February 2009 Site of the Month: Pew Center on Global Climate Change

The Pew Center on Global Climate Change was established in 1998 as a non-profit, non-partisan and independent organization. The Center’s mission is to provide credible information, straight answers, and innovative solutions in the effort to address global climate change. Extensive information is available on the Center’s web site and organized into section on Global Warming Basics, Science & Impacts, Technology Solutions, and Economics. Information is also organized by policy level, including International, U.S. Federal, U.S. States & Regions and Business. The home page features links to hot topics, facts & figures, an overview of what’s new, and brief summaries of Pew Center initiatives. An e-mail newsletter and RSS feed are also available to help you keep up-to-date with new developments.

2 Replies to “February 2009 Site of the Month: Pew Center on Global Climate Change”

  1. No. Alcoa is a member of the Pew Center’s Global Climate Change Business Environmental Leadership Council and has partnered with the Pew Center to provide a web site that will help “Alcoa’s employees and the local community to manage their individual carbon footprint, reduce their energy costs, and become part of the solution to global climate change.”. I don’t see anything negative about Alcoa working with the Pew Center to improve its carbon footprint. There are no Alcoa representatives on the board of directors for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, and I am unaware of anything that would suggest that the Pew Center is beholden to Alcoa. If you are aware of such information, please feel free to share it.

    I suspect your concern stems from the fact that Alcoa ranked 15th on the Toxic 100 in 2008. But I don’t think their environmental problems reflect poorly on the Pew Center. If anything, I find it encouraging that the company is working with groups like the Pew Center to clean up its act.

    The Pew Center’s site was chosen as the site of the month because I thought it provided a lot of good information on a subject that would be useful to many businesses in the Great Lakes region. I am unaware of anything that the Pew Center may have done to have a tarnished reputation, and I don’t believe it is logical or appropriate to have doubts about the Pew Center’s respectability because of the reputations of the companies it is working with. One might apply a similar “guilt by association” standard to any technical assistance provider that works with a company trying to clean up its act in terms of pollution, but that would be counter productive. The idea of technical assistance providers and organizations concerned with environmental protection and pollution prevention is to reach out and help people and businesses lessen their negative environmental impacts. In fact, a colleague pointed out to me that Alcoa is also a member of the U.S. EPA Climate Leaders Program, but I don’t think that would be reason to refrain from promoting that program or its resources on the GLRPPR web site, do you?

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