Prof. Stephen Schneider, one of the truly important voices in climate science, has died.  For over three decades, he had been researching and speaking out on the need to sharply and quickly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  He died of an apparent heart attack Monday (July 19) while flying from a scientific meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, to London.  His website can be found here.

Schneider was influential in the public debate over climate change and a lead scientist on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore.

Schneider was a lead author of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The panel shared a Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. He and his wife Terry Root, won the 2003 National Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation.  Schneider had been a consultant on climate change to the White House under the last seven presidents.

In recent writings, speeches and interviews, Schneider acknowledged the fierceness of the debate over climate change and environmental policies. He recently had become a vocal advocate for scientists becoming more assertive in voicing their conclusions in a ways that would be clear to the public and political and governmental leaders worldwide.

The title of his last book encapsulated the struggle over climate change: “Science as a Contact Sport: Inside the Battle to Save Earth’s Climate.”

More information about Stephen Schneider here. From his last book, he wrote:

“The world is changing. Before our very eyes, we can see the effects of climate change and environmental damage taking shape: shrinking glaciers, both water shortages and excesses, high temperature extremes, hazardous air conditions, and erratic weather patterns leading not only to immense property damage but also to untold human suffering and death—with worse to come if we stay on current path. We know there’s a problem, but spurring the world to action has been a decades-long struggle, and Stephen H. Schneider has been in the front lines [...]

Proposed Enbridge Pipeline

Hillary Clinton is trying to get another gigantic oil pipeline approved.  The EPA is trying to stop her.

Maybe someone can explain to us how a pipeline carrying dirty tar sands oil from Canada keeps us safe. The Enbridge corporation keeps building oil pipelines into the U.S. from Canada, and they all seem to be approved, despite our government knowing the dangers of oil spills and pollution and GHG emissions.  Enbridge pipelines have frequently spouted oil spills and leaks in the past.  Enbridge has pipelines in Minnesota, most recently the one Hillary Clinton approved last year called the “Minnesota Alberta Clipper” pipeline, carrying dirty tar sands oil into the state and down to locations in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Enbridge also has pipelines in several other states, and also owns the pipeline that just ruptured in Michigan.

Why do we keep allowing foreign oil companies, and foreign pipeline companies, to threaten our environment with spills and leaks, in addition to greenhouse gas emissions?

The State Department is calling the tar sands oil from Canada a necessary part of our national security, along with the pipelines that carry it.  That’s nonsense.  National security, keeping us ’safe’, should stop this pipeline from ever being built. The population of the U.S. is far less safe if this pipeline is built because it will increase pollution, climate change  and potential oil spills (like the horrible oil spill that just happened in Michigan) and that has serious health affects.  After the biggest oil spill in our history in the Gulf of Mexico, the State Department thinks we need more oil pipelines in this country!  It’s astounding — and wrong.  Naturally, all the wrong people are going to get rich from this pipeline too, (including fossil fuel enthusiast T. Boone Pickens, who is heavily invested in tar sands oil. )

Yet Hillary Clinton argues that our “national security” depends on dirty foreign oil from Canada.  Wrong!  (I remember during the presidential campaign when Hillary said we needed an “Apollo program” to address climate change.  I guess that was just a lot of hot air.)  A lot of stupid things are done in the name of “national security” and this proposed pipeline, pictured above, should not be one of them.  The EPA is trying to stop the pipeline.

“The project, known as the Keystone XL Project, would have a nominal capacity to deliver up to 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from Hardisty to the terminals in Texas. In total, the Keystone XL Project would consist of approximately 1,702 miles of new, 36-inch-diameter pipeline, consisting of about 327 miles in Canada and 1,375 miles within the United States.”

If the EPA succeed in stopping this pipeline, it could be overturned and approved by the President himself.  From SolveClimate:

White House could intervene as environmental security takes equal place next to energy security as concern of national interest

The EPA has slowed down the approval process of a permit [...]

Monsoon rains continued in different parts of the country on Tuesday, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department's website.

Many parts of the world are suffering from torrential rains and violent storms this summer.  Can they be related to climate change?  They probably are.  And the weather will continue to worsen, unless we do something about GHG emissions as soon as possible.  It’s not just people alive now we have to worry about either.  What kind of crime will we be accused of by future generations for forcing them to live in an inhospitable climate?

According to a new report from the National Research Council, choices made now about carbon dioxide emissions reductions will affect climate change impacts experienced not just over the next few decades but also in coming centuries and millennia.

See the report and read more here. You can also read the entire report online free on this page.

Because CO2 in the atmosphere is long lived, it can effectively lock the Earth and future generations into a range of impacts, some of which could become very severe.

Policy choices about emissions can be informed by recent advances in climate research that quantify the relationships between atmospheric CO2 and warming levels, and between warming levels and future impacts. Drawing upon this research, the report estimates changes in precipitation, stream flow, wildfires, crop yields, and sea level rise that can be expected with different degrees of warming. It also estimates the average temperature increases that would be likely if CO2 were stabilized in the atmosphere at various target levels. However, the report does not recommend any particular stabilization target, noting that choosing among different targets is a policy choice rather than strictly a scientific one because of questions of values regarding how much risk or damage to people or to nature might be considered too much.

