February-April 2000

Everyone Talkes About the Weather.
It's Time we Did Something About It!

Can Clean, Green Energ Help Avert
Global Climate Change?

For those who live in cold climates, global warming sounds like the ultimate home improvement. Boston, welcome to Bermuda! But climate change is serious business. The world's leading climate scientists estimate that a predicted rise in global temperatures of just 1 to 3.5 degrees over the next century could produce a host of unwelcome effects, including:

• flooding of coastal regions from sea level rise
  droughts and expanding deserts due to disrupted water cycles
  
  
• more extreme weather of all kinds; hurricanes, tornadoes, snowstorms
  
  
• epidemics of tropical diseases from insects that thrive in warmer climates
  
  
• reduced crop yields in global breadbaskets like the mid-west

But aren't these effects still far in the future? Not so, say climate scientists. The nineties were the hottest decade of the millennium. The planet is heating faster than at any time in the past 10,000 years. The five costliest years for hurricanes and storms occurred in the 1990s.

Industrial and auto pollution play a key role in warming the atmosphere. In 1997, 160 countries met in Kyoto, where 38 industrialized nations agreed to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. pledged a reduction to 7% below 1990 levels by the year 2012. But since that time the U.S. has made little progress towards this goal. President Clinton's new budget includes $1.4 billion for scientific research and $2.7 billion to combat global warming, 43% more than 1999. But Congress may well slash that figure. And despite our advanced technology, we remain the world's biggest polluter.

What can be done to slow global warming and forestall its most destructive impacts? Many energy experts urge a two-pronged strategy:

• save energy, save money - adopt higher fuel efficiency standards, energy-saving industrial processes, reduce consumption, drive less, breathe more
  
  
• use more renewable sources of energy - solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, et al

There are ways, say many experts, but there is not yet the political will to make the change. What will it cost? How soon can renewables be brought on-line? Will the market support the shift or must it first be subsidized? How can we cut our personal energy use?

Between mid-February and late April 2000, MMP mounted a major public education effort to raise public awareness about the nature of global climate change and practical energy alternatives that would dramatically reduce the carbon dioxide buildup that is a chief source of the worldwide warming trend. The campaign was pegged in part to the April 22 Earth Day 2000, which shared our concern with climate change and renewable energy. Altogether we scheduled and completed some 253 interviews, of which 47 were nationally, globally, or regionally syndicated. More than two-thirds were broadcast on commercial radio, where such issues are seldom given an informed airing. Some 49 nationally known authorities on climate change and energy issues representing dozens of organizations participated in the campaign along with dozens of local experts. Collectively they addressed a full spectrum of issues ranging from impacts of the climate on the environment, the economy and human health to alternative transportation systems and the costs and benefits of a renewable energy economy.

Guest Speakers by Topic

Climate Change: Science and Solutions

John Harte, Professor of Environmental Sciences, University of California, Berkeley; Faculty Senior Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory

Patrick Mazza, Writer and Researcher, Climate Solutions

Michael Oppenheimer, Chief Scientist, Environmental Defense Fund

Rafe Pomerance, Chairman, Sky Trust

Rhys Roth, Founder and Co-Director, Climate Solutions

Warren Washington, Head, Climate Change Research Section, National Center for Atmospheric Research

George Woodwell, Ecologist; Founder, Director, and President, the Woods Hole Research Center

Advocates for the Atmosphere: Changing Policies to Save the Climate

Eileen Claussen, President, Pew Center on Climate Change

Ross Gelbspan, Journalist; Author Earth's Threatened Climate

Kevin Gurney, Research Scientist, Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University

Nancy Kete, Director, Climate, Energy, and Pollution Program, World Resources Institute

Daniel Lashof, Senior Scientist, Natural Resources Defense Council

James MacKenzie, Senior Associate, Climate, Energy, and Pollution Program, World Resources Institute

Alden Meyer, Director of Government Relations, Union of Concerned Scientists; Chair, U.S. Climate Action Network

Carl Pope, Executive Director, Sierra Club

Towards a More Sustainable Future: Greening Energy Policy

Howard Geller, Executive Director, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy

J. Drake Hamilton, Policy Coordinator, Minnesotans for an Energy-Efficient Economy

Denis Hayes, Chair, Earth Day Network; President and CEO, Bullitt Foundation; Chairman of the Board, The Energy Foundation

Martin Kushler, Co-Director, Utilities Program, American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy

Michael Marvin, President, Business Council for Sustainable Energy

Michael Noble, Executive Director, Minnesotans for an Energy-Efficient Economy

Karl Rabago, Managing Director, Corporate Consulting, Rocky Mountain Institute

Making Sense, Making Money: The Economics of Sustainable Energy

Stephen DeCanio, Professor, Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara

Seth Dunn, Research Associate, Worldwatch Institute

Christopher Flavin, Senior Vice President and Director of Research, Worldwatch Institute

Carsten Henningsen, Co-Founder, Portfolio 21; Chairman, Progressive Investment Management

Chris Lotspeich, Senior Associate, Natural Capitalism Practice, Rocky Mountain Institute

Amory Lovins, Co-CEO and Director of Research, Rocky Mountain Institute

Hunter Lovins, Co-CEO, Rocky Mountain Institute

Energy Saving Technologies and What You Can Do to Help Save the Climate

Karl Gawell, Executive Director, Geothermal Energy Association

Richard Heede, Research Scholar, Rocky Mountain Institute

Mark Hopkins, Vice President, Alliance to Save Energy

Alexis Karolides, Senior Research Associate, Green Development Services, Rocky Mountain Institute

David Katz, Director, Sales and Marketing, Applied Power Corporation

David Morris, Vice President, Institute for Local Self-Reliance

David Nemtzow, President, Alliance to Save Energy

Alan Nogee, Energy Program Director, Union of Concerned Scientists

Jen Uncapher, Senior Research Associate, Green Development Services, Rocky Mountain Institute

Transportation: Running Cooler, Cleaner, and Cheaper

Roland Hwang, Director, Transportation Program, Union of Concerned Scientists

Peter Lehman, Director, Schatz Energy Research Center

Ann Mesnikoff, Washington Representative, Global Warming and Energy Program, Sierra Club

Candace Morey, Transportation Analyst, Union of Concerned Scientists

Michelle Robinson, Senior Advocate for Transportation and Energy, Union of Concerned Scientists

Hot Flashes: Health Implications of Climate Change

Eric Chivian, Professor, Harvard Medical School; Director, Center for Health and the Global Environment

Paul Epstein, Professor, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health; Associate Director, Center for Health and the Global Environment

Patty Glick, Coordinator, National Wildlife Federation's Climate Change and Wildlife Program

Stewards of the Earth: A Biblical Perspective on Climate Change

Reverend Jim Ball, Executive Director, Evangelical Environmental Network

Additional Participants (local contacts)

John Adams, Associate Director for Public Outreach, Columbia University's Biosphere 2 Center

Kelly Christopher, Coordinator, Colorado Earth Day 2000

Dennis Creech, Executive Director, Southface Energy Institute

Beth Fraser, Community Coordinator, Georgia Legal Watch

Bill Griffith, Co-Conservation Chair, Kansas Sierra Club

Gary Groesch, Alliance for Affordable Energy

William Gutowski, Associate Professor, Meteorology, Iowa State University; Co-Director, Project to Intercompare Regional Climate Simulations

Doug Haines, Founder, Georgia Legal Watch

Curt Hart, Public Information Officer, Washington State Department of Ecology

Libby Hill, Green Power Director, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy

Glenn Kelly, Executive Director, Global Climate Coalition

David Kraft, Director, Nuclear Energy Information Service

Peter Mandelstam, Director, Arcadia Windpower Ltd.

Stephen McAusland, Energy Program Director, Episcopal Power and Light

Tim McKay, Director, Northcoast Environmental Center

Richard Nelson, Assistant Professor, College of Engineering, Kansas State University

Ted Smith, Executive Director, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition

Cindy Spring, Coordinator, Bay Area Earth Day 2000

Elwynn Taylor, Agricultural Meteorologist, Iowa State University

Dave Tushouse, Legal Aid of Missouri; St. Joseph Recycling Center

Kurt Waltzer, Manager, Clean Air Program, Ohio Environmental Center