POWERFUL!

Two books published in 2021 on related topics - by Katharine Hayhoe and Bill Gates - document sources of human-released carbon overheating our fragile earth and what they are doing and recommending to mitigate further catastrophes. Both books offer clear insights to understand the threat, communicate with other people possessing diverse opinions, and urgently act in the most effective and efficient way to achieve critical solutions. However, there is a major difference I found between the books that needs to be corrected!

In my previous blog, I discuss the cancellation of the Carbon Free Power Project in Idaho to build a small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) and losing my consulting job one month ago. Subsequently, I picked up these and other books at the library to see what authors said about all the sources of energy we need to solve our climate crisis.

Dr. Hayhoe, a Texas Tech climate professor, briefly mentions new developments in SMR projects in Idaho, the one that just got canceled, and others including by Bill Gates, founding investor of TerraPower, in partnership with GE Hitachi as well as advances in other countries. On page 198 of Saving US, the author states that solar photovoltaics covering an area of about 100 square miles in West Texas could provide all the power needed to supply the United States using present available technology.

Mr. Gates devotes an entire chapter titled “Five Questions to Ask in Every Climate Conversation” including how much power and space is needed? The U.S. consumes about 1,000 gigawatts and a mid-sized city needs about 1 gigawatt. He shows how much power can be generated from various energy sources like nuclear (500 - 1000 watts per square meter), solar (5 -20 w/m2), and wind (1 - 2 w/m2). So a solar farm needs between 50 to 100 times more land to generate power than a nuclear plant. As solar only provides intermittent power during the day and seasonal changes cuts light energy in half from summer to winter, expensive storage batteries must be factored into any comparison with baseload power plants.

Ultimately, we need all the clean energy power sources that we can build as we shut down coal plants by balancing the supply and demand of electricity with combinations of geothermal, hydropower, nuclear, solar, waves and wind.

Hottest Month Ever!

I took this picture while on vacation walking by a student’s summer camp, with kids cooling off in the park fountain located next to the Hudson River in Manhattan, New York, on July 1st - the start of the warmest month ever recorded globally! Scientific American states this might be the hottest month in over 120,000 years! Not only did we and millions of other people deal with extreme heatwaves, to make matters worse, smoke from over 4,300 wildfires in Canada, drifted into the United States. I wore an N95 mask on many days of our vacation despite the heat.

When we returned home to North Carolina, I took my son camping looking forward to the cooler mountains. While we enjoyed seeing Pilot Mountain and Mount Airy, location of the Andy Griffith TV show, it was too hot to be outdoors in the daytime. So we found some indoor activities including eating lunch at the Loaded Goat (to commemorate the episode where a goat ate too much dynamite). When we got back to the State Park campground in the evening, a large family set up next to us and ran a loud-sounding, gas-powered generator and air conditioner into their tent all night long! In their tent, not an RV!

Like many fortunate people, we depend on air conditioning at home. The hotter it gets, the harder our AC needs to work. The more energy we burn to produce AC that uses hydrofluorocarbons causes more carbon emissions, contributing to climate change. It’s a vicious cycle. With the hottest month on record, many people’s AC’s broke down - including ours. Luckily, we got a repairman to come out the same day to replace the condenser - a device that stores energy to start up the AC. Despite our home being one level and very energy efficient with great insulation, inside the house got up to 90 degrees F before we got the AC fixed and it took several hours for the house to cool down to 70 degrees.

Also this month we took a weekend trip to northern Virginia traveling north on several crowded interstate highways clogged with commercial trucks and passenger cars that were slowed by construction zones. Returning home we came back on US 29, a road I drove many times over 45 years ago when I went to college. My memory of the unimpeded highway clashed with the new realization of numerous traffic lights halting stop-and-go traffic. Urbanization from D.C. to Charlottesville, VA resulted in the highway becoming a local road lined with strip malls. We considered a detour to get back on I-81; luckily, a new bypass around Charlottesville enabled traveling at highway speeds and we enjoyed the return to the countryside of the Blue Ridge mountains as we headed south.

Observing the collective and personal burning of fossil fuels weighs heavy on my mind, hoping for a brighter future where we can all reduce pollution. Coming soon, I hope to share an important project that is addressing many of these environmental-energy issues that, if adopted, will greatly contribute to future reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Stay tuned to this space and please post a comment on these topics.

Power Outage Tracker

This week I read an article discussing impacts to the electrical grid during the severe winter weather. PowerOutage.us provides regional information on electric customers without power. The U.S. map provides yellow labels for at least 10,000 customers currently without power in Colorado and Washington states. In addition, close to 60,000 customers are without power in Oregon. The interactive map allows for more information for each state and county.

The MSN news article describes how extreme cold weather in Texas caused excessive demand and under supply of electricity; so on Friday, the U.S. Department of Energy declared an emergency warning allowing the state regulator to boost energy generation from all sources including dirtier fuel oil releasing more pollution! So how much more?

