Sierra Club Compass

New Bearings

2008-01-17T14:46:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow will be my last day at the Sierra Club. After six years with the organization, I'm leaving to become an editor at California, the UC Berkeley Alumni magazine. While I'm sad to say goodbye, I'm happy to report that Compass will soldier on in my absence, albeit with a new focus.

Come to think of it, it never really had a focus. You may have noticed that, from its inception, Compass's tagline has been "All Over the Map," which was meant as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the catch-all, general-interest, (some might say scatter-brained) nature of the blog. That will now change. The new emphasis will be unwaveringly on energy issues, and the new tagline will be "Pointing the Way."

That is as it should be, as global warming -- which is, at base, an energy issue -- has become the defining challenge of our time. Even without a stated focus, probably four out of five Compass postings were related, in one way or another, to climate.

The fact is, global warming casts a shadow over everything we care about: If you are concerned about wildlands preservation, you have to contend with the warming climate (you can't save the Everglades, to cite an obvious example, without stemming sea level rise); likewise species protection (consider the polar bear), environmental justice (think of the millions who will be made refugees as desertification and rising seas make their homelands uninhabitable).

The list goes on, and it doesn't end with what have come to be called "environmental" issues either. Jobs, the economy, immigration, public health, you name it -- the ramifications of the problem are such that it touches all aspects of life and calls into question our very survival. I know that sounds overblown, but don't take my word on it. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists recently added global warming to the threat of nuclear annihilation as a primary threat to humanity's existence. The Doomsday Clock is now set perilously close to midnight--closer than it has been since the height of the Cold War.

So, you ask: Is there anything we can do about it? Hell yeah, there is! Plenty. Will we do it? That remains to be seen. It will take not just ingenuity, but also enormous political will and unprecedented international cooperation to meet the challenge. So far, sadly, the signs that we will act in time are not promising. Still, we have to keep trying.

To paraphrase the late, great Bob Marley: One thing me know, you keep on pushing a thing, it turn over.

Thanks for reading. So long.

Auto Trends

2008-01-16T10:25:00.000-08:00

The news from the Detroit Auto Show has been awash in green, as the Dodge RAM went hybrid, GM promised to deliver the fully electric VOLT by 2010, and Toyota announced its intention to compete against GM in the race to deliver a plug-in hybrid to American showrooms. Additionally, the convention featured sub-compacts like the Smart car as well as clean diesels and flex-fuel vehicles. Of course, the renewed focus on fuel efficiency (after a 30-year hiatus) and alternative technologies is no surprise, given the high price of oil. And while it's very good news, another auto trend has more troubling and far-reaching implications for the world: namely, the advent of ultra-cheap cars. How cheap? The $2,500 Nano (you read that right) was recently unveiled by the Indian manufacturer Tata to considerable hype, while Renault, Volkswagen, Nissan and General Motors have all signaled their intention to compete for the same low-cost market. As Praful Bidwai reports in the Asia Times, this is a chilling development.

By 2020, some forecasts say, more than 150 million Indians and 140 million Chinese will have cars. If this really happens, it will become nearly impossible to achieve major reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions.

The Beekeeper's Dream

2008-01-14T16:10:00.000-08:00

Sir Edmund Hillary, the Kiwi who, along with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, became the first man to stand atop Mount Everest, the so-called Third Pole, died on Friday at the age of 88. Though he has wont to refer to himself as a mere beekeeper, Sir Edmund was a mensch of the highest order -- an explorer who stuck by the mountain he climbed and the people who made that climb possible. In later years, he lamented the crowds that thronged Everest and the litter (and bodies) that accrued on its slopes, as well as the warming that is altering the face of the Himalayas and threatening human lives. But he also helped improve the lot of Nepalese Sherpas (for whom the mountain is not Everest at all, but Chomolungma, "Mother of the Earth") through the Sir Edmund Hillary Himalayan Trust, which built clinics, schools, and other facilities in the region.

It is important to remember that when Norgay and Hillary climbed Everest, no one even knew whether the feat was humanly possible. Recalling the view atop the summit, he once said, "The whole world around us lay spread out like a giant relief map. I am a lucky man. I have had a dream and it has come true, and that is not a thing that happens often to men."

