From "Big Foot: In measuring carbon emissions, it’s easy to confuse morality and science."

OK, most New Yorkers probably know this:
"Paying attention to the emissions associated with what we eat makes obvious sense. It is certainly hard to justify importing bottled water from France, Finland, or Fiji to a place like New York, which has perhaps the cleanest tap water of any major American city. Yet, according to one recent study, factories throughout the world are burning eighteen million barrels of oil and consuming forty-one billion gallons of fresh water every day, solely to make bottled water that most people in the U.S. don’t need."

But, maybe not so obvious:
"Last year, a study of the carbon cost of the global wine trade found that it is actually more “green” for New Yorkers to drink wine from Bordeaux, which is shipped by sea, than wine from California, sent by truck. That is largely because shipping wine is mostly shipping glass. The study found that 'the efficiencies of shipping drive a ‘green line’ all the way to Columbus, Ohio, the point where a wine from Bordeaux and Napa has the same carbon intensity.'"

This article is full of many more nuances related to carbon footprint issues.

Nature Version 2.0: Ecological Modernities and Digital Environmentalism

Jan. 21 – Feb. 16, 2008 @ Colgate University’s Clifford Gallery, Hamilton,
New York.

http://www.ecoarttech.net/sustainablefutures

Featuring works by Natalie Jeremijenko, Brooke Singer, Joline Blais, Jane
Marsching, Colin Ives, Alex Galloway, Amy Franceschini, Tom Sherman, Michael
Alstad, Don Miller (aka no carrier), and Andrea Polli. Curated by EcoArtTech
(Cary Peppermint & Christine Nadir)

---------------
Nature Version 2.0 is a survey of artists who reinvent environmentalism for
a digital age in a number of ways: by examining how digital technologies can
make ecological problems more salient, by reusing and recycling obsolete
technologies for new uses, and by exploring how digital spaces and the
public domain may require environmental protection much like nature.
Re-imagining the relationship between nature and technology, Nature Version
2.0 suggests an ethics of the network and an environmentalism of natural,
built, and digital spaces.

This exhibition is in conjunction with Environmental Art and New Media
Technologies: Imagining Sustainable Futures, a two-day symposium on
interdisciplinary, digital, and networked art and research that draws upon
environmental science, computer science, design, hacking, gameplay,
engineering, and ecocriticism. Following the Nature Version 2.0 artists’
reception on February 8, keynote speaker Natalie Jeremijenko will launch the
two-day Environmental Art and New Media Technologies symposium in Golden
Auditorium, Little Hall, at 7pm. “90 Degrees South,” a multimedia
performance by Andrea Polli will follow at 9pm in the Clifford Gallery. The
symposium will resume in Golden Auditorium on February 9 for a day of talks
and presentations by critics and exhibiting artists, 9am-5pm.

Hosted by Colgate University’s Clifford Art Gallery, the Department of Art
and Art History, and the Environmental Studies Program, these events were
made possible through funding provided by the Institute for the Creative and
Performing Arts, the Film and Media Studies Program, the Environmental
Studies Program, and the Center for Ethics and World Societies at Colgate
University. All events are free and open to the public.

The Frozen Car

As an investigation of climate change in North America and questioning society's dependence on mobility, Carothers and Wrbican are taking on different elements: Ice and Time. During the winter of 2008, the artists will freeze a car into a solid block of ice in Michigan, the state of the birthplace of the automobile industry. Their chosen site is on the grounds of Michigan Tech University, in Houghton, located on the western side of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Their target date for the unveiling of the ice block is February 4-10, 2008. As The Frozen Car thaws with the spring, the artists will document its demise and interact with the public. Out of respect for nature they will embrace fluctuating weather patterns incorporating the element of chance into the project.

>>>>

This kind of reminded me of the car wrapped in leather by Michelle Lopez -- although the artists' objectives are of course quite different...

Democrats warn of denial by EPA
Boxer, Waxman pressure officials on state's emission waiver ruling
By David Whitney

Excerpt:
Key Democrats on Capitol Hill are preparing for the Environmental Protection Agency to rule against California's application for a Clean Air Act waiver permitting it to proceed with tough reductions in car and truck emissions.

The decision could come any time. Despite congressional pressure and a California lawsuit filed in October seeking a quicker decision on the state's 2-year-old application, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson has said only that the waiver decision will be made by the end of the year.

Asked whether she thought the decision would be made by the EPA or at the White House, Sen. Boxer said: "If you look at everything done on the environment, a lot of this leads back to the vice president's office."

[And the decision just came in that EPA and White House did SAY NO to California.]

An Atlas of Radical Cartography
Edited by Lize Mogel and Alexis Bhagat
Published by the Journal of Aesthetics & Protest Press

Boxed set with 160-page book + 10 maps/posters
Cover price: $30
http://www.an-atlas.com

An Atlas of Radical Cartography is a collection of 10 maps and 10 essays about social issues from globalization to garbage; surveillance to extraordinary rendition; statelessness to visibility; deportation to migration. It pairs artists, architects, and designers with writers to address the role of the map as a political agent. An Atlas of Radical Cartography makes an important contribution to a growing cultural movement that traverses the boundaries between art, cartography, geography and activism.

Maps | An Architektur | the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) | Ashley Hunt | Institute for Applied Autonomy | Pedro Lasch | Lize Mogel | Trevor Paglen & John Emerson | Brooke Singer | Jane Tsong | Unnayan

Essays | Kolya Abramsky | Sebastian Cobarrubias & Maribel Casas-Cortes | Alejandro De Acosta | Avery F. Gordon | Institute for Applied Autonomy | Sarah Lewison | Jenny Price, Ellen Sollod, D.J. Waldie, Paul Kibel | Heather Rogers | Jai Sen | Visible Collective & Trevor Paglen

This beautiful boxed set containing ten unbound 17”x22” maps and a 160-page book of essays is immediately available from the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest Press @ www.joaap.org.

It is available to bookstores worldwide in January 2008 through Distributed Art Publishers (DAP) @ www.artbook.com

For excerpts from the book and upcoming events, please visit: http://www.an-atlas.com

How US policy gets made -- the Cape Wind controversy as a case in point...

From E&E News:
This fall, the Minerals Management Service is expected to release a report on the environmental impact of the controversial Cape Wind project -- a project that would place wind turbines off the coast of Massachusetts. During today's OnPoint, Robert Whitcomb author of the book, "Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, and the Battle for our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound," discusses the debate over Cape Wind from its inception. He describes the different characters that have played a major role in the debate and takes a comedic approach at discussing the back-and-forth that has permeated not only the affected communities in Massachusetts but also Capitol Hill.

A new site, Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA), tracks the highest CO2 emitting power plants in the world and hosts a google mash up for you to explore the data. CARMA is produced and financed by the Confronting Climate Change Initiative at the Center for Global Development, an independent and non-partisan think tank located in Washington, DC.

They say:
"We are pleased to announce the launch of the Carbon Monitoring for Action database at www.carma.org. CARMA provides the world's most detailed and comprehensive information on carbon emissions resulting from the production of electricity. Power sector emissions make up 25% of the global total, 40% of carbon emissions in the United States, and are a primary cause of global warming. CARMA is a product of the Confronting Climate Change Initiative at the Center for Global Development, an independent and non-partisan think tank located in Washington, DC."

And, according to their new study, Center for Global Development determines that Australian power plants produce more carbon dioxide emissions per person each year than the United States, and almost five times as much as China. [Sorry Amanda!]

I thought some video content would liven up this page!! Here is a clip from an interview I did with Lois Gibbs, of Love Canal fame, this past summer. There is more on my video page on Superfund365.

In this clip, Lois Gibbs speaks about the beginnings of Love Canal. In the mid-1970s, Lois moved into what looked like the perfect neighborhood near Buffalo, New York, with her husband and two small children. Several years later she discovered that her neighborhood had a dirty secret, which was making her son, Michael, sick and would dramatically change the rest of her life.

Keywords:
Love Canal, 20,000 tons of chemicals, hazardous waste, SUNY Buffalo, Niagara Falls, school board, door-to-door, dollar deal, Occidental Petroleum, William T. Love, Hooker Chemical Corporation, sanitary landfill, Manhattan Project, chemical warfare, over 200 chemicals, containment, birth defects, crib death, hysterectomy, miscarriages.

Running time: 10:10 minutes

The Washington Post today ran this article today that discusses the different candidates' campaign promises to better cope with climate issues.

It also describes a few payoffs several have made (some more substantial than others) to balance out their driving and flying emissions:

"Several Democrats have even taken the unusual step of compensating for their campaigns' sizable carbon footprints by contributing to groups that seek to reduce greenhouse gases by planting trees and funding clean-energy projects. Edwards gave $22,000 to NativeEnergy to atone for the emissions of his campaign's travel. Clinton gave just under $11,600 to the same group to cover her campaign's operations in April, May, June and July. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.) paid $1,000 to CarbonFund.org for July, August and September, and uses a charter air company that offsets the carbon footprint of its flights."

This would make a great viz: tracking the eco campaign promises in the run up to election day to help voters make a choice and (down the line...) comparing actions with words.