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CRISIS POLICY FORUM PUBLISHED THIS MONTH AN INTRODUCTORY TEXT FOR AN ACTION PLAN TO CURB GLOBAL EMISSIONS & TRANSFER TO GREEN ECONOMY 28 November 2007 Due to the science we already have, the laws we have to govern our own activity and to force government to act for the public health, we face the real possibility of being forced, in American courts, in the future, to pay for damage done to the most affected populations in other parts of the world, as a result of inaction by our government. The public voice, and those campaigning for the level of public respect needed for election to office, should bring this issue to the fore, push for real initiatives to tackle the problem boldly, in a collaborative way, now. [Keep Reading] THE COST OF GOING GREEN MAY ACTUALLY BE NEW BOOM ECONOMY Ecological advancement and retro-fitting will be the new boom economy. Let's make sure we do everything possible to fund not only research, but implementation. What will it cost to produce an environmentally-oriented overhaul of the US economy, by way of the private sector, with government incentives, and to the ever-growing benefit of private sector interests? [Full Story] NOBEL PEACE PRIZE AWARDED FOR WORK TO RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE Climate change is no longer controversial; it has been accepted as scientific fact by a global consensus of researchers and policy makers, including the Bush White House, which resisted acknowledging human activities were a vital contributing factor, until recently. Now the Nobel committee selecting the Peace Prize laureate has raised the issue of warming posing a major international security crisis. [Full Story] ENERGY POLICY, OR THE UNNECESSARY PROLONGATION OF AN INEFFICIENT STATUS QUO? The US Congress is still working on producing legislation that would bring together federal law and executive regulatory policy in one comprehensive national energy strategy. The special consulting group organized in 2001 by the vice president wanted nuclear plants and "clean coal", but both carry huge costs for preventing or reversing high levels of contamination, and neither is broadly considered the "future" by scientific consensus. [Full Story] DEVELOPERS SUCCESSFULLY LOBBY TO SOFTEN WETLANDS CONSERVATION RULES In June 2006, the Supreme Court issued a ruling requiring that previously unprotected small or unmapped streams and waterways be brought under the 1972 Federal Clean Water Act. Isolated wetlands were to fall under this ruling, and the US government drafted a policy proposal that would regulate the development or filling of such wetlands. Now, new language added to the rules, seem to leave isolated wetlands without federal oversight. [Full Story] BUSH ANNOUNCES PLAN TO REGULATE GASOLINE CONSUMPTION IN VEHICLES In response to a Supreme Court ruling 6 weeks ago that found carbon dioxide to be a pollutant eligible for regulation, Pres. Bush has announced he will order the EPA to regulated gasoline consumption for vehicles by the end of 2008. Bush said in the White House rose garden that the American people "expect action" on greenhouse gas emissions. Critics say the long delay in enacting the new regulations is designed to forestall the implementation of new standards in some states. [Full Story] US SUPREME COURT RULES EPA MUST REGULATE CARBON EMISSIONS In a lawsuit brought by 12 states, several cities and a dozen pro-environment organizations against the federal government, the US Supreme Court has handed down a narrow 5 to 4 ruling reversing Bush administration policy that avoids regulating carbon dioxide emissions. The Court says the Clean Air Act specifically authorizes the EPA to enforce such regulation in order to protect the public and effect clean air standards. [Full Story] A RISING TIDE OF RECOGNITION THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS HUMAN-INDUCED The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declared last week that global warming and climate change is linked directly to human activities. The UN-based group, made up of 2500 of the world’s foremost scientists working on climate change convened again for the first time since 2001 to discuss the issue with more urgency to the global community. [Full Story] GLOBAL WARMING FORCING U.S. COASTAL POPULATION TO MOVE INLAND Those of us who track the effects of global warming had assumed that the first large flow of climate refugees would likely be in the South Pacific with the abandonment of Tuvalu or other low-lying islands. We were wrong. The first massive movement of climate refugees has been that of people away from the Gulf Coast of the United States. [Full Story] FEDERAL JUDGE STRIKES DOWN BUSH POLICY LOOSENING CONTROLS ON PESTICIDE USE U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour has struck down a Bush administration policy loosening regulation of toxic pesticides. He found the rule change "striking in its total lack of any evidence of technical or scientific support for the policy positions ultimately adopted" and further chastised the government for failing to properly apply the Endangered Species Act. [Full Story] INVESTIGATIONS INTO BP'S OPERATIONS IN ALASKA WIDEN Global petroleum giant BP has been forced to shut down the entire supply from its Prudhoe Bay pipeline, due to corrosion that has caused several spills and threatens an