Climate Denial Crock of the Week: Polar Ice Update

Peter Sinclair explores the changes in the polar sea ice with the help of the experts - the real science with the real scientists.

Reference material:

Sea Ice 2008 - NASA

American Meteorological Society - Environmental Science and Policy Briefings on Climate Change - Mark Serreze - November 2007

Goddard Space Flight Center - Scientific Visualization Studio: Fall and Winter Arctic Sea Ice Thickness Declining Rapidly

Ben & Jerry's Climate Change College

EPA - Methane (not referenced in the video)

The Peak Oil Debate

One of the genuine debates that is raging across the globe is over peak oil. The 'battle' lines are not easily revealed as you'll find oil industry leaders and folks in the green movements often stating the same bullet points. However, the opinions vary as to when peak oil will come and under what pressures it will bear its impact on society. Some have said we have already passed the point of peak oil. Others state that we're looking at decades down the road. A few optimistically present the hope for well over a century of continued 'easy' oil production. In any case, if it has not already occurred, it is coming and we will be forced to address it if we are not already taking measures to change our societies beforehand.

Peak oil is also a major player in how we address global climate change and why. Oil reserves may be available in vast reserves across the globe but they are in more and more difficult locations to access. Some believe that technological advances will assure that we have a steadily available method of extracting these hard to reach reservoirs. However, beyond just the enormous costs that will be tied into extracting those reservoirs, that is also money that is not going to seeking out the alternative fuels technologies that this world must phase into over the course of generations. How we adapt from a pure fossil fuel world to a global comprehensive system of many fuel sources is this generations dilemna. Do we begin now to force the transitions, or will we be like the reluctant student praying for a snow day to get out of the major exam that we failed to study for?

I guess that depends on who you're asking.

The first thing to do at this point is to understand peak oil and what it means to you and more importantly to your children. It would benefit all of us to have a good primer on all of the talking points so you can start making up your own opinions about where to go from here. Well, I think I can recommend some literature for you.

Laurel Graefe, a senior economic research analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta, wrote a very open discussion in their Economic Review on the "Peak Oil Debate." It has now been discussed in The Oil Drum and Energy Bulletin that are constantly referenced on this blog. What I like about this article is the attempt to bring the arguments into focus. She brings forward definitions and concepts and discusses technologies to help enlighten the reader.

Ultimately, I agree with her that, with all other potential crises, "perhaps the world would be better served if the peak oil debate could be more solution-oriented, focusing on discovering the best way to transition to a world with less conventional oil rather than locking horns about discrepencies in terminology." I'm no expert on these matters. But even the experts don't have the answers beyond their own beliefs and personal bias. I appreciate someone putting things into perspective and not assuming everyone is a geoengineer.

What does need to be stressed is that the energy bills that are being debated today will have a great affect in how we choose - or not choose - to go forward on research of technologies and how we will provide a sustainable world for our children. If we allow for our politicians to keep this as a matter of partisan rancor and division, instead of a national emergency issue, then we will only set ourselves back. Whether or not cap-and-trade is correct or not, it should be debated on the science and not in the back alleys and gutters of Washington with false accusations and conspiracy theories.

Excerpts:

For the past half-century, a debate has raged over when “peak oil” will occur—the point at which output can no longer increase and production begins to level off or gradually decline. Determining how long the oil supply will last has become even more pressing because the world’s energy supply still relies heavily on oil, and global energy demand is expected to rise steeply over the next twenty years.

This article seeks to bring the peak oil debate into focus. The author notes that a number of factors cloud the energy outlook: Estimates of remaining resources are typically given as a range of probabilities and are thus open to interpretation. Variations also occur in estimates of future oil production and in the ways countries report their reserve data.

The lack of a common definitional framework also confuses the debate. The author provides definitions of frequently used terms, delineating types of reserves and conventional versus nonconventional resources. She also discusses how technological innovations, government policies, and prices influence oil production.

Regardless of the exact timing of peak oil production, the world must address the challenge of adapting to a new model of energy supply. .....

..... The term “peak oil” is not about running out of oil; we will likely have oil to pump for generations to come. Peak oil refers instead to the inevitable point at which the world’s energy output can no longer increase, and production begins to level off or decline. At first glance this issue would not appear to be controversial. After all, it is largely a question of geology—how much oil is left? The disagreements center around basic aboveground supply-side constraints and demand-side factors. On the supply side, how much will oil companies invest in capacity? How will extraction and refining technology advance? Or how many hurricanes or wars will occur in oil-producing regions? On the demand side, how fast will global economic growth be? ......

..... What is fascinating is how little the two sides of the argument have changed over the history of the debate. People have been calling for the beginning of the end of oil for more than half the past century. (Keep in mind that the industrial use of oil began only about 100 years ago.[1]) Those who announce that the world is about to reach (or has already reached) peak always have counterparts who disagree. The nonbelievers had yet another victory in early 2009 when the 2008 production figures were released, showing that annual oil production increased to a record high in 2008, dismissing an increasingly popular prediction that world oil output had peaked in 2005 (see figure 1). The doomsayers, of course, must eventually be right—given the fact that oil is an exhaustible resource and will ultimately run out—though they haven’t been right so far. But the counterargument that oil production hasn’t peaked yet, so it isn’t going to, doesn’t prove terribly convincing.

Despite the shortage of middle-of-the-road discourse, this topic should not be dismissed as fringe. Figure 2 demonstrates how, despite the increasing use of nonpetroleum resources such as natural gas and renewables, the world still relies heavily on oil for a considerable portion of its energy supply. In fact, in its International Energy Outlook 2009, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that world energy demand will grow by nearly 45 percent between 2006 and 2030, with about a fifth of new supply needing to come from oil (EIA 2009a, 1, 22). Clearly then, having a better understanding of the future oil supply situation and the associated risks is a major global issue today and will remain a central concern for the short, medium, and long term. .....

.... The supply of energy as we have known it is in the process of transition. Today’s “easy” conventional oil that the world relies upon as a primary energy source is being depleted, and, regardless of the exact timing of peak oil production—be it this year or fifty years down the road— the world faces the challenge of adapting to a new model of energy supply. Although the peak oil literature tends to concentrate heavily on the scenarios of peaking world oil production, the true underlying issue is a fear that the transition from conventional oil to substitutes will be expensive and chaotic, leaving insufficient time for supply substitution and adaptation.

This adaptation process—which involves using more renewable resources and conservation and developing new technology and processes to better access hydrocarbon deposits and more efficiently extract and refine nonconventional sources—has already begun. But the road to the future energy balance—one with dwindling amounts of conventional oil—is far from mapped out.

It is possible that the world’s vast endowments of hydrocarbon resources will be heavily relied upon to answer this growing call for substitutes for the conventional oil supply. However, there is also potential for an energy future largely diversified away from hydrocarbon use. Most likely, future energy sources will be a combination of the two. Perhaps the peak oil literature would better serve society by being more solution-oriented, focusing on discovering the best way to transition to a world with less conventional oil rather than locking horns about discrepancies in terminology.