The U.S. Energy Information Agency provides a list of carbon dioxide emissions indicating fuel oil like kerosene and diesel release an average of 162 pounds (of carbon dioxide per million BTUs) while natural gas releases about 117 pounds. This can result in many tons of carbon dioxide released to the air and other pollutants creating smog such as oxides of nitrogen, sulfur and organic chemicals.

The best way for consumers to help prevent or mitigate these emergencies is to reduce demand and support increases in clean energy supplies. We can turn our thermostat down by a few degrees, limit electric consumption, and add more layers of clothes.

Be Prepared!

David Pogue’s book How to Prepare for Climate Change: A Practical Guide to Surviving the Chaos compiles key resources for climate impacts and important steps we all need to take. With the help of 50 experts the book contains great advice on topics including where to live and invest, how to build and insure, and preparing for all kinds of increasingly frequent disasters. Many of these topics provide links to government resources or other well documented historical events as a guide to future predictions.

Despite the myriad of concerns we face with a changing climate, the book does offer hopeful solutions to reducing our carbon footprint that we can do at home, as we shop, as well as encouraging our elected officials.

Did Smokey the Bear Get the Axe?

The United States Forest Service (USFS) 77-year old campaign using Smokey the Bear effectively prevented many smaller wildfires but some believe may have contributed to enabling catastrophic wildfires like at Yellowstone National Park in 1988. It was the nation’s largest wildfire at the time burning 36% of the park, close to 800,000 acres. Ecologist changed their view that suppressing wildfires caused by lightning or humans actually caused more damage when the larger forest burned uncontrollably. However, another cause of the inferno was the unexpected dry conditions in July which dried out the “fuel” and allowed wildfires to spread rapidly.

Many people are blaming the Smokey Bear campaign as the cause of more recent larger wildfires as reported by NPR in 2012 and the Washington Post in 2018. The first article states, “Many fire experts embrace controlled, or "prescribed," fires — purposely set fires that do the cleanup job that small natural fires once did. It takes the tinder out of the tinder box. But people have built homes and towns close to forests; they don't like the smoke, and prescribed burns sometimes get out of control. The Cerro Grande Fire in New Mexico in 2000 was a controlled fire — until it jumped fire lines and destroyed hundreds of homes.”

Raise your hand (or comment below) if you think maybe there are other factors involved to creating massive wildfires? If the USFS’s Smokey the Bear advertisements had not reminded boy scouts to put out campfires would those small fires have been similar to prescribed burns? So what’s going on?

According the the Congressional Research Service published this month, “Since 2000, an annual average of 70,600 wildfires has burned an annual average of 7.0 million acres. This figure is more than double the average annual acreage burned in the 1990s (3.3 million acres), although a greater number of fires occurred annually in the 1990s (78,600 average).”

Obviously, climate change is making for more severe weather conditions including prolonged droughts enabling wildfires especially in the western U.S. According the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions: “Climate change enhances the drying of organic matter in forests (the material that burns and spreads wildfire), and has doubled the number of large fires between 1984 and 2015 in the western United States.”

For some interesting science asking if prescribed fires can help forests survive droughts, check out this 2017 USGS webinar as part of the Climate Change Science and Management. They correlate death of forests due to droughts and beetle-kill infestations which are both getting worse with climate change. Prescribed burns are not very effective due to a variety of reasons and we must consider if the long term costs to the health of the environment and people exceed the uncertain short-term benefits.

What is needed is a holistic, comprehensive understanding of human activities impacting the Earth such as carbon greenhouse gas emissions affecting climate change. Forest fires only worsens the climate crisis and we need to plant more trees rather than destroy them. Research budgets at USGS and other local-state-federal agencies and research institutions investigating climate change need to be increased and not cut (as was done in the previous administration).

Specific to the Santa Fe, New Mexico USFS, I provided comments in 2019 on the scoping document and again last week on the draft Environmental Assessment. The USFS is increasing their prescribed fires nationwide in reaction to the numerous California wildfires making many people and wildlife ill. Prescribed burns in Santa Fe are ongoing - see NM Fire Info: “Smoke-sensitive individuals and people with respiratory problems or heart disease are encouraged to take precautionary measures.”

Here are my recent comments to the USFS draft EA to expand prescribed burns::

The Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project #55088 is unacceptable as described in the current draft EA. I have lived in that area and enjoyed hiking on USFS managed land. Myself and many friends/residents have asthma and other health concerns that require clean air, minimal not increased burning, and notifications prior to prescribed burns. How will information on burning schedules be communicated and in what languages - including to the local native Americans, Hispanics, and Anglo citizens? The federal government should consider people at risk of health impacts from prescribed burns and offer mitigation such as HEPA air filters.

