Faith-based Climate Forum: 2020 Vision - Climate Leap Forward

2020 VISION: CLIMATE LEAP FORWARD    

A Forum to Meet the Climate Crisis

WHEN: Saturday, February 29, 9 AM - 3 PM

WHERE: Westminster Presbyterian Church, Buffalo [Map]

COST: $10, Students $5;  Lunch provided

REGISTER: Click here
NOTE: Register Before Wednesday, February 26 at 5:00 PM

Click image to enlarge

Keynote Speaker: Rev. Dr. Jim Antal

The Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, author of the acclaimed book, Climate Church, Climate World, is immediate past President of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church Christ and a long-time climate activist, speaker and author.

Foreword by Bill McKibben

Breakout Group Topics and Facilitators

• Youth Climate Strike - Rev. Micah Nutter Dowling
• Creation Justice for Congregations - Roger Cook and Rev. Katelyn Nutter Dowling
• Eco-Justice on West and East Sides of Buffalo - Joshua Wallace
• Our Sacred Waters - Lynda Schneekloth
• Renewable Energy (Wind/Solar) - Bob Ciesielski
• WNY as a Region for Climate Refugees - Brendan Mehaffy
• Climate Disaster Relief Responsibility - Rev. Amos Acree
• Is Climate Change Real: What Scientists Tell Us - David Kowalski

Space is limited. For more Information and to Register, click here
NOTE: Ticket Sales Close Wednesday, February 26 at 5:00 PM

This conference is made possible in part by a grant from the Lilly Endowment.

CLIMATE CHANGE - Who will Protect the People of the U.S.?

Ocasio-Cortez and progressive Dems' Green New Deal gains traction as Trump shrugs off dire warnings from climate scientists
While President Trump attributes his climate change skepticism to his “very high levels of intelligence,” a growing legion of lawmakers and young activists are taking heed of dire warnings being issued by experts and scientists about the catastrophic consequences of inaction.
 
Progressives, led by New York City’s own Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are joining forces behind an ambitious plan to wean the U.S. off fossil fuels, boost renewable energy jobs and build a “smart” power grid.
 
The major push to make climate change a priority when Congress convenes in January got off to a high-profile start weeks ago when Ocasio-Cortez applauded young activists from the environmental advocacy group Sunrise Movement protesting at soon-to-be-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office on Capitol Hill.  

A damning federal government report about the economic and societal impacts of climate change released last week, which Trump openly dismissed, has only emboldened believers steeling for a showdown with mainline Democrats and added weight to their calls for a so-called “Green New Deal.”
NY Daily News - 12.02.2018: To read more, click here



VIDEO:  Solving Our Climate Crisis - A National Town Hall
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, environmental author & 350.org founder Bill McKibben, CNN commentator Van Jones, Union of Concerned Scientists Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel and climate activists
Now This - 12.03.2018: To view the video, click here

Federal Agencies Report that Humans are the Dominant Cause of Climate Change

 

Directly contradicting the Trump administration position on climate change, 13 federal agencies released an extensive scientific report that says humans are the dominant cause of the global temperature rise that has occurred since 1901, creating the warmest period in human history.

Over the past 115 years, global average temperatures have increased 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius), leading to record breaking weather events and temperature extremes. According to the report, the global, long-term warming trend is “unambiguous” and there is “no convincing alternative explanation” that anything other than humans are to blame because of the cars we drive, the power plants we operate, and the forests we destroy.
 

Surprisingly, the report was approved for release by the White House. However, the findings come as the Trump administration is defending its climate change policies on several fronts. 

Public drafts of the report have circulated for months, making it politically perilous to tinker with the findings. So, with editing a high-risk affair and the report required by Congress, the administration may have just decided to downplay it, said John Holdren, who ran the Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Barack Obama.

"It would do more harm to block this report than to let it out," Holdren, now a Harvard University environmental policy professor, said in an interview. "They’re letting it out on a Friday afternoon, which is pretty much the standard approach for letting out something that you don’t want to get a lot of attention." 

The government is required to produce the national assessment every four years. This time, the report is split into two documents, one that lays out the fundamental science of climate change and the other that shows how the United States is being affected on a regional basis. Combined, the two documents total over 2,000 pages.

The first document, called the Climate Science Special Report, is a finalized report, having been peer-reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences and vetted by experts across government agencies.

 

The climate of the United States is strongly connected to the changing global climate. The short statements listed below highlight past, current, and projected climate changes for the United States and the globe:

Panel Discussion Forum at Burchfield Penney Art Center: Communicating Climate Science

[Click image to enlarge]

  Humanities New York 

presents

 

 Turning the Tide:

Communicating Climate Science

Thursday, Sept. 28, 6 PM

Burchfield Penney Art Center

1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo

FREE and open to the public. 

Doubt, while fundamental to the scientific method, has played an out-sized role in the public debate on climate change. Why do so many Americans distrust science in this specific context? 

Join our panelists in a discussion of the history of environmentalism, the politicization of science, and more for the launch event of the Buffalo Humanities Festival 2017: Environments.

PANELISTS:

• Jacqueline Patterson is the Director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program.

