Speaking of emissions

Having Palin talk about loving the smell of exhaust reminded me of this story....

Krugman convinced me...

Time to get on the garden and begin restocking the pantry....

But the evidence tells a different, much more ominous story. While several factors have contributed to soaring food prices, what really stands out is the extent to which severe weather events have disrupted agricultural production. And these severe weather events are exactly the kind of thing we’d expect to see as rising concentrations of greenhouse gases change our climate — which means that the current food price surge may be just the beginning.

[snip]

Don’t let the snow fool you: globally, 2010 was tied with 2005 for warmest year on record, even though we were at a solar minimum and La Niña was a cooling factor in the second half of the year. Temperature records were set not just in Russia but in no fewer than 19 countries, covering a fifth of the world’s land area. And both droughts and floods are natural consequences of a warming world: droughts because it’s hotter, floods because warm oceans release more water vapor.

As always, you can’t attribute any one weather event to greenhouse gases. But the pattern we’re seeing, with extreme highs and extreme weather in general becoming much more common, is just what you’d expect from climate change.

The usual suspects will, of course, go wild over suggestions that global warming has something to do with the food crisis; those who insist that Ben Bernanke has blood on his hands tend to be more or less the same people who insist that the scientific consensus on climate reflects a vast leftist conspiracy.

But the evidence does, in fact, suggest that what we’re getting now is a first taste of the disruption, economic and political, that we’ll face in a warming world. And given our failure to act on greenhouse gases, there will be much more, and much worse, to come.

Meanwhile... back on the ranch...

Global warming:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released data today (15 June 2010) confirming what NASA separately reported last week: global surface temperatures this Spring rose to record levels. NOAA data also indicate that other temperature records are toppling -- all consistent with long-term trends driven largely by rising greenhouse gas emissions.

And bees:

Distracted by a mysterious rash of dying bees, researchers may be overlooking a more insidious pollinator crisis. It has little to do with bees and everything to do with booming markets for raspberries, pears, and chocolate

Erik Prince of Blackwater fame thinks about Dubai:

Sources close to Blackwater and its secretive owner Erik Prince claim that the embattled head of the world's most infamous mercenary firm is planning to move to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Middle Eastern nation, a major hub for the US war industry, has no extradition treaty with the United States. In April, five of Prince's top deputies were hit with a fifteen-count indictment by a federal grand jury on conspiracy, weapons and obstruction of justice charges. Among those indicted were Prince's longtime number-two man, former Blackwater president Gary Jackson, former vice presidents William Matthews and Ana Bundy and Prince's former legal counsel Andrew Howell.

And the horrible health care we have in this country:

Can’t afford a doctor? No health insurance? Well, you can always go to the emergency room.

Kathy Myers found out the hard way that the ER isn’t the answer. Out of work, lacking insurance, and unable to get proper treatment for a painful shoulder injury incurred a month ago, the 41 year-old Michigan woman took drastic steps.

She lay on her bed, put a pillow over her shoulder, and shot herself with a handgun. Not in a suicide attempt, but in an attempt escape the constant pain and get medical treatment. A month of pain without no end in sight will mess with your head.

A 911 call did result in a trip to the ER, but only to take care of the gunshot wound. Her previous non life-threatening injury was left untreated. No CT scan, no MRI. She was home within a few hours. And she’s in worse shape than ever, with the added possibility of facing criminal charges for discharging a firearm within city limits.

And how far we've come..../snark: Marines Put Gay Man in Hospital. Will Anyone Prosecute?

Boycott Valero and Tesoro gas stations

In 2006, California passed The Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), making our state number one in the world in legislating real reductions in the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

Now Valero Energy -- a Texas-based oil company -- has already spent half a million dollars to fund a deceptive initiative that would destroy AB 32, California's landmark clean energy and air pollution law.

Together Valero and another Texas-based oil company, Tesoro, are projected to spend millions of dollars to gather signatures for a November ballot initiative that would kill AB 32 and new clean energy development.

Don't let Texas oil barons mess with California's climate change law!

Every dollar spent at a Valero or Tesoro gas stations is another dollar Texas oil barons can use to buy this election.

Sign the pledge.

I'm glad there's one left

Temporarily...
Giant Oarfish filmed in sea off Mexico.

When you consider ocean acidification and rapid climate change:

So if they paint the Hummer white

Does this mean we have to stop pointing and laughing?

LONDON(AFP) (AFP) - US Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Tuesday the Obama administration wanted to paint roofs an energy-reflecting white, as he took part in a climate change symposium in London.

