Youths file federal climate change lawsuit

Federal Courthouse Eugene, Oregon

A group of 21 youths — several of them from Eugene — today filed a lawsuit against the federal government, claiming that it is violating their constitutional rights by promoting the development and use of fossil fuels.

The plaintiffs are seeking a court order requiring President Obama to immediately implement a national plan to decrease atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to a safe level.

The suit was filed with support of two Eugene groups, Our Children’s Trust and Wild Earth Advocates. A case summary issued by Our Children’s Trust states that the lawsuit “will put indisputable science about climate change squarely in front of the federal judiciary.”

Read more at The Register Guard

Bernie Sanders wants to break our dependence on fossil fuel

"One of my top priorities as US president will be to work with India, other countries, in breaking our dependence on fossil fuel," Bernie Sanders said. 

"I think the evidence is also out there that not only is climate change already causing devastating problems to this planet in terms of drought and flooding and extreme weather disturbances, if we do not transform our energy system, the situation will only become much worse, and obviously, it will impact human health," Senator Bernie Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate said. 

"So one of my top priorities as president of the United States will be to have this country lead the world, work with China or India or Russia, other countries, in breaking our dependence on fossil fuel and moving to energy efficiency and wind, solar, geothermal and other," Sanders said during a conference call. 

Read more at:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/48444017.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst .. 

The costs of climate change.

Plant Scherer, a coal-burning generator in Juliette, Ga., is ranked as the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in the nation. (AP)

Writing in Sunday’s AJC, Dan Chapman and Greg Bluestein take a look at the climate-induced changes already underway along the Georgia coast and at the continuing sense of denial by the state’s political leadership:

“Brian Robinson, a spokesman for Gov. Nathan Deal, wouldn’t answer questions about the governor’s views on climate change. U.S. Sen. David Perdue, a Republican who lives on Sea Island, a barrier island threatened by rising seas, said “the scientific community is not in total agreement about whether mankind has been a contributing factor.”

As they report, a tidal gauge off Fort Pulaski near Tybee Island documents a sea-level rise of 11 inches over the past 80 years, with the pace accelerating since the 1990s. Should that trend continue, as scientists warn it will without effective action, most of the state’s barrier islands will disappear in the next century, as will much of the sea marsh that makes our coastal region so beautiful and so ecologically diverse and productive.

It’s true that, as Perdue puts it, “the scientific community is not in total agreement” about mankind’s role in those changes. However, “total agreement” strikes me as a peculiar standard for taking action. In most other policy areas, the overwhelming consensus of the acknowledged experts, augmented by the fact that since the 1980s that expert opinion has been validated by visible changes in the field, would be enough to push policymakers to take action, particularly when the potential consequences of doing nothing are so profound.

That’s certainly been the approach taken by the Obama administration. Under its new climate-change plan released earlier this month, Georgia will be required to take action by reducing carbon emissions from power plants by 25 percent over the next 15 years.

Read more at Jay Bookman's Blog

Climate Change Nightmares Are Already Here

Walruses, like these in Alaska, are being forced ashore in record numbers. Corey Accardo/NOAA/AP

Historians may look to 2015 as the year when shit really started hitting the fan. Some snapshots: In just the past few months, record-setting heat waves in Pakistan and India each killed more than 1,000 people. In Washington state's Olympic National Park, the rainforest caught fire for the first time in living memory. London reached 98 degrees Fahrenheit during the hottest July day ever recorded in the U.K.; The Guardian briefly had to pause its live blog of the heat wave because its computer servers overheated. In California, suffering from its worst drought in a millennium, a 50-acre brush fire swelled seventyfold in a matter of hours, jumping across the I-15 freeway during rush-hour traffic. Then, a few days later, the region was pounded by intense, virtually unheard-of summer rains. Puerto Rico is under its strictest water rationing in history as a monster El Niño forms in the tropical Pacific Ocean, shifting weather patterns worldwide.
On July 20th, James Hansen, the former NASA climatologist who brought climate change to the public's attention in the summer of 1988, issued a bombshell: He and a team of climate scientists had identified a newly important feedback mechanism off the coast of Antarctica that suggests mean sea levels could rise 10 times faster than previously predicted.

The authors included this chilling warning: If emissions aren't cut, "We conclude that multi-meter sea-level rise would become practically unavoidable. Social disruption and economic consequences of such large sea-level rise could be devastating. It is not difficult to imagine that conflicts arising from forced migrations and economic collapse might make the planet ungovernable, threatening the fabric of civilization."

