Armed with an Arts degree, you can be a hero.

[Editor’s note: Political science professor Byers delivered this speech to graduating students at UBC’s “Great Arts Send-Off”.]

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In retrospect, I learned many useful things during my studies. I learned about passion and politics from William Shakespeare, evil from Joseph Conrad, cynicism from Niccolò Machiavelli and hope from Immanuel Kant. I learned that differences of culture, religion, ethnicity and sexuality make the human species more interesting. I learned that history matters; that asking questions is a mark of intellect, not ignorance; and that words, wielded well, have the power to change the world.

Source: www.thetyee.ca/…

LS » This speech is worthwhile for more than just a few Bachelor of Arts graduates if you require a little inspiration for the hurdles humanity will be facing during this century of climate breakdown.

Earth Day Network was founded on the premise that all people, regardless of race, gender, income, or geography, have a moral right to a healthy, sustainable environment. Our mission is to broaden and diversify the environmental movement worldwide, and to mobilize it as the most effective vehicle for promoting a healthy, sustainable environment. We pursue our mission through a combination of education, public policy, and consumer activism campaigns. Our campaign and programs are predicated on the belief that an educated, energized population will take action to secure a healthy future for itself and its children. Earth Day Network has a global reach with a network of more than 17,000 partners and organizations in 174 countries. More than 1 billion people participate in Earth Day activities, making it the largest secular civic event in the world.

Source: www.earthday.net

More Info: The History of Earth Day

LS » It’s Earth Day, a day to think about our planet. What are you going to do?

Erecting new transmission lines for solar and wind power is a boon to coal-burning utilities and a drain on our wallets. What’s an environmentalist to do?

With a boost of billions in the economic stimulus plan, the White House plans to double the nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years. There’s big talk in Congress of creating a national renewable-energy standard, which would mandate that utilities get a chunk of their power from green sources like solar, wind and geothermal. So long dirty energy, hello green future.

Yet as renewable energy finally takes its place as a national priority, a tripwire lurks in the rosy scenario: transmission lines. No less an authority than President Obama is promoting the goal of building thousands of miles of new transmission lines to move power from the Great Plains and Mojave Desert to the nation’s energy-hungry cities and ‘burbs. And he’s got plenty of political might behind him.

The power companies lobbying for new lines compare the notion of a national grid to the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has brought legislation to help create what he calls a “electric superhighway.” Large environmental groups, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society, have joined the wind and solar industries in championing the expansion of the transmission grid.

Not all environmentalists, though, are buzzing about the expansion. …

Source: www.salon.com/…

LS » Nothing is seems to be easy, you’d think setting up a bunch of solar panels in a barren desert and then transmitting the energy back to the urban areas would be a good renewable energy option, but of course transmission lines suck and despite the beauty of the above picture, transmission lines are an eyesore at best and a public health hazard at worst. This article brings a new phrase to the sustainability lexicon, “distributed generation” which means that the generation of energy needs to be distrubuted around the country and thus close to the users of the energy.

When you buy A Real Tree app, a real tree gets planted.

A Real Tree works with organizations that provide materials and education to local communities to plant trees in an ecologically-beneficial manner. Local communities learn how to plant trees while avoiding toxic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. Local communities plant trees that produce nutritious fruits and crops that they can live off and make a living on.

By enriching their land and their lives, these communities build a foundation that they can proudly pass on to future generations. Pride in their community gives them something that logging companies can’t compete with.

Source: www.arealtree.com

LS » If I had an iPhone I would buy A Real Tree for sure. It’s sort of dumb but also very clever and at only 99¢ it is a great idea, the world needs all the trees we can get.

The solar energy you haven’t heard of is the one best suited to generate clean electricity for generations to come.

One of oldest forms of energy used by humans — sunlight concentrated by mirrors — is poised to make an astonishing comeback. I believe it will be the most important form of carbon-free power in the 21st century. That’s because it’s the only form of clean electricity that can meet all the demanding requirements of this century.

Certainly we will need many different technologies to stop global warming. They include electric cars and plug-in hybrids, wind turbines and solar photovoltaics, which use sunlight to make electricity from solid-state materials like silicon semiconductors. Yet after speaking with energy experts and seeing countless presentations on all forms of clean power, I believe the one technology closest to being a silver bullet for global warming is the other solar power: solar thermal electric, which concentrates the sun’s rays to heat a fluid that drives an electric generator. It is the best source of clean energy to replace coal and sustain economic development. I bet that it will deliver more power every year this century than coal with carbon capture and storage — for much less money and with far less environmental damage.

Source: www.salon.com/…

LS » This article may be almost a year old by the time I got around to reading it, but it offers hope that we can change our dirty energy habits and options for actually creating renewable and carbon-free energy. I hope some of the governments and companies that can make things like this happen weren’t as slow to notice this technology as I have been.

Robert Falls was inspired by the creation of the David Suzuki Foundation. Now he calls it an obstacle to restoring degraded ecosystems.

If NASA’s James Hansen is right, the task ahead isn’t simply to stop adding greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere. It’s to take them out. Hansen and nine other prominent scientists warned recently that the concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, now 385 parts per million and rising by ~2.5 ppm a year, is already over the tipping point of ~350 ppm that implies a degree of warming greater than our civilization can tolerate.

There’s only one way to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. It’s called photosynthesis and only plants do it, building wood, flowers and leaves from solar energy and minerals.

For that reason, and because a fifth of human greenhouse gas emissions globally come from felling trees, few climate wonks doubt that forests are critical to forestalling climageddon.

Source: www.thetyee.ca/…

LS » Forest and ecosystem restoration may not do anything to curtail actual emissions levels or develop renewable energy alternatives but it is very, very important for carbon sequestration and making communities and our environment more habitable. There is no magic cure-all, global warming takes a multi, multi-pronged approach.

How a Toronto developer creates ‘cost-effective’ condos sold to families making as low as $32,000.

“We don’t call what we do ‘affordable housing’ anymore,” said Toronto developer Michael Labbé. “We call it cost-effective housing. Because what we do is build ownership housing that’s less expensive than rental.”

Labbé is the founder of Option for Homes, a not-for-profit company that produces condominiums for tens of thousands of dollars below market rates, helps its customers scrape together large down payments, and has accumulated a multi-million dollar endowment that could fund its work in perpetuity.

Since 1993, Options has started 10 developments in the Toronto area, and completed more than 1,500 homes.

“If we could get government behind this model — not with hand-outs, but strictly through policy support — then Canada’s housing problem would be over within a generation,” Labbé said.

Source: www.thetyee.ca/…

LS » Is this a revolutionary idea that can bring housing to every one in this era of real estate madness where people make as much money as they capitalistically can even though they are providing a building block commodity that is a human necessity just above food and water? Or is some sort of real estate pyramid scheme?

Life is short. We want answers.

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Well, in that context I and more than 300 others wasted about four hours in a meeting held last Tuesday by the Environmental Assessment Office to set terms of reference for the environmental assessment process for Plutonic Power’s massive private power project on Bute Inlet.

This private scheme is proposed by Plutonic Energy, which is controlled by General Electric, in which multi-billionaire Warren Buffett has a large interest. I speak for Save Our Rivers Society, which, far from being well-funded as alleged, depends on timely month-to-month donations from generous ordinary citizens to meet its obligations. We are, as they say, in tough.

Source: www.thetyee.ca/…

LS » The thought of privatizing our energy and thus giving control of our rivers and thus a major aspect of our environment, totally burns my butt. I am glad to be living in a capitalist society but a little socialism in critical areas like thisis a good thing

And what the @#$% kind of a name is Plutonic Power? This is real life not a comic book.

Yes, says a top UBC scientist. ‘Smart shopping’ isn’t saving wild stocks.

One of the big movers this holiday season was a President’s Choice frozen appetizer: salmon wellingtons, little puff pastries stuffed with Marine Stewardship Council certified wild pacific salmon.

Great to know harried holiday hosts could feel good about what they were serving, right?

Sorry to ruin the party. Although certification programs and awareness campaigns have succeeded in stigmatizing farmed salmon, some say this market-based approach to fisheries management is not only ineffective, but also misguided.

The bottom line, say researchers, is that all salmon species are in decline, with some stocks sinking to unrecoverable levels. The iconic wild animal of the Pacific Northwest is facing total extinction.

Source: www.thetyee.ca/…

LS » In the back of my mind I have known this for a long time. I have long since eschewed farm salmon and espoused the merits of wild salmon but never wanted to admit that if we all eat only wild salmon then one day there probably won’t be any left. I hear that halibut stocks are healthy, I think I will eat that for the next few years while I let the wild salmon stocks recuperate. But I guess there are a few million other people that need to be a part of this decision or it won’t matter … it doesn’t look good for the fish.

Can a scrawny young wind-power activist topple the biggest, dirtiest industry in West Virginia?

On Jan. 16, as Barack Obama visited a wind turbine factory in Ohio, Rory McIlmoil snaked along a muddy mountain road in West Virginia on a similar mission. He was headed up Coal River Mountain, the last mountain left untouched in a historic range ravaged by strip mining.

On a ridge, the 28-year-old activist brought his four-wheeler to a skid. He couldn’t believe what he saw. Bulldozers had begun clearing the site for the first phase of a mountaintop removal operation, a radical strip-mining process that would clear-cut 6,600 acres of hardwood trees, detonate thousands of tons of explosives and topple the mountain range into the valley. A 100-foot swath of forest just below the ridge lay like an open wound.

