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Climate Change News Brought to you by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute Carol Werner, Executive Director September 5, 2008 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Climate 'Hockey Stick' Is Revived On September 1, a report released in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences confirmed the 1998 “hockey stick” graph showing a trend of rising global temperatures. The graph indicated that the temperatures of the Northern Hemisphere remained relatively constant for 1000 years (the “shaft” of the stick) and suddenly rose with the advent of the industrial revolution. Multiple data analysis tools were used to support the conclusion. "We used two different methods that are quite complementary in the assumptions they make about data, so that provides a test of the sensitivity of data to the methods used," said climate scientist, Dr. Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University. “The science is not all done, there's still a lot of work to do; but what we are seeing now is definitely unusual in the context of the past." The scientists also found that surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were warmer over the last 10 years than any time during the last 1,300 years, and if scientists include controversial data obtained from tree rings, the data shows the warming is anomalous for at least 1,700 years. "Ten years ago, we could not simply eliminate all the tree-ring data from our network because we did not have enough other proxy climate records to piece together a reliable global record," said Mann. "With the considerably expanded networks of data now available, we can indeed obtain a reliable long-term record without using tree rings." For additional information see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7592575.stm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080901205717.htm http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Global_Warming/Global_warming_greates... Feds Warn Climate Change Could Harm Giant Sequoias On September 5, federal researchers warned rising temperatures may interfere with the ability of giant sequoias to sprout new seedlings and cause the species to die at a quicker rate. "The first effects of climate change that we're likely to see is that the giant sequoias will have trouble reproducing because their root systems don't work as well when temperatures warm," said Nathan Stephenson, a research ecologist with the US Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center. "After that, I wouldn't be surprised if in 30 years we see their death rates go up." As temperatures rose and drought conditions became more severe between 1982 and 2004, researchers found that the death rate of the sequoias more than doubled. They were also more vulnerable to attacks from insects and fungus. Other plant and animal species of the region, like the American pika, are also declining in population due to climate change. "Right now, we're going to focus our efforts on the big icon for the parks, the giant sequoias," said Craig Axtell, superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. "But we may find that other problems come up down the road that we don't even know about." For additional information see: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jy67EWn45IJAw1JGs0Kiw7JGgvHAD930H6CG0 Asian Pollution Could Spur US Warming On September 5, a federal science report was released that points to smog, soot and other particulates from Asian power plants, cooking and heating as contributors to global warming. “We found that these short-lived pollutants have a greater influence on the Earth's climate throughout the 21st century than previously thought," said Hiram "Chip" Levy of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "By 2050, two of the three climate models we use found that changes in short-lived pollutants will contribute 20 percent of the predicted global warming." The short-lived pollution that can cause warming comes from soot, particles that are dark, absorb heat, and come from fires. The report acknowledges CO2 as the leading contributor to global warming but suggests ways to combat shorter term pollutants since their levels are rising at a rapid pace, especially in Asia. The pollutant warming effect will likely create three "hot spots" in the world: the central United States, Europe around the Mediterranean Sea, and Kazakhstan. The report suggested curbing their impact by cutting car and truck emissions and shifting to cleaner energy sources. "It's no substitute for targeting CO2, which in the long run is the main contributor to global warming and has to be tackled, but ... the shorter-term pollutants can have a very large impact," said Drew Shindell of NASA. For additional information see: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gWNJH78cojUEqorJdugcQbpCn_LwD9305PKO1 http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN0438977220080905 http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap3-2/final-report/ Northwest and Northeast Passages Open Simultaneously On August 31, scientists revealed satellite images showing that both the Northwest and the Northeast passages opened up for the first time, making it possible to circumnavigate the North Pole. "The passages are open," said Professor Mark Serreze of the US National Snow and Ice Data Center. "It's a historic event. We are going to see this more and more as the years go by." Until recently, this event was