Meet The Farmer: White House Market

E145, food-matters,

Oklahoma, Colorado And Arizona Push ALEC Bill To Require Teaching Climate Change Denial In Schools

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/01/31/1521401/oklahoma-colorado-arizona-alec-bill-teaching-climate-change-denial-in-schools/

By Joe Romm on Jan 31, 2013 at 12:31 pm

By Steve Horn Via DeSmogBlog

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) – known by its critics as a “corporate bill mill” – has hit the ground running in 2013, pushing “models bills” mandating the teaching of climate change denial in public school systems.

January hasn’t even ended, yet ALEC has already planted its ”Environmental Literacy Improvement Act“ – which mandates a “balanced” teaching of climate science in K-12 classrooms – in the state legislatures of Oklahoma, Colorado, and Arizona so far this year.

In the past five years since 2008, among the hottest years in U.S. history, ALEC has introduced its “Environmental Literacy Improvement Act” in 11 states, or over one-fifth of the statehouses nationwide. The bill has passed in four states, an undeniable form of “big government” this “free market” organization decries in its own literature.

ALEC’s “model bills” are written by and for corporate lobbyists alongside conservative legislators at its annual meetings. ALEC raises much of its corporate funding from the fossil fuel industry, which in turn utilizes ALEC as a key – though far from the only – vehicle to ram through its legislative agenda through in the states.

A Frankenstein Co-Created with Heartland Institute

A DeSmogBlog investigation last year found that the Environmental Literacy Improvement Act’s orgins date back to 2000.

The Act’s creation is directly connected to the ongoing efforts of another corporate-funded group, the Heartland Institute – of “Heartland Institute Exposed” fame – a group well plugged into the climate change denial machine.

ALEC’s Natural Resources Task Force, now known as its Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force, adopted this model at a time when the Task Force was headed by Sandy Liddy Bourne. Bourne, who served in this capacity from 1999-2004, would eventually ascend to the role of Director of Legislation and Policy for ALEC in 2004.

Upon leaving ALEC in 2006, Bourne become Heartland’s Vice President for Policy Strategy. Today she serves as Exectutive Director of the American Energy Freedom Center, an outfit she co-heads withArthur G. Randol. Randol is a longtime lobbyist and PR flack for ExxonMobil, a corporation which endowed the climate change denial machine for years.

Heartland’s website still lists Bourne as one of its “experts,” stating that ”Under her leadership, 20 percent of ALEC model bills were enacted by one state or more, up from 11 percent.”

Importantly, Heartland is still a member of ALEC’s Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force that originally passed the Environmental Literacy Improvement Act.

According to internal documents leaked to and published by DeSmogBlog in Feb. 2012, Heartland obtained funding for a “Global Warming Curriculum for K-12 Classrooms” project beginning in 2012. This cirruculum aims to teach that there “is a major controversy over whether or not humans are changing the weather.”

If this sounds similar to ALEC’s model bill, it should, given the fact that the two outfits share funding from the same honey pot. In fact, Heartland actively promotes the ALEC model on its website. …(more).

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Climate-Proofing NYC: Cleaning Up

ClimateDesk

Published on Nov 28, 2012

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Climate Desk Live: Can Greenland Be Saved?

ClimateDesk

Published on Jan 31, 2013

Glaciologist Jason Box describes a post-warming world that you won’t even be able to recognize.

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Salt Mines of Mali

NationalGeographic

Published on Jan 31, 2013

In the West African desert, gathering and hauling salt is a grueling task not meant for the meek. Camel caravans still move the tablets to market.

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Hague finds Shell ‘partially guilty’ for Nigeria pollution

AlJazeeraEnglish

Published on Jan 31, 2013

It was a long-awaited verdict and a mixed result for most Nigerians – Shell was found responsible for pollution in only one of the five individual cases. In the village of Ikot Ada Udo in Akwa Ibom State, the court ruled that Shell could have done more to protect its pipeline from sabotage and it must pay compensation for the damages. In the other four areas, the pollution was found to be caused by sabotage specifically saying Shell could not be held liable for it – a partial victory for the plaintiff and a measure of relief for Shell. Al Jazeera’s Simon McGregor-Wood reports from the Hague.

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

People & Power – Goodbye Indonesia

AlJazeeraEnglish

Published on Jan 30, 2013

In the face of state repression and international indifference West Papuan activists have been locked in a life or death struggle for independence. People & Power finds out what is behind one of the most forgotten conflicts in the world.

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120
—

Demand for oil to rise 4.8% |chinadaily.com.cn

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2013-01/31/content_16189328.htm
Updated: 2013-01-31 03:02 ByDUJUAN ( ChinaDaily)

WorkersdrillanoilwellinDaqing, Heilongjiangprovince. China’sdomesticcrudeoutputwillbeabout 210 milliontonsin 2013. [WANG JIANWEI / XINHUA]

AsChina’seconomygraduallyrebounds, itsdemandforoilwillriseatamodestrateof 4.8 percentto 514 millionmetrictonsthisyear, andimportswillcontinuetogrow, theCNPCEconomicandTechnologyResearchInstitutesaidonthesameday.

Thecountrywillimportabout 289 milliontonsofcrudeoilthisyear, up 7.3 percentyear-on-year, accordingtoareportreleasedbytheinstituteunderChinaNationalPetroleumCorp.

Thefiguremeansthatabout 59 percentofChina’scrudeoildemandwilldependonimportsin 2013.

“Asthecountry’soilconsumptionincreases, itsdependencyonforeignimportswillcontinuetorise,” saidQianXingkun, theinstitute’sdeputydirector.

Meanwhile, domesticcrudeoutputwillbeabout 210 milliontons. ….(more).
See also – regularly – http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Deforestation Borneo

stockholmresilience

Published on Jan 30, 2013

Seminar with Brent Loken, Executive Director and co-founder of Integrated Conservation. Read more here: http://bit.ly/YkndLk

Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

The Question No One is Asking about Keystone XL

TheBigPictureRT

Published on Jan 31, 2013

Right now in Texas, a foreign corporation, TransCanada, is using our government’s 5th Amendment right of eminent domain to confiscate private land belonging to Americans, to build a massive oil pipeline so TransCanada can ship oil from the Gulf of Mexico to non-Americans around the world. Oil, by the way, that will accelerate our planet’s plunge into global warming-induced catastrophe. So the question is, “Why?”

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120