Climate Action

Al Gore's Nobel Prize acceptance speech brings poetry and passion to the climate cause. This is worth a read, particularly for those who are in need of renewed inspiration. The metaphors do add to the speech; and, although somewhat lacking in style, Gore translated Antonio Machado better than the Google. Here's the search engine's translation of "Caminante":

Caminante, are your footprints
el camino, y nada más; The road, and nothing else;
caminante, no hay camino, Walker, no way,
se hace camino al andar. It is way to go.
Al andar se hace camino, When walking becomes way,
y al volver la vista atrás And looking back
se ve la senda que nunca Is the road than ever
se ha de pisar. It has to tread.
Caminante, no hay camino, Caminante, no way,
sino estelas en la mar. But trails in the sea.

For the linguists among us, perhaps the subltle reason that Gore included an excerpt from Caminante will be evident to you as it is for me. Enough preamble...

http://blog.algore.com/2007/12/nobel_prize_acceptance_speech.html

Signup Walkthrough Posted

All,

I've posted a short walkthrough for those interested in becoming VCA blog contributors. You may find it under the 'links' header in the sidebar or by following the link at the end of this post.

It serves to bring new contributors who are not familiar with blogger, blogging, google...up to speed. So, if you know of individuals interested in posting, let a blog administrator know and point them toward the walkthrough. Thanks.

Who should we elect?

At the heart of this climate blog is the earnest attempt to answer the question, "what can we do?" Because of the overwhelming power and influence they wield, one of the most important things we can do is elect to public office effective candidates whose priorities are in line with our own. Unsurprisingly, determining what candidates actually stand for and surmising how effective they'll be once in office can be more than a bit challenging. In an attempt to assist in that process, I'd like to bring to your attention what I found to be a relevant and enlightening analysis of the top three Democratic presidential candidates. While not bulletproof, there are some excellent insights that make this an essential read.

http://www.skirsch.com/politics/president/comparison.htm

Below are a few words about the author of that analysis.

http://www.theledger.com/article/20071203/ZNYT01/712030483/-1/USNEWS


Hafen

Personal Carbon Emissions Inventory

Using a variety of different resources it is fairly straightforward to estimate your own personal CO2 emission inventory due to transportation and home use. Doing this made me realize just how much air travel can contribute. I also attempted (albeit crudely because of lack of information) to estimate the energy use of the different activities, which is interesting when placed in the context of the 2000 Watt society.

For air travel I used Terrapass. While not recommended for their carbon offsets purchasing program, they do have a more user-friendly air-travel emissions calculator.

For home use I used my electricity bill and EPA's personal emissions calculator, which is comprehensive.

The results are available on a MyEmissions Twiki Page

I am aware now that I am omitting a number of important emissions, namely those due to the manufacture of goods and food that I buy, and those from my workplace (think about 7 floors of corridor lighting burning bright at night and at weekends!). I would appreciate any guidance as to how we might calculate some of these emissions.

Department of Atmospheric Sciences members can edit the Twiki page and add their own emissions.

Regards

Rob