This article from Slate highlights some of the crazy weather events we've been experiencing this month. Perhaps scariest of all is the news that "On Wednesday, the North Pole will be warmer than Western Texas, Southern California, and parts of the Sahara." How can anyone still think that climate change is a hoax?? The story has also been covered by the Guardian.

Actions now and coming soon

The Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters has sent out a red alert about another bad bill zipping through the state legislature they call the "Polluter Grab Bag." Assembly bill 600, according to the league's summary includes:

• Allowing developers to build on lakebeds. As if that isn’t bad enough, it also allows them to get that public land for free and restrict the public’s access to the lake!
• Removing protections for the 20% of wetlands that aren’t federally protected, allowing for more development on wetland-rich properties, like the land in the Penokee Hills where Gogebic Taconite wanted to build an open-pit iron mine.
• Allows each person who owns property on a lake to dredge up to three dump truck loads of lakebed sediment every year, destroying fish and other wildlife habitat.

The WI LCV will host citizens who wish to attend the bill's public hearing on Tuesday, January 5. If you are available to go, please register at their site. If you can't attend, consider contacting your state legislators about this bill.

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We have started planning for our community climate event which will be held in February or March. The idea for this event came from the meeting we had after the Dec. 12 climate rally. We hope to have a space where all the organizations, offices, and groups working on climate related issues can come together to share ideas, educate the community, and get new activists on board. We know there will be food, tables/booths, music, and a speaker. Stay tuned for more info. If you would like to help plan this event, please contact us. We are currently scoping out possible venues and dates. Our next meeting will be on Sunday, Jan. 10 at about 4:30 p.m.

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Thanks to the slow down in Bakken oil extraction, we have not seen as many oil trains passing through, but that may change. Irv has forwarded a recent article, OPEC revises U.S. shale durability upward.

Interestingly, a Dec. 27 Bloomberg article predicts that "U.S. oil production is about to suffer a record drop." We can only hope that this is the case.

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This Mother Jones article describes the businesses already queueing up to make money from climate change (and we're not talking about renewable energy companies). And while you're at that great site check out their 2014 story on The Great Frack Forward about China's booming fracking industry.

Filed under "mixed blessings" is the news that the Rotary Lights has had its most successful year ever. The good news is that more has been donated to area food pantries.

The bad news, though, is that it's probable that those donations have come at a cost of at least 28 TONS of extra carbon emissions.

(Using their estimate of 3 million LED bulbs on for about 5 hours a day for about 35 days, and assuming that 1,000 bulbs use between 60 and 80 watts of electricity (let's say 70), that would be a total of about 36,750 kWh total. Using the EPA's Carbon Footprint Calculator, if we plug in 36,750 kWh (3062.5/month) of Wisconsin electricity use, we get 56,783 pounds of emissions. Divide that by 2,000 and the estimate for just the lights alone (not counting the car emissions) is about 28.4 tons.)

So, is it worth 28 tons of greenhouse gas emissions to raise money and donations for the Hunger Task Force? Are there other non-polluting methods of encouraging people to donate food and money? If the Rotary Lights spawns other such endeavors, is that a good or a bad thing for the climate? Could we maybe pay them to REDUCE the number of bulbs they use?

Even if they've chosen to have this energy produced by renewables (the clean energy check off), there is no labeling electrons and whatever is used gets compiled into the projections for future use which drives the myth of increasing energy demand which makes giant, vulnerable, dangerous high voltage power lines look like a necessity and, in some cases, undermines states' own clean energy goals.

What do you think? Let's encourage the Rotary Club to make a carbon footprint reduction pledge for next year.   - cathy

Rocky Mountain Institute - Reason for Hope

Back in 1983, I recorded a speech by Amory Lovins, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, when it was broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio. Then, I spent several hours transcribing the whole thing and then probably maniacally told everyone I met about it for the next several months or years.  I just found that paper a few weeks ago when I was cleaning out a storage area in the basement. The whole speech was about how the next big energy discovery would be efficiency and conservation. It was a great speech by a great visionary who is still preaching conservation and efficiency. - cathy

Ken wrote that:

The Rocky Mountain Institute is a place where they think Very Big. It is extremely exciting to read this Annual report.This is worth reading just to feel good and optimistic about what is happening despite the roadblocks by Conservatives.

I like to tell people that if you look back at the last five years the pace of climate change due to global warming is proceeding faster that the experts predicted in almost every realm. The good thing is that the pace of government and private sector reaction to dealing with climate change is also proceeding faster that most people ever thought would happen.

http://www.rmi.org/Content/Files/RMI_AnnualReport_2014-2015.pdf

What climate change? and Great Transition

Bill McKibben and many others noted that at last night's Democratic debate, just days after an historic climate agreement was produced, there were no questions about climate change. If you would like to express an opinion, please feel free to contact ABC "News," the host of the debate. (Note that ABC's parent company is Disney. Maybe there's no problem with climate change in their alternate reality). This very interesting study from the science information site Phys.org concludes that media coverage of climate change is influenced by management's political leanings. This study, from FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), breaks down what kinds of questions are asked of whom during presidential candidate debates. 

