The U.S. EPA Regulations of June 2nd, 2014 can help counter the ridiculousness of our present situation in which it is culturally acceptable to encourage indiscriminate consumption and resource depletion.
POTUS must Bring Bold –not timid– pledges to mobilize ambition, enthusiasm and action to the Sept., 2014 U.N. Climate Summit (NewYork). Innovate, scale-up, cooperate and actually deliver concrete action to put us on track for an ambitious, binding, legal agreement through the UNFCCC process. Catalyze action by all levels local though global in governments, “authorities”, business, finance, industry and civil society in new enduring commitments and substantial, scalable, replicable contributions to shift to low-carbon economic policies.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aims to conclude a global climate agreement in 2015. Although the Sept., 2014 Climate Summit (NewYork) is not part of the negotiating process, many countries have recognized the value of the Sept., 2014 Climate Summit (NewYork) by, for example, the Decision of the 2012 Doha Climate Conference (Doha COP-18/CMP-8) to welcome the U.N. Secretary General’s efforts, and other national measures like the U.S. EPA Regulations of June 2nd to build a solid foundation on which to anchor successful negotiations and sustained progress on reducing emissions and strengthening adaptation strategies.
The Proposed EPA rules that will reduce carbon pollution from power plants, only if POTUS stands firm in national support of the rules, will be a victory Obama can proudly proclaim to the 2014 Climate Summit (NewYork). Our President must do this because we have definitely exceeded (blown past) the planetary boundaries (which means environmental constraints) for carbon emissions (especially for CO2 that approaches and surpasses 400 parts per million [ppm] of atmosphere from place to place when only 280-to-350 ppm is within the environmental constraints (also known as planetary boundaries). Probably the planetary boundaries for CH4 (methane) have likewise been breached.
As just one response to implications of global warming that has been overwhelmingly well documented across the several disciplines of atmospheric, oceanographic, biological, geological, meteorological, agriculture and other sciences, we need many people in many countries to reduce indiscriminate consumption, including the consumption of electricity generated by dirty coal and dirty oil (especially so-called Tar Sands , the combination of clay, silt, sand, water, and that heavy black viscous oil called bitumen). These implications of global warming are the end of the era of “cheap energy" and "peak water" along with the depletion of many other key resources, including food and breathable air. The need for widespread solution-oriented activity that decreases carbon emissions is, therefore, especially most urgent.
There are decreasing returns on investment (“diminishing returns”) to the prospect of “mega-cities” and “Megaregions/Megalopolis/Megapolitan Area” like the Great Lakes Megaregion cities of Chicago, Toronto, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Montreal, Minneapolis–Saint Paul, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Erie, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Akron, Ottawa, Kansas City (MO), Columbus, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Madison, Fort Wayne, Louisville, Buffalo, Rochester (NY), Rochester (MN),, Green Bay, Rochester, Duluth, Toledo, Dayton, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Flint, Saginaw, Quad Cities (IA/IL), Ann Arbor, Hamilton(ONT), London (ONT), Windsor where more than 65% percent of population and jobs are located in 10 U.S. megaregions in which each and all have complex infrastructures to maintain, require extensive transport and processing of water-food-waste, which experience extensive –up to 33%– waste or loss of food, and where are least likely to occur the prospects of reducing indiscriminate consumption, reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions, achieving ecological sustainability with “zero waste”. One hundred-thirteen million (0.11 billion) now live in the most threatened environments along the eastern and Gulf seacoasts as well as in the Great Lakes megaregion. U.S. population is estimated by U.S. Census Bureau June 5th at 04:38 UTC(Eastern+5) to be 318,172,480 ( 0.318 Billion ).
The extraordinary increase in global coal consumption in the 2001-2011 decade is partly due to the OECD outsourcing its industrial production as most consumer goods are made by using electricity generated by burning coal. Only a tiny part of our population is aware that global coal consumption has risen more than 56% in just 10 years, 2001-2011. The U.S. EPA Regulations of June 2nd, 2014 can help counter the ridiculousness of our present situation in which it is culturally acceptable to encourage indiscriminate consumption and resource depletion.
End Notes below -----
ACTION item:
Click here to sign the DailyKos Campaign petition to President Obama’s EPA: Stand firm and pass the new rules on carbon pollution.
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*Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Global natural gas consumption increases by 1.7 percent per year. Increasing supplies of tight gas, shale gas, and coalbed methane support growth in projected worldwide natural gas use. Coal use grows faster than petroleum and other liquid fuel use until after 2030, mostly because of increases in China's consumption of coal and tepid growth in liquids demand attributed to slow growth in the OECD regions and high sustained oil prices. International Energy Outlook 2013 (IEO2013) of U.S. Energy Information Administration independent statistics and analysis projects that world energy consumption will grow by 56 percent between 2010 and 2040.
It is hugely expensive and carbon-energy-intensive to locate, license (legislate/lobby/etc.), extract, transport, refine, market, sell and distribute tar-sands oil and the water-hogging, CO2 releasing concrete ("cement") infrastructure that is required to accomplish making anything useful from tar-sands oil. Those examples of diminishing returns must not be ignored.
A mistake has been trying to cut the issues as just/only how much and where the Greenhouse Gases like CO2, CH4, NOx, and SO2 are being injected into atmosphere. Reporting U.S. contributions to us all living within planetary boundaries and incorporating them, together with other environmental and social indicators, into expanded GDP measures and national accounts should include, for example, U.S. governments and "authorities" at all levels local through national being held accountable for assuring measurement and reporting of: Researchers per 1000 persons employed, Percentage of children taught by trained and qualified teachers with an appropriate student-to-qualified teacher ratio, with clear and transparent understandable national benchmarks for status of being labeled a "qualified teacher"; Breadth and depth of curriculum, including an evaluation of gender-sensitive, non-discriminatory content and teaching resources+materials, as well as content on global citizenship, human rights, peace, and life skills; Percentage of children in pre-primary through grade 2 who can access mother-tongue medium-quality and medium-quantity education; Percentage of students enrolled in primary & secondary schools that provide basic drinking water as a right, adequate sanitation as a right, and adequate hygiene services as a right. Of course that and more will be "expensive" but the alternative is even worse (like teaching Lady Liberty, Old South Church and Washington Monument to swim before North America is depopulated). And I did specify "U.S." meaning U.S. nation, not individual U.S. states, and U.S. does not mean Native Nations' "indigenous schools" or "tribal governments" with whom the U.S. is required to have a nation-to-nation relationship. If that means yet another Movement to Amend the U.S. Constitution, so be it.