Citizen Brand

Greenland is melting

As they say, pictures say a thousand words.

2009:

 

2011:

 

We can stick our heads in the slush or we can face reality. What will we choose?

Link here to see what the scientists are saying about these photos.

 

 

Heads in the sand

 

 

I'm sick and tired of politics dictating the future health of our planet. Are you?

The cold, hard facts exist. Here is an excerpt from a recent article in Newsweek:

The burning of fossil fuels has raised atmospheric levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide by 40 percent above what they were before the Industrial Revolution. The added heat in the atmosphere retains more moisture, ratchets up the energy in the system, and incites more violent and extreme weather. Scientists disagree about whether climate change will bring more intense or frequent tornadoes, but there is wide consensus that the 2 degrees Fahrenheit of global warming of the last century is behind the rise in sea levels, more intense hurricanes, more heat waves, and more droughts and deluges. Even if the world went carbon-neutral tomorrow, we’d be in for more: because of the CO2 that has already been emitted, we’re on track for another 5 degrees of warming. Batten down the hatches. “You can no longer say that the climate of the future is going to be like the climate of today, let alone yesterday,” says Judi Greenwald, vice president of innovative solutions at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. “In all of the plausible climate scenarios, we are going to have to change the way we do things in ways we can’t even predict.”

As is usually the case, there are people at a grassroots level that are beginning to make small changes. the city of Chicago has several initiatives underway. One example, they have started planting trees in public areas that will survive warmer climates. They are trading out white oaks for swamp oaks which will survive in warmer climates. There are plans by the city of New York to paint all rooftops white to help reflect the sun in an attempt to keep Manhattan from becoming a heat island.

As the saying goes, all politics is local and it is clear political leaders at the local level have grown tired of waiting on national and global leaders to quit talking and start doing something. And here is where those of us engaged in supporting causes can try to help.

There is no more important cause than the environmental health of our planet. What I want to try to do and encourage others in cause to do as well is to find companies that are ready to step up and help. This could be companies of all sizes. Work with the cities at the local level to support through awareness, dollars and time the efforts they are undertaking to prepare for what a large majority of scientists say is going to happen.

It is these types of public-private partnerships working at the grassroots level that can make a difference. We can no longer wait on the national or global governments to take action.

Brown and Green do go together

From Triple Pundit:

"What can Brown do for you?

It’s not just what United Parcel Service can do for you, but it’s also what they can do to trim operating costs and help the environment – all at the same time.

UPS announced this week that the Petaluma branch in Northern California will lease 42 Xebra electric vehicles to deliver smaller packages in congested areas where driving the Big Brown trucks aren’t so conducive to swift navigation through heavy traffic and, the bane of all urban drivers, finding a place to park (or double park, as the case may be).

The Xebra electric vehicle is manufactured by Santa Rosa-based Zap. In business since 1994, with customers in 75 countries, Zap has made over 100,000 electric and alternative vehicles, from scooters to their planned electric SUV.

And now UPS is one of those customers.

With a ground fleet of 94,542 vehicles moving 16 million packages around the world every day, and a barrel of oil hovering in the 90’s, actively pursuing alternatives to large fossil-fueled trucks is a matter of good business sense as well as environmental concern. 

UPS walks the talk with the largest private alternative fuel fleet in the industry.

After all, it doesn’t take a big brown truck to deliver your next order from Amazon to your front door."