Kudos.

Growing 'Carrots and Sticks' and 'Edible Landscaping'

As if I really need to remind you, this discussion is my personal opinion and does not represent the opinion or position of the City of Dallas or any people within it - including the Chief Arborist. These are only my personal thoughts and suggestions as a citizen and should be read as such.

In the early 2000's, the eyes of Dallas-area developers were looking hungrily upon the Southern Sector. Acre after acre of 'raw land' (a term I use begrudgingly) was looked upon for rapid single-family development due to its relatively cheap property value as compared to anything further north of Interstate 30. Large wooded tracts were purchased, and then platted and permitted for growth and housing expansion. Of course, this was much needed housing (?), that was, perhaps, close to being 'affordable.' It's really difficult to say how 'affordable' and for whom since the 'no-money-down' gnomes around the country were throwing rainbows and pots of gold everywhere. If the developments began early enough, many of the them managed to get completed before the big economic drop-off started a couple of years ago. Many of those builder companies that got caught in the downfall are, today, not fairing so well - if at all.

The design of most of the developments followed the usual 'cookie-cutter' approach with little or no attempt to preserve, or conserve, woodland areas. The city's attempts to encourage land conservation through conservation easements (a platting ordinance item that was placed in the 'tree preservation' ordinance in 2003 to encourage land conservation) met with limited success as they were usually the 'left-overs' or scraps that got turned into the easements. The whole concept was foreign to most developers (and, arguably, still is) who would gallantly jump into a land purchase or contract due to the low cost of the property without first finding out the potential tree mitigation costs that would be built in to their costs for building in Dallas. It's an eye-opener when you find out the tree mitigation costs are higher than what you just paid for the land. An engineer would be promptly put to the task of finding the easiest way to put in as many lots as possible, as if on a cutting board, before anyone knew what was even on the property. Slopes? Bah! That's the purpose of retaining walls.

There have been complaints from the housing industry that the city's tree ordinance has chased off many potential builders. Of course, this admonishment from the building sector is a tinge of hope for the 'forest advocates' who believe that the city's tree ordinance has chased off many potential builders. As Obi-Wan Kenobi once said, "...many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view." I've never understood how you could create an incentive to protect trees any greater than "if you don't remove it, you don't mitigate for it." That concept is a tough one to get across for a dozer-laden development. It's an easy sell for a conservation development.

As usual, I try to see the middle ground. Yes, there is a need for housing, and the necessary regulation can be devastating to the unwary - and even the wary - builder. No, you don't have to wipe out everything on the property to maximize what you perceive to be the best profit potential, although the 'old school' of slash and burn development might say otherwise. The impact of a development does not stop or start at the platted line. Ignorance, or lack of imagination, is not an argument against conservation development (or variations of) where you can often find the higher profitability of woodside lots and large community open spaces - even in 'low-dollar' subdivisions. If you have to clear the site completely, with some exceptions, you haven't tried hard enough to accomodate the community you are serving. Speed building is usually not good building. Planning, and consulting with authorities and designers, is a good thing.

Builders across the country, including here in Dallas, are learning how to address land conservation, the needs of the community, and their own bottom-line without having to make large sacrifices in the process. The effort has to be comprehensive and well-planned out and, of course, you have to find the right market. If you find the right allies, who are readily willing to assist any builder looking to do better, it shouldn't be that hard. Forest advocates must also recognize that new homes are a necessity for a growing population, are not built for free, and are not without a significant amount of investment and risk by the developer who is paying, up front, a hefty amount to just provide the infrastructure for the lots.

As it is with any crisis, the current economy provides everyone the opportunity to size up where we go from here. Assuming there is a recovery, how do we come out the other side? How and where will we build the new homes for the next generation? Will we learn from our mistakes of the past, or will we continue to keep marching to the same old drummer until his arms finally just fall off? But the burden should not be placed solely on the builders. It is imperative that every citizen who is in the market begin to learn and understand that 'the carrot' (the incentive) is nothing if it's dried up and shriveled and not recognizable. WE need to consider our options for continuous sustainable growth in Dallas. If WE are not willing to buy into the incentive, how are they going to use it to attract you to their development?

It's time to start thinking outside the box. There are ways of attracting builders and buyers that may not always be obvious. People are changing. The society is learning that it must make drastic societal changes for the long-term. These are not bad things. Consider that we might push for most new developments to be built on previously developed blocks, or infill. The infrastructure exists already and just needs to be upgraded. These places are within the city's operational centers and transit systems. It builds interest in the community and ties neighborhoods together. We should consider building in rather than out. The new residential subdivisions that have been constructed this decade in the southern sector, and are sitting mostly empty, are waiting for new builders to come in and begin the construction of new homes. The lots are empty, the trees are gone. Build upon what has already been cleared and avoid finding new places to vacate its wildness needlessly. Where there are new opportunities, work with conceptual designs and planners to determine the best way to provide new development with the minimum impact on sensitive land areas.

I mentioned earlier the concept of conservation development. This is nothing new and is a concept spreading quickly across the country. But let's look at another idea for open spaces and conservation design in subdivisions that could include community agriculture. Alec Appelbaum wrote a recent article in the New York Times about using "Organic Farms As Subdivision Amenities." Across the nation, there are at least 200 subdivision projects that include agriculture as a major amenity component, according to Ed McMahon, a senior fellow with the Urban Land Institute.

“....Open space improves the return for a developer,” Mr. McMahon said. “We have 16,000 subdivisions around golf courses, where developers found they could charge a lot premium of 25 to 50 percent over comparable tract subdivision. But most people who live on golf courses do not play golf.”

The latest variation on this is blending in working agriculture, Mr. McMahon said. Living with a farm, he noted, can bring a buyer permanent views, wholesome activities for children, access to walking and riding trails and inclusion in an epicurean club.

Here in South Burlington, David Scheuer, a developer, runs a firm called Retrovest that specializes in pedestrian-friendly subdivisions. He is adapting the Prairie Crossing model with a 220-acre project called South Village, where he eventually hopes to sell 334 homes at prices of $200,000 to nearly $700,000.

A 16-acre segment of the property, which was not previously used for farming, is now producing lettuce, garlic and other crops, which are harvested for sale to homeowners and others from the area who have joined a local community-supported agriculture group. “Agriculture can be the caboose on the train,” Mr. Scheuer said, “and housing can be the engine.” Once he is selling 20 homes a year, he said, he hopes to pay the salary of a full-time farmer.

.... Farm-focused developers must juggle financing a few houses at a time with cultivating crops on a yearly cycle, so many rent farmland to professionals.

