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Climate Change Poses Existential Water Risks
Climate Change Poses Existential Water Risks
We often hear it said that climate change is too abstract to win the support needed to effectively combat it.
But the primary way we will experience climate change is through the water cycle – through droughts, floods, depleted rivers, shrinking reservoirs, dried-out soils, melting glaciers, loss of snowpack and overall shortages of water to grow our food and supply our cities.
If that’s not tangible enough to take action, I don’t know what is.
We’re already seeing this new world of water unfold before our eyes. And while I must add the obligatory caveat that scientists cannot prove that human-induced climate change is the causeof any single event we have witnessed (with the likely exception of the 2013-14 Australian heat waves), scientists do know – and warn – that these are the kinds of events to anticipate more of as climate change unfolds.
Last week, a new study by researchers with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Cornell and Columbia Universities warned that the U.S. Southwest and Great Plains are almost certainly in for unprecedented “mega-droughts” during this century.
Using 17 different state-of-the-art climate models, the scientists found “a coherent and robust drying response to warming.” The findings were published in the journal Science Advances.
Under scenarios of both moderate and high greenhouse gas emissions, the team concludes that these regions can expect drought periods even more severe than the driest centuries of the last millennium. It was after one of those long droughts that the Hohokam, an advanced, irrigation-based civilization that thrived for a thousand years in what is now the Phoenix area, disappeared.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Think About This On Your Next Commute: Traces of Anthrax, Bubonic Plague Found in NYC Subway
Think About This On Your Next Commute: Traces of Anthrax, Bubonic Plague Found in NYC Subway
Think about this the next time you grip a New York City subway pole: A new study has found that 48 percent of all DNA on the subway’s surface “matches no known organism.”
A study, published Friday by Cornell University, noted that “hundreds of species of bacteria are in the subway, mostly harmless. More riders bring more diversity.” This suggests there’s a “vast wealth of unknown species that are ubiquitous in urban areas” that New Yorkers touch every day.
It also found that one station that was flooded during Hurricane Sandy a few years ago to this day, “resembles a marine environment.”
In likely stressing out more commuters, the study, titled “Geospatial Resolution of Human and Bacterial Diversity with City-Scale Metagenomics,” also found traces of the bubonic plague and anthrax.
The Cornell Researchers spent about 18 months examining the entire subway system. Among the organisms that were identified, there were “1,688 bacterial, viral, archaeal, and eukaryotic taxa, which were enriched for harmless genera associated with skin,” the authors said.
Samples from trains, parks, waterways, subway stations, and trains (all the surfaces, including seats, poles, ceilings, floors, windows, and doors) were taken.
A bacteria heatmap was posted on the interactive website, PathoMap.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Fracking Failure: Frackers In Pennsylvania Violate Health And Environmental Regulations On A Daily Basis
Fracking Failure: Frackers In Pennsylvania Violate Health And Environmental Regulations On A Daily Basis
From the American Petroleum Institute’sclaim that fracking is “safely unlocking vast U.S. reserves of oil and natural gas” to Chris “Frack Master” Faulkner himselfinsisting “fracking isn’t contaminating anything,” the oil and gas industry constantly tells us that fracking can be done safely, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.
But just to be sure the public understands how seriously they considered public health, a group of oil and gas companies fracking in Pennsylvania formed the Center for Sustainable Shale Development in 2013. According to its website, CSSD is dedicated to “the development of rigorous performance standards for sustainable shale development and a commitment to continuous improvement to ensure safe and environmentally responsible development of our abundant shale resources.”
“Rigorous performance standards for sustainable shale development” certainly sounds great. The only problem is, none of the four companies that founded CSSD— Chevron Appalachia, Consol Energy, EQT Production and Shell — seems to have actually adhered to those standards.
According to a new report by Environment America titled “Fracking Failures: Oil and Gas Industry Environmental Violations in Pennsylvania and What They Mean for theU.S.,” ever since those four companies “told the public they would adhere to higher standards” in 2013, they have collectively committed as many as 100 violations of Pennsylvania’s existing oil and gas regulations.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
‘The Drop in Oil Price Means We Need More Action on Climate Change Not Less’
‘The Drop in Oil Price Means We Need More Action on Climate Change Not Less’
This month, a powerful article in Nature highlighted yet again that most of the world’s oil, coal and gas needs to stay in the ground, if we want to prevent dangerous climate change. This is the “unburnable carbon” analysis that President Obama and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney have both made mainstream in recent months.
