Leadership // Current TV

Dithering in Doha: we need to reframe the politics of climate

Dec 17, 2012 by Steve Herz
Excerpt:
In one sense, this exceedingly modest outcome was no surprise. From the outset, we were warned that this was just an “implementation” or “transitional” meeting; the big issues were not to be discussed. This is because at last year’s meeting in Durban, the Parties decided on a three year schedule to negotiate an overarching agreement, and nothing in the climate negotiations happens until the last possible moment. The Durban timetable all but assured that incrementalism and procrastination would rule the day in Doha.

But in another sense, this summer vacation approach to the negotiations was utterly incomprehensible. The urgent need for action was there for all to see. Many delegates came with vivid, heart-rendering accounts of how climate change was already impacting their countries in ways their governments could not address. Not least, President Obama’s negotiating team could point to this summer’s searing, unprecedented drought in the Midwest, forest infernos in the Rockies, and of course, the over $70 billion worth of devastation inflicted by Superstorm Sandy.

If these calamities weren’t a clear enough call to action, informed delegates arrived in Doha with three new hair-on-fire reports in their briefcases that put these impacts in larger context. In November, the global consultancy PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the International Energy Agency both issued papers showing that nothing short of heroic efforts will be necessary to reduce emissions enough to keep global temperature rise below the 3.6°F that most climate scientists believe is the outer bound of “safe” warming. Without such efforts, we’ll likely see 7.2°F – 10.8°F of warming by the end of this century. The World Bank followed these assessments with its blockbuster Turn Down the Heat report, which described in appalling detail what a 7.2°F warmer world would actually be like. It’s truly scary stuff.

Just as disappointing as the outcome in Doha was the role of the United States in bringing it about. When President Obama first took office, there were great expectations that he would bring about a new era American climate leadership. Instead, the US negotiating posture too often has been characterized by a reluctance to expend real political capital, a hypersensitivity to Congressional extremism, and an unwillingness to lead by example.

More at the linkDec 17, 2012 by Steve Herz Excerpt: In one sense, this exceedingly modest outcome... more

JanforGore
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Dr. Jill Stein: Mother nature belongs at the bargaining table

By Dr. Jill Stein- Green Party Presidential candidate who received a half million votes despite media blackout and being ostracized from debate in 2012 election, and who actually discusses the climate crisis.

"As the highly scripted stagecraft of the presidential campaign fades from the headlines, there's a new show in Washington. ”Fiscal Cliff” stars President Barack Obama, who urges Republicans and Democrats to agree on a ”grand bargain” that would soften the economic shock of the impending across-the-board tax and spending cuts. But that bipartisan handshake would be nothing to celebrate.

Here's why: Both parties are intent on imposing an austerity budget bloated with military spending and private-industry health insurance waste. That would be a raw deal for the American people.

It's a sign of Washington's rightward drift that a Democratic president has offered to put Social Security on the chopping block, even though it hasn't contributed one dime to the deficit. And Obama has offered to cut Medicare rather than pursue an improved ”Medicare for All” insurance system that could save trillions over the next decade by eliminating the wasteful bureaucracy and medical inflation inherent in our private health insurance system.

Equally troubling, both parties are ignoring another problem that's truly critical: the climate cliff.

Our planet is rapidly approaching a geophysical tipping point at which the consequences of climate change, such as the disappearance of polar ice caps and the melting of frozen methane deposits, trigger an unstoppable acceleration of warming. Once that happens, it will render our climate incompatible with civilization as we know it.

Throwing the nation over the climate cliff will make our current fiscal challenges look like a minor bump in the road.

Mother Nature must also have a seat at the negotiating table as our leaders hash out their supposedly grand bargain. In a nation already reeling from droughts, wildfires, and superstorms, budget priorities must reconcile the climate and economic imperatives. After all, they're ultimately one and the same.

