"The Age of Stupid" Movie Global Premier on Sept. 21

The docu-drama, The Age of Stupid, is coming to a theater near you. The Age of Stupid is about "a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?"

The movie will be broadcast live to over 700 locations in 40 countries from a solar-powered cinema tent in New York City on Monday, September 21.  Visit the movie website to find a location near you.




The Age of Stupid USA Trailer from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.

Earth Hour 2009: March 28

Saturday, March 28 at 8:30pm local time, individuals, businesses, and cities across the world will honor Earth Hour 2009. Earth Hour simply asks you to switch off lights (where feasible) for one hour beginning at 8:30pm in your local time zone. Earth Hour seeks to raise awareness about climate change and is a "call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet."

The event started in 2007 with an estimated 2.2 million homes and businesses participating. In 2008, an estimated 50 million individuals participated. In 2009, organizers hope to reach 1 billion individuals. Will you participate?

Some Earth Hour 2008 results:

• Chicago saved an estimated 420 tons of carbon emissions



• Toronto's electricity usage dropped 8.7%



• British Colombia saved 125 megawatts of electricity

National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions - February 5, 2009

It's not too late to participate in this year's National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions. On February 5, the National Teach-In will take place among primary, secondary, and higher education institutions, faith groups, civic organizations, and businesses. Each event is customized by local organizers and options include:

• National Teach-In - spending 10 minutes discussing climate change solutions and policy recommendations as they pertain to the course topic




• President's Climate Commitment - evaluating your school's progress toward the goals of the American College & University President's Climate Commitment.




• Climate Dialogue - roundtable discussions between students and elected leaders




• 100 Days of Action - a webinar focusing on Solutions for the First 100 Days of the new presidential administration and activities for citizens during the first 100 days

Visit the National Teach-In website to host your own event or to find an event in your area.

Michigan Buckeyes?

Football season is here and so is a creative new campaign to raise awareness of the effects of climate change. In Ohio, the Save the Buckeye campaign warns the state that global warming could push the growing region of buckeye trees north to Michigan.

Ohio's state tree is the buckeye tree. Ohio is also home of the revered Ohio State Buckeyes whose nemisis is Michigan. Billboards read, "Michigan Buckeyes? Global Warming is Sending Ohio's Buckeyes North." To capture attention, billboards have been placed near the Ohio State University campus and campaigns are held during tailgate parties.

New Cars in California Must Display Global Warming Score

By GreenBiz Staff Published July 7, 2008

OAKLAND, Calif. -- California is making it mandatory for cars to be labeled with global warming scores, figures that take into account emissions from vehicle use and fuel production. The law requiring the labels goes into effect at the start of next year for all 2009 model cars, though its expected the labels will be popping up on cars in the coming months. The labeling law forces cars for sale to display a global warming score, on a scale of one to 10, which is based on how vehicles in the same model year compare to one another. The higher the score, the cleaner a car is. The score takes into account emissions related to production of fuel for each vehicle as well as the direct emissions from vehicles. The score will be displayed next to the already-required smog score, which also rates cars one to 10 for how many smog-forming emissions they emit. For both scores, an average vehicle will have a score of five.California is the first state of pass such as law, and a similar law will take effect in New York for 2010 model year vehicles. Global warming scores will be included on the state's DriveClean website. While this law is intended to help consumers take into account emissions while purchasing cars, a proposed law in the European Union would require E.U. public sector bodies put a price on emissions. A law endorsed by the European Parliament's Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety would make governments put a monetary cost on the emissions of vehicles they plan to purchase, and add that to expense calculations. The law would exclude certain types of vehicles, such as ambulances and fire trucks.

http://www.greenbiz.com/

Under Pressure, White House Issues Climate Change Report

From the New York Times, May 30, 2008:

The Bush administration, bowing to a court order, has released a fresh summary of federal and independent research pointing to large, and mainly harmful, impact of human-caused global warming in the United States.

The report, released Thursday, is online at climatescience.gov, along with a new report updating the administration’s priorities for climate research.

Most of the findings, like the spread of warmth-loving pests and the inevitable loss of low-lying lands to rising seas, are not new. But the report included new projections of how the poor, elderly and communities with lagging public-health and public-works systems will face outsize health risks from warming.

Among the report’s new conclusions on health: “An increased frequency and severity of heat waves is expected, leading to more illness and death, particularly among the young, elderly, frail and poor.” It added that deaths from cold would decline, but said uncertainties on both projections made it impossible to characterize the overall risk.

It gave high odds (essentially a two out of three chance) that Lyme disease and West Nile virus would have expanded ranges because of warming. The report gave the same odds that some food- and water-borne diseases would also increase among susceptible populations, but said “major human epidemics” were unlikely as long as public-health systems remained effective.

Under a 1990 law, presidents must submit a report to Congress every four years summarizing what is known about impacts of climate change and other global environmental problems on the United States.

The last such assessment, undertaken in the Clinton administration and published in 2000 in the early days of the Bush presidency, was attacked by groups and industries opposing restrictions on greenhouse gases. References to it were deleted from some government reports by political appointees in the White House.