Mr. Scheuer hired David Miskell, a veteran Vermont organic farmer with a white beard, to help convert the property’s damaged soil. Working organically, which Mr. Miskell translates to “a lot of manure,” he and two hired farmers replenished the soil with enough nitrogen to grow greens, root crops and sunflowers this year. “Upfront costs are high to build fertility, but I doubt they are any higher than any golf course,” Mr. Miskell said. “Mainly, we are growing healthy organic food for healthy homeowners.”

... But developers stress that their housing units should stand on their own for the idea of the farm-as-amenity to click.

Mr. Scheuer, driving around a competing subdivision with nondescript open space, is convinced that despite the work that goes into a farm, it adds real value to a development. Scoffing at the look of the traditional development, he said, “If I have to do this to make money, I’ll find some other way to spend my time.”

Perhaps our North Texas culture may not be ready for these concepts, but we should at least be ready to explore new ideas as this to try make them work. There are various ways to utilize open space through either the preservation of trees, through open tall grass prairies, or perhaps, in the amenity of open community farmland. If we work at it, we might find other ideas.

We need to look with a broad focus at all ideas for sustainable development and ways to mitigate for the removal of trees. Nature is a complex web of systems and we do not do it any favors by limiting our imaginations or regulatory powers to shallow concepts that are barely understood.

As for land areas that have been developed and still mostly bare of houses, let's look at how we can find incentives by looking 'outside the box.' We might just be able to find ways to get building started again by finding new amenities for the vacant lots. Some ideas may require some changes to zoning codes so nothing will ever be THAT easy. But it all starts with ideas.

Being a Green Dallas means addressing Nature first and energy-efficient buildings second.

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, July 3 - "Ban De Soleil"

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Ban de Soleil
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Jeff Goldblum

'Colbert Report Green' on Climate Change - Comedy Central

As we begin with the Local News, we get a big 'duh' report from ...

WFAA

Oak Cliff residents not happy trees trimmed by Oncor.

Every so often a new report comes about of homeowners calling in the media mercenaries to take on the local utility who is out 'destroying' their trees. Yes, this is a very sensitive issue with homeowners and the utility company alike, but for different reasons. The homeowner must live with the 'butchered' trees and Oncor is striving to keep the utility flowing freely to its customers. At long last, I will decide to write on this issue soon. Stay tuned.

Galveston police baffled by burnt palm trees.

I SWEAR it's not me. Palm trees have their place and hurricane-prone gulf coast communities is one of them.

DALLAS MORNING NEWS - EAST DALLAS BLOG

Co-housing development with shared-living features coming to East Dallas.

THE ONION

Frito Lay Angrily Introduces Line of Healthy Snacks. (Warning: Rated - R)

"Oh, they're definitely going in the vending machines," Carey said. "Everyone's going to share in this misery, not just a handful of Naderites with spastic colons or loser kids with no taste buds whose parents want them to grow up to be boring milquetoasts afraid to have any fun. And don't think we haven't forgotten you either, office workers on snack breaks and anyone who wants to serve a big bowl of disappointment at a cocktail party."

... ok, so I was just looking to see if you were paying attention. Geesh. Let's get on to the global environmental issues.

CLIMATE PROGRESS

Tom Friedman: Obama "is going to have to mobilize the whole country to pressure the Senate - by educating Americans, with speech after speech, about the opportunities and necessities of a serious climate/energy bill..."

"Future historians will inevitably judge all 21st-century presidents on just two issues: global warming and the clean energy transition. If the world doesn’t stop catastrophic climate change — Hell and High Water— then all Presidents, indeed, all of us, will be seen as failures and rightfully so.

How else could future generations judge us if the U.S. and the world stay anywhere near our current emissions path, warm most of the inland United States 10 to 15°F by century’s end, with sea levels 3 to 7 feet higher, rising perhaps an inch or two a year, with the Southwest from Kansas to California a permanent Dust Bowl, and much of the ocean a hot, acidic dead zone — impacts that could be irreversible for 1,000 years if we don’t reverse emissions soon and sharply. This will require an unbroken — and indeed escalating — response by our political leadership throughout this century.

But so far we have only had “half an Obama” on this. "

Like father, like son: Roger Pielke, Sr. also doesn't understand the science of global warming - or just chooses to willfully misrepresent it.

DESMOGBLOG

"Suppressed" climate report cribbed from Patrick Michaels?

THE OIL DRUM

DrumBeat - July 3

ENERGY BULLETIN

Solutions and Sustainability and Community - July 3

Chicken Sharing - Janelle Orsi, The Sharing Solution Blog

"...Chicken sharing actually makes a lot of practical sense. Let's say you, like most people, eat eggs, and you are thinking about getting chickens (and by that, I really mean hens; roosters make noise, not eggs, and they are often illegal to keep in high-density residential areas). If you live in an urban or even suburban area, this could meaning devoting a significant portion of your yard to building a coop and giving the chickens a little free range. Many people wouldn't go to all of this effort for just one or two chickens. But what if you get 15 chickens, have a coop building party with seven of your neighbors, and start taking turns caring for the chickens? You could even take down part of a fence so that the chickens can have more space to roam into your neighbor's yard. Each neighbor is assigned one day of the week to feed the chickens and collect eggs.

What do you get? Fifteen hens will produce, on average, around 7 dozen eggs per week. This means that each neighbor will have a dozen fresh and delicious eggs."

Housing and Urban Design - July 3

ACCUWEATHER.COM

Five Overhyped Climate Studies.

LEGAL PLANET

Bush Administration forest planning rules struck down - again.

Habitat loss still the key conservation concern.

"... The IUCN periodically updates its Red List of Threatened Species. The most recent update to the list was last fall; this report provides an analysis of the revised list. The numbers are, unsurprisingly, dire: one quarter of the worlds mammals, one third of its amphibians, and one eighth of its birds are “threatened” or worse. Across all taxonomic groups, extinction risk continues to climb.

Iberian lynx (IUCN)

The reasons, according to the IUCN, are familiar. Direct habitat destruction still easily tops the list of threats, with pollution, overexploitation, and introduction of invasive species following behind. Climate change is not yet a major problem, but it looms large on the horizon. The report concludes that roughly 35% of bird species, 50% of amphibians, and 70% of corals have traits that make them especially susceptible to global warming.

The bottom line message is clear: conservationists need to work on two tracks, fighting climate change and simultaneously fighting the more traditional threats, which are far from being conquered. Climate change cannot be ignored, but concern about climate change cannot be allowed to swamp out attention to other threats."

Killing rats kills eagles in Alaska.

RED GREEN AND BLUE

Colbert Report Green: Colbert Rips Boehner, Republicans on Climate.

NPR

Heavy job loss prompts stimulus criticism.

EPA

EPA proposes stringent standards for large ships.

WORLD BUSINESS COUNCIL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

10% - 15% cut 'likely' at Copenhagen.

