Wisconsin Global Warming Task Force Will Spend Tomorrow Listening

If you're a resident of Wisconsin, tomorrow you'll have the opportunity to tell state government representatives what you think leaders in Madison should be doing to address climate change. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,

The Governor's Task Force on Global Warming plans to conduct meetings in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay and La Crosse.

The task force is seeking input about how Wisconsin can take steps to reduce emissions from carbon dioxide - a gas that is produced from car emissions and the burning of coal from power plants. ...

The task force said it intended to make recommendations to Gov. Jim Doyle this year.

While numerous Midwestern states are focused hard on energy issues, I believe this kind of state-level initiative on climate change is fairly unique in our region (please correct me if I'm wrong). While the first question that came to my mind was will Wisconsin follow California and Florida in implementing plans to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases in the state, I also wonder if a major move in the Badger State will draw the attention of other Midwestern governors and legislatures. Michigan's already on board promoting green business development, Minnesota's at work on growing its use of clean energy sources, and, of course, states a little further south have hopped on the biofuels bandwagon (yeah, I know -- still lots of questions to be answered there...).

I wonder if it's possible to get beyond some of the more parochial interests and develop a region-wide climate change compact -- something like what we've seen in the Northeast and West Coast...

UPDATE: MattyBee points out in the comments that Minnesota's already passed a greenhouse gas reduction bill -- 80% by 2050.

Image source: SolveGlobalWarmingWisconsin.org

Categories: climatechange, globalwarming, taskforce, government, governor, jimdoyle, wisconsin

Dispatches from Paros: Wrapping It Up

Wanted to get this up last night, but was still feeling the effects of jet lag. I'll have something original for you this evening, though...

While my title is not exactly accurate, as I'm back home in St. Louis now, I wanted to get in one more post wrapping up my coverage of last week's Symi Symposium in Paros, Greece. I also want to thank the folks at the Andreas G. Papandreou Foundation for inviting me to attend the symposium -- it was a great time, and a week full of learning.

The final symposium session I attended (on Friday) addressed the important issue of climate change in the developing world. Moderated by Kumi Naidoo of South Africa-based NGO CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, the speakers at the session focused on the challenges climate change presents to the world's poorer nations: namely, that while these countries historically have had the lowest levels of greenhouse gas emissions, they will likely be hit the hardest and fastest by the effects of global warming. Speakers addressed the issues of inequality tied up in the climate change debate, the notion of environmental justice, and specific problems, such as deforestation, that will increase the level of suffering endured by the world's poorest citizens.

Friday evening, all of us gathered in the village of Naoussa for a closing ceremony. It was quite an event, as media crews were on hand to hear concluding comments by a number of symposium participants, and our gracious host, George Papandreou. We concluded with a wonderful Greek dinner (and real Greek food is incredible).

Yes, this is a bit lighter than some of the previous posts from the symposium -- I'm blaming it on jet lag! If you have questions or comments on any of these issues, fire away!

Photo: Symi Symposium Closing Ceremony. From left to right: Gerd Leipold, Executive Director of Greenpeace International; Misha Glenny, writer and editor (formerly of the BBC); George Papandreou, president of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement and the Socialist International, and former foreign minister of Greece. Photo courtesy of http://www.papandreou.gr

Crossposted at Green Options

Categories: symisymposium, climatechange, globalwarming, paros, greece, event

Dispatches from Paros: Climate Changes Everything

Last week, I mentioned that I would occasionally veer from the course I set out for the relaunch of sustainablog, and that you'd see some of those exceptions this week. The reason -- I'm currently in Greece attending the Papandreou foundation's annual Symi Symposium. To stay on top of the developments here, I'll be doing quite a bit of cross posting between Green Options and sustainablog. Here's the first post I published on GO about the symposium -- more will be coming shortly.

This week, we've got something exclusive for you: an inside look at a major symposium on climate change hosted by Greece's Andreas G. Papandreou foundation. The Foundation invited me to participate in the event, and I just arrived on the Greek Island of Paros a few hours ago.

Needless to say, I was very excited by this invitation, and not just because I get to spend a week in the Greek Isles and still call it work. Papandreou's annual Symi Symposium brings together great minds from around the world each year to discuss solutions to global issues. The participants include politicians (several members of various parliaments, and one president), business leaders, academics and representatives of non-governmental organizations. This year's theme is "Climate Changes Everything," and I'm definitely looking forward to hearing the perspectives presented on addressing the global climate crisis.

