Minn. Raises Bar on Renewable Energy Use

Minnesota put its faith in a future fueled by renewable energy Thursday as the governor signed a law requiring utilities to generate a quarter of their power from renewable sources such as wind, water and sun by 2025. Considering where Minnesota stands now - about half the power produced in the state is from coal, and only 5 percent from renewable sources - the move is the most aggressive in the country, analysts say.

"We have to break our addiction to fossil fuels," Gov. Tim Pawlenty said in signing the legislation.

The new law, which sailed through the Legislature, encourages the use of wind farms, hydroelectric power and solar energy, as well as cleaner-burning fuels.

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Al Gore's Musical Call to Action

The hit-making record producer Pharrell Williams, the wizard behind the beats of everybody from Ludacris to Britney, promises it will be "the biggest party on Earth." How big?

At the news conference Thursday announcing this summer's ambitious "Live Earth" concerts -- designed as an exercise in "mass persuasion" about threats of global warming -- Al Gore described his vision: a 24-hour musical extravaganza across seven continents, featuring as many as 150 of the world's top recording artists, introduced by an army of "celebrities and thought leaders" (think: Cameron Diaz and Richard Branson), playing before a total live audience of a million people, and reaching 2 billion more via television, radio and the Internet on July 7.

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Photovoltaics, or PV for short, is a solar power technology

Photovoltaics, or PV for short, is a solar power technology that uses solar cells or solar photovoltaic arrays to convert energy from the sun into electricity. Photovoltaics is also the field of study relating to this technology.

Solar cells are regarded as one of the key technologies towards a sustainable energy supply.
Mankind's traditional uses of wind, water, and solar power are widespread in developed and developing countries; but the mass production of electricity using renewable energy sources has become more commonplace only recently, reflecting the major threats of climate change due to pollution, exhaustion of fossil fuels, and the environmental, social and political risks of fossil fuels and nuclear power. Many countries and organizations promote renewable energies through taxes and subsidies. Varying definitions of the term renewable energy have been adopted to define eligibility under these policies.

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Phaeton's Reins

The human hand in climate change.

Kerry Emanuel.

Two strands of environmental philosophy run through the course of human history. The first holds that the natural state of the universe is one of infinite stability, with an unchanging earth anchoring the predictable revolutions of the sun, moon, and stars. Every scientific revolution that challenged this notion, from Copernicus' heliocentricity to Hubble's expanding universe, from Wegener's continental drift to Heisenberg's uncertainty and Lorenz's macroscopic chaos, met with fierce resistance from religious, political, and even scientific hegemonies.

The second strand also sees the natural state of the universe as a stable one but holds that it has become destabilized through human actions. The great floods are usually portrayed in religious traditions as attempts by a god or gods to cleanse the earth of human corruption. Deviations from cosmic predictability, such as meteors and comets, were more often viewed as omens than as natural phenomena. In Greek mythology, the scorching heat of Africa and the burnt skin of its inhabitants were attributed to Phaeton, an offspring of the sun god Helios, who, having lost a
wager to his son, was obliged to allow him to drive the sun chariot across the sky. In this primal environmental catastrophe, Phaeton lost control and fried the earth, killing himself in the process.

These two fundamental ideas have permeated many cultures through much of history. They strongly influence views of climate change to the present day.

• The myth of natural stability.
• So what saved the earth from fire and ice?
• Greenhouse physics.
• Why the climate problem is difficult.
• Determining humanity’s influence.
• The consequences.
• Science, politics, and the media.
• The politics of global climate change.

Like it or not, we have been handed Phaeton’s reins, and we will have to learn how to control climate if we are to avoid his fate.

Kerry Emanuel is a professor of meteorology at MIT and the author of Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes. In 2006 Time magazine recognized him as one of the world’s 100 most influential people.

SOURCE: Originally published in the January/February 2007 issue of Boston Review:

ME: Your document is publicly viewable at:

ME: BackyardPit:

Calling All Science Teachers.

Climate science from climate scientists.

Calling All Science Teachers.

RealClimate.

Al Gore’s movie.

DVD Giveaway for Teachers.

Science a la Joe Camel.

Scientists' Report

ME.

To The Churches, A Pastor's Message.

Al Gore and Global Warming: A Pastor's Message.

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Chuck Cram, pastor of the Aspen Community United Methodist Church, is carrying a new message today: Global warming is happening and it's time to do something about it.

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Cram has joined Al Gore's army of presenters for the "Answer the Call" program, a multi-media presentation based on Gore's book and 2006 film "An Inconvenient Truth."

