The World is Planting Trees and We are Seeing Results

All around the world countries are planting trees in an effort to combat climate change, fight air pollution, reduce flood damage and address a host of other problems.

Cities are also playing a leadership role. Melbourne, Australia, doubling its tree canopy to reduce carbon pollution by 40 percent. The city of Seoul, South Korea has planted 2,000 trees and gardens. Athens, Greece, planted trees to reduce flood damage. Milan, Italy is planting 3 million trees by 2030 to combat air pollution. New York, New York, United States. City planners planted 1 million trees in 2015 in response to research that showed trees help to make people happier and smarter.

Trump's Bottomless Presidency

Trump has abdicated his role as leader of the free world and taken the presidency to lows never before thought possible. Trump is at war with reality, anyone with even a casual interest in the facts can easily find themselves in his cross hairs.This man has revoked more the 40 regulations designed to protect the health and safety of Americans.

Although it reads like a belated April Fools joke Trump is apparently about to try to sell his environmental accomplishments. The administration is trying to rebrand the president by touting "success stories" like cleaner air and greenhouse gas emissions. What they will not say is that whatever progress was made on these fronts was due to the work of his predecessor Barack Obama. Nor will they mention that on Trump's watch fossil fuel extraction has increased as have the nation's emissions.

Declining Battery Storage Costs are Helping Renewables

BNEF Graph from a March 26, 2019 report titled:
Battery Power’s Latest Plunge in Costs Threatens Coal, Gas

Energy storage solves the intermittency problem of renewable forms of energy like wind and solar. Only a few years ago battery technologies were too immature to support widespread, large-scale deployment of renewables.  Now less expensive storage technologies are making renewables far more attractive. Despite the uneven allocation of subsidies, the plummeting price of energy storage has made it possible for clean energy to out-compete fossil fuels.

When they are partnered with some form of battery, renewables can power the world.  However, the amount of energy that will need to be stored is vast. Utility scale batteries are part of the answer but so are alternatives like pumped hydro.

Ending the War on Reality: Science with a Dash of Wisdom

The process of coming together around fact based reality demands some basis of shared understanding. We need to forge common ground that lends itself to meaningful action. We need to counter a world in which facts are eschewed and reality is manipulated for partisan political purposes. When combined with wisdom, science is capable of exposing the spin in false narratives.

The Dream of 100% Renewable Energy is Alive and Well

The dream of 100 percent renewable energy is alive and well with many nations proving that it can be done. The transition away from fossil fuels to renewables is underway.  In the last couple of years we have seen some major changes. When we compare the leading renewable energy countries in 2016 to those who are leading today we find that there are several states that have stayed the course while some others have not.

Despite resistance from the Trump administration, renewables are growing n the US. It is not only California and Hawaii, states and territories across America are committing to 100 percent renewable energy. Washington DC, New Mexico, and Puerto Rico are looking to go 100 percent renewable. Local and state legislators in Arizona, Nevada, Missouri, and Colorado have all passed clean-energy bills. In addition to New Mexico five other governors elected in 2018 have said they want their states to become zero-carbon (Colorado and Connecticut) or close to it (Illinois, Nevada,and Maine).

Event - The Environmental Leader & Energy Manager Conference (ELEMCON) 2019

The Environmental Leader & Energy Manager Conference (ELEMCON) will take place on May 13-15, 2019 at the Denver Marriott Tech Center in Denver Colorado. This is a content-rich, high level experience to help you increase energy efficiency, reduce cost, and minimize your impact on the environment.

They take a different approach by bringing together actual industry change-makers to share their wealth of experience and tried-and-tested best practices to leave you with an arsenal of new information, tools maximize your efficiency and performance, and a wide network of elite peers from across industries.

Canada is Warming Faster than the Rest of the World and this has Global Implications

According to the latest UN Emissions Gap Report,  Canada is one of the national governments that are not doing enough to reduce climate change causing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In fact we saw an increase in GHGs in 2018 after two consecutive years of reduction. Under the 2015 Paris accord countries agreed to limit the average temperature increase to well below two degrees, with a goal of no more than 1.5 degrees. Last year an Auditor General's report made it clear that Canada is not on track to meet its GHG reduction commitments.

The World's Poor are Hurt Not Helped by Fossil Fuel Subsidies

Governments argue that fossil fuel subsidies are designed to help the poorest members of society, however, this is not borne out by the research.  The true beneficiaries of these subsidies are wealthier people and wealthier nations not the poor.

