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Quebec Government Sues MM&A for Oil Train Disaster in Lac-Mégantic

June 18, 2014 Add Comment Edit

The Lac-Mégantic crude oil train disaster is not only tragic for the 47 people who lost their lives, it is a costly environmental calamity that decimated a significant part of the small town. The government of Quebec is the latest to add its name to those seeking compensation from the now insolvent Montreal, Maine & Atlantic (MM&A) railroad company. MM&A along with 3 employees are also facing criminal charges in the case.

On Monday June 16 the government said it is seeking $409 million from the MM&A for expenses associated with the tragedy. According to June 13 claim by Quebec's justice ministry the province has already spent $126 million in public funds. They expect to spend an additional $283 million. Justice is seeking compensation so that Quebec taxpayers are not left to foot the bill.

At present there is only $25 million in insurance money available to the MM&A to compensate the province. The government of Quebec has promised that those affected in Lac-Mégantic will be the first to receive compensation.

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Independence Day 2013: Declaration of Freedom from Fossil Fuels

July 04, 2013 Add Comment Edit

Two hundred and thirty seven years ago, US colonies freed themselves from the injustice of British rule, now America needs to free itself from the injustice of fossil fuels. The United States' Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. On that day, thirteen American colonies proclaimed their freedom from Great Britain. On the fourth of July 2013, America needs to start thinking seriously about a declaration of freedom from fossil fuels.

A few years after the American revolution, the industrial revolution dawned, beginning America's meteoric rise to global dominance. However, fossil fuels are the engine that drove this growth and they are also the leading cause of climate change.
Americans have some important choices to make. Ending fossil fuel subsidies is an important first step. But this cannot be accomplished as long as Americans vote for Republicans who continue their unyielding support for dirty energy.

We must rethink some of the basic notions of the old economy. We need to move towards more efficient and sustainable visions of the future. It is time for Americans to declare their independence and begin working towards a future free of fossil fuels.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Satellite Animation: Review of Extreme Weather in 2012 (Video)

January 05, 2013 Add Comment Edit

Watch the nearly year-long satellite animation as Weather Underground calls out the most significant weather events of the past year, including Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Isaac.

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Climate Change is Already Killing 400,000 People Annually

December 18, 2012 Add Comment Edit

Climate change is killing 400,000 people per year including 1,000 children a day and costing the global economy $1.2 trillion a year (which amounts to 1.6 percent of economic output). These are the findings of a September 2012 study called "Climate Vulnerability Monitor" (PDF).

This study was conducted by 50 scientists and policy experts. It was commissioned by 20 nations that are most at risk from climate change. According to this study if we continue with business as usual this situation is expected to get far worse. The study concludes that these deaths are “due to hunger and communicable diseases that affect above all children in developing countries.” The study further states that as global warming intensifies in the coming years, the death toll could rise to 700,000 a year by 2030. The economic costs, if the effects of air pollution are included, could increase to 3.2 percent of global output.

The Daily Beast covered a Reuters report on the new study, which stated that more than 100 million will die by 2030 if the world fails to tackle climate change. Many of these deaths are from malnutrition, malaria, and diarrhea caused by contaminated water, a common result of floods. Other deadly climate change related killers include heat waves, agricultural losses and disease.

Although the world's poor are most likely to bear the brunt of climate change, the developed world is far from immune. According to a 2008 study sponsored by the European Union, the record-breaking heat wave that blanketed Europe for six weeks in summer 2003 caused at least 71,449 deaths. The report indicates that in the US climate impacts could cut the US GNP by 2 percent by 2030.

A 2009 report issued by the Global Humanitarian Forum claimed that global warming was already causing 300,000 deaths and $125 billion in economic losses annually. If we use these figures the death toll associated with climate change has increased by 33 percent since 2009 and the cost has risen almost ten fold.

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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The Problems and Solutions of e-Waste (Video)

November 17, 2012 Add Comment Edit

This video reviews the issues related to e-waste, it also addresses some of the solutions. This video specifically reviews how Sprint, through its buy-back program, is helping to solve the monumental problem of e-waste.

Since 2001, Sprint's takeback program has collected more than 4,000 metric tons of electronic waste which comprises more than 40 million wireless devices. These programs not only keep phones out of landfills they have helped the company avoid more than $1 billion in costs. In 2011 Sprint recycled more than 11 million wireless devices, over 211,000 on average per week. Sprint is the first and only US wireless carrier to outline specific commitments that address electronic waste (e-waste) holistically.
To see the video click here.

