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VIDEO: National Geographic photographer recalls remarkable experience while filming a leopard seal underwater in Antarctica
As seen in the video below, leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx) are very powerful and very large aquatic marine predators. Attacks on humans are very rare, and in 2003, Kirsty Brown, a British marine biologist, became “the first person . . . to have been killed by a leopard seal” when she “was dragged underwater by the seal while snorkeling near Rothera research station on the Antarctic Peninsula.”
More at The Huffington Post
CRITICALLY ENDANGERED SPECIES: Madagascar pochard eggs collected from the wild and hatched, known population almost doubles



The Madagascar pochard (Aythya innotata) is one of the rarest birds in the world (pochards are a group of diving ducks). In fact, it was believed to be extinct at one time. However, by chance, an isolated but tiny population was discovered several years before when “the Peregrine Fund, who were scouting for a threatened bird of prey, the Madagascar Harrier, observed 20 adult pochards living on a single lake in northern Madagascar.” Subsequent expeditions failed to locate new populations of the Madagascar pochard. Consequently, the next step was to bring the rare pochard into some type of captive breeding program (especially since—probably due to predation—there’s a high mortality of ducklings in the wild).
As a Returned Peace Corps volunteer from Madagascar, with a passion for waterfowl, the announcement that an international team consisting of the “Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), The Peregrine Fund and the Government of Madagascar,” with the goal of establishing a conservation breeding program for the pochard, was great news to read.
To start the conservation breeding program, eggs were collected from the wild. Consequently, “eight ducklings are now reported to be doing very well, but work continues as the team attempts to secure two more clutches from the wild over the next few weeks.”
Personally, while in Madagascar, I did not spend too much time searching for the Madagascar pochard, because I had other duties. However, when visiting Lake Alaotra—Madagascar’s largest lake and the pochard’s former stronghold—or Torotorofotsy marsh near Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, I looked for the pochard. Obviously, I did not find it, but I did observe Meller’s ducks (Anas melleri) and red-billed teal (Anas erythrorhyncha).
I believe that unknown populations of the Madagascar pochard still exist in poorly explored areas of Madagascar. However, due to another political crisis, Madagascar’s national resources are being illegally pillaged. Consequently, aggressive conservation efforts are needed. However, now that the species is one step closer to being propagated in captivity, its survival is further guaranteed. More from guardian.co.uk:
Conservationists battling to save the world’s rarest duck have managed to almost double the bird’s population in Madagascar in just one month, it was revealed today.
Fewer than 20 Madagascar pochard were believed to be living on just one lake in the wild.
But a last-gasp conservation plan to save the birds has resulted in two broods totalling 17 ducklings being found and raised in captivity.
A third clutch of seven eggs were discovered earlier this week and are being incubated.
If they all hatch successfully the Madagascar pochard population will have more than doubled in the space of a few weeks.
The conservationists are looking after the ducklings in a hotel room due to the last-minute nature of their quest.
. . .
“Despite almost every conceivable obstacle, in just a few short weeks we have almost doubled the world population — albeit that half of them are in a hotel bathroom! It will be a long road to full recovery for the Madagascar pochard, but we have achieved everything we could have hoped for in this first step.”
The critically endangered duck is so rare that it was declared extinct in the late 1990s until scientists found a few of the birds by chance during a trip to Madagascar in 2006.
To stop the beautiful cinnamon-coloured diving duck slipping permanently into extinction a team of bird specialists known as “team pochard” devised a conservation plan that was due to be implemented next year.
They were hoping to collect some of the pochards’ eggs, incubate them and raise the ducklings via a conservation breeding programme.
More information on the project to save the Madagascar pochard, video of the ducklings, & video of an adult Madagascar pochard in the wild
doneOn the Net:
VIDEO: Coal ash dumping may have caused deformities
Video by Charles Trainor Jr./Miami Herald Staff
According to the Miami Herald, “Villagers in the Dominican Republic claim children have been born without limbs and organs. And, they are blaming the abnormalities on rock ash dumped by a Virginia coal company.” More from MiamiHerald.com:
A civil lawsuit filed Wednesday in Delaware charges that toxic levels of waste dumped at the Arroyo Barril port has made people nearby sick. After years of repeated miscarriages, women whose blood levels show abnormal levels of arsenic are giving birth to babies with cranial deformities, with organs outside their bodies or missing limbs.
