Tag Archives: Union of Concerned Scientists

Tell Congress: Don’t cut off our clean air …Union of Concerned Scientists


Union of Concerned Scientists

Tell Congress: Don’t Cut Off Our Clean Air
As you know, last December, the Obama administration finalized historic standards to limit the amount of mercury and other toxic pollutants that power plants can spew into the environment. And now the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is on the verge of releasing draft standards that will reduce global warming emissions from power plants.

Both of these standards, which will protect our health and the environment, wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the life-saving Clean Air Act.


Unfortunately, this landmark piece of legislation and its health standards are under attack. Fossil fuel lobbyists and their allies in Congress are spreading false claims about the impacts of these standards on our economy. But protecting our health and the environment is the fiscally responsible thing to do.
The total value of the net benefits provided to Americans by the Clean Air Act since its inception is a staggering $51 trillion and counting.

Nevertheless, Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) has introduced legislation that will revoke the historic mercury and air toxics standard, and other members of Congress have announced their plans to block the EPA from reducing global warming emissions under the Clean Air Act.


The Clean Air Act has a 40-year track record of cutting dangerous pollution—all while providing a net economic benefit to the country. The historic mercury and air toxics standard and soon to be released draft standards that will reduce carbon from power plants will save lives and contribute to a much-needed transition to a clean energy economy.
Tell your members of Congress to stop attacking mercury and carbon standards—and stop cutting off our clean air.


Take Action Now!
Sincerely, Chrissy Elles Chrissy Elles Outreach Associate UCS Climate & Energy Program
P.S. Want to expose and challenge attacks on science, help reduce global warming emissions, and advance smart, practical clean energy and transportation solutions?

Become a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists today and help us meet our goal of 1,000 new members by February 29.

Obama: Keep clean car standards on track


Obama: Keep Clean Car Standards on Track!

The Union of Concerned Scientists has long led the fight to break our country’s dangerous oil dependence and address global warming by strengthening fuel efficiency and pollution standards for vehicles. Thanks to supporters like you, today we stand on the verge of historic progress.

The Obama administration recently proposed clean car standards that would nearly double fuel efficiency to about 50 miles per gallon in 2025, saving consumers billions of dollars at the gas pump, preventing millions of tons of global warming emissions, and saving as much oil in 2030 alone as we currently import from Saudi Arabia and Iraq. As clean energy and public health protections face constant attack in Congress, these standards represent a tremendous victory in the fight against climate change.

Automakers have the technology to make all new cars and trucks cleaner. Just last week at the Los Angeles Auto Show, UCS engineers put a spotlight on the most fuel efficient vehicles already available at dealerships nationwide, and the advanced hybrid and electric vehicles that can lead us to an oil-free vehicle future. But just as opportunity knocks, automakers and their allies are working behind the scenes to weaken the standards with loopholes that could increase pollution and oil dependence.

For the next two months, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation will accept comments on the proposed standards. Please tell the Obama administration to move forward with strong clean car standards and oppose industry-backed loopholes.

Take Action Today!

Sincerely,

Rachel Cohen
National Field Organizer
UCS Clean Vehicles Program

Support … Union of Concerned Scientists


Want to know how you can help advance scientific solutions for a healthy environment and a safer world for as little as 40 cents per day? By joining the Union of Concerned Scientists‘ Partners for the Earth monthly giving program.

 

You can be confident your donations to UCS are spent wisely. We are accredited with the Better Business Bureau, have received four stars from Charity Navigator, and earned an ‘A’ rating from the American Institute of Philanthropy.
Better Business Bureau, Charity Navigator, American Institute of Philanthropy

 

WWW.UCSUSA.ORG

The Partners for the Earth program ensures that UCS has the funds needed to bring scientists and activists together to fight to cut pollution and global warming emissions, promote clean energy and transportation solutions, reduce the threat of nuclear weapons—and much more—every day of the year. Plus, it’s easy and convenient for you!

