Global Climate | ModeShift

A Turning Point in Attack on Climate Science

by Keith SchneiderMay 10, 2010May 11, 20100

On May 5, in an unusually aggressive response to what they saw as an academic witch hunt, the University of Virginia Faculty Senate condemned state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelliâ€™s demand to turn over six years of documents related to the work of Michael Mann, a former UVa climate scientist. Two days later, members of the National Academy of Sciences published a letter in the journal Science that focused on the “political assaults” directed at climate …

Oil Devotion Could Mean Climate No Motion

by Keith SchneiderMay 7, 2010May 7, 20101

The one-foot waves today in the Gulf of Mexico were described as â€œtranquilâ€ as BP started to lower a 70-ton case through 5,000 feet of water to contain the source of an oil leak that threatens the shorelines of four states. Guiding the steel cover over the well shaft in pitch-black waters at crushing depths, said engineers, is like floating a toy parachute off the Empire State Building and landing on a paperclip in the …

A Miserable Week

by Keith SchneiderMay 1, 2010May 1, 20100

A week that began with a political blow â€“ the disruption of the bipartisan Senate team drawing up climate and energy legislation â€“ ended in environmental disaster. A vicious oil spill, produced by the explosion and sinking last week of the Deep Horizon drilling rig, inundated the Gulf shoreline and threatened to wreck the aquatic diversity that makes the Louisiana coast one of the worldâ€™s most productive fisheries. Twenty one years ago, as a reporter …

Climate-Denying US Chamber Has A Point When It Comes to Grassroots Resistance to Clean Energy

by Keith SchneiderApril 29, 2010September 9, 20101

The US Chamber of Commerce and many of its state-based affiliates, including the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, are nests of ideological movement conservatives devoted to all manner of influential key words that have shaped how states and Washington view their duties to mother nature. The Chamber has promoted such concepts as “free-market environmentalism” — which means allowing market trends to strip the earth — and “sound science,” which is a euphemism for ignoring science-based fact …

Earth, Wind, Fire On Day of Onrushing Risks

by Keith SchneiderApril 28, 20100

The accelerating consequences of the warming Earth, the hazards associated with increasing reliance on fossil fuels, the promise of big clean energy projects, and the difficulties in advancing a national climate and energy policy fit for the 21st century came into sharp focus today in Washington and across the nation. In Boston, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that aftter nine years of public confrontation, the United States had reached a decision to approve crucial permits …

When It Comes to Climate and Clean Energy, “Just Say No” Has Become Too Popular

by Keith SchneiderApril 27, 2010September 9, 20100

Monday, in the parlance of Washington policy and journalism, was scheduled to be a potential day of breakthrough in the work to achieve action on the warming climate. Senators John Kerry (Mass.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (Conn.) had announced that they’d come to consensus on what a bipartisan energy and climate policy fit for the 21st century looked like. The results were to be unveiled at a news briefing that had global import. …

Though the Need is Urgent, Earth Day’s Best Moment May Lie in Past

by Keith SchneiderApril 23, 2010April 23, 20100

This week, just a day before the nation marked the 40th Earth Day, the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded 50 miles from the Louisiana coast, leaving 11 people dead, dozens injured, and a pulse of crude oil that is spreading across the Gulf of Mexico. The blast, which caused the platform to sink on Earth Day itself, came 16 days after 29 men perished in a West Virginia coal mine – the worst American mining …

Biomass Gets Traverse City Go Ahead

by Keith SchneiderApril 21, 2010September 9, 20100

Just in time for Earth Day’s 40th celebration, the Traverse City Light and Power board voted last night to proceed with more due diligence — analysis, fuel studies, engineering designs, zoning decisions, many other data points — to acquire 10 mw of renewable energy with a state-of-the-art clean renewable wood biomass plant. Congratulations to the staff and board for making a tough and courageous decision. And thank you to Skip Pruss, director of the state …

When Tea Party and Environmentalism Meet

by Keith SchneiderApril 20, 2010September 9, 20100

Quick. Who said this? A leader of the Tea Party or an extremist environmentalist? “You make a tragic mistake characterizing the new grassroots environmental movement blossoming in the resistance to the horrific idea of burning the life on planet earth whether it be trees, whales or crops for fuelÂ as “blowback.” Unless you mean blowback to the corporate funded environmental movement and their paid lobbyists, marketers, and “experts.” The public clearly understands the physics of …

Wood Biomass Projects Advance in U.S.

by Keith SchneiderApril 18, 2010September 9, 20100

Just as the Traverse City Record-Eagle aims another editorial broadside to block the local utility’s decision to pursue a right-sized, state-of-the-art, clean, renewable 10 mw wood biomass plant, evidence of public support emerges from other states where the technology is being pursued with vigor. The new wood biomass projects are a clear indication that momentum for the technology and fuel source is pushing ahead despite misplaced public opposition in a number of states, including Michigan. …