Greenhouse Gas
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Where are the Conservative Solutions to Climate Change?
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Thou Shalt Halt Global Warming
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Global Warming and Meat: A Debate with a Bite
The Seeds of a New Kind of Energy
Published November 20, 2009 @ 11:52AM PT
First, a confession.
Last week, in my introductory blog entry I lied to you, the reader. What’s worse, I did it knowing full well that I was lying through my dirty little teeth.
In that entry I said that the highest wind densities in the country are above North Dakota. That was a lie. Well, okay, lie is a strong word. North Dakota does have the strongest wind you can feel when you lick your finger and stick it in the air.
But it’s not the strongest in the country.
Melting Antarctic Ice Helps Offset Warming
Published November 12, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
A new study by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey reveals that phytoplankton growing on the surface of sea water newly exposed by melting glacial ice is absorbing carbon, reports AFP. After photosynthesizing the carbon, these microscopic plants get eaten or sink to the sea floor, thereby taking the carbon out of the atmosphere.
Regions of phytoplankton have appeared in open water areas created by the recent disappearance of several ice shelves along the shore of Antarctica. In the last half century, about 9,200 square miles of sea have opened up in this manner and by now much of that area is blooming with phytoplankton. According to the study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, this vegetation now annually gobbles up some 3.5 million tons of carbon (equivalent to 12.8 million tons of carbon dioxide).
While that's a drop in the bucket of the some 8.7 billion tons of carbon emitted by burning fossil fuels and deforestation (to quote a 2007 figure), it is, says the study's lead scientist Lloyd Peck "nevertheless an important discovery. It shows nature's ability to thrive in the face of adversity."
Another Way to Cut Emissions: Hang Dry
Published November 05, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
We talk a lot about changing our lightbulbs and going easy on the meat in our personal quests to help our struggling planet. But we've been overlooking one big source of domestic energy expenditure: the laundry.
New Scientist reports that a team from Michigan State University has calculated that if Americans would only hang dry their clothes instead of using the dryer, as well as make 16 other simple changes such as washing clothes in cooler water and installing low-flow showerheads, they would reduce their collective carbon dioxide emissions by 7.4 percent by 2019.
I imagine many people don't have room for a backyard drying rack and don't like the idea of washing soiled garments in cool water. There are, however, all manner of drying racks -- ceiling-suspended, wall-mounted, pulley-operated, collapsible, retractable -- that can make drying clothes fit in even the smallest apartments. Washing less-dirty clothes in cool water and saving the hot for the heavy-stain-lifting is one way to conserve on the washing end, as long as you already have enough laundry for two loads and aren't using double the water.
Eat Meat to Help the Earth? You Grass-Hugger!
Published November 02, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Eating meat contributes to climate change, right? Hamburgers must be abolished if we are to save the Earth. Many staunchly support this point of view, while others scoff at what they see as radical buffoonery. But it's not quite so black and white. You see, it all depends on what kind of meat you're talking about.
A recent post of mine on the subject over on the sustainable food blog drew an interesting comment from alert reader Harry Hamil: "it is clear that well designed, intensive grazing of grasslands by domesticated livestock offers the quickest and greatest opportunity to reduce atmospheric carbon."
So, producing meat could actually be good for our climate?
Blog Action Day 2009: Bloggers vs. Climate Change
Published October 15, 2009 @ 01:09AM PT
Robin Beck is Change.org's Organizing Director and the lead organizer for Blog Action Day 2009.
We at Change.org are thrilled to announce that Blog Action Day 2009 is finally here! For those of you who aren’t familiar, Blog Action Day is an annual event – held on October 15th – in which bloggers from around the world unite to write about the same topic on the same day.
This year Change.org was asked to run Blog Action Day, and I’ve just spent the past two months serving as lead organizer – corresponding with thousands of bloggers in more than 135 countries and working with dozens of leading nonprofits and media partners in preparation for the big day.
In August we asked bloggers from around the world to vote on the topic they wanted to write about, and the overwhelming selection was climate change. I have to admit, I was pleased. I don’t think there is another global issue today as important or urgent as climate change, nor one that impacts more aspects of all of our lives.
I’ve been a lifelong environmental and social justice advocate and it’s been exciting to see the overwhelming response in support of writing about a topic that, not so long ago, was obscure and unsexy.
As soon as we announced the winning topic, top blogs like Mashable, The Official Google Blog, Autoblog, Neatorama and Gadling immediately signed on in support. Even more important has been the enthusiastic response of thousands of niche bloggers covering topics ranging from politics to travel, food, knitting and more around the globe.
We’ve also been fortunate to have many of the world’s leading nonprofit organizations involved, including the TckTckTck campaign, the United Nations Foundation, NRDC, 350.org, Greenpeace, Oxfam, Care, World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, 1Sky, the National Wildlife Federation, and just this week – Al Gore’s organization: the Alliance for Climate Protection.
We were also pleasantly surprised by the active participation of two national governments, showing that leaders throughout the word are not only taking this issue seriously, but are also serious about engaging grassroots citizen participation on the web.
In Spain the ruling PSOE party has helped translate our awesome Blog Action Day video into Spanish and has become an active supporter. In the UK, the foreign ministry, and now the Prime Minister himself, have become not just supporters but active participants. In fact, Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote his country’s first blog post at 12:01am on October 15th.
In the context of all this activity, many people have been asking me lately what I see as the impact of Blog Action Day and what I consider success.
My most honest answer is that I think the biggest impact, and the biggest measure of success, is that today new conversations are happening about climate change in places they never have before. Bloggers who usually write about their daily lives, about business, about design, technology, travel, or family are having a new discussion. And that discussion is bringing one of the most urgent issues of our time to a wider audience than ever before.
You can watch as the day unfolds with our live stream of all of your posts and tweets at: www.blogactionday.org. Thanks for engaging with us in Blog Action Day 09!
U.S. Carbon Emissions Plummeting
Published October 14, 2009 @ 05:37PM PT
Lester R. Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, reports today on the Institute Website that the United States “has now entered a new energy era, one of declining emissions. Peak carbon is now history.”
I’m so used to doom and gloom on the topic of cutting emissions that I had to look at this twice. Could it be true, as Brown contends, that “what had appeared to be hopelessly difficult is happening at amazing speed”?
Well, he’s got a chart, so it must be true. It shows a steadily climbing line representing “U.S. Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions” starting just over 600 million metric tons in 1950 and peaking at over 1,600 in the middle of this decade. The striking part is the precipitous decline over the last few years. It looks like we’re somewhere down around 1,500 now, and falling.
Brown reports that extrapolated data for 2009 will reveal a 5 percent drop in U.S. oil use this year and a 10 percent decline in coal use. The last two years have seen a 9 percent reduction in U.S. carbon emissions from burning all fossil fuels. It seems to be true! As Brown says: “the energy efficiency revolution that is now under way will transform everything from lighting to transportation.”
Jatropha Will Not Save Us
Published October 13, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
People still want more and more biofuels, despite the fact that these crops often commandeer land used for food production, which pushes food crops into rainforests, and we know how that turns out.
Just a year ago, reports SciDevNet, a Central American shrub called jatropha curcus was being heralded as the Earth's saving grace. The seeds of the plant produce a diesel-like oil that many predicted would power planes and basically save the world at the same time as pulling millions in the developing world out of poverty.
Some speculated that the booming new industry would spark investments of up to $1 billion a year. The plant was for obvious reasons widely known as the "wonder weed."
One of the main advantages of jatropha is that it can grow in very dry conditions. At least that's what everybody said. However, according to the Green Inc. blog at the New York Times, a June study in the American Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that jatropha was one of the least water-efficient biofuels, comparing only to rapeseed in its thirst. How was that little detail overlooked?
As if that stumbling block weren't enough, according to Green Inc., a report by an environmental and human rights NGO Envirocare, leaked to The East African newspaper last week, tells how the trade in this plant is causing upheaval in Tanzania. Farmers and food crops are being displaced by biofuel production, and water is being consumed at an alarming rate.
Biofuels investors have galloped ahead of the plant science and the community-based planning needed to productively make such sweeping agricultural changes. The journal Nature concludes that we need to go back to the drawing board with some basic research on the wonder weed before this little shrub is going to save anybody at all.
Photo courtesy of treesftf on flickr