Ready, Set, Reduce

2008-01-09T13:21:00.000-08:00

The Christian Science Monitor's Caitlin Carpenter reports on a new "reality" show which, believe it or not, isn't stupid. Nobody gets voted off any tropical islands or marries any millionaires on this show. Nobody is forced to eat live cockcroaches or shower under surveillance cameras. Nope. In the Energy Smackdown, all anyone has to do is reduce their energy use, as three families engage in a little friendly competition to shrink their respective carbon footprints.

The subject may seem better suited to straightforward informational programming, but in choosing the "reality" route, writes Carpenter, the producer was both banking on the format's popularity and tapping into recent research what inspires folks to do the right thing.

According to a recent American Psychological Association study, people are more likely to make green choices if they think others are, too. And according to Karen Ehrhardt-Martinez of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, competitions "can be very effective" in inspiring change because "social incentives are often more effective than economic incentives in spurring people to change their behavior."

The results of "Energy Smackdown" are impressive. The winning Cluggish family reduced its carbon output by roughly two-thirds, from 18,692 pounds to 6,850 pounds -- putting them well below the national average of 15,000 pounds. And it wasn't especially hard, says Mrs. Cluggish.

People asked 'Aren't you relieved the competition's over?' ... But it didn't feel like a huge burden. We're paying 25 percent less for electricity, and I don't mind that my kitchen isn't overflowing with plastic bags now that I take tote bags to the grocery store.

Makes you wonder whether utilities couldn't tap into this same competitive impulse to reduce, say, peak power demand and thus the need to build more generating plants. It seems like an idea worth exploring. In the meantime, Energy Smackdown's producer is looking to extend the competition to whole communities for season two. We'll stay tuned.

Power From the People

2008-01-09T13:20:00.001-08:00

For years, Iceland has been harnessing geothermal energy from deep within the earth to heat homes and buildings cheaply and sustainably. Now it seems that Sweden has located a new source of heat that is free, clean, renewable, and best of all, is conveniently located in the heart of downtown Stockholm.

Each day at Stockholm’s Central Station, the largest travel center in Scandinavia, 250,000 commuters are heating up the air in the station as they make use of Sweden’s high-speed and regional rail service. (Just think of them as a quarter of a million portable space heaters.) A real estate firm believes the hot air generated by the commuters could supply 15 percent of the heating needed for a 13-story office building going up next door to the station. Warm air will be sucked into vents, then used to heat water which will be piped into the building. Because the station has an existing ventilation system, the necessary modifications will cost just $47,000 U.S. dollars.

But how many millions were invested in coming up with such a radical, blue-sky idea? According to project leader Karl Sundholm, “It just came up at a coffee meeting last summer. Somebody suggested: why not do something with all this heat in the station?"

What do you think? Another brilliant idea from the country that brought us IKEA and ABBA, or just so much hot air?

Defining Endangered

2008-01-08T16:21:00.000-08:00

If you're not acquainted with Conservation, the magazine of the Society for Conservation Biology, I heartily recommend leafing through an issue or checking it out online. The slim, beautifully produced, well-written, and advertisement-free publication is not a peer-reviewed science journal, but rather a general interest science magazine primarily concerned with the preservation of species. The latest cover, like the cover of the latest Sierra and many other publications this year -- including Vanity Fair and a recent Patagonia catalog -- features ursus maritimus, the polar bear -- icon of our rapidly changing climate.

With the Arctic suffering the most pronounced effects of that change, the polar bear could become the first species ever listed as endangered due to global warming. But on Monday, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced it would not meet today's deadline to issue its recommendation on the matter to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The issue isn't as straightforward as one might expect. As the Conservation article stresses, polar bear populations have greatly increased in recent decades, in part due to the oxymoronic-sounding practice of "conservation hunting." The article further explains how listing the bears would likely hurt Inuit communities and could even prove counterproductive to wildlife conservation. At the same time, however, the polar bear's habitat (not to mention the Inuits') is severely threatened, as underscored by the extent of Arctic sea-ice melt last summer, which blew away all previous records. The ramifications of the melting trend are such that a U.S. Geological Survey report issued last year shockingly concluded that two-thirds of the world's polar bears -- and all of Alaska's -- would die-off by 2050. Certainly, that would seem to meet the definition of "endangered." No?