A full EIS is needed to provide adequate public awareness and evaluate this major federal action. The final PEIS National Forest System Land Management Planning dated 2012 is out of date to support the draft EA for Santa Fe and many other parts of the US where similar measures are being proposed. The USFS has not provided adequate cost-benefit analyses with alternatives that include impacts to climate change, increases in carbon emissions from prescribed burns, use of herbicides, degraded water quality due to the prescribed burns from chemicals, erosion, and more impacts.

It is unreasonable to compare potential future wildfires as the motivation for prescribed burns when there have already been many wildfires in the Santa Fe National Forest. Drought conditions will only worsen with increasing climate change making the forest vulnerable to future fires even after prescribed burns reduce the "fuel." Given the importance of this decision on the region, more updated scientific consideration is needed through the EIS process.

While it appears Smokey the Bear slogan is getting “the axe,” I think the campaign should expand to say “Only You Can Stop Polluting.” We all need to change our habits and see our role impacting the planet! Every day we can drive vehicles less, walk or bike more, reduce power consumption, buy less, find substitutes for plastics, and many more positive actions. By reducing pollution, including carbon, we can all reverse course on climate change and other destructive impacts. We need to courageously change as individuals and as countries, confronting our addictions to petroleum and coal. Perhaps this week at the COP26 Climate talks in Glasgow there will be a “sea change.” For more ideas, see my previous blog posts with many supporting books and website references and can look for specifics with a search on home page.

American Opulence Causing Crises?

This motorcade scene in D.C. is posted on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director’s blog showing a GM Cadillac. The informal definition of cadillac is, “something that is the most luxurious or highest quality of its kind.” The luxury automobile, a symbol of American opulence, is rated to get below 20 mpg in the city and fits the definition of a “gas guzzler,” a term which originally came into use in the US when Congress established Gas Guzzler Tax provisions in the Energy Tax Act of 1978 to discourage the production and purchase of fuel-inefficient vehicles according to Wikipedia.

However, the Gas Guzzler tax got removed in 2016 as can be seen on the EPA website. The current American President is the symbol of opulence who branded his name on many buildings shining in gold. Do you agree that many of his supporters thought (and some still seem to think that) he would make them rich too by cutting taxes, creating manufacturing jobs, kicking out immigrants, and boosting the stock market?

Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water describes how cities built in the desert have grown by converting rivers into hydroelectric dams causing economic and environmental crises. The most cost effective way we can reduce our demand on water resources and lower our utility bills is through conservation.

I lived in the D.C. area working for the federal government during the 9/11 attack on America. Everyone old enough probably remembers where they were on that tragic day. About 3,000 people died in planes crashing into two World Trade Center towers in New York city, at the Pentagon, and in a field in Pennsylvania that was bound for D.C. Why would anyone be willing to plan out a suicide attack to hurt innocent people? According to The Ohio State University history professor Peter Hahn, “after contesting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, the Saudi nationalist Osama bin Laden organized a network of unconventional combatants known as Al-Qaida. Bin Laden believed that the stationing of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War of 1990-91 violated the sacred spaces around Mecca and Medina, and in 1996, he essentially declared war on the United States.”

So the U.S. protecting oil interests in Saudi Arabia as well as our opulent lifestyle, such as needing oil to drive gas guzzlers, were major factors into the 9/11 attacks. I found other reports stating the terrorists spent about a half a million dollars while it cost the U.S. trillions of dollars fighting two wars and over 800,000 people have died in the region according to Brown University.

The climate change crisis is directly related to carbon emissions from fossil fuels and the U.S. emits the largest amount of CO2 per capita according to World Bank data posted on economicshelp.org. We only have a few short years left to avoid cascading tipping points, as described by Yale University, where we cannot reverse the damage caused by global warming. We need radical changes to our opulent lifestyle through boycotts, cutting costs, and conserving more. Climate change is costing lives and property damage despite misinformation from opulent oil companies and politicians.

There are many causes of the Covid-19 pandemic as have been discussed in previous blogs. It’s becoming clear that the U.S. reopened too soon in an attempt to revive the economy and is now tragically leading the world in cases and deaths. Compare this CNN graph of Covid-19 cases US vs EU to see why there is now a travel ban! This is the time to change our ways! Bike sales are booming! People are eating more at home. Working from home is more possible for many people. Wearing a mask in public should become the new normal.

Social change is happening through groups like Black Lives Matter fighting police brutality and injustice. This fight includes environmental justice, racism, and economic disparities that must be corrected. What would Robin Hood do - increase taxes for more social welfare programs? If the US cares so much about the economy, why kick out international students who contribute $41B?

According to Wikiquote, 19th century Italian philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Things will never return back to “normal” which has not been great for the environment or for many people. Say No to Opulent lifestyles, separate basic needs from wants, appreciate God’s many blessings, and sign up for the Conserve & Pro$per challenge!