TRUTHOUT

Eager To Tap Iraq's Vast Oil Reserves, Industry Execs Suggested Invasion.

April 2001 report by the James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy and the US Council on Foreign Relations composed at the request by Vice-President Dick Cheney - "Strategic Policy Changes for the 21st Century." (pdf)

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, July 2 - The First Pillar of Green Dallas Is...

privet...no, trees! Trees!!

DALLAS OBSERVER (UNFAIR PARK BLOG)
Is the City of Dallas Really Going Green, Or Just Talking Till It's Blue In The Face?
"If you want to be successful, you have to link economic development with environmental sustainability," (Pamela) Tate told the audience. "The two can coexist and benefit each other."
"Everybody's going to do energy efficiency," Tate said. "You have to do that; it's the first pillar of green. But that is just step one."
Apparently, she never read E. F. Schumacher on secondary (human) and primary (nature) goods.  The first pillar of green? What's too often left out in discussions on Green Dallas is the obvious primary core of green in the environment - it's urban forest. Green Dallas' first pillar is a sustainable forest and its conservation.  If that is not maintained, all profit derived of green 'engineering' is diminished.


Happy Trails? Not Without These Students Spending Their Summers In The Sun.

Going Green While Making Green? WSJ Ponders Bush Turnpike's Toll Collection.

DALLAS MORNING NEWS
City to North Haven Gardens: Don't Sell Chicks.

What makes East Texas tomatoes so good? The soil.

TEXAS ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT BLOG (DMN)
Why the energy bill faces a tough senate fight.

EPA
EPA and business group reach important agreement concerning timing of EPA review of Texas Air Program.
"The process that follows this agreement will help Texas’ businesses obtain clarity in the state of Texas’ clean air permitting requirements by providing a timetable for EPA’s review of the state’s clean-air program. Texas has about 1,500 facilities classified as major sources of air pollution under the federal Clean Air Act. Others, including City of Houston and citizen groups, have echoed concerns over the Texas Air permitting program. The actions taken by EPA under this agreement will help to address their concerns by making Texas' permit process more transparent, and ensuring the Texas' program has all the environmental protections required by federal law."


NPR
Hundreds of California Homeless March for Land Rights.

CLIMATE PROGRESS
ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING NEWS FOR JULY 2

Honey, I Shrunk The GOP, Part 1: Conservatives vow to purge all members who support clean energy or science-based policy.

GREENER BUILDINGS
Cement Industry Energy and CO2 Performance: Getting The Numbers Right
"This report from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development's Cement Sustainability Initiative summarizes the work thus far in the nearly 3-year-old effort by the council and the industry's largest companies to make global cement production cleaner and greener.

The manufacturing of cement is responsible for about 5 percent of the world's CO2 emissions. And the three largest producers are China, the top producer, followed by India and the United States. Reducing CO2 emissions in cement production is an important factor in combatting climate change because the industry is expected to double by 2030."


ENERGY BULLETIN
PEAK OIL NOTES - July 2
"So far this week, oil prices have been moved by the fate of the US economy, militant attacks in Nigeria, the dollar, IEA consumption forecasts, and US stockpiles. The week opened with prices around $69 a barrel, made it above $73 and closed Wednesday back at $69.

In Nigeria, the militants continue attacks aimed at completely stopping oil exports and they appear to be making good progress. Shell says its production is down to 140,000 b/d from 999,000 b/d back in 2003 and a local newspaper reports that the company is reducing its operations in the Niger Delta. There is still oil waiting to be loaded at costal terminals, but the outlook is for considerably lower exports later this summer. Given that the worldwide demand for oil is weak and the size of the spare production capacity now available, Nigerian production can probably continue to fall without much influence on prices US demand for oil products, now averaging 18.4 million b/d, is down by 5.8 percent from last year. The weakness is still in distillates, which are closely tied to economic activity, and jet fuel. US distillate stocks have been rising steadily since last October and now stand at 155 million barrels -- 34 million higher than at this time last year."


Energy Companies - July 2
"BP has shut down its alternative energy headquarters in London, accepted the resignation of its clean energy boss and imposed budget cuts in moves likely to be seen by environmental critics as further signs of the oil group moving "back to petroleum".


"The world's largest oil company (ExxonMobil) is continuing to fund lobby groups that question the reality of global warming, despite a public pledge to cut support for such climate change denial, a new analysis shows."


Debt, Oil and Healthcare Reform

"Congressman John Conyers recently quipped that most healthcare reform proposals circulating in Washington are a “cacophony of crap” that evade acknowledging medical care as a human right. With Canada across the Detroit River from his impoverished congressional district he knows firsthand how the Canadian health system bests its American counterpart. It’s cheaper by half; covers everyone; citizens don’t worry about bankruptcy –they merely get treatment as needed; and the politician who brought it into existence four decades ago, Tommy Douglas, was named the most important Canadian of all time (Wayne Gretzky finished second).

Ironically, Conyers’ National Health Insurance Act (HR 676) as currently envisioned, shares a premise with those he mocks. All sides of the reform debate presuppose a return to economic growth. It follows that none confronts the possibility that our massive debt and economic woes are not temporary but the beginning of an epochal transition to a reduced level of social complexity and economic activity, which translates into a lower standard of material living that cannot support the present structure of medicine.

Indeed, most of the reformers who claim healthcare is a human right see discussions about fiscal limits as a stealth way to kill reform. And those willing only to tinker with the financing of system assume a return to economic growth will allow healthcare to continue more or less as is. With its cost at about $2 trillion in 2008 and projected to climb to $4 trillion by 2015, attempting to maintain the current system will result in, in my view, one of two unacceptable outcomes: 1) healthcare only for the wealthy or 2) a crash of the system. There is a third way still possible, and it builds on Conyers’ plan with an acknowledgement that our present “Ferrari-Jalopy” (a nod to Congressman Roscoe Bartlett for this metaphor) health system is no longer viable. We should build a Honda Civic health system for all; it’s the best realistic chance we have."

United States - July 2

Where Economics Fails

MONGABAY
A Tasmanian Tragedy? : How the forestry industry has torn an island apart.

869 species extinct, 17,000 threatened with extinction

YALE ENVIRONMENT 360
Environmental Toll of Plastics

WORLD BUSINESS COUNCIL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
US seen backing 2 degrees Celsius target at G8

THE WORLD BANK
Global Economic Turmoil Having Dramatic Effects On Capital Flows To Developing Countries.

DISCOVERY NEWS
Vegans have lower bone density.

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG
New type of El Nino could mean more hurricanes make landfall.
El Niño years typically result in fewer hurricanes forming in the Atlantic Ocean. But a new study suggests that the form of El Niño may be changing potentially causing not only a greater number of hurricanes than in average years, but also a greater chance of hurricanes making landfall, according to climatologists at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The study appears in the July 3, 2009, edition of the journal Science.


