I am starting a trip to Fort Davis in the morning, and the e-mail from the Chronicle “Subject: Breaking News – Texas gasoline prices hit record high” made me really glad that I have rented a Prius for the trip.

To my surprise, the rental rate for the Prius was the same as for Toyota Corolla and less than for a Camry. As I was trying to decide if it was really worth driving to the big airport to get that car, I ran across a really useful website. It’s the EPA’s Green Vehicle Guide. It lists a vehicle’s gas mileage, air pollution score, and greenhouse gas score; and also provides other useful information such as how many cubic feet of interior space and of truck space the vehicles have.

I used it to compare a Camry and a Prius and discovered that it would take 4 gallons of gas to get me 100 miles in the Camry and 2.17 gallons to get me that far in the Prius. Over the course of 1,200-mile trip, and at today’s prices, that’s a $70 saving in gas. One friend discovered an extra savings when he rented a Prius in Los Angeles – he got to park free at his hotel, rather than paying $15 per day.

The Prius also has a slightly better score on air pollution and greenhouse gasses. The comparisons also tell how many cubic feet of interior space and of truck space the vehicles have. I learned that the Camry’s inside is bigger, but the Prius’ trunk is bigger.

I rented from Hertz, which has a “Green Collection” that is chosen from cars that have the EPA’s “SmartWay” designation.

The EPA “SmartWay” and SmartWay Elite” designations indicate the vehicles with the best environmental performance. Higher air pollution scores indicate vehicles with reduced levels of emissions that cause smog. Higher greenhouse gas scores indicate vehicles with reduced levels of emissions that cause greenhouse gases. This is also connected to improved fuel economy. According to the website, SmartWay Elite is given to vehicles that have greenhouse gas and air pollution scores of 9 or better. There are eight models on this list.

SmartWay is a designation for vehicles that score a 6 or better on the air pollution and greenhouse gas scores and achieve a combined score of at least 13. There are more than fifty models on this list.

Other car rental places have plenty of eco-friendly vehicles available too. Think about getting a rental for your next road trip. If your car is a gas-guzzler, it might pay for itself.

Promoting green design, construction, renovation, and operation of buildings could cut greenhouse gas emissions more deeply, quickly and cheaply than other methods, according to a report issued yesterday by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation. The commission was set up by the United States, Canada and Mexico to address environmental concerns raised by the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Buildings in the three countries cause the release of more than 2,200 megatons of CO2 every year, about 35 percent of the continent’s total emissions. However, green buildings routinely reduce energy usage by 30 to 50 percent and the most efficient buildings perform 70 percent better than conventional properties, according to the report.

However, green building accounts for only two percent of the new commercial building market in the United States and Canada (less in Mexico), and less than half of one percent of the residential market.

The report said that substantial changes to planning, development, and financing of construction are needed to overcome significant barriers to the widespread adoption of high-performance buildings. The report’s recommendations include:

Set clear targets to achieve the most rapid possible adoption of green building in North America, including aggressive targets for carbon-neutral or net zero-energy buildings, together with performance monitoring to track progress towards these targets;

Enhance ongoing or new support for green building, including efforts to promote private sector investment and proper valuation methods; and

Increase knowledge of green building through research and development, capacity building, and the use of labels and disclosures on green building performance. Read the report, Green Building in North America: Opportunities and Challenges.

Houston is second only to Los Angeles in the number of environment-friendly commercial buildings in the country, according to the Houston Business Journal. It cites a report released in January by the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate at the University of San Diego that said that Houston has 46 buildings that are LEED certified or Energy Star. The buildings total 21.1 million square feet.

The City of Houston is currently building or planning 21 city buildings that will be LEED certified. Mayor White has formed an advisory panel to assist him in educating Houstonians about the benefits of high performance buildings. Its projects include tours of local LEED buildings and development of a green building page . That page is the precursor to a separate website dedicated to educating Houstonians about green building.

Also, in April, the city and Gulf Coast Green are hosting Houston Green Expo: A Sustainable Energy and Green Building Consumer Event. It is free and open to the public. It is the only show in Texas featuring only certified green products, materials, and services. The exhibitors must adhere to specific green building criteria so that the Expo is free of green misinformation. The event is Saturday, April 5 and Sunday, April 6, from 10 am to 5 pm each day, at Reliant Park, in Hall B. For details, visit the website at http://www.gulfcoastgreen.org.

Teach-ins are one idea from the anti-war movement of the ‘60s that, unlike tie dye, deserves a comeback. A teach-in is a day when an entire school puts aside business as usual and focuses on a single topic. On Thursday, January 31, as part of Focus the Nation, more than a dozen schools in the area will be part of a national teach-in about global warming solutions. Focus the Nation’s goal is to help shift the conversation about global warming towards a determination to face its challenge.

