11th-Hour Series: E.P.A. Decides CO2 Not a Pollutant

Late yesterday, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson issued a memo declaring that “[o]fficials weighing federal applications by utilities to build new coal-fired power plants cannot consider their greenhouse gas output.” “The current concerns over global climate change should not drive E.P.A. into adopting an unworkable policy of requiring emission controls” in these cases, Johnson said.

As you may know, last year The Supreme Court ruled  that the EPA could regulate carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas, under existing law. Then last month, EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board, ruled that the EPA should consider CO2 in limiting permits for new coal-fired power plants, forcing new and proposed plants to address their carbon dioxide emissions. Well, that ruling has now been overruled. John Walke, lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council said, “It’s a marvel to behold an E.P.A. action that so utterly disdains global warming responsibility and disdains the law at the same time.”

Coal plant opponents list several in late stages of the approval process that could be affected by the decision. Vickie Patton, deputy general counsel of the Environmental Defense Fund, estimated that as much as 8,000 megawatts of new coal-fired power plants that could win swifter approval as a result of the ruling.

Lisa Jackson, whom Obama has nominated as Mr. Johnson’s successor, has the opportunity to go through a rule-making and see how to deal with the issue, but  the ruling could also tie the hands of President-elect Barack Obama, who has indicated that he wants heat-trapping gases to be regulated.

UN Climate Change Conference falters, defers

Prez Elect Obama’s Green Team nominations came just after the United Nations’ annual climate change conference sputtered to an indecisive close at Poznań, Poland last week, failing to set ambitious new goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Al Gore rallied future hope saying, “To those who are fearful that it is too difficult to conclude this process with a new treaty by the deadline that has been established for one year from now in Copenhagen, I say it can be done, it must be done. Let’s finish this process at Copenhagen. Don’t take the pressure off. Let’s make sure that we succeed.”

Bill McKibben, a leading environmentalist, was one of the first to describe global warming as an emerging environmental crisis in his 1989 book The End of Nature. His latest book is called Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. He is also co-founder of the environmental mobilization campaign called 350.org. The number 350 refers to calls for a new global target to reduce carbon dioxide levels to no more than 350 parts per million. Just returning from Poland where he attended the UN climate change conference in Poznan, he comments on the changing paradigm as the seriousness of the situation is setting in:

The politics of this, as opposed to the policy, is finally starting to change as more and more people begin to realize that we’re way deeper into the climate problem than we thought.
First thing that happened was that the small island nations and less-developed countries of the world, the first and most vulnerable victims to climate change, sharpened their rhetoric considerably. They started talking about survivability and asking other nations, many of which complied, to sign a pledge saying that whatever they did, they would try to build a climate policy that allowed all nations of the world to survive, not to sink beneath the rising seas or the expanding deserts. I mean, we’re seriously talking, in the not-too-distant future, about hauling flags down outside the UN, because those countries no longer exist. That began to sharpen, the rhetoric.

The other thing that happened—was a part of Gore’s speech, that got him by far the longest and lustiest round of applause—was when he said—and this was an [enormous] breakthrough—that we have to start aiming for 350 parts per million CO2. That sounds like a small technical change from 415 parts per million, the current goal, but in fact it changes every aspect of this debate. Since we’re already past 350—we’re at about 387 parts per million now; that’s why the Arctic is melting—it means that we have to treat this as the full-on emergency that it is, not one more problem on a long list, but the absolute central keystone problem that we have to go to work on in the most impassioned way right now.

Now, look, the momentum of the talks is such that they’ll kind of drag on in their current form for a while towards Copenhagen next December. But I think that the reality of the world’s—the reality of the physics and chemistry in the atmosphere is beginning to overtake the political reality that’s been the main feature of these talks. We’re going to see a much sharpened, much heightened debate with a lot more people getting a lot angrier and demanding actual change.

read more from Democracy Now.org
Al Gore endorses 350 for the planet – read the story…
pingback on 350 is now the most important number on the planet

ecopsych 101

ec-o-psy-chol-o-gy n.
1. The emerging synthesis of ecology and psychology
2. The skillful application of ecological insight to the practice of psychotherapy
3. The study of our emotional bond with the Earth
4. The search for an environmentally-based standard of mental health
5. Re-defining “sanity” as if the whole world mattered

Principles of Deep Ecology

1. All living beings have intrinsic value.
2. The richness and diversity of life has intrinsic value.
3. Except to satisfy vital needs, humankind does not have the right to reduce this diversity and this richness.
4. It would be better for human beings if there were fewer of them, and much better for other living creatures.
5. Today the extent and nature of human interference in the various ecosystems is not sustainable, and the lack of sustainability is rising.
6. Decisive improvement requires considerable change: social, economic, technological, and ideological.
7. An ideological change would essentially entail seeking a better quality of life rather than a raised standard of living.
8. Those who accept the aforementioned points are responsible for trying to contribute directly or indirectly to the realization of the necessary changes.

from The Trumpeter (.pdf)

This Is Reality

the This Is Reality – Come Clean on Clean Coal Campaign: There is no such thing as “clean”coal

This Is Reality|these are The Facts

Atrazine: U.S. use and biological effects

The movie FLOW, raises close-to-home concerns about use of Atrazine–a herbicide so toxic it’s banned in Switzerland where it’s made–on U.S. crops, especially corn–which, as shown in King Corn,  is ubiquitous in the tap water of 10 million people in corn-belt states. EWG reports that 7.2 million Americans in 21 states drank tap water contaminated with Atrazine at levels above health-based limits between 1998 and 2003.

