A tidbit recap
Congresstional aides in Rayburn Office hold up sign to bolster PowerShift protesters
Hey eco-dumpers! Sorry for the long break from your favorite local environmental news source. A week of mid-terms and a spring break in Columbus, Georgia (without internet access) building a house for Habitat for Humanity really limited my blogging ability. Just to catch you up on a few things I’ve been hearing about:
- Recylcemania numbers are taking off! I stopped by the ICES booth in the Campus Center yesterday, and Nancy Webster told me that Ithaca now has a 48% recycle rate! Last year we had a 25% rate, so we are totally kicking some butt.
- FREE FOOD!!! While walking through the Fitness Center, I spotted a poster for the “Real Foods” program being held in Klingenstein Lounge at 7 p.m. I’ll try to get coverage of it, but I suggest you make it, because it sounds very interesting. Also, I’d recommend reading either of Michael Pollan’s books, “The Omnivores Dilemma” or “In Defense of Food.” Rolling Stone just listed him among their Top 100 Agents of Change.
- Someone actually considers me an expert! Cat Nuwer, a freshman journalism major who’s taking Journalism Research with Todd Shack, is working on her 20-25 page report for the class. While it appears she has a ton of research and interviews and she’s having some difficulty finding a focus, she said her main interest now is on how students are effecting change on the campus, as opposed to administrators. If you’ve got some information for her, send an e-mail her way.
- If you looking for some more local coverage of the PowerShift rally, the Ithaca Times published a piece on Thursday, and the Ithaca Journal (subscription may be needed) published a preview of the conference on February 27. I’m happy to say that The Ithacan scooped the competition, bringing your results and pictures before any other local paper could.
I should have some more commentary on the PowerShift conference, along with some videos I’m editing (briefly) and posting on YouTube, so check back again soon.
Cornell Alum & Exxon Mobil VP supports climate skeptic politician
Caption: Sherri Stuewer gives $592,216 check to Cornell President David Skorton.
At 4:30 p.m. tomorrow in B-17 Upson Hall Sherri Stuewer, a VP with Exxon Mobil, will speak at a program titled, “Oil and Natural Gas - Sustainable in a World with CO2 Constraints?”
Over the course of last year, Sherri Stuewer donated $3,750 to Texas Republican and global climate change skeptic, Joe Barton for his re-election. According to NewsMeat, she donated $3,350. In 2007-08, Joe Barton received a total of $19,149 from Exxon Mobil.
Also, in May, she delivered a nearly $600,000 check to Cornell from the ExxonMobil Foundation.
In an interview with EurActiv.com, Stuewer wiggled out of a question of man-made climate change by saying that we should look to solve the problems and not question how the carbon ended up in the atmosphere.
Excerpt: Interviewer: Can you actually separate these two questions? If you want to come up with solutions, you have to understand what the origin is. And if you think global warming is due to the sun’s influence as some scientists believe, you will have to go for a different solution than those who believe it is caused by human intervention and the burning of fossil fuels….
Stuewer: “That does not mean that we believe everything we need to know about the contributions from anthropogenic emissions to climate change is known and what all the other contributions are.
But we do believe that the risk that rising greenhouse gas emissions are affecting the climate justifies action now. As you approach the policy debate, you cannot approach it without looking at what is cost-effective to do in light of that.
Where we are right now in the debate is looking at what are the policy options and how cost-effectively we can address the issue of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But anything that you do that effectively puts a cost on carbon out in the economy has an impact on economic development. So we cannot approach this policy debate in an isolated manner.”
Her answer reminds me of Nick Naylor, from the movie, “Thank You For Smoking.” Watch how this greasy cigarette lobbyist convinces an audience that tobacco is a friend of a lung-cancer victim.
So, does that mean that Stuewer is a scum-of-the-earth, slimy Exxon VP with thousands of dollars wrapped around a dangling carrot for politicians and institutions of higher ed?
We’ll have to attend the meeting to see what she has to say about these financial donations, what she believes is the responsibility of Exxon Mobil in creating the global climate crisis, and what exactly Exxon is doing to eliminate carbon, reduce oil production and create a green energy economy. This should make for an exciting Wednesday afternoon.
PowerShift - Very, very quick update
Wow, I finally found some internet. We rallyed in front of the White House today. We met with our Senators and Congressmen and Congresswomen. We even protested against the Coal Power plant.
Nancy Webster was at the protest but she need remained in the safe “green zone.”
“We’re supporting the civil disobidience because we don’t have time to get arrested right now,” Webster said while walking to the protest, just a few blocks south of the Capitol building.
Much more to come soon. Also, as far as I know, no one was arrested.
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