Photo by David Tulloch

Unfortunate news just came out of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded report: Americans are losing the battle against obesity. This problem of growing obesity is related to many of our country’s greatest challenges. Luckily for us, there is a solution that can tackle obesity as well as many related difficulties simultaneously.

Sitting around in our cars, our cubicles, and on our couches is taking its toll. To paraphrase Trust for America’s Health director Jeff Levi: when our waistlines grow, so do our health care costs. The fact that two thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese has contributed significantly to the doubling in health premiums for workers over the last decade — fueling big increases in serious illnesses like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Habits that induce and perpetuate obesity don’t just affect health care costs. The same decision to drive instead of walk or bicycle increases the price of oil and gasoline, hurting all our checkbooks and threatening to make the dollar even weaker than it is today. Our addiction to oil for transportation makes the fuel our biggest contributor to global warming, even bigger than coal. And our drive to secure the flow of foreign oil from the Middle East has led us to spend trillions of dollars on military misadventures and undemocratic alliances throughout the region.

The Promise of Active Transportation

If instead of jumping in the car for short trips, we instead hop on our bicycles or walk – we could save precious dollars, feel better physically, and be good stewards to the natural ecosystems we depend on for clean air, clean water, and a stable climate.

Since changing the infrastructure of a huge country like ours takes time, I will first focus on the change possible over the next decade. Currently ~12% of Americans use active transportation — 9% walk, 1% bike, and 2% take the bus or train. An active transportation shift to 33% of commuters (moving 21% from their cars) by 2020 would lower our consumption of oil by ~2 million barrels of oil per day. This is definitely doable, as more than 50% of commuters in the Netherlands and Sweden enjoy active transportation commutes (and their obesity rates are less than half ours as a result).

Such a move would save Americans over $40 billion every year on their fuel bills (based on current prices above $55/barrel) that we could instead put into paying off our credit card debt and improve the quality of life in our communities. The reduced demand for oil would help keep a lid on gasoline prices for those longer trips to family and friends around holidays. It would also cut our dependence on Middle Eastern oil by more than two thirds. The move would send total US greenhouse gas emissions down ~5% in one fell swoop, getting us close to the 2020 goal passed by the US House of Representatives.

To make this transition to walkable, bikable communities possible, we must have an infrastructure shift to support the necessary sidewalks, bike lanes, and greenways. While some of us in our physical prime can ride through the busy streets of Manhattan or on the sides of country roads, a safer environment is necessary to make active transportation accessible to all Americans.

Greenways, usually paved pathways to facilitate a safe route for non-motorized vehicles and walkers, are already growing in communities throughout the country. And building this new infrastructure can help provide jobs for some of the millions out of work right now. The cost for greenway construction is less than a quarter of the cost of building new roads (at $500,000 or less vs. $2+ million per mile, estimates the Florida DOT) and they require fewer maintenance dollars. So a focus on greenways rather than roadways in future Transportation Bills can help lower current government budget deficits.

And greenways can even be used for long-distance travel as long as we close current gaps along major corridors. For instance, the emerging East Coast Greenway from Key West, Florida, all the way up to the Maine border with Canada needs the support of local, state and federal transportation officials to become a completed urban counterpart to the Appalachian Trail. Such corridors can attract tourism to connected communities and even increase the home prices of people who live alongside it.

Greenways Empower Fitness, Financial Well-being, and Green Travel

The clean energy revolution is often characterized by technological innovations in solar panels, wind turbines, and fuel efficient vehicles. But we can’t forget the great opportunity of utilizing the renewable energy in our muscles to help us travel from home to work and play. In fact, this transition to an active transportation system throughout the country can reduce our obesity rate, lower our health care and fuel costs, free us from our dependence on Middle Eastern oil, and help us achieve the greenhouse gas emissions our Earth so desperately needs to restore balance in our climate.

Let’s make it happen!

“We are 24 hours away from the most important climate vote of our lives. Everything hangs in the balance.

Either the House passes the American Clean Energy and Security Act and we carry momentum to the Senate. Or, we lose the vote and probably any chance of confronting the devastating threats of run-away global warming for the foreseeable future.

In recent weeks, we’ve sent a lot of email urging you and the Action Network community to keep the pressure on for passing this landmark bill. In response, our TakeAction inbox has been flooded with comments and questions about this bill and the urgency for action.

We’ve tried to respond to each question individually but thought at this critical moment it would be helpful to explain why we are working so hard to pass this bill and why now is so important.

Your support and activism is absolutely critical to our success and we hope this response helps keep us moving together toward passing the strongest possible bill.

Thanks for all you do,
Sam Parry
Director, Online Membership and Activism

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Why This Bill, Why Now?

