NEWSBYEMILY GERTZ

After a solid 52+ weeks of blogging, I am taking a break for the next two weeks.

Inevitably some incredible thing will happen -- the Senate climate bill will get a floor debate, the Bangkok treaty talks will see a breakthrough, dogs and cats sleeping together.  Happily, guest bloggers will be here to keep up with the news and so much more in global warming, clean energy, and sustainability news.

Please welcome them to the blog.  See you after October 20!

The Obama administration today ordered federal agencies to aim for aggressive targets to reduce energy use, and incorporate environmental sustainability in federal government operations.

The executive order "Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance," signed today by President Obama, builds off an executive order signed by President Bush in 2007, as well as momentum created by clean energy and energy-efficiency measures funded by the stimulus act.

Under this new mandate, federal agencies must set 10-year energy reduction and environmental sustainability goals within the next 90 days. Clearly identified targets in the order include:

• 30% reduction in vehicle fleet petroleum use by 2020;
• 26% improvement in water efficiency by 2020;
• 50% recycling and waste diversion by 2015;
• 95% of all applicable contracts will meet sustainability requirements;
• Implementation of the 2030 net-zero-energy building requirement;
• Implementation of the stormwater provisions of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, section 438; and
• Development of guidance for sustainable Federal building locations in alignment with the Livability Principles put forward by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Today we iPod Touch addicts and MacBook users can claim one less guilt trip: Apple Computer has become the latest high-profile defection from the US Chamber of Commerce, over the group's opposition to curbing greenhouse gas pollution.

In a letter dated today, communicating the company's immediate resignation, Catherine A. Novelli, the vice-president of worldwide government affairs at Apple wrote, "We strongly object to the chamber's recent comments opposing the E.P.A.'s effort to limit greenhouse gases." Kate Galbraith at The New York Times' "Green Inc." blog snagged the letter and put it online:

As a company, we are working hard to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions by relying on renewable energy at our facilities and designing more energy-efficient products for our customers. We have undertaken this unilaterally and without government mandate, because we believe it is the right thing to do. For those companies who cannot or will not do the same, Apple supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it is frustrating to find the Chamber at odds with us on this effort.

The Yes Men travel a fine line where art, social change, and sophisticated media hacking intertwine. In their entertaining new film, "The Yes Men Fix the World," duo Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno also do water ballet -- in between documenting their shrewd, blackly humorous pranks, which expose how ready corporations are to capitalize on human suffering.

In this, their second film, the Yes Men turn the humor on themselves as well. Between recounting their hoaxes, the two men splash around in a wide expanse of water, dressed in full suit-and-tie corporate drag, asking themselves (and the audience): Why engage in either art or activism, when so little seems to change as a result? Are we just a couple of insignificant drops in a sea of inhumanity?

In their most famous media hack to date, the duo set up a slick faux-corporate website called dowethics.com. A couple years later, in 2004, an invitation to appear on the BBC News arrived in email. Bichlbaum, posing as a Dow Chemical spokesman named "Jude Finisterra," told a global audience of 300 million (as well as a wholly taken-in BBC crew) that Dow would pay $12 million in reparations for the 1984 pesticide leak at a Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, India, that killed and sickened tens of thousands. (Dow bought Union Carbide in 2001 but has not made any move to either compensate victims or clean up the factory site.)

Dow's market value plunged by $2 billion in less than a half hour after the broadcast -- a handy demonstration of how much the current incarnation of capitalism values profits over ethics.

Lately the Yes Men have turned their attention to corporate culpability and profiteering in the face of climate change. The film follows them to a major petroleum industry convention. As representatives of Exxon, they present a new biofuel called Vivoleum, made from the victims of climate change. They hand out candles made of the fuel to a largely unquestioning audience and light them, before being ushered out of the hotel as trespassers.

One of the most straightforward ways any of us can help curb global warming is to drive less, and bicycle more.

If you're looking for some inspiration to get back on the bike seat, and will be in Portland, Ore. in the next few weeks, check out Oregon Manifest -- a showcase of bicycle culture, community, and art happening through November 8. The "Dreams on Wheels" exhibition from Denmark is tied in to the December climate talks to be held there as well; it centers on Danish bicycle culture and the nation's commitment to sustainability

There are also special events over the next several weekends including the Artcrank "showcase of bicycle-inspired original poster artwork that people can enjoy looking at and afford to take home," Cycling Lifestyle Fashion Show by Momentum Magazine on Oct. 10, Wafels en Wielrennen (Waffles and Bike Racing) on Oct. 16, and a Tour De Builders by Pedal Bike Tours on Oct. 23 of Portland's burgeoning hand built bicycle scene.

For a very different take on bicycle culture, design blog Core77 has a great, multipage gallery from Eurobike Show 2009, one of the world's major bicycle trade shows. Get a look at the latest in bike gear, from biomorphic or city-fashionable helmets, to keen bike bags, what appears to be bicycle fashion meets show choir, and quite a bit on the hybrid e-bikes, or electric bikes, that are "expected to revolutionize the bicycle industry."

Above: Carol Browner on goals for December's climate treaty talks in Copenhagen.

President Obama's "climate czarina" told a Washington audience today that Senate passage of a climate bill in time for December's international climate talks was extremely unlikely.

Carol M. Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, said during the interview that "“Obviously we’d like to be through the process — that’s not going to happen,” reports Andrew Revkin in The New York Times. She continued, "I think we would all agree the likelihood you would have a bill signed by the president on comprehensive energy by the time we would go in early December is not likely."

