I wonder. There’s a lot of talk. There’s a lot of commitments being made.
But are they serious commitments? Will they really, really make a difference?
The Gap Between Climate Awareness and Action, Mindy Lubber, WorldChanging, July 22, 2007 1:53 PM
It seems like the world is getting downright giddy about stopping global warming. Congress has held more than 75 hearings on the topic this year, climate-friendly technologies are making it into venture capitalists’ dreams and millions tuned into Live Earth, a seven-continent global warming anthem.
But it turns out there’s a big gap between awareness and action. Last month, three top power company execs gave investors the inside scoop on what they expect on climate change. I couldn’t help but be curious if their projections and time frames for reducing greenhouse gases lined up with NASA scientist James Hansen’s oft-repeated warning that we have less than 10 years to take strong action on global warming to avoid its worst consequences.
But in listening to the first two execs speak, it was clear for many companies, the distance between what power companies expect and what Hansen says is needed is as wide as the Grand Canyon….
Yesterday I picked up Stop Global Warming by Laurie David.
Comfort vs Conscience (page 36), umm, yeah, that’s the issue.
Who will step up to doing more the screwing in CFL bulbs?
If Americans throw away 100 billion plastic bags every year, what difference does my 100 make? How about I just drive a half mile less per week? Can I use the 100 plastic bags and think of it as a carbon offset?
Why is this all so cerebral? Why does it feel like every one is bargaining with themselves?
End the questions, please. DO SOMETHING!
Then post it somewhere, let people know.
Since starting this, new news!
A dry-weather crisis for Hoover Dam
By Daniel Terdiman, Staff Writer, CNET News.com, Published: July 23, 2007
reporter’s notebook HOOVER DAM, Ariz.–To get a sense of what seven years of drought in the Colorado River basin looks like, all you have to do is gaze out at Lake Mead from the top of the dam here and view the 108 feet of brightly colored earth below the familiar red walls rising from the water.
Lake Mead is 108 feet below its traditional level, the result of the many years of low rainfall, and these dry years could soon have some serious effects on the region….
Now, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, who has legal control over the dam, has mandated that the Bureau of Reclamation come up with a plan for how to deal with potential shortages in available water for California, Nevada and Arizona, should continued low rainfall eventually mean that the Colorado River–and thus Hoover Dam–not be able to meet those states’ water demands.
The problem, Walsh said, begins with the 7.5 million acre-feet of water allotted to the lower Colorado River basin region under the Boulder Canyon Act enacted by Congress in 1928. Every year, the river has been able to provide Arizona, California and Nevada with that much water–or more–but it is beginning to look like there may be a shortfall in the future if the drought doesn’t end.
Ironically, in the 1990s, the basin had a surplus of water, and Reclamation began to work on guidelines for how to share the extra water. The guidelines were completed and implemented in 2000, according to Walsh, just as the drought began….
What seemed to me to have Walsh–and presumably many others–pessimistic is the sense that the likely scenario would be to come up with a plan that mandates stretching the existing supply out as long as possible, which means drawing supplies from the water table, something that can never be replaced.
Of course, one option could be to demand severe conservation on the part of southern Nevada, southern California and Arizona–the constituencies of the Lower Colorado River basin region–but who can imagine that happening?…
Umm, yeah, volunteers, anyone? Anyone? ANYONE?