Our vigorous effort to pass the landmark American Clean Energy and Security Act is based on a number of factors, including:

• It is a strong bill that will put America on course to cutting global warming emissions by 83% by mid-century. This, along with cuts from other countries, is in the range of what scientists suggest is necessary to stave off the catastrophic threats of run-away global warming.
• It has broad support from labor, environmental, and community groups, as well as valuable support from the business community and even many electric utilities and energy companies. In order to pass a bill of this magnitude, this broad support is essential.
• It uses a proven policy approach — cap-and-trade — that sets a declining cap on global warming pollution and creates a market that rewards innovation to clean-energy technologies. This same approach has dramatically reduced acid rain pollution at a fraction of the estimated costs.
• Now is the time. Political momentum has built over many years to bring us to this pivotal moment in history, and we cannot squander it. Key political leaders from President Obama to Speaker Pelosi to Reps Waxman and Markey are engaged as never before on passing a good bill right now. If we lose the vote in spite of the political firepower devoted to this, it will set back our efforts for many years, which would be disastrous for the climate. Once lost, political momentum doesn’t easily regenerate.

Some of our online members and activists wonder whether we should be pushing for an even stronger bill or, short of that, whether we’d be better off allowing the EPA to regulate global warming pollution.

Keep the following in mind:

• EPA has not yet established global warming regulations and it is not yet clear how they would approach the issue.
• It could take years and many court battles before EPA regulations are set.
• Nor is it clear how regulations would be handled over time with changing administrations.
• The bill would replace EPA regulations with a clear policy that locks in emission reductions through mid-century.

This is why President Obama and his team, including EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, are fully behind passing the American Clean Energy and Security Act and favor legislation over regulation.

As to whether we should be supporting a stronger bill, we have to ask what’s the alternative? What other bill stands a prayer’s chance of winning 218 votes in the House and 60 votes in the Senate? What other bill has the support of President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Reps. Waxman and Markey? What other bill could you even get out of the relevant committees?

Passing legislation of this magnitude is hard. Look at the efforts to reform health care. An entire generation of Americans has come and gone and that issue is not yet resolved.

If the planet is to avoid the catastrophic threat of run-away global warming, we have to act now. We must come together to support the strongest possible bill and get it passed. We just don’t have time to waste here.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act is a strong bill (see our summary of the bill).

Is it everything we would want? Of course not, but you don’t pass legislation in a vacuum. You must work with many interests and constituents and find common ground. That is how all legislation moves through Congress.

It is carpe diem time. It is save the planet time. It is time to pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

Please do everything you can in the next 24 hours to urge your member of Congress to vote yes on this critical bill.

Here are five things you can do right now to help:

1. Take Action: Send an email to your member of Congress supporting passage of the landmark American Clean Energy and Security Act. Even if you think your member is a solid yes or a definite no, it’s important for all members to hear from their constituents today on this important issue.
2. Call Your Member: Dial the Capitol Hill switchboard — (202) 224-3121 — and ask to be patched through to your representative’s office. Tell the staff that you are a voter back home and that you support the American Clean Energy and Security Act because it will create jobs, unleash our clean energy future, free us from foreign oil, and cut America’s global warming pollution.

   When you’re done with the Capitol Hill office, please look up your member at http://www.house.gov/ and find the phone numbers for home district offices — let the staff back home know what you think, too.

3. Spread the Word: Tell all your friends and family how important this vote is and that they need to get in touch with their members of Congress. Send them this url: https://secure2.edf.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=118. Tell them that this is the only chance we have to pass a climate bill this year and that we need to act now.”

Exporting Green Power

An installation of this size is estimated to provide all the power needs of the small nation-state and even allow them to export electricity to their neighbors in Italy. The Vatican already has a sizable solar installation that powers the 6,300 seat dome where weekly mass is held. That system was made possible by a donation of $1.5 million of panels from German solar producer, Solarworld. This time around, Italy’s supportive renewable energy policy (a generous feed-in tariff) helped to make the project economical.

The 100 MW solar farm is slated to be built ground-mounted on 740 acres that the Vatican owns north of Rome. Such a large installation is equal to almost half the size of Italy’s whole solar market in 2008. Initial cost estimates run as low as $450 million which, if realized, would be a leap forward in solar cost reduction to below $5 per watt including installation costs (making the source much more competitive with new fossil fuel-fired power plants).

It Doesn’t Stop with PV

The Vatican also plans to utilize solar thermal systems to heat and cool the staff cafeteria. And they are looking into projects to process their waste and even their horses waste into usable energy as well.

Will Other Religious Institutions Lead as Well?

