Commute Another Way Week starts Monday.

People who give their cars a rest and bike, walk or ride the bus to work will once again be rewarded with free T-shirts and prizes.

But Matt Sargent and his friends couldn’t wait for the prizes. Not with gas prices shooting up 71 cents per gallon in the past year – 37 cents in the past month alone.

“I was spending $120 a week” just driving to and from work, Sargent said.

So Sargent and two buddies did what a lot of Mainers may finally be ready to do, now that a gallon of gas costs $3.70. They changed their driving habits.

Maine’s having a hard time kicking the dirty energy habit.

In fact, a report released this week said we’ve been heading in the opposite direction and using more, not less. But that trend may be about to turn around, according to Maine Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner David Littell.

It’s not simply because we’re unwilling to pay $3.30 for a gallon of gasoline. Apparently, we are.

Littell’s optimism is based more on a deluge of clean energy projects headed this way.

Littell said his agency is bracing for more than a dozen major energy development proposals that together will represent more than $10 billion of new investment into the state. They include wind farms, natural gas terminals and new transmission lines to distribute the cleaner energy around the state and beyond.

“The direction of the markets is all in favor of clean renewables,” he said. And Maine, because of its wind patterns and other advantages, stands to become the clean energy capital of New England, according to Littell.

Along with efforts by the Legislature and state agencies, that should help put Maine on track to reduce fossil fuel use and global warming pollution pretty much as promised, he said.

The report issued Wednesday by environmental groups found that Maine’s emissions increased two percent from 2001 to 2005, despite a pledge to return to 1990 levels by 2010 and cut emissions 10 percent below that by 2020.

It’s hard to imagine reaching those goals at the current pace, said Dylan Voorhees of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, which released the report along with Environment Maine. It’s even harder to imagine cutting emissions by 80 percent by 2050, a goal scientists say is necessary to avoid the most severe effects of a warming climate.

“If we were (on track to meet the short-term goals), then I think we could be more confident that we could handle this thing,” Voorhees said.

Yes, Littell said, the state will probably miss the 2010 goal, although not by much.

And he agreed with the report that Maine, in the long run, won’t be able to do its part to slow global warming until it tackles our greatest addiction – cars and trucks. “We still have a substantial amount of work to get done.”

But, Littell said, Maine is on track to meet its longer term goals.

The governor and Legislature have taken dozens of steps to chip away at global warming emissions. They range from a regional pact to cut power plant pollution to an ongoing effort – now headed to federal court – to mandate cleaner cars and trucks. And lawmakers are considering more, such as a ban on truck idling and creation of the state’s first energy efficiency standards for new homes.

But it’s the marketplace that’s fueling a lot of the state’s confidence right now.

Not all of the clean energy projects in the pipeline are sure things. The economic downturn, as well as controversies over local impacts, will likely weed out some projects.

But big investments, especially in wind power and transmission lines, will shift Maine and the rest of New England to cleaner electricity, according to Littell. Slow but steady.

“We’ll be there in 2020,” he said.

When it comes to reducing global warming pollution, it’s clearly easier said than done.

Now two environmental groups have released a report with details about how far Maine is falling short on its efforts.

Maine and other New England states pledged in 2001 to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2010, and then reduce them 10 percent by 2020. The Natural Resources Council of Maine and Environment Maine say that we got off to a slow start. In fact, emissions increased by 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from 2001 to 2005, partly because of a 7 percent increase in emissions from cars, trucks and airplanes, the report says.

With the increases after the pledge, Maine must now cut emissions at least 17 percent by 2010 and 26 percent by 2020, according to the report.

Maine’s emissions actually did drop slightly from 2004 to 2005, it says. That is attributed to greater use of hydro and biomass power, a milder winter and shutdowns of industrial mills (clearly not the preferred strategy). Those reductions were great enough to offset the 4 percent increase in gasoline usage.

See the report, Falling Behind: New England Must Act Now to Reduce Global Warming Pollution, here.

Maine does appear to be making more progress within state government. Last summer, Gov. John Baldacci said the state has reduced its emissions 8 percent since 2002, partly by increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy use in state buildings.

Baldacci and other state leaders also have been pushing for measures that could have statewide impacts but have not yet kicked in. Maine is participating in a regional plan to reduce emissions form large power pants starting next year, is pushing for the right to set tougher energy efficiency standards for cars and trucks and is rewriting laws and rules to encourage more wind energy development, among other things.

