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November 30, 2007
Texas Science Curriculum Director Resigns Over Creationism Kerfuffle
The science blogosphere is abuzz (here, here and here, for starters) with some juicy creationism news from Texas. According to the Austin American-Statesman, Chris Comer, the state's director of science curriculum, was pressured into resigning this month. Her crime? Forwarding an e-mail about an upcoming talk by creationism expert Barbara Forrest. (Now mind you, by "creationism expert," I don't mean "creationist." Barbara Forrest testified in the Dover trial, and according to Pharyngula blogger PZ Meyers, she had creationists shaking in their boots.)
Anyway, long story short, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) had a fit. A TEA memo obtained by the Statesman said, "Ms. Comer's e-mail implies endorsement of the speaker and implies that TEA endorses the speaker's position on a subject on which the agency must remain neutral."
Now, never mind the fact that the neutrality for which Texas strives on the subject of creationism pretty much amounts to bad science. Even if neutrality is your goal—heck, even if you're the biggest creationist ever—you might still be interested in hearing what this Barbara Forrest has to say. And if you're a teacher, you're ostensibly interested in open forums, free exchange of ideas, etc. Tough luck for you if you're teaching in Texas. Talk about a hostile learning environment.
November 29, 2007
More Than 1 in 4 US Birds Imperiled
How are America's birds doing after seven years of the antiGreens? Well, 178 species in the continental U.S. and 39 in Hawaii are in need of immediate conservation. That according to the 2007 Audubon WatchList.
"We call this a 'WatchList' but it is really a call to action, because the alternative is to watch these species slip ever closer to oblivion," said Audubon Bird Conservation Director and co-author, Greg Butcher. "How quickly and effectively we act to protect and support the species on this list will determine their future; where we've taken aggressive action, we've seen improvement," says David Pashley, American Bird Conservancy's Director of Conservation Programs and co-author.
Could Step One be any clearer? Fast forward to 2008 & ditch the flightless leaders.
Among the most imperiled species on the list that regularly breed in the continental U.S. are:
Gunnison Sage-Grouse (not on Endangered Species Act list (ESA) [here's why, at least in part]) This species is restricted to Southwest ...
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.
...Colorado and adjacent Utah. Drought, which is predicted to get worse with increased global warming, is among the factors that have reduced the Gunnison Sage-Grouse population to fewer than 5,000; habitat loss and fragmentation and excessive grazing are other threats. Protection and restoration of contiguous tracts of good habitat is critical.
Lesser Prairie-Chicken (not on ESA list) Habitat loss and degradation have restricted this species to a number of isolated populations, many of which are on private lands in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. Small population size, changing habitat resulting from drought, and climate change threaten continued survival.
California Condor Once reduced to nine individual wild birds, this raptor is slowly recovering, thanks to captive breeding and the release of individuals in California and Arizona. There are now 305 individuals, including 148 free-flying birds. Lead bullets are a critical threat to long-term survival, as fragments poison wild condors that eat the remains of hunters' kills. Audubon California and American Bird Conservancy have spearheaded recent passage of legislation eliminating lead bullets in the range of the condor in that state.
Whooping Crane Unregulated shooting and loss of habitat reduced this species to fewer than 20 individuals around the turn of the 20th Century. Implementation of a recovery plan developed under the Endangered Species Act has resulted in more than a 1000% increase in population to over 200 individuals, and has spawned efforts to establish additional wild breeding populations.
Piping Plover Protection of this shorebird's beachfront nesting grounds is helping to improve the outlook for this species. Human development along beaches, increased beach recreation, disturbance by pets, and increased predation require constant vigilance. Intensive conservation efforts supported by the Endangered Species Act have helped stabilize populations and allowed populations to increase in some regions of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
Black-capped Vireo Suburban development, agricultural conversion, and fire suppression in Texas and Oklahoma have decreased available breeding habitat, reducing both the range and population size of this species. Increased predation near human development has further decreased populations, as has parasitism from Brown-headed Cowbirds, which lay their eggs in Black-capped Vireo nests, out-competing the vireo chicks. Innovative conservation efforts on public and private lands seem to be helping some populations recover.
Florida Scrub-Jay Suburban-exurban sprawl and agricultural development have reduced habitat dramatically and isolated many populations. Maintaining natural wildfire regimes will be critical. Although ESA status has increased conservation efforts for this species, it has not been enough to stop loss of habitat.
