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Green Sanctuary/Climate Change Group 7/27/2010Global Warming News To Table of Contents
ClimateScienceWatch.org interview with Stephen H. Schneider on his "Expert Credibility in Climate Change" study. Dr. Schneider was Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Professor, Department of Biology, and Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment, at Stanford University. (9 min) Climate Change and National Security Global Warming News
In December of 2007, NASA's Jim Hansen gave a slide show at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco. He'd been thinking about what it meant that we'd just come through a summer of very rapid ice melt in the high Arctic, and that researchers were reporting "ahead of schedule" changes in dozen other of the earth's big physical features—melting glaciers, acidifying oceans and so on. Combined with reams of paleo-climate data, his team believed they now had enough information to finally draw a red line for the planet: when atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide were above 350 ppm, they said, global warming would be dangerously out of control. In fact, they said in the abstract of the paper they soon published, above 350 you couldn't have a planet "similar to the one on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted." — Bill McKibben Click here to see and hear "Three Five 0" Anthem, composed and performed by a UU Minister.
Click here to read about the Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN). MCAN is a coalition of locally organized groups fighting the climate crisis. Jeremy Grantham: Everything You Need to Know About Global Warming in 5 Minutes Wikipedia: Jeremy Grantham is an American investor and Chairman of the Board of Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo (GMO), a Boston-based asset management firm. GMO is one of the largest managers of such funds in the world, having more than US $107 billion under management as of December 2009. Grantham is regarded as a highly knowledgeable investor in various stock, bond, and commodity markets, and is particularly noted for his prediction of various bubbles. He has been a vocal critic of various governmental responses to the Global Financial Crisis. Grantham started one of the world's first index funds in the early 1970s. Everything You Need to Know About Global Warming in 5 Minutes
This was extracted from the July 2010 GMO Quartly Letter. Study Reaffirms Broad Scientific Understanding of Climate Change, Here, we use an extensive dataset of 1,372 climate researchers and their publication and citation data to show that 1) 97-98% of the climate researchers most actively publishing in the field support the tenets of ACC outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; and 2) the relative climate expertise and scientific prominence of the researchers unconvinced of ACC are substantially below that of the convinced researchers. That is the conclusion of an important first-of-its-kind study published June 21st in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, "Expert credibility in climate change." The findings will come as no surprise whatsoever to 97% to 98% of scientists — but it could theoretically open the eyes of those in the status quo media who keep suggesting the ‘experts’ they cite that keep pushing anti-science disinformation are somehow close to being equal in number, credibility, or expertise to the broad community of climate scientists, thereby implying serious disagreements among mainstream scientists. Heat Waves Could be Common by 2039 in U.S., Finds Stanford Study
Devastating heat waves that result in fatalities and crop losses may increasingly become a common occurrence in the United States over the next three decades, according to a team of Stanford University researchers. "Using a large suite of climate model experiments, we see a clear emergence of much more intense, hot conditions in the U.S. within the next three decades," Noah Diffenbaugh, the lead author of the study, told the Stanford Report. "In the next 30 years, we could see an increase in heat waves like the one now occurring in the eastern United States or the kind that swept across Europe in 2003 that caused tens of thousands of fatalities," said Diffenbaugh, a center fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment. "Those kinds of severe heat events also put enormous stress on major crops like corn, soybean, cotton and wine grapes, causing a significant reduction in yields." "I did not expect to see anything this large within the next three decades. This was definitely a surprise," said Diffenbaugh. "It's up to the policymakers to decide the most appropriate action, but our results suggest that limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius does not guarantee that there won't be damaging impacts from climate change," he said. The Latest on the BP Oil Spill as of July 30, 2010
