If you think those of us fighting climate change are going to go easy on the guilty criminals who destroy our atmosphere for profit… Think again.
fossil fuels
Mayor DiVirgilio: “Why Hermosa Beach is Going Carbon Neutral”
In an era when most elected officials offer no substance and no positive vision for our future, DiVirgilio is downright JFK-like in his view of what must be done:
“But now is not the time to narrow the vision for our own future, to diminish our expectations for the better days ahead or to downsize the ambitions for our children’s quality of life.
Now is the time to step up and seize the opportunities available to those who act on new realities before they become mainstream trends. Now is the time to use the stimulus, grant and foundation money available to those who lead before the map is even drawn.
Now is also the time to act because we are standing at another threshold, the threshold of climate-change tipping points that may diminish the future prospects and possibilities for young and old alike.”
So we choose to go carbon neutral, not because it is easy, but because it is our best possible future, and the best path to preserving the small-town beach community and culture we all cherish and want to pass on to the generations who follow.
A New Bedtime Story For The Kids…
More Act On CO2 videos from the Brits after the jump
Getting To Work In Hermosa Beach – The Carbon Neutral ClueTrain Leaves the Station
Courtesy of YouTube and the Hermosa Beach City website, and converted and enlarged through the magic of Greenius, we bring you this exclusive look at the Carbon Neutral ClueTrain leaving the Hermosa Beach station this week. Local mainstream media missed this story completely but fortunately for them this on-line record will exist for them to use as research. So will the reporting that the new Patch.com news group will be providing.
The story actually began last week during Hermosa Beach Mayor’s State of the City address where Mayor Michael DiVirgilio spoke about the Carbon Neutral City concept:
Mayor DiVirgilio was right back at it Monday night at the Hermosa Beach Green Task Force meeting, speaking enthusiastically on behalf of the idea:
Join us after the jump to see your friendly neighborhood Greenius and my Fratelli Verde, Robert Fortunato, following the Mayor with our own remarks.
Planet-Warming Texas Oil Refineries Embrace Communist Chinese Stance on Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions. CO2-Belching Texas Polluters Pony Up Millions To Overturn California’s AB 32
Your Greenius is sorry to report that there’s been nothing but more bad news on the climate action scene in the past couple of weeks.
Maybe you missed last week’s issue of China Daily with the headline:
“No Intention of Capping Emissions“
“China has no intention of capping its greenhouse gas emissions even as authorities are committed to realizing the nation’s target to reduce carbon intensity through new policies and measures, the country’s top climate change negotiators said yesterday. The negotiators also warned that rich and developing countries have little hope of overcoming key disagreements over how to fight global warming.
China “could not and should not” set an upper limit on greenhouse gas emissions at the current phase, said Su Wei, the chief negotiator of China for climate change talks in Copenhagen, at a meeting in Beijing on China’s climate change policies in the post-Copenhagen era.
But you don’t have to go to Communist Red China to find people who spew greenhouse gases but have no intention of capping their emissions.
Just mosey on over to the Republic of Texas where two of America’s biggest polluting oil companies are ponying up millions of dollars to pay for an initiative on the California ballot that would suspend our state’s Global Warming Solutions act, AB 32.
Power Companies Driving Drunk With Power – If Only PG&E and SCE Didn’t Hate Rooftop Solar So Much We Might Meet Our AB 32 Emission Reductions.
It’s great that Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 510 on Monday. It lifts the current “cap” on rooftop solar from the crappy 2.5% to a BFD level of 5%. The cap has to do with what percent of rooftop solar customers get to participate in the “net metering” program that actually gives them credit for the solar power they produce and feed back into the grid.
But forgive me if I’m only offering a near-silent golf clap of applause, because this whole cap program is a joke and doubling it from 2.5 to 5% is throwing a meatless bone to starving dog.
There shouldn’t even be a cap. Everyone who generates solar and feeds it back into the grid should have not only net metering available to them but they should also be getting hefty feed-in tariffs too.
But if you read the news articles, solar advocates are supposed to be oh-s0-grateful and thrilled that the net metering cap wasn’t filled leaving no more room for new solar owners.
But as you can tell, I am NOT the least bit grateful and I’m NOT thrilled one iota. The Greenius says, the state should call this the Dunce Cap program since it makes fools out of anyone who thinks this is the way to get solar power on all the roofs in California that can generate clean, green renewable energy.
It isn’t and it never will be. Judged on the results, the current programs sucks. Big time.
