The following are conceptual elements being submitted to the 2008 Democratic Platform through Barack Obama's "Listening to America" web utility, and to the 2008 Republican Platform via the RNC's Online Platform input system.  Neither party has a monopoly on new ideas; in fact, recently, at the party level, they both seem almost completely devoid of them.  Let us hope that Senators Obama and McCain, as both somewhat 'unconventional' candidates, can change that, in the final analysis.

While it is unlikely for the following to work its way through the various levels of active screening (or lack thereof) in either party to actually reach any of the policy wonks or K-Street hacks who will handcraft the two platforms, the formulation is a useful exercise nontheless.

This is not intended to be a comprehensive prescription to cure the nations ills, merely some supplemental thinking to address some of the most compelling priorities that are recognized across the political spectrum.  (more...)

I remember watching An Inconvenient Truth and being thoroughly unsurprised at much of the evidence - nonpartisan science has long since confirmed the fact that man's wanton burning of carbon-based fuels is contributing to the atmosphere in a way that gradually rises temperatures worldwide, leading to a host of complications.  I considered myself an environmentalist before then, and I still do - Al Gore didn't make me into one, but he sure as hell helped keep me that way.

Then Leonardo DiCaprio made an environmental documentary.  I knew then I had to do something different.

I had to start peeing in my sink.

More below the fold.

You can find more posts on climate change science, policy, and news at Environmental Defense Fund's Climate 411 blog.
 
 

I noticed that the Netroots Nation website links to the Burnt Orange Report’s Guide to Visiting Austin. Number one on the list of things to do is swimming at Barton Springs Pool.  
 

Barton Springs is indeed a very special place. It’s also a very visible reminder of one of the most unique and fragile geological features in Central Texas – the Edwards Aquifer.
 

Follow me over the fold to learn more about this special resource, and how you can help protect it during and after your visit to my hometown.

You can find more posts on climate change science, policy, and news at Climate 411.
 

It’s Friday afternoon, and time for a look back over the week.  There were two studies that jumped out at me.  The first study says it all in its title.
 

1. "One-third of reef-building corals face elevated extinction risk from climate change and local impacts."

2. The effects of climate change could hit U.S. water supplies harder than scientists previously thought.

Why in the world would a Californian environmental preservation, governmental entity, supported by the likes of the Sierra Club, the Metropolitan Water District, funded by billions of tax dollars, want to destroy the environment?  Maybe that is a stupid question. This 'agency' is powered by people without ANY science background or have mis-matched backgrounds for the job. You ask, how much damage can an ‘environmental agency’ with people filled with 'ideals' (perhaps, ambition) but, with no oversight, do?

There are three projects in Southern California of similar focus, supporters, design, two of which have been massive financial failures. Two projects are associated with dams in L.A. All three projects are FOR THE CHILDREN. Two are about water and all were supported by the water agencies and governmental environmental groups. One related project, a colossal reservoir built by one of the agencies, may negatively impact S. California’s water supply in this drought emergency. One project is in the planning and public relations stage where disaster can still be averted. All of the projects are museums, one in Hemet, one in Sunland and one in Whittier Narrows.

The lesson - where there is lots of money and no oversight, things go very badly – like Katrina.

Environmental havoc, they wreak.

Since when has Massachusetts enjoyed a surplus of pristine drinking water supplies that multinational firms, not Bay State citizens, are considered more deserving to receive? The state classifies 70 percent of state river drainage basins as "flow-stressed." Since when have they been restored to such good health that we now have a surfeit of naturally clean freshwater ready for shipping to bottle-chugging out-of-staters - and this in an era in which we face unprecedented global warming, increased agricultural irrigation needs, and worsening water pollution, which requires skyrocketing treatment costs?

Leaders in government, business, religious, and spiritual movements across America are increasingly rejecting bottled water because of its indefensible environmental costs. It is time that this state also calls a halt to the aggressive intrusions of the bottled water industry into the vulnerable water sources that supply small-town homes, farms, and public conservation lands.

Who doesn't love a nice hot shower in the morning?

But have you considered how much energy your hot shower uses?

As the cost of energy keeps going up and up, I got curious as to how much heat is required for that wonderful morning (or evening) ritual.

The answer surprised me--and it will probably surprise you, too.

Crossposted at Politicook.net

Hydrogen bonds are not very strong, but they are common.  Looking it from an energetic standpoint, covalent bonds (the pure sharing of electrons, like in diatomic oxygen, for example), then ionic bonds, like in salt, are stronger.  But there are lots of hydrogen bonds, and numbers have power.  The only other that is so diffuse, and thus so powerful, are metallic bonds.  I have covered all of those in previous diaries.

A hydrogen bond forms when a hydrogen atom (the smallest and lightest) is bonded with either nitrogen, oxygen, or fluorine.  From a zero point approximation, a hydrogen bond is a strong dipole-dipole bond, but they are much more important and quite different.

Whilst we have not explained it well yet with models, it is a fact that it exists.  Here are some of the empirical reasons:

Crossposted at Politicook.net

None of us should be alive.  We are only because of water.  Water.  Everyone knows about it, everyone uses it, but few understand it.  Every schoolchild knows that water is H20, but few scientists realize the ramifications of that simple formula.