Effort to Permanently Plug Well Is Progressing Thad W. Allen, the retired Coast Guard admiral who leads the government’s spill response, said Thursday that BP could start its “static kill” plan — the first in a two-step process to choke the well off with mud and cement — by this weekend, ahead of the scheduled start time on Monday. The decision to speed up would depend on BP’s progress in completing a relief well that will eventually pump mud and cement into the bottom of the reservoir and permanently seal it, Admiral Allen said. That would be followed by injections of mud and cement from the bottom using a relief well. Birds Released at Louisiana Wildlife Refuge State and federal biologists released 13 laughing gulls, two royal terns and one sandwich tern at Rockefeller State Wildlife Refuge, after rescuing and rehabilitating them from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The refuge, in Grand Chenier, La., was selected by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the federal Fish and Wildlife Service as the release site because it had not been affected by oil and contained natural habitat for these species. To date, more than 550 birds have been treated and released in the rescue and recovery effort. On July 7 the federal government opened a new web site, RestoreTheGulf.com, for all news related to the oil spill. Extreme Weather Events - with NOAA Map of Tennessee’s 1000-Year Deluge The U.S. has had three extreme weather events in the last ten months. Expert comment follows the three descriptions below. Oklahoma On June 14 Oklahoma City Micronet reported that a rainfall observation of 10.21" exceeded the 1-in-500 year rainfall total for a 12 hour period. Moreover, the 9 inches that fell in 6 hours meets the requirements for a 1 in 500 year flood event. Tennessee
The Tennessee deluge of 2010, aka Nashville’s ‘Katrina,’ was an off-the-charts extreme weather event that human-caused global warming set the table for and almost certainly made more intense. 15 Sites Had Rainfall Exceeding the Maximum Associated with Hurricane Katrina Landfall. You may not understand just how unprecedented this superstorm was until you see this map from the Office of Hydrological Development at NOAA/NWS. Look at the red streak, which is the area hit by a greater than 1000-year deluge. And look at how much of western Tennessee was slammed with a greater than 500 year downpour. Read More on Tennessee’s 1000-Year Deluge. The Unitarian Universalist Association has set up a fund that is a partnership among the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Mid-South District, the Thomas Jefferson District, FUUN and the Greater Nashville UU Church. Its purpose is to bring practical financial assistance, ministry, and spiritual care to those affected by the tragic floods. You can donate funds here. Georgia Last September there was an extreme weather event in Georgia. You can read a Weather Channel expert on Georgia’s record-smashing global-warming-type deluge here. Usually during September, when there’s wild weather, including precipitation extremes, it’s as a result of a hurricane or tropical storm. Not in 2009. Comment Dr. Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and one of the country leading scientific authorities on climate change and extreme weather, comments: "There is a systematic influence on all of these weather events now-a-days because of the fact that there is this extra water vapor lurking around in the atmosphere, [more] than there used to be, say 30 years ago. It’s about a 4% extra amount, it invigorates the storms, it provides plenty of moisture for these storms, and it’s unfortunate that the public is not associating these with the fact that this is one manifestation of climate change. And the prospects are that these kinds of things will only get bigger and worse in the future." Read More of Joe Romm's interview with Dr. Trenberth.
Arctic Amplification: More Cold and Snowy Winters in Europe, Eastern Asia, and Eastern North America A warmer Arctic climate is influencing the air pressure at the North Pole and shifting wind patterns on our planet. We can expect more cold and snowy winters in Europe, eastern Asia and eastern North America. "Cold and snowy winters will be the rule, rather than the exception," says Dr James Overland of the NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in the United States. Dr Overland is at the International Polar Year Oslo Science Conference (IPY-OSC) to chair a session on polar climate feedbacks, amplification and teleconnections, including impacts on mid-latitudes. Loss of sea ice causes major climate change Continued rapid loss of sea ice will be an important driver of major change in the world's climate system in the years to come. "While the emerging impact of greenhouse gases is an important factor in the changing Arctic, what was not fully recognised until now is that a combination of an unusual warm period due to natural variability, loss of sea ice reflectivity, ocean heat storage, and changing wind patterns working together has disrupted the memory and stability of the Arctic climate system, resulting in greater ice loss than earlier climate models predicted," says Dr Overland. Read MoreArctic Death Spiral
One of the country’s leading experts on the Arctic projects it will be essentially ice-free (in the fall) decades ahead of the projections of the climate models used in the 2007 IPCC report. And that has quite dire implications and consequences for the likely future rate of climate change compared to those models. The chart is from Wieslaw Maslowski of the Naval Postgraduate School in a presentation at the March State of the Arctic Meeting. If Maslowski is anywhere near correct, then this key aspect of human-caused climate change will have happened staggeringly faster than the IPCC and its models had projected — with quite dire implications and consequences for the likely future rate of climate change compared to the models. As a 2008 study led by David Lawrence of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) concluded: We find that simulated western Arctic land warming trends during rapid sea ice loss are 3.5 times greater than secular 21st century climate-change trends. The accelerated warming signal penetrates up to 1500 km inland. In other words, if it continues, the recent trend in sea ice loss may triple overall Arctic warming, causing large emissions in carbon dioxide and methane from the tundra this century (for a review of recent literature on the tundra, see "Science stunner: Vast East Siberian Arctic Shelf methane stores destabilizing and venting").