If you’d like even more sobering information about the challenge of fighting on global warming, the Greater Portland Council of Governments has posted the keynote presentation delivered last Friday at a sustainable energy forum in Portland. Charlie Stephens, an energy expert from Oregon, made a big impression on some attendees and it’s easy to see why. Not a pretty picture.

Gluttons for punishment should also read this Associated Press story about the dramatic meltdown of an Antarctic ice shelf.

Now, have a nice day.

Businesses, residents and city officials in Portland are pledging to turn off the lights from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday.

The action is part of a global event called Earth Hour that began last year in Sydney, Australia. Organizers say cities around the world are participating and will go dark, or at least darker, for an hour to focus attention on global warming and energy conservation.

The Maine chapter of the Sierra Club is organizing the event in Portland, and has lights-off pledges from business and residents in other Maine communities as well. Portland’s City Council passed a proclamation Monday supporting Earth Hour, and Mayor Edward Suslovic said non-essential lights, including those at City Hall, will be turned off.

The Sierra Club also is organizing a candlelight rally to celebrate Earth Hour in Portland’s Monument Square. The rally starts at 7:30 and will feature speakers as well as live music – acoustic, naturally.

The World Wildlife Federation is the prime organizer of Earth Hour and is sponsoring events in more than two dozen U.S. cities, including Phoenix, Atlanta, San Francisco, Chicago and Denver.

To learn more about Earth Hour in Maine, and find a list of fun things to do in the dark, look here.

Imagine a powerful coastal storm and tidal surge that not only threatens coastal homes, but also floods the roads that are needed to evacuate residents to higher ground.

Well, we’d better plan on it, according to a report released yesterday by the National Research Council, the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences. The report looked at the potential impacts of climate change on transportation systems and, while not particularly surprising, says as clearly as possible that the time is now for Maine and other coastal states to plan and prepare.

“Potentially, the greatest impact of climate change on North America’s transportation system will be flooding of coastal roads, railways, transit systems, and runways because of a global rise in sea level coupled with storm surge and exacerbated in some locations by land subsidence,” the report says.

Look here for the report and here for the Associated Press story.

On Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formally slapped down efforts by California, Maine and about a dozen other states to set greenhouse gas-emissions standards for cars and trucks.

The decision posted Friday in the Federal Register was expected and is already being challenged in court by Maine, the other states and conservation groups.

Now here’s another viewpoint on the emissions battle you might not have considered. Maybe Maine and the other states should worry more about what we’re eating than what we’re driving.

That’s the argument of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, which recently made its case in a letter to Gov. John Baldacci. Meat production and consumption worldwide, not personal transportation, is the leading cause of global warming, according to PETA.

PETA may not qualify as an expert on global warming, but it’s not the only one saying so.

The group cites a United Nations report that raising animals for food generates almost 50 percent more greenhouse gases than all the cars, SUVs, trucks, and airplanes in the world combined, it says. A
study by the University of Chicago also reported that eating less meat is an effective way to counter global warming.

It’s all well and good that Maine is fighting for tighter pollution limits on cars and trucks, according to PETA. The letter just asks for a little equal time for vegans and calls for the state should launch a vegetarian initiative because “there’s no such thing as a meat-eating environmentalist.”

Baldacci did not immediately swear off meat upon being shown the letter, however. The governor said he’d rather take that kind of advice from his wife, a registered dietician, according to spokesman David Farmer.

“She tells him, ‘Everything in moderation; nothing in excess,’ ” Farmer said.

That apparently goes for meat as well as gasoline.

The Church of England has a suggestion for Christians who will soon be giving up something near and dear to celebrate lent – a carbon fast.

The season of preparation for Easter, a reminder of Christ’s 40-day fast in the desert, has become a time for Christians to give up a personal vice such as chocolate or alcohol.

Bishops in the Church of England are not really suggesting a cold-turkey carbon strike, so much as a series of small sacrifices, starting with removing a light bulb for 40 days. Here is the Guardian’s version of the story.

Not only is our use of carbon – the fossil fuels that power our lights, heat our homes and run our vehicles –  a powerful habit, but a little carbon avoidance would clearly be healthy for the planet. And because of the threats that global warming poses to the earth’s poorest people, it’s a moral imperative for Christians, according to the Bishops.

