EPA ruling gives Obama clean slate to build the clean economy

Breaking news at Desmogblog. Kevin Grandia is as surprised as I:

Wow. A decision by the Environmental Protection Agency today has ruled that all new and proposed coal-fired power plants must have their carbon dioxide emissions regulated.

The implications are very opportune, according to John Spalding, attorney of the Sierra Club, who successfully prosecuted the case:

Today’s decision opens the way for meaningful action to fight global warming and is a major step in bringing about a clean energy economy. This is one more sign that we must begin repowering, refueling and rebuilding America. The EAB rejected every Bush Administration excuse for failing to regulate the largest source of greenhouse gases in the United States. This decision gives the Obama Administration a clean slate to begin building our clean energy economy for the 21st century.

How very opportune. What a gift for the Obama Administration. The times, they are a changing.

 Global Warning Climate Change Energy

World poll tolls death knell for global warming denialists

I really like my BBC climate change news feed I embedded into my Firefox browser. Love it.

For example, coming up for quick air during a hard stint working, I mouseover the feed icon, to catch up on GW headlines of news pieces I may have missed over the last three weeks or so.

Seems I missed a sweet moment of poignancy when Howard was hosting his fascist-fence APEC green-bath with Bush, selling us not just a non-solution to global warming, but an irritant.

How else do you describe "aspirational goals"?

Anyway, it seems the UN was finding out the rest of the world has moved on from the recalcitrance of the fossil-fuel friendly Coalition of the Unwilling:

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Large majorities in many countries now believe human activity is causing global warming, a BBC World Service poll suggests. More than 22,000 people were surveyed in 21 countries and the results show a great deal of agreement on the issue. An average of 79% of respondents to the BBC survey agreed that "human activity, including industry and transportation, is a significant cause of climate change". If we do not act now, the impact of climate change will be devastating Ban Ki-moon UN Secretary General UN chief urges climate action Mapping climate change SEE THE FULL REPORT: Climate change: global poll [1.02MB] VIEWS ON CLIMATE CHANGE Major action needed: 65% Modest action later: 25% No action needed: 6% Source: BBC World Service poll Q&A: Climate change However, US President George W Bush was not present. Instead, he is hosting a meeting of 16 "major emitter" countries in Washington on Thursday and Friday.

Climate science dicked by Dead-Eye Cheney

From Rolling Stone -- The Secret Campaign of President Bush's Administration To Deny Global Warming.

clipped from www.rollingstone.com It is no secret that industry-connected appointees within the White House have worked actively to distort the findings of federal climate scientists, playing down the threat of climate change. But a new investigation by Rolling Stone reveals that those distortions were sanctioned at the highest levels of our government, in a policy formulated by the vice president, implemented by the White House Council on Environmental Quality and enforced by none other than Karl Rove. An examination of thousands of pages of internal documents that the White House has been forced to relinquish under the Freedom of Information Act - as well as interviews with more than a dozen current and former administration scientists and climate-policy officials - confirms that the White House has implemented an industry-formulated disinformation campaign designed to actively mislead the American public on global warming and to forestall limits on climate polluters.

California and Victoria agree to combat climate change together

It has been a long time since I have taken back my unflattering comments about Arnold Schwarzenegger upon becoming the governor of California. Everything he does about global warming confirms my decision. Because he is a Hollywood star - a major one - with a direct line to the electorate, perhaps he does have the cachet needed to short-circuit traditional politics and it's embedded vested interests - like the fossil-fuel industry. He certainly is running counter to the Bush line on global warming and, as we can see by his latest move, he is recruiting like-minded leaders around the world in his campaign to tackle climate change square-on.

clipped from www.smh.com.au California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has recruited an Australian ally in his plan to terminate global warming. Victorian Premier Steve Bracks "We have to take care of our world," Schwarzenegger told reporters after signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Victoria to share environmental expertise. "We have to fight global warming." Schwarzenegger has been a leader in environmental reform in the US, overcoming resistance from President George W Bush's administration. California imposed America's first mandatory cap on greenhouse gas emissions, with emissions set to be cut by 80 per cent by 2050. Victoria, along with other Australian states and territories, have set targets to cut 60 per cent of emissions by 2050. The MOU will allow California and Victoria to share expertise in climate change, develop emission trading schemes and carbon offsets and encourage the development of clean energy technology.

