By the Numbers - Wasteful Cities
More on Deniers - Boycott
Companies supporting the climate change denier organizations
Rep. Shimkus (R-Il): Cutting CO2 emissions is "Taking away plant food from the atmosphere"
MIT Professor Tells Boehner To Stop 'Misrepresenting' Green Economy Legislation
True or False? Cap-and-Trade Will Cost You $3,000
Seeing the Light on Darkness: Studies Link Light Pollution and Cancer
Fish out of water - marine management in a changing climate
Businesses urged to save water or risk "severe shortages"
Flame Retardant Chemicals Taint All U.S. Coastal Waters
CDC: Rocket fuel chemical found in baby formula
Warming Takes Center Stage As Australian Drought Worsens
Climate Change Hits American Yards
New Study: Black Carbon Responsible for Half of Arctic Warming
Mercury in seals linked to vanishing sea ice
Ice-free Arctic Ocean Possible In 30 Years, Not 90 As Previously Estimated
Natural mechanism for medieval warming discovered
Dust May Settle Unanswered Questions On Antarctica
Climate Change Fears For Deadly Virus Outbreaks In Livestock
Solibri Model Checker - BIM
Energy labels for buildings may be key to saving energy
RI wants all new municipal buildings energy efficient
Ceres Report Outlines 600+ Green Insurance Offerings
'First Economical Process' For Making Biodiesel Fuel From Algae
The Greening of Pittsburgh
The Cost of Building Green
Climate Change Effects In California
Put agriculture at heart of climate talks, says report
Reducing greenhouse emissions could cut global disease burden by 25% - WHO
Energy source from the underground
Greening your office operations

By the Numbers
Least Wasteful to most wasteful cities
Rank City

San Francisco, CA
New York City, NY
Portland, OR
Seattle, WA
Los Angeles, CA
Denver, CO
Minneapolis, MN
Washington, D.C.
Boston, MA
Philadelphia, PA
Chicago, IL
Baltimore, MD
Detroit, MI
Pittsburgh, PA
Orlando, FL
Cleveland, OH
Sacramento, CA
Miami, FL
Tampa, FL
Phoenix, AZ
St. Louis, MO
Houston, TX
Indianapolis, IN
Dallas, TX
Atlanta, GA

More on Deniers - Boycott
Many of you have probably now seen that absurd anti-scientific denier ad Cato is spending big bucks to put in major newspapers. "The New York Times ad alone would have cost over $150,000, based on the newspaper's published ad rates," notes one article.
The ad attacks President Obama and the whole notion of strong climate action with studies that don't even support its basic premise - see New study quoted by Cato deniers concludes "warming over the 21st century may well be larger than that predicted by the current generation of models" and RealClimate's excellent post.
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Companies supporting the climate change denier organizations
If you want to boycott their products, or write them letters, or anything else - I leave that up to you. Here is the most recent list of corporate sponsors from Cato's most recent (2007) annual report:

Altria Corporate Services Inc.

American Petroleum Institute.

Amerisure Companies.

Comcast Corp.

Consumer Electronics Association.

FedEx Corp.

Freedom Communications Inc.

General Motors Corp.

Honda North America Inc.

Mazda North America Operations.

Microsoft Corporation.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.

TimeWarner Inc.

Toyota Motor Corp.

UST Inc.

Visa USA Inc.

Volkswagen of America Inc.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Rep. Shimkus (R-Il): Cutting CO2 emissions is "Taking away plant food from the atmosphere"
See The Video...the planet is Carbon Starved
TVMOB says we are "carbon starved" because back in the Cambrian era the planet had 7000 ppm of CO2.
Of course, "There were no land plants or animals," back then and "most of the continents resembled deserts spanning from horizon to horizon" with "nothing more than a microbial 'crud' gracing the soils." And sea levels were 30 to 90 meters higher. But hey, no biggie!
Why do conservatives and deniers want to re-create conditions on the planet from millions of years ago.
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MIT Professor Tells Boehner To Stop 'Misrepresenting' Green Economy Legislation
PolitiFact interviewed John Reilly, an MIT professor and one of the authors of the study, who explained he had spoken with a representative from the House Republicans on March 20, and that he had clearly told them, "why the estimate they had was probably incorrect and what they should do to correct it." Nonetheless, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) decided to use the $3,100 figure to attack cap-and-trade, while the National Republican Campaign Committee blasted dozens of press releases like the following on March 31:
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Read the Letter...