Greenius Presents: My Pal Governor Schwarzenegger on What’s Coming Next & Why AB 32 Needs Your Love
As your friendly neighborhood Greenius continues with his efforts to help Hermosa Beach become the first carbon neutral city in the South Bay, it might help some of you to get up to speed on what we already know is coming our way here in California from climate change and global weirding.
So why not let my old pal, Governor Schwarzenegger tell it to you straight about what we’re doing here in California to prepare for what we already see coming our way:
Unlike the astoundingly large group of dumbed-down states in the USA who happily have their heads up their own asses when it comes to sharing the climate change facts with their citizens and actually taking the bold actions necessary, California isn’t lying and isn’t delaying. If we have any chance at all of stopping catastrophic climate change from making the future a moot point for your kids, the rest of the country is going to have to follow our lead with emissions cuts, energy efficiency and renewable energy use.
Many of them will have to be dragged kicking and screaming – as usual – but if we have to go caveman on them to help save ourselves, then so be it.
It’s Time To Hold Polluters-For-Profit Accountable For Their Greenhouse Gasbags
Exxon keeps on funding groups that keep us from cracking down on the greenhouse gases and CO2 Exxon pumps into the atmosphere every day. Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson may not care about the future of his own children or any of the children of Exxon employees, but is it okay with you if he sells your kids out for more money too? Just wondering, parents…
The clock is ticking and the earth is warming. I want Exxon and their huge carbon footprint out of Torrance, the town I live in, because I don’t want their climate crimes to continue overheating our planet, changing our climate and ruining the future of our children and their children after them. I salute and support Greenpeace for caring about the generations that Exxon has written off as collateral damage.
Of course, Tillerson of Exxon isn’t alone in his climate crimes…
BREAKING NEWS: Hermosa Beach To Become Carbon Neutral City! Acting Locally, Thinking Globally
Ever since the Copenhagen climate treaty talks ended in impotence two months ago there hasn’t been a single ounce of positive news on the international scene about our chances of cutting the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and getting CO2 levels back down to the safe 350 ppm zone. Here in the United States our President and Congress haven’t shown the leadership or sense of urgency necessary to prevent a climate catastrophe and they’ve given the people no hope for their children’s future at the national level. Many in Congress have acted unethically and immorally with the responsibility they have been trusted with.
As the Creative Greenius and organizer of the South Bay Los Angeles 350 Climate Action Group that’s just unacceptable to me. If they can’t get the job done in Washington, DC or at the UN – and it’s obvious to me that they cannot – then we will take the reins of responsibility from them right now and we will get the job done here locally.
That’s exactly what is happening now.
Last night at the Hermosa Beach, California City Council meeting, Mayor Michael DiVirgilo, confirmed that he and the City Council are committed to making their iconic beach town a Carbon Neutral City at the earliest possible date. Hermosa Beach’s Green Task Force was directed to come up with the plan and a special joint session of the Council and the Task Force was scheduled for March 30 to get the carbon neutral ball rolling. This makes Hermosa Beach the first city in the South Bay of Los Angeles County, and the first city in all of Los Angeles County to declare their intent to become carbon neutral and sustainable. And that makes them the leadership model we will replicate in all of the other 87 cities that make up this County of 10 million people.
None of this is happening by accident.
Your Creative Greenius was there on the scene to witness the historic action and to add my remarks to note the occasion. Check out the video excerpt courtesy of Hermosa Beach’s website after the jump, and discover, in classic Paul Harvey tradition, the rest of the story…
Does the US Senate Have The Balls To Stand Up For Your Children? Not Without YOU Forcing Them To
Here on my local scene in the South Bay of Los Angeles our local elected officials are doing their homework, understand the tipping point we now stand upon and are acting to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by completing their carbon inventories and creating Climate Action Plans to get us to the safe zone of 350 ppm of CO2. Here in California we know that we have t0 end business as usual and burning of fossil fuels if anyone 35 or younger is going to have a viable future with anywhere near the good life the baby boomers have enjoyed.
But if you care about our children and our childrens’ children, then do not count on the members of today’s United States Senate to do the ethical, moral or honest thing when it comes to global warming because they will not. They’ve proven it time and time again by continually folding like a cheap umbrella whenever the time came for them to lead us to a better climate and energy future. That’s what happens when you’ve been bought out and completely co-opted by business interests who place a higher value on the money they rake in then the lives of the people who pay them.
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Creative Greenius 