The case highlights the debate over coal ash, an unregulated byproduct of coal energy, which when processed and recycled is used in everything from cement to the foundation for golf courses. Popular Mechanics magazine this month calls a concrete made from coal ash one of the “10 Most Brilliant Products of 2009.”
The ash, a concentrated form of naturally occurring contaminants, is what is left over from burning coal for power. It usually contains arsenic, lead, cadmium, chromium and nickel. But as towns in Tennessee and Maryland clean up massive spills of the substance, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is poised to rule on whether it should be classified as hazardous — which would be a tremendous blow to influential power companies that have long lobbied against such a classification.
What is fly ash?
Fly ash is a residue produced when coal is burned, and this residue can pose environmental and health risks. Courts have determined that fly ash can be considered a hazardous waste under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, also known as Superfund) if the fly ash contained one of the listed hazardous wastes under CERCLA (Reference: 118 A.L.R. Fed. 293 and United States v. Conservation Chem. Co., 1985). However, under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), EPA considers fly ash a special waste, utility waste or fossil fuel combustion (FFC) waste, which “have been exempted from federal hazardous waste regulations under Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).”
NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY: The enormity and majesty of a California redwood captured by National Geographic photographer
According to The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, “Some 90 to 95% of old growth [redwood] forest has been felled since, and the remainder is now almost entirely in parks and reserves.” More at NPR.
Image: Michael Nichols/National Geographic
On the Net:
VIDEO: Rare “giant” stingray captured on video for first time
The smalleye stingray (Dasyatis microps), a giant of the sea, has been filmed for the first time. According to BBC, “The elusive creature, first discovered in 1908, has only ever been seen alive off Tofo in southern Mozambique.” This rarely observed stingray has been “collected from the estuary of the River Ganges . . . [and it's] caught very rarely by the demersal tangle net fisheries operating in shelf waters.” More images of the smalleye stingray can be found at Fishbase.org.
Via BBC
POLITICS: Chapel Hill’s new mayor has the correct formula for sustainable development; Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina blames California’s water crisis on environmental regulation
Certainly, our society is propped up by oil, and since oil is a nonrenewable resource and inherently inefficient (not to mention our knack for increasing entropy), our political leaders must make prudent policy decisions that facilitate society’s transfer from depending largely on ever-decreasing or unavailable energy sources to relying on a more sustainable and diverse energy mix. Furthermore, centralizing growth, preserving the environment, modernizing how electricity is used and delivered, using less concrete by opening up more green spaces for trees and gardens, in addition to constructing or retrofitting buildings to be more efficient are all examples of prudent policies that will advance society. From Q-Notes:
[Mark] Kleinschmidt was endorsed by current Chapel Hill mayor Kevin Foy. His campaign platform called for better public transportation, community development, centralized urban growth rather than sprawl and environmental protection.
Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, who is a Republican U.S. Senate candidate from California, is an excellent example of a wannabe politician (her voting record is “spotty”) promoting obtuse, reckless, shortsighted, or unwise environmental policies (i.e., she’s a good fit for Republicans/Conservatives or whatever they call themselves nowadays). Basically, she wants to “unshackl[e] agribusiness from environmental protections,” and she blames California’s water crisis on the Endangered Species Act (emphasis added):
Common sense would tell us that it shouldn’t take an act of Congress to put the urgent needs of people ahead of a small fish. Apparently it does.
. . .
The day began with a visit to a local farm and a thorough briefing by water and agriculture experts. They provided a realistic assessment of the ill-considered actions that have literally turned off the spigot and prevented farmers from getting the water necessary to put their land into production.
More profound was my visit later to the west Valley community of Huron where acre after acre of farmland sit fallow because of a lack of water.
It underscored the fundamental reason this issue is so critical: Fertile farmlands create jobs, but fallow lands leave a devastating impact on the workers and their families whose lives and livelihoods depend on these farms.