How the media - national and local - covers climate change issues is important. Maybe we should have a media watchdog group that keeps track of local coverage. (My pet peeve - Rotary Lights is pumping at least 10 tons of carbon into the air every year with their three million lights, but no one in the media is pointing this out.)                                                                          

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Irv recommends reading Great Transition: The Promise and Lure of Times Ahead, from the Global Scenario Group. (You can find a link to the large .pdf at their site or get an overview of their scenarios here). From their site:

The Global Scenario Group was founded in 1995 as an independent, international and interdisciplinary body to examine world prospects and ways of fostering a more sustainable and equitable future. 

                                                                                                       - Cathy

How to fight oil exports (now that the ban's lifted)

from Credo:

Tesoro-Savage would be the largest oil-by-rail facility in North America,² shipping up to 360,000 barrels per day of crude to be burned across the world — making the project nearly half the size of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Washington officials are now taking public comments on the plan. Washington Governor Jay Inslee has shown strong climate leadership, and it’s vital to let him know that people in Washington, and across the country are standing against this project.

Stop the Tesoro-Savage oil train terminal. Click here to submit a public comment now.

Tesoro-Savage’s 360,000 barrels per day of crude would be carried across the country from North Dakota to Washington in dangerous, explosive oil trains, posing a huge risk to public safety every step of the way to the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean. 

And the damage to the climate affects all of us. Once massive oil infrastructure projects like pipelines and export terminals have been built, they keep running for decades. But when we stop them, we can help keep carbon in the ground.³
 
In Paris, the world signaled a historic consensus on moving away from fossil fuels. The last thing Governor Jay Inslee or the United States should do is allow oil companies to hijack that agreement by keeping the world market hooked on the oil that poses an existential threat to all of us. 

Speak out against the Tesoro-Savage oil train terminal before the January 22nd deadline. Click here to submit a public comment now.

1. “Big Oil Companies Can’t Wait For Repeal of U.S. Export Ban,” Newsweek, 12/18/15
2. "Port of Vancouver Proposal,” Columbia Riverkeeper
3. "A Convenient Lie: Why Fossil Fuel Supply Matters for the Climate,” Oil Change International, 9/3/15

350.org: Keep it in the Ground - May 2016

From 350.org (just in time for the Congress & White House lifting US bans on exporting oil)

From 7–15 May, 2016 we are mobilizing to keep fossil fuels in the ground and accelerate a just transition to 100% renewable energy and a sustainable future for all.

After the Climate Summit in Paris we need to redouble efforts to end the use of destructive fossil fuels and choose a clean and just energy future.

This May we hope to see more people than ever commit to joining actions that disrupt the industry’s power by targeting the world’s most dangerous and unnecessary fossil fuel projects, and supporting the most ambitious climate solutions.

Imagine: tens of thousands of people around the world rising up to take back control of their own destinies. Walking arm-in-arm into coal fields. Sitting down to block the business of governments and industry that threaten our future. Marching in peaceful defense of our right to clean energy.

We are close to a historic, global shift in our energy system. The way we get there is by action that confronts those who are responsible for climate change and takes power back for the people so we can shape the sustainable and just future we need.

This is the moment we’ve been waiting for, let’s seize it. Sign Up

URGENT ACTION NEEDED RIGHT NOW!

From Maureen F: 

Urgent!

Congress and the White House have arrived at a compromise spending bill that has been described as, "a lobbyist-wrapped Christmas present for our nation's biggest corporations."

The legislation, supported by President Obama and many Democratic leaders, includes a lifting of the 40 year old ban on oil exports. This can only mean more fracking, more pressure to build more pipelines, and more oil trains.

If you would like to contact your representatives and/or the White House to register your opinion on this bill, please do.

Use this site: https://www.congress.gov/ to find your congressperson and Senators' contact information. This link provides contact information for the White House: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/write-or-call

The development comes just days after the climate talks in Paris, and threatens to undo the limited progress made at the United Nations-brokered negotiations. 

Among other environmentally damaging impacts, lifting the ban would VASTLY increase fracking, frack-sand mining, and exploding oil trains.

• http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/263460-some-dems-greens-object-to-oil-export-allowance
• http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-12-16/congress-reaches-fiscal-deal-that-ends-u-s-crude-oil-export-ban
• http://www.wsj.com/articles/wind-solar-companies-get-boost-from-tax-credit-extension-1450311501
• http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/12/16/undercutting-climprogress-congressate--agrees-lift-oil-export-ban

This is NOT a done-deal, despite what the media says. Please join Environmental and Climate Action Groups all over the country in a fast lobbying response to defeat this very bad legislation.

Film Series coming in January

 
The First Congregational United Church of Christ (Losey Boulevard & Main Street, La Crosse) will host screenings and discussions of three episodes of the award-winning  ShowTime climate change documentary series, Years of Living Dangerously in January. The videos will be presented at 3 pm in the lower level of the church on three consecutive Sundays. Post-film discussions will be facilitated by Carlene Roberts and Tom Uphaus. The programs are free and open to the public.

Jan. 10 ~ Episode 4, Ice & Brimstone:  Ian Somerhalder follows Anna Jane Joyner, the daughter of prominent Evangelical preacher, Rick Joyner, as she works to persuade congregations and preachers in North Carolina (including her skeptical father) to join the Evangelical fight against global warming and the Beyond Coal campaign to shut down a coal-fired power plant.  Lesley Stahl visits Greenland to investigate the effects of global warming in the Arctic on global sea levels and the rush to develop oil and gas reserves there.  Scientist Heidi Cullen explains that “if we don’t leave 30  percent of our oil and gas reserves untapped, large parts of our planet will become unlivable.”  Stahl meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who has called climate change “perhaps the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction.”   
  
Jan. 17 ~ Episode 5, True Colors:  Olivia Munn learns about ocean acidification and the proposed West Coast coal export terminals that would nearly double US coal exports.  She follows the governor of the State of Washington, Jay Inslee, as he makes the fight against global warming a top priority in his first year in office.  Inslee “urged the media to be more aggressive in covering climate threats since we face ‘civilizational suicide’ if we fail to act.”  Columnist Mark Bittman of The New York Times follows up on the post-Hurricane Sandy rebuilding story, the global rise in sea level, and what is being done to better prepare the East coast for storms and surges.  He           examines the Dutch system of flood management and concludes that, in New Jersey, rebuilding so close to the ocean is environmentally and financially unsustainable.  Gov. Chris Christie refused “to acknowledge the role that  climate change played in amplifying the impacts” of Sandy.                                                                                                                  
Jan. 24 ~ Episode 6, Winds of Change:  America Ferrera reports on how public policy has supported the growth of wind and solar power in Kansas, and how oil and gas companies, with lobbyists and allies like the Heartland  Institute and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) oppose these policies.  Meanwhile, Mark Bittman discovers that extracting natural gas through fracking delays our transition to renewable energy and that fracking wells leak a large amount of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, which makes fracked natural gas as dirty as, or dirtier than, burning coal.

What we can do today

From the Center for Biological Diversity:

Breaking news: The congressional budget bill unveiled last night includes a very dangerous provision to end America's 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports. Lifting the ban will open the doors to a vast increase in drilling, fracking and greenhouse gas pollution. 

Please call your senators and the White House now. Urge them to keep the oil export ban. If you don't know how to contact your senators, use this site (scroll down and enter your zip code).

While President Obama and many congressional leaders talked a good game about the urgent need to fight climate change at the international talks in Paris, backroom dealings were underway at home to end the U.S. crude oil export ban. And now, before the ink has even dried on the Paris climate accord, Congress is in a final push to end this ban -- a critical safeguard against climate change, fracking and dangerous drilling.

Killing the crude oil export ban serves no purpose but to boost Big Oil's profits. It undermines all the other progress we may make combating climate change, and it tells the rest of the world that the United States isn't serious about tackling the global climate crisis.

Not mentioned in this alert is the unfortunate news that Democrats may help end the ban in exchange for renewables credits. Not worth it! Call now! 

TakePart.com has produced this video about why we can't stop the pressure.

What can we do?

While we wait to see if the Congressional lifting of the oil export ban will survive (what planet are they living on?), what can we do right here, right now to practice good climate consciousness? Keep in mind that many scientists say we are way beyond the point where individual actions will have any impact on the overall problem - that solutions must be developed at the state and national levels.

But, if we just can't wait for Senator Mitch McConnell to come up with his plan to reduce carbon emissions, then let's start locally. As Jagoda Munic, chair of Friends of the Earth International, says, "The Paris agreement will not stop the climate catastrophe, but people power can."

Many companies have environmental or sustainability committees. Even if changing policies and habits doesn't change the world's climate outlook, at least they will probably help companies save money.

For example, this article notes that soda machines use quite a bit of energy. Even one well known local university has (or at least used to have) a bank of machines humming merrily away in its LEED certified sustainable classroom building! If every business and office in our region were to turn these things off, we could probably save at least a few unnecessary tons of emissions. I believe the Gundersen Health System push to conserve included turning down their vending machines.