The Senate version of the climate legislation was introduced only on Wednesday, a full three months after House passage of a climate bill. Yet Ms. Browner said that it was possible that the Senate could at least complete its rounds of hearings on the bill by the time the international climate talks open on Dec. 7 in Copenhagen. Those hearings, along with the Obama administration’s recent moves toward regulating greenhouse gases, would provide evidence that the nation is serious about cutting emissions, she said.

A show of resolve by the United States about doing its part in combating global warming is considered critical to the outcome of the Copenhagen talks.

“We will go to Copenhagen and manage with whatever we have,” Ms. Browner said.

Browner made her statement this morning at the First Draft of History Conference. Her comments made recently by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), as well as the growing "common wisdom" among politicos that between the domination of health care legislation in Congress, and the contention to come over the climate bill, that climate legislation won't make it to the president's desk before 2010.

If true, it makes Obama administration moves to regulate greenhouse gas pollution via the Clean Air Act even more important -- to curb climate change, demonstrate to negotiators in December that the US really will act on climate change, one way or another.

Further, "We need to give the business community certainty and predictability," Browner said today, to achieve "a whole new generation of jobs and a [stable] climate."
Per Joshua Green's write-up at the Atlantic,

To this she added the underappreciated point that the history of major changes in U.S. environmental law shows that new rules invariably turn out to be cheaper and easier to implement than almost anyone anticipates at the time.

Above: At a press conference held midway through the Climate Change Talks in Bangkok, Yvo de Boer told reporters that progress has been made key areas including adaptation, technology and capacity-building in developing countries. However, progress on rich nation emission reduction targets and financial support for climate change action in developing countries is still elusive.

Grab a stiff drink and take in this week's bad news about global warming:
Climate talks stall on targets, finance: Efforts to convince rich nations to toughen emissions cuts have failed to make much headway at climate talks in the Thai capital, the U.N. said on Friday. "Progress toward high industrialized world emissions cuts remains disappointing during these talks. We're not seeing real advances there," Yvo de Boer, the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told reporters. "Movement on the ways and means and institutions to raise, manage and deploy financing support for the developing world climate action also remains slow." (Reuters)

Catastrophic climate change could happen with 50 years: If average global temperatures arc toward a rise of 7.2 deg. F (4 deg. C) by 2100 (over those of the mid-19th century), according to a study released this week by the UK's Met Office, we'd be screwed in diverse ways as soon as 2060: Arctic temperatures would increase by 28.8 deg F (16 deg C), while parts of sub Saharan Africa and North America would be devastated by an increase in temperature of up to 18 deg F (10 deg C); rainfall could decrease by 20 per cent in Central America, the Mediterranean and parts of coastal Australia, causing mass drought; Temperature rises in the Amazon would cause the rainforests to die, while Alaska and Siberia would see the melting of the permafrost causing more carbon dioxide to be released. (The Telegraph)

Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) used a morning yak with NBC's David Gregory to slam the Boxer-Kerry climate and energy bill, as well as the Waxman-Markey House bill that squeaked to passage in June, for not including nuclear energy in their mandates on "renewable," "clean" power.

Neither bill allows nuclear energy to count toward fulfilling mandated renewable energy generation goals, which arguably could dampen enthusiasm for nukes by states trying to meet these "renewable energy standards," or RES.

"It’s the left-wing environmental organizations that are not allowing us to move forward with nuclear power," groused the senator, at the "First Draft of History" forum sponsored by The Atlantic and the Aspen Institute.

Above: Stirring climate anthem, or earnest do-good dirge?

Long Live Rock Dept: The Tck Tck Tck "countdown to Copenhagen" campaign has re-recorded the Midnight Oil guitar rock anthem "Beds Are Burning" into a call for action on climate change. The song is available for free download on the web and on iTunes, too.

"Every download will count as a unique digital petition with people adding their names to demand world leaders reach an ambitious, fair and global deal at the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen," says the campaign in a statement.

The star-studded video features Duran Duran, Mark Ronson, Jamie Cullum, Melanie Laurent, Marion Cotillard, Milla Jovovich, Fergie, Lily Allen, Manu Katche, Bob Geldof, Youssou N'Dour, Yannick Noah, Jet Li, Suketu Metha, Amadou et Mariam, and more -- all framed by voiceovers from Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations and now a big league anti-poverty advocate, and Bishop Desmond Tutu.

The Environmental Protection Agency has released its first major rule proposal to slash greenhouse gas pollution from large industrial facilities and power plants around the country.

It's the first federal move toward regulating heat-trapping gases from stationary sources; tougher auto emissions standards were introduced earlier in the year. According to EPA, the rule fits in with its authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate air pollutants, and will stand up to legal challenges.

Under the new rule, new or significantly modified facilities would be required to get pollution permits if they emit 25,000 tons or more of carbon dioxide and five other climate-changing pollutants. These facilities would be required to use the "best available control technologies" (called "BACT" in enviro-wonkese) to filter their emissions.

This threshold, which would affect around 14,000 heavy industry and energy-generating facilities, is around 100 times greater than the regulatory triggers for other air pollutants known to hurt human health and the environment, such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. It is large enough to effectively remove small and medium-scale businesses from the regulation's scope.

Critics of the regulations have been spinning "doomsday scenarios, with EPA regulating everything from cows to the local Dunkin' Donuts," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson at a press conference this afternoon."Let's be clear: That's not going to happen. We have carefully crafted the regulation to exempt most small and medium sized businesses," while targeting emitters where it will have the greatest positive impact on curbing global warming.