It’s an interesting idea on a lot of levels. I’d like to know what you think about the idea, and if there are people around here planning to give up some carbon for lent.

Bill Drinkwater spends a lot of time tinkering in the basement with his latest creation, a three-wheeled car that may soon carry him to town at 40 mph.

But this is not your typical 62-year-old tinkerer, and his electric-powered car is more than a retirement hobby.

Drinkwater, who lives in Belmont, is one of a loose network of Mainers who see hard times ahead and are using their Yankee ingenuity to prepare. The way we travel will change dramatically, he says, as global warming and tightening oil supplies make our current way of life too expensive.

“Things seem to be collapsing pretty quickly,” he said.

College campuses across Maine will be participating in a national teach-in on global warming Thursday.

Focus the Nation is an effort to mobilize students to take on climate change the way they fueled the civil rights movement in the 1960s. More than 1,100 colleges and universities in all 50 states are expected to participate with rallies, lectures, speeches and movie screenings focused solutions to climate change.

At 8 p.m. Wednesday, the day before the teach-in, organizers will present a live Web cast on climate change called The 2% Solution. The title refers to the goal of reducing global warming pollution 2 percent per year.

Go to the Focus the Nation site to learn more, and look here for a digest of Maine events compiled by Susan Shell at the Pew Environment Group.

And, in a couple of weeks, students around the state will gather at Bates College in Lewiston for the Maine State Climate Summit.

Three days of discussions and events begin Feb. 8. For more information, including the full program schedule, go to the Bates Energy Action Movement Web site. To register, go to the Sierra Student Coalition Web site.

A new federal program is taking aim at the environmental impacts of commercial refrigeration. And a couple of grocery chains with local stores have volunteered to help.

Hannaford Brothers Co. and Whole Foods Market are two of 10 charter members of a new federal initiative called the GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unveiled the program today.

The new partnership is a voluntary program to develop technologies and practices that protect the stratospheric ozone layer and the earth’s climate from chemicals used in the refrigerators. The partners also will explore ways to improve energy efficiency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The EPA estimates that reducing refrigerant emissions could have benefits equivalent to taking 800,000 automobiles off the road every year. It also estimates that improvements could save the industry more than $12 million a year.

The Killington ski resort in Vermont is taking a more simple – and radical – approach with its refrigerators.

Killington spent $50,000 last summer to retrofit 10 of the resort’s walk in refrigerators with equipment that simply uses nature’s ultimate refrigerant – winter – to chill the coolers. The Freeaire Refrigeration System is expected to save the resort more than 86,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and eliminate an estimated 58 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

Unfortunately, the system isn’t for residential refrigerators. Here’s an interesting discussion of that idea.

It’s a long way from Maine to the South Pole.

But the very bottom of the Earth is by no means the most remote place on the planet.

Ask Paul Mayewski. The University of Maine professor has earned a global reputation, for himself and the school, by going to some very cold and isolated places and coming home with discoveries about the planet and its atmosphere.

“There are plenty of places on Earth where we were the first team to ever go there,” Mayewski said. “You get the chance to be on the forefront of adventure exploration, and also scientific exploration, by doing this stuff.”

The director of UMaine’s Climate Change Institute spoke this week during a brief break in Orono between his latest Antarctic expedition and a global gathering of scientists in England.

It was nearly three years ago when Adam Lee defied the auto industry and went to Augusta to urge lawmakers to require less polluting cars and trucks be sold in Maine.

The president of Lee Auto Malls has since become a vocal advocate for Maine’s clean car law, which became a centerpiece of the state’s efforts to slow global warming. The new standards, which would have made cars 30 percent cleaner and more fuel efficient by 2016, were scheduled to be phased in starting with the 2009 models.

Were. The Bush administration slammed the brakes on that plan this week by announcing it will not grant a legal waiver allowing California, Maine and at least 15 other states to clean the air and cool the planet by regulating the car industry.

College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, already regarded as the “greenest” college in the world, has now become the first to claim that it is carbon neutral.

Being carbon neutral would mean COA has effectively eliminated all of its carbon dioxide emissions, a primary driver of global warming.

First, it reduced its energy use in a variety of ways, from replacing incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent ones to promoting carpools and bicycle use.

Then, the college invested money in a project that it says will eliminate enough additional energy waste to offset any remaining emissions here. The project in this case involves coordinating traffic lights in Portland, Ore., so that cars and trucks don’t idle as much and burn less fuel. The college’s investment is expected to translate into a reduction of nearly 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions in the next five years.

