As Congress wrestles with voting on a climate change bill, some interesting research has been done that should inform the outcome.  Last month, the Global Humanitarian Forum released a study saying that 300 million people around the world have have been impacted seriously by climate change.  The report calculates that "more than 300 million people are seriously affected by climate change at a total economic cost of $125 billion per year".  Going beyond the polar bears or the melting ice caps, the report, entitled "Anatomy of a Silent Crisis," focuses on money and people.  The problem is huge and it will only get worse. 

Call it the Mediterranean solution.  Roofs painted a light color reflect up to 80% of the sunlight that falls on them (vs. 20% on buildings with darker roofs), making them much cooler, thus requiring far less air-conditioning.  By reflecting the bulk of the solar radiation back into space, it lessens temperatures, smog and carbon emissions.

There has been a lot of focus on developing woody biomass projects recently.  President Obama has directed the DOE to develop biomass as part of their sustainable energy options.  Brian Baird, who chairs the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee, held a hearing on wood products biofuels, also called woody biomass, last month.  Washington State, under the leadership of Peter Goldmark, is moving to incorporate woody biomass into their forest health program.

There are more and more businesses doing their part to prevent additional climate change.  The efforts on the part of companies like Caterpillar and Duke Energy, two of the business climate change leaders, are a welcome and impressive addition to the groups and individuals working to keep the atmosphere clean enough to support human and other living organisms on this planet.   

Before Gary Locke left office in January of 2005, he established a goal that all state agencies would use 20% biofuels by Sept. 1, 2009.  When Chris Gregoire came into office she strengthened the requirement, although there were still no penalties for noncompliance, and moved the date up to June 1, 2009 - next Monday.  Rather than using 20%, the total usage across all state agencies, was 2.07%, as of the end of 2008, when the last report was released.  Well, the state got to say it was 4.8% but that was only because the Ferry System, the largest user of fuel in the state system, was exempted for two years, in a back-door deal engineered by State Senator Mary Margaret Haugen.

Here's a cool trailer about an uplifting movie about the importance of fresh food.