January 31, 2007
Terngate Results Suggest Criminal Charges Against Those Who Killed Seabirds in Southern California
Chased off California’s beaches by hordes of Homo sapiens, terns—graceful seabirds with white bodies and flippety black crests—have resorted to nesting on barges. Last summer more than 500 baby terns, too young to fly, were massacred when someone washed them off the barges with high-pressure hoses. Two species, Caspian terns and elegant terns, lost their entire breeding season in the debacle. The Los Angeles Times reports:
State wildlife officials today said they have forwarded the results of a seven month investigation into the massacre of hundreds of young seabirds last summer to the Long Beach City attorney's office for criminal prosecution.
Only 23 birds survived in a case known as "terngate" among environmentalists who had grown frustrated with the length of the investigation and the failure of state and federal wildlife officials to preemptively prevent the loss of an entire breeding season of terns.
"This case required a lengthy investigation," California State Fish and Game Lt. Kent Smirl said. "But it's not going away. We've done an excellent investigation, one of the best this department has ever done in Long Beach."
Smirl, whose agency led the investigation that included the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, also said he expects charges to be filed by Long Beach city prosecutors. He declined to identify who could be charged.
"I'll be sitting in the courtroom when this case goes to trial," said Lisa Fimiani of the Audubon Society's Los Angeles chapter. "It's terrible to have to learn an important lesson in a lightning rod event like this. It tells us these birds were so desperate for nesting space they settled on barges."
The International Fund for Animal Welfare was offering a $10,000 reward for information on who was responsible for destroying the nesting colony of Caspian and Elegant terns.
This blogger once spent a 4-month breeding season living with elegant terns on an island off Mexico and I can tell you that no slacker with a high-pressure hose has ever worked as hard in a week as these birds work in a day raising their chicks. May they be sentenced in the afterlife to a hell of highwater without life jackets. Come to think of it, that’s coming their way anyway with global warming.
New Cement Design May Someday Reduce Greenhouse Gasses by 5 to 10 Percent
A group of engineers at MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are looking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by focusing on the nanostructure of concrete—the world's most widely used material. As they report In the January issue of the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, the production of cement, the primary component of concrete, accounts for 5 to 10 percent of the world's total carbon dioxide emissions, and is an important contributor to global warming. An MIT press release sums up their work:
The team reports that the source of concrete's strength and durability lies in the organization of its nanoparticles. The discovery could one day lead to a major reduction in carbon dioxide emissions during manufacturing.
"If everything depends on the organizational structure of the nanoparticles that make up concrete, rather than on the material itself, we can conceivably replace it with a material that has concrete's other characteristics-strength, durability, mass availability and low cost-but does not release so much CO2 into the atmosphere during manufacture," said Franz-Josef Ulm, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Cement, the oldest engineered construction material, dating back to the Roman Empire, starts out as limestone and clay that are crushed to a powder and heated to a very high temperature (1500 degrees Celsius) in a kiln. At this high temperature, the mineral undergoes a transformation, storing energy in the powder. When the powder is mixed with water, the energy is released into chemical bonds to form the elementary building block of cement, calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H). At the micro level, C-S-H acts as a glue to bind sand and gravel together to create concrete. Most of the carbon dioxide emissions in this manufacturing process result from heating the kiln to a temperature high enough to transfer energy into the powder.
The researchers hope to find or nanoengineer a different mineral to use in cement paste, one that doesn’t require high temperatures during production, cutting carbon dioxide emissions by up to 10 percent. Now that would deserve a Nobel.