Plants' internal clock can improve climate-change models.
The ability of plants to tell the time, a mechanism common to all living beings, enables them to survive, grow and reproduce. In a study published in the latest issue of the prestigious journal Ecology Letters, an international team has studied this circadian clock from a molecular viewpoint and has found an ecological implication: it makes climate change scenarios and CO2 level figures more accurate.

The team of scientists suggests this regulation should be included in climate models based on the study of plant life in order to obtain better and more accurate results. "A normal climate change model would forecast photosynthesis to be uniform between 6am and 10am in a tropical forest if environmental conditions (light, humidity, temperature, etc) are constant. However, as plants have a circadian clock, photosynthesis is seen to increase during that time of the day", the ecologist states.

According to the scientists, the circadian clock may well be the key for plants to survive a rise in temperatures. Plants without optimised circadian regulation will have "more difficulty to adjust to climate changes and survive the stress". The team now encourages further research from an ecological viewpoint, as "the value of this topic has been underestimated."

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, July 1 - "We Are Going To Get The Clown."

"We are going to get the clown," Sen. Inhofe (R-OK) said ironically with a straight, yet somewhat fiercely scary face today. Asked to clarify, he just snarled and glared through his beady eyes and confirmed he was referring to Minnesota's newest senator, Al Franken. He then swore to defeat any climate bill in the Senate before he even read it - meaning, of course, that he won't read it. Instead, he will make up falsehoods and call climate change a hoax without any evidence ... again. IT is Inhofeism.

HA! Man, you can't make this guy up. He's better than Senator McCarthy. Okay, if it looks like I'm a bit down on Senator Inhofe, it's due to the fact that he's from my home town and this is my atonement for his odd behavior. I'm really sorry, man. Oh, the picture is just a guy from a neat Stephen King novel and movie. Well onto Local news:

TEXAS ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT BLOG (DMN)

EDF: It's not a hoax, there's no conspiracy, the Earth is warming.

DALLAS CITY HALL BLOG (DMN)

Dallas sneaks ahead of San Diego to rank 8th in population.

Do you remember when rampant growth was a good thing? Oh yeah, still is ain't it.

CHARLOTTE OBSERVER (yeah it's not a local paper, but you gotta find your news everywhere these days)

Exelon delays plan for Texas nuclear plant.

These reactors were to go down around Victoria.

and then there's the rest of the world....

ENERGY BULLETIN

Nuclear Power: Problem or Solution? - July 1

Economics - July 1

Deep Thought - July 1

"Our health-care crisis and our energy crisis are complex dilemmas made of many complex problems. But our biggest problem in both health care and energy is essentially the same simple problem: we use too much. And in both cases, there's a simple explanation for much of the problem: our providers get paid more when we use more."

THE OIL DRUM

DrumBeat - July 1

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH

Shell's climate crimes exposed

AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE

Americans acknowledge need for more energy, but underestimate role of oil, natural gas, survey shows.

NY TIMES

As Iraq Stabilizes, China Bids on Its Oil Fields

YALE ENVIRONMENT 360

India will reject curbs on its CO2 emissions

"India will not accept limits on its greenhouse gas emissions at climate talks later this year and instead will focus on economic growth and lifting its people out of poverty, according to Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh. He said that a legally binding emissions target would endanger India’s food security and transport, adding, “India cannot and will not take emission reduction targets because poverty eradication and social and economic development are first and overriding priorities.” India has low per capita greenhouse gas emissions, but its population of 1 billion and the country’s rapid economic development now make it the world’s fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases. In advance of international climate talks in Copenhagen in December, China has also said it would reject limits on its CO2 emissions, and India’s declaration further complicates prospects of securing an international agreement. Both nations have called on the developed world to commit to sharp emissions reductions, with China saying the U.S. should slash CO2 emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Chinese officials have criticized a climate bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives for falling far short of that goal."

Oil companies and Nigeria accused of mass pollution in Niger Delta.

TREEHUGGER

Coal and Oil will cost the US $23 Trillion from 2010 - 2030, new study finds.

"An alarming new study has found that between 2010 and 2030, the US will spend an estimated record-breaking $23 trillion on coal and oil. The report found that for the first time, the US spent over $1 trillion on fossil fuels in 2008--and the trend is only growing. By 2030, it warns there's a good chance we'll be spending a staggering $1.7 trillion a year to sate our coal and oil demands.

The report, called The High Cost of Fossil Fuels, was released by Environment America today. "

Only 10% of permafrost melting could tip planet toward catastrophic warming.

"There's no doubt that Arctic permafrost stores a huge amount of greenhouse gases and as the planet warms and the permafrost thaws the climate change impact could be huge. Well, according to a new study in Global Biogeochemical Cycles (via Reuters) we may be seriously underestimating the impact. In fact the amount of carbon stored in permafrost is double previous estimates." - First published nine months ago.

ExxonMobil found to still fund climate skeptic groups, after pledges to stop.

THE HUFFINGTON POST

The New Senate Global Warming Deniers

Inhofe on Franken: "We are going to get the clown."

THINK PROGRESS

Republicans on House Census Subcommittee Rebuke Bachmann's Fearmongering as "Illogical" and "Illegal".

REUTERS

Canada seen worst of G8 not curbing climate change.

US seen backing climate target at G8

El Nino seems all but certain: Australia

More than 800 wildlife species now extinct.

"More than 800 animal and plant species have gone extinct in the past five centuries with nearly 17,000 now threatened with extinction, the International Union for Conservation of Nature reported on Thursday."

ACCUWEATHER

The State of Climate Science From Four Experts

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG

Those unsure of own ideas more resistant to views of others.

The least sea ice in 800 years.

Plants save the earth from an icy doom.

Fifty million years ago, the North and South Poles were ice-free and crocodiles roamed the Arctic. Since then, a long-term decrease in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has cooled the Earth. Researchers at Yale University, the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the University of Sheffield now show that land plants saved the Earth from a deep frozen fate by buffering the removal of atmospheric CO2 over the past 24 million years.

Plants put limits on ice ages.

Mangrove-dependent animals globally threatened.

Earth's most prominent rainfall feature creeping northward.

The rain band near the equator that determines the supply of freshwater to nearly a billion people throughout the tropics and subtropics has been creeping north for more than 300 years, probably because of a warmer world, according to research published in the July issue of Nature Geoscience.

If the band continues to migrate at just less than a mile (1.4 kilometers) a year, which is the average for all the years it has been moving north, then some Pacific islands near the equator – even those that currently enjoy abundant rainfall – may be drier within decades and starved of freshwater by midcentury or sooner. The prospect of additional warming because of greenhouse gases means that situation could happen even sooner.

The findings suggest "that increasing greenhouse gases could potentially shift the primary band of precipitation in the tropics with profound implications for the societies and economies that depend on it," the article says.