Eat Vegetables, Cut Fossil Fuels, Aid Planet - UN Study "How the world is fed and fueled will in large part define development in the 21st century," said the 112-page report by the International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management. "Agricultural production accounts for a staggering 70 percent of the global freshwater consumption, 38 percent of the total land use and 14 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions," said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme. The report said consumers could help by cutting down on meat consumption and use of fossil fuels in heating or travel. "Animal products are important because more than half of the world's crops are used to feed animals, not people," it said. "A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products." Read More
BP Skipped Critical Testing Hours Before Explosion
New revelations about BP's operations on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on the day of the explosion are being described as the smoking gun that proves the oil giant's culpability in the disaster. BP hired a reputable oilfield service company to test the strength of cement linings on the well, but then sent the company's workers home 11 hours before the explosion on April 20 — "without performing a final check that a top cementing company executive called 'the only test that can really determine the actual effectiveness' of the well's seal," reports the New Orleans Times-Picayune. BP has also come under fire for its safety procedures — crewmember Mike WIlliams told "60 Minutes" that despite damage to the critical blowout preventer, BP ordered the rig operator, Transocean Ltd., to ignore a critical safety measure during the sealing of the well. By failing to use drilling mud, a heavy liquid that keeps oil and gas from coming back up the pipe, to seal the well, BP saved money but may have caused the explosion. Read More
Five Local Ideas Influencing National Policy
Forest Cover Declining Across New England; Group Urges New Protections
After more than 150 years of natural regrowth, forest cover is declining across all six New England states, threatening the region's landscape and chipping away at a natural buffer against global warming, according to a study released Tuesday by Harvard University's Laboratory for Ecological Research. The study by Harvard Forest found that New England forests, having grown back after a spate of land clearings by European settlers, have come under increasing pressure from a new wave of commercial development, industrial use and invasive species. Less than 20 percent of New England's 33 million acres of trees, waters and wetlands are permanently protected from development. Read More
Climate Change and Food Security: Irreversible Destiny? Excerpt: Henk-Jan Brinkman of the World Food Program, on how even the "small shocks" of the food and financial crisis can adversely affect children's health. (2 min., 49 sec.) Read moreYouTube Video of R.E.M. Concert It's the End of the World As We Know It - Oil Production Peak Much Sooner Than Expected The permanent end of the era of cheap oil is coming as soon as next year, according to a raft of official reports that have made their way into energy media over the last few months. Governments are now beginning to acknowledge the looming crisis. Yet, perhaps because they waited too long to prevent it, leaders are not yet alerting the public. The entire world economy is built on cheap oil. A permanent oil production shortage will thus lead to The End of The World As We Know It. What will come on the other side of this — will it be good or bad? Public Unaware. Except for a few stories in financial pages such as London's Financial Times, this earth-shaking news has yet to reach the Mainstream Media. While "Peak Oil" researchers have long warned of approaching oil shortages, the difference now is these dire warnings are being validated by the highest government and oil company officials. Yet, no political leader has had the courage to make a major announcement to prepare the public for what lies ahead. Read More
Climate Change Indicators in the United States
Collecting and interpreting environmental indicators play a critical role in our understanding of climate change and its causes. An indicator represents the state of certain environmental conditions over a given area and a specified period of time. Examples of climate change indicators include temperature, precipitation, sea level, and greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. EPA's Climate Change Indicators in the United States (PDF) (80 pp, 13.3MB) report will help readers interpret a set of important indicators to better understand climate change. The report presents 24 indicators, each describing trends related to the causes and effects of climate change. It focuses primarily on the United States, but in some cases global trends are presented to provide context or a basis for comparison. A four page Summary of Key Findings starts on page 4. EPA adds: "Considering that future warming projected for the 21st century is very likely to be greater than observed warming over the past century, indicators of climate change should only become more clear, numerous, and compelling."
