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New Intentions For My Blog

I originally started this blog to bring about awareness to those unknowing of the growing climate crisis that faces the planet and the things that can be done at lower levels to help. However, I am now taking a step back from that to talk about something more interesting to me at the moment-my tomfoolery. Enjoy

Another Record

2010 is the warmest year on record:

According to The Washington Post:  

“Many scientists use the climate year, which runs from December of the preceding year to November of the current year, to evaluate long-term climate trends. The combined land-ocean temperature readings NASA’s Goddard Institute posted Friday indicate that 2010 has surpassed what it identified as the previous warmest climate year, 2005.”

“The findings are significant, according to experts, and barring some temperature anomaly in December, should place 2010 as the warmest year on record overall.”

2010: A Year Of Clear Climate Change

More evidence of our changing planet: 

“Catastrophic floods in Pakistan, wildfires in Russia, hurricanes in Mexico: 2010 has so far been an “exceptional” year for weather disasters, German reinsurance giant Munich Re said Thursday.”

“This year really has been a year of weather records,” Peter Hoeppe, an expert from Munich Re’s Geo Risks Research department, told journalists.”

“The first nine months of the year have seen the highest number of weather-related events since Munich Re started keeping records,” he added.”

Click “planet” for a link to this article on clear climate change.    

Proposition 23

Deceptive Proposition Would Kill California Clean Air Standards & Kill Clean Energy Jobs

Two Texas oil companies are spending millions to push Prop. 23, a deceptive ballot proposition that would kill California clean energy and air pollution reduction standards. Four years ago, California passed a clean air law (AB 32) that holds polluters accountable and requires them to reduce air pollution that threatens human health and contributes to global climate change. This law has launched California to the forefront of the clean technology industry, sparking innovation and clean energy businesses that are creating hundreds of thousands of new California jobs.

The tragic oil spill in the Gulf reinforces the urgent need to reduce our dependence on costly, dangerous oil. But the oil companies’ Prop. 23 would allow polluters to avoid our state’s clean energy standards, kill competition and jobs from California’s clean technology companies, and keep us addicted to dirty oil.

Prop. 23 - The Texas Oil Companies’ Dirty Energy Proposition - is deceptive.

• The primary funders of Prop. 23 are the Valero and Tesoro Texas oil companies. They are among the nation’s biggest polluters, and their California oil refineries are among the top ten polluters in our state.
• Valero and Tesoro claim Prop. 23 would only “suspend” California’s air pollution and clean energy standards until the economy improves. In fact, Prop. 23 - The Dirty Energy Proposition - would repeal our clean energy law and harm the economy.
  
  • The fine print in Prop. 23 reveals their plan is to kill these standards by prohibiting them from being enforced unless unemployment drops to a fixed level that has rarely ever been achieved.

Prop. 23 would create more air pollution in California and threaten public health.

• Air pollution is a major threat to public health in California, with alarming rates of asthma and lung disease, especially among children. Each year, California’s air pollution crisis contributes to thousands of premature deaths, hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks, and thousands of trips to the hospital for California families.¹
• Prop. 23 would let the Texas oil companies and other polluters off the hook - drastically increasing air pollution and public health risks.
• That’s why Prop. 23 is strongly opposed by the American Lung Association in California and AARP.

Prop. 23 would kill clean technology jobs, innovation and billions of dollars of investment in California.

• The Texas oil companies want to continue California’s addiction to oil. Prop. 23 would kill competition from California’s newly emerging clean energy businesses - wind, solar and other renewable energy and clean technologies that would reduce energy costs and our dependence on fossil fuels.
• If we roll back our clean energy standards, California would lose hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in investments to other states.
  
  • According to California’s nonpartisan State Legislative Analyst’s Office, rolling back our clean energy and clean air law could “dampen additional investments in clean energy technologies or in so-called “green jobs? by private firms, thereby resulting in less economic activity.”
• Clean energy businesses and technologies are exceptional bright spots in our economy. California’s clean energy and clean air law has put our state in a unique position to lead the clean energy and technology market, both in the United States and abroad.
  
  • 500,000 employees work in clean technology or green jobs in California.²
  • Since 2005, California green jobs have grown 10 times faster than the statewide average.³
  • California’s clean technology sector received $9 billion cumulative venture capital investment from 2005- 09, including $2.1 billion in investment capital in 2009 - more than five times the investment in our nearest competitor, Massachusetts.⁴
  • There are more than 12,000 clean tech companies in California.⁵

Prop. 23 would increase dependence on oil and increase costs to California consumers.

• The tragic spill in the Gulf has reinforced that we must move to cleaner sources of energy to reduce our dependence on costly, dirty oil.
• Prop. 23 would result in greater use of oil in California and increase the risk of accidents like that in the Gulf Coast.
• Prop. 23 would not only hurt competition from California clean energy businesses, it would also reduce consumer choices by making alternatives to fossil fuels much more expensive for consumers.
• By keeping us dependent on fossil fuels, Prop. 23 would also increase household electricity costs in California by 33%. These added costs would reduce economic output in California by more than $80 billion and cost over a half million jobs by 2020.

 For more information visit stopdirtyenergyprop.com

13,200 Deaths

 

There is a very real and immediate human impact from the burning of fossil fuels. A new report from the Clean Air Task Force makes that abundantly clear:

“[F]ine particle pollution from existing coal plants is expected to cause nearly 13,200 deaths in 2010. Additional impacts include an estimated 9,700 hospitalizations and more than 20,000 heart attacks per year. The total monetized value of these adverse health impacts adds up to more than $100 billion per year. This burden is not distributed evenly across the population. Adverse impacts areespecially severe for the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. In addition, the poor, minority groups, and people who live in areas downwind of multiple power plants are likely to be disproportionately exposed to the health risks and costs of fine particle pollution.”

Yup, this is real - yet people don’t believe it.