The new film The Age of Stupid is screening at select theaters worldwide tonight only! I know it is 8pm on Monday but it looks good if you are interested in the environment. Synopsis: “‘The Age of Stupid’ is the new cinema documentary from the Dir. of ‘McLibel’ & the Producer of the Oscar-winning ‘One Day in September’. This enormously ambitious drama-documentary-animation hybrid stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching ‘archive’ footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change while we had the chance?”

Find a viewing in your neck of the woods:

AMC Theatres Ahwatukee 24
4915 East Ray Road, Phoenix, AZ 85044
(888) 262-4386

Cinemark 16 – Mesa
1051 N. Dobson Road
Mesa, AZ 85201 (800) 326-3264

AMC Theatres Mesa Grand Twenty Four
1645 South Stapley
Mesa, AZ 85204 (888) 262-4386

AMC Westgate 20
9400 West Hanna Lane
Glendale, AZ 85305 (888)262-4386

AMC Theatres Desert Ridge 18
21001 N. Tatum
Phoenix, AZ 85050 (888) 262-4386

AMC Theatres Arrowhead 14
7700 W. Bell Road, Suite 1079
Glendale, AZ 85308  (888) 262-4386

Century Oro Valley Marketplace
12155 North Oracle Road
Tucson, AZ 8573

Century EL Con 20
EL Con Mall
Tucson, AZ 85716 (800)326-3264

Century 20 Park Place
5870 East Broadway Blvd
Tucson, AZ 85711 (800)326-3264
Directions

I can’t belive it is already time for Earth Hour again, the years are just flying by. Earth Hour is a world wide event where for one hour from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM  your local time you shut off all your lights to show your support for the Earth. This year the WWF is hoping for a billion people to participate and put in their vote supporting action to protect the Earth. They plan to present the results of how many people put in a vote to protect the environment  to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009. Be sure to sign up at earthhour.org so that your vote is counted and to get more information.



Earth Hour 2009 by WWF – Sign up for Earth Hour!

There are some great free events coming up tomorrow, Thursday the 5th. These events are kicking off the Arizona State University Darwinfest. Check them out and head to all that you can. You do not need to be a student to participate and it sounds like there is some really cool stuff going on! Here is the e-mail I just received, note when an RSVP is required.

Don’t miss the opportunity to see a FREE showing of Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy and meet the film’s director!

ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability invites you to attend three public events, celebrating:

ASU’s Teach-In on Global Warming
Thursday, February 5, 2009

http://schoolofsustainability.asu.edu/teachin

Take Action. Change the world. It starts with one.

National Webcast: The First 100 Days
Time: 8:30 – 11 AM
Location: GIOS 102
Hosts/Sponsors: GIOS, SOS, Engrained, Whole Foods, Tempe

Continental breakfast and viewing of “The First 100 Days,” a discussion of what needs to happen early in the Obama administration featuring David Orr, Hunter Lovins, Ray Anderson, and an interview with youth climate leaders Billy Parish, Wahleah Johns, and their baby Tohanna. They talk about the importance of student activism in the first 100 days; the potential impact of green jobs; and challenges facing today’s students.

The webcast is 30-minutes long and will be replayed the whole morning.

A Student Action
Time: 8:30 – 11 AM
Location: GIOS front steps
Hosts: Students of AZ Network for Sustainability (SANS)

Petitioning the Arizona Corporation Commission to increase the renewable energy standard for Arizona’s utilities, an important step towards energy independence.

Students Act Now for Sustainability
Time: 11 AM – 2 PM
Location: ASU Student Services Lawn
Hosts/Sponsors: GIOS, SANS, Chipotle, ASU environmental groups

When it comes to activism, the students at ASU are it. Sustainability is it. And it IS our time for change. February 5th presents a time for people to come together. It also presents a choice. Come out and stand. For your future, for your values, for your sustainability beliefs, and everything that is to come. Included: free food, action opportunities, and a Swiss energy display! The “Climate Trail” display, on loan from the Swiss Consulate, is a walk-through exhibit that is premiering on the Student Services Lawn and will be traveling around the ASU Tempe Campus through February 13th.

Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy (part of ASU’s Darwinfest) (RSVP required)
Time: 5 – 5:30 PM: Reception sponsored by Wholefoods Tempe and Engrained Restaurant
5:30 – 7:30 PM: Showing of Sizzle with post-film panel discussion led by the Filmmaker!
Location: Murdock Hall 201, ASU’s Tempe Campus (map)

Hosts/Sponsors: School of Life Sciences, Center for Biology and Society, GIOS, Institute for Humanities Research,

School of Earth and Space Exploration, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Whole Foods Tempe, Engrained Restaurant

Meet the Filmmaker! Free, but you must RSVP at: sustainabilityevents@asu.edu. Even with a reservation, seating is not guaranteed but is first-come, first-served! Sizzle, a novel blend of three genres-mockumentary, documentary, and reality: Scientist-turned-filmmaker Dr. Randy Olson, is a fan of Al Gore’s global-warming movie, but asks, “Where are all the scientists?” Join Dr. Olson for a reception before the film showing, and he and a panel of ASU experts for discussion following the movie, moderated by John D’Anna of The Arizona Republic. Panelists: Susanne Neuer (Associate Professor, SoLS) and Daniel Bernardi (Director, Film and Media Studies)

RSVPs are required for the film at sustainabilityevents@asu.edu; Trailer

Lauren Kuby
Manager, Events and Community Engagement
Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University
PO Box 875402, Tempe AZ 85287-5402
http://sustainability.asu.edu

Today is a historic day with Barack Obama becoming our 44th president. With that change in Washington we’ll be having our own changes in Arizona with Janet Napolitano joining the Obama team as United States Secretary of Homeland Security. Many changes will come with that, but for this blog what might change in Arizona’s environmental policies? Here are a couple articles that speculate what may come.

Governor change could alter Az climate policy

PHOENIXM — The potential exit of Gov. Janet Napolitano for a position in the Obama administration could mean changes in state climate policies.

Environmental groups, elected officials and other political watchers say that a new Republican administration under Jan Brewer would likely significantly reduce Arizona’s involvement in the Western Climate Initiative.

Napolitano was an active and founding member of the regional effort, which brings several Western states together to limit and reduce man-made greenhouse gases, among other things… link

With fierce storm after storm hitting the Caribbean and threatening our coasts this hurricane season seems to illuminate the ever more apparent effects of climate change.  While we do not have more storms than usual the intensity appears to be on the rise, i.e. more storms are reaching higher categories thus our extremes are getting more extreme [Science].  This alone calls for our attention and efforts to make changes to decrease the greenhouse effect that is warming the Earth and causing greater highs and lows but there is more to this than meets the eye.

It is clearly necessary to work to decrease emissions that are contributing to climate change but what we may unknowingly be doing is exacerbating the problem by not fully understanding the complexity of the system. Now I am not saying we should allow massive amounts of pollution, I am merely suggesting it is more complicated than the simplified version we get watching TV or the glossy greenwashed sound bytes we are so often exposed to.  Even this write up is overly simplified but such is life.  The main complication I speak of is the phenomena that is termed “global dimming.”  Just like it sounds, global dimming describes the decrease in sunlight that is actually reaching Earth’s surface.

Over the past 4 decades scientists have watched the global incoming solar radiation decrease by 12% [American Geophysical Union]. TWELVE PERCENT. That is huge! Breaking it down for each continent the drops in sunlight recorded between the 1950s and 1990s are staggering. The level dropped 9% in Antarctica, 10% over the U.S., nearly 30% 13% over Russia, and up to 60% 16% in parts of England (thanks for pointing out this misunderstanding).  With that you would expect that we should be cooling down, right?  It is logical to think if less sunlight reaches Earth the temperature would drop, just think of a cloudy day or even just standing in the shade.  It makes a significant difference but we are not cooling down, we continue to get warmer.

With this in mind it may be that global dimming is masking or delaying the potentially far more extreme effects of global warming.  Particle pollution, like ash, soot, and sulfur dioxide, in the atmosphere is believed to be the culprit for global dimming.  Just like sunlight bounces off the top of clouds, so too will it bounce off of polluting particles. The compounding factor though, is that the polluting particles apparently make the clouds themselves far more reflective. 

If we were to eliminate global dimming all together without addressing global warming the increase in temperature and extreme weather might be more significant than previously predicted.  This has been recorded with one full degree temperature change in just a few days of decreased pollution in the days following the 9/11 attacks [Nature].  This reverse effect of dimming has been has been blamed along with global warming for increasing temperatures, appropriately called global brightening [Geophysical Research Letters]. No one wants smoggy skies but it could be smog and particulates that may be shielding us from the full consequences of the greenhouse gases we pump into our air daily.  Clear blue skies are something many folks thinks of when they think of “going green” but those clear blue skies may hold more heat than we can handle.

NOVA Global Dimming Website

BBC Special on Global Dimming on YouTube:  Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4