YOU DID IT! WE WON!
Green Schools Are Coming To Henderson County!
By Eva Ritchey

In a unanimous vote today, the HC Board of Commissioners voted to fund LEED certification for the two new schools to be built in Henderson County. We could never have done it without the persons on the Global Warming Task Force of Henderson County and others. Many of you wrote letters, attended meetings, sponsored forums, and encouraged others to support this initiative. Now the children of Mills River and Hillandale will have a healthy and daylit school. Of course, we won't rest until we have the next schools powered by clean free solar, but for now this is a wonderful beginning.

We want to send a special thanks to Commissioner Chuck McGrady. It was Commissioner McGrady who guided the initiative through the board of commissioners. Susan Stewart and Barbara Bennett worked tirelessly along with their committees. It was very good to have Gary Prichard there this morning at the commissioner's meeting to share the suspense and good news.

Now the agenda for our August 1st meeting has changed. We are going to celebrate (then work.) Please come and enjoy cake and ice cream while you celebrate your victory. (It is also Wharton Nelson's 86th birthday and we are going to surprise him. He doesn't have email.)

Again, my heartfelt thanks to each of you. A job well done by faithful stewarts of this planet.
 

Moving Beyond Kyoto
By AL GORE
(From New York Times "Op Ed Page" 6/30/07)

WE the human species have arrived at a moment of decision. It is
unprecedented and even laughable for us to imagine that we could actually
make a conscious choice as a species, but that is nevertheless the challenge
that is before us.

Our home Earth is in danger. What is at risk of being destroyed is not
the planet itself, but the conditions that have made it hospitable for human
beings.

Without realizing the consequences of our actions, we have begun to put so
much carbon dioxide into the thin shell of air surrounding our world that we
have literally changed the heat balance between Earth and the Sun. If we
don't stop doing this pretty quickly, the average temperature will increase
to levels humans have never known and put an end to the favorable climate
balance on which our civilization depends.

In the last 150 years, in an accelerating frenzy, we have been removing
increasing quantities of carbon from the ground mainly in the form of coal
and oil and burning it in ways that dump 70 million tons of CO2 every 24
hours into the Earth's atmosphere.

The concentrations of CO2 having never risen above 300 parts per million
for at least a million years have been driven from 280 parts per million
at the beginning of the coal boom to 383 parts per million this year.
As a direct result, many scientists are now warning that we are moving
closer to several "tipping points" that could within 10 years make it
impossible for us to avoid irretrievable damage to the planet"s habitability
for human civilization.

Just in the last few months, new studies have shown that the north polar ice
cap which helps the planet cool itself is melting nearly three times
faster than the most pessimistic computer models predicted. Unless we take
action, summer ice could be completely gone in as little as 35 years.
Similarly, at the other end of the planet, near the South Pole, scientists
have found new evidence of snow melting in West Antarctica across an area as
large as California.

This is not a political issue. This is a moral issue, one that affects the
survival of human civilization. It is not a question of left versus right;
it is a question of right versus wrong. Put simply, it is wrong to destroy
the habitability of our planet and ruin the prospects of every generation
that follows ours.

On Sept. 21, 1987, President Ronald Reagan said, "In our obsession with
antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members
of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to recognize
this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences would
vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world."

We all of us now face a universal threat. Though it is not from outside
this world, it is nevertheless cosmic in scale.

Consider this tale of two planets. Earth and Venus are almost exactly the
same size, and have almost exactly the same amount of carbon. The difference
is that most of the carbon on Earth is in the ground having been deposited
there by various forms of life over the last 600 million years and most of
the carbon on Venus is in the atmosphere.

As a result, while the average temperature on Earth is a pleasant 59
degrees, the average temperature on Venus is 867 degrees. True, Venus is
closer to the Sun than we are, but the fault is not in our star; Venus is
three times hotter on average than Mercury, which is right next to the Sun.
It's the carbon dioxide.

This threat also requires us, in Reagan"s phrase, to unite in recognition of
our common bond.

