Note:  At the end I post more of my exclusive interview with the author of The Great Disruption, Paul Gilding.

First, here’s the opening of Friedman’s op-ed, “The Earth Is Full,” currently the most e-mailed piece on the NY Times website:

You really do have to wonder whether a few years from now we’ll look back at the first decade of the 21st century — when food prices spiked, energy prices soared, world population surged, tornados plowed through cities, floods and droughts set records, populations were displaced and governments were threatened by the confluence of it all — and ask ourselves: What were we thinking? How did we not panic when the evidence was so obvious that we’d crossed some growth/climate/natural resource/population redlines all at once?

“The only answer can be denial,” argues Paul Gilding, the veteran Australian environmentalist-entrepreneur, who described this moment in a new book called “The Great Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring On the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World.” “When you are surrounded by something so big that requires you to change everything about the way you think and see the world, then denial is the natural response. But the longer we wait, the bigger the response required.”

Long-time readers remember Paul Gilding, former executive director of Greenpeace International, from Tom Friedman’s 2009 column on how the global economy is a Ponzi scheme.  I was quoted in that column, too, and as a result, I have gotten to know him.  I interviewed him earlier in the year and will post a couple of clips below.

The entire Friedman piece is worth reading, though.   Here’s more:

Read more

The monster 2002 Rodeo-Chediski Fire consumed 468,000 acres, causing many Arizona communities to evacuate.  In a world of unrestricted greenhouse gases, such fires will be commonplace.

Our guest contributor is CAP’s Tom Kenworthy, who reported on the fire for USA Today.

It was late afternoon on a day near the end of June in 2002, and along with a lot of other media, I was in Show Low, Arizona, at a schools complex that had been taken over by the incident management team for the Rodeo-Chediski Fire. That monster fire, the biggest in Arizona history, was raging not far to the west, and we were anxious to hear what fire spokesman Jim Paxon would say so we could file our stories.

In his dispassionate but always quotable way, Paxon told us that the next day a 100-foot high wall of flames a mile wide was going to hit the west side of Show Low and rampage through the town.

Early that evening, before evacuating Show Low with nearly everyone else, I went to the outskirts of town to take another look at the fire. Over my years as a newspaper reporter in the Rocky Mountain West, I covered plenty of big western fires, but what I saw that evening was, on the scary scale, of a totally different magnitude. The fire was crowning through Ponderosa pine a couple of miles away, with flames shooting up a couple of hundred feet, and it was moving so fast to the northeast that when viewed through a television camera it passed from left to right and out of view in just a few seconds.

Read more

Black Magic is a 4,000 ton Solar Hybrid Vessel that reduces GHG emissions 75% to 100% by harnessing energy from the sun, wind and waves.

Climate Progress intern Tyce Herrman has a look at some new sustainable shipping designs — and why we need them.

According to a 2000 UNFCCC report, “Shipping is a small contributor to the world total CO2 emissions (1.8% of world total CO2 emissions in 1996).”  However, a more recent International Maritime Organization (IMO) study, pegs ship emissions at 1 billion metric tons per year, about 3% of total anthropogenic CO₂ emissions.  That is enough to making shipping the equivalent of the six largest country  in terms of overall greenhouse gas emissions as of 2009:

Read more

Our guest blogger is Chuck Belmont Keeney, Ph.D., the descendant of famed UMWA organizer Frank Keeney. The March on Blair Mountain is taking place in southern West Virginia, June 5 to 11.

Nothing like this has happened to me before.

Walking the road to Blair Mountain, we pass an elementary school. Several of the teachers have taken their classes outside. The children and the teachers cheer us as we walk by.

Minutes later a man slows by the protesters in his pickup truck. He gives us the middle finger and yells, “Get a job, tree huggers!”

A few more paces and we witness an elderly couple on their front porch. They clap and nod. I notice that the old woman is crying. She tells us to keep going.

Others drive by and hurl obscenities in our direction. One sign on a house reads, “Thank You Marchers.” Another sign on a telephone pole warns, “Go Back To Where You Came From.”

Behold the road to Blair Mountain, where another civil war looms in the hills of Appalachia. Ninety years before, 10,000 armed coal miners marched to secure a decent living and to be treated as human beings. They fought an army paid for by the coal operators at the Battle of Blair Mountain. Miners bled and died to provide a better future for their children and, consequently, lay the groundwork for the privilege of weekends off, forty hour work weeks, and many of the other benefits that workers today enjoy. To date the Battle of Blair Mountain is the largest labor uprising in the history of our country.