Saint Catherine’s Montessori School is the first school in Texas to be LEED certified, and students and faculty there continue to be engaged in the green movement. The school’s seventh, eighth and ninth graders are hosting a Focus the Nation conference from 9 am to 3 pm. Events will include two panel discussions with the mayors of Houston, Bellaire, and West University, State Representative Ellen Cohen, city council representatives, and representatives from industry and academia; a poster presentation called Cirque du Solutions; a recycling contest with Shearn Elementary, Corpus Christi Catholic School and The Emery/Weiner School and a locally grown lunch. The lunch entertainment is a mini-musical written and produced by students. The public is invited. St. Catherine’s Montessori is at 9821 Timberside. For more information call (713) 665-2195, e-mail ac@stcathmont.org or see the school’s website.

The University of Houston is hosting events all day and all across the main campus. The Climate Change Challenge, a panel discussion with Senator Rodney Ellis, Robert Harriss of HARC, Rives Taylor of Gensler Architects, Ron Sass of Rice University, Karl Pepple of City of Houston, Brian Yeoman, Betin Santos of ICLEI and UH Environmental Law student Jennifer Hartman will be from 1 to 2:30 pm at the Cullen Performance Hall. There will be a Climate Change Fair with an alternative fuel auto show, tabling by student and community organizations, and product giveaways from 10 am to 4 pm outside the Cullen Performance Hall. Across campus, there will be informational booths in the atrium of the College of Architecture from the Houston Renewable Energy Group, AIA Committee on the Environment, Clean Houston, US Green Building Council from 10 am to 12:30 pm. For more details about events at UH, see the UH Climate change website or Facebook: University of Houston Climate Change.

In the evening, Rice University is hosting a CO2 Forum with speakers such as Dominique Raynaud, a leading climatologist from France; John Hofmeister, President of Shell USA; and Houston Mayor Bill White. This event will be in the Grand Hall of the Rice Memorial Center at 7 pm. Earlier in the day, there will be a sustainability fair with representation from different clubs, organizations, departments, and individuals from Rice and the greater Houston area. For details about Rice’s events, go online.

At Cy-Fair College, many of the professors will include climate change education in their classes.

To find out what’s going on at other area schools, see the Focus the Nation web site.

The film, 11th Hour, produced and narrated by environmental activist and movie star Leonard DiCaprio, opens today at the Landmark River Oaks, 2009 West Gray. The film is essentially is 90 minutes of sound bites from very smart, highly committed activists about serious plight of our environment, and not only from global warming. It is intense and almost overwhelming.

One of the film’s biggest virtues is that it brings together more than 50 experts to introduce their topics. Think of it as a Cliff’s Notes for contemporary environmental issues.

Thom Hartman’s book, The Last Days of Ancient Sunlight, has been sitting on my reading pile since I came to work at CEC two years ago. He explains that, until the steam engine, civilizations lived on one day’s worth of sun at a time – and did it so well that now I’m looking forward to reading the book.

There are introductions to the benefits of fungi, an explanation of biomimicry, and plenty of horrifying statistics. For example, for each pound of useful product, nine pounds goes into trash. I particularly enjoyed the treatments of deforestation, which, among other ills leads to desertification. There’s a dramatic shot of a majestic tree and a discussion of what a tree does for us.

The film closes with a discussion of possible solutions to the threats confronting us. It doesn’t pretend that the solution will be as simple as changing a light bulb, but the experts interviewed embrace the idea and challenge “man’s ingenuity got us into this mess, and man’s ingenuity can get us out of it.” Canadian film reviewer Jay Stone says, “it’s probably nothing you haven’t heard before, but there’s always a new way to explain how mankind is using the natural world as a combination of cesspool and bottomless piggy bank, and always new figures to shock us: that Americans spend more money on maintaining their lawns than India collects in taxes; that the world’s population has doubled since 1960, to over six billion”

Go see it, even if you think you’re a member of the choir and don’t need the preachin’. I bet you’ll learn something.

To fill your lungs with the icy mist that rises over the small islands of the Arctic Circle and immerse yourself in the spectacular scenery presented in Paramount’s film Arctic Tale, premiering in Houston on August 17, you would have to jet to Ottawa, transfer planes, turbo-sled through sheets of thick snow, board dog sleds, and navigate boats across the frigid sea.

Adam Ravetch, scholar of marine biology and the film’s co-director, said in a recent interview that it was his “passion for animals” that drove him to the northernmost stretches of the globe and such feats of endurance. “I was playing with the idea of making drama out of the animals instead of documentary. It was about being close to the animals.” But, in the end, the docudrama delivers a powerful environmentalist message through its stunning footage and narrative structure.

Ravetch says that he and his wife and co-director, Sarah Robertson, did not set out to create an environmental piece. “Our only intention was to document the lives of the Arctic creatures in a way that would allow human audiences to empathize.”

Adam, Sarah, and their three children, born during the course of the 15-year-project, endured dark winters, minimal commodities, and temperatures so cold that icicles formed on their eyelashes. They relied on the Inuit to teach them the skills that would make their work possible and keep them alive, such as how to track a polar bear, how to build an igloo, and what to do if someone falls through the ice.

