Life of the Land's Energy Recommendations

RECOMMENDED MOVIES ***

An Inconvenient Truth   Dir: Davis Guggenheim. USA 2006 100 min.
This informative documentary about one of today's most debated topics presents compelling scientific evidence that humanity is sitting on a time bomb. If the vast majority of the world¹s scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced. A catastrophe we have helped create. It offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man¹s commitment to expose the myths and misconceptions that surround global warming. That man is former Vice President Al Gore, who, in the wake of defeat in the 2000 election, re-set the course of his life to focus on an all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocable change.

The Great Warning
Based on the book Storm Warning: Gambling with the Climate of Our Planet by Lydia Dotto. Science writer Lydia Dotto has been covering climate change for more than 30 years. She is the author of several books on climate and related issues, including:  Storm Warning: Gambling with the Climate of Our Planet; Ethical Choices and Global Greenhouse Warming; Thinking the Unthinkable: The Social Consequences of Rapid Climate Change; Planet Earth in Jeopardy: The Environmental Consequences of Nuclear War; The Ozone War. Dotto has won numerous awards from the Canadian Science Writers Association and in 1983 was awarded the Royal Canadian Institute’s Sandford Fleming Medal for outstanding achievement in promoting understanding of science among the Canadian public.  As the science writer for the Globe and Mail in the 1970s, she wrote a series of articles on weather and climate that received an award from the Canadian Meteorological Society. The world’s scientists are in agreement: climate change is real, and we are largely responsible. America’s religious institutions, corporations, environmental and political leaders are in agreement - we must recognize our moral responsibility to be good stewards of the Earth today and for all future generations.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS  ***

An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore, pages 30-37.
Image: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Giants/Revelle/revelle_2.html

''This is the image that first caused me to think about - and then to become focused on - global warming. It was shown in the mid-1960s to a small undergraduate class I took taught by ... Roger Revelle.  Professor Revelle was the first scientist to propose measuring CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere. He and the scientist he hired to run the study, Charles David Keeling, began taking daily measurements in the middle of the Pacific Ocean over the big island of Hawaii in 1958. After the first few years, they had enough data to produce this graphic image, which Revelle showed to my class. It was clear even at this early stage of their experiment that the concentration of CO2 throughout the Earth's atmosphere was going up at a significant rate.  I asked Revelle why the line marking CO2 concentration goes up sharply and then down once each year. He explained that the vast majority of the Earth's land mass ... is north of the equator. Thus, the vast majority of the Earth's vegetation is also north of the equator. As a result, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun during the spring and summer, the leaves come out, and as they breathe in CO2, the amount of CO2 decreases worldwide. When the Northern hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun in the fall and winter, the leaves fall, and as they disgorge CO2, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere goes back up again. It's as if the entire Earth takes a big breath in and out once each year. The same pattern of steadily increasing concentrations of CO2 that was visible after the first several year's of Revelle's measurements has continued year by year for almost a half-century. This remarkable and patiently collected daily record now stands as one of the most important series of measurements in the history of science.  The pre-industrial concentration of CO2 was 280 parts per million. In 2005,that level, measured above Mauna Loa, was 381 parts per million.''


Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists Have Fueled the Climate Crisis -- And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster,  by Ross Gelbspan (2004)

''By late 2003, the signals were undeniable: Global climate change is threatening to spiral out of control.''  (page 1)  ''Confronted by the steel wall of resistance of the fossil-fuel lobby and their political allies, most climate activists and sympathetic politicians have retreated into approaches that are dismally inadequate to the magnitude of the challenge. Around the country, advocates are working to get people to drive less, turn down their thermostats and reduce their energy use. Unfortunately, while many environmental problems are susceptible to lifestyle changes, climate change is not one of them.''  (page 127) ''Several of the country's leading national environmental groups are promoting limits for future atmospheric carbon levels that are the best they think they can negotiate. But while those limits may be politically realistic, they would likely be environmentally catastrophic.  Most advocates, moreover, are relying on goals and mechanisms that were proposed about a decade ago, before the true urgency of the climate crisis became apparent. ... But these goals have been rendered obsolete by the escalating pace of climate change. ... Virtually all the approaches by activists in the United States, moreover, are domestic in nature. They ignore both the world's developing countries and, equally important from the standpoint of national security, the oil-producing nations of the Middle East. Ultimately, even if the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan were to cut emissions dramatically, those cuts would be overwhelmed by the coming increase of carbon from India, China, Mexico, Nigeria and all the other developing countries struggling to stay ahead of poverty.  Many alternative approaches rely on market-based solutions because their proponents believe that, in an age of market fundamentalism, no other approach can gain political traction. Unfortunately, nature's laws are not about supply and demand; they are about limits, thresholds and surprises. ...  Many groups justify the minimalist goals of making people more energy efficient as the first phase in building a political base for more aggressive action. In the past, that pattern has been successful in developing various movements. In the case of climate change, however, nature's timetable is very different from that of political organizers. Unfortunately, the signals from the planet tell us we do not have the luxury of waiting another generation to allow for the orderly maturation of a movement.''  (pages 127-28)