Today there is a Second Battle of Blair Mountain. The coal companies want to destroy this historic ground with mountaintop removal, and we are trying to save it. Marchers brave the heat, intimidation of the coal companies, and the ugliness of some who oppose us. When we originally planned the five-day march, we arranged to stay at various parks and campsites along the way. While many of these places initially welcomed us, they have all, within the last few days, told us that we can no longer stay at their sites. We then found alternative camp sites. These places too, have since withdrawn their support. Some of them have refused us because of threats from the coal companies; others have not given us specific reasons. What we do know is that many of the owners of these campsites were very hospitable at first, but have since said with regret that we cannot rest on their property. Therefore, we are forced to shuttle marchers back and forth from our headquarters at Marmet each day.

Nonetheless, we march on.

We march to preserve our national heritage. We march to stand up for labor rights. We march to save our water and air from the most destructive form of coal mining ever devised. Communities were divided in 1921 during the miners’ rebellion and communities are divided now. Yet our spirits are high and our faith unwavering. For we know that we stand upon the moral high ground and we ask that the rest of the country stand with us. On Saturday, June 11, 2011 we will hold a rally at the foot of this mountain where speakers and activists such as Robert Kennedy Jr., Ken Hechler, Ashley Judd, the indomitable Larry Gibson, and hundreds of citizens from all over America will raise their voices to the heavens in the triumph of our cause.

Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. Nine months ago, I was just a young history professor content to write my books and teach my classes. Now I find myself in the thick of a movement that commemorates one of the most unique stories in our nation’s history. I have a personal connection to this history, for my great-grandfather was one of the leaders of the miners in 1921. Today, my connection is even more personal as I march alongside so many brave men and women who have become my friends and compatriots. Thus, to the rest of the country, I say this:

If you have witnessed the recent attacks on labor in Wisconsin, Michigan, and other states, and want to preserve the American middle class, now is the time to stand up. If you believe in environmental justice and wish to save communities from pollution and deprivation, now is the time to stand up. If you wish to preserve our historic landmarks for the education of our children, now is the time to stand up. The coal companies are trying to stop us by throwing obstacles and propaganda in our way. Still we march on. The time is now. The place is Blair Mountain, West Virginia.

Do not hesitate. Join us on the road to victory!

With huge investment from the Mexican Government, tons of sand are being pumped from offshore sandbars by two huge dredgers and then sprayed along miles of Cancun’s hardest hit areas.

Loss of beaches worldwide is certainly not the worst of the impacts humans will face from unrestricted greenhouse gas emissions (see “JPL bombshell: Polar ice sheet mass loss is speeding up, on pace for 1 foot sea level rise by 2050“).  But it will be a poignant and costly loss nonetheless for future generations.  And don’t count on creating artificial beaches — they will be awfully hard to sustain when sea levels are rising 6 to 12 inches a decade!  CAP’s Kiley Kroh has more.

When Snooki of MTV’s “Jersey Shore” infamously stumbled down the boardwalk and confused onlookers by asking “where’s the beach?”, it inadvertently might have been the most insightful thing the reality star has ever said.

A report issued last month by the International Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, or IAMAP, predicts a global sea level rise of up to five feet by 2100—far greater than the levels presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007. The effect on our beloved beaches in the coming decades will be dramatic and devastating if these predictions come to pass. 

An aerial view of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.  One of the seven natural wonders of the world, it could be destroyed from ocean acidification and rising sea levels. [AP Photo]

For countless Americans, summer and beach go hand in hand. In fact, every year there are more than 2 billion visitors to America’s coastal, gulf, and inland beaches—twice as many visitors as all of the country’s national parks combined. And just in case the mere thought of lounging in the sand or splashing in the waves doesn’t have you ready to jump out of your chair, the newly released National Geographic photo spread on America’s top 10 beaches of 2011 ought to do the trick.

Along with the opportunity for some summertime R&R, our shorelines serve as storm surge mitigators, nurseries for countless species of fish and invertebrates, and the economic lifeblood of coastal communities. But the world’s beaches are far from everlasting, and the damaging effects of climate change are already being felt.

Today’s celebration of World Oceans Day provides an opportunity to review the dangers facing the world’s shores and offer some possible solutions.

Rising seas threaten our beaches

Read more

Two weeks after announcing plans to pull out of a regional carbon emissions-reduction program, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie says he wants to scale back the state’s renewable energy targets. In his proposed 10-year energy master plan, Christie put a greater emphasis on nuclear and natural gas, while scaling back renewable energy goals, saying they were “pie-in-the-sky.”

The new master plan cuts the state’s renewable energy targets from 30 percent by 2021 down to 22.5% by that date. The targets were created by former Governor John Corzine, who was labeled by Christie in 2008 as someone who “likes to talk a lot about renewable energy, but hasn’t done much of anything.”