Our current drive to expand oil and gas drilling on U.S. soil is part of a bipartisan energy policy that's doing nothing to reduce unsustainably high carbon emissions. Showpiece programs to encourage renewable energy alternatives like solar and wind can't avert climate disaster unless they're going to replace fossil fuels."

More at the linkBy Dr. Jill Stein- Green Party Presidential candidate who received a half million... more

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Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project: The Denial Ends Today

Al Gore is mad as hell about his campaign to get the word out about global warming being smothered by a heavily funded doubt campaign and a disinterested media, and he’s not going to take it anymore.

But unlike Howard Beale in the 1976 film “Network,” he hasn’t simply gone to the nearest window to shout it out at the top of his lungs. Instead, he decided that the lies have to stop, the truth has to come out, and he formed an organization called the Climate Reality Project to make it happen, and today: September 14th 2011 is the day, through an event called 24 Hours of Reality.

What can change in a day? Gore answers that question in a brief video that plays on the Climate Reality website. “A street can become a river, a mountain can become a mudslide, a forest can become kindling…” all told over images of floods, fires and devastation. “Cataclysmic events,” we are told, “are becoming the new normal,” and the truth has become one of its causalities. Big oil and coal are spending fortunes to spread doubt beneath the radar, but, according to Al, “Not anymore. On Sept. 14Th, the world will join hands to create 24 hours of reality, an event that will focus the world’s attention on the Full Truth, Scope, Scale, and Impact of the Climate Crisis.”

“Climate deniers,” says Al, “may have money, connections and influence, but together, we have something they don’t: Reality.”

The PR leading up to this event has been impressive. There is a video trailer produced by Alex Bogusky that shows a fat lady singing with smoke coming out of her Viking helmet. Above it is suspended a globe which explodes when sufficiently heated by the smoke, or is it the high note she is singing? In either case, you get the message. Moments later these words fill the screen, “The denial ends on September 14th. Another hilarious, but serious video by the same team is called, The Denial Hits the Fan, which looks like, well–you know.

Source: http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/09/al-gores-climate-reality-project-denial-ends-today/Al Gore is mad as hell about his campaign to get the word out about global warming... more

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Nestlé Gets On the Reporting Bandwagon: How Did They Do?

The road to sustainable business now passes through a glass tunnel called “Transparency.” Consumers exercise their singular, unequivocal influence: their ability to choose the company that not only creates, markets and sells a product that is to their liking, but does so in a manner that is consistent with their values. And here, in this land of “innocent until proven guilty,” companies know that if they don’t “take the tunnel,” it will be assumed that they have something to hide. This, in turn, leads to action which ensures that there is some good news to report. Thus we progress, however slowly, towards a more sustainable society.

Last week, Nestlé in the United States, parent company to Nestlé USA, Nestlé Purina PetCare Company, Nestlé Waters North America, Nestlé Nutrition and Nestlé Professional, reported for the first time, their environmental metrics for the preceding year. Greenhouse gas emissions were flat in absolute terms, though given an increase in production volume this represents a six percent reduction in GHG emissions per unit of product, compared to the previous year. This translates into a rate of 35.4 kg of CO2 per ton of product. There are no comparable metrics available for a company as diverse as this one, involved in essentially light industry, except its own prior performance. Heavy industries, like cement or steel might emit something on the order of 70 times this amount per unit of production.

The conglomerate’s water usage rose by 2.1 percent in absolute terms, though, once again, thanks to increased production, there was a 2% reduction on a per unit of output.

The company’s bottled water subsidiary, Nestlé Waters North America, whose sustainability chief, Michael Washburn, I interviewed in a three-part series back in March, had a slightly more impressive 2.2% reduction (over the past five years) in the face of a 27% production volume increase.

If this doesn’t convince you that the company is at least trying to clean up their act, maybe you should check out Nestle Nutrition’s gerber.com where they give, among other things, breastfeeding tips (though there are still those boycotting the company because of it’s predatory advertising tactics for baby formula).

Post Continues: http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/05/nestle-csr-reporting/The road to sustainable business now passes through a glass tunnel called... more

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