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Two senators want the U.S. to start selling war bonds — to fight climate change

by azulurwok Posted on April 28, 2016

Two senators want the U.S. to start selling war bonds — to fight climate change

By on Apr 28, 2016Share

What if we fought climate change with the same commitment we fight wars? The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Al Gore have long argued for a World War II-scale mobilization to fight climate change, and on Wednesday, two senators introduced a bill — the Climate Change Adapt America Bond Act — that’s the most concrete realization of this concept yet.

Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) propose issuing up to $200 million worth of infrastructure bonds to raise funds for climate change adaptation efforts like seawall construction, desalination, and drought resilience programs. The bill would leverage public interest to fend off the climate menace, modeled after the U.S. War Bonds program from World War II.

A bit like “We Can Do It,” no?

Not all observers are pleased with the bill’s focus on adaptation efforts. Margaret Klein Salamon, director of advocacy group The Climate Mobilization, called it “a defeatist strategy — as if war bonds were sold to Americans so they could better adapt to Nazi rule rather than actually attempt to win the war.”

Salamon also pointed to the scale of the proposal, noting that the $200 million figure pales in comparison to the $185 billion worth of war bonds purchased during World War II. Adjusting for inflation, that’s over $2 trillion today.

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Two senators want the U.S. to start selling war bonds — to fight climate change

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How ‘Green’ is Your State?

by TrishaWoodall32 Posted on April 27, 2016

How green is your state?

To find out, surf on over to WalletHub.com and check out their 2016 analysis. The group compared all 50 states in terms of 17 key metrics that look at the health of the current environment as well as the environmental impact of people’s daily habits.

They grouped the metrics into three specific categories:

Environmental Quality: Researchers took stock of how muchsolid waste was generated per capita as well as the quality of the air, soil and water.

Eco-Friendly Behaviors: WalletHub measured the number of LEED-certified green buildings per capita, as well as the state’s transportation infrastructure and number of alternatively-fueled vehicles, as well as consumption of energy, gasoline and water.

Climate Change Contributions: This category focused on the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per capita, along withemissions of other greenhouse gases, including methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated greenhouse gases.

The research team then cruncheddata from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, American Chemistry Council, County Health Rankings, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, the U.S. Green Buildings Council, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey and the World Resources Institute.

Their findings?

The ten greenest states were primarily in the Northeast, with the exception of one midwestern outlier and two states in the Pacific Northwest. Interestingly, California did not make the top ten greenest states list, coming in at number 12. On the other end of the spectrum, you might have expected a state like Texas to be the least green, but it was ranked #36in the lower half of the country, definitely, but not the worst.

Greenest States

Vermont (greenest overall)
Washington
Massachusetts
Oregon
Minnesota
Maine
Connecticut
New York
New Hampshire
New Jersey

Least Green States

Idaho
Arkansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Oklahoma
Nebraska
West Virginia
Montana
North Dakota
Wyoming (least green overall)

Perhaps not surprisingly, states considered politically “blue” are almost three times more environmentally responsible than red states.

Citizens of Missouri throw away the least amount of trash while Hawaii citizens throw away the most! And Maine recycles the most at 48 percent while Louisiana recycles only 1 percent, the least.

What value is this if you’re trying to improve the environmental quality of your own state? You can use WalletHub’s approachto compare counties in your own state and identify opportunities for improvement. (Cities might be too difficult to compare because they share so many county services, whereas county services do vary quite a bit.)

Of the 17 metrics WalletHub used, these five might be a good starting point for more specific analysis in your state:

Municipal Solid Waste: How much trash are citizens in each of your state’s counties throwing away? What enables people in a particular county to throw away less trash and recycle more? Are there plastic bag fees that encourage people to take reusable bags to the grocery store? Do curbside recycling programs make it easier for citizens to divert trash from the landfill? Have bans been put in place to prohibit use of polystyrene foam at fast food restaurants?