Next Saturday, on all seven continents, the Live Earth
http://www.liveearth.org concert will ask for the attention of humankind
to begin a three-year campaign to make everyone on our planet aware of how
we can solve the climate crisis in time to avoid catastrophe. Individuals
must be a part of the solution. In the words of Buckminster Fuller, "If the
success or failure of this planet, and of human beings, depended on how I am
and what I do, how would I be? What would I do?"

Live Earth will offer an answer to this question by asking everyone who
attends or listens to the concerts to sign a personal pledge to take
specific steps to combat climate change. (More details about the pledge are
available at http://www.algore.com.

But individual action will also have to shape and drive government action.

Here Americans have a special responsibility. Throughout most of our short
history, the United States and the American people have provided moral
leadership for the world. Establishing the Bill of Rights, framing democracy
in the Constitution, defeating fascism in World War II, toppling Communism
and landing on the moon all were the result of American leadership.

Once again, Americans must come together and direct our government to take
on a global challenge. American leadership is a precondition for success.
To this end, we should demand that the United States join an international
treaty within the next two years that cuts global warming pollution by 90
percent in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for
the next generation to inherit a healthy Earth.

This treaty would mark a new effort. I am proud of my role during the
Clinton administration in negotiating the Kyoto protocol. But I believe that
the protocol has been so demonized in the United States that it probably
cannot be ratified here much in the way the Carter administration was
prevented from winning ratification of an expanded strategic arms limitation
treaty in 1979. Moreover, the negotiations will soon begin on a tougher
climate treaty.

Therefore, just as President Reagan renamed and modified the SALT agreement
(calling it Start), after belatedly recognizing the need for it, our next
president must immediately focus on quickly concluding a new and even
tougher climate change pact. We should aim to complete this global treaty by
the end of 2009 and not wait until 2012 as currently planned.

If by the beginning of 2009, the United States already has in place a
domestic regime to reduce global warming pollution, I have no doubt that
when we give industry a goal and the tools and flexibility to sharply reduce
carbon emissions, we can complete and ratify a new treaty quickly. It is,
after all, a planetary emergency.

A new treaty will still have differentiated commitments, of course;
countries will be asked to meet different requirements based upon their
historical share or contribution to the problem and their relative ability
to carry the burden of change. This precedent is well established in
international law, and there is no other way to do it.

There are some who will try to pervert this precedent and use xenophobia or
nativist arguments to say that every country should be held to the same
standard. But should countries with one-fifth our gross domestic product
countries that contributed almost nothing in the past to the creation of
this crisis really carry the same load as the United States? Are we so
scared of this challenge that we cannot lead?

Our children have a right to hold us to a higher standard when their future
indeed, the future of all human civilization is hanging in the balance.
They deserve better than a government that censors the best scientific
evidence and harasses honest scientists who try to warn us about looming
catastrophe. They deserve better than politicians who sit on their hands and
do nothing to confront the greatest challenge that humankind has ever faced
even as the danger bears down on us.

We should focus instead on the opportunities that are part of this
challenge. Certainly, there will be new jobs and new profits as corporations
move aggressively to capture the enormous economic opportunities offered by
a clean energy future.

But there's something even more precious to be gained if we do the right
thing. The climate crisis offers us the chance to experience what few
generations in history have had the privilege of experiencing: a
generational mission; a compelling moral purpose; a shared cause; and the
thrill of being forced by circumstances to put aside the pettiness and
conflict of politics and to embrace a genuine moral and spiritual challenge.


Al Gore, vice president from 1993 to 2001, is the chairman of the Alliance
for Climate Protection. He is the author, most recently, of "The Assault on
Reason."
 

G8 agreement on climate change a "disgrace" - Al Gore
14 Jun 2007 20:45:24 GMT

Source: Reuters

MILAN, June 14 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore denounced a deal by world leaders on curbing greenhouse gases as "a disgrace disguised as an achievement", saying on Thursday the agreement struck last week was insufficient.

The dedicated climate crusader, whose 2006 global warming documentary won an Oscar, said leaders at last week's G8 summit in Germany had not risen to the challenge to respond to what he calls a "planetary emergency".