Princess Cruise Lines Pleads Guilty to Killing Humpback Whale
It’s a first of its kind likely to get lost amid the current and overdue clamor on climate change, but it’s important nonetheless. In the summer of 2001 a Princess Cruise Lines vessel, the Dawn Princess, ran into a pregnant female humpback whale in Glacier Bay, Alaska, killing the whale well-known to researchers as Whale #68, nicknamed Snow. Snow had summered in Glacier Bay for at least the past 25 years, enjoying the safety afforded her under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. That is, until a skipper or mate on the bridge of the Dawn Princess broke the law. As The Morning Report, a compilation of daily incident reports from the National Park Service, describes:
On Monday, January 29th, Princess Cruise Lines pled guilty in U.S. District Court in Anchorage to a charge of knowingly failing to operate its vessel, the Dawn Princess, at a slow, safe speed in the summer of 2001 while near two humpback whales in the area of Glacier Bay National Park. The bloated carcass of a pregnant whale was found four days after the Princess ship sailed through the park. It had died of massive blunt trauma injuries to the right side of the head, including a fractured skull, eye socket and cervical vertebrae, all consistent with a vessel collision. The whale was identified from fluke markings as “Whale #68,” which had been sighted many times in the past and was known to have frequented the area for at least 25 years. Pursuant to a plea agreement, Princess was sentenced to pay a $200,000 fine and to contribute $550,000 to the National Park Foundation as a form of community service. The funding will support marine mammal research in the park. In this first-of-its-kind prosecution, prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Environmental Crimes Section of the Department of Justice, along with special agents and investigators from the National Park Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, engaged in a thorough and detailed investigation, often with the assistance and cooperation of Princess. “As well as being a majestic and endangered species, the humpback whale is also a public symbol of Glacier Bay,” said superintendent Tomie Lee. “Protection of these resources is of paramount importance to us. So when we began to hear witness reports of a cruise-ship colliding with a whale, then learned that this particular whale, whom researchers had first identified in 1975 and nicknamed ‘Snow’ because of her fluke markings, died of injuries consistent with a ship-strike, we began a dialogue with Princess and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and proceeded diligently with our investigation, so we could be sure to get things right. While these kinds of criminal convictions can result in a loss of federal contracts to service visitors in a national park, in this case we feel Princess has stepped up and made significant, voluntary operational changes that protect whales and the marine environment. We are pleased that this incident is behind us and that they will continue to offer cruises in Glacier Bay.” The unlawful taking (killing) of humpback whales is prohibited by both the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The “slow, safe speed” regulation, under which this case was charged, was implemented in 2001 to support the “anti-taking” provisions of the two laws. Thus, a knowing failure to maintain a “slow, safe speed” when near humpback whales constitutes a violation of the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act and carries the identical penalties of the taking violation. Such conduct is a federal Class A misdemeanor violation of law, punishable (for a corporation) by a fine of up to $200,000, restitution in an amount to be determined by the court, and up to five years probation (a person who violates this law is also subject to imprisonment for up to one year).
January 30, 2007
More on Bush Administration's Anti-Global Warming Pressure on Scientists
James Ridgeway wrote earlier today about Henry Waxman's ongoing oversight hearings that are looking into the government's role in distorting climate research. In his post, Jim mentioned the new Union of Concerned Scientists report that found the Bush Administration pressured scientists in a number of agencies to suppress evidence of global warming. ThinkProgress has culled some details. Synergy!
46 percent of government scientists "personally experienced pressure to eliminate the words 'climate change,' 'global warming,' or other similar terms from a variety of communications."
46 percent "perceived or personally experienced new or unusual administrative requirements that impair climate-related work."
25 percent "perceived or personally experienced situations in which scientists have actively objected to, resigned from, or removed themselves from a project because of pressure to change scientific findings."
-- Jonathan Stein
Waxman's Attack on Bush Global Warming Distortions
Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, opened oversight hearings this morning with a sharp attack on Phil Cooney, the former oil lobbyist who headed the Council of Environmental Quality, for tampering with scientific reports on global warming in order downplay its importance. (You can watch the hearings live online here.) Cooney resigned in 2005 after he was publicly criticized for playing politics with global warming. One New York Times report discussing government climate change reports written in 2002 and 2003 said, "In a section on the need for research into how warming might change water availability and flooding, [Cooney] crossed out a paragraph describing the projected reduction of mountain glaciers and snowpack. His note in the margins explained that this was 'straying from research strategy into speculative findings/musings.'"