It wasn’t until the couple was five years into their project that they decided to address the issue of climate change. “The ice was disappearing beneath our feet,” explains Ravetch. “The Inuit were saying ‘We’ve never seen this before.’” For the first time, scientists observed walruses and polar bears coming into contact because of the shrinking ice. Polar bear cubs were parting with their parents sooner because of lack of food, new patterns of migration ensued as arctic animals were evicted from their traditional glacial homes, and the balances of power in the “ancient ice kingdom” were disrupted as the animals met new challenges.

The Inuit were struggling as well. They told Ravetch that the caribou and seals they relied on for food were getting skinnier, that the seals’ coats were getting patchier, and hunting more difficult because of the thinning ice. Insects they had never seen before were appearing, and the fish were covered in scratches because the dropping water level in rivers was forcing them to contend with rocks on their voyage upstream. An Inuit elder asked Ravetch, “What will happen when the ice disappears?”

“They might not be able to hunt anymore,” Ravetch said. “They still have such a connection to the land, and such knowledge of the land. It would be terrible to lose.”

Upon reflecting on his original desire to document “the dramas playing out in the lives [of these animals],” Ravetch explains, “I think the environmental shift came naturally. I never said ‘I’m going to be environmental now.’ It’s just wanting to tell the real story. Global climate is a big part of that. How do we ignore that?”

Ravetch says he subscribes to, “The old explorer axiom that you prowl the widest reaches of the planet, and you bring back what you learn to share with the world,” adding, “I think people need to know about this, they need to be aware of it, but also they can enjoy these remarkable images and witness nature up in the arctic that they’ve never seen before.”

There will be a free preview of Arctic Tales on Wednesday, August 8 at the Marquee Theater on Weslayan. For passes, call CEC at (713) 524-4232 or email ella@cechouston.org.

CEC’s Lauren Barth and Karen Dezelle and interviewed Ravetch when he was in Houston promoting the film on July 20.

The US House of Representatives passed a $27.6 billion appropriation for the interior, environment, and related agencies at the end of June. The votes and debate on various motions to amend the bill revealed interesting facets of our local legislators’ environmental personalities.

For many environmental activists, the most exciting part of the appropriations resolution is Sec. 501, about global climate change.

The bill says
“ (a) The Congress finds that–
(1) greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere are causing average temperatures to rise at a rate outside the range of natural variability and are posing a substantial risk of rising sea-levels, altered patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation, and increased frequency and severity of floods, droughts, and wildfires;
(2) there is a growing scientific consensus that human activity is a substantial cause of greenhouse gas accumulation in the atmosphere; and
(3) mandatory steps will be required to slow or stop the growth of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
(b) It is the sense of the Congress that there should be enacted a comprehensive and effective national program of mandatory, market-based limits and incentives on emissions of greenhouse gases that slow, stop, and reverse the growth of such emissions at a rate and in a manner that (1) will not significantly harm the United States economy; and (2) will encourage comparable action by other nations that are major trading partners and key contributors to global emissions.”
Rep. Joe Barton, a Republican from Arlington, offered an amendment to remove Section 501. In debate on his amendment, Barton insisted that he was not convinced that humans were altering the environment. He claimed that “the science on (global warming) is uneven, uncertain and evolving”; and pointed out that the climate often changes, and that CO2 makes up a smaller proportion of greenhouse gas than does water.

Representatives Ted Poe, John Culberson, Kevin Brady, Michael McCaul, and Ronald Paul, all Republicans, supported Barton’s amendment; whereas Al Green, Lloyd Doggett, Sheila Jackson Lee, Nicholas Lampson, and Gene Green, all Democrats, rejected it. The remaining members of the Texas delegation also voted along party lines, except for Reps. Sessions and Ortiz, who were absent for the entire debate. Barton’s amendment failed 153-274 and the section on climate change remains in place.

Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Democrat from Dallas, offered an amendment to prohibit the use of EPA funds to promulgate a rule that would weaken the emission standards outlined in section 112 of the Clean Air Act. Texas Democrats voted for amendment but Republicans opposed it. The amendment passed 252 to 178.
Party politics played a smaller role in Texans’ attitudes toward offshore drilling. Twenty-seven Lone Star representatives supported a failed attempt by John Peterson (R-Pennsylvania) to lift the ban on offshore drilling to allow drilling for natural gas. Peterson argued that Congress should allow companies to drill for gas, as it is a “clean, green” fuel. Opponents protested that drilling for gas cannot be separated from drilling for oil, and that Peterson was just trying to reopen areas closed to drilling. Jackson-Lee, Doggett, and Johnson were the only Texas representatives to oppose the amendment, which failed by a 196-233 vote.

