Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn Designated Superfund Status
For over a hundred years, the Gowanus Canal was used as a dumping ground for a host of refining and manufacturing companies. It is now one of the most polluted waterways in the U.S., with high concentrations of heavy metals and PCBs in the sediment. Though the Bloomberg administration was seeking to avoid a Superfund designation (believing that it could manage a faster cleanup without the Superfund stigma), the EPA will now begin the cleanup process, expected to take 10-12 years.
Are Methane Emissions from the Arctic Becoming a Big Problem?
There is some worrisome news coming out of the Arctic, where a recent study in Science has found that methane is bubbling up from deposits in the seafloor. Methane, 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, could amplify global warming as deposits located in the arctic permafrost and on the sea floor become more active. However, the short-lived nature of methane (compared to CO2) may make methane less worrisome than some think. Unfortunately the jury is still out.
The G.O.P.’s Green Rogue – Senator Lindsey Graham
Senator Lindsey Graham has been one of the sole Republican members of congress that has been actively pushing for domestic climate change legislation. In case you missed it, Tom Friedman’s column on how Senator Graham frames his push for a price on carbon emissions is well worth a read.
A Polar Bear Jawbone Provides Clues to the Species Evolution
It turns out that polar bear split from brown bears only 150,000 years ago. DNA evidence from a 130,000 year old jaw bone provides evidence that polar bears have been through warming periods before, giving hope that they would be able to adapt to rapidly warming temperatures in the arctic.
What do we know about Climate Change? A lot, actually. Have a look at this great video from Peter Sinclair of Greenman Studios:
For myself and countless other individuals, the science and empirical evidence confirming that climate change is happening is without question (the papers listed below are a good place to start should you find yourself skeptical of the notion that humans could possibly change the chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans). But in mainstream media circles, a disproportionate amount of airtime is devoted to calling into question global warming. Why is this the case? I suspect it due to any combination of these factors:
A Massive Earthquake Rocks Chile – Why the Discrepancy in Damage and Death?
The 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile yesterday was 501 times as powerful as the earthquake that leveled Port-au-Prince, yet the death toll in Chile has been almost insignificant in comparison – >250,000 vs. 704 (at last count). The differences in geography, development, and preparedness are described by The Washington Post. Also check out USGS shake maps for Chile and Haiti.
Leading Arguments on Why We Need to Deal With Global Warming
Two articles in The New York Times today make the case for agressive action on combating climate change. Al Gore writes a persuasive op-ed on how climate change is an existential threat, while Robert Frank argues that the consequences of inaction in tackling climate change is far greater than the costs of dealing with it.
Floating Garbage Patch in the Atlantic Ocean Found
Plastic debris is continuing to accumulate in the world’s oceans and is concentrated in certain areas due to ocean currents. One area, known as the “Pacific garbage patch” is the size of Texas and located between the US west coast and Hawaii. Researchers have now found a similar area in the Atlantic, with a maximum plastic density of 200,000 pieces per square kilometer. Floating plastic “stuff” is ingested by and ensnares fish, seabirds, and other forms of marine life.
Is Cap-and-Trade Dead?
The Washington Post reports that three key senators (Kerry, Lieberman, and Graham) have been working feveroushly to draft an alternative to cap-and-trade. Instead of a setting up a national cap on emissions, their plan would target three sectors – electric utilities, transportation, and industry differently. Expect more news on this in the coming weeks as this plan is formally unveiled.
As the rains fall here in Northern California, and snowstorms pound the Northeast of the United States, water is on my mind. It is a topic that is of vital importance but continues to be misunderstood. Perhaps most importantly, it is at the center of considerations that must be taken into account in considering how humanity will adapt to climate change.
A recent article in Reuters highlighted this very issue, discussing how “water should have a more central role in debates on food security, peace, climate change and recovery from the financial crisis.”
Stay smart America, science is good for you! While we try and avoid overly political content, this brief summary of the distinction between regional weather and global climate trends is worth it. In this video, President Obama offers a very easy to understand interpretation of some fundamental aspects of the science behind climate change and global warming. It is a response to the claim by global warming deniers that the recent cold spell and snowstorms on the east coast debunk the overwhelming evidence that the globe is indeed warming and that yes, climate is changing with it. Take a peek:
World’s Largest Corporations Caused $2.2 Trillion in Environmental Damages, UN Report Finds
A new UN report shows that if the environmental degradation caused by the world’s 3,000 largest companies was accounted for in their balance sheets, it could cut those companies’ profits by nearly a third. The amount was estimated to be about $2.2 trillion – more than half of which was a price on carbon released into the atmosphere. Some would argue that it is paradoxical to put a price on the environment, as it risks treating the environment as a commodity, rather than an essential component which our civilization depends.
How Green are the Vancouver Winter Olympics?
This article in Popular Science discusses some of the efforts of the Vancouver Olympic Games, such as using recycled metal for the medals, state of the art green building techniques, and lumber from trees destroyed by the the pine beetle epidemic.
Fact Checking the IPCC Controversy Hoopla
As always, the scientists at RealClimate have an excellent post separating the real, the overblown, and the fallacies in the ongoing media frenzy surrounding the IPCC. The gist: yes there are few errors, but these do not undermine the general conclusion of the report. Ongoing observations and studies show that if anything, predictions on impacts caused by accelerating warming by the IPCC AR4 were too conservative, and that the planet is trending along the upper trajectories of the emissions scenarios.
Obama’s Support for Expansion of Nuclear Power and Green Politics
President Obama has made clear that he feels that nuclear energy expansion is key to meeting future energy demands and curbing global warming. Will his support of nuclear power win him republican support of a climate bill? Time Magazine has the analysis.
Wyoming Governor Proposes Tax on Wind Energy Producers
A debate is brewing in Wyoming about taxing the wind energy industry. Governor Dave Freudenthal has proposed an excise tax of $1 per megawatt-hour of energy generated to compensate taxpayers with the environmental and socioeconomic costs of wind energy. Wind energy proponents say that the proposed tax would stifle wind power development and make it less competitive for developers as compared with other states.
Yvo de Boer, the Dutch diplomat who has guided international climate change negotiations over the last four years, announced that he would be resigning from his post effective July 1, 2010.
Although he said he had been considering the decision before the Copenhagen conference in December 2009, Mr. de Boer has been frustrated with the slow progress on reaching a new climate accord to replace Kyoto, and in announcing that he was stepping down, called on businesses most responsible for the energy consumption driving global warming and climate change to put forth more solutions to the problem.
“Copenhagen did not provide us with a clear agreement in legal terms, but the political commitment and sense of direction toward a low-emissions world are overwhelming,” said Mr. de Boer, “This calls for new partnerships with the business sector, and I now have the chance to help make this happen.” Read more at the BBC.
Climate science and climate scientists have been steadily losing the public’s trust over the past few months. First came the “climategate” scandal involving the release of thousands of emails from the University of East Anglia (analysis here and exoneration here). Recently “glaciergate” – in which an assertion in the IPCC’s last assessment report that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2030 was cited from a dubious source. Over the past few weeks Rajendra K. Pachauri, the head of the IPCC, has faced personal attacks and calls for him to step down for an alleged conflict of interest.
Despite these allegations, evidence of human induced global warming/climate change continues to mount.
Screenshot of climate.gov
Climate science is losing the PR battle in the short term, but I am confident that data driven evidence of continued change in the climate system will win the war. (”Win” may be a misnomer – the likely catastrophic effects of unchecked climate change will result in very few winners).
One of the major calls that came out of the climategate scandal was the lack of transparency in climate science circles (despite the fact that the vast majority of raw climate data is available publicly online). One response to this call in my opinion is a new climate data portal: climate.gov from NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). It is a well designed, informative website with resources ranging from raw climate data, to explanations for natural climate variability, to video about using seasonal climate information to improve livelihoods. I really like the Global Climate Dashboard seen on the right:
Highlights of the site include (from the NOAA press release):
- An interactive “climate dashboard” that lets users see a range of constantly updating climate datasets (e.g., temperature, carbon dioxide concentration, and sea level) over adjustable time scales;
- A new Web-based climate science magazine called ClimateWatch, featuring videos and articles of scientists discussing their recent climate research and topics that cannot be relayed in charts and graphs;
- Explanations and exploration of data products available from NOAA and partner agencies, with direct links to the sources of the comprehensive datasets;
- Educational resources for students and teachers, including lesson plans for the classroom and laboratory, educational games and interactive media; and
- Easy-to-understand fact sheets and presentations for professionals and the public about climate science, research and climate impacts.
Can one website win the PR battle? Probably not. But climate.gov is a good start in providing the public with easy to use resources based on hard data from a well-respected government agency.
President Obama discussing clean energy during the state of the union. Source: whitehouse.gov
Going into his first State of the Union address to Congress, I was curious to see if Obama would scale back initiatives that he has placed at the center of his agenda in the face of the US’ fiscal problems. I wanted to highlight and provide commentary of his points relevant to Project Groundswell – namely energy, climate change, and transportation.
Obama’s words are in italics. My comments are in plain text. His first mention has to do with infrastructure and transportation:
Next, we can put Americans to work today building the infrastructure of tomorrow. From the first railroads to the Interstate Highway System, our nation has always been built to compete. There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products.
For anyone who has travelled in Europe or East Asia, the convenience of high-speed rail is without question. The US has eschewed rail as a viable form of transportation (except the northeast corridor) in favor of automobile and air travel. Rail travel has numerous benefits including: comfort, direct access to the center of cities, less of a hassle compared with air travel (security checkpoints, baggage claim), not to mention the environmental benefits. Those that argue that investing in rail travel will involve massive government subsidies fail to mention that air travel and roadways receive massive subsidies.
Tomorrow, I’ll visit Tampa, Florida, where workers will soon break ground on a new high-speed railroad funded by the Recovery Act. There are projects like that all across this country that will create jobs and help move our nation’s goods, services, and information.
The Florida high speed rail network is a start (watch Obama and Biden in Florida announcing this yesterday)– however the fact that high speed rail is such a miniscule part of our national transportation system is unlikely to change very rapidly in the near future. The California high-speed rail plan, linking Sacramento, San Francisco/San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Diego is expected to cost upwards of $40 billion and take decades to build. This initiative was just awarded $2.25 billion in stimulus funds, out of a total of $8 billion just announced.I support these efforts, and wish that larger, more concrete plans were underway nationwide.
The recent earthquake in Haiti has highlighted a whole host of issues related to development, poverty, the environment, and security. Countries in which natural resources are mismanaged, degraded, or heavily exploited are more susceptible to the devastation brought on by environmental change, and when extreme events and conflicts do occur, these countries are far less likely to effectively respond to the crisis.
Even before the earthquake in Haiti, decades and indeed centuries of deforestation left the country with declining agricultural yields, heavy erosion, and few natural buffers to limit the possibility of landslides, flooding, and subsequent structural failures during the onslaught of seasonal tropical storms and hurricanes. The destruction brought about during the recent earthquake and the 2008 hurricane season illustrated this fact in painfully clear terms.
In this regard, Haiti is not unlike a great deal of other countries in the developing world. While it is an extreme case, it is not a unique one, and increasingly the security community is drawing the linkages between the role natural resources, and now climate change, play in fueling instability and even worse, armed conflict. Continue reading The New Security Climate: Environmental Vulnerability
Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn Designated Superfund Status
Recent Comments