Weekly roundup 9/17/10: Coal, Clean Air, and Local Action Making a Change
Weekly roundup 9/17/10: Coal, Clean Air, and Local Action Making a Change
This week seems to have been ruled by the great climate dichotomy: Coal and clean air – or more specifically, the Clean Air Act (CAA). This makes sense, as we're but a week away from Appalachia Rising's arrival in Washington, DC. Appropriately, the Clean Air Act turned 40, becoming "over the hill" while folks from coal country are coming to DC to protect their mountains. There was also a great victory against Dirty Coal in Chicago this week. The CEO of the biggest mining company in the world (not American) even came out for clean energy. Finally, yet another study came out showing decreasing Arctic ice. Our job isn't done just yet, kids. Read on.
Yes, Appalachia Rising is but eight days away. Almost as if to build energy for the day of action, the grassroots coalition Clean Power Chicago got a key Chicago official to sign on an ordinance to crack down on the local coal plants. Getting Alderman Ricardo Muñoz on board could mean that other city officials will join him since the plants are in Muñoz' ward. A member of the Chicago volunteer group Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO), Dorian Breuer noted that this is, "a case where we are acting locally to affect our local health that will have 'global effects.'" This is the essence of local organizing for climate and we applaud their work.
Remember how much you celebrated when the Clean Air Act was first passed, marking a giant environmental victory? Well, if you do then you're probably pretty old, because the CAA turned 40 this week. Cheers to you both! The Blog for Clean Air has a great post going over just why the CAA is so great, including seven specific air pollutants that have decreased dramatically since 1970.
Science nerds, here's your weekly data snack. Climate Progress brings us yet another great post on climate science, showing how as the 2010 melt season ends for Arctic ice, we're likely to see record low volume. More than just that, the percentage of older Arctic ice (4+ years old), which also tends to be thicker, is lower than ever. This supports the likelihood that overall volume is way down. Read the full article for all the juicy data. Basically, this means that our work to fight climate change continues to be needed to stabilize the global ecosystem ASAP.
Here in the United States, the most visible mining CEO is Massey Energy's almost-too-dasterdly-to-be-real, Don Blankenship. If we heard him arguing for a global climate treaty or a cap on emissions it would be just about time to close up the 1Sky doors and plan the victory party (after recovering from our collective shock). That's just what the CEO of Australia's BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's largest mining company, said recently. As noted in this Treehugger article, we can't vouch for the previous actions of their CEO, Marius Kloppers, but the fact that his arguments are based on purely the business sense that moving away from primarily coal makes, it seems reasonable to at least accept the arguments.
This week's video comes to us from Repower America. They recently called for people to submit photos of themselves with signs saying "mine," "ours," or "yours," in regards to who the air belongs to. More than that we literally "own" the air, this is meant to emphasize that the Dirty Energy polluters do not own the air in which they so freely dump their waste. These photos were compiled into the video you see here:
