Solutions & sustainability – Oct 10

Greenpeace report on solar power /
London’s answer for traffic congestion /
Umbra loves bikes /
Pollan high on grass, down on corn /
Down and dirty: soil in industrial society /
Ecolanguage /
Hard cash and climate change /
China looks to California for solutions /
White House picks up conservation mantra /
Energy efficiency in Wyoming /
McMansions out of style? /
Save energy around the house

Politics & economics headlines – Oct 10

US energy bill OKd in raucous vote /
Inside the secretive Bilderberg Group /
Gas row between China and Japan escalates /
Boom times await new BRIC powers /
Fool shortage? Not in Georgia /
US revs up the China threat /
Chavez interview – has ‘strong oil card’ /
High oil prices met with anger worldwide /
Pombo proposes offshore drilling

Environment headlines – Oct 10

Water and wind, the warming globe /
Carl Pope on global warming /
Climate probe crashes /
Green evangelical leader Richard Cizik /
Bill McKibben on GW /
Bill Moyers: caring for creation /
Climate linked to shipboard illness /
Wetter atmosphere a sign of GW /
Bayou sinks, Louisiana floods /
Tremendous impact from gulf oil spills

Dow Chemical CEO: US should declare national emergency on NG supplies

Testifying before the Senate Energy Commitee, Dow Chemicals CEO Andrew Liveris said, “The short-term outlook for natural gas consumers is grim. If prices remain at or near current levels, manufacturers will be driven out of the market and many may not return.”…
The government should also “declare a national emergency” to shock consumers into awareness of tight supplies, he said.

Is the economy spoiled? Are we sour?

There was an economy that loved SUVs /
To haul all its workers far from the cities. /
The cars pushed the economy to depend on more oil. /
But I dunno why it depended on oil; perhaps it will spoil. (To the tune of “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”)

Climate change and human health

…it would appear that we may be underestimating the breadth of biologic responses to changes in climate. Treating climate-related ills will require preparation, and early-warning systems forecasting extreme weather can help to reduce casualties and curtail the spread of disease. But primary prevention would require halting the extraction, mining, transport, refining, and combustion of fossil fuels — a transformation that many experts believe would have innumerable health and environmental benefits and would help to stabilize the climate.

Organizing ecological revolution

…a global ecological revolution worthy of the name can only occur as part of a larger social—and I would insist, socialist—revolution. Such a revolution, were it to generate the conditions of equality, sustainability, and human freedom worthy of a genuine Great Transition, would necessarily draw its major impetus from the struggles of working populations and communities at the bottom of the global capitalist hierarchy…