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-point-of-no-return-climate-change-nightmares-are-already-here-20150805#ixzz3i392EwoY

SeaGas project - To Turn Seaweed Into Sustainable Energy.

Saccharina Latissima seaweed that is likely to be used as part of the SeaGas project

A North East organisation is spearheading a £2.78m research collaboration designed to strengthen the UK’s position as a world leader in industrial biotechnology.

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) in Redcar, Teesside, is at the helm of a consortium including Newcastle University experts, which will look at turning seaweed into sustainable energy, producing bio-methane from the organic matter through anaerobic digestion.

The ‘SeaGas’ study launched earlier this month and involves partners The Crown Estate, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), Queen’s University Belfast and Newcastle University.

Together the partners aim to investigate how farmed seaweed could be used as an alternative to feed anaerobic digestion.

Traditionally, anaerobic digestion processes use food crops such as maize and beet, but the project aims to develop the alternative in order to limit the need to use prime food-growing agricultural land.

SeaGas will build a storage system to support a year-long anaerobic digestion operation which must allow for different types of seaweed and their availability.

Chapman Brown Photography

Equipment from CPI anaerobic digestion facility at Wilton

It is hoped a supply chain can be developed after the technology is proven and experts working on the project will look at seaweed farming and biogas injection into the national grid.

Funding has come from the Industrial Biotechnology Catalyst, which itself is funded by Innovate UK, the Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Its remit is to support UK researchers and companies in working together to bring biotechnology innovations to market.

Steve Broome, head of business and projects – anaerobic digestion at CPI, said: ‘’This project brings together a powerful consortium that, for the first time ever, joins up the expertise and facilities needed to develop a methodology and commercial rationale for exploiting the UK’s seabed as a source of sustainable biomass and renewable energy.

“The idea could have remained stuck on paper – but support from the Catalyst has made this innovative and risky project possible.”

Merlin Goldman, lead technologist in high value manufacturing at Innovate UK, said: “The UK’s strength in industrial biotechnology and bioenergy is confirmed by this latest round of funded projects through the Industrial Biotechnology Catalyst.”

Professor Mike Cowling, chief scientist at The Crown Estate, which funded the initial pilot study that led to the SeaGas project, added: “Innovate UK’s support for the SeaGas project is a significant vote of confidence in the planned research programme and the strength of the project consortium, led by CPI.

“It is particularly gratifying to see that the results of the initial pilot study have led to this exciting next stage investigation of the commercial viability of the production of bio-methane from seaweeds.”

Original story at ChronicalLive

Renewable Energy. Hillary Clinton and the 'New' New Deal.

Hillary Clinton

While I doubt that I will vote for her, Clinton does bring a very important issue to the table.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton rolled out anambitious climate and energy proposal Sunday evening. She said, if elected president on day one she’d set two national goals—every American home will be powered by renewable energy by 2027 and more than half a billion solar panels will be installed across the country before the end of her first term.

“It’s hard to believe there are people running for president who still refuse to accept the settled science of climate change—who would rather remind us that they’re not scientists than listen to those that are,” Clinton said in a three-minute video posted to her website previewing the plan. She lists quotes from top GOP presidential candidates who refuse to listen to the 97 percent of climate scientists who say climate change is real and attributed to human activity.

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Original article at EcoWatch.

Germany is Number One in Renewable Energy

Germany’s transition from coal- and oil-fired power to carbon-free electricity hit a new milestone on July 25 when solar, wind, and other sources of renewable energy met 78 percent of the day’s energy demand.

Germany gets much of its renewable energy from wind farms, including this one in a farmers’ field. Photo credit: Shutterstock

That beat the old record of 74 percent, made in May 2014, according to Craig Morris, a journalist who has covered Germany’s energy scene for more than a decade.

Helping set the record was an unusual weather pattern that brought heavy winds where most of the nation’s wind turbines are located. As the turbines generated more power, utilities ramped down coal- and gas-fired power plants.

But Morris found the power mix a few days earlier even more encouraging. During the night of July 22, even with darkness reducing solar output to zero and no big winds in the forecast, renewables—wind, biomass, and hydropower—generated nearly 25 percent of Germany’s electricity.

Morris found the energy data for both dates using an online tool sponsored by the Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems.

Germany’s experience shows that solar and wind can keep the lights on in a highly industrialized nation, said Osha Gray Davidson, author of Clean Break, a book about Germany’s transition to carbon-free energy. “The key indicator is percentage of electricity produced by different sources—28 percent of Germany’s electricity comes from renewables annually, which is pretty amazing for large industrialized country,” Davidson said.