To become a Partners for the Earth member, select an amount that is comfortable for you and it will be automatically debited each month from your credit card. Additional benefits to you include:

  • Your gifts go to work faster;
  • You receive special updates on our progress;
  • You save time and trouble—no need to write checks or fill in credit card information;
  • You receive less mail—your membership is automatically renewed;
  • You strengthen the Union of Concerned Scientists with steady, reliable support; and
  • It’s easy to participate!

For less than you would spend on a cup of coffee per day, you can make a world of difference for the planet we live on. Join the Partners for the Earth program today. Thank you for your ongoing support.    WWW.UCSUSA.ORG

Kevin Knobloch Sincerely,
Kevin Knobloch
Kevin Knobloch
President

P.S. As a Partners for the Earth member, you are in control. You decide the amount of your monthly gift, and you can change or cancel your pledge at any time. Please join today.

wicked weather Wednesday …&some News


just another rant …only it’s not mine   – round 2

I posted an article from the Union of Concerned Scientists on 9/23 … that so controversial question? Is Global Warming Real or is it really Global Cooling …read below. I want to thank the person who responded even though laced with a whole lot of patronizing … i get it … Global Warming is science not politics … unfortunately, some in politics don’t seem to know or get science enough to make intelligent decisions and while the person commenting may not agree but Global Warming became Political in the late 60′s under the Nixon era …ugh right?  anyway, just thought i would share.

Comment 9/23 -My response most certainly is my personal opinion and it is also well supported by proven fact as well as being  shared by an increasing number of honest scientists.

Cheers

Roger

http://www.rogerfromnewzealand.wordpress.com.

9/27 ME  -” i receive info from gore ….”

9/27 Comment – So you believe Al Gore is a reliable source of information with regard to the unproven “Anthropogenic CO2 causes Global Warming” hypothesis then?

Here are a few fact about good old Al that you may not have yet digested.

Believe it or not, Al Gore is not a scientist, but he is a great speaker, just like Hitler was actually.  But lets take a look at Al Gore’s personal life.

Al Gore is not using his superior oratorial powers to help you and me from a failing planet, he is using them to enhance his investments. Doing rather well at it too I might say. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/6491195/Al-Gore-could-become-worlds-first-carbon-billionaire.html

Al says that he is simply “putting his money where his mouth is”, well I don’t know about you but I would say that he is putting  his mouth where his money is – especially when he actively urges Congress to adopt policies in his favour.   In most parts of the world, most people who influence legislators in order to fill their pockets, go to gaol for considerable periods of time.

Now Al urges everyone to take on vows of poverty in order to save the world. This link below says it all better than I can. What about his multiple mansions etc.?
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/06/24/the-failure-of-al-gore-part-one/

So Gore is :
1) A God
2) A Guru
3) An idiot
4) A money grubbing con man
5) A fine upright guy.

Check out the links above and then see which category you would like to assign him too.

Cheers

Roger

http://www.rogerfromnewzealand.wordpress.com

PS If I have not confined myself to reported facts, please point out the error of my ways.

9/27 My response below:

