President-elect Barack Obama opened up the Governors’ Global Climate Summit (see how they split the difference on what to call it) with a video address today. The speech kicks off California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s international climate change summit in grand style with soon to be President Obama saying all the right things regarding this undeniably enormous issue confronting our world. Check it out below:

The first thing that strikes me while watching this is the absolute relief of being on the verge of getting a President that actually gets it. We have gone so long in this country with such poor leadership on this matter (and many, many others) that I practically need to pinch myself to believe this guy is the for real next President, with real power, and not some commentator on Billy Moyers show on PBS. But for real it is, and man does it feel good .

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A new documentary entitled Not Evil, Just Wrong is out to prove that Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth was not only inaccurate but also dangerous.  I’m actually surprised a documentary like this didn’t come out sooner, like before the election.  Seems like it would have been a good way to rally the troops to get some McCain/Palin votes.  Nevertheless it is coming out now and the trailer below proves that creepy music and beautiful images can make some  quality almost convincing propaganda:

Of note is the part of the trailer where they say “we’re human beings, we all have a right to be here” or some such thing - the reality is that without a healthy planet, we won’t be able to be here.  And also, why do we have” a right” to be here?  We are lucky to be here and we need to stop abusing our planet and expecting it to support us.

I also love how they use “ordinary people” to try to not only prove their point, but also to try and profit.  Not only do they want “ordinary people” to help get the movie seen across the country - they also went them to donate to their cause on their website.  They want them as they put it, “to be a part of history”…

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Seeking to find long-term solutions to the global climate crisis, The Financial Times has launched the Climate Change Challenge.  The contest, co-sponsored by Hewlett Packard and Forum for the Future, offers a $75,000 prize to the most innovative business idea that will help reduce carbon emissions and offer sustainable strategies for the future.  I’ve always believed that financial incentive will be the true motivator for industries to improve their ecological impact, and projects like these will help spur businesses into action.  Industry leaders need to step up to the plate and reduce their carbon-footprint drastically, because it will require large-scale priority shifts to improve our climate outlook.  While individual efforts to combat climate change are important, there are only so many compact-fluorescent bulbs I can install.

Got a bright idea for the Climate Change Challenge? takepart by entering the contest or learn more about what you can do to help solve the climate crisis.

Do you think it’s a coincidence that this movie takes the position the world will end in 2012 and that there is talk of Sarah Palin running for President in 2012?

Roland E. does a good job with apocalyptic action films, so I’m sure this will be beautiful to look at. The only question for me is what the politics behind the world ending will be.

In the meantime, it seems we have 4 years to get some serious work done, so takepart and help fix our planet!

An Answer to Global Warming?

A team of scientists from Columbia University have discovered that the mineral peridotite absorbs carbon dioxide. When CO2 comes into contact with the rock it is converted into a solid mineral (often calcite).

The findings could have an enormous impact on the fight against Global Warming the world over. The geologists that discovered the naturally occurring process have also found that it can be supercharged by a million times to convert carbon dioxide into minerals deep underground, which is convenient as the majority of peridotite is found deep within the crust of the Earth, where it is actually the most commonly occurring mineral in the mantle of our planet. Preliminary estimates find that approximately 7% of all the CO2 emitted on earth due to human activity, could be safely stored by using such method.

It stands to reason that in order to realistically deal with a problem as large as Global Warming a variety of strategies will be required. While cutting down on fossel fuel consumption and saving energy are unquestionably cornerstones in building a sustainable future, CO2 reduction strategies like the one described above should be given serious consideration as well.

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While President-Elect Barack Obama certainly has a lot on his plate, hopefully, once in office, he can solve multiple problems in one bite with Al Gore’s proposal to move to 100% clean energy.  Just as President John F. Kennedy propelled us to the moon with a 10 year ultimatum, Gore insists that a complete transition to zero-carbon electricity with the same timeline is the only way to ween us from climate changing fossil fuels, and create a prosperous green economy.  In the latest issue of Mother Jones he explains:

We should speed up this transition by insisting that the price of carbon-based energy include the costs of the environmental damage it causes. I have long supported a sharp reduction in payroll taxes with the difference made up in CO₂ taxes. We should tax what we burn, not what we earn.

It’s going to take some radical thought

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How I love Pixar and how I already love love love Carl Fredricksen.  I can’t believe there is going to be a cartoon where an old man is the hero. Grumpy old men rock.  Especially when they make their house fly with balloons.

What did you think? I mean the balloons are beautiful and clearly Carl Fredricksen is super cool. 

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So we all knew this day would come, the election is really really over.  What then is an Obama supporter to do?  What are we supposed to talk about?  And what am I supposed to write about?

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are
Of course, Obama himself pointed out that there is a lot of work left to do. It may not be as fun as talking with your friends about the ridiculous thing Sarah Palin did or said, or as easy as sending your weekly ten dollars to the Obama campaign, but it is necessary. So takepart to start thinking about energy conservation and change.

European Space Agency reports that the thickness of sea ice in large parts of the Arctic declined by as much as 19% last winter compared to the previous five winters. This date data comes from ESA’s Envisat satellite.

They measured sea ice thickness over the Arctic from 2002 to 2008 and found that it had been fairly constant until the record loss of ice in the summer of 2007.

You can read the full report here.

takepart with We Can Solve It

“Cap and trade” emissions programs have always struck a dubious note for me, and yesterday’s “Cashing in on Carbon” conference in London further reinforced my suspicions.   I’m all for polluters limiting their greenhouse gas output, and I have always argued that major environmental improvements for industries will come from economic incentives, but carbon trading seems like the old bait-and-switch deception long practiced by industry hucksters.   Sure they have to limit their emissions to a degree, but then they can buy up carbon credits all over they place, appearing to their shareholders and the public as environmental stewards, when in fact, they are continuing to spew huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.   And now we have industry leaders huddled in dark rooms scheming to make the most money from this shell game.

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