• Jason Briner is Director of the Paleoclimate Lab and Associate Professor of Geology at the University at Buffalo.

• Elizabeth Mazzolini is author of The Everest Effect and Associate Professor of English at the University at Buffalo.

• Adam Rome is author of The Genius of Earth Day and Professor of History at the University at Buffalo.

• Ryan McPherson is the Chief Sustainability Officer at the University at Buffalo. Ryan will moderate.

Letter to President-Elect - 'Climate Change is Not a Hoax,' Scientist Says

Dear president-elect: Climate change is not a hoax, and we're all in this together

The Sunday Edition | November 13, 2016

 Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist and associate professor of political science at Texas Tech University, where she is director of the Climate Science Center. Here is her letter to president-elect Donald Trump, commissioned by The Sunday Edition. 

Dear Mr. president-elect:

I think I speak for many in the U.S., in Canada, and around the world, when I say that you've surprised us, you've shocked us, and you've even scared us. Why? Because your words and your actions will affect us all. Your neighbours here in Canada. Policy makers in Europe. Clean energy investors in China. Refugees in Syria.

And climate negotiators who gathered in Marrakesh just this week, to put legs on the hope that was, and still is, offered by the Paris Agreement.

You've given a voice to the fear and anger, the anxiety and frustration of millions of U.S. citizens. That surprises us, shocks us, and even scares us too. But to heal a suppurating boil, we can't just slap some cover-up on it. It has to be lanced. And my hope, from the bottom of my heart, is that by doing so, you will start the healing process.

I'm a climate scientist. Thanks to decades and even centuries of careful research, we know climate is changing, we're responsible, and the impacts are serious. I've helped write U.S. national climate assessments that document how climate change is affecting the country's water, its energy, ecosystems, infrastructure, and even people's health.

This thing is not a hoax; it's real.

But what I've learned, in over a decade spent talking with and listening to thousands of people who disagree with me on climate, is that far more connects us than divides us.

That's what I've learned.

I care, because there are huge and real economic risks of inaction. I care, because it affects national security. The US military calls climate change a threat multiplier. I care, because two thirds of the world's biggest cities lie within just a meter or so of sea level, and we literally cannot pick them up and move them somewhere safer.

And I care because, most of all, climate change isn't fair. It disproportionately affects the poor and the weak, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged, the very people who contributed least to the problem but bear the brunt of its impacts.

I know that in the past, people could simply say, "What's the point, when China isn't doing anything?" But for two years running, now, China has cut its coal use. They're shutting half-built coal plants and they currently lead the world in wind and solar energy. There are solutions and, regardless of what we think about climate, those solutions can grow the economy, clean up our air and water, and ensure our energy future.

But these solutions require two big things: one, that we listen to each other, instead of talking over each other, and two, that we work together instead of tearing each other apart.

Yours in hope,

Katharine Hayhoe

Published in The Sunday Edition

 

VICTORY IN LANDMARK CLIMATE CASE

FEDERAL COURT AFFIRMS CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF CHILDREN

DENIES MOTIONS OF GOVERNMENT AND FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY IN 

YOUTH’S LANDMARK CLIMATE CHANGE CASE

EUGENE, Oregon - On April 8, 2016, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin of the federal District Court in Eugene, OR, decided in favor of 21 young Plaintiffs, and Dr. James Hansen on behalf of future generations, in their landmark constitutional climate change case brought against the federal government and the fossil fuel industry.

The Court’s ruling is a major victory for the 21 youth Plaintiffs, ages 8-19, from across the U.S. in what Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein call the “most important lawsuit on the planet right now.” These plaintiffs sued the federal government for violating their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property, and their right to essential public trust resources, by permitting, encouraging, and otherwise enabling continued exploitation, production, and combustion of fossil fuels.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Philip Gregory with Cotchett, Pitre, & McCarthy of Burlingame, CA, said: “This decision is one of the most significant in our nation’s history. The Court upheld our claims that the federal government intensified the danger to our plaintiffs’ lives, liberty and property.

Judge Coffin decided our Complaint will move forward and put climate science squarely in front of the federal courts. The next step is for the Court to order our government to cease jeopardizing the climate system for present and future generations. The Court gave America’s youth a fair opportunity to be heard.”

As part of Friday’s historic decision, Judge Coffin characterized the case as an “unprecedented lawsuit” addressing “government action and inaction” resulting “in carbon pollution of the atmosphere, climate destabilization, and ocean acidification.”

In deciding the case will proceed, Judge Coffin wrote: “The debate about climate change and its impact has been before various political bodies for some time now. Plaintiffs give this debate justiciability by asserting harms that befall or will befall them personally and to a greater extent than older segments of society.”

“It may be that eventually the alleged harms, assuming the correctness of plaintiffs' analysis of the impacts of global climate change, will befall all of us. But the intractability of the debates before Congress and state legislatures and the alleged valuing of short term economic interest despite the cost to human life, necessitates a need for the courts to evaluate the constitutional parameters of the action or inaction taken by the government. This is especially true when such harms have an alleged disparate impact on a discrete class of society.”