Gasoline Consumption: The amount of gas citizens use may vary widely from county to county. In WalletHub’s study, people living in New York consumed the least amount of gas of any state, which should be no surprise, given how densely people in the 5 boroughs of New York City live and how comprehensive the mass transit system is there. On the other hand, people in North Dakota consumed the most gasoline per capita, a reflection of the long distances folks drive from one part of the state to the next. Comparisons may be similar in rural vs urban counties in one state.

Energy Consumption: This comparison could be highly informative and might indicate the level of awareness people have one county to another when it comes to using electricity and natural gas. For example, some electric utilities might be particularly aggressive in educating consumers about the importance of energy conservation. The utility might also offer a package of incentives to get its customers to replace energy-wasting appliances with newer models. Knowing what strategies encourage residents of one county to save energy could be very valuable to managers of other counties as they strive to cut energy consumption and the carbon dioxide emissions that go along with it.

Water Consumption: The WalletHub analysis examined water quality, not consumption. But like energy consumption, analyzing the amount of water consumed in some counties compared to others in the same state could provide valuable insights into how to motivate people statewide to use water more wisely.

Number of LEED-Certified Buildings: Any time a new building is built, it should be able to meet at least the basic criteria for saving energy as established by the U.S. Green Building Council. Once a tally is made of all LEED-Certified buildings in a county, counties could start a friendly competition to see which ones build the most new LEED buildings over a certain period of time.

If these categories don’t correspond to the most pressing environmental challenges your state faces,choose some other categoriesthat are more relevant.The key is to use comparisons both to take stock of where things stand, and to use those comparisons to make things better. The comparisons will create useful benchmarks to measure its own progress over time, making both the planet and the people happier and healthier.

Related
6 Urban Green Space Projects That Are Revitalizing U.S. Cities
10 Greenest Cities in North America

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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How ‘Green’ is Your State?

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Walter Kohn, Who Won Nobel in Chemistry, Dies at 93

by Myrna Posted on April 25, 2016

A chemist and physicist who fled Nazi-occupied Vienna as a teenager and built a distinguished academic career in the United States, becoming an American citizen in 1957. See original article:   Walter Kohn, Who Won Nobel in Chemistry, Dies at 93 ; ; ;

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Walter Kohn, Who Won Nobel in Chemistry, Dies at 93

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China Curbs Plans for More Coal-Fired Power Plants

by Myrna Posted on April 25, 2016

The country, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, halted plans for new coal-fired plants and postponed building of some already approved. View the original here:  China Curbs Plans for More Coal-Fired Power Plants ; ; ;

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China Curbs Plans for More Coal-Fired Power Plants

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The John Kasich-Ted Cruz Alliance Is Already Unraveling

by ShanonWalck Posted on April 25, 2016

Mother Jones

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On Sunday night, it finally happened. Just before 11 p.m., the campaigns of Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz released matching statements promising to work together to stop Donald Trump from clinching the Republican nomination before the convention. The agreement they struck was that Kasich would stop campaigning in his neighboring state of Indiana, to give Cruz a chance to catch Trump there, and Cruz would stop campaigning in his neighboring state of New Mexico, as well as Oregon, in the hopes of boosting Kasich there. Anti-Trump voices had been calling for candidates to work together for months (Cruz trampled over Marco Rubio’s frantic appeal for help in Florida); the alliance was a sign that reality had set in.

But one thing missing from the agreement was any indication that Kasich and Cruz would actually tell their voters in Indiana, New Mexico, or Oregon, to support the other guy. And sure enough, while eating at a diner in Philadelphia on Monday morning, Kasich decided to pour water on the whole plan. Would the governor, a reporter asked, tell his supporters in Indiana to vote for Cruz? No, Kasich said. “I’ve never told them not to vote for me; they ought to vote for me.” He explained that the deal had nothing to do with strategic voting—it was only about whether to campaign or not campaign. Sounds like a strong alliance!

This is the most passive-aggressive thing Kasich has done since the last time someone tried to make a deal with him:

Excerpt from:  

The John Kasich-Ted Cruz Alliance Is Already Unraveling

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Bill Nye Just Told Us Exactly What He Thinks of the Republican Candidates

by Philip28X16 Posted on April 23, 2016

Mother Jones

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Bill Nye—who taught a generation of kids the wonders of science with the help of a bow tie and a catchy soundtrack—is taking a somewhat different tone with the politicians debating climate policy. His message: “Quit ya bitchin’; let’s get to work.”