According to an IEA report, more than 85 percent of these subsidies go to middle and higher end income earners while only 8 percent of the aid is reaching the poorest 20 percent. These subsidies encourage energy consumption as people with the lowest incomes tend to be lower energy users and rarely drive.

"Fossil-fuel subsidies as presently constituted tend to be regressive, disproportionately benefiting higher income groups that can afford higher levels of fuel consumption," the report said. "Social welfare programs are a more effective and less distortionary way of helping the poor than energy subsidies."

The Environmental Impact of Livestock Farming (Infographic)

Clean Energy from Renewable Sources is the Answer but Government Policies are a Problem

Replacing dirty energy with clean sources of power is the key to addressing the climate crisis. The extraction and burning of fossil fuels are a major source of greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions and as such they are the leading cause of anthropogenic climate change.

The combination of climate change, pollution and habitat destruction are driving the 6th great extinction and this is an existential crisis. The best science tells us radically reducing our greenhouse gas emissions is one of the most impactful things we can do is and to do this we must wean ourselves off of fossil fuels as quickly as possible. 

The argument that such a transition is prohibitively costly does not reflect the findings in a plethora of cost benefit analyses all of which conclude that climate action (eg replacing fossil fuels with renewables) is far more cost effective than inaction.

Fossil Fuel Industry Pays Legislators to Protect their Subsidies

Image credit: The Price of Oil

The fossil fuel industry spends tens of millions of dollars each year to defend subsidies. This is part of their longstanding practice of buying influence so that they can shape political outcomes.

The Price of Oil quotes research that estimates the fossil fuel industry gets a 5,800 percent return on these investments in the form of fossil fuel subsidies. Estimates of the value of U.S. federal subsidies (excluding climate and health impacts) to the domestic oil and gas industry range from $4 billion a year, to $41 billion annually. One recent comprehensive study of U.S. energy subsidies identified $72.5 billion in federal subsidies for fossil fuels between 2002-2008, or just over $10 billion annually. Taxpayers provide $7bn a year for fossil fuel subsidies on public lands.

The Courts Halt Trump's Fossil Fuel Expansion

Federal judges are testing the Trump administration's authority to expand fossil fuel extraction. This is but the latest example of legal challenges curtailing the administration's assault on the environment. The Washington Post reports that the Trump administration has lost about 40 environmental cases in federal courts.

In recent weeks more than half a million acres of western land was auctioned off in federal oil and gas lease auctions. However, 2 recent rulings by district court judges offer at least temporary protection. These rulings pertain to offshore drilling along America's coastlines and as much as 13 million acres of land could also be protected from resource extraction. The first ruling temporarily halts drilling in Wyoming and the second suspends plans to drill in the Arctic ocean.

Solar Decathlon: The Design Challenge Weekend

The Design Challenge Weekend will take place on April 12-14, 2019, at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. The Solar Decathlon is a little known green building event that has been held every two years since 2002. After years in Irvine, California and Denver, Colorado the 2020 event is coming back to its original home in Washington, D.C.

The DOE's Solar Decathlon® is a collegiate competition, comprising 10 contests, that challenges student teams to design and build highly efficient and innovative buildings powered by renewable energy.

Earth Hour 2019: Nature and Our Connection to Earth

Earth Hour is an annual global event. It is a call to act on climate change and a broad range of environmental issues. This worldwide grassroots movement unites people to protect the planet. Organized by WWF, this event is celebrated by hundreds of millions of people around the world making it the largest environmental action in history.  People in more than 180 countries and thousands of cities and towns around the world will take part.

What Would Happen if Fossil Fuel Subsidies Were Redirected Towards Renewable Energy?

Subsidies are at the heart of energy issues. Clean power receives a tiny fraction of this money while the fossil fuel industry continues to reap the lion's share.  Fossil fuel subsidies are four to ten times larger than those given to renewable energy.

Governments around the world gave about $490 billion in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry in 2014 and only $112 billion in subsidies for renewable power generation.  Governments are planning on continuing their preferential allocation of resources to fossil fuels. According to the IEA, over the next 25 years, only 15 percent of the G20's investment in energy will be devoted to renewables.

Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies is a Crucial First Step

Ending fossil fuel subsidies is the first step towards addressing climate change. We know that the climate crisis is a genuine emergency and we also know that fossil fuels are the leading cause, hence transitioning away from them is central to addressing the crisis we face.