not expected to occur until 2070. Now, many scientists feel the Arctic will be completely ice-free by 2030, and a study conducted this year by Professor Wieslaw Maslowski at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, claimed all the ice will melt by 2013. “To recover to the ice levels of the 1980s would require many years in a row of cool conditions, and that isn’t going to happen under global warming conditions,” said researcher Walt Meier of the Center. For additional information see: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/for-the-first-ti... http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/29/north-pole-remain-frozen/ UN Report: Massive Glaciers Under Threat On September 1, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) released a report that warned of the loss of glaciers across the globe due to global warming. "The ongoing trend of worldwide and rapid, if not accelerating, glacier shrinkage on the century time scale is most likely to be of a non-periodic nature, and may lead to the deglaciation of large parts of many mountain ranges by the end of the 21st century," the report said. UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner hopes that world governments will come together at the 2009 climate convention in Copenhagen resolved to act together to fight climate change. "Otherwise, and like the glaciers, our room for maneuver and the opportunity to act may simply melt away," Steiner said. For additional information see: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hoVpy7IM40pzgO5WZlKu2bwRT7bw http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=143&art_id=nw200809... Faster Rise in Sea Level Predicted from Melting Greenland Ice Sheet On August 31, a team of researchers led by University of Wisconsin-Madison geologist Anders Carlson reported in the journal, Nature Geoscience, the loss of the Greenland ice sheet could raise sea levels two or three times more than originally predicted. "We're not talking about something catastrophic, but we could see a much bigger response in terms of sea level from the Greenland ice sheet over the next 100 years than what is currently predicted,” he said. Many scientists think the reason the ice sheet is melting so quickly is due to the surface water on the ice sheet trickling down through cracks to bedrock beneath, making the ice sheet more unstable. "This finding shows the potential for ice to disappear quickly, given the right push," said co-author Allegra LeGrande of the New York-based NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. For additional information see: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080831151346.htm http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gTfQogU27THC1H2H-6Hjp7z1Zbtg http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/sep/01/sea.level.rise?gusrc=rss&f... Oil Group Joins Alaska in Suing to Overturn Polar Bear Protection On August 28, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the National Mining Association, and the American Iron and Steel Institute joined Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s administration to file a lawsuit against Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and the US Fish and Wildlife Service Director H. Dale Hall for listing the polar bear as a threatened species. "This could significantly curtail oil and gas exploration," said NAM Vice President Keith McCoy. "It's discrimination against the state of Alaska. During a time when gas prices are high and we need to look at all options, to issue something that shuts off a viable resource [is ill-advised].” Environmental advocates have also filed a lawsuit against the federal government. They want to change the polar bear listing to endangered, from threatened. "I think it shows the strength of our legal theory," said Kassie Siegel, climate program director for the Center for Biological Diversity. "Basically we said, 'List the polar bear, and when you list the polar bear, you're going to have to do something about greenhouse gas (GHG )emissions.' The fact all these other parties are suing over it shows the Bush administration doesn't have a legal leg to stand on -- they know the administration has to do something about GHG emissions." For additional information see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/30/AR200808... http://www.nationaljournal.com/conventions/co_20080901_2202.php New UN Tool Allows People to Virtually Visit Global Hotspots On September 4, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) unveiled an initiative that allows web surfers to virtually visit global hotspots via the mapping tool, Google Earth. The UNEP atlas will appear in three dimensions and display the impact of climate change and human activities on various locations across the globe. Before-and-after images, including the loss of biodiversity-rich forests and farms in Madagascar, are also part of the program. “If we are to change the hearts and minds of the global public we need to surprise, to excite and occasionally, perhaps, to shock,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. “These images, allied to modern computer technology, do all three.” For additional information see: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=27928&Cr=climate&Cr1= Aid Agencies Plan CO2 Offsets to Help Poor On September 2, the New Economics Foundation (NEF), in collaboration with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), launched a new funding system to aid poor countries which have limited