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Carbon Dioxide and Ocean Acidification

Carbon Dioxide isn't just stored in the atmosphere. The soils, plants and trees, and the ocean also act as a carbon sink. According to NOAA, the oceans absorb up to a quarter of the carbon dioxide released by humanity every year. This CO2 is changing the chemistry and leading to ocean acidification. Calcium carbonate minerals are the building blocks for the skeletons and shells of many marine organisms. In areas where most life now congregates in the ocean, the seawater is supersaturated ...

Your Carbon Footprint At the End of Your Fork

This week my son and I visited the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. As part of an exhibit entitled "Degrees of Change", visitors can select items from a menu and calculate the carbon footprint of their meal. Ian had a great time checking out the footprint of various food items. A carbon-intensive meal is one that puts out over 2,000 grams of CO2 into the atmosphere. An individual might be surprised to find out that their yummy beef filet alone puts out 4000 grams of CO2. Vege...

Hansen on Climate Change: I Need Your Help

Climate Scientist and Director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, James Hansen decided early in his career that investigating a planet with a climate changing before our eyes was a more interesting and important area of study.  So, he changed his focus from Venus to Earth. Studying global warming on Earth was nothing new to science. British physicist, John Tyndall ,studied the greenhouse effect in the 1850s. When Hansen began speaking out during the Bush Administration of the la...

Global Warning, Our Oil Addiction and Living on a New Planet

Narrated by Leo DiCaprio, this clip is based on the book by Thom Hartmann, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late. "Picture this, a blue planet protected by a thin layer of atmosphere that keeps temperature, air and water in perfect balance to maintain life. In the cold depths of space, this planet is a virtual paradise, the only one know of its kind. And, it is our planet, Earth. But something is wrong...human civilization and our re...

Florida’s Great Senator- The Oldest Cypress Tree in North America

Every young student can tell you what are the biggest theme-park attractions in Orlando.  But probably very few can tell you about Big Tree Park, home Florida's oldest and most distinguished resident, the Senator bald cypress tree. Located in Longwood, FL , the Senator majestically looms high as if he could touch the clouds, above a land blanketed with way too many strip malls and concrete. Big Tree Park, part of the Spring Hammock Preserve is a nice reprieve from the modernized world and als...

End the Cycle of Collective Destruction: No More Offshore Oil Drilling

Oil is a non-renewable resource. That means the supply of oil on planet Earth is finite. Oil production in the United States peaked around 1970 and since has been declining. Globally we are at or near Peak Oil right now. Our modern civilization runs on oil. Everything in our daily lives is dependent on oil, from the gas we put in our cars, to fertilizers, to plastics, synthetic fabrics, lubricants, paints, cosmetics, the list goes on and on. So do we just keep the party going, drill baby drill a...

350.org Founder, Author Bill McKibben on “Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet”

Ahead of Earth Day and Cochabamba, Bolivia’s indigenous summit on climate change along with the anticipated unveiling of a Senate climate bill this coming week, Democracy Now spoke with someone who sounded one of the earliest alarms about global warming. In 1989, Author Bill McKibben wrote The End of Nature but his warnings were largely ignored. Below are some excerpts from that interview. BILL McKIBBEN: On his new book, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet:  Look, the planet that we l...

James Hansen on Cap-and-Trade, Tipping Points and Where We Go From Here

In a recent interview, post- the COP15 Conference, the nation's top climate scientist and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, James Hansen discussed his views on cap and trade, tipping points and how we can move forward in the aftermath of Copenhagen. Hansen also has a new book, Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity where he discusses these issues at length. The entire interview with A...

Al Gore and Political Will in the Concrete Forest

As I descended off I-95 into the concrete forest that now covers the city of Miami, I pondered the artificial shade. Darkness permeated while the sun rested high in the sky. Construction raged on even in the early morning hours of Saturday. As the construction workers labored, the homeless slept. The forest was still, despite the jack hammer vibration penetrating the silence. I looked upward at the pervasive high-rises that the city touts have surpassed 60% occupancy, although that is not...

350: The Most Important Number on the Planet

Data collected from ice cores, shows us that CO2 levels have been below 300 parts per million (ppm) for over 800,000 years. We are currently at almost 390ppm. Dr. James Hansen of NASA stated “If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350ppm.” Above 350ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere w...