While campaigning for governor in 2008, Christie called renewable energy the “future” of New Jersey’s energy; however in the last few weeks he has supported cutting programs designed to help stimulate development of renewables. Clean energy advocates in the state are outraged:

Read more

The nation’s public lands are a central part of our national heritage, imagination, and spirit. Millions of Americans visit our public lands each year to experience history firsthand and wonder at some of the nation’s most beautiful natural spaces. That’s why one of my proudest accomplishments from the Clinton administration is working with Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt to protect these national treasures. Together, we helped President Clinton protect more land in the lower 48 states than any president since Teddy Roosevelt, from the north rim of the Grand Canyon to President Lincoln’s Cottage to Pompeys Pillar in Montana to the California Coastal National Monument that includes 20,000 islands, rocks, and reefs. Because of President Clinton and Secretary Babbitt’s dedication, these and thousands more acres will be preserved and protected for future generations.

Today, Secretary Babbitt is back in the spotlight with an important speech about defending these lands from attack and carrying our preservation legacy forward. On this 105th anniversary of the Antiquities Act, signed by Teddy Roosevelt to protect America’s most special natural places, I hope that the President will thoughtfully consider the Secretary’s recommendations.

A first stop should be Fort Monroe. Virginia Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner, as well as Governor Bob McDonnell, have asked to designate Fort Monroe, an important Civil War landmark once referred to as the “Gibraltar of Chesapeake Bay,” as a national monument. The Fort will be decommissioned in the fall, and designating the post as a National Monument will ensure that the post is preserved for public use for many years to come.

But that’s just the first step. Public lands are about far more than stewardship; they also help revitalize and strengthen local communities. In Utah, the counties surrounding Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument have seen strong economic growth since the designation in 1996: 38 percent growth in jobs and 30 percent growth in per-capita income. Fort Monroe would similarly benefit, as would many other sites around the country. For the sake of communities like these, and the sake of our national heritage, it is critical that we continue to make preservation a priority going forward.

Full text of Secretary Babbitt’s speech: Read more

The Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank has given me an excuse to spin off the media obsession du jour — the lies and recklessness of Anthony Weiner.

Milbank’s new column has these headlines, print and online:

A reckless body

Lawmakers’ fiscal gambles are worse than the sexual ones

Milbank writes, “The naked truth is that his Twitter problem has more to do with the perilous state of the nation’s finances than you might think.”  His point is that recklessness and lies — driven by “a sense of invincibility” — are the norm for Capitol Hill lawmakers:

To make it to Congress, lawmakers have already been successful, and lucky. They stood out in their state legislatures, their businesses or their military careers. Once in office, they are surrounded by sycophantic staffers and lobbyist supplicants. Their members-only perks include drivers, special treatment on airplanes and the power to skip metal detectors. Because so few of them come from competitive districts, their lopsided victories and adoring supporters make them more and more impressed with their own might.

To amuse themselves, and to test their power, many of them take risks — a small gift, a playful remark, a bit of rhetorical excess — and, each time they get away with it, they become more convinced of their invincibility. They become thrill-seeking adolescents, taking ever-greater risks until they retire or get caught.

He then goes on to say “while recklessness is pervasive in Washington, most of the time it’s not sexual or financial but professional.”   By that he means primarily the failure to address the deficit or the debt limit, which is “part of a regular game of chicken legislators have enjoyed on budget deals.”

He ends by pointing out, “Lawmakers will have an easier time justifying that to their wives, but it’s the same delusion of invincibility that led Weiner to risk his career. In fact, we’d be better off if lawmakers gambled more with their private parts and less with the public good.”

As I’ve written many times, though, it is Congress’s lies and recklessness about global warming that are  a far graver threat to the public good than the ones concerning the budget:

Read more

The Climate Progress news round-up is a daily look at the top climate and energy news from around the web. Do you have interesting stories to share? Post them in the comments below.

Costs of ‘liquid coal’ too big for Pentagon despite GOP push

Using “liquid coal” in U.S. military aircraft and vessels as an alternative to gasoline tied to world oil prices would come at an enormous cost and impact on carbon emissions, said a Navy official Friday.

Tom Hicks, deputy assistant Navy secretary for energy, said in testimony to Congress that the rising price of oil “dramatically impacts the military.” For every $1 a barrel increase in oil, the Navy and Marine Corps pay more than $30 million. “We don’t have that money to spare.”

Read more

U.S. oil production under Obama has soared, as have oil prices, showing that “drill baby drill” can’t solve our energy security problems.

Our guest blogger is CAPAF’s Noreen Nielsen.

Koch-backed, oil-company funded, Americans for Prosperity recently announced their new campaign attacking the Obama administration for the increase in gas prices. That’s right. The energy industry is set to run efforts to raise public ire at gas prices.  Koch Industries and others in the oil industry hope this effort will raise public support for pro-industry policies that put profits ahead of consumers.

