$100 Billion in the Economic Recovery Bill for Environment and Energy

The House passed an enormous $819 billion stimulus bill this week with only Democratic support – the number of votes they got from Republicans was a big fat zero (surprise, surprise). The Senate is expected to pass an even larger (roughly $888 billion) bipartisan bill soon, as well. In case you were wondering just how much of that massive economic recovery package is actually going to go toward the environment and energy, the Natural Resources Defense Council has broken it down.

From The Daily Green:

Environmental groups were fawning over the House bill, which Al Gore had personally lobbied for and which, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council’s tally, paves the way for:

$3.4 billion for states for clean energy projects
A grants program for renewable energy technologies covered by the renewable energy tax incentives
$6.2 billion for weatherization of low income homes
$3.5 billion for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (supports clean energy projects primarily at the city and county levels)
$2 billion for clean energy research & development
$6 billion for increasing energy efficiency in federal buildings
$12 billion for transit
$2 billion for ready-to-go drinking water infrastructure projects
$6 billion for ready-to-go sanitation infrastructure projects

The Sierra Club and NRDC are have praised the bill for “moving America to a clean energy economy” and creating jobs. Of course, not everything in the bill is green – and there are a few sour notes. The Senate is adding $4.6 billion for coal and $50 billion for nuclear energy.

It’s difficult to even comprehend how much money $888 billion really is. Hopefully it’ll work- a lot of people have their futures riding on its success.

Link [The Daily Green]

Photo credit: National Parks Service

Al Gore to Host Green Inaugural Ball

Al Gore may not be an official part of the Obama administration, but he’s going to be hosting an inaugural ball in Washington D.C. this January all the same. No, not the official inaugural ball –  a separate one called “The Green Ball: Inauguration of a New Green Economy”, to be held January 19th at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

From The Washington Times:

A draft version of the invitation, obtained by The Washington Times, urges people to join Mr. Gore to “bring together a diverse coalition of environmentally-forward organizations, entrepreneurs, scientists and advocates, celebrating a commitment to growing the New Green Economy.”

More than two dozen environmental organizations are listed on the invitation.

It also features a green-shaded image of Mr. Obama, along with a quote from the Democrat’s interview with Time Magazine from the fall.

“There is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy. … That’s going to be my No. 1 priority when I get into office.”

And that’s not even the only “green inaugural ball” in the works.  On January 17th, Event Emissary – a DC-based event planning company – will host their own ‘Green Ball’ at the Andrew W. Mellon auditorium with organic catering, LED lighting and local floral arrangements. All food waste and flowers will be composted and the group will pay for wind power offsets and carbon credits to make the event carbon neutral. The purpose of the ball, according to Event Emissary, is to inspire the official inaugural committee to incorporate similar plans into their events.

A green collar economy is certainly something to celebrate, though – and Gore has already been discussing energy policy and how climate change efforts can create new jobs with Obama and Biden.  Can’t wait to learn more about this event.

Link [The Washington Times] via [The Huffington Post]

How Do We Get There: Gore’s 100% in 10 years

When Al Gore challenged America to shift to 100% renewable energy within a decade, the question on most people’s minds was, “Is he nuts?” After all, such a goal is more than a little ambitious – particularly for a country that is still wedded to the oil and coal industries. When it comes to energy, America is practically as dirty as they come. The past 8 years of Bush leadership has done nothing to change that; rather, Bush did everything he could to further the interests of dirty energy.

As Gore sees it, there are five steps to achieving this goal. First, he wants Obama and the new Congress to offer large-scale investment in incentives for the construction of solar thermal plants in the Southwestern desert, wind farms in the corridor from Texas to the Dakotas and plants in geothermal hot spots. Second, he believes we should be building a unified national smart grid for the transport of renewable electricity from the rural areas where it’s generated to the cities where the majority of it is used.

Third, he wants to help America’s automobile industry make the shift to plug-in hybrids that can run on renewable energy. Fourth, he suggests embarking on a nationwide effort to retrofit buildings with better insulation, energy-efficient windows and lighting. Finally, Gore believes the U.S. should put a price on carbon here at home and lead the world’s efforts to replace the Kyoto treaty with a more effective treaty that would cap global carbon dioxide emissions and encourage nations to invest together in efficient ways to reduce global warming as quickly as possible.

Gore’s plan may seem at first blush like pie-in-the-sky, never-gonna-happen kind of extreme wishful thinking. But, it’s not impossible. It would take swift action, strong leadership and plenty of funding – but 100% renewable energy in a decade is not out of reach.

There are literally cheap, abundant sources of energy all around us. It’s really kind of absurd when you think about it that we put so much effort into drawing fossil fuels out from underneath the surface of the earth when all the power we need is right here, and we don’t have to destroy the environment to use it. Furthermore, these budding renewable energy industries are already teeming with players eager to research, plan and carry out new energy infrastructure. They just need funding.

Solar, wind and geothermal companies already abound in the U.S., and recent economic woes are the only reason they haven’t continued their explosive growth. There are a lot of green businesspeople out there just waiting to jump in to this new industry and help it expand, and plenty of people out there ready to fill the jobs that it will create.  As billionaire oilman and renewable energy proponent T. Boone Pickens pointed out in a recent CNN interview, building the wind corridor from Texas to North Dakota would create 168,000 jobs in the first year – up to 3 and a half million jobs in the course of a decade.

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have already learned the hard way that the way they’ve been doing business isn’t sustainable. They’ve made far too many a business decision based upon the idea that Americans would always want – and be able to afford – huge gas-guzzling SUVs. After the credit crisis caused auto loans to dry up and auto sales to drop dramatically, automakers like GM find themselves in need of a government handout.

This is where Gore’s goal to help automakers switch to plug-in hybrids could really pick up steam. Though automakers, when profitable, used to fight tooth and nail all government attempts to green up their industry via higher fuel efficiency standards and reduced emissions, now they’re at the government’s mercy.  The government may make a bargain with the industry, offering financial help – and in exchange, automakers must focus on producing high-mpg cars, hybrids, plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars.

The number one concern most people have voiced about Gore’s plan is the cost. No doubt, it would be staggering. But, at the risk of sounding like a broken record – since we have brought up Van Jones and Green for All again and again here at EarthFirst – the key is turning this switch to renewable energy into a massive jobs and economic revitalization program. Van Jones covers this concept extensively in his new book, The Green Collar Economy.

