Blog & news round-up 11/6: Senate bill moves forward, the African Group walks out, Al Gore dunks Colbert, and more

This week can be summed up with a few big names: Barbara Boxer, John Kerry, Lindsey Graham, Al Gore, and African nations.

Okay, so the last one wasn't really a person's name, but a boycott by African nations at the UN climate talks this week in Barcelona definitely made news. Meanwhile in the U.S., the EPW hearings on the Senate climate bill were looking like a bipartisan contest of who could hold their breath the longest. Fortunately that ended, but this news round-up hasn't. Read on.

Before we get into the down, dirty, and sometimes overwhelming news of the week, it's always good stand back and remember the amazing people who are a part of the fight for climate action. Campus Progress featured some awesome college students at Washington University who made themselves heard during a coal-funded forum at their campus. The Greenpeace blog reported how a group of Iowa State campus activists got all three public universities in the state to begin a ground-water monitoring program to watch for toxins from nearby fly ash storage ponds. For more examples of real people standing up and speaking out, check out Repower America's new "wall" of Americans who have made a call for climate action.

All eyes here at 1Sky headquarters were on the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) committee hearings this week on the climate bill. The week started out with the Republicans boycotting the hearings, only sending one senator a day to talk about how they were not showing up. The Washington Post wrote an editorial on Wednesday pointing out how this approach was not helping the process.

Eventually the EPW Committee chair Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) used a procedural rule to pass the bill out of committee without her Republican colleagues after two days of waiting for their cooperation. 1Sky campaign director Gillian Caldwell wrote a post on the Huffington Post yesterday wrapping up the drama:

In the past week, a drama unfolded around the Senate EPW Committee hearings for the new Senate bill on climate and clean energy jobs. Declarations! Boycott threats! Power plays! It's left a lot of people in the climate movement perplexed, frustrated, and even more committed to push for a strong and comprehensive bill now.

Another group of non-EPW senators got busy working on climate legislation as well. Senators Kerry (D-MA), Graham (R-SC), and Lieberman (I-CT) held a meeting with Energy Secretary Chu and came out with a statement supporting Sen. Boxer and saying that they were working on a path to passing the Senate bill with 60 votes. Sen. Graham, who has received grief from constituents and other Republicans for his work on climate, gave a very definitive quote summarizing why he is pushing for passage:

The green economy is coming. We can either follow or lead. And those countries who follow will pay a price. Those nations who lead in creating the new green economy for the world will make money.

The Barcelona UN climate talks this week were not without drama as well. On Tuesday, the "African Group" walked out of talks in protest because they believe developed nations are not making strong enough commitments to reduce emissions. Mike over at Greenpeace blogged the event with reports from Greenpeacers in Barcelona. His post also has a good explanation of what the reason is for these UN climate talks.

The walk-out eventually ended and talks resumed. The official COP15 blog has a good post from Thursday giving some background on the rich-poor divide that is obstructing negotiations:

African countries wanted to put pressure on rich nations to make them cut deeper in their greenhouse gas emissions. Developed nations plan cuts averaging between 11 and 15 percent by 2020 from 1990. African states want them to cut 40 percent.

Al Gore was all over the media this week. The primary reason for this was his new book outlining what he sees as the solutions to the climate crisis, after meeting with many scientists and experts. He was quoted in the German newspaper Spiegel that he think's it's "likely" that President Obama will attend the Copenhagen climate change conference in December.

The former vice-president also went on the Colbert Report where he joined in on a debate between Stephen Colbert and... Stephen Colbert:

Infographic of the week: What can I say? Even climate activists who spend all week knee deep in political jargon and climate science are suckers for a pretty graphic. Fortunately Good Magazine is great at marrying the two. This week, one of their free transparencies displayed whether, and how much, the five top carbon emitters changed in their total emissions from 2006-2007. The data may be a bit outdated by now with so much changing, but it gives a good idea of what direction countries are going.

Finally, 1Sky ally Green for All put out a powerful video with the National Latino Coalition on Climate Change (NLCCC) showing the dangers of inaction and the possibilities of a green economy.