KEY FACTS ON OIL INDUSTRIES’ CAMPAIGN:

Ø  Industry rallies are sponsored by the multibillion dollar Koch Industries, one of the “world’s top five crude oil traders and key player in distorting oil markets for private profits.

Ø  These rallies are strikingly similar to the astroturf “Energy Citizen” rallies of 2009 that were funded by oil-industry lobbyists.

Ø  Koch Industries has funded the Americans for Prosperity Foundation and Americans for Prosperity for years, which has supported many Tea Party efforts.

Read more

Our guest blogger is Emily Fisher, online editor at Oceana

Happy World Oceans Day! If you’re lucky enough to be on the coast right now, we envy you. If you’re stuck inside like most of us, fret not. You can still celebrate the day by pledging to protect the oceans.

Here at Oceana, in addition to celebrating the beauty of the salty seas that cover more than 71 percent of our planet, starting today and through the rest of the summer, we’re asking everyone to take small steps in their lives to help the oceans. As vast as they are, the world’s oceans are suffering as a result of pollution, irresponsible fishing methods and climate change and ocean acidification.

Here’s how it works. When you pledge to be an ocean hero, you can choose between three options: clean up your local beach or river, eat sustainable seafood or recycle. Here’s more:

Read more

“There is no doubt that renewable energy is the future here in New Jersey,” Chris Christie said when running for the governorship in 2008, comparing himself to Barack Obama. Now, Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) is on a Koch binge, gutting his state’s investments in clean energy to reward right-wing polluter interests like the Koch brothers. At the end of May, Christie announced that he will pull New Jersey out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, even though it has strengthened the state’s economy while reducing carbon pollution. He has siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from clean energy programs to pay for corporate boondoggles. Yesterday, Christie unveiled a new version of his state’s energy master plan that slashes goals for renewable electricity generation:

Gov. Chris Christie said Tuesday that he planned to scale back New Jersey’s goals for renewable energy as he looked for an “achievable” approach to generating electricity in the state.

Christie plans to cut the renewable target from 30 percent of electricity production in 2021 to 22.5 percent, calling the higher figure a “pie-in-the-sky number.” The New Jersey Chamber of Commerce praised Christie for his “business-friendly” decision to scale back investment in job-creating technologies.

At Climate Progress, Stephen Lacey notes that the targets Christie is slashing were created by former Governor John Corzine, who was labeled by Christie in 2008 as a smooth-talking hypocrite:

Here in New Jersey, unfortunately, we have leadership who likes to talk a lot about renewable energy, but hasn’t done much of anything.

Watch it:

This is a guest post by Marta Cook (we will fix the bug that indicates this is by Lacey soon).

NRDC’s Senior Scientist Kim Knowlton reports, “national asthma rates are rising again, in all age categories but especially among children….  25 million Americans now have asthma.” CAPAF’s Marta Cook explains what you can do for them.

The Center for American Progress Action Fund is leading a campaign to curb asthma and other harmful health effects from coal-fired power plants. This campaign is already underway, and it will continue until July 5, 2011. It provides a new opportunity for faith communities to expand their environmental stewardship advocacy efforts at the federal level.

Click here to send a Letter to Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Faith communities across the country are at the forefront of efforts to protect and preserve our nation’s land, air, and water—what many of them call “creation care.” To them, creation care is a matter of stewardship of the natural resources God has given to humans. Further, pastors, rabbis, and imams participate in clean environment campaigns like this because they see the human consequences of dirty energy—kids in their congregations suffering from asthma, parents battling cancer, and some even suffering from mercury poisoning.

Read more

In order to balance out varied frequencies on the grid caused by changing power supply, grid operators often ramp up natural gas plants for short periods of time. But one company believes this “spinning reserve” doesn’t need to be fossil based – maybe it could be truly spinning.

Beacon Power, a Massachusetts manufacturer and installer of flywheels – levitating, spinning wheels that turn electrical energy into kinetic energy and then turn it back into electrical energy on demand – is about to finish the largest storage plant in the world using the technology:

The company said today it plans to host a ceremony for the 20-megawatt energy storage system in Stephentown, N.Y., where the flywheels supply short bursts of power to maintain a steady frequency over the grid.

The expected completion of the plant is a milestone for flywheel-based storage, which has been used for tests and smaller, 1-megawatt systems. Beacon Power’s spinning flywheels, which are made of carbon fiber and levitated in a vacuum by magnets, absorb energy from the grid and discharge 1 megawatt for as much as 15 minutes.

Frequency regulation will is becoming more important as more intermittent renewables are added to the grid.

Read more