Al Gore launches $300-Million Public Service Campaign

From the HuffingtonPost:

Former Vice President Al Gore is set to unveil a three-year, $300 million climate change campaign Wednesday, one of the most ambitious and costly public advocacy campaigns in U.S. history, the Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin reports:

The Alliance for Climate Protection's "we" campaign will employ online organizing and television advertisements on shows ranging from "American Idol" to "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." It highlights the extent to which Americans' growing awareness of global warming has yet to translate into national policy changes, Gore said in an hour-long phone interview last week. He said the campaign, which Gore is helping to fund, was undertaken in large part because of his fear that U.S. lawmakers are unwilling to curb the human-generated emissions linked to climate change.

"This climate crisis is so interwoven with habits and patterns that are so entrenched, the elected officials in both parties are going to be timid about enacting the bold changes that are needed until there is a change in the public's sense of urgency in addressing this crisis," Gore said. "I've tried everything else I know to try. The way to solve this crisis is to change the way the public thinks about it."

Private contributors have already donated or committed half the money needed to fund the entire campaign, he said. While Gore declined to quantify his contribution to the effort, he has devoted all his proceeds from the Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," the best-selling companion book, his salary from the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and several international prizes, such as the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, which add up to more than a $2.7 million. Paramount Classics, the documentary's distributor, has pledged 5 percent of the film's profits to the group, and some of the money raised through the 2007 Live Earth concerts will help the campaign, along with Gore's proceeds from an upcoming book on climate change.

Bacteria Linked to Climate Change and Renewable Energy Sources

Steven Petsch, a geoscientist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has been studying natural gas reservoirs in Michigan’s Antrim Shale. His findings have provided scientist with a new insight to global warming and the entire climate history here on earth.

Petsch discovered certain bacteria which fed off of CO² deep below ice sheets. These bacteria are responsible for producing natural gas during the ice age and the progression of glaciers through Michigan. During the Ice Age there were also high levels of methane in the earth’s atmosphere. Throughout the draw back of the ice sheets there was an immense amount of natural gas in the atmosphere, which consists primarily of methane gas.

By using the chemistry of water and rock samples from the shale Petsch is recreating an environment similar to that of the Ice Age. The water melted away from the glaciers and allowed for bacteria to thrive and consume the available carbon, therefore storing the natural gas they produced, underneath the shale.
75% of the gas stored was released into the atmosphere while retreating glaciers during the ice age as well as adding methane from other sources such as tropical wetlands. All of this concludes there were large emissions of methane throughout the atmosphere during this time period.

The bacteria provide us with the opportunity to create natural gas reservoirs, ultimately supplying us with another source of renewable energy.
These studies also are bringing scientist closer to discovering what aspects (particularly how methane) affects melting glaciers and global warming within our own environment.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080126093649.htm

Climate Change and the Oceans

From http://scienceinsociety.northwestern.edu - Global Warming: A Threat to Biodiversity is a Northwestern University public outreach program to help the general public understand the reality of global warming and its impact on biodiversity. A panel of five experts discuss- in plain English- the scientific and social issues involved in the ecological aspects of global warming. (3 of 7 - Global Warming) Dr. Richard Feely discusses the broad impact of global warming on our oceans. He examines the damaging effects of retreating arctic ice, coral reef bleaching, and ocean acidification on fragile marine life ecosystems.

A Great YutTube Find

We came across this great video on YouTube entitled:

Climate Change and Biodiversity: A Public Policy Imperative





Thomas Lovejoy will be our Keynote Speaker during our EarthDay Celebration on Friday, April 18th at the Museum of the Earth. Details to come at a later date!

Google

This video is of a panel discussion from the January World Economic Forum's Annual meeting in Davos. The founders of Google discuss Climate Change. What are your thoughts?

Conserving Energy in Alberta, Canada

Bow River and Cascade Mountain, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

The Canadian state, Alberta, which produces around 70% of U.S. oil is determined to reduce their greenhouse emissions 50% by the year 2050. The main concentration of this plan uses the process of capturing and storing, preserving energy as well as greening energy production.

Alberta’s government has the goal to conserve their energy while not delaying or impairing economical development. Alberta is hopeful with these plans of reducing CO2 emissions from both the state’s oil and sands industry will result in a 70% overall cuts in greenhouse emissions.

Approximately 12% of gas diminutions are going to be through conservation and energy efficiency. They also plan on advancing their technologies to be environment friendly using clean energy including incentives for expanding renewable energy sources are contributing another 18% to the overall 70%.

On the opposing side, this plan will not initiate until the year 2020. Alberta, who is accountable for ⅓ of the nation’s emissions, cannot afford to wait another 12 years to begin to implement this plan.

Resource: http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=14118&channel=0

A New Energy Plan for Europe...

On January 23rd the European Union released a new energy proposal that will decrease the amount of CO² released into the atmosphere to 20% below what the levels were recorded as in 1990 by the year 2020. This new proposal is called “Brave” in hopes to build a new low-carbon economy. Europe also plans on increasing their renewable energy sources into their current energy by 20% resulting in a 11.5% increase from it’s current state. This is also aimed to be completed by 2020.

Another Important part of this proposal is increasing the use of biofuels throughout Europe. By 2020 the goal is to have 10% of all fuels used for transportation to be biofuel. The downfall to this aspect of the plan is producing biofuels creates a greater amount of greenhouse gas emission into our environment than burning gasoline. Biofuels are also playing a role in the recent jump in food prices. The European Commissions president, José Manuel Barroso, ensures this energy strategy will prove that biofuels are a sustainable source of energy for our environment. However, will producing these biofuels just cause greater energy consumption? The use of biofuels will leave farmers to produce twice as many crops for fuel and food.

The European Commissions has said they would be willing to decrease greenhouse emission by 30% if other surrounding countries such as the U.S. would be willing to do the same.

Resource: http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn13218-europe-unveils-ambitious-energy-plan.html