. . .
Hundreds of thousands of acres in the San Joaquin Valley lie fallow this year. The University of California at Davis estimates that in 2009, the lack of water coming from both the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project could result in the loss of up to 95,000 jobs.
While the persistent drought has certainly contributed to these effects, what would have been a difficult problem has become a crisis due to the aggressive and ill-considered implementation of the Endangered Species Act.
This act has been an important tool in conservation efforts. However, it is also true that the act prohibits the consideration of economic and social impacts.
The recent decision to limit water flowing to the Valley was made by nameless, faceless bureaucrats. These federal officials are unaccountable to voters for their action and there is little recourse to reverse their decision — unless Congress acts.
Fiorina blames the Endangered Species Act for California’s water crisis, but California’s water crisis exists because of drought, reckless and improper development, continued human growth, in addition to building and farming in areas where water is naturally scarce. Furthermore, there is no balancing under the Endangered Species Act, since the critters should win. Consequently, Fiorina, like the majority of Republican/Conservative politicians fail to grasp or understand the big picture when it comes to environmental issues. More from Carly Fiorina:
Washington must show the discipline to cut spending and create policies that encourage and empower businesses to put people back to work.
For example, about 40,000 California farmers and farm workers in our Central Valley are out of work because we can’t find a balance between protecting our environment and protecting the economy. We can change this terrible situation by changing our representation in the U.S. Senate.
According to Fiorina, she has a poor voting record, “because she felt unconnected to politicians.” I’m sure.
CINEMA: James Cameron’s “Avatar” blends science-fiction with real world environmental and social issues; new “Avatar” trailer released
The newest trailer for James Cameron’s epic—Avatar—was recently released on Yahoo! Movies. Avatar looks intriguing, because it’s packed with environmental and social themes amongst an elaborate and ornate alien wilderness. The basic plot surrounds humanity’s quest to commodify natural resources. However, humanity’s insatiable need for natural resources have led them to Pandora—a moon with a lush alien environment that also contains a highly valuable mineral. In order to gain access into Pandora’s environment (the air isn’t breathable to humans) and gain the trust of the Na’vi—an indigenous humanoid race—the humans employ avatars. These avatars look like the Na’vi, but humans are able to occupy their minds, therefore, humans can walk Pandora within a Na’vi shell. Of course, once inside the Na’vi’s environment, humans begin to question their motives or pursuits to exploit the Na’vi’s home world for minerals. The movie is due in theaters on December 18, 2009. More from Variety:
“Avatar” tells the story of an extreme rehabilitation program: In an attempt to walk again, a paraplegic former Marine named Jake travels to the jungles of the extraterrestrial realm called Pandora, home of the Na’vi, a technologically primitive but physically superior race.
To picture Pandora, Carter created what he calls a “lush homegrown forest that’s way overscale for anything we’ve ever experienced, but also has enough alien qualities that you realize what you’re seeing is not just a few flowers poked into the midst of an otherwise normal environment. The essence of it is very different.”
At night, the forests of Pandora light up like a psychedelic black-light poster. Cameron’s inspiration for that, Carter believes, came from his deep-sea diving experiences.
“The whole idea of (that) bioluminescent world at night is something he’d actually witnessed when he was down at the bottom of the ocean during his ‘Titanic’ time,” Carter says. “That bioluminescence is almost like a nervous system of the planet, and that’s what’s at stake in the movie, as you start to get past the initial foray into the Na’vi culture and seeing the drama start to emerge between the military-industrial complex that wants to exploit the world.”
In order to breathe on Pandora, humans have created human-alien hybrids (the eponymous avatars), and it’s through one of these creatures that Jake is able to walk again. But will he remain human or go native after he falls in love with one of the locals, a girl named Neytiri? Intergalactic peace depends on it.