The announcement is sure to get COA even more praise for raising the bar for other schools. Not everyone will be impressed, no doubt.

There are plenty of critics who say true carbon neutrality is impossible and that buying offsets is a cop-out for those who can afford the luxury. Of course, those people probably aren’t applying for enrollment at COA anyway.

It can’t be easy trying to convince Mainers to support a coal gasification plant.

Even with all the jobs, the tax revenue and domestically produced electricity, coal plants are best known here for the Midwestern smokestacks that pollute our air and lakes.

So maybe you can’t blame the developer of a proposed coal and wood gasification plant in Wiscasset for emphasizing the positive. Especially with the project facing a townwide vote Nov. 6.

But, this week, the company turned up the spin cycle, and ended up a little black and blue.

Portland will soon be one of the nation’s hottest hometowns, says the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine.

It’s not because the local music scene is expected to heat up, however. It’s because Portland will be, literally, one of the cooler places to live in about 40 years, the magazine says.

The Oct. 18 issue is the rock-n-roll digest’s annual “Hot Issue,” a collection of picks that includes hot bands, hot actors and even hot drag act. One list – “Hot Land Grab” – focuses on global warming and names what are predicted to be the six U.S. most liveable cities in 2050. Our fair city is number three.

“Low-lying portions of downtown Portland could get hit by rising sea levels, but most of the city is on higher ground. So when those nor’easters blow through (and get even nastier), it won’t be as vulnerable to storm surges as nearby Boston. Ocean access and offshore breezes will temper heat waves, which will be less brutal here than in more southern and inland cities.”

The others cities? Seattle and the other Portland on the west coast, and Manchester, N.H., Buffalo, N.Y., and Burlington, Vt., in the northeast.

Now, maybe Rolling Stone isn’t the best source for scientific projections, or even real estate advice. (C’mon, they put Kid Rock on the cover of the “Hot Issue.”)

But the idea that Maine would be somewhat of a haven in a warming world isn’t new or totally off the wall. Down to Earth suggested as much in a post last May based on a NASA map of the future climate.

“Maine, according to the map, could become one of the few places in the eastern half of the U.S. where the average summer temperature in 2085 is not expected to exceed 90 degrees.”

A large herd of Maine’s environmentalists got together Thursday evening over beer and wine for a combination celebration and pep rally. (Or is it a pack of environmentalists? A gaggle?)

It was the annual “Evening for the Environment” sponsored by the Maine League of Conservation Voters and it drew an overflow crowd of activists and policy makers to the penthouse of the University of Southern Maine’s Glickman Library. The group is best known for monitoring the voting records of state legislators.

The celebration part included an Environmental Leadership Award - a tree - for Adam Lee, president of Lee Auto Malls and a vocal advocate for cleaner and more fuel efficient cars.

Here’s Lee being humble about his role in passing Maine’s cleaner car law: “It’s great to be a car dealer.... When you’re car dealer, people have such low expectations.”
On being a Toyota dealer at an environmentalists’ party: “I’ve got to say I’ve never seen so many Priuses in one place. It makes me very happy.”
On why speaking out is good for business: “I believe we need stricter fuel economy standards so Detroit will be forced to save themselves from themselves.”

Bill McKibben, a nationally known writer and organizer, led the rally part. His book “The End of Nature” helped make global warming a mainstream issue in 1989 and he urged the audience to keep spreading “the movement.”

Here’s McKibben on the growing urgency: “The models dramatically understimated how finely balanced the earth was.”
On why not to get depressed about that: “The good news is solutions are a lot closer than we might think.”
On what it will take: “A movement as real and as deep as the civil rights movement a generation ago.”
And, finally, McKibben on the first three things a person can do to fight global warming: “First, organize. Second, organize. And third, organize. And then if you have any energy left, change that lightbulb.”

Are you frustrated with the media’s coverage of global warming? Think objectivity or balance gets in the way? What objectivity, you say?

Prefer the term “global warming?” Or are you of the “climate change” persuasion? Wondering what’s the difference?

The Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media went on line last week and offers an inside look at the push and pull going on in the journalism world about how (and how well) media are covering the subject, whatever you want to call it. It seems to me the site will be interesting for people outside that world, too, although I could definitely be biased about that.