True or False? Cap-and-Trade Will Cost You $3,000
Widely reported estimates for how much a so-called "light switch tax" would cost the average American household are grossly inflated. Here's why.
It sure ain't the "death tax," but you have to give Rep. John Boehner points for using the phrase "light switch tax" in attacking cap-and-trade legislation.
Of course, it would be nice if Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell weren't insisting on the existence of a non-existent MIT study showing that cap-and-trade legislation will increase your energy taxes by more than $3,000.
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Seeing the Light on Darkness: Studies Link Light Pollution and Cancer
During a power outage in California in the 1990s, alarmed residents reportedly called in to report a strange, cloudy shape in the nighttime sky. It turned out to be the Milky Way- seen for the first time. For those of us who live in urban or suburban areas, an overabundance of artificial nighttime light, or light pollution, is nothing new. But light pollution isn't just a bane to astronomers and an annoyance to the rest of us: studies show that it also poses real health risks, including some increased rates of cancer.
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Fish out of water - marine management in a changing climate
A fisherman's tale: on the night of 6 October 1986 lobster fishermen from the small town of Gilleleje, north of Copenhagen, fishing the Kattegat Sea, found their nets crammed with Norway lobster. Many of the animals were dead or dying. About half were a strange colour.
Observations of dissolved oxygen in the water in combination with the dead lobsters told researchers at the National Environmental Research Institute in Denmark that an unusually large area on the bottom of the southern Kattegat was devoid of oxygen. The strange events were caused by 'anoxia' or lack of oxygen on the sea bed that night. Scientists believe the lobsters were suffocating!
Twenty-two years later, large parts of the Baltic are affected by anoxic areas or 'dead zones'.
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Businesses urged to save water or risk "severe shortages"
The Environment Agency yesterday warned that businesses and householders must do more to save water or face "severe shortages" over the coming years as a result of climate change and population growth.
Releasing its new Water Resources Strategy for England and Wales, the Environment Agency recommended the roll out of a wide range of water saving measures, including universal installation of domestic water meters, a formal review of the UK water industry, and a new strategy to cut carbon emissions through reductions in water use and improvements to the UK's water infrastructure.
It also recommended measures to better incentivise water companies to encourage customers to cut water use and impose a higher financial burden on customers who waste water.
"People and businesses need to use less water and wasting water needs to cost a lot more," argued the Environment Agency's chief executive, Dr Paul Leinster. "The proposals in our new strategy cover actions that need to be taken by water companies, Government, regulators, businesses and the public, and we need a joined up approach to this problem to prevent it becoming a crisis."
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Flame Retardant Chemicals Taint All U.S. Coastal Waters
WASHINGTON, DC, April 1, 2009 (ENS) - Chemicals used as flame retardants in consumer products since the 1970s now are found in all U.S. coastal waters and the Great Lakes, with elevated levels near urban and industrial centers, according to a federal government report issued today.
The nationwide survey found that New York's Hudson-Raritan Estuary had the highest overall concentrations of the chemicals, both in sediments and shellfish, but scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found polybrominated diphenyl ethers, PBDEs, in all U.S. coastal waters.
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CDC: Rocket fuel chemical found in baby formula
ATLANTA (AP) -- Traces of a chemical used in rocket fuel were found in samples of powdered baby formula, and could exceed what's considered a safe dose for adults if mixed with water also contaminated with the ingredient, a government study has found.
The study by scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked for the chemical, perchlorate, in different brands of powdered baby formula. It was published last month, but the Environmental Working Group issued a press release Thursday drawing attention to it.
The chemical has turned up in several cities' drinking water supplies. It can occur naturally, but most perchlorate contamination has been tied to defense and aerospace sites.
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Warming Takes Center Stage As Australian Drought Worsens
In February, on the same day that the temperature in Melbourne reached 116^o F - the hottest day ever recorded in Australia's second-largest city - driving winds pushed a catastrophic bushfire across 1,500 square miles of eucalyptus forests in the state of Victoria, destroying 1,800 homes and farms and killing 173 people. That, too, set a record - for the most deaths from a bushfire in Australia's history.
