[GWSG] GOP & climate; Dalai Lama & climate; forest fires' effects; Drawdown; solar decathlon; Green Wave

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The NRDC's Denis Dison describes why he does not anticipate that the US Republican leadership will succeed in hampering the Paris climate talks.  The Party membership is not with them on climate; the US is taking a forward role among a large group of active nations; the agreement includes a commitment to strengthen the emissions limitations every five years, and would make the Republican arguments and strategy ("let's do nothing") untenable.  http://ecowatch.com/2015/10/19/republicans-undermine-cop21/  To judge by the energy plans released by Republican presidential candidates, the political climate could have a great influence on the non-political after the elections next year if any of them win.  http://grist.org/politics/theres-no-moderation-in-republicans-dirty-energy-plans/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily-horizon



2.  The Dalai Lama has added his voice those of Pope Francis and other Christian and Muslim religious leaders urging climate action. "This is not a political matter, not a religious matter, but ultimately [about] the survival of humanity," he said.   http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/10/20/3714303/dalai-lama-climate-change/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cptop3



3.  Forest fires can release more carbon to the atmosphere than anticipated through the burning of the trees and the upper soil layer, and the decomposition of the exposed permafrost in boreal forests.  New growth on the exposed land will sequester some, and perhaps a lot, of the carbon.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/10/20/scientists-confirm-fears-that-alaskan-wildfires-could-make-global-warming-worse/  NASA has initiated a ten-year, $100 million study of the problem in boreal forests.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151022095725.htm



4.  Colleen Ahern-Hettich of the Earth Ethics Institute of Miami Dade College reports a positive experience at a presentation by Paul Hawken on his collaborative Drawdown project, focusing on policy and behavioral choices to be made in the next thirty years as we carry through with a successful emissions control program and build a sustainable society around the energy transition.  The site features an evolving list of the solutions they are researching, a description of the project, and a signup link.  A book is due out next year.  http://www.drawdown.org/



5.  New Jersey's Stevens Institute of Technology won this year's Solar Decathlon in both Architecture and Communications with their hurricane proof SURE house.  http://www.vox.com/2015/10/20/9571263/sure-house-sustainable-resilient

Other results are reported on the general Decathlon site.  See Team Videos for presentations of individual entries.  http://energy.gov/articles/energy-department-assistant-secretary-danielson-honors-stevens-institute-technology-winner



6.  A commercial fisherman from Connecticut has won a sustainability prize for his design Green Wave, an aquaculture model which addresses overfishing, acidification, and habitat degradation through growing shellfish and seaweed for a range of uses.   Green Wave uses no fertilizer and is carbon negative.   http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/oct/22/greenwave-ocean-farming-bren-smith-fuller-challenge-sustainability-climate-change  ?

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