The current state of the economy certainly makes it much, much harder to achieve Gore’s goal. Our government is giving hundreds of billions of dollars to failing corporations when that money could be put to much better use in the form of a ‘green bailout’. But all isn’t lost: the Center for American Progress has prepared a $100 billion, two-year recovery plan that could put renewable energy on the fast track. The proposal, entitled ‘Green Recovery: A Program to Create Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy’ (PDF), outlines exactly what we need to do climb out of this economic hole and make the switch to renewable energy at the same time.

It also addresses the fourth part of Gore’s plan: retrofitting buildings with high-performance windows, improved insulation and energy-efficient appliances. Weatherization assistance could be fully funded to the level authorized by the Energy Independence and Security Act, and the energy-efficiency retrofit program in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance program should be expanded. The federal government should also match state public funds and other locally based programs that support energy efficiency and green building retrofits to both public and private buildings. Strong financial incentives, including tax credits and loan guarantees, should also be used to encourage private property owners to participate.

Perhaps most important of all is the need for a new smart grid. Our current outmoded, decaying power grid simply can’t do the job of transporting green power from rural areas where it’s produced to the rest of the country. Gore estimates the cost of a new green energy grid at around $400 billion over the next decade. Obama has already said that a smart grid is an absolute necessity, telling Rachel Maddow of MSNBC,

“One of, I think, the most important infrastructure projects that we need is a whole new electricity grid. Because if we’re going to be serious about renewable energy, I want to be able to get wind power from North Dakota to population centers, like Chicago. And we’re going to have to have a smart grid if we want to use plug-in hybrids then we want to be able to have ordinary consumers sell back the electricity that’s generated from those car batteries, back into the grid. That can create 5 million new jobs, just in new energy.”

There’s also a growing chorus of voices saying that there’s no reason why renewable energy can’t be produced locally. Many people believe that huge, remote renewable energy plants and farms aren’t green at all, and that creating energy on a local level with technology like micro-wind, for example, is a better choice. That would lessen the need for a huge, expensive new power grid and would spread jobs out across the country. Perhaps their ideas will be heard, too, in the months to come as the Obama administration seeks the best way to tackle this challenge.

There are still plenty of obstacles that will have to be overcome. Of course, we’ve got to keep in mind the fact that the dirty energy industries aren’t going to go down quietly. They’ve enjoyed the unique privilege of having a good buddy in the White House for nearly a decade, who has helped them make record profits and gain even more power. The oil and coal industries in particular would tell you that greenhouse gas emissions, mountaintop removal and other environmental catastrophes are the price we must pay for affordable energy, but of course that’s not true. They’re desperately clinging to their status and they aren’t going to merely step aside.

Big Oil in particular has unleashed a squirming army of lobbyists on Washington in the past few decades, and they’re fighting renewable energy and environmental hurdles with all their might. The Bush Administration has been very accommodating to their demands, and there are certainly still many members of Congress in the pockets of oil companies. But Obama is already in the midst of an unprecedented crackdown on lobbyists, so they shouldn’t expect to continue receiving the kinds of perks they’ve enjoyed under previous presidents.

With Obama in office, Gore’s plan will certainly get more traction than it would have if John McCain – or any other Republican – had won the election. Indeed, Obama has already voiced support for a shift to renewable energy sooner rather than later. In a taped message to the Bi-Partisan Governor’s Global Climate Summit earlier this week, President elect Obama left no doubt that his administration is committed to making serious investments in a clean energy future. He also addressed the final part of Gore’s plan: the need for real government commitment to the fight against global warming.

In the address, Obama stated,

My presidency will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process.

That will start with a federal cap and trade system. We will establish strong annual targets that set us on a course to reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80% by 2050.

Further, we will invest $15 billion each year to catalyze private sector efforts to build a clean energy future. We will invest in solar power, wind power, and next generation biofuels. We will tap nuclear power, while making sure it’s safe. And we will develop clean coal technologies.

This investment will not only help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil, making the United States more secure. And it will not only help us bring about a clean energy future, saving our planet. It will also help us transform our industries and steer our country out of this economic crisis by generating five million new green jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced.

I promise you this. When I am President, any governor who is willing to promote green energy will have a partner in the White House. Any company that is willing to invest in green energy will have an ally in Washington.  And any nation that’s willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have an ally in the United States of America.

After all of this, you might be thinking, why ten years? Isn’t that kind of crazy, considering the state of things? The thing is, long deadlines that are decades away don’t exactly spur immediate, passionate action. A sense of urgency is just what we need to make this happen. Plus, a 10-year deadline comes with the benefit of being 80% Obama administration.

None of this would be easy, but what would be even harder is trying to survive on an increasingly inhospitable planet where extreme weather dramatically affects the world food supply.  The very existence of the human race on this planet is at stake, and that’s what makes all of this worth fighting for. And, it would be far better to take on this challenge and fail than not to try at all. We’d still be much further along than we are now.

But let’s not forget the power of this country to make something happen. Despite this country’s history of racial inequality – and lingering tension – we elected a black man to be our leader in a time of crisis because he is the best man for the job. We rose above our past so that we can have a better future, and we’re going to do it again.

As Gore said himself,

In an earlier transformative era in American history, President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation to land a man on the moon within 10 years. Eight years and two months later, Neil Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface. The average age of the systems engineers cheering on Apollo 11 from the Houston control room that day was 26, which means that their average age when President Kennedy announced the challenge was 18.

This year similarly saw the rise of young Americans, whose enthusiasm electrified Barack Obama’s campaign. There is little doubt that this same group of energized youth will play an essential role in this project to secure our national future, once again turning seemingly impossible goals into inspiring success.

Global Warming Denier Talking Points Debunked

We’ve been seeing a lot of this lately: people who proclaim themselves ‘neutral’ on climate change issues who insist that they’re ‘looking past the hype’, who willfully ignore scientific evidence and simply repeat ignorant conservative talking points.  Grist notes the case of one Kenneth Green (ironic last name), resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, who recently said in a speech to the International Oxygen Manufacturers Association (what?) that technology to reduce emissions is “decades away, and extremely costly”.

From Grist:

Gristmill readers know that statement is utterly false. As do all those who believe in science. The latest multi-year synthesis of the peer-reviewed literature by the world’s top scientists and technologists — signed off by every major government including the Bush Administration — says that we have the needed technology today or are in the process of commercializing it and that the economic cost of strong action will be at most 0.1 percent of GDP per year, far less than the cost of inaction.

But Green asserts, “My science is value-neutral — I just try to figure out what the science really says, and look past the hype.” Actually, it is very easy to figure out what the science really says — just read the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But that, of course, would shatter his carefully crafted ideologically-driven worldview.

Green went on to perpetuate blatantly anti-scientific climate myths like “For the last decade, warming peaked, and recently declined”.  That’s just the beginning. Grist has been fantastic about providing clear, science-backed counter-arguments to this kind of b.s. in the past, and they’ve risen to the occasion once again by debunking this and several other boneheaded statements by Green. Check them out over at Gristmill.

Do you know someone who still clings to misinformation like this? Read up on Grist’s responses and also be sure to check out our two articles on John McCain and Sarah Palin’s environmental records – the election’s tomorrow, and you just might swing a vote in the right direction!

Link [Grist]
Photo credit: EarthFirst composite/Wikimedia Commons

Al Gore says “Go Vote for the Environment!”

Former Vice President Al Gore sat down in a live webcast with PowerVote.org to talk about the importance of getting out the “climate vote” in this election. Power Vote, a national non-partisan effort spearheaded by the Energy Action Coalition, is encouraging voters to go to the polls with energy and the environment on their minds. Sign the pledge to make clean, just energy a top priority in your vote this election.

Al Gore Urges Civil Disobedience to Fight Coal Plants

Al Gore has a message for you, environmentalists: it’s okay to engage in a little civil disobedience here and there when the goal is as important as stopping the construction of coal plants that don’t have the ability to store carbon.  After all, civil disobedience is one of the few ways ordinary citizens still have to make sure our voices are heard.  Gore, speaking to a philanthropic meeting in New York, said on Wednesday that “the world has lost ground to the climate crisis”.

From Reuters:

“If you’re a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration,” Gore told the Clinton Global Initiative gathering to loud applause.

“I believe for a carbon company to spend money convincing the stock-buying public that the risk from the global climate crisis is not that great represents a form of stock fraud because they are misrepresenting a material fact,” he said. “I hope these state attorney generals around the country will take some action on that.”

According to the government, about 28 coal plants are currently under construction in the United States right now and another 20 projects have permits or are near the start of construction.  The carbon emitted from coal plants are a key factor in global warming.

Part of the problem is the fact that we, as a nation, have been apathetic for too long.  We’ve allowed money-hungry corporations to control our lives and dictate our futures, to the extent that every living creature on earth is now in danger. The truth is that we do hold a lot of power in our hands.  We outnumber the executives and the government officials.  If we all stand together and demand something, it will be done.  We just haven’t taken that power into our hands on a mass scale.  So we say, hell yeah, Al.  Civil disobedience is definitely called for in these frightening times.

Link [Reuters]
Photo credit: Sydney Indymedia

Get Ready To Die: 7 Reasons You Should Be Losing Sleep Tonight

Global warming, nuclear war, global pandemics, drug-resistant microbes, asteroids hitting earth and a water crisis of epic proportions – these may all be worst-case scenarios, and scary ones at that, but they’re entirely possible and they’d probably kill a huge chunk of the human race. Think our elected officials won’t let these things happen? One of the most important things the people of America should have learned in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is that we can’t count on the government to protect us, no matter how bad things get. If any of these things happen, we’re screwed.

If you’re reading this within a few hours of going to bed, maybe you’d better leave it for the morning. It’s no lullaby.

7- Global warming is real, and we’re screwed.

Image via 20th Century Fox

Some people would have you believe that there’s nothing to worry about – global warming isn’t real, isn’t happening as fast as scientists say or isn’t caused by our actions. For the average person, the reality of global warming hasn’t set in; the furthest they’ve gone in response to the idea is to start using CFL light bulbs. We’ve got some tough news, guys: covering your eyes and ears isn’t going to stop it from happening.

Flicks like The Day After Tomorrow may be totally cheesy and based on pseudo-science, but they do provide some idea of how serious a total collapse of our environment could be. Some global warming deniers trumpet the idea that the climate has gone through radical changes before man-made influence made it worse, but don’t let that lull you into complacency. Man-made or not, if the average temperatures rise or fall by even a little, we could be toast.

To make things even worse, the frightening reality is we most likely aren’t going to do anything serious to address the problems before it’s too late. Politics in the US and across the world don’t often allow for making big sacrifices. Global warming is going to kill thousands of species and make our planet a very different place -–one that, perhaps, will not sustain human life.

Lose more sleep because of global warming by reading State of the Science: Beyond the Worst Case Climate Change Scenario

6- Terrorists will get and use nuclear weapons.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

We live in a world where regular people routinely blow themselves up in order to take out a crowd and make a statement. Even if you aren’t worried about countries like Iran and North Korea, who we certainly can’t count on keeping their fingers off the button, it’s still entirely possible that nuclear technology could fall into the wrong hands and blow us all to hell as a result.

Imagine an innocent-looking cargo container pulling into, say, New York Harbor… or San Diego, or Baltimore, or one of the dozens of other port cities in America. Those containers don’t get inspected nearly as often as we’d like to think. Regardless of who does it, how or why, it’s coming. So grab your loved one and get that last kiss, because you never know which day will be your last.

Lose more sleep because of nuclear weapons by reading ‘Security Flaws, Terrorists & Nuclear Weapons’

5- A global pandemic sweeps across the world.

Image via MN National Guard

So, bird flu and SARS didn’t end up decimating a large percentage of the population across the world as feared. That doesn’t mean we won’t get hit by some kind Stand-like global pandemic at one point or another. It’s only a matter of time. Globalization and lifestyle changes have made the world a small place, and viruses travel a lot faster than they used to. The British House of Lords intergovernmental organizations committee estimates that the next pandemic will kill between 2 million and 50 million people.

The news reports would start trickling in: thousands of people are dying. It’s spreading fast. There’s no vaccine and no cure. Cases would start popping up in every country around the world – no one would be safe, but children, the elderly and the infirm would be the most susceptible. You can wear a mask if it makes you feel better, but you’d better go ahead and write up that will you’ve been putting off.

Lose more sleep because of a global pandemic by reading ‘Global flu pandemic “inevitable,” says top infectious disease scientist’

4- Antibiotic resistance means get a little cut, and you die.

Image via Flickr user Cape May

In the last decade or so, antibacterial products have become all the rage, and doctors have been over-prescribing antibiotics at alarming rates. Oh, you got a cough? Here’s some erythromycin. Too bad all of this stuff has caused microbes to become resistant to drugs that used to be very effective, and they’re getting stronger. So called ‘super bugs’ could evolve to the point where we can no longer treat infections at all.

That means staph, streptococcus, tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases would cause increasing rates of death, and longer periods of infection – hello, pandemic (guess that gets two hits on this list). It also means infections that were never previously considered serious could become gaping, festering wounds resistant to all forms of treatment. Never thought you could die from a cut, did you? So get rid of all of your antibacterial products, but it won’t necessarily save you. We’re all in on this one.

Lose more sleep because of antibiotic resistance by reading The World Health Organization Report on Antimicrobial Resistance

3- A big asteroid will hit the Earth and wipe us out.

Image via NewScientist.com

It might sound a bit far-fetched, but this is not just the premise of dozens of cheesy action movies. There is new and very compelling evidence that asteroid and comet impacts on the surface of the earth are more common than once thought. And instead of using our resources to guard against it – with telescopes and rockets and, y’know, technology – NASA is spending billions on things like sending a manned mission to Mars.

What kind of damage would an asteroid do? Well, 100 years ago a very small meteor or comet – about 40 meters across – hit Siberia. It apparently blew right under the radar of scientists, who don’t track meteorites under a certain size. So what did it do? It leveled more than 800 square miles! It exploded before it hit the ground and it had roughly 10-15 megatons of blast. This is about 1000 times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. If it had hit Moscow instead of a forest, millions would have died.

So, imagine what would transpire if one just a little big larger hit a population center. Or, consider the effects of one hitting the ocean, which is more likely on our mostly ocean-comprised planet. The tsunami that it would create would do even more damage. Though the chances of an asteroid impact are low, they’re very real all the same. Feeling vulnerable yet? Time to start on that ‘bucket list’.

Lose more sleep about asteroids hitting us by reading ‘Impact Earth: Could we divert a giant asteroid?’

2- A global water crisis makes fresh water more valuable than gold.

Image via Sidney Morning Herald/Reuters

You might think we’ll never run out of water; after all, our planet is mostly ocean. But that doesn’t mean we have an endless supply of potable fresh water, and desalinating seawater is a difficult and energy-intensive process. Rampant economic and population growth is already putting a strain on our water resources, and climate change could cause it to dry up even more. That’s leading many to fear the privatization of water, where our water supply would be in private hands and sell for as much as demand allows.

Water shortages would beget food shortages, and wars would crop up across the world. Water is the oil of the not-so-distant future, and much blood will be shed over it. We’ve ignored the problem for too long, and we’re ill-equipped to deal with it. Obviously, we need water to live, so things aren’t lookin’ so good for people right about now.

Lose more sleep because of the global water crisis by reading ‘US and Global Water Wars Loom’

1- ManBearPig will go on a bloody rampage and kill us all.

Image via South Park Studios

Al Gore has already warned us about ManBearPig, but not everyone is listening. He’s even called us in the middle of the night to warn us, but we insist on ignoring him and it will be our downfall. We’re just continuing to go about our business, taking walks through the woods and even camping knowing that ManBearPig is out there and ready to rip our throats out without a moment’s notice.

Once ManBearPig begins its rampage, it will be too late. It’ll get a taste for blood and all of us will be doomed. MBP is not just a desperate plea for attention on the part of Al Gore. It’s real, and it’s coming to get us. You might as well make peace with death now. We’re totally cereal.

Lose more sleep because of ManBearPig by reading Scientists successfully create human-bear-pig chimera (manbearpig)

If these scary scenarios have you all wound up, check back with us later in the week for ‘7 Reasons You Should Sleep Like a Baby Tonight’, detailing all of the good things we’re accomplishing in the war against ourselves.

Who’s Who in Green: Al Gore

Each week, EarthFirst.com will be bringing you a new ‘green’ figure – environmental activists, businessmen, journalists, politicians, celebrities and others who have fought to make the planet a better place. Who’s Who in Green gives an inside view of the people who are out there fighting for the environment on a daily basis, and assigns them a rating from 1,000 to 100,000 based on the green impact they’ve had on the world.

To kick off Who’s Who in Green, we’ve chosen one of the most visible people in environmental activism in history: Al Gore.

Al Gore was born March 31st, 1948 – appropriately enough, in Washington D.C. Al is a longtime environmental activist, author, businessperson, former journalist and former politician. He first got into politics in 1977 as a U.S. Representative, and was later in the Senate before serving as Vice President from 1993-2001.

Growing up, Al spent his time between his family’s farm in Carthage, Tennessee, where they grew tobacco and raised cattle, and Fairfax Hotel along Embassy Road in Washington D.C. His father, Al Gore Sr., was a U.S. Representative and Senator. This unique dichotomy no doubt had a strong effect on both Al Jr.’s political ambitions and his love for the natural world.

Ironically, in 1968 Al wrote his senior thesis at Harvard on the impact of television on the presidency, warning that the ability to communicate visually was becoming critical to governing. Al would face this issue firsthand during the 2000 presidential election when he was called ‘stiff’ and ‘boring’ compared to the charismatic, joke-cracking George W. Bush.

During his time in politics, Al worked to keep environmental issues visible. As a congressman in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, he held the first congressional hearings on climate change, and co-sponsored hearings on toxic waste and global warming. As Vice President, Al was involved in a number of environmental initiatives including the GLOBE program, and was a strong supporter of the Kyoto Protocol, symbolically signing it in 1998 despite the U.S. government’s refusal to join.

After winning the popular vote for President but ultimately losing the presidency, Al focused his attention on increasing his environmental activism. He has spent the years since traveling across the globe to educate people about climate change, which he calls “the most serious crisis we’ve ever faced”, with his strikingly effective slide show. From that came the documentary An Inconvenient Truth, for which he won an Oscar and shared in a Nobel Peace Prize. An Inconvenient Truth helped bring climate change to the forefront of discussion, helping to trigger a dramatic change in public opinion about the environment and global warming. All profits from An Inconvenient Truth film and book are donated to environmental causes.

Today, Al’s still on the road. He has given his presentation thousands of times, and each time he manages to pull more people into the fold. He’s known for the engaging way in which he puts forth the facts about climate change – at times funny, at others sober – but always eloquent. Al flies commercial whenever possible, and offsets his travel with carbon credits.