Increased Confidence About Future Impacts

Although some important future effects of climate change are difficult to quantify, there is now increased confidence in how global warming of various levels would relate to several key impacts, says the report. It lists some of these impacts per degree Celsius (or per 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) of global warming, for example (these apply for 1 C to 4 C of warming):

5 percent to 10 percent less total rain in southwest North America, the Mediterranean, and southern Africa per degree Celsius of warming.
5 percent to 10 percent less stream flow in some river basins, including the Arkansas and Rio Grande, per degree Celsius of warming.
5 percent to 15 percent lower yields of some crops, including U.S. and African corn and Indian wheat, per degree Celsius of warming.

While total rain is expected to decrease in some areas, more of the rain that does occur is [...]

If you have been following the news on the pipelines that would carry tar sands oil (the world’s dirtiest fuel) from Canada to the US, you’ll be glad to know that the EPA is now trying to slow down the process and possibily stop these pipelines with the State Department.  The EPA told the SD their EIS doesn’t cut it: http://bit.ly/b0ShYv

The Minnesota Clipper pipeline portion was personally approved by Hillary Clinton last year, disappointing me and all environmentally aware people  here in the U.S.  Now another new pipeline is being considered for approval, and given Clinton’s record, it will likely be approved.  But the EPA is stepping in to say Wait a Minute!  Here’s an excerpt from the article from the NYT.

As we’ve reported, the State Department is considering whether to approve a huge new pipeline called Keystone XL that will bring crude from Canada’s oil sands all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

A new pipeline would vastly expand the amount of oil extracted from Canadian oil sands that is used in the United States – which could be good in terms of energy security.

But environmental groups contend that this oil comes with an unacceptable array of environmental problems, from a relatively heavy production of greenhouse gas emissions to destruction of northern, or boreal, forests.

In a letter to the State Department dated Friday, the federal Environmental Protection Agency for the first time officially weighed in on the decision, describing the State Department’s draft environmental impact statement for the Keystone XL project as inadequate.

It said the government had far more research to conduct and information to collect before it could consider the pipeline proposal.

Among the items agency said it found deficient in the draft environmental impact statement were the discussion of potential greenhouse gas emissions associated with the project, pipeline safety and spill-response planning, as well as the impact on indigenous Canadian communities.

Read more here. Hopefully the EPA will stop this pipeline and eventually, the entire project bringing this oil into the U.S.  If the U.S. doesn’t buy this dirty oil, they will try to export it.  It’s extremely expensive oil though, and it’s possible no one else will be able to afford it.  It’s time for renewable energy taking over for fossil fuels now!

New publication of VIVA IL FUTURISMO! Conference Papers

Zukunftsmusik oder Schnee von gestern? Interdisziplinarität, Internationalität und Aktualität des Futurismus
[Arte dell' avvenire o acqua passata? Interdisciplinarità, internazionalità e attualità del Futurismo.]

Papers of the international conference in Cologne, July 13 2009 – An event out of the cultural and artistic festival Viva il Futurismo!
Language: German and Italian
Content: 9 essays (6 in German with Italian summary, 3 in Italian with German summary), 92 pictures

Online preview

More about VIVA IL FUTURISMO! and the conference:

Contact for information and order: futurismus@kulturserver.de

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What was the first rule of Fight Club?  Don’t talk about it. What was the first rule of Climate Change legislation?  Don’t call it that.  Call it “energy legislation”.

This is what Sen. Harry Reid plans to do, except now, at this point, that’s all it will be.  It is not nearly enough to fight climate change.

Our hopes for a climate change bill in 2010 are gone.  The situation was the same last year, and it’s incredible that we are saying the same thing this year, considering the mine disasters and the massive oil spill off our coast.  It’s a situation that is nearly beyond belief.

There are a lot of reasons why this happened.  According to Senator Bernie Sanders, who appears every Friday on the Thom Hartmann radio show, in large part the blame lies with the lack of will to get it done in the Congress.  From DemocracyNow last Friday, the blame lies with President Obama, who did not fight for a climate bill, and broke another campaign promise:  that climate and energy would be addressed with common sense and science.  Didn’t happen.  Instead, politics controlled how the various climate and energy bills were dealt with from start to finish.  After the Shirley Sherrod debacle, I think I know why — this White House reacts less to science and more to the”gotcha” right-wing media.  If you have a government who reacts more to the media than the people,  you won’t get things done that need to be done.  The media is nearly brain-dead on climate change.  They choose to create time-wasting debates and other crises to mislead the public and prolong problems, instead of doing journalism.

As Senate Dems Give Up on Climate Bill, What Does the Future Hold for US Climate and Energy Policy?

Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow! interviewed environmental leaders and writers last Friday in her attempts to find out what the BEG (Big Environmental Groups) are going to do now that climate change legislation is dead in the U.S.  Here is part of the interview.  You can read and listen to the entire segment here. Read on for how Climate Change is like Fight Club.

