James WestEvery year at the Pacific Coast Producers processing plant in Woodland, California, half a million tons of tomatoes are sliced, diced, canned, boiled, and shipped to grocery stores nationwide. The operation is driven by steam, lots of it, which comes from a suite of massive natural-gas-powered boilers. Together, these boilers emit over 25,000 metric tons (about 27,557 US tons) of greenhouse gases annually, which means PCP will be forced to join California's cap-and-trade carbon market, set to kick off in November.

The plan, which officials hope will put the country's most populous state on track to cut greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, isn't the first carbon trading scheme in the United States: The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a collective of several Northeastern states (including Massachusetts, which rejoined a few years after being forced out by then-Gov. Mitt Romney), has been auctioning carbon credits, called allowances, since 2008. But unlike RGGI, which applies only to power plants, California's plan extends to all sectors of the economy, which means businesses from paper mills, oil refineries, and universities to pharmaceutical manufacturers, steel mills, and food processors like PCP will have a stake in California's campaign against climate change.

Yesterday, some 150 of those businesses got their first taste, as the curtain lifted on a dress rehearsal of the auction where companies will bid for the allowances (each worth one metric ton of carbon) that determine how much they're allowed to emit, a dry run staged to let companies get comfortable with the system and work out any kinks before it launches for real in a few months. Over the next year, about 150 allowances will be bid on, together worth anywhere from $550 million to $1 billion depending on market forces. Some will be given away for free, to help businesses adjust to the added expense.

"It's like some brave new adventure," said Mona Schulman, a PCP vice president, as she waited for the fall of the digital gavel (the auction is held online) to start bidding. "Everybody's in favor of clean air and the environment being healthy, but there's a lot of uncertainty down the road."

Barring an unforeseen advancement in steam boiler technology, Schulman said, the plant will have limited options for reducing emissions; as the cap gets lower every year, they'll be left with the tough choice of having to cut production, or shell out to other companies for their unused allowances.

[Read more]

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The Department of Interior greenlighted a plan Thursday to let Shell make drilling preparations in Alaska's Chukchi Sea, before some of the final approvals to drill in the sea are in place. The news riled enviros, who argue that the company has not demonstrated it is ready to deal with an accident in the freezing waters of the Arctic.

In a call with reporters on Thursday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that the approval is limited to "certain, limited preparatory activities." The company will be allowed to dig mud line cellars, which are holes dug about 40 feet into the sea floor in which a blow-out preventer will be placed once oil drilling actually begins. (Readers will recall that a "blowout preventer" is that thing that failed to prevent a blowout during the BP spill down in the Gulf of Mexico.) The company will also be allowed to drill down 1,400 to 1,500 feet in preparation for the two casing strings.

Salazar and other Interior officials said that they do not believe that the preparatory work will tap into any oil wells, so the company can proceed before their emergency response equipment is ready. "We are confident it can be done safely and without risk to the environment," he said.

Shell has been given most of the approvals to begin drilling in the Chukchi, but does not yet have its oil spill response barge, the Arctic Challenger, ready to begin work up in Alaska. The company has had problems with the boat, including citations for illegal discharges of hydraulic fluids earlier this month. Shell has asked for an extension of the drilling season so it can get more time up there after the barge's delay. The exploration plan Interior approved says Shell will drill until September 24, but the company wants an 18-day extension.

Enviros are not fans of the entire idea of drilling in the Arctic. It's remote, and the area is frozen over for six months out of the year, making spill cleanups extremely complicated. It's also treacherous, with heavy winds and frequent storms, and it's really dark much of the year. Allowing Shell to start work up there without having its emergency response ship in place "seems at best irresponsible," said Cindy Shogan, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League. Margaret Williams, managing director of World Wildlife Fund's Arctic Program, was even more critical of the entire operation: "To drill in our Arctic Ocean is to gamble with its future."

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Coral reef image: Nick Hobgood via Wikimedia Commons. Beach umbrella image: Loren Sztajer via Flickr

How are we going to save coral reefs in a world where carbon dioxide is changing the temperature and chemistry of the ocean at a rate unprecedented in 300 million years?