Roger Roger Roger

I did not say i believe all of what Gore or UCS say but that i receive info from them and post
it because they have information to share. I personally believe Global Warming
or you are pushing Global Cooling is definitely a reality that is both environmental
and manmade that is enough for me to digest as a matter of fact. I am one of
several in my family that grew up in a great area with clean air, which has
deteriorated, and those of us who lived in this area prior to the industrial
build up can feel it. I will say again, if you have a newsletter or action
alerts to share i would but I think we are not on the same page. I do know that
AL Gore is not a scientist silly but he has been an advocate with a big name
that has people ask questions and demand more …even though our politicians
who create and pass the laws don’t seem to
be listening …his pluses are that he was a politician and knows people
with information that should get debated … I get it you don’t like or respect
his opinion. I want Republicans to accept we have air quality issues that are
both environmental and manmade and act accordingly for the future of our kids
here in the US and that unfortunately is being filibustered on all angles …I
want cleaner air, stricter regulations , i want those that dumped their shit on
American Indian land or created nasty landfills punished because the run off
quite possibly is pooled or in our ground water; Corporations have gotten away
with secret bs for years and while your focus is on legislators and lobbyists i
really am more concerned about making the lives of people safer especially for
those who almost always have corporations dumping their waste …sometimes
secretly sometimes not so secretly in or near groundwater res and poor people
who i guess they don’t care about …it all contributes to environmental
changes. I am no expert and i never said i was, but as someone who is open to
all information on global warming that will get Congress to do something…Gore
has money to do something … the info comes from scientists who cares. I say
get involved and put the facts out there. I believe in the 1st Amendment and
some come by money in various ways that can annoy, frustrate and offend us but
i won’t hate on Gore for putting out info there or his ability to make $$$ that
is the American way. I will say if there are facts out there that prove him
wrong then i would discontinue posting info and or vote for his efforts but
that has not happened for me personally… yet. If I have learned anything
since the days when Congress believed in the fact that there is an increase, in
asthmatics …clean air gives certain States big regulation worries and even if
Gore were right, we have too many climate deniers to move toward a cleaner USA.
Again, i am not an expert so your abc thing is silly and just accept we will
have to agree to disagree. I did visit your blog and you do not like President
Obama so …that puts us at odds, but thank you for the conversation.

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mashup Monday & some News


just another rant …only it’s not mine

I posted an article from the Union of Concerned Scientists … that so controversial question …read below. I want to thank the person who responded even though it was laced with a whole lot of patronizing … i get it … Global Warming is science not politics … unfortunately, some in politics don’t seem to know or get science enough to make intelligent decisions and while the person commenting may not agree but Global Warming became Political in the late 60’s under the Nixon era …ugh right?  anyway, just thought i would share.

Do you believe global warming is good for us?     …from Union of Concerned Scientists

rogerthesurf said 2 days ago:

There are many hundreds perhaps thousands of published, peer reviewed scientific papers which contradict the unproven “Anthropogenic CO2 causes Global Warming” hypothesis.

Here is a sample.

An assessment of validation experiments conducted on computer models of global climate using the general circulation model of the UK’s Hadley Centre
(Energy & Environment, Volume 10, Number 5, pp. 491-502, September 1999)
– Richard S. Courtney

An Alternative Explanation for Differential Temperature Trends at the Surface and in the Lower Troposphere (PDF)
(Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 114, November 2009)
– Philip J. Klotzbach, Roger A. Pielke Sr., Roger A. Pielke Jr., John R. Christy, Richard T. McNide

Altitude dependence of atmospheric temperature trends: Climate models versus observation (PDF)
(Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 31, Issue 13, July 2004)
David H. Douglass, Benjamin D. Pearson, S. Fred Singer

A test of corrections for extraneous signals in gridded surface temperature data (PDF)
(Climate Research, Volume 26, Number 2, pp. 159-173, May 2004)
Ross McKitrick, Patrick J. Michaels

– Are temperature trends affected by economic activity? Reply to Benestad (2004) (PDF)
(Climate Research, Volume 27, Number 2, pp. 175–176, October 2004)
– Ross McKitrick, Patrick J. Michaels

A null hypothesis for CO2 (PDF)
(Energy & Environment, Volume 21, Number 4, pp. 171-200, August 2010)
– Roy Clark

A natural constraint to anthropogenic global warming
(Energy & Environment, Volume 21, Number 4, pp. 225-236, August 2010)
– William Kininmonth

A comparison of tropical temperature trends with model predictions (PDF)
(International Journal of Climatology, Volume 28, Issue 13, pp. 1693-1701, December 2007)
– David H. Douglass, John R. Christy, Benjamin D. Pearson, S. Fred Singer

A Climate of Doubt about Global Warming
(Environmental Geosciences, Volume 7, Issue 4, December 2000)
– Robert C. Balling Jr.
A 2000-year global temperature reconstruction based on non-treering proxies (PDF)
(Energy & Environment, Volume 18, Numbers 7-8, pp. 1049-1058, December 2007)
– Craig Loehle