Dr. James Hansen, guardian in the case for all future generations, and world renown climate scientist said, “Science clearly establishes that our planet’s increasing energy imbalance – caused in substantial part by our government’s support for the exploitation and combustion of fossil fuel – imposes increasingly severe risks on our common future. Now, from Eugene Oregon, comes a prescient and insightful ruling from a federal district court.  Judge Coffin in effect declares that the voice of children and future generations, supported by the relevant science, must be heard.  We will now proceed to prove our claims.  It is perhaps not too late for serious action to preserve a viable climate system that will be required by our posterity.”

Read the full press release here.

Read the Court's order here.

Website

Petitioning President Obama: Keep Fossil Fuels Safely in the Ground

PRESIDENT OBAMA — SECURE YOUR CLIMATE LEGACY:

KEEP FOSSIL FUELS SAFELY IN THE GROUND

Mr. President,

We call on you to secure your climate legacy by halting all new drilling, fracking, and mining on public lands and waters, including stopping all new offshore drilling in the Arctic, Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic.

The world is in a deep climate hole and now that we find ourselves here, we must stop digging. As you said when you rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, “we’re going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground.”

We couldn’t agree more.

The science is clear. [1] A safe climate means we need to stop drilling and mining for more fossil fuels; and we need to keep at least 80% of what we already have in the ground.

The first place to start is our precious public lands and waters. New oil and gas sales on these lands would expand known reserves of fossil fuels, which would clearly fail to harmonize our energy policy with climate science.

The historic Paris climate agreement was the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era. To create that fossil free future we need a just transition to 100% renewable energy, and we need to implement a climate test to stop expanding reserves and keep our fossil fuels in the ground.

We thank you for your leadership to date, and we urge you to boldly secure your climate legacy by announcing that America’s public lands and waters will no longer be auctioned off to oil, gas, and coal companies.

To Sign the Petition, CLICK HERE.

Brought to you by: Other98 - Greenpeace USA- Oil Change International - Rainforest Action Network - Daily Kos - Environmental Action - Friends of the Earth - Courage Campaign- Stand- The Nation- WildEarth Guardians - Food & Water Watch - WatchDog.net

Climate Change: Human Activity is Causing Sea-level Rise -- We Must Take Action

WNY can be a key player in the effort to fight the impact of climate change

EDITORIAL  |   The Buffalo News

on February 27, 2016 - 12:01 AM

If this week’s alarming report on rising sea levels doesn’t get everyone’s attention, it’s hard to see what will, short of bodies floating in the water. Scientists reported on Monday that the oceans are rising at the fastest rate in 28 centuries – since the founding of ancient Rome – and that flooding is increasing more frequently in coastal cities and will only get worse.

Isn’t it time to be serious? The scientists make a credible case that the cause is human activity, but it’s not even necessary to accept that to understand that rising seas are a fact – for whatever reason – and they portend expensive, life-altering calamities.

Two critical things need to happen if humanity is to respond most effectively to the threat. Defensively, coastal cities such as Miami Beach, Fla.; Charleston, S.C.; Norfolk, Va.; and New York City need to buffer themselves against the coming tide. The need for that has already been documented.

In Charleston, for example, the number of flood days has increased to 219 in recent years from just 34 in 2005, based on measurements of a tide gauge. Other cities, including Annapolis, Md., and Key West, Fla., have also seen dramatic increases in the number of flood days. Climate Central, a research organization in Princeton, N.J., has calculated that about three-quarters of tidal flood days along the East Coast are occurring because of rising sea levels caused by human-driven carbon dioxide emissions.

The consequences of warming are already being felt and will, experts say, inevitably become worse before humans have any chance even to slow the pace of climate change. It will be crucial to prepare.

But Americans, and the world, owe it to future generations to acknowledge that their activities are causing much of this problem and to act accordingly. Fundamentally, that means moving away from carbon-based fuels and to renewable sources, including wind, sun and even sea.

This is an inevitable shift, since other resources – coal, oil, natural gas – are finite. Solar and wind energy are renewable, although reliability varies. The technology for harnessing wind and solar on a large scale is still being developed, but the technology will improve, as is always the case, creating greater efficiency and reliability and lowering the cost. This is going to happen. The question is how quickly and, clearly, faster is better.

That will be good for mankind and it will be good for Western New York, too. Not only is this one of the windiest places in the Northeast and already home to wind farms taking advantage of the power provided by air movement, but Buffalo is about to become home to the largest solar manufacturing plant in the Western Hemisphere. Those are critical technologies to develop and to refine if the world is to turn back from the kind of crises that a warming climate not only threatens, but is already producing.

The naysayers remain, and probably always will. No amount of evidence will change those minds. Some of those in denial, like Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., are particularly rabid in their insistence that the doubters are right and the vast majority of scientists are wrong. It’s time to leave them behind.

When experts with credibility report that seas are not only rising, but rising faster than they have since before Jesus walked the Earth, then it’s time to be done with those who are so invested in denial that they risk the well-being of millions of people.

Instead, governments and businesses must get on with the urgent task of protecting the coastal populations at increasing risk and acting, finally, in the interests of our descendants who will praise or curse their forebears who either acted to protect the planet or who, selfishly and against all evidence, chose to do nothing.

