CA-CP's Hip-Boot Tour Makes Rolling Stone - sort of!

In the rock mag's September 30th issue, a great story on the demise of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets ends with a description of NASA scientist Dr. Robert Binschadler musing over maps detailing potential sea-level rise in a couple of east coast cities. The tour referenced is none other than our "Hip-Boot Tour," and you can muse over those maps yourself. In the meantime, CA-CP has been busy creating other maps, and investigating ways of making them interactive, so folks in coastal cities could open them, put in their addresses, and see what they might expect from sea-level rise of a meter or more. Stay tuned!

New CA-CP tool for charting GHG implications of food choices to be launched

A preliminary launch of the Charting Emissions from Food Services (CHEFS) tool for carbon impact analysis of food service operations will occur on October 10th at the annual conference of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) in Denver, Colorado. With the help of summer Climate Fellow Julie Munro, we've created reports for all our pilot institutions (including Yale, NYU, Johns Hopkins, BU, Vassar and the University of Florida) and gathered data for the next phase of the tool's testing and development.

CHEFS is an online tool that quantifies the carbon impact of food production, processing, distribution, preparation and disposal. The goal is to build a tool like the Campus Carbon Calculator™ -- one that is flexible enough to be used by any campus-based organization (e.g. schools, hospitals, corporate or municipal campuses, museums or camps), simple enough for someone that does not have a degree in industrial ecology, and accurate and relevant enough to truly inform better decision-making by dining service operators and their patrons. Sign up on our website to learn more and gain access to the beta release in early October.

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Engaging Corporate Partners to Connect on Climate Policy Issues

CA-CP's Corporate Program informs businesses and business organizations about developments in federal climate policy as part of our work to deliver solutions to global warming to corporations. This spring and summer, a number of events in Maine and New Hampshire focused on the economics of climate policy options and how the upcoming elections would likely change the atmosphere nationally and in Washington.

In late May, Clean Air-Cool Planet co-sponsored, with the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, an executive roundtable on climate policy in Portland featuring Douglas Holtz-Eakin. Representatives from some of the state's largest companies, including Hannaford Supermarkets, LL Bean, Verso Paper, Irving Oil and the Dead River Oil Company, participated in the meeting. A story on Holtz-Eakin's visit in The Portland Press Herald, Maine's largest daily paper, contrasted CA-CP's pragmatic approach to climate policy against the Tea-Party inspired state GOP convention platform.

The results included a call to Dr. Holtz-Eakin from Senator Susan Collins, whose legislation he called "the simplest and best idea in Washington".

In early June, at our suggestion, two of our corporate partners - Poland Spring and Hannaford - were invited to participate in an invitation-only meeting with Senator Collins, focusing on the impact of putting a price on carbon to businesses in the state. The meeting, organized by Nike and the Maine Global Warming Action Coalition, initially included primarily small green firms who backed the Kerry-Lieberman bill, while CA-CP partners favor a more pragmatic approach like CLEAR Act, co-sponsored by Susan Collins.

We recruited and briefed representatives of Poland Spring, Segway, Sappi Paper and York Hospital to participate in a series of meetings on Capitol Hill in mid-July with Senators Susan Collins, Jeanne Shaheen, Olympia Snowe, and a senior policy staffer from Judd Gregg's office. The increased involvement of CA-CP during the current session led to an hour-long meeting with Senator Collins' top policy staffer in our Portsmouth headquarters, involving our CEO and Washington staff to discuss next steps in terms of engaging key players in the region.

This summer, we partnered with Conservation New Hampshire to plan surveys of voters in New Hampshire conducted by the UNH Survey Center. The first project, conducted in April just prior to the Gulf Oil spill, gauged business support for cap-and-trade legislation, revenue recycling and an economy-wide solution. The second, during July, demonstrated a marked difference between Democrats, Independents and Republicans in terms of support for comprehensive climate and energy legislation, changes in national energy policy, and support for candidates who make environmental protection a priority. The important take away for candidates in November is that over half of those surveyed could not state whether elected officials from either party were making that commitment, so a clear, concise message directed towards independent voters could make the difference in a close race.

Also this summer, Bob Sheppard, CA-CP's CFO and vice president of the Corporate Program, mentored Climate Fellow Corey Johnson, a University of New Hampshire business student who spent his eight-week internship working with the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce at their headquarters. Corey helped with a preliminary inventory of energy and water consumption at the Chamber, assisted the City of Portsmouth in updating their three-year old inventory, developed an informational brochure to encourage restaurants to recycle food waste. He also set up three separate Chamber Sustainability forums for this fall.

