Indonesia Burning & A Rock That’s the ‘Anti-Coal’
November 24th, 2009
Indonesia recently rounded up and deported international journalists and activists who were in-country to witness the massive, intentionally set, fires that are destroying the country’s tropical rainforest.
Thanks in most part to those fires, Indonesia is the world’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter standing right up with China and the U.S. Joining host Mike Tidwell to discuss the devastation to the area – and its consequences for our climate are Greenpeace forest activists Rolf Skar in San Francisco and Chiara Campione in Italy.
Then we hear about a rock that naturally traps carbon dioxide right out of the air. It’s kinda like the ‘anti-coal;’ we speak to researcher Sam Krevor of Stanford University’s Energy Resources Engineering Department.
Host Mike Tidwell then speaks directly to President Obama on how leadership could drive the United States into a clean energy future, if only he took the reins and lead the nation. Read that commentary here.
Music by Jacco Muller – Viento del Desierto. Our theme music is Baladi by Tony Anka, Bellydance Superstars vol. 2.
Image copyright John Novis for Greenpeace, all rights reserved.
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November 29th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Tidwell’s “Blame Obama” rant made little sense. Everyone in the world is learning about how the US government works, except perhaps Mike Tidwell.
Obama can’t make the US Senate pass anything they don’t want to pass. And when it comes to ratifying any treaty signed at Copenhagen or later, it will take 2/3 of the Senate, not just 60 votes, to ratify. By blaming Obama for what the Senate is responsible for, Tidwell further encourages people to direct their efforts to change things toward the wrong target.
When Tidwell said if carbon capture technology and nuclear power are encouraged even further in the Senate climate bill than they were in the House bill, there might as well not even be a climate bill, he illustrates very well a divide that is occurring worldwide among people who are concerned about climate action.
There are a lot of people claiming they understand how serious climate change is pushing other agendas, like anti nuke at all costs, anti carbon capture at all costs, who make arguments that make no sense at all.
Tidwell is one of these people. He claims to want to see significant action on climate, yet defines a successful climate bill as one that would not encourage the development of nuclear and carbon capture technologies, both of which promise to facilitate large reductions from BAU emissions. A successful climate bill would advance an agenda that would reduce GHG emissions. Tidwell thinks it would be something else.
Tidwell seemed to think James Hansen knows what he is talking about on climate legislation. Let’s see, what does Hansen think about nuclear power:
“Some of the anti-nukes are friends, concerned about climate change, and clearly good people. Yet I suspect that their ‘success’ (in blocking nuclear R&D) is actually making things more dangerous for all of us and for the planet. It seems that, instead of knee-jerk reaction against anything nuclear, we need hard-headed evaluation of how to get rid of long-lived nuclear waste and minimize dangers of proliferation and nuclear accidents. Fourth generation nuclear power seems to have the potential to solve the waste problem and minimize the others. In any case, we should not have bailed out of research on fast reactors.”
December 21st, 2009 at 1:57 pm
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