AMY GOODMAN: Kate Sheppard, let’s begin with you. You’ve been writing in Mother Jones magazine about energy legislation. What do you make of this—well, of this energy bill that has little or no teeth?

KATE SHEPPARD: It has almost absolutely no teeth. This is basically the least ambitious plan they could come up with. It not only—it has very valuable things for oil spill response; it’s probably going to focus on reforming some important regulatory agencies and raising the liability cap so that BP pays what it owes in the Gulf. But going beyond that, it doesn’t really do much of anything. Ideally, this is going to be a bill that addressed carbon pollution, is going to be a bill that actually started phasing in clean energy, but it doesn’t do [...]

There are things everyone can do to fight global warming, no matter how difficult it may seem to solve this problem.  Below is a great list of 20 things everyone can do, on their own, to fight global warming and pollution.   This list is from another positive organization that makes a difference, the Evironnmental Defense Action Fund.  The photo below is of the smoggy air over California, from Climate.gov, which illustrates one of the environmental problems that needs to be reversed.

I was surprised when reading the list how people could do even more than the list suggests.  For instance, don’t use a dishwasher at all.  Hand wash and air dry as much as possible.  Air dry your clothes too.  I have added more suggestions after some of the items.

The average American today uses enough energy to release about 50,000 pounds of carbon dioxide- the major contributor to global warming- per year.  Here are 20 simple steps you can take to bring your average down. [this was originally written in 2007]

1. Urge your United States Senators to support the Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act.

(Updated legislation summaries can be found here.)

2. Run your dishwashwer only with a full load.  Use the energy-saving setting to dry the dishes. Don’t use heat when drying.

[Better idea -- hand wash and air or towel dry. Why use a dishwasher at all?]

3. Wash clothes in warm or cold water, not hot.  [Dry them outside if possible.]

4. Turn down your water heater thermostat; 120 degrees is usually sufficent.

5. Monitor the temperature in your home.  Adjust your thermostat – lower in the winter and higher in the summer.

[Use a fan or "swamp cooler" instead of an air conditioner.]

6. Clean or replace air filters as recommended.

7. Buy energy efficient compact flourescent bulbs for your most used lights.

8. Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket (but only if the water heater is over five years old and has no internal insulation).

[Better yet, get a solar powered hot water heater!]

9. Install low-flow shower heads to use less hot water.

10. Caulk and weatherstrip around doors and windows to plug air leaks.

[or get new windows installed that are more air-tight, if you can afford it.]

11. Ask your utility company to conduct an energy audit to find out where your home is poorly insulated or energy inefficient.

12. Whenever possible, walk, bike, carpool, or use mass transit.

13. When time and budget permits, buy a more fuel-efficient vehicle- one that gets at least five more mpg than your old car.

14. Reduce waste by buying minimally packaged goods; choosing reusable products over disposable ones.

15. Request that the coolant be recycled every time your car air conditioner is serviced.

16. Insulate your walls and ceilings to save about 25% on your home heating bills.

17. If you [...]

Among all the sad environmental and climate news there is always some uplifting news of an organization or individuals that are working hard to make a difference.   People are taking action, and that matters, because everything people do for the environment helps.  You are probably aware of many groups in the U.S. and internationally, such as Friends of the Earth, World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, 350.org, and 1Sky, just to name a few.  They all have varying degrees of activity and things going on at any given time, but many of their actions involve raising awareness or civil disobedience, (which isn’t something many people are willing to do).  An organization based in Canada recently contacted us, with a different philosophy of action and empowerment. They are called One Change and they have a proven record of changing awareness into action. Below is an introduction to their organization. They are based in Canada but they do things in the United States as well.  A current campaign they are carrying out in New Jersey is  Project Porchlight.  The main website for One Change is here.  “Simple Actions Matter”.

There’s a common notion that awareness causes action, that doing what is good automatically follows from knowing what is good. But this logic doesn’t hold when people feel that their actions make no difference. Sadly, most people have come to see the critical economic and environmental challenges we face today as too big, too complex to do anything about.

But disempowerment often masks a deep longing for change. In fact, the desire to participate in solutions to global problems is nearly universal. The real issue for most people is “What can I do?” In other words, it’s not just about awareness – it’s about believing that simple actions matter.

One Change tips awareness into action by making simple first steps accessible to all people and by strengthening and connecting diverse communities – particularly those that have been ignored or excluded by mainstream environmentalism, politics and economics. Indeed, we need to empower citizens from every area of society and from across the political spectrum to tackle the twin challenges of climate change and economic disparity. One Change harnesses the power of social marketing and community-based outreach to do just that.

Through a complete social marketing initiative including door-to-door deliveries of an environmental tool, community events, retail partnerships, educational web sites, social media, media outreach activities, hands-on engagement pieces and celebrity endorsements, we’re able to spread the message of protecting the environment and saving money neighbor to neighbor. By using these creative tactics and engaging and mobilizing volunteers, community groups and leaders we’re able to create lasting positive behavior change.

