It’s Just Snow…

So this crazy east coast blizzard has been creating mixed feelings in tons of Americans, those actually in the storm and those watching from afar. While kids play in the snow, excited about another snow day, and employees complain that they have to clean ridiculous amounts of snow off their cars, climate skeptics are using the “blizzard” to, well, disprove climate change. Yes, it is snowing out, but to say that that disproves climate change is, quite frankly, absurd.

The reason we stopped using the words “global warming” is for this exact reason. Global warming refers to an overall increase in temperature of our Earth, which in turn affects our climate. We refer to this issue now as “climate change” because it is exactly that, a changing climate, and it is affecting places differently all around the world. Some places are experiencing drought, some are experiencing all time low temperatures, some are seeing extreme weather popping up regularly, among others. Weather and climate are different things, but are connected.

But alas, people are still taking this opportunity to disprove climate change. Take for example Senator James Inhofe and his family, who took the snow from this crazy climate change disproving blizzard and built an igloo on Capitol Hill with a sign saying “Al Gore’s New Home.” Clever. We are all entitled to our demonstrations. At least this one was fun for the kids, but in all seriousness, it’s just snow.

A Critical Starting Point

Hey all! This is Rebecca Webster (Becky to most), the new proud Eco Dump blogger! To give you a little info about the environmental girl you’ll be hearing from for the rest of the year, here’s my story!

I came to IC as a journalism major, but after taking the amazing Environmental Biology class offered here, I declared my double major by the end of my freshmen year in Environmental Studies. Basically, prior to college, I knew, well, nothing about the environment, probably just as much as the average American. But taking the environmental biology class (EnviBi as we used to call it) opened my eyes to a passion that I never knew existed in me: the environment. I mean face it, most of us live our lives day to day so caught up in our cellphones, careers, and tasks, taking little time to, as the saying goes, stop and smell the roses. I wanted this to change for myself. So here I am, now a junior, wanting ever more to make my mark as an environmental journalist.

I’ve started writing this blog at a critical point in our nation’s, and our world’s, history. Tomorrow, along with the other members of my International Environmental Policy class, we will head to Copenhagen, Denmark for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP15.  We have all heard in the news about glaciers melting, the energy bill sitting in Congress, and climate change causing catastrophic impacts around the globe. These next two weeks at the conference are going to be a pivotal point for our nations leaders, as far as cooperation. We are all hoping to see great things come from it, and really, it is vital that we do.

Expect to hear a lot from me over the next few weeks. Although my class can only stay for the first week of the negotiations (because exams are the next!) I will be keeping a close eye on the negotiations, which nations are cooperating and which aren’t. So check back!

Peace and Hope for Change.

Set the date. The Age of Stupid is coming! LIVE!

You might have heard about this little British movie called “The Age of Stupid.” The brashly titled film injects the viewer into the year 2055 and the lonely, cold world of the last man on Earth. Pete Postlethwaite plays “The Archivist” who chronicles the beginning of the end, so called “The Age of Stupid,” through his computer of videos and images.

The UK premiere kicked off back in March, but on Monday, September 21 the movie will have it’s Global Premiere event.  Simulcast live from a solar tent located in downtown New York to over 400 movie theaters nationwide, the movie clearly intends to build big buzz at a critical time in the world’s history on the eve of the UN General Assembly’s climate session. Also this fall is the Copenhagen talks and the “ACES” bill in the Senate. Regal Cinema at the Shops at Ithaca mall is participating in this global event. Show time starts at 7:30 pm.

The movie has been receiving mixed reviews in scientific, environmental and entertainment world. Whether this tomato is fresh or rotten, there’s no doubt it will spark more conversation at the dinner table about climate change, and our individual and collective impact on the world.

- The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw said the movie’s concept was “touch annoying and teenagery sometimes” but over all it deserves attention:

The passion, urgency and punch of this rough-and-ready film is real enough. It’s refreshing too. The cinema and its attendant media-comment industry appear to have endless space for every sort of smoothly mediocre irrelevancy in fact and fiction. There should be room for an essay on the most screamingly important problem that we all now face.

- The New York Times’ Steven Holden says that epic scope of the problem and the necessary changes in our behavior to overcome climate change may be too much for some theater-goers:

Cynics may assume that the ethic of consumerism is too deeply instilled in us to be changed, as is the faith in capitalism, which depends on continuous growth. If so, we might as well put the coming horrors out of our minds and live for the moment, while hoping for a miracle.

- The New Scientist’s Catherine Brahic says that while isolated weather events are not climate change, grouping them together does provide a powerful narrative:

It is worthy, though not riveting, cinema, but it has a very clever feature: much of the film is a patchwork of real news clips of remarkable single weather events from the early 2000s … By displaying these events side by side, the film compellingly shows that climate change is real, providing 20/20 hindsight while there is still time to act.

- Finally, Treehugger’s Leonora Oppenheim says the movie was a real downer:

After seeing a press screening of The Age of Stupid on Monday night in London I’m wondering if it’s possible to use too much stick? I left the theatre feeling pretty negative, as one couldn’t help to after seeing human kind wiped out with only poor Pete Postlethwaite left, stuck on his own talking to a computer screen. But as Ashok Sinha, Director of Stop Climate Chaos coalition, said after seeing the film, “It is not a film to make you happy. It’s a film to make you sit back and think ‘What is my role on this planet?’”

I’m very excited the see the film either way. It’s been three years since “An Inconvient Truth,” and America’s attention span is worse than a ADHD goldfish. We need another movie to provide that steel-toed boot kick in the ass. I’m hoping it’ll be the kick we need to truly go green.

See the full trailer here: