News Summary

2011 has been a year of unparalleled extremes: 12 disastrous weather events in the US so far this year have exceeded a billion dollars in property damage – an all-time record breaking number – and their estimated total $53 billion price tag doesn't include health costs.  

NRDC Extreme Weather Report 

EPA links fracking to contaminated water in Wyoming - Dangerous amounts of benzene found in a monitoring well 

http://bit.ly/tCJvDS

Obama: "Any Effort to Tie Keystone to the Payroll Tax Cut, I Will Reject" 

http://bit.ly/sNnKeZ

Obama secures commitment from CEOs to upgrade energy efficiency of 1.6 billion square feet of commercial buildings http://bit.ly/ueDlI5

The average distance traveled by nonlocal broccoli delivered to Virginia Tech was 2786.0 miles. This averaged to approximately 15.3 pounds carbon dioxide per pound of broccoli delivered. The distance traveled for local broccoli was 19.1 miles.  This averaged to 0.04 pounds of carbon dioxide per pound of broccoli delivered. 
FoodPrint Report

GOP tries to force Keystone XL Pipeline Approval in Tax Relief Bill - http://nyti.ms/rwiwmu

Middlebury Student accuses US of dragging its feet. Obama administration's special envoy's statement to delegates from more than 190 nations at the annual climate conference was disrupted by a 21-year-old Middlebury College junior, Abigail Borah, who told the assembly that she would speak for the United States because Mr. Stern had forfeited the right to do so.

"I am speaking on behalf of the United States of America because my negotiators cannot," said Ms. Borah, who is attending the conference as a representative of the International Youth Climate Movement. "The obstructionist Congress has shackled justice and delayed ambition for far too long. I am scared for my future. 2020 is too late to wait. We need an urgent path to a fair, ambitious and legally binding treaty."

Scores of delegates and observers gave her a sustained ovation. Then the South African authorities threw her out of the conference. "That's O.K.," Ms. Borak, who is from Princeton, N.J., said later by telephone. "I think I got my point across."