To date, One Change has engaged and trained over 12,000 volunteers in over 900 communities across Canada and the United States to deliver over 3 million energy efficient light bulbs and tire gauges. You can join the network of thousands of volunteers all across North America by visiting our [...]

Le futurisme entre l’Italie et la France
1909-1919

By Barbara Meazzi
Éditions de l’université de Savoie, 2010
ISBN 978-2-915797-62-6
p. 218, French

• Introduction
• Le futurisme italien: les manifestes et la production
• Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
• La fondation du futurisme
• La caféine d’Europe
• Le futurisme au-delà des frontières nationales
• Marinetti et Zang Tumb Tumb
• Milan-Florence
• Les futuristes et la Grande Guerre?: de la guerre vécue héroïquement à la guerre poétique
• Marinetti et la guerre
• Avant la guerre: la parole comme arme
• Le héros à la guerre
• La guerre seule hygiène du monde
• La victoire
• Polémiques entre France et Italie
• Le futurisme et Lacerba
• Le cubisme et Lacerba
• La polémique avec l’orphisme
• Le futurisme italien et le refus de l’intertextualité
• Labor-intus
• Le plagiat et l’autoréférentialité
• L’intertextualité et l’écriture romanesque futuriste
• Vers l’ex-citation finale
• Apollinaire et le futurisme
• Le futurisme et la France
• Le futurisme en son temps
• De la manière d’accueillir le futurisme en France: Paul Dermée et le besoin d’être d’avant-garde
• Dermée et la tentation futuriste
• Sous le signe d’Apollinaire: L’Esprit nouveau
• Les Documents Internationaux de l’Esprit nouveau: Dermée, Seuphor, Prampolini
• Un détour par l’Allemagne: les souterrains du futurisme et de l’expressionnisme
• Existe-t-il un futurisme français?
• Bibliographie sélective

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The weather this summer is setting records all over the U.S.**   No one can be positive, but the very hot weather, the storms, the incredible amount of moisture in the air — it looks like it’s caused by a very volatile, changing climate.  But our lawmakers see no threat in our incredible weather this year.  They just ended the possibility of climate and energy legislation for 2010.    From the NYT:

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid abandoned efforts to reduce carbon emissions from the nation’s power plants yesterday, marking the first major legislative setback for President Obama, who entered office vowing to address climate change. Reid (D-Nev.) was cornered into the decision after a handful of Democrats and Republicans failed to be swayed by an 18-month effort in Congress to charge… . . . “

It’s easy to correct that sentence  . . . “by the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, caused by fossil fuels.”   Caused by oil and criminal negligence in drilling for it in deeper and deeper water.  Our Congress moves at a glacial pace for many reasons, and in this case, they are not going to address something that is a real crisis — for purely political reasons. They won’t even have a public debate about it. A public debate about climate change and renewable energy versus business as usual is an essential thing for the American public to see because they don’t seem to know much about it. What the public does seem to know about it appears to be based on erroneous information that has come at them from a variety of special interest groups and lobbyists.  That’s why we desperately need this public discussion.

But now we won’t get the bill we need, because our Congress has decided it’s just too risky for their political careers. As I have said before, American politicians care far more for their own careers than anything else, and they have blood on their hands as a result.  Some environmental groups think this is a good idea because now we can 1) expect a better bill (on Planet Utopia, apparently) and 2) the bill would have done more harm than good.  Maybe both things are correct, but now we have nothing, and there is no public discussion.

Do people really think that politicians are going to wise up and do the right thing next year (when we may have a more Republican Congress) if they can’t manage to do it this year, or the year before, or in 2008, or every year for the last three decades? Come on.  This was the year to do it or lose it, and it looks like we lost it.  Congress members cannot think ahead further than the next election cycle, to say nothing of looking ahead 20, 30, 100 years.  They do not think long term.

Now our main hope to do something effective on climate change mitigation is the EPA, and the Republicans are [...]

Futurismo. Dinamismo e Colore

July 21 – November 11, 2010
Museo Vittoria Colonna, Pescara
Curated by Maurizio Scudiero

Si chiama “Futurismo: dinamismo e colore” ed è la mostra che dal 22 luglio al 7 novembre verrà ospitata all’interno del Museo d’arte moderna “Vittoria Colonna” di Pescara. Promossa dal Comune di Pescara in collaborazione con Rizziero Arte e curata da Maurizio Scudiero, considerato uno dei massimi esperti italiano sul tema, la mostra documenta la nascita e l’evoluzione del Futurismo, dalla sua fondazione fino agli anni Quaranta, con l’obiettivo di comunicare in maniera comprensibile non solo quello che il movimento futurista ha prodotto “fisicamente” (cioè le opere d’arte), ma anche il suo “pensiero“. Saranno esposte alcune delle opere più significative di Boccioni, Balla, Carrà, Depero, Severini, Russolo, Sironi, Nannini, R.M. Baldessari, Prampolini, Dottori, Soffici, Conti, Venna, Evola, Thayaht, Fillia, Benedetta, Pannaggi, Oriani, Diulgheroff, Mino Rosso, Marasco, Rizzo, Korompay, Corona, D’Anna, Angelucci, Ambrosi, Di Bosso, Tato, Crali, Gambini e altri, raccolte nel catalogo e accompagnate da testi di approfondimento. Alla mostra saranno associati eventi e attività collaterali come conferenze, spettacoli, dibattiti e serate gastronomiche con preparazioni ispirate al movimento futurista.