Considering Geologic Time to Help Save the World

Dr. Marcia Bjornerud is a professor of geology and environmental studies at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Last year, she published a book with Princeton University Press called Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World.

I enjoyed reading about her work as a professor and former student to show how understanding the Earth’s past, present, and future provides clarity to dispel ignorance and promote cautious optimism. She describes how we have confirmed the age of the Earth and how dates changed over time along with scientific measurements such as isotopic dating.

Disagreements between Darwin and Kelvin over time proposed for evolution are fascinating and tragic. Kevin’s calculated age of Earth of 20 million years disagreed with Darwin’s ideas that evolution would take 100’s of millions to billions of years but were not proven until after Darwin’s death. She describes teaching a class, “History of Earth and Life, with the goal of telling the 4.5 billion-year story of the planet in one academic term (at a clip of 400 million years a week).”

She also provides a warning based on abundant scientific evidence, “If human carbon emissions have not been sharply curbed, and powerful positive feedbacks in the climate system are activated, the Earth could experience a replay of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (which occurred about 55 million years ago). Sea level would rise tens of feet, inundating many of the world’s most populous cities.” There can be no doubt that we humans are adding carbon to the atmosphere at very alarming rates and geologic evidence tells us what can happen as well as propose sensible solutions.

Her sources state humans are emitting 10 gigatons of carbon per year, mostly from burning fossil fuels but also cement production which roasts limestone and deforestation. Various ways to remove carbon dioxide are discussed including mineral reactions to produce carbonates:

Mg2SiO4 + 2CO2 = 2MgCO3 + SiO2 (Olivine plus carbon dioxide gives magnesite plus quartz)

Olivine is found in upper mantle rocks exposed near Newfoundland, Oman, Cyprus, and Northern California. The idea would be to mine and spread out the olivine to allow carbon sequestration. One study in Oman indicated that about 1 gigaton of carbon per year could be removed from the atmosphere.

I also like her suggestion that the President could create a Department of the Future with a cabinet Secretary that would consider current decisions under the lens of potential future impacts, such as Native Americans advocating Seven Generations.

Heat Wave in Europe Sets Record Highs

We are greatly concerned for the people in Europe suffering from record heat causing wildfires and potential for death and destruction.

According to the BBC, “A heatwave affecting much of Europe is expected to intensify further with countries - including France, Spain and Switzerland - expecting temperatures above 40C (104F) later on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic recorded their highest temperatures for June.

Meteorologists say hot air drawn in from northern Africa is responsible.

The heat is expected to rise further in many countries over the next three days, meteorologists warn.”

This year may be even hotter than the previous year of highest temperatures in 2003 when as many as 70,000 people may have died, according to the book The Thinking Person’s Guide to Climate Change by Robert Henson. A combination of heat trapping particles causing air pollution affects people’s health and especially vulnerable are young children and the elderly.

Updated 6/28/19

Here’s the latest from the Washington Post:

“For a third straight day, a ferocious heat wave is baking large parts of Europe, and the exceptionally high temperatures are making history. On Friday, the town of Gallargues-le-Montueux in southern France hit 114.4 degrees (45.8 Celsius), the hottest temperature ever recorded in the country.

The scorching temperature easily surpassed the previous record of 111.4 degrees (44.1 Celsius) set in the southern town of Conqueyrac in France’s historic 2003 heat wave, which was blamed for 15,000 deaths.”

Note that the heat record is the highest ever recorded! The number of people who died from the 2003 heatwave is disputed with 15,000 reported in the current media reports and 70,000 as cited in the book The Thinking Person’s Guide to Climate Change by Robert Henson.

Demonstrating a Climate of Hope

Despite all the terrible events this year caused in large part by global climate change: including the worst wildfire season in the Pacific U.S.; major Category 5 hurricanes that destroyed much of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, parts of Florida, and Houston; droughts in the southwest and snow in the southeast parts of U.S….there are numerous reasons to keep hope alive. In fact, perhaps because of these and many other tragic events, a new awaking is emerging worldwide that we got ourselves into this mess by not understanding the delicate balance of nature and cumulative human impacts, so we must quickly find ways out of our calamity.

After reading a new book published this summer by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Sierra Club president Carl Pope, I feel so much more informed and optimistic about positive actions being taken. The book is titled Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet.

Mr. Bloomberg shares his wisdom that many mayors are making substantial progress in sharp contrast to the dysfunction in Washington. In New York City, ten years ago he led implementing sustainability with PlaNYC. A great outcome is the greening of the Empire State Building! Mr. Pope describes many battles that he personally waged such as the Beyond Coal campaign which prevented about 120 coal plants from being built allowing for newer, cleaner technologies to emerge. The book exemplifies the Earth Day idea of Think Globally, Act Locally.

