Friday, January 4, 2008

Show Virginia Where Global Warming Starts

I know what you're thinking. "I want to show my concern about global warming, but I don't want to stop dressing like my idol Ashton Kutcher. Why can't I do both?"

Well rest easy. Now you can. The Chesapeake Climate Action Network has opened an online store where you can buy a trucker's hat emblazoned with "Dominion: Global Warming Starts Here."

OK, so you might actually prefer the t-shirt printed on 100% organically-grown cotton. Or the bumper sticker, ready-made for slapping on your Prius. Or the mug, which will advertise that you and your coffee are hotter than they should be.

It's a purchase you can feel good about because not only will you get high-quality merchandise, but a portion of all sales will go to benefit CCAN and its fight to cut our region's greenhouse gas emissions.

Can I have a private conversation with The Green Girlfriend for a minute here? Just skip down to the next paragraph. OK? Thanks. Here goes: Yes, I'm buying a trucker's hat. No, I won't wear it around you. Yes, I promise never to be photographed wearing it. Or tell anyone you're my girlfriend while I'm wearing it. Or admit we ever met while I'm wearing it.

Whether you decide to help usher in the new trend of climate fashion or not, please take action now to tell your legislator to support the Virginia Clean Energy Future Act. The legislation, sponsored by State Sen. Chap Peterson, would create incentives for in-state renewable energy and manufacturing, create a Green Jobs training program, and set a statewide standard of 20% renewable energy and 10% improvement in efficiency!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Given the number of worldwide cold events, it is no surprise that 2007 didn't turn out to be the warmest ever. In fact, 2007's global temperature was essentially the same as that in 2006 - and 2005, and 2004, and every year back to 2001. The record set in 1998 has not been surpassed. For nearly a decade now, there has been no global warming. Even though atmospheric carbon dioxide continues to accumulate - it's up about 4 percent since 1998 - the global mean temperature has remained flat. That raises some obvious questions about the theory that CO2 is the cause of climate change."

The affects of the sun's life cycle, as well as precession, and orbital change are natural forces which are being "overlooked" and downplayed.

Mother Nature is powerful, very powerful.

The Green Miles said...

Floodguy, even President Bush admits global warming is happening and it's due to our burning of fossil fuels. He just doesn't want mandatory caps on carbon emissions. Is Dubya part of the liberal conspiracy, too? And John McCain? And Mike Huckabee, and all the other Republicans who advocate for climate action? Really, it's hard to find any elected officials not named James Inhofe who are still denying that global warming exists. But hey, you still have crazy-ass Glenn Beck on your side!

Anonymous said...

Its typical for such a political type as yourself, to reply with the stated assumption I am a GW skeptic, even when you have read previous posts of mine quite the contrary. Being that most of us are not in the scientific fields which study the associated affects regarding the climate, we can only read about it.

Obviously, since you give more credance towards "your side" winning, I see no difference with the left today regarding climate, as we all saw with the right before Bush's march into Iraq.

There are many legitimate voices worldwide with new perspectives and data, who present valid responses to the notion of AGW isn't "settled science". We ought to be concerned about the suppression of those viewpoints, or at the very least, still interested in what is being questioned.

I have never been a doubter of climate change, but to assume your positions that humans have caused GW AND the continued fossil-fuel burning will be the sole cause of catastrophic results in rising sea levels and weather events, it is only fitting your types are called alarmists for good reason.

Considering how little we know about past and future affects about the sun's life cycle, precession, and the oscillation of our planet's orbit, should we therefore assume these forces have the least input in our planetary behaviour? It seems you believe so!

Just last week we read from you that AGW causes more snow because of increased moisture. This comment was to refute the notion of the end of GW as snow flurries fell in Florida. Did we not hear repeatedly about a record duration of drought in the very same region this past summer? As someone who isn't a climatologist, am I to assume AGW causes summer-time heat and drought, AS WELL AS cold temps with snowfall in less than the usual locations? If we are to accept these assumption in daily weather activities because of AGW, then should we take note of the possibilities of decreased wind activity due to stagnant airmasses more associated with heatwaves and warmer weather, which is forecasted to engulf our nation as you and other alarmists are proclaiming?

Those politics aside, as our world society and economy evolves we should do everything within our moral and financial capacity to decrease our physical footprint on this planet. This is common sense. However, this does not mean we combine our efforts to be good environmentalist with an enduring effort to thwart the influence of the established influence & control of our energy firms. The Grist which you seem to subscribe, is a leading advocate of this idealogy which has polarized and mucked the real purpose behind changing energy policy towards a safer climate.

For example, if industry has other opportunities for electricity in the near future which would in turn thwart the Wise Co. proposal, it would have come forth with it by now. Dominion Power doesn't construct wind farms. Our Democratic Governor also holds executive authority to assert an order to do so if he is convince of the need and/or the potential. If no alternative exist, I find it repugnant those within the load pockets who are causing this need for more electricity in the first place, ie liberal minded urbanites w/i the east's I-95 corridor, try to dictate where in rural Virginia an alternative energy source should be sited FOR THEMSELVES; that is unless of course the cities within NOVA, Richmond and Hampton Roads offer to condemn their own hundred acres of residential and commercial developement.

Has it not dawned on you that demand in the great urban centers north of DC are depleting our electricity supplies in our state? In 2007, two high-voltage transmission lines were installed which drained more than 3,000 MW from NJ for Long Island? Has it not dawned on you that five aging power plants in NJ are being shut down, that the only two aging power plants in Wash D.C. are being decommissioned, and that the largest power plaint in the city of Alexandria will probably be taken off line due to old age, by the time Wise Co. can be expected to be in service?

New coal in SW Va and expanded coal generation W.Va. is all Virginia and the I-95 corridor has at the moment in order to stay in compliance with FERC mandated rules. Not even nuclear can come in time @ North Anna to avoid this. This isn't being an apologist, nor anti-green.

EEC however, can lighten the load, grid-wise, and can come online quicker and less expensive than alternative generation ever will. AND, it is 100% more reliable and not subject to geography, nor involved with the condemnation of private property or harm the environment. Even Hillary Clinton knows this, as she stated so last Saturday pointedly.

But like the Grist blog believes, since EEC doesn't decapitate big utilities, I can see why the narrow minded look the other way.

Anonymous said...

correction "cleaner atmosphere" and delete "safer climate.