~   ~   ~

Fossil Fuel Industry Misinformation Delayed Action on Climate Change For Decades

America has been duped on climate change

By Robert Brulle | January 6, 2016 | The Washington Post

Robert Brulle is a professor of sociology and environmental science at Drexel University in Philadelphia. He is co-editor of "Climate Change and Society: Sociological Perspectives."

Future generations will look back on our tepid response to global climate disruption and wonder why we did not act sooner and more aggressively. Climate change will adversely impact present and future generations, as well as all species on Earth. Our moral obligation to protect life requires us to act.

Yet even after the recently completed United Nations climate conference, we are still on track for dangerous levels of climate change. Why haven’t we acted sooner or more aggressively? One answer can be found in the split over the veracity of climate science.

Recent scholarship documents the coordinated efforts of conservative foundations and fossil fuel corporations to promote this uncertainty. Amplified by conservative media, this campaign of disinformation and omission has significantly altered the nature of the public debate and led to political polarization around the issue, making meaningful legislative action nearly impossible.

These findings are supported by recent investigative news reports, which show that since the 1970s, top executives and scientists in the fossil fuel industry have been well aware of the evidence that their products amplified climate-warming emissions. They conducted their own extensive research on the topic and participated in ongoing scientific discussions. The American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group, even circulated the results to its members. By 1978, a senior executive at ExxonMobil proposed creating a worldwide “CO2 in the Atmosphere” research and development program to determine an appropriate response.

Unfortunately, that path wasn’t taken. Instead, in 1989, a group of fossil fuel corporations, utilities and automobile manufacturers banded together to form the Global Climate Coalition. This group worked to ensure that the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions, was not adopted by the United States. In public statements, the Global Climate Coalition continued to deny that global warming was occurring and emphasized the uncertainty of climate science.

The spreading of misinformation continued. In 1998, API, Exxon, Chevron, Southern Co. and various conservative think tanks initiated a public relations campaign, the goal of which was to ensure that the “recognition of uncertainties (of climate science) becomes part of the ‘conventional wisdom.'”

While that coalition disbanded in 2001, ExxonMobil reportedly continued to quietly funnel climate misinformation through “skeptic” think tanks, such as the Heartland Institute, until 2006, when its funding was exposed. The company — the nation’s largest and wealthiest — continues to work with the American Legislative Exchange Council, a so-called public-private partnership of corporations and conservative legislators, to block climate change policies.

For years, ExxonMobil had been a participant in public efforts to sow doubt about climate change. Yet at at the same time, the corporation was at the leading edge of climate science and its executives were well informed regarding the scientific consensus on climate change. This allegedly deceitful conduct has generated public outrage and recently led New York’s attorney general to initiate an investigation into whether ExxonMobil has misled the public and investors about the risks of climate change.

While important, these legal proceedings cannot fully address the larger moral issues of corporate social and political responsibility. Just as Congress investigated the efforts of the tobacco industry to dupe the public into believing its products were harmless, we need a full and open inquiry into the conduct of ExxonMobil and the other institutions whose misinformation campaigns about science have delayed our efforts to address climate change.

The central concern here is the moral integrity of the public sphere. The Declaration of Independence says the legitimacy of government is based on the consent of the governed. But when vested interests with outsize economic and cultural power distort the public debate by introducing falsehoods, the integrity of our deliberations is compromised.

Such seems the case today when we consider the fossil fuel industry’s role in distorting discourse on the urgent topic of climate change. If vested economic interests and public relations firms can systematically alter the national debate in favor of their own interests and against those of society as a whole, then the notion of democracy and civic morality is undermined. Congress can and should act to investigate this issue fully. Only then can we restore trust and legitimacy to American governance and fulfill our moral duty to aggressively address climate change.

Justice Dept. Investigation into ExxonMobil requested -- Alleging Climate Science Cover-up

Democrats Request a DOJ Investigation Into ExxonMobil, Alleging Climate Science Cover-up

By Rebecca Leber | New Republic | October 16, 2015

California Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requested a Department of Justice investigation into ExxonMobil on Wednesday, writing that the company's behavior "is similar to cigarette companies that repeatedly denied harm from tobacco and spread uncertainty and misleading information to the public." There have always been pronounced parallels between the tobacco and oil industry—both working to undermine regulatory action that could hamper profit—but a federal investigation may mean they share the same fate, as well.

In 1999, the DOJ investigated and eventually sued big tobacco for spreading misleading evidence about the connection between cigarettes and cancer. The companies violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, and faced repercussions for lying to the public about science. Now, Congressmen Ted Lieu and Mark DeSaulnier of California say it could be Exxon's turn.

"We ask that the DOJ similarly investigate ExxonMobil for organizing a sustained deception campaign disputing climate science and failing to disclose truthful information to investors and the public," they wrote, according to a letter provided to the New Republic. "We request the DOJ investigate whether ExxonMobil violated RICO, consumer protection, truth in advertising, public health, shareholder protection, or other laws.

“The apparent tactics employed by Exxon are reminiscent of the actions employed by big tobacco companies to deceive the American people about the known risks of tobacco,” the letter says.