"The first step towards that is to stop supporting the industry with our public dollars," Stephen Kretzmann, the executive director of Oil Change International is quoted as saying in a Center for Biological Diversity press release. "These subsidies are a raw deal for American taxpayers, and a disaster for our climate."

Trump's Department of the Interior is at War with Science

Trump's Department of the Interior (DOI) has a pattern of killing science especially studies that cast aspersions on its support for industry. This includes burying research on coal strip mining, offshore oil & gas development, sulfide ore mining and pesticides. It is not only existing research that is being buried, proposals for new studies are being quashed alongside the findings of completed research.

Republicans Will Embrace the Facts about Climate Change

Climate denial is a cynical political strategy with no future. Although it may be hard to envision from where we are today, the truth will eventually win the day. The facts about climate change can only be denied for so long and the time will come when climate denial will be political suicide.

While polls indicate there is increasing acceptance of climate change, these polls also reveal that Republicans continue to deny reality.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll indicates that almost two-thirds of Americans think the Republican Party’s position on climate change is "outside the mainstream".

Maria Caffrey: Trump Administration Censoring Science

Censorship is a central pillar of the Trump administration's efforts to hide climate science. The Trump White House was in the news late last year for its attempt to bury a government report that squarely refuted the administration's climate denial and government scientists who resist the Trump administration's censorship are being let go by the federal government. Maria Caffrey is a 37 year old scientist who is a model of scientific integrity. She worked under contract for the National Park Service and produced a report outlining the risks of rising seas at national parks.

Event - Sustainable Brands '19 Detroit

Sustainable Brands '19 Detroit will take place at the Cobo Center on June, 3–6, 2019. Sustainable Brands hosts 12 conferences annually. SB'19 Detroit is the flagship event where global brand and sustainability leaders come together to shape the future of commerce worldwide. Since its inception, the SB community has worked to redefine the path to brand success by inspiring and enabling breakthrough innovation for environmental and social benefit.

Climate Science can Bridge the Divides that Separate Us

Climate action is not only necessary to stave off a civilization altering threat, it can also build bridges between disparate groups of people by fostering ties around shared ecological values. Uniting around common goals helps us to move beyond tribal divisions.The first step is to acknowledge a common reality, and science is the best approach we have to do so.

UN Secretary General Amplifies the Urgent Message from the Climate Strikes

Unprecedented student climate strikes have earned the support of many senior officials including António Guterres the Secretary General of the United Nations. Adults don't seem to be able to grasp the seriousness of our situation, Guterres said in a Guardian article. "[W]e are in a race for our lives, and we are losing. The window of opportunity is closing – we no longer have the luxury of time, and climate delay is almost as dangerous as climate denial. My generation has failed to respond properly to the dramatic challenge of climate change. This is deeply felt by young people. No wonder they are angry."

Trump and his New Flame are Warming our Climate

The fledgling relationship between US president Donald Trump and Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has deeply troubling international repercussions for both climate and the environment.

Brazil's newly elected far right president is a fitting paramour for a narcissist like Trump. Bolsonaro, (or Mini-Me as Trump calls him), was warmly received by the White House on March 19th. Trump's new love interest is entirely consistent with the procession of foreign leaders he has courted over the last two years. Trump's fondness for far right leaders was evident when he offered his support for France’s xenophobic presidential contender Marine Le Pen. However, Trump seems to reserve a special place for dictators and despots. He hasn't concealed his envy for leaders who are not constrained by the fetters of democracy. Trump cozied up to dictators like Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoan and he covered for the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after he murdered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

A Response to Elon Musk's Detractors

Elon Musk is battling a number of obstacles, including production problems and legal hurdles. Musk is the genius behind Tesla Motors, Tesla Energy, SpaceX, and the Hyperloop. The list of his accomplishments is impressive. He has innovated online payments, shown EV leadership, pioneered commercial space exploration, revolutionized power storage and brought residential solar to the home energy market.

Who is the Greenest of them All? Ireland or Norway?

The governments of Norway and Ireland are leading the transition away from fossil fuels to renewable forms of energy. Four years ago Norway announced that it was divesting its assets from coal and now Ireland has decided to fully divest from all fossil fuels. Earlier this month Norway announced that they would begin withdrawing their investments from 134 international fossil fuel companies.