Update (2 Nov. 09): James Cameron’s Vision Featurette:
ARCTIC MELTING: “Climate change is happening faster in the Arctic than any other place on Earth — and with wide-ranging consequences”
Summer Arctic ice could completely disappear within a few decades say researchers, and changes to Arctic environments are increasingly becoming more evident and severe. According to researchers, the Arctic is “a warmer place with less thick and more mobile sea ice, warmer and fresher ocean water, and increased stress on caribou, reindeer, polar bears and walrus in some regions.” This new research highlights the urgency for meaningful Copenhagen negotiations and outcomes in December amongst participants. To promote action on climate change, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is urging “member nations . . . to reach a compromise ahead of [the] climate change summit scheduled for December in Copenhagen and called on the United States to stay engaged.”
Furthermore, climate is so complex—what drives it and what impacts it—that certain phenomena can contribute to or mitigate warming in the long- and short-term. For example, after a particular tipping point is reached, positive feedback loops, which seem synonymous to the domino effect, can set off a series of events that can increase the coming climate crisis. More form Paul Krugman:
The prognosis for the planet has gotten much, much worse in just the last few years.
What’s driving this new pessimism? Partly it’s the fact that some predicted changes, like a decline in Arctic Sea ice, are happening much faster than expected. Partly it’s growing evidence that feedback loops amplifying the effects of man-made greenhouse gas emissions are stronger than previously realized. For example, it has long been understood that global warming will cause the tundra to thaw, releasing carbon dioxide, which will cause even more warming, but new research shows far more carbon locked in the permafrost than previously thought, which means a much bigger feedback effect.
The result of all this is that climate scientists have, en masse, become Cassandras — gifted with the ability to prophesy future disasters, but cursed with the inability to get anyone to believe them.
More video via Grist: Arctic Sea Ice 101: Video illustrates typical positive feedback loop:
More on Arctic melting and the resulting positive feedback loop:
This increase in first year ice is happening as more and more multi-year ice is melting. In the winter, new (first -year) ice is forming, which of course is thinner than ice that has been forming over several years. The problem is that thinner ice is melting faster than thicker ice. So we are in a typical positive feedback loop: the more ice is melting, the thinner will be the remaining ice, the fastter that ice is melting…
You might wonder why all this is worrisome. Quite a few people think that it is a great thing that the Arctic sea-ice will be melting, because we can then have shorter shipping routes, and we can have access to unexploited oil reserves. Indeed, this will bring amazing riches to a few people – over the short-term.
However, over the long-term the melting of the Arctic could be disastrous, as it triggers a positive feedback loop that could greatly warm our planet. And here is why:
The Arctic sea-ice functions as a huge fridge to our earth, because the sun’s rays are being reflected from the ice to 80-90%. However, when the sun’s rays hit water, their energy is absorbed by about 80%, and the water heats up. The more ice is melting, the more water is forming, the more heat is absorbed; thus, more ice is melting, so that there is even more water surface which absorbs more heat…if this positive feedback loop causes the permafrost to melt faster, then another feedback loop will be added to the mix as greenhouse gases are released from the permafrost.
We need to avoid such positive feedback loops if we want to avoid creating an earth that will not represent the earth as we know it today. And we can only avoid those feedback loops if we act quickly and courageously to create an energy future that is void of any fossil fuels.
On the Net:
CAN YOU SEE ME? | ANIMAL CAMOUFLAGE
Can you find the snake?
See more animal camouflage and plant camouflage.
—
Photo source for attribution. The author or licensor of this image does not endorse my work or me and their image is protected under an attribution license.
NATURAL GAS drilling is contaminating drinking water supplies; companies like Halliburton fighting aggressively to keep “chemical recipe” used in controversial drilling technique secret
Tap water contaminated by natural gas results in flammable tap water!
Natural gas is marketed as a relatively clean energy source, but entities drilling for the nonrenewable resource are contaminating drinking water. Apparently, as usual, private companies and local governments seem to be ignoring the problem. Videos and information on the problem can be found at WaterUnderAttack.com. More from The Kitchn:
Natural gas has been advertised as a solution to our nation’s energy problems. But what you aren’t being told is there’s a flurry of under-reported disasters: polluted air, undrinkable water and a rising health crisis. The issue as seen in this video is not natural gas in city water, of course, but natural gas that has seeped into the groundwater and thus into home wells.
