Biofuel Forum Part 2, Cool Cities Rally

First : there will be a biofuels forum in Berkeley this Thursday. Our Sierra Club group (that is, Helen B.) is organizing the forum, which is basically going to be similar to the one from last week (see my previous blog post). Our forum will attempt to focus more on environmental issues and less on UC Berkeley politics. At least, we will try. Here is the email that got sent out to 3000 members last week:

"This month: Forum: "Is BP's biofuels project good for the environment?"
Sponsored by the Sierra Club Northern Alameda County Group

Thursday, March 22nd, 7:30 pm
Hillside Club
2286 Cedar St (corner of Spruce)
Berkeley
(suggested donation $5.00)

The Sierra Club will present a moderated forum featuring invited panelists on BP's proposed biofuels project – also known as the “Energy Biosciences Institute” (or EBI). A question and answer period will
follow presentations and discussion by the panelists. Panelists include:

- Prof. Paul Ludden, Dean, UC-Berkeley College of Natural Resources
- Prof. Chris Somerville, Stanford Univ. Biological Sciences Dept. and Director of the Carnegie Institute
- Assoc. Prof. Ignacio Chapela
- Prof. John Harte, Energy Resources Group, Ecosystem Sciences Division, UC-Berkeley.

Please come and support the Sierra Club and learn about an important and controversial research project on the future of energy.

For more information on the UC Berkeley project: http://www.ebiweb.org/
For the BP perspective on its research grant:
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7018719
News article on the controversy:
http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_5431976

Kent Lewandowski, Chair
No. Alameda Group of the Sierra Club"

Note, this is the first time my name has shown up in about 3000 people's inboxes. I am kind of glad I don't live in my hometown anymore when this happens. I guess I still feel self-conscious about making my name so public. Don't ask me why.

Second : I set up a comment area that does not require you to have a google account. So please, leave your comments!

Third : I am supposed to be composing a response to a big Environmental Impact Review on the Lawrence Berkeley Labs "Long Range Development Plan". The EIR document streches into the 100s of pages. Anyone want to help me??? Please???

Fourth : Sunday (yesterday) I attended kind of an interesting event. I t was a cool cities rally in Redwood City with a friend. This was a Sierra Club -sponsored event featuring speakers on the topic of fighting climate change. Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope gave a talk during the event.

In case you were wondering, "Cool Cities" is a Club campaign to get elected officials to sign onto voluntary greenhouse gas reduction pledges for their city. The campaign is less about specific measures as it is about gathering committments.

In case you don't believe in climate change, please stop reading here.

So, ok, maybe you do believe in global warming. Well here is what the experts are saying : We're all going to die. OK, not quite. We have a 10 year "window of opportunity" in which to act And then we all will die. But I digress from yesterday's event. That is not what Carl Pope said. Or any of the other speakers. Nobody wants to hear environmentalists predict gloom and doom. Which is kind of what it's all about - right?

In any case, I found Carl to be a genuine optimist when it comes to dealing with global warming (which the Club has made its de facto top campaign priority, by focusing on energy and the cool cities campaign). He said during his talk, "I believe we're going to lick global warming". That's great spirit. I guess I have to believe it .... or else what?

On a note of humor: Carl walked out of the rally afterwards, and walked right out of the gate and down the sidewalk ... by himself. I thought, for sure, this busy world-travelling executive director of an organization with about 300,000 members (my best guess), would have at least a note-taker to drive him around. Maybe a chauffeur, too. But no - he takes his own ride! I was impressed. I always did admire that the Club ran on a low budget.

A webcast of yesterday's speeches is available at http://www.medianetcast.com/

Notes on the webcast:
- if you wait for about 3 minutes at the beginning, the show will start.
- there does not appear to be any possibility to speed up the playback (!)
- you need to install a little piece of software, "MediaNetcast", to get the webcast to play through either Windows Media Player, or possibly another media player (if you do not use windows).
- there are a few glitches in playback, but it seemed to be ok generally.
- Carl Pope's excellent speech on energy conservation is after about 30 or 45 minutes.