Giving presentations is far from the only environmental work Al does, however. He has testified before both the House of Representatives and the Senate recommending environmental policies and urging lawmakers to make the environment a top priority. His nonprofit advocacy group, the Alliance for Climate Protection, produces television ads and amasses volunteers across the country to work on climate change education and initiatives. He’s also chairman of Generation Investment Management, a sustainable investment fund.

Global warming definitely has a higher profile in the media than ever before, but that doesn’t mean Al’s going to stop his work any time soon – in fact, his message has grown louder and more dire than ever. Last year, addressing a crowd at the University of Buffalo, he said “If the crib’s on fire, you don’t speculate the baby’s flame retardant! If the crib’s on fire, you save the baby!”

In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper in 2006, Al said, “The scientists are virtually screaming from the rooftops now. The debate is over! There’s no longer any debate in the scientific community about this. But the political systems around the world have held this at arm’s length because it’s an inconvenient truth, because they don’t want to accept that it’s a moral imperative.”

Al Gore’s Green Score: 91,000

TCPR’s Campaign of Misinformation about Al Gore’s Energy Use

There’s a lot of misinformation out there about Al Gore’s energy consumption, and the Tennessee Center for Policy Research is behind most of it. This ‘research organization’, which declines to identify where it gets its funding, has now put out two press releases detailing what they call Al Gore’s “massive home energy use”, citing information from the Nashville Electric Service.

According to the TCPR, Gore, who they call a “global warming alarmist”, is wasting tons of energy while laughing all the way to the bank with “global warming hysteria” profits. From their June 17th, 2008 press release:

“A man’s commitment to his beliefs is best measured by what he does behind the closed doors of his own home,” said Drew Johnson, President of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. “Al Gore is a hypocrite and a fraud when it comes to his commitment to the environment, judging by his home energy consumption.”

In the past year, Gore’s home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, enough to power 232 average American households for a month.

Since taking steps to make his home more environmentally-friendly last June, Gore devours an average of 17,768 kWh per month – 1,638 kWh more energy per month than the year before the renovations. By comparison, the average American household consumes 11,040 kWh in an entire year, according to the Energy Information Administration. The cost of Gore’s electric bills over the past year topped $16,533.

Their first press release on the subject, released last February the day after Gore won an Academy Award for his documentary An Inconvenient Truth, trumpeted similar claims. The problem is, the data that the TCPR gained from public records is from a period of time when Gore’s home was in the midst of a three-year renovation, which naturally caused a temporary increase in power usage. Since then, the home has been praised as one of the country’s most environmentally friendly.

‘Short of tearing it down and starting anew, I don’t know how it could have been rated any higher,’ said Kim Shinn of the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council, which gave the house its second-highest rating for sustainable design. [Denver Post]

Al Gore’s spokesperson Kalee Krieder refuted the TCPR’s allegations to the Nashville Post on June 18th:

I am happy to provide more information about this from the Gores’ perspective. First, this release yesterday are [sic] a mere re-release of old bills. If any of you have ever worked with contractors, you know that renovations take years. The Gores renovated a 80 year old house from stem to stern. This took about 3 years to go through all the ducwork [sic], to install a geothermal system, to replace all the windows, to put in solar panels (which used to be illegal in Bellemeade and took 6 months to reverse).

So, to be clear, the Gores’ achieved Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification in November 2007. The reduction in the electricity and natural gas bills–you need to look at both in order to truly evaluate their carbon footprint, really kicked in in 2008. At that point, evaluating both, there is about a 40 percent reduction.

Their natural gas bill has seen the biggest reduction as a result of the geothermal system. For electricity, they purchase green power through their utility, which is called “Green Power Switch.” It isn’t an offset, any customer can purchase green power (solar, wind, methane gas) and its a wonderful program.

Indeed, the TCPR chose to ignore the fact that the energy used by Gore’s home is now all green power, an omission that was repeated by Fox News’ Brit Hume on an airing of Special Report.

That’s not all. MediaMatters.org reports that on a February edition of MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Olbermann stated that the TCPR’s claims “omits several other key facts. The former vice president’s home has 20 rooms, including home offices for himself and his wife, as well as a guest house and special security measures. Furthermore, the Gores buy energy produced from renewable sources, such as wind and solar. Tonight, Countdown confirmed with the local utility officials that their program, called the Green Power Switch, actually costs more for the Gores — four dollars for every 150 kilowatt hours. Meaning, by our calculations, our math here, that the Gores actually chose to increase their electric bill by $5,893, more than 50 percent, in order to minimize carbon pollution.”

Furthermore, Gore donates all of the proceeds from An Inconvenient Truth – both the DVD and the companion book – to environmental causes. He also donated 100% of his Nobel Peace Prize award as well as his salary from the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers to the Alliance for Climate Protection.

What motivates the TCPR to put out this misinformation? Is it a desire to make sure the public has the facts, or an attempt to kill the messenger by a group that seeks to discredit global warming?

TCPR is a global warming denial group actively working to discredit information about climate change and anyone who works to educate the public about it. The TCPR reportedly joined the ‘Civil Society Coalition on Climate Change’, a group that claims to have “been established as a response to the many biased and alarmist claims about human-induced climate change, which are being used to justify calls for urgent action by governments.”

TCPR ‘staff and scholars’ are made up of individuals who have supported anti-environment causes and/or received support from anti-environment groups. TCPR president Jason ‘Drew’ Johnson has a long background of working for groups that deny global warming and seek to discredit it. Others have openly called environmental activism “destructive”. MediaMatters.org has some of the details:

Further, as part of the Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program, Johnson interned at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in 2002. As MSNBC host Keith Olbermann noted on the February 27 edition of Countdown, Johnson worked at “the same American Enterprise Institute that takes money from big oil, cheerleads the war in Iraq, and consistently, and now to pretty consistent laughter, downplays global warming.” Indeed, AEI has received nearly $1 million in funding from ExxonMobil in recent years. Moreover, according to The Washington Post, AEI “has been soliciting critiques” of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released in February and “has offered $10,000 to academics willing to contribute to a book on climate-change policy.”

TCPR scholar Charles Van Eaton also serves as a trustee for the Lincoln Heritage Institute (LHI). The institute’s “About LHI” page declares: “We … cannot stand idly by and allow … destructive environmental activism … to become an accepted way of life in America.”

The Department of Revenue commented to the Nashville Post – in a story that has since been deleted from their website – that the TCPR is “not a legitimate organization”.