more info

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Firefighters have extinguished a fire that raged for more than 15 hours after two oil pipelines exploded in the port of Dalian in northeast China, the Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

The end of fossil fuel use, especially oil and coal, is a moment that has arrived.  Lately world news seems to be stories of one fossil fuel disaster after another.  The Gulf of Mexico cap on the well is probably not going to hold, as it was found to be leaking last weekend. There was a coal mine disaster and cave in again in China this weekend.  An oil pipeline at a busy Chinese port exploded late last week, causing a massive fire that burned for 15 hours before being put out Saturday. Officials said no one was killed.  Story at MSNBC.

The following peak oil news is from Solveclimate and the Guardian.  I am on vacation this week so enjoy some news you might have missed.

Lloyd’s of London, one of [London's] most respected institutions has warned of “catastrophic consequences” for businesses that fail to prepare for a world of increasing oil scarcity and a lower carbon economy.

The Lloyd’s insurance market and the highly regarded Royal Institute of International Affairs, known as Chatham House, says Britain needs to be ready for “peak oil” and disrupted energy supplies at a time of soaring fuel demand in China and India, constraints on production caused by the BP oil spill and political moves to cut CO2 to halt global warming.

“Companies which are able to take advantage of this new energy reality will increase both their resilience and competitiveness. Failure to do so could lead to expensive and potentially catastrophic consequences,” says the Lloyd’s and Chatham House report Sustainable energy security: strategic risks and opportunities for business.

The insurance market has a major interest in preparedness to counter climate change because of the fear of rising insurance claims related to property damage and business disruption.The review is groundbreaking because it comes from the heart of the City and contains the kind of dire warnings that are more associated with environmental groups or others accused by critics of resorting to hype.

It takes a pot shot at the International Energy Agency which has been under fire for apparently under-estimating the threats, noting: “IEA expectations [on crude output] over the last decade have generally gone unmet.”

The report the world is heading for a global oil supply crunch and high prices owing to insufficient investment in oil production plus a rebound in global demand following recession. It repeats warning from Professor Paul Stevens, a former economist from Dundee University, at an earlier Chatham House conference that lack of oil by 2013 could force the price of crude above $200 (£130) a barrel.

It also quotes from a US department of [...]

A new renewable energy report is good news for Australia!   Now we need this goal in the United States and the political support and will to do it.  Why let other countries get ahead of us on renewable energy?  (I know it’s too late, but we can still catch up if Congress would get its act together).  Especially in the wake of the still on-going Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, renewable energy should be a topic even more supported in the U.S. now than ever before.

The /Zero Carbon Australia/ (ZCA) report is the culmination of 12 months of pro bono work by engineers, scientists and postgraduate university students, performing the research that no Australian government has been prepared to undertake. The result is a truly innovative collaboration the likes of which has never been seen before in Australia. It is a true failure of leadership that our elected representatives have not developed a comprehensive transition plan for the energy sector even though it is at the heart of climate change mitigation efforts. Instead it has been left to a group of concerned citizens to pick up the slack.

Is it possible for Australia to power its homes, office buildings, and factories without adversely affecting our climate? The answer is yes.

The ZCA plan presents a carefully considered analysis of the energy technologies, industrial capacity, and investment required to repower Australia. The report shows that Australia can replace fossil-fuel baseload electricity using commercially available renewable energy technology, with the additional investment required equal to about one cup of coffee per person per day over the ten year transition. Our researchers have found that a 60/40 mix of concentrated solar thermal power and large-scale wind developments combined with an upgraded grid and comprehensive energy efficiency measures can reliably supply Australia’s electricity needs.

Concentrated solar thermal power is the crucial renewable energy technology that will help Australia transition. Power stations are really glorified kettles. You need an energy source to boil water, so the steam can turn a turbine. Coal-fired power stations do this by burning coal. Nuclear power stations use nuclear fission. Solar thermal power stations concentrate the sun’s rays and store this energy as heat, to be used for boiling water day or night. Torresol Energy’s Gemasolar plant under construction in Spain will deliver power 24 hours a day with the same baseload production characteristics as a conventional coal plant. Next time you hear someone say that the sun doesn’t shine at night, tell them it doesn’t matter.

Full report available here. To download the full Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan click HERE (8.4MB). You can also download a 16-page synopsis HERE.

The world is melting.

RIVERS OF ICE: Panoramic view of West Rongbuk Glacier and Mount Everest, taken in 1921 (top) by Major E.O. Wheeler and in 2009 (bottom) by David Breashears. (Photo courtesy of the Royal Geographical Society)

From Climate Progress and NOAA

NOAA: June is fourth month in a row of record HIGH Global Temperatures

10 warmest years on record all since 1995

NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) has posted its State of the Climate, Global Analysis for June.  The results confirm NASA’s:   The first half of 2010 breaks the thermometer.