Another One Bites the Dust

2008-01-07T13:02:00.000-08:00

Compass has been gleefully tracking the troubles of the Two-Time Losers--politicians noted for being both anti-environmental and corrupt. Today's California Majority Report brings news that yet another has fallen: California Representative John Doolittle (R) will soon announce he has chosen not to run for office again. (Talking Points Memo suggests his excuse will be that he "wants to spend more time with defense counsel.")

For those of you keeping track, that leaves only Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.)still standing. Will he stay or will he go now?

New SUV Tax

2008-01-02T13:36:00.000-08:00

It's not quite the gas tax some folks prefer as a way to tackle global warming, but good old supply-and-demand is combining with high gas prices to make it less and less attractive to own a gas-guzzling sport utility vehicle:

This holiday season has seen an explosion in thefts of expensive, platinum-laced catalytic converters from parked cars, and authorities report that high-clearance sport utility vehicles are the targets of choice for thieves. With a common socket wrench and 90 seconds, they leave drivers stuck with cars that sound like Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and facing repair bills topping $1,000.

You Say You Want a Resolution

2007-12-21T15:19:00.000-08:00

Well, you know, we all want to change the world. And with that in mind, here are a few ideas for your New Year's Resolution. Feel free to add your own ideas in the comments. And a Happy New Year to everyone. Let's make it a good one.

1) Read one authoritative book on global warming. Al Gore's book version of An Inconvenient Truth is excellent, but just in case you don't trust his take on things, here are some other titles to consider:

Field Notes from a Catastrophe by New Yorker staffer Elizabeth Kolbert
The Weather Makers by Australian scientist and Man of the Year, Tim Flannery
The Discovery of Global Warming by Spencer Weart
What We Know About Climate Change by MIT climate scientist Kerry Emanuel, (the shortest and most accessible of the bunch).

2) Write a letter to the editor of your newspaper or send a missive to your Senator or Congressman. Tell them what you think. They work for you.

3) Conduct a home energy audit. Find out how much power you use domestically and where you can trim it down. Pick the lowest hanging fruit first -- things like extra insulation and more efficient lighting can make a world of difference.

4) Experiment with alternatives to driving. Maybe you can telecommute to work once or twice a week. Or carpool? How about riding your bike to the store for that half gallon of milk?

5) Measure your carbon footprint and consider what it would take to become carbon-neutral.

For Comparison's Sake

2007-12-21T15:13:00.000-08:00

Check out Grist's picks for the top environmental stories for Twenty Ought Seven.

Top Environmental Story of '07?

2007-12-20T13:57:00.000-08:00

You decide.

Sink or Swim

2007-12-20T13:38:00.000-08:00

The latest issue of Sierra is now online, featuring a special report on corporate America's green ambitions, survival tips from polar bears, and a look at how climate concerns will play in the 2008 elections. Also, don't miss web exclusives like Mr. Green's Mailbag and a radio dispatch from the Beaufort Sea by author Richard Nelson. You'll find it all here.

Don't want to read the magazine on the web? You don't have to. A year's subscription to award-winning Sierra magazine is just one of the perks of joining the Club.

Just Turn Off the Lights!

2007-12-12T10:01:00.000-08:00

Australia's new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, made a big splash at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali by signing on to the Kyoto Protocol. The November election in which Rudd trounced former PM John Howard is widely seen as the first major election where global warming was the determining issue.

Hey, aren't we having an election too? Here's how we handle it in the U.S. of A.: CBS News is asking all the candidates "Is the global climate threat overblown?" There's a great rundown of the answers at Daily Kos, but the surprise winner for radical global-warming solutions is Mike Huckabee:

[W]e ought to declare that we will be free of energy consumption in this country within a decade, bold as that is.