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US e-waste is Polluting Toxic Dumps in Ghana (Video)

November 17, 2012 Add Comment Edit

How are the west's 'recycled' TVs and computers ending up in a toxic dump in Ghana? Dateline investigates the trade in e-waste which is poisoning a once picturesque part of Africa.
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The US Desire to be "Green" is Causing an e-waste Hell China (Video)

November 17, 2012 Add Comment Edit

The best intentions to be green can flow from the United States into a e-waste hell. In with the new, means out with the old. The US throws out over 100 million cell phones per year and while people may think they are disposing of the phones in an eco-friendly fashion, the truth of where this waste actually ends up is a far different story.
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Greenpeace e-Waste Investigation (Video)

November 17, 2012 Add Comment Edit

Greenpeace has been investigating the immoral and illegal e-waste dumping in developing countries since 2002. After China, India, Pakistan and Ghana, this is the story of how one very broken TV managed to avoid being tested and recycled according to EU regulations and instead ended up in Nigeria as "second hand goods.

To find out more about the Greenpeace investigation click here.

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Free Energy 101 Webinar: Calculating Savings (M&V) for Energy Efficiency Projects

October 23, 2012 Add Comment Edit

On Thursday, October 25, 2012 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM EDT, a webinar titled Free Energy 1: Calculating Savings for Energy Efficiency Projects. Need to calculate the actual energy savings from efficiency projects? Want to determine if the realized savings met or exceeded your project savings estimates? If so, this one-hour free webinar is for you. During the webinar, Noesis energy experts will discuss industry standards for assessing energy savings and demonstrate how to perform project measurement and verification (often referred to as M&V).

Specifically, the webinar will provide an in-depth look at IPMVP's Option C (Whole Building) for calculating project savings using meter or invoice data. During the webinar they will walk through a real life example and use the free Noesis energy management website to automatically determine the savings from a past retrofit. In addition, there will be a Q&A.

Noesis Energy is a free website for energy professionals that provides tools and reports for tracking energy performance. New to the Noesis website is a set of free tools called Noesis Projects that uses IPMVP Option C to calculate energy savings using weather-normalized energy baselines. This new set of tools allows you to measure actual savings and compare with project estimates.

Click here to learn more.

The Financial Costs of Biodiversity Loss

September 21, 2012 Add Comment Edit

The loss of biodiversity is a tragedy for everyone. We often forget that nature provides a plethora of services all for free. A 2012 report indicates that the world's biodiversity is down 30 percent since the 1970s. Humanity is outstripping the Earth's resources by 50 percent — essentially using the resources of one and a half Earths every year, according to the 2012 Living Planet Report, produced by conservation agency the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

As we undermine natural systems we are incurring immense costs. This is the central premise of a BBC News article by Richard Anderson.

As pointed out in the article businesses will be forced to pay through regulatory instruments such as pollution taxes, like carbon credits and landfill taxes that already exist, and higher insurance premiums.

Climate change induced extreme weather also has dramatic costs. Businesses that fail to own up to their responsibilities will also pay in terms of damage to their reputations from consumers whose environmental demands are growing every day.

Trucost and PRI have estimated the cost of environmental damage caused by the world's largest 3,000 companies in 2008 at $2.15 trillion.

Businesses are not the only ones who will suffer from these high costs. These costs will be passed along to consumers.

As earnings and profits come under increasing pressure share prices will fall and this will affect investors around the world. At the end of the day the cost of biodiversity loss will impact everyone.

We can expect “15 to 37 percent of living species” will be extinct by mid-century, equivalent to 1.25 million species. Climate change is to blame and it will force species to migrate to new regions and adapt or die as a result. To put it bluntly, “up to 70% of the world’s known species risk extinction if the global temperatures rise by more than 3.5°C.”28 The largest biomes under direct threat are polar ice and ocean coral reefs.

We have very tangible results of this trend today. The Arctic ice sheet has now hit record lows. We are facing the prospect of ice-free summers in the Arctic Ocean which implies the loss of an entire biome, the costs of which could be staggering.

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Independence Day 2012: Declaration of Freedom from Fossil Fuels

July 04, 2012 Add Comment Edit

Two hundred and thirty six years ago, the colonies freed themselves from the injustice of British rule, now America needs to free itself from the injustice of fossil fuels. The United States' Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. On that day, thirteen American colonies proclaimed their freedom from Great Britain. On the fourth of July 2012, America needs a declaration of freedom from fossil fuels.

A few years after the American revolution, the industrial revolution dawned, beginning America's meteoric rise to global dominance. However, fossil fuels are the engine that drove this growth and they are also the leading cause of climate change.

