Southern Ocean May Slow Global Warming
A report by researchers at the
University of Arizona in Tucson, to be published in the December
15 issue of the Journal of Climate, finds that the
Southern Ocean around Antarctica is likely to take up about 20
percent more carbon dioxide (CO2) and absorb more heat from the
atmosphere than previously expected. Lead researcher Joellen L.
Russell, an assistant professor of geosciences at The University
of Arizona in Tucson, has said that while the phenomena would
slow global warming, it won't reverse or stop it.
The heat and carbon transfer is
affected by winds over the Southern ocean, particularly near the
Antarctic. The study finds that the Southern Hemisphere westerly
winds have moved southward in the last 30 years, increasing
their effect on the region. Previous computer models have not
been updated with this wind shift, so underestimate carbon
uptake and heat transfer.
Dr. Russell said, "More heat
stored in the ocean means less heat stored in the atmosphere.
That's also true for carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas.
But there are consequences. This isn't an unqualified good, even
if more carbon dioxide and heat goes into the ocean. As the
atmosphere warms, storing more heat in the ocean will cause sea
levels to rise even faster as the warmed water expands. Adding
more CO2 to the oceans will change their chemistry, making the
water more acidic and less habitable for some marine
organisms."
CDC Says Climate Change is a Health Threat
On December 4, Dr. Howard Frumkin,
director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's)
National Center for Environmental Health, said "Climate
change is perhaps the largest looming public health challenge we
face, certainly in the environmental health field."
According to UPI, Frunkin said the "rising
scientific certainty" of climate change should mobilize
environmental health professionals to take aggressive action.
Frumkin, speaking at the opening
session of the 2006 National Environmental Public Health
Conference in Atlanta, acknowledged that while no one knows the
exact details of climate change or how fast it will occur,
"...given credible indications there is a danger there, we
need to act to protect people from that danger. It's standard
public health practice."
CDC Director Julie Gerberding also
echoed Frumkin's sentiments, emphasizing the need to tackle
climate change even amid its intimidating complexity. "I'm
going to try to use the word 'climate change' in every speech I
give," Gerberding said.
Click on the following link for the
full news story: UPI
Climate Warming Reduces Ocean Food Supply
Satellite data gathered over the
past 10 years has shown for the first time that the growth of
marine phytoplankton - the basis of the entire ocean
food chain - is being adversely affected by rising sea
temperatures. NASA scientists have found that as the oceans
become warmer, they are less able to support the phytoplankton
that have been an important influence on moderating climate
change. This poses an enormous potential
threat to fisheries and ecosystems.
"Rising levels of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere are a key part of global warming. This
study shows that as the climate warms, phytoplankton production
goes down, but this also means that carbon dioxide uptake by the
ocean plants will decrease," lead author Dr. Michael
Behrenfeld of Oregon State University said. "That would
allow carbon dioxide to accumulate more rapidly in the
atmosphere, making the problem worse." This means that the
carbon dioxide-phytoplankton system represents a positive
feedback loop with respect to climate warming.
The scientists found local
variations but a global drop in phytoplankton numbers with
higher temperatures. "This clearly showed that overall
ocean productivity decreases when the climate warms,"
Behrenfeld said. The research is published in the December 7
issue of Nature.
IEA Sees Advanced Coal with Carbon Sequestration in 5-10
Years
On December 7, Harry Audus, general
manager of the International Energy Agency (IEA) greenhouse gas
research and development program,
said advanced coal-fired power plants that bury carbon dioxide
(CO2) will be up and running in 5-10 years but will not be
financially viable unless governments impose tougher policies
for fighting global warming.
Audus said, "Carbon capture
could be demonstrated technically viable within 5-10 years but
there's still no commercial incentives. So it's up to the
politicians to get the commercial incentives in place." As
reported by Reuters, a 2005 UN report said that
filtering out CO2 and piping it into deep underground stores
could meet 15-55 percent of the world's likely need to curb
greenhouse gases by 2100 -- making geological storage perhaps
the single biggest contributor.
Bert Metz, a Dutch co-chair of the
UN report said carbon storage would only be attractive for power
generators if carbon prices were stable at around US$25-US$30 a
tonne. This week carbon traded at about 18.2 euros (US$24.19) a
tonne for 2008 delivery on the European market, but carbon
barely trades at all after 2012, when many emissions targets
expire, leaving a price vacuum.
David Garman, US Under Secretary of
Energy, said "The fundamental problem is that carbon
capture and storage now costs around US$100 a tonne. We have to
cut that cost to US$10 a tonne or thereabouts in order for it to
be widely adopted and available."
Click on the following link for the
full news story: Reuters
Committee Hearing on Media
and Climate Change
The US Senate Committee on
Environment and Public Works held a hearing December 6 to
examine the role of media in presenting the science of climate
change. Sen. Boxer (D-CA), who will be taking over the chair
from Sen. Inhofe (R-OK) in January 2007, said she plans to hold
a series of hearings on global warming with industry
representatives, scientists, state officials and faith-based
groups. She has also formed two new sub-committees to deal with
global warming issues.
The outgoing chairperson blamed the
media for "alarmism and bias" in reporting on climate
change issues. Sen. Boxer said, "My other sadness about
this hearing is again we're arguing about who believes what
rather than moving toward solving the problem." David
Deming, a geophysicist from the University of Oklahoma and one
of the witnesses brought in by Sen. Inhofe, said that the cause
of global warming is unknown, and that the warming is
"likely to be beneficial to humanity." One of the
witnesses called by Democrats, Naomi Oreskes, a science
historian at the University of California, said that "not
one paper in the random sample (of 928 scientific reports and
papers) disagreed with the consensus position about the reality
of global warming and its human causes." The two Democratic
witnesses said that the scientific consensus on the threat of
greenhouse gases to the world was overwhelming.
Food Security to Worsen with
Climate Change
At
its December 5-7 meeting in Washington DC, the Consultative
Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) announced
its plans to intensify and streamline research to reduce
developing countries' vulnerability to climate change.
“The livelihoods of billions of people in developing
countries, particularly those in the tropics, will be severely
challenged as crop yields decline due to shorter growing seasons,”
said Dr. Robert S. Zeigler, Director General of the
International Rice Research Institute. For instance, a new CGIAR-supported
study, Can Wheat Beat the Heat?, forecasts a 51 percent decrease
in the amount of India's most favorable wheat-growing land, due
to hotter, drier weather, placing at least 200
million people at greater hunger risk. In many parts
of sub-Saharan Africa, the growing period could decrease by more
than 20 percent, according to another CGIAR-supported report.
Conditions best suited to wheat growing will shift away from the
tropics, where most of the poorest countries are situated,
towards the poles and higher elevations. Much of Siberia is
projected to become farm land.
CGIAR researchers will seek
to develop food crops capable of withstanding climatic
changes such as higher temperature, drought and floods, and will
help farmers manage greenhouse gases. "Anticipating
and planning for climate change is imperative if farmers in poor
countries are to avert forecast declines in yields of the
world’s most important food crops. Yet, adaptation is not a
substitute for reducing new and removing existing greenhouse
gases from the atmosphere—our only long-term option,” said
Dr. Louis V. Verchot, a climate change scientist with the World
Agroforestry Centre.
NY Plans Auctioning All CO2 Permits
New York, a member of the Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), plans to auction 100 percent
of its permits to emit carbon dioxide instead of giving away a
part of them to power plants. RGGI seeks to reduce emissions
from power plants 10 percent by 2009. The move is expected to
favor trading and prevent very low carbon prices, as witnessed
in Europe when the European Union gave away its permits at no
cost. "We think New York's proposal will have an enormous
influence on what the other (RGGI) states decide to do with
their allowances," said Dale Bryk, a lawyer for the Natural
Resources Defense Council.
Click on the following link for the
full news story: Reuters
California Companies Support "Cap and Trade"
Mechanisms
An overwhelming majority of
respondents to a Cantor Fitzgerald Brokerage, L.P. survey of
California businesses said the best way to meet California's
greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goal is through a “cap and
trade” program. As reported by Business Wire, 91
percent of businesses that were surveyed said that California
should develop a “cap and trade” program in order to meet
the requirements of the Global Warming Solutions Act which was
signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in September. The act requires
Californians to reduce GHG emissions up to 25 percent by 2020.
Josh Margolis, Managing Director of
Cantor Fitzgerald Brokerage,
said "It is a bold new world out there. Helping save the
environment and operating a successful and profitable business
are very compatible objectives. Business leaders recognize that
the Global Warming Solutions Act, if wisely implemented, can be
a valuable solution to the greenhouse gas problem. Air quality
entrepreneurs are lining up - competing with each other - to
figure out how to turn waste streams into profit streams. Cantor
Fitzgerald looks forward to providing market places where
business can transact GHG reductions and do their part to get
the job done."
Click on the following link for the
full news story: Business
Wire
Livestock a Significant
Contributor to Climate Change
A new report from the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that livestock globally
generates more greenhouse gases (18 percent) than the
transport sector. According to the report, Livestock's
Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options, the livestock
sector is responsible for 9 percent of carbon dioxide emissions
and produces an even larger share of other anthropogenic
greenhouse gases - 65 percent of nitrous oxide (from
manure) and 37 percent of methane (produced by the digestive
system).
The report states that methane
emissions from livestock manure management in the United States
were one of the highest in the world in 2004. When manure is
managed in a liquid form, as is done in the United States, more
methane is emitted. The United States also leads in carbon
dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning while manufacturing
nitrogen fertilizer to grow crops for livestock.
The researchers suggest that
increasing the efficiency of livestock production and feed crops
cultivation, reducing emissions from animals' digestive systems
by improving diet, and
establishing biogas plants to recycle manure will help in
cutting livestock emissions.
EESI
Briefings
DVD’s
Available: Copies of DVD's
are available of EESI's recent climate
briefings: "Agriculture
and Climate Change: Threats and Opportunities," May
24, 2005; "What
Does Climate Change Mean for the Arctic? How is Alaska Being
Affected?,"
March 15, 2005; "Perspectives
on Climate Change: Business Initiatives to Reduce Greenhouse Gas
Emissions," November
18, 2004; “State
and Local Government Climate Change Efforts,” September
28, 2004; “Climate
Change Post 2100,” September 21, 2004; “Abrupt
Climate Change,” September 15, 2004; and
“Discussing Climate Change: A Multi-faceted View of
the Climate Stewardship Act,” June 3, 2004.
The discs are $20
ea. (incl. shipping/handling) plus tax 5.75%
(DC residents only). Click on the following link to order
a DVD: EESI
Climate Change DVD's
Events
December 13, 2006
State and Federal Green House
Gas Regulation
The American Council On Renewable Energy in collaboration with
the American Bar Association's (ABA) Renewable Energy Resources
Committee will host a teleconference with a panel of experts who
will review the current status of green house gas regulation in
New York State, California and at the federal level and discuss
how such regulation can serve to foster or discourage the
development of renewable energy. The event takes place on
Wednesday, December 13 from 12:00-1:30 pm EDT. There is a
$20 charge for this event. Click on the following link for
more information: ABA
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