Both leaders describe green actions including jobs that are transforming our society. For example, instead of promoting more coal mining jobs which are being replaced mostly by robotics so why not help out of work coal miners get jobs to restore areas damaged by past mining?

So here is a list of some great quotes cited in Climate of Hope from seven mayors and other renowned thinkers as chapter headings giving a sense of multiple topics:

·         Dwight D. Eisenhower: “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

·         Denis Coderre: “If you want to get things done, ask a mayor.”     

·         Jason Box: “It’s really quite simple. We’ve overloaded the atmosphere with heat-trapping gas and the rest are just details.”

·         Cindy Lerner: “Turning the Miami region into a real-world Atlantis is a fate we cannot accept.”

·         Alisha Winters: “Our families deserve clean air, and we have been without it for far too long.”

·         Dale Ross: “Our municipal utility will move to 100 percent renewables…Environmental zealots have not taken over our city council. Our move to wind and solar is chiefly a business decision.”

·         Kasim Reed: “You cannot have a national initiative without involving cities.”

·         Alice Waters: The reality is that the sustainable-food movement’s reach will grow only to a point and ultimately will be limited to those with access, means, and education – unless legislators dramatically change food and agriculture policy.”

·         Yeom Tae-Young: “As urban populations continue to grow, we cannot rely on the business-as-usual scenario of car-based cities.”

·         Amory Lovins: “Oil dependence is a problem we need no longer have – and it’s cheaper not to. U.S. oil dependence can be eliminated by proven and attractive technologies that create wealth, enhance choice, and strengthen common security.”

·         Diane Regas: A sustainable world is possible if we take advantage of the vast opportunities in manufacturing. We must view these industries – and their supply chains – as a source of solutions, not just a source of problems.”

·         Christiana Figueres: “Climate change increasingly poses one of the biggest long-term threats to investment.”

·         Mitch Landrieu: “For generations, barrier islands, marshes, and cypress trees as far as the eye could see protected us from hurricanes…For decades the coast has been under attack from every angle: cut by canals, starved of nutrients, and battered by storms…This attack must stop and be reversed.”

·         Albert Einstein: “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”

·         Marty Walsh: “We know that climate action only works when we get everyone involved: our government, our businesses, neighborhoods, and residents.”

100 Solutions for Reducing Carbon and Living in a Cleaner World

Finally there is an optimistic new compilation of current and future technologies to reduce greenhouse gas carbon emissions.  In the book "DRAWDOWN: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Produced to Reverse Global Warming."  Published by Penguin Random House and edited by Paul Hawkin, I found this book at the library on the new book shelf last month. 

Project DRAWDOWN included 70 research fellows from 22 countries and 120 person advisory board. The introduction states:

"Almost all of the solutions compiled and analyzed here lead to regenerative economic outcomes that create security, produce jobs, improve health, save money, facilitate mobility, eliminate hunger, prevent pollution, restore soil, clean rivers, and more."

Worldwide about 36 billion gigatons of carbon dioxide (including equivalent greenhouse gases) were emitted in 2016. To visualize one  "gigaton," imagine 400,000 Olympic sized swimming pools; so 36 gigatons is about 14.4 million pools. 

The DRAWDOWN approach is to evaluate 100 possible solutions and provide a ranking for the gigatons of carbon dioxide reduced over the next 30 years as a function of cost. Here are the top 10 solutions:

1. Refrigerant Management (replace hydrofluorocarbons with other chemicals)

2. Wind Turbine (Onshore)

3. Reduced Food Waste

4. Plant-Rich Diet

5. Tropical Forests (Restore over one billion acres of forests)

6. Educating Girls results in smaller families

7. Family Planning

8. Solar Farms

9. Silvopasture (integrating forests with pasture for cattle grazing)

10. Rooftop Solar

Implementing these 10 solutions is projected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 750 gigatons and many other exciting solutions are described to improve our lives for a cleaner environment. 

Update September 30, 2017

As mentioned in my previous blog, I'm very excited reading the DRAWDOWN book! In addition to describing many currently proven and viable future high-tech solutions like harnessing renewable energy and electric vehicles, there are many low-tech solutions proven to make a huge difference.

Some of these proven low-tech solutions involve how we grow our food supply. Here are a few ideas the book discusses:

* Let rice field dry out in mid-season to prevent methane buildup

* Allow cattle to roam in forests to reduce deforestation

* Plant multiple crops together to improve biodiversity and health of soil; for example - in tropical areas can plant coconut, banana, and ginger together

* Keep fields vegetated rather than exposing soil to reduce erosion and loss of the carbon sink

Expressions of Concern from Natural Disasters

Worldwide, we are experiencing numerous natural disasters this week including record-setting hurricanes: Harvey in Texas, and Irma in Caribbean and Florida; flooding in Mumbai, India; wildfires in the Pacific Northwest; and earthquakes in Mexico.