Help Pass the Updated Bottle Bill!
The Bottle Bill is the state’s most successful recycling and litter prevention program. Since the Bottle Bill's inception in 1983, over 30 billion containers have been redeemed, contributing to a healthier environment, cleaner and safer communities, and a stronger economy. But to keep up with the times and consumers’ tastes, the bottle bill must be updated. An Updated Bottle Bill would expand our container deposit system to include non-carbonated beverages such as water, iced tea, juice, and sports drinks. It would decrease litter - and increase recycling. An amazing 80% of beverages that are covered by the bottle bill are redeemed/recycled. But unfortunately, only 22% of non-deposit containers are recycled – the rest become litter, clog our storm drains, or are thrown in the trash. Updating our bottle bill will boost recycling, save our communities the cost associated with disposal and litter cleanup, and conserve valuable resources. These plastic bottles are made of 99% petroleum - what an inappropriate waste to bury our valuable oil in landfills or burn it our or incinerators. There are only three months left in this legislative session, and the bottle bill has yet to move out of its first committee. Your call to your legislators will help move it along. Contact your State Representative and State Senator and ask them to push for passage of the Updated Bottle Bill, H3515/S1480. If you know who your legislators are, click here to contact them. If you're unsure, click here Ask your legislators to:
We suggest you call, email, or fax them today! Be sure to include your name and address. Additional information: H3515/S1480 would
This bill would not increase the deposit, and would not cost the state any money. This bill would help reduce litter, increase recycling, and help municipalities reduce collection and cleanup fees. There are no other bottle bill updates currently being considered by the legislature. Notes: Endorsed by Over 130 Cities and Towns, and by Advocacy Groups throughout the State. Enacting the update would save our cities and towns significant amounts, from lowering disposal costs, litter collection costs, and storm drain cleaning, which are frequently blocked by littered containers. Increases Recycling Rates: Approximately 80% of bottle-bill-covered beverages are redeemed/recycled. Only 22% of NON-redeemable beverages are recycled. Complements Curbside Recycling: Curbside is very effective for beverages consumed at home. But the majority of single-serving containers are consumed on-the-go, out of curbside’s reach. Decreases Landfill Use: The state is running out of landfill space. The 1 billion containers that we send to landfills every year would fill Fenway Park to overflowing. Saves Energy, Saves Oil: Most of the containers under the update are made of PET, 99% of which is petroleum. Recycled PET is badly needed for textiles. Had these bottles been recycled, we would have saved the energy equivalent of about 48,000 barrels of oil. Strong Public Support: The public is very supportive of the bottle bill, seeing the positive effect that it’s had on the environment. Producer Responsibility: Bearing the cost of a product's waste should be the responsibility of beverage producers and consumers, not taxpayers and communities. The bottle bill is a model for this kind of sustainable financing. Creates Green Jobs: Gains in employment have been shown in nearly every state that updates their deposit system. Many of these jobs come in the recycling sector, which now produces important – and sustainable – raw materials to be used in manufacturing. Keeps Current With Consumer Habits: The original bottle bill was never meant to be non-reactive to consumer trends. Now that 1/3 of our containers are not covered by the 27-year old law, we need to update it. Revenue Positive for the State: Unclaimed deposits are maintained by the state. The cost of updating the bottle will not require any funding. Supports the Redemption Centers: The bill includes provisions to increase the handling fee (not paid by the state). These small, often families owned business have not had an increase in handling fees in 18 years. They are currently experiencing huge increases in operating costs; many of them have been forced to close. Provides Relief for Small Stores: The update allows small stores to opt out of taking returns if there’s a nearby redemption center. No Additional Costs for Supermarkets: Almost all large supermarkets have more than enough capacity in their "reverse vending machines" to accept the increase in containers. Neither additional machines nor floorspace would be required.