When it comes down to it, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research’s attempts to discredit Al Gore and paint him as a hypocrite are a pathetic effort to derail the climate change awareness movement. As important as Al Gore has been and continues to be for climate change awareness, he is only a very small part of a growing urgency to act. The world is starting to wake up, and no matter how hard groups like the TCPR may try to stop it, the movement to act on climate change is going to keep on rollin’.

Link [TCPR] + [MediaMatters.org] + [Washington Post]

Chicago Tribune’s Top 8 Anti-Green Celebrities

The Chicago Tribune has released ‘A big, hot mess’ – their top 8 list of celebrities who aren’t going green. We’ve covered some of them before – like #1 Celine Dion’s massive water use at a home in Florida that she doesn’t even use. John Travolta’s fleet of planes, including a Boeing 707 complete with multiple dining rooms, puts him at #5. Most of the others on the list won’t surprise you at all, given their penchant for disgusting displays of wealth.

One choice we have beef with, though, is that of Al Gore. The Chicago Tribune rationalizes his inclusion by saying,

Al Gore’s Nashville home may be considered “carbon neutral,” but in 2007 it was reported that the Gores’ use of electricity (in kilowatt hours) was 12 times that of the average person in the area, according to USA Today. Although a Gore spokesperson said he had bought enough “green power” to balance his electrical costs, the situation nonetheless prompted skeptics to call him a hypocrite.

This is a B.S. reason to put him on a list of anti-green celebrities. Yes, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a bunk-ass right wing organization that refuses to disclose its funding sources, wrote a scathing report on energy use at Gore’s Tennessee home. That report didn’t bother to reveal the fact that during the period reported on, extensive renovations to make the home more green were in progress – hence the extra energy use – as well as the fact that Gore offsets 100% of that energy use. Gore and wife Tipper both work from home, as well, so energy use is bound to be higher than ‘the average person in the area’. We’ll go into that more next week when we take a closer look at the Tennessee Center for Policy Research’s allegations and who they really are.

Meanwhile, check out the rest of the Chicago Tribune’s list, ‘A big, hot mess’.

Link [The Chicago Tribune]

EarthFirst.com’s Top 25 Hottest Guys in Green

Choosing all the guys for our Top 25 Hottest Guys in Green list was no easy feat, but looking at their pictures sure did make it pleasant. We broke it down last week in five daily installments (#25-#21, #20-#16, #15-#11, #10-#6, #5-#1), but for those of you who’d like to check out all the eye candy at once, here’s the full list. Enjoy!

1. David de Rothschild

David de Rothschild is a British environmental activist and adventurer, traveling the globe to call attention to the threat of climate change and sharing his mission with kids all over the world through his website, Adventure Ecology. David is the author of the book The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook: 77 Essential Skills to Stop Climate Change.

2. Van Jones

Van Jones is an environmentalist and civil rights activist who has started several foundations to help spread the green message all over the world, including Green for All and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. His work has helped train youth for green collar jobs and promotes environmental justice. Just today, June 14th, Van has been honored for his dedication to the environment as recipient of the Global Green USA 2008 Millenium Award.

3. Leonardo DiCaprio

Though he’s mostly known for his parts in films like The Departed, Blood Diamond and Titanic, Leo DiCaprio is a dedicated environmentalist and is one of few celebrities who have real green cred. Not only is he green in his own life, he helmed the documentary The 11th Hour, which highlights the destruction that’s been done to the world and hopes for technology that may save it.

4. Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt has found a new calling in his work helping to rebuild New Orleans after the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, and started the Make it Right Project, which is currently building eco-friendly homes in the city. He urges environmentally friendly design practices to be put in use throughout rebuilding efforts. His love of architecture has also led him to help design a green hotel in Dubai, and he has hosted Design:e2, a PBS program about ‘the economies of being environmentally conscious’.

5. Orlando Bloom

Orlando Bloom uses his fame to promote environmental causes like Global Green, Global Cool and the Climate Star campaign. His home features solar technology among other green aspects, and he works hard to offset all of the carbon emissions that come with being a rich and famous celebrity.

6. Graham Hill

Graham Hill founded the popular environmental site Treehugger, which provides valuable green content to over 100,000 visitors per day. Graham is a proponent of the cause to bring environmentalism to urban areas, showing people you don’t have to be a stereotypical hippie to be green. Graham works hard at making Treehugger a site where readers can find positive news, so they can leave feeling inspired about what we can do to help.

7. Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson

Ahmir Thompson, also known as Questlove, takes part in a variety of creative environmental projects as drummer for the hip hop band The Roots. At this years pre-Grammy Awards jam session, he and the group signed compost bins and gave them to schools that came up with the most creative composting campaigns on their campuses.

8. Jamie Oliver

‘The Naked Chef’, Jamie Oliver, is not just a television star and owner of several restaurants in England. He also works to call attention to food quality – where our food comes from, and how it’s produced. He’s a supporter of free range meats, organic produce and fresher, healthier food in general. He began a campaign to take unhealthy meals out of schools in Britain and replace them with nutritious alternatives.

9. Adrian Grenier

Adrian Grenier, star of the HBO show Entourage, has implemented eco-friendly practices into his life, including giving his own home a ‘green makeover’ with solar panels and recycled materials. He also hosts a new show on Planet Green called Alter Eco.

10. Eddie Vedder

Eddie Vedder, singer of Pearl Jam, has dedicated much of his free time to environmental activism. Eddie often participates in fundraisers and benefits for groups like the Kelly Slater Foundation and Jack Johnson’s Kokua Hawaii Foundation. He and the rest of Pearl Jam also donated $100,000 to groups that focus on climate change and other environmental concerns.

11. Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson is a famed Hawaiian surfer and musician. When he’s not hitting the waves or playing shows, Jack works to protect and preserve the natural beauty of his home state. Jack founded the Kokua Hawaii Foundation, which helps to educate kids in Hawaii about the environment. His tours are all eco-friendly and his record company uses recycled materials whenever possible.

12. Muhammad Saleem

Muhammad Saleem is a top green Digger, sourcing all of the best green content on the web and helping to spread it to people all over the globe through the social bookmarking site. Muhammad, a social media marketing guru, aims to help push environmental topics to the mainstream.

13. Chris Ingham Brooke

At just 20, Chris Ingham Brooke is the youngest member of our list. He founded Environmental Graffiti, the most popular green blog in the UK and the third most popular worldwide. Chris has also written for green gossip blog Ecorazzi. He speaks four languages, cooks and plays guitar.

