350 Parts per Million | Spero News

Scientists now believe the earth has reached its “tipping point” for Arctic ice, which means the physical world on its own is taking command of the process that humans began. Some scientists predicted all Arctic summer ice would be gone by 2070, but now other scientists have revised the schedule for possibly 2012!

Vermont: State's green ideas go nowhere

MONTPELIER — One year ago, Gov. Jim Douglas unveiled the recommendations of his Climate Change Commission and laid out ambitious plans to cut Vermont’s greenhouse gas emissions while building a “green economy.”

Three ideas stood at the center of those plans: appointment of a Vermont Climate Collaborative to guide research and action; creation of a “Vermont Green Standard” to regulate the multimillion-dollar carbon trading market and create a new business sector for the state; and sale of carbon credits from open land and state forests.
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Twelve months later, the Green Standard idea has been abandoned.

Sale of carbon credits from standing forests remains a remote, perhaps receding, hope.

The Vermont Climate Collaborative will not hold its first meeting until next month.
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Douglas’ idea was that Vermont would write a “green standard” for what constitutes a verifiable carbon offset, then certify the organizations that do the verification. He compared the idea to Vermont’s captive insurance market, which has brought substantial business and tax revenue to the state.

The idea was the governor’s own, not the climate commission’s. Skeptics scoffed, saying Vermont was an unlikely regulator of a global market. After some investigation by a UVM researcher, the administration reached the same conclusion.

“The landscape is vastly more complex than we thought,” Sayles said. “Others have a big head start and a lot more resources. California has 120 people working on this full-time.”