Climate blogs and news roundup: NYT weighs in, climate trauma, Ted Glick

As you would expect, climate news and the blogosphere this week have been dominated by discussion of the Waxman-Markey clean energy and climate bill. In the face of growing attempts to weaken the bill, the New York Times weighs in with a timely and generally positive editorial about the bill. A couple of choice quotes:

Mr. Obama told Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to work out a consensus, which they must do. Though flawed, the bill is an honorable start on a problem too long neglected. Fix it, but get on with it, in the certain knowledge that failure to act would almost certainly doom comprehensive climate change legislation for this year and, probably, for this Congress.

. . . . .

The bill deliberately left big questions open for discussion, and as negotiations proceed, Mr. Waxman and Mr. Markey must resist crippling concessions. One debate is whether companies should get the allowances the government will assign to polluters for free or whether they should pay for them at an auction.

Usually we don't feature our own posts in this section, but this week Gillian wrote a piece that has been getting a lot of buzz in the blogosphere -- so much so that Huffington Post featured it in its "Green" section on Wednesday. The subject: "climate trauma" -- the physical, psychological and emotional toll of working to solve the climate challenge. The symptoms:

1. Anxiety and Stress: We know we are facing a looming catastrophe of unparalled proportions -- a truly existential crisis in that scientists predict that if we do not take dramatic action now, human beings will not be able to continue living on Earth as we have come to know it. This is not the place to detail the reasons or predicted impacts of climate change, but it is to say that a central motivation in pushing for climate and energy policy is our knowledge of that existential threat. And there has never been more urgency or intensity to our wish and our call, with the looming international negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009 and the critical need to have demonstrated US leadership before we get there. We in the US are literally dizzy with work, given the pace of the congressional calendar, regulatory action, and the Administration more broadly. Many of us are insomniacs and obsessive workaholics.

2. Fear and Hopelessness: We know we must be bold and visionary and imaginative and hopeful about all of the potential of a 21st century green economy built on wind, solar and geothermal. All the polls and marketing specialists tell us that people will tune us out if we shriek about the fact that the sky is falling and that people want to hear about solutions. We do see a path forward -- a way out of this mess we got ourselves into. But in our heart of hearts ,we are fearful that the powers that be in industrial America, the votes in Congress, and the ignorance or economic plight of voters all around us, will stand in our way and we may get nothing at all, or too little to late. Will we add up? We think about our children and their future, and we weep. We tear ourselves away from them for yet another day, another night, trying to preserve something left for them to live in. Even the children are traumatized: look at what 10 year old Nikos Spiridakis produced as a wake up call or what this young girl in Michigan says when her aunt asks her what global warming is.

3. A Parallel Universe: We often feel like we are living in a parallel universe. Don't people see that we are headed straight off a cliff? How could they possibly continue to argue that there is legitimate dispute about whether or not the planet is warming? How could the ones who know that it is warming leave all their incandescent bulbs on? Leave their SUV idling? Blast the heat and open the windows? Toss their water bottle in the trash? And sit out this fight of a lifetime, this fight for our lives? We are obsessed and alone and sometimes we or our loved ones literally have to ban the topic from conversation rather than repeat ourselves again. And again. And again.

4. Depression, Irritability and Anger: Flip sides of the same coin, we find ourselves alternately depressed, irritable, or angry. Who wouldn't under the circumstances? But these symptoms only get in our way, and diminish our power to be the leaders we must be to confront the greatest challenge of our generation, and perhaps of all time in life on this precious planet we call home. We need each other -- our colleagues, our teams and the people who love us -- to keep on keeping on.

The interview Gillian talks about in her post are well worth watching; here's part 1, and part 2.

Back to the Waxman-Markey bill. One of the biggest peddlers of the notion that a cap-and-trade system would wreck the economy has been the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Thankfully, the Chamber has been getting an earful from some of its most prominent members for its opposition to the House bill:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is taking heat from Johnson & Johnson, Nike and other corporate members over its opposition to global warming legislation pending in the House.

In a letter to the Chamber, Johnson & Johnson has asked the Chamber to refrain from making comments on climate change unless they "reflect the full range of views, especially those of Chamber members advocating for congressional action."

Nike spokeswoman Anne Meyers said her company has also been "vocal" with the Chamber's leaders "about wanting them to take a more progressive stance on the issue of climate change."

Speaking of businesses, we just launched a drive to recruit businesses interested in meeting with members of Congress and urge them to pass a clean energy and climate bill this year. If you own a business or work for one that would be intereested, sign up today!

The Waxman-Markey bill has brought on a veritable Lie-a-palooza to try to water it down, or worse, defeat it outright. So our friends at Energy Action have launched the Energy Action Truth Squad to beat back the lies and scare tactics making the rounds in the media. From It's Getting Hot in Here:

Energy Action's Truth Squad will claim a stake in the national debate by:

• Keeping up on local and national clean energy, green jobs, and climate issues. Easy. Most of you do this already, now you'll be doing it with a mission.
• Writing at least 2 local and 1 national Letters to the Editors (LTE) over the summer. Again EASY. It takes about 15 minutes to write and email an LTE. No longer will you be silently joyous or outraged. You will be making your crucial voice heard in one of the most widely read pages of the paper. We will provide LTE ideas and opportunities, samples, and will help edit if needed.
• Write 1 Op Ed. Medium Easy. These take a little longer to write but have no fear. You have a unique and important perspective on this debate and your voice needs to be heard. Right now the op ed pages where political discourse still largely prevails is being dominated by polluters and liars. Local papers are desperate for local, young writers. We will help you draft, edit, and place your op ed. For real. Make your grandma proud.
• Write 3-4 blog posts. These can be adaptations of your LTEs or OpEds or original content. We will help find good, influential blogs for you to post on. All we need is the content.

Finally, renowned climate activist Ted Glick wrote a must-read this week at the CCAN blog (and cross-posted here with his kind permission) on a very interesting visit he paid to Rep. Mike Doyle yesterday:

I had no plans yesterday morning as I woke up and turned on my computer to spend the afternoon in the D.C. office of Congressman Mike Doyle. But then I read this line in an article on the status of efforts to cobble together a piece of climate legislation in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

I remember my physical reaction as I read these words, my head shaking back and forth, some trembling and an upwelling of deep, livid anger. "This is the last straw," I remember thinking.

And involuntarily in my head, I began singing the words to the Bob Dylan song, Masters of War.

. . . . .

And that's why I went to Mike Doyle's office at 2 pm yesterday and told Pat Cavanaugh, his energy staff person, that I was a long-time climate activist on the 18th day of a hunger strike (www.fastingforourfuture.org) for strong climate legislation and that I wasn't leaving until I met with Doyle.

It only gets better from there so be sure to read the whole thing. If you're not familiar with the Dylan song (I wasn't until I asked the Google about it), check it out.

Got any must-read climate blogs or stories? You know the drill.