Adelaide and Melbourne are running out of water. The Murray-Darling Basin, Australia's prime food-growing region, is in the 12th year of a devastating drought that is putting the country's ability to feed itself in question. The 400,000-square-mile basin, larger than France and Germany combined, has been so dry that the 1-million ton-rice crop was decimated last year, and production of wheat, lambs, and cotton are in significant decline.
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Climate Change Hits American Yards
An updated hardiness map for plants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture reveals just how much local climates are changing
As winter retreats northward across the nation, gardeners are cleaning tools and turning attention to spring planting. But climate change is adding a new wrinkle, and now a standard reference - the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Plant Hardiness Zone Map - is about to make very clear how much rising temperatures have shifted planting zones northward.
The guide, last updated in 1990, shows where various species can be expected to thrive. A revision is expected sometime this year, and while the agency hasn't released details, horticulturalists and experts who have helped with the revision expect the new map to extend plants' northern ranges and paint a sharp picture of the continent's gradual warming over the past few decades.
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New Study: Black Carbon Responsible for Half of Arctic Warming
Black carbon is an aerosol produced from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass and is estimated to be the second or third largest contributor to climate change. Its emissions cause damage in two ways: while in the atmosphere, the dark particulates absorb sunlight and emit it as heat; when it falls back to earth it can darken snow and ice, reducing their reflectivity and accelerating melting.
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Mercury in seals linked to vanishing sea ice
After more than 30 years of monitoring the seals, the researchers have noticed a disturbing pattern: levels of the dangerous metal mercury in the seals are connected to the state of sea ice on the ocean. The new research, published in ES&T, reveals that more mercury may be spiraling up the food chain as sea ice disappears. "The trend now in the loss of sea ice suggests that mercury in ringed seals will increase over time,"? says Gary Stern, a study coauthor from the University of Manitoba (Canada). His team, along with colleagues from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, measured mercury levels in ringed seals collected from 1973 to 2007 and related the levels to the length of the summer ice-free season in the seals' habitat.
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Ice-free Arctic Ocean Possible In 30 Years, Not 90 As Previously Estimated
ScienceDaily (Apr. 3, 2009) - A nearly ice-free Arctic Ocean in the summer may happen three times sooner than scientists have estimated. New research says the Arctic might lose most of its ice cover in summer in as few as 30 years instead of the end of the century.
The amount of the Arctic Ocean covered by ice at the end of summer by then could be only about 1 million square kilometers, or about 620,000 square miles. That's compared to today's ice extent of 4.6 million square kilometers, or 2.8 million square miles. So much more open water could be a boon for shipping and for extracting minerals and oil from the seabed, but it raises the question of ecosystem upheaval.
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Natural mechanism for medieval warming discovered
Europe basked in unusually warm weather in medieval times, but why has been open to debate. Now the natural climate mechanism that caused the mild spell seems to have been pinpointed.
The finding is significant today because, according to Valerie Trouet at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research in Birmensdorf, the mechanism that caused the warm spell in Europe - and meant wine could be produced in England as it is now - cannot explain current warming. It means the medieval warm period was mainly a regional phenomenon caused by altered heat distribution rather than a global phenomenon.
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Dust May Settle Unanswered Questions On Antarctica
ScienceDaily (Apr. 2, 2009) - Dust trapped deep in Antarctic ice sheets is helping scientists unravel details of past climate change. Researchers have found that dust blown south to Antarctica from the windy plains of Patagonia � and deposited in the ice periodically over 80,000 years � provides vital information about glacier activity.
Scientists hope the findings will help them to better understand how the global climate has changed during the past ice age, and so help predict environmental changes in the future.
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Climate Change Fears For Deadly Virus Outbreaks In Livestock
