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Good news: Many share hope gas prices will rise
Andres Oppenheimber, Miami Herald
Well, perhaps there is still hope that Americans will do something about their suicidal love affair with gas-guzzling cars, the country will reduce its addiction to foreign oil, global warming will slow down and there will be peace on earth.
Judging from the unprecedented reader response to Thursday’s column, ”Record gasoline prices great news for U.S.,” (www.andresoppenheimer.blogspot.com) in which I said that gasoline prices should rise above $4 a gallon to trigger a nationwide uproar that will force Washington to get serious about reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil, there are many more Americans than I thought who share this view.
I argued that unless gasoline prices cross the $4 a gallon barrier, and Americans get really mad about it, Washington will not get serious about reducing toxic emissions that worsen global warming, and the United States will continue financing Middle Eastern and South American petro-autocrats whose megalomania grows in direct proportion to the rise of oil prices.
…The avalanche of e-mails started immediately after the column appeared. The first day, there were an unprecedented 119,908 page hits on The Miami Herald’s website page and hundreds of e-mails.
According to The Miami Herald’s website editor, Casey Frank, the column had already gotten the second largest number of page views this year on The Miami Herald’s website, after a profile of Larry King, and it’s likely to surpass it this weekend.
Most amazing, judging from those who sent e-mails or posted comments on my blog, was that most of the responses were positive. There were three groups of comments:
• Those who applauded the idea (more than 40 percent). …
• Those who said, ”yes, but” (about 30 percent). …
• Those who uttered insults not fit to print (nearly 30 percent). …
(12 May 2007)
Sale of Carbon Credits Helping Land-Rich, but Cash-Poor, Tribes
Jim Robbins, NY Times
On the Nez Perce reservation here, land that was cleared in the 19th century for farming is being converted back to forest, in part to sell the trees’ ability to sequester carbon.
“These forests are a carbon crop,” Brian Kummett, a forester for the Nez Perce tribal forestry division, said as he surveyed a vast field studded with recently planted ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and larch saplings. “We can sell the rights from the time the forest is planted to the time it’s harvested, 80 or 120 years down the road.”
The market for carbon credits promises to be a boon for some land-rich but cash-poor tribes. Selling carbon sequestration credits early in the growth of a forest lets the tribe realize some money more quickly, rather than waiting for decades for the harvest.
(8 May 2007)
Can Capitalism Be Green?
Stephen Leahy, IPS News
TORONTO – Capitalism has proven to be environmentally and socially unsustainable, so future prosperity will have to come from a new economic model, say some experts. What this new model would look like is the subject of intense debate.
One current theory states that continuous growth can be environmentally compatible if clean and efficient technologies are adopted, and if economies leave behind production of material goods and move towards services. This is known as sustainable prosperity.
International agreements to fight global problems, like the thinning of the atmosphere’s ozone layer and climate change, have used market principles to achieve compliance by the private sector.
But the problem is, “we are consuming 25 percent more than the Earth can give us each year,” says William Rees, of the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia.
…Cleaner and more efficient technology is not the solution either, despite being widely touted as the path to sustainability, said Rees. Modern industrialized societies already use resources more efficiently than developing nations, but rich countries consume far more material goods and end up using more of the planet’s limited natural resources.
In his opinion, the new mantras of “responsible consumption” – buying organic or sustainably-made goods – and dematerialization of economies – producing services rather than products – do not solve the problem. The only solution is to reduce pollution and consumption of resources, he said.
(12 May 2007)
Also at Common Dreams.
Bloomberg outlines national energy plan in Houston
Sara Kugler, Associated Press
…The Republican billionaire outlined an energy plan that proposes creating profit motives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, building new wind farms and nuclear plants, phasing out the incandescent light bulb and setting early deadlines to accomplish these goals.
Bloomberg, who recently launched an effort to drastically reduce pollution by 2030 in New York City, suggested that those who set later deadlines like 2050 and 2070 are afraid to do the work and make the commitments now. A number of presidential candidates, including Democrats John Edwards, Barack Obama and Chris Dodd, and Republican John McCain, have their own proposals with a 2050 endpoint, or support plans with that deadline.
…Bloomberg’s Houston speech also ridiculed the idea of taxing sugar-based ethanol imports while subsidizing corn-based ethanol; both policies are intended to help U.S. corn growers. But the inconsistent approach to the two cleaner-burning fuels is “nothing more than pork-barrel politics,” the mayor said.
Corn-based ethanol is a topic of great interest among Iowa voters, but observers say Bloomberg doesn’t have to court them like other candidates do because he would likely not enter the race until after the first few primaries and caucuses.
…Bloomberg proposed expanding access to natural gas sites, with more natural gas pipelines, and building new nuclear plants and wind farms.
…Bloomberg unveiled his long-term sustainability plan for New York City last month on Earth Day. The plan calls for reducing carbon emissions through greener buildings, hybrid vehicles and greater fuel efficiency standards, among other initiatives.
(11 May 2007)
Articles on the Sustainability Plan for New York City from WorldChanging. PLANYC homepage.
Murdoch: I’m proud to be green
Geoffrey Lean, Independent
News Corp boss orders his entire empire to convert and become a worldwide enthusiast for the environment
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In one of the most unexpected conversions since Saul of Tarsus hit the road to Damascus, Rupert Murdoch is turning into a green campaigner. He is making the whole of his worldwide operations carbon neutral and setting out to “educate and engage” his readers and viewers about global warming.
He believes his companies’ “global reach” presents “an unprecedented opportunity to raise awareness and to stimulate action around the world”. A former sceptic who confesses to having been “somewhat wary of the warming debate”, he laid on his first global webcast for all his employees on Wednesday to tell them that he was “changing the DNA of our business”. He added that he had started with himself, buying a hybrid car.
Mr Murdoch’s conversion, which may surprise employees like Jeremy Clarkson, was heavily influenced by his son James – who took BSkyB carbon neutral a year ago this week – as well as by Tony Blair and former US vice-president Al Gore. All three attended his annual meeting for senior executives in Pebble Beach, California, last year where he was convinced to take the lead on the issue.
(13 May 2007)
Related from the Sydney Morning Herald: Rupert goes green and walks to work.
Drive to Cut Emissions Creates Jobs Engine
Barbara Whitaker, NY Times
THE challenge of global warming is moving from rhetoric to the workplace, creating jobs as governments, businesses and environmental groups create markets aimed at reducing greenhouse gases.
Nowhere is that more obvious than in the trading of credits tied to emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases related to global warming.
“This is a very dynamic and fast-growing market,” said Wiley Barbour, executive director of Environmental Resources Trust, a Washington nonprofit group that is working to foster emission markets. “I can’t even hire all the people I need. It’s really hard right now to find climate change experts.”
(13 May 2007)
