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Tonight's editor: ellinorianne
Please remember to rec the BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 69
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The Washington Post posted an Opinion piece today entitled The Truth About Global Warming. They make a very important point that our Government cannot pass legislation that matches the overwhelming science to back up climate change. THIS IS IMPORTANT and we must keep pushing for understanding how imperative it is to share the information.
IN A DEPRESSING case of irony by juxtaposition, the death of climate change legislation in the Senate has been followed by the appearance of two government reports in the past week that underscore the overwhelming scientific case for global warming -- and go out of the way to repudiate skeptics.
First came a report on global climate from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which confirmed that the 2000s were by far the warmest decade in the instrumental record -- as were, in their turns, the 1980s and the 1990s. Unlike year-to-year fluctuations, these 10-year shifts are statistically significant.
...
Second was a strongly worded response from the Environmental Protection Agency to petitions that it revoke its finding that "climate change is real, is occurring due to emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities and threatens human health and environment."
So here are some significant things from those two reports, rather than just leaving you the links in the piece at the Washington post, I'm included significant portions of the research released within days of each other here for your reading. I purposefully emphasize portions of the reports because they are unwavering in their determinations.
NOAA: Past Decade Warmest on Record According to Scientists in 48 Countries
The 2009 State of the Climate report released today draws on data for 10 key climate indicators that all point to the same finding: the scientific evidence that our world is warming is unmistakable. More than 300 scientists from 160 research groups in 48 countries contributed to the report, which confirms that the past decade was the warmest on record and that the Earth has been growing warmer over the last 50 years.
Based on comprehensive data from multiple sources, the report defines 10 measurable planet-wide features used to gauge global temperature changes. The relative movement of each of these indicators proves consistent with a warming world. Seven indicators are rising: air temperature over land, sea-surface temperature, air temperature over oceans, sea level, ocean heat, humidity and tropospheric temperature in the “active-weather” layer of the atmosphere closest to the Earth’s surface. Three indicators are declining: Arctic sea ice, glaciers and spring snow cover in the Northern hemisphere.
“For the first time, and in a single compelling comparison, the analysis brings together multiple observational records from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the ocean,” said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “The records come from many institutions worldwide. They use data collected from diverse sources, including satellites, weather balloons, weather stations, ships, buoys and field surveys. These independently produced lines of evidence all point to the same conclusion: our planet is warming,”
Denial of Petitions for Reconsideration of the Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act
Action
EPA determined in December 2009 that climate change caused by emissions of greenhouse gases threatens the public's health and the environment. Since then, EPA received ten petitions challenging this determination. On July 29, 2010, EPA denied these petitions.
The petitions to reconsider EPA's "Endangerment Finding" claimed that climate science can't be trusted, and asserted a conspiracy that calls into question the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) , the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , and the U.S. Global Change Research Program. After months of serious consideration of the petitions and of the state of climate change science, EPA found no evidence to support these claims.
The scientific evidence supporting EPA's finding is robust, voluminous, and compelling. Climate change is happening now, and humans are contributing to it. Multiple lines of evidence show a global warming trend over the past 100 years. Beyond this, melting ice in the Arctic, melting glaciers around the world, increasing ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, altered precipitation patterns, and shifting patterns of ecosystems and wildlife habitats all confirm that our climate is changing.
So, when will the the scientists matter more than the skeptics? When science has a lot more money behind them than the think tanks debunking Global warming and being funded oil companies, coal companies, etc.
The EPA is drawing a line in the sand, as Grist points out in an article written recently showing that they will not be steamrolled by the climate of denial. But we will need legislators with backbones to help pass good legislation to accompany the agencies charged with protecting our environment. Some highlights from a fact sheet provided from the EPA and printed in the Grist article:
Petitioners questioned the reliability of the global temperature record and the finding that observed recent warming is unusual and based on increasing levels of greenhouse gases. However, three global temperature records -- including CRU's -- indicate increasing temperatures, and there are other lines of evidence, such as rising sea levels, linking recent global warming to human activities. Petitioners' criticisms of the CRU record are unfounded and speculative.
Petitioners asserted that warming has slowed or stopped over the last decade, contrary to scientists' expectations, and in spite of increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In reality, the last decade was warmer than the previous decade, and warming has not stopped. Climate change is a long-term phenomenon, unlike day-to-day variations in weather. Thus, climate change trends should be discussed over the long term, as opposed to on a year-by-year or even a decade-by-decade basis.
Petitioners claim that new studies not previously considered contradict key conclusions in the Endangerment Finding. EPA examined each of these new studies and documented that they neither undermine the key scientific findings nor change the scientific basis for the Endangerment Finding.