Two investigations undertaken by Los Angeles Times and Inside Climate News show that Exxon scientists accepted the role fossil fuels play in driving global warming in the 1970s and 80s, and briefed corporate executives on the need for “major reductions in fossil fuel combustion.” In the years that followed, executives spearheaded efforts to cast doubt on the science community’s findings to halt action on climate change. Exxon financed the Global Climate Coalition, which worked against climate action in the 1990s before disbanding in 2002. Eight years ago, the company also promised to stop funding climate deniers, yet continues to contribute today to prominent skeptics, including Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe.

And this attitude appears to have seeped into the DNA of Exxon itself. Just this spring, Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson questioned climate change: “What if everything we do, it turns out our models are lousy, and we don’t get the effects we predict?” Tillerson said. “Mankind has this enormous capacity to deal with adversity, and those solutions will present themselves as those challenges become clear.” While other major oil companies have endorsed a global climate deal in Paris at the end of the year to tackle emissions, Exxon has opted out of pushing for climate action.

Activists, including Bill McKibben of 350.org and R.L. Miller of the Climate Hawks Vote PAC, have been pushing for a more formal investigation and prosecution of Exxon.  "In the 28 years I’ve been following the story of global warming, this is the single most outrageous set of new revelations that journalists have uncovered," he posted to Tumblr. On Thursday, McKibben was arrested for protesting at an Exxon station in Burlington, Vermont.

For years, activists and scientists have charged Exxon with taking the world down an irresponsible path, rejecting climate science in favor of increased fossil fuel consumption and profits. Lieu and DeSaulnier believe it's illegal, too.

This article originally appeared in the New Republic.



The Department of Justice Must Investigate ExxonMobil
You can join the call to action by signing a petition to the DOJ here.
350.0rg | Oct. 30, 2015

Leaders of many of the country’s largest environmental groups, civil rights organizations, and indigenous peoples movements issued a joint letter today calling on the Department of Justice to investigate ExxonMobil, after revelations that the company knew about climate change as early as the 1970s, but chose to mislead the public about the crisis in order to maximize their profits from fossil fuels.

The full text of the letter and the list of signatories are here.

Film: 'MERCHANTS of DOUBT' - Free Screening in Williamsville, October 25th

How a handful of so-called 'experts' obscured the truth on vital issues from 

tobacco smoke to global warming ...

MERCHANTS of DOUBT

A 'Must See' Documentary Film

 Free and Open to the Public

WHEN: Sunday, October 25 at 3:00pm

WHERE: North Presbyterian Church, 300 N. Forest, Williamsville [Map]

View the Film Trailer:

Obama's Green Light on Arctic Oil Drilling - Bill McKibben Op-Ed

                                                        Adam Zyglis | The Buffalo News

Obama’s Catastrophic Climate-Change Denial

"It’s as if the tobacco companies were applying for permission to put cigarette machines in cancer wards.”

By BILL McKIBBEN  |  MAY 12, 2015  | Opinion | The New York Times

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — THE Obama administration’s decision to give Shell Oil the go-ahead to drill in the Arctic shows why we may never win the fight against climate change. Even in this most extreme circumstance, no one seems able to stand up to the power of the fossil fuel industry. No one ever says no.

By “extreme” I don’t just mean that Shell will be drilling for oil in places where there’s no hope of cleaning up the inevitable spills (remember the ineptness of BP in the balmy, accessible Gulf of Mexico, and now transpose it 40 degrees of latitude north, into some of the harshest seas on the planet).

No, what’s most extreme here is the irresponsibility of Shell, now abetted by the White House. A quarter century ago, scientists warned that if we kept burning fossil fuel at current rates we’d melt the Arctic. The fossil fuel industry (and most everyone else in power) ignored those warnings, and what do you know: The Arctic is melting, to the extent that people now are planning to race yachts through the Northwest Passage, which until very recently required an icebreaker to navigate.

Now, having watched the Arctic melt, does Shell take that experience and conclude that it’s in fact time to invest heavily in solar panels and wind turbines? No. Instead, it applies to be first in line to drill for yet more oil in the Chukchi Sea, between Alaska and Siberia. Wash, rinse, repeat. Talk about salting wounds and adding insult to injury: It’s as if the tobacco companies were applying for permission to put cigarette machines in cancer wards.

And the White House gave Shell the license. In his first term, President Obama mostly ignored climate change, and he ran for re-election barely mentioning the subject until Hurricane Sandy made it unavoidable in the closing days of the campaign.

Theoretically his second term was going to be different. The president has stepped up the rhetoric, and he’s shown some willingness to go after domestic greenhouse gas emissions. His new regulations on coal-fired power plants will be helpful, as will his 2012 rules on fuel efficiency for cars and trucks. And his nonbinding pledge that America will cut emissions in future decades may make the upcoming climate talks in Paris less of a fiasco than earlier talks in Copenhagen.

But you can’t deal with climate on the demand side alone. If we keep digging up more coal, gas and oil, it will get burned, if not here, then somewhere else. This is precisely the conclusion that a study in the journal Nature reached in January: If we’re to have any chance of meeting even Mr. Obama’s weak goal of holding temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius, we have to leave most carbon underground. That paper, in particular, showed that the coal reserves in the Powder River basin in the West and the oil in Canada’s tar sands had to be left largely untouched, and that there was no climate-friendly scenario in which any oil or gas could be drilled in the Arctic.

