Bill Clinton: Green buildings key to fighting climate change
Making buildings greener is key to fighting climate change, Clinton told a packed audience.
(Credit: Gregory Wenzel)CHICAGO--Fighting climate change requires making the nation's homes, offices, and schools healthier and more energy efficient, former president Bill Clinton told thousands attending the Greenbuild conference on Wednesday. Sweeping efforts to reduce the carbon footprints of buildings, which emit three-quarters of most cities' greenhouse gases, can measurably benefit the environment, he said.
"The sale's been made," Clinton said. "Otherwise Al Gore wouldn't have gotten the Nobel Prize. Now what we have to do is...to prove that this is not a big bottle of castor oil that we're being asked to drink."
To that end, the Clinton Climate Initiative has been engaging businesses and leaders of 40 cities to plot ways to reduce carbon emissions. The project launched in August 2006 as part of the William J. Clinton Foundation.
"This is the biggest economic opportunity that our country has had to mobilize and democratize economic opportunity since World War II," he said.
In partnership with Clinton's effort, GE Real Estate announced on Wednesday that it will "green" all of its operations, which comprise $72 billion worth of assets and 385 million square feet of property in 31 countries.
Clinton also announced efforts to help make the nation's schools more sustainable by retrofitting existing buildings to use less energy and fewer hazardous materials. A quarter of American students attend school in dangerous buildings, but renovations can save money and create long-term health and educational benefits, he said.
Clinton noted the efforts of Arne Duncan, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, and other school leaders from around the country who joined him onstage. Chicago is retrofitting all of its schools to attain certification through Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. LEED ratings are run by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council, which produces Greenbuild. Other speakers lauding the benefits of sustainable design noted that there are more LEED-certified prisons than schools.
Audience members swarmed Clinton as he left the stage.
(Credit: Gregory Wenzel)Clinton insisted that the United States and emerging superpowers should embrace a successor to the Kyoto Protocol by 2010. Clinton blamed the failure of Kyoto in the United States on both Congress and the Bush administration.
"If the coming giants India and China and those coming behind them--Vietnam Ukraine, all these emerging countries--if they insist on the old industrial society's patterns of energy use, it is true that the most calamitous consequences of climate change will occur," he said.
"We have no idea what we can do in terms of reducing greenhouse gases because we just got started."
Thirty years ago we were told we were heading into another ice
age, today they are saying the opposite.
Greenland used to have forests that are now buried by a
kilometer of ice. More recently aircraft abandoned during WWII
were recovered under 268 feet of ice that accumulated over a
period of 50 years. The same 50 years, by the way, that the ice
was melting due to our suvs?
Yes, the world is warming, It has been warming and cooling
since Day 1. It will continue to do so whether we do anything or
not. Mars, by the way, is also currently in warming cycle. Due
to the rovers NASA landed there no doubt.
I hope Al and the others that are campaigning against global
warming are really motivated by the desire to bring about a
world government or some other secret desire. I prefer to think
of these people as devious rather than stupid.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070705153019
.htm
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/aerospace/archives/115992
.asp
http://scottthong.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/newsweek1975
globalcooling.JPG?w=440
global warming. Do any amount of research and you'll find
weather patterns vary over time. The changing amount of solar
radiation likely has a roll in globall temp changes, too.
Is it a coincidence that the carbon dioxide glaciers on Mars and
receding?
The parroting these myths by news outlets such as this should, in
some form, be considered journalistic malpractice.
Some interesting facts: The building uses 34% less water than comparable builidngs; electricity costs are 42% less than comparable buildings; more than 90% of all the construction was waste recycled.
Some interesting facts: The building uses 34% less water than comparable builidngs; electricity costs are 42% less than comparable buildings; more than 90% of all the construction was waste recycled.
term "Green" implies you believe in the lastest Gore-induced,
non-scientific religion.
Prices of fuel are now at a point where alternative fuels and
enhanced energy saving engineering will pay off more quickly.
Society has known this day woudl come for decades. The fact
that mindless "greenies" believe this is a new social movement
based on people buying into their brand of "caring more about
the earth" doesn't change the foundational basics that making a
few changes just makes economic sense.
You save money.
Forget the green religious aspect. Keep more money in your
wallet. Keep in mind too that so many of "environmentalists/
greenies/koolaid drinker" and after your money (and your mind)
for politcal and social engineering purposes.
There's no need to sing kum-ba-ya.
- Keep solar panels off of rooftops in northern states
- by Manhattan2 November 8, 2007 1:28 PM PST
- Check out solartransfer.com . A report was sent to President Clinton over 1 year ago and we did get a nice letter to keep up the good work from President Clinton himself. Now it is time to deploy our work.
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