In 2015 Norway decided to divest 8 billion in coal holdings from their sovereign wealth funds.  Recently the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), which manages roughly $1 trillion worth of the nation’s assets announced it was withdrawing its investments from 134 international fossil fuel companies. In 2017 the Irish parliament voted to divest $361 million of public money from fossil fuels to became the first country to fully divest from coal, oil and gas. The Irish Parliament passed the Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill in January which gives the National Treasury Management Agency five years to withdraw $8.5 billion of the fossil fuels assets from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund.

Sustainability in the City and Beyond Conference by Loyola College for Diversity & Sustainability

This conference will take place on March 19-21, 2019 in Montreal and it will cover research being done on sustainability in general and urban sustainability in particular at Concordia University and beyond. Presented by the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability and the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre this year's edition of the annual Sustainability Across Disciplines conference has an urban theme and a new partnership with the Institute for Urban Futures.

Unprecedented Global School Strikes for Climate Action

On Friday March 15th millions of students in 2,000 cities around the world came together to peacefully demand climate action. Young people in at least 123 countries protested the inaction of government officials and called for immediate climate action. The students are asking governments to declare a climate emergency, and they also want to see more education about climate change and the environmental crisis. The movement know as "Fridays for Future" was launched by Greta Thunberg. Although her efforts have been rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize nomination she remains focused on the only metric that matters, reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Greta's Strikes for Climate Action and Her Game-Changing Global Movement

Greta Thunberg is the 16 year old Swedish environmental activist behind the climate strikes that are sweeping the globe. Last year Greta decided to protest the governments inaction on climate change by sitting on the steps of the Parliament building in Stockholm. What started in Sweden soon spread throughout Scandinavia, then to Europe, Britain and Australia. Now it seems as though the whole world is taking part including countries like China, Tanzania, Vanuatu, Cuba, and Pakistan.

Trump's Budget Cuts Target Climate Science and Environmental Programs

Trump has been at war with science and climate action from the beginning of his mandate. In addition to cuts to education and medicare Trump's proposed 2020 budget slashes funding to climate science and environmental programs.

Trump has made similar budget proposals in 2017 and 2018. The 2020 budget proposal includes cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of the Interior, NASA, and NOAA. This is but the latest installment of the Trump administration ongoing war with science.

Trump's Swamp is Full of Fossil Fuel Advocates

The Trump administration is awash with fossil fuel lobbyists and advocates. Republicans are the minions of the oil industry and Trump's swamp is full of it's supporters. This administration is rife with industry influence from the initial beachhead team to cabinet secretaries. The Trump transition team was chalked full of operatives tied to climate denying Koch Industries. Some of these people came from the Institute for Energy Research, which wrote Trump's insane energy policy. Other early members of the Trump administration are Mark Maddox, a coal company lobbyist and Kerrie Carr, who worked for the coal industry.

Trump Shares Russia's Fossil Fuel Agenda

The Trump administration is a champion of fossil fuels.  They have killed 40 regulations and expanded extraction including offshore drilling in the Arctic.  They have begun drilling on public lands putting 42 national monuments at risk. To add insult to injury this is an administration that opposes efficiency.

With support from fossil fuel lobby organizations like, API, Count on Coal, the National Mining Association, the Western Energy Alliance, and the National Petroleum Council in the Department of Energy, the administration has dismantled progress made on energy during the Obama administration.

Virtual Conferences Offer Global Reach with Smaller Footprints

There is a new way of conferencing that connects participants from all around the world without the massive environmental impacts commonly associated with such events. When academics fly to international conferences, they burn up to a ton of carbon each, significantly increasing their personal greenhouse-gas footprint. This is particularly inappropriate in the context of sustainability focused conferences.

Technological solutions have been around for years and now YouTube is live streaming events. Other existent and emerging internet communication technologies are making promising conference formats possible. Besides reducing emissions, these technologies allow smart conference organizers to reduce costs for participants -- especially those from non-rich countries who would not otherwise have been able to participate. The international conference of the future will be truly global, with a bigger and more diverse program, higher cultural diversity, and much lower emissions.

The Transition Away from Fossil Fuels Towards Renewables is Already Underway

Several indicators suggest that renewable energy is gradually replacing fossil fuels. Coal use is down, renewable energy is growing and we are seeing increased fossil fuel divestment.