Golden-cheeked Warbler Breeding is restricted to the Edwards Plateau in Texas, where suburban sprawl and habitat destruction has greatly reduced population size. Winter habitat loss in southern Mexico and Central America may also be affecting populations. Innovative conservation strategies that protect and restore habitat in both the breeding and wintering grounds are underway and needed.
Kirtland's Warbler Dependent on jack pine habitat in northern Michigan, this warbler species has increased more than 600% since the mid-1980s because of management plans implemented under the Endangered Species Act. Singing male counts in the spring have increased from 200 to almost 1,400 (and some singing males are now found in Wisconsin and Ontario). Wild land fire management, control of the parasitic Brown-headed Cowbird, and protection of wintering habitat in the Bahamas remain essential to long-term survival.
Ashy Storm-Petrel (not on ESA list) Breeding populations are restricted to islands off the west coast of North America. Non-native nest predators and increased gull populations threaten breeding birds, and ocean pollution and overfishing threaten feeding birds.
Kittlitz's Murrelet (not on ESA list) Breeding and feeding habitat seems to be linked to Alaska's tidewater glaciers, making this species very susceptible to climate change. Oil spills, coastal pollution, and increased disturbance also threaten this species.
Red-cockaded Woodpecker Habitat loss from logging in the Southeast's long-leaf pine forests and suburban and agricultural development have isolated populations and greatly reduced overall population size. Protection strategies developed through the Endangered Species Act are helping populations in many places, but restoration of open long-leaf pine forest is desperately needed.
Spectacled Eider Ingestion of lead shot is believed to be a major problem for this species, along with an increase in nest predation by foxes, mink, gulls, and jaegers in a warming Arctic. In addition, changing sea conditions in winter are affecting the distribution of clams - a preferred winter food. Proposed oil development poses an additional and very significant threat.
Reddish Egret (not on ESA list) This species forages along the Gulf Coast and is subject to human disturbance at beaches and at nesting sites. It is dependent on high quality coastal habitat for its food. Human coastal development and decreasing water quality are serious threats.
Black Rail (not on ESA list) This species makes its home in shallow, grassy wetlands along the Atlantic Coast, San Francisco Bay, southern Great Plains and the Lower Colorado River, habitat that is vulnerable to human conversion to other uses, including agriculture or other development. A secretive bird, it needs further study to increase understanding of its natural history, ecological role and conservation needs.
Buff-breasted Sandpiper (not on ESA list) Traveling each fall from Alaska to Argentina, this species is one of our champion long-distance migrants. Along the way, it faces a great variety of threats, from oil development on its Arctic breeding grounds to grassland conversion to soybean fields on its Argentinean wintering grounds. It needs protected grassy stopover sites all along its migration route.
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow (not on ESA list) This tiny bird is restricted to a narrow band of saltmarsh along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. It is threatened on one side by human coastal developments and on the other by rising sea levels. With even one foot of sea-level rise from global warming, this species will need a lot of help to maintain sufficient habitat for its survival.
Tricolored Blackbird (not on ESA list) A highly social species, this bird is found in freshwater wetlands in the Pacific states, mainly California. With loss of this habitat, this species increasingly relies on agricultural fields for nesting, leaving chicks vulnerable to the harvest of hay and other crops. Audubon California and other conservationists are working with farmers to maintain agricultural nesting habitat long enough each season to allow the blackbirds to successfully raise their young - potentially spelling the difference between survival and extinction for this highly specialized bird.
Yellow Rail (not on ESA list) Rails are small, secretive birds that winter in wetlands along the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts. This species prefers to breed in wet grasslands across Canada and the northern tier of states from Minnesota to Maine. These grasslands are easily converted to other uses, so protection of high-quality habitat will be essential for this migratory bird's survival.
Xantus's Murrelet (not on ESA list) This tiny seabird nests on islands off southern California. Conservationists are tackling the major threat on the nesting grounds - non-native predators like rats and mice. Global warming seems to wreak havoc with the water circulation and availability of food sources in the ocean, causing shortages for this and other coastal seabirds.
New Tectonic Source of Geothermal Energy?
Geochemists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Arizona State University have discovered a new tool for identifying potential geothermal energy resources. The discovery came from comparing helium isotopes in samples gathered from wells, springs, and vents across the northern Basin and Range of western North America. High helium ratios are common in volcanic regions. When the investigators found high ratios in places far from volcanism, they knew that hot fluids must be permeating Earth's inner layers by other means. The samples collected on the surface gave the researchers a window into the structure of the rocks far below, with no need to drill.