And yet Mr. Obama — acting on his own, since these are all executive actions requiring nothing from Congress — has opened huge swaths of the Powder River basin to new coal mining. He’s still studying whether to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, though the country’s leading climate scientists have all told him it would be a disaster. And now he’s given Shell the green light, meaning that, as with Keystone, it will be up to the environmental movement to block the plan (“kayaktivists” plan to gather this weekend in Seattle’s harbor, trying to prevent Shell from basing its Arctic rigs there).

This is not climate denial of the Republican sort, where people simply pretend the science isn’t real. This is climate denial of the status quo sort, where people accept the science, and indeed make long speeches about the immorality of passing on a ruined world to our children. They just deny the meaning of the science, which is that we must keep carbon in the ground.

Bill McKibben teaches environmental studies at Middlebury College and is the founder of the global climate campaign 350.org.

NYS Senator Stands Up for Climate Science in the Face of Ignorance

By David Kowalski .

Senator Brad Hoylman, ranking member of the NY State Conservation Committee, called out the Senate majority for ignoring the term 'climate change' in their Earth Day Resolution.

Speaking in the senate chambers, he implored the legislative body that "we be mindful as public policy makers of the solemn responsibility to be good stewards of our planet."

Holyman said “There is an oversight in the resolution, which I feel obligated to point out, that there is no mention of climate change. The two words 'climate change' do not appear in the resolution.”

“It has to be [an oversight]. This is Earth Day, not Flat Earth Day. And the science, Mr. president, is clear.”   

Holyman cited scientific facts drawn from reports from the International Panel on Climate Change and cited by the NY City panel on Climate Change: rising temperatures, increasing precipitation, heat waves, extreme weather, sea level rise, and flooding of New York City, the most densely populated city on Earth.

“We should be mindful of the economic impact of climate change. With extreme weather events predicted to increase, we have to be prepared for economic impacts including infrastructure damage, rebuilding costs. The direct costs of Superstorm Sandy alone was $71.4 Billion,” he said.

“We are dooming our children’s future unless we act now.”

“Now the Peoples Climate March … 350,000 people attended it. It was in my district less than a year ago, but what have we done to address it?"

"Where is NY State’s Climate Action Plan? Who’s in charge of Climate Change in NY State? Can you name that person? I can’t.”

Hoylman concluded, “Mr. President, I support this [Earth Day] Resolution, but urge my colleagues, as we move forward in this legislative session, to take decisive steps to reverse global warming and climate change."

Senator Hoylman's full testimony delivered in the senate chambers can be viewed in a video here.

The Earth Day Resolution passed by the Senate GOP majority omitted the phrase “climate change” because some legislators objected to the words, according to a Capital New York report.

Republican Senator John DeFrancisco said it was a "politically correct term" and cast doubt on the notion the Earth was warming because his city saw record cold this winter.

“It was global warming a few years ago, and I can attest, being from Syracuse, New York, that the globe wasn't warming around Syracuse this winter. So by putting a label to good environmental practices is a very risky thing and that's why [climate change] was not put in this resolution,”  DeFrancisco said.

Buffalo News editorial cartoon by Pulitzer-Prize Winner Adam Zyglis

Senator DeFrancisco is ignorant of the fact that global warming is not simply evaluated by determining the temperature in his home district of Syracuse NY.

Global warming is assessed by measuring temperatures at numerous locations on land around the world as well as in the oceans that make up more than 70 percent of Earth’s surface. Measurements are made over time and the global average temperature is determined.

So, while it was brutally cold this winter in Syracuse, across NY state and elsewhere in the Eastern U.S., most all other regions on land and in oceans around planet Earth showed above average warming according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Results of NOAA's global temperature analysis are displayed on world maps for the months of January (click here) and February (below).

Get Climate Science Deniers Out of Science Museums

Sign the petition telling science museums to kick Koch off the board!

The world’s top scientists, including several Nobel Prize winners, just released an unprecedented letter calling on science and natural history museums to cut all ties to the fossil fuel industry. They wrote:

When some of the biggest contributors to climate change and funders of misinformation on climate science sponsor exhibitions in museums of science and natural history, they undermine public confidence in the validity of the institutions responsible for transmitting scientific knowledge. 

The letter comes on the heels of recent news that Smithsonian-affiliated scientist Willie Soon took $1.25 million from the Koch brothers, Exxon Mobil, American Petroleum Institute and other covert funders to publish junk science denying man-made climate change, and failed to disclose any funding-related conflicts of interest.

In particular, the letter points a finger at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (D.C.) and the American Museum of Natural History (NY), where David Koch is a member of the board, a major donor and exhibit sponsor.

Oil mogul David Koch sits on the board of our nation’s largest and most respected natural history museums, while he bankrolls groups that deny climate science.

Click here to sign this petition to the Smithsonian and the American Museum of Natural History: It’s time to get science deniers out of science museums. Kick Koch off the board!