''The solution to the climate crisis involves a high-stakes battle with big coal, big oil, and the immense financial resources and political levers at their disposal.'' (page 130) ''The fossil fuel lobby has hijacked America’s energy and political  policies.'' (page 136) ''The vast majority of climate groups shun confrontation and work instead to get people to reduce their personal energy footprints. That can certainly help spread awareness of the issue. ... The mismatch between the magnitude of the problem and the seductiveness of easy -- and illusory -- solutions reflects a degree of denial among even the most earnest of advocates.'' (page 137)  ''Activists compromise. Nature does not.'' (page 146)  ''Stepping back, it is worth repeating that the real economic issue in rewiring the globe with clean energy is not cost. The real economic issue is whether the world has a big enough labor force to accomplish the task in time to meet nature’s deadline.  A properly funded global transition to clean energy would create millions of jobs in poor countries and substantially raise living standards in the developing world. It is an article of faith among development economists that energy investments in poor countries create far more wealth and jobs than investments in any other sector. ... Were the United States to spearhead a wholesale transfer of clean energy to developing countries, that would do more than anything else in the long term to address the economic desperation that underlies anti-U.S. sentiment.''  (page 178)

The Weather Makers (2005) by Tim Flannery

''The finest account of the overwhelming science behind global warming. Flannery gives us a terrifying glimpse of the future.''–Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. environmental activist.
''Almost uniquely, The Weather Makers provides insights not only into the history, the science and politics of climate change, but also the actions people can take now that will make a difference. Only through understanding can problems be properly addressed and solved. All who read The Weather Makers will be left wiser and able to appreciate how fragile our climate is and how it is this generation who must act to protect it." --Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
''At last here is a clear and readable account of one of the most important but controversial issues facing everyone in the world today.'' –Professor Jared Diamond author of GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL and COLLAPSE, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the US National Medal of Science, member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and Professor of Geography at UCLA.
"This is one of the most important books of this young century. Flannery leads us through the remarkable scientific elucidation of the factors shaping climate--the sun, atmosphere, oceans and life itself. The scientific evidence of humanity's impact is indisputable and this book convincingly pierces the phoney economic, political and pseudo-scientific naysaying. It is an urgent call-to-action that we cannot afford to ignore." --David Suzuki
"The Weather Makers shows us that we no longer have any excuse for letting our governments deceive us about the Earth's vulnerability."
--Vancouver Sun


The Prize : The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power by Daniel Yergin
A compelling and comprehensive history of the oil industry, from the first oil well ever drilled (near Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859) to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

Life of the Land is a  Hawaii-based, Hawaii-focused environmental and community action group. Founded in 1970, the mission of Life of the Land is to preserve and protect the life of the land through sustainable land use and energy policies and to promote open government through research, education, advocacy and, when necessary, litigation. We believe that people are part of the environment. We are known for research, research, research. We cover complex issues such as genetic engineering, climate change, and quality of life issues. LOL is a 501(c)3 charitable organization. We do not attend fundraisers, testify for/against political and/or administrative candidates, nor do we rank candidates. We work on issues not people.

Contact: Life of the Land, 76 North King Street, Suite 203, Honolulu, Hawaii  96817, Email: lifeoftheland@hotmail.com Executive Director: Henry Curtis, henry.lifeoftheland@gmail.com * Assistant Executive Director: Kat Brady, katbrady@hotmail.com

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