tagged w/ green house gas
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Lawrence O'Donnell got into an angry argument with a Republican congressman over the impending government shutdown.
On his Thursday show, O'Donnell and Rep. Tom Graves of Georgia argued about who was to blame for the shutdown, and O'Donnell pressed Graves about the so-called "riders" in the bill that many say are the sticking point between the Democrats and the Republicans.
The "riders" are policy items attached to the overall budget that try to strip funding from certain programs. It is widely believed that it is these riders, not any argument about spending, that are what is holding up a deal between the two parties. Perhaps the key rider concerns the funding of Planned Parenthood.
O'Donnell asked Graves, "Can you vote for a bill that does not completely defund Planned Parenthood?" Graves was cagey, only saying that he wants to vote for a bill that "maximizes the savings for the American people." O'Donnell asked him repeatedly, but Graves would only say that he did not "intend" to vote for a bill that funded Planned Parenthood.
"You are willing to stop payment for the troops in order to stop any funding for Planned Parenthood," O'Donnell said. Graves objected to this, saying that the House had voted to fund the troops only that day. O'Donnell said the measure in question was nothing but a political ploy, not a serious bill.
O'Donnell then asked Graves about a bill that he said would allow the House to pass measures into law without the approval of the Senate, or even the president. O'Donnell called it an "absurdist, unconstitutional cartoon" and asked Graves how he could have voted for it. Graves said he was glad O'Donnell had mentioned the Constitution, because "nowhere in the Constitution does it say, fund Planned Parenthood." This got O'Donnell really mad. "You should be ashamed of yourself," he shouted. "Your insane bill says that the House of Representatives can pass a bill and it becomes law without the signature of the president."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/08/lawrence-odonnell-government-shutdown-2011-yells-at-congressman_n_846574.htmlLawrence O'Donnell got into an angry argument with a Republican congressman over... more
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Fury is building over rolling nationwide blackouts triggered by the Obama administration's deliberate agenda to block the construction of new coal-fired plants, as local energy companies struggle to meet Americans' power demands amidst some of the coldest weather seen in decades.
- As we reported yesterday, four hospitals in Texas reacted furiously after they were hit with planned outages despite being promised they would be spared even as power to Super Bowl venues remains uninterrupted.
- Thousands in New Mexico have been left without natural gas as Gov. Susana Martinez on Thursday declared a state of emergency. "Due to statewide natural gas shortages, I have ordered all government agencies that do not provide essential services to shut down and all nonessential employees to stay home" on Friday, Martinez said after meeting with public safety personnel in Albuquerque," reports the Associated Press.
- Borderland residents have been asked to limit their use of natural gas as the Texas Gas Service asks that larger commercial facilities voluntarily close their doors to save supplies.
- People in Tucson have been asked to limit their use of hot water and moderate their thermostat levels to save on energy.
- Shortages of natural gas in San Diego County has forced utility companies to "cut or reduce the gas supplied to some of their largest commercial and industrial customers," reports North County Times.
- In El Paso, "Hundreds of thousands of electricity customers continue to face periodic blackouts, and nearly 900 gas customers still have no heat," reports the El Paso Times, with El Paso Electric resorting to using generators in a struggle to meet demand while still having to implement forced outages.Fury is building over rolling nationwide blackouts triggered by the Obama... more
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The positive effect of vegetarian diets on the environment is pretty well documented at this point, but here's another new study detailing the high environmental costs of meat: It concludes that because of increases in population and per capita consumption we will have to cut back on meat between 19-42% by 2050 just to keep environmental damage at current levels.
Reuters quotes the report authors, from Dalhousie University, as saying that "reining in growth in this sector should be prioritized."
Furthermore, there's "a profound disconnect between the anticipated scale of potential environmental impacts associated with projected livestock production levels and even the most optimistic mitigation strategies."
Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the report Forecasting potential global environmental costs of livestock production 2000-2050 notes, "by 2050, the livestock sector alone may either occupy the majority of, or significantly overshoot, recently published estimates of humanity's "safe operating space"" when it comes to climate change, reactive nitrogen mobilization, and appropriation of plant biomass.
In really simple terms: More meat means more greenhouse gas emissions, more nitrogen runoff and pollution, and more land needed for grazing or to grow food for animals which humans will eat.