Here are some highlights:

June was the fourth consecutive month that was the warmest on record for the combined global land and surface temperatures (March, April, and May were also the warmest). This was the 304th consecutive month with a combined global land and surface temperature above the 20th century average. The last month with below average temperatures was February 1985.
It was the warmest June on record for the land surfaces of the globe. Previous record was set in 2005. The land surface temperature exceeded the previous record by 0.11?C (0.20?F). This large difference over land contributed strongly to the overall global land and ocean temperature anomaly….
The year-to-date (January-June) combined global land and ocean temperature was the warmest on record…..
2010 surpassed 1998 (Feb, Jul, Aug) for the most “warmest months” in any calendar year….
Each of the 10 warmest average global temperatures recorded since 1880 have occurred in the last fifteen years. The warmest year-to-date on record, through June, was 1998, and 2010 is warmer so far (note: although 1998 was the warmest year through June, a late-year warm surge in 2005 made that year the warmest total year)

The temperatures will keep rising until something is done. t’s time for a climate and energy bill!

Good news on two fronts: The oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico is temporarily capped and the relief wells are nearly completed. If we are lucky this will be the beginning of the end. And green energy is growing in the U.S. and Europe more than most people are probably aware of. Who needs oil and coal? This is from PlanetArk. If we keep this up we won’t need offshore oil or any other kind of oil for fuel in a few years.

More than half of all new electricity capacity added in the United States and Europe last year was from renewable power such as wind and solar, a body backed by the International Energy Agency and the UN reported.

Last year was also a record year for the amount of new green power added to the grid, partly a result of shifting deployment and manufacture to emerging economies including Brazil, India and China, from flagging developed countries.

“In 2009, China produced 40 percent of the world’s solar PV supply, 30 percent of the world’s wind turbines, up from 10 percent in 2007,” REN21, or the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century, said in a report on Thursday.

REN21, launched in 2005, is supported by the International Energy Agency (IEA), which advises 28 industrialized countries — and by the United Nations Environment Programme.

Of an extra 80 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable power capacity added worldwide, China added 37 GW, more than any other country, said the study, titled “Renewables 2010, Global Status Report.”

Despite the impact of the financial crisis and lower oil prices, renewable capacity grew at rates close to those in previous years, including solar photovoltaic (PV) power at 53 percent and wind power at 32 percent, the report said.

Grid-connected solar PV power had grown by an average of 60 percent every year for the past decade, increasing 100-fold since 2000.

That boom has been largely on the back of support in European countries, where a recent pullback following recession has raised investor jitters. But the wind and solar sectors were still poised for a record year in 2010, operators and investors say.

While China is making great strides in renewable energy deployment, its carbon emissions also accelerated in 2009 — placing it further ahead as the world’s top emitter of the main greenhouse gas blamed for climate change.

It’s time to stop being so stuck in the past when it comes to cars. Cars and trucks are pretty old ideas at this point, and they need some serious modernization. T. Boone Pickens is still sending out email campaigns, still pushing natural gas as a transportation fuel, as are some members of Congress. They might as well be living in the 1970s because that’s where his ideas are coming from. A bygone era.  Vehicles of the future will be electric, (including trucks) and the biggest challenges are to make those vehicles  affordable and to make the electricity that will power them clean energy, from wind or solar.   Electric vehicle companies are starting to advertise by appealing to people’s growing distaste for wars for oil and gas, the kind of wars our country is all too familiar with.

The Hill reports that, “The latest ad from the Electrification Coalition comes ahead of Senate debate on far-reaching energy legislation that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to bring to the floor before the August congressional recess.   The coalition formed last year includes Nissan Motor Co. — which is rolling out a plug-in car called the Leaf — as well as NRG Energy Inc., PG&E Corp., lithium ion battery company A123Systems Inc., FedEx Corp. and GridPoint Inc., which provides software to enable a “smart” power grid.”

Non-personal transportation is becoming more attractive to a lot of people too, as Pres. Obama talks about high-speech rail more and more.  There is so much freedom to not having to drive a car yourself, but leaving the driving to others, that people who haven’t experienced it have a hard time imagining it. Well, it’s like flying — you can sit back and relax.

The future of cars is electric, that much is clear.  We need clean energy cars with no emissions to reduce CO2 and start to draw down climate change.  To that end, I was very happy last week when I saw that President Obama was visiting an electric car company in Kansas City called “Smith Electric Vehicles”.  They started out as a UK company and are now making cars in the United States.

Update correction:  Smith makes vehicles, but not cars.  According to the comment below, Smith makes “all-electric trucks vans and small buses. Vehicles which operate on predictable routes and return to base at the end of each day. I can recommend visiting the Case Studies page within the ‘Rest Of The World’ section of the company website at http://www.smithelectricvehicles.com to see examples of hundreds in daily use.”

It’s great to see the president supporting electric cars vehicles with a visit.  (See his video on page 2).