Waxman says the committee knows the White House is hiding documents that show the Bush administration sought to weaken government reports by emphasizing the "beneficial effects," of global warming, and downplaying its effects on human health.
Witnesses at the hearing are to include Dr. Drew Shindell, of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and Rick Piltz, the former senior associate of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, both of whom have protested at the White House meddling.
Mother Jones reporters at the hearing will be reporting as they go on.
Update: A new report from Union of Concerned Scientists uncovers new evidence of the Bush Administration tampering with global warming science.
An investigative report by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the Government Accountability Project (GAP) has uncovered new evidence of widespread political interference in federal climate science. The report, which includes a survey of hundreds of federal scientists at seven federal agencies and dozens of in-depth interviews, documents a high regard for climate change research but broad interference in communicating scientific results.
"The new evidence shows that political interference in climate science is no longer a series of isolated incidents but a system-wide epidemic," said Dr. Francesca Grifo, Director of the UCS Scientific Integrity Program. "Tailoring scientific fact for political purposes has become a problem across many federal science agencies."
Read more about the report here.
-- James Ridgeway
Cross-posted from MoJoBlog.
January 29, 2007
Why is this Blog Called "The Blue Marble"?
In 1972, the astronauts of Apollo 17 took a photo of earth that became known as the Blue Marble. It wasn't the first picture of the earth, but (to quote wikipedia) "released during a surge in environmental activism during the 1970s, the image was seen by many as a depiction of Earth's frailty, vulnerability, and isolation amid the expanse of space."
And that seems pretty apt today.
NASA has quite a collection of earth photography including Blue Marble: The Next Generation (Trekkies, we are everywhere), which "offers a year’s worth of monthly composites at a spatial resolution of 500 meters. These monthly images reveal seasonal changes to the land surface: the green-up and dying-back of vegetation in temperate regions such as North America and Europe, dry and wet seasons in the tropics, and advancing and retreating Northern Hemisphere snow cover." (Retreating now more than ever.)
Over at the Google Earth Blog (with the lovely abbreviation of "gearth", prepare to be assimilated) some techies have taken NASA's work and turned it into an animation. (Warning: Serious processor speed needed.)
But bookmark the wicked cool Google Earth blog, people are having all kinds of fun and games (like: actual treasure hunts) using GEarth.
Pharmaceutical Giant Novartis Challenges India’s Patent Laws, Threatening Delivery of AIDS Drugs to Tens of Thousands
The pharmaceutical industry once again stirs a witches’ brew, reports New Scientist, challenging patent laws that have enabled India to supply AIDS drugs to poor patients worldwide.
India's generic drugs form the backbone of MSF's [Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors without Borders] AIDS programmes, in which 80,000 people in 30 countries receive treatment.
"We are reaching a quarter of the people who need antiretroviral treatment in sub-Saharan Africa," says Ivy Mwangi, an MSF doctor. "Rapid scale-up in treatment is only possible with the availability and affordability of generic drugs, most of which are produced in India."
But Swiss pharma-giant Novartis is whinging that financial hegemony is the only sure road to drug innovation, and that India should not be allowed to provide generics for people who can’t pay $10,000 a year for its drugs.
"If Novartis gets through with its case our lives are at risk," Monique Wanjala, a woman who has been living with HIV for 13 years, told a news conference in Nairobi. "We want this case dropped," she said. "If we die because affordable generic drugs aren't available, where will they sell the drug? If profits are going to be put before peoples' lives then we have a serious problem."
How Bad Will Global Warming Get? Indonesia Could Lose 2,000 Islands to Rising Seas
Two thousand of Indonesia’s 17,000-plus islands may be lost to rising sea levels by 2030, Indonesia’s environment minister told Reuters Monday.
Rachmat Witoelar said studies by U.N. experts showed that sea levels were expected to rise about 89 centimetres in 2030 which meant that about 2,000 mostly uninhabited small islets would be submerged.
"We are optimistic it can be prevented. Switching to bio-fuels is not only good for the environment but also will benefit us economically considering the volatile state of oil prices," he said.