The Climate-Friendly Gardener The millions of Americans with a lawn or garden know that even small shifts in weather can affect their outdoor plans. Unchecked global warming, however, could force gardeners to deal with more droughts and floods, and a profusion of pests and weeds. The Climate-Friendly Gardener: A Guide to Combating Global Warming from the Ground Up, shows you how to reduce the impact of climate change in your own backyard. What Is Geoengineering and Why Is It Considered a Climate Change Solution?
175 scientists and other interested folks (including companies looking to profit from geoengineering) gathered in the Asilomar conference center near the end of March to try to repeat the success of molecular biologists who gathered there in 1975 to reassure a skeptical public about genetic engineering. Ultimately, the gathered would-be geoengineers released a statement calling for, among other things, "further research in all relevant disciplines to better understand and communicate whether additional strategies to moderate future climate change are, or are not, viable, appropriate and ethical." The list of unintended consequences of human manipulation of natural systems is long: concrete jungles creating urban heat islands, vast oceanic dead zones resulting from fertilizer use on inland agricultural fields, and intentionally introduced species, such as the cane toad in Australia, that then wreak havoc on ecosystems, among others. Whether the idea is to mimic a volcano's cooling impact on climate by continuously pumping sulfates into the stratosphere or to brighten clouds via crewless ships spewing water vapor, possible problems range from shutting down rainfall in certain regions to unilateral declarations of war. As the Royal Society noted in its 2009 report on geoengineering: "The safest and most predictable method of moderating climate change is to take early and effective action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. No geoengineering method can provide an easy or readily acceptable alternative solution to the problem of climate change." Nevertheless, humans are already managing the climate, even with actions intended to improve the environment. A recent decision to cut sulfate pollution from cargo ships will, in effect, further warm the globe as more cooling particles are removed from the sky. ScientificAmerican.com spoke to climate modeler and geoengineering expert Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, who coined the term "solar radiation management" for efforts to dim the sun (though he now prefers "climate intervention"), about why humans might want to get smart about planetary management. Read More
Ocean Acidification: 'Evil Twin of Global Warming' Threatens World's Oceans, Scientists Warn
ScienceDaily (Apr. 1, 2010) — The rise in human emissions of carbon dioxide is driving fundamental and dangerous changes in the chemistry and ecosystems of the world's oceans, international marine scientists have warned. "Ocean conditions are already more extreme than those experienced by marine organisms and ecosystems for millions of years," the researchers say in the latest issue of the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution. "This emphasises the urgent need to adopt policies that drastically reduce CO2 emissions." Read More
Psychology of Climate Change Communication Columbia University's Center for Research on Environmental Decisions has released a primer on the "Psychology of Climate Change Communication." Click here to see the Guide.
Green Sanctuary/Climate Change Group
Please stop by the social justice table at coffee/friendship hour if you have an interest in working on issues concerning global climate change or email gogreen@firstparish.info . If you want to write a letter to a politician calling for social action, names and addresses of representatives are here. — David Landskov Mindful EatingLilian Cheung on
Mindful Eating Click here to see a Word file with a list of restaurants in the Arlington area where you can dine vegetarian. Forks Over Knives Coming in Summer 2010 The video below is about Melanie Joy's new book Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows. In the 40-minute video to the right, Neal Barnard MD discusses the science behind food addictions. Chocolate, cheese, meat, and sugar release opiate-like substances during digestion. Dr. Barnard shows how a plant-based diet helps one avoid problems caused by these addictions. Dr. Barnard is the founder of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. He spoke at the 2003 VegSource Healthy Lifestyle Expo.
This video is a presentation by Professor T. Colin Campbell, also at the 2003 VegSource Healthy Lifestyle Expo. Dr. T. Colin Campbell is Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University and was principal director of the China Study. In this 45-minute talk Campbell describes the research that led to his change from dairy rancher and animal-protein advocate to disease prevention researcher and vegan.
Food & Environmental Justice See choices for downloading the Food & Environmental Justice Study Guide. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle |
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