Atrazine was banned in the European Union in 2004 because of its persistent groundwater contamination^.[2] In the United States, however, atrazine is one of the most widely used herbicides, with 76 million pounds of it applied each year.^[9] It is probably the most commonly used herbicide in the world, and is used in about 80 countries worldwide.^[10] Its endocrine effects, possible carcinogenic effect, and epidemiological connection to low sperm levels in men has led several researchers to call for banning it in the US.^[2]

THE SHIFT movement

THESHIFTMOVIE.COM

THE SHIFT is a transcending movement and a movie-in-progress that stems from an uncompromising longing for cultural reform all across the globe…it can be felt as a fundamental desire throughout humanity for peace, social justice and sustainability…and it is manifesting through a swell of activity at the most grass-roots levels of our society!

Bush 11th-hour shenanigans launched

U.S. WEAKENS ENDANGERED-SPECIES RULES

DECEMBER 11, 2008, 4:44 P.M. ET
by Siobhan Hughes

PUBLISHED BY ‘THE WALL STREET JOURNAL’ (USA)

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration on Thursday eliminated one step in the effort to protect endangered species, allowing federal agencies to bypass consultation with government scientists about whether new projects will harm threatened wildlife.

The U.S. Interior Department issued a rule that allows agencies to avoid consulting with the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service if they conclude that any actions they fund wouldn’t harm an endangered species.

Environmentalists have been up in arms over the rule since it was proposed in August, but the Bush administration says the changes are narrowly targeted and came out of concern that the Endangered Species Act would be used as a back-door approach to curb greenhouse-gas emissions.

“It should come as no surprise that today the Department of the Interior and the Department of Commerce are announcing final regulations clarifying a segment of the consultation process under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, particularly as it relates to global processes like climate change,” Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said.

Write to Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes@dowjones.com

CLICK HERE FOR THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE

___________

… RELATED NEWS UPDATE

from The Center for Biological Diversity

Just hours ago, Bush announced his long-threatened 11th-hour regulations gutting the Endangered Species Act. In what might be the fastest lawsuit filing in history, the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit within minutes in San Francisco federal court to strike down the regulations. The Center and its partners — Defenders of Wildlife and Greenpeace — are asking the court to protect endangered plants and animals by completely nullifying Bush’s policies as quickly as possible.

Chief Seattle speaks about earth holism

In 1854, Chief Seattle replied to an offer from the US government to “buy” a large area of tribe land:

How can you buy or sell the sky?.. the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If you do not own the freshness of the air… and the sparkle of the water… how can you buy them? – we don’t own them. Every part of this earth is sacred to my people; every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every humming insect… is holy in the memory and experience of my people. This beautiful earth is the mother of the Red Man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The rivers are our brothers… we give the rivers the kindness we would give to any brother. But the white many does not understand our ways. He is a stranger, who takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy. And when he has conquered it, he moves on. He kidnaps the earth from his children. And he does not care…
I do not know. Our ways are different from your ways…

file under: things that make you go Hmmm….

FLOW dvd is available 12/9

The award winning water documentary, FLOW-For Love Of Water,  is released on DVD tomorrow… buy online or check your local library for a copy.

Dubbed “the scariest movie at the (2008) Sundance Film Festival” by Wired Magazine, Irena Salina’s award-winning and controversial film is a fearless, yet stirring investigation into the growing privatization of the world’s dwindling fresh water supply. Director Salina cogently illustrates how companies such as Nestle, Vivendi-Universal, Suez, and Coca-Cola are tapping fresh water supplies and taking advantage of this “blue gold” much to the detriment of human society and the planet.

In a remote village in South Africa, locals pay more per gallon than affluent city dwellers living miles away; a Bolivian river, with government complicity, is contaminated by slaughterhouse residue; in the States, people spend nearly $9 billion annually on unregulated bottled water, which usually comes straight from the tap.

Environmental Protection Agency Allows Environmental Destruction

EPA approves mountaintop removal rule changes

By Noelle Straub via earthportal.org

Greenwire: U.S. EPA yesterday (12/2) approved changes to the rule governing mountaintop mining activity near bodies of water, the last step needed to finalize a measure that critics say will lead to irreparable harm to mountain waterways.

The Bush administration needed EPA’s approval to alter the 25-year-old rule because the agency must agree to any mining regulations that could affect air and water quality. The Office of Management and Budget also signed off on the changes earlier this week, and they are expected to take effect before President George W. Bush leaves office next month.

The administration and the mining industry say the rule change is necessary to end litigation over whether Congress intended to allow dumping of huge piles of debris, called “valley fills,” when it passed the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, but critics say the move is a last-minute power grab for the coal industry.

Environmentalists and politicians who opposed the change — including the governors of Kentucky and Tennessee — had lobbied EPA in recent weeks, hoping it would refuse to agree to the changes. They now hope that the incoming Obama administration will decide to reconsider the rule.