Jackson-Lee, Doggett, Johnson, and Ruben Hinojosa (D-Mercedes) were the only Texans to support an amendment that would have closed the loophole in the Marine Mammal Protection Act that allows the importation of polar bear trophies from Canada. As an alternative to amending the Marine Mammal act, the proposed amendment would have eliminated funds for the issuance of polar bear importation permits, so American hunters would not be able to ship their kills home. It failed 188-242.
Several exciting measures passed by voice vote. Rep. Jane Harman (D, California) moved to amend the bill to stipulate that federal funds could be used to purchase only “Energy Star” or “Federal Energy Management Program” light bulbs, and representatives quickly agreed. Rep. Jackson-Lee proposed restoring full funding to programs that promote reforestation of urban areas, and another voice vote approved her motion.

The House resolution is not the end of the appropriation process. The Senate is still debating its environmental appropriations. When the Senate is finished, a conference committee will combine the plans and both chambers of Congress will decide on a final version to send to the President.

The House’s total appropriation for FY 2008 is $953 billion.

If Australian scientist Tim Flannery’s book, “The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth”, were made into a movie, it would be as engaging as “March of the Penguins”, have more special effects than the “The Day After Tomorrow”, and be more educational than “Who Killed the Electric Car.”

And it could even include an animation as poignant as Al Gore’s polar bear swimming in a vast, empty ocean – Costa Rica’s last golden toad emerging from underground to wait vainly for the arrival of a female to mate with. These toads may be the first species to become extinct from global warming. They breed only during the a few days in April and May and two years of drought caused by El Nino dried up all their breeding ponds.

Don’t be deterred by the intimidating names on the list of positive comments on the book’s inner covers and skip the formidable annotations in the table of contents. Dive in.

In addition to reviewing the evidence of global warming and explaining exactly what causes global warming so clearly that a non-scientist “gets it”, Flannery documents the damage already caused by global warming. I tend to think that damage from global warming is all in the future, but Flannery convinced me that enough damage has already occurred. He closes the book by telling readers how they can reduce their emissions by the 70% required to stabilize the earth’s climate. “There is no need to wait for the government to act. You can do it yourself”, he says.

Flannery is speaking on Monday, March 19 at 7:30 pm at the Wortham Center. The Progressive Forum sponsors the event. Purchase tickets at the Forum’s website or call (832) 251-0706.

Environmental activists from across the state will be meeting in Austin on February 11 and 12 to rally and lobby against issuing permits for proposed new coal-fired power plants under a fast-track procedure authorized by Texas governor Rick Perry in October 2005. The issue has been covered by NPR, Rolling Stone, and Fortune, but since none of the plants is in the Houston area or expected to contribute to our power supply, the controversy has not received much attention here.

A brief summary of the problem:
On October 27, 2005, Perry signed Executive Order RP49, which requires the Public Utility Commission to begin a campaign making customers aware of retail electric choices. RP49 also orders state agencies to develop plans for conserving energy and directs the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to “apply the full resources of the agency to prioritize and expedite the processing of environmental permit applications that are [1] protective of the public health and environment and [2] propose to use Texas’ natural resources to generate electrical power.”

Statewide, permits for nineteen coal-fired power plants are being considered under the fast track process. Eight of the proposed new plants circle Waco, three are in northeast Texas, and two are near Corpus Christi. The largest number of applications, eleven, were filed by TXU, the giant power company that supplies much of the Dallas area.

The additional coal plants would add 30,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, over 115 million tons of carbon dioxide, and nearly 4,000 pounds of toxic mercury each year, according to the Texas Cities for Clean Air Coalition.

Because of wind patterns, those air emissions are headed straight for some of the most heavily populated areas of the state, but none of the plants are near Houston or in its wind patterns. Power for Houston comes from the Parrish coal-fired plant in Fort Bend County, one of the cleanest coal facilities in the country, according to Jane Laping, executive director of Mothers for Clean Air.

Also announced Thursday was a plan to build a new power plant in Fort Bend County that will use innovative gasification technology. The technology, known by the acronym IGCC, turns petroleum coke into a cleaner-burning gas. TXU says this process is not yet reliable and too expensive to adopt.

Nan Hildreth, with the Houston Climate Protection Alliance, believes that the proposed coal-burning plants will adversely impact the Houston/Galveston area because of increased mercury pollution in our waterways and because of carbon dioxide’s role in global warming.

As a result of the order, the TCEQ’s review of applications for has been accelerated to such a degree that opponents of the permits are seriously handicapped in their ability to oppose the applications. The Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club says that some of the problems include scheduling hearings in different communities on the same day, with the result that residents affected by more than one plant could not attend both hearings; a six-month timeline for deliberations that would ordinarily take a year; and a strain on the State Office of Administrative Hearings.

Another problem with the expedited process is illustrated by McClennan County (Waco), where four plants are planned. There are no pollution monitors in the county, so there is no way to determine if the emissions allowed by the permits would place the region in violation of federal air quality standards.

On Wednesday, state representative Charles “Doc” Anderson (R-Waco) has introduced HCR 43, a concurrent resolution requesting the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to put a 180-day moratorium on approving permits for new pulverized coal-burning plants in Texas. Matt Welch, a staffer in Anderson’s office, said that nine of the proposed plants are in a 50-mile radius of McLennan County.