We are closely monitoring these events and responses. Although it’s difficult to find anything good coming from these events, it is great to see many selfless citizens helping each other in rescue efforts and providing donations. Perhaps people will become more educated and aware of the potential causes and how to be better prepared for these events. These times also remind us of the essential importance of life and that worldly possessions – like houses and cars - can be replaced.

Schendler’s List for Corporate Sustainability

Auden Schendler shares compelling war (and peace) stories from the front lines of the sustainability movement separating corporate propaganda from real advancements. After reading his 2009 book, we shared some text messages and he says, “in short, if business doesn’t approach climate at scale, it’s not part of the solution.”

In the 2009 book, Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution, he describes his influential role as sustainability manager for Aspen Skiing Company. Mr. Schendler points out that Aspen, Colorado is a mecca for the ultra-affluent, generating world-wide attention, so has a greater impact on corporate decisions. Aspen is also a poster child for the impacts of climate change where the winter season already lost a month due to early springtime just in the past few decades. The future of the ski industry (as well as the entire planet) is being jeopardized by global warming, aka. climate change.

More recently in 2013, Auden Schendler and co-author Michael Toffel provided a list of five actions needed for meaningful corporate sustainability programs:

1.       Lobby local, national and international political leaders to reduce carbon

2.      Insist trade groups give priority to climate policy

3.      Market climate activism

4.      Partner with effective non-governmental organizations

5.      Demand suppliers reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Melting Polar Ice - What about Santa?

This week I started bedtime reading to our 6-year old son the book The New 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save The Earth by the Earthworks Group. The very first chapter discusses Climate Change and What Can Happen: "If the Earth's temperature gets hotter by just a few degrees, polar ice can melt, raising the level of the ocean and wiping out islands and coastal areas."

He immediately felt concern and his first response was, "If the North Pole is melting what's going to happen to Santa Claus?"

Well just about a month after Christmas he is still especially appreciative that Santa was good to him by getting his first skateboard. Meanwhile, his parents have insisted he be very cautious. 

Then we discussed the book section What's Going On: "Factories, electric power plants, and cars are putting too much of one of these gases -- carbon dioxide (CO2) -- into the air." So he asked, "Does our car cause the ice to melt?" We discussed how it is important to drive fuel efficient cars and avoid unnecessary trips, to turn off the lights, plant trees, recycle, etc. and he quickly feel asleep.

Extra, Extra Read All About It: Links to World News of UN Agreements to Reduce Greenhouse Gases!

Here are links to 38 articles from news sources around the world announcing that the United Nations made historic agreements yesterday in Paris to reduce greenhouse gas emissions!

With close to 200 countries agreeing to limit emissions and report on outputs to strive towards a balance of carbon sources and sinks, one of the key parts is promoting sustainable development and a more sustainable planet! This agreement will likely create huge incentives promoting clean energy investments. 

The Five Key Decisions Made in the UN Climate Deal in Paris

Bloomberg - ‎5 hours ago‎

Envoys to the United Nations climate talks handed down a 31-page document on Saturday outlining their boldest steps yet to rein in global warming. Here are the key points of the text, along with comment on why the decisions made in Paris matter: ...

Nations Approve Landmark Climate Accord in Paris

New York Times - ‎8 hours ago‎

Traditionally, such pacts have required developed economies like the United States to take action to lower greenhouse gas emissions, but they have exempted developing countries like China and India from such obligations. The accord, which United ...

COP21: UN chief hails new climate change agreement as 'monumental triumph'

UN News Centre - ‎14 hours ago‎

For the first time today, 195 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – pledged to curb emissions, strengthen resilience and joined to take common climateaction. This followed two weeks of tireless negotiations at the United ...

Paris UN Climate Conference 2015: Climate deal requires $23 trillion investment

Sydney Morning Herald - ‎7 hours ago‎

The deal struck at United Nations climate talks requires an overhaul of historic proportions for energy policies worldwide and a huge investment in cleaning up the pollution now damaging the Earth's atmosphere. What was once unthinkable has now become ...

Draft of Climate Pact Is Ready, UN Officials Say

New York Times - ‎Dec 11, 2015‎

LE BOURGET, France — After almost two weeks of marathon negotiations, the lines for food and coffee on Friday night snaked through the temporary tent city here that has been home to the globalclimate talks. People made final bets in a five-euro pool ...

Paris UN climate conference 2015: Countries strike grand deal to tackle ...

Sydney Morning Herald - ‎16 hours ago‎

Nearly 200 countries have struck a landmark grand bargain on climate change, agreeing for the first time to take action to curb greenhouse gas emissions. After two weeks of grinding negotiations in Paris, nations signed off on the new deal that aims to ...