Related, over the last 6 months the world oil price has crashed, catching almost all economists and analysts by surprise. As well as profound economic effects, this crash affects “unburnable carbon” in two broad and opposite ways.
It is leading to cancellations of potential fossil fuel projects, as they become less or non-profitable. Great for stopping colossally dirty projects like Arctic oil and Canadian tar sands. And in the opposite direction, it makes oil cheaper, meaning people use it more. Bad for climate, though good for people’s pockets.
How should Governments react to this? A Government who genuinely thought climate change was a global priority would not sit passively by and let these conflicting effects of the oil price crash on climate sweep over us. It would act. Government surveys show the British public want more action on climate change.
Tax Cuts
Despite this, the sole response to the oil price crash from the UK Government is do the opposite – last week it announced detailed plans for tax cuts for oil companies to drill another 11-21 billion barrels of oil from the ground. That’s way more than even the three billion barrels in the Government’s Wood Review on offshore oil and gas. Climate change impacts got one sentence of dismissal. And yesterday, it drove through a clause in the Infrastructure Bill – with almost no debate – requiring the UK to “maximise economic recovery” of North Sea oil.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Canada Is Trading Away Its Environmental Rights
Canada Is Trading Away Its Environmental Rights
In 1997, Canada restricted import and transfer of the gasoline additive MMT because it was a suspected neurotoxin that had already been banned in Europe. Ethyl Corp., the U.S. multinational that supplied the chemical, sued the government for $350 million under the North American Free Trade Agreement and won! Canada was forced to repeal the ban, apologize to the company and pay an out-of-court settlement of US$13 million.
The free trade agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico was never designed to raise labour and environmental standards to the highest level. In fact, NAFTA and other trade agreements Canada has signed — including the recent Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with China — often take labour standards to the lowest denominator while increasing environmental risk. The agreements are more about facilitating corporate flexibility and profit than creating good working conditions and protecting the air, water, land and diverse ecosystems that keep us alive and healthy.
Canada’s environment appears to be taking the brunt of NAFTA-enabled corporate attacks. And when NAFTA environmental-protection provisions do kick in, the government often rejects them.
According to a study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, more than 70 per cent of NAFTA claims since 2005 have been against Canada, with nine active cases totalling $6 billion outstanding. These challenge “a wide range of government measures that allegedly interfere with the expected profitability of foreign investments,” including the Quebec government’s moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
A Year Without the Colorado River, as Seen by Economists
A Year Without the Colorado River, as Seen by Economists
Imagine if each tap that delivered water from the Colorado River – whether to a farm, a factory, or a home – suddenly went dry for a year. What would happen to the West’s economy?
That’s pretty much the question a team of researchers at Arizona State University set out to answer – and the results are startling.
The region would lose $1.4 trillion – that’s trillion, with a “t” – in economic activity, along with 16 million jobs.
Each of the six states – Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming – plus seven southern California counties supplied by the Colorado River would see losses to their gross state product (GSP) of half or more. Nevada’s would drop by 87 percent.
Commissioned by Protect the Flows, a coalition of over 1,000 businesses, the study reveals how crucial the Colorado River is not only to these seven states that make up the watershed, but also to the nation as a whole.
Of all the water used in the basin, 43% of agriculture’s supply and 41% of municipal and industrial supplies come from the Colorado River.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
MedievalDeception 2015: Inhofe Drags Senate Back To Dark Ages
MedievalDeception 2015: Inhofe Drags Senate Back To Dark Ages
On January 21, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) again displayed the same deception/incompetence that pervaded his book, The Greatest Hoax (2012).
In this video segment (3:00-5:20), he presented a poster on the Senate floor that matches the image below from“Kyoto by Degrees,” an anonymous Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Opinion piece, June 21, 2005. Both contained claims plausibly called academic or journalistic deception, created for public confusion.