Josh Fox has made it his mission to uncover and expose what’s being called “The Red Zone.” Currently, it’s isolated to a few western states in rural areas, but that doesn’t make it any less newsworthy or disheartening, as the efforts to bring this type of drilling all across the US will affect people from the north, south, east and west.
People, plants and animals are still living in these areas but have to truck their own water in. The natural gas companies and city/states in which they live have all turned a cold shoulder and told many citizens that the water is just fine, even though it’s a murky color and lights on fire.
From HeatingOil.com:
According to Infrastructurist, communities from Montana and Texas have been similarly affected by corporate drilling for natural gas. Communities in the eastern US sitting atop the massive Marcellus Shale formation, which stretches from upstate New York down to West Virginia, may also expect their lives—and water mains—to be disrupted. So continues the debate over natural gas, as Americans must decide between the benefits of lower carbon emissions and the downsides of flammable drinking water.
And from NPR (emphasis added):
Some landowners in shale gas areas, however, say the energy and environmental benefits of this new production are outweighed by the environmental risks it raises. NPR’s Jeff Brady documented these issues in a report earlier this year.
Steve Harris, who resides near Dallas, told Brady that he noticed a foul odor coming from his tap water shortly after a gas company used hydraulic fracturing in a natural gas well near his house. Harris said he complained to the drilling company and to state authorities but without result.
“Basically, you get to the point where you think maybe everybody’s working with the gas people and against the little guy,” Harris said.
In 2008, a hydrologist found evidence of benzene contamination in a water well in Wyoming, in the vicinity of a large gas field. Residents near Dimock, Pa., have also complained of contamination of their water supply as a result of gas well drilling in their area. Dimock is in an area of Pennsylvania that sits atop the Marcellus shale formation, one of the largest in the country, and natural gas companies have been active there.
Critics of hydraulic fracturing suspect that the chemicals used in the process have somehow leaked into the groundwater supply. It has been difficult, however, to demonstrate a direct connection between these apparent instances of water pollution and the hydraulic fracturing procedures that have taken place nearby. Industry sources point out that the shale rock subjected to the fracturing is thousands of feet below the surface of the Earth, far below the aquifers that supply drinking water. Many layers of rock are in between. The well bores themselves are shielded from the surrounding earth by steel and cement casing.
Halliburton is fighting to keep the chemicals it uses in hydraulic fracturing secret. From BusinessWeek (emphasis added):
Natural-gas operations are proliferating from Wyoming to New York. At the same time, Halliburton (HAL) and other gas-service giants are fighting to keep secret the potentially hazardous chemicals they use to split thick layers of rock and release the fuel beneath.
. . .
Energy companies are taking a tough stance. Last summer, Houston-based Halliburton threatened to cease natural-gas operations in Colorado if regulators there persisted in demanding the chemical recipe used in a common drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing. Using this method, drillers shoot vast quantities of water, sand, and chemicals into the earth to break up rock and release gas. “A disclosure to members of the public of detailed information…would result in an unconstitutional taking of [Halliburton's intellectual] property,” the company said in a filing to Colorado’s Oil & Gas Conservation Commission. The industry has adopted similar positions in New York, Wyoming, and New Mexico.
. . .
In Colorado, Halliburton recently reached a compromise with regulators, but it’s one that appears to favor the industry. The company agreed in August to disclose the chemicals it uses in hydraulic fracturing to state health officials and regulators, though not to the public. But the agreement applies only to chemicals stored in drums that contain 50 gallons of drilling fluid or more. As a practical matter, drilling workers in Colorado and Wyoming say in interviews that the fluids are often kept in smaller quantities. That means at least some of the ingredients still won’t have to be disclosed. Halliburton didn’t respond to questions about the Colorado compromise.
Regulators “will never get [the chemical data],” predicts Bruce Baizel, a lawyer with the Oil & Gas Accountability Project, a nonprofit in Durango, Colo. “Not unless they are willing to go through a lawsuit.” So far such a suit hasn’t been filed in Colorado—or anywhere else—since regulators have only lately sought to learn more about the effects of hydraulic fracturing.
