(reposted from MNN Daily Brief, e-Newsletter, September 24, 2009) POLAR MELTDOWN: Ice sheets in Greenland and western Antarctica are melting faster than scientists previously thought, and some places are experiencing “a runaway effect,” according to a team of British scientists who analyzed laser readings taken by NASA satellites. Some Antarctic ice sheets have been losing 30 feet of thickness annually since 2003, and while many areas are up to a mile thick to begin with, the melting is speeding up - the rate of Antarctic thinning was 50 percent higher between 2003 and 2007 than it was from 1995 to 2003. The problem isn’t warmer air, but warmer water, which wears down the ice from the outside in. “To some extent it’s a runaway effect,” says the lead author of the study, which was published online today in the journal Nature. “The question is how far will it run?” (Sources: Associated Press, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle)

<!– –>

I wanted to share the link to this article from Van Jones, who is the Obama Administration’s lead cheer-leader on pushing the “green collar” economy: Selling Americans on a Green Collar Economy.

I think that there is a commonly-held feeling that environmental issues did not exist in the US until Rachel Carson’s battles in the early part of the 20th Century.  We almost have this idyllic view of an agrarian past where we didn’t have the technological means (industry, coal/nuclear power, mass farming, etc) to really damage the environment.  Chris J. Magoc, of Mercyhurst College, would have us rethink this myth.  His book, Environmental Issues in American History discusses key environmental battles from the founding of our country to the present day.  Importantly, this book includes primary documents, so that the reader can “hear” from the people who are locked in these battles.  Just to get a taste of the scope of this book, I have typed out the tabel of contents, chapter by chapter.  This is a nice preview of the issues that are included.  This book is available in the Moraine Valley Library.

• Nature as a Commodity: Native Americans, White Settlers, and the Land Ordinance of 1785
• Controlling Water in the Early Industrialization of New England
• Scientific Forestry and the Emergence of Conservation
• Property Rights, Technology, and Environmental Protection: Hydraulic Gold Miners v. Farmers in California
• Wildlife Conservation: Slaughter and Salvation of the Bison
• “Reclaiming” the Arid West
• Preservation vs. Conservation: The Epic Fight over Yosemite’s Hetch-Hetchy Valley
• Progressive Women and “Municipal Housekeeping”: Caroline Bartlett Crane’s Fight for Improved Meat Inspection
• Getting the Lead Out: Public Health and the Debate over Tetraethly Leaded  Gasoline
• Causes and Consequences of the Dust Bowl
• The Donora Disaster and the Problem of Air Pollution
• Rachel Carson, Cesar Chavez, and the Pesticide Debate
• Love Canal and the Grassroots Movement Against Toxic Waste
• The Endangered Species Act: the Rights of Nature?
• Three Mile Island and the Search for a National Energy Policy

I wanted to pass along this NPR story, Investor: Renewable Energy Needs Federal Funding. You can listen to this story online. Here’s a quote from the story: 

One of the big ticket items in President Obama’s economic stimulus plan is a Clean Energy Financing Initiative. It reportedly would provide loan guarantees and other measures to encourage the private sector to invest billions of dollars in green energy — even as such investments have shriveled.

Funding for hundreds of projects has dried up because of the global financial slowdown, says Ray Lane, a managing partner with the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers in Menlo Park, Calif.

He says plans to harness wind and solar energy and to boost transportation efficiency will be abandoned if they don’t receive capital.

While the proof is in the pudding, Obama has made some interesting moves in his first weeks on the job. He appointed a new Climate Czar, Carol Browner. He is also starting to re-instate the ways that the EPA interpret regulations.  The Bush administration toned down (to put it lightly) the activities of the EPA.  Take a look at this article from the New Scientist: US States May Regain Control of Vehicle Emissions.Here’s a video about it:

Here are a few new DVDs on the library’s shelves. I hope you stop by and check them out.

Protecting earth’s atmosphere:Earth is the only planet known to support life. The primary reason is a mixture of different gases, known as the atmosphere. These gases, along with the sun, warm our planet to an average temperature of 15 degrees Celsius. This delicate process is known as the greenhouse effect. Without it, the sun’s energy would escape back into space leaving the earth frozen. In this edition of Science Screen Report, we learn about the earth’s atmosphere, climate, and the greenhouse effect. We explore the impact human activity is having on our atmosphere, and ways scientists believe we can prevent further destruction to the atmosphere, and allow our planet to continue to thrive.

Dirty Little Secrets: Program studies fine particle air pollution and its public health hazards

What if The Oil Runs Out?:This film follows a middle-aged, Midwestern couple through violence at gas stations, conflicts with neighbors, and the loss of their livelihood; it also focuses on their daughter, an oil prospector determined to find new crude oil fields in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. Interspersed with the docudrama are notable statistics on oil production and consumption as well as real-world interviews with former Pentagon energy security adviser Paul Domjan, Centre for Global Energy Studies chairman Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, and other experts

Cauldron Earth:This program shows how research into the chemical makeup of geological and biological materials drives the innovation of energy systems, building methods, and transportation technolog–and how these improvements can save lives and reduce stress on the environment. Hydrogen fuel cells, resin coatings for giant wind turbines, wax-plaster mixtures for energy-efficient home–the video features these and many other advances, suggesting a future in which humanity can both profit from and protect the Earth

With the high heat these last few days, sitting in a movie theatre is nice to cool off. Tonight, for a mere $5, see the 11th Hour by hottie eco-actor Leonardo DeCaprio compliments of Insight Awareness - A Center for Healing & Self Discovery (18112 Martin Ave., Homewood, IL 60430, 708-957-1284) www.InsightAwareness.com. Arrive by 6:45pm because the show starts promptly at 7:00. Take a peek at the movie trailer.

As is often the case with complex issues, the devil is often in the details. This New York Times article, Industries Allied to Cap Carbon Differ in the Details, discusses a group of major industry leaders working to be proactive, but struggling to agree on how to make changes. They all agree that climate change is a major issue and that Carbon caps need to work, but they are struggling to work out the economics. This article notes that the US Senate will be debating a new climate change bill this week (see this AP article, Costs Drives Senate Debate).

The LA Times is reporting that the White House is designated the polar bear as a “threatened” species, even though many environmental groups have demanded that the species be placed under the more serious “endangered” category. The Bush administration has been dragging its feet on this ruling, because it may force them to acknowledge (and do something about) the impact that climate change is having on the melting ice sheets. If you are interested in this story, you may want to listen to this NPR piece: Polar Bear Endangerment Decision Looms.

PBS’s investigative program Frontline had a show that I thought was worth sharing for Earth Day. Frontline: Hot Politics examines the political forces that have impacted how our current laws have fallen (or not fallen) into place concerning the environment and climate change. Here’s a description from the show’s Web site:

FRONTLINE and the Center for Investigative Reporting go behind the scenes to explore how bi-partisan political and economic forces prevented the U.S. government from confronting what may be one of the most serious problems facing humanity today. The film examines some of the key moments that have shaped the politics of global warming, and how local and state governments and the private sector are now taking bold steps in the absence of federal leadership.

You can watch the entire show on the Frontline Web site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/hotpolitics/