While the nation’s news hole was being filled on Friday with President Obama’s announcement of the administration’s policy in Afghanistan, the Blue Green Alliance’s announcement in support of climate-change legislation mostly got ignored. The labor-environmental group alliance, founded in 2006, now includes the United Steelworkers, Sierra Club, Communications Workers of America (CWA), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
In a press release, David Foster, BGA’s executive director said: "For the first time, a substantial number of unions representing workers across a broad section of the American economy have endorsed the principle that the way out of our current economic turmoil is through major investments in solving global warming. The labor and environmental movements have truly embraced a common vision for the future."
Here are excerpts from the BGA’s position statement:
The best scientific consensus must be continuously updated and inform our policies on greenhouse gas emission reductions. Our goal must be to reduce U.S. emissions by at least 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050. We also support a renewed U.S. effort to forge a global treaty to reduce worldwide emissions by 50 percent by that same date. In order to meet these important 2050 goals, climate change legislation should reduce U.S. emissions significantly below 2005 levels by 2020. ...
The creation and retention of millions of new and existing, family-sustaining green jobs, particularly in manufacturing and construction, must be a direct goal of climate change legislation. The recent American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided a meaningful down payment on investments in the green economy, saving or creating 3.5 million jobs. But this down payment could be wasted if we don’t make the next installments in the clean energy economy at the scale necessary to convert our country to renewable energy. The wind turbines, solar technologies, geothermal and biomass projects to power our country’s infrastructure, along with the new transmission, energy efficiency initiatives, broadband investments and mass transportation systems, have the potential to revitalize our existing manufacturing capacity if we
safeguard these investments with appropriate procurement policies. The 1.2 million construction workers laid off in the last 18 months will also be called back to work on these projects while, at the same time, we create millions of new job opportunities in retrofitting the nation’s building stock.
Climate change impacts and higher energy costs that may accompany a policy that puts a price on greenhouse gases will affect different sectors of our population and regions of our country unequally. Climate change legislation must provide a variety of mechanisms that offset rising energy costs to low- and moderate- income Americans and adversely impacted regions of the country. Such mechanisms might include energy efficiency programs, energy rebates and dividends, and tax credits and fiscal incentives for investment in the new energy economy. |
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The rescue begins below and continues in the jump. Inclusion does not indicate my agreement with any particular Diary. Provoking discussion is the intent.
After more than a year's hiatus, farmerchuck graced us with his Diary, Farm$: merry meet again...: "While efforts to preserve existing multi-generational farms are laudable, efforts aimed directly at maintaining the status quo are doomed to failure if the goal is to expand the agricultural base of the state and the pioneer valley. A de-emphasis of the current primary factors controlling the distribution of funding and technical assistance away from a financial emphasis, and toward food and energy production, and community benefit is critical, even though this leads to higher risk scenarios. Unfortunately, we are facing this critical juncture at a time when credit markets and funding sources have never been tighter and more risk averse."
Jerome a Paris fumed because the NYT repeats coal talking points, try to sabotage Obama's green energy plans: "Articles like this one are terrible because they give "objective" credence to arguments made exclusively by lobbyists. I imagine the coal industry did not imagine that their lies would be repeated so uncritically: Curbing carbon dioxide emissions — a central part of tackling climate change — will almost certainly raise electricity prices, experts say. And increasing the nation’s reliance on renewable energy will in itself raise costs. These are, quite simply, lies, and the sole purpose of publishing such articles is to undermine the Obama administration drive to develop renewable energy."
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The Overnight News Digest is posted and includes the story, Tens of thousands march in G20 protests.
mwmwm took a stab at "Evening the Playing Field" in Energy Production: "In the late '80s, I wrote an essay on a 'damage tax,' how we needed to develop a means of assessing the true environmental and human costs of all products, at every stage. This ‘true cost taxation’ included taxing sweatshop imports, taxing polluters, taxing strip-mined products, etc. The taxes/fees would go into arena-specific funds directed at helping the problem itself: remediation of pollutants, funding solar panels, recovering the earth, underwriting human rights, and the like. The challenge, of course, is in assessing such fine-grained taxes."