Lower lying islands like the Bahamas, the Maldives, and Tuvalu will suffer more, likely submerging altogether, as reported in “All the Disappearing Islands” in Mother Jones in 2003.
Scary Impacts of Temperature Increases from Global Warming
Ever wonder just what is coming our way from global warming? How bad can it get? Check it out. Reuters reports on estimates of the global implications of different temperature rises from Nicholas Stern, chief British government economist:
Temp. rise/ Impacts 1 DEGREE
* Shrinking glaciers threaten water for 50 million people
* Modest increases in cereal yields in temperate regions
* At least 300,000 people each year die from malaria, malnutrition and other climate-related diseases
* Reduction in winter mortality in higher latitudes
* 80 percent bleaching of coral reefs, e.g. Great Barrier Reef
2 DEGREES
* 5 - 10 percent decline in crop yield in tropical Africa
* 40 - 60 million more people exposed to malaria in Africa
* Up to 10 million more people affected by coastal flooding
* 15 - 40 percent of species face extinction (one estimate)
* High risk of extinction of Arctic species, e.g. polar bear
* Potential for Greenland ice sheet to start to melt irreversibly, committing world to 7 metre sea level rise
3 DEGREES
* In Southern Europe, serious droughts once every 10 years
* 1 - 4 billion more people suffer water shortages
* Some 150 - 550 additional millions at risk of hunger
* 1 - 3 million more people die from malnutrition
* Onset of Amazon forest collapse (some models only)
* Rising risk of collapse of West Antarctic Ice Sheet
* Rising risk of collapse of Atlantic Conveyor of warm water
* Rising risk of abrupt changes to the monsoon
4 DEGREES
* Agricultural yields decline by 15 - 35 percent in Africa
* Up to 80 million more people exposed to malaria in Africa
* Loss of around half Arctic tundra
5 DEGREES
* Possible disappearance of large glaciers in Himalayas, affecting one-quarter of China's population, many in India
* Continued increase in ocean acidity seriously disrupting marine ecosystems and possibly fish stocks
* Sea level rise threatens small islands, coastal areas such as Florida and major cities such as New York, London, and Tokyo
BBC Reports GlaxoSmithKline Paid Academics to Fudge Data on Child Paxil/Suicide Link
The BBC is broadcasting a report later today alleging GSK tried basically tried to make up for studies that showed that Paxil did not help depressed children (and put some at risk of suicide) by issuing other studies, studies that just so happened to be conducted by scientists on their payroll, that found guess what? Just the opposite :
GSK's biggest clinical trial of Seroxat on children was held in the US in the 1990s and called Study 329. Child psychiatrist Dr Neal Ryan of the University of Pittsburgh was paid by GSK as a co-author of Study 329. In 2002 he also gave a talk on childhood depression at a medical conference sponsored by GSK. He said that Seroxat could be a suitable treatment for children and later told [BBC program] Panorama reporter Shelley Jofre that it probably lowered rather than raised suicide rates.
In amongst the archive of emails in Malibu, Shelley Jofre was surprised to find that her own emails to Dr Ryan from 2002 asking questions about the safety of Seroxat had been forwarded to GSK asking for advice on how to respond to her. She also found an email from a public relations executive working for GSK which said: "Originally we had planned to do extensive media relations surrounding this study until we actually viewed the results".
Don't you hate when science gets in the way of good PR?
Mother Jones has been reporting on big pharma's disturbing pattern of pushing dangerous psychotropic drugs on kids with little (or counterveiling) evidence of their safety for many years. Try these on for size:
Doping Kids: As pharmaceutical companies push their products, more and more kids are being treated with powerful -- and untested -- adult drugs.
Disorders Made to Order: Pharmaceutical companies have come up with a new strategy to market their drugs: First go out and find a new mental illness, then push the pills to cure it.
Prosecuting for Pharma: Antidepressant manufacturers team up with district attorneys to make sure the Zoloft defense doesn’t fly.
And if you want to be truly terrified of Pharma's lack of oversight and how it puts our kids at risk, read:
For an archive of our Big Pharma stories, check out our new Environment and Health page.
Stem Cell Progress Left Up to the States
The House may have passed a bill calling for an end to the federal ban on new embryonic stem cell research lines, but we're still a long way from dollars coming down from the feds (assuming the bill survives a veto). Thus more and more states are continuing to take action, proposing millions to get the research moving, creating what is essentially de facto foundations for research that should be the domain of the National Institutes of Health. Currently, New Jersey, California, Maryland and Connecticut, Maryland and Illinois all mandate state spending to support ESCR (though to date only two, New Jersey and Illinois, have state-funded research in the works). We can now add three more states tp the list of those that could proactively fund this voter-supported research:
Iowa - On Thursday Gov. Chet Culver (D) called on the state Legislature to lift the state's five-year-old ban on a type of embryonic stem cell research called somatic nuclear transfer and proposed the construction of a $12.5 million Center for Regenerative Medicine.
Florida- On Tuesday state rep. Franklin Sands (D) filed a bill that would require the state to provide at least $20 million annually over the next 10 years for research using human embryonic stem cells, amniotic fluid-derived stem cells and adult stem cells.
New Mexico- Gov. (and presidential hopeful) Bill Richardson (D) submitted a state budget to his legislature earlier this month that proposes providing $10 million over three years on facilities, equipment, training and staffing for an adult and embryonic stem cell research center at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.
Good. But considering how long it has taken to get these programs off the ground -- California's voter-approved $3 billion initiative passed in 2004 is still wrapped up in court -- it's a little like moving sand with a thimble while the shovel sits in Executive lockdown.
January 26, 2007
Lower Breast Cancer Rates May Not Mean Less Cancer
According to a report released today by the CDC, fully 1.1 million fewer women aged 40 and over had mammograms last year than in 2000. This decline might explain, in part, the recent drop in breast cancer rates in the U.S., meaning rates might not actually be going down. Fewer diagnoses does not mean fewer cases, just fewer known cases. So, while we have seen detection rates decrease, deaths from breast cancer could increase, the report says.
The reason for the drop is unclear but the CDC researchers point to a couple of disturbing trends that move beyond the taking-it-for-granted explanation:
"One study has indicated that breast-imaging facilities face challenges such as shortages of key personnel, malpractice concerns and financial constraints."
"Because the number of U.S. women aged more than 40 years increased by more than 24 million during 1990 to 2000, the number of available facilities and trained breast specialists might not be sufficient to meet the needs of the population, whose overall median age continues to increase."
This feels wrong. Wrong, not in the incorrect sense, but wrong in the how can there not-be-enough-facilities-for-such-basic-needs sense. And let's get some more "breast specialists" trained, this is a must people.
The report did not look at mammography rates by age, geographic region or socioeconomic status though the researchers say they do plan on examining whether the decrease in mammography rates is concentrated among certain groups, such as the poor and uninsured.Each year, more than 200,000 women in the U.S. are diagnosed with breast cancer and about 40,000 die from the disease. According to the report, screening might reduce breast cancer mortality by 20% to 35% among women ages 50 to 69 and by 20% among women ages 40 to 49.
-- Elizabeth Gettelman
The Thirteenth Tipping Point Begins
Climate change is in the air. And not just the warming kind. A fresh breeze blows from Washington DC as Congress finally declares an interest in global warming. The barometer climbs a notch as CEOs urge Bush to address the issues now. The heavy, foggy, dark, oppressive weather stagnating in place for the past six years is finally yielding to new air destined to dismantle the Big Low from the top down. We may see sunshine yet. By Independence Day, if Speaker Pelosi has her way.
Yet no matter what changes transpire in government or industry, you and I can’t abrogate our responsibility. Only we can shift the human race from its doomsday course. My article in the November/December 2006 issue of Mother Jones, The Thirteenth Tipping Point, examined what science can tell us about our ability to change ourselves. The outlook is good, and the following op-ed, which ran in the Los Angeles Times and elsewhere summarizes:
What if twelve meteors were on known collision courses with earth? What if we could alter their trajectories and save our planet by the cumulative effect of our individual efforts? What if science and history proved that we are fully capable of such heroism? What would it take to get us started?
