when they aren't being used.
Brokaw has changed some habits to save fossil fuels: changing light fixtures in his homes, for example. He owns a hybrid car, and so do both of his daughters.
Cruise North Expeditions offers a seven day, hands-on workshop on climate change. Global warming is as obvious as the grass sprouting on the tundra. The Baffin Adventure cruise embarks August 5th from Kuujjuaq in northern Quebec.
Audubon magazine's profile of Al Gore was was one of many magazines that featured articles on global warming this summer, prompted by the movie, An Inconvenient Truth. Gore learned about the dangers of human-induced climate change in a Harvard classroom back in the 1960s with Roger Revelle, an esteemed oceanographer and global warming pioneer who was tracking an increase in carbon dioxide and global temperatures. In the interview, Al Gore says “I educated myself as thoroughly as I could, with an eye to translating this very large scientific problem into simple language,” Click here to read the article in the July/August issue.
MIT's Technology Review, July/August issue, included an article entitled, "It's Not Too Late: Special Report on Energy." Our planet faces a grave threat from global warming and climate change, which are caused largely by emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases generated by human activity.
Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide -- the most common greenhouse gas -- have shot up 32 percent in the last 150 years. Geological evidence and climate science suggest that we are approaching a tipping point beyond which sea levels will rise catastrophically.
Nevertheless, immediate steps to sharply reduce emissions could still prevent the worst consequences of global warming, according to famed NASA climatologist Jim Hansen. However, humankind is increasing, not decreasing, consumption of fossil fuels
The article summarizes energy technologies that already exist and might forestall global warming ... more
National Geographic Travel magazine's article, Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" Movie: Fact or Hype? states that the message in An Inconvenient Truth is clear: Humans are causing global warming, and the effects are devastating.
Most scientists agree that the Earth is heating up, due primarily to an atmospheric increase in carbon dioxide caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum. But how accurate are some of the scientific claims made in the documentary?
In an attempt to clear the air, National Geographic News checked in with Eric Steig, an earth scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle more
Get an energy audit of your house. More global-warming pollution comes from houses and buildings than from cars and trucks. An energy audit can show you, in most cases, how a very small expense for extra insulation, weatherproofing and the like, can more than pay for itself in less than a year.
Many utilities offer free home energy audits to find where your home is poorly insulated or energy inefficient. You can save up to 30% off your energy bill and 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Energy Star can help you find an energy specialist.
Be "Carbon Neutral." We all contribute to global warming every day. You may be surprised by how much Co2 you are emitting each year. Calculate your personal impact and learn how you can take action to reduce or even eliminate your emissions of carbon dioxide here.
There are things you can do to get started: learn as much as you can and then you'll find things in your life that will point you in the right direction, to reduce and save. Use a carbon calculator that enables anyone to calculate exactly how many tons of CO{+2} you're responsible for, where it's coming from, how to reduce it and how to offset the remaining CO{+2} that you haven't eliminated.
You can be carbon neutral, and so can everyone in your family, and your businesses. Becoming carbon neutral is really not that hard. It's surprising.