In recent days, Nye has tussled with Sarah Palin (who thinks she’s “as much of a scientist” as the Science Guy) and has challenged a prominent global warming denier to back up his rhetoric with cold, hard cash, offering a $20,000 bet that 2016 will be one of the top 10 hottest years on record. In this week’s episode of the Inquiring Minds podcast, he talks with co-host Kishore Hari about congressional gridlock, the 2016 presidential campaign, and his new role as a “lightning rod” in the struggle against those who reject climate science.

Those skeptics may be vocal, but they represent a dwindling percentage of the population. According to Gallup, nearly two-thirds of Americans now agree that recent warming has been caused mostly by human activity. You wouldn’t know it from the rhetoric on the campaign trail, though. As Nye points out, all three of the remaining GOP presidential candidates dispute the scientific consensus—at least to an extent. Donald Trump has called global warming a “hoax” and has touted plans to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency. Ted Cruz says climate change is a “pseudoscientific theory.” Even John Kasich has said he doesn’t “believe humans that are the primary cause of climate change.” Until last week, climate change was largely absent from both party’s presidential debates. Out of nearly 1,500 debate questions asked through late March, only 22 were about the climate, according to a Media Matters for America analysis.

But Nye says he wouldn’t be surprised if the eventual GOP candidate actually does unveil a decent climate plan once he secures the nomination. He’s got to, Nye says, if he has any hope of courting millennials—an increasingly important voting bloc in the general election. According to a 2015 Pew survey, 18- to 29-year-olds were far more likely than any other age group of adults to accept the scientific consensus on climate change. Many of these young people grew up listening to Bill Nye the Science Guy expound on the science of garbage or fish movement through crackling classroom VHS players. To them, he offers a simple plea: “Vote, vote, vote, and take the climate into account when you do.”

Electing a climate-friendly president is key, Nye says, because it could inject new life into Congress’ long-stagnant climate debate. “There are…many very reasonable people in Congress who are playing the hand they are dealt with these gerrymandered congressional districts,” he adds. “They have to please an extraordinary minority.” With the right leadership and timing, he says, the politicians just might take action.

Inquiring Minds is a podcast hosted by neuroscientist and musician Indre Viskontas and Kishore Hari, the director of the Bay Area Science Festival. To catch future shows right when they are released, subscribe to Inquiring Minds via iTunes or RSS. You can follow the show on Twitter at @inquiringshow, like us on Facebook, and check out show notes and other cool stuff on Tumblr.

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Bill Nye Just Told Us Exactly What He Thinks of the Republican Candidates

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Every Time You Use a Paper Towel, Think of This

by FXKTessaqyjlpif Posted on April 22, 2016

Many of us carry out similar routines at restaurants, stores or an establishment with a public restroom. After using the facilities, we thoroughly wash our hands with soap and water, grab a bunch of paper towels, crumple them into balls, quickly dry our hands and toss the resulting garbage in the trash can on our way out.

We complete the process quickly and without thought, never to think of our paper towel encounter again or what happens to it after it gets picked up and taken to the landfill.

Its difficult to imagine something as simple as paper towel waste could have such a serious and devastating environmental impact, but the facts cant be ignored. As many as 51,000 trees per day are required to replace the number of paper towels used in the same amount of time. Globally, this amounts to 254 million tons of trash each year. Thats a lot of waste that ends up directly in our landfill.

While its been easy for my family of four to cut down on our paper towel usage in our home, we struggle when were outside the home to minimize our impact. I usually have my hands filled with either shopping bags or one of my children and the thought of limiting my paper towel usage is not on the forefront of my mind.

Then I learned through an engaging TEDx talk held in Portland, Oregon that there is a smarter and easier technique for drying my hands that doesnt require handfuls of paper towel or any more time and trouble.