This year Americans have some important choices to make. Ending fossil fuel subsidies is an important first step. But this cannot be accomplished as long as Americans vote for Republicans who continue their unyielding support for dirty energy.

We must rethink some of the basic notions of the old economy. We need to move towards more efficient and sustainable visions of the future. It is time for Americans to declare their independence and begin working towards a future free of fossil fuels.

Success of #EndFossilFuelSubsidies Twitter Storm Directed at Rio+20

June 20, 2012 Add Comment Edit

On Monday June 18, climate change activists used Twitter to send a message to end fossil fuel subsidies that has echoed around the world. People all over the planet understand that it's simply wrong to be spending tax dollars off to the richest industry in the world, an industry that's wrecking the atmosphere and endangering our shared future. The 24-hour "Twitter storm" garnered the support of hundreds of thousands of people and was the top ranked tweet of the day. According to the Guardian this was the top trending topic in the US and second place globally while Topsy.com reported that it was the #1 story in the world. Politicians have also joined the storm, with messages streaming in from Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi in the US and former Prime Minister Helen Clark of New Zealand.

In addition to the Twitterstorm, activists at Avaaz.org, Friends of the Earth, and 350.org delivered a petition of more than 750,000 signatures calling for an end to fossil fuel subsidies to 10 Downing Street this morning. Similar petitions are being presented in other nations. In Rio yesterday in which campaigners unfurled a massive trillion dollar bill on Copacabana beach marked with calls for an end to the subsidies, which are approaching that scale.

Keep the Twitterstorm alive and Tweet this post. To make sure the message is not ignored organizers at 350.org are asking people to get 5 friends on Twitter to join the storm. Share this Facebook event on your wall and tag five of your savviest friends asking them to join.

The Twitter Storm has made it that much more likely that we will see the beginning of the end of fossil fuel subsidies.

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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End One Trillion Dollars of Annual Fossil Fuel Subsidies

June 19, 2012 Add Comment Edit

Although governments try to hide the exact amount, an analysis by Oil Change International indicates that global oil subsidies total at least $775 billion to as much as $1 trillion or more in 2012. Rather than pay for an industry that is destroying the planet and compromising the lives of all of its inhabitants, this money could be put to better use for renewable energy, education, hunger and poverty.

In 2009, G20 leaders pledged to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. While this was an historic commitment, very little concrete action has followed. Eliminating global fossil fuel subsidies represent a tremendous opportunity for increased efficiencies in spending, reductions in global reliance on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions, and sources of finance for climate-related activities and other efforts.

Click here to download a facts sheet.

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Rio+20: 350.org Campaign to End Fossil Fuel Subsidies

June 18, 2012 Add Comment Edit

As people converge in Rio for the "Earth Summit," it is time to pressure world leaders to end fossil fuel subsidies. Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies topped the UN Rio Dialogues online vote, but the official UN text still lacks clear commitments. That stalwart friend of the environment, 350.org is partnering with Avaaz to promote a massive social media storm designed to pressure world leaders to put an end to fossil fuel subsidies.

According the 350.org there are now over one million people around the world who are calling for an end to fossil fuel subsidies. Rio+20 is being billed as a landmark event for the planet's future, and the theme of the conference is "building the global green economy." There is no better way to build the green economy than ending fossil fuel subsidies and investing in renewable energy instead.

On June 18th, concerned global citizens from around the world will take to Twitter to make their point: we need to end fossil fuel subsidies NOW! Our message will be heard in Rio de Janeiro—where world leaders will be gathered for the Rio+20 Conference on the Environment—and in capital cities around the world. 350.org is partnering with Avaaz to make the Twitter Storm an event that cannot be ignored.

Learn more about the End Fossil Fuel Subsidies Twitter Storm here, and sign up here to join the 350 Social Media Team Today. The Twitter Storm will take place on Monday June 18th 2012. Join and SHARE the event here. Make sure you use the hastag: #EndFossilFuelSubsidies.

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Global Warming and the Shortage of Mistletoe

December 23, 2011 Add Comment Edit

The effects of climate change are ubiquitous, and this year it is even impacting the availability of mistletoe. Droughts, one of the corollaries of global warming, is behind the shortage. The small parasitic plant grows on trees in humid climates in Europe and the US. Because of dry conditions in the southern US, and Texas in particular, most of this years crop comes from Europe.

The mistletoe that is available from the US looks anemic and is very expensive. Stores have had an extremely difficult time trying to find Christmas plant, as it is a scarce commodity this year.

Climate change will have widespread impacts and the shortage of mistletoe is yet further evidence. Even deniers are forced to admit that global warming is real as the longtime holiday tradition of kissing under the mistletoe is being withered by drought.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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