What Rick Perry Probably Believes About the Environment

Hmm... yes, it's a joke.

But it reminds me of the kind of thing our actual Texas governor/presidential candidate would say about global warming. I often get the sense that many conservatives actually don't care if global warming is caused by man. They say they don't believe it, but honestly, even if they did, I don't think they would change their actions. They just don't give a ... shhh.

Note: This video contains lots of swears! So don't blast the volume if you are at work. Especially if you work at a daycare.

Stop The Environment from Ed Asner

Go, Rep. Markey!

I recently wrote about what you can do to help bring the downfall of the Upton-Inhofe Bill in Congress.

Rep. Markey (D-Mass) spoke up against this bill the other day, and he brought his knowledge of both science and sarcasm to bear on the bill.

Watch below and then click this link to help defeat Upton-Inhofe.

The Direct Line Between The Vampire Diaries and Environmental Activism

... in 5 easy steps!

(At the end of this post, you can find out how to become an activist too ... just in case you want to skip the parts about vampires. All you have to do is click some links!)

Step 1: Get really obsessed with The Vampire Diaries.

I am not going to lie. I love TV. I love getting obsessed with stuff. And I love vampires. I know it's de rigueur these days to be obsessed with vampires on TV/movies, but I'm no Bella-come-lately at that ball. I mean, I watched the Dark Shadows reboot in 1991. Put that in your pipe, Stephanie Meyer. I find the vampire mythology to be fascinatingly flexible in both shaping and reflecting current mores. Also, vampire stories are usually filled with pretty people. And fog.

Look.

Fog.

My friend Kelly and I trade TV shows the way other gal pals trade shoes, so when she told me to get obsessed with VD, I did. So much meaty plotting! So many pieces of enchanted jewelry! And fog!

Step 2: Watch all of the existing episodes in two weeks.

So, the ignominious second step between Vamp Diaries and environmental activism is to Google:"Vampire Diaries spoilers." I know, I know. But there's not a new episode until April 7th.

I didn't find any good spoilers. However, I did find an item about how one of the actors, the very pretty Ian Somerhalder, is starting a foundation focused on youth and environmental causes (called, shockingly, the Ian Somerhalder Foundation). My two favorite causes! (Boy. Activism makes me exclamation-point happy.)

I have a little compulsion to click any environmentally-related link (just FYI - do not click links that include the words "Fox News" and "environment", unless you want to spend the rest of the afternoon moping). So, I clicked.

Step 3: Look at all the pretty pictures of animals on the foundation website. And of Ian Somerhalder. And then click the link about the Environmental Protection Agency.

Ian likes pets. Pets are awesome.

It's worth visiting the foundation website just to look at the cute animal photos.

I'd like to say I'm really well-informed about the news in general, but I'm part of that generation that gets their news from two sources: Jon Stewart and NPR while commuting. My commute is short; hence my news knowledge can be extremely patchy ... especially since I work from home a lot to cut down on using gas by commuting. But I knew I'd heard something about the EPA lately ...

Step 4: Read about how the Upton-Inhofe Bill is threatening the ability of the EPA to protect us from harmful pollutants.

OK, so here's the deal. The Clean Air Act - which is now 40 years old, can I get a woot! (yes, I'm old enough to say woot, but I'm not as old as the Clean Air Act) - says that the EPA can determine which pollutants are harmful to people and regulate them. And the EPA says that greenhouse gases are harmful, and so should therefore be regulated. But the Upton-Inhofe Bill wants to hamstring the EPA, and curtail their ability to determine which emissions are harmful. Rep. Upton (R-Mich) and Sen. Inhofe (R-Okla) claim that there's no proof that greenhouse gases are harmful.

The Bill is now out of committee. It's likely to pass the House, but it's up in the air whether the Senate can muster enough votes to fend off a likely veto. WHICH MEANS YOU SHOULD ACT NOW.

And yes, I'm yelling with capital letters. It's that important.

Step 5: Click easy-to-use link that allows you to send a message to your Congresspeople about how you DO NOT support Upton-Inhofe.

So, from I went from watching The Vampire Diaries to the Googling and the Ian Somerhalder Foundation, and I then clicked to the National Resource Defense Council, where they have this super-easy to fill out form that allows you to write to ALL of your Congressional representatives in one fell swoop.

Which I did.

I received a response from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. One thing you can say about Kay, her response system is quick. I always hear back from her in a day or two. But ... I always hear back with some crazy talk like this: the EPA’s backdoor climate regulations will drive up the cost of energy in America — and everyone will pay.

And that makes me mad.

What YOU can do

I live in a Republican-dominated state. I know that my voice is just a whisper in a hurricane. We need people in swing states to help make sure this bill doesn't pass. Please tell your representatives that you do NOT support cutting off the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. JUST CLICK THIS LINK.

