The Daily Climate: Oil Pirates Threaten Energy Security, more

by Emily Gertz

Published November 18, 2008 @ 10:20AM PT

I try to not overdo the bad news coverage here at globalwarming.change.org. But now and then current energy and climate events scream "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" so loudly that it's futile to resist. And today is one of those days.

Presenting for your terriblisma enjoyment -- fire, locusts beetles, pirates, and political strife:

Pay the ransom or the oil gets it: Somali pirates hijacked an oil tanker "as long as an aircraft carrier" yesterday off the coast of East Africa. The Liberian-flagged tanker, the Silver Star, can hold up to 2 million barrels (84 million gallons) of oil, and has an international crew of 25. It's owned by Saudi Aramco. The U.S. military is taking notice because this pirate action has big implications for energy security. As the Los Angeles Times reports, Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen said he was 'stunned' that the pirates were operating so far offshore: ""Four hundred fifty [nautical] miles away from the coast, that is the furthest, the longest distance I've seen for any of these incidents."

Related:

• Hijacked Supertanker Anchors Off Somalia (The New York Times)
• Saudi Super-Tanker Taken to Somali Pirate Lair (Agency France-Presse)

Today's New York Times has a detailed report on the devatation of forests in the Rocky Mountain West. From New Mexico to British Columbia, millions of acres of green lodgepole pine forests are turning rust-red as they are killed by an infestation of mountain pine beetles. Colorado may lose virtually all its pine forest in the next three to five years. "Foresters say the historic outbreak has several causes. Because fires have been suppressed for so long, all forests are roughly the same age, and the trees are big enough to be susceptible to beetles. A decade of drought has weakened the trees. And hard winters have softened, which allows the beetles to flourish and expand their range." The only thing this article does not do is name the likely ultimate driver of the drought and softer winters that are contributing to this disaster: global warming.

How do those beetles kill the pines? "The black, hard-shelled beetle, the size of a fingertip, drills through pine bark and digs a gallery in the wood where it lays its eggs," writes The Times. "When the larvae hatch under the bark, they eat the sweet, rich cambium layer that provides nutrients to the tree. They also inject a fungus to stop the tree from moving sap, which could drown the larvae. That fungus stains the wood blue."

Sounds a lot like what the Bush-Cheney administration is doing to the incoming Obama-Biden administration: digging in and knawing the life out of future reforms of energy, environment, and other policies. As the Washington Post reports, the Interior Department's top lawyer has converted half a dozen agency fixers from political appointments into career civil service roles in the agency -- a process called "burrowing." Two of these have been put in key roles controlling mining projects, as well as programs operated by the Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Overall the Bush administration has "burrowed" 20 political appointees into career positions in Interior and other departments, the Post reports, which will make it much more difficult for the incoming White House to put its own preferred individuals into those roles.

Some congressional Democrates aren't doing President-elect Obama any favors, either: Rep. Henry Waxman (Calif.) is duking it out with Rep. John Dingell (Mich.) for control of the important House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which handles major environmental, consumer safety and health laws. As USA Today reports, Mr. Dingell is a long-time ally of the Big Three automakers, and has been seen as an impediment to strong carbon control legislation, while Mr. Waxman advocates strong environmental protections and an overhaul of Detroit. Whoever emerges the winner will be a big player in future energy and climate policies.

Related:

• Climate Change Strategy at Stake in Dispute Among Democrats (Living on Earth)
• Chemical Industry Weighs in With Dingell in Battle With Waxman (CQ Politics)
• Democrates Prepare for Bruising Committee Battle (National Public Radio)

The United Nations' climate body released the latest figures on global greenhouse gas emissions yesterday, and they're not good. According to the The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which manages Kyoto-treaty-related global efforts to reduce greenhouse pollution, "greenhouse emissions—measured in terms of the most ubiquitous: carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)—dropped by 894 million metric tons between 1990 and 2006 (the latest year for which figures are available)," reports SciAm.com. "But the UNFCCC found that emissions had grown by 2.3 percent—403 million metric tons of CO2e—from 2000 to 2006, and that the 16-year dip was due entirely to the drop in economic activity (factory and power plant shutdowns) in former Eastern bloc countries such as Russia after the 1989 fall of communist governments." Now that those countries have largely recovered economically, CO2e emissions have increased by around 258 million metric tons.

Worse -- yes, it's possible -- these data are nearly three years old ("not the freshest, but the most reliable on the market," per UNFCCC spokesman John Hay). So emissions may even higher.

Image: "Gusty winds drove wildfires into southern California cities in mid-November 2008. This image...shows the Los Angeles metropolitan area on November 16, 2008. Places where the sensor detected active fires are outlined in red...According to the National Interagency Fire Center daily situation report from November 16, the Sayre Fire north of San Fernando was 8,000 acres and 20 percent contained. The Freeway Fire was 5,800 acres and 5 percent contained. The following day, winds died down, and the fires’ ferocity ebbed. Evacuees were allowed to return to their communities." Source: NASA Earth Observatory

Related:

• Schwarzenegger acknowledges global boiling: California now has ‘fire season all year round.’ (Think Progress)
• California Fire Season Now Year-Round in Era of 'Mega' Blazes