An Inconvenient Truth

The free community showing of Al Gore's climate change documentary in Portsmouth, NH packed the Music Hall on Thursday, August 15th. A panel featuring several long-time CA-CP partners also generated quite a bit of stimulating post-film discussion.

The Panel Discussion will be rebroadcast on Saturday, September 26, 11AM to Noon, on The Environmental Show  on Portsmouth Community Radio WSCA-LP 106.1 FM.  Also streaming on the Web, visit  www.portsmouthcommunityradio.org.

In the meantime, some additional questions and answers posed by the audience and addressed by the panelists are posted below. And while you're waiting, visit the discussion forum at the Carbon Coalition's blog, The Political Climate, to share your thoughts and reactions to the evening, or the movie in general.

Panel Members

• Kathy Loftus: Kathy is National Energy Manager with Whole Foods Market where she coordinates energy management and procurement, green building and maintenance best practices.  Kathy also spent eight years as Director of Energy & Environmental Management for Shaw's Supermarkets where she was active in the EPA Energy Star and Green Power Partners Programs and worked with the United States Green Building Council to develop LEED guidelines for supermarkets.  She encouraged Shaw’s to develop a carbon footprint reduction and renewable energy purchase program before it became almost mainstream. Kathy  holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is a Certified Energy Manager through the Association of Energy Engineers.  She was a participant on the 2005 New England Roundtable on Federal Renewable Energy Policy and currently serves on the Advisory Committee of the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust and on the Board of Directors of Clean Air-Cool Planet.
• Terry Kellogg: Terry Kellog began his career working on forestry issues for the Vermont Natural Resources Council. Convinced that profound environmental change can be driven by businesses, Terry joined a renewable energy retailer called Green Mountain Energy.  Then in 2000 Terry  joined the Timberland Company where he was charged with minimizing the company’s environmental footprint and supporting new markets for sustainable products. Under Terry’s leadership, Timberland reduced its carbon footprint by more than ten percent and launched internal programs in green building and organic cotton. Today Terry is the Executive Director of 1% For the Planet an alliance of companies that recognize the true cost of doing business and donate 1% of their sales to environmental organizations worldwide.  Terry has a B.A. in Economics from Middlebury College and an M.B.A. and a Master of Environmental Management from Yale University.
•  Cameron Wake is a Research Associate Professor at the Climate Change Research Center  at the University of New Hampshire. Cameron researches global climate and environmental change. He reconstructs climate change in the past through the collection and analysis of ice cores from around the world. Over the past 20 years he has been involved in research expeditions to Nepal, China, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, and Antarctica. Currently he is leading research programs to develop ice core records from glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau and in the Canadian Arctic. Wake is also seeking to improve our understanding of New England’s changing climate and air quality.  In addition to climate research at UNH, Dr. Wake serves on the boards of the Kittery Land Trust and Seacoast Area Bicycle Routes and  is an avid photographer.

Questions from the post-film discussion:

Science

• How fast has the Gulf Stream shut down in the past? (For Cameron Wake)

• How can the sun’s rays penetrate our atmosphere but not be able to escape our atmosphere?

• What  are the chances of the Gulf Stream current significantly slowing down or stopping in terms of its climate impact here in New England/Eastern Canada? (For Cameron Wake)

• Also what effect does eating meat have on the planet?

• Much is made, for good reason, about CO2 reduction. But the greatest contributory green house gas is water vapor. What to do about water vapor? (For Cameron Wake)

• Can you speak to the increase in methane emissions as ice melts?

Solutions

• Can the Panelists list 5 things they might do to move the world in the right direction? (for all panelists)

Kathy Loftus

• Purchase renewable energy credits from your local utility, through CA-CP and Native Energy, or from a supplier of your choice.
• Write your legislators and urge them to support renewable energy portfolio standards.  Also urge them to require local, state and federal buildings host renewable energy installations or make purchases of RECs.
• Purchase a vehicle with substantially better fuel mileage and car pool as often as possible, take public transportation, ride bicycles and walk.
• Replace lamps with Energy Star Rated alternatives immediately, and appliance when near their useful life with Energy Star rated alternatives.
• Reduce the on time of your appliances at home-set thermostats higher in summer and lower in winter.

• Is it not time to seriously reconsider nuclear power? If France can get 80% of electricity from nuclear power, - which produces no carbon emissions, why can’t we? (for all panelists)

  Kathy Loftus
  There needs to be a fuel diversity and electricity capacity diversity, and renewable energy can provide a lot of our needs, but we do need to reevaluate nuclear energy.  With advances in technology and efficiencies, as well as a safe, secure, program with sufficient planning for decommissioning and waste, nuclear may become a viable part of the energy mix in New England.

