Wilderness
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Brazil Rocks: Deforestation Down 45.7 Percent
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WSJ: "Waxman-Markey's benefits far outweigh costs"
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Tusk! Walrus May Join Polar Bear on Endangered List
What Will Global Warming Look Like on the Ground?
Published November 19, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
It's easy to talk about global warming on grandiose terms (the word "global" is in the title, after all). But it's sometimes harder to imagine what the concept really means for our daily lives. Some of us want to know what will happen when all the analysts and number-crunchers have gone home and the climatic disturbances start appearing one by one.
The UK's Telegraph recently published an article detailing some of the changes those of us not exposed to the extremes of a drowning island or a melting Himalaya might experience as the climate warms. What can we expect? Here's a run-down of some of the possibilities in Europe.
Fatalistic Friday: 'We're waiting for our climate speech, Mr. President', major Arctic melt, more
Published September 11, 2009 @ 02:37PM PT
Above: Pacific walrus swimming to shore at an Alaskan beach. The Obama administration may give the species special protections under the Endangered Species Act, because it is losing critical habitat to global warming. Source: US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Presented for your amusement: our semi-regular horse pill of bad news about climate change. Look out -- there's a signpost up ahead that reads...Fatalistic Friday.
Climate Activists Wait for an Obama Speech to Call Their Own: As President Obama delivered his health care speech this week, climate change activists said they were waiting patiently for a similar rhetorical moment. While there is broad acceptance about the president's decision to push global warming to the back burner for now, Obama needs to grant climate change equal attention on prime-time television in coming months, they say.
With less than 100 days until the Copenhagen talks begin, time is running out. "I don't have a problem with him keeping the climate powder dry for now," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, which is pushing to strengthen global warming legislation that passed the House in June. "But, ultimately, it may take a big goosing from the White House to achieve some resolution in the Congress." (ClimateWire)
Arctic ice meltdown greater than average again in 2009: The Arctic sea ice has retreated to the third-lowest level in recorded history -- the fourth time in the past five years that the annual summer meltdown has been far greater than average. The ice has already diminished this year to less than 5.3 million square kilometres, with a week or two of melting left to go. The all-time biggest retreat was recorded in 2007 at 4.13 million square kilometres, and the 2008 retreat fell just short of that record. (CanWest News Service)
Effects of Arctic warming seen as widespread: The Arctic Circle has been warming faster than other latitudes. And the impacts are showing on the region's plants, birds, animals and insects. "The Arctic as we know it may soon be a thing of the past," Eric Post, an associate professor of biology at Penn State University, said in a statement. (Associated Press)
Fatalistic Friday: Storms, heat, drought and double-dealing
Published August 21, 2009 @ 08:14PM PT
Another week's end brings us to another concentrated, hurts-less-this-way burst of the worst of the week's global warming news:
Storm Fells Hundreds of Trees in NY's Central Park: Hundreds of trees in Central Park were damaged and destroyed by severe thunderstorm winds as high as 80 mph. "I've never seen a wind of that velocity in New York City," Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said. "It looks like pictures that I've seen of war zones where artillery shells have shredded trees." (The New York Times)
In hot water: World sets ocean temperature record: The ocean is 72 degrees F in Maine, 88 in Ocean City, Maryland. And all around the world, July was the hottest the world's oceans have been in almost 130 years of keeping records. "The average water temperature worldwide was 62.6 degrees, according to the National Climatic Data Center, the branch of the U.S. government that keeps world weather records. That was 1.1 degree higher than the 20th century average." (Associated Press)
Mexico Hit By Lowest Rainfall In 68 Years: It's killing cattle, threatening millions of tons of crops, and reducing the supply of water to Mexico City. (Reuters)
ConocoPhillips works to undermine climate bill, despite pledge to support climate action: Despite being a member of the pro-business US Climate Action Partnership, ConocoPhillips is now putting its weight behind opposition to climate change legislation. (Grist)
Demanding Closure of W. Va's "Department of Encouraging Pollution"
Published August 11, 2009 @ 09:55AM PT
Related Actions:
- We Don't Need More Dirty Coal! Urge Congress to oppose the construction of new coal-fired power plants unless they feature carbon capture technologies.
