The American Security Project compiled some stats on how climate change may impact our country, our region and our state.

The organization is is chaired by former presidential candidate and Senator Gary Hart and is branding itself as "a nonprofit, bipartisan public policy and research organization dedicated to fostering knowledge and understanding of a range of national security issues, promoting debate about the appropriate use of American power, and cultivating strategic responses to 21st century challenges."

In the video below, the organization claims energy costs in the Southeast will rise by $60 billion by the end of this century (though it's unclear if they mean per year, per decade, etc).

In a report it calls "Pay Now, Pay Later," it estimates how much climate change will cost North Carolina:

The iconic Outer Banks are visited by thousands of tourists each year, but beginning in 2030, spending by out-of-state tourists will fall 16% each year, dropping by 48% each year as of 2080. The increase in global temperatures will shrink North Carolina’s booming $70.8 billion agricultural industry by nearly 23% by the end of the century, a loss of over $1,700 per North Carolinian. North Carolina is poised to receive $4.3 billion in green energy investments, which will create around 51,000 jobs for state residents, providing jobs for over one in 10 unemployed North  Carolinians. According to a new study, a failure to mitigate the effects of climate change could begin to cause serious gross domestic product and job losses within the next several decades. Between 2010 and 2050, it could cost North Carolina $63.4 billion in GDP and over 492,000

jobs.

Read the entire report here.

Learn more about the the region-by-region cost estimates here:

Props to Grist.org for bringing this video to our attention.

• An x-ray image of our sun. (Photo credit: blueforce4116)

And this is how change happens; people make it happen. Kudos to these proactive students.

From DavidsonNews.net:

Cannon School seniors Avery Olearczyk and Brianna Ratté recently helped erect the second solar panel on Concord’s electrical grid at their school.

Avery’s and Brianna’s project followed internships with the Electric Power Research Institute in Charlotte, where the two teens got the idea of making their school an example for solar power use.

They worked with more than 50 scientists, engineers, businesspeople, national and local public officials, and school administrators to make their project a reality. Since late March 2011, a renewable energy solar panel fitted to Cannon’s middle school building has been producing power.

Read the entire post here.

• Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.)

A Congressman from Illinois is in town today to talk about a big dream for this country: Immigration reform and the DREAM Act — aka the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act.

If you're not familiar with the DREAM Act, you can read about it here. To sum up, it was created with the children of immigrants in mind as a way to help them become citizens in a country that is their home. Many of these children were brought to this country by their parents before they had a choice in the matter; this is where they've grown up and this is where they want to stay.

But those interested in participating in the DREAM Act aren't just asking to stay, they're asking for a way to citizenship that will allow them to not only better themselves but to become productive citizens. They want to educate themselves or serve in our military.

Fredd Reyes is an example of just such a student. This is what we wrote about Fredd last November:

A young man, Fredd Reyes, who has lived 22 of his 24 years in North Carolina is now awaiting deportation in a for-profit prison in Georgia, which only makes the headlines for abusing inmates, because his parents brought him to the United States as a child. Despite the fact that they came here from Guatemala after facing death and persecution, a federal judge denied their request for asylum in 2000.

Reyes earned his Associates Degree from Davidson County Community College and later transferred to Guilford Tech. The morning he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, who knocked on his door at 5 a.m., he was supposed to take an exam.

Reyes isn’t a criminal, he doesn’t consider any other country to be his home, he didn’t come here on his own accord, he’s been separated from his family and his education cut short. And, for what? So we can feel good about sending an undocumented immigrant “home”?

Fortunately, Fredd was released a few days later — but not everyone is that lucky, not everyone's case gets as much attention. Some of these young people end up in prisons where we pay tens of thousands of dollars to house and care for them while they await deportation to a country they may not even remember when, instead, they could be doing something productive in the community. (All too often such "criminals" are sent to for-profit prisons that cost tax payers about three times as much as government-run prisons.)

If this sounds ridiculous, it is ... especially in a time when the president of the United States swore he would work to reform immigration issues just like this.

And, that's why Rep. Luis Gutierrez is in Charlotte today as part of his Campaign for American Children and Families tour. The Democrat from Illinois is pushing President Obama to keep his word — not only on the DREAM Act but on other immigration reform issues as well.

Here's Rep. Gutierrez's schedule, if you'd like to join him or listen to him discuss the these issues:

1:30 p.m.: Rally at the Mecklenburg Jail, 700 E. 4th St.

4:30 p.m.: A meeting at the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, 330 S.Tryon St.

6:30 p.m.: Speach at St. Paul Baptist Church, 1401 Allen St.

• Photo Credit: Sharyn Morrow

Is this really any surprise? Kids learn by example, which, scientists have learned, starts in utero.

From the BBC:

A mother's diet during pregnancy can alter the DNA of her child and increase the risk of obesity, according to researchers.

The study, to be published in the journal Diabetes, showed that eating low levels of carbohydrate changed bits of DNA.

It then showed children with these changes were fatter.

Read the entire article, by James Gallagher, here.