Water has a molecular weight of 18 atomic mass units (amu, the mass of a proton or neutron, roughly) since the common isotope of oxygen has a a mass of 16 amu, and that of the most common type of hydrogen has a mass of one amu.

Water looks sort of like Mickey Mouse, in that the two hydrogen atoms make an angle through the H-O-H bond of about 104.45 degrees.

This is an edited repost of a rant I wrote as a comment in another diary, but I presumptuously fancied that it merited it's own diary posting, simply for the purposes of advancing discussion.  There are more erudite and authoritative voices in the community who can address the science and the ethics behind each of these suggestions, so I am only offering a precis of my pet peeves about the toys which have characterized the American lifestyle for the past forty years which I find to be completely indefensible today.

And please note that I recognize my own hypocrisy. My generation is responsible for the bulk of the mess we currently must remediate, as my twenty-four year old son is so keen to point out often and repeatedly.

Being a Futurama fan, I've always wanted to say this but could not find the propitious moment. Writing about water scarcity & food shortages is taxing and angers me at times particularly when I come across disheartening news caused by blatant greed and callous disregard for our planet.

However, a huge dose of human ingenuity, human creativity and human toil will right the wrongs. I have great faith in humanity and this diary is dedicated to the good folks out there bursting their synapses coming up with novel ways of making the world less dependent on fossil fuels, working out solutions to feed the planet and generally trying to make this earth a better place (if you look at the human brain from say, 150,000 years ago, you will not see much difference when compared with today's brains. Yet the drive to learn, as well as our ability to communicate and work collectively, has lifted our human potential to unimaginable levels.)

All year long we have been subjected to an unending parade of frivolous, meaningless nonsense masquerading as "issues" in the Presidential campaign. The mainstream media repetitively parrots every bit of gossip conjured up and bats it back and forth between the candidates, to get their "reaction" to it, and that of their supporters, then the opinions of analysts as to how the gossip or their reaction to it or their supporters reaction to it will affect the campaign.  Why does this pass for news?

Perhaps this is to be expected of the same news channels that otherwise fill their airtime with the latest goings on of trashy bimbos in Hollywood, but often the more cerebral activist class gets drawn into discussing the same drivel. We should be propounding issues that matter.

Have you ever stopped to consider how some of the most mundane and boring policy changes might radically improve the world - and be enacted with a minimum of wailing and gnashing of teeth? (more...)

Help! I am feeling mighty grumpy and curmudgeonly because I find this whole NYC Waterfalls project by Olafur Eliasson and company (which cost $15 MILLION USD) grossly inappropriate for these times of recession, global upheaval, oil shock, and peak oil.

....jump....

Fluoride could damage bones of kidney patients

Water is Life, yet over 1 billion people have no access to safe drinking water and over 2 billion lack basic sanitation. As you know, due to increasingly lower availability of water in many parts of the world, water has more and more become a political commodity.

In fact, quite a few conflicts have been fought because of water. With the horrid news of Mount Kilimanjaros's imminent loss of snow caps and the inexorable march of desertification coupled with inane and unchecked deforestation, political leaders will have to start addressing the question of water shortages sooner than later.

While most of our country, rightly so, is focused on the ever increasing cost of gasoline, and its effect on our economy, this will be one of those diaries that reminds you that a much more valuable resource (now commodity?) is endangered.  This resource is something we need for life, and it is simply water.

We are running out of freshwater

In the first seven years of the new millennium, more studies, reports, and books on the global water crisis have been published than in all of the preceding century. Almost every country has undertaken research to ascertain its water wealth and the threats to its aquatic systems. Universities around the world are setting up departments or cross-departmental disciplines to study the effects of water shortages. The Worldwatch Institute has declared: "Water scarcity may be the most underappreciated global environmental challenge of our time."

For this diary, I will be offering quotes out of a new article on "The American Prospect"...follow me below

Austin, Texas, is a leader in the United States on paths toward a more energy smart future.  MSN called it the "Greenest City in America."  IT has smart growth policies, has a focus on plug-in vehicles, wind power, and ... well, many things.  

Yearly Kos 1 was in a center of conspicious consumption: Las Vegas. YK2 in a leading city when it comes to green roofs which had the Cool GlobesCool Globes up when we were there.  Netroots Nation is going to an even greener pasture.  And you can send a friend there through the DFA Scholarship for Netroots Nation.

From the earliest point in man's existence on Earth, water has played a vital part - earliest settlements were often established along the banks of rivers or lake shores to ensure a ready supply of water was obtained. Mesopotamia, the so-called cradle of civilization, was situated between the major rivers Tigris and Euphrates. For without water, where would human life be? It is the element of all people since our bodies are mostly made, anywhere from 55% to 78% of water, depending on body size. This connectivity and dependence upon water is started from the uterine protective waters of the mother's womb.

Our bodies may be able to survive up to a month without food, but without water, we can only last a week. Water is needed, not only to re-hydrate ourselves, but also to keep our muscles and other parts of our bodies (ie eyes) operating properly. We all need between 1 liter and 6 liters a day, in extreme weather. Because of this importance we need to look after our precious resource as not only our own lives depend on having fresh clean water, but also the lives of all other inhabitants on the planet. If I sound a little too "New Age", so be it, it's crucial that we start to address food & water shortages. Now, not once we've run out.