Welch says that the delay would give the legislature a chance to act on several bills, including one to give incentives for the use of clean coal, rather than the pulverized coal most of the plants will use. “When Governor Perry made this decision, the legislature was not in session, but now it is, and wants time to consider other solutions to the problem,” Welch said. “Also”, he said, “The Supreme Court may rule on carbon sequestration and there is bipartisan support in Congress to declare carbon dioxide a pollutant.”

In a press statement, Rep. Anderson said, “”Governor Perry acted prudently in 2005 when he fast-tracked the permitting process for new coal plants. At that time the price of natural gas was more than $15 per MMBtu and two hurricanes had created serious production problems in the Gulf. Today, however, natural gas in the $7 range and the Gulf production capacity has been restored.”

“We now have time”, Anderson continued, “to carefully analyze the effect of creating new pulverized coal plants in Texas. There is not currently an electrical generating capacity crisis in Texas. Existing natural gas electrical generating plants are not operating at full capacity.”

Opposition to the plants is bringing together a diverse groups of Texas activists, including the regional office of the American Lung Association, Texas Cities for Clean Air (Arlington, Cedar Hill, Coppell, Dallas, DeSoto, Duncanville, El Paso, Fort Worth, Frisco, Hillsboro, Houston, Irving, Lancaster, McKinney, Plano, Rockwall, and Wylie), the Texas Business for Clean Air PAC (a group of 50 business executives in Dallas), a variety of environmental groups, the Texas Democratic Party, Texas IMPACT, People of Faith Working for Justice, and the Waco Chamber of Commerce.

Local opposition to the project comes from Houston Mayor Bill White, Greater Caddo Lake Association, Houston Climate Protection Alliance and the all the area’s Sierra Club groups.

TXU’s statement about its applications can be found at TXU’s website. Information about the rally and lobby day is at StopTheCoalRush.com.

The editors of The New Oxford American Dictionary unveiled the 2006 Word of the Year on Monday. It is “carbon neutral.” Erin McKean, the book’s editor, said that lexicographers at Oxford University Publishing are always looking for a word that “is both reflective of the events and concerns of the past year and also forward looking: a word that we think will only become more used and more useful as time goes on.”

As the folks at Oxford explain the term, being carbon neutral involves calculating your total climate-damaging carbon emissions, reducing them where possible, and then balancing your remaining emissions, often by purchasing a carbon offset: paying to plant new trees or investing in green technologies such as solar and wind power.

Carbon emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and gas. The carbon dioxide that is released accumulates in the atmosphere. The problem with carbon dioxide is that it is a greenhouse gas. It allows sunlight to enter the atmosphere freely but absorbs the reflected infrared radiation and traps the heat in the atmosphere. Methane, water vapor, nitrous oxide, and gases used for aerosols are also greenhouse gases.

Becoming carbon neutral has become the environmental thing to do. The Olympics, World Cup Soccer, and the Super Bowl are carbon neutral. MTV is offsetting the emissions associated with its broadcasts. Rock bands like the Rolling Stones, Coldplay, and Dave Matthews Band offset the carbon dioxide from their concerts, including the fans’ travel to the concerts. Organizations as diverse as Wells Fargo, Whole Foods, the EPA, and the city of Vail have purchased large quantities of renewable energy certificates. In Houston, lectures by Al Gore, Edmund Wilson, and others hosted by The Progressive Forum are carbon neutral.

All this is possible because there are a wide range of businesses and non-profit groups that offer carbon offsets. In the US, Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) is a greenhouse gas emission registry, reduction, and trading system for all the greenhouse gases. CCX claims that market-based emissions trading systems are the least-cost method for managing environmental risks. It points to the US sulfur dioxide allowance-trading program to reduce acid rain as evidence of the benefits of emissions trading.

Because of the market in carbon offsets, the designation of an event or business as carbon neutral requires only the application of money – and not even very much money.

Planktos Inc. is a California company that sells carbon credits and uses the funds to restore phytoplankton populations in the world’s oceans. According to Planktos, a large pick-up truck or SUV that gets between 10 – 18 mpg is responsible for 10 tons of CO2 emissions per year. The company will negate one of these vehicle’s annual carbon footprint for $50.

Carbonfund.org would compensate for the 23 tons of carbon an average American produces every year for $99. The Rolling Stones 2003 US tour was made carbon neutral for about twenty-five cents per ticket, thanks to a company called Future Forests. At Super Bowl XL, a range of activities – from team, fan, and media travel, to 100 associated events, to stadium lighting – generated more than 260 tons of carbon emissions, according to calculations by Oak Ridge Laboratory. To offset these emissions, the NFL planted 2,400 trees in Detroit.

Critics argue that the availability of carbon offsets allows companies and celebrities to improve their public image and reduce guilt related to consumption of fossil fuels without reducing the use of such fuels. However, many who purchase carbon offsets also have other environmental programs in place.