The Nobel laureate in physics called for a "new revolution" in energy generation to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

But he warned there was no silver bullet for tackling climate change, and said a range of measures should be introduced, including painting flat roofs white.

Making roads and roofs a paler colour could have the equivalent effect of taking every car in the world off the road for 11 years, Chu said.

It was a geo-engineering scheme that was "completely benign" and would keep buildings cooler and reduce energy use from air conditioning, as well as reflecting sunlight back away from the Earth.

For people who found white hard on the eye, scientists had also developed "cool colours" which looked to the human eye like normal ones, but reflect heat like pale colours even if they are darker shades.

And painting cars in cool or light colours could deliver considerable savings on energy use for air conditioning units, he said.

Cow farts

Better check the carbon dioxide emissions coming out of Capitol Hill....

Oh noes! My flat screen monitor! My HDTV!

SAN DIEGO, California, October 24, 2008 (ENS) - A gas used in manufacture of flat panel televisions, computer displays, microcircuits, and thin-film solar panels is 17,000 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and it is far more prevalent in the atmosphere than previously estimated.

The powerful greenhouse gas nitrogen trifluoride, NF3, is at least four times more widespread than scientists had believed, according to new research by a team at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

Solar panels??? Can't win for losing....

Nobody light a match!

Methane being released in the north in huge amounts because of melting ice:
The U.K.'s Independent reported today some pretty shocking news in "Exclusive: The methane time bomb":

The first evidence that millions of tons of a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed has been discovered by scientists ...

The Independent has been passed details of preliminary findings suggesting that massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats.

Assuming these findings are published in a peer-reviewed publication, as is planned, they should be taken quite seriously for four reasons. First, many fear that a huge methane release is what happened during the Permian-Triassic extinction event and the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Second, releasing even a small fraction of the sub-sea methane would make a stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions at non-catastrophic concentrations all but impossible.

Third, as NOAA reported earlier this year, levels of methane rose sharply last year for the first time since 1998..[snip]

Fourth, the findings are apparently based on very new and credible in situ measurements:

Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia's northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane -- sometimes at up to 100 times background levels -- over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.

So. If we don't get washed out of our homes by the rising sea levels, blown out of them by more category 5 hurricanes, tossed out of them by foreclosures and another Great Depression... we can be gassed to death in them by methane...

Shouldn't we ...ah... be doing something? Like planting shrubberies? Igniting the methane hot spots? Dumping ice cubes into the ocean? Something?



Because it won't just be the polar bears who'll disappear...

You'll have to put white duct tape all over this post

Because Preznit Bush said there's no global warming and what he says is law:

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - An Environmental Protection Agency chief was given a warning against the potential rejection of California's proposal to enforce it's own carbon emission laws, as doing so would compromise the EPA's credibility, eventually calling for the chief's resignation.

The warning, sent out by Margot Oge, head of the agency's office of transportation and air quality, was directed to EPA Director Stephen Johnson, who was also informed that despite opposing claims, barring California's intentions to enact its own environmental laws had no legal or technical basis.

The documents were among the findings uncovered upon submission of EPA records released Tuesday upon the request of California Sen. Barbara Boxer.

[snip]

The submitted records were in relation to California's ongoing push to enact its own laws regarding greenhouse emission standards, which 16 states have showed intentions of backing up and eventually adopting for their own areas.

[snip]

The LA Times reported that another document showed EPA staff insisting on California's vulnerability to global warming consequences, running counter to Johnson's statement that the state had no "compelling and extraordinary conditions" to earn it its own tailpipe law.

Johnson was accused of making decisions while being swayed by political pressures, an allegation which he denied.

But Johnson is truly a loyal Bushie:

Johnson’s injection of President Bush’s politics into science is notorious. Earlier this year, he censored documents with white duct tape on the EPA’s decision-making process on the California waiver. Asked whether global warming was “a major crisis” facing the world, Johnson replied, “I don’t know what you mean by major crisis.”

Ironically, Boxer said today that the documents revealed an EPA “in crisis.”

Global warming? What global warming? There's no global warming! Ohhhh... THAT global warming...

Why on earth would anyone want to?

Headlines:

NASA: Antarctic Ice Melting Fast, Sea Levels Going Up

Brazilian Amazon Deforestation Rate Accelerates, 1,250 Square Miles Lost In Past 5 Months

Asia To Produce Over 60 Percent Of World's Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 2010

Bird Flu In India Has Spread to Nine Districts Of West Bengal


but then:

Scientific Breakthrough Could Allow Humans To Live For Hundreds Of Years

You've got to be kidding, right?

