TOP STORY
Two stories this weekend suggest that the goalposts for effective, or perhaps any, climate change legislation could be moved to next year. While "Senators Try To Raise Climate Bill From Ashes" by maybe excluding cap-and-trade system, some have interpreted President Obama's omission from the SOTU of the need for market-based emissions cap as "signaling that he would not actively pursue wide-ranging climate control legislation this year." The UN similarly indicated that "global climate talks may have to continue into 2011."
One factor motivating the continual delay might be some lawmakers' belief that passing a climate bill could be difficult this election year as public support appears to continually dip in polls from 2009 and again this month. The elephant in the climate change debate is the GOP climate deniers that have been chipping away public support with their lies and deceptions so that now there is declining public support for climate change as a top priority because "fewer people believe global warming is occurring."
One poll showed increasing number of Americans who "think global warming will never harm people in the United States or elsewhere or other species." Clearly, these folks are not reading Daily Kos because our eco community has done a fabulous job of laying out the broad range of grave impacts of climate change. But, have they also not even heard about the perils faced by our lovely polar bears?
This is one reason I have advocated that Obama needs to address the public to make the case that climate science is valid and explain the impacts that are happening now and what is projected for our future. It is even more imperative given that the media "make our anti-science reporters, columnists, and media seem like Walter Cronkite".
Or, Americans who do not believe climate change is happening now could check out a definitive government report released last summer on Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States that describes in layperson terms climate change impacts happening now and projected future impacts under both low and higher emission scenarios.
Climate change impacts happening now in the U.S. include:
Average temperature has risen more than 2°F over the past 50 years. The result is longer warm seasons and shorter, less intense cold seasons. Mild winters combined with early springs are happening more frequently, which induces premature plant development that can lead to widespread crop devastation due to subsequent late-season frosts. Weeds, diseases and insect pests benefit more than cash crops from higher temperatures and carbon dioxide levels. In fact, some pesticides and herbicides lose effectiveness at higher temperatures or CO2 levels.
Climate change is already impacting animal and plant species due to the change in the timing of our seasons as "spring now arrives an average of 10 days to two weeks earlier than it did 20 years ago." This has already altered animal migrations and the geographic range of species has "shifted northward and upward in elevation" causing increased concern for extinctions due to "mismatches between species and the resources they need to survive." Marine species and fisheries are similarly moving northward.
Climate change has already altered our water cycle, resulting in changes in precipitation patterns and intensity, drought, widespread melting of snow and ice, increased atmospheric water vapor, increased evaporation, increased water temperatures, reduced lake and river ice and changes in soil moisture and runoff.
Precipitation has increased an average of 5% over the past 50 years over the entire U.S., but there are regional and seasonal differences resulting in some parts of the country being wetter and others drier. There has been an increase in the frequency and intensity of heavy downpours. Rainfall amounts in heaviest downpours have increased 20% on average in past century. Increased flooding has already caused disruptions to regional travel, freight and rail shipments across our country, impacting our transportation network that is vital to our economy, safety and quality of life. Add into the mix mudslides and road closures due to increased wildfires and deforestation.
In recent decades, the frequency of large wildfires and length of fire season has increased substantially in the western U.S. due to earlier spring snowmelt and higher spring and summer temperatures. Forest ecosystems have also already been hit by major insect pest outbreaks, such as the pine beetle.
Extreme weather events, such as heat waves and regional droughts, have "become more frequent and intense during the past 40 to 50 years." We now experience "more unusually hot days and nights, fewer unusually cold days and nights and fewer frost days." The nature of heat waves have also changed with an "increasing trend in high-humidity heat waves" that create "extremely high nighttime temperatures" instead of cooling down. The prior nighttime recovery from heat was an essential element of livestock survival when stressed by heat, and thus recent heat waves caused the deaths of "5,000 head of cattle in a single heat wave in one summer."
The power and frequency of Atlantic hurricanes have increased in recent decades with an increase in destructive energy. In the eastern Pacific, the total number of storms has decreased but hurricanes have become stronger since the 1980s.
Over the past 50 years, sea level has risen by up to 8 inches or more along some coastal regions of the U.S. Arctic sea ice is rapidly declining, causing multiple impacts, including storms producing waves seriously eroding coastlines requiring the planned relocation of some communities in Alaska.
The report is available to read here, and includes sections of impacts by sectors (such as water resources, transportation, ecosystems, agriculture, society, human health and energy supply/use) and regional climate change impacts for Alaska, coasts, Great Plains, Islands, Midwest, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest.
Or, they could read the news, such as this story reported today that "three big government agencies in South Florida are issuing a red alert on global warming" that is happening now and may be accelerating. Thus, "any remaining debate, complacency or indecision government agencies once had about the threat of global warming has given way to urgency." These agencies admit that the sea is rising due to climate change, which must be addressed when planning new projects and preparing adaptations to offset climate impacts.
Or, the public could do as Bill Maher says, look out the window:
Some more climate change news...
CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY
- While Congress fiddles, China is Leading Race to Make Clean Energy, vaulting past competitors in the West on wind turbines, solar panels while pushing hard on building nuclear reactors and more efficient coal power plants.
These efforts to dominate the global manufacture of renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China.
See also, Lindsey Graham: "Every day that we delay trying to find a price for carbon is a day that China uses to dominate the green economy."
- Obama uses executive order to set targets on federal agencies' greenhouse-gas emissions to reduce emissions by 28% by 2020.
- Pentagon to rank global warming as destabilising force for first time: "While climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden on civilian institutions and militaries around the world" to respond to humanitarian crises or natural disasters.
- Leaks imperil nuclear industry at utility that had portion of cooling tower collapse in 2007.
The nuclear industry, once an environmental pariah, is recasting itself as green as it attempts to extend the life of many power plants and build new ones. But a leak of radioactive water at Vermont Yankee, along with similar incidents at more than 20 other US nuclear plants in recent years, has kindled doubts about the reliability, durability, and maintenance of the nation’s aging nuclear installations.
Vermont health officials say the leak, while deeply worrisome, is not a threat to drinking water supplies or the Connecticut River, which flows beside the 38-year-old plant, nor is it endangering public health.
WATER & NATURAL RESOURCES