Caring for God’s Creation is a value spoken by practitioners across the world’s faiths. I hope these visible efforts by the Vatican help to inspire similar progress in the Sustainable Energy Transition at churches, mosques, and synagogues — and in the homes and schools of their practitioners. Thank you for your leadership on environmental stewardship, Pope Benedict XVI.

It’s easy for those of us living more than a few feet above sea level to currently ignore the meter rise in sea level predicted to occur over the next several decades. But when your country is completely dependent on the fragile balance of coral reefs and ocean volume, policymakers cannot ignore the seriousness of global warming.

BBC reports that this nation of a few hundred thousand people southwest of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean plans to spend just over $100 million per year to convert its villages and famous resorts from fossil fuel dependence to an efficient utilization of wind and solar energy. The Maldives only has ~50 MW of installed electrical capacity (less than the current wind capacity in the rural state of South Dakota, ranked #19 in state wind power capacity). So, renewable energy on this scale is certainly doable. And while their action won’t significantly cut global emissions, they can become a model for other island nations and every institution worldwide.

Bottom line: It’s great to see climate leadership in countries like The Maldives. Resource-rich institutions such as universities and companies have a responsibility to act with similar urgency to prevent the dangerous climate future from business as usual energy consumption.

Onwards in the Sustainable Energy Transition-

Friday night photo by 1sky.org

I’ve been to dozens of student conferences over the last decade, but nothing on this scale. Powershift 2009 has over 10,000 students and youth filling spaces throughout the huge Washington Convention Center. The energy for change is truly contagious and inspiring!

Students are tenaciously committed to a clean energy revolution, and they are hopeful they can make it happen. With the size and power of this gathering, their hope is warranted. The speakers have been heavy-hitters with a lot to share, and the participants are just as full of insight.

I sat in on a Cleantech and Energy Policy workshop this morning where students asked experienced professionals from Google and the Global Environment Fund tough questions that dug deep into the crucial issues the energy and climate movement face. The level of awareness/consciousness among students shows how effective the Energy Action Coalition’s efforts have been.

Students are empowered, enlightened, and have now developed relationships with their federal leadership. The weekend’s supportive speakers include Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, EPA head Lisa Jackson, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The Coalition has worked hard to deserve their attention, and I’m excited to see how big a fire they can light under our electeds to ensure their spoken support translates into climate results.

I know I’m not alone in being impressed by the organization and size of this conference. From a recent alumnus of this flowering student organizing world to the 50 organizations that make up the growing Energy Action Coalition:

You are grabbing the torch with both hands and making your mark on history! And that is exactly what our Earth’s climate needs. I’m excited to see what the next couple of days will bring.

Onwards in the Sustainable Energy Transition-

To use their webtools, go here.

This is what they had to say:

I have some exciting news to share: President Obama just signed into law an economic recovery bill containing $87 billion in green investment funds–the largest investment ever in clean energy solutions!

And it was your passion and commitment to bold climate action that made this day possible. For the last two weeks, you phoned Congress for more than 121 hours through the 1Sky website–the equivalent of five days of nonstop calling on behalf of a green recovery. Kudos also to our allies who flooded congressional inboxes with emails.

President Obama and the members of Congress who supported the bill heard you loud and clear and took bold action. If we want them to do so again in the future, they need to know we have their backs today.

Please send a ‘thank you’ note to President Obama and the 306 members of Congress who voted for a green recovery:

http://www.1sky.org/green-recovery-thankyou

The green investments in the recovery bill will not only create over 1.7 million green jobs our country needs urgently: they are also a critical down payment on a clean, renewable energy economy.

President Obama and the bill’s supporters in Congress took a bold step towards real climate solutions, and they deserve our thanks for a job well done. Please send a ‘thank you’ note to the President and those in Congress who backed a green recovery:

http://www.1sky.org/green-recovery-thankyou

This is only the first step of many to solve the climate challenge and build a clean economy. In the months ahead, we’ll have to keep pushing Congress and the President to enact strong caps on carbon pollution and a halt to new coal power plants.

But in the meantime, take a moment to appreciate what we’ve accomplished today. Thank you for taking ownership of this movement!

Liz Butler
Field and Outreach Director, 1Sky

The coalition is a partnership of ~50 diverse organizations from regional networks like SURGE (Students United for a Responsible Global Environment) which I was involved in and the Black Mesa Water Coalition to longstanding environmental organizations such as the Sierra Student Coalition and Greenpeace. They had their first national conference in DC in 2007 when 6,000 youth came from all 50 states. This year, almost twice that amount plan to come together in keynote speeches, panel workshops, and mass actions to demand our federal leaders stop dragging their feet and embrace climate progress.

I was proud to hear that Princeton SURGE anticipates a group of ~50 students will make the trip to DC and the campus Sustainability Office may support the trip. That is exactly the type of partnership that can make climate responsible policy inevitable – the marriage of student energy and innovation with institutional resources to accomplish common goals.