An empirical evaluation of earth’s surface air temperature response to radiative forcing, including feedback, as applied to the CO2-climate problem
(Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics, Volume 34, Numbers 1-2, pp. 1-19, March, 1984)
Sherwood B. Idso

An upper limit to global surface air temperature
(Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics, Volume 34, Number 2, pp. 141-144, June 1985)
– Sherwood B. Idso

As I said, for no good reason, these papers and many others like them are ignored by the IPCC and its followers. You may also read criticisms on the net about some of these authors, but you should also note that the criticisms are aimed at the person, not the work, and only rarely are there academic papers, that have been peer reviewed etc., published to contradict these authors, which of course is the proper scientific way to disagree in a situation like this.

Therefore as there is no “strong, credible body of evidence” as the above sample of papers show, one needs to examine more closely what the IPCC is claiming.

On one hand we have data that shows, or purports to show, that the climate is indeed warming unusually rapidly over the last 50 years or so. I say purports, as there is some
doubt about the accuracy of the data, however the climate may well be warming.

On the other hand, we have measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere that show that this has increased concentration has increased, as a portion of the atmosphere is only about 0.0213% since 1960, (dosn’t sound too much when you put it like that does it?).

Nevertheless it is true that anthropogenic CO2 has increased.

Now in order to prove that there is a connection between these two events that is proof of a causation factor, we need peer reviewed scientific publications that show this.

Alas there appears to be none. All of the IPCC conclusions are based on 1. That this rather weak correlation is actual proof, and or 2. On scientific model results, which being only hypothesis in themselves, are not proof either.

So one would expect something along the lines of the following:-

Published academic papers using at least one of the following methods to show that the “Anthropogenic CO2 causes Global Warming” is more than just a possibility.

1 Empirical proof that shows the causation factor of CO2 with respect of Global Warming.
2. Statistical proof of Anthropogenic CO2. Im sure you know that correlations are never proof.
3. Evidence for the “Anthropogenic CO2 causes Global Warming” hypothesis to be adopted over the null hypothesis?

Now I’m sure you do not need it, but just in case, here is a little reading to understand what these things are. Here is a site which describes what is needed for #3 which might help. http://www.experiment-resources.com/null-hypothesis.html

I think number three is the most important, because it means, that in order to consider the “Anthropogenic CO2 causes Global Warming” hypothesis as a better hypothesis over a null hypothesis (such as “The climate naturally changes anyway”) one has to explain how and why all the previous warmings occurred (At least three in historical times).

Now check out my blog and then see if you can find any academic papers that explain why the planet has heated up before, even though there was zero anthropogenic CO2 in the atmosphere.

If you or anyone else can address these short comings in the “official” science, then I would consider joining the UCS. You see, I respond to facts not political hype from interested minorities.

Cheers  Roger

http://www.rogerfromnewzealand.wordpress.com

 My response …  i admit was not as serious, but his patronizing ways moved into a racial thing … ugh

I think the only thing that stood out from your lengthy comment is your nasty sign-off. I don’t even know you yet you’ve already decided to slap me verbally? You could have made a choice not to respond at all since you were feeling all nasty or ivy league like. If i could i would forward your info to UCS  … their website is ucsusa.org … The article while not informative to you is one in which will at least bring about a dialogue and yes, i definitely am an interested minority …I am, quite sure you meant that in a bad way. I however will assume you were sitting on your high horse while writing such a clever response. I get a lot of articles, newsletters and membership requests from interesting sources on things that have an impact on me or my family so i post them so that others might have some information and some i happen to love and some are just shit…. both get posted if the topic is in the current News cycle. I don’t like being patronized but i get it.  i receive info from gore and ucs; if you have information you want posted i will but this long response does nothing for me personally good bad or ugly because it’s just your personal opinion.

 rogerthesurf said 2 days ago:

My response most certainly is my personal opinion and it is also well supported by proven fact as well as being  shared by an increasing number of honest scientists.

Cheers

Roger

http://www.rogerfromnewzealand.wordpress.com.

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