ScienceDaily (Apr. 2, 2009) - Global warming could have chilling consequences for European livestock, warned Professor Peter Mertens from the Institute for Animal Health, at the meeting of the Society for General Microbiology in Harrogate on March 30.
Since 1998, rising temperatures have led to outbreaks of bluetongue (BT) across most of Europe, which have killed over 2 million ruminants (mainly sheep). The outbreak (the largest on record) caused by Bluetongue virus serotype 8 (BTV-8), which started in the Netherlands and Belgium during 2006, has since spread to most European countries, including the UK in August and September 2007. This outbreak, the first ever recorded in northern Europe, was not an isolated event. There are also fears that related viruses, such as African horse sickness virus, which can have a fatality rate of more than 95% and shares the same insect vectors as bluetongue, could also be introduced.
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Solibri Model Checker
Solibri Model Checker is used to analyze BIM models saved in the IFC format for potential problems, conflicts, or design code violations. It also includes visualization, walkthrough, interference detection, model comparison, collaboration, and quantity take-off capabilities.
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Energy labels for buildings may be key to saving energy
The best way to get owners to upgrade their properties is through market forces, and the best way to do that may be through energy-performance labeling.
Energy-performance labeling is a lot like the "nutrition facts" on your cereal box. It rates how well a building is performing in terms of energy efficiency and carbon emissions. For several years, the British have been labeling homes and buildings as they come up for sale or lease. The European Union will be adopting energy labeling soon as well.
The Brits go one step further. Along with your rating, they'll give you a detailed description of how well the building's key components-walls, roof, hot water, lighting, etc.-are performing, what kinds of improvements would have the best energy payback, and at what approximate cost.
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RI wants all new municipal buildings energy efficient
Providence RI Mayor signed an order requiring all new municipal buildings to be certified as green facilities. The order mandates that buildings meet one of two nationally recognized standards in energy-efficient construction: (1) LEED certification or (2) the certification under the Collaborative for High Performance Schools ("CHPS").
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Ceres Report Outlines 600+ Green Insurance Offerings
BOSTON, Mass. -- Insurers are steadily taking climate change into account when developing or adding to insurance offerings. A new report from Ceres outlines the 640-plus climate-related insurance initiatives worldwide. But while that number has jumped drastically in recent years, Ceres said it's not increasing fast enough.
Ceres, a U.S. coalition of investors and environmental groups, released it's latest report looking at climate-focused insurance, "From Risk to Opportunity: Insurer Responses to Climate Change," (PDF) this month.
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'First Economical Process' For Making Biodiesel Fuel From Algae
ScienceDaily (Mar. 31, 2009) - Chemists reported development of what they termed the first economical, eco-friendly process to convert algae oil into biodiesel fuel - a discovery they predict could one day lead to U.S. independence from petroleum as a fuel.
The study was presented recently at the 237th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.
One of the problems with current methods for producing biodiesel from algae oil is the processing cost, and the New York researchers say their innovative process is at least 40 percent cheaper than that of others now being used. Supply will not be a problem: There is a limitless amount of algae growing in oceans, lakes, and rivers, throughout the world.
Another benefit from the "continuously flowing fixed-bed" method to create algae Biodiesel, they add, is that there is no wastewater produced to cause pollution.
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The Greening of Pittsburgh
The city, which has lost half its population since 1950, had a well-chronicled change of character over the second half of the 20th century: from a center of the steel industry to headquarters for many large corporations to a much more diverse economy that encompasses health care, education, finance and technology.
As it shrank, the city had relatively little new construction compared with many United States cities. But it was in the forefront of the movement to conserve existing structures and clean up the contaminated industrial sites called brownfields, becoming a leader in the field of sustainable building. That is now serving Pittsburgh well during the economic downturn.
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The Cost of Building Green