What My International Readers Can Do

I love my international friends. You can help by chuckling softly to yourself about how America's leaders don't believe in climate change.

Hey, and if you write to your Congressionals, let me know in the comments!

This morning there was ice on my porch...

... in Houston.

But that DOES NOT mean that global warming isn't real. This year's brutal winter weather is just that: weather. Weather refers to day-to-day local changes. Climate refers to average weather over a long period of time.

If you'd like to read more about how you can answer when somebody slaps his head and says, "Look at that snow! Guess Al Gore got it wrong!", click here to visit Skeptical Science, a website where you can find responses to climate deniers' dumbest arguments (my fave: "Jupiter is warming.")

Just in case you're confused ...

... the fact that we've gotten a seasonally-appropriate amount of snow in Spokane does not mean that "global warming is a lie."

Say it Ain't So-bama!

You know those SNL sketches: Really?!? with Seth and Amy?

Well, I want to say, Really?!? Barack?

Today, President Obama announced that he's proposing the opening of great swaths of America's waters for oil exploration. News reports suggest this was a concession to Republicans, in hopes that they'll support a more comprehensive energy bill later on.

Haven't we realized by now that Republicans won't support something they don't believe in just because you once gave them a cookie? And many, many Republicans don't believe there's any reason why we should reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

The President said this is "... part of a broader strategy that will move us from an economy that runs on fossil fuels and foreign oil to one that relies more on homegrown fuels and clean energy."

That's like saying war will move us to peace, or eating pie will move us to being skinny.

Beyond the obvious damage this could do to our fragile oceans, to beautiful creatures like polar bears and orcas, and to the push for cleaner energy; this proposal doesn't make the energy industry happy either. They say it doesn't go far enough. So not only is this an environmental fail, it's a political fail as well.

We don't need more oil. We need more clean energy.

Really.

*Photo courtesy of Chad Teer, and WikimediaCommons. Chad doesn't endorse this site, but he's nicely made his work available to those of us in internet land.

... there's an app for that!

Let's say you're in line at Starbucks on an unseasonably chilly morning, and someone says, "Damn, it's cold! Guess there's no such thing as global warming."

Okay.

A) That doesn't make logical sense.

B) We know that global warming is happening.

But ...

C) Not many of us have the scientific expertise to swiftly counter crazy arguments against global warming and the human cause.

Thank goodness for Skeptical Science. On their website, they provide scientific counter-arguments for the most common claims lobbed against those of us who believe that global warming is happening. Not only do they have an easy-to-use website (just click on the skeptic's argument and get your response), but they also have an iPhone app -- for your spur-of-the-moment defenses of science.

And in case you're wondering what to say in the Starbucks line: Weather and climate are not the same thing. While we may have days of extreme weather, we are seeing an increase in daily record high temperatures. In short, in the big picture view, temperatures are increasing, even though we still get cold days.

Put Your Stake in the Ground

My boss frequently says the phrase, "put your stake in the ground," meaning, lay claim to what you believe.

Well, today I want to put my stake in the ground. Even though I started this blog with the intention of being unpreachy, I think I've done pretty well at that, and so I want to go to church just a tiny bit.

Ready. Stake is going into the ground:

I BELIEVE GLOBAL WARMING IS HAPPENING AND I BELIEVE HUMANS ARE CAUSING IT.

If you read this blog, you might be thinking, well, duh. But a couple of recent events have conspired to convince me that those of us who believe in global warming (even the phrase "believe in" makes it sound like I'm claiming I believe in leprechauns or something) need to come right out at say that we believe in it and we believe it's caused by humans.

Event #1:

In a conversation on one of my favorite online communities, the question "Do you believe in global warming" was answered with a fair amount of equivocating although people generally seemed to be saying they did. Now, I happen to think this is simply a result of the fact that most folks who do believe in global warming also believe in a little thing called nuance, and they are happy to hold complex positions on issues. I am all for nuance and complexity. However, the fact that we are saying things like, "Well, even if we're not causing it, we should act like we are" lead to things like ...

Event #2:

The South Dakota legislature, as reported in the Rapid City Journal, among other news outlets, approved a resolution to urge teachers to teach "astrological" causes for global warming. Because I think it's always good to go to the source, here's the text of the resolution:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the Eighty-fifth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the South Dakota Legislature urges that instruction in the public schools relating to global warming include the following:

(1) That global warming is a scientific theory rather than a proven fact;
(2) That there are a variety of climatological, meteorological, astrological, thermological, cosmological, and ecological dynamics that can effect [sic] world weather phenomena and that the significance and interrelativity of these factors is largely speculative; and
(3) That the debate on global warming has subsumed political and philosophical viewpoints which have complicated and prejudiced the scientific investigation of global warming phenomena ...