Environmental groups sued to force the completion of a new study. In court, the White House contended that a series of more than 20 studies requested by President Bush in 2003 satisfied the 1990 law, but Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong of Federal District Court for the Northern District of California rejected that assertion last August and ordered a comprehensive assessment to be published by the end of May.

“This assessment is an example of what federal scientists can and should be doing when they are freed from political interference and allowed to actually do their jobs,” said Kassie Siegel, climate program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who was the lead author of the 1990 law, strongly criticized the White House.

“The three-year delay of this report is sadly fitting for an administration that has wasted seven years denying the real threat of global climate change,” Mr. Kerry said in a statement. “In these lost years, we could have slowed global warming and advanced clean energy solutions, but instead America’s climate change strategy has been at best rhetorical, not real.”

By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: May 30, 2008

Earth Hour, Saturday March 29, 8-9pm

This Saturday, March 29 is Earth Hour 2008. Cities, businesses, and individuals around the world are asked to turn off non-essential lighting for 60 minutes (8-9pm local time) "to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming."

To date, over 250,000 individuals and 18,000 businesses have signed up to participate. Have you? Visit their website to register.

You Can Help "Focus the Nation" on Global Warming Solutions

Focus the Nation is an educational initiative seeking to advance discussions on global warming solutions for America. The initiative consists of four components:

2% Solution - a free interactive webcast being shown at thousands of schools and faith and civic organizations around the country on Wednesday, January 30 at 8pm EST and available on demand afterwards. The webcast will feature Stanford University climate scientist, Stephen Schneider, sustainability expert Hunter Lovins and green jobs pioneer Van Jones and youth climate leaders, for a discussion of global warming solutions.

National Teach-In - on Thursday, January 31, educators are encouraged to engage in a national teach-in engaging millions of students and citizens with political leaders and decision makers about Global Warming Solutions.

Green Democracy - urges every Focus the Nation team to end their event the same way, in a round-table dialogue with elected leaders answering questions by a panel of students.

Choose Your Future - from the list of policies advanced on the Focus the Nation website, during the week of January 31st, 2008, students and citizens across the country will vote on five as priorities for action. This campus and citizen endorsed agenda will be held up to political leaders in Washington DC, and state capitals across the nation.

You can click on their interactive map to find Focus the Nation events being planned near you. It's not too late to get involved and plan a Focus the Nation event. Visit their website for more details and to register your event.

Global Warming May Soon See Santa Don Shorts

From Yahoo! Green: ROVANIEMI, Finland (AFP) - If the most dire climate forecasts come true the tourism industry in Europe's far north, already feeling the effects of global warming, may find itself promoting a Santa in shorts and a camel-drawn sleigh.

Each year at the end of autumn, residents, shopkeepers, travel agencies, reindeer herders and even politicians in the Finnish Arctic town of Rovaniemi -- home to Santa Claus' Village, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Finland -- look to the skies in the hopes of a snowy winter.

"Everyone working in tourism here is worried. The past three or four years have been difficult for us," says Jarmo Kariniemi, owner of the Santa Claus' Office in Rovaniemi which each year attracts 340,000 visitors eager to meet the "real" Father Christmas.

This December, with only a few weeks to go before Christmas, there are only 20 centimeters (seven-and-a-half inches) of snow on the ground, just enough for snowmobiles and dog- and reindeer sleighs.

But the rivers and lakes, which normally freeze over in winter and are used to take tourists on snowmobile or sleigh rides, have not turned to ice yet, and that's bad news.

Tourism generates some 235 million euros (345 million dollars) of direct and indirect revenue in Finnish Lapland, of which about 60 percent comes during winter.

It is an enormous amount of money for the region, hit hard by high unemployment and the rural exodus to bigger towns.

Read the full story by Gael Branchereau here.

Seasons greetings to all my friends in Rovaniemi and at Rovaniemi Polytechnic.

Inconvenient Youths & The Littlest Eco-Warriers

The Wall Street Journal has published two articles today by Ellen Gamerman. Inconvenient Youths tells the stories of several children and youth who are learning the global warming and environmental conservation message at school and church and who are, in turn, educating their parents. The Littlest Eco-Warriers provides a list of resources for children and youth on these topics.

Spreading the Sustainability Message Through Digital Games

Serious Games Initiatives uses digital video games to teach and educate people on pressing issues in social change, education, health-care, national defense, homeland security, analytics, corporate management and more.

There are several free online games available and here are some of the most recent games you can play:

Planet Green Game (by Global Green USA & Starbucks) allows you to "explore the town of Evergreen looking for ways to reduce CO2 emissions and reduce the impact of global warming."

Consumer Consequences (by American Public Media) allows you to "find out if you are living a sustainable life" and to determine "what would the world look like if everyone consumed like me?"

Global Warming Interactive (by Lexicon Systems) "explores the relationship of global warming to economic, political and science policy decisions."

The 11th Hour

The 11th Hour has finally arrived in my city!

Visit the website & watch the trailer, enter the website and explore, go watch the movie!
http://wip.warnerbros.com/11thhour/