Archive - Jul 2008

This is our first post by David Murray, another of our awesome summer interns. -- Luis

Wednesday, the leaders of the world's most powerful nations met in Toyako, Japan for the 2008 G8 Summit. This was an opportunity for the world’s major polluters to commit to major cuts in carbon emissions over the next few years. Unfortunately, they failed to seize the opportunity.

Perhaps the biggest climate news this week comes from Japan, where the leaders of the G8 agreed to cut carbon emissions by levels well below what the latest science demands:

President Bush and leaders of the world’s richest nations pledged Tuesday to “move toward a low-carbon society” by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, the latest step in a long evolution by a president who for years played down the threat of global warming.

NOTE: There’s a Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee hearing today about the CCS bill. Click here for more info.

On June 12th, Rick Boucher (D-VA), who chairs the House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee, introduced the Carbon Capture and Storage Early Deployment Act (H.R. 6258). Touted as the fruit of bipartisan effort, the legislation proposes to establish a non-governmental fund and entity to accelerate the deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.

Our Campaign Director Gillian Caldwell appeared on Al Jazeera English last night to discuss the prospects for a climate change agreement at the G8 Summit. Click here to watch Gillian thoroughly deconstruct the "arguments" presented by global warming skeptic Diane Katz of the conservative Fraser Institute in Canada. I've also embedded it below for your immediate viewing pleasure.

Did you know that, by increasing fuel efficiency standards four percent a year, we would gain a net benefit to society of $1.4 – 2 trillion dollars by 2040? If you didn’t, we don’t blame you, because the White House is working to suppress a study conducted by the EPA highlighting the imminent threat of global warming and America’s capabilities to respond to the climate crisis. The method of suppression? Treating the EPA report like spam.

Reason #1,776 to tackle climate change: It could forever ruin your 4th of July celebrations. In some places, it already is (h/t to Climate Progress):

Dozens of communities in drought-stricken areas are scrapping public fireworks displays and cracking down on backyard pyrotechnics to reduce the risk of fires.

This is our first post of a new regular feature: The weekly Climate News Roundup.

This 4th of July week brought us some positive news on the climate front. In perhaps the best news of the week, a Georgia state judge handed the fossil fuel industry a big lump of coal well before Christmas:

In case you haven't been following what's been happening in the climate blogosphere lately, here are some of the hottest environmental stories from the last couple of weeks:

For the last few weeks DOT Earth, Andrew Revkin's blog, has been overflowing with comments concerning Dr. James Hansen's call for the chief executive officers of fossil fuel corporations to be put on trial for "crimes against humanity and nature."

Harry Reid's comments on fossil fuels have gone around the Earth via YouTube (more than 393,000 views and counting) more times than Superman trying to turn back time -- but in the highly unlikely case that you missed them:

More than a month after the fact, people around the Web are still talking about the lovely climate change murals you created during Mother's Day weekend.