18 Signs That Show We've Reached the Tipping Point

Confidential documents illustrate that the fossil
fuel industry plotted for profit even though it
knew full well that what they we doing
actually worsened climate change.

Our planet's systems have a tremendous capacity to absorb punishment before they begin to show signs of degradation. Earth's ecology self-heals like a cut on a finger. It assimilates pollution by chemical, physical and biological means—it changes pollutants into non-hazardous materials and proceeds upon its merry way as if there had been no pollution at all. Up to a point.

Acid rain is an excellent example of how our planet can self-heal. By the late 1960s, the U.S. was emitting so many sulfate and nitrate pollutants (smog) from burning fossil fuels, that sulfuric acid washed from the sky was killing forests and lakes. President Richard Nixon's Clean Air Act stopped about half of the sulfur from going into our atmosphere. This was enough to allow nature to take over again and our forests and lakes began to heal.

Global warming didn't really get started in a big way until the 1950s. Today, the warming rate is seven times greater than it was in the 1950s and the carbon emission rate is four times greater than in the '50s.

Read the EcoWatch  story by Bruce Melton - “18 Signs That Show We've Reached the Tipping Point.”

Clean Power Plan still on utilities agenda

Electric utilities have not stopped working through scenarios for complying with U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan should it survive legal challenges, in the view of Michael Tubman, director of outreach at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

"They want to make sure that whatever their plans are make sense over the long term," he said.

Tubman will be part of a panel on the EPA carbon rule tomorrow in Washington, D.C., at the U.S. Energy Information Administration's annual conference.

In an interview, Tubman provided a preview of what he intends to say, in particular trying to explain "what the responsibilities of states are when it comes to the Clean Power Plan and the underlying Clean Air Act."

"For many states, it's the first time that air directors and environmental commissioners have worked closely with public utility commissioners or energy office officials. And that's really positive, not just for the CPP but state planning overall," Tubman said. "The relationships that have developed over the last 18 months or so have really been positive.

Read the E&E story - “Most states, utilities see carbon regulation as inevitable -- C2ES.”