Germany is a model for the U.S., he said, “because manufacturing accounts for much more of the German economy than the American economy and they have 80 million people—much larger than a country like Denmark, which gets more of its power from renewables but has a much smaller industrial base and has a population of five and a half million people.”

The U.S. currently gets around 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. Government's War On Ecology

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By Federal law, hemp may be used for industrial purposes in the U.S. but may not be gown, thus making it cost prohibitive to use this ecologically sound product with so many varied uses.

Hemp was grown commercially (with increasing governmental interference) in the United States until the 1950s. It was doomed by the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which placed an extremely high tax on marijuana and made it effectively impossible to grow industrial hemp. While Congress expressly expected the continued production of industrial hemp, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics lumped industrial hemp with marijuana, as it's successor the US Drug Enforcement Administration, does to this day.

HISTORY FACTS

*Hemp has been grown for at least the last 12,000 years for fiber (textiles and paper) and food. It has been effectively prohibited in the United States since the 1950s.

*George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp. Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper. Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper.

*When US sources of "Manila hemp" (not true hemp) was cut off by the Japanese in WWII, the US Army and US Department of Agriculture promoted the "Hemp for Victory" campaign to grow hemp in the US.

*Because of its importance for sails (the word "canvass" is rooted in "cannabis") and rope for ships, hemp was a required crop in the American colonies.

INDUSTRY FACTS

*Henry Ford experimented with hemp to build car bodies. He wanted to build and fuel cars from farm products.

*BMW is experimenting with hemp materials in automobiles as part of an effort to make cars more recyclable.

*Much of the bird seed sold in the US has hemp seed (it's sterilized before importation), the hulls of which contain about 25% protein.

*Hemp oil once greased machines. Most paints, resins, shellacs, and varnishes used to be made out of linseed (from flax) and hemp oils.

*Rudolph Diesel designed his engine to run on hemp oil.

*Kimberly Clark (on the Fortune 500) has a mill in France which produces hemp paper preferred for bibles because it lasts a very long time and doesn't yellow.

*Construction products such as medium density fiber board, oriented strand board, and even beams, studs and posts could be made out of hemp. Because of hemp's long fibers, the products will be stronger and/or lighter than those made from wood.

*The products that can be made from hemp number over 25,000.

SCIENTIFIC FACTS

*Industrial hemp and marijuana are both classified by taxonomists as Cannabis sativa, a species with hundreds of varieties. C. sativa is a member of the mulberry family. Industrial hemp is bred to maximize fiber, seed and/or oil, while marijuana varieties seek to maximize THC (delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana).

*While industrial hemp and marijuana may look somewhat alike to an untrained eye, an easily trained eye can easily distinguish the difference.

*Industrial hemp has a THC content of between 0.05 and 1%. Marijuana has a THC content of 3% to 20%. To receive a standard psychoactive dose would require a person to power-smoke 10-12 hemp cigarettes over an extremely short period of time. The large volume and high temperature of vapor, gas and smoke would be almost impossible for a person to withstand.

*If hemp does pollinate any nearby marijuana, genetically, the result will always be lower-THC marijuana, not higher-THC hemp. If hemp is grown outdoors, marijuana will not be grown close by to avoid producing lower-grade marijuana.

*Hemp fibers are longer, stronger, more absorbent and more mildew-resistant than cotton.

*Fabrics made of at least one-half hemp block the sun's UV rays more effectively than other fabrics.

*Many of the varieties of hemp that were grown in North America have been lost. Seed banks weren't maintained. New genetic breeding will be necessary using both foreign and domestic "ditchweed," strains of hemp that went feral after cultivation ended. Various state national guard units often spend their weekends trying to eradicate this hemp, in the mistaken belief they are helping stop drug use.

*A 1938 Popular Mechanics described hemp as a "New Billion Dollar Crop." That's back when a billion was real money.

*Hemp can be made in to a variety of fabrics, including linen quality.

LEGAL FACTS

*The US Drug Enforcement Agency classifies all C. sativa varieties as "marijuana." While it is theoretically possible to get permission from the government to grow hemp, DEA would require that the field be secured by fence, razor wire, dogs, guards, and lights, making it cost-prohibitive.

