Welcome to Day 1 of Daily Kos' weeklong blogathon "Forward on Climate" in the lead up to a huge Sunday, February 17th rally in Washington, D.C. cosponsored by Bill McKibben of 350.org, the Sierra Club and the Hip Hop Caucus.
Today's Top Climate Stories
Climate change impacts absent from FEMA's redrawn NYC flood maps
When the federal government released updated flood maps for the New York City region recently, residents were shocked to find that the number of houses and businesses in the region's flood zone had doubled since the maps were last revised, in 1986.
But it now appears that those maps might have underestimated the extent of New York's flood risk, because they don't factor in the effects of future climate change. Scientists say that by the 2080s, sea levels off the city's coast could rise by as much as 5 feet from melting glaciers, making storm surges more severe and causing floods much further inland than the new maps indicate.
TransCanada planning cross-country pipeline end-around
CALGARY, Canada — Crude from Alberta's oil sands sells at a 30 percent discount to its U.S. counterpart. TransCanada Corp. Chief Executive Officer Russ Girling plans to narrow that gap whether or not his Keystone XL pipeline to the Gulf of Mexico wins approval from the Obama administration.
Canada's second-largest pipeline company proposes to pipe oil 3,000 miles across Canada to the Atlantic Coast, allowing producers to pick it up there and send it by tanker to the Gulf, Girling said in an interview. He expects U.S. passage of Keystone "very soon," but the East Coast route makes sense in any event because of rising production from Alberta, Girling said.
A Presidential Decision That Could Change the World
Presidential decisions often turn out to be far less significant than imagined, but every now and then what a president decides actually determines how the world turns. Such is the case with the Keystone XL pipeline, which, if built, is slated to bring some of the “dirtiest,” carbon-rich oil on the planet from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. In the near future, President Obama is expected to give its construction a definitive thumbs up or thumbs down, and the decision he makes could prove far more important than anyone imagines. It could determine the fate of the Canadian tar-sands industry and, with it, the future well-being of the planet. If that sounds overly dramatic, let me explain
Sandy survivors also recognize the importance of taking action to stop the XL pipeline:
A day before President Obama’s State of the Union Address, survivors of Superstorm Sandy and climate activists will gather at the White House to deliver 280,000 signatures urging President Obama to lay out a plan to tackle climate change. The survivors will speak briefly about their experiences and read from an open letter to the president, calling on him to take bold action, starting with rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline permit.
Climatic changes may affect avian population
Birds may have to be physically moved to sustainable areas’
A new ornithological study carried out jointly by Durham University (United Kingdom) and BirdLife International on Asian avian populace warns that climatic changes are threatening the balance of the protected sites and “in extreme cases, birds may have to be physically moved to climatically sustainable areas for survival”.
The research published in the journal of Global Change Biology, while examining the conversation sites and Important Bird Areas (IBAs) for 370 Asian birds, expressed concern over the biodiversity hotspots of eastern Himalaya and lower Mekong River basin regions.
Today’s Guests
Van Jones is an activist and leader on human rights and a clean-energy economy. He is President and Co-Founder of Rebuild the Dream and a frequent and favored speaker at Netroots Nation.
Shaye Wolf, Climate Science Director at the Center for Biological Diversity, writes about how record heat
"warped train tracks, melted the tarmac at Reagan National Airport and smashed thousands of daily temperature records across America:"
As his second term begins, the president has a clear opportunity to revolutionize his whole approach to fighting human-made climate change. And 2012 couldn’t have made a more powerful case for urgent action against the greenhouse gas pollution creating this problem.
It wasn’t just the heat: 2012 also bedeviled us with chaotic weather. Climate change, research shows, is driving up the risk of extreme weather such as this summer’s devastating drought, which affected more than half the country, and adding destructive power to storms like Hurricane Sandy.
As a scientist, I’m deeply concerned that 2012’s blazing temperatures are just a taste of what lies ahead.