Our old friend orangeclouds115, now writing under her real name, Jill Richardson, got wind of a letter from some people who are upset the First Lady is avoiding pesticides, and wrote about in a Diary still on the Recommended List, Big Ag Writes Michelle Opposing WH Organic Garden: "OMG, funny stuff. A chemical ag organization (Mid America CropLife Association) got its panties in a twist over Michelle Obama's organic garden. So they wrote her a letter."
Jill also lamented that a Pro-Factory-Farm Pollution Bill Passed: "An outrageous bill passed this Thursday. It passed the Iowa Senate with a ridiculously strong majority and now goes to the Iowa House - BUT the pollution will affect the ENTIRE country so this isn't just an Iowa issue. The bill is SF 432 and it states that: A person may apply manure originating from an animal feeding operation on frozen ground or snow covered ground. The Iowa Dept of Natural Resources was trying to restrict farmers from spreading manure from factory farms on frozen fields because the manure runs off into waterways. That means that if some dope in Iowa wants to (now legally if this passes the House) spray manure all over a frozen field, it will run off into the waterways and ultimately make it into the Mississippi. And we all get to suffer the consequences for it - including an enormous dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico."
The debate over what makes for proper pet food made its way into CornSyrupAwareness’s Food News: Vegan Pet Food? Smoke Shop Food Stamp Fraud? Two-Headed Salmon: "There is a full out brouhaha going in the comment section of this story in the Huffington Post- Vegan Pet Food: Vegan Pet Food: Is It OK To Raise A Cat Vegan? Vegan pet food -- and the decision to force one's pet to go vegan -- is suddenly very buzzy. ABC News reports that it's a bit easier for a dog to go vegetarian than it is for a cat, and one person they interviewed said she suspects that ‘vegan’ cats are supplementing their diets by hunting. What would a vegan do in a situation where their vegan cat was caught with a mouse, or a fly, or whatever it is kitty attempts to dine on? Would you scold it? Or attempt to stop him/her from the action?"
CSA also wrote Spring Garden, Pests, Flowers a Picture Diary with News, wondering about the object in the photo: "Is this just a baby fly or something more serious on my young bok choy?"
Richard Cranium was the first Diarist up on the subject of Earth Hour, 2009: Yes, You Can Make A Difference: "Yes, Earth Hour is a largely symbolic gesture. The message that it sends, though, is visually unique and emotionally compelling: there is power in numbers, irrespective of the cause or issue. The idea started as the brainchild of one single person, and has grown to a global movement, much the same as my lone protest in NYC was one person's effort to express his own dissatisfaction with the status quo." He was followed by leevank, thebluecrayon, electronicmaji, Poycer, plus the contrarian eponymouse and ambeeeant with "The View From the Right" on the subject.
blue jersey mom filled in for Frankenoid in the long-running Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 5.6.
wide eyed lib explained some of the particulars of getting free food in Foraging, Early Greens Edition: "One of the best known wild foods is dandelion. Dandelion is a perennial herb with long, hairless, deeply toothed leaves that grow in a basal rosette (which simply means that the leaves radiate outward from a single point, forming a circle at ground level). It now grows in an unbroken stretch across the entire U.S. and Canada, although it is native to Europe."
NNadir took note of the Detoxification Of Dangerous Mutagenic Fossil Fuel Waste in Supercritical Carbon DioxideRodan, Mothra, Gamera and all those guys were usually, as I recall, mutants caused by radioactivity. This brief diary is about far more common kind of mutagenesis, the mutagenesis associated with PAH's, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, which are common consituents of dangerous fossil fuels before they are burned, and are also ubiquitous in dangerous fossil fuel waste of the type dumped into the atmosphere, water, and on land indiscriminately."