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 30 - "The End Of Life As We Know It"

"Disaster Transitionism" - Energy Bulletin

"...The thinking is that even if we do have a few quarters of growth, this growth will still not raise GDP to pre-recession levels. And if demand does again pick up, peak oil will quickly put the kibosh on any meaningful economic growth. The graph above shows what may be the first of a number of steps we'll take down to a much lower level of global economic activity. In other words, a Depression from which we'll never come out."....

Today, we begin on the local front of topics....
NPR
Is drilling to blame for Texas quakes?
The most amusing aspect of this is that many of the opinions are based on whether or not you're collecting revenue checks, or not, or if you lean to the right (it's 'natural') or to the left (it's 'drilling'). It pretty much follows the same line of the global warming debate. Heck, an earthquake is an earthquake - minor or not. It shakes the butt of Democrats and Republicans alike. Unlike global warming, the threat is probably benign. But who really knows? By the time we find out, the guys raking it in might be dead from old age. It won't really matter then, will it?

DALLAS OBSERVER (UNFAIR PARK BLOG)
In East Dallas, wrestling with how to turn a neighborhood into a conservation district.

Just why IS the EPA considering Waste Management's lobbyist for Dallas director?

DALLAS MORNING NEWS
US postpones decision on Trinity toll road to evaluate levee problems.

DMN (DALLAS CITY HALL BLOG)
Mary Suhm to Dallas employees: We are bigger than this budget. We are better than this budget.
Meanwhile, across town, the stage was being set for the next county budget.....
Dallas County budget director: property values to fall by 9% next year.
Are you seeing a bad trend here? Well, then, just keep reading....


DALLAS BUSINESS JOURNAL
Survey: Employers cutting benefit costs.

Oncor seeks $300M in stimulus funds.
Electric service provider Oncor Electric Delivery, a subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings, said Tuesday the Dallas-based company intends to apply for $300 million in stimulus funds to push ahead with the company’s smart grid initiative — a plan in which Oncor intends to expand its smart grid to improve energy efficiency and electric metering technology in Oncor service areas.

Citing data from the Council of Economic Advisers, Oncor believes the stimulus funds would support the creation of 1,600 jobs in 2010.

If the funding is approved, Oncor will spend the money to deploy more smart switches, which will help the energy company isolate problems in neighborhoods and reconfigure power lines. Other enhancements will include controlling the feeder voltage through the company’s capacitor control and enhancements that will help the electric provider locate electric delivery problems in a faster, more efficient manner, Oncor said. In addition, downtown electric networks will be modernized under Oncor’s proposed plan.

Oncor also is aiming to improve its telecommunications network, an improvement that will enhance the company’s power grid.

...and then on to the global affairs of life, the universe and everything.
THE WONK ROOM
The WonkLine - June 30
A daily round-up on health care, national security, climate, immigration, and economy.
Why Wal Mart is now supporting an employer mandate.

CLIMATE PROGRESS
ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING NEWS FOR JUNE 30

Study finds "mass biodiversity collapse" at 900 ppm, and possibly a 'threshold response ... to relatively minor increases in CO2 concentration and/or global temperature.'

“Examining the 200 million year old fossil leaves from East Greenland, we discovered that the ancient biodiversity crash happened at atmospheric greenhouse gas levels of approximately 900 parts per million,” said Dr Jenny McElwain from the UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science at University College Dublin, Ireland, the lead researcher on the project.

“If we continue with the current intensive use of fossil fuel energy, some estimates calculate that carbon dioxide levels in the earth’s atmosphere will reach 900 parts per million by the year 2100. This is exactly the same levels at which our study identified the mass biodiversity collapse in ancient Greenland.” But according to Dr McElwain, this is a worst case scenario.
“Clearly, our study on ancient ecosystems shows that we must take heed of the early warning signs of deterioration within modern ecosystems, as we have seen from the past that very high levels of species extinctions — as high as 80% — can take place very suddenly although preceded by long intervals of ecological change,” she explains."


Obama confident Senate will pass climate bill, asserts "My strong belief is that innovation and technology are going to accelerate our process beyond these targets, and that we're going to look back and say we can do even more."

"So I think that at the end of the day this bill represents an important first step. There are critics from the left as well as the right; some who say who doesn’t go far enough, some who say it goes too far. I am convinced that after a long period of inaction, for us to have taken such a significant step means that we’re going to be in a position to advance technologically, obtain huge gains in efficiency. I think what we’re going to see is that if we’re able to get this in place that it’s going to be very similar to the Clean Air Act of ‘91 or how we approached acid rain, where all the nay-sayers are proven wrong because American ingenuity and technology moves a lot faster when incentives are in place.


That’s part of the reason why I think you saw a lot of businesses supporting this bill — everybody from Starbucks to GE, because what business is looking for is clarity and certainty, and what this bill signals is that we’re not going to keep on being a prisoner of the past, we’re going to reach for the future. The country that is able to lead on clean energy is the country that ultimately is going to be able to compete effectively in the 21st century." - President Obama


Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) has a differing opinion. Who would've thought that?
Quote of the day: "I can absolutely guarantee you it's not going to happen in the Senate." - TREEHUGGER

""It's dead on arrival in the Senate. It will not happen," Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe told Enid Rotarians during their noon meeting Monday. "I can absolutely guarantee you it's not going to happen in the Senate."

One commenter on the News & Eagle article characterizes the potential passage of the climate bill as bringing about 'the end of life as we know it.'

Memo to media: When the EPA ignores internal non-expert comments filled with falsehoods cut-and-paste from anti-science deniers, that isn't "suppressing a report." And why have you completely ignored a major scientific report revealing what a sham that "EPA report" is? - CLIMATE PROGRESS

"Many of the top climate scientists in the world issued a major synthesis report reviewing the scientific literature since the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). They found “greenhouse gas emissions and many aspects of the climate are changing near the upper boundary of the IPCC range of projections.” In short, actual observations show things are much worse than the IPPC found. Duh!and Duh! and Duh! Media coverage level — bupkis! Technorati links to report released June 18 — 6.
One EPA economist, Alan Carlin, cuts and pastes some disinformation from a denier blog post in order to (falsely) assert that the EPA’s endangerment finding is flawed because

• “In the rapidly evolving field of climate change, by grounding its TSD Technical Support Documents in the IPCC AR4 the EPA is largely relying on scientific findings that are, by early 2009, largely 3 years or more out of date.”
• “Important developments” since the IPCC cast doubt on its conclusions

You can read a thorough debunking of these “comments” at the RealClimate Post, “Bubkes” and a brilliant piece by Deep Climate, which showed that this so-called “suppressed report” is

largely lifted from an attack on the EPA published last November in climate science disinformation specialist Pat Michaels’ World Climate Report [WCR]. And all this came without any attribution of the large swathes of copied material to WCR or the original author (presumably either Michaels or sidekick Chip Knappenberger)."