The tree-planting program was only one part of the environmental program of the Super Bowl. The event recycled, sent extra food from Super Bowl events to food banks, and donated leftover decorative materials, building materials, office supplies, and other reusable items to local charities. The NFL developed environmental guidelines for use by Super Bowl vendors and contractors. Jack Groh, the National Football League’s environment program director, in an interview with the Green Skeptic, Scott Anderson, pointed out that “The Super Bowl is the pinnacle of special events and everyone, whether they produce concerts, sporting events or conventions is looking at the Super Bowl and what we’re doing. You look at any of the other events in this country and compare what they are doing with what we’ve initiated and you can see the impact.”

If pro football, the Rolling Stones, and Whole Foods are behind an idea, the people at Oxford are probably right in their prediction that the term “carbon neutral” will indeed be used more often as time goes on.

“The Great Warming,” a Canadian-made documentary about climate change, will open today, November 3, at Grand Palace Stadium 24, 3839 Wesleyan. The film is based on the book “Storm Warning – Gambling with the Climate of our Planet” by Lydia Dotto. The documentary was updated from a highly acclaimed three-hour special made for Canadian TV in 2004. Narrated by singer Alanis Morissette and actor Keanu Reeves, the film interviews a variety of experts, activists, and ordinary citizens from around the world about what can and is being done about global warming.

Among those interviewed were R. James Woolsey, former director of the CIA; Guy Dauncey, a sustainable communities consultant; Dorothy Peteet and Cynthia Rosenzweig, PhD, both researchers at NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies; and Matthew Sleeth, MD, the author of “Serve God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action.” Sleeth was in the Houston area in September, speaking at area churches.

The movie hopes to be a catalyst for individual and political action on global warming, including within religious constituencies. Its website contains a variety of tools to inspire actions. The website invites us to take a pledge to do something about global warming, then lists actions to take, including, “Convert two skeptics! Drag them to the movie, then post what happens on the website.” There is also an address to return your ticket stub for a free energy audit.

The site also has information about events for National Climate Action Day, called for November 4, and lists questions for political candidates about climate change. The major corporate sponsor of the movie is Swiss Re, the global re-insurance company. Climate disruption threatens the insurance industry more than any other. Insurance rates are based on known risks, but how do you insure, for example, Gulf Coast homes against torrential rain and hurricanes if the climate is changing?

The film is carbon neutral, meaning that the production company attempted to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gasses such as CO2, then calculated its remaining emissions and contributed to a reforestation project to compensate for the emissions balance. The website details some of the ways the project curbed its energy use, including using daylight for filming and traveling less.

One goal of the project is to encourage voters to vote for candidates who favor action on climate change. A study recently released shows that although US voters favor protecting the environment, their votes do not reflect this preference. Although the movie’s release may be too late to impact the November 7 elections, the issue has been raised.

Even without the movie, the related website is a useful resource for anyone interested in any aspect of climate change. It contains information about calculating your carbon footprint and how to reduce it, a list of demonstrable effects of global warming, and information especially for children.

Lacking leadership from the federal government, cities and local municipalities have taken it upon themselves to confront the issue of climate change in their own communities. Initiatives such as the US Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement (USMCPA), the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities, and the International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives’ Cities for Climate Protection have been launched to formalize cities’ global warming reduction efforts.

More than ten cities in Texas have joined one or more of these efforts to reduce emissions. Support from Texas cities is important because the state emits nearly twice as much carbon dioxide as any other state in the US. Some cities are worried about the long-term consequences of climate change, including the potential rise in number and intensity of natural disasters (droughts, floods, hurricanes). Other cities recognize that efforts to reduce greenhouse gases invariably lead to financial savings and cleaner air.

On Friday, June 30, more than twenty officials from all over Texas, including the mayors of Austin, Dallas, and Plano, met at the University of Texas-Arlington to take part in the Texas Cities for Climate Protection forum. Climate and health experts discussed the benefits of addressing climate change, while city leaders exchanged thoughts on various emission-reduction methods. Officials agreed to join forces to resist efforts by TXU to build eleven new coal-fired power plants in the state. Coal plants are responsible for 88 percent of carbon dioxide, 93 percent of nitrogen oxides, 96 percent of sulfur dioxides, and 99 percent of mercury emissions from all power plants.

Officials from Houston did not make an appearance at the forum, but pledged to finance studies to determine the air-quality effects of the proposed coal-fired power plants. As the mayors met in Arlington, Houston mayor Bill White announced that the city had formally agreed to address its greenhouse gas emissions by joining the International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives and becoming a member of Cities for Climate Protection.

ICLEI is an international group of local governments and associations committed to sustainable development. As a participant in the CCP, the city will commit to carry out five performance milestones, reports Karl Pepple, director of Environmental Programming for the City of Houston. In cooperation with ICLEI, Houston will conduct an emissions inventory, develop emissions reductions targets, adopt and implement an action plan to reduce emissions, and monitor the progress of attaining the targets. Pepple says these efforts will only apply to city operations initially, though emissions for the entire Houston region could eventually be included.

