environment

On Capitol Hill, the ship of state is so bereft of rudder and sail that the crew is jumping overboard. The latest to abandon ship is Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, who minced no words about the dysfunctional Congress he is choosing to leave.

Forget for a moment about health care and financial reform. On national energy and environmental issues, which have been stalled in the congressional queue, we have a critical national security threat, a danger to public health and welfare, and national policy that encourages American families to inadvertently fund terrorists.

Those are among the reasons the paralyzing partisanship on Capitol Hill is so serious a dereliction of duty.

So what can the president of the United States do? Quite a lot if he’s willing to use the executive powers he’s been given by the Constitution, the courts and past Congresses.

In just about every corner of the country, youth climate advocates have been building a grassroots apparatus that would have even David Plouffe salivating. Their regional, state and national networks have powered aggressive and successful campaigns, such as the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, and they are now critical to implementing the policy commitments they've secured.

These networks are as powerful as they are prolific. Students are influencing national policy on a scale never before seen in youth activism.

Before I get into the thick of it, I want to point out that things have changed a bit since young activists were demonstrating against the Vietnam War or even against South African apartheid. Student organizers today are more often behind their laptops, launching virtual actions, spreading congressional phone numbers, gathering petition signatures, and Twittering, Facebooking, Myspacing and emailing their peers into action.

On-campus meetings are still a staple, but students have realized that collective power is where the punch is, so they have constructed deep networks of regional organizations.

Here's a look at the current state of affairs in these youth climate networks.

Part II of a three-part series

The best part of the economic stimulus package moving through Congress is that it calls for a significant down payment on a new energy economy. One of its weaknesses is that it doesn’t give the American people a clear, exciting vision for what that new economy can do.

The stimulus package is clear on goals. The bill passed by the House last night talks about developing clean energy, transforming the economy with science and technology, modernizing roads, lowering health care costs, helping workers and investing in education.

But are those goals descriptive enough to show how the new energy economy will improve the fabric of our lives or how the benefits to our children are worth the mortgage we’re taking out on the future? I don’t think so.

The stimulus needs compelling themes that make clear how tomorrow will be better than today and how every American can answer President Obama’s challenge that we all do our part.

Here are some suggestions:

Anybody who is paying the slightest bit of attention knows that Arctic summer sea ice is melting at a record pace because of warming of the atmosphere and the ocean. It is also accelerating because of feedback loops -- there's less ice to reflect solar radiation back into space and more dark water to absorb it. That means further warming and even more melting of the ice.

Now scientists have found another mechanism that is speeding the melting of the arctic: atmospheric circulation. A recent paper published in Geophysical Research Letters, suggests that since 2001 a significant change has taken place in atmospheric circulation patterns during the Arctic freezing season. Whereas previously the Arctic winds travelled East-West, they are now cycling North-South and allowing warm air further north than ever before. The change helps to account for unusually high arctic surface air temperatures and increased sea-ice melt during the following summer, and points to further evidence that a tipping point has been crossed irrevocably.