John Schellnhuber, distinguished science advisor at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the United Kingdom, has identified 12 global warming tipping points—from the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest to the melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet—any one of which, if triggered, will likely initiate sudden, meteoric changes across the planet.
So what will it take to trigger what we might call the 13th tipping point, the shift from personal denial to personal responsibility? What will tip us toward addressing this global environmental issue with the urgency it deserves, as the mother of all threats to homeland security?
A 2005 study on Americans’ perceptions of global warming found that while most are moderately concerned, 68 percent believe the greatest threats are to people far away or to nonhuman nature—a dangerous and delusional misperception. Only 13 percent perceive risk to themselves, their families, or their communities.
Many secretly perceive global warming to be an insoluble problem and respond by circling the wagons and focusing on family-sized problems. Yet science shows we’re born with powerful tools for solving this quandary. We have the genetic smarts and the cultural smarts. We have the technological know-how. We even have the inclination. The truth is we can change ourselves with breathtaking speed, sculpting even “immutable” human nature. Forty years ago many believed human nature mandated that blacks and whites live in segregation; 30 years ago human nature divided men and women into separate economies; 20 years ago human nature prevented us from defusing a global nuclear standoff. Nowadays we blame human nature for the insolvable hazards of global warming.
Research out of the Max Planck Institute in Germany suggests how we might help ourselves evolve. We behave as better citizens when educated about the science of global warming, and when our actions are visible in the public arena—a phenomenon known as “social facilitation.” Perhaps if we’re vigorously informed of the global warming dangers to our neighborhoods, we’ll individually forego the MacMansions and the Hummers and make sustainable choices. Anything less compromises our children’s future.
Until then, our denial facilitates “social loafing”—the tendency of individuals to slack when work is shared and individual performance is not assessed. There’s no better example than the U.S. Congress, where members cloak their lethargy regarding global warming behind the stultifying inactivity of their fellows. And why not? After all, who’s watching?
Not the media, which habitually squelch new science stories on global warming by rationalizing that we’ve heard that before—though they would never ignore another round of Middle East bloodletting. Combined, the growing body of scientific knowledge on climate change gains heft and power, but the public rarely hears it, reinforcing our loafing.
Scientists don’t help when they react to the terrifying dimensions of public ignorance by sheltering inside hallowed halls. At a recent meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology, 70 percent of members argued in favor of advocating real solutions to environmental problems directly to lethargic policymakers and the press. Yet most researchers remain sequestered at a time when we need their knowledge and expertise like never before.
The nature of tipping points is that they happen dizzyingly fast. The good news is that history proves we’re capable of keeping up. Social scientists once believed it would take decades of government pressure and education for Americans to choose smaller families, since the desire to procreate is an absolute part of the human animal, or so they thought. Yet population growth radically declined over only three years in the 1970s—one woman at a time, without an ounce of government involvement.
Leaders can help. But even without them we can help ourselves. Whether or not Marie Antoinette actually said “Let them eat cake,” she inspired change that reverberated far beyond Europe. Likewise, when George W. Bush says we can’t act on global warming until we “fully understand the nature of the problem,” we can use his callous disregard as a rallying cry.
The truth is, we can change, and change fast. Our hallmark is adaptability. Long ago, we looked out from the trees and saw the savannas. Beyond the savannas we glimpsed further frontiers. History proves that when we behold a better world, we move toward it—one person at a time—leaving behind what no longer works.
We know what to do. We know how to do it. We know the timeline. We are our own tipping point.
January 24, 2007
President Bush: As Usual, Sending the Wrong Message on the Environment
According to most environmentalists, President Bush’s message on the environment was weak. While Bush addressed the issue of global warming, the message he gave most clearly to Americans was to stay the course and these pesky ecological issues will go away.