Some minor travel mishaps kept me away from the symposium's first session, "After Kyoto: How to Design a New Global Accord." Now that I'm here, I'm definitely looking forward to upcoming sessions and workshops on energy alternatives, social entrepreneurship, the "Green Economy," and climate change in the developing world. I'll be providing details throughout here, and may even give podcasting a try (there's a studio for it here). I'll also take plenty of photographs... everything is worthy of a picture here!

The Papandreuo foundation has graciously picked up the tab for me to attend and cover this event.

Image: The view from my hotel room's back porch...

Cross posted at Green Options

Cavemen and Climate Change

Just finished reading a fascinating post at The Oil Drum that Prof. Goose emailed out on Friday. Titled "Climate Change, Sabre Tooth Tigers and Devaluing the Future," writer Nate Hagens thinks about the inability to generate wide-scale action on peak oil (the focus at TOD) and climate change. Digging deeply (for a blog post, anyway) into both evolutionary biology and economics, Hagens ultimately comes to the conclusion that the pay-off isn't close enough for us: we're "wired" to focus on needs and desires that bring relatively immediate rewards. If we're going to move people to action, we have to create a means of marketing these issues that creates emotional triggers for immediate action -- getting people to think about it won't work on its own. That's a really quick and dirty summary, but it's an issue that most of us here should be familiar. Read the post... it's full of ideas that all of concerned about environmental challenges need to consider.

The big question, of course, is what to do about it: how do we address long-term changes with results that we likely won't live to see? Is it simply a matter of marketing? Seth Godin brought up the problems with the term "global warming" last year, and that seems particularly relevant to this discussion. On the other hand, if we try to reframe these issues in such a way to produce more desire for immediate action, are we playing right into charges of "chicken little" pronouncements? It's a conundrum, and a new one: we've only been able to make these kinds of predictions (with any accuracy) for a very tiny portion of our history as a species; for most of our collective existence, we've focused on the here and now.

I could ramble on, but I think I'll leave it at that, and open it up to the rest of you.Whaddaya think?

Categories: climatechange, peakoil, evolution, biology, economics, science

PB&J: The Climate-Friendly Lunch

Well, Rebecca beat me to this, but I think it's a great concept: The PB&J Campaign. Most of us consider a peanut butter and jelly sandwich a memory from our childhood, but the campaign (which looks to be completely independent) wants to promote this comfort food as the way to "Make a difference one lunch at a time." According to their site,

A PB&J will slow global warming. Next time you have one you'll reduce your carbon footprint by saving the equivalent of 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions over an average animal-based lunch like a hamburger, a tuna sandwich, grilled cheese, or chicken nuggets. That's about forty percent of what you'd save driving around for the day in a hybrid instead of a standard sedan. If you were going to have a ham sandwich or a hamburger, you save the equivalent almost three and a half pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.

A PB&J also saves about 962 gallons of water over the hamburger. To put this in perspective, two PB&Js a month instead of hamburgers will save about as much water as switching to a low-flow showerhead.

Have a PB&J and save 12 to 50 square feet of land from deforestation, over-grazing, and pesticide and fertilizer pollution.

Ultimately (and you've probably already figured this out), the campaign is promoting meatless meals, but I think this is one of the most innovative and non-threatening ways to do it. If we take the approach of telling people "You should stop eating meat because of it's heavy environmental impact," we're likely going to get an unprintable response. But focusing on a single meal, and a single solution (though the campaign has other options if you just really don't want to do PB&J), especially one with which we're all familiar, should be a lot more effective. Sure, large-scale vegetarianism/veganism is ideal; it's likely not going to happen any time soon, though. A couple of lunches a week, though -- that's achievable, and could make an impact.

Along these lines, another GO writer, Patrick Donnelly, has a post up today on making your own "fast food." His suggestions are not only greener, but probably much more tasty than a drive-up window burger... So what are you having for lunch?

UPDATE: Bernard Brown, founder of the PB&J project, has started a blog on the site. In his first post, he addresses the question of funding... The short version: he and some friends are the sole sources of funding.

Categories: peanutbutter, jelly, food, climate, meat, meatless, campaign, activism