DC Policy Team Continues Work on Federal Legislation

Prior to the end of the Senate session, we reached out to more than a dozen Republican senators directly in Washington D.C. -- and organized business, media and public forums like the one described above in Maine, in key states including New Hampshire, South Carolina and North Dakota.

After the August collapse of climate efforts in the Senate, it's more clear than ever that to pass Congress any comprehensive strategy to reduce greenhouse gases will need to have the support of a combination of Democrats, Republicans, independents, and the business community. In light of this political reality, we are pursuing a two-year strategy that continues to focus on the eventual passing of federal climate legislation, but will concentrate in 2011-12 on educating and engaging leaders in business and across the political spectrum on prospects for a market-based solution that reduces carbon pollution and serves energy, economic and national security interests as well as environmental goals. A series of discussions and planning sessions with our partners and other key actors and opinion-leaders is underway, in the Northeast and nationally.

We have also begun a process of more assiduous relationship building with congressional offices in New England. A part of this approach will continue to be educating these and other decision makers about the science behind global warming and the impacts we are seeing now and that are forecast for this century. The message is that it is in our national interest - from health, economic, and security points of view - to act quickly on climate.

And we are planning a new effort to ensure that climate and energy issues are credibly addressed in the 2012 presidential primary in New Hampshire. Our recent forum with Conservation New Hampshire is well described in our blog.We also look forward to working with the Carbon Coalition in the coming run-up to the New Hampshire First-in-the-Nation Primary.

Fourth "Class" of Climate Fellows Excels

A new guide to energy programs for Maine communities, a how-to on urban composting for restaurants, a white paper on cross pollinating industry sectors with energy and climate work, and a fun and educational approach to teaching children about global warming - these are some outcomes of the successful projects completed by our 2010 Climate Fellows.

This year's "class" of six was deliberately kept small (CA-CP had 14 Fellows last summer!) and working with more local host organizations in order to offer increased opportunities for mentoring by CA-CP staff. The results included a series of successful webinars and presentations by the fellows, closer relationships with sponsoring organizations, and projects whose outcomes were more easily managed and measured.

Culmination of their work was celebrated at a reception, August 19th at Portsmouth's 100 Club, upstairs from CA-CP's headquarters. More than 90 supporters, sponsors, and friends showed up to meet the Fellows and hear about their work.

"We are already planning on a class of eight Fellows for 2011," said Fellows Program Coordinator Dr. Anne Stephenson, "and we will be looking for new host organizations and projects this fall."

If you are interested in hosting a CA-CP Climate Fellow, email Anne at astephenson@cleanair-coolplanet.org. To support our Climate Fellows Program, contact Susan Schroeter, vice president for development at sschroeter@cleanair-coolplanet.org.

A couple cool stories

In which We Hear from Catalyst Fund Recipients...

You've read (We hope!) in these pages before about the Community Catalyst Fund, through which Overbrook-Foundation-supported program we offer community groups grants to further their work. You've heard how simple it is to apply, how fast the turn-around is. Now, you can find out what happened in two communities where funds were granted and applied: Groton and Saratoga Springs, NY.

In Groton, a Catalyst grant was used to expand a student-run community garden - both literally and in terms of the types of vegetables grown and local participation. Improvements made possible by Catalyst funding included a 20-foot "hoop house" and creation of a half-year course at the high school.

Reaching people in town with a message about energy efficiency was the goal of a Catalyst-supported effort in Saratoga Springs, the Community CFL Challenge.

With the support of a local newspaper and hardware store, the Challenge set out to cut energy use, reduce greenhouse has emissions, and bring the community together around a common effort.

Catalyst funding helped the group expand their organization; they were, at last count, about a third of their way toward their CO2 and money-saved goal.

If you are or know someone involved in a community sustainability effort, visit for more information about the Community Catalyst Fund.

CA-CP Receives Major Kresge Grant to Tackle Adaptation to Climate Change

As urgent and as vital as they are, even the most ambitious and effective greenhouse gas reduction efforts constitute only part of the solution to climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability," the effects of our past emissions on the built and natural environment, as well as on human health, will be felt for generations to come. Therefore, through programs of adaptation planning and implementation, communities must respond now to address the impacts of global warming within the lifetimes of people already on the planet. States and communities in the Northeast will have to focus on issues as diverse as sea level rise; natural resource management; regional tourism impacts; infrastructure vulnerability; public health systems; public water supplies; and drought and flood responses.

Clean Air-Cool Planet is embarking on a project to address these issues and more through a major grant from the Kresge Foundation. Over the next year, we will identify and assess barriers to adaptation planning, as well as existing programs and resources. In light of what we find, we will bring our extensive experience in convening and coordinating collaborative networks to bear in creating a Northeast network to support and promote effective adaptation actions.

The project will include direct work within this network to give communities the tools and the advice they need to plan effectively for some climate changes that are already in the pipeline, particularly in the area of water resources and sea-level rise - from communicating the need for adaptation and preparedness to community audiences in a non-alarmist way; to linking local adaptation efforts to the federal adaptation infrastructure being developed by the Obama administration; to creating state-of-the-science flood vulnerability mapping to demonstrate the need for better federal mapping resources and to assist in creating model adaptation plans.

News Briefs

New Climate Change Backpack™ Trainings Offered for New Jersey Educators

Clean Air-Cool Planet is pleased to offer full-day, hands-on, climate-change science workshops for New Jersey educators, in partnership with several leading science outreach and education organizations. Attendees will receive a brief, down-to-earth introduction to the science of climate change, learn how we know that our climate is changing, and explore solutions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Several activities and experiments will be conducted including the newest lessons from our award-winning, nationally recognized and accredited Climate Change Backpack.™ The new lessons, designed especially for our Mid-Atlantic version of the Backpack, focus on how climate change impacts the people and places of New Jersey. Scheduled workshops:

• Thursday, October 7th - Rutgers University: School of Environment and Biological Sciences - Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Building;
  10:00 am - 4:00 pm
• Saturday, October 23rd - PSEG Energy & Environmental Resource Center
  (Salem, NJ); 9:30 am - 4 pm

The first 75 registrants will receive a coupon for $75 OFF the price of your own Climate Change Backpack, courtesy of our partner and local sponsor PSEG. Find out more and register.

CA-CP Staff Create Online Course for UMass

The CA-CP campus team is currently engaged in remote teaching of an online carbon-management course they created over the summer.

Program Manager Jennifer Andrews, Campus Outreach and Fellows Coordinator Dr. Anne Stephenson and Carbon Accounting Coordinator Claire Roby are virtual faculty at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth this semester, as part of a sustainability certificate program.

Personal Energy Planner™ Newest Tool for New England Carbon Challenge

The Personal Energy Planner™, the latest in a suite of online tools, was released in July. This web tool, based on NECC's original New England Carbon Estimator™, provides simple ideas for residents to reduce their energy consumption and map out their own personal energy plan. You can find the tool at www.myenergyplan.net.

How does it work? The Personal Energy Planner™ begins by helping residents determine their carbon and energy footprint. Next, the resident selects various actions to help reduce their carbon footprint and save money. A customized energy plan is created showing money saved in energy costs as well as the amount of carbon reduced from their carbon footprint.

This really is a powerful tool, so please help us spread the word. The tool is free and available to the public at our new sister site www.myenergyplan.net.

MYENERGYPLAN.NET was developed in partnership with NH Sustainable Energy Association and the University of NH Cooperative Extension. Contact A.J. Dowling or call 603.828.8902 with any questions.

MYENERGYPLAN.NET is made possible by the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission through the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Fund. The New England Carbon Challenge is a joint initiative of CA-CP and the University of New Hampshire.

MCAN Annual Conference, October 29th

Community leaders and climate activists from across Massachusetts will gather October 24th at the 9th Annual Mass Climate Action Network conference at Clark University in Worcester. Speakers include Adi Nochur of 1Sky and Professor Halina Brown of Clark University.

Panels on issues ranging from the Green Community Program to municipal energy efficiency and how to nurture a climate movement in your town to transportation issues in non-urban communities. For more information, and to register, visit MCAN's conference page at: http://massclimateaction.net/conference/2010-conference.html.

Local Communities Adapting to Climate Change: Managing Risk in Decision Making

Clean Air-Cool Planet is a co-sponsor of this hands-on, interactive course, which will provide local and regional leaders with the tools they need to assess the impacts of climate change and manage the risks it poses - and the opportunity to share their concerns on a difficult topic.

The free, two-day course will be held November 4-5, 2010 at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, MA.

Local, regional and state governments and other stakeholders are already feeling the effects of climate change and face greater risks down the road - from significant sea level rise to water scarcity. Understanding these threats and preparing for them in the near term can minimize risks and costs in the years ahead. This course will explain how to assess the local risks associated with climate change; evaluate potential strategies for reducing vulnerability and enhancing resiliency; and build consensus within decision-making processes around which strategies to pursue.

This course is sponsored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, taught by the Consensus Building Institute. For more information, or to register e-mail lincolninstitute@resource-plus.com or call 888-845-8759.

