Hill Heat

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) invites you to learn about the impacts climate change is having on ecosystems, in particular those changes that are rapid, large, and potentially irreversible. We now have evidence that there may be thresholds that, once crossed, will present serious coping challenges to humans. This raises a major strategic challenge in the climate policy debate before this Congress: What concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere might lead to environmentally, socially and economically unacceptable impacts?

In response to this question, a project was developed jointly by the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment, the Joint Global Change Research Institute, and The Nature Conservancy, entitled “Understanding the Consequences of Thresholds in Global Change and Their Implications for Decision-Making.” The project promotes understanding of the physical, natural, and social dynamics that underlie ecological thresholds in order to better inform ongoing adaptation measures and response options across scales of decision-making. Our panel will focus on the work of this important initiative and its draft report, which is based on the first of a series of meetings that took place in 2006. Case studies presented at the meeting included impacts on the critical ecosystems of the American Rockies and Alaska such as: drought in the Colorado River Basin; bark beetles in Western Canada; and forest die-off and die-back in the West. Our speaker panel includes Ecothresholds Project participants and other experts:

• Dr. Anthony Janetos (Moderator), Director, Joint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory/University of Maryland
• Dr. Ed Miles, Virginia and Prentice Bloedel Professor of Marine Studies and Public Affairs, University of Washington
• Dr. Neil Cobb, Director, Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research, Northern Arizona University
• Dr. Mark Eakin, Coordinator, NOAA Coral Reef Watch, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• Dr. John Wiens, Lead Scientist, The Nature Conservancy
• Michael Bradley, Canfor Pulp Limited Partnership

The Ecothresholds Project envisions workshops and conferences to engage resource managers and practitioners to explore responses to threshold effects that challenge the condition of ecosystem services and the foundation of a range of natural resource management practices. Creating a dialogue between this project and policymakers will help ensure that the major strategic questions being addressed by this project will be incorporated into the federal policy debate on climate change.

This briefing is open to the public and no reservations are required. For more information, contact Fred Beck at 202-662-1892 (fbeck@eesi.org)

The Urban Land Institute will hold a news conference to release a report titled “Growing Cooler: The Evidence” that will discuss the relationship between urban development and carbon dioxide emitted by vehicles.

Contact: Nicole Daigle at 202-715-1553

Urban Land Institute, 1025 Thomas Jefferson St. N.W., Suite 500 West

10:15 Hobson: We agree with the DOE that the potential for wind energy and solar energy in the Southeast are limited. Solar will not be a large source. Landfill methane will be a good source for small-scale generation. We think that a national one-size-fits-all standard is bad. We must either buy credits or pay an alternative compliance payment to the government. It essentially imposes a tax on resource-poor areas. We’ve assessed that 15% impact on our customers. It would be a billion dollars a year. There are 25 states with renewable portfolio standards. Not one of the 25 states’s standards is consistent with the proposed national standard. We believe federal funding and incentives with local standards is the best way.

10:20 Reedy: “I’d put my money on the sun.” That was Thomas Edison in 1931. The president’s vision for the DOE’s solar initiative lies behind the forces under discussion today. I spent most of my career with utilities. Ultimately utilities make decisions all about risk. How can inherently risky ventures such as steam-powered coal plants work? They are very complicated, have unreliable fuel sources, and offer environmental risks. Renewables will lower the risk.

• Economic feasibility: PV systems without financial incentives are projected to cost 9 cents per kilowatt hour by 2020 instead of 31 cents now. Florida consumers pay 12 cents now. By 2020 they can be expected to pay 18 cents per hour. One major frustration to the solar industry is comparing the base rate of convention to the peak rate of solar.

Speakers

• Sen. Thomas R. Carper, D-Del.
• Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn.

Contact: Marni Goldberg at 202-546-0007 or mgoldberg@dlc.org

Yorktown Room, Hyatt Regency Hotel, 400 New Jersey Ave. N.W.

18 – 20 September 2007, The University of Chicago Gleacher Center, Chicago

Carbon finance experts estimate that the global carbon market is now worth over $27 billion. Financial giants along with Fortune 500 companies, utility & energy companies, fund managers and regulatory bodies are cashing in on the lucrative concept of carbon finance. Carbon Finance World 2007 has been developed to examine the emerging opportunities in this new global market. This conference will provide attendees with countless business development and networking opportunities, real investment prospects and an action plan for profitable growth.

The 2008 legislative session is only 5 months away. Do know what you need to do to save the climate?

You need to get COLD, the Climate Organizing Leadership Development. Starting in September the Chesapeake Climate Action Network will kick off an advanced global warming activist training series designed to empower new climate leaders in Maryland, DC and Virginia.

The training series will feature expert speakers, guest trainers, and will provide you with the valuable skills that you need to become the lead climate organizer in your area. The COLD trainings will capitalize on the years of experience of some of the most respected organizers in the region to help give you the insider information that you need to stand up to even the most powerful of foes.

Trainings will be located in Baltimore, Richmond, Falls Church, and Washington DC. There will be five trainings in all, once a month from September to January 08.

For more info on the DC trainings, email: dctrainings@chesapeakeclimate.org or apply here.

For more info on the Baltimore trainings, email mdtrainings@chesapeakeclimate.org or apply here.

For more info on the Richmond trainings, email richmondtrainings@chesapeakeclimate.org or apply here.

For more info on the Northern Virginia, email novatrainings@chesapeakeclimate.org or apply here.

A Conference: Health Consequences of Global Warming: Examining the Links; Breaking the Chains

Friday – Sunday September 14 – 16, 2007

Hotel Veto Conference Center 201 S. Linn St Iowa City, IA

Jointly sponsored by: The University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and Physicans for Social Responsibility, in cooperation with the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights, Global and Regional Environmental Research, and College of Public Health.

Introducing the Challenge: Halting Climate Change Addressing Health and Human Rights Links

• Introducing Climate Change Science and Wedges, Jerry Schnoor PhD
• Introducing Human Rights Issues, Burns Weston LL.B, JSD
• Introducing Public Health Concerns, Jim Merchant MD PhD

7:00 PM Dinner Speaker:

• Michael McCally MD PhD, Executive Director, National PSR, Challenge of Global Warming to Preserving Global Health

8:00 PM Concurrent Roundtables

1. Redefining Security, Catherine Thomasson MD
2. Introducing Student Groups’ Responses to Global Climate Change
3. How Cuba Survived Peak Oil. Film, Maureen McCue MD PhD
4. Faith Based Responses to Goobal Warming, Mark Kresowik & Lynn Heuss
5. Invoking the Precautionary Principle, Carolyn Raffensperger JD
6. UNA Process on Global Warming, Katy Hanson, Kate Karchay, Douglas Taylor PhD & Jerry Schnoor PhD

Saturday, September 15

9:00 AM Opening Keynote

• Michael A. McGeehin PhD MSPH, Climate Change, Myriad Threats to Global Health: From Malaria Movement & Complex Disasters to Failing Food Production

9:45 AM Plenary Panel II

Linked Threats to Health and Environment: Current Energy Sources

• Health Threats of Auto-Centered Cities, Catherine Thomasson MD
• Ports, Trade & Transit: Health Threats to Workers, Neighborhoods, and the Global Climate, Andrea Hricko MPH
• Nuclear Power’s Insurmountable Risks, Arjun Makhijani PhD

11:30 AM Plenary Panel III

Collateral Damage: Overlooked Health Costs of Disasters

• Disasters–Loss and Mental Health–Challenge, Curt H. Drennen PsyD
• Disasters–Challenges to Maintaining Research and Care, Tyler Curiel MD MPH
• Unstable Climate–Challenges to Global Food/Water Security, Douglas Taylor PhD

1:15 PM Luncheon Speaker:

• Michael Klare PhD, Blood and Oil–Further Dangers and Consequences of Dependency on Petroleum

2:15 PM Concurrent Roundtables

1. “Low Carbon Diet”– Food Production with Low Carbon Emissions, Rich Pirog
2. Consumption, Denial, and Fear, Fred Myer MA and Carolyn Raffensperger JD
3. Iowa’s Uniquely Unhealthy Energy Options (Coal, Bio-fuels, Nuclear), Mark Kresowik BA, Alana Stamas, and Michele Kenyon Brown
4. Healthy Sustainable Businesses–Incorporating Environmentally Friendly Practices, Peter Barnes MA, Fred Kirschenmann PhD, Geoff Willming, Matt Bulle
5. Environmental Ethics, Voluntary Initiatives vs. Legal Imperatives to Heal Our Planet, Burns Weston LL.B, JSD and Andy Jameton PhD
6. War, Global Warming, Public Health, and Opportunity Costs, Victor Sidel MD and William Hartung

3:30 PM Plenary Panel IV

Global Warming, Health and Human Rights Links

• The Arctic Bellwether–Impact of Energy Extraction, & Use on Health and Human Rights of World’s Indigenous, Marginalized & Poorest, Donald Goldberg JD
• Healthcare of Poor, Minorities, Marginalized Before, During, After Katrina, Ravi Vadlamudi MD

4:30 PM Plenary Panel V Halting and Reversing Global Warming: Affordable, Attainable, Sustainable Solutions

• Promoting and Attaining a Healthy, Rights Based Paradigm, Michael Dworkin JD
• Confronting Coal, Bruce Nilles JD

8:00 PM Concurrent Workshops

1. Concerned Scientists, Health Care Providers, Arjun Makhijani PhD and Catherine Thomasson MD
2. Student Groups—Student PSR, AMSA, ESW, Global Pulse Leader
3. Concerned Business Leaders, Peter Barnes MA, Fred Kirschenmann PhD, Geoff Willming, Matt Bulle
4. Faith Based/Religious Leaders, Ben & Cathy Webb, others
5. Law Makers, Rights Based, Andy Jameton RN PhD, Carolyn Raffensperger JD, and Ed Fallon BA
6. Indigenous Peoples, Minorities, Labor, Mike McCally MD PhD, Ravi Vadlamudi MD MPH, and Dan Holub JD

Sunday, September 16

9:00 AM Opening Inspirational Remarks

• Imperatives of Tikkun Olam, Gerald Sorokin
• Cool Congregations–Compelling Commitments, Rev. Ben Webb

9:30 AM Closing Keynote

• Peter Barnes MA, Introducing the Sky Trust to Protect the Atmosphere

10:15 AM Plenary Panel VI

Good News: Cases of Humane Healthy Living Through Sustainable Energy

• How the West Coast is coming Clean & Green, Catherine Thomasson MD
• Cool Cities, Mark Kresowik BA and Frank Cownie (invited),
• UCS, Assessing the National Legislative Frontier: The Good Bad, and Nonexistent, Rich Dana

11:30 AM Plenary Panel VII

Developing Coalitions, Learning from Others, Working Together Toward a Healthy, Secure, Sustainable Future, Saturday Workshop Leaders Report Results & Consult Audience Members

The International Forum on Globalization, The Institute for Policy Studies, and The Project on Economic Transitions will hold a teach-in on September 14-16.

The event will cover various topics including:

• Climate Change
• Peak Oil (The End of the Era of Cheap Energy)
• Global Resource Depletion (And Species Extinction)
• Powering-Down for the Future (Toward an International Movement for Systemic Change: New Economies of Sustainability, Equity, Sufficiency and Peace)

60 SPEAKERS INCLUDING: Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, Michael Klare, Martin Khor, Richard Heinberg, Winona LaDuke, David Korten, John Cavanagh, Jerry Mander, Maude Barlow, Tony Clarke, Wolfgang Sachs, Sara Larrain, Meena Raman, Ross Gelbspan, Q’Orianka Kilcher, Frances Moore-Lappe, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Daphne Wysham, Victor Menotti, Atossa Soltani, David Suzuki, Simon Retallack, Jeremy Leggett, Arjun Makhijani, David Pimentel, John Passacantando, Rob Hopkins, Steve Kretzmann, Antony Froggatt, Randy Hayes, Anne Leonard, Megan Quinn, Thomas Princen and 25 more.

The Teach-In will be held at Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University, Washington DC.

Tickets and information are available from: International Forum on Globalization 415-561-7650

Witnesses

Panel 1

• The Honorable Alexander Karsner, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy

Panel 2

• Kyle Pitsor, Vice President of Government Relations, National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA)
• Mr. Steven Nadel, Executive Director, American Council for an Energy-Efficent Economy

Coverage from Bloomberg:

The world’s three largest lighting companies, long at odds over a way to eliminate inefficient incandescent light bulbs in use for 125 years, now favor Senate legislation (S. 2017) over a House-passed measure [H.R.2751, Sec. 9021 of H.R.3221] some say will outlaw all but the spiral-shaped compact fluorescent bulbs.

Royal Philips Electronics NV in Amsterdam, the world’s largest light-bulb maker, Munich-based Siemens AG and General Electric Co., based in Fairfield, Connecticut, support a bill introduced last week by Senator Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat.

The measure would phase out incandescent light bulbs by 2014 and replace them with light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, halogen bulbs, compact fluorescent lamps, or CFLs, and higher efficiency lights. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which Bingaman chairs, held a hearing on the plan today.

The House bill would require a further improvement by 2020 in efficiency that industry representatives do not support because they say it would rule out bulbs they are developing to meet the 2014 standard.

“If you tell us that the products we have to spend millions of dollars bringing to market in 2014 will become obsolete in 2020, it’s very difficult for a company to go to their shareholders and say that’s an investment worth making,” said Randy Moorhead, vice president of government affairs for Philips Electronic North America, a division of Royal Philips.

House and Senate aides said today they hoped to reconcile differences in the proposals in negotiations on energy legislation, which currently is bogged down in Congress.

Business meeting to consider

• S.127, to amend the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Act of 2000 to explain the purpose and provide for the administration of the Baca National Wildlife Refuge,
• S.327 and H.R.359, bills to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resource study of sites associated with the life of Cesar Estrada Chavez and the farm labor movement,
• S.868, to amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate segments of the Taunton River in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a component of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System,
• S.1051, to authorize National Mall Liberty Fund D.C. to establish a memorial on Federal land in the District of Columbia at Constitution Gardens previously approved to honor free persons and slaves who fought for independence, liberty, and justice for all during the American Revolution,
• S.1184 and H.R.1021, bills to direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resources study regarding the suitability and feasibility of designating certain historic buildings and areas in Taunton, Massachusetts, as a unit of the National Park System,
• S.1247, to amend the Weir Farm National Historic Site Establishment Act of 1990 to limit the development of any property acquired by the Secretary of the Interior for the development of visitor and administrative facilities for the Weir Farm National Historic Site,
• S.1304, to amend the National Trails System Act to designate the Arizona National Scenic Trail,
• S.1329, to extend the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission, to provide improved visitor services at the park,
• H.R.807, to direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resource study to determine the feasibility and suitability of establishing a memorial to the Space Shuttle Columbia in the State of Texasand for its inclusion as a unit of the National Park System, and
• H.R.759, to redesignate the Ellis Island Library on the third floor ofthe Ellis Island Immigration Museum, located on Ellis Island in New York Harbor, as the “Bob Hope Memorial Library”