While the report does say that efficiency improvements in agriculture and livestock raising can help, "Across the board reductions in per capita consumption of livestock products should be a priority."
A close to home example in increases in meat consumption: Between 1970 and now per capita meat consumption in the United States has increased by 17 pounds per year. Similar increases have been seen in many European countries, and in some newly-industrialized countries the trend is solidly towards more meat-eating as well.
As for the climate change impact of cutting back on meat eating, a study released nearly 18 months ago calculated that the costs of climate change mitigation could be reduced by up to 70% if more people either adopted full vegetarian diets or (at minimum) reduced meat consumption to mid-20th century levels.The positive effect of vegetarian diets on the environment is pretty well documented... more
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A new gruesome TV ad by Planestupid features polar bears falling to their death, smashing against buildings, the street and cars.A new gruesome TV ad by Planestupid features polar bears falling to their death,... more
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chmk
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added this
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2 years ago
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Hi Current,
I work for a company called Clear Carbon. We are one of many companies in DC area making a huge impact on the environment by helping companies measure there carbon footprint and then taking the necessary steps to reduce the size of those footprints, either through implementing Carbon Reduction Strategies or through Carbon Offsets and Trading.
Here is an overview...
ClearCarbon is a full-service carbon consulting firm dedicated to creating competitive advantage by specializing in carbon measurement, management, and monetization. It is a leader in the industry because of a record of saving – and making – customers money, thus encouraging long term prosperity and growth in a carbon-constrained world. ClearCarbon helps clients of all sizes understand their climate impacts, and develop strategies to reduce them. ClearCarbon offers a full suite of carbon solutions including corporate GHG inventories, supply chain analyses, carbon management software, carbon reduction strategies, and more. ClearCarbon is proud to surpass a goal of measuring over 17,000 locations in 128 countries.
For more information, visit www.clearcarboninc.comHi Current,
I work for a company called Clear Carbon. We are one of many companies... more
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Al Gore is not an expert in climatology, as a matter of fact he is only an expert on manipulation. That is all any politician can ever really be an expert in. So, I watch herds of basically well meaning people, march towards a cliff they can’t see because they have been blinded by their own good intentions.Al Gore is not an expert in climatology, as a matter of fact he is only an expert on... more
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critic
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added this
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3 years ago
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Ben Adler says in The American Prospect how the meat industry contributes to global warming (grain, processing, deforestation, release of methane gases in mass production, etc.) and how reducing one's meat consumption can have as dramatic an impact on the environment as driving a more economical car.Ben Adler says in The American Prospect how the meat industry contributes to global... more
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Saving the planet may put some small family businesses out of business if this $175 per cow gas tax is imposed. What is it worth?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/28056014#28056014
If this passes humans may be next to be taxed for the same reasons. Law enforcement may pass on this one as the evidence may be hard to collect, not to mention the containment issues they would face!Saving the planet may put some small family businesses out of business if this $175... more
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Keeping 6 billion people fed boosts global warming more than all the world's cars, trucks, trains, ships, and planes put together. Agriculture accounts for almost 14 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. One response is to eat fewer of the two- and four-legged greenhouse gas factories known as animals. Before you send back that T-bone, though, call in the bioengineers.
Genomics experts have been optimizing food crops for decades, punching in traits for lower herbicide use, less tilling, and higher yields — carbon cutters, all. But the fountainhead of agricultural emissions is nitrogen-based fertilizer, whose manufacture (mainly from natural gas) and poor take-up rates add up to nearly one-third of agriculture's contribution to global warming. Monsanto, DuPont, and Syngenta, along with a flotilla of venture-backed startups, are trying to change that. California-based Arcadia Biosciences is already peddling genes for nitrogen-efficient rice that the company reckons could save the equivalent of 50 million tons of carbon dioxide a year. Arcadia's CEO, a lifelong Sierra Club member, is working to get carbon credits for Chinese farmers who make the switch.
What some greens deride as Frankencrops are also the only serious hope for biofuels. Right now, their net carbon benefit is negligible. Corn engineered for high yields and low fertilizer will help, but even better will be plants under development whose stalks and leaves can easily be turned into fuel.
