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Thursday, January 31st, 2008KPFA brings you a day-long broadcast from the largest teach-in in US history, from the campus of San Francisco State University.

Thursday, January 31st, 2008KPFA continues its day-long broadcast from the campus of San Francisco State University. Focus the Nation is the largest teach-in in US history.

Thursday, January 31st, 2008KPFA continues its day-long broadcast from the campus of San Francisco State University. Focus the Nation is the largest teach-in in US history

The 12 tipping points are: 1. Amazon Rainforest 2. North Atlantic Current 3. Greenland Ice Sheet 4. Ozone Hole 5. Antarctic Circumpolar Current 6. Sahara Desert 7. Tibetan Plateau 8. Asian Monsoon 9. Methane Clathrates 10. Salinity Valves 11. El Nino 12. West Antarctic Ice Sheet

A 2005 study by Anthony Leiserowitz, published in Risk Analysis, found that while most Americans are moderately concerned about global warming, the majority—68 percent—believe the greatest threats are to people far away or to nonhuman nature. Only 13 percent perceive any real risk to themselves, their families, or their communities. As Leiserowitz points out, this perception is critical, since Americans constitute only 5 percent of the global population yet produce nearly 25 percent of the global carbon dioxide emissions.

12 ASTEROIDS AND EVOLVING INTO WISDOM IN 2004, JOHN SCHELLNHUBER, distinguished science adviser at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the United Kingdom, identified 12 global-warming tipping points, any one of which, if triggered, will likely initiate sudden, catastrophic changes across the planet. Odds are you've never heard of most of these tipping points, even though your entire genetic legacy—your children, your grandchildren, and beyond—may survive or not depending on their status.

The state of California is implementing an even more restrictive standard in 2004, allowing only 0.006 grams per kilometer [0.01 grams per mile] of particulate emissions.

Even if the California standard were introduced worldwide, says Jacobson, diesel cars may still warm the climate more than gasoline cars over 13 to 54 years.

Jacobson says that new particle traps being introduced by some European automobile manufacturers in their diesel cars appear to reduce black carbon emissions to 0.003 grams per kilometer [0.005 grams per mile], even below the California standard.

Landfilling, the most common waste management practice, results in the release of methane from the anaerobic decomposition of organic materials. Methane is 21 times more potent a GHG than carbon dioxide. However, landfill methane is also a source of energy, and some landfills capture and use it for energy. In addition, many materials in landfills do not decompose fully, and the carbon that remains is sequestered in the landfill and not released into the atmosphere.

The image above illustrates the four main stages of product life-cycles, all of which provide opportunities for GHG emissions and/or offsets. These stages are: raw material acquisition, manufacturing, recycling, and waste management.

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are those who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.                                                                                                                         --Frederick Douglass 1857

on September 4th, give up food for a day, And Send a powerful message on global warming.

Register for the fast>> Find a faster near you>> ESSAY: No Time for Activism as Usual>>

Call it the networked environment. Picture tiny - we're talking small as a dime - wireless sensors lining lake beds and ocean floors, buried in the ground, and floating in the sky. All the time they are sniffing the air, water, and soil for pollutants and detecting changes in temperature and pressure.

The payoff: real-time data on a variety of phenomena that affect the economy and society - climate change, hurricanes, air and water pollution.

The Second City's green-roofs program is second to none, with more than 2.5 million square feet devoted to providing cooling and insulating cover.

CHICAGO population 2,862,244

The first major city to tackle global warming, Portland creates less greenhouse gases than it did 15 years ago, while saving $2 million annually on city energy bills--and attracting new business with its efficiency expertise.