Three companies—Halliburton, Schlumberger (SLB), and BJ Services (BJS)—control the vast majority of the $15 billion hydraulic-fracturing market. They work as subcontractors for the world’s largest natural-gas developers, including BP (BP), Shell (RDSA), Chesapeake Energy (CHK), and Chevron (CVX). The drillers have zealously refused to reveal the combinations of chemicals they use in fracturing. “It’s like Coke protecting its syrup formula for many of these service companies,” says Scott Rotruck, Chesapeake’s vice-president for corporate development. Chesapeake and its contractors are facing disclosure demands from New York state officials before they can drill in a massive Appalachian gas reserve known as the Marcellus Shale. Schlumberger and BJ Services didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The Bush II Administration exempted hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act (via The Colorado Independent):
Hydraulic fracturing – the subject of so much controversy on Colorado’s Western Slope lately – will be allowed to resume in Susquehanna County, Pa., after state environmental officials said they were satisfied with prevention plans submitted by a Texas company that reported three chemical spills related to the process last month.
Held up by proponents of proposed federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as yet another example of potential environmental problems associated with the process, the Pennsylvania case has been portrayed as another warning sign in the ongoing natural gas boom in the Mid-Atlantic region’s Marcellus Shale formation.
In Colorado’s heavily drilled Garfield County, commissioners are weighing a resolution supporting federal legislation co-sponsored by Colorado Reps. Diana DeGette and Jared Polis that would remove a Safe Drinking Water Act exemption for fracking that was granted during the Bush administration in 2005.
While some Coloradans are concerned about water quality and wildlife habitat in the Rocky Mountains, opponents of the boom in the Marcellus Shale are worried New York City’s watershedmay be compromised by fracking, which involves injecting water, sand and undisclosed chemicals into tight rock and sand formations to force out more natural gas.
Via the Natural Resources Defense Council, you can tell Congress to protect drinking water from contamination by removing the “Halliburton Loophole” or the hydraulic fracturing exemption within the Safe Drinking Water Act.
More video of tap water contaminated with natural gas:
Follow H.R.2766 or the “Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act of 2009″ here and S. 1215 here.
Natural gas activity within the U.S.:
Image via NPR (click to enlarge)
SOLAR ENERGY: Team Germany takes top prize at the 2009 Solar Decathlon
Team Germany has won the the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon for the second year in a row. The Solar Decathlon is a “competition to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house.” According to Interior Design, “What seemed to tip the scales for the judges was not just the aesthetic and thoughtful plan but, most importantly, the fact that the home promises to produce 200% of its needs, feeding energy back into the grid.”
Winners Video News Release
Images from the 2009 Solar Decathlon:
Image Credit: Stefano Paltera/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon
Image Credit: Stefano Paltera/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon
Image Credit: Stefano Paltera/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon
ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION: U.S. Chamber of Commerce suffers prank over its hostility towards meaningful greenhouse-gas regulation
Recently, several utilities and corporations—“Apple, Exelon, PNM Resources, Pacific Gas and Electric and Levi Strauss & Co” —departed from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a business-lobbying organization, over the Chamber’s views over greenhouse-gas regulation. Particularly, the Chamber “is calling greenhouse-gas regulation ‘a job killer’ that would ‘completely shut the country down’ and ‘virtually destroy the United States,’ [although] . . . the European Union has not shut down and in fact is recovering faster from the global economic meltdown.” The European Union has been implementing a successful cap-and-trade program for several years.
Basically, the Chamber’s policy positions are not only anti-environmentalism but they’re anti-business too. For example, according to Wikipedia, the Chamber, in addition to being a supporter of nuclear power, globalization, and free trade, supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and supports drilling offshore for energy. These policy positions are shortsighted and dangerous. For example, nuclear power requires massive amounts of water and produces radioactive waste that seems impossible to dispose. Globalization and free trade agreements lack meaningful environmental and social mandates and drilling for oil offshore or in ANWR isn’t meaningful energy policy. Furthermore, drilling domestically for oil doesn’t necessarily lead to domestic consumption, since oil is sold on the international market.