“What we’ll be doing is helping Houston implement actions to reduce global warming and then helping the city to track its work using our software to quantify the results,” explains Susan Ode, outreach officer for ICLEI USA.

Mayor White has already instituted a number of programs to reduce the city’s carbon footprint. More than 250 hybrid vehicles have been purchased for city employees. New city buildings are built according to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) specifications to reduce energy use. Incentives are offered to city contractors to use clean construction equipment. Houston has subsidized city employees’ use of METRO, coordinated stop lights, and promoted carpooling in an effort to reduce traffic congestion and thereby vehicle emissions. The city has also been evaluating and attempting to refine its emissions reduction plan, and for the first time has added carbon dioxide to its emissions inventory.

Despite the city’s efforts, a growing number of groups and individuals have been calling on Mayor White to make a formal commitment to address climate change. Many hope that the city will join the US Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement, which calls for signatories to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

A group called Houstonians for Global Warming Action has formed in recent months with the sole purpose of persuading Mayor White to sign the USMCPA. They have created an online petition where Houstonians can co-sign a letter urging the mayor to take action. The current list of US cities signing the USMCPA includes Dallas, Austin, Arlington, Sugar Land, and five other Texas towns. However, efforts to persuade Houston to sign have been met with resistance.

When asked to explain the mayor’s reasons for not signing, Pepple replies, “The City is interested in taking real steps toward reducing greenhouse gases, not just signing something about what should be done.” He is referring to the USMCPA’s non-binding nature. Participants in the agreement are merely called upon to “strive to meet or exceed Kyoto Protocol targets.” The city has also been critical of the USMCPA because it lacks any formal benchmarks by which to document progress.

Proponents of the USMCPA, such as Brandt Mannchen from the Houston Regional Group of the Sierra Club, argue that the USMCPA is only an ineffectual pledge if the signatories choose to treat it as such by not following through with concrete actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their communities. The City of Seattle, which took the lead in the US Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement, reports that it has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60 percent of its 1990 levels. Mannchen admits he’s a bit confounded by Houston’s resistance to signing the US Mayor’s agreement and hopes one day the city will come around.

Pepple says the City of Houston has no intention at this point of joining the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities campaign, which asks participants both to sign the USMCPA and also to fulfill the requirements of ICLEI’s Cities for Climate Protection.

In late May of this year, Louis Smith of the Houston Climate Protection Alliance (HCPA) sat down with Pepple and Elena Marks, the city’s director of Public Health, to discuss options for Houston to pursue, including membership in ICLEI’s CCP. Smith says the officials were already familiar with ICLEI’s program and exhibited a good understanding of the issues as well as a genuine desire to take action. He commends the mayor’s recent action saying, “I think Mayor White’s signing the ICLEI climate agreement reflects his strong commitment to doing something about climate change.” White’s refusal to sign the USMCPA is not a big surprise to Smith. He says it “typifies his character as mayor, in that he chooses to do things where there are clear benchmarks and performance standards.”

Despite weighing in late, Houston city officials seem ready to take action on climate change. “Bravo to the City of Houston,” says Nan Hildreth, co-founder of Houston Climate Protection Alliance. “Now eleven Texas cities, including every major Texas city, have pledged to protect the climate. Pepple reveals that the city’s first act as a member of the program will be to conduct a baseline inventory of city emissions, which it intends to have completed by the end the fiscal year. The Sierra Club’s Brandt Mannchen hopes that Houston officials will soon move beyond the city’s immediate operations and take account of greenhouse gas emissions throughout the Houston area.

To see a list of the 266 US cities and towns that, as of July 14, have responded to Seattle mayor Greg Nickelsí challenge to adopt the goals of the Kyoto Protocol, go to the mayor’s website.

A current list of the 261 members in Canada and the United States of Cities for Climate Protection can be found at ICLEI’s website.

Citizens’ League for Environmental Action Now has a website at http://cleanhouston.org.

A new organization has formed for the specific purpose of petitioning Houston mayor Bill White to join the US Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement.

The agreement was initiated by Seattle mayor Greg Nichols as a response to the Bush Administration’s refusal to join the Kyoto Protocol, ratified by 141 countries around the world as a response to Global Warming. Under the Nichols program, cities agree to:

White has been approached several times by different organizations and individuals about joining the national effort to address greenhouse gas emissions. Each advance has been rebuffed.

When contacted by the Houston Press, White’s press secretary said the mayor “had no interest in doing something just because the mayor of Seattle wanted him to.”

At this year’s environmental conference sponsored by the city’s waste department, “Houston as a Model Environmental City,” the mayor’s environmental policy director said the city may “one day” address greenhouse gases.

“That day must be today,” HGWA co-founder Gertrude Barnstone says.