Marginals want investment in biodiversity infrastructure

Eight in ten Australian voters in marginal seats believe the way to fortify against climate change is to strengthen the biodiversity of their natural habitats, according to Galaxy Research. It shows an encouraging sophistication in their understanding of climate change and the future it will bring. I'm guessing they believe a strong and healthy biodiversity is vital to our environmental health because it acts as a giant carbon sink.

This election season's colour is looking decidedly green.

The Australian Newspaper:
"Experts estimate that about $4 a year for five years is needed for every taxpayer to achieve the biodiversity protection targets agreed to by governments in 2005," WWF spokesman Dr MartinTaylor said.

These targets were agreed to by agreed to in 2005 by the Australian, state and territory governments.

"The Galaxy poll revealed that most Australians were willing to invest a lot more in safeguarding Australia's unique biodiversity against the effects of climate change by creating new national parks and nature reserves, with the average amount being $16.20 per taxpayer per year."

On the subject of climate change policy, the Liberal government is out of step with the marginal voters . The Federal Government invests only about 60 cents per tax payer per year on acquiring land for national parks or nature reserves.

The last word goes to WWF's, Dr MartinTaylor because they commissioned this nugget of a research finding.

"The poll shows that the average taxpayer is more than willing to chip in the money required, which is the equivalent of a box of corn flakes a year, to ensure our wildlife and wild places have a fair chance at surviving climate change."

clipped from www.theaustralian.news.com.au Voters 'want investment in natural habitats' March 06, 2007 AN opinion poll of 10 mostly marginal federal seats has found voters want more money invested to protect natural habitats against the upheavals of climate change. The Galaxy opinion poll, commissioned by environment group WWF-Australia, found more than nine in 10 people polled in Australia's marginal seats thought climate change was a significant threat to Australia's native wildlife and natural areas. And 78 per cent, or nearly eight in 10, wanted the Government to do more to counter the threat. The polling covered 500 respondents in the seats of Lindsay, Wentworth (NSW), Bonner, Griffith, Moreton (Qld), Kingston (SA), Deakin, La Trobe (Vic), Hasluck and Stirling (WA).

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This Earth Day in America

A Washington Post, ABC News and Stanford University poll reveals:

- a third of Americans now say that global warming is the world's single largest environmental problem, double the number of a year ago.

- seven in 10 Americans want more federal action on global warming, and half said that believe the government should do much more than it is now.

- fifty two percent said the issue is "extremely" or "very" important personally, double the percentage recorded a decade ago.

How is this playing out in the lead-up to the presidential elections?

clipped from newsblogs.chicagotribune.com Change can be measured in the way the presidential candidates are practically falling all over themselves to come up with new proposals. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) announced a new initiative on Friday to establish a national low-carbon fuel standard based on a California proposal. By 2020, Obama would require that all transportation fuels sold in the U.S. contain 10 percent less carbon. In a new idea, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign announced it would go "carbon neutral" beginning today, meaning it would offset electricity generated with fossil fuel with purchases of "clean energy" electricity (such as wind). Republican Sen. John McCain has long been one of the leaders in Congress in pushing for a ceiling on carbon-dioxide emissions and a trading system where clean-energy credits can be bought and sold. Other GOP candidates are jumping on that bandwagon, as Obama and Clinton already have, along with other Democrats.

Global Warning Climate Change Politics

Let them eat my gasses

A few weeks ago the ruling Australian Liberal Party dealt themselves into the upcoming green elections by outsourcing our environmental policy to Indonesia: :::[The Road to Surfdom]

So, Malcolm Turnbull and his boss, The Rodent*, have suddenly come out with this policy to pay $A200m to encourage developing nations in the southern hemisphere with significant rainforest, such as Brazil, Australia and Indonesia, to stop logging them.

An audible gasp went around the country. After ten years of aggressive denial, these people are now really serious about combating climate change, even if they won't protect our own significant rainforests.

Today, at the annual Council of Australian Governments meeting we found out just how serious: :::[SMH]

The rift over how to tackle climate change widened today with Prime Minister John Howard refusing to back a plan by state premiers to set up a national carbon emission trading scheme.

At the end of their annual Council of Australian Governments meeting, Mr Howard told a news conference he would "put jobs and economic opportunity ahead of targets" on greenhouse gas reductions.

The states and territories want emissions trading operational in 2010 and backed up by legislation in 2008. They want Australia's emissions cut by 60 per cent by 2050.

