Home/Posts Tagged ‘Obama’
Posts Tagged ‘Obama’
Health, Politics, Pollution, Sep 5th, 2011,
Smog kills. This is a well-established scientific fact. Unhealthy ground ozone levels contribute to and exasperate allergies and asthma. Cities like London, England and Los Angeles, California are particularly bad places to live in terms of air quality. London has the worst air quality in the UK, while Los Angeles – according to the American Lung Association – is the smoggiest region in the US. US President Barack Obama’s administration looked as if they would tighten controls on ozone levels in the country, but another compromise – aka bow to big business interests – seems to have put an end…
Tags: EPA, Los Angeles. London, lung, Obama, Pollution, Smog
Climate Change, Nature, Politics, Videos & Documentaries, Jun 23rd, 2011,
Here’s a trio of environmentally-themed videos to get you through the rough midsummer days and nights, take your mind off government austerity measures and remind you of the wondrous complexity of our natural planet. We’ll start off light-hearted and work our way towards more serious issues. First up we’ve got an Antarctic penguin that got lost and swam around 2,000 miles / 3,000 km off course to end up on a beach in New Zealand. (If video won’t play go here) Next we head to Brazil, where evidence of another isolated Amazonian tribe has been found near the borders…
Tags: Al Gore, amazon, climate policy, Obama, penguin, tribe, video
Climate Change, Politics, Nov 7th, 2010,
After last week’s election the U.S. Congress is now a place where climate change is questioned more than feared. According to ThinkProgress.org, a progressive blog by the Center for American Progress, half of the newly elected Republicans don’t believe in man-made climate change while 86 percent of them are against climate change legislation if it costs money to the government. Back in December 2009, at the COP-15 conference in Copenhagen, President Obama pledged to cut the U.S. emission levels of 2005 by 17 percent by 2020, at least if Congress would pass his climate and energy legislation. But even before…
Tags: barack obama, climate change denial, climate legislation, green agenda, John Boehner, Obama, thinkprogress.org, U.S. congress
Climate Change, Politics, Nov 3rd, 2010,
After yesterday’s elections, president Obama lost his majority in the House of Representatives. A power shift is unavoidable. Republicans campaigned loud and hard, promising they would put an end to president Obama’s economic reforms and to his healthcare politics. Republicans are also everything but climate change believers. President Obama’s green agenda, and especially his climate and energy policy now seem to be in jeopardy as well. But let’s take a step back for a minute and consider how and why Republicans where able to take over the House. Thanks to a very interesting piece by Brendan DeMelle, entitled “When Corporations…
Tags: Brendan DeMelle, citizens united, climate and energy policy, democrats, green agenda, mid terms, Obama, republicans, U.S. elections
Videos & Documentaries, Aug 9th, 2010,
Lithium-ion batteries are being touted by US President Barack Obama as the most efficient way to electrify motor vehicles. A mass shift from fossil fuel and conventional combustion engines towards battery-powered electric cars may also receive a boost due to the unfortunate recent events in the Gulf of Mexico. From an article on stockhouse.com: In 2009, alone, the U.S. federal government granted over US$25 billion in loans to automobile and battery makers. Such initiatives promise to help President Obama accomplish his well-publicized mandate to usher-in one million electric vehicles in the U.S. by 2015. A move away from fossil fuels…
Tags: batteries, Bolivia, cars, Chile, electric, lithium, Obama, President, US, vehicles
Climate Change, Green living, Politics, Science & Technology, Jul 4th, 2010,
While oil spill news continues to look bleak, the solar industry is on the rise. Yesterday, US President Barack Obama announced the awarding of about $2 billion to two solar energy companies that agreed to build new solar power plants in the US. This means more renewable energy and thousands of new jobs will soon be available. The companies that earned the reward are Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar Manufacturing. Abengoa plans to build one of the largest solar plants in the world, in Arizona. The plant will be able to power up to 70,000 homes. As for Abound Solar…
Tags: $2 billion, Abengoa Solar, Abound Solar Manufacturing, announcement, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Obama, renewable energy, solar energy, solar panels, solar plants
Climate Change, Politics, Videos & Documentaries, Jun 17th, 2010,
Rachel Maddow for president? Yesterday on the Rachel Maddow Show, Rachel gave what she wishes to have been President Barack Obama’s speech regarding the gushing BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Many believe that President Obama’s ‘battle plan’ speech, broadcasted live from the Oval Office on Tuesday, fell short in assurances and failed to ‘seize the day’ on climate change legislation. Some believe that it was a grand opportunity to truly inspire the American people to get off fossil fuels, including potentially environmentally catastrophic methods of extracting them from the Earth – and that this opportunity was…
Tags: BP, Gulf, Maddow, Obama, oil, President, Rachel, speech, spill
Climate Change, Politics, Jun 16th, 2010,
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama addressed the American people on national television, live from the Oval Office, in an attempt to inform and assure the nation about efforts to deal with the United States’ largest environmental disaster ever. He also urged support for a move away from fossil fuels and towards a reliance on renewable energy. On the former – regarding both BP’s responsibility for and government efforts to assist in the stopping and cleaning up of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as aid those whose lives have been damaged – President Obama was…
Tags: Barack, BBC, BP, Climate change, Guardian, Gulf, Mexico, Obama, Oval Office, President, speech, spill
Science & Technology, Weird Stuff, Jun 15th, 2010,