.... and again, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) has an opinion on this matter. Enjoy stupidity in print. Again, this speaks to the politics behind the matters that may undermine any efforts on climate change. If they can find any science to put forward to challenge global warming, then fine. But if they continue with these groundless challenges based on personal gain, bias and politics without scientific support, they should be held accountable. Again, this isn't health care or child lunches we're talking about. This goes into a global crisis and it's time people started figuring this out.


RED GREEN AND BLUE
Senator Inhofe vows a "full investigation" into "suppressed" EPA report on climate change.

"What is a little surprising is how Inhofe doesn’t appear to learn any lessons from his past adventures in list building, scandal and fear mongering, andcharacter assassination. Inhofe is either really not very bright, or purposely and cynically deceitful. Either option isn’t pretty."



81% of African Americans support climate action.

ENERGY BULLETIN
CLIMATE BILL - JUNE 30
"...Well, sometimes even the most authoritative analyses get things wrong. And if dissenting opinion-makers and politicians based their dissent on hard work and hard thinking — if they had carefully studied the issue, consulted with experts and concluded that the overwhelming scientific consensus was misguided — they could at least claim to be acting responsibly.

But if you watched the debate on Friday, you didn’t see people who’ve thought hard about a crucial issue, and are trying to do the right thing. What you saw, instead, were people who show no sign of being interested in the truth. They don’t like the political and policy implications of climate change, so they’ve decided not to believe in it — and they’ll grab any argument, no matter how disreputable, that feeds their denial."... - Paul Krugman

Disaster Transitionism

TREEHUGGER
Smog is increasing risks of premature births by 128%.

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG
Peer pressure plays major role in environmental behavior.
People are more likely to enroll in conservation programs if their neighbors do – a tendency that should be exploited when it comes to protecting the environment, according to a pioneering study from Michigan State University.


Your own private global warming.
A group of researchers from the British Antarctic Survey have collected individuals from a wide range of species commonly found in Antarctic waters and subjected them to increasing levels of water temperature to learn how each species is prepared to cope with the conditions that they are likely to experience in the future. The study showed that several of these species are already living really close to their upper temperature range, and that further increases caused by global warming could easily provoke serious ecological imbalances in this region. These results will be presented by Dr. Lloyd S. Peck at the Society of Experimental Biology Annual Meeting in Glasgow on Tuesday 30th June 2009.

So What'll It Be? Death Valley, Eden or Places In Between?

"Moody Crossroad" by Catherine Jamieson (Flickr)

I think perhaps we have reached a point in the road where everyone needs to stop, take a look around, gather their senses, and make some important decisions for a course direction on our trip to the future.

Of course, I'm referring to climate change. Perhaps you're one of the many who are not certain that climate change is a real issue or not. Perhaps you're one of those who have already determined that it's not an issue for political reasons, or because you just don't believe anything that comes out of the mouth of a scientist. Fair enough. You're in this car with us and we'll let you have some say in this. I'm just not sure I want you behind the wheel.

It's time to make choices. The House has just voted on Waxman-Markey and the Senate will be up next to take a vote on an energy bill. Is the current product a good one? It has its drawbacks and I for one don't know that any legislation is going to make a real dent in the climate change issue or not - but it's a possible dent. There is hope that the global community will be able to make some directions in curbing greenhouse gases when they meet in Copenhagen in December. I am hopeful, but I am inherently pessimistic about the chances. But the question I'm posing to you is this: what do you believe?

You can't stall on this anymore. You have a senator to contact - one way or the other. We also have to make personal decisions about how we will live our lives as we keep marching forward. I'm as bad as anyone in not doing 'my part' in making personal choices. I've lived, like you, with conveniences and have probably already consumed my fair share of the world's energy for any lifetime.

So what do you believe? Is climate change real or not? More importantly: why do you believe what you believe? On what basis, either way, do you make your judgment? Are you listening to political rhetoric of 'lobbied' congressmen or foppish radio heads to make your decision (one side or the other), or are you reading the analysis of scientists on either side? Is climate change legislation really tyranny? Are you being real about your bias in the matter? I am. If you read my blog, you probably know where I stand on these issues. But this isn't about me. It's about you. Are you being open minded or have you closed off any side of the discussion that doesn't agree with your understanding? I'm a moderate sort and I'll look at any information cast before me, even with my bias, and with my limited ability to understand the science. That's another good question. How much of this do you really understand?

I say that much is at stake for the future of our nation. Do you believe this? Do you believe that there is no climate crisis on the horizon? Do you believe that if there is a crisis it has nothing to do with human involvement? These aren't just simple questions and answers to wade through. What you believe, and more importantly, what our lawmakers believe, will - or will not? - have an impact on the future generations of this nation. You have to decide if you believe strongly enough that the climate scientists are wrong to risk your children's future.

Will Waxman-Markey, or any other legislation, make a dent in climate change? Well, we won't know if there is no legislation. Will it matter? Time will tell. That's the real kicker then, isn't it? Do we sit here and wait to see who's right? My friends, this isn't a decision to go to war on a current crisis situation to be debated in the halls of Congress. It's not a morality discussion nor even a Constitutional issue. In the end, it's about what kind of nation and world will remain in the coming years, decades and centuries. You might not give a damn about the people of the future. I do and am not willing to risk the future on political posturing.

But, strangely, I often think our nation's founding fathers thought about future generations when they formed our Union. Ironically, some of the people who stand to their spirit and sacrifice most fervently (what I admire most about conservatives) are also the most outspoken against addressing climate change and call it a hoax. If their opposition is really based on competing science, then the debate can go forward on those merits. But if they look within themselves and see this debate as a political stand against the people across the aisle, then I will look upon them with contempt. The evidence from many of the most outspoken from the right shows me that the issues are political, efforts to gain political points today and to undermine the opposition, based on personal opinions and bias'. I think this is why so many are turning their backs on the parties in the first place. But our decisions today may very well determine choices for quality of life and perhaps even where life or death will prevail.

What everyone really needs to consider as we sit here, looking cross at each other, sweltering in our big Hummer at this crossroads, is this: who's going back to the fuel station we passed twelve miles back to get some gas?

Dallas Trees' E-News of the Day, June 29 - It's About Choices

"Climate change is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." - Mouth of Inhofe

There is plenty of bitterness going around between the partisans who have chosen to make climate change a 'political' division and an attacking post. It has some on the Left wanting to fight back. I can't say I can blame them. For instance, House GOP members repeatedly came out with the usual language of 'hoax' and 'tyranny' to dispute the climate change bill. However, they could not counter climate change itself with anything but outdated and disproven political jargon and - at best - half-truths. The ignorance of the GOP leadership and their 'Mouths of Sauron" have shown that they will do whatever it takes to seek a short-term political advantage, but at the ultimate cost of the American people for generations to come.