For McIlmoil, this should have been ground zero in Obama’s green recovery plan. Not a future wasteland.

Source: www.salon.com/…

LS » Go Rory!!!

Climate change may help explain the historic collapse of the species. Yet ocean experts see signs that idle fishermen can fire up their boats again.

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For decades, fishermen and environmentalists have directed their ire at the degradation of rivers. But in the last year, marine biologists have focused on increasingly stressed oceans as the cause of the crash. Yet surprisingly, as 2009 dawns, salmon experts see signs that idle fishermen can start firing up their boats again in the coming year.

Bruce MacFarlane of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) Salmon Ecology Team in Santa Cruz explains that the historic 2008 crash begins with the fact “that ocean conditions weren’t good when the salmon went to sea.” Salmon need the right food in the right places to thrive to maturity in the ocean. Those needs weren’t met for 2008’s salmon run, whether the cause is global warming, as many scientists suggest, or simply the natural variability of the environment. And, of course, the rivers are still a major player. If the salmon population wasn’t already in a weakened state, there would have been more survivors left to spawn the next generation.

Source: www.salon.com/…

LS » The intricacies of the environmental and ecological systems are amazing. This article gives a glimpse into the inner working of our oceans. May we continue to learn more about these intricacies and to always have salmon to eat.

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Systems with lots of uncertainty and inertia are notoriously hard to control: we can’t effectively predict their future behavior, and we can’t quickly correct behavior we don’t like. By the time we find out that the climate dice have rolled against us, inertia could make conventional responses like carbon taxes and wind power inadequate. Planning our response around what we currently think is the most likely outcome is therefore reckless. We must hope for the best while laying plans to navigate the worst.

Navigating the worst could involve what scientists call geo-engineering — the intentional modification of the earth’s climate. Unfortunately, although specialist circles and blogs are alive with heated conversations about geo-engineering, the idea is so taboo that governments have provided virtually no research money. Most of these conversations focus on the idea of injecting sulfate particles into the stratosphere to screen out the sun’s radiation, as happens when volcanoes erupt. Also, most of the limited scientific research on geo-engineering has aimed to show why sulfate injections won’t work — like why they might damage the ozone layer or produce too much cooling and drying in places where we don’t want these changes.

Source: www.homerdixon.com/…

LS » Allowing our governments to do macro-level geo-engineering is a scary prospect but if push comes to shove in regards to drastic climate change I suppose it would be a good idea to have a plan of attack.

The Political Compass™There’s abundant evidence for the need of it. The old one-dimensional categories of ‘right’ and ‘left’, established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789, are overly simplistic for today’s complex political landscape. For example, who are the ‘conservatives’ in today’s Russia? Are they the unreconstructed Stalinists, or the reformers who have adopted the right-wing views of conservatives like Margaret Thatcher?

On the standard left-right scale, how do you distinguish leftists like Stalin and Gandhi? It’s not sufficient to say that Stalin was simply more left than Gandhi. There are fundamental political differences between them that the old categories on their own can’t explain. Similarly, we generally describe social reactionaries as ‘right-wingers’, yet that leaves left-wing reactionaries like Robert Mugabe and Pol Pot off the hook.

That’s about as much as we should tell you for now. After you’ve responded to the following propositions during the next 3-5 minutes, all will be explained. In each instance, you’re asked to choose the response that best describes your feeling: Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree or Strongly Agree. At the end of the test, you’ll be given the compass, with your own special position on it.

Take the Test -> www.politicalcompass.org

HD » I am, not surprisingly to myself, in the left/libertarian quadrant (a little right of Gandhi). How about you?

The following is an email letter received from VTACC (Voters Taking Action on Climate Change).

Hello all voters!

After careful consideration, Voters Taking Action on Climate Change (VTACC) has decided to endorse strategic voting in this election in ridings where vote splitting between the Greens, NDP and Liberals may lead to unintentional narrow victories by Conservative candidates.

Although our review of the climate platforms for each of the main parties leads us to conclude that the Green Party has the most ambitious climate platform, we feel that the Conservative one is too weak and misleading to risk another Conservative government, particularly a majority one.

We have never suggested particular voting strategies before.  However, the Conservatives themselves have said that they are “running on their record.” So we can safely assume that new Harper government would continue their disastrous and short-sighted avoidance of action on greenhouse gas emissions.  To avoid this outcome, and to elect a coalition government which will meaningfully address escalating carbon emissions, we will need to work together and vote strategically in close ridings to support the candidate most likely to defeat the Conservative candidate.