environmental catastrophe. Now, US investigators are demanding sections of the pipeline be dismantled and sent as evidence to a criminal inquiry. [Full Story] 'AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH' BRINGS SCIENCE TO THE FORE IN ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS For a long time, conventional wisdom dictated that environmental issues were political in nature, and a matter of preference or opinion. The landmark documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth' demonstrates conscientiously that the issue is beyond politics. The film takes pains to show that while priorities —and opinions about them— are at issue, not making ecological sustainability a top priority is not only foolish, but morally unjustifiable. [Full Story] SUPERMARKETS & SERVICE STATIONS NOW COMPETING FOR GRAIN Cars, not people, will claim most of the increase in world grain consumption this year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that world grain use will grow by 20 million tons in 2006. Of this, 14 million tons will be used to produce fuel for cars in the United States, leaving only 6 million tons to satisfy the world’s growing food needs. [Full Story] WORLD GRAIN STOCKS FALL TO 57 DAYS OF CONSUMPTION This year’s world grain harvest is projected to fall short of consumption by 61 million tons, marking the sixth time in the last seven years that production has failed to satisfy demand. As a result of these shortfalls, world carryover stocks at the end of this crop year are projected to drop to 57 days of consumption, the shortest buffer since the 56-day-low in 1972 that triggered a doubling of grain prices. [Full Story] SHIFTING PROTEIN SOURCES The composition of world meat production has changed dramatically over the last half-century or so. From 1950 until 1978, beef and pork vied for the lead. Then the world meat consumption pattern began to change as economic reforms adopted in China in 1978 led to a dramatic climb in pork production, pushing it far ahead of beef worldwide. [Full Story] THE WORLD AFTER OIL PEAKS Peak oil is described as the point where oil production stops rising and begins its inevitable long-term decline. In the face of fast-growing demand, this means rising oil prices. But even if oil production growth simply slows or plateaus, the resulting tightening in supplies will still drive the price of oil upward, albeit less rapidly, and in a world of declining oil production, no country can use more oil except at the expense of others. [Full Story] 'THE WIND RUSH IS ON' IN TEXAS State authorities in Texas have announced plans to build the nation's largest offshore wind farm. The facility would be built about 10 miles off Padre Island in the Gulf of Mexico and would consist of 500 wind-harvesting turbines, 400 feet in height. [Full Story] LET’S RAISE GAS TAXES & LOWER INCOME TAXES The amount of oil pumped has exceeded new discoveries since 1980. And the gap is widening. Instead of encouraging gasoline use with tax rebates or gas tax holidays, we need a way to reduce gasoline use, one that is practical and politically acceptable. We need a higher gas tax, but the only way to get a gas tax rise large enough to wean us from imported oil is to offset the rise with a reduction in the tax on income. [Full Story] GOVERNMENT POLICY UNLAWFULLY CRIMINALIZES COMMENT ON SCIENTIFIC FACT The global environment is, of course, a global issue, one that touches every life on the planet, and the science about it should be open and available to all. Past government policy and existing federal law mean that such scientific evidence should be readily available to the public. But now, it appears that several agencies are laboring to silence scientists who are researching climate trends and alterations. [Full Story] AT LEAST 2 BODIES OF KATRINA VICTIMS FOUND IN NEW ORLEANS LOWER 9TH WARD Seven months after hurricane Katrina devastated the US Gulf Coast, officials have found the bodies of at least 2 more victims, with a third body possibly also that of a hurricane victim. Student volunteers were working to help remove debris and search for still missing victims in the Lower Ninth Ward, one of the most devastated sections of New Orleans, when they came upon human remains. [Full Story] OXFORD'S LORD MAY SAYS SCIENCE ENTERING 'DANGEROUS TIMES' Top British scientist says "Fundamentalism is hampering global efforts to tackle climate change". Lord May used his departing speech as president of the Royal Society to warn researchers, policy-makers and the public that science is under attack from fundamentalist tendencies and organizations, even as it faces "non-linear" biological, environmental and political threats. [Full Story] WHY WIND IS SMARTER Wind energy offers something no carbon-based fuel can offer: zero emissions, zero cleanup, local control and reasonable local supply everywhere on Earth, and it is 100% non-climate disruptive and essentially infinitely renewable. In fact, the overall global wind resource far exceeds our capacity even to harness or to use it. As of 2003, Pentagon-commissioned research had found that just 3 wind-rich midwestern states possess sufficient wind resources to power the entire US economy with existing wind-turbine technology. [Full Story] FEDERAL APPEALS COURT FINDS AGAINST SECURITY, STABILIZATION PLANS FOR YUCCA NUCLEAR REPOSITORY The federal appeals court for the