United Nations Reaches Historic Climate Change Deal

Refinery29 - ‎16 hours ago‎

After more than seven years of negotiating, more than 190 countries have agreed on a climatechange agreement designed to stop the onslaught of global warming. The landmark agreement was reached during the United Nations' COP21 Climate Change ...

Is Hope Possible After the Paris Agreement?

The Atlantic - ‎18 hours ago‎

Christiana Figueres, the UN's lead climate change negotiator and the impresario of Paris, told The New Yorker earlier this year that, “If anyone comes to Paris and has a eureka moment—'Oh, my God, the [national cutbacks] do not take us to two degrees!

What Is Al Gore Saying About The UN Climate Accord?

Bustle - ‎11 hours ago‎

On Saturday, the United Nations finalized the biggest international agreement on climate change ever, an accord signed onto by representatives of nearly 200 countries. It's been a rare cause for celebration by environmentalist groups — even though it ...

UN Climate conference 2015: Energy companies key to climate result

The Australian Financial Review - ‎7 hours ago‎

An evolution in the private sector is crucial, because despite all the powerful language of the Paris agreement, it does not immediately oblige countries to do anything more than what is contained in their already released climate pledges, or "Intended ...

Cheers as French hosts release proposed UN climate-rescue pact

The Tico Times - ‎Dec 12, 2015‎

With 2015 forecast to be the hottest year on record, world leaders and scientists have warned the accord is vital for capping rising temperatures and averting the most catastrophic consequences ofclimate change. If climate change goes unabated ...

BISHOP: HARD WORK FOLLOWS CLIMATE DEAL

NEWS.com.au - ‎14 hours ago‎

The Paris talks have largely been free of the fierce arguments that plagued previous UN climateconferences. Prior to the session, China's top negotiator Gao Feng said “there is hope today” for a final pact, while Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Tony ...

World powers voice support for UN climate pact

Yahoo News - ‎20 hours ago‎

Nations most vulnerable to climate change lobbied hard for wording in the Paris pact to limit warming to 1.5C, warning otherwise rising seas would wipe out low-lying island nations and coastal areas. Big polluters, such as China, India and oil ...

UN Climate Conference 2015: World commits to cutting greenhouse gas emissions

The Australian Financial Review - ‎14 hours ago‎

The landmark United Nations climate agreement has opened the way for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to continue with subtle shifts in Australia's climate change policies despite his promises toclimate change sceptics during his leadership coup to ...

Paris UN climate conference 2015: Is it possible to keep global warming below...

Stuff.co.nz - ‎15 hours ago‎

A recent review by the UN climate body found that when temperatures do rise above 1.5C, polar regions, high mountains, tropics and low-lying coastal regions will be most in the gun. In Africa, the ability to grow food will be hit, particularly for the ...

Paris UN climate conference 2015: Countries strike grand bargain to tackle ...

Stuff.co.nz - ‎15 hours ago‎

The rebuilding of confidence to get to this moment in the United Nations climate negotiations has been slow, but has been aided by external factors including the plunging cost of non-fossil fuel energy and broadening commitments from business and other ...

Highlights Of The Proposed UN Climate Accord

NDTV - ‎10 hours ago‎

Envoys from nearly 200 nations on December 12 adopted to cheers and tears a historic accord to stop global warming, which threatens humanity with rising seas and worsening droughts, floods and storms. (AFP). Le Bourget, France: Envoys from nearly 200 ...

Paris UN climate conference 2015: Historic deal appears imminent

Sydney Morning Herald - ‎Dec 12, 2015‎

An historic global deal to limit and tackle climate change appears imminent after a final draft agreement has been completed at the United Nations conference in Paris. After nearly a fortnight of negotiations, and several days in which exhausted ...

UN General Assembly president welcomes adoption of new climate accord

Manila Bulletin - ‎9 hours ago‎

UNITED NATIONS — UN General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft on Saturday welcomed the adoption of Paris Agreement to tackle climate change, saying that “this agreement reaffirms the value of multilateralism in addressing global challenges.”.

5 takeaways about the climate deal

USA TODAY - ‎14 hours ago‎

To that end, the agreement formally asks the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.N. climate science and research body, to issue a special report in 2018 detailing steps needed to reach the 2- and 1.5-degree Celsius targets. The ...

Final draft of climate deal formally accepted in Paris

CNN - ‎18 hours ago‎

... 'The world needs a success.'" Negotiators took a key step December 5 with the release of a draft agreement that has been posted online by the United Nations Framework Convention onClimate Change. That draft has been modified throughout the week.

'Draft agreement ready' at Paris climate summit

FRANCE 24 - ‎Dec 12, 2015‎

Negotiators at the U.N.-sponsored climate summit in Paris have come up with a draft agreement that will be presented to ministers at 10:30 GMT, a French government source said on Saturday. "There is a draft agreement," the source said. "It is being ...