In British Columbia, VTACC has a strong presence in the following ridings where we want to encourage voters to vote strategically. The following is a list of these ridings and the names of the candidates that we feel have the best chance of beating the Conservative candidate running in each of these ridings:

• Vancouver Quadra - Joyce Murray (Liberal)
• Vancouver Island North - Catherine Bell (NDP)
• Burnaby Douglas - Bill Siskay (NDP)
• Saanich Gulf Islands - Briony Penn (Liberal)

This list does not include all ridings where VTACC has strength.  The list above only includes those VTACC ridings in BC where vote-splitting may lead to a Conservative win.  In other VTACC ridings such as Vancouver-Centre, held by Hedy Fry (Liberal), constituents also have the opportunity to elect Adrienne Carr (Green).  Our only advice in those cases is to poll your neighbours and fellow constituents, and follow your heart.

There are a total of 80 ridings across Canada where vote splitting may lead to a narrow Conservative victory.  If your riding is not one of the above five, please visit the excellent website www.voteforenvironment.ca.  This site recommends which non-Conservative candidates strategic voters in these ridings should support.

Please note that although we endorse strategic voting in this election, it is not a long term solution. VTACC supports reforming our electoral system to include proportional representation so that progressive parties gain seats in government. For more information see Fair Vote Canada, a ‘multi-partisan’  citizens’ campaign for voting system reform. We hope you will help work toward electoral reform in Canada.

See below for a summary of each party’s climate change platform:

It is clear that the Conservative plan www.ecoaction.gc.ca is not a plan for action at all.  With its continued focus on oil sands growth, intensity targets and distant time horizons, it is a plan for non-action. It is an insult to the intelligence of Canadians to call it a plan for action.  We do not have the time to accept a further four years of political inaction and emissions growth.

The Green Party plan is the most ambitious. www.greenparty.ca  The Greens have clearly done a huge amount to advance the discussion of greenhouse gas emissions at the national level. It is a cruel irony, therefore, that under our skewed first-past-the-post voting system, votes for the Green in close ridings could result in sufficient vote-splitting to provide the Conservatives with a majority government.   Clearly, Canada needs electoral reform.

The Liberal Green Shift is a daring platform. www.thegreenshift.ca Concerned voters and organizations across Canada, including VTACC, lobbied Stephane Dion to show real leadership in the political battle to address carbon emissions.  The Liberals have responded with a plan to start shifting the Canadian economy toward a more sustainable future.  This takes political guts that is almost unknown in major parties in Canada.  They deserve to be congratulated for this welcome change from the “politics as usual” that Canadians are used to being force-fed.

The NDP Plan has some strengths but also some critical weaknesses.  www.ndp.ca/greenagenda They are advocating a cap and trade system for large polluters, but oppose putting a direct price on carbon emissions at the consumer level.  This is a false choice; clearly we need both.  We are aware of the struggle within the party to present a more cohesive policy, and hope that it will soon move in that direction.

Please forward this to friends and neighbours.  Acting together, we can elect a federal government which takes action on climate change.

Looking forward to waking up to a government of action on October 15th,
Donald, Quincy, David, Andrea, Lauren, Tom…and the rest of the VTACC team

Only an uprising in green technology will revive America and promote world democracy, the New York Times columnist now argues.

In his new book, “Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America,” Thomas Friedman, author of the best-selling “The World Is Flat” and “The Lexus and the Olive Tree,” argues that America can fire up its economy and restore its world standing by turning its considerable technological might on clean energy and conservation.

Advocating a green path to world democracy would seem to mark a new direction for Friedman, who initially supported the Bush administration “in trying to bring democracy to Iraq,” he writes in “Hot, Flat, and Crowded.” In a lively interview with Salon, he acknowledges his about-face on the Iraq war and outlines what he now sees as America’s — and his own — environmental responsibilities. He looks at the current presidential candidates and explains why only one appears capable of leading a green revolution.

Source: www.salon.com/…

LS » He seems to have done some thinking on this subject and hasmade some significant changes since his Bush-supporting days.

You must have a leader who can frame this problem in an exciting way — not just the answer to these big five problems, but this incredible opportunity. It’s why I say, “Change your leaders, not your light bulbs.” Not that changing your light bulbs isn’t important. We’ve done it. Everyone should do it. But leaders write the rules and rules shape the markets — tax incentives, carbon taxes, cap and trade — and markets are what give you scale.

To me, the engine of this whole change is the market. We’re not going to regulate our way out of this problem. We can only innovate our way out of it. But that requires rules. It requires legislators, Congress, to write different rules. There’s no substitute for leadership. You and I could have the greatest green ethic in the world. We could do everything and it wouldn’t make a dime’s worth of difference. Markets must be shaped to scale these things down to a price where people can afford them.