Crew Commentary
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The City of Sarasota Plans for Climate Adaptation
I often get comments, after presenting the City’s climate-related work to the public, along the lines of “I had no idea the City was working on climate change issues!” So I take every opportunity to share the degree of detail to which the city considers climate projections in planning city infrastructure.
Today’s Climate Change is all about People
There’s no question that humanity is the cause of the rapid rate of climate change. The question is whether or not we are willing to work together (across party lines and the boundaries of counties, provinces, states and countries) to stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere; and, therefore, to reduce the harmful impacts of a warming climate. It’s a simple question, with a difficult answer. Are we the parents of the future or the children of the past?
Climate Change is Physics, Not Politics
Several weeks ago a very special event occurred. The Wise Elders of the Republican Party came out for a carbon tax. The depth and seniority of the initial group is truly amazing: James Baker, Secretary of State for George H. W. Bush Martin Feldstein, Chairman of Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisors George Shultz, Secretary […]
Keeping America (and Americans) safe
Based on public pronouncements, one of the key metrics in determining US Policy at present is whether the policy under review will keep America (and Americans) safe. If we want to keep Americans safe, then fund the EPA and support/strengthen their policies to defeat air pollution. Perhaps when we can breathe safer, we will breathe easier.
PROMINENT CONSERVATIVES CALL FOR CARBON PRICING
We must transition from using fossil fuels to using sustainable forms of energy. The federal government could enable and accelerate that transition. Eight prominent conservative thinkers have formed the Climate Leadership Council (CLC) and they are promoting regulations to help make the transition.
The story behind This Spaceship Earth’s Bird’s Eye View video
Tim noticed that the term “sea level rise” is incomplete. When faced with a statistic like “eight inches of sea level rise by 2030”, people dismissed it… thinking it wasn’t a big deal. Tim understood that it was a very big deal. As a scientist he had done the field work, and the calculations. An eight inch vertical rise in sea level translates to hundreds of feet of horizontal “run” across the sands of a flat beach.
Choices, Consequences and Congress
Last week Congress set about the task of repealing one set of regulations aimed at keeping streams safe from coal mining impacts and another to reduce liabilities of escaped methane. The coal industry would have to monitor water quality before, during and after mining activities, and if water quality went down, the mining companies would have to restore the stream to its previous quality/viability/verdancy. The natural gas/fracking operations would have to reduce loss of “fugitive” natural gas from leaks, venting and flaring (the intentional burning off of natural gas). Those operations would incur the increased cost of monitoring for leaks, fixing leaks, and for capturing – not flaring – natural gas.
Learning from the Natural World – Cyclic, Interdependent and Networked
Jodi Smits Anderson is making sure that sustainability is truly understood and used as a tool for greater achievement in projects, planning and living. She is an architect, LEED AP BD+C, AIA member, and has served in many leadership roles with the USGBC in local and national committees. She is working with NESEA on planning […]
Three Times is a Catastrophe
It was just announced that for the third year in a row, the Earth set a temperature record. For three straight years, the hottest year on record was the one just completed. 2016 beat the all time record of 2015, which beat the all time record of 2014. This has NEVER happened before since these […]
Climate Change and the Stages of Grief
I have had enough colleagues, friends and family members die – of age, aids, alcohol, cancer, heart failure, disease, accident, suicide, violence, at sea, on land, quickly, slowly, unexpectedly, horribly, from heredity, doing what they loved, willfully, unwittingly, too soon and just because – that I am cognizant and intimately familiar with denial and its […]