Flammable Tap Water Or Estrogen Bottled Water? was the somewhat tongue-in-cheek alternative that DemocraticLuntz offered: "Those of us who drink water should be VERY CONCERNED. In Weld County, Colorado, there's a whole new meaning to ‘fire water’: The state agency that regulates oil and gas says although there is some evidence methane may have contaminated a private well in rural Weld County, they're not sure why the family's tap water ignites when a lighter is put to it."
Eternal Hope reported that Seven Protestors Disrupt Liquid Coal Conference: "Liquid Coal has been shown to be one of the most destructive of technologies as far as Global Warming is concerned. In Sunday's New York Times, Tom Friedman talks about how global warming is accelerating much faster than anyone had expected and that the once-skeptical MIT is now leading the charge. He reports that one billion dollars is being sunk into a project to communicate best practices around the world. America cannot afford the risk of going back to more of the same."
lineatus explained about feathered imposters in the latest installment of Dawn Chorus Birdblog: Faking It: "There are many birds who incorporate a bit of mimicry into their songs, but few do it with the artistry of the mimids, the family that includes mockingbirds, thrashers and catbirds. You might often hear a familiar phrase tucked into a goldfinch song, and jays seem to delight in imitating the neighborhood hawks. But mockingbirds...They really are in a class by themselves."
Laurdet pondered whether Green is Not Always Good?! updated: "A few brave souls have followed my odyssey over the past couple of weeks with installing a new water heater in my home. I'm not going to go heavily into the details because much of my anger was directed at the wrong target. Only through a lot of research and discussion, have I figured a few things out."
Huacareta replied with In defense of ANSI... How green is good.: "To start I want to sympathize with the diarist. Her water heater obviously did not meet her expectations, and that sucks. However... Somehow, that equated into it being the environmental movement's fault that tougher energy standards were introduced, which directly led to crappy engineering, which directly led to all of her headaches."
dkmich introduced us to a proposed fuel-efficient 40-foot hybrid mass-transit bus: "Fisher Body to build the Fisher GTB-40 bus, a 40-foot ultralightweight hybrid that boasts twice the fuel efficiency of current hybrid buses. It uses a lightweight, nitrogen-strengthened stainless steel unibody; has no traditional engine for propulsion; and relies on Swiss-made batteries to drive motors for each wheel. The buses are half the weight of other hybrid and diesel models."
Ashaman sought participation in ClimatePrediction.net - more distributed computing: "If you've been watching diaries carefully, you've seen a few in the last couple of weeks promoting the Folding@Home project, and the Kos team within that project. This is a very worthwhile distributed computing project, where you assist the project by donating CPU power from your own machine(s). I've got a PS3 working hard on protein folding for the guys at Stanford (and the Kos team). However, I've got another project that I contribute to with my desktop: ClimatePrediction.net ClimatePrediction.net is run out of Oxford University in the UK, and it's goal is to build and refine computer models of the Earth's climate. Computer climate models are an important tool in understanding and solving global warming, and I'm very proud to be donating CPU cycles to this cause."
SERMCAP delivered the third in a five-part series: Three Mile Island, Ten Thousand Days Later, Part 3-A.
Do you miss Acid Rain? asked jamess: "That is a rhetorical Question of course, but it's likely that NOT even ‘free market,’ Corporations-first Republicans, would want to return to the days, of dying Lakes, dying Forests, and ‘emphysema alerts.’ The ‘Cap and Trade’ Policies, enforced by the first President Bush' administration, as part of the Clean Air Act -- ACTUALLY WORKED! The EPA calls it an amazing ‘Success Story’ ..."
greenman3610 presented the Climate Denial Crock of the Week - the Great "Petition" Crock: "We've all heard about the 'Petitions' of 'Scientists' who disagree with Climate Science. This sordid little episode in the history of climate denial points up once again the fundamental dishonesty of the climate denial industry."