Disaster

OMG, it is really disastrous on the Gulf Coast. I can't bear what is happening to the environment, to the livelihood of those along the coast, to the beautiful beaches.

I found this quote to be the height of stupidity:

"The ocean will take care of this on its own if it was left alone and left out there. It's natural. It's as natural as the ocean water is."-- Rush Limbaugh, quoted by the St. Petersburg Times, arguing that a cleanup of the oil spill off the Lousiana coast is unnecessary.

I am somewhat, shall we say, less than a fan of Rush Limbaugh. This quote shows why.

Can It Really Be This Simple?

Excerpted from articles by Bradford Plumer....

Bust Out The White Paint!

British reporters (and Matt Drudge) have been having gentle fun with Energy Secretary Steven Chu's recent remarks that we should paint our roofs white to slow the pace of global warming. But Chu's totally right! The science on this is clear: Replacing black asphalt on roofs, parking lots, and sidewalks with brighter material would reflect more of the sun's rays and do quite a bit to cool the planet.

To give an easy example, just refitting the 30 billion or so square feet of commercial roof space in the United States would be the equivalent of taking roughly 75 million cars off the road for a year. And, as a bonus, buildings with white roofs tend to stay 30 percent cooler than their black-topped counterparts during the summer, which curtails energy use. Obviously this wouldn't stop global warming, but on the list of pain-free measures that would make a fair bit of inroads on the problem, this has to rank very high up there.

Are White Roofs A Big Deal?

Is there a quick and handy way to cool down the planet? Maybe—and it might just take a few buckets of white paint and a little extra concrete. Fine, more than a few buckets, but still: The Los Angeles Times reports that Hashem Akbari, a physicist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has crunched the numbers and estimated that if the 100 biggest cities in the world simply turned all of their roofs white and used more reflective material for the pavement in their sidwalks, parking lots, and roads—concrete instead of asphalt, say—the cooling effects would be tremendous:

Globally, roofs account for 25% of the surface of most cities, and pavement accounts for about 35%. If all were switched to reflective material in 100 major urban areas, it would offset 44 metric gigatons of greenhouse gases, which have been trapping heat in the atmosphere and altering the climate on a potentially dangerous scale.

That is more than all the countries on Earth emit in a single year. And, with global climate negotiators focused on limiting a rapid increase in emissions, installing cool roofs and pavements would offset more than 10 years of emissions growth, even without slashing industrial pollution.

Keith Johnson of the Wall Street Journal pours a healthy bit of cold water on the idea, noting that "[t]he scale and cost of any program that would re-top all the roofs and paved surfaces in cities the size of Los Angeles, Mexico City, New Delhi, and Tokyo simultaneously" might well dwarf anything Al Gore's proposing. True. On the other hand, roughly three-quarters of all the buildings that will exist in the United States in 2035 either haven't even been built yet or will soon be renovated, so that's one easy place to start. (Presumably the figures are even higher for China and India.)

One side-benefit of painting roofs a blinding white—or installing vegetation-heavy green roofs—is that it can cut down on the need for air-conditioning in the summer: Buildings with green roofs are typically 30 percent cooler than their blacktopped counterparts. California, for one, has already revamped its building codes to require white roofs on all commercial buildings. Using more reflective material on roads and highways sounds more contentious, though the concrete industry is certainly keen on the idea.

The Right People for the Right Job

At least, in the Environment.... Obama's Cabinet and agency choices should favor science and fact over corporate interests and cronyism.

Much has been written about Steven Chu, the Energy Secretary proposed by the next President. And he'll have Carol Browner on his team, someone who knows the ins and outs of the EPA.

One of the appointments I'm most excited about is Dr. Jane Lubchenko, who will head up NOAA. Lubchenko is an oceanic climate expert who is a professor at Oregon State University. She's an environmentalist of the highest order and her program at OSU teaches: "outstanding academic environmental scientists to be effective leaders and communicators of scientific information to the public, policy makers, the media and the private sector."

Lubchenko understands the science and yet has the ability to bring people to concensus and to inspire passion about the work we need to do to help save the oceans and the planet. She got her bachelors degree at Colorado College, her Masters in Zoology from the University of Washington, and her PhD in Ecology at Harvard. She studied and worked with Dr. Gordon Orians, a champion of environmental protection from industry and an outspoken expert about Agent Orange. She has experience testifying in front of congressional committees, and may be one of the best academic/scientific administrators active today.

According to Alaska blog "Progressive Alaska", Lubchenko:

"understands that we need to act soon, particularly on ocean acidification, and on stopping the massive amounts of pollutants entering our oceans from rivers, large and small. Many of her talks describe holistic approaches that would throttle the actions of industrial giants producing oil-based fertilizers, and of such crops as those from Monsanto-produced seeds which are made to work hand-in-hand with products like Roundup."

I may not agree with all Obama's choices, nor his stance on certain issues, but I believe that we will have a 180 degree turn in our position on the environment after 4 years, with people such as Dr. Lubchenko working on our behalf.

"The Bush administration has not been respectful of the science. But I think that's not true of Republicans in general. I know it's not. I am very much looking forward to a new administration that does respect scientific information and that considers it very seriously in making environmental policies."

"I know there have been many times in the past where public opinion can shift very very rapidly on an issue," ranging from cigarette smoking to slavery, she said. "I think we are getting closer and closer to a tipping point on climate change and other issues that affect our health, prosperity and well-being globally. And I am hopeful we will get there in time."

~~ Dr. Jane Lubchenko

Plastic is a 4 letter word.....

Everyone on earth should see this. It's that important. Send it on if you agree... (Once in the slide show, use the bar on the right side of the screen to scroll through)

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/MULTIMEDIA02/80505016