Posts by Edward Humes
Obama Sides with Bush on Polar Bears and Climate
Published May 08, 2009 @ 12:24PM PT
The Obama administration announced today that it is embracing a last-minute "midnight rule" created by President Bush that eviscerates protections for the imperiled polar bear.
This rule, celebrated by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and now adopted by Obama, bars the government from using the polar bear's protected status to regulate greenhouse gas emissions as an extinction threat if those emissions originate outside the animal's Arctic habitat. It is known as the "4(d) rule" after the section of the Endangered Species Act that it amends.
However, as the official listing of the polar bear acknowledged, it is exactly those remote emissions -- and the climate change they cause -- that are destroying the polar bear's sea-ice habitat, driving the creatures into extinction. The rule not only violates the intent of the Endangered Species Act, environmentalists have argued, but also dooms the polar bear as a wild species.
In making the announcement, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar promised continued, vigorous action to rescue the polar bear. But he said the Bush rule made sense, as the Obama administration intends to use different methods of combatting global warming.
"We must do all we can to help the polar bear recover, recognizing that the greatest threat to the polar bear is the melting of Arctic sea ice caused by climate change," Salazar said. "However, the Endangered Species Act is not the proper mechanism for controlling our nation's carbon emissions."
This was the same argument the Bush administration employed, asserting that it would be wrong to use the Endangered Species Act as a "back door" method of regulating greenhouse gas pollution. But environmentalists have argued that the broad intent of the Endangered Species Act unequivocally requires a response to all human-caused extinction threats, including global warming. They've advocated that the powerful law should be viewed as a valuable tool and opportunity to tackle the climate crisis.
Obama Gains Authority to Restore Endangered Species Protections
Published March 11, 2009 @ 03:35PM PT
President Barack Obama can now go beyond executive orders while averting his predecessor's attempt to curtail some of the nation's strongest wildlife protections. The $410 billion omnibus spending bill that he signed today contains several riders giving him unambiguous authority to rescind the last-minute rule changes made by ex-President Bush that gutted the Endangered Species Act.
Without this authority and barring congressional action, months or years might have been required to restore the wildlife protections the Bush-Cheney White House sought to end.
President Obama may now, with the stroke of a pen:
- Restore global warming to the list of recognized threats to the polar bear (scientific opinion holds that global warming is the primary driver of the bear's potential extinction in the wild)
- Ban oil and gas drilling in polar bear habitat
- Restore the requirement for federal agencies to consult with federal wildlife and marine scientists when considering mining, building, logging and other construction projects that might have a negative impact on endangered species, putting science back on at least an equal footing with politics and economic factors. Had this rule been overturned successfully, it would have effectively turned the Endangered Species Act of 1973 on its head through executive fiat.
Global Warming Deniers, Delayers Gather for Unreality Check
Published March 09, 2009 @ 09:31AM PT
The world’s largest gathering of climate change deniers has convened in New York City for its annual confusion of climate and weather, science fact and fiction, and criticism of Al Gore as "evil," or at best well-meaning but wrong.
Sponsored by the Heartland Institute, the International Conference on Climate Change is the epicenter for a thriving parallel scientific universe in which our activities have no impact on the climate, a snowstorm during a protest against coal power in Washington proves the Earth is really cooling, and Al Gore’s advocacy on behalf of reduced greenhouse gas emissions is comparable to the Final Solution, Adolf Hitler’s systematic genocide against the Jews.
The conference features "experts" including many PhDs and an astronaut, but few climate scientists. And there's the documentary called “Not Evil, Just Wrong,” which, contrary to the title, asserts that Al Gore wants the Black Plague to return with a vengeance. Meant to be a call to arms, the film comes as across more as “Not Evil, Just Silly."
Groups and gatherings like these were once largely funded by the oil industry. More lately the funders are fringe groups with money to spare.
It seems on its face a sad little conference. But it is part of a network of climate change denial, a focused effort to delay taking action that could rein in global warming.
That’s not just sad and silly. It’s a danger.
Skeptic debunking tip: For many people, it’s hard to separate science fact from science fiction. John Cook’s Skeptical Science is an excellent compendium of climate change skeptic arguments, how often they’re used, and why real science draws different conclusions.
Obama Restores Bushed Protections for Polar Bear, Other Species
Published March 04, 2009 @ 08:51AM PT
President Barack Obama un-gutted the Endangered Species Act yesterday by rescinding one of the Bush Administration's most reviled midnight rules: allowing agencies to approve federal construction projects that could harm endangered plants and animals, without consulting federal wildlife scientists.
Obama's executive order restores the mandate for scientific consultation between agencies -- putting science back on equal, if not somewhat elevated, footing with both politics and economics when new construction and development projects are being considered.
"The work of scientists and experts in my administration, including here at the Interior Department, will be respected," Obama said during a visit to the department in honor of its 160th anniversary. "With smart, sustainable policies, we can grow our economy today and preserve the environment."
Environmentalists were jubilant at the executive order.
World's Richest Gain From Creating a Clean, Green Future
Published March 03, 2009 @ 12:12PM PT
The Sunday Times of London has published its first ever "Green Rich List," featuring 100 tycoons or wealthy families who have heavily invested in green technology and environmental causes.
The usual suspects are on the list - Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Ted Turner, Michael Bloomberg, and the Google duo of Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
But the international flavor of the list contains some green scions who may not be familiar to Americans, though they soon could be:
- #64, Wang Chuanfu, founder of China's BYD battery company, which is bringing to market what appears to be one of the most capable and affordable fully electric cars in the world.
- #5, Mukesh Ambani, India's richest person, who is developing non-edible fuel crops that grow on wastelands
- #14, Hansjorg Wyss (Swiss by nationality, Pennsylvania by residence) heads the Wyss Foundation, a major supporter of environmental and conservation efforts, including the work of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, which took the lead in securing endangered species protections for the polar bear.
- #21, Aloys Wobben of Germany, founder of Enercon, a world leader in wind turbines
- #3 on the list, Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad of Sweden, who is converting his stores to 100% renewable energy
"Ecobarons lead the way," according to the Times -- which is also the theme of my new book, "Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet," in which I profile two of the green moguls on the list: Turner, and Burt's Bees founder Roxanne Quimby.
[Click here for upcoming events on Ed's book tour. - Ed.]
Midnight Mischief Battles Continue: Bush v. Mollusk
Published January 17, 2009 @ 12:38PM PT
And the winner (so far): the abalone.
Despite President Bush's determined efforts to gut the Endangered Species Act by blindfolding it to earth's main extinction threat, a lowly mollusk seems to have stopped him in his tracks.
California's black abalone, nearing extinction in its native waters, has just been listed as endangered because of global warming. Once a common sight in the tide pools of the West Coast, its population is now down by 99% throughout most of its range.
It's not that the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is in charge of ocean-bound ESA listings, didn't get the climate-change-is-off-the-table memo. It's just that the direct threat to the abalone is called withering disease - which is made more virulent and widespread by rising ocean temperatures and acidification, both of which are caused by carbon emissions and global warming.
So while the listing is more a Midnight Mischief "one-off" than a loophole, the effect is the same: The abalone is listed, and next on the ESA to-do list are identifying its critical habitat areas, and creating a recovery plan for the species.
The battle still ahead will be the midnight rule's effect on remedies for the abalone's plight -- or that of any other species -- after the listing decision is made. Bush's new rule exempts federal agencies from having to consider regulations for greenhouse gases as ways to counter the extinction threat, even when global warming is the reason for the listing in the first place. Thus, even when a listing is made, it can be rendered toothless by the new rule - which is why numerous environmental lawsuits are challenging this paradoxical double standard.
Midnight Enviro Rules Expose the Real Bush Agenda: Preventing Change
Published December 19, 2008 @ 02:00PM PT
The latest addition to Bush Administration's tidal wave of midnight regulations is a new rule -- imposed without required public comment -- that limits the definition of navigable waters. Sound innocent enough, but it serves to remove protections for important wetlands under the Clean Water Act.
Among the countless small bodies of water to be affected: the wildlife-rich, though intermittent, Los Angeles River. (When a government biologist kayaked a 20-mile portion of the river in July to prove it was navigable, despite new definitions to the contrary, she was threatened with suspension.)
This is just one of a long list of President Bush's last-minute changes to regulations regarding smog, toxics, global warming, and endangered species protections. The new rules and policies have been widely condemned (or celebrated, depending on your point of view) as a last-gasp bid to impose epic change on American environmentalism -- to the benefit of oil companies, the coal industry, climate change deniers, developers, and polluters of all sorts.
But beyond the specifics of the new rules, the larger perception that President Bush is trying to change things by doing all this is false. The regulatory makeover, from wetlands to walruses, is really about preventing change.
