Climate blogs exposed--Waxman-Markey, the Truth, & the White House Garden

I'd like to begin this week's blog roundup by congratulating Betsy Taylor and Gillian Caldwell who were recently honored for their uncommon dedication to the environment as "Pretty Damn Brilliant"--keep up the great work! There are lots of unsung heroes of sustainability and Climate Progress is asking that you share your nominees today!

Betsy Taylor, founder and director of the board of the 1Sky organization and founder of the Center for a New American Dream. Betsy helped organize 1Sky around the idealistic but necessary notion that the many groups working on climate change could rally around a common set of goals and learn to speak with one voice.

Gillian Caldwell, 1Sky’s Campaign Director and the quintessential working mother of the climate movement, absolutely dedicated and tireless in the goal of building a network of climate advocates in key congressional districts across the nation. When Gillian talks about saving the planet for our children, she takes it personally.

As we've all witnessed over the last few weeks, the Waxman-Markey climate bill marks another monumental step in the right direction for climate legislation in 2009. While there are aspects of the bill that could be stronger, it is important for us citizens to remember that we have the power to influence this bill and it's up to us to meet with and demand bold climate solutions from our members of Congress. This week, Thomas Friedman's Op-Ed in the New York Times criticized the bill calling for "an alternative strategy, message and messenger" which sent many climate activists up in arms. Check out Dave Roberts' must-read post addressing the poor timing of Friedman's "nuclear disaster" of an Op-Ed.

Tom Friedman has been doing great work on green issues for a while now, certainly given them a higher profile than any mere green blogger could. So I guess he’s owed some latitude. But his recent column is just an outright nuclear disaster: head-slappingly wrong on the merits, politically naive and tone deaf, and timed so poorly as to be malicious. Just about every single sentence is a train wreck.

Start with timing: next week, Congress begins an intense round of hearings on a comprehensive Democratic energy/climate bill. Not some pony plan from a columnist’s daydream. Not an obscure bill introduced by a backbencher to make a symbolic point. An actual, serious piece of legislation: the bill Democrats on the relevant committees will sign off on; the bill Obama will support; the bill that will go to the Senate; the bill that could, if everything goes well, if everyone in the progressive coalition rallies behind it to generate overwhelming political pressure, become law. If you are serious about wanting energy and climate legislation in this Congress, this is your chance. No other. The game is underway.

Paralleling the argument made by Friedman, many GOP leaders over the last week have been criticizing the carbon bill stating that it is essentially a carbon tax. On behalf of the green community and truth more generally, Rachel Maddow took this issue into her own hands. Check out the excerpt and video clip below courtesy of the Wonk Room.

Last night, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Eugene Robinson discussed the “really crazy” lie that GOP leaders like Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have been spreading that an MIT study says cap-and-trade legislation is a $3100 tax. “‘It’s just wrong. It’s wrong in so many ways, it’s hard to begin,’” Maddow quoted MIT economist John Reilly. “That is MIT-economist-speak for, ‘Liar, liar, pants on fire.’”

On a less serious but equally important note, this week, the shovels hit the ground as first lady Michelle Obama and a group of local fifth graders began planting fruits and vegetables in the White House garden. The Huffington Post writes:

An advocate of eating fresh and healthy food, she could be enjoying salads made with lettuce from the garden in about two weeks.

Spinach, assorted types of lettuce, herbs, onions, shallots, cucumbers and peas are among the crops planted Thursday. Tomatoes are to follow in about three weeks. Honey will come from a beehive a short distance away from the 1,100-square-foot, L-shaped plot on the South Lawn.

Mrs. Obama said she kept getting asked about the garden while in Europe last week, even by Prince Charles. The prince is an avid gardener who has said people need only a window box to start growing their own food.

Now I know some of you are not as big a tech-geek as I am, but even for those of you who struggle to turn on your computer in the morning (maybe that's none of you since you are reading this post)...anyways, this week the Kyoto box, a solar-powered cardboard oven, was labeled as the Financial Times best climate change tackling innovation. Grist writes:

It’s aimed at the 3 billion people who use firewood to cook, and in the words of Kenya-based Jon Bøhmer, the entrepreneur behind the scheme, “We’re saving lives and saving trees. I doubt if there is any other technology that can make so much impact for so little money.”

The box costs about $6 to make, and ironically uses the greenhouse effect to boil and bake. It consists of two boxes, one inside the other, with an acrylic cover, which lets solar energy in and traps it. Black paint on the inner box and silver foil on the outer help concentrate the heat, while a layer of straw or newspaper between the two provides insulation. By making it possible to boil water cheaply, Bøhmer believes the box will save some of the millions of children who die each year from water-borne diseases. It should also halve the need for firewood, saving an estimated two tonnes of carbon per family per year.

That's all for this week! let us know in the comments section if we've missed any important stories/articles. Enjoy the spring weather!