G8 leaders agreed to pursue "substantial" reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, stopping short of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's hopes for concrete numerical commitments on emission reductions, including her key aim to cut gases by 50 percent by 2050.

They said they would negotiate a new global climate pact that would extend and broaden the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.

"It was a disgrace disguised as an achievement," Gore said at an event in Milan, where he praised Merkel for her efforts.

"The eight most powerful nations gathered and were unable to do anything except to say 'We had good conversations and we agreed that we will have more conversations, and we will even have conversations about the possibility of doing something in the future on a voluntary basis perhaps.'"

The former U.S. Democratic presidential candidate is spearheading efforts to get the world of pop music to back his crusade with the Live Earth concerts on July 7, which will be held in numerous cities around the world.

Gore served as Democrat President Bill Clinton's vice president and narrowly lost the 2000 election to George W. Bush.

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Seven Ways You Can Help

6/9/2007 11:37:47 AM

By Caroline Hodge

McClatchy Newspapers 

The earth is getting warmer. Landfills are bursting at the seams. The planet is suffering.

But what can young people do about it? Reduce the amount of waste you generate. Use cleaner energy sources. Go greener today, starting with these seven steps: 

1. Use a reusable water bottle.

Americans buy an estimated 25 billion single-serving, plastic water bottles each year, according to the Container Recycling Institute. That's an average of 83 bottles per person per year. Plastic bottles take significant resources to produce, including fuel for transportation and petroleum to make the plastic. Even recycling bottles takes energy.

Nalgenes, a brand of colorful reusable water bottles, has bottles that are $6 to $9 at REI or other stores.

2. Switch to cloth shopping bags.

The Wall Street Journal estimates that 100 billion plastic shopping bags are used in the United States every year. That's an average of 333 bags per person per year. Plus, according to Worldwatch Institute, Americans recycle less than 1 percent of the plastic bags they use. Using reusable bags reduces the amount of waste you generate. Buy cloth bags for $2 to $10.

3. Eat less meat.

You don't need to become a vegetarian to help save the planet. Eating meat just one less day a week can reduce your negative impact on the environment. More water, energy and land are required to produce meat than to produce grain.

4. Switch to energy-efficient light bulbs.

Most U.S. households use standard incandescent bulbs. But Energy Star-qualified compact fluorescent light bulbs, or CFLs, use 66 percent less energy than standard bulbs, produce just as much light, last up to 10 times longer and don't need to be replaced as often, according to Energy Star. (Click here to find the best light bulb.)

If every household in the United States replaced just one incandescent light bulb with a CFL bulb, it would be equivalent to removing one million cars from the road, according to Energy Star.

5. Use less paper.

We all print hundreds of pages each year for school, producing tons of unnecessary waste. Reduce the amount of paper you use by printing on both sides whenever possible, or printing on paper that has already been used on one side. Also, you can buy post-consumer waste (or recycled) paper at most office supply stores for a little more than standard paper.

You can also tackle junk mail. Wonder how much junk mail comes to your house every week? Collect the junk mail that arrives at your house for seven days. Then use the stack to persuade your parents to get themselves off mailing lists, using a service like GreenDimes. For a dime a day, the service will remove your family's name from direct-mail lists and stop unsolicited credit card and insurance offers from coming to your house.

6. Buy organic and local food.

Did you know that only 1 percent of pesticides applied to crops reach the pests they target, according to the Greening Princeton Web site? The rest enter the environment, degrading soil quality and damaging waterways and aquatic life. Organic food is grown without the use of herbicides and pesticides. Organic farming can use 50 percent less energy than conventional farming methods, according to the Flex Your Power Web site.

Buying local food saves on the fuel used to transport food grown elsewhere, thousands of miles across the country or around the world.

7. Recycle your electronics.

Everyone knows the importance of recycling glass, plastic and aluminum, but what about cell phones, computers, CDs and batteries? Electronics are responsible for about 40 percent of toxic heavy metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium in landfills, according to the Computer TakeBack Campaign. Check with your city's recycling facilities to see if they take electronics.