"A good geothermal energy source has three basic requirements: a high thermal gradient—which means accessible hot rock—plus a rechargeable reservoir fluid, usually water, and finally, deep permeable pathways for the fluid to circulate through the hot rock," says Mack Kennedy. "We believe we have found a way to map and quantify zones of permeability deep in the lower crust that result not from volcanic activity but from tectonic activity, the movement of pieces of the Earth's crust."
Geothermal is considered by many to be the best renewable energy source besides solar. Accessible geothermal energy in the United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii, is estimated at 90 quadrillion kilowatt-hours, 3,000 times more than the country's total annual energy consumption. Determining helium ratios from surface measurements is a practical way to locate promising sources.
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.
November 28, 2007
Clean Up the Coal Plants, Then Clean Out the Fridge
While the filthy coal industry touts its far-off "clean coal" technology to help keep federal subsidies flowing, perhaps there's a simpler solution to the emissions and toxins these plants belch. A Texas company called Skyonic has developed a process it claims can reduce smokestack carbon by up to 90 percent by transforming the C02 into solid NaHCO3, better known by the brand name Arm & Hammer. Hey, baking soda from coal waste! Great idea, especially if—as the company claims—the stuff comes out food-grade clean. (Even so, I think I'll just use mine to eliminate fridge odors.)
The process, which is now being tested on a pilot scale in Texas, is driven by heat from the waste gases. It involves an input of sodium hydroxide (lye), which is produced on-site, and produces as byproducts hydrogen and chlorine gases, which could be sold at a profit along with the baking soda, the company says.
Skyonic CEO Joe David Jones told ZDNET, where you can read more on this, that his company's "SkyMine" technology also eliminates 97 percent of the heavy metals and most of the acids and nitrogen compounds, which would eliminate the need for pricey smokestack scrubbers. The company is working on a full-scale system it hopes to install in 2009 that would, it says, absorb the waste output of a large (500MW) plant—which includes about 338,000 tons of carbon annually.
Sounds almost too good to be true; pie-in-the-SkyMine, you might say. Still, if it pans out, there'll be plenty of baking soda for that pie, and one less reason to hate the coal industry. 'Course, there is a little matter of blowing the tops off mountains. ...
November 27, 2007
Green Jobs Growing
Thanks to Grist for pointing the way to a fact sheet from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute showing that clean energy, already a job-creation engine, will soon rev even higher:
Energy efficiency now employs 8 million, and renewable energy 450,000, in the U.S. Renewable energy creates more jobs per megawatt of power installed, unit of energy produced, and dollar invested than fossil energy. Generating 20 percent of U.S. electricity from new renewable energy by 2020 will add 185,000 new jobs, while cumulatively reducing utility bills $10.5 billion and increasing rural landowner income by $26.5 billion. A national light vehicle efficiency standard of 35 mpg by 2018 will create 241,000 jobs, including 23,900 in the automotive sector, while saving consumers $37 billion in 2020 alone. The Massachusetts clean energy sector employs 14,000 and will soon be the state's 10th largest economic sector. Washington state's 15 percent renewable energy standard will result in a net increase of 1,230 jobs in-state. California's Million Solar Roof Initiative will generate 15,000 jobs there. Germany employs 214,000 in renewable energy, including 64,000 in wind. Denmark's wind industry employs 20,000 and Spain's 35,000. U.S. wind power was responsible for 16,000 direct jobs and 36,800 total jobs in 2006.
Not to mention which, renewables revive communities.
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.
Good News on Storing CO2 Underground
Very promising news. Looks like storing carbon dioxide deep below the earth's surface might be a safe, long-term sequestration solution. University of Leeds (they're busy there) research found that porous sandstone, drained of oil, provides a safe reservoir for CO2. Investigator Stephanie Houston examined water pumped out with the oil and found it unexpectedly rich in silica, revealing that silicates had dissolved in the newly-injected seawater in less than a year—much faster than predicted. This is the type of reaction needed to make CO2 as stable as, say, the dissolved carbonate in still mineral water. It's also what's needed to prevent the captured CO2 leaking back to the surface at some future (catastrophic) date.
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.