Join the Week of Action to Stop Tar Sands Profiteers, March 16 – 23 #NoKXL
Forward On Climate" Blogathon - Green For All Press Teleconference
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Green For All Press Teleconference
on Communities of Color & Climate Change
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 - 11:00 am EST
With President Obama’s inaugural speech renewing America’s commitment to combating climate change and the expectation that the President will reveal more details about his plans on the issue in the State of the Union this Tuesday, Green for All is hosting a press teleconference to highlight why communities of color should care about climate change and what they can do to take action.
The press teleconference will feature Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Green for All CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, MSNBC political analyst and Politic365 Executive Editor Jeff Johnson, Superstorm Sandy survivor and environmental activist Tanya Fields, and African-American solar panel manufacturer Mark Davis. Q&A session with participants to immediately follow.
To receive call-in information, please RSVP via email alyssa@greenforall.org to Alyssa Cocchi.
Green For All is a national organization dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through a clean energy economy. The organization works in collaboration with the business, government, labor, and grassroots communities to create and implement programs that increase quality jobs and opportunities in green industry – all while holding the most vulnerable people at the center of its agenda. For more information, please visit www.greenforall.org.
Follow on Twitter: #nokxl and #ForwardOnClimate
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"Forward On Climate" Blogathon: February 11 - February 15, 2013
Diary Schedule - All Times Pacific
IT IS TIME TO TAKE A STAND
Please join tens of thousands of Americans on the National Mall in Washington, DC on Feb. 17 from 12:00 pm-4:00 pm to urge President Barack Obama to take immediate action on Climate Change.
President Obama has now listed Climate Change as an important part of his second term agenda. Legislative proposals and debate will occur in Congress. President Obama can take executive action to move Forward on Climate now; he can reject the toxic Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. A recent study in Canada has linked tar sands with cancer, something First Nations groups have reported for years - with the result being increased cancer rates, deformed wildlife, and a variety of other negative impacts. President Obama can also direct the Environmental Protection Agency to set carbon standards for power plants.
Let your voice be heard.
SIGN UP TO SUPPORT THE "FORWARD ON CLIMATE" RALLY IN WASHINGTON, DC ON FEBRUARY 17TH
Our Daily Kos community organizers (Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, citisven, boatsie, JekyllnHyde, rb137, and peregrine kate) coordinated this blogathon with Bill McKibben of 350.org to help spread the word.
7:30 am: A Siegel.
11:00 am: citisven.
1:00 pm: Shaye Wolf, Climate Science Director for Center for Biological Diversity.
3:00 pm: Van Jones, President and Co-Founder of Rebuild the Dream.
4:00 pm: Glen the Plumber.
5:00 pm: Kitsap River.
11:00 am: Allison Fisher, Outreach Director for Public Citizen's Energy Program.
1:00 pm: Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., President of the Hip Hop Caucus.
3:00 pm: gregladen.
5:00 pm: WarrenS.
1:00 pm: Congressman Ed Markey, Democratic Candidate for 2013 United States Senate MA Special Election.
3:00 pm: FishOutofWater.
5:00 pm: Roger Fox.
11:00 am: Marty Cobenais (Ojibwe), U.S. Pipeline & Heavy Haul Resistance Organizer for Indigenous Environmental Network. Liveblogging with Tom Goldtooth (Dine' and Dakota), Executive Director of IEN and Oglala Sioux Tribal Vice President Tom Poor Bear.
1:00 pm: rb137.
3:00 pm: James Wells.
5:00 pm: jlms qkw.
10:00 am: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, Chief Executive Officer of Green For All.
11:00 am: Agathena.
3:00 pm: DWG.
5:00 pm: JekyllnHyde.
Please remember to republish these diaries to your Daily Kos Groups. You can also follow all postings by clicking this link for the Climate Change SOS Blogathon Group. Then, click 'Follow' and that will make all postings show up in 'My Stream' of your Daily Kos page.
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