14. Josh Dorfman

Josh Dorfman is the host of the Sirius Radio show The Lazy Environmentalist, and founder of the eco-friendly furniture company Vivavi and its green real estate directory offshoot, ModernGreenLiving.com. He’s also an author of two books and is currently working with the Sundance Channel to bring The Lazy Environmentalist to television.

15. Sir Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin empire which includes the airline, record company and cell phone company has pledged to invest $3 billion over a period of 10 years in clean fuels, renewable energy and environmental technologies.

16. Dan Shapley

Dan Shapley is an environmental journalist currently serving as acting editor at The Daily Green, a green news site published by Hearst Magazines. Dan’s personal connection to the outdoors as a child spurred his passion for writing about the environment.

17. Michael D’Estries

Michael D’Estries is the creator and co-founder of Ecorazzi.com, the best source of green celebrity gossip on the net, as well as Groovy Green. He’s also editor-in-chief at Ecotality Life. As part of his very cool job, Michael has interviewed stars on the red carpet and met with Al Gore, another member of our Top 25 Hottest Guys in Green list.

18. Shea Gunther

Shea Gunther, EarthFirst publisher and eco-entrepreneur extraordinaire, has a lot of projects under his belt. In addition to speeding down the road toward green media mogul status, Shea co-founded Renewable Choice Energy with our #19 hottest guy, Quayle Hodek. Shea is also a top Stumbler.

19. Quayle Hodek

Quayle Hodek is founder and CEO of Renewable Choice Energy, a company that provides wind-powered electricity to thousands of customers including Whole Foods and Honda. Quayle is passionate about making the world a cleaner and better place for all of us to live.

20. Woody Harrelson

Woody Harrelson is a longtime environmental activist, and currently lives in a sustainable community in Maui with his family. A vegan raw foodist and supporter of marijuana legalization, Woody runs his car on biodiesel and strives to create the smallest footprint he can despite being a celebrity.

21. Hank Green

Hank Green, founder of EcoGeek and proud owner of his very own nerd army, proves that geeks can definitely be hot. He’s one of the main writers for his popular site and has also grown his green media empire to include food, politics and bike commuting blogs. Hank is also a YouTube star along with his brother, author John Green.

22. Wen Bo

Wen Bo is China’s most high profile environmental activist – lonely work, considering that the country doesn’t provide the most welcoming climate for it. Bo is head of China operations for the California-based Pacific Environment Group. He also allocates grants to new environmental grassroots organizations in China.

23. Brian Howard

Brian C. Howard is Home and Eco Tips editor at popular eco blog The Daily Green. He’s former editor for E/The Environmental Magazine and has also written for National Geographic’s The Green Guide, among others. He co-authored the book Green Living: The E Magazine Handbook for Living Lightly on the Earth.

24. Gregory Schaefer

Tune in to Planet Green’s new show The G Word to catch a glimpse of hot chef Gregory Schaefer, who challenges other chefs to contests like ‘The Ultimate Eco Cook Off’. Gregory has also hosted the vlog Organic A to Z.

25. Al Gore

(photo credit: James Rexroad)

Al Gore is one of the most celebrated, high profile environmentalists of recent memory, calling attention to the plight of the planet since he served as Vice President. Al’s film An Inconvenient Truth spurred thousands of people across the globe into action. He also serves as chairman for the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Wondering where all the hot ladies are? Check out our Top 25 Hottest Girls in Green!

Sean Hannity Dips Into the Desperation Well And Tries To Pin High Food Prices on Al Gore to Great Hillarity

Great Flying Spaghetti Monster. The pain! I am doubled over in pain from laughing so hard. I picked up on an item from the ‘raz about Faux News laying the blame for record high food prices on…

get this…

Al Gore.

Oh, the delicious pain of it all. The Republican party is in full retreat, they are losing Congressional races left and right in traditionally staunch GOP districts, are looking at a major drubbing in November, and are seeing huge demographic shifts to the left among young people, Hispanics, and even conservative Christians. Fox News ratings are down, right wing talking heads are being canceled every other week, and shilltards like Sean Hannity are reduced to using increasingly pathetic hit pieces like this, complete with scary music and ominous voice overs. Hannity and his dwindling audience of dead-enders are on the downslope of an eight year extreme right neo-con jihadic ciclejerk.

You can watch the hilarious video here.

Here’s a snip from the article that points out a few of the errors Fox News made in the report:

Hannity is correct that increased demand for biofuels is part of the problem. But there are other factors, too, that the “We report. You decide” network conveniently omitted. According to Time magazine, there are three other factors: One is the chronically low productivity of farmers in the poorest countries, caused by their inability to pay for seeds, fertilizers and irrigation. Another is the growing demand for food and the third, which Hannity would probably rather die than admit to, is climate change. Time reported that recent droughts in Australia and Europe cut the global production of grain in 2005 and ‘06. New York Times columnist and economics professor Paul Krugman says that high oil costs play a big role, too.
Hannity also failed to mention that U.S. policies subsidize the conversion of food into biofuels and are also to blame. Time criticizes that policy but notes a possible win-win solution: “There may be a case for biofuels produced on lands that do not produce foods–tree crops (like palm oil), grasses and wood products–but there’s no case for doling out subsidies to put the world’s dinner into the gas tank.”
Hannity went on to quote Gore in 1998 saying he was proud to “stand up for the ethanol tax exemption.” But Hannity didn’t mention that more recently — in 2006, for example — Gore endorsed cellulosic ethanol over corn-based ethanol.

Enjoy the last dying breaths of the Neo-Con revolution while it lasts. I, for one, look forward to looking deep into its eyes as they haze over in anticipation of the coming darkness.

Links [Fox News Video] & [News Hounds] via [Ecorazzi] via [Green Daily]

Al Gore may be Smuggled Back into White House in Someone’s Luggage

8 years later, and many of us have spent this entire time daydreaming ‘what ifs’ about Al Gore’s stolen presidency. It seems that the current presidential candidates are very aware of this, and they’re running with it: everyone’s eager to get Al Gore in on the action.

Democratic White House hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama speak often about green jobs, emissions cuts and renewable energy. But they have more than global warming on their minds when they talk of environmental policy.

The long-term goal may be saving the planet, but the short-term one is winning the backing of former Vice President Al Gore.

So the dueling candidates praise Gore during campaign stops, offer up the prospect of roles for him in future administrations, and – most of all – they stay in touch.