Victorian Premier Steve Bracks, who has been leading the state's reform campaign, voiced his disappointment.

The premiers of every single state and territory of the Commonwealth of Australia at last want to work together with the Federal Government to do something about the challenge of the aeon, and Howard says 'no', offering his typical platitudinous, vapid crap as the reason. Poor guy just does not get that the economy is but a sub-system of the environment. Poor guy just does not want a job after November.

UPDATE

John Howard has not lost all the wiles. He dealt himself back into the game at the last moment: :::[SMH]

John Howard softens his trenchant opposition to a greenhouse gas emissions trading and target reduction scheme.

He did the right thing, if the Internet poll by the SMH is anything to go by:

Reader Poll

Climate Change
Who is right about Climate Change?
The states who want a carbon trading scheme and targets - 73% The Prime Minister who won't put targets ahead of jobs and the economy - 16% Neither side - 11% Total Votes: 3451

* Note for non-Aussie readers. One of John Howard's own Liberal Party senators once referred to him as "the Lying Rodent", and, bizarrely enough, it stuck.

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IPCC Report specifics for Australia

IPCC Report implications for Australia:

* more drought, fires and inundation caused by sea-level rises
* withdrawal on private insurance on coastal properties
* increased water security problems
* areas of the coast, especially Cairns and south-east Queensland, face increased risks from sea-level rises and "increases in the severity and frequency of storms and coastal flooding"


"Hot spot" regions:

* the Murray-Darling Basin
* south-east Queensland
* Kakadu
* the Queensland wet tropics
* the Snowy Mountains
* the drought-prone south-west of Western Australia


Are Aussies seriously going to stand back and let this happen to our World Heritage sites? Or the rest of the planet? :::[SMH]

The draft summary noted that many of these hot spots include World Heritage sites, but the Federal Government had this reference cut during the process where every line of the report's summary for policy makers is debated.

It's time to vote in a government that serious about dealing with climate change and vote out the one that would betray our trust... and then get on with the job of saving those sites as best we can. It's going to be a long haul, inter-generational. And we have to start now.

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IPCC's clarion call

Coming to an IPCC Report near you. :::[SMH: Window closing on planet's chances]

"Unmitigated climate change would, in the long term, be likely to exceed the capacity of natural, managed and human systems to adapt."

The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is due out tomorrow, and that is some of the wording just agreed upon between scientists and governments after last-minute objections from the US, China and Saudi Arabia over wording and graphics sparked an all night dispute.

I've been listening to the BBC coverage of the release. AGW's happening. And it's alarming. There is no other word. There is good observational data, now, to prove that the climate-models are accurately forecasting. Game over for sceptics, and game over non-renewable energy sources. Or it's game over for life as we know it. That's what they are telling us.

Global Warning Climate Change Australia Kyoto Energy

Climate change front & Centre in Queensland politics.

In September 2006, the Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie, promised Queenslanders a headquarters from which to fight climate change, if they re-elected him: :::[ABC News]

Mr Beattie says a re-elected Labor government would offer $10 million over four years to water safety initiatives and would bring together a panel of experts to set up a climate change centre of excellence.

They did, and today he started delivering on this promise. :::[SMH]

A new centre which hopes to put Queensland at the forefront of climate change technology has opened.

Premier Peter Beattie, who opened the Queensland Climate Change Centre, said its scientists would tap into the latest knowledge from around the world to help plan for and adapt to the state's changing environment.

One of its first projects will be to investigate the effectiveness of cloud seeding in Queensland.

Another will be pinpointing which parts of the state would be more affected by climate change, and how they would be affected, Mr Beattie said.

Natural Resources and Water Minister Craig Wallace said Queensland's annual average temperature was projected to rise by up to two degrees Celsius by 2030, and rainfall to drop by around 13 per cent.

But other parts of the state could experience more storms and increased rainfall, he said.

"With more intense droughts and heat waves and less frequent but more intense rainfall the centre is an important step in the right direction to help plan for and adapt to our changing climate," he said.

The centre has an annual budget of $7.5 million and was an election promise.

Climate change is greening politics, like a spreading algal bloom, across the world. Recent examples are the Climate Change Bill passed in the UK giving the British the lead in constructing a framework for enforceable emissions reductions, and the Chinese Premier announcing that they Chinese will forsake 2% of projected economic growth in order to align their economies with the emerging carbon economy.

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