Nick Sundt's blog

Arizona Public Media (AZPM) interviews Leslie Ethen, the director of the City of Tucson's Office of Conservation and Sustainable Development; and Phil Swaim, an architect and Co-Chairperson of the city's Climate Change Advisory Committee.

On Saturday the City of Tucson, Arizona, is bringing its citizens together to discuss the challenges climate change poses for the city and the opportunities to respond. "As an Arizonan and former Governor, I’m proud to see the City of Tucson take up the challenge to prepare for these serious changes and work with the public on solutions," says former Arizona Governor, Bruce Babbitt.  "These are big challenges, but they are ones we can overcome...The first step is to look the problem square in the eye, rather than bury our heads in the sand; the second is to prepare for the impacts." 

The Southwest Climate Alliance released today a review draft of the Assessment of Climate Change in the Southwest United States.  It is the first major regional climate assessment of the Southwest in over a decade, a period during which evidence of climate change and its impacts have rapidly emerged in the region.  Though not proceeding apace, actions in the region to prepare for future impacts are emerging -- even as efforts to address climate change at the Federal level have been stymied.

“In an increasingly urbanized world, global sustainability in the context of a changing climate will depend on achieving sustainable and climate resilient cities,” the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says today (28 March 2012).  Cities are increasingly experiencing the disruptive and costly impacts of changes in the frequency and/or severity of weather extremes.  Responding to the trends, city officials are engaging their citizens in efforts to build more resilient, better prepared and more sustainable communities. On Saturday the City of Tucson, Arizona, is bringing its citizens together to discuss the challenges climate change poses the city and the opportunities to respond.  At the event, WWF will launch its Earth Hour City Challenge to encourage cities across the country to similarly engage their citizens around climate impacts and preparedness.

From the Eiffel Tower in Paris to the Empire State Building in New York City, the world’s tallest building the Burj Khalifa to the Leaning Tower in Pisa in Italy – at 8:30PM on March 31, the most visually captivating icons will go dark for Earth Hour 2012.

Going Beyond the Hour, Daring the World to Save the Planet.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration today (23 January 2011) released its Annual Energy Outlook 2012, with projections of U.S. carbon emissions from fossil fuel use through 2035.  EIA projects that U.S. emissions in 2020 will be 7.5% below 2005 levels, far short of the 17% reduction the U.S. committed to in January 2010 under the Copenhagen Accord of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

NASA yesterday (19 January 2012) released data showing that last year temperatures in the Arctic rose beyond the record established in 2010 -- setting a new record for 2011. News of the record Arctic temperatures follows a series of alarming developments related to the Arctic in recent months.

Yesterday evening (14 December 2011) Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (Democrat, Rhode Island) and Al Franken (Democrat, Minnesota) spent an hour on the floor of the U.S. Senate repudiating climate change denialists and arguing for serious U.S. action on climate chhange.  We provide the video and transcript.