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Rev. Pat Robertson converts on global warming
WWJD? From Reuters:
Conservative Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson said on Thursday the wave of scorching temperatures across the United States has converted him into a believer in global warming.
"We really need to address the burning of fossil fuels," Robertson said on his "700 Club" broadcast. "It is getting hotter, and the icecaps are melting and there is a buildup of carbon dioxide in the air."
This week the heat index, the perceived temperature based on both air temperatures and humidity, reached 115 Fahrenheit in some regions of the U.S. East Coast. The 76-year-old Robertson told viewers that was "the most convincing evidence I've seen on global warming in a long time."Next step: doing something about it.
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Good idea
Making biodiesel from used restaurant grease and other waste products is a good idea. This article shows us how a large city is managing to turn waste into useful energy. They have convinced about 130 restaurants to donate their grease to the cause:Restaurant owner Mike Dormont says that he could earn a few dollars per month selling the grease to recyclers for uses other than biodiesel fuel, but that he would rather do something that benefits the area.
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Create your own PSA
Our friends over at Shifting Baselines have launched a new website and video contest where you can create and submit your own PSA:
The contest comes at a time when more than ninety percent of large fish in the oceans are being consumed, coral reefs around the world are dying due to coral bleaching, and large lifeless regions called "dead zones" are expanding each year. The problem of ocean decline has reached global crisis stage. Shifting Baselines' objective is to create solutions by having more effective "communication" to inform people about the problems and the goal of the contest is to give young creative filmmakers the opportunity to relay the message through creative outlets in filmmaking.
The videos will be reviewed by a host of celebrity judges. Read the full press release for more information:
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Dalai Drama
China plans massive diversion of Tibetan river water The Chinese never met a problem they couldn’t solve with a few billion dollars and a massive engineering project out of scale with anything ever attempted before by humanity. The latest is a $37 billion undertaking which would divert water from rivers in the high reaches of […]
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Ports punting pollution
Recognizing they can't grow unless they clean up, the huge ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will soon unveil a $2 billion effort to address the incredible air pollution they produce every day. According to today's Washington Post, the two ports that account for 40% of the nation's container trade will launch a plan next month to "reduce particulate matter by 81 percent and nitrogen oxides by 62 percent in five years."
And it sounds like it is needed; incomprehensibly, the L.A. port alone emits daily the equivalent particulate matter and nitrogen oxide produced by a half million cars, a typical refinery, and a typical power plant combined.
But looking at the numbers, it starts to make sense.
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California failin’
The Wall Street Journal has a lengthy and quite depressing story about California's long and futile attempt to reduce oil use in its transportation sector. I say skip it. Life's too short to be depressed!
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Initiatives on the ballot in six states could cripple government
A bang-up reporting job by Ray Ring in the most recent issue of High Country News on a menacing set of property-rights initiatives that will be on the ballot in six states this November: Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Washington. If you thought Oregon's Measure 37 was bad, you ain't seen nothin' yet.
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How to protect — and restore — lost fishing grounds
"Something in our oceans has gone greviously wrong," report Kenneth Weiss and Usha Lee McFarling in a remarkable week-long multimedia series called "Altered Oceans."
On the web, the series turns out to be a collection of impressively-arranged videos, charts, and photographs, focusing not just on the usual complaints -- overfishing and mismanagement -- but also on the threat of plastics to birds, "slime" to divers, and toxic algae to sea lions. The special -- the web version plays almost like a documentary -- has been lavishly praised by visitors to the L.A. Times message board.
But of course, if there were any doubt about the threat to our oceans, one could also pay attention to National Geographic on "dirty fishing," Nature [$] on acid level rise, the Monterey Herald on the collapse of salmon fisheries in California this year, Mother Jones on our blindness to the fate of the seas, and no doubt many other thoughtful, well-researched articles and documentaries.
But for a ray of light amidst the gloom, consider this fact: Lobsters are thriving in the waters off Maine, despite an ever-growing and highly profitable commercial fishery.
Why?
