Global Temperatures Increase, Concern Wanes

A recent worldwide survey by GlobeScan Radar, a public opinion research consultant company, found that concern about global warming and other environmental issues has hit a 20-year low. The survey covered 22 countries, including the United States

            Despite even more conclusive evidence of a warming world, only 49 percent of respondents considered global warming a serious problem. Fewer people also considered polluted waters, species going extinct, and other environmental concerns as being “very serious.” This is probably good news to coal companies, oil companies and other polluters, but it is probably bad news for the rest of us, whether we are among the concerned or unconcerned crowd.

            What has happened? It could be several things. Journalism is undergoing a grand transformation, and perhaps this affects the public’s ability to follow environmental stories that usually have a long narrative arcs and can contain concepts that can be difficult to understand. Industry propagandists, such as the Heartland Institute and Heritage Foundation, may have become more successful with their messages.

            People also tire and “tune out” longstanding news stories, and we may be at a point when hearing about increased droughts and melting icecaps has fatigued us to where we are no longer listening. The chairman of GlobeScan, Doug Miller, says, “Evidence of environmental damage is stronger than ever, but our data shows that economic crisis and lack of political leadership means that the public are starting to tune out.”

The World Is Hotter, and the Work Gets Harder

I love it when you have scientific studies that point out the obvious, like studies showing that people like tastier food or that folks find attractive people more attractive than unattractive people.  In this scientific tradition, a new study  from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that, as the world gets warmer and we have summers that are hotter and muggier, people will not be able to work as hard or as much.

            Commonsense right? Well, the scientific study has some number behind it, too. The authors of the study say that the warming that we have already caused the earth has, in the last sixty years, reduced the amount of work folks can do in the worst heat by ten percent. They also project that losses to labor capacity caused by heat stress will double globally by the year 2050.

            As people realize that global warming is more than melting glaciers and sad looking polar bears stuck on shrinking ice floes, when they see how it affects how we live and work, will they want to do something about it? Business and industry, which rely on labor for their profits, are they concerned? Or is the year 2050 too far in the future to calculate in the business cycle?

League of Conservation Voters: 112th Congress Most Hostile to the Environment in 40 Years

One of the themes that I revisit through these blog posts is the manner in which clean water, clean air, and living in a sound environment have become politicized. What we Americans have valued in common has been transformed into a liberal-conservative conflict, with the moneyed interests largely supporting GOP candidates and representatives. While they also have Democratic politicians in their pockets—you only have to look at Democrats like West Virginia’s Joe Manchin to see how energy dollars pay for the votes of Democrats—the issue of the environment too often falls along a divide between the Democratic Party and the Grand Old Party.

            This news from the League of Conservation Voters goes to show just how far we have drifted into being a country that has a government that does not serve its citizens. The League judged this last Congress as the one most hostile to the environment in the last 40 years. The environmental organization was particularly scathing in its comments about the GOP controlled House, which systematically blocked advances on climate change legislation.

            Some of the legislation that the report discussed is the stuff that only schoolyard bullies would dream up. H.R. 4078, the Red Tape and Small Business Job Creation Act, sponsored by Arizona representative Tim Griffin would halt all new public safeguards, no matter how much they are needed or how many people they might help, as long as unemployment remains above six percent. Never mind that high levels of unemployment look likely for several years to come or that much of what the GOP has been doing has kept unemployment at high levels for years already. The Stop the War on Coal Act would repeal the scientific finding by the EPA that greenhouse gasses endanger human health and the environment.

            The list goes on, Keystone tar sands oil, cleaning up the Gulf from the BP disaster, general conservation, genetically modified salmon, etc., etc. Besides a list of disasters, I see very little of a democratic process working when I see a report like this. Is public financing of political campaigns a remedy? We need to do something before too long, before our world becomes too warm and our lakes and rivers are once again treated like public dumping grounds and sewers.

Barbara Boxer Introduces Carbon Tax Legislation

Cap and trade has been the more business friendly and, by that default, the most politically feasible manner in which to begin controlling carbon emissions. But Senator Barbara Boxer of California has introduced a carbon tax bill, which is far more direct and, if implemented, more likely to achieve the desired results of reducing our country’s carbon emissions.