Can you guarantee there will be a world left to live on? That you wouldn't live in poverty for many of those hundreds of years? That you wouldn't live as a 98 year old with Alzheimer's for five hundred years? And how would your health insurance work? Wouldn't the planet get a little ... crowded?

I think I'll pass....

Following Dick Cheney's lead

The EPA declares executive privilege and refuses to explain why it said no for the first time in 32 years to California's greenhouse gas regulations:

Invoking executive privilege, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency refused to provide lawmakers Friday with a full explanation of why it rejected California's greenhouse gas regulations.

The EPA informed Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., that many of the documents she had requested contained internal deliberations or attorney-client communications that would not be shared with Congress.

"EPA is concerned about the chilling effect that would occur if agency employees believed their frank and honest opinions and analysis expressed as part of assessing California's waiver request were to be disclosed in a broad setting," EPA Associate Administrator Christopher Bliley wrote.

More than a week after a deadline set by Boxer, the agency gave the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which she chairs, a box of papers with large portions of the relevant documents deleted, Boxer said. The documents omitted key details, including a presentation that, according to Senate aides, predicted EPA would lose a lawsuit if it was taken to court for denying California's waiver.

The refusal to provide a full explanation is the latest twist in a congressional investigation into why the EPA denied California permission to impose what would have been the country's toughest greenhouse gas standards on cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles.

Via Nicole Belle of Crooks and Liars, Think Progress points out that Vice President Dick Cheney met with automakers before the EPA denied California's waver. Gee... doesn't this sound familiar?

Anything to keep us guzzling that 100 dollar a barrel crude, huh, Dick?
(crossposted at SteveAudio)

Barbara Boxer takes the EPA to task

Tell EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson to explain why he denied California's waiver request!

Recently, I chaired a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee field hearing in Los Angeles to investigate why the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denied a request from California and 18 other states to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles.

Despite our invitation, EPA Administrator Johnson refused to attend the hearing and explain why, over the unanimous recommendations of technical and legal staffers at the agency, he denied California's common-sense waiver request. He has also failed to respond to the Committee's demand that the EPA release all documents pertaining to the agency's decision.

Join 17,030 Americans and email EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson now: Demand that he release all the documents surrounding his decision to reject California's waiver request!

Our Gropenator is going to sue!

(CNN)-- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to sue the federal government over its decision not to allow a California plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he announced Thursday.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Stephen Johnson announced the decision Wednesday, refusing the state's request for a waiver that would have allowed it to cut emissions faster than a new federal plan the president signed into law Wednesday.

"It's another example of the administration's failure to treat global warming with the seriousness that it actually demands," the governor said at a news conference Thursday.

Bush on Thursday defended the decision of his EPA administrator.

"Is it more effective to let each state make a decision as to how to proceed in curbing greenhouse gases? Or is it more effective to have a national strategy?" he said.

(Bryan of Why Now? predicted this in comments.)

When the hell have you had any kind of nation strategery except to try and break the federal government, Georgie?

Standing accountable before history

For not acting.



Thank you for all that you have done,(President) Al Gore.

Do as I say while I don't do as I said I'd do to make you do what I wasn't going to do in the first place

The Bush administration's mantra.

Officially, the US government says it wants to push in Bali for a climate protection "road map." But SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned that this may not be true. US government officials are already attempting to coordinate with China and India to prevent binding emissions limits.

In recent official statements, Washington has indicated it might be looking for a compromise during negotiations in Bali for a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. But sources say the White House is discreetly searching for partners in Beijing and Dehli to derail the prospects for any binding agreements to curb emissions of greenhouse gases.

In the run-up to the Bali Climate Conference that opened Monday, the administration of US President George W. Bush established contact with representatives of the Chinese and Indian governments in an attempt to curb progress on climate protection initiatives, SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned from a source familiar with the White House's Bali strategy.

In other words: Sorry your island is going underwater, but it didn't have any oil.

How long can you tread water?

Not long? Maybe buying that mountain cabin makes more sense now...

Over the past 30 years, temperatures in the Arctic have been creeping up, rising half a degree Celsius with attendant increases in glacial melting and decreases in sea ice. Experts predict that at current levels of greenhouse gases--carbon dioxide alone is at 375 parts per million--the earth may warm by as much as five degrees Celsius, matching conditions roughly 130,000 years ago. Now a refined climate model is predicting, among other things, sea level rises of as much as 20 feet, according to research results published today in the journal Science.