When "Green Construction" is discussed the focus inevitably turns to cost. How much additional will the green project cost? Some organizations are opposed to any additional first costs while others have some tolerance for additional expenditures.
The most prominent standard for green buildings is the USGBC (US Green Building Council). The USGBC LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program has four levels of green certification: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum. These levels represent increasing levels of sustainability. There have been numerous studies aimed at comparing the cost of a USGBC LEED certified building to traditional designs. The average additional cost quoted is in the range of 2% to 5%. Based upon commercial building costs of $150/sq.ft. to $250/sq.ft., this is equivalent to a $7.50 to $12.50/sq.ft. premium for building green. The majority of this cost is due to the increased architectural and engineering design time necessary to integrate sustainable building practices into the projects. Another additional cost is for commissioning.
Commissioning is the process of ensuring that the systems are designed, installed, functionally tested and capable of being operated and maintained to conform to the design intent. According to Lawrence Berleley National Laboratory commissioning can save as much as 40% of the buildings utility bills for HVAC.
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Climate Change Effects In California
ScienceDaily (Apr. 1, 2009) - A biennial report released April 1 by a team of experts that advises California's governor suggests that climate changes are poised to affect virtually every sector of the state's economy and most of its ecosystems. Significant impacts will likely occur under even moderate scenarios of global greenhouse emissions and associated climate change, but without action, severe and costly climate change impacts are possible across the state.
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Put agriculture at heart of climate talks, says report
A campaign to drive agriculture to the forefront of climate change negotiations took a step forward yesterday with the launch of a document by food policy experts. Agriculture will be "dramatically" affected by climate change, says the paper, published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). It could also become a potent brake on climate change if the right research and policies are implemented.
But its role has yet to be championed in the build-up to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations to take place in Copenhagen in December, says the paper 'Agriculture and Climate Change: An Agenda for Negotiation in Copenhagen'.
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Reducing greenhouse emissions could cut global disease burden by 25% - WHO
The World Health Organisation urged policy makers to consider the serious implications of climate change on health, at a conference in Copenhagen on 10-12 March. Speaking at the conference - Climate Change Global Risks, Challenges, and Decisions - the World Health Organisation (WHO) argued that improving environmental conditions could help reduce the global disease burden by more than 25%. Currently, WHO has estimated that about 150 000 people die each year in poor countries from the top four climate related problems - crop failure and malnutrition, diarrhoeal disease, malaria, and flooding. The speakers warned that climate change will affect all elements of life as we know it - increased risks of extreme weather events will effect directly the prevalence of infectious disease, and rises in sea level will lead to salinisation of land and water sources.
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Energy source from the underground
Hungary is strongly dependant on natural gas shipments from Russia and these are becoming more expensive all the time. There are other ways to produce power, since Hungary has a particularly large potential for the use of geothermal energy sources due to its underground geological structure. However, this form of energy until now has only been used as a source of warm water in swimming pools and spas. A use of this energy for heating or producing power is still only a second thought.
Geothermal energy is among the most popular renewable energy sources and the most stable renewable energy source, since it works independent of climate conditions or seasons. The saved heat is available in different amounts. In addition, the production of energy from geothermal sources avoids CO2 emissions. Geothermal energy is an innovative, efficient and climate protecting energy of the future that can make a huge contribution to increasing domestic energy production.
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Greening your office operations
Thurs., April 16, 10 a.m. PST
In this one-hour Web conference presented by Sustainable Industries and Citrix Online, get insight from the experts on how to improve your overall office operations. From purchasing practices to facilities management, learn how to start reducing operating costs and your carbon footprint.
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