opportunities to participate in carbon trading programs. "This is very much not a minor absolution for your carbon sins, but is honestly a compensation payment for the impact you know your personal carbon emissions will have," said Andrew Simms, policy director at NEF. The initiative has plans both to curb CO2 emissions and help people adapt to present climate change effects. Some pilot projects include teaching Indian children to swim in case of floods and planting drought-resistant cashew trees in Brazil. There are also plans to incorporate renewable technologies like solar-powered lights for children to do homework after dark and solar-powered freezers to store cashew pulp. The people who fund the program describe the scheme as a way for charities, business and individuals to invest in the lives of people. "It connects me with a human being at the other end of the world who's being affected by my pollution, and I then invest in that person and relate to that person, and feel there is solidarity between us," said Saleemul Huq, head of the climate change group at IIED. "It's not buying and selling -- it is much more investing in people." For additional information see: http://africa.reuters.com/country/MR/news/usnL1505516.html Adventurer Begins Kayak Expedition to North Pole On August 30, British environmentalist Lewis Gordon Pugh began his kayak expedition to the North Pole in an effort to draw attention to the dramatic effects of global warming on the melting ice shelves of the Arctic. "I want to bring home to world leaders, on this expedition, the reality of what is now happening here in the Arctic. The rate of change is clearly faster than nearly all the models predict, which has huge implications for climate change and how to tackle it," Pugh said. Pugh began his adventure from Virgohamna in the Svalbard archipelago, in northern Norway about 620 miles from the North Pole, and hopes to paddle about five hours each day with a support boat following nearby. Last year Pugh was the first person to swim in the icy water of the North Pole to raise awareness of climate change. "There's one side of me that desperately wants to get to the North Pole to be able to shake the lapels of world leaders to get them to understand what has happened there," he said. "But then there's the other side of me that says I really hope I don't get there. I hope I fail because if I am able to get there we really are in deep trouble." For additional information see: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gsaOjy-20c9Z5rU4tY_ZNvh9AjOA http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7588329.stm http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Earth/Global_Warming/Day_4_Lewis_Pugh... Temperature Rises ‘Will Be Double the Safe Limit’ for Global Warming On September 1, climate change researchers from the University of Manchester released a study that suggests temperatures will rise at least 4oC, double the amount considered safe to avoid dangerous consequences. "We are certainly not on track for a two-degree temperature increase at the moment. We are much more on track for a three to four-degree temperature increase, and we need to be thinking about what that actually means," said coauthor Dr. Alice Bows. According to the 2006 Stern review on the economics of climate change, such a temperature increase could lead to up to 300 million more people being affected by coastal flooding each year, a 30 to 50 percent reduction in water availability in southern Africa, and up to 50 percent of animal and plant species facing extinction. "That's when you get to a runaway situation," said Dr. Richard Dixon, director of World Wildlife Fund Scotland. "The big systems of the world start to go wrong when you get beyond two degrees." For additional information see: http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Temperature-rises-39will-be-double.4... Massive Arctic Ice Shelf Breaks Away On September 2, a team of researchers from the Northern and Polar Studies at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario reported that the 19 square mile Markham Ice Shelf in Canada’s northern Arctic broke away in early August and the remaining ice shelves have melted at a dramatic rate. "These substantial calving events underscore the rapidity of changes taking place in the Arctic," said Derek Mueller, an Arctic ice shelf specialist at Trent. "These changes are irreversible under the present climate and indicate that the environmental conditions that have kept these ice shelves in balance for thousands of years are no longer present.” Temperatures in the Arctic have risen more dramatically than other parts of the globe, leading scientists to believe that global warming is the culprit behind the ice shelf breakage. The total amount of ice lost from the shelves along Ellesmere Island this summer was 83 square miles, which is ten times more than what scientists had predicted at the end of July. "You just can't have ice shelves in a warm climate," Dr. Mueller said. "You can't link any one event to climate change, but we can certainly link patterns." For additional information see: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0246073320080903 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080902.wice03/BNSto... http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2008/03/c8975.html Climate Change May Cut Down Cases of Plague in US On September 2, scientists announced that climate change may decrease the number of plague outbreaks in the United States. "Periods of high