Now if he’d only stipulate to our car makers a couple of things.  First, that they need to stop moving their jobs to Mexico, as GM and Ford are starting to do.  Second, that in the interest of national security (climate change being a national security threat) GM and [...]

Da Balla a Sutherland, quarant’anni di mostre a Palazzo Saracco

July 4 – August 29, 2010
Palazzo Saracco, Acqui Terme (Piemonte)
Curated by Beatrice Buscaroli

Rinnovando la ultradecennale tradizione di presentare annualmente esposizioni dei maggiori protagonisti

dell’arte moderna italiana, Carlo Sburlati, Assessore alla Cultura della città di Acqui Terme, ha promosso e organizzato, grazie all’intervento della Regione Piemonte, della Provincia di Alessandria, della Cassa di Risparmio di Alessandria e della Società Palazzo del Monferrato la mostra antologica, a cura di Beatrice Buscaroli, “Appuntamento ad Acqui Terme. Da Balla a Sutherland, quarant’anni di mostre a Palazzo Saracco.”

La mostra, che sarà inaugurata il giorno 4 luglio presso il Palazzo Liceo Saracco di corso Bagni 1, sarà coordinata ed allestita dalla Galleria Repetto e resterà aperta sino al 29 agosto 2010 con il seguente orario: 10 – 12,30 /15,30 – 19,30 Lunedì chiuso.

Accoglienza, bookshop e informazioni a cura dell’Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri – Sezione Statiella.

Acqui Terme è una città da molto tempo attiva protagonista nel campo delle arti e della cultura.

Con una continuità rara e particolarmente lodevole, da 40 anni a questa parte si è riusciti ad organizzare una grande mostra antologica dedicata ad un artista o ad un gruppo di artisti di rilevanza internazionale con cadenza annuale, riuscendo nel tentativo di dare vita ad un “appuntamento” fisso con l’arte, durante ogni estate, all’interno del prestigioso Palazzo Saracco.

Ciò ha consentito la possibilità di tracciare una sorta di mappa della principale arte italiana dalla fine dell’Ottocento ai giorni nostri, scrivendo una vera e propria pagina di storia dell’arte.

Da Giacomo Balla a Mario Sironi, da Carlo Carrà a Sigfrido Bartolini, da Filippo de Pisis a Mattia Moreni, la successione delle mostre, da sempre affidate ad alcuni fra i principali curatori italiani, ha fatto della città di Acqui Terme un punto di riferimento per il territorio circostante e non solo, nonché un esempio da seguire per tanti centri della provincia italiana.

Nell’occasione dei 40 anni di tale appuntamento, la rassegna del 2010 – che si terrà come di consueto a Palazzo Saracco – intende ripercorrere l’intera vicenda espositiva della città di Acqui Terme, realizzando un percorso che, scorrendo i nomi degli artisti presenti, si configurerà come un compendio sugli esiti, gli sviluppi e le sperimentazioni artistiche del secolo appena trascorso.

Si comincia dalla fine dell’Ottocento con l’esperienza dei paesaggisti piemontesi, Antonio Fontanesi, Alberto Pasini e Lorenzo Delleani per giungere con Angelo Morbelli e Pellizza da Volpedo agli inizi del Novecento

che già annuncia le grandi avanguardie. Giacomo Balla rappresenta il futurismo di F.T.Marinetti. Dopo la guerra, con il cosiddetto “ritorno all’ordine” appaiono le personali interpretazioni figurative di Giorgio De Chirico, Filippo De Pisis, Mario Sironi, Felice Casorati, Massimo Campigli, Ottone Rosai.

CITTA’ DI ACQUI TERME

Assessorato alla Cultura

Comunicato Stampa

Quarantesima Mostra Antologica

PAG. 2 DI 3

Due personalità individuali, non riconducibili a nessuna scuola o corrente attivi in quegli anni rimangono

Giorgio Morandi e Osvaldo Licini. La seconda guerra mondiale porterà distruzione anche in arte. La poetica informale di Ennio Morlotti e Alberto Burri, di Mattia Moreni e Giuseppe Uncini sospende l’ idea di “rappresentazione”, diversamente dal realismo fiducioso di Renato Guttuso.

La mostra raccoglie un centinaio di opere che provengono da importanti collezioni private e istituzioni pubbliche, quali la Pinacoteca di Alessandria, il Museo del Territorio Biellese, le Raccolte d’Arte e di Storia della Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna, la Fondazione Pellin, il Museo Ardengo Soffici di Poggio a Caiano, il Museo di Ca’ La Ghironda, rievocano quindi lo spirito delle quaranta rassegne che iniziarono nel 1970 con una antologica di disegni di Pietro Morando e attraversarono l’arte italiana, come si diceva, fino al 2008 di Sigfrido Bartolini e al 2009 di Mino Maccari.

In molte occasioni si è riusciti a ritrovare le opere che erano già state ospitate nelle relative mostre e cataloghi, come nel caso di Rosai, Morlotti, Chighine, Burri, Sigfrido Bartolini.