Even some oil companies see the writing on the wall. In 2017, Royal Dutch Shell, the world’s second largest publicly-traded oil company, announced plans to increase its investment in renewable energy to $1 billion a year by the end of the decade. Ben van Beurden, the company's CEO supports a carbon tax and he indicated that he is concerned about the loss of public support if progress is not made in the transition to cleaner energy.

27 Inspirational and Motivational Posts Commemorating International Women's Day

Women are the Key to a More Sustainable Future

The importance of women to the future of our species goes way beyond their procreative power. Female leadership is better leadership and this augurs a better world.

Women's Day is an opportunity to advocate for true equality and to share the evidence revealing why women are the more sustainable sex. Empowering them is good for people, the planet and profits. If we want to move forward we need to unambiguously assign blame. Women's rights are human rights and men that deny these rights need to be called out.

National Petroleum Council Influences the US Government from the Inside

The National Petroleum Council (NPC) may be part of the US government but it is anything but non-partisan. They are a group composed largely of fossil fuel advocates who have openly professed an anti-science pro-dirty energy agenda.

There are a lot of fossil fuel front groups that influence government from the outside but the NPC is a federally chartered and privately funded advisory committee established in 1946.  As explained on their website: "The purpose of the NPC is solely to represent the views of the oil and natural gas industries in advising, informing, and making recommendations to the Secretary of Energy with respect to any matter relating to oil and natural gas, or to the oil and gas industries submitted to it or approved by the Secretary."

The Fossil fuel Industry Owns the University of Calgary

While the fossil fuel industry clearly has a hold on American universities Canada is not much better. It was not that long ago that Stephen Harper's conservative government pulled the country out of the Kyoto Protocol, cut research funding and silenced scientists. Although they were replaced by Justin Trudeau's Liberals in 2015, they have continued to push for expanded fossil fuel exports. In Alberta the newly elected NDP aggressively support their oil industry.

The Tar Sands are a Threat to Biodiversity

Tar sands not only increase climate change causing greenhouse gas emissions, they destroy habitats and contaminate air, soil and water. Tailing ponds at tar sands extraction sites have been growing in Alberta for decades and they keep getting bigger. There are now more than a trillion litres of tailings in artificial ponds covering cover 230 km² or 88 square miles. By 2030 there will be a trillion and half.

Event - BC Power Symposium

The 13th annual BC Power Symposium will take place on March 19th 2019 in Vancouver, Canada This conference will focus on the the growing demand for clean power. demands in the province. Participants will have the opportunity to network with the greatest minds in the power sector to develop your clean energy strategy.
The Canadian Institute will combine insights on further developments to Site C dam in addition to exploring newer clean energy methods, keeping in line with the Federal and Provincial commitments to generating clean energy.

British Columbia is rapidly progressing towards generating and sustaining clean energy. The 2018 conference explored a myriad of views of the developments and consequences of the Site C dam. Community views, stakeholder insights and regulatory perspectives provided a holistic overview to impacts and outcomes.

The Energy Paradox: Environmental Defence on Canada's Escalating Oil Subsidies

Both Canada and the province of Alberta want to have it both ways. They want to be climate leaders and major oil and gas exporters.  The Canadian federal government and the provincial government in Alberta provide massive subsidies to the oil and gas industries in the form of tax breaks, fiscal support and direct grants.  Canada is the largest provider of government support for oil and gas production per unit of GDP in the G7.

After decreasing federal payments to Big Oil by $150 million in 2017 Justin Trudeau's Liberal government appears to have changed direction in 2018. Last May the Canadian government announced it was going to buy Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5 billion. Last December the Liberals announced that they were giving oil and gas companies $1.65 billion in new grants, loans and financial supports. This is in addition to Export Development Canada, the country’s export credit agency, that provides, on average, $10 billion in government-backed support for oil and gas companies every year.

Ivy League Science Awash with Oil: How the Fossil Fuel Industry Controls Academia

As explored in a 2017 article by Benjamin Franta and Geoffrey Supran the fossil fuel industry's invisible colonization of academia is a threat to climate action. They point to devious techniques employed by oil companies to use academia to influence people's reality. They further say this is part of a "systemic pattern".

One year ago, the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center hosted a film screening of the "Rational Middle Energy Series." The university promoted the event as "Finding Energy’s Rational Middle" and described the film’s motivation as "a need and desire for a balanced discussion about today’s energy issues."