“It’s obvious that something needs fixing when Houston – the fourth largest city in the US, known as the energy capital of the world – doesn’t join such an important collective effort to fight global warming,” Barnstone said. “This is an effort to show Mayor White that people care.”

Barnstone is a local artist and former member of the Houston Independent School District Board of Trustees. The group’s other founders are Barry Reese and Patsy Cravens. Reese is a civic activist who has coordinated several inner city inaugural residential curbside recycling programs and served as chair for Houston’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. Cravens is a third-generation Houstonian, daughter of a founder of the Citizen’s Environmental Coalition, and longtime lover and protector of the natural world. She is a published author and photographer.

Nine cities across Texas, including Dallas, Austin, and Sugar Land, have already joined the agreement. Across the country, more than 200 cities have signed. For a full list of participating cities, see the Agreement website.

To sign HGWA’s petition, log onto the Earth Houston website. To receive more information about Houstonians for Global Warming, e-mail Barry Reese at metropassengers@hotmail.com.

Al Gore, former US vice president and candidate for US president in 2000, will be in Houston June 7 to publicize global warming. Since 2005, Gore has delivered a multi-media presentation concerned with global warming to more than 1,000 mostly college-age audiences. A documentary film about Gore and his presentation, “An Inconvenient Truth,” was screened for the press last week and will open here next month.

The film is compelling. It is full of illustrations that move the issue of global warming from an esoteric scientific discussion to a personal threat we must do something about.

Three scenes in the film did it for me. Gore showed post cards of a snow-topped Mount Kilimanjaro from 50 years ago contrasted with photos of a nearly naked mountain today. These were shocking. My grandfather was a friend of Ernest Hemingway, so I have seen books with a picture of that mountain with snow on it for most of my life.

Another picture from the film that grabbed me was one of a very long ice core from the Arctic that had a somewhat darker line across it. Gore said that the scientist showing him the core told him the line was dirty air from just before the United States passed the Environmental Protection Act. I’ve been to excellent lectures by Christopher Rapley and Richard B. Alley about the evidence for global warming found in these ice cores. I understood and believed that information about historical temperature changes and carbon dioxide levels comes from ice cores, but the film made the facts real.

At Rapley’s lecture, I had heard about the 2002 collapse of a massive Antarctic glacial shelf the size of Rhode Island, but my automatic reaction to any mention of Rhode Island is, “But that’s an itty, bitty state.” So what if an ice shelf that is smaller than Harris County collapses? However, Gore said that polar bears have drowned in the Arctic because they could not find ice floes that did not collapse under their weight. He illustrated this with an animated polar bear swimming away from a broken piece of ice into an endless ocean. When a polar bear needs it, an ice shelf the size of my car is important.

Something in the film will resonate with you. It may be images of a New York City under 20 feet of water, or a picture of a dried-up lake, or scenes from Hurricane Katrina.

Gore is personable and engaging in this movie. One startling scene, on several counts, is Gore ascending above the stage on a cherry picker in order to reach the place on his chart that represents CO2 levels over the next few decades.

Gore will be speaking at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, June 7, at the Hobby Center, Sarofim Hall. After his talk, he will sign his book, also called “An Inconvenient Truth.” For tickets, telephone (713) 315-2525 or go to the Progressive Forum website. The movie opens in Houston on Friday, June 9, at the Landmark River Oaks Theater.

3939 Luca Street
Houston, Texas 77021
(713) 842-6643
nanhildreth@riseup.net

Nan Hildreth
(713) 842-6643

Deborah Rothschild, Facilitator
(713) 861-2494

Julia Jorgenson
(713) 776-3581
jabberspot@hotmail.com

Meeting Time: 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month, 2:30pm, First Unitarian Universalist Church, 5200 Fannin at Southmore,in midtown.

P.O. Box 3021
Houston, Texas 77253-3021;
Club line: (713) 895-9309

http://lonestar.sierraclub.org/houston

www.houston.sierraclub.org

Evelyn Merz, Executive Committee Chair
(713) 664-8228
elmerz@hal-pc.org

George Batten, Newsletter Editor
(713)665-1505
gbatten@neosoft.com

Publications: Bayou Banner, monthly (call for free copy); Web site; local LISTSERV for conservation action alerts.

Major Events: Ongoing trips, workshops, outings, and classes; Yard Sale, spring; Annual Auction, at December meeting; and political endorsements for electionsand outdoor volunteerism.

Meeting Time: First Thursday, 7:30 pm, Central Presbyterian Church, 3788 Richmond @ Timmons.

Children’s Activities: Inner City Outings program. Contact Lorraine Gibson at raineygib@aol.com for local and state outings opportunities for children and teens.

Volunteer Opportunities: Conservation issues such as sprawl, air quality watershed, sustainability energy, and forestry; Political Committee endorsements; legislative issues and letter writing; trail maintenance on Lone Star Hiking Trail (2nd Sat each month); training for leading outings; training for Inner City Outings Program. Also adopted trails at Jesse Jones Park. Call (713) 895-9309.