Pearl Jam Offsets Climate Footprint of 2006 World Tour
By Jim Lobe
Tonight Pearl Jam is onstage at The Forum in the
midst of a 69 date world tour that opened April 20
in London, England and will close November 25 in
Perth, Australia.
The band has decided to offset emissions of the
greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) released on
the tour--from the trucks, buses, airplane travel,
hotel rooms, concerts venues and fans driving to
and from their concerts--by providing funding to
nine nonprofit organizations that help, in various
ways, to reduce global warming.
Calling the initiative their "Carbon Portfolio," the
band announced today that they are contributing a
total of $100,000 to the American Solar Energy
Society, the Bonneville Environmental Foundation,
the Cascade Land Conservancy, Conservation
International, EarthCorps, Green Empowerment,
Honor the Earth, IslandWood and the Washington
Clean Energy Initiative.
The negative impacts associated with rising global
temperatures as a result of increased CO2
emissions include variable and volatile weather,
increased diseases, the death of coral reefs and the
melting of the polar ice caps.
One of the band's Carbon Portfolio partners is the
Washington, DC-based nonprofit Conservation
International.
To offset emissions associated with the band's tour,
Conservation International, in collaboration with
two Ecuadorian organizations, the Jatun Sacha and
El Caiman de la Lagua de Cube foundations, is
working to restore up to 30 hectares (74 acres) of
degraded tropical forest in northwestern Ecuador.
The restoration is taking place in the Mache-
Chindul Ecological Reserve, a 300,000 acre reserve
established by Ecuador's Ministry of the
Environment and contains the Laguna de Cube,
which was declared a "wetland of international
importance."
Conservation International's restoration efforts add
another layer of protection to this critical remnant
of Ecuador's coastal rainforest that is home to a
number of unique plant and animal species,
including the jaguar, the long wattled umbrella
bird, the giant anteater and the threatened mantled
Howler monkey.
As this regenerated forest grows, it will absorb
more than 6,000 tons of carbon dioxide over the
next 30 years, provide habitat protection for
endangered plant and animal species and direct
support for local communities.
"We selected Conservation International for our
Portfolio with an eye towards supporting local,
regional, national and international strategies that
positively affect climate, environment and local
communities," said Pearl Jam guitarist Stone
Gossard.
"We believe in businesses that proactively take the
lead on the issues of environment and clean
energy, rather than waiting for our government to
identify solutions for us," Gossard said. "By
identifying and supporting a diverse group of
organizations and strategies, we hope to create
new models for businesses like ours who are
looking to invest in the future health of our planet
and its delicate ecosphere."
"Biodiversity loss is literally fueling climate change
and, in turn, climate change is anticipated to
accelerate biodiversity loss and species extinctions
throughout this century," said Michael Totten,
senior director of climate and water at Conservation
International. "Recognizing the intimate
interconnection between these two global problems
and designing resilient actions that address both
simultaneously is now an imperative, not an
option."
The 2006 tour represents the second time that
Pearl Jam and Conservation International (CI) have
worked together on the issue of climate change.
Pearl Jam offset the 5,700 tons of CO2 emissions
generated by their 2003 concert tour through an
investment in CI's Conservation Carbon program.
This funding supported a joint project between CI
and the Wildlife Conservation Society to protect rain
forests in northeastern Madagascar, the island
country located off the coast of southeastern Africa.
Pearl Jam also is asking fans to get involved by
helping to reduce their own carbon footprint. Fans
can calculate how much carbon their daily activities
generate using a carbon calculator found on
Conservation International's Web site at
www.conservation.org. Once fans have calculated
their carbon footprint they will be presented with
options to offset that impact.
The Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF),
based in Portland, Oregon, is another Pearl Jam
"Carbon Portfolio" partner announced today. "We
looked for partners to put our contributions
towards the greatest use in combating global
climate change," said Gossard. "BEF was an obvious
choice when we considered the renewable energy
component."
Through revenues generated from the sales of
green power products, BEF funds projects that
restore damaged watersheds and support new
renewable energy projects from solar, wind and
biomass.
BEF's Green Tag programs enable individuals,
businesses, and other organizations to offset their
carbon footprint by supporting renewable energy
projects that deliver solar and wind power into the
nation's power grid.
BEF pioneered the sale of Green Tags in 2000 and
has helped establish national standards for
certification and trading.
Pearl Jam has been a supporter of BEF since the
2004 Vote for Change tour, when Gossard
organized some of the participating bands to fund
the installation of small-scale renewable energy
projects in many of the states where it toured. In
addition to Pearl Jam and Gossard, participants
included Bonnie Raitt, The Dave Matthews Band,
and REM.
BEF's role was to identify the Vote for Change
beneficiary projects, and to manage the ongoing
installation efforts.
"With the Vote for Change initiative, Pearl Jam
helped BEF expand the scope of its renewable
energy programs to reach new audiences in the
Midwest, Southeast, and Eastern states," said Tom
Starrs, vice president of marketing and sales and
chief operating officer of Bonneville Environmental
Foundation.
"With the Carbon Portfolio Strategy, Pearl Jam is
helping BEF reach an even broader audience with
the message that it's easy to take action today to
make our energy supply cleaner, safer, and more
secure," said Starrs. "We are very grateful for the
band's continuing support."
BEF will use the contributions from Pearl Jam's
Carbon 2006 Portfolio Strategy to support its
renewable energy initiatives, including its Green
Tag programs.
The Pearl Jam award to the American Solar Energy
Society came as the society holds its annual
conference, SOLAR 2006, in Denver, Colorado.
Time is rapidly running out to avert the
catastrophic effects of continued global warming,
two internationally known climate scientists told
attendees at SOLAR 2006 Monday morning.
The threat of global warming is "a clear and present
danger," because of the continued growth in
emissions of greenhouse gases, said Dr. James
Hansen, who heads the NASA Institute for Space
Studies. While there is still time to act, "the window
of opportunity is very rapidly closing," he told the
1,800 delegates at the conference.
Hansen told delegates that business as usual--
annual increases of two percent in carbon dioxide
emissions--will lead to global warming of 3
degrees Celsuis by the end of the century,
according to scientific models.
That would lead to extinctions of roughly half the
species of animals and plants, along with oceans
rising 80 feet higher than they are now. "We would
end up with a system out of our control," Hansen
said, including all cities on the east coast of the
United States under water. "Also submerged would
be places in China inhabited by 200 million people,
areas of India where 150 million people live and
virtually the entire nation of Bangladesh."
To avoid such a scenario and keep warming to one
degree Celsius in this century, major changes are
needed quickly, Hansen said. Carbon dioxide
emissions need to flatten out and begin to decline.
He suggested phasing out coal emissions by 2012
in developed nations and by 2022 in developing
countries, capturing and sequestering carbon
pollution, and then phasing out old coal plants by
2025.
Dr. Warren Washington, a climate scientist at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research, showed
video displays of climate models dramatizing
melting Arctic ice and more intense storms. Global
warming will lead to more severe heat waves in the
southern and western regions of North America as
well as in Western Europe and the Mediterranean,
he said.
But like Hansen, Washington held out some hope.
"We need to have the snow and ice stop melting
and grow, which means drastically lowering
greenhouse gas concentrations," he said. "Solar
energy could be a major contributor to that
objective."
Hansen told delegates, "The public must get
informed and get angry."
With its Carbon Portfolio initiative, Pearl Jam is
informing its fans and directing their anger towards
positive change.