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After attending a Jan. 4-6 training session in Nashville, Tenn., Cram, along with 200 other trainees, is now qualified to present a version of Gore's computer-based slide show.

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"I'm very excited and I want to get out and make some presentations, talk to people, field their questions and do what I can," Cram said.

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While researching for a sermon on environmentalism in October, Cram stumbled across Gore's website www.theclimateproject.org . He saw the call for volunteers, applied and was accepted in December. The cost of the trip to Nashville came out of his pocket, he said, with a little help from the church.

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"It was really an inspiring event," Cram said of Gore's training program. And Cram was humbled by his fellow trainees who ranged from NASA scientists, to professors, to business owners and other clergy members.

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"The bios on these people were amazing. I didn't fit in," he joked.

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Gore welcomed the group on opening night and walked trainees through the slide show on the second day. One of Gore's science advisors answered questions.

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"We really learned a lot about the research and the vetting of the information," Cram said.

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"Within the scientific community there isn't any debate about global warming," Cram said. Any doubt about global warming comes from the media and the influence of large oil companies, Cram said. He called the misleading information "inexcusable."

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And Cram is frustrated by members of the religious right who spread the wrong message about global warming. He hopes his church will be on the leading edge of environmental action, and he sees his work spreading the message about climate change as an important part of that.

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"There isn't anything more important than being good stewards of God's creation," the pastor said. "That's pretty basic."

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There is no silver bullet to the problem of climate change, Cram said, but there is what he called "silver buckshot," or lots of small ways people can make a difference.

"Get involved, think about your house and your vehicle," he recommends. People can make use of existing technology to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. By using efficient light bulbs, driving efficient vehicles, avoiding idling auto engines - a host of "little tiny things" - people can make a difference.

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"It's very hopeful. We still need to convince a lot of people that there is a problem, and that's kind of what the first part of the message is about. And then we get into what we can do and how we respond to this problem," Cram said.

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Cram called the former U.S. vice president "very accessible." Cram expected little more than a cameo during the training from the former U.S. vice president, but Gore spent a lot of time with trainees. Cram called Gore "very accessible."

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"He doesn't put on airs," Cram said, and added Gore has a great sense of humor.

Cram is ready to schedule presentations of "Answer the Call" in the Roaring Fork Valley. He offers 20-, 40- and 60-minute versions of the slide show. Cram cannot accept a fee to give the presentation, but said it is reasonable for individuals or organizations to cover his travel expenses. He plans to hold the first presentation in coming weeks at the Aspen Community Church.

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To arrange a presentation, contact Cram at the church at 925-1571, by cell phone at 319-0458, or by e-mail at revccram@earthlink.net.

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Charles Agar's e-mail address is cagar@aspentimes.com.

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Aspen Times:

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TheClimateProject:

2006 Is Hottest Year on Record in U.S.

Last year was the warmest in the continental United States in the past 112 years -- capping a nine-year warming streak "unprecedented in the historical record" that was driven in part by the burning of fossil fuels, the government reported yesterday.

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According to the government's National Climatic Data Center, the record-breaking warmth -- which caused daffodils and cherry trees to bloom throughout the East on New Year's Day -- was the result of both unusual regional weather patterns and the long-term effects of the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

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The center said there are indications that the rate at which global temperatures are rising is speeding up.

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El Ni?o weather pattern in the equatorial Pacific also contributed to the warm temperatures by blocking cold Arctic air from moving south and east across the nation.

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Advocates for more action to control carbon dioxide emissions also voiced concern.

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The Bush administration has rejected proposals to cap carbon dioxide emissions or impose carbon taxes as a way to limit global warming. Lawrimore said he believes the problem could and should be addressed by developing new technologies for powering vehicles and industry.

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Read The Full Story:

An Icon For Climate Change: The Polar Bear

The Polar Bear.

READ THE FULL STORY...

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I fervently believe that climate change, with the destruction that it is wreaking on our fragile, sacred earth, has become the most profound religious issue of our times.

A Jewish Response to Climate Change

Planet-Hunter Searches For Second Earth

Probe to investigate distant solar systems

Goldilocks' zones may be site of extraterrestrial life

The hunt for a second Earth began in earnest yesterday with the launch of a space probe that will peer beyond the solar system to distant planets

warmed by the faintest of stars.
At 2.23pm UK time a modernised soyuz rocket tore into the sky over Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying Corot, the first space telescope

designed to find habitable planets orbiting stars in remote solar systems.