Scientists at the university of Colorado have discovered evidence that suggests that much of Mars was once covered by ocean. From an article by Australia’s ABC News: To test their theory Dr Hynek and Mr Di Achille used global databases of known deltaic deposits and valley networks, together with topography data from a laser altimeter aboard NASA’s Mars Observer spacecraft which is orbiting the red planet. If Mars had that much water 3.5 billion years ago, what happened to it? And did it once support life? While turning its sights towards Mars and Jupiter, NASA has turned away from the…
Tags: asteroid, Earth, Independent, Mars, moon, NASA, Obama, ocean, President, space
Climate Change, Politics, Jun 11th, 2010,
A new estimate has been made regarding the oil that has been leaking from the damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico: 20,000 to 40,000 barrels per day, or 840,000-1.7 million gallons (3.2-6.4 million liters). This estimate comes from the head of the US Geological Survey and is around twice as much oil as was previously gauged to have been escaping from the well. Scientists used new high definition footage provided by BP after demands from the US Congress, according to a CNN report. BP has been capturing some 16,000 barrels per day since a cap was installed last week,…
Tags: 40000, Barrels, BP, estimate, Exxon Valdez, Gulf, leak, leaking, Mexico, new, Obama, oil, spill
Climate Change, Politics, Videos & Documentaries, Jun 6th, 2010,
You can diagnose whether this country has a functioning media in this country by whether or not the country understands that this is a vile environmental mega-disaster. You can diagnose whether we have a functioning political system in this country by whether or not the result of this mega-disaster is change. –Rachel Maddow MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has been in Louisiana reporting on the spill from the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and broadcasting her show from what is essentially Deepwater Horizon ground zero. Here she is interviewing president Obama’s co-chairmen for the Oil Spill Commission. Maddow talks…
Tags: BP, commission, Deepwater Horizon, disaster, ground zero, Obama, oil, Rachel Maddow, spill
Nature, Politics, Videos & Documentaries, May 3rd, 2010,
Environmental disasters tend to happen at really inconvenient times. Just after you open up a coastline to offshore drilling, a bothersome oil rig explodes and starts spilling a daily volume of hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude into a wildlife sanctuary. Awk-ward! US President Barack Obama’s cross-party overture regarding offshore drilling didn’t please many of his core supporters when he enacted it. Now that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is looking worse and worse every day, those feelings are strengthened. Obama has understandably put drilling plans on hold, effectively also putting domestic energy policy reform even more in…
Tags: disaster, drill, drilling, Gulf, inconvenient, Obama, offshore, oil, Politics, spill, US
Climate Change, Nature, Politics, Apr 2nd, 2010,
I just knew everyone was going to resurrect Sarah Palin’s gung-ho pro-oil mantra from the 2008 US presidential campaign as soon as I read about Barack Obama opening up America’s coastlines for oil drilling. Apparently both John McCain and Palin tweeted it. McCain was simply supportive, while Palin snuck in some barbs about ‘job-killing’ and ‘Cap & Tax’. Sarah: chill, baby, chill. Cap and trade was renounced by interior secretary Ken Salazar and besides, isn’t this what you wanted? In contrast President Obama’s other fruitless attempts at bipartisanship, the move is being heralded as politically brilliant by some. From an…
Tags: baby, Barack, drill, drilling, environmental, environmentalists, Obama, oil, Palin, President, republicans, Sarah, US
Climate Change, Nature, Politics, Science & Technology, Wildlife & Flora, Apr 1st, 2010,
Yesterday, President Barack Obama announced plans to open large areas of the US coastline to oil and natural gas drilling. The areas include nearly 167 million acres (67 million hectares) of ocean along the Atlantic coast, Alaska’s north coast and eastern portions of the Gulf of Mexico. There would be no drilling along the Pacific coastline, or anywhere on the Atlantic coastline (except Bristol Bay) from New Jersey to the north. Supposedly, the proposal is focused on reducing dependence on foreign oil sources, while profiting from the sales of offshore leases. However, one interesting thing to note is during Obama’s…
Tags: announcement, energy independence, environmental outrage, Nature, Obama, offshore oil drilling, plans to expand offshore drilling areas
Climate Change, Politics, Jan 30th, 2010,
State Department climate change representative to the UN Todd Stern formally announced that the U.S. would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. In a letter to the UN, Stern confirmed the moderate emission reduction target of 17% of 2005 levels by the year 2020. This is the same number that was announced by the Obama administration prior to the Copenhagen climate talks in December, a statement that received mixed reactions. A further commitment to cut emissions by 42% by 2030 and 80% by 2050 is also specified in the letter. Official announcement or not, the American political system requires that the…
Tags: American, climate, drilling, emission, nuclear power, Obama, Stern, U.S., UN
Climate Change, Politics, Jan 10th, 2010,
The United States Environmental Protection Agency – or EPA – has proposed new smog regulations that are tighter than those under the previous administration. An article in the Guardian describes smog standards as ‘lax’ under the term of George W. Bush, a period during which environmental concerns went largely ignored in favor of corporate interests, such the fossil fuel lobby. ‘The proposed new standard would set the acceptable ozone limit in the air at between 0.06 and 0.07 parts per million. That is roughly what scientists recommended. But in early 2008 George Bush personally intervened to override the unanimous opinion…
Tags: Bush, emissions, environmental, EPA, Guardian, Obama, Smog, standard, U.S.
Climate Change, Nature, Politics, Jan 9th, 2010,
‘In a paper published today in the journal Science, the researchers say mountaintop removal, widespread in West Virginia, southwest Virginia and eastern Kentucky, is destroying extensive tracts of biologically rich forest and degrading hundreds of streams. Fish and drinking-water wells are being contaminated, while the air downwind is fouled with high levels of hazardous dust.’ –The Baltimore Sun Contributing factors such as environmental degradation, human and ecological health, conservation, water quality and deforestation have spurred scientists in the United States to come together and demand a halt to destructive mountaintop removal coal mining. The practice, which is common in the…
Tags: coal, coal mining, environment, Guardian, mining, mountaintop removal, Obama, scientists, Virginia, West Virginia
Climate Change, Politics, Videos & Documentaries, Dec 22nd, 2009,
![]( "<!--:en-->The Rachel Maddow Show: U.S. diplomacy and Inhofe")
' src='http://gf2.statico.be/wp-content/themes/greenfudge/thumbnails/3119.jpg' alt='the-rachel-maddow-show-u-s-diplomacy-and-inhofes-truth-squad-in-copenhagen' class='art-teaser' width='95' height='95' /> Here are a couple of clips from the Rachel Maddow Show relating to the erstwhile COP15 conference that was to be the environmental movement’s coup de grâce on climate change – or something like that. Rachel interviews NBC News anchor Andrea Mitchell who explains some of the difficulties and diplomatic twists that met President Obama at the climate summit in Copenhagen. With a taciturn China on one side and an ever-emasculating health care bill back in the U.S., ‘a very disappointed Barack Obama’ came out of Copenhagen with ‘something – better than nothing’. The cagey diplomacy of the climate summit…
Tags: climate, Climate change, conference, cop15, copenhagen, diplomacy, Inhofe, Obama, Rachel Maddow, sum
Climate Change, Politics, Dec 18th, 2009,
I’ve just finished watching a live feed of U.S. President Barack Obama speaking at a press conference regarding the results of negotiations at COP15. News sources are reporting that a deal has been reached by principal players at the UNFCCC summit in Copenhagen, but is it significant or useless? Is something better than nothing? President Obama explained that the agreement is not legally binding, but it is ‘meaningful and unprecedented’. According to a breaking BBC News report ‘A US government official said the deal was a “historic step forward” but was not enough to prevent dangerous climate change in the…
Tags: agreement, deal, legally binding, meaningful, Obama, President, press conference, UNFCCC
Climate Change, Politics, ,
![]( "<!--:en-->Mixed reactions to Obama")
' src='http://gf3.statico.be/wp-content/themes/greenfudge/thumbnails/2987.jpg' alt='mixed-reactions-to-obamas-speech-in-copenhagen' class='art-teaser' width='95' height='95' /> U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change today in Copenhagen, Denmark today. Known as a great orator with a gift for sound bites and inspiring slogans, President Obama failed to inspire those who were hoping for some additional commitment from the U.S. on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton already made a conditional pledge yesterday to support a $100 billion climate fund to help developing countries deal with the consequences of climate change (adaptation). Obama reiterated Clinton’s stated support for the initiative, but offered nothing new. The New York Times‘…
Tags: copenhagen, greenhouse gas emissions, Guardian, Obama, President, speech, U.S.
