White House Announces International Meetings to Address Energy and Climate Issues

From The New York Times:

The Obama administration announced Saturday that it had organized a series of meetings among representatives of 16 countries and the European Union to discuss energy and climate issues. The meetings, to be held in Washington in April and in La Maddalena, Italy, in July, will seek to resolve longstanding issues that have blocked the development of an international climate treaty.

The participants, who include Chinese and Indian representatives, will also try to create “concrete initiatives and joint ventures that increase the supply of clean energy while cutting greenhouse gas emissions,” according to a White House news release.

The talks, called the Major Economies Meetings on Energy Security and Climate Change, echo in name and goals an initiative begun in the last two years of the Bush administration.

Those meetings gathered developing and developed countries that were the largest emitters of the heat-trapping gases linked to global warming. The meetings were cast by the Bush administration as intended to set long-term goals for reducing emissions and to seek actions that could be taken in sectors of economies like power generation and manufacturing.

The talks organized by the Bush administration were criticized by some small developing countries, European officials and environmental groups as an effort to circumvent global climate negotiations led by the United Nations, although President George W. Bush said at the time that the meetings were intended to support the global talks.

The United States refused to ratify an earlier international agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, objecting that developing countries like China and India were not bound by its restrictions on emissions of heat-trapping gases.

Negotiations for a new global treaty are under way and will culminate in talks in Copenhagen in December.

The president of the National Wildlife Federation, Larry Schweiger, said Saturday that any such meetings were useful as ways to seek common ground among the world’s biggest emitters of heat-trapping gases.

At the time, some environmentalists credited the Bush administration’s effort for initiating direct exchanges about climate with China and India.

But Mr. Schweiger said he expected the Obama administration’s initiative to be more productive.

“It’s a matter of intent,” he said. “I think the Bush administration never intended to come up with a big solution. I think this administration is truly committed to finding a solution for everybody.”

Most Beautiful Waves Ever!

Click here to see the beautiful slideshow Treehugger.com has put together of Clark Little photographs. Enjoy!

President Obama Signs the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009

See the transcript of the signing from the NY Times.

According to the Nature Conservancy, the bill includes:

"The Forest Landscape Restoration Program (FLRP) will provide new authority to manage treatment of fire at greater scales across lands managed by the Forest Service and Department of Interior. This important shift in scale and approach will reduce costs by focusing funding on large-scale, collaborative, science-based projects where wildfire risks are high.
The Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP) along with Title XII (Subtitle e) of the Omnibus Bill will protect coastal areas with high conservation, recreation, historic and aesthetic value while also providing important support for coastal/marine mapping and climate change adaptation.

The Owyhee Lands Management Act, supported by Senator Crapo, will designate more than half a million acres of Idaho’s Owyhee-Bruneau Canyonlands as wilderness along with 315 miles of National Wild and Scenic Rivers and other environmental protection.

The Washington County Utah Bill will designate more than 260,000 acres of land in Utah as Wilderness and 166 miles of Virgin River and its tributaries and National Wild and Scenic Rivers. This legislation, championed by Senator Bennett, also creates two national conservation Areas in Washington County, creating protections for the desert tortoise and recreational opportunities on 140,000 acres.

Under the leadership of Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Everglades National Park Expansion provision will assure the protection of a key resource in the Florida Bay."

Wish I Was Here!

Just wanted to share this great photo of my friend Pio in Playa Guiones!



You can more great pics at Surfing Nosara. They have been having one hell of a good week!

Stop Offshore Drilling!

On July 14, 2008, President Bush lifted a presidential moratorium on drilling for oil and natural gas on the Outer Continental Shelf. Then on September 30th, President George W. Bush today signed a consolidated appropriations bill that lifts a long-standing legislative ban on offshore oil and gas leasing cherished by conservationists. With the signing of this bill the petroleum industry is free to lease areas of the Outer Continental Shelf that have been off-limits for 27 years.

The proposed new MMS 5-Year Oil Lease plan is just plain scary. This plan was drawn up by the Bush Administration in their waning hours and is now the responsibility of Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. (Read the proposed MMS plan including maps.)

There are 4 hearings coming up in April to hear from the public on this proposed plan. We should voice our opposition loudly!

Monday, April 6, 2009 - Atlantic City, New Jersey

Wednesday, April 8, 2009 - New Orleans, Louisiana

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 - Anchorage, Alaska

Thursday, April 16, 2009 - San Francisco, California.

You can find out more about about the hearings here.


Read the Surfrider Stop Drilling FAQ.

Send a message to Congress, Secretary Salazar, and the President.

Join the Cause on Facebook.

Homemade Surf Wax

So the other day, after watching the new documentary A Sea Change at the DC Environmental Film Festival, I got to thinking... so what's is in my surf wax? (Ok, probably not the first question I person could ask themselves, but I figure I could directly impact this one). So a quick Google search and I found that yes in deed it's all petroleum based ingredients. You could go to a surf shop and pick some up (I hear Matunas Surf Wax is really good), but I'm a big fan of making stuff at home. Another quick Google search lead me to a recipe on Surfing-Waves.com for Organic Surf Wax:

Here are the ingredients:

Beeswax
Coconut Oil
Tree Resin (cool water wax only)

For Sticky Warm Water Surf Wax :
You need only two ingredients, the Beeswax and the Coconut oil. With this recipe you don't have to worry about the scent as it will smell really nice already.
1. Melt 2250g of beeswax wax
2. Warm 750ml oil
3. Stir into the wax until fully mixed.
4. Pour into Paper cups and let it set.
There is a temptation to use other vegetable oils. Don't bother. Coconut is the one.

For Sticky Cool Water Surf Wax :
The mixture now is 3 parts Beeswax, 1 part coconut oil and 1 part tree resin. Make in the same way adding the beeswax coconut oil and tree resin together and stirring well.

FYI...Tree resin can be bought in the form of granulated incense (as used by the Catholic Church). I did a little googling and found the best place to buy is incense shops. You don't need the fancy stuff.

What to Do With All Those Plastic Bags?

Now as much as I diligently try to remember my reusable shopping bag, there are times when I end up at the grocery store without one. Or as I found out over Thanksgiving, my mom hoards them to line her trash cans (yeah mom for reusing). So after a while, if you are like me, you end up with a nice supply that I usually take some place to be recycled.

Here's an interesting alternative:



Marlo's Crochet Corner gives instructions on how to crochet your very own recycled plastic tote in several designs including instructions on how to make a plastic ball of "yarn". Now I haven't crocheted in years, but I found the process fairly simple. I'm probably 1/2 of the way done with my gigantic tote (ok so I went a little crazy with it). But it seems likes it's going to be an extremely durable bag great for the beach!

Click here for instructions!