Three marine ecologists have written a persuasive paper in Nature Climate Change arguing that the time has come to seriously consider rolling up our sleeves and doing something.

"It's unwise to assume we will be able to stabilize atmospheric CO₂ at levels necessary to reduce or prevent ongoing damage to marine ecosystems," says coauthor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg. "In lieu of dealing with the core problem—increasing emissions of greenhouse gases—these techniques and approaches could ultimately represent the last resort. I hope we don't end up in the position but we must at least be prepared."

Here are a few suggestions worthy of exploration, suggest the authors, even if only on a small scale:

1. Deploying buoyant shade cloth (it's been tried on the Great Barrier Reef) to protect corals from heat stress that leads to bleaching and death
2. Using electrical current to stimulate coral growth and mitigate bleaching
3. Trying selective breeding or genetic engineering to help species develop biological resistance and adaptation
4. Maintaining or managing ocean chemistry by adding base minerals such as carbonates and silicates to neutralize acidity and help marine creatures make their shells/skeletons
5. Convert CO₂ from land-based waste into dissolved bicarbonates to add to the ocean for carbon sequestration and reduced ocean acidity 

 Coral image credit: Nick Hobgood via Wikimedia Commons. Lifesaver image credit: dharma communications via Flickr.

Why the urgency?

Well, while some species may be able to adapt to change by migrating deeper into the ocean or further from the equator, it's not going to be easy. For instance, the Great Barrier Reef would have to migrate south at the rate of nearly 10 miles (15 kilometers) a year to keep pace with the predicted increases in ocean temperatures.

"The magnitude and rapidity of these changes is likely to surpass the ability of numerous marine species to adapt and survive," Hoegh-Guldberg says.

The open-access paper:

• Greg H. Rau, Elizabeth L. McLeod & Ove Hoegh-Guldberg. The need for new ocean conservation strategies in a high-carbon dioxide world. Nature Climate Change. 2012. doi:10.1038/nclimate1555

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Waves crashing on Orange Beach, AL. jen_517/Twitter

Update 8/29 2:15 EDT: Hurricane Isaac hit the Gulf Coast early Wednesday morning. Wind speeds have slowed, but the storm moving at just 6 miles per hour is expected to dump rain up to 20 inches of rain over the next day.

New Orleans' federal levee system, given a $14.5 billion upgrade post-Katrina, has held back the storm surges so far.  Storm surges as high as 12 feet did overtop a local levee in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, flooding the area and leaving dozens stranded on their roofs. More than half a million Louisiana residents are also without power. Isaac is expected to weaken as it continues inland, with rain continuing for another day.

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Exactly seven years to the day since Katrina hit, Hurricane Isaac is set to make landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi Wednesday morning. Isaac didn't rain too hard on the GOP's convention parade in Tampa, but the slow-moving and large Category 1 hurricane can still do a plenty of damage as it heads up the Mississippi.

For starters, the area covered by Hurricane Isaac is huge. The storm's outer edges are raining down on Florida and North Carolina, some 200 miles from the eye of the hurricane. The hardest hit areas along the Gulf will likely be dumped with over 24 hours of heavy rain. Earlier today, President Obama signed a declaration of emergency in Mississippi. Offshore oil rigs, which have reported wind speeds of 90 mph, are also being evacuated.

High winds create the biggest threat to coastal regions: storm surges. The crests of water pushed ashore by hurricane winds flood and destroy all property in their path. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) earlier tweeted out a specific warning explaining the danger of storm surges.

#Hurricane storm surge: It's deadly. WATCH THIS to see why: 1.usa.gov/O0g4ud#Isaac

— NOAA (@NOAA) August 28, 2012

In 2005, storm surges caused by Katrina overwhelmed the levee system, wrecking catastrophic damage across New Orleans. Isaac doesn't have the Category 5 intensity of Katrina, but even a Category 1 hurricane can do plenty of damage. For example, Hurricane Claudette in 2003 battered the coast of Texas for more than 24 hours, causing $180 million in damage. Aside from storm surges, long and heavy rain from Hurricane Isaac can cause flooding on its own.

Storm trackers might want to check out Google's Hurricane Isaac crisis map, embedded below. The full map has links to government announcements, hurricane information, and geotagged user videos.

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