“Schools should be apolitical.” I hear this a lot. Most recently, this has come up because Louisiana’s governor has signed a law that requires schools place the Ten Commandments in schools. Last year and the year before, it was the Moms for Liberty trying to ban books based on their religious hopes for indoctrinating your … More Schools are not and should not be apolitical.
Today, I’ll be giving a Lightning Talk with Dr. Paul Shrivastava* at Penn State’s Energy Days. Our talk is on Energy Transition. My remarks are below. My name’s Peter Buckland and I’m the chair of the Ferguson Township board of supervisors. Ferguson Township is just a couple of miles to our west here, population of … More FERGUSON TOWNSHIP’S COMMITMENT TO ACT ON THE MORAL DUTY TO DO ENERGY SO MUCH BETTER
On September 12, 1962, John F. Kennedy spoke at Rice University in Houston. He said that the people there were gathered “at an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance,” and by the end of the decade, we would land a man on … More Irma and Harvey came at two and a half minutes to midnight.
I was recently interviewed for the Analogous podcast. We talk about local government, sustainability, and how the climate is a concert. What do we want the music to be? Right now it’s being written by the fossil fuel companies and the merchants of doubt. It doesn’t have to be that way. We also explore sustainability … More The climate is a concert and you have a part to play.
People are wondering whether climate change caused Hurricane Harvey. That’s the wrong question. Hurricanes have been happening on Earth as long as there have been oceans. The question should be “How did climate change influence Harvey?” Some pieces over the last few days from USA Today, Gizmodo, Michael Mann’s piece in The Guardian, and an interview with Dan … More When we bail out Houston, we will be massively redistributing wealth.
On Monday, June 19th, the Ferguson Township Board of Supervisors passed a resolution “committing the township to developing and implementing a strategy to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emission no later than 2050; to become a leader in the region and commonwealth in pursuing goals established by said strategy; and to engage other stakeholders in … More Ferguson Township, it’s time to make a Climate Action Plan
[Updated: June 19, 2017] Tonight, the Ferguson Township Board of Supervisors will vote on a truly ambitious climate resolution. We are voting to “develop a strategy to achieve net zero GHG emissions as quickly as feasible, but no later than 2050. Doing so will make us lead by example and engage our peer governments and … More FERGUSON TOWNSHIP IS ON THE VERGE OF BOLDLY ACTING ON CLIMATE CHANGE
The right-wing media has a huge reality problem. With climate science, it’s especially bad. Just go to Google Scholar and type in “right wing media climate change” and you’ll see that for over twenty years they’ve been drumming a well-oiled anti-regulatory beat. It has had catastrophic impacts on climate actions as Riley Dunlap and Aaron McRight … More The far-right media’s problem with climate science
Former Texas Governor Rick Perry spoke before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee yesterday. He is seeking confirmation as Donald Trump’s Secretary of Energy. In his opening statement, he said “I am committed to modernizing our nuclear stockpile, promoting and developing American energy in all forms, advancing the department’s critical science and technology mission, and carefully disposing … More Rick Perry is 50 years ahead of the Republican platform and 20 years behind where we need to be.
Today I heard Bob Inglis speak at the Penn State Forum. It was thought-provoking and inspiring. As I’ve written before, Bob Inglis fell from his reddest-of-the-red congressional seat in 2010. He fell in some part because of his views on climate change and energy. As an ultra-conservative, his bona fides had been unquestioned. But with the rise … More @BobInglis, the climate and energy champion from the reddest district in the reddest state.
Peter Walks for Democracy 