That would do it!

How Green Can China Get? -- And How California Is Helping

2007-12-10T09:52:00.000-08:00

All the talk seems to be about China’s leaders refusing to commit to cutting carbon emissions, but what if they did?

Could they actually make the promised cutbacks?

Robert Collier, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, suggests that despite despite its image as an all-powerful dictatorship, with its economic boom the Chinese government has “lost so much political and regulatory power that it has been unable to force provincial and municipal authorities to obey environmental laws.”

And despite the Bush administration’s harping on China to commit to reductions, the idea that the U.S. would help China strengthen and enforce environmental laws is, as Collier says, “sheer anathema.”

But all in not bleak. Behind the scenes, scientists and policy advisors from California have been helping China learn from the state’s successes in cutting emissions despite federal inaction -- helping Chinese officials set up pro-conservation electricity rate structures, clean-energy technology tax incentives, tighter vehicle emissions regulations, and more.

Read it all here. It’s a fascinating mix of optimism, pessimism and irony.

Meatless Minimalist?

2007-12-07T16:06:00.000-08:00

Mark Bittman has made a name for himself as The Minimalist, the New York Times' meat n' potatoes food columnist, a guy who applies Occam's razor (Occam's cleaver?) to the art of cooking. He's also known for his best-selling cookbooks, perhaps especially How to Cook Everything, which has been described as a hipper Joy of Cooking.

Now, Bittman has come out with How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. That's bound to surprise many Bittman fans, who are used to seeing the man gnawing ribs or braising lamb shanks on his PBS cooking show. So what's up? Has the Minimalist given up meat? Not so fast. As he hastens to point out in his Amazon.com blog: "I’m not a vegetarian, and I’m not an advocate of a vegetarian diet; I’m an advocate of Americans eating fewer animal products - less meat, fish, poultry, and dairy."

...what motivated me--several years ago--was seeing the handwriting on the wall: That although being a principled, all-or-nothing vegetarian was not a course of action that would ever likely inspire the majority of Americans, the days of all-meat-all-the-time (or, to be slightly less extreme, of a diet heavily dependent on meat) could not go on. Averaging a consumption of two pounds a week or more of meat (as Americans do) is not sustainable...

Hat tip: 101 Cookbooks

On to the Next Step

2007-12-06T13:38:00.000-08:00

The House of Representatives has passed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 by a vote of 235-181. The bill, which would significantly increase automobile fuel economy standards for the first time in 30 years while also rolling back oil industry tax breaks and encouraging the use of alternative energy, now faces tough sledding in the Senate and a threatened veto by President Bush. So, while it's a huge victory, it's still just a bill ...

We've Been Waiting

2007-12-04T08:52:00.000-08:00

If the comic strip Pogo is remembered for only one thing, it will be the phrase "We have met the enemy and he is us." But did you know that Pogo's creator Walt Kelly first used that phrase on a poster for the original Earth Day in 1970? Neither did I, but the Internet is good at unearthing obscurities like that.

What made me think of that quote in the first place, though, was a diametrical sentiment I encountered in a column on global warming by this year's recipient of the Sierra Club's David R. Brower award, Thomas Friedman. After an ominous quote from the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Friedman offered up two slices of hope: the Google Foundation's renewable energy initiative and the Vehicle Design Summit, which was started by some students at M.I.T. Friedman describes it as

...a global, open-source, collaborative effort, managed by M.I.T. students, that has 25 college teams around the world, including in India and China, working together to build a plug-in electric hybrid within three years. Each team contributes a different set of parts or designs. I thought writing for my college newspaper was cool. These kids are building a hyper-efficient car, which, they hope, "will demonstrate a 95 percent reduction in embodied energy, materials and toxicity from cradle to cradle to grave" and provide "200 m.p.g. energy equivalency or better." The Linux of cars!

Oh, and the quote from the students that gives Friedman (and me) hope? "We are the people we have been waiting for." Wouldn't you rather see that on a poster next Earth Day?

