Vice President Joe Biden supports $5 billion in tax credits for wind, solar, and 'other' energy technology. Building on the $2.3 billion program that is already part of this year's $787 billion economic stimulus, Vice President Biden is quoted as saying "if we're going to lead the world in clean energy production, shouldn't we increase our capacity".
Full story at Bloomberg News.
Posted by Vanessa Bronfman
vanessa@greenowl.com
Check out this video of the glos on vice from the end of their tour with the virgins in London.
Posted by Stephen Glicken
stephen@greenowl.com
The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, takes the lead in the race to discover our universe's past. It has reached it's power goal by accelerating protons at an energy of 1.2 trillion electron volts apiece. Event Displays Here.
I'm not really sure how to explain 1.2 trillion electron volts apiece... but I can tell you that it's a lot more than 1.21 gigawatts. Check out the video below to learn more.
Kate McAlpine of CERN raps an educational explanation of what's going down in Geneva's underground...
Posted by Vanessa Bronfman
vanessa@greenowl.com
Protesters inside the Copenhagen Conference lighten the mood as the world waits for the outcome.
Posted Benjamin Bronfman
ben@greenowl.com
At the international climate talks going on right now in Copenhagen, Denmark, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to launch a major assault on global warming. Besides deciding emission targets and the legal structure of an agreement, commitments for long-term financing for developing countries to help green their economies and cope with climate change impacts is one of the most important element of a real deal. The chasm between what's being offered by developed countries ($10 billion a year for 3 years) and what basically the entire developing world is asking for (a long-term commitment of $400-500 billion a year by 2020) must be bridged.
When you consider the enormous need for green economic development for the billions of people in these countries and the projections of the massive costs of climate change adaptation, these numbers are justified. The International Energy Agency's 2009 World Energy Outlook says that investments in low-carbon energy technologies and energy efficiency on the order of $500 billion a year for the next 20 years will be required to reach 450ppm of carbon in the atmosphere. But if we want to avoid "certain death for island nations and certain devastation for Africa" that Sudan's ambassador and the chair of the G77 and China block here says 450ppm would entail, then we'll need substantially more than that.
But this is the same U.S. government that mobilized $11 trillion in a little over a month to combat the global financial crisis, that has committed $3 trillion for war in Iraq. When the US decides to make something a priority, it finds ways to fund it. So when the U.S. delegation here says it can't come up with more money, the whole world hears that it just isn't that big a priority.
But in addition to the commitments developed countries can appropriate through annual budgets and the auctioning of emissions credits, shifting the subsidies that currently go to fossil fuels to clean energy and vulnerable communities is one particularly elegant solution: Stop harming, and start helping.
In 2004, Jonathan Pershing (now the chief US climate negotiator) wrote a paper for WRI estimating that Annex 1 countries spent $57 billion annually on fossil fuel subsidies. In the U.S. alone, $10 billion of taxpayer's dollars still go to support fossil fuels. At the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, President Obama made an historic pledge to end fossil fuel subsidies. In Copenhagen, he can commit to a date for that phaseout and pledge to redirect those subsidies into climate finance. Developed country fossil fuel Is there a better source for climate finance than shifting corporate giveaways to big oil and coal?
There are at least three other large potential sources of funding available:
President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Gordon Brown have committed to working together on these innovative mechanisms, particularly revenues from regulating international aviation and shipping and the global financial transactions taxes. But they will not be able to get it done alone.
Our elected representatives and their appointees have only days to get this right and agree to a well-designed, public funded effort to prevent catastrophe. If the US took leadership on this issues, it could be the game-changer that breaks the climate deadlock and unleashes a clean-energy future, not just for us, but for the whole world. Feel free to let the President know how you feel here.
This entry is cross-posted at The Huffington Post.
Billy Parish is the Founder of the Energy Action Coalition, a national student clean energy coalition, and lives with his family in Flagstaff, AZ.
Photo by Benjamin Bronfman
Hi all-- I’m going to try to get a year-end list up sometime next week, but wanted to shoehorn something in just before that. And with so many records being leaked, rewritten, and released digitally, the definition of when a song or album “came out” is pretty shaky anyway. Regardless, an LP is just now coming out that is really worth your time, one that could maybe top your own personal best-of list if you are into extended guitar pieces (like I am) from Sam Goldberg, who operates the excellent Pizza Night label and runs in the same circle as Emeralds, whose members are fellow Clevelanders.