*The US State Department must certify each year that a foreign nation is cooperating in the war on drugs. The European Union subsidizes its farmers to grow industrial hemp. Those nations are not on this list, because the State Department can tell the difference between hemp and marijuana. *Over 30 industrialized democracies do distinguish hemp from marijuana. International treaties regarding marijuana make an exception for industrial hemp.
*Canada now again allows the growing of hemp.


ECOLOGY FACTS
*Hemp growers can not hide marijuana plants in their fields. Marijuana is grown widely spaced to maximize leaves. Hemp is grown in tightly-spaced rows to maximize stalk and is usually harvested before it goes to seed.
*Hemp can be made into fine quality paper. The long fibers in hemp allow such paper to be recycled several times more than wood-based paper.
*Because of its low lignin content, hemp can be pulped using less chemicals than with wood. Its natural brightness can obviate the need to use chlorine bleach, which means no extremely toxic dioxin being dumped into streams. A kinder and gentler chemistry using hydrogen peroxide rather than chlorine dixoide is possible with hemp fibers.
*Hemp grows well in a variety of climates and soil types. It is naturally resistant to most pests, precluding the need for pesticides. It grows tightly spaced, out-competing any weeds, so herbicides are not necessary. It also leaves a weed-free field for a following crop.
*Hemp can displace cotton which is usually grown with massive amounts of chemicals harmful to people and the environment. 50% of all the world's pesticides are sprayed on cotton.
*Hemp can displace wood fiber and save forests for watershed, wildlife habitat, recreation and oxygen production, carbon sequestration (reduces global warming), and other values.
*Hemp can yield 3-8 dry tons of fiber per acre. This is four times what an average forest can yield.

HEALTH FACTS
*If one tried to ingest enough industrial hemp to get 'a buzz', it would be the equivalent of taking 2-3 doses of a high-fiber laxative.
*At a volume level of 81%, hemp oil is the richest known source of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids (the "good" fats). It's quite high in some essential amino acids, including gamma linoleic acid (GLA), a very rare nutrient also found in mother's milk.
*While the original "gruel" was made of hemp seed meal, hemp oil and seed can be made into tasty and nutritional products.

Facts collated by the North American Industrial Hemp Council, October 1997  

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People Are Dying While Billionaires Frolic

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Donald Trump

All around our planet people are dying from maladies that could be avoided with the use of new technologies.  In countries like HAITI, ANGOLA, GUATEMALA, GUINEA-BISSAU, MALI, MARSHALL ISL., LAOS, BURUNDI, AFGHANISTAN, BURKINA, CHAD, BENIN and 

CAMEROON, over 25% of their populations die from malnutrition.

According to the Johannesburg Summit in 2002. “More than 5 million people die each year from diseases caused by unsafe drinking water, lack of sanitation, and insufficient water for hygiene. In fact, over 2 million deaths occur each year from water-related diarrhea alone. At any given time, almost half of the people in developing countries suffer from water-related diseases.”

The World Health Organization estimates that 4.6 million people die each year from causes directly attributable to air pollution.

All could be reduced or stopped by the development of clean, free energy technologies that are available right now with the only problems being lack of funding and government cooperation.

Meanwhile:

Russian billionaire Yuri Milner is giving $100M to SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)

Billionaires Richard Branson, Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk are building their own spaceports and the State of Texas is offering $2.3 million in incentives to SpaceX from the Enterprise fund, the governor's office said. The state is offering $13 million from the Spaceport Trust Fund to the Cameron County Spaceport Development Corp.

The Koch brothers founded Americans for Prosperity (prosperity for the prosperous) A right wing tea party conservative organization. It's purpose is to buy up as many politicians as possible.

And last but not least Billionaire bad boy Donald Trump is running for president, and revealed that he has $9 billion at his disposal to fund his campaign.

Of course they can spend their money any way that wish, but it would be nice, don't you think, if they would do something that would help heal Mother earth.

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Thank you for reading this post.  I hope to see you again soon.

This guy wants to save the world. Will you help?

Governments and corporations have not lived up to their promises to make the environment safer and healthier.  It is time for us to do so.  The technology is available now to create safe, clean, free and replenishable  energy at a fraction of the cost of existing technologies.

Around the planet, children are dying from diseases caused by unsafe drinking water.  People are choking to death from lung diseases caused by the fouled air they are breathing.  These ills could be contained and reversed just by changing the way we produce our energy and fuel our transport.

This must be done now if future generations, your children and their children, are to survive and thrive.  We have the technology now.  All we need is funding to produce and test our prototypes to the satisfaction of the powers that be, and then build and market those systems.  We can do those things, but we need your help.  
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