SUMMER RAYNE OAKES

There are just so many bang-up ideas swirling around – we just can’t wait to get them off the ground and running. The programs are focused on how we can begin turning awareness into continuous engagement. The approach is really creative and engaging – so it’ll be interesting to see how the public responds to them…(Speaking of getting people involved, a new report on how much impact Live Earth has affected people’s engagement will be coming out shortly – a joint report out of Columbia and Yale Universities).

Photo: from the IGHIH blog

Let’s Get Moving!
Everyone’s effort is greatly needed, but we need to graduate from the “little things we can do” (i.e. changing every frigging light bulb in the house) and ramp up to a more concerted effort for a sweeping change. A report was recently forwarded to me with some startling comparisons compiled by the 2030 Research Center. An abridged summary is listed below:

The Campus Climate Challenge, a growing student movement in the US…calls for all high schools and college campus in the U.S. to go carbon neutral. If the challenge were met, the CO2 emissions from just 4 medium-sized coal-fired power plants each year would negate the CCC’s entire effort.

If every household in the U.S. changed a 60-watt incandescent light bulb to a compact fluorescent, the CO2 emissions from just two medium-sized coal-fired power plants each year would negate this entire effort.

California, which makes up over 10% of the country’s new vehicle market, passed legislation to cut GHG emissions in new cars by 25% and in SUVs by 18%, starting in 2009. If every car and SUV sold in California in 2009 met this standard, the CO2 emissions from only one medium-sized coal-fired power plant, in just eight months of operation each year, would negate California’s 2009 effort. Wal-Mart, the largest “private” purchaser of electricity in the world is investing a half billion dollars to reduce the energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of their existing buildings by 20% over the next 7 years. “As one of the largest companies in the world, with an expanding global presence, environmental problems are our problems,” said CEO Lee Scott. The CO2 emissions from only one medium-sized coal-fired power plant, in just one month of operation each year, would negate Wal-Mart’s entire effort.