Regardless of ancient tempreatures, modern temperature rise is human-caused, not just natural variation: you damaged your furnace so it now ignores the thermostat. Heat varies erratically, room by room, and day by day, but each week the house is overall wamer than the last. Your attic Arctic fridge’s ice cubes are melting and even the basement freezer is starting to struggle. The furnace will take months to fix, and you need to start, whether or not you believe rumors that some previous owner experienced warmer weather.
Following is the WSJ image Inhofe used without mentioning that source:
“
Trend in average” : Deception.
The original curve was sketched in 1965 by Hubert Lamb, who grafted estimates of 900-1680AD with1680-1961AD measurements compiled by Gordon Manley. It covered a 21×34-mile patch of England.
“exactly as shown”: Falsification. false citation. Real science uses captions and caveats, ignored here by cherry-pickers who plucked the graph out of context and even altered the image.
“mean”: Fabrication. See below.
Lamb MWP curve never global, real science improves
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
‘Strong correlation’ between quakes and fracking in Kansas – official
‘Strong correlation’ between quakes and fracking in Kansas – official
Geologists in the state of Kansas now say that a recent string of mysterious earthquakes may have been caused by pumping chemicals into the ground as part of the controversial gas and oil extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Geologists in the state of Kansas say that a recent string of mysterious earthquakes may have been caused by pumping chemicals into the ground as part of the controversial gas and oil extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Rick Miller, a geophysicist and senior scientist for the Kansas Geological Survey, told the Lawrence Journal-World recently that he believes the injection of fracking chemicals into the earth has been a catalyst for the quakes.
“We can say there is a strong correlation between the disposal of saltwater and the earthquakes,” Miller told the paper.
The Journal-World first published their piece with Miller over the weekend, and it reported that state geologists now say for the first time that fracking is responsible for recent tremors.
On Monday – two days after the paper published its report – the Wichita Eagle reported that four small quakes occurred in the southern part of the state and through neighboring Oklahoma earlier that morning.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Social Cost Of Carbon Drastically Underestimated: Report
Social Cost Of Carbon Drastically Underestimated: Report
The U.S. government could be drastically underestimating how much climate change is going to cost us, according to astudy published by Stanford researchers in the journal Nature Climate Change.
The researchers concluded that the Obama Administration is using a Social Cost of Carbon estimate that may be just one-sixth of the true cost—and that the true cost is high enough to justify aggressive measures for lowering emissions enough to limit global temperature rise to the 2 degrees Celsius that scientists tell us is the threshold for averting catastrophic climate change.
The Social Cost of Carbon is an official estimate of how much economic damage will be caused per metric ton of carbon emitted into our atmosphere—damages like lower crop yields and higher healthcare costs. It is used by the EPA and other federal agencies to calculate the benefits of policies intended to improve energy efficiency, lower emissions, and combat climate change. It is also often used to justify not taking action if the proposed action would cost more than the damage it is intended to mitigate.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
SUBURBAN SPRAWL DOESN’T HAVE TO BE ECOLOGICALLY DEVASTATING
Fort Collins, Colo., is a growing, vibrant college town with a typical American problem: Beyond its idyllic historic city center, cookie-cutter subdivisions are eating away at farm fields, ranches and forests. According to the National Wildlife Federation, “the conversion of natural areas for homes, offices and shopping centers has become one of the most serious threats to America’s native plant and animal species.” It’s also a leading cause of biodiversity decline worldwide.
Yet one development, called the Hill at Cobb Lake, stands out from the turfgrass- and pavement-covered sprawl. Here, homes clustered along a single access road leave bird-filled meadows and ancient cottonwoods untouched.
The Hill is different because it was designed with the notion that rural and suburban housing don’t need to be a death sentence for biodiversity. Homes here are strategically clustered to preserve the most ecologically valuable parts of the land.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Experts Say That Battle on Keystone Pipeline Is Over Politics, Not Facts
Experts Say That Battle on Keystone Pipeline Is Over Politics, Not Facts
WASHINGTON — In 2009, the Obama administration approved a 986-mile pipeline to bring 400,000 barrels of oil sands petroleum a day from western Canada to the United States. Almost no one paid attention. Construction on the pipeline, called the Alberta Clipper, was quietly completed last year.
In that same period, the administration considered construction of a similar project, the Keystone XL. So far only in the blueprint stage, this pipeline has become an explosive political issue that Republicans are seizing as their first challenge to President Obama in the new Congress.
