Climate Science Watch

     After looking more into Terry Root and Steve Schneider I came across this website, Climate Science Watch.  They are a nonprofit public education group and project that is said to hold officials accountable for effectively using climate research and dealing with the global climate disruption.  Their work primarily focuses on the U.S. and its national policy developments.
     Their website has categories for a multitude of links from archives of information and posts from previous months and years dating back as far as 2005, to different videos involving talks with different climate scientists such as Dr. Benjamin Santer.  There are also videos recording their participation with 350.org's Global Work Party for action on climate and another of James Hansen and Rick Piltz on CBS 60 Minutes.  On a sidebar from the main page of the site you can be directed to a list of different categories from activism, to mitigation or adaptation, to the Obama Administration and even climate science censorship.

GAP. "Climate Science Watch | Promoting integrity in the use of climate science in government." Climate Science Watch | Promoting integrity in the use of climate science in government. G.A.P. - Government Accountability Program, n.d. Web. 12 May 2013. <http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/>.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a method in which we could potentially reduce our carbon dioxide emissions.

Talks about the different CCS processes and methods of storage.

Howard Herzog from MIT explains CCS

More Information can be found here:

EPA
CCS Association
International Energy Agency

"The Carbon Capture & Storage Association (CCSA)." The Carbon Capture & Storage Association (CCSA). N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2013. <http://www.ccsassociation.org/>.

"Carbon capture and storage (CCS)."International Energy Agency. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2013. <http://www.iea.org/topics/ccs/>.

"Carbon Dioxide Capture and Sequestration | Climate Change | US EPA." US Environmental Protection Agency. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2013. <http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ccs/index.html>.

newgencoal. "How does Carbon Capture & Storage work? - YouTube." YouTube. N.p., 6 July 2010. Web. 11 May 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROEFaHKVmSs>.

Shell. "Understanding carbon capture and storage - YouTube." YouTube. N.p., 20 Mar. 2013. Web. 11 May 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwXY-5oc6J4>.

Carbon Fund

Carbonfun.org is an organization that is fighting against global warming.  They work toward education people about climate change, educating about carbon offsets and reductions, and even public outreaches.  They are trying to get people to work on reducing their carbon footprints through energy reductions or shifting to renewable energies.  They also do work with reforestation that will work toward the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.  Part of their work is getting individuals to reduce their carbon footprint.  You can make a tax-deductible donation to the organization as a way to offset your carbon footprint and work toward carbon reduction.  You can use an online calculator to find out what your footprint is and then see what your cost would be.

Mitigating the World

There are a few ways that we can start to mitigate the worlds carbon output.  Such ideas include cap and trade or a carbon tax.  Using a cap and trade program or a carbon tax in order to try and limit the amount of carbon pollution that is released into the atmosphere.  These two things are quite different from one another though.

A cap and trade program would be a system of tradeable emissions permits.  This would be a limited number of licenses that would allow businesses to pollute to a certain degree.  Each business would be given a certain number of licenses and in order to release more pollutants into the atmosphere they would have to purchase additional licenses from smaller businesses that don’t require their allotted amount.  This could lead to banking and borrowing.  Borrowing would have to do with the smaller businesses ‘selling’ their extra licenses.  Alternatively they could keep their extra licenses as a way to allow them to later emit more emissions as their company grows.

The other option that they are talking about is tan emissions tax or effluent fee.  With something like this people would be required to pay a sum that is proportional to the amount of pollution that is being released into the air, or likewise dumped into a river (Krugman, 2010).  With both of these options there is a chance that the amount of carbon that is emitted into the atmosphere can be controlled, to a degree.  On one hand the cap and trade program, as long as a company is willing to pay, there may not be a reduction in the amount of emissions.  On the other hand an emissions tax would be for everyone, though it may be hard to regulate and accurately tax individuals for some things.

Krugman, Paul. "Climate Change - Building a Green Economy - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. The New York Times, 7 Apr. 2010. Web. 6 Apr. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/magazine/11Economy-t.html?pagewants=all&_r=0>.

Adaptation and Mitigation

Adaptation and Mitigation are two ways in which we can deal with climate change and global warming.

The video, from the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board, is a short informational about how people can either adapt or mitigate according to climate change.  This can be done on a individual level or societal.  

More information from WECB can be found here

This video is from CES Thinking Europe in which the Vice-President of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Jean-Pascal Van Ypersele, talks about the main climate change issues.

The original YouTube link

Ryan, Finn. "Adaptation and Mitigation | Climate Wisconsin - YouTube." YouTube. N.p., 22 Oct. 2010. Web. 8 May 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjnV8-oo12A>.

Van Ypersele, Jean-Pascal. "Climate Change: Prevention, Mitigation and Adaptation - YouTube." YouTube. N.p., 11 Oct. 2012. Web. 8 May 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksz4arVoTWc>.