plague activity are likely to decrease in the western United States over the coming decades, especially in the active four corners region -- New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah," the study said. Though the plague today mostly threatens Africa, the US has experienced about 7 cases per year since 1950. The plague is spread to humans by fleas that live on rats. The report, published in the Royal Society journal, Biology Letters, also suggests the disease could move further north and to higher elevations. For additional information see: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL24636220080902?pageN... Warming Seas Strengthen Storms On September 4, a study released in the journal, Nature, linked warmer temperatures to stronger hurricanes and typhoons. “This study offers definitive evidence that there are more of the very strongest hurricanes around the world, even though the total number of storms globally shows hardly any trend,” said Kerry A. Emanuel, a professor of atmospheric science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As seas warm, the ocean has more energy to transfer to cyclone winds, but the atmospheric conditions could contribute to more wind shear that could cut storms apart. Thomas Knutson of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton said the data was drawn from too short a time period to make long-term conclusions. “One is left with a very suggestive result and a very interesting result,” Dr. Knutson said, “but it’s not a definitive smoking gun for a greenhouse warming signal on hurricanes.” For additional information see: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/science/04cyclone.html?_r=1&oref=slogin http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN0327169520080903?sp=... http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hwJsEPMCcrS25GkRtALDA-Oc-4vw Germany Leads 'Clean Coal' Pilot During the week of September 8, an oxyfuel boiler will be commissioned for the small power plant in Schwarze Pumpe, Germany for a pilot project to develop the first carbon capture and storage (CCS) coal-fired power plant. The collected CO2 will be pressurized into a cylinder, transported to a gas field, and forced 1,000 meters below the Earth’s surface. "We need CSS urgently because the world is building a whole new generation of coal power plants and unless we find out whether this technology operates at scale and we can make these plants zero-carbon in the future, those will be a liability," said Nick Mabey of the think tank e3g. Concerns about the new technology include CO2 storage locations and costs for running and building the CCS plants. "Our concern is that this technology is used to justify the construction of more coal power plants," said Tobias Munchmeyer of Greenpeace. "It's too expensive, it will come too late and it will divert money from the real solutions, renewable energies and energy efficiency.” For additional information see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7584151.stm Events September 16, 2008 Climate Change Legislation and Revenue Recycling Clean Air Cool Planet with the Environmental and Energy Study Institute invite you to a briefing on Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 8:00 am – 10:00 am in B369 Rayburn House Office Building. As Congress debates the various options for tackling climate change, the policy questions go beyond which mechanisms can most efficiently reduce carbon emissions, to how to use the revenue that carbon reduction programs can generate to offset the costs of our transition to a lower carbon world. Speakers at the briefing include Rep. John Larson (D-CT); Terry Dinan, Congressional Budget Office; Kenneth P. Green, American Enterprise Institute; Robert Repetto, Senior Fellow, UN Foundation; and Robert J. Shapiro, Chairman, Sonecon, LLC, and former Under Secretary of Commerce. Please RSVP to Brenda Rogers at (202) 775-8971, or send an email to BRogers@cleanair-coolplanet.org. Please include your name, affiliation, phone number and email address. Quick Links ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SUBSCRIBE to our newsletters and other products http://visitor.constantcontact.com/email.jsp?m=1101500533487 ARCHIVE: Past issues of the newsletter are posted on our website under "publications" http://www.eesi.org/publications/Newsletters/CCNews/ccnews.htm SUPPORT EESI: This newsletter and EESI's other valuable work in energy, climate change, agriculture, transportation and smart growth are made possible through financial support from people like you. Please donate now. http://www.eesi.org/support/support.htm Amy Sauer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ e-mail: asauer[at]eesi.org web: www.eesi.org phone: 202-662-1892 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This EESI publication is a free, weekly electronic newsletter intended to inform interested parties, particularly the policymaker community, of the latest climate change-related news. Permission for reproduction of this newsletter is granted provided that EESI is properly acknowledged as the source. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute is a non-profit organization established in 1984 by a bipartisan, bicameral group of members of Congress to provide timely information on energy and environmental policy issues to policymakers and stakeholders and develop innovative policy solutions that set us on a cleaner, more secure and sustainable energy path. |
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