Biodiesel Sludge Converted to Hydrogen
What to do with the byproduct of biodiesel? You know, that low-grade sludge that's produced, molecule for molecule, alongside biodiesel. Well, scientists at the University of Leeds have turned the unwanted crude glycerol (sludge) into a high-value hydrogen rich gas. The novel process developed by Valerie Dupont and her co-investigators mixes glycerol with steam at controlled temperatures and pressures, separating the waste product into hydrogen, water and carbon dioxide, with no residues. A special absorbent material filters out the CO2, leaving a purer product.
Currently hydrogen production is expensive and unsustainable, using either increasingly scarce fossil fuels or other less efficient methods such as water electrolysis. The new process is near carbon neutral, since the CO2 generated is not derived from the use of fossil fuels.
Let's hope the new processes emerging from a worldwide explosion of research prove green, sustainable, and economically feasible.
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.
In Defense of Uncomfortable Air Travel
The heaviest travel weekend of the year is over, and the verdict is in: "Flying coach has become an increasingly miserable experience," says the New York Times. In an article called "Aboard Planes, Class Conflict," Michelle Higgins enumerates the various ways in which modern air travel, well, sucks: The seats are tiny. Blankets and pillows are scarce. Free meals have become a distant memory.
This weekend, I traveled a round-trip total of 5,408 miles to spend Thanksgiving with my family in Boston. Sure, it was cramped (barely even enough room to turn the pages of Sky Mall) and the miniature allotment of pretzels (flung at me in my window-seat cave) didn't exactly tide me over for six hours, but basically, I spent most of both plane rides asleep, and the whole thing was astoundingly easy. From one coast to another! In only five hours! Coming back yesterday morning, I boarded the plane while it was still dark and rainy in Boston, but as the trip wore on the day dawned clear in the West, and I spent a good half hour staring out the window and marveling at how I was being whisked across the country. There go the snow-capped Rockies! Onto the Sierra Nevadas! I arrived at work in San Francisco only an hour late. I'd love to see my family more often, and after this easy trip back home, I began to think I could. But should I? Probably not.
Convenient though it may be, air travel is not exactly green. By some estimates, flights account for nearly four percent of human contribution to global warming. But there's a deeper problem, too. Environmentalists like Wendell Berry would argue that we've allowed ourselves to abuse our earth as much as we already have because we feel disconnected from it. No matter how tiny your seat is on a plane, it's pretty easy to feel divorced from the planet when you're zooming across it at 30,000 feet up.
Most people I know prefer to fly on airlines that offer individual TVs in coach, and if they don't care about in-flight entertainment, it's probably because they've found some really good drugs. And while things may be getting worse in coach, they're getting better in first class. In an effort to woo affluent customers, international airlines are competing to offer the most luxurious long-haul experience. Singapore Airlines offers first-class seats that are 35 inches wide and convert into flat bads. A friend who took Thai Airways from New York City to Bangkok last summer told me that the flight attendants went through four or five elaborate outfits during the seventeen-hour flight. Distraction, it seems, is the name of the game: A flight can only be great if it makes you forget you're flying. When we're too aware of flying because we're uncomfortable, it's harder to forget.
Now I'm not making excuses for airlines that behave like our abusive boyfriends, confident that no matter how badly they treat us, we'll always come crawling back. But I do wonder whether it's good for usor our planetto get so comfy on planes that we don't feel like we've taken any journey at all. I woke up this morning with a crick in my neck from sleeping all curled up on the plane yesterday. I miss my family already, but I'm not looking forward to the next East-Coast-trip crick. And it's probably best that way.
November 26, 2007
Rainforest Swap = "Moral Offset"
The Independent tells a great story of South American nation Guyana preparing to cede control of its tropical forest to a British-led, international body in return for a bilateral deal that would secure development aid for shifting the country to a green economy. Guyana, a former British colony, possesses an intact rainforest larger than England.
The deal would represent potentially the largest carbon offset ever undertaken, securing the vast carbon sinks of Guyana's pristine forest in return for assisting the economic growth of South America's poorest economy. Speaking in his office in the capital, Georgetown, on the Caribbean coast, Guyana's President, Bharrat Jagdeo, said the offer was a chance for Britain to make a "moral offset" and underline its leadership on the most important single issue facing the world—climate change. "We can deploy the forest against global warming and, through the UK's help, it wouldn't have to stymie development in Guyana."