The vinyl-only album is called Current (on the Weird Forest label) and is made up of two side-length pieces. The first is an untitled piece that originally appeared on a disgustingly limited cassette created for a 2007 tour with Emeralds. This piece was how I first heard Goldberg’s music—it immediately reminded me of the wonderful guitar-based “space rock” that was particularly thriving in the ‘90s by artists like Windy & Carl and the Azusa Plane…I fell in love with this stuff in high school and never looked back, basically, but I didn’t think people were really still making music like that until I heard this piece. I’m linking to it below, perfect for winter listening.
Sam Goldberg: “Untitled”
Posted by Ned Milligan
mistermilligan@yahoo.com
Are you an artist? An artist who's excited about safe sex? The New York City Health Department has announced that they will be sponsoring a contest to design a limited edition condom wrapper. In order for artwork to be eligible, it must not be raunchy and cannot include copyrighted, trademarked, or Empire State Building images. Safe Sex is the best way to keep your inner environment sustainable... just saying.
More info at www.nyc.gov
Posted by Vanessa Bronfman
vanessa@greenowl.com
This is my first time blogging with a screen-shot! Our label stars The Very Best featured on P4K's year end list.
Posted by Stephen Glicken
stephen@greenowl.com
It's starting to heat up here in Copenhagen: Bloomberg is in the hall, Al Gore's at the water cooler, Schwarzenegger's scoping chicks...you know the usual, but it's unclear if anything is really moving in the right direction. I just came from a press meeting with the heads of India, China, Brazil and South Africa discussing their countries impact and responsibilities with respect to greenhouse emissions. These developing nations just warned that the conference's agenda was being "hijacked" and demanded voluntary emissions regulation on their home turf but want firm emission commitments from the United States and Europe. A firm commitment is what we are all trying to walk out of here with. We'll see.
Posted by Benjamin Bronfman
ben@greenowl.com
I just walked Kevin Conrad, the Environmental Ambassador for Papua New Guinea, famous for telling the United States to either "lead or get out of the way" from our War Room to the LCA negotiations to combat global deforrestation. I asked him what he thinks of this chaotic process, he said "It's a mess," then he added "but you gotta have fun with it." Speaking of "having fun with it," camped outside the LCA room (where some serious shit is about to go down) were these five pregnant protesters. "MY BABY'S LIFE IS IN YOUR HANDS!" they shouted. (excuse the blurry one, everyone is in a rush here)
Posted by Benjamin Bronfman
ben@greenowl.com
So I just came across this article in popsi about geoengineering. A group of Russian scientist are spraying aerosols into the sky to bounce light back to reduce the amount of sunlight that hits the earth. It appears aerosols go both ways. They are one of the causes of global warming and one of the solutions.
Posted by Stephen Glicken
stephen@greenowl.com
My colleage and partner at GT, Graciela Chichilinsky (who was responsible for the creation of the Carbon Market and introduced it into the Kyoto Protocol in 1997) is on hand at CO15 to introduce the concept of "Negative Carbon." This concept will change the way countries view Carbon as a recyclable and tradeable commodity. She's on her way now.
Posted by Benjamin Bronfman
ben@greenowl.com
This morning, as delegates (including heads of the NRDC) stood locked out of the CO15 Conference, the G77 has postponed the climate talks in an attempt to bloster support for legally binding CO2 emissions cuts. The mood at the CO15 is intense with protesters camped outside the Bella Center in Copenhagen where the international conference is being held.
Posted by Benjamin Bronfman
ben@greenowl.com
Map of 4 major South Korea rivers, and a picture of the Youngsan River
President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea has broken ground on a $19.2 billion project to remake South Korea's four largest rivers, adding dams, dredging river bottoms, and creating a new definition for green development. Beginning with the Youngsan River, one of the country's most polluted waterways, Mr Lee is hoping to finish the work swiftly, before the 2012 elections.
While opposition claims that dredging the river bottoms will irreparably disrupt ecosystems and building dams will create more pollution buildup, President Lee claims “As with the restoration of Cheonggyecheon, our efforts to save the four major rivers will generate greater benefits than we can even imagine now,” referring to his revival and clean-up of the 4 mile long river he rebuilt as mayor of Seoul in 2005.
NY Times story here.
Posted by Vanessa Bronfman
vanessa@greenowl.com
