Climate Change!
GOP blocks bill to reduce Climate Change
Senate Republicans on Friday blocked a global warming bill that would have required major reductions in greenhouse gases, after a bitter debate over its economic costs and whether it would substantially raise gasoline and other energy prices.
Umm… what?
Airline emissions 'far higher than previous estimates'
Airplanes are polluting 20% more than previously estimated. I know the next generation of airplanes currently being built are meant to be more fuel efficient, but we are still a few years off from actually being to see those in the air. In the meantime there isn’t a whole lot you can do to be a “green” traveler.
I’ve been buying carbon offsets with TerraPass for all my flights (in addition to my home and car). DOPPLR recently added a feature to calculate your precise carbon emissions which is a helpful tool and reminder to think green.
Donate to the Burmese Cyclone Victims
Earlier this week I posted about the cyclone that hit Burma. At the time there wasn’t any place I could find that was accepting donations for aid. Google has set up a page that allows you to contribute to either Unicef or DirectRelief.
The death toll is likely to come near or exceed 100,000 and according to the U.N., 1.5 million people will be effected from the aftermath. The disaster could rival the devastation and death toll of the 2004 Tsunami, though this disaster according to Al Gore, could be a consequence of global warming.
Please show your support for the victims of the cyclone.
Burma Cyclone Nargis
If you haven’t been following the devastation in Burma from the cyclone Nargis, the first named storm of the 2008 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, the death toll is rising with a reported 22,000 deaths and as many as 41,000 people still missing.
Because of Burma’s junta government, it is unclear how much foreign aid will be accepted or how normal people like us can donate money.
The Wikipedia page is a good source of information on the disaster.
It’s unclear if the cyclone is a result of global warming, but author Chris Mooney says, “in our changing world, the different hurricane basins of the world will respond very differently to climate change. Storms may also be fewer, but stronger when they do occur.”
My Climate Clock Idea
For about a year now I’ve had this idea to create a single page website featuring a large clock, counting down the time we have left until some sort of catastrophic global event caused by climate change.
Basically a combination of the national debt clock, the doomsday clock and a death clock.
The goal would be show the effects of climate change in very real terms, helping build awareness of the effects climate change and hopefully urge people to take action. Since most people would prefer not to know their date of death, I figure even a rough estimation would be a powerful motivator.
The city of San Jose is planning to build a physical clock, but one problem, it would be in downtown San Jose. Not exactly the hub of cultural activity. I figure, why not have it be online for all in the world to see? After all, climate change is a burden we all have to bare.
Having put a lot of thought into the idea and having done a fair amount of research, I’ve found a number of problems in coming up with a formula. What is so disturbing to me is that the problems I’ve found are the same problems that any initiative to help increase awareness in climate change would likely face.
I don’t know how the world can come together to solve the climate change problem without better information and tools to understanding the problem and the potential effects. So today being Earth Day I figured why not share some of the problems I’ve come across in trying to build a Climate Clock.
Huge Antarctic Ice Shelf on the verge of collapse
The Wilkins Ice Shelf, the largest in the Antarctic Peninsula is “hanging by a thread — we’ll know in the next few days and weeks what its fate will be.”
Jim Elliot, who captured video of the breakout said to MSNBC.com, “I’ve never seen anything like this before — it was awesome. We flew along the main crack and observed the sheer scale of movement from the breakage. Big hefty chunks of ice, the size of small houses, look as though they’ve been thrown around like rubble — it’s like an explosion.”
My take: Holy Shit!
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