In a statement released yesterday, The Sierra Club said: "Despite the warning from the President's economic advisor that the State of the Union would ‘knock your socks off in terms of our commitment to energy independence,’ so far we have heard no new evidence that this administration understands what it will really take to break our oil addiction or curb global warming. In fact, the President's proposals are more likely to make the problems worse."
In his plan, President Bush touts ethanol as the major catalyst towards an emissions-reduction solution, but he doesn’t mention its possible detrimental effects. The President doesn’t see any issue with drilling in Alaska either. And he doesn’t seem to be rushed in imposing any sort of harsh standards on the automotive industries. The official White House plan states that the reduction in gasoline will be helped along by an assumed increase of fuel standards for light trucks and passenger cars by a very four per cent each year, starting in 2010. Sounds pretty wishy-washy.
This from the Sierra Club: “…[T]he President assumes that fuel economy will increase but fails to order an increase when a 40 mile per gallon standard is the single biggest step we could take to curb global warming and end oil dependence.”
Yet, in reporting on the latest automotive models, some media outlets have chosen to call the 2010 fuel-efficiency standards “stringent.”
Armed with this what-me-worry message, some Americans (as well as Canadians and Europeans) are just keeping on keeping on. This means driving hummers and other tank-like vehicles to invade the strip malls, taking private jets so to have a place to smoke at 30,000 feet, and buying instantly disposable goods to keep on top of fashion trends.
January 23, 2007
Hot Promises of Geothermal Energy
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology-led study of geothermal energy within the US finds that mining the huge amounts of thermal energy stored in the Earth's rock crust could supply a substantial portion of the nation’s electricity needs currently being generated by conventional fossil fuel, hydroelectric, and nuclear plants—at competitive prices and with minimal environmental impact. Go deep enough, and there’s heat everywhere.
The study shows that drilling several wells to reach hot rock and connecting them to a fractured rock region that has been stimulated to let water flow through it creates a heat-exchanger that can produce large amounts of hot water or steam to run electric generators at the surface. Unlike conventional fossil-fuel power plants that burn coal, natural gas or oil, no fuel would be required. And unlike wind and solar systems, a geothermal plant works night and day, offering a non-interruptible source of electric power.
… "This environmental advantage is due to low emissions and the small overall footprint of the entire geothermal system, which results because energy capture and extraction is contained entirely underground, and the surface equipment needed for conversion to electricity is relatively compact," [Jefferson W.] Tester [the H. P. Meissner Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT] said.
… Panel member Brian Anderson, an assistant professor at West Virginia University, noted that the drilling and reservoir technologies used to mine heat have many similarities to those used for extracting oil and gas. As a result, the geothermal industry today is well connected technically to two industry giants in the energy arena, oil and gas producers and electric power generators. With increasing demand for technology advances to produce oil and gas more effectively and to generate electricity with minimal carbon and other emissions, an opportunity exists to accelerate the development of EGS by increased investments by these two industries.
The study notes that government-funded research into geothermal was highly active in the 1970s and early 1980s, but that as oil prices declined, funding and geothermal research waned. Time to heat that up again.
Beware Emissions Trading, Airlines Stand to Make Billions
The science journal Nature warns that a short-term effect of the European Commission’s plan to include the airlines in the continent-wide market for greenhouse gas emissions will likely reap the industry billions, at least initially.
The world's airlines, including many firms who have lobbied aggressively against climate-change legislation, could make billions of euros from a planned emissions-reduction scheme, say economists studying the situation.
The resulting rise in cost to individual airline tickets will be too small to deter customers, they add, so the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions will be miniscule —at least in the short term.
…The windfall is a consequence of the way emissions trading works. Industries in the scheme are allocated carbon dioxide permits that are traded in as emissions are generated. The permits can be sold if a firm emits less than its allowance, or bought if they wish to exceed it. Because industries are initially given almost enough permits to cover their usual amount of emissions, they should be able to continue business much as usual.
But experience with other industries already in the scheme shows that they treat permits as assets — the permits are currently worth around US$5 per tonne of carbon. To compensate for having to lose the assets when accounting for their emissions, the firms charge extra for products. In the case of the electricity sector, this is estimated to have generated an extra $1.5 billion in annual profits for British firms between 2005 and 2007.
More on Bush's SOTU Global Warming Plans
The hot topic around here is what Bush will propose regarding climate change in his State of the Union. There have been rumors for weeks that Bush will announce something, possibly an increased commitment to the environmentally-dubious ethanol. I just wrote that with McCain an increasingly active supporter of action on global warming, the timing may be right to get a big push on the issue -- a big enough push might even give Bush something to salvage in his legacy.
CNN is now reporting that they have some details:
President Bush, in Tuesday's State of the Union address, will propose a plan to cut U.S. gasoline consumption by 20 percent while bolstering inventory in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Republican sources say.
The president's plan to cut gasoline use includes tightening fuel economy standards on automakers and relying on alternative energy sources, such as hybrid cars, the sources say.
Read more from CNN here.
McCain Partners With Environmental Defense in Support of Action on Global Warming
If, as expected, President Bush makes an announcement in tonight's State of the Union pushing for action on climate change, it's likely that he'll have John McCain's support.
That's if a letter I recently got in the mail is to be believed. In a plea for donations, Environmental Defense, a non-profit that advocates market-based solutions to environmental problems, included a letter from McCain that begins:
I'll give it to you straight:
We have a growing crisis on our hands... one that seldom gets the attention it deserves.
I'm speaking about global warming.
McCain explains that if global warming is "left unchecked, we can expect glaciers and polar ice caps to melt, severe storms to become more frequent, prolonged droughts to devastate agricultural lands, sea levels to rise and entire ecosystems to be thrown out of balance." It's almost like he's reading Mother Jones!
For a summary of the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act, and a run-down of how it compares to competing bills in the Senate, see here.
PS - If McCain, king of the rightward shift, is embracing the idea of action on global warming, I think we can come close to saying the beast of global warming resistance has been slayed. There's more to be done of course, but with crazy old James Inhofe out as chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, presidential contender McCain positioning himself the way he is, Democrats pushing for action, and big business pressuring the president to act.... I'm just asking, if Bush comes out strong in favor of fighting climate change tonight, is it time to say, "Relax, celebrate victory"?
January 22, 2007
Chemotherapy by the Numbers
A University of Michigan study has found that women with lower levels of education and/or income tend to get lower levels of something else—chemotherapy. Due to concerns or assumptions over how they will handle the side effects, doctors are three times more likely to give women with less education a reduced dose of chemotherapy.
The study, based on U.S. Census Bureau statistics and individual interviews, also found that women with less household income received less chemotherapy. The lead author of the study, Jennifer Griggs, said that doctors may have concerns over less educated patients’ possible misunderstanding the side effects of their treatments.
“It may be that negotiating side effects and continued doses of treatment is easier when there is more shared culture," Griggs continued in a press release.
Doctors calculate chemotherapy doses based on height to weight ratio. Adjustments to the doses based on income or education can jeopardize survival rates for those patients.
"Simply put, this evidence shows that doctors are likely to reduce the chemotherapy levels for these women, even though there is no solid medical basis to do it," said Gary Lyman, M.D., M.P.H., principal investigator and director of the ANC Study Group, a project that studies cancer patients starting chemotherapy that is funded by the pharmaceutical company Amgen.
CEOs Scold Bush on Global Warming
You know that Bush is lost in a wilderness of his own making when the CEO’s of 10 major corporations set up homing beacons to call him back to reality. As the AP reports:
"We can and must take prompt action to establish a coordinated, economy-wide market-driven approach to climate protection," the executives from a broad range of industries said in a letter to the president.
Why are they doing it? We know these chieftains of major utilities, aluminum and chemical companies, and financial institutions aren’t acting out of altruism. Apparently they’ve realized that even their own tony hides are on the line.
Members of the group, called the U.