Re/Action on Climate Protection

NHK Climate Program

Here is a link to a Japan NHK radio presentation on California climate related activities. My wife and I play a modest role. The broadcast is in Japanese.

Disclaimer

Dear Readers: Through this blog I aim to stimulate dialog, information exchange and debate. Opinions and ideas expressed in this blog are my own, and therefore may occasionally differ from those of the Climate Protection Campaign, where I work.

The Socio-Political Aspects of Climate Change

Over the last few days, we have had a couple of posts that depart somewhat from our usual "nuts-and-bolts" presentation. One post was by author/lecturer/activist Shepherd Bliss, on the visit of Prince Charles to the San Francisco Bay Area. This post provoked several comments on the meaning and relevance of Charles taking a position on climate change. This would be a good opportunity to weigh in on the apparent schizophrenia of the British Government, as well as the mechanisms of advocacy. Part of the mission of this blog is to explore what works and what doesn't in motivating political action.

Along these lines, we also had two posts from the director of Climate Protection Campaign, Ann Hancock. One post is on dependent co-arising which is an alternative way of viewing the mechanisms of political change. The other is on the relationship between activism on the Peak Oil issue, and climate change activism. There is a possibility that these two issues can merge and build a constituency for action. However, problems arise. What should the focus be? What if anything is the driving issue? For more information on Peak Oil, you can start here. Thanks for joining us, and I'm looking forward to hearing your views!

Dave

The Biodiesel Controversy Continues

One of our commenters, Zeno Swijtink, faculty member at Sonoma State University, made the following statement:

...biodiesel is not a good choice for an alternative fuel, apart from the point mentioned by you that under the current cultivation regime fossil fuels are used to run farming equipment, make fertilizers, pesticides, and undergird advertisement campaigns to promote biodiesel, etc.

The burning of biodiesel shortens the time that the carbon would have spend in some solid form in the biosphere: the oxidation makes it quickly available as a infrared energy trapping gas in the atmosphere..

Let's examine Zeno's arguments, because he mentions several common misconceptions about biofuels.

Biodiesel Carbon Neutral?

Recently, we had one of our commenters, Zeno Swijtink, of Sonoma State University, say that biodiesel might not be all that great from a carbon neutral point of view. He said:

Running a vehicle on biodiesel does not give 100% GHG reduction in my bookkeeping. Biodiesel is a carbon fuel and the atmosphere does not care where the released greenhouse gasses came from. The usual argument that the biodiesel carbon partakes in the short carbon cycle while gasoline carbon partakes in the long carbon cycle is, I believe, fallacious. CO2 uptake thru both these cycles does not care how the CO2 was released. So to assess our progress towards GHG reductions we need to count release from biodiesel oxydation at their full value when we estimate anthropogenic GCC.

The way to answer this is to look at the carbon cycle:

Individual Action - The 10% Solution

One thing about reducing individual carbon emissions is that everyone is in the same boat. It is difficult. Taking carbon reduction in steps can be helpful. Something called the "10% Solution" is a way to start. Here's how it works...

Individual Climate Action - The Carbon Index

The Carbon Index is an unofficial rule of thumb that allows a person to make purchase decisions based on minimizing greenhouse gas emission impact. The Carbon Index is a method for making back-of-the-envelope assessments about what the GHG impact was of a particular product or service.

New Scientist Premium- Your Top 10 ways to take on global warming - Features

Link: New Scientist Premium- Your Top 10 ways to take on global warming - Features.

Here's a good description of a set of individual actions that address climate change.

Action on Climate Protection

Hello, Climate Protection Campaign is launching our blog. This blog is intended to stimulate discussion about what can be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We are currently working on projects at the local level, but we advocate action at all levels: local, state, federal and international.

What we want to do in this blog is to discuss solutions. We want to know what is working elsewhere in the world...and we want to share our experiences with what is working here in Sonoma County.

Although we will post articles on science and links to basic climate science, our aim is not primarily to discuss the science of global warming and climate change. We are not climate scientists, but we view the science of global warming as basically settled. We have adopted and endorse the findings of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), which are that:

• The planet is warming
• Most of the warming in the past 100 years is caused by humans (anthropogenic)
• The human activities most responsible for warming are emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and deforestation.
• Emissions of GHGs that are causing global warming are primarily from the combustion of fossil fuels.
• Significant reduction in GHG emissions is necessary to prevent dangerous changes to the global climate.

In addition to the findings of the IPCC, our view is that meaningful reductions must be accomplished as quickly as possible in order to stabilize the level of atmospheric CO2 as low as possible.

We are looking forward to engaging in discussion with you about how to solve the climate crisis.