D.C. circuit ruled last week that the plans for containing contamination from nuclear waste stored at the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nevada, facility, are inadequate and cannot proceed as written. The ruling is seen as a major setback for the government's controversial plan to remove all nuclear waste in the U.S. to the single repository under Yucca Mountain. The state of Nevada has been fighting the plans, claiming they subject the people of Nevada to an undue amount of long-term physical peril. The court rejected the state's constitutional argument against federal imposition of such a project, but raised the stakes significantly for the Department of Energy. The ruling requires that the federal government engineer protections against radiation release for a period in excess of 10,000 years, after which much of the waste, especially in such large quantities, will still pose serious risks. [Full Story] ELEVEN STATES OPPOSE EPA PROPOSAL FOR LAX ENFORCEMENT OF COAL PLANT EMISSIONS Eleven states today formally protested the Environmental Protection Agency's new proposal for rules relaxation regarding coal-fired power plants, permitting them to emit more mercury into the environment, and essentially circumvent the Clean Air Act. The states clearly outlined their belief that the lifting of regulations is actually "illegal under the Clean Air Act and unsupported by scientific evidence." The press statement goes on to specify that the proposed special privileges "would fail to address hot spots of local and regional mercury deposition around power plants" no longer subject to the Clean Air Act provisions. The resulting pollution would reduce air quality and could then seep into rainwater and drinking water, and so pose an increased threat to public health. [Read the Multi-State Press Release] BISON HARASSED, HUNTED BY NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE Rep. Maurice Hinchey today told the House of Representatives that residents and observers have complained that the Parks Service has been deliberately directing American Bison out of Yellowstone National Park, into the surrounding territory, where they are then captured and slaughtered. It has been alleged that the Parks Service has been "hazing" the bison, even shooting at them from helicopters, to drive them into unprotected lands where they can be legally hunted. Some 277 have been slaughtered this spring alone, more than 3,500 since 1985. American Bison were hunted almost to extinction, and the current Yellowstone herd was bred from only 23 animals. According to the Human Society, "As the last continuously free-roaming herd of genetically pure wild bison, many consider them to be a national treasure." [Full Story] NEW ENERGY LEGISLATION GIVES ENVIRONMENTAL AUTHORITY TO DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Rep. John Dingell testified today on the floor of the House that the new Republican-backed energy plan would grant sweeping new powers over environmental policy to the Department of Energy, pre-empting and overruling both the EPA and the local authority of states. The bill's backers say it is designed to bring down prices of gasoline and other refined petroleum-based products. There was a notable disregard for the issue of market dynamics and the positive effect of increased competition on oil prices. Consolidation in the oil industry has coincided with an increase over the last several years of nearly 100% in prices at the pump. The long-term costs, the need for punitive taxation, are significantly reduced by clean, non-polluting energy resources, such as wind and solar-voltaic power. [Full Story] DEAD ZONES INCREASING IN WORLD'S COASTAL WATERS As summer comes to the Gulf of Mexico, it brings with it each year a giant “dead zone” devoid of fish and other aquatic life. Expanding over the past several decades, this area now can span up to 21,000 square kilometers, which is larger than the state of New Jersey. A similar situation is found on a smaller scale in the Chesapeake Bay, where since the 1970s a large lifeless zone has become a yearly phenomenon, sometimes shrouding 40 percent of the bay. [Full Story]
Taxpayer money is being used to increase funding for further dependence on fossil fuels and nuclear energy, even as demand among the public shifts to the need for alternative sources of energy. The entire in-ground oil wealth of the US is only 3% of global reserves... As a national problem, the situation resembles an addiction, in that expenditure and policy do not follow any rigorous logical pattern designed to promote long-term health, but rather orient themselves toward a single, specific "demand" for consumption, with little regard to peripheral or explicit costs. [Keep reading] THE CLOUD: South Asia is gasping under a two mile thick cloud of toxic pollutants and carcinogens. This mega-smog is caused by industrial and automotive emissions, and is said to be killing half a million people a year. It is so vast that it is altering some of the most powerful, established weather systems on the planet. And its influence is not restricted to South Asia. It is estimated that the cloud is capable of reaching half-way around the globe at any given time, meaning that the Americas may be seeing environmental impact from this unfettered pollution. [Keep reading] |
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