The Republican-controlled House is set to pass a bill to force approval of Keystone on Friday and the Senate is expected to pass the measure in coming weeks. Republicans say the pipeline will create jobs and spur the economy while environmentalists and some Democrats say it will destroy pristine forests and create carbon pollution. Mr. Obama has vowed to veto the bill.
Here’s Why Keystone XL Is the Wrong Choice for Our Nation
Here’s Why Keystone XL Is the Wrong Choice for Our Nation
The new Republican majority in Congress wants to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline for dirty tar sands oil. President Obama announced he will veto bills that bypass the official review of Keystone XL.
There are plenty of reasons to block these bills and this pipeline.
Keystone XL would carry the dirtiest oil on the planet from Canada through the American heartland. The vast majority of it would be shipped overseas, while people here at home cope with the threat of contaminated water and difficult-to-clean-up oil spills.
Polluters are fighting hard to get Keystone approved. The oil and gas industry pumped $53.1 million into last year’s congressional campaigns–87 percent of which went to Republican candidates. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell raked in$608,000 from the industry for his 2014 campaign, and now he is putting Keystone XL at the heart of his big polluter agenda.
But this isn’t just a battle over industry influence. This is a choice about the kind of nation we want to live in.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
An Unexpected Success Story Links Our Health to Wild Lands
An Unexpected Success Story Links Our Health to Wild Lands
Environmental disasters caused by human folly are all too familiar. But what about the environmental serendipity? The unexpected stories where nature and humans co-exist harmoniously. They do happen, and some may be found close at hand by looking at your faucet and following the water back to its source.
Before New York and Boston were fierce baseball competitors, they shared a certain wisdom about their drinking water supplies. Boston draws its water from theQuabbin and Wachusetts reservoirs west of the city. North of New York City stretches the metropolis’ water sources — the Croton and Catskill-Delaware watersheds. Gravity is a good friend to these port cities. Both receive their water, largely unfiltered and un-pumped, from protected watersheds in the hills.
Both of these success stories go back to the days when foul water and a spate of dysentery could lose you an election. This pushed politicians to direct engineers and urban planners to find safe water sources. With populations booming in the 1800s, Boston and New York looked to their hinterlands to quench their growing
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
“The Day When Change Will Come” – It’s Time To Break the Vicious Circle of Capitalism
“The Day When Change Will Come” – It’s Time To Break the Vicious Circle of Capitalism
A man of the Co Tu nation prepares to fish in a river that likely supported humans long before historical records began. But this might be one of the last times. Small-scale, high-pollution gold mining is spreading across the lands of the Co Tu, in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, as well as larger corporate extractive industries.
Around the fisherman, large diesel-powered sifting machines dredge the water, discoloring the wide river with a brown, oil-stained effluent. The discharge contains a high concentration of heavy metals including mercury, which will poison the fish and those who eat them. Further upstream, I walk around an open cast gold mine, a swathe of mud hills and tailings ponds. Until recently, this area was as rich in biodiversity as the tropical rainforest that surrounds it.
I discover that the workers extracting the gold are from different indigenous nations. Vietnam has 54 recognized indigenous groups distinct in language, culture and means of livelihood. These workers left their communities as their livelihoods became untenable due to a vast expansion of “economic development.” A Vietnamese NGO worker accompanying me during my research makes it possible to interview the fisherman and gold prospectors.
– See more at: http://www.occupy.com/article/day-when-change-will-come-–-its-time-break-vicious-circle-capitalism#sthash.94iEqJuH.dpuf
The Biggest Risks To Canada’s Economy In 2015, And Beyond
The Biggest Risks To Canada’s Economy In 2015, And Beyond.
We welcome 2015 at a rather tumultuous time for the global economy — from falling oil prices to hacker threats against a movie studio, to a crucial election in Greece.
The global economy is at a crossroads that could see it either finally escape the aftermath of the 2008-2009 financial crisis, or it could sink back into a slowdown. Personal and public debt loads are high, while the recovery in job markets and income levels has been disappointing and income disparities within countries are widening. Many of the biggest threats to Canada’s economy will sound familiar, they’ve been building since the Great Recession, but 2015 also poses a unique set of challenges that could affect Canadians this year.
