Earth’s Titanic Challenge, Hotline 4.16.12

Earth’s Titanic Challenge

This past weekend marked a hundred years from when the Titanic sank tragically in the icy Atlantic Ocean. Although a century ago, this historic event has not only lived on but gained epic recognition in popular culture. Not surprisingly, this symbol of avoidable demise has been used as metaphor for climate change more than once. In this week’s blog pick, Joe Romm of Climate Progress features Director James Cameron‘s recent comments on the connection between what happened and our climate predicament. In an interesting opinion piece, Stephen Hiltner explores this topic for the Times of Trenton. Hopefully, we’ll learn from our mistakes before it’s too late.

The Titanic At 100 Years: We’re Still Ignoring Warnings, This Time It’s Climate Change, Says Director James Cameron

Opinion: Earth’s Passengers Should Learn From Titanic Mistakes

Tell President Obama: Protect our Rocky Mountains from Being Torn Apart!Oil companies are pushing to open vast sections of the Rockies for tar sands and oil shale mining. Oil shale mining requires dangerous experimental technology that heats rocks to nearly 1000 degrees to squeeze out tiny amounts of oil — destroying habitats and cooking the climate along the way. Tar sands have been called a “carbon bomb” and are one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet.

Under President Bush, in 2008 the Bureau of Land Management opened over two million acres of public land to oil shale and tar sands mining in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. President Obama’s administration is now considering reducing the land available for these destructive practices and is considering four options (see below). We have until May 4th to submit public comments in support of our favorite option (Alternative 3), proving that broad public support exists for the climate, healthy communities, wildlife, and scarce Western water resources. Make no mistake: this comment period will literally determine the fate of the West for decades to come.

Please feel free to use these Sierra Club resources as you prepare your action alerts for this important topic.

Oil shale email: http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=234902.0

Oil shale alert: https://secure.sierraclub.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=8497&autologin=true

Alternative 1 – No action alternative. This alternative leaves in place the 2008 Bush decision for both oil shale and tar sands (roughly 2 million acres for oil shale and 431,000 acres for tar sands).
Alternative 2 – Conservation focused alternative. The alternative opens 461,965 acres for oil shale and less than 229,000 acres for tar sands.
Alternative 3 – RD&D only for oil shale/ “Pending commercial lease” for tar sands. All oil shale areas would be closed except for the six current RD&D leases and their associated preference right lease areas (PRLA). Under this alternative, that would restrict development to roughly 30,600 acres. For tar sands, since there is no federal RD&D program, all areas would be closed except for the one lease application currently pending on Asphalt Ridge in Utah (covers approximately 2100 acres).
Alternative 4 – Moderate development scenario (BLM’s language). This alternative is a combination of Alternative 1 and 2. Under this alternative, all areas designated in the 2008 PEIS (Alternative 1) would be open for commercial development, except Adobe Town in Wyoming (180,910 acres) and all ACECs (76,666).

For more information, please contact JP Leous at jpleous@climatenetwork.org.

Featured Resource:

Clean Air Act Digest

Have you seen the weekly Clean Air Act Digest? This electronic publication, produced jointly with NRDC, is your one-stop for all things Clean Air Act. Get the latest updates, action opportunities, resource materials, and much more, here.

Carol Werner, Executive Director

April 16, 2012

Did you miss EESI’s news roundup, this morning?

Published weekly, Climate Change News recounts the top climate science, business, and politics stories of the week and includes a list of upcoming events and pending federal legislation. Click here to view this week’s comprehensive climate and energy news summary.

News

Climate Action Hotline is the weekly update by the US Climate Action Network. Let us know what you think.

alt="Climate Action" />