Driving Change

2007-11-30T13:54:00.000-08:00

A great article in the Why Files looks at how plug-in hybrid cars -- that is, hybrid gas-electric cars that run primarily on electric power (as opposed to conventional hybrids, which run primarily on gas) and which are routinely plugged into the power grid to recharge -- could radically transform the energy mix in coming decades. How so? Well, you should read the whole story, but in a nutshell, all those cars, each one equipped with hefty battery capacity, would represent a massive amount of cheap energy storage -- currently a limiting factor for the wider adoption of intermittent energy sources like wind and solar.

So, not only do plug-ins represent a greater cut in fuel consumption and carbon output than their cousins, but, in what is called the vehicle-to-grid scenario, they could eventually send power back to the grid, potentially eliminating the need for back-up generators. Better still, says Andrew Frank, director of the Hybrid Electric Vehicle Center at the University of California at Davis, you could install solar panels on your home and run the car off those. The gas station and the power grid would then merely serve as backups. Says Frank: "If you buy a plug-in hybrid and a solar panel, with today's cost of gasoline, you could pay off the solar panel in three to four years, and that means for the next 25 years, you get to drive your car for free."

A final note: You can't currently purchase a plug-in hybrid off the lot, but if you're handy you can hack your Prius and make it into a plug-in. Two caveats there: 1) The conversion ain't cheap, and 2) it voids your warranty. So, for now, we'll have to sit tight and dream of the day (hopefully not far off) when our cars come with power cords and a gas tank.

Japanese Take-Out

2007-11-29T14:44:00.000-08:00

I doubt you'll find one at Victoria's Secret, but a new bra unveiled by Japanese designers gives ladies a nifty place to stash their collapsible, reusable chopsticks. That's right. No need to use the throw-aways. With the new undergarment on, you simply reach down your blouse and whip out your very own pair of eating utensils. Sounds silly, I know, but the problem that prompted it is serious. The Japanese alone go through 25 billion -- billion! -- pairs of disposable wooden chopsticks every year, most of them imported from China, which cuts down roughly 25 million trees annually to produce more than 45 billion pairs of chopsticks. To help slow the rate of consumption China has slapped a 5 percent tax on chopstick exports.

Mainly on the Plains

2007-11-29T13:30:00.000-08:00

The map above charts rainfall patterns for the first 8 months of the year. As most of you are no doubt aware, the Southeast is drought-stricken, as is much of the rest of the country. Less appreciated perhaps is the fact that it was a wetter-than-usual year in the Great Plains. As this NASA Earth Observatory item so aptly puts it:

"It is as if the United States were folded in half, and all of the rain ran towards the crease in the center, leaving the edges dry."

Thrifty Gluttons

2007-11-29T12:37:00.000-08:00

Energy efficiency is often said to be the key to curbing our carbon output, but there's a problem with that assumption: it ignores what economists call the "efficiency paradox," according to which the more we save on energy, the more energy we tend to consume. As a quick and dirty illustration: Airplanes get more fuel-efficient, ticket prices go down. What happens? You fly more.

This holds true on a macro-scale, too. President Bush likes to tout the fact that the country's energy intensity (expressed as unit of energy per unit of GDP), and by extension, its carbon intensity, has fallen significantly over the last decades. And that sure sounds like a good thing until you consider that our energy consumption -- and therefore our real emissions -- have steadily increased over the same time period.

Economist Jeff Rubin, who has studied the paradox, says efficiency is still important, just not as an end in itself. "In order for efficiency to actually curb energy usage, as opposed to energy intensity, consumers must be kept from reaping the benefits of those initiatives in ever-greater energy consumption." But that introduces another paradox, doesn't it? Where's the incentive to buy that compact fluorescent light bulb if it won't ultimately save you any money?

Anyone have any insight?

Change in Climate

2007-11-27T23:27:00.000-08:00

I was at the California release of the U.N.'s Human Development Report, subtitled "Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world." To mark the event, the Commonwealth Club organized a panel to discuss the issues including Ad Melkert(Undersecretary of the United Nations, Associate Administrator, United Nations Development Programme), Larry Brilliant (Executive Director, Google.org), Andrea Gardner (Sustainable Solutions Manager, CH2M Hill), and Nancy Pfund (Managing Director, JPMorgan).