Through his quick and fun video, Joe Smith demonstrates the technique he created: the shake and fold. It sounds like a silly dance routine but is actually a remarkably simple and efficient way to reduce the effect paper towel waste has on our environment.

Instead of grabbing a handful of paper towels, simply shake your hands twelve times, and then use a single, folded sheet to dab off the remaining moisture.

According to Smith, if everyone decided to dry off their hands with just one sheet, that would use 571 million less pounds of paper every year. That’s equivalent to nearly 5 million trees, which is something we can all breathe easy about.

I was unsure at first, so I decided to put Smiths method to the ultimate test. Could I successfully complete the shake and fold while managing the kids and my things?

His method not only passed with flying colors, but beat out my multiple paper towel ball clumping method! See for yourself and save a tree while you are at it!

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Every Time You Use a Paper Towel, Think of This

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We Dare You to Not Break Down Watching Prince’s Tribute to Freddie Gray

by misiaczekssk Posted on April 21, 2016

Mother Jones

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Prince wasn’t just a major pop icon—he was also a staunch supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. Last May, after weeks of protests in Baltimore that followed the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, he released a tribute song, “Baltimore,” which honored Gray and those demonstrating against police brutality. Prince performed the song live that month at a free show in Baltimore. He also gave a nod to the Black Lives Matter movement while presenting the award for Album of the Year at the 2015 Grammys. “Albums still matter,” he said. “Like books and black lives, albums still matter.”

Today fans are mourning the death of the legendary pop star. This week also marks the one-year anniversary of Freddie Gray’s death. Check out the video for Prince’s tribute to Gray below.

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We Dare You to Not Break Down Watching Prince’s Tribute to Freddie Gray

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Earth Week Daily Action: Register to Vote

by Leonie5935 Posted on April 21, 2016

One of the most important individual actions we can take to protect the planet is to vote. How corporations behave, how much pollution is allowed, what energy we have access to, whether we’re exposed to toxic chemicalsall of these issuesare determined by the laws and regulations that govern our society. Those laws are passedor notby the people we elect to office. If we don’t elect strong advocates for environmental protection, we won’t have them in office. It’s as simple as that.

If you’re not registered to vote, do so during Earth Week.Even if you’ve already missed a primary election in your state, sign up to vote in the general election in November. Here’s how to make it happen.

1) Figure out if you’re registered! You may already be registered but not realize it. Most states allow you to access your voter status online. The Voter Participation Center provides links to every Secretary of State office in the country. Get in touch with them to determine what your registration status is if you’re unaware.

2) Register online You should beable to register online in 31 states plus the District of Columbia. Start here to see what your state’s rules are and when the registration deadlines are. Some states allow you to register the day of voting, but many states have a deadline that’s a week or two or more in advance of the election. Online registration should only take you 2 minutes.

3) Register in person at the department of motor vehicles, state or local voter registration or election offices, and at armed services recruitment centers.

4) Register by mail. You can download a national mail voter registration form here, fill it out, print it out, sign it and mail it to the location lister for your state. The form is available in English as well as many other languages.

5) Know what documentation you need to register in your state. You mayneed to show a driver’s license or state ID card. Requirements differ from state to state so be familiar with your own state’s demands.

6) Be sure you’re eligible. To vote in a federal election in the U.S., no matter which state you live in, you must be a U.S. citizen. You must meet your state’s residency requirements, and you must be 18-years-old by the time of the general election. Some states allow 17-year-olds to vote in primaries or register if they will be 18 by the time of the generation election. Check with your secretary of state if you have any questions.

Once you register, know when and where you should vote.

Primary elections often take place in a different location than general elections. Early voting, which transpires in many states, can take place somewhere different from the general election locale. Know when the primary and general election dates are and where polling places have been set up.

At RocktheVote.com, you can both register to vote and sign up to receive timely election reminders and the address of your polling place location. If you register for a political party, the party will probably send you a sample ballot that also tells you where to vote and on what days.

To avoid long lines on election day, take advantage of early voting or vote by mail.

The political process can be very frustrating, but voting for candidates that best represent your view gives you a direct way to change the process for the better.

If you’re not yet registered to vote, register during Earth Week. If you have friends and acquaintances that aren’t registered, help them get the job done. And if you have time to volunteer, work with non-profit organizations who are committed to making sure concerned citizens register and vote. On election day, the only thing that matters is voter turn out!

Related:

5 Ways You Can Celebrate National Voter Registration Day
Moving? Don’t Forget to Update Your Voter Registration Record

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Earth Week Daily Action: Register to Vote

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Hillary Clinton Really Loves Military Intervention

by ClydeBrigstocke Posted on April 21, 2016

Mother Jones

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Here’s what’s in the New York Times Magazine this week:

How Hillary Clinton Became a Hawk

But…no. This piece doesn’t really tell us how Hillary became a hawk—and that’s too bad. It would be genuinely interesting to get some insight into how (or if) her views have evolved over time and what motivates them. Still, even if he doesn’t really tell us why Hillary is so hawkish, Mark Landler makes it very, very clear that she is, indeed, a very sincere hawk:

Clinton’s foreign-policy instincts are bred in the bone — grounded in cold realism about human nature and what one aide calls “a textbook view of American exceptionalism.” It set her apart from her rival-turned-boss, Barack Obama, who avoided military entanglements and tried to reconcile Americans to a world in which the United States was no longer the undisputed hegemon. And it will likely set her apart from the Republican candidate she meets in the general election. For all their bluster about bombing the Islamic State into oblivion, neither Donald J. Trump nor Senator Ted Cruz of Texas have demonstrated anywhere near the appetite for military engagement abroad that Clinton has.

For all intents and purposes, Landler says that Hillary has been the most hawkish person in the room in almost literally every case where she was in the room in the first place. For example:

Adm. Robert Willard, then the Pacific commander, wanted to send the carrier on a more aggressive course, into the Yellow Sea….Clinton strongly seconded it. “We’ve got to run it up the gut!” she had said to her aides a few days earlier.

….After 9/11, Clinton saw Armed Services as better preparation for her future. For a politician looking to hone hard-power credentials — a woman who aspired to be commander in chief — it was the perfect training ground. She dug in like a grunt at boot camp.

….Jack Keane is one of the intellectual architects of the Iraq surge; he is also perhaps the greatest single influence on the way Hillary Clinton thinks about military issues….Keane is the resident hawk on Fox News, where he appears regularly to call for the United States to use greater military force in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan….The two would meet many times over the next decade, discussing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Iranian nu­clear threat and other flash points in the Middle East.

….Keane, like Clinton, favored more robust intervention in Syria than Obama did….He advocated imposing a no-fly zone over parts of Syria that would neutralize the air power of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, with a goal of forcing him into a political settlement with opposition groups. Six months later, Clinton publicly adopted this position, further distancing herself from Obama.

….The Afghan troop debate….Her unstinting support of General McChrystal’s maximalist recommendation made it harder for Obama to choose a lesser option….“Hillary was adamant in her support for what Stan asked for,” Gates says….“She was, in a way, tougher on the numbers in the surge than I was.”

And Landler doesn’t even mention Libya, perhaps because the Times already investigated her role at length a couple of months ago. It’s hardly necessary, though. Taken as a whole, this is a portrait of a would-be president who (a) fundamentally believes in displays of force, (b) is eager to give the military everything they ask for, and (c) doesn’t believe that military intervention is a last resort, no matter what she might say in public.

If anything worries me about Hillary Clinton, this is it. It’s not so much that she’s more hawkish than me, it’s the fact that events of the past 15 years don’t seem to have affected her views at all. How is that possible? And yet, our failures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Syria and elsewhere apparently haven’t given her the slightest pause about the effectiveness of military force in the Middle East. Quite the opposite: the sense I get from Landler’s piece is that she continues to think all of these engagements would have turned out better if only we’d used more military power. I find it hard to understand how an intelligent, well-briefed person could continue to believe this, and that in turn makes me wonder just exactly what motivates Hillary’s worldview.

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Hillary Clinton Really Loves Military Intervention

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