Petitioners claimed that recently found and alleged errors in IPCC's [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] Fourth Assessment Report undermine IPCC's credibility, and by extension, EPA's use of the report as a reference document. EPA has carefully reviewed each of the alleged errors. Collectively, they are minor and have no bearing on the Endangerment Finding, are not relied on by EPA to support the Finding, or are actually not errors. The very few factual errors in a document the size of IPCC's 3,000-page Fourth Assessment Report do not substantiate petitioners' claim that IPCC science, as a whole, is not credible.
Petitioners asserted that the IPCC has a policy agenda and is not an objective scientific body. EPA finds that this assertion is not backed up by credible evidence. The Agency has carefully examined the extensive process used by IPCC as well as the U.S. government's approach to approving IPCC documents, and found that they are well grounded and based on science rather than policy considerations.
Petitioners claimed that the scientific assessments of the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the National Academy of Sciences are not separate and independent assessments from IPCC. This is not correct. Each of these organizations is separately administered and relies on its own scientific processes and collaborating scientists. That similar and consistent conclusions are reached by each body does not substantiate the petitioners' claim. To the contrary, when independent institutions reach similar findings, it strengthens confidence in those findings.
Petitioners asserted that improper data sharing, peer review, and editorial practices biased the underlying scientific literature used by the major assessments. EPA finds that this assertion of an extensive, concerted effort to manipulate peer-reviewed literature is unsupported. The CRU emails, for example, show a small group of scientists privately discussing their scientific views of a handful of papers. The petitioners raised concerns that certain research papers were kept out of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, but these concerns are unfounded; the papers did appear in the IPCC assessment.
Several independent committees have examined many of the same allegations brought forward by the petitioners as a result of the disclosure of the private CRU emails. Their conclusions are consistent with EPA's review and analysis. The independent inquiries have found no evidence of intentional data manipulation on the part of the climate researchers associated with the emails.
US Climate Bill Failure Weighs Heavily On International Negotiations
Speaking of our Failure to pass any meaningful climate change legislation, it's being noticed elsewhere...
AMSTERDAM — The failure of a climate bill in the U.S. Senate is likely to weigh heavily on international negotiations that begin Monday on a new agreement to control global warming.
The decision to strike the bill from the Senate's immediate agenda has deepened the distrust among poor countries about the intentions of United States and other industrial countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions that power their wealthy economies but risk causing the Earth to dangerously overheat, say climate activists.
A split between rich and poor nations has characterized the talks since they began 2 1/2 years ago, but it widened after the disappointment of the Copenhagen climate summit last December that fell short of any binding agreement and produced only a brief document of political intentions.
The withdrawal of the bill to cap U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, the most prominent gas blamed for global warming, "plays into the same old fault lines," said Kelly Dent, of Oxfam International. It has let down developing countries that had looked to President Barack Obama's administration to seize the leadership in climate negotiations, she said Sunday from Bonn, Germany.
Fracking With Food: How the Natural Gas Industry Poisons Cows and Crops
Fracking has been on everyone's mind who is paying attention because it's going to be part of the bogus future of our push for clean energy, but natural gas extraction is anything but clean when it includes this process, fracking is not clean and it contaminates water supplies, and now it being linked to other contamination like our food supply. So when are we going to learn that it's a bad idea to sh*t where we eat?
The Shippen Township incident isn’t the first time hydraulic fracturing, a controversial gas extraction technique that involves shooting water, sand and a mix of chemicals into the ground to release gas, has been blamed for livestock damage. But for farmers in the northeast whose land sits atop the gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation, it is a wake-up call – an event that raises questions about fracking’s compatibility with food production.
“I’ve already heard from a couple of customers that they’re concerned about the location of a drill site near my farm – in terms of the quality and safety of my food,” said Greg Swartz, a farmer in Pennsylvania’s Upper Delaware River Valley. Swartz, who sells all his products locally, fears that leaked fracking fluid could seep into his soil, bioaccumulate in his plants and cost him his organic certification. “There very well may be a point where I am not comfortable selling vegetables from the farm anymore because I’m concerned about water and air contamination issues,” he said.
Poets for Living Waters is a collection of poems dedicated to expressing the wide ranging emotions that's come from the disaster in the Gulf. There is a constant call for poems by anyone who wants to submit their works.
I, having started studying ecology and believing in the inherent connectedness in our world, from how we grow our food, live our lives and everything else we do impacts the oceans and the environment, am enamored of their mission statement which is elegant and poetic.
Poets for Living Waters is a poetry action in response to the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico begun on April 20, 2010, one of the most profound human-made ecological catastrophes in history.
The first law of ecology states that everything is connected to everything else. An appreciation of this systemic connectivity suggests a wide range of poetry will offer a meaningful response to the current crisis, including work that harkens back to Hurricane Katrina and the ongoing regional effects.
Please submit 1-3 poems, a short bio, and credits for any previously published submissions to:
poetsforlivingwaters@yahoo.com
I am going to post one from a friend of mine, it's how I found out about the site...
The Most Important Task
By Tina Celio
The stuff of life bores you. Let go and let god
custodiate: apply boom, pile driver, as is his wont.
The big man is bound to cut your emissions,
bring about a bottom. Your disaster keeps flowing
undersea. In general, the weather has not been kind.
You’ve misjudged the severity, allowed one thing
and another, and now this slick, this massive pollution.
Years uncapped. The boss doesn’t sugar coat
what it takes, a kind of untested funnel, heaving
harness for mucked wreck. You stand by the road, wait
for yours to be set back, kept at sea, safety
to fly the waters. You keep your fingers crossed,
hope for the best, let it go.
– Tina Celio received her B.A. in English/Creative Writing from UC Irvine. She lives and works in Orange County, CA.
She is currently writing a collection of poems based on religious bumper sticker
And in other artistic news, Pete Seeger, now at 91, has written a protest song aimed at the oil spill.
Dwarf Minke Whale
Photograph by Steffen Binke
A dwarf minke whale cuts through the water, its many throat grooves clearly visible.
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(All times Eastern!)
eKos diaries from Monday, August 02, 2010 |
Diary | Author | Time (Eastern) | Tags |
What on Earth is an Ecocity? | citisven | 16:04:17 | eKos, ecocities, urban planning, climate change, International Ecocity Standards |
Science Tidbits | possum | 15:52:36 | Learning, Teaching, Science, eKos |
Large Scale Land Investments Do Not Benefit Local Communities | NourishingthePlanet | 13:03:37 | Worldwatch, Nourishing the Planet, State of the World, Land Grabs, Hunger |
ACTION - Save the MN Boundary Waters from Sulfide Mining! | LiberalBadger | 12:58:53 | BWCAW, mining, environment protection, change I can believe in, ekos |
To Subscribe or Not: That is the question | A Siegel | 08:07:40 | ekos, new york times, washington post, legacy media, traditional media |
BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 69 | Gulf Watchers | 06:06:14 | Recommended, Oilpocalypse, BP, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, LMRP |
eKos diaries from Sunday, August 01, 2010 |
Diary | Author | Time (Eastern) | Tags |
Heads of the EPA, History/Scuttlebutt Condensed Version | War on Error | 22:04:39 | epa, ekos |
Michigan Oil Spill Evacuations From Carcinogenic Benzene | Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse | 22:03:15 | Recommended, climate change news roundup, climate change, environment, BP, ekos |
Sunday Train: A Dime A Gallon Tariff on Imported Oil for Energy Independent Transport | BruceMcF | 19:40:08 | HSR, Steel Interstate, Brawny Recovery, rail electrification, Living Energy Independence |
Excessive Use of Dispersants? EPA Does What BP Tells it What to Do | Ellinorianne | 17:55:53 | Project Gulf IMpact, EPA, Corexit, Gulf, Spill |
Gas, Oil, AND Coal: Regulation Is A Must | David E Cozad | 15:36:12 | TX-06, election 2010, David Cozad, Joe Barton, British Petroleum |
BP to offer claimants a One-time Payment | jamess | 14:25:21 | BP, Oil Spill, Deepwater Horizon, Lawyers, Nalco |
Animal NUZ #5: Sunday Funnies Edition - DKos Exclusive | ericlewis0 | 11:02:42 | Recommended, Animal Nuz, eKos, Tea Party, cartoon, Dick Cheney |
Bridging the Urban/Rural Divide: An Interview with Gary Paul Nabhan | NourishingthePlanet | 10:14:05 | Africa, Agriculture, eKos |
A Giant step behind Wal-Mart | A Siegel | 09:53:48 | Recommended, ekos, energy efficiency, grocery stores, climate change, energy |
Dawn Chorus Birdblog: Humungous Bird Science Edition | matching mole | 09:06:48 | Recommended, dawn chorus, birds, birding, evolution, behavior |
BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 68 | Gulf Watchers | 06:12:15 | Recommended, Oilpocalypse, BP, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, LMRP |
Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (House passes drilling bill edition) | Neon Vincent | 00:16:00 | Recommended, Overnight News Digest, OND, science, space, environment |
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