UN Climate Chief Calls Out U.S. For Climate Inaction: Hurricane Sandy Is ‘Yet Another Wake-up Call’

By Rebecca Leber on Nov 24, 2012 at 3:28 pm

Hurricane Sandy’s $50 billion damage demonstrated the vulnerability of America’s largest cities to the effects of global warming. Christiana Figueres, the top United Nations diplomat for international climate negotiations, said Sandy serves as “yet another wake-up call” for the U.S. to cut carbon pollution.

In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Figueres made the case for why it’s in the country’s best interest to lead with urgency:

FIGUERES: First, from a domestic perspective, why would the United States allow other countries to pursue the technologies of the future while the United States stays with the technologies that are becoming every day more obsolete, hence losing its future competitiveness in an increasingly competitive world? I don’t think that the visionary leaders of the United States will let this happen. I do think that there is going to be increasing pressure in particular from the private sector to catch up with the rest of the world, which is moving toward low-carbon technologies. So just from a domestic point of view, it doesn’t make any sense.

e360: What about the frustration part of that, that we are now deep into this process and the U.S. so far has not made a formal commitment?

FIGUERES: One must say, given the historical responsibility that the United States plays in this issue, it is quite a unique position that the United States is in and one that frankly they have not responded to in a commensurate manner. So, yes, if the United States does not strengthen its participation in the global climate regime under the newly re-elected president I think there will be increased frustration with the United States.

More than 30 countries have already taken steps well beyond the U.S., instituting caps on carbon pollution or a carbon tax, including Europe, Australia, South Korea, South Africa, and Mexico. As Figueres says, it is not a choice between lower pollution and economic growth, since climate change devastates businesses and American security.

Next week, global climate negotiations will continue what Figueres calls “slow but steady” progress at a conference in Doha, Qatar.

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Climate Progress

Jeff Masters Reviews ‘Lessons On Persuasion From Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, And Lady Gaga’

By Climate Guest Blogger on Nov 24, 2012 at 12:24 pm

By Jeff Masters via Wunderblog

With a name like “Language Intelligence: Lessons on Persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga”, a book with a title like that compels one to pick it up and see what the heck the author is talking about. And Joe Romm’s new book on how to communicate doesn’t disappoint–it’s a thoughtful and compelling look at the techniques used by some of history’s great communicators to help persuade.

Joe Romm is author of the climateprogress.org blog, the most visited climate change blog on the Internet, and the main blog that I use to stay current on climate change and energy news. Romm defines Language Intelligence as “the ability to convince people of something both intellectually and emotionally, at both a conscious and unconscious level.” He goes on to say, “If facts were sufficient to persuade people, then experts in science would rule the world. But facts are not, and scientists do not. We filter out all the facts that do not match our views.”

At the heart of great communication lies great story telling, and Romm give us these tips on how to tell a story people will want to read:

Write a great headline: Newspaper readers read 56% of the headlines, but only 13% of the stories are at least half-read. Headlines are even more important on-line, since they are what show up on Google searches and tweets. An example of one the most re-tweeted headlines Romm used in 2011: “Mother Nature is Just Getting Warmed Up: June 2011 Heat Records Crushing Cold Records by 13 to 1” (Romm uses a pun and personification to help create an eye-catching headline.)
Short words are the best words.
Slogans sell.
If you don’t repeat, you can’t compete. Repetition and rhyming help people remember your message.
The golden rule of speech-making is: “Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em; tell ‘em; then tell ‘em what you told ‘em.”
Repeated distortions and smears are as effective as repeated truths, so beware of these sorts of attacks.
If you want to de-bunk a myth, you need to focus on stating the truth, not repeating the myth.
If you want to be more noticed and remembered, use more figures of speech (metaphors.) Examples of metaphors I’ve used include comparing our melting Arctic to the attic of a house that is on fire (Earth’s attic is on fire: Arctic sea ice bottoms out at a new record low) and comparing the impact of global warming on extreme weather to the impact steroids have on a baseball slugger (Extreme events of 2011: climate change a major factor in some, but not all).
Create an extended metaphor when you have a big task at hand. Countless books and articles underscore that extended metaphors are at the core of human thinking.

National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist Dr. Jerry Meehl uses a metaphor to explain how climate change’s impact on extreme weather is similar to how steroids affect a baseball slugger’s ability to hit a ball out of the park.

At 183 pages, the book only took me about two hours to read, and I was very glad I did. It was very entertaining and informative, and anyone involved in public communication can learn from this book.

I give it my highest rating: four stars out of four. Language Intelligence: Lessons on Persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga is $9.67 from Amazon.com [Kindle is here].

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LGBT

Boeing Won’t Offer Pension Benefits To Same-Sex Couples

By Igor Volsky on Nov 24, 2012 at 11:47 am

Boeing Company — one of the largest global aircraft manufacturers in the world — has told its union that it will likely deny “pension survivor benefits to same-sex married couples” in Washington State, even after voters approved marriage equality in November, The Stranger reports.

Union representative Ray Goforth told The Stranger that Boeing during contract negotiations, the company maintained that pension benefits are governed by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and that it does not plan to voluntarily offer benefits to the partners of their gay and lesbian employees. The Defense of Marriage Act prevents the federal government from recognizing same-sex couples, even if states allow for such unions:

Goforth explains that his union has long sought equal pension benefits for same-sex domestic partners, to no avail. But since voters approved same sex marriage—establishing parity with married straight couples—Goforth re-framed the proposal to apply to his union’s gay Boeing employees who wed. “Their answer was that they had no intention of granting pension survivor benefits to legally married same-sex couples because they didn’t have to,” Goforth explains. Boeing representatives told him that pensions are governed by federal law, which doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage, thereby trumping the state law on the matter.

“We were profoundly disappointed to see that they would use a loophole to engage in institutionalized discrimination,” Goforth says.

Since Slog published its report, Boeing issued a statement promising to reassess the impact of Washington State’s marriage equality referendum on company policy. “Boeing is taking a closer look at how R-74 might impact company policies once it takes effect in December,” the statement said. “Nothing is ever final in negotiations until they’re over,” a company spokesperson told the Slog. “What we said today is that [these pension benefits] are not currently addressed in the contract.”

A growing number of companies are offering equal benefits for equal work, regardless of sexual orientation and recognizing that “treating all workers equally makes good business sense.” “Research consistently shows that unfair and discriminatory work environments cripple an employer’s ability to recruit and retain the best and the brightest. These negative environments also stifle job performance and productivity.”

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Climate Progress

The Soldiers Grove Story: Lessons For Post-Sandy Sustainability

By Climate Guest Blogger on Nov 24, 2012 at 10:16 am

This is the first in a three-part post about the potential for sustainable recovery along the Atlantic Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

by Bill Becker

As the communities on the East Coast contemplate rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy, here is a story they might consider. I’ve told it before. It seems like a good time to tell it again.

In the late 1970s, a small community in Wisconsin made a big decision. The Village of Soldiers Grove decided that when people and nature come into conflict, it’s sometimes better for people to get out of the way.

A little history is necessary. From its founding in 1856, the Soldiers Grove had been a river town. It was built on the banks of the Kickapoo River, a 126-mile-long tributary of the Wisconsin River in the southwestern corner of the state.

Being “river rats”, as the townspeople liked to call themselves, made sense then. The river furnished mechanical power for the village’s principal industry, a sawmill, and provided an easy way to transport logs cut from the forested hillsides upstream. The Kickapoo eventually provided the village with electricity, too.

But in 1907, the community’s relationship with the river began to change. The Kickapoo hit Soldiers Grove with its first big flood. Forestry and farming were denuding the hills so that runoff flowed more freely into the river. More big floods slammed into the community in 1912, 1917 and 1935. Each time, the villagers cleaned up the muck, repaired the damage as best they could, and resumed their routines.

The 1935 flood persuaded Soldiers Grove and its neighboring river communities that they needed to lobby Congress to dam the Kickapoo River. But Congress, always slow, was slowed down more by World War II.

There still was no dam when in 1951, the Kickapoo surged down Main Street with such force that it sent cars tumbling side-over-side and pushed homes off their foundations, floating them away like houseboats.

In 1962, Congress finally authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a dam and recreational lake on the upper Kickapoo River, the largest public works project in Wisconsin history at the time. In the late 1960s, the Corps used eminent domain to buy 149 farms. Construction began in 1971.

That’s when I came into the picture. I bought the village newspaper in the mid-1970s and became its editor, looking forward to a bucolic country life. That dream ended with my first assignment: a public meeting in which the Corps presented its plan for saving Soldiers Grove from more floods.