Still undecided about signing the petition? Read on. The most embarrassing and scientifically misleading display that the Smithsonian designed, according to physicist and climatologist Joe Romm, directly suggests that humans can simply evolve to deal with global warming. Romm wrote at Climate Progress:

Smithsonian visitors are asked to “imagine” a time that is “far into the future” when “Earth’s temperature has risen and it’s really hot.” Unbelievably, you are then asked “How do you think your body will evolve?” Your choice is “Will you have a tall, narrow body like a giraffe? Or more sweat glands?” 

Click here to sign the petition.

The petition message and the list of signatures will be delivered to the American Museum of Natural History before their annual board meeting the first week of April, and to the Smithsonian before their board meeting in June.

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The scientist letter was initiated by The Natural History Museum, a new museum that is free from ties to the fossil fuel industry, calls out climate science deniers and culprits obstructing action on climate change, and actively champions the just transition to a sustainable and equitable future.

SPONSORS: The Natural History Museum, Forecast The Facts, Daily Kos, Environmental Action, Rainforest Action Network, Bridge Project, Oil Change International, Other 98%, Courage Campaign, CREDO, Friends of the Earth

Climate Expert, Katherine Hayhoe, to Speak at Houghton College

 One of Time Magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’ in 2014.

Dr. Katherine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist, an expert on climate change, a communicator and an evangelical Christian.

Time Magazine called her an "environmental evangelist" and a "smart person who defies stereotype."

Dr. Hayhoe will present a lecture on Climate Change from the perspective of evangelical Christian faith on Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 8:30PM in the Center for Fine Arts (Recital Hall) at Houghton College. She’ll also present a shorter talk in the Chapel on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 11:05AM.

Both events will be free and open to the public.

“Within the Christian world there can be a lot of tension between faith and science, with many evangelicals accepting a false dichotomy that the two are opposed,” commented Brian Webb, sustainability coordinator for Houghton College.

“Hayhoe bridges this communication gap by not only bringing her expertise as a world renowned climate researcher, but also as a scientist who is vocal about her Christian faith. Ultimately, her work integrates the two areas by showing how responding to climate change is an inherently Christian thing to do.”

Katharine Hayhoe is an Associate Professor in the Public Administration program at Texas Tech University and Director of the Climate Science Center. Her research focuses on developing and applying high-resolution climate projections to evaluate the future impacts of climate change on human society and the natural environment. 

Dr. Hayhoe has published over 70 peer-reviewed publications and served as lead author on key reports for the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the National Academy of Sciences. She is also lead author for the 2014 Third U.S. National Climate Assessment, which provides critical input to planning and policy at the state and national level to reduce the human influence on climate and adapt to future change.

“Hayhoe’s visit is timely for us here at Houghton given that we’re about to go live with the largest solar array on a college campus in NY State within days of her visit. These are just two examples of how Houghton students are beginning to understand the connections between our faith and issues of environmental justice and sustainability,” Webb said.

Global Climate Change: 2014 Officially the Hottest Year on Record

Excerpts from a report at TheGuardian.com

The numbers are in. The year 2014 – after shattering temperature records that had stood for hundreds of years across virtually all of Europe, and roasting parts of South America, China and Russia – was the hottest on record, with global temperatures 1.24F (0.69C) higher than the 20th-century average, U.S. government scientists said on Friday.

In North America, California saw its hottest year, with annual average temperatures 4.1F (2.3C) higher than 20th century average, and scant relief for a punishing drought. Surprisingly, Alaska showed record warm temperatures as well. But for the remainder of North America, it was the opposite story [see Global Map and color Key, below].

 

The world was the hottest it has been since systematic records began in 1880, especially on the oceans, which the agency confirmed were the driver of 2014’s temperature rise.

The scientists said 2014 was the 38th consecutive year of above-average temperatures. That means nobody born since 1976 has experienced a colder-than-average year.

“Any one year being a record warm one is not in itself particularly significant, but this is one in a series of record warm years that are driven by the continuing underlying long-term global warming,” said Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies.

Thirteen of the 15 hottest years have occurred since 2000.

“We expect that heat records will continue to get broken – not everywhere and not every year – but increasingly, and that does not bode well for a civilization that is continuing to add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere at an increasing rate.” “Nineteen eighty-eight was also a record warm year at the time. Now it doesn’t even rank in the top 20,” Schmidt said.

The last record cold year was more than a century ago in 1911.

“We can safely say it’s probably the warmest year in 1,700 and 2,000 years, and I think it’s probably safe to say 5,000 years,” said Don Wuebbles, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Illinois who has worked on a number of IPCC reports. “You have a continuous upward trend over the last century and that is telling us something. We have a clear signal that our climate changing, and when you look at the evidence it’s because of human activities.”

“The evidence is so strong I don’t know why we are arguing any more,” Wuebbles said. “It’s just crazy.”

The odds of that temperature shift occurring because of natural climate variability were less than one in 27 million, according to the Climate Central research group.

“The data from NASA and NOAA is the latest scientific evidence that climate change is real, and we must act now to protect our families and future generations,” said Senator Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat and climate champion. “Deniers must stop ignoring these alarms if we are to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.”