            Under her bill, companies would pay $20 per ton of carbon or methane emitted, with the tax increasing by 5.6 percent each year for the next ten years. Money from the tax would go towards energy research and weatherizing homes.

            Manik Roy, of the non-partisan Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, says that the bill has a snowball’s chance in a global warming world of passing as stand-alone legislation, but Democrats might be able to get the bill passed by attaching the bill to business friendly legislation that lowers some taxes.

            Hats off to Barbara Boxer. Although it is an uphill battle, I believe that within the next few years a national carbon tax will become part of our country’s energy policy.

John Yarmuth and Louise Slaughter Reintroduce H.R. 5959, The Appalachian Community Health Emergency Act

First introduced by Dennis Kucinich in July of last year, Kentucky Congressman John Yarmuth and New York Congresswoman Louise Slaughter have reintroduced H.R. 5959, The Appalachian Community Health Emergency Act, which would mandate a moratorium on mountaintop removal until we have a greater understanding of the health effects of the destructive mining practice.

            Growing evidence indicates a link between mountaintop removal and health problems, such as kidney stones, tooth loss, diarrhea, learning disabilities, and some forms of cancer.[i] Other research has found a wide range of birth defects in infants born in proximity to mountaintop mining.[ii]

            It is heartening to hear this latest news. Appalachians have it rough enough. Shouldn’t we care about their health and their children before we go lopping off their mountains for their coal?

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[i] Holzman, David C. “Mountaintop Removal Mining.” Environmental Health Perspectives Vol. 119, Issue 11 11/1/2011 print.

[ii] Ahearn, Melissa M. et at. “The association between mountaintop mining and birth defects among live births in central Appalachia, 1996–2003.” Environmental Research Vol. 111 Issue 6. Aug 2011, p 838-846 print.

Solve Global Warming? Take Some Time Off

There is a study that came out yesterday from the Center for Economic Policy and Research that says that if we simply worked less, putting in fewer hours at our jobs, we could slow down global warming. While admitting that the relationship between work and global warming is complex, David Rosnick, the study’s author, says that, “it is understandable that lowering levels of consumption, holding everything else constant, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

            On the face of it, it kind of makes sense. Less time at work means less time running the copy machine. The office lights aren’t on as long either. But will it mean that people commute less? Folks are still going to drive back and forth to their jobs if they work and eight hour day or if they work for seven. If people get a few more days off from work, they commute less, but they might decide to travel more.

            I’m left a little skeptical of this idea, but it is still intriguing to consider that working to solving global warming might entail a little less work overall.

Forward On Climate: Change We Can Believe In On Climate Change?

While I have criticized Barack Obama in this blog for his less than stellar performance on global warming, it is important to remember that he is merely the man in the Oval Office. Congress, the courts, as well as the people of this country also bear the responsibility of moving things forward when it comes to the environment and global warming.

            Of all these actors, it is often the people who prove to be the most important agents and instigators of change. Suffragettes marched and demonstrated, and politicians agreed to enfranchise women with the vote. Without Martin Luther King and the March on Washington in 1963, there may not have been the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

            For this reason I cheer the Forward On Climate Rally planned for the 17^th of this month. Organized by 350.org, the Sierra Club, and the Hip Hop Caucus, the rally promises to gather thousands at the National Mall to urge the President and Congress to pass reasonable climate legislation. The Keystone Pipeline, which President Obama has the authority to authorize or reject, has been set in the crosshairs by the organizers of the rally. The pipeline both physically and symbolically embodies what is most wrong with our energy policy. Relying on the mining of Canadian tar sands, the Keystone oil will lay waste to a huge area of Alberta, as well as contribute an ever-greater amount of CO2 to the environment than more traditional oil drilling does.

            I will, unfortunately, be unable to attend the rally, but I hope that enough concerned citizens are able to make it to DC and let Washington know that we do not want a warmer world. I will make it to the rally being held in Balboa Park in San Diego. If you can't make it to the big rally in Washington, I encourage you to show up at your local rally.