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[Stupid aloha joke here]: Hawaii and the oil endgame

I'm a few days late on this, but it seems significant.

Hawaii's Republican (oops, did I italicize that?) Governor Linda Lingle has proposed a new bill called "Energy for Tomorrow." You can read the original press release (here as PDF; here converted to HTML) or a shorter fact sheet (PDF; HTML). The five major components:

• "Savings through Efficiency"
• "Independence through Renewable Energy"
• "Fuels through Farming"
• "Security through Technology"
• "Empowering Hawaii's Consumers"

It draws heavily on the Rocky Mountain Institute's Winning the Oil Endgame, and aims to make the state most dependent on fossil-fuel imports energy independent. Bold.

From a story in Renewable Energy Access:

Syriana goes climate neutral

Hot off the (press release) presses:

In a groundbreaking move, Warner Bros. Pictures and Participant Productions have made Syriana, a multi-layered political thriller about the global oil industry, the first major motion picture to be "climate neutral" by offsetting 100% of carbon dioxide emissions generated by the production during filming -- an estimated 2,040 tons -- with investments in renewable energy. Investments will be made in wind and methane power and, specifically, in projects that may not otherwise happen without this support.

NativeEnergy worked with Syriana's producers to calculate the amount of carbon dioxide emissions from all of Syriana's production activities, including filming, air travel, rental car and truck emissions, hotel energy use, diesel generators used on location, office and warehouse energy use, and emissions from shipping. NativeEnergy then offset those emissions by purchasing renewable energy credits, or "green tags," from renewable energy projects.

(I added the links. Haven't found the press release online yet -- will link when I do.)

Pretty cool.

Update [2006-1-18 15:15:9 by David Roberts]: Hm ... DavoJ says in comments that The Day After Tomorrow was in fact the first climate-neutral blockbuster, and IMDb at least seems to back him up. Anybody got more info on this?

Al Gore: The Movie

There's an interesting piece in the L.A. Times about the documentary on Al Gore and global warming that's going to debut at Sundance. (We will, if all goes well, have a review of the film before too long.)

They've got some pretty impressive firepower behind it:

EarthEngine.net

A word of counsel to the new and potential-laden earthengine.net: Just because you can do something in Flash doesn't mean you should.

Internet shopping and the environment

Ever wondered about the impact of internet shopping on the environment? Me neither, but thankfully the folks over at Gotham Gazette are all over it. On the plus side, there are fewer vehicle-miles logged shopping. On the negative side, there's lots and lots and lots of recycling: Cardboard boxes, styrofoam, packaging, etc.

I like this idea:

I Am Dyin’, Hear Me Roar

Lion advocates support trophy hunting to help save big cats When one contemplates saving an endangered species, one’s thoughts naturally turn to … shooting it. (Wait, yours don’t?) So it […]

Here Today, Oregon Tomorrow

Feds say local recovery plan is enough to save Oregon’s coastal coho Oregon coastal coho salmon will not be returned to the federal threatened species list. The National Marine Fisheries […]

Already the Kennedy wind controversy is a target of fatuous bloviating

Sigh. The whole flap over Bobby Kennedy and the Cape Cod wind farm is first and foremost a distraction. In anything you've read about it, have you seen any statistics? How many wind farms are being actively fought by locals? How many of those on environmental grounds? Has Kennedy taken stands on other wind farms? What does the environmental impact statement on the wind farm say?

You're unlikely to get any actual information from stories about the hubbub. Instead, expect a bunch of fatuous trend pieces (environmentalists divided!) and fatuous hypocrisy charges (environmentalists won't take their own medicine!). Expect fatuity. The whole damn thing is a big Fatuity Generator.

Exhibit A: Conservative NYT columnist John Tierney addressed the controversy yesterday (yes, I know, you can't read it). Here's an excerpt:

Gaia theorist says we’re all doomed

So, James Lovelock -- he of the famous "Gaia Hypothesis" -- has a rather, uh, grim piece in the Independent today, mainly as advance hype for his new book The Revenge of Gaia.

(The paper also has a follow-up piece that does little but point out the existence of the original piece. Oh, and another follow-up piece, doing the same. And, um, another follow-up piece, in case you missed the first three.)

I'm not really clear on what Lovelock thinks he's trying to accomplish. Does he think people aren't more concerned about global warming because environmentalists haven't yelled loud enough? Haven't been apocalyptic enough? Haven't painted a vivid enough picture of the end of civilization? Does he think becoming even more melodramatic -- "before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic" -- is going to snap people awake?

I'm mystified by this attitude, which seems to be widely shared. Just shouting, louder and louder and louder, isn't going to do anything. Lovelock's latest piece is not going to reach anybody who's not already sympathetic. Public opinion polls show that the majority of people believe in global warming and believe it's human-caused and believe it's a threat. What are they supposed to do? Panic? They need to see pathways, from where we're standing now to a place where it will be OK. Lovelock offers no such pathways.

This kind of street-corner "the end is nigh" stuff has, in my humble opinion, largely exhausted its usefulness.

Here are some of the high low points:

And unfashionable.

Getting cancer from chemicals is so last month. Get cancer from being green instead!

Your hybrid, though reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, could be the source of a cancer-causing electromagnetic field! Your tofu, presumably a substitute for overconsumption of meat, could give you thyroid cancer -- deforestation aside! Reading Grist, your indispensable source of environmental enlightenment, could give you cancer! My, you can't take a breath these days without finding out that breathing gives you cancer!

What's a paranoid enviro to do?

The answer to this and many, many, many other questions: Wear silver underwear!

<Segue smoothly into long, profound, philosophical commentary on the detrimental effects of paranoia. End with Hallmark-worthy reflection on living life to the fullest. Accept imminent comments on life-changing nature of post with enviable humility.>