Due to its anti-environmentalism position, the Chamber is waging a losing battle. As energy availability and natural resources continue to decrease as populations continue to increase in countries around the globe, environmental regulation—and not just market-based mechanisms—will be necessary to protect and adequately distribute energy and resources to businesses and communities. Consequently, over-population, unchecked development, depletion of non-renewable resources, and depletion of other natural resources are real issues that businesses must reconcile and help remedy if they’re to survive into the future. Unlimited development is impossible, and unsustainable development exacerbates the unavailability of energy or entropy. Consequently, the sooner the Chamber can grasp these concepts, the sooner they’ll truly be pro-business.
Recently, the Chamber suffered an embarrassing prank over its hostility towards meaningful greenhouse-gas regulation:
More from The Yes Men:
In a dramatic announcement at the National Press Club today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reversed its position on climate change policy, and promised to immediately cease lobbying against the Kerry-Boxer bill.
Not.
Within minutes of the Chamber’s dramatic announcement, it was revealed that the “Chamber spokesperson” was an impostor, and the press conference an elaborate hoax designed by activists to draw attention to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s “troglodytic” fight against climate change legislation. At the close of the news conference, a visibly rattled Chamber of Commerce spokesperson (Eric Wohlschlegel) barged into the room and declared the event a fraud. (Videohere.)
The stunt was pulled off by the Yes Men, the activists best known for posing as corporate executives in order to reveal how corporate greed negatively influences public policy. Recently, the Yes Men have focused their attention on the urgent need for action on climate change. Today they sought to highlight relentless corporate lobbying of elected officials aimed at derailing domestic climate legislation and a much-needed global climate accord.
The group of reporters at the Press Club listened closely as U.S. Chamber “representative” “Hingo Sembra” (Andy Bichlbaum of The Yes Men) asserted that the Chamber would put its full weight behind supporting the Kerry-Boxer bill, while working with Senators Kerry and Boxer to strengthen the bill.
“We believe that climate legislation currently being considered by the U.S. Senate is a great start towards a bill that will spur American innovation, create jobs, and give us all a good chance of survival,” he said. To the visible delight of reporters in the audience, he added, “We at the Chamber have tried to keep climate science from interfering with business. But without a stable climate, there will be no business.”
The Chamber has recently come under fire for launching multi-million dollar advertising campaigns designed to derail climate negotiations. Their position has been so controversial that Apple, Exelon, PNM Resources, PG&E, PSEG, Levi Strauss & Co, and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce have all left the U.S. Chamber, and Nike very publicly stepped down from the board.
“The Chamber’s position against climate legislation is completely troglodytic,” said Bichlbaum. “The rest of the world sees the need for urgent action on the climate. The rest of the world’s rich countries have pledged large emissions reductions. With scientists saying if we don’t reduce carbon emissions, then sooner or later we’re doomed, the Chamber represents corporate America at its most backwards.”
“An entity claiming to represent the public good, but that opposes action on the climate, is obviously illegitimate,” Bichlbaum added.
The Chamber’s response to the climate change press hoax:
“Public relations hoaxes undermine the genuine effort to find solutions on the challenge of climate change.
“These irresponsible tactics are a foolish distraction from the serious effort by our nation to reduce greenhouse gases. The U.S. Chamber believes that strong climate legislation is compatible with the goals of improving our economy and creating jobs. We continuously seek opportunities to engage in a constructive dialogue to achieve these goals.
“We will be asking law enforcement authorities to investigate this event. Beyond that, the Chamber will simply continue to focus on a positive vision for getting people back to work and growing our economy.”
The U.S. Chamber is the world’s largest business federation representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.
While the Chamber says “that strong climate legislation is compatible with the goals of improving our economy and creating jobs,” it “spent a record a record $34.7 million to lobby the government in July, August and September, according to a hefty lobbying disclosure report filed today. That’s more than $300,000 a day.”
Image by Buck Denton

























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