Scientists working in the Iwokrama Reserve in central Guyana estimate the forest holds close to 120 million tons of carbon—an amount equivalent to the annual emissions of the UK. The reserve is part of the Guyana Shield, one of the last four intact rainforests left in the world, home to mountains, 200 lakes, rivers flowing over volcanic dykes, lowland tropical rainforests, palm forests, and sheltering some of the world's most endangered species, including jaguars, harpy eagles, giant anteaters, giant river otters, anacondas, black caimans and giant river turtles.
What's not to like here?
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.
November 23, 2007
Australians Vote Today: A Turning Point for the World?
Want a sneak preview of America-2008? Australians are voting today on 11 years of John Howard's ghastly ungreen rule and Kevin Rudd is predicted to become Australia's leader—a man who's declared the fight against global warming to be his main priority. The Telegraph reports:
The Labour Party leader said that he would immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, describing it as the "number one" priority. "Australia needs new leadership on climate change. Mr. Howard remains in a state of denial," he said. He would personally represent Australia at a United Nations climate change meeting next month in Bali to discuss the next stage of the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. He also promised that by 2020, a fifth of Australia's energy needs would come from renewable energy sources. Until a partial conversion this year, Mr. Howard has been a climate change skeptic [sound familiar?]. . . the latest poll indicates that Mr. Rudd is set to win with 54 per cent of the vote compared to Mr. Howard's 46 per cent.
If true. Well, halle-bloody-lujah. It will be no small victory. Aussies are the highest per capita greenhouse emitters on the planet. They're our fellow anti-Kyotoers, and likewise suffering hellacious droughts and wildfires. Where they lead, we can follow.
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.
China Surges Ahead In Renewable Energy
Griping about China's exploding fuel consumption? (Who isn't?) Check this out. The Worldwatch Institute reports that ambitious Chinese energy targets, supported by strong government policies and manufacturing prowess, may enable China to leapfrog the rest of the industrialized world in renewable technology in the near future. This even as it conducts breakneck expansion of economy via its reliance on coal.
In Powering China's Development: The Role of Renewable Energy, Eric Martinot and Li Junfeng report that China will likely achieve, and may exceed, its target of 15% energy from renewables by 2020. Furthermore, renewables could provide more than 30 percent of the nations energy by 2050.
The nations of the world invested more than $50 billion in renewable energy in 2006. China alone is expected to invest more than $10 billion in new renewables in 2007, second only to Germany, and double the amount the US invested in 2006. China's production of wind turbines and solar cells doubled in 2006, and is poised to pass world solar and wind manufacturing leaders in Europe, Japan, and North America in the next three years. China already dominates the markets for solar hot water and small hydropower.
Still not enough. But moving in the right direction. Evidence of understanding. Unlike here at home.
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.
November 21, 2007
A Few Things I'll Give Thanks For
Tofurky. According to the Washington Post, the meatless Thanksgiving dinner-in-a-box hit the market twelve years ago, after founder Seth Tibbott endured a nasty holiday bout with a stuffed pumpkin and a rock-hard gluten roast. Well, your suffering was worth it for the rest of us, Seth, because Tofurkey tastes great.
Thanks to Lloyd Alter at Treehugger for his list of Five Climate Change Events To Be Thankful For:
1. Al Gore and the IPCC won the Nobel Prize. 2. The 1st CAFE standard in 22 years was passed in the Senate. 3. All the democratic presidential front runners have proposed a comprehensive energy plan, asking for large carbon dioxide emission reductions. (but some still love coal) 4. The 4th IPCC Synthesis report was a blunt and urgent call for action. (though it's not pretty) 5. Public Opinion is shifting: 3/4 of Americans would make lifestyle changes or pay energy and carbon taxes.
Thanks for the fact that Hassan Mashriqui of Louisiana State University, a place intimately familiar with the effects of monster hurricanes, gave Bangladesh emergency officials storm-surge maps 24 hours in advance of Cyclone Sidr. Maps so detailed that local agencies were able to take advance action, saving countless lives.
Thanks to Plenty for news that the Democratic Republic of Congo is setting aside an 11,800-square-mile reserve for endangered bonobos—our closest relatives in the primate world, sharing an amazing 98.4% of our DNA, found only in the DRC, the only primates to live in a peaceful, matriarchal society. Now suffering from the bushmeat trade. Eat them? Hell, we need to invite them to mentor us.
Thanks for the fact that we are still here. We haven't destroyed everything (yet). We might still learn to be a better species and cherish this amazing world we are so incredibly lucky to be part of.