And, by the way, often these machines are stocked with bottled water. If you haven't gotten on the Just Say NO to Bottled Water bandwagon, you might want to consider it. This little video is a great place to start thinking about it. Some of the climate effects of bottled water are listed here by the Water Project.

Since fossil fuel generation of electricity is one of the largest sectors of CO2 emissions, doing a greenhouse gas inventory of everything in the office (by estimating electricity use), might be a good way to highlight areas of relatively easy savings (if you don't already have a sustainability officer or consultant's report).

The other major fossil fuel user is transportation. This EPA site describes the 2015 Federal Green Challenge and could be used by any business or organization. Every single or low occupant vehicle that can be replaced by a high occupant vehicle or better a transit rider or even a tele-commuter is a step. One project might be to try to convince every large employer in the city to push public transit and car-pooling for its employees. Some already do, offering low cost transit passes, for example, but others are not yet on the bus (LHI? Mayo?) Perhaps those who do, like Western TC, could reach out to those who don't.

What other ideas are your business, office, employer, or organization using to reduce emissions. Please share!

Recommended Listening

Check out this great podcast on the Paris climate talks from the British newspaper, "The Guardian":
Paris climate talks turn up the heat on world leaders

For those not familiar with "podcasts", you can listen online, you don't need an iPod. The editor talks to people from countries experiencing climate change first-hand. If you like what you hear, check out the Guardian's "Keep it in the Ground" podcast series from earlier this year:
"The Biggest Story in the World"

More great resources

Brian sent a link to this very good article analyzing predictions about global warming. 

George recommends two videos. (Both are also linked on the VIDEOS page).

JOURNEY TO PLANET EARTH - examines the relationship between humans and the earth including extreme weather and climate change. The first episode will be rebroadcast on December 16 at 2 a.m. on Wisconsin Public Television.

A PBS NewsHour report on Denmark's plan to become fosssil fuel free examines how the transition to clean power has been a good investment, especially for the residents of the Danish island, Samso.

There were two great editorials in the La Crosse Tribune today.

One, by Professor Alysa Remsburg of UWL's Environmental Studies program, describes the important role students must play in the debates, plans, and actions that will address climate change.

Prof. Richard Kyte, of Viterbo University's Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership, describes the heartbreakingly sad case of the slow, torturous, systematic dissection of our once primo state DNR in the age of climate change censorship. Please read it!

More than 350 state and local elected officials from around the country have signed a letter to President Obama urging and supporting a move to more than 50% clean energy by 2030 and 100% by 2050. As of right now, none of our Coulee Region elected state office holders has signed, I believe. Let's encourage them to do so!  State Senator Jennifer Shilling, Representative Jill Billings, Representative Steve Doyle, Representative Chris Danou, Senator Kathleen Vinehout, Representative Lee Nerison of Wisconsin and Minnesota contact info here.

Local coverage of 12/12 La Crosse event

Our rally was covered by 
* WKBT News Channel 8
* WXOW Channel 19
* The La Crosse Tribune (though the estimate was low - there were about 35 people there!)

Thanks to Kathy, Avery, and Jacob for setting up this event and to Ken for being persistent in sending out news releases inviting media coverage (and for inviting the polar bear!)

What's next?

We are planning a February event that will gather local and regional environmental and climate activists and organizations so we can share ideas and set up actions that will hold elected leaders, from local council members to US Senators and the President, accountable.

If you would like to help plan this event, please use the contact form to email.

Protestors around the world pushed COP21 agreement

Paris agreement, get ready for BOLD action

From 350.org:

Get ready for bold action in May

Any agreement in Paris only exists on paper. We know that international agreements won’t mean anything if there isn’t a large movement applying sustained pressure to national governments demanding an end to the fossil fuel age. That’s why in May next year we will mobilise in a global wave of action unlike any we’ve seen before. Not one big march in one city, not a scattering of local actions — but rather a wave of historic national and continent-wide mobilisations targeting the fossil fuel projects that must be kept in the ground, and backing the energy solutions that will take their place.

We’re still working out the details, but here is the gist of what we mean: We plan to team up with allied groups in many of the key places around the world fighting fossil fuels and pushing for a renewable revolution. During a set period of time, we’ll jointly prepare coordinated and bold mass actions – non-violent and appropriate to each local context – that escalate the local struggles and increase the momentum to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

We can’t afford to wait after Paris. No matter what the outcome of the talks we need to make sure that we start the transition to a clean energy economy right away. We are going to hit the ground running in 2016 which is why we are telling you about it now.

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The Second La Crosse STAND UP FOR THE PLANET drew about 35 people and a good meeting of regional activists after. We are planning for another gathering in February - this time indoors with food, idea sharing, planning, and more. If you'd like to be part of the planning, please email us.