CA-CP's Andrews and Roby Presenting at Atlanta Training

As part of the United Negro College Fund Building Green Training Series presented by Second Nature and Clean Air-Cool Planet, Jenn Andrews, director of Program Planning and Coordination and manager of the campus program at CA-CP and Claire Roby, carbon accounting coordinator, will present November 4-5, 2010, at this two-day workshop to introduce participants to greenhouse gas management and climate action planning including how to measure GHG emissions, how to use the Clean Air-Cool Planet Campus Carbon CalculatorTM, and the process of developing a campus climate action plan. For more information, or to register, visit http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/resources/training-events#workshops.

THE BACK PAGE

Voices and Viewpoints on Climate Change

CA-CP working behind the scenes to put climate science center stage in the interest of climate policy

Cool Current readers have been kept informed about many of Clean Air-Cool Planet's activities, like the 2008 Arctic voyage that brought opinion leaders to views climate changes in the region, our 2009 Hip-Boot Tour, which created coastal community roundtables on science and solutions in eight east-coast communities, and this year's Science. Not Science Fiction campaign.

But a good deal of our most important, game-changing initiatives take place outside the public eye. Here is the "back story" on an effort at the leading edge of delivering solutions to global warming. This is Clean Air-Cool Planet's story of scientists, Arctic expeditions, and "hip-boot" tours.

It's the story of ice that is moving into the oceans at twice previous rates. Of three feet or more of sea level rise now projected along the U.S. eastern seaboard and Gulf coast. Of infrastructure impacts that planners say will force some of our largest cities and hundreds of millions of our citizens to adapt - and economic impacts that economists say are incalculable but range into the many trillions of dollars.

Clean Air-Cool Planet (CA-CP) had been aware of and working to halt changes in the Arctic for years before the 2008 Arctic expedition aboard the Lindblad ship Endeavor. And, in early 2009, CA-CP's Executive Vice President for Policy, Brooks Yeager, who earlier led Arctic policy at the US Interior and State Departments, presented recommendations to the eight nations of the Arctic Council on reducing black carbon, tropospheric ozone and methane, pollutants that accelerate Arctic warming and melting but on which quick action can have major positive effects. The result: an Arctic Council Task Force to launch that effort.

But things changed when, early last summer, Brooks heard the testimony, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of Dr. David Carlson, a member of the IPCC and Director of the International Polar Year (IPY) International Program Office. What he heard was new, and disturbing: That glaciologists doing research on the polar ice sheets were seeing a doubling in the rate at which land ice was moving into the oceans, indicating the potential for sea level rise of more than three feet along the U.S. eastern seaboard by 2100.

Inspired by Dr. Carlson's testimony, Brooks and Senior Advisor Rafe Pomerance, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Environment and then CA-CP's president, expanded our consultations with scientists specializing in ice-sheet dynamics, ocean circulation and temperatures, melt water and glacier deterioration. The picture that emerged was alarming: warming at the poles - particularly in Greenland and Antarctica - would affect us and the world sooner rather than later, and dramatically. The science was telling us there is no time to waste.

We had to act.

Armed with the knowledge that the U.S. will see profound changes along our most heavily populated coasts in fewer than 100 years, we organized the Hip-Boot Tour, and brought renowned scientists as well as experienced policymakers, together with local officials and concerned citizens in roundtables that focused on the implications of sea-level rise on the economy, infrastructure, and life of each community.

To drive the point home, we produced state-of-the-art maps from NASA satellite and U.S. Geological Survey data showing how and at what scale each city will be affected by rising seas and storm surges.

And in Washington, DC, with CA-CP's maps as a backdrop, scientists Gordon Hamilton (See Rolling Stone!) and James White briefed the press and policy makers on the recently observed accelerating glacier movement in Greenland and on how climate changes there and across the world produce rising oceans. Then last April, CA-CP cosponsored a high-profile event with the National Journal followed by the "Science, Not Science Fiction" media campaign featuring full-page ads in nationally distributed magazines. The ads were then delivered to U.S. Senators, Congressmen, and environmental reporters in Washington -- in a campaign on behalf of federal climate legislation supported by two of the nation's largest energy companies, working together with CA-CP.

Much more needs to be done.

The fact that the Arctic is warming at twice the rate of anywhere else on the planet carries tremendous implications not only for our coasts but also for global weather systems and thus for the planet's survival. This year we've seen record temperatures again, as well as new lows in sea-ice volume and potentially record-setting coral bleaching as a result of that warming.

We must deliver a sustained national effort to combat climate change. We hope you will join us in this effort.

For more comprehensive information on climate change topics, visit Clean Air-Cool Planet's website for fact sheets, press releases, program initiatives, and more!