The Environment.

[loveable liberal]

What can Minnesotans do about global climate change? I read this WaPo article and will have some trouble looking my kids in the eye. We're leaving them with nothing. No money, no air, no water. We'd better band together globally before its too late. It starts with the vehicle you drive. Demand fuel efficient transporation, 45 mpg isnt good enough, we want 100 mpg. Dont be a "we can't" be a "we can". What we do now will affect what happens to our children. Dont believe me, believe science.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/28/AR2006012801021.html?referrer=email

[CatholicEdHead]

1. Lip Service is being given to ethanol

but it is only a small action, most cars will get messed up with that much ethanol in it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Demand better public transportation

and zoning laws that require neighborhoods and commercial areas to be accessible on foot, by bicycle, or public transportation.

If I were running Metro Transit, I would pull out all those buses from the outer suburbs and require the burbs to start their own agencies.

Then I would concentrate Metro Transit's routes in the cities and the first ring of suburbs, gradually building up a system that had buses running a minimum of every 15 minutes 7 days a week on all through streets. I would also build light rail from downtown Minneapolis to downtown Saint Paul, through the U campus, with the eventual goal of extending it in both directions, from Wayzata to Stillwater. I would also extend the Hiawatha Line south to Farmington and north to Anoka. Then I would build a "ring" line through the downtowns of all the inner suburbs, such as Edina, St.Louis Park, and Robbinsdale. Cost? Probably a couple of months of the Iraq War costs.

Better transit could even work in rural areas, especially if there were large populations of elderly. You could have a couple of vans that circulated every hour on routes that met at a central location.

Even without better transportation, we could still require all new construction to be pedestrian and bicycle friendly.

[progree]

3. Gulf Stream strength drops 30% in just 12 years

Here's a passage from the washington post url you posted that particularly grabbed me
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/28/AR2006012801021.html?referrer=email

Scientists who read the history of Earth's climate in ancient sediments, ice cores and fossils find clear signs that it has shifted abruptly in the past on a scale that could prove disastrous for modern society. Peter B. deMenocal, an associate professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, said that about 8,200 years ago, a very sudden cooling shut down the Atlantic conveyor belt. As a result, the land temperature in Greenland dropped more than 9 degrees Fahrenheit within a decade or two.

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And here are some snips I made from a Nov. 30, 2005 Reuters article. I've been hearing of unusually cold temperatures in Moscow and much of Russia in the news. I've also heard some AirAmerica host say it is the coldest winter in a long time (I forgot in how long she said) in Europe. I wonder if it could be that the Gulf Stream is weaker than it used to be? A 30% drop in 12 years is pretty slow, though isn't it? Its not? Ummm....

Atlantic Conveyor slowed down 30% in last 12 years. - Reuters, 11/30/05
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(Snips of it here and there)

The Atlantic Conveyor, a life-giving ocean current that keeps northern Europe warm, is slowing down, scientists said on Wednesday.

If the 30 percent slowdown seen over the past 12 years is not just a blip, temperatures in northern Europe could drop significantly, despite global warming, they added.

... The Hadley Center for Climate Prediction and Research has calculated that if the current stopped, temperatures in northern Europe could drop by up to six degrees centigrade in 20 years.

The latest figures, collated last year, are from a string of monitoring devices at various depths in the Atlantic from Morocco to Miami.

It was the fifth snapshot since 1957 taken in the same area of the temperatures and currents in shallow, mid and deep ocean.

While measurements in 1981 and 1992 had shown little change, those in 1998 and 2004 had shown a major shift, with less of the warming Gulf Stream getting up to Greenland and less of the cold, deep returning current coming back.

AP: Researchers at the National Oceanography Centre at Britain's University of Southampton monitored the flow of the main circulatory system in the central Atlantic.

"If the conveyor belt continues to slow right down, a drop of 4 C (7.2 F) in the average annual temperature in northwestern Europe could happen," says Meric Srokosz, a science coordinator at Britain's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), which oversaw the research

[Minnesota Raindog]

4. Stop wasting energy

Wear sweaters and wool socks around the house in the winter, not t-shirts and bare feet. You might be able to knock the thermostat down 5-10 degrees. Avoid buying over-packaged products, or one-way containers. Recycle everything. Combine trips when possible. Quit sitting in idling cars waiting for someone to make a "quick" trip into a store. Quit warming up vehicles for 10 minutes before driving. About 30 seconds is enough at any temperature--wear a coat in the car till it warms up. Quit driving your kids everywhere. Let them walk, for chrissakes! And stop pampering them in an idling vehicle while they wait for the school bus at the end of your rural driveway every day. Dress them adequately and let them stand outside! Keep your tires inflated properly, and cars tuned up. Drive slower. There are a million other examples, but you get the picture. A little bit here, a little bit there, pretty soon you're talking a few million barrels of oil.