Americans seem to have come a long way in a short time when it comes to being concerned about global warming. But they're far from panicking.

A national poll conducted in July found that 48 percent of Americans now believe global warming will have dangerous impacts on people within the next 10 years. That’s a 20 percentage point increase from the response to the same question in 2004, according to Yale University, Gallup and the ClearVision Institute.

The poll also found that 62 percent believe that global warming is an urgent threat requiring immediate and drastic action, and 40 percent said a presidential candidate’s position on global warming will be extremely important or very important when deciding on their vote. Global warming hardly came up during the 2004 campaign.

On the other hand, the poll found that people are not particularly worried that global warming will affect them. Half of those polled said they were personally worried only a little, if at all. And, while participants said global warming is a serious threat to plants, animals and other people, only 19 percent said they consider it a very serious threat to themselves and their families.

The telephone survey involved interviews with 1,011 adults, and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points. Look here for more.

Development projects in Maine are subjected to an ever growing list of studies – from traffic impacts to vernal pool impacts.

Will impacts on climate be next?

Plum Creek Timber Co.’s plan for the Moosehead Lake region appears to be the first project in Maine – and maybe in the United States – to undergo a detailed study of its potential impact on global warming.

Environment Northeast, a non-profit advocacy group, has calculated the potential carbon footprint of Plum Creek’s historic plan for 975 homes and two resorts. And, you know what they say – big feet, big carbon footprint.

“Initial land clearing alone would release some 222,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or about one-third the annual emissions of the Wyman power plant in Yarmouth, Maine,” Dan Sosland, executive director of Environment Northeast, said in the press release.

The analysis was part of written testimony filed with the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission on behalf of GrowSmart Maine, an official intervenor in the Plum Creek review process. Environment Northeast issued a summary and a link to its report this morning.

The report includes estimates of carbon dioxide emissions based on Plum Creek’s rezoning proposal. The ultimate impact would depend on the details, such as how many trees are cut for each building lot, the size of the buildings and the distances between the new neighborhoods and the grocery stores.

Here are some findings:

The clearing of trees to develop all the houses and resorts in Plum Creek’s long-term plan would generate between 387,378 and 501,081 metric tons of carbon dioxide, more than half the output of Wyman.

Transportation associated with the development would contribute nearly 10,000 metric tons of CO2 a year – the equivalent of emissions from 1,850 cars and trucks.

New buildings would release about 13,000 metric tons of CO each year, the equivalent of 2,525 cars and trucks.

Want to know more? Look here for the report.

You’ve switched to fluorescent bulbs, the laundry is hanging out to dry and you’re trying hard not to visit the gas pump so often. So what else can you do to help save the planet?

Watch what you eat.

It turns out the food we choose can have a surprising impact on climate change and the environment, according to a growing number of studies around the world.

We already know that eating organic can help reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Now the hot eco-food trend is eating local, as in meats and vegetables produced within 100 miles of your kitchen.

The food we eat these days typically travels hundreds or thousands of miles before we pick it up at the supermarket. Some fruits and vegetables have come as far as 4,000 miles on ships, trains and trucks. That adds up to a lot of carbon dioxide pollution just to fill the fridge.

Rock ’n’ roll might not save the planet, but it can still stir things up pretty well.

You might have a hard time getting through the day today without seeing or hearing any of Live Earth, the series of mega-concerts taking place around the world to focus attention on global warming. And, anyway, you’d be missing an unusual mix of music and a bit of history in the making.

Organizers are hoping that 2 billion people worldwide will watch the concerts, which will take place over 24 hours on all seven continents. There will be shows in Rio de Janeiro and Shanghai, and even in Antarctica, where a small band of British scientists will make its musical debut from a frozen research station near the South Pole.

The world has never felt so small.

And probably not since Elvis twitched and The Beatles invaded has a rock event generated so much hype and hand-wringing in this country.

Live Earth, a global series of rock concerts intended to raise awareness about global warming, takes place this Saturday.

There will be eight concerts around the world, including in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Shanghai, China, and an anticipated audience of 2 billion people. The nearest stage is Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. (They’ll tell you it’s in New York, but don’t believe it.) The Police, Fall Out Boy, Kanye West and The Dave Matthews Band are among the headliners in the U.S. concert.

But you don’t have to drive to New Jersey to be part of the experience. There are some 7,000 smaller events planned around the world, including a number of gatherings in Maine where people can watch the concerts together.

