Green Environment

NEARLY 70 GROUPS: ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND DOES NOT SPEAK FOR US ON FRACKING “Greenwashing” Called Out: No Confusion Should Arise About Views of Local Communities As a Result of Shale Gas Industry’s Coopting of EDF WASHINGTON, D.C.///May 22, 2013///A total of 68 leading grassroots organizations focused on citizen and environmental issues today released a joint letter to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) disapproving of the group’s willingness to be coopted by industry interests on the issue of hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) for shale gas. Available online at http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/media/pdfs/Final EDF letter-1-3-2ver3.pdf, the letter addressed to EDF President Fred Krupp states: “Those of us concerned with charting a rational and sustainable energy policy for the United States were disheartened to see the Environmental Defense Fund lend its name and support to an entity called the Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD). The very use of the word sustainable in the name is misleading, because there is nothing sustainable about shale oil or shale gas. These are fossil fuels, and their extraction and consumption will inevitably degrade our environment and contribute to climate change. Hydraulic fracturing, the method used to extract them, will permanently remove huge quantities of water from the hydrological cycle, pollute the air, contaminate drinking water, and release high levels of methane into the atmosphere. It should be eminently clear to everyone that an economy based on fossil fuels is unsustainable.” … Read the full news release here. Read the text of the letter to EDF. Listen to the news event.

Elizabeth Kolbert is one of the most thoughtful climate journalists. Her terrific 2006 book, Field Notes from a Catastrophe, famously ends, “It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing.” Seven years later, we’re still doing it (see “Into The Valley Of 400 PPM Rode The 7 Billion“). Kolbert has a great New Yorker piece this week, “Lines in The Sand,” on crossing the 400 parts per million threshold of CO2, as measured at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa observatory. She quotes one marine geologist who said that hitting 400 ppm, “feels like the inevitable march toward disaster.” Of course, it isn’t inevitable, which was the point of Kolbert’s quote above — it is a choice. That said, most people do feel powerless to change direction, since the choice to avert disaster isn’t directly in our hands. It is in the hands of the most powerful opinion makers and political leaders, like President Obama. Kolbert concludes her piece: Were we to burn through all known fossil-fuel reserves, the results would be unimaginably bleak: major cities would be flooded out, a large portion of the world’s arable land would be transformed into deserts, and the oceans would be turned into liquid dead zones. If we take the future at all seriously, which is to say as a time period that someone is going to have to live in, then we need to leave a big percentage of the planet’s coal and oil and natural gas in the ground. These basic facts have been established for decades, and every President since George Bush senior has vowed to do something to avert catastrophe. The numbers from Mauna Loa show that they have failed. In rejecting Keystone, President Obama would not solve the underlying problem, which, as pipeline proponents correctly point out, is consumption. Nor would he halt exploitation of the tar sands. But he would put a brake on the process. After all, if getting tar-sands oil to China were easy, the Canadians wouldn’t be applying so much pressure on the White House. Once Keystone is built, there will be no putting the tar back in the sands. The pipeline isn’t inevitable, and it shouldn’t be treated as such. It’s just another step on the march to disaster. Hear! Hear!

A ban on the clearing of tropical forests in Indonesia is on the verge of being extended in a historic deal that could protect some of the world’s most threatened habitats. Indonesia is home to about a third of the world’s remaining tropical forests, which provide a habitat for endangered species such as the orangutan and Sumatran tiger. For the past two years the government has imposed a moratorium on felling forests in an effort to halt the deforestation that has laid waste to much of the country’s virgin habitat and cleared the way for plantations of palm oil and pulp, paper and timber businesses. But that moratorium is about to expire, and the termination would leave loggers and plantations free to expand into fresh areas. Reports from agencies and local press on Friday night suggested the country’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was about to sign up to an extension of the deal. via Indonesia’s tropical forests set to benefit from further clearing ban | World news | guardian.co.uk.

Helvey Design Studio has created a series of furniture built to last a lifetime. Their FIRST Collection has been designed with the principals of simplicity, minimalism and quality craftsmanship. Each piece is handcrafted in San Diego, California, using only sustainable, responsibly sourced goods such as naturally felled Northern California Black Oak, FSC certified Black Walnut from South Carolina, and steel that is 99% recycled and made in America. Want one of the beautiful pieces seen here for yourself? Back Helvey on Kickstater and scoop one up for your home! + Helvey Design Studio The article above was submitted to us by an Inhabitat reader. Want to see your story on Inhabitat? Send us a tip by following this link. Remember to follow our instructions carefully to boost your chances of being chosen for publishing! Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: "green furniture", FIRST Collection furniture, FSC certified wood furniture, handmade furniture, Helvey Design Studio, Northern California Black Oak table, recycled materials furniture

