If you’re a habitual reader of the environmentalist news stream, as I am, you notice that much of the discussion about climate change pertains to the urgent need for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. It’s a focus that’s well-warranted given both the huge scale and urgent timing of emissions reductions that are necessary to lessen (or ‘mitigate’) the amount of warming that occurs and avoid the severest impacts.

The flip-side of the climate science picture is the undoubtedly gloomy understanding that a certain amount of future warming is unavoidable regardless of how quickly emissions are drawn down. It’s in the spirit of realism and responsibility—not defeatism—then, that people are beginning to think about how we should prepare ourselves for the coming climatic changes. In the lingo of climate policy thinkers, this type… [view entry]

Dresden, a city of 220,000 in the eastern part of Germany, was the target of Allied firebombing in World War II that largely destroyed the city.  The wonderful skyline of towers built by the Saxon kings was restored and the downtown area is vibrant.   While the eastern part of Germany has suffered from emigration to other regions, Dresden has been growing modestly.

The City is bisected by the Elbe River and has a number of tributaries that flow into it.  In 2002, Dresden saw a major flood that inundated the city center, including the central railway station.  Over 1 billion Euros in damage was inflicted by the floods and some lives were lost.  The flooding was the result of the Elbe River overtopping its banks, rising groundwater, and the Weisseritz River defying… [view entry]

What should we do about climate change?

Instead of waiting for policy makers to act, you can help figure out the answer at the Climate CoLab; previously discussed in Opening the [Copenhagen] talks. Working alone—or in teams of people from all over the world—you can create proposals for what to do about climate change. The winning proposals will be presented to key policy makers, including officials at the UN and the US Congress. And if your proposal is one of the top two, you’ll receive travel funding for a representative of your team to attend one of these briefings.

We especially encourage entries from teams of undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in climate and sustainability issues. As usual rules and restrictions apply.

The deadline for the contest… [view entry]

One possible step toward Climate Change mitigation, cap and trade is a prominent topic of discussion among government officials and environmentally-concerned citizens alike. This very short film (by the creators of “Story of Stuff”) offers a comprehensive look into the cap & trade system, and carefully questions its legitimacy. This is an informative piece on a very comfortable level that will boost your understanding of what the true philosophies behind, benefits of, and concerns with cap and trade systems are. I recommend taking a couple of minutes to check it out, and then sharing with your friends.

Or watch here.

CEA canvassing interns: Stephanie, Mira, Danit, Trevor, Federico, Laurence

On July 7th CEA’s six volunteers took to the streets for the first time, canvassing businesses in Inman Square, and eastward on Cambridge Street. Over the next three weeks, they would reach out to over 440 people in small local businesses—barber shops, cafes, hardware stores, book stores, florists, bars, convenience stores, restaurants, bike shops, you name it—in North Cambridge, Leslie and Porter Square, Harvard Square and Church Street, Mount Auburn and Brattle Street, Dana Hill, Bow Street, Central Square, Lafayette, Concord Ave, Huron, East Cambridge, and Broadway.

In 90+ degree heat, over previously unfamiliar terrain, and sometimes through rain storms, the teams of interns  met with over 190 business owners and discussed energy efficiency opportunities—programs and incentives from… [view entry]

The Union of Concerned Scientists, a national non-profit of citizens and scientists for environmental solutions based in Harvard Square, have cleanly outlined several concrete actions for you to take to meet those ends. They have taken to the road, holding meetings focused on spreading the knowledge and skills to effectively use your constituency as leverage. Although yesterday the Senate majority leader Harry Reid announced that they will not look at climate legislation until September, others are firmly professing that all hope is not lost.

“This is not going to die, absolutely rest assured this is not going away,” Kerry told visitors to Congress.

“As long as I am in the Senate and I’ve got another four years … we are going to keep pounding away on this.”

The goal that the… [view entry]

A story from Greenwire in the New York Times summarizes the findings of the Energy Information Administration’s report on the costs of implementing the Kerry-Lieberman energy bill. It concludes that in a middle of the road scenario, adoption of the bill would result in a (basis point) reduction of GDP¹ by 2‰ (2 thousandths) over more than two decades of growth. Thus given a rate of 2.2% growth annually, the cost of insurance to help forestall greater costs is 17.5 hours of growth each year.

Although the bill arguably does not go far enough, and so has a lower cost, it compares favorably with the figures from the famous Stern Review that suggests a cost of 2% of gross global product to address global warming, or forgoing… [view entry]

As of this month, it’s official that California’s residents will be voting on the November ballot as to whether they would like to suspend the law that has been put in effect to help the state take responsibility for its greenhouse gas emissions.

When they announced a cutting-edge legislative initiative to fight the climate change caused by Global Warming in late 2009, California was hailed as ambitious, meant positively by some and negatively by others. Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32) was designed to aid California in meeting its goals of reaching 1990 level emissions by the year 2020, using a cap and trade program as well as other methods. The contention of some, was that cap and trade methods do not work to reduce the act of pollution but… [view entry]

On June 3rd, a panel of experts was convened at the Cambridge Public Library to discuss the federal climate policies being proposed at that time to regulate greenhouse gases, and what their impacts might be. The panel was moderated by Rob Garrity, the Executive Director of Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN). The panelists were three climate policy experts: Policy Consultant Sonia Hamel, Professor Michael Dorsey, and Policy Analyst Peter Shattuck.

The panel discussed the American Power Act extensively, concluding that there were both positive and negative aspects of the bill and there was not agreement whether the bill should be supported or not.

If you could not make it, or would like to revisit the panel session, we have posted a version for your viewing pleasure, the question and answer period… [view entry]

When we consider the many actions we may take to fight global warming and become more responsible citizens of earth, do we often think of our roofs?  At most, green roofs are the topic of impassioned discussion, but other alterations aren’t mentioned or considered.

The discussion of altering roofs first became a heated (ha) topic in the U.S. when the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, a Nobel prize-winning scientist, brought the concept of white roofs to the table in 2009. He proposed that, though it may seem a silly action to suggest, if we could make all of the roofs and dark paved surfaces white, we would be able to save emissions equal to taking all the cars off of the roads for eleven years.

Using white surfaces… [view entry]