Paris Climate Agreement Promises to be UN Chief's Legacy

IDN InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters - ‎7 hours ago‎

NEW YORK | PARIS (IDN) - Ban Ki-moon has reason to be sure that when he completes his second term as the Secretary-General of the United Nations end of December 2016, he would have left behind a proud legacy.Climate change has been “one of the ...

Paris UN climate conference 2015: World on the cusp of historic deal

Sydney Morning Herald - ‎Dec 12, 2015‎

The world is on the cusp of an historical agreement to tackle climate change after the French organisers of the Paris summit released the final wording of a deal, mapping out compromises on the key disputes that had divided countries. Almost 200 ...

The Latest: UN chief Ban praises Paris climate accord: 'History will remember ...

Newser - ‎17 hours ago‎

Activists dressed like animals stage a die in during a demonstration near the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, Saturday, Dec.12, 2015 during the COP21, the United Nations Climate Change Conference. As organizers... (Associated Press) ...

Nearly 200 nations join together to fight climate change in historic Paris ...

Los Angeles Times - ‎10 hours ago‎

The agreement reflects the first universal environmental accord since signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change began holding meetings around the world in the early 1990s. In 1997, in Kyoto, Japan, only developed ...

It's Not About Warming: Here's Why The U.N. Holds Climate Summits

Investor's Business Daily - ‎Dec 11, 2015‎

In the days leading up to the 21st session of the Conference of Parties to the U.N.'s Framework Convention on Climate Change, hardly a living person could avoid hearing the desperate talk about the Paris summit being our last chance to save the world ...

What Happened At The Paris Climate Talks? Details Of The UN ClimateAccord Are ...

Bustle - ‎20 hours ago‎

Despite the deadly terror attacks that threatened to put a halt to U.N. climate talks, world leaders gathered in Paris last week, determined to begin discussions over new global policy that would help usher in a new era of renewable energy and try to ...

French hosts submit proposed UN climate-rescue accord

Channel News Asia - ‎Dec 12, 2015‎

French President Francois Hollande (left), French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (centre) andUnited Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrive for a statement at the COP21 ClimateConference in Le Bourget, north of Paris, on Dec 12, 2015. (Photo: ...

UN's climate summit in Paris to overrun as squabbles over global warming cause ...

Daily Mail - ‎Dec 11, 2015‎

The UN's climate talks in Paris are to overrun into Saturday as disputes between countries have caused delays. Campaigners outside the conference have increased attempts to put pressure on world leaders at the talks with protests, including drawing a ...

Scottish First Minister hails "historic" UN climate agreement

Shanghai Daily (subscription) - ‎13 hours ago‎

"This historic agreement sends a signal of certainty about the global economy's low carbon future, in the same way as we did for Scotland through our world-leading climate legislation in 2009. We want to avoid the worst impacts ofclimate change ...

COP21 climate change summit reaches deal in Paris

BBC News - ‎18 hours ago‎

A deal to attempt to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2C has been agreed at theclimate change summit in Paris after two weeks of intense negotiations. The pact is the first to commit all countries to cut carbon emissions. The ...

Key points of the draft UN climate accord

The Local.fr - ‎20 hours ago‎

Envoys from 195 nations zeroed in Saturday on a historic climate rescue pact after host France released a final draft for ministers to peruse and adopt. France delivers 'historic' climate-rescue accord (12 Dec 15); Paris climate summit talks go into ...

New UN Report Links Climate Change To Human Rights

CleanTechnica - ‎Dec 11, 2015‎

Published by the United Nations Environment Programme on Thursday — global Human Rights Day — in Paris at the United Nations COP21 climate negotiations, the new report, ClimateChange and Human Rights, aims to provide “a comprehensive study” ...

The Observer view on the Paris climate deal

The Guardian - ‎13 hours ago‎

The sight of grinning delegates, linking arms and laughing, at the end of last night's Paris climatetalks, represents a rare moment of cheer in the normally gloomy business of negotiating carbon emission deals. In 2009 , those talks ended in grim ...

Paris climate change agreement: the deal at a glance

Telegraph.co.uk - ‎5 hours ago‎

"1.5 Degrees" in white neon is lit on the Eiffel Tower in the French capital, as the COP21 United Nations Climate Change Conference takes place at Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris Photo: AFP. In order to actually limit warming to that level, the ...

COP21: NGOs react to UN Paris climate deal

Climate Home - ‎15 hours ago‎

“For the first time in history, the whole world has made a public commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deal with the impacts of climate change. Although different countries will move at different speeds, the transition to a low carbon ...

COP21: Global Climate Agreement Reached At United Nations Talks In Paris

Huffington Post UK - ‎3 hours ago‎

Some 196 Countries have agreed a new international deal to tackle climate change following marathon United Nations talks in Paris. Delegates approved the historic agreement on Saturday, with the deal aiming to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas ...