FAIR TV March 14 2014

FAIR TV

Published on Mar 14, 2014

Putin’s Delusions, CBS’s Conflicted Energy Expert, We’re All Rich Again!

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5 Things We Learned From Today’s Senate Hearing On Keystone XL

By Katie Valentine on March 13, 2014 at 6:07 pm

CREDIT: CSPAN

The president’s decision on whether or not to approve the Keystone XL pipeline is drawing closer, and if recent protests and hearings are any indication, the arguments around the issue are only heating up.

On Thursday, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held a hearing to discuss whether or not approving the Keystone XL pipeline was in the national interest, a decision that is now in the hands of President Obama. The hearing saw impassioned exchanges from Senators and panelists on both sides of the pipeline debate, but there were a few that stood out. Here are 5 of the most important lessons from the Senate’s Keystone hearing:

1. Tar sands oil could already be causing cancer in Canada. Sen. Barbara Boxer called for a health impacts study on tar sands during the hearing, quoting an Alberta study that found that a community near tar sands development sites in the province “continues to be disproportionately burdened with blood, lymphatic and rare cancers that have been linked to chemicals produced by the petroleum industry.” Other studies have found the same thing — one 2013 study published by researchers from University of California Irvine and the University of Michigan found incidence of leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in men was higher in communities closest to the oil and tar sands-rich “Industrial Heartland” of Alberta than in the surrounding counties.

…(read more).

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Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund To Mandate Investment In Renewable Energy

By Ari Phillips on March 14, 2014 at 11:43 am

“Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund To Mandate Investment In Renewable Energy“
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg speaks during a news conference at Maximos Mansion in Athens on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013.

CREDIT: AP/Thanassis Stavrakis

On Thursday, Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg announced plans to invest more of the nation’s $840 billion sovereign wealth fund in renewable energy in an effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions as the country struggles to meet its 2020 climate goals.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, built in large part on investment from the country’s oil and gas reserves, currently only invests a small fraction of money in green technology. The fund invests in listed equities, bonds and real estate, about 10 percent of which is made up of coal, oil and gas investments. The fund is also evaluating whether to exit these investments, as over the last 10 years nuclear weapons producers, companies in-breach of human rights, and tobacco companies have all been excluded.

….(read more).

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Hearing Keystone XL Oil Pipeline – James Hansen + | C-SPAN.org

http://www.c-span.org/video/standalone/?318285-1/hearing-keystone-oil-pipeline

March 13, 2014

Advocates and opponents of the Keystone XL Pipeline testified on the project. Senators focused on whether approval of the pipeline, that would run from Canada to the Gulf Coast, serves the national interest.

See also:

http://www.c-span.org/search/?searchtype=Videos&sort=Newest&personid[]=1014365

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Senate Committee Debates Whether Keystone XL Is In The U.S. National Interest

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/13/keystone-national-interest_n_4958716.html

Kate Sheppard

Posted: 03/13/2014 4:23 pm EDT Updated: 03/13/2014 4:59 pm EDT

WASHINGTON — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing Thursday to consider whether approval of Keystone XL, the proposed 1,660-mile pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to Texas, is in the national interest of the United States.

The State Department released its final environmental impact statement (FEIS) on Keystone in January, moving the decision on the pipeline into the hands of Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama. The administration is expected to make a national-interest determination in the coming months, possibly as soon as late May.

The Senate hearing produced few new insights, instead rehashing much of the political debate over Keystone that has dragged on for years now. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said he felt the case for building the pipeline “is clear and compelling.” Democrats on the committee mostly expressed opinions opposing the pipeline.

The pro-Keystone panelists testifying before the committee set up the national-interest question as one of energy security.

“Our neighbors to the north and south are also blessed with energy abundance. North America can and should become an energy hub,” said retired Marine Corps Gen. James L. Jones, who is now president of the Jones Group International. Jones has also served as president of the Institute for 21st Century Energy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and as an adviser to President Obama on national security, and he is a paid adviser to both the chamber and the American Petroleum Institute, which support the pipeline.

Jones described the Keystone approval decision as “a litmus test of whether the United States is serious about national and energy security.” He later argued that “Canada’s oil sands will continue to be developed if the Keystone XL is not approved.”

Karen Harbert, the current president and CEO of the Institute for 21st Century Energy, testified as well. “Energy vulnerability equals geopolitical vulnerability,” said Harbert. She argued that the question is whether the U.S. will get oil from Canada “or places far away that don’t share our democratic values and principles.”

“I don’t think we have to fear the Canadian Mounties coming and circling,” Harbert said, referencing the threats to energy supplies that Russia has been making against Ukraine.

…(read more)

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Europe’s broken climate promises

FoEEurope

Published on Mar 5, 2014

We need real climate action NOW. Join the Energy Revolution in Brussels: https://www.facebook.com/events/67545…

The world is warming at a dangerous rate, and the EU is still pushing weak, inadequate policies that give us a 50/50 chance of overshooting the 2°C limit – with devastating consequences for people and planet.

***

Read why current EU plans just aren’t up to the job:
http://www.foeeurope.org/2030_climate…

Read some effective proposals for cutting Europe’s emission:
http://www.foeeurope.org/2030-the-tim…

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Weather and Climate Summit – Day 3, Dr. Jennifer Francis

StormCenterInc

Published on Jan 25, 2013

Session 6: Dr. Jennifer Francis – Rutgers University
Topic: Wacky Weather and Disappearing Arctic Sea Ice: Are They Connected?

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Weather and Climate Summit – Day 5, Jennifer Francis

StormCenterInc

Uploaded on Jan 23, 2012

SESSION 9: Jennifer Francis, Rutgers University
Topic: The Arctic Paradox

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Arctic Amplification (Extreme Weather): Jennifer Francis June 6, 2013

ClimateState

Published on Jun 23, 2013

Follow ClimateState on facebook for more climate research https://www.facebook.com/ClimateState

This video is part of a Climate Desk event “Climate Desk Live 06/06/13: The Alarming Science Behind Climate Change’s Increasingly Wild Weather” featuring top climate researcher Jennifer Francis.
Watch the full event (including Stu Ostro on atmospheric thickness) here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-RDE…

Event website http://climatedesk.org/2013/05/climat…

For more detail on Francis’s research, see:
Arctic Warming Favors Extreme, Prolonged Weather Events ‘Such As Drought, Flooding, Cold Spells And Heat Waves’ http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012…

NOAA Bombshell: Warming-Driven Arctic Ice Loss Is Boosting Chance of Extreme U.S. Weather http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012…

How Arctic Ice Loss Amplified Superstorm Sandy — Oceanography Journal http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013…

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The Alarming Science Behind Climate Change’s Increasingly Wild Weather: Ostro And Francis On Video

ClimateState

Published on Jun 22, 2013

Follow ClimateState on facebook for more climate research https://www.facebook.com/ClimateState

Earlier this month, Chris Mooney moderated a terrific Climate Desk event featuring top climate researcher Jennifer Francis along with senior Weather Channel meteorologist (and former skeptic) Stu Ostro.

Watch the 30 min part with Jennifer Francis here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY0Rd…

Ostro’s observations suggest that global warming is increasing the atmosphere’s thickness, leading to stronger and more persistent ridges of high pressure, which in turn are a key to temperature, rainfall, and snowfall extremes and topsy-turvy weather patterns like we’ve had in recent years.

Francis’s scientific story is complementary. She sees the rapid warming of the Arctic weakening the northern hemisphere jet stream, and thus, once again, slowing down the weather, leaving a given pattern stuck in place for longer (making any event potentially more disruptive and extreme).

Stu Ostro is a senior meteorologist at the Weather Channel, and was a longtime climate change skeptic—until the devastating 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, when he started documenting hundreds of cases of extreme and unusual weather and the patterns associated with them, and became convinced that something is very off about the atmosphere.

For more on Ostro’s work and amazing story, see:
One Meteorologist’s Come-to-Jesus Moment on Climate Change (by Chris Mooney): Like many TV weathermen, Stu Ostro didn’t believe in climate change—until extreme weather and scientific evidence changed his mind. Weather Channel expert on Georgia’s record-smashing global-warming-type deluge.

Jennifer Francis is “a top climate researcher focused on the Arctic, whose work has drawn dramatic attention in the context of the very warm U.S. winter of 2012 (and attendant droughts and wildfires), the Russian heat wave and Pakistan floods of 2010, and other extreme weather events.”

Source: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013…

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