Now they also seek to turn a so-called "buried" study by a long-time EPA economist that appears to be challenging some of the US's climate change research and turning it into a conspiracy and criminal investigation. Inhofe calls for criminal investigation into why EPA 'suppressed' a global warming denier. - The Wonk Room. The issue will come down to the fact that people will believe what they want to believe and choose to follow ignorance and rhetoric (and money) or to be enlightened by facts.

We all have choices to make and I hope each choice you make will be made by advancing learning of the facts (whichever information you believe) and not by listening to partisan rancor.

CLIMATE PROGRESS
Nobelist Krugman calls climate science denial by House conservatives "a form of treason - treason against the planet."

"Well, sometimes even the most authoritative analyses get things wrong. And if dissenting opinion-makers and politicians based their dissent on hard work and hard thinking — if they had carefully studied the issue, consulted with experts and concluded that the overwhelming scientific consensus was misguided — they could at least claim to be acting responsibly.
But if you watched the debate on Friday, you didn’t see people who’ve thought hard about a crucial issue, and are trying to do the right thing. What you saw, instead, werepeople who show no sign of being interested in the truth. They don’t like the political and policy implications of climate change, so they’ve decided not to believe in it — and they’ll grab any argument, no matter how disreputable, that feeds their denial.
Indeed, if there was a defining moment in Friday’s debate, it was the declaration by Representative Paul Broun of Georgia that climate change is nothing but a “hoax” that has been “perpetrated out of the scientific community.” I’d call this a crazy conspiracy theory, but doing so would actually be unfair to crazy conspiracy theorists. After all, to believe that global warming is a hoax you have to believe in a vast cabal consisting of thousands of scientists — a cabal so powerful that it has managed to create false records on everything from global temperatures to Arctic sea ice.
Yet Mr. Broun’s declaration was met with applause."


ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING NEWS OF THE DAY - JUNE 29

Tackling climate change by saving forests.

US EPA
FACT SHEET: Coal Combustion Residues (CCR) - Surface Impoundments with high hazard potential ratings.

DALLAS OBSERVER (UNFAIR PARK BLOG)
Environmentalists plenty steamed about possible nominee to head EPA's Dallas office.

ENERGY BULLETIN
PEAK OIL REVIEW - JUNE 29
"Crude prices gyrated within a dollar or two of $70 a barrel last week as weaker equity prices and sluggish economies trumped unrest in lran and damaging insurgent attacks in Nigeria. There seems to be a growing sentiment that hints of an economic recovery someday have already been priced into the oil market, which has doubled in the last six months, and that it will take either evidence of substantially increased demand or serious reductions in supply before the market goes higher."


Prices and Supplies - June 29
"In the last 37 years, the US has suffered six recessions. From the beginning, oil played a central role.

...In every case when oil consumption breeched 4% of GDP, the US has suffered a recession, and indeed, the current US recession began within two months of oil hitting the 4% threshold, that is, when oil reached $80/bbl."

Food and Agriculture - June 29

THE OIL DRUM
THE OIL INTENSITY OF FOOD
"In short, with higher energy prices and a limited supply of fossil fuels, the modern food system that evolved when oil was cheap will not survive as it is now structured."


DrumBeat - June 29

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS NETWORK
Dams are thwarting Louisiana marsh restoration, study says.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
The Arctic thaw could make global warming worse.
"Whether a total or more moderate release is in store is still anyone’s guess. But pound for pound, methane in the atmosphere traps 25 times more of the sun’s heat than CO₂ does. Consequently, even a modest thaw of the perennially frozen soil that lies under these ephemeral lakes and caps the dry land around them could trigger a vicious cycle: warming releases methane and creates lakes, which thaw permafrost and liberate more gas, which intensifies warming, which creates more lakes, and so on. Some Arctic lakes are growing larger, and researchers are eyeing them suspiciously as a reason why global methane concentrations shot up in 2007 and have stayed high ever since. Other signs indicate that permafrost thawing on the Arctic seafloor may be loosening the cap on large pockets of methane stored deeper down."


DOCUTICKER
Dr. Coburn releases report criticizing Congress' infrastructure priorities

EUREKALERT GOODY BAG
Water should be a human right.

Three reasons are outlined for why access to clean water should be declared a basic human right. Firstly, access to clean water can substantially reduce the global burden disease caused by water-borne infections. Millions of people are affected each year by a range of water-borne diseases including diarrhea, which is responsible for 1.8 million potentially preventable deaths per year, mostly among children under the age of five. Secondly, the privatization of water—as witnessed in Bolivia, Ghana and other countries—has not effectively served the poor, who suffer the most from lack of access to clean water. As Maude Barlow, senior advisor on water issues to the president of the General Assembly of the UN, has argued, "high water rates, cut-offs to the poor, reduced services, broken promises and pollution have been the legacy of privatization."

Thirdly, the prospect of global water scarcity—exacerbated by climate change, industrial pollution, and population growth—means that no country is immune to a water crisis. The United States is facing the greatest water shortages of its history, and in Australia severe drought has caused dangerous water shortages in the Murray-Darling river basin, which provides the bulk of its food supply.

Seasonal hunger devastating and under-recognized.
Bapu Vaitla (Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA), Stephen Devereux (Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK), and Samuel Hauenstein Swan (Action Against Hunger UK) describe how currently nearly seven out of every ten hungry people in the world, or about six hundred million, are either members of small farm households or landless rural laborers. Many of these six hundred million people live in areas where water or temperature constraints allow only one crop harvest per year, say the authors. Their poverty is driven by seasonal cycles, worsening especially in the preharvest months. During this "hunger season" period, household food stocks from the last harvest begin to run out; while low production levels, inadequate storage facilities, and accumulated debt all combine to force families to sell or consume their agricultural production well before the new harvest.


Ozone depletes oil seed rape productivity.

New crops needed for new climate.

Global food security in a changing climate depends on the nutritional value and yield of staple food crops. Researchers at Monash University in Victoria, Australia have found an increase in toxic compounds, a decrease in protein content and a decreased yield in plants grown under high CO₂ and drought conditions.

The research, to be presented by Dr Ros Gleadow on 29 June 2009 at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Meeting in Glasgow, has shown that the concentration of cyanogenic glycosides, which break down to release toxic hydrogen cyanide, increased in plants in elevated CO₂. This was compounded by the fact that protein content decreased, making the plants overall more toxic as the ability of herbivores to break down cyanide depends largely on the ingestion of sufficient quantities of protein.

Data have also shown that cassava, a staple food crop in tropical and subtropical regions due to its tolerance of arid conditions, may experience yield reductions in high CO₂. Combined with an increase in cyanogenic glycosides, this has major implications for the types of crops that can be grown in the future if CO₂ levels continue to rise: "We need to be preparing for the predicted reduction in nutritional value of many plants in the coming century by developing and growing different cultivars which, for cassava in particular, may not be easy' says Dr Gleadow.

Picture from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.