One of the bigger Maine events is a free noon-to-midnight Live Earth showing at the Frontier Cafe, Cinema and Gallery in Brunswick that’s cosponsored by the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Another is a free barbecue and Live Earth showing from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Yarmouth Log Cabin on Main Street, hosted by a new student organization called GoVert. There also are house parties and small gatherings planned in Portland, Scarborough, Peaks Island and other communities.

The concerts will be broadcast on line at www.liveearth.msn.com. They also will be broadcast on cable television channels Bravo, Sundance, MSNBC, CNBC and Universal HD and on satellite radio. NBC will show Live Earth’s primetime U.S. performances from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.

For more information on local events and to RSVP, go here.

For more information on Live Earth, go here.

Some local school children who did a research project on global warming are now getting a lesson on the hot air blowing around the Internet.

Five fourth-grade students in Randy Bigelman’s class at Portland’s East End Community School wrote about their research in a guest editorial published Thursday in the Portland Press Herald. The kids urged readers to take action – things like drive less, recycle, conserve energy, plant trees – so they don’t inherit a world of coastal flooding, more destructive hurricanes and droughts. The nerve.

A link to their column got posted on the Drudge Report last Friday. Drudge posts climate change tidbits daily as a kind of raw steak treat for its readers who like to post responses that attack anyone who goes along with the scientific community. The fact that the authors in this case are between 9 and 11 years old didn’t seem to calm the feeding frenzy.

The column received 194 comments on the newspaper’s Web site. While some of them debated the science, many simply criticized the kids, their teacher, teachers in general, public schools, liberals, Maine, the governor and the newspaper. Sorry if I missed someone.

I’m not sure yet what the kids make of all this. But they probably learned how to deal with bullies in second grade.

Here is the column and the responses.

A contingent from Maine – led by Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner David Littell – is in Arlington, Va., today to be part of a peaceful revolt against the federal government and the U.S. auto industry.

Littell and Adam Lee, president of the Lee Auto Malls, were expected to testify at a hearing being held by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Also with the delegation is Steve Hinchman, an attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation in Brunswick. All three were strong advocates of Maine’s law to increase car and truck fuel efficiency as a way to fight global warming emissions.

The agency is considering a waiver to allow Maine and at least 10 other states to push ahead with their own efficiency and emissions standards even though they are more strict than the federal ones. The leader of the rebellion is California, which has established a legal right to adopt air pollution laws as long as it gets EPA approval. And once California sets a new standard, the other states are allowed to follow.

The auto industry is fighting the latest California initiative in court, but the blessing of the EPA is considered an even bigger potential obstacle. The hearing today comes six weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuked the EPA for not regulating greenhouse gases. But some advocates for the stricter standards are now accusing the Bush administration of setting out to stall any added regulation as long as it’s in office.

Here’s a sample of that criticism in a column written by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell, both Republicans, and published in The Washington Post on Monday.

Here’s an Associated Press story about the hearing. We’ll have the updated story and comments from the Maine participants in tomorrow’s paper.

Could global warming reverse the steady population drain in northern Maine?

NASA’s new study doesn’t quite make that leap, but it does show Maine becoming a relative haven from extreme heat that may be on its way for the eastern United States.

The study was released last week and says summers in the east, Maine included, may get hotter faster than previously believed. The study generally says the region can expect daily highs about 10 degrees Farenheit warmer by the mid-2080s. The changed forecast has to do with improving the global climate computer models so they account better for dryer conditions, it says.

A map published with the study shows Maine’s summertime highs are generally projected to go from 79 degrees in 1993 to 86 degrees in 2085. That’s roughly the same as summer in New Jersey now.

That’s quite a difference. But, the farther south you go, the more dramatic the change could be.

The average summer highs will probably be around 102 degrees in Jacksonville, 100 degrees in Memphis, 96 degrees in Atlanta, NASA says. Remember, that would be the average highs, not heat waves. In dry summers, daily high temperatures could average between 100 and 110 degrees in cities such as Chicago and Washington and approach 100 in much of the northeast.

Maine, according to the map, could become one of the few places in the eastern half of the U.S. where the average summer temperature in 2085 is not expected to exceed 90 degrees. That could make Washington County a really popular place in August. Might want to get the guest room ready.

Here are the details about the study and, in case you missed it, an Associated Press story about the hot long-term forecast.

