Science
Youth Activists to Obama: No more Katrinas, restore Gulf Coast
Published August 27, 2009 @ 07:09PM PT
Above: "International climate activists floated two roof tops in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool early Thursday afternoon in anticipation of the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina."
Related action: Tell the President: Lead Congress to Pass a Strong Clean Energy Bill
Just a few days before the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall on the Gulf Coast, youth activists today floated mock rooftops in one of Washington, DC's signature water landmarks. "HELP-The Water Is Rising" was the message painted on one of the roofs, while the 30-foot banner the protestors held up urged President Obama to "Prevent the Next Katrina, Restore the Gulf, Stop Global Warming."
The protest evoked memories of TV images that held the nation transfixed four years ago, of homes of New Orleans underwater after the city's levees burst in the hurricane's wake.
A statement from the activists calls for "bold US leadership at the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December to pass a fair, ambitious, and binding global treaty that will prevent environmental disasters of the catastrophic magnitude of Katrina in the future."
Such a treaty, say the activists, will include financial support for developing nations that are simultaneously most at risk from the impacts of global warming, and least prepared to mitigate or protect themselves from them.
Close to two thousand people died on the Gulf Coast as a result of Hurricane Katrina; hundreds are still listed as missing. The storm also caused $80 billion in damages.
In New Orleans, the 1,400 or so deaths were not a direct consequence of the storm: the collapse of the levees was a human-caused disaster.
A coalition of 17 advocacy groups has also marked the approaching anniversary, calling upon the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to fulfill President Obama's campaign pledge "to restore nature's barriers -- the wetlands, marshes and barrier islands that can take the first blows and protect the people of the Gulf Coast."
President Obama, meanwhile, has responded to continued criticism of the Corps' work in the Gulf since Katrina by establishing a federal interagency task force to manage restoration of the Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines.
Activist Victory: UN's top climate scientist endorses 350 ppm goal
Published August 25, 2009 @ 05:36PM PT
The United Nations' top climate scientist has stated that to have a shot at stabilizing the climate, the world's nations must embrace the goal of getting below 350 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
"As chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) I cannot take a position because we do not make recommendations," said Rajendra Pachauri in an interview published today by Agency France-Presse. "But as a human being I am fully supportive of that goal. What is happening, and what is likely to happen, convinces me that the world must be really ambitious and very determined at moving toward a 350 target."
The IPCC's 2007 report was widely interpreted as endorsing a goal of flattening out at 450 ppm. But subsequent climate developments -- including record lows of summer Arctic ice, which plays a significant role in regulating the climate in the Northern Hemisphere -- have suggested that such a concentration would in fact be much too high to sustain a stable climate. (We're currently at around 390 ppm.)
It's a major victory for the global climate movement 350.org, as founder Bill McKibben explains:
Many national governments (and even some environmental groups) have stuck to a 450 ppm target—it seems politically “realistic.” But Pachauri has taken away that gray area, and laid down the real bottom line. Physics and chemistry say 350, and that’s that.
Pachauri cited the decision of the small island nations and less developed countries to endorse the 350 target...
This news makes it much easier for all of us to push hard leading up to the Oct. 24 “Day of Action” [http://www.350.org/actions] and the December Copenhagen climate talks. It’s clear now that science is powerfully on the side of 350. Now we need the political world to follow suit.
350.org has created a simple and effective message, and made internet tools central to magnifying its efforts. With projects like the October 24 Day of Climate Action, the group encourages people to organize within their own communities, civic and religious groups, to create change from the bottom up instead of trying to bring it from the outside in.
It's one of the most truly grassroots and creative efforts in environmental activism today, which is why we've often turned our attention to 350.org on this blog:
Bill McKibben: 'There finally is climate change activism' and anyone can join
Astroturf Fail? Join the real grassroots climate action movement
Nonprofit Profile: 350.org meshes social networking, community ...
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)
Cut Music's Impact on Climate: Download your tunes
Published August 20, 2009 @ 08:11AM PT
Digital downloads have been blamed for eviscerating the music industry's profit model -- but compared to commerce in compact discs, they're great for the climate.
Get your latest Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce or Lady Gaga via the internet, and you'll cut the energy and carbon dioxide overhead by 40 to 80 percent over distribution of a physical CD, according to a new report commissioned by Microsoft and Intel. The savings come in getting rid of physical packaging, delivery, and the compact disc itself; the range of impact depends upon whether the customer burns the music to a CD.
If you walk to the music store instead of driving, however, the CO2 emissions are about equal with downloading and burning, say the researchers.
So take heart, old-school consumers: If you prefer browsing for new tunes in the aisles instead of online, forestall green guilt by putting on your sneakers and going to the store under your own power. (Consider it a new form of sneakernet.)
Also, downloads of around 260 MB or greater use enough internet energy to make them comparable in carbon pollution with the download and burn scenario, say the report's authors.
"However, as file sizes and Internet energy use are increasing, Internet energy efficiency is also increasing," they write, "thus it is unlikely even in the case of large file transfers for digital downloads to use more energy or produce more CO2 emissions than delivering music via CDs."
Climate Activist to Stephen Colbert: "We're past the point where you can make the math work one bulb
Published August 18, 2009 @ 12:54PM PT
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
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Related post: Bill McKibben: 'There finally is climate change activism' and anyone can join
350.org founder and co-director Bill McKibben wisely opted to play it straight last night on The Colbert Report.
Colbert's quips and numbnuts neo-con questions were gentler than usual -- but no matter what, it's a rare guest that can out-funny Stephen.
Under Colbert's purposefully obtuse barrage of questions, McKibben described how during the summer of 2007, the Arctic ice cap shrank so dramatically (to a new known low), that to many researchers, it signaled a dramatic shift in the climate.
The situation moved some scientists from abstractions to alarm. In early 2008, NASA senior climatologist James Hansen and colleagues released a draft paper stating that given the climactic instability already being observed, the world needs to get back to 350 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere. (We're now at around 390 ppm, and at the anemic levels of current action, we'll be lucky to level out at 490 ppm.)
[[The final version of this paper is available at arXiv.org, an open access repository of scientific research sponsored by Cornell University and the National Science Foundation.]]
350 ppm is a concentration at which the oceans and forests of the globe could probably continue to pull and store enough carbon out of the atmosphere, explained McKibben, to avert the worst impacts of global warming.
Colbert: Can I steal your thunder and start 349.org? Mine's one better.
McKibben: Science isn't like politics, you know. Chemistry and physics don't bargain that way. We know know now what the bottom line for the planet is.
Colbert: Chemistry and physics doesn't bargain?
McKibben: They don't haggle.
Colbert: Well then I refuse to talk to them, until they reconsider their position!
McKibben: And they to you! They're just gonna do what they're gonna do.
And that's why, around the world now, there are people coming together in this 350.org movement, to try to get our leaders to take the steps that we need.
Colbert: Now you're calling for action on October 24. On October 24 you want people to what, screw in florescent bulbs? What do you want people to do?
McKibben: That would be nice. But we're past the point where you can make the math work one bulb at a time.
Colbert: Good, 'cause I hate those things.
Do-It-Yourself Enviro, Ag, Science "Afrigadget" Makers Gather in Accra
Published August 10, 2009 @ 08:45AM PT
Above: The Zeer pot is an African cooling gadget which, for less than $2US in local materials and without electricity, can extend the storage lifetime of fresh produce by as much as 18 days...Two clay pots are nested with a relatively thin layer of sand between them. The sand is watered twice daily, and the lidded inner pot is cooled by evaporation. More info at the end of this post.
The first-ever Maker Faire Africa, happening this week in Accra, Ghana, will put a heavy emphasis on what activist-entrepreneur Emeka Okafor calls bottom-up indigenous industrialization. It's a challenge to the top-down style of international aid and development programs, which typically focus on bringing "First World" technologies and agriculture methods into poorer nations, whether or not they really suit local conditions. (Worse, these are often technologies and food production methods that contribute to worsening global warming.)
In contrast, bottom-up indigenous industrialization offers solutions that are based on local knowledge, materials, and infrastructure. The emphasis is on smaller-scale, local economic development, rather than projects that generate food and goods for export to Europe and North America.
The event in Accra looks like it will feature more pragmatic inventions and innovations and get them into mass distribution; tech that's locally designed, with the potential to help people pull themselves out of poverty, hunger, and environmental degradation (while steering firmly away from digital information and communication technologies, or ICT):
Maker Faire Africa asks the question, “What happens when you put the drivers of ingenious concepts from Mali with those from Ghana and Kenya, and add resources to the mix?”
Maker Faire Africa will engage on-the-ground breakthrough organizations like Ashesi University and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to sharpen focus on locally-generated, bottom-up prototypes of technologies that solve immediate challenges to development. Specifically, Maker Faire Africa will take an approach that will achieve three principal aims:
- Brighten the light on local examples of the “fabrication” ethos
- Provide mechanisms to incubate these innovators and their products to a point where they can be taken to market
- Connect refined plans to disseminate innovations with venture finance
The aim is to identify, spur and support local innovation. At the same time, Maker Faire Africa would seek to imbue creative types in science and technology with an appreciation of fabrication and by default manufacturing. The long-term interest here is to cultivate an endogenous manufacturing base that supplies innovative products in response to market needs.
That's not to say everything must be serious. Maker Faire Africa is being programmed on four tracks, according to the event's first press release, which factor in art, craft and Lego blocks along with the bio-energy sources:
- Robotics – Lead by Afrobotics in the ROBOlab, this track host lectures as well as a LEGO robotics workshop and competition.
- Agriculture & Environment – takes a new look at sustainability, green technologies and innovations such as biofuel and architecture.
- Science and Engineering - this track will highlight new innovations from the 3rd annual International Development Design Summit (IDDS) at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) (a joint project with MIT and MacArthur “Genius Grant” award winner Amy Smith, who has focused on fostering indigenous technological development).
- Arts & Crafts – held at an outdoor art center, this track will showcase everything from sculptures to toys to textiles
Maker-type events I've been to in the US typically feature a lot of whimsical gadgetry, some hacked energy conservation-related tools, and a smattering of works with loftier artistic goals. They're fun, sometimes thought-provoking, and often more than a little anti-corporate. The fundamental organizing principle is that you can make something yourself instead of buying it at the store -- reflecting both our high level of prosperity as a nation, and a major challenge of American-style late stage capitalism: transforming ourselves back into citizens who shop as necessary in order to live, instead of consumers who live to shop.
Understandably, Maker Faire Africa's gadgets and gizmos are likely to be more down-to-earth. We've got our problems, and they've got theirs.
I'd love to be in Accra this week to enjoy Maker Faire Africa firsthand. (Hello, assigning editors!) Ah well: If you won't be making it to Ghana, either, I'd recommend keeping an eye on the following blogs and tags for first-hand reports from the scene:
Maker Faire Africa blog
Maker Faire Africa on Twitter
#mfa09 on Twitter
Emeka Okafor, at Timbuktu Chronicles
I'll add more links if and as I encounter them...please add yours to the comments!
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Image: "The Zeer pot is an African cooling gadget which, for less than $2US in local materials and without electricity, can extend the storage lifetime of fresh produce by as much as 18 days. It is of staggeringly simple design: Two clay pots are nested with a relatively thin layer of sand between them. The sand is watered twice daily, and the inner pot, which is lidded, is cooled by evaporation. It's interesting to note that, although the technology to manufacture the zeer pot has existed literally since the dawn of civilization, it is not known to have been produced until recently. Who would have thought there was a profound invention remaining to be discovered using only clay and sand?" Via Make Magazine Blog
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)