Congratulations to everyone involved in Energy Action and Powershift organizing thus far! And youth across America, I hope you get a chance to be part of this historical gathering February 27th-March 2nd, Powershift 2009.

Onwards-

Environmental engagement is no exception. In 1989, students at UNC-Chapel Hill started a new national organization and hosted an environmental conference that birthed the modern college environmental movement. They brought together over 1,500 students from more than 200 campuses to push environmental responsibility through the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC). As the 1990s rolled by, SEAC was joined by many other national student environmental organizations that learned from SEAC’s experience and aimed to tackle growing challenges such as global warming. UNC-Chapel Hill students remain a crucial catalyst for environmental progress by implementing solid projects like the solar story I share below.

Students involved in the UNC-CH chapter of SEAC and collaborating with other campus groups such as Students United for a Responsible Global Environment (SURGE), led a campaign to establish a fund for renewable energy on campus in 2002-03. The proposal was to build the fund from a $4 per semester increase in student fees. A grassroots campaign by a handful of student activists passed the fee in Student Congress legislation and by student referendum with 74.5% support during the February 2003 student government elections. The Chancellor, UNC-CH Trustees, and the UNC System Board of Governors all approved the fee during the following year.  The renewable energy fee passage made UNC-Chapel Hill the first campus in the Southeast with such a funding mechanism. And a February 2005 student referendum showed overwhelming on-campus support (85%) to continue the new program through 2009 at least.

The funds, which gather ~$200,000 per year, are distributed by a student and staff committee called the Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee (RESPC). The first project funded was a solar thermal project integrated into the renovation of one of the major dorms on campus, Morrison (Aside: This South Campus dorm provided me with some excellent pick-up basketball games back in 1997-99). An RESPC contribution of $184,000 paid for a majority of the solar water-heating project for showers and washing machines. Partner funding of $137,455 was provided by a grant from North Carolina’s Energy Policy Council of the State Energy Office (a public state institution), accessed by an application process completed by students and staff working in collaboration. Now, the 179 solar panels totaling 3,183 square feet heats most of the water for the 1,000 students living in Morrison. The system is estimated to save more than $11,000 in energy costs every year.

This project has been so successful that students aim to add more solar installations to campus. The RESPC has set aside $160,000 toward 48 solar thermal panels to provide two thirds of the hot water needs of Fetzer Gymnasium and its pool. They also commissioned a feasibility study for an Integrated Photovoltaic Project at the campus astronomy observatory deck, Chapman Hall.

Students worked hard to establish their own financing for campus projects at my undergraduate alma mater, and now have the help of a staffed Sustainability Office and a supportive Administration that has signed the University President’s Commitment to Climate Neutrality. The campus currently utilizes great efficiency in its cogeneration power/heat plant — but it remains dependent on non-CCS coal. The good work of students these past few decades has brought solar to campus as an example of clean alternative energy. And continued student leadership ensures that solar will play a big role in the Tarheels’ energy future, making the campus a model for state of North Carolina and the Southeast.

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I’m proud to share that SET is leading Southeastern engagement in the Solar College Initiative which aims to spread and deepen such solar successes to scores of campuses all over the country in 2009 and beyond.

For instance, as many predict a peak in global oil production within the next seven years, consumption of this largest source of US emissions should naturally fall in the years ahead. ln fact, the 2007 level of greenhouse gas emissions may end up being our peak. The federal cap & trade system that incentivizes efficiency, wind, natural gas and solar over coal is important to ensure the substitution of oil energy by cleaner burning fuels. Public commitment to climate stewardship, along with continued innovation by public and private institutions, can make the sustainable energy transition a path to economic prosperity for the US and unprecedented global partnership among nations.

The 2008 US emissions reduction may be matched in many developed countries, but the trend of emissions growth continues globally due to rapid increases in the developing world. China has become the world’s largest polluter and their consumption of coal grows at a ferocious rate. But US emissions on a per capita basis remain four times those in China and more than five times those in India. Therefore, to achieve the G8 goal of halving global emissions by 2050, developed countries aim to cut GHGs by 80%, leaving developing countries the responsibility of cutting emissions ~20% by that date. Some climate activists such as NASA’s James Hansen and Bill McKibben encourage even quicker emissions reduction, provided optimal policies are put in place to support wind and solar innovation and deployment at current growth rates for many years to come. If more institutions of higher education step up to model rapid emissions reduction, they can inspire progress throughout the world.

In sum, the US is making climate progress in 2008 due to lower oil consumption (mainly from driving less and more efficiently). Continuing and accelerating the sustainable energy transition taking place in 2008 here will help us to get global emissions to acceptable levels in the decades to come.