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.
November 20, 2007
EPA Removes Everglades Expert From Restoration Project
How do you reward an employee for years of faithful service on a project? A new watch? A raise? At least a pat on the back? Nah. If you're following the lead of the EPA, you remove him from the project.
Richard Harvey has been serving as an EPA representative on the Everglades restoration since it began in 1999. The project has been plagued by environmental problems since the get-go, and Harvey hasn't been shy about pointing them out. When water authorities diverted excess water from polluted Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers, Harvey warned that this wasn't a great idea.
The most recent scuffle started last fall, when officials wanted to install an underground pipe to shunt excess water from the lake. A pipeline is not a magician, though, and dirty water has to go somewhere. In this case, Harvey said, the water would flow into Biscayne National Park. Another not-so-great idea. At a meeting, via conference call, he said:
Once again we're routing dirty water....We are extremely concerned because the track record when the district and the corps move dirty water around is some resource gets trashed.
Little did Harvey know, a reporter was also at the meeting, and she quoted him in print. A few months later, Harvey's supervisor removed him from the project.
The restoration is now almost a decade old, and some people seem to think that the park is all better. Last summer, for example, the U.N. World Heritage Committee removed the Everglades from its list of endangered places. But most experts agree with Harvey—the River of Grass still has a long way to go.
November 19, 2007
Five Bullet Points of the Latest IPCC Report
Thanks to Nature, here are the highlights of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. The UN body won the latest Nobel Peace Prize (along with Al Gore), and maybe that emboldened them to take off the gloves in this round. The five talking points of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2007:
Warming of the world's climate is "unequivocal" 11 of the past 12 years (1995-2006) rank among the 12 warmest years since 1850. It is "likely" (meaning a 66% likelihood) that there has been significant man-made warming on every continent except Antarctica over the past half-century. Continued greenhouse-gas emissions at or above current rates would induce climate changes that would be "very likely" (meaning a 90% likelihood) to exceed those observed during the twentieth century. Fossil fuels will dominate the world's energy portfolio until at least 2030, and emissions look set to rise by 25-90% during that time. Given our current understanding, it is too difficult to estimate the extent of future sea-level rise.
The real question: will this overdue urgency translate into anything resembling action at next month's United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali? Or will it go the way of Kyoto, stymied by American, and now (inspired by our example) Chinese, stonewalling?Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.
Politics V. Endangered Species, or The Julie MacDonald Drama (Again)
Good article in today's Christian Science Monitor on how political efforts to undercut the Endangered Species Act are facing fire in the courts. In each case, Bush's political appointees overrode federal scientists' recommendations, with little or no justification, according to six lawsuits filed Thursday by the Center for Biological Diversity. Who are the losers? Mexican garter snakes, Mississippi gopher frogs, Santa Ana suckerfish, to begin with. We've heard this before but—
"This wave of lawsuits is different—and what makes them so different is that the agency itself and its inspector general have provided a lot of compelling evidence of political interference with the proper functioning of the act," says J.B. Ruhl, a law professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee and an expert on the ESA. A big factor in the CBD's legal fusillade hinges on the April release of a scathing report [pdf] by the Interior Department's inspector general on the actions of Julie MacDonald, the department's former deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks. The report found numerous questionable actions on endangered species and criticized her release of internal documents to outside groups opposed to the ESA.
Moreover, the Endangered Species & Wetlands Report revealed that Julie MacDonald received a Special Thanks for Achieving Results (STAR) award for her work during 2004. That amounted to a tidy $9,628 windfall—just short of the $10,000 threshold that would have triggered a review by the Office of Personnel Management. This, according to DOI, for "an outstanding one-time accomplishment or contribution of a non-recurring nature that produces tangible savings or intangible benefits."
Oh. Is that what they call eviscerating a stellar piece of legislation?
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.
November 15, 2007
The Garbage Game
Treehugger posts notice of the Garbage Game produced by The Gotham Gazette. You get to play at garbage commissioner and dig into the stinky reality of New Yorkers throwing away 64,000 tons of garbage a week, 7 billion pounds a year, for a billion dollars a year. You get to decide what to do with your empty water bottles, frayed towels, apple cores, the 3.6 million tons of diapers Americans throw away yearly. Where are you going to send your city's garbage? Next door? Overseas? Learn the consequences of your decisions. Best of all, play the game with your kids and enjoy the light in their eyes when they realize the effects of the profligate lifestyle you're generating on their behalf.
