Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
The Capital Research Center has just published its latest Organization Trends report, which focuses on the Center for Climate Strategies. Reviewers like me say it is "must reading," "compelling," and that they "couldn't put it down." Of course, I've had an intense interest in this group for at least a year, and it helps that our friend Chris Horner put the piece together. As CRC summarizes:
To use nightmare scenarios to forge national policies the activists have decided to circumvent the outgoing Bush administration – and more to the point, Congress – and get state governors to follow their advice. That’s where the Center for Climate Strategies (CCS) comes in. CCS persuades governors to appoint “study commissions” on global warming, then steers the policy process, rigging commission proceedings to produce a predetermined result: higher energy costs, diminished property and other individual rights, and more Big Government. These undemocratic maneuvers do an end-run around state legislators and should trouble advocates of open government.
Chris does a great job explaining comprehensively how CCS works, how they are funded, and what are the fruits of their efforts. Read it.
Carter is not a man who gets easily spooked–he led a reconnaissance unit in Desert Storm, and I watched him grab a small anaconda with his bare hands in Brazil–but he can sound downright panicky about the future of the forest. "You can't protect it. There's too much money to be made tearing it down," he says. "Out here on the frontier, you really see the market at work."
This land rush is being accelerated by an unlikely source: biofuels. An explosion in demand for farm-grown fuels has raised global crop prices to record highs, which is spurring a dramatic expansion of Brazilian agriculture, which is invading the Amazon at an increasingly alarming rate.
Nigeria will lose all of its remaining forests in the next 12 years if the rate of deforestation remains unchecked, an environmental expert warned Thursday.
Nigeria has the seventh-largest gas reserves in the world but has so far failed to harness them to produce affordable cooking gas, meaning the bulk of the population still relies on wood or charcoal for cooking.
"Now that the forests in the north are gone, attention has shifted to … southern Nigeria where trees are burnt for charcoal. This is more destructive than tree chopping because it is more rapid and kills all the flora and wildlife," Yammama further warned.
Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
USA Today has a predictably alarming story today by incurious press release rewriter Doyle Rice about the impending devastating effects on the health of Americans, based on "a new campaign announced by the American Public Health Association." I guess this has progressed so far that all that is required to capture the media's attention is for someone to announce a "campaign" (see previous Horner posts on Al Gore) — or in this case with APHA's own words, a "blueprint." The article has the disease and death forecast, while dutiful Doyle cites these experts:
In a telephone conference, report contributor Edward Maibach of George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., said, "Climate change is affecting our health now and will more in the future…."
"These are all problems we have today, but they will intensify with climate change," said blueprint lead author Jonathan Patz of the University of Wisconsin.
Maibach is apparently a favorite in the USA Today environmental reporters' Rolodexes, while Patz toils within his university's Nelson Institute Center for Sustainability and Global Environment, which "is supported by government research grants, corporate gifts, and private funds." Last year the Nelson Institute reported nearly $7.5 million in income, including $2.1 million from the state and $3.6 million in federal grants. Of that, $1.6 million fed into the CSAGE. That keeps those Madison profs happy.
Oh, and Patz is "a Lead Author on IPCC reports for 1995, 1998, 2001, and 2007, (and) shares in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the IPCC and Al Gore." Just tryin' to help ya finish your job, Doyle.
The U.S. rejected a Chinese proposal that developed countries should contribute a percentage of their gross domestic product to mitigate the effects of climate change.
China, the world's second-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, called for developed nations to provide financial support of 0.5 percent of their GDP a year to help it and other developing nations fight global warming.
Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
Speaking at North Carolina State University yesterday, Chelsea Clinton misremembered (I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt) her father's role (thanks Iain) in declining to send the Kyoto Treaty to the Senate for ratification, as the Associated Press reports:
Clinton told about 250 people at N.C. State that her mother, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, would work to repair the nation's reputation abroad.
"I think the world will breathe a sigh of relief when this president is gone," Clinton said, criticizing Bush for pulling out of various accordings (sic), including the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
Of course if the AP reporter was on the ball, she would have corrected the record.
Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
As I reported 10 days ago, Kansas's Kathleen Sebelius is the most recent state executive to create a state global warming commission — called the Kansas Energy and Environmental Policy Advisory Group — and like most other states hired the Center for Climate Strategies to manage the thing. Unfortunately also like a few of the states (Iowa, Maryland, South Carolina), Kansas apparently has no contract with CCS to create its government-"sponsored" climate advisory policy. Instead CCS and the commission will have no accountability to taxpayers and instead will be beholden to those who fund it: global warming alarmists like the Energy Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Sandler Family Supporting Foundation. In fact, the presence of Sandler money shows Kansas to be the first state in which clearly political leftist money is paying for what is supposed to be an "objective" policy development process.
Just a little while ago I called a couple of attorneys with the state to verify a few things. Dennis Highberger, with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, told me that his agency has a contract with CCS to do its greenhouse gas emissions inventory, but no agreement to run the governor's commission. He referred me to Gov. Sebelius's office.
So then I called Sally Howard, her chief counsel, who informed me that the governor's office had no contract with CCS either. When I told her that KDHE said they had no contract and that it appears there is no contract with the state, she said she found that hard to believe. I told her that's the case with other states as well. What's the need for a contract when the state isn't paying anything, right?
Anyway, I did ask if the state budgeted anything for the commission — after all, at least a few bureaucrats are going to have to dedicate some time to this dog-and-pony show. She was unaware of any dedicated budget for the project, so if taxpayers want to know the amount of public employees' time devoted to the commission, they're out of luck.
Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
Not a whole lot of news on compact fluorescent bulbs, but the absolute impracticality of them is illustrated in a consumer advisory piece in yesterday's News & Observer of Raleigh. A sampling:
Because they contain trace elements of mercury, disposing of the lights or cleaning up a broken one is not a simple proposition…
Americans discard an estimated 670 million mercury-containing bulbs a year, potentially releasing as much as four tons of mercury into the environment each year….
Disposal options: Don't throw fluorescents in the trash. The light will break and release mercury. In a landfill, it could contaminate the ground. If you must throw a burned-out CFL into the trash, seal it first in two plastic bags to prevent leakage.
The preferred method is to take CFLs to a recycling facility or hazardous waste facility.
In the Triangle, you can take them to North Wake Household Hazardous Waste Collection off Durant Road in Raleigh or South Wake Solid Waste Management Facility off N.C. 55 in Apex….(both these locations are more than a half-hour from where I live)
Cleanup: If a CFL breaks, air out the room for at least 15 minutes. Shut off the central air conditioning or heating and close all doors so that mercury does not spread through the house.
Scoop up glass fragments and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar or sealed plastic bag. Use duct or other adhesive tape to clean up any remaining powder. Clean the area with damp paper towels and dispose of the towels in a jar or bag.
CFL don'ts: Do not use a vacuum cleaner: It will disperse the mercury particles. Never use a broom to clean up mercury. That also spreads mercury particles.
If the mercury gets on your clothes, seal the clothes in plastic and discard or take to a hazardous waste facility.
But besides all that, they're really worth it!
Congress is considering several climate bills, all of which include cap and trade schemes along the lines of McCain's American jobs killing proposal. If the Arizona senator wants to be a true maverick, he should buck the trend that he helped start — by supporting free market solutions to global warming that might actually make a difference.
France and Germany are close to resolving their dispute over EU auto emissions targets that could see a softening of the proposed regulations, a German newspaper report said on Monday.
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