What they collectively underscored was that, while we here in the West think of climate change as something coming and something to worry about for our legacy, in places like Bangladesh climate change is about the here and now. The poorest are paying the highest price for our standard of living.

They were largely hopeful in their message, pointing to Australia's Kevin Rudd defeating John Howard in what is being described as the first climate-change election, states and cities making policies to fight climate change (with the event being held in California and San Francisco, lots of props were given to the state and the mayor), many corporations looking to do things differently (Google.org, for instance, just announced a big climate change initiative), and conditions looking right for the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali. There was of course, much shaking of heads over American federal politics.

Unexpectedly none of the panelists were in favor of nuclear power, with Google's Larry Brilliant being the most outspoken. They were in favor of shifting subsidies to renewables in a large way, but with an emphasis on incentives, basic r&d and funding of programs to turn out engineers. They thought that the costs of the solutions were going to be much cheaper than the costs of protecting ourselves.

"But one percent of our GDP to save the planet?" asked the moderator (Greg Dalton, who did a fine job). "One percent!" said Larry Brilliant. "It's a bargain! Who wouldn't want that?!"

Oil's Well That Ends Well

2007-11-27T08:59:00.000-08:00

When I checked my Freecycle listserv today, I was reminded of a relatively new holiday cause-and-effect phenomenon: Deep-frying turkeys has become a hip new way to cook a Thanksgiving bird, and biofuel users are eager to get their hands on the spoils of the hunt, as it were. Here's the posting I saw:

Did you deep fry a turkey last week? Don't give your used oil to the garbage man or the recycler…let ME recycle it! My commuter car runs on vegetable oil. Just send me your address and put it on the porch and I'll be by to pick it up.
• It's better for you (you get rid of it all at once instead of one gallon at a time curbside)
• It's better for me (commuting 140 miles/day I've got a 100 gallon/month habit)
• It's better for the environment (the oil isn't processed, stored or landfilled…it' s just GONE)

This guy's in the San Francisco Bay Area, but this grubbing for grease is going on all over the place. Craigslist users in Boston, Portland, and Atlanta are looking for it, a television station in South Carolina is letting viewers know about it, and companies in Denver and North Carolina are putting the word out as well.

Me, I'm a briner, so I'm always trying to figure out what to do with five gallons of salty, herbed water that's been home to a raw turkey overnight. Ideas appreciated...

Plotting Your Exit Strategy

2007-11-26T08:38:00.000-08:00

Death may be eternal, but how we take our leave has changed considerably over the years. Embalming became the norm only after the Civil War. Thirty years ago, cremation came into vogue. Alas, cremation isn't exactly planet-friendly when you consider that you're basically getting converted directly into greenhouse gases (not to mention the considerable energy required to do the deed).

I guess I first heard of "green" burials on the TV show Six Feet Under, where the fictional morticians were already resentful of cremation. But with the average funeral costing $6,500 (and that's without a headstone or plot), a lot of people find themselves wondering if there isn't a better way to spend that money -- like helping to preserve a forest instead of trying (always futilely) to preserve one's own body.

The Chicago Tribune ran a good overview of the emerging green funeral industry with pros and cons from both sides. My favorite quote, from a man who paid $4,000 for woodland plots at Ramsey Creek Preserve for himself and his wife:

"Listen, I love the woods. It's you ... environmentalists that I can't stand."

Berry or Canary?

2007-11-21T09:45:00.000-08:00

I like cranberries. But I admit they're topmost on my mind only once a year. And this year, thanks to a story in the Christian Science Monitor, as I slide a deep red serving next to my potatoes and stuffing, I'll know that even the berries have a message for us:

When Rod Serres thinks about cranberries, he doesn't see them beside a Thanksgiving turkey. Another bird comes to mind: a canary in a coal mine. That's because, like all berries, cranberries are very sensitive to climate, making them the agricultural harbinger of global warming in America's Northeast.

What will Massachusetts be like without cranberries? A lot less colorful, as this narrated slideshow demonstrates.