Campaign groups said the milestone ought to spur new efforts to fight climate change. “The Obama administration must back international efforts to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050,” said Shaye Wolf, the climate science director with the Center for Biological Diversity. “We need a global agreement that keeps most dirty fossil fuels in the ground and provides ample support for developing nations to leapfrog into clean energy economies.”

On the current emissions trajectory, the world will attain average warming of 7.2F or 9F [4C or 5C] by 2100, which climate scientists say would be catastrophic.

Read the full report at TheGuardian.com


VIDEO: Watch 135 Years of Global Warming in 30 Seconds.  This NASA video animation depicts how temperatures around the globe have warmed over the years from 1880 to 2014.

 

'DISRUPTION' - Powerful Film about Climate Change

When it comes to Climate Change, 

why do we do so little when we know so much?

Disruption lays bare the science, the shattered political process, the industry special interests and the civic paralysis that have brought us to this social, moral and ecological crossroads.

This is the story of our unique moment in history. We are the first generation to feel the impacts of climate disruption, and scientists say that we are the last generation that can do something about it. 

The film also takes us behind-the-scenes of the efforts to organize the People's Climate March, which promises to be the largest climate rally in the history of the planet.

Watch Disruption online [ watchdisruption.com ] and share it with your friends.
  Stay tuned for local showings of Disruption at venues in the Buffalo area.

Take Action on Climate Change: Get on the Buffalo Bus to NY City for the People's Climate March! Sierra Club Niagara Group has chartered buses and tickets are available here.

Can't go to the Climate March? Take Action by making a Donation to Sponsor Riders who can go in your place.

Over 1000 Organizations are Partnering on the Climate March! Businesses, unions, religious groups, environmental groups, schools, social justice groups, and more. To see the list, Click Here.

UPDATE - Sept. 9: THURSDAY, September 11, SCREENING of ‘DISRUPTION' - Viewing and discussion of film and the Sept. 21 People’s Climate March. 6:00pm-8:00pm, University at Buffalo, North Campus, Capen 107, Amherst. Free & open to public

Climate Science Presentation and Writers Group Meeting

Climate and Clean Energy Writers Group

A public education and outreach project of the Sierra Club Niagara Group

Meets this Monday, February 3rd

Presentation on Climate Science Basics

 

Frederick Stoss, MS, MLS - SUNY University at Buffalo Librarian for Biological Sciences, Ecology/Environmental Science, Geology and Math, will give a short presentation on Climate Change. 

Mr. Stoss has trained with the Climate Reality Project, founded by former Vice President Al Gore.

WHO:   Open to the public and free.  This event is geared toward those who wish to write about climate and clean energy issues, but all are welcome. 

WHAT: The Sierra Club's Climate and Clean Energy (CACE) Writers Group holds its February monthly meeting, co-sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo (UUCB) Social Justice Task Force

WHEN:  Monday, February 3rd from 6:00 to 7:30 PM. The presentation and Q&A will take 45 minutes to an hour, followed by a short break when non-writers are welcome to exit if they like, leaving 30-45 minutes to review recent media reports and discuss writing projects

WHERE: Unitarian Universalist Church - 695 Elmwood at Ferry.  Use the garden entrance - meeting is in the 2nd floor Alliance Room

Writers Group

Background:
MAKE A DIFFERENCE - The Sierra Club is setting up a Climate and Clean Energy Writers Group to encourage a stronger voice for local advocates in the regional dialogue on climate change and renewables.  The plan is to meet monthly, hear a short presentation on a relevant topic, discuss energy related news, letters and articles, and encourage each other to write for publication on topics of interest.

We are seeking writers of all ages and are very interested in getting the word out via various media, including print and the internet.  If you would like to write, critique writing, or track local news items, please let us know.

What is the process:
You are encouraged at any time to write letters to the editor, op-eds, blogs – any way to express your opinion about climate and clean energy issues. 
There is no process required. If you would like us to help you with fact checking or editing, or any form of encouragement, please contact us.
The monthly meetings are meant to provide stimulating information and a chance to talk together, but If you can’t make a given meeting, don’t let that stop you from expressing yourself.

Submissions:
Guidelines for articles and letters to the Buffalo News can be found at: http://corp.buffalonews.com/services/contact/guidelines.asp

County Executive Mark Poloncarz has set up a great page laying out how to write letters to the editor to local media, at http://markpoloncarz.com/submit-a-letter-to-the-editor/    

We meet the first Monday of each month.  882-9237 or billnowa@gmail.com for more information

Name Extreme Storms after Climate Deniers

CLIMATE NAME CHANGE: A satirical proposal to name extreme storms after politicians who deny human-caused global warming and obstruct climate policy.

This video, published by ClimateNameChange.org on Aug 26, 2013, has gone Viral. It has received over 2 Million hits!

Since 1954, the World Meteorological Organization has been naming extreme storms after people. But ClimateNameChange.org thinks it's time for a new naming system. If you agree with their proposal, endorse this CLIMATE NAME CHANGE plan by clicking here.

On Wednesday, there was a hearing of a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the impact of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan. Republicans argued against doing anything about carbon pollution. To see their five craziest arguments, and the rebuttals of those arguments, click here.