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) thinks putting off efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions risks “catastrophic” losses for the United States’ economy and society. That’s according to a new report on the economic and environmental effects of a carbon tax CBO published Wednesday. The CBO is the group of analysts tasked with modeling and projecting the consequences of Congress’ proposed laws, so that lawmakers can have some idea of what the likely consequences of their actions will be. You may recall the CBO from the big role its scores played in the debate over health care reform a few years ago. They’re a highly respected, methodologically cautious, and strictly nonpartisan outfit that’s widely viewed as the go-to authority for refereeing policy disputes in Washington. With China on the verge of unilaterally putting a cap on its own carbon emissions, and with wide support for a carbon tax amongst voters, politicians, industry, economists and think tanks, the fact that CBO is using its position to highlight the risks of not addressing climate change is worth paying attention to. Now, much of their report’s content wasn’t new. It projected that a price of $20 per metric ton on carbon dioxide emissions would bring in $1.2 trillion in revenues between 2012 and 2021, and cut emissions by roughly 8 percent over the same period, which came from work CBO did in 2011 (page 205). And the debate over what to do with the revenues from a carbon tax, which much of the report is dedicated to, is also familiar. But one thing that is noteworthy is CBO’s blunt assessment that allowing climate change to continue unchecked could be very costly to both the United States and global society: Climate change resulting from an increase in average temperatures is a long-term problem with global causes and consequences, including effects on humans and ecosystems. Significantly limiting the extent of future warming would require a concerted effort by countries that are major emitters of greenhouse gases. Nonetheless, U.S. efforts to decrease emissions would produce incremental benefits, in the form of incremental reductions in the expected damage from climate change. Researchers have attempted to estimate the monetary value of the future damage from climate change associated with an increase in CO2 emissions in a given year — and thus the value of the benefits from a commensurate reduction in emissions — a measure referred to as the social cost of carbon (SCC)… Those values are highest when researchers attach significant weight to long-term outcomes and when they incorporate a small probability that damage from climate change could increase sharply in the future — causing very large, or even catastrophic, losses. Delaying efforts to reduce emissions increases the risk of such losses. Given the inherent uncertainty of predicting the effects of climate change, and the possibility that it could trigger catastrophic effects, lawmakers might view a carbon tax as a reflection of society’s willingness to pay to reduce the risk of potentially very expensive damage in the future. Even CBO’s 2009 round-up of climate change science, which focused heavily on the uncertainty built into such projections, pointed out that the worst case scenarios for climate change “even if unlikely, would justify more stringent policies than would result from simply balancing the costs of reducing emissions against the benefits of averting damages from the expected or most likely degree of warming.” As for the question of how to structure a carbon tax, the Center for American Progress’ Richard Caperton put forward a proposal last December for a tax of $25 per ton on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. That ought to put us on a course to reduce those emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and 80 percent by 2050, though the tax would ultimately need to be expan

Read the rest of David Emitt Adams Places Tintype Images on Cans Collected from the Desert Floor Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: american west, Arizona, can, david emitt adams, desert, landscape, patina, Photography, rust, wet-plate collodion, yuma

Read the rest of Andrea Ponsi’s Sprawling House on the Bay is Powered Entirely by Renewable Energy Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: AIA SF, Andrea Ponsi, bay area, House on the Bay, Jensen Architects, marin county, Marin Living: Home Tours, net-zero house, photovoltaic panels, San Francisco, solar panels, Solar Power, Tiburon

Moooi showcased a stunning collection of chandeliers that look like bursting fireworks at this year’s ICFF. Called Raimond, the low-energy light is loaded with LEDs, and its spherical form calls to mind constellations and fluffy dandelions. Each orb-shaped lamp is made from a thin metal framework that carries low voltage current to the bulbs, eliminating the need for wires. Read the rest of Moooi’s Raimond Chandelier Bursts with Dozens of Tiny LED Lights Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: eco design, energy efficient lighting, fireworks chandelier, green design, ICFF, LED Chandelier, Moooi, sustainable design

Greek yogurt is delicious, high in protein, and a good alternative to sugary snacks. However the $2 billion dollar a year industry has a dark side that comes in the form of toxic acid whey. It takes three to four ounces of milk to create yogurt and the rest becomes a runny, hazardous byproduct that cannot be released back into the environment. As it decomposes, acid whey depletes oxygen from streams and rivers, killing wildlife and creating “dead zones” over large areas. Read the rest of Byproducts from Greek Yogurt Prove Toxic to the Environment Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: acid whey, biogas, byproduct, chobani, dead zone, fertilizer, greek yogurt, lactose, New York., toxic, Waste

The world is on a crash course to run out of freshwater, according to United Nation’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. At yesterday’s UN’s International Day of Biological Diversity, Ban Ki-moon addressed a number of the water security issues facing the planet today. Only a small amount of water on earth is freshwater, and the Secretary General reinforced that there is a delicate relationship between water and biodiversity. Read the rest of UN Says the World Is On Course to Run Out of Water Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: ban ki-moon, Biodiversity, Climate Change, conservation, ecology, ecosystems, global crisis, United Nations, water issues, water shortage