Month: December 2011

 Washington Post:

The underwater world on display in Disney’s “Finding Nemo” is teeming with a dizzying array of cheery creatures, from sea turtles to seahorses and mackerel to sharks. So a team of Canadian and U.S. scientists decided to assess the mythical ecosystem inhabited by the small clownfish and his friends to see how their real-world counterparts were faring.

It turns out that when it comes to surviving in a non-Pixar sea, being adorable isn’t enough.

Sixteen percent of the species associated with characters in “Finding Nemo” that have been evaluated face the threat of extinction, according to the study, which was conducted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Canada’s Simon Fraser University. The analysis of 1,568 species is not just a whimsical look at American popular culture and its cartoon characters. It reveals how humans treat some of the ocean’s most charismatic inhabitants.

“These are species that should be doing better because they are the ones we care about,” said Loren McClenachan, a post-doctoral fellow at Simon Fraser University. She said that highly migratory species such as turtles, sharks and rays are particularly vulnerable to fisheries and other human pressures. “They’ve got life histories that cause them to interact with people wherever they go,” McClenachan said

 

At the 17th U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in South Africa, leaders from around the world came to a broad last-minute compromise, but details were scarce. Ray Suarez discusses what comes next after the Durban summit with the University of Maryland’s Nathan Hultman and the Clean Air Task Force’s Samuel Thernstorm.
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Couple things jump out:  the statement that new mechanisms were put in place to encourage coal + carbon sequestration – which I guess is what a former Bush staffer would be enthusiastic about, but not something that really even makes sense economically going forward. 

acknowledgement of Canada withdrawing from the Kyoto process –  

mention of the 100 billion dollar green climate fund for third world -“for projects to address reduction of emissions in developing countries and also to help them adapt to the climate changes that we expect to see.”

Transcript below:

Continue reading “After Durban – What Next? PBS Discussion.”

Bloomberg in Businessweek: 

For most countries, the simplest and clearest way to hit the price target would be with an outright carbon tax. The economic benefits are well known: By letting markets work, a tax achieves a given amount of emissions abatement at the lowest cost. The world needs to cap its greenhouse gas emissions, but there’s no obligation to do this in the most expensive, painful or disruptive way.

Climate-change campaigners made a great mistake early on in opposing this approach — arguing, in effect, that sin should be prohibited not taxed, and that cuts of a certain size had to be assured. The cost of this inflexibility is now apparent: Insist on known and guaranteed cuts in emissions, and the wheels of international cooperation turn too slowly.

So far, explicit carbon taxes have not been widely adopted (though where they have been, as in British Columbia, they have worked). It’s not only environmentalists who aren’t enthusiastic. In many countries, especially the U.S., conservatives are bitterly opposed as well. A carbon tax, after all, is a tax.

Yet with many countries in a fiscal crisis, a carbon tax is more attractive than before. A carbon tax could lift some of the burden from spending cuts and increases in other taxes. As this sinks in, what was once politically impossible may soon be merely hard.

Jim Hansen’s Conservative Climate Plan – Republicans for Environmental Protection:

Hansen describes himself as a moderate conservative and is registered to vote as an independent. More importantly, he has been shopping around a framework for climate legislation that conservative elected officials might find interesting if they find themselves in a problem-solving mood.

Hansen’s proposal is simple, far simpler than the 1,400-plus pages of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill that passed the House in 2009 but will die when the 111th Congress closes up for good later this year.

Hansen’s proposal makes use of market principles, by prodding the market to tell the truth about the costs of carbon-based energy through prices.

It would not impose mandates on consumers or businesses, create new government agencies, or add a penny to Uncle Sam’s coffers.

Hansen calls his approach “fee and dividend.” A gradually rising fee would be imposed on carbon-based energy sources at the points where they enter the economy – at mine mouths or ports of entry, for example.

Continue reading “US Conservatives Crack the Door on the Carbon Tax”

The most urgent and intelligent messaging to conservatives on climate is, of course, here on Climate Crocks.

But second place surely goes to FrumForum.. 

The GOP nomination race has proven to be a hostile environment for concerns about, or even an acceptance of the reality of, anthropogenic global warming.

Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney have made statements that they don’t know what’s causing climate change, in contradiction of earlier statements indicating that they did know. Jon Huntsman now has expressed doubts about the validity and clarity of the science involved. The other candidates have been broadly dismissive of the issue.

Interestingly, Republican voters may not share such positions. A recent poll found widespread belief that global warming is happening, with 72 percent of Republicans (and 92 percent of Democrats) agreeing on that point. This makes me wonder whether there is an approach a GOP candidate could take that would both appeal to the primary electