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Today's editor: LaughingPlanet
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What's in a name?
Is there a trick to getting the GOP on board when it comes to climate change?
They must start by focusing on climate-friendly policies and stop assuming that we must first achieve unanimity on global warming science. People can support the transition to a carbon-free energy future without believing, or even knowing, that it might influence glaciers, coral reefs or Arctic ice.
Call it healthy, clean, or even green, just don't mention Al Gore.
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Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.
All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists.
NOTE: Original Title "DADT policy for a greener planet?" has been removed due to people who cannot read past the title before commenting.
Top Story:
From WaPo piece quoted above:
Even if climate scientists manage to convince some conservative skeptics that global warming poses an urgent threat, Republican leaders have backed themselves into a corner. The issue has become so politically polarizing that it would be nearly impossible for them to retreat from their stance and to get behind legislation that is thought to concern global warming.
I'm not suggesting that we halt efforts to educate the public about warming. For all sorts of reasons, such initiatives are critical. But we must stop thinking that these efforts are a necessary precondition for getting anything done on this issue.
We all know that the GOP does a much better job than our side when it comes to messaging. We are always playing defense.
In this case, the best defense is a good offense. Pass bills called that Happy Clean Family Neighborhood Act and see how many climate zombies will vote against it.
So what's a conservative politician who secretly cares about climate change to do? How can Republicans, in Congress or in legislatures around the country, make the case to their colleagues - and how can they bring conservative voters along?
They can talk about green jobs. Nowhere even in the reddest of states will someone out of work refuse a meal ticket just because it is a green one.
They can talk about cleaner water. Once more hillbillies in West Virginia see the video of the guy lighting his kitchen's tapwater on fire, they will begin to realize that getting fracked up the ass is painful.
They can talk about endangered species. Imagine parents who have to explain to their kids that they allowed the panda, the polar bear, and the orangutan to go extinct in their lifetime. "Sorry, Billy. When I was your age, these were not just beanie babies, but we killed them all."
In focus groups conducted by my firm on behalf of numerous environmental organizations over the years, climate skeptics almost always tell us that such steps are good things to support, even if global warming isn't real. New energy approaches are good for the planet, for human health, for energy independence and for our economy, they say.
Perhaps it is time for us climate hawks to go in the closet for a while. When the American public snaps out of it, we can unmask ourselves and proudly point to the work we have done combating climate change in a most inhospitable env't, literally and figuratively.
Is there a sane Republican left in the country?
Maybe so:
Republican Guv acts boldly to combat climate change
The regional, state and provincial leaders Tuesday will announce a new global organization that is intended to break through the current climate negotiations impasse and take concrete actions at the subnational level: the R20 - Regions of Climate Action.
R20 is a coalition of subnational governments working on low-carbon and climate resilient projects in both developed and developing countries that will reduce emissions while building green economies.
"Basically we are beginning one of history's great transitions, the transition to a new economic foundation for the 21st century and beyond, free of fossil fuels," Schwarzenegger told 1,500 attendees from 80 states, provinces and countries. "And, of course, this transition is not easy. But then again, any change is not easy. Real change never is."
I have never been a huge fan of teh Aahnold, but on gay rights and climate change, he has done more than any major elected official of the GOP. If only this sanity were contagious and spread to Congressional goopers.
Through these efforts, the R20 aims to expand the global green economy, create new green jobs and build commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Governors' Global Climate summit comes just two weeks before world leaders meet in Cancun, Mexico for the annual United Nations climate summit. They are expected to proceed with negotiations on a global climate change agreement that will pick up when the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period expires at the end of 2012.
Nice work, Governator.
But Ixnay on the Imateclay.
WarrenS made a New Year's Resolution to write a letter advocating climate action every day. The result is over three hundred letters to congresspeople, newspapers, President Obama, and more. Warren has even had letters published in the New York Times and the Boston Globe.
I just had to run with Warren's topic today, as it feels so newsworthy, and because we have had so little attention on climate change of late.
Here is his take on the piece in the Top Story section:
The Washington Post runs an article by Meg Bostrom, noting that Republicans who secretly know climate change is happening may be able to vote for good policies as long as the word “climate” isn’t attached. She also notes the new scientific SWAT team’s formation. This letter addresses both points.
It is tragic that environmentally attentive Republicans are no longer politically allowed to acknowledge the facts of global heating, and can support good climate policies only if they’re disguised as something else. The fact that decreasing numbers of Americans accept the scientific reality of global warming and the catastrophic changes it will bring is a testimony to the power of our media, which for years have promoted several false and misleading narratives: climate change isn’t happening; even if it is happening, humans aren’t responsible; humans might be to blame, but it won’t be that bad; even if it’s going to be bad, it’ll cost too much to do anything about it; the science isn’t “settled”; Al Gore is fat. It’s encouraging to see that climatologists are girding their loins to enter the media circus in order to combat the misrepresentations and misunderstandings. I wish them luck. They’ll need it.
Warren Senders
Learn Warren's letter writing technique here. And be sure to steal his stuff!
From his blog:
Great Hornbill (Buceros bicornis)
by Lip Kee
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(All times Eastern!)
eKos diaries from Wednesday, November 17, 2010 |
Diary | Author | Time (Eastern) | Tags |
Time to Commit in the Arctic | Michael Brune | 9:24:41 AM | Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ExxonMobil, oil, ekos, ANWR |
Village Green: Hilarious video on ‘gated communities’ (+ an extra) | Kaid at NRDC | 9:01:44 AM | smart growth, sustainable communities, neighborhoods, gated, eKos |
Lamest Action of the Lame Ducks? | A Siegel | 7:50:52 AM | S3815, T Boone Pickens, Harry Reid, natural gas, energy |
Gulf Watchers Wednesday - BP Bribes Schools to Brainwash Kids & NOAA Helps -
BP Catastrophe AUV #427 | peraspera | 3:01:19 AM | Gulf Watchers, Oilpocalypse, BP, Deepwater Horizon, Macondo |
eKos diaries from Tuesday, November 16, 2010 |
Diary | Author | Time (Eastern) | Tags |
Prosecuting Climate Change Criminals | Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse | 6:42:23 PM | Recommended, EcoJustice, environment, climate change, climate change crimes, ekos |
Night Train: Losing HSR Battles while Winning the Transport War | BruceMcF | 3:46:26 PM | Cascade Corridor, HSR, Living Energy Independence, passenger rail, Rapid Rail |
How to reduce CO2 emissions without really saying so. | hold tight | 3:27:08 PM | energy conservation, climate change, Montana, ekos |
Is Schwarzenegger the New AlGore? | Steven D | 2:04:18 PM | eKos, California, Proposition 23, Global Warminng Solutions Act of 2006, Al Gore |
dailycancun: #racetothefuture | boatsie | 10:25:39 AM | Belize, UNFCCC, Harmony, Belize. Pittsburg CELDF, Reef Summit |
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