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Article via InAlessandria.it

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UCS "Curious for Life" Ad Campaign Showcases Scientists who were once curious kids. This girl represents real climate scientist Julia Cole.

From the title of this it sounds like we all have to be Superheroes to make a difference, but actually the opposite is true.  Everyone can contribute a lot just by making a few changes in how we live. Climate change is happening now, and it cannot be completely stopped any time soon, but it can be slowed.  Eventually it’s possible we could even reverse it, but that will take a long time. That means everything we do now matters, and everything we can do to inform other people about it matters a lot.  Only by everyone contributing to slowing it down can we have any hope of success in turning human-caused climate change around.

There is a good new book you can share with people, to start with.  Environmental activist Bill McKibben of 350.org warned of the dangers of global warming 20 years ago. His latest book, Eaarth,  takes an angrier and more urgent tone as he urges a change in our lifestyles or we risk living in an inhospitable world. This radio interview with Bill McKibben is from June, and it’s very much worth listening to.

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He refutes the idea that climate science is still up for debate, and he does it very effectively.   He emphasizes that we have to change how we live, at least a little, and it shouldn’t be that hard to make some changes.

Here is an interesting statistic that should make people feel more empowered:  If everyone in America cut out one 30 mile trip per week you could reduce about 20% of your CO2 driving emissions.  You can see a lot more tips like that to save energy at Carbon Fund. It’s one of the most useful sites I’ve seen as far as things we can all do to cut our emissions.

You can see Eaarth listed here in the books from Amazon list in the sidebar. I invite everyone to check this book out, as it is more serious in tone than some of his others are, and it’s a worthwhile book.  He gives us the bad news but then outlines some practical and some visionary solutions that might even improve everyone’s lives.  It’s described as an “important” book and I agree.

The Union of Concerned Scientists are also on the offensive against climate change deniers.  They are launching a campaign this summer to focus attention on the science of climate change, the science that shows humans are causing it.  It’s good the environmental groups are fighting back against the deniers, who are all political and have agendas that include “no new taxes”.  They would sacrifice life on earth for stopping new taxes, or their ideas of what addressing climate change would entail.  The complete exoneration of the climate scientists from the University of East Anglia (by 3 groups) who had their emails stolen has not gotten nearly [...]

FU.MO, Fu.Turismo Mo.rcianese

July 30 – August 1, 2010
Morciano (RI)

open PDF of full schedule

more info

Raffaele Boccioni and Cecilia Forlani, parents of the artist Umberto Boccioni, hailed from Morciano. The Futurist painter, though born in 1882 in Reggio Calabria, acquired family traditions, culture and speech of the morcianesi and remained unchanged in him, despite long periods spent in various Italian cities.

This city-wide festival will create a synergy incorporating performances, poetry, music and dance with its shops, bakeries, restaurants and hairdressers.

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FuturDepero. Un artista del secondo Futurismo

June 5 – August 22, 2010
CART – Centro documentazione  per l’arte contemporanea – Palazzo Pergoli, Falconara Marittima (AN)
Curated by Silvia Cuppini and Stefano Tonti
Catalog

Mostra di Fortunato Depero a Falconara Marittima(AN), Palazzo Pergoli, dal 5 giugno al 22 agosto.

In occasione dell’anniversario del centenario della pubblicazione del manifesto della pittura futurista il CART, nel contesto delle proprie manifestazioni espositive per il 2010, ha inteso programmare una mostra dedicata a Fortunato Depero.

Dopo una prima ricognizione sul tema con una mostra in primavera dell’artista Sante Monachesi, esponente marchigiano del successivo aspetto del futurismo e fondatore nel 1932 del “Movimento Futurista nelle Marche”, la mostra su Depero viene a costituire il momento espositivo più alto dell’anno.

In particolare si vuole porre l’attenzione del pubblico, attraverso una parte dell’opera di Depero, sulla figura di un artista che, tra gli altri futuristi, ha interpretato, per certi aspetti, più concretamente alla lettera le indicazioni del movimento e che è l’autore di icone visive che, con la conversione nella grafica pubblicitaria, sono diventate patrimonio della memoria visiva del ‘900.

Pertanto, la mostra dedicata all’artista trentino, dopo quella di Monachesi, diventa significativa in ordine al contesto scientifico della programmazione espositiva del CART, che vuole affrontare le celebrazioni dell’anniversario della pubblicazione del manifesto della pittura futurista rispetto ad un’idea documentativa del tema che parte dal territorio e si confronta filologicamente attraverso un progetto di storiografia espositiva per poter offrire indicazioni ed occasioni di riflessioni e di studio a carattere pedagogico – didattico sull’argomento.

A questo proposito la scelta delle opere di Depero esposte in mostra, coprendo il ventennio che va tra la metà degli anni Trenta e la metà degli anni Cinquanta, costituisce l’occasione per affrontare un’analisi comparata in questo senso salvaguardando la primaria intenzione espositiva su Depero, quella cioè di presentare, per quanto possibile, il ventaglio dell’operatività dell’artista trentino attraverso una vasta gamma espressiva di temi della sua più caratteristica produzione.

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