Of course, a resolution is not a law. They are only "urging" that teachers tell kids that global warming is caused when Jupiter aligns with Mars and love will steer the stars.

This irritates me even more than the whole evolution debate, because this has a direct impact on the day-to-day habits of folks. Not only that, but unscientific thinking is creeping. Anti-intellectualism is bad enough, but anti-intellectualism that leads people to think that it's OK to continue to burn fossil fuels so they can keep a TV tuned constantly to Jersey Shore? -- that's just ... well, this is a family blog.

Right now, I'm not going to go into why I believe global warming is happening and we are causing it. However, coming up, I'll provide some links to folks that can explain the science much better than I (or Sen. James Inhofe, R-OK) can.

If you want to put your stake in the ground and say,

YES, I BELIEVE GLOBAL WARMING IS HAPPENING AND I BELIEVE HUMANS ARE CAUSING IT,

then write a comment below. And pass this link along to a friend. Maybe they want to put their stake in the ground too.

5 Things to Love About Copenhagen

1. "Copenhagen" can be adorably changed to "Hopenhagen." Hopenhagen is the name of a movement to connect real people to Copenhagen, site of the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Hopenhagen has the fabulous motto: "when people lead, leaders follow." Their idea? That if real people speak up for the planet, leaders will have to listen. Unfortunately, real people don't seem to be quite ready... yesterday I clicked on a link to an AOL Survey asking people "Have you made any lifestyle changes to address global warming?" The results: 29% Yes, 22% No, 49% "I don't believe in global warming." Umm ... I know these things are self-selecting, but over 13,000 people responded. And almost half don't believe in global warming. Even scarier are the 22% who apparently believe, but have made NO changes in their own behavior. Hopenhagen indeed. I "hope" you join the grassroots movement to get out the word that climate change is happening. And even if you don't believe in that, the EPA has determined that greenhouse gases are also dangerous for our health. If you don't care about polar bears, you've gotta care about your own lungs.

2. Copenhagen is the home city of my great hero, Soren Kierkegaard. Isn't he handsome?

Good ol' Soren was one of the fathers of existentialism, a philosophical movement that emphasizes our complete freedom to choose our actions. Kierkegaard focused on our freedom to make leaps of faith -- or as wikipedia puts it: "No ... evidence could ever be enough to pragmatically justify the kind of total commitment involved in true religious faith or romantic love. Faith involves making that commitment anyway. Kierkegaard thought that to have faith is at the same time to have doubt." What can we learn from that? Maybe Climategate is swirling all around you, maybe your family members dispute the good that you're doing by recycling, maybe every time you go to a bar you get chatted up by some guy who works for an oil company (I do live in Houston). In Copenhagen, though, we've got to hope for a global leap of faith. We may not get it, but we can live like we will, through our daily actions.

3. Copenhagen is a model of Cleantech for the rest of the world. Since the 70's, Denmark has been attempting to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, increasing the usage of wind, solar power, and biofuels. They also have used high taxes on energy use to help reduce the amount of energy people are using. This has been good business for them, as they've been able to turn their innovative energy solutions into exporting power.

4. Copenhagen is the name of a brand of smokeless tobacco. Don't use it. It is can contribute to gross mouth cancers. But it did inspire kids to start using the funny phrase, "I'm going to Denmark" when they wanted to sneak out and chew. Who did they think they were fooling?

5. Copenhagen is the place where the world's leaders might be bold and make a change, at the UN Climate Change Conference. There are a lot of issues to wrinkle out, rich nations and poor nations vying for money and attention. There are world citizens who don't want to change their lives. But the bottom line is, the world is getting warmer. Though I've made my leap of faith and made changes in the way I live, it won't make a huge difference unless governments get involved and big systemic changes get underway. Hopenhagen, indeed.

Top photo courtesy of Kaare, at wikimediacommons.

Bad News, Good News

There's been lots of news about the environment this week, even though it's only Tuesday. I'm of the opinion that bad news should always be given first. So here goes ...

GLOBAL WARMING IS IRREVERSIBLE.

Apparently, a new study is showing that we can't go back when it comes to CO2 emissions. Carbon dioxide becomes trapped in the oceans and even if we freeze emissions, it will take hundreds of years for a cool down, created dust bowls and glacier melting.

Bummer.

It seems like we'd better move fast, then, to curb emissions. Luckily, we have some good news ...

PRESIDENT OBAMA LIKES THE ENVIRONMENT

Our new president has already signed a memorandum allowing states to apply for tougher emissions standards. Its a small change, but I like the idea that Obama is making a statement, early on, that it's not going to be business as usual when it comes to global warming.