Red, Green, and Blue

Author, activist and eco-crusader Bill McKibben visited the Colbert Report last night to bring attention to the  350 campaign to limit carbon emissions and the October 24 day of action in support of the goal. Watch it:

I’m well aware that poring over the details of cap and trade can be a little boring. But thanks to the folks at Auto-Tune the News, all that has changed. If you haven’t seen this yet (or even if you have) prepare to laugh.

Outgoing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s farewell speech to the people of Alaska left more than a few people scratching their heads about the tone, message, and even the general point of it. I was particularly struck by the allusions to nature, the turning of the seasons, Alaskan wildlife, and the climate. And While Palin’s chain of independent clauses may have sounded a little disjointed to the untrained ear, they didn’t to William Shatner.

Twenty-five workers holed-up in the Vestas facility on the UK’s Isle of Wight  for about a week now may have saved their jobs if a proposed deal is agreed upon by both parties. But even if the deal does go through, only a small portion of the workers will keep their jobs as the funding is only enough to keep the company’s offshore research and development division alive. The majority of the over six hundred employees at the two closing Vestas plants will be losing their jobs.

The blade plant on the Isle of Wight was in the process of researching and testing the world’s longest wind turbine blade—a project that will likely continue thanks to the deal announced Monday.

The sluggish turbine market and political opposition to large-scale wind development in the UK are being cited as reasons for the plant closures by Vestas officials. Company officials said they would likely be shifting production of its onshore turbines to its facilities in Colorado. Read the rest of this entry »

I can’t tell you how excited I was to sit down to watch The Daily Show last night. With Energy Secretary Steven Chu as the show’s guest, I knew host Jon Stewart would be bringing his poignant yet humorous critiques to a subject I spend several hours a day working on and thinking about. And while I know the subject matter can be a little dry at times, I didn’t know it was quite this sleep-inducing:

So to liven-up the debate about carbon policy and make it a little more approachable for the kids, host Jon Stewart ‘Jizz-Ams in Front of Children on Cap’n Trade’:

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu visited Jon Stewart on The Daily Show to discuss cap-and-trade, Waxman-Markey and the future of energy policy in the U.S.  Much to the host’s delight (and unlike other members of the cabinet who’ve visited the show), Chu showed that there is, in fact, some life in the Obama cabinet. While Chu did appear to express some reservations about the language in Waxman-Markey, his enthusiasm for action on climate change was evident. Watch it: Read the rest of this entry »

We already know that Fox News’ telepundit Bill O’Reilly believes anthropogenic global warming is real and that it shouldn’t be ignored. Now we also know he’s not a huge fan of a cap-and-trade policy because it would fatten the wallets of Goldman Sachs and Al Gore.

O’Reilly borrows from Matt Taibbi’s piece at Rolling Stone, “Inside the Great American Bubble Machine”, that examines the politics of climate change and the investment houses that stand to gain with the move to carbon markets. But O’Reilly should have quit while he was ahead because Taibbi put together a decent case against Goldman Sachs. By pulling Republican whipping-boy Al Gore into his soapbox, O’Reilly softens the blow of Taibbi’s pointed critique — never mind that Al Gore’s has actually said his first choice for a policy mechanism to address climate change is a carbon tax. Watch it: Read the rest of this entry »

Remember when Weather Channel founder and global warming skeptic, John Coleman, said he and 30,000 “scientists” were going to sue Al Gore for perpetrating the “greatest scam in American history”? If not, Coleman turned a few heads last year with a barrage of op-eds, conference engagements and television appearances saying that 30,000 scientists (only 9,000 of whom actually have PhDs) wanted to sue Al Gore over the fraud.

Coleman’s arguments rest on the tired arguments that global warming is a ‘left-wing conspiracy’ made up by the UN and the environmental movement to justify a world government and a massive redistribution of wealth [yawn]. Unfortunately, Coleman’s scientific credibility is overwhelmed by his political bias.

Needless to say, conservative media outlets had a field day with the news, reporting it as if Coleman had already found a court to hear his dubious legal challenge.

So, what ever happened to that lawsuit anyway? To the best of my knowledge, nothing.

Greenpeace activists in Italy and the U.S. staged protests today as leaders of the eight richest nations began the latest G8 summit in L’Aquila Italy.

At least 100 activists in Italy occupied four coal-fired plants to demand action from world leaders to avert the worst consequences of global warming.

Greenpeace said that G8 leaders must “stop putting the interests of polluting industries such as coal ahead of the climate.”

“The sort of action G8 leaders are putting on the table regarding climate change would lead to more greenhouse gas- polluting power stations like this one,” Greenpeace protester Julien Vincent said by phone from a platform about 650 feet up a chimney at a coal plant in Brindisi, Italy where “carbon dioxide is belching out” at an alarming rate.

Vincent refers to backtracking from the commitment of major nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2050.
Read the rest of this entry »

Stephen Colbert delves into the passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, including the choice words House Minority Leader John Boehner had for it and the “exorbitant” $175 annual pricetag.

“I believe in climate change for a very important reason,” said Colbert during his show last night, “so I can market the new Colbert Report Green. It’s just like the regular Colbert Report except we reduce emissions by jumping on the bandwagon.” Watch it: Read the rest of this entry »