The plunging cost of gene synthesis should help bio geeks deliver on another big promise: a new economy in which biochemical reactions replace industrial processes. J. Craig Venter's Synthetic Genomics is working with BP on microorganisms that produce cleaner alternatives to gasoline. Rival Amyris Biotechnologies is working on bugs that make jet fuel. Meanwhile, the genetic engineers are cooking up climate-friendly meat without feet: The first symposium on lab-grown animal flesh met in Norway in April. Keeping 6 billion people fed boosts global warming more than all the world's... more
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kushan
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added this
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3 years ago
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Look at the environmental protection agency's CO2-per-kilowatt-hour map of the US and two bright patches of low-carbon happiness jump out. One is the hydro-powered Pacific Northwest. The other is Vermont, where a 30-year-old nuclear reactor, Vermont Yankee, keeps the Ben & Jerry's cold. The darkest area corresponds to Washington, DC, where coal-fired power plants release 520 times more atmospheric carbon per megawatt-hour than their Vermont counterpart. That's right: 520 times. Jimmy Carter was right to turn down the heat in the White House.
There's no question that nuclear power is the most climate-friendly industrial-scale energy source. You can worry about radioactive waste or proliferating weapons. You can complain about the high cost of construction and decommissioning. But the reality is that every serious effort at carbon accounting reaches the same conclusion: Nukes win. Only wind comes close — and that's when it's blowing. A UK government white paper last year factored in everything from uranium mining to plant decommissioning and determined that nuclear power emits 2 to 6 percent of the carbon per kilowatt-hour as natural gas, the cleanest of the fossil fuels.
Embracing the atom is key to winning the war on warming: Electric power generates 26 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and 39 percent of the United States' — it's the biggest contributor to global warming.1 One of the Kyoto Protocol's worst features is a sop to greens that denies carbon credits to power-starved developing countries that build nukes — thereby ensuring they'll continue to depend on filthy coal.Look at the environmental protection agency's CO2-per-kilowatt-hour map of the US... more
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kushan
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added this
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3 years ago
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Corporate Hog Farms are with cattle yards and beef production, the greatest producers of greenhouse gas.
Lakotah Indians in South Dakota are arrested at protest of hog farm on Indian lands.
Photo - "Rain Comes to Pine Ridge" by Sage Paisner 2008
From TouchArt.net and One Earth Blog.Corporate Hog Farms are with cattle yards and beef production, the greatest producers... more
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http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/04/yankton-police-officer-quits-job.html
Illegal South Dakota state police occupation continues on Yankton Indian Land
Incoming messages from Yankton protest:
I am Oitancan Zephier, a former police officer of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, combat veteran of Afghanistan and a father. Last week I quit my job when the protests started over the building of a hog farm by a corporation on private land surrounded by tribal lands. I quit because the Bureau of Indian Affairs will not help us. They stand and watch us get tossed in jail. The filth of the pigs will effect every part of our Indian people here.
There is a headstart school 2 miles away from the hog farm. There is a kindergarten through 12th grade school 4 miles away. There is a day care a couple miles away from the site. It is a prejudice act granted by the state of South Dakota to these pig farm owners. We need your help. If this is completed they will assume jurisdiction of all that surrounds them. The already began taking our tribal road, which we have intensely fought for 2 weeks now.
I have been thrown in jail while on our Indian land by a state officer. That is wrong!
I am begging you for your help. If you can, please publish the cry for help below in any way you can.
Contact me if you can help; or please forward this on to anyone who can help us."
The Zephier family is much respected in Lakotah country. (TouchArt)
Another censored news item from Brenda Norrell.
Brought to you from TouchArt.net and One Earth Blog because it's always been Earth Day every day in indigenous America.
Here are more links about the hog farm protest by Lakotahs.
Great pics of the excavation for hog farm andLakotah protesters at this link - http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/04/16/18493231.php
More here - http://www.guerrillanews.com/headlines/17270/Yankton_Lakota_under_armed_siege_for_protesting_hog_farm
And here -
http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080415/UPDATES/80415043/1052/OPINION01
Note how this protest relates to global warming and green house gases, since corporate meat production results in the biggest contribution of methane gas to the atmosphere.
Have a great Earth Day every day and consider eating organic farm raised pork if you have to eat meat.
Peace, Pax, Shalom, Salaam, Skenon,
Charleen
Charleen Touchette
www.Touchart.net
www.oneearthblog.blogspot.com
TouchArt@aol.com
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/04/yankton-police-officer-quits-job.html... more
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