Ok, I have another confession: in 2000, I was one of those Floridians who voted for Nader. You know, the ones who inadvertently helped hand the presidency to Bush on a silver platter. Sigh, the days of being an idealistic college student. Now, I’m almost wishing someone would stage a coup and sneak Al back into the White House, whatever it takes.

Link [MSNBC]

Photo: Wikimedia Commons & Flickr user abbynormy

Gut Buster of the Week: Lindsey Graham Says John McCain Has Done More Than Al Gore for the Environment

 

Michael said it best over at Ecorazzi when he said “Let loose the dogs of absurdity!” upon hearing that Lindsey Graham said that John McCain has done more for the environment than Al Gore. Here’s the exact quote:

“Climate change is the road less traveled but he’s traveled it even more than Al Gore,” Graham said. “Al Gore has talked about it and deserves great recognition but he was around here a long time and never introduced a bill.”

John McCain was given a zero by the League of Conservation Voters, is stupidly pro-war, and is known to be an all around douche nozzle. Al Gore, on the other hand, is our god. He is put above and before all in our pantheon of world savers. As Ecorazzi points out that ThinkProgress points out, Gore was wielding his power in Congress back in the 70s before McCain even ran for office, holding hearings on climate change. He successfully fought off Manbearpig, is raising almost a third of a billion dollars for a global warming ad campaign, and is generally the most recognized ‘”green” person on the planet. I forgive Tipper for her assault on porn and free speech back in the day, but other than that Gore is The Man. The good The Man, not the bad The Man keeping us all down. You know?

Bottom line: John McCain is no friend of the environment, Lindsey Graham is a lying and corrupt blowhard, and the GOP is going to lose by 20 points in November. It’s Obama time baby!

Link [Think Progress] via [Ecorazzi]

Photo: Flickr user Yogi

Al Gore on 60 Minutes: Dick Cheney and Other Global Warming Deniers Are Flat Worlders

Or maybe it was more like:

“You’re talking about Dick Cheney. I think that those people are in such a tiny, tiny minority now with their point of view, they’re almost like the ones who still believe that the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona and those who believe the world is flat,” says Gore. “That demeans them a little bit, but it’s not that far off…”

Have a look at what the former Vice Prez and current “PR Agent for The Planet” has to say about his Halliburton-hugging successor during his March 30th 60 Minutes interview on CBS.

Link [60 Minutes]

Q & A with Mr. Cranky Green: Snowy Winter = Global Warming Called Off? and Adventures in Wind Credits

Q&A with Mr. Cranky Green is a new feature we’re rolling out here at EarthFirst. It’s written by the collective EF Hive and answers our readers questions about all things Green. If you have a good questions for Mr. Cranky Green, send them on to MrCrankyGreen@EarthFirst.com.

Dear Mr. Cranky Green,

I’m confused. I know everyone is talking about Global Warming, but I’m sitting here looking at three feet of snow on my back deck. We’ve had the coldest winter since I can remember and it’s looking to me like this Global Warming thing might be a bit overblown. Can I go back to driving my SUV without feeling guilty? Why is Al Gore trying to steal and eat my babies?

J. Baskind
Eugene, Oregon

Dear J,

No, you should still feel guilt ridden every time you fire up the Landrover. Global Warming doesn’t mean the whole place gets warmer all the time. Planet wide weather patterns are incredibly complex and a colder/warmer/whatever season in one region doesn’t mean jack. Winter was colder in the U.S. this year, but much warmer in Europe. The overall trend of global temperatures continues to rise in correlation with increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. That’s a fact and three feet of snow in your backyard doesn’t mean it’s not true. Al Gore is a Manbearpig fighting God amongst Men. He needs your babies to keep up his energy.

Mr. Cranky Green

Dear Mr. Cranky Green,

My batty old treehugging aunt bought me some ‘wind credits’ for my birthday, once again not getting me the present I actually asked her for- the fourth season of Full House on DVD. What’s the deal with these things?

A. Allehe

Dear A,

Wind credits are a kind of ‘offset’. You might have heard the term ‘carbon offset‘- an ethereal credit created when someone does something that reduces a unit of carbon dioxide from being created somewhere. There are a bunch of different kinds of offsets- tree planting, industrial emissions reductions, efficiency gains and renewable energy generators like wind turbines. They are basically a market based consumer generated subsidy that helps drive advancements and development of green projects like tree plantations, wind farms, solar installations, and industrial CO2 scrubbers.

Wind credits are created for the energy wind farms put on the electricity grid. Wind farms can sell these credits because they displace dirty fossil fuel created electricity on the energy grid. For every kilowatt of energy a wind turbine puts into the electricity pool, that much less coal (statistically most of our energy comes from coal) is burnt to meet the demand. Those emissions and pollution saved are what you are “buying” when you get wind credits.

Wind credits are some of the more trust worthy kinds of offsets because their positive environmental impact is much easier to accurately measure. It’s nearly impossible to get accurate numbers on planting trees and many offset projects have been criticized for their use of mono-culture farms planted over the ground of cut down native forests.

We’re fans of Renewable Choice Energy around here at EarthFirst. They’re the ones who supply wind credits to Whole Foods, Kettle Chips (yumm…. salt & vinegar…), Stratton Mtn., Vail Resorts, and 360 Organic Vodka. We love them mostly because our Publisher Shea was a founder and will get kinda rich when they get around to selling out, but they actually sell a damn fine high quality wind credit.

Mr. Cranky Green

Q&A with Mr. Cranky Green comes atcha every Tuesday or so on the EarthFirst Blog. Send us your questions to MrCrankyGreen@EarthFirst.com so we don’t have to make up these questions.

Photo Credits- Flickr Users EverSpoon (Wind Tubines) & Shelms (Snowy Guy)

Al Gore Calls out Major Media at TED: Ask More Green Questions to Presidential Candidates

Al Gore gave a well received speech to the Technology, Entertainment & Design (TED) conference on Saturday. He continued his push for global solutions for global problems, but one particular item caught my eye.

• Of the thousands of questions the major networks (figures given for NBC, ABC, CBX, FOX & CNN) asked the U.S. Presidential candidates, only 6 questions concerned global warming. What does this say about the priorities of political reporting in this political year? Maybe Al should be asking questions of the candidates.

Saving the environment and positioning our country to face the realities of climate change is one of America’s most pressing issues, this side of the War in Iraq. We need to hear more from our politicians about their plans to get us there. Keep on rocking Al Gore.

Link [Wired.com]