  Terry Kellog
  As Cam pointed out at the event, nuclear power violates the principles of sustainability.  We should aspire to do better. Historically the safety record of nuclear plants leaves a lot to be desired; certain plants might make appealing targets for terrorists, and waste from nuclear plants poses significant disposal challenges.  There are plenty of reasons to dislike nuclear.  But without nuclear, we’d be MUCH closer to experiencing on a regular basis the catastrophic effects of climate change… electricity consumption in the U.S. continues to grow at about a percent a year and we’ll need lots of tools at our disposal to reverse the trend.  Foremost among these tools should be improved efficiency; lots of renewable sources of electricity are also beginning to hit their stride and most of our efforts should be in these areas.  But the climate challenge is so daunting and so pressing that it would be irresponsible to discount ANY source of carbon free power and this stage.  And so we should keep the nuclear option on the table until there’s a well defined path to achieving sustainable levels of CO2 emissions without it.  New plants would be safer and generate less waste.  They could be sited in areas that would not attract terrorist attention.  Society will have to solve the waste issue with or without new nuclear plants, and the addition from new plants won’t significantly change the scope or nature of that problem.

• Which is better: a hybrid car that relies on fossil fuels or a bio-diesel vehicle?

• From the perspective of sustainability, what is the soundest long term solution for automobile power – hybrids, hydrogen, bio-diesel? What should I, the consumer, support?

• In the gas shortage of the 1970’s, why was renewable energies not explained and funded? Why is this not happening now? This would reduce greenhouse gases.

• What can I as an individual do to change this trend?

•  What specifically is Whole Foods doing for the climate? (For Kathy Loftus)

Whole Foods Core Value #5 Caring for our Communities and the Environment: We believe companies, like individuals, must assume their share of responsibility as tenants of Planet Earth.

A key aspect of our commitment is the wise use of existing resources. To that end, Whole Foods Market:

• Promotes environmentally sustainable agriculture by supporting organic farmers and expanding the market for organic products.
• Recycles, reuses and reduces waste wherever and when-ever possible.  Many stores have organics waste recycling programs in place, and we continue to evaluate opportunities to use our waste as an energy source.
• Uses green building techniques whenever possible.  Several stores are LEED certified, and we continue to work with United     States Green Building Council to facilitate additional locations to become LEED certified.
• Uses alternative energy — we are the only Fortune 500 company to offset 100% of our electricity use at US and Canadian stores and facilities with wind energy credits.  This purchase will avoid more than 700 M lbs of carbon dioxide pollution annually. A similar environmental impact would be to take more than 60,000 cars off the road or plant more than 90,000 acres of trees.  Over 1,600 customers and team members have signed up to purchase for their homes as a result of a test program during Earth Month.
• Individual stores from several regions supplement our wind credit   purchase with power from solar panels or generated by biomass or previous wind REC purchases. We installed Connecticut’s largest PV system on our Cheshire distribution center this year. 
• In March, 2002, the Berkeley Whole Foods Market store became the nation's first major food retailer to introduce solar energy as its primary lighting power source.
• Many of our regional transportation fleets have converted to biodiesel, and we continue to evaluate using our waste oil as a source of fuel.

Sustainable Agriculture
We support organic farmers, growers and the environment through our commitment to sustainable agriculture and by expanding the market for organic products.

Community Citizenship
We recognize our responsibility to be active participants in our local communities. We give a minimum of 5% of our profits every year to a wide variety of community and non-profit organizations. In addition, we pay our Team Members to give of their time to community and service organizations.

Integrity In All Business Dealings
Our trade partners are our allies in serving our stakeholders. We treat them with respect, fairness and integrity at all times and expect the same in return.

•  As a former energy manager in an academic campus, the single most difficult task I faced was convincing people to stop wasting so much energy. What does it take to get people to conserve?

  Kathy Loftus
  It is helpful to convene a group of people and discuss how to speak each other’s language and learn their values.  Many times it’s that folks don’t understand the impact of not conserving.  So, explaining to the business office that savings 10% of the campus’ energy requirements calculates to 20 full paid tuitions or a new science lab or something that helps them see the benefit easier may have them champion the effort.  Also, explain how it may provide some valuable marketing by attracting the students that will talk about the positive message and results their school enables.  Showing students what their actions mean is helpful-provide charts and translate energy units into pollution or other units that may make them understand the connection and realize it will affect them personally if they do not get into good habits now.  At that age, sometimes the dollar value is not as important as the health or quality of life value.

  Terry Kellog
  The right set of incentives as well as technology that makes the default option the one that uses the least amount of energy (such as auto sleep modes for computers and motion sensors on lights).

Civic Debate

• Since NH has the first in the nation primary, how can we – citizens – force the presidential aspirants to address the climate crisis? (for all panelists)

•  What recommendations do you have for educating/persuading persons in other generations who awareness of these issues may be limited?

•  Most of the actions offered here tonight involve volunteer, consumer-oriented tasks. Shouldn’t we be DEMANDING mandatory action from out governments? What do you recommend people do in this regard? (For all panelists)

Terry Kellog
ABSOLUTELY.  We may have leaned more heavily in that direction because the current administration continues to be delusional about the issue.  We need to do everything we can to make this issue THE issue of the next election.

•  Is there legislation being passed to impose strict laws to correct this problem? (For all panelists)

•  How do we succeed with this goal given that our political leadership does not fully support our efforts to help save our earth?