The mission, which will take place over a two-and-a-half-year period, will look for rocky worlds about twice the size of Earth that lie in what space

scientists call habitable zones, the Goldilocks regions of space in every solar system where heat from the nearest star is neither too hot nor too cold

to sustain liquid water - believed to be the essential ingredient for life.

Planet-Hunter Searches For Second Earth

Time to Get Serious

Peak Oil

Ian Sample, Science Correspondent
Thursday December 28, 2006
The Guardian

Health Officials Puzzled By Whooping Cough Outbreak

What city health officials at first thought was an outbreak of whooping cough among employees at Children’s Hospital Boston may have been

something else entirely.

But exactly what is still in question.

It started when a 19-month-old patient came down with the classic symptoms of whooping cough, a respiratory disease also known as pertussis.

Symptoms include a runny nose, sneezing, slight fever, and mild cough, which can develop into a violent and persistent cough.

A laboratory test confirmed he had the disease.

Three dozen hospital employees and one other patient tested positive for whooping cough from late September through early November.

But further testing, different from the initial tests, could find little evidence of the highly contagious bacteria. Now no one can say for sure what

made the workers sick, but pertussis hasn’t been ruled out.

Federal and state health officials joined the city in trying to figure out exactly what ailed the workers, all of whom recovered.

The Children’s Hospital cases were at first confirmed through a test called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR.

Based on the tests, Children’s moved to contain the outbreak.

“Children’s, much like we do at the local health department, really relies on laboratory tests to guide us on what the diagnosis is, especially

illnesses that can look like a lot of different things,” said Dr. Anita Barry of the Boston Public Health Commission. “Having accurate test results early

on, particularly when they’re consistent with the clinical symptoms, really launches us into control steps.”

State lab workers then performed other tests, including the laborious task of culturing samples and taking blood samples from hospital workers.

The additional tests were almost uniformly negative for pertussis.

Samples were sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control.

“The results were inconclusive,” said Dr. Amanda Cohn, a medical epidemiologist for the federal agency.

There are competing theories, ranging from a cold virus to a bacterial relative of pertussis to the virus that causes the condition commonly known as

walking pneumonia.

It’s unlikely that the causes of all the respiratory illnesses will ever be fully known.

“What I can say is that whatever it was, it went away,” Barry said. “And that’s the good news.”

Read The Full Story, Boston Herald...

Climate Change, What Can I Do?

I am sending this e-mail to all family members; you can share it with your friends. I feel this is one of the most important e-mails I have ever sent.

You probably heard a lot about climate change in the news by now.

You’re going to here, in the news a lot about it. News writers are not climate scientist. News writers will take a climate scientists papers and take things out of context and add to it to get your attention and to make the story interesting.

There are a lot of doomsday-errs out their. So, take care of what you read. One doomsday-errs is (I like to refer to him as Dr. Doom Pianka) Dr. Pianka is not a climate scientist; he is a biology professor at the University of Texas. Another scientist to be careful of is Steven Milloy. Read about Steven Milloy at http://n.l.bliss.googlepages.com/science_junkscience and follow the links. (Milloy had received extensive funding and direction from Phillip Morris, RJR Tobacco, and Exxon Mobil).

Now for the good guys, the best I know of is Al Gore. Al Gore has been working on climate change for years. He is working with some of the top climate scientist in the world. Al Gore will gather information from climate scientists and explain it so lay-people can understand it. If you are interested in what you can do about climate change, see Al Gore’s documentary, (now on DVD) “An Inconvenient Truth”. You owe it to yourself to see this film. Become part of the solution. One of the most important films of our time. The Blue Marble (planet earth) needs your help. Moral Challenge. Moral Obligation.

If you are interested in more information on global warming see my website http://backyardpit.googlepages.com/. I update it daily. Follow the links. I try to stay away from doomsday scientist. I have one, Dr. Pianka. You’re not going to believe his answer for global warming.

Read about Dr. James E. Hansen, the top climate scientist at NASA and the others scientists and follow the links. They are some of the top climate scientist in the world; very interesting people and they look like kids.

Links:

Website, (BackyardPit) http://backyardpit.googlepages.com/

Dr. James E. Hansen http://backyardpit.googlepages.com/dr.jamese.hansen

Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. http://backyardpit.googlepages.com/albertarnoldgore

An Inconvenient Truth http://www.algore.com/

RealClimate (climate scientists) http://www.realclimate.org/