Conservationists' Take Action Tour stops in Raleigh

The N.C. Conservation Network's Take Action Tour will stop in Raleigh on Monday, Dec. 3. Policy analyst Grady McCallie and organizer Veronica Butcher will visit the Cameron Village Library from 6 to 8 p.m. to discuss how growth in the state is affecting our quality of life and environment and how citizens can make a difference on issues such as transportation and water allocation. Light refreshments will be provided. For more details and to RSVP, click here.

The John Locke Foundation's ongoing efforts to scuttle climate action

Speaking of climate matters, I had a story published this week over at the Institute for Southern Studies' Facing South blog about the John Locke Foundation's fossil-fuel-funded efforts to scuttle state attempts to rein in greenhouse gas pollution -- a story I've been following here (and here and here) for awhile now.

My report has been picked up by numerous other blogs, including Exxonsecrets, BlueNC, Solve Climate, the News & Observer's Under the Dome, and WUNC's Isaac Hunter's Tavern (whose rather puzzling take on the issues I raised prompted this response from my Institute co-worker Chris Kromm).

There's been an especially interesting and still-ongoing discussion about my story over at Ed Cone's excellent blog. It included a lengthy response from Locke Executive Director John Hood in which he called the Institute a "kook" organization, accused me of being an "anti-Christian bigot" (which will probably surprise my former colleagues at the faith-based organization where I worked for some five years before going to j-school), and attempted to connect the Institute to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro (!).

The climate skeptics are clearly growing desperate to resort to such personal and off-base attacks, yet ironically they are demanding politeness -- from me! So, for the record, I do not think Hood is a kook, a bigot or a dictator-lover. But I do think his organization's stance on global warming is driven by its own free-market fundamentalist ideology and that of its funders rather than respect for science. And given the clear scientific evidence that the climate crisis is worsening due to human activity, I think that's dangerous.

Leading climate expert to speak in Chapel Hill Saturday

Dr. James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, will speak in Chapel Hill at 3 p.m. Saturday along with Raleigh-based architect and renewable energy expert Mike Nicklas. The event will take place at UNC's Friday Center.

Click on the image at right for a larger version of the poster. For more details about the event -- which is being sponsored by the Carolinas Clean Air Coalition and the N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network -- click here. For directions to the Friday Center, click here.