[snip]

Such a sea level rise would permanently inundate low-lying lands like New Orleans, southern Florida, Bangladesh and the Netherlands. Already sea level rise has increased to an inch per decade, thanks to melting ice and warm water expansion, according to Overpeck. And evidence that the Arctic is exponentially warming continues to accumulate. Indeed, in another paper in the same issue of Science, Goran Ekstrom of Harvard University reported a marked increase in so-called glacial earthquakes (seismic events recorded throughout the world when Greenland's glaciers slip past rock) since 2002. In fact, last year alone saw twice as many quakes as in previous years, with most of that increase coming during the summer months.

"We need to start serious measures to reduce greenhouse gases within the next decade," Overpeck says. "If we don't do something soon, we're committed to [13 to 20 feet] of sea level rise in the future."

In other news, Bush says "whatever" to global warming:

President Bush this week called on the world's top emitters of greenhouse gases warming the world to set a "long-term goal" for reducing such pollution, but was vague on how to complete the task.

"By setting this goal, we acknowledge there is a problem," President Bush told representatives of 17 nations attending the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change held in Washington, D.C., this week.

"Whaddya want?" demanded Georgie as he pouted during his speech,"I'm gonna be outa here in a buncha months. You expectin' anything more? Givin' speeches is hard work!"

I'll repeat my lolcat pic:

What an idea!

Britain is planning on getting rid of the old light bulbs and saving the earth:

LONDON - High-energy light bulbs will not see the light of the day in Britain by 2012, the government has announced. Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announced the new policy, which is another step taken as part of efforts to cut CO2 emissions.

Energy efficient light bulbs will take the place of these high-energy bulbs on shelves from the next few years. The main aim of the scheme is to save 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, the government added.

"Britain is leading the way in getting rid of energy-guzzling light bulbs and helping consumers reduce their carbon footprint," said Secretary of State Hilary Benn. "Choosing energy saving light bulbs can help tackle climate change, and also cut household bills, with each bulb saving up to £60 over its lifetime."

How strange... a government that actually does things that help people. But wait, Bush is on top of things! He's going to have a .... meeting!!:

NEW YORK - President George W Bush is all set to hold his own climate change meeting in Washington on Friday even as he wrapped a fresh round of meetings at the United Nations.

Delegates of 16 of the top polluting nations have gathered in the US for the meeting, which has been called a show of leadership on climate change by Bush. The meeting will also be attended by representatives of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as well as the European Union.

The White House said in a statement that the main aim of the meet was to set global goals as well as "nationally defined mid-term goals and strategies, and sector-based approaches for improving energy security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

More hot air from politicians? I think I've found a source of global warming...

Is the ethanol party over?

Because these German scientists are saying something that a lot of us were thinking:

Biofuels, once championed as the great hope for fighting climate change, could end up being more damaging to the environment than oil or gasoline. A new study has found that the growth and use of crops to make biofuels produces more damaging greenhouse gases than previously thought.

German Nobel-prize winning chemist Paul Crutzen and his team of researchers have calculated the emissions released by the growth and burning of crops such as maize, rapeseed and cane sugar to produce biofuels. The team of American, British and German scientists has found that the process releases twice as much nitrous oxide (N2O) as previously thought. They estimate that 3 to 5 percent of nitrogen in fertilizer is converted and emitted, as opposed to the 2 percent used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its calculations.

Crutzen is widely respected in the field of climate research, having received the Nobel Prize in 1995 for his research into the ozone layer. The study, published in the scientific journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, finds that the growth and use of biofuels produced from rapeseed and maize can produce 70 percent and 50 percent more greenhouse gases respectively than fossil fuels.

We're going to have to invent solar cells on everything we use, wear, and build..... That or have an army of hamsters in exercise wheels to run our public transport systems.

Save the earth, prevent global warming....

Eat less meat:

London, England (AHN) - Cutting world meat consumption by 10 percent would significantly slow down the impact of global warming, a new research has found.

Writing in the latest edition of medical health journal The Lancet, the scientists advised people in rich countries to limit their meat consumption to the equivalent of one hamburger per person per day to help reduce global warming.

"Worldwide, agricultural activity, especially livestock production, accounts for about a fifth of total greenhouse-gas emissions, thus contributing to climate change and its adverse health consequences, including the threat to food yields in many regions," write the authors.

Researchers believe that cutting global red meat consumption from an average of 100g per person per day to 90g would cut the gases emitted by cows, sheep and goats that contribute to global warming.