Is your relationship with your car a little strained? Your vehicle gotten a lot more needy lately?

Feeling a little restless, perhaps?

Well, with gasoline back in the neighborhood of $3 a gallon and all the focus on the greenhouse gas coming out of your tailpipe, nobody would blame you. But, what are you gonna do? Walk?

So you’ve changed your light bulbs and your driving habits, now what?

This Saturday, Mainers across the state will join a virtual nationwide rally happening in more than 1,000 home towns from coast to coast. Large rallies are planned in Portland, Augusta and Bangor. There’ll be events in Bridgton, Belfast, Kennebunk, Caribou and about 20 other towns, too.

The Internet-driven campaign is called “Step it Up 2007” and has been led by author Bill McKibben. McKibben wrote about global warming in his book “The End of Nature” in 1989, and is now a scholar in residence at Middlebury College in Vermont.

McKibben and others say it’ll take more than compact fluorescent bulbs to slow global warming, and what’s needed is a grassroots movement to demand an 80 percent reduction in heat-trapping carbon emissions by 2050.

The Portland rally will include what is called a “New Coast Parade,” starting at 11 a.m. in Post Office Park at the corner of Exchange and Middle streets and ending with a rally in Monument Square with music, speeches, information tables, belly dancers and guerilla tango dancers. (No, I did not make that last part up.)

It’s called “New Coast” because it’ll follow what could be Portland’s new waterfront if all the ice in Greenland melts over the next several hundred years and sea levels rise 20 feet.

Other events include a rally at the polar bear statue and music on the quad at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, a free tire air pressure check in York and a gathering of concerned neighbors in Brownville.

Go to the Step it Up site for more information and click on Maine to get information about the events here.

University of Maine Professor Paul Mayewski is one of a group of Maine scientists who are learning about global warming in far off places such as Patagonia and Greenland.

Mayewski drills cores of ice from glaciers that, in some cases, are melting faster than researchers can keep up. The cores tell the history of the earth’s climate and its atmosphere. His work has helped scientists understand the relationship between carbon dioxide and temperatures over hundreds of thousands of years.

Mayewski, director of the UMaine’s Climate Change Institute, is scheduled to appear on the Sunday, April 1 edition of the CBS News program “60 Minutes.” The show begins at 7 p.m.

CBS correspondent Scott Pelley and his crew spent 10 days with Mayewski earlier this year, during a research expedition to Chile, Argentina and Antarctica, according to the university. Last year, Mayewski was in a “60 Minutes” episode based on climate change research in the Arctic.

Mayewski, who last year received the first-ever Medal for Excellence in Antarctic Research from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, was recently a featured speaker at the Explorers Club annual dinner in New York City.

The Gulf of Maine and the Arabian Sea may have little in common, but blooms of phytoplankton in both places are teaching Maine scientists about global warming.

Our story Thursday about Andrew Pershing’s research explained how melting ice in the Arctic Ocean and pulses of freshwater entering the Gulf of Maine led to an explosion of phytoplankton in the 1990s. Pershing, who co-authored a paper about the changes in the journal Science, is a research oceanographer at both the University of Maine and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. He is based at the Institute in Portland.

Today, we learned that two scientists from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in West Boothbay Harbor have received a $1.18 million grant from NASA to study the impact of global warming on life in the Arabian Sea.

Joaquim Goés and Dr. Helga do Rosario Gomes have already documented how warming global temperatures are melting snow in Himalayan-Tibetan mountain ranges and driving a complex chain of events that includes large blooms of phytoplankton in the Arabian Sea. The sea is more self-contained than the Gulf of Maine, and the phytoplankton growth there has acted like an algae bloom on a Maine pond – dying plankton are depleting oxygen from the sea water, contributing to large fish kills off the coast of Oman.

The Arabian Sea, it turns out is an ideal laboratory for climate change studies, Goés said. “The ramifications of the study are huge.” An article on the NASA website describes the pair’s work and why melting in the Himalayas could be catastrophic for the Arabian Sea.

Goés and Gomes will head to the Arabian Sea this summer, and plan to take some Maine students along. The project is expected to last three years.

The fact that researchers from the coast of Maine are studying the Arabian Sea is not as strange as it may seem. Scientists from Maine universities and research institutions work virtually all over the world these days, from the South Pole to the Arctic Circle. A lot of their work now is focusing on how a shifting global climate will affect places – like the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Maine – across the planet.