The Climate Minute - So Many Issues, So Little Time

This week there were more interesting topics than our panel could get to!  See the links below for even more reading. We were joined by our frequent guest, the prolific commentator Mr. D.R. Tucker and the new Acting Executive Director of MCAN, Ms. Amy Tighe. The issues before us were a strong speech climate by John Kerry in Indonesia that elicited the usual denier reaction, including some by Newt Gingrich and John McCain , both people who have supported climate action in the past. The contrast in this video says it all. An important question: is Kerry hypocritical and oblivious to lecture Asian governments, or is he sending a message to Congress here in the US? On another front, venture capitalist and climate Hawk Tom Steyer has pledge $100M to support climate friendly candidates. If Steyer is in , should we be happy? Here is some additional commentary. Given his speech, can John Kerry now approve the KXL? Good question! And what about the lawsuit that  challenged and won against the sweetheart deal for the pipeline in Nebraska? More comment here. Keep in mind, concrete targets like KXL may be good for our movement. We ran out of time to discuss the agreement between Footprint Power and CLF. Making the fossil fuel company abide by the Global Warming Solutions Act is good, but what will happen in 2050? Should we continue to oppose the plant? 350MA thinks so. More next week. A second topic we never got to discuss was the debate/debacle/insult to reason that occurred on Meet the Press. After Senators complained about a lack of coverage, the venerable show staged a climate 'debate' that was debacle for responsible journalism. Does the upcoming conference sound good to you? You can sign up at Local Environmental Action , MCAN or TAC. As they say, all roads lead to Rome (or at least Northeastern University!) You can subscribe to our iTunes feed and get our podcasts automatically here. Feel free to give us your thoughts on our Facebook page, or through old-fashioned email. You can even follow us on twitter @MassClimate , so there are lots of ways for you to listen and participate in the dialog. When you are on the website, please contribute to MCAN. Your generous donations help us continue to bring climate news and views to you through our podcast and blogs, but also help support the Annual MCAN conference (this year on March 2nd, at Northeastern University), and our local climate action. So we will close the way we always close, by saying that because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions- specifically to pay for the full cost of carbon pollution at the time we create it, because we accept responsibility for building a durable future and because we believe it is our patriotic duty as citizens to speak out, we must insist that the US put a price on carbon.