- Help Save The Cerulean Warbler: Support Senate Bill 696 to stop mountaintop removal coal mining
- Tell Sec. Salazar to to protect streams and rivers in Appalachia
Four protestors were arrested this morning after they chained themselves to the entrance of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), in Charleston. Saying that the state is not properly regulating mountaintop removal mining of coal in the state, they demanded the resignation of DEP secretary Randy Huffman that the agency turn control of key mining-related programs to the federal government. Reportedly dozens of people appeared at the demonstration.
As one local news outlet reports, "The WVDEP simply fails to adequately regulate the coal industry,” said Rock Creek resident Lorelei Scarbro, one of the demonstrators. “When WVDEP Secretary Randy Huffman runs off to lobby the EPA to grant illegal valley fill permits, he’s abdicated his responsibility to the people. Corporate coal influence has become so great inside the WVDEP that he has become a public relations spokesperson for the coal industry instead of an enforcer of mining laws and regulations.”
The Applalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment, Coal River Mountain Watch, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, and Sierra Club have filed a petition asking that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as the US Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), take over enforcement of a crucial enviro protection rule, mandating that all mining activities leave a 100 foot buffer zone around both perennial and intermittent streams.
This rule has been in contention for over a decade. Most recently, the Bush administration essentially eliminated the buffer zone mandate, and the Obama administration moved to reverse that rule change. But the administration has yet to state firmly that it will enforce the rule, when it comes to filling nearby valleys with the waste from mountaintop removal mining operations.
According to reporter/blogger Ken Ward Jr. at The Charleston Gazette, "Of course, various administrations over at the WVDEP has always argued that the rule does not apply to valley fill footprints and, if it did, the rule would essentially end all coal mining."
The impacts of climate change and fossil fuel dependence are still abstract to many Americans. Not so in West Virginia, however, where mountaintop-removal mining of coal has created post-apocalyptic landscapes worthy of 1970s sci-fi. Protestors say there have been around a dozen protests this year alone against the destructive mining method, organized by grassroots groups like Mountain Justice, and over 90 arrests for civil disobedience.
Read more:
- Breaking: Coalfield Uprising Grows, More Sit-ins: Will Feds Take Down WVA's Embarrassing DEP? The Huffington Post
- "Protesters chain themselves to DEP building," The Charleston Gazette
- Coal Tattoo blog at The Charleston Gazette
- "Appalachian Uprising continues in fight against Mountaintop Removal," Coal is Dirty blog
- "Protestors Arrested at DEP Headquarters", The State Journal
- "Protest at DEP Ends in Four Arrests," WSAZ News Channel 3
Fatalistic Friday: Glaciers shrink, coal lobby spends, more
Published August 07, 2009 @ 06:03PM PT
Retreat of South Cascade Glacier, Washington, during the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st Century. Source: U.S. Geological Survey
Scientists See Alaska, Washington Glaciers Shrinking Fast: Three major glaciers in Alaska and Washington state have thinned and shrunk dramatically, clear signs of a warming climate and signaling lower stream flows in summer months, according to a study released Thursday by the U.S. Geological Survey. (Associated Press)
Coal's biggest lobbying group is launching a $1 million campaign to win support from Senate Democrats, an effort that employs the same public relations firm ensnared by a scandal over forged letters to Congress. (Greenwire)
Climate Action May Stall in Fall: With the fight over health care reform absorbing all attention on Capitol Hill, Democrats fear climate change legislation may lose momentum. (Politico)
Realtors Get Labels Cut From Climate Bill for Older Houses: Real estate industry gets older homes exempted from energy labeling provision of energy and climate legislation, saying it threatened a lucrative corner of their industry. (Climatewire)
The Trouble With Nuclear Fuel: Nukes represent a promising bridge from fossil fuels to truly clean energy technologies. But it's really hard to prevent it from being used to make bombs. (The Economist)
Some California Amphibians May Need a Lift to Survive Climate Change:
As amphibian habitat shifts with global warming, some species will be trapped in shrinking territories, and need human interventions to survive. (Scientific American)
"Serious" Climate Talks Hinge On U.S. Bill: The success or failure of international climate treaty talks depends upon the U.S. passing a strong bill to slash carbon pollution, says American Clean Energy and Security Act co-sponsor Edward Markey (D-Mass.) (Reuters)
Tiny Prairie Grouse Native To Wind-Rich Swath Of America: If the lesser prairie chicken is listed as threatened or endangered – the species' numbers have dropped 80 percent nationally since 1963 – significant restrictions would be placed on companies hoping to plant towering turbines across a five-state region believed to have some of the nation's best wind energy potential. (The Dallas Morning News)
Climate Bill Demands Pile Up for Boxer, Kerry Headed Into Summer Break: "Liberal Democrats, for example, want stronger emission targets compared with the House-passed bill. Coal-state senators are pressing for changes to a delicately crafted House deal that would send their electric utilities a larger share of free allocations. And expanded energy production sits atop the wish list for oil patch Democrats." (Climatewire)
Nobel Halo Fades Fast for Climate Change Panel: As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change gears up for its next climate review, many specialists in climate science and policy, both inside and out of the network, are warning that it could quickly lose relevance unless it adjusts its methods and focus. (The New York Times)
Fatalistic Friday: 'Cash for Clunkers' could save 16 mpg Hummer
Published July 24, 2009 @ 11:02AM PT
Source: failblog
It's been an unusually fertile week for apocalypcious news, so let's dive right in:
'Cash For Clunkers' Program Could Boost Hummer: People who trade in their gas guzzlers for more fuel-efficient cars can get a government subsidy -- even if they trade in old pickups for ones that get just 2 miles per gallon more. Which means the program could provide an unexpected boost to the beleaguered Hummer brand. Its H3T pickup gets 16 mpg. (NPR)
Related:
Cash for Clunkers: Compare the fuel savings (Consumer Reports)
Cars.gov, the official cash for clunkers website
Energy companies opened wallets wide to sway house climate bill: Electric utilities boosted lobbying in the second quarter of 2009, narrowing the gap with oil and gas companies that had dominated spending on persuasion by a wide margin earlier this year. (Greenwire/The New York Times)
Grist grades senate websites on climate transparency; flunks some: Grist combed the Web sites of 99 senators and issued report cards grading them on how well they explained the senators' positions on climate change and energy. "The results aren't pretty. We found a distinct lack of information among Democrats and Republicans alike, senators with and without strong environmental voting records, and from all regions of the country." (Grist)
Meet Belcha - Europe's biggest carbon polluter (and it's about to get even bigger): The biggest single producer of carbon emissions in the European Union has been named - and it is about to get even bigger. The appropriately titled Elektrownia Belchatow - a massive coal-fired power station - belched out 30,862,792 tonnes of CO2 last year and by 2010 the whole generating facility will have grown by 20%. (The Guardian)
Sea Ice Melting Faster Than Expected: A NASA study finds that Arctic ice is melting at a rate that scientists didn't anticipate. (Environment Report)
Massive Glacier In Sub-Antarctic Island Shrinks By A Fifth: French scientists say satellites show a glacier on a southern Indian Ocean island shrunk dramatically in recent decades. They think global warming may be a factor. (AFP)
Warmest june on record for global ocean surface temperature: The world's ocean surface temperature in June rose to its warmest since 1880, breaking the previous high mark set in 2005, according to a preliminary analysis by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville. (Environment News Service)
Arctic Mystery: Identifying The Great Blob Of Alaska: The mysterious, miles-long "blob" found floating in the Chukchi Sea is not an oil spill or alien life-form, according to early tests, but an unusual algal bloom. (TIME)
Caribou Populations Fall Sharply: Scientists are finding what seems to be a global decline in caribou populations, due to global warming (Christian Science Monitor)
Shrinking fish, dying sequoias, rampant tomato fungus, and more after the jump.
Suggest a story to Stop Global Warming
Published July 10, 2009 @ 08:01AM PT
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