Climate Change Update: Benefits of Renewable Energy: 600 New Jobs in Ontario with Agreement to Use Locally-Made Siemens Turbines

Pattern and Samsung To Create Up To 600 New Jobs in Ontario with Agreement to Use Locally-Made Siemens Turbines - PR Newswire - sacbee.com: ""By committing to Ontario-made turbines, we are focused on bringing new jobs and revenue to the province, along with clean energy," said Mike Garland, CEO of Pattern Energy. "The creation of up to 600 new jobs is direct evidence of the successful framework established by the Green Energy Act and Green Energy Investment Agreement. Together, these initiatives have created a vibrant green energy economy in Ontario, developing wind power projects, building factories, and putting thousands of Ontarians to work throughout the province."

"Together with our partners, Samsung is proud to be making an unprecedented $7-Billion private sector investment in Ontario," said Cheol-Woo Lee, Senior Executive Vice President of Samsung C&T Corporation. "We are moving forward aggressively to fulfill our commitment to induce new green manufacturing in Ontario, to help us build the world's largest cluster of wind and solar power, putting Ontario on the global clean energy map. Because of Samsung's Agreement with the Province of Ontario, we are moving forward to create real jobs and real clean energy in Ontario, for generations to come.""

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Climate Change Update: Raising awareness of climate change is still necessary. A lot of people just don’t believe it yet

Cyclists Ride Together to Oppose Climate Change - Somerville, MA Patch: "Some 40 cyclists, many of whom were Tufts University students, made up the convoy, which was led by Maureen Barillaro, of Somerville Climate Action (SCA).

Before taking off from Union Square, Barillaro urged the group to "lead the fight against fossil fuels."

SCA has taken up the 350 Challenge, a global movement that in Somerville means asking people to act to make the city "cleaner, greener and healthier" by biking or planting a garden, for example. The number refers to the amount, in parts per million, of carbon in the atmosphere that scientists consider safe, according to 350.org.

The Moving Planet mass meeting in Boston was one of more than 2000 events in 175 countries that hoped to mobilize people to demand reduced use of fossil fuels, the website reported. "

David Watson, the executive director of the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition (MassBike), checked bicycles into a temporary parking area on the grass. He said he set up the valet to “encourage people to ride their bikes to events and make the connection to the benefits it has to the environment, their health and their wallet.” He supported the mission of the rally, too. "Raising awareness of climate change is still necessary,” he said. “A lot of people just don’t believe it yet.”

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Tip 4d Changing Climate: Healthy Eating is Emotional Discipline. It takes practice to regulate it & keep it.

Susan Liddy, M.A., PCC, CPCC: Master Your Emotions, Achieve Your Health Goals: "Adopt the "Don't Think, Just Do" rule. Sometimes when we are in an argument with ourselves about getting up and cooking that healthy meal or whether or not to hit the gym after work it is handy to simply stop thinking and just do it! When you over-think your choices, you tend to create excuses and then wallow in the "pain" of accomplishing your health goals. Often times, you truly do have the time, you do know how, and you do want to! Don't allow your emotions to make the important decision whether or not to do what you know is good for you. Just get up and go!"

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Tip 4d Changing Climate: Join Quit Smoking On-line Community to get support in ending the Smoking habit

USC Center for Body Computing (CBC) and USC Institute for Communication Technology Management (CTM) Find Potential in Social Media Health Tools - MarketWatch: "The study showed great promise for the positive impact social online community support can have in creating healthy habits. Over twice as many users who succeeded at quitting found benefits from being a part of a focused social network, as well as having access to interaction with that community at any time they needed it. More than 80% of successful users "received continuous positive feedback" and thought it "was always there when they needed it."

The MyQuit Coach survey found that the ability to immediately and continually track cigarette consumption along with encouragement and social support can lead to smoking cessation.

"People who were successful saw value in what they perceived as a more focused social networking group whose common goal was to quit smoking," said Elizabeth Fife, CTM's Associate Director of Research who conducted the study. The study showed people were successful with the application because of community support from similarly motivated users sharing the same experience."

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Climate Change Update: Astrid Caldas: Home Runs and Climate Change: A Sports Analogy

Astrid Caldas: Home Runs and Climate Change: A Sports Analogy: "One of the best explanations that I have seen of the link between weather extremes and climate change came from Dr. Jerry Meehl, from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., during a press teleconference hosted by Climate Communication that included several scientists who work with climate change.

Meehl used a sports analogy to explain the linkage between climate change and extreme weather. His example was as follows: climate change is to extreme weather what steroids were to Barry Bonds' home runs. Bonds was able to hit home runs before steroids, but after the steroids he was hitting more of them. You could not say that any particular home run was specifically due to the steroids because he was hitting home runs before the steroids. But his home run numbers sure went up. The same thing with extreme weather and climate change: no single event can be specifically linked to climate change, but the frequency of extreme weather events is sure going up."

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Climate Change Update: A new poll on evolution and climate change | NCSE

A new poll on evolution and climate change | NCSE: "On climate change, 69% of respondents said that they believe that "there is solid evidence that the average temperature on earth has been getting warmer over the past few decades," with 26% saying that they did not believe it, 2% volunteering that there is some or mixed evidence, and 3% saying that they didn't know or refusing to answer the question. Among those who believed that there is evidence (whether solid or mixed), 64% said that "[c]limate change is caused mostly by human activity such as burning fossil fuels" came closest to their view, while 32% preferred "[c]limate change is caused mostly by natural patterns in the earth's environment" instead, and 4% said that they didn't know or refused to answer the question."

Thepoll (PDF) was designed and conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with the Religion News Service.
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Climate Change Update: NASA Scientist Urges Action on Climate Change - Fair Lawn, NJ Patch

NASA Scientist Urges Action on Climate Change - Fair Lawn, NJ Patch: More than 400 people turned out at Bergen Community College Thursday night to hear NASA scientist, former Ridgewood resident and renowned climatologist James E. Hansen speak about global warming and how to solve it........"Using slides and graphs, the scientist presented evidence of global warming: disintegrating ice sheets, receding glaciers and unusual weather patterns. He acknowledged some of the process is natural, but said it has been significantly increased by humans.

“We’re 10,000 times more powerful than natural changes,” he said.

According to Hansen, changing our ways is a matter of “intergenerational justice.”

With images of his grandchildren flashing on the screen, the scientist issued a call to responsible action.

“We’re going to leave our grandchildren a situation that’s out of control, if we don’t do something,” he said.

He proposes a tax on carbon emissions, collecting from both companies and the public, but re-investing the money into environmental projects that will enable phasing out the use of fossil fuels entirely.

“We need an incentive to develop new energy sources,” Hansen said.

He also said we need a big country to take the lead and cited the achievements of China which he called "the number-one producer of solar panels, windmills and nuclear power alternatives.” "(pls click link above for complete article)

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