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge,and other writings, here.
Timber! Katrina's Dead Trees Release as Much Carbon as Stored in US Forests Yearly
Scientists from Tulane and the University of New Hampshire using NASA satellite data calculate that Hurricane Katrina killed or severely damaged 320 million large trees in Gulf Coast forests. The damaged trees subsequently released large quantities of CO2 to the atmosphere—the equivalent of 60-100% of the net annual carbon sink in all US forest trees. Why? Because dead trees no longer photosynthesize and can't store carbon. Plus, dead wood is consumed by decomposers whose communities grow in keeping with the bumper crop, and who then "exhale" large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere.
The August 2005 hurricane damaged or destroyed 5 million acres of forest across Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. "It is surprising to learn that one extreme event can release nearly as much carbon to the atmosphere as all U.S. forests can store in an average year," said Diane Wickland, manager of the Terrestrial Ecology Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Climate change forecasts predict more larger and powerful storms like Katrina more frequently in the future.
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge,and other writings, here.
Coal Sponsors Tonight's Democratic Debate
Think Progress points to the full-page ad in today's New York Times stating that tonight's Democratic presidential debate on CNN is sponsored by the "clean coal" industry. Wow. Aren't euphemisms fun? Sort of the magical realism of the political world. According to Think Progress, the coal industrys "clean" agenda would have us:
Expand coal production by using government-funded technology to convert coal to vehicle fuels, thereby producing twice as much global warming pollution as gas production, and consuming huge amounts of water to boot. Crank out as many new power plants as possible before limits on greenhouse gas pollution take effect. Nearly 150 coal-fired power plants are already on the drawing board. Delay and weaken any limits on CO2 pollution, even though scientists tell us we need a 20% reduction by 2020, and an 80% reduction in 2050 [actually, we need more than that and faster too]. Convince Congress to give coalies free "allowances" to emit greenhouse gases rather than force coal-fired plants to buy them in cap-and-trade auctions.
The coal industry's sponsorship of tonights CNN debate in Las Vegas appears to be an attempt to pressure Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who has stood firmly against the construction of three proposed major coal-fired power plants in his home state: REID: "I want to help Nevada become the national leader in renewable energy and energy independence. We have vast wind, solar and geothermal resources and we're wasting energy every day we're not tapping into those free, clean, and reliable power sources As proposed, these coal plants are old news, the way of the increasingly distant past."
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.
November 14, 2007
The Dirtiest Dozen Polluters
Among 50,000 power plants worldwide, which are the biggest CO2 emitters? The Center for Global Development has analyzed that. Turns out Australians are (still) the biggest per capita emitters (11 tons of power-sector CO2 emissions per person per year). Americans are the biggest overall (>9 tons pp). China (2 tons pp) and India (0.5 tons pp) are still lightweights per capita, though seriously competitive on a cumulative level.
Globally, power generation emits nearly 10 billion tons of CO2 per year. The 8,000 power plants in the US spew more 25 percent of that. Roughly 2.8 billion tons per year. The USs biggest CO2 emitter is Southern Co, the sty (pig or eye, your choice) of the nation, with annual emissions of 172 million tons, followed by dirtbags American Electric Power Company Inc, Duke Energy Corp, and AES Corp.
Here are dirtiest dozen individual plants in the US. All are coal-fired. Any in your hood, parading as do-gooders?
The Scherer plant in Juliet, GA: 25.3 million tons The Miller plant in Quinton, AL: 20.6 million tons The Bowen plant in Cartersville, GA: 20.5 million tons The Gibson plant in Owensville, IN: 20.4 million tons The W.A. Parish plant in Thompsons, TX: 20 million tons The Navajo plant in Page, AZ: 19.9 million tons The Martin Lake plant in Tatum, TX: 19.8 million tons The Cumberland plant in Cumberland City, TN: 19.6 million tons The Gavin plant in Cheshire, OH: 18.7 million tons The Sherburne County plant in Becker, MN: 17.9 million tons The Bruce Mansfield plant in Shippingport, PA: 17.4 million tons The Rockport plant in Rockport, IN: 16.6 million tons.
The least dirty CO2 region in the US is the West Coast, where much of the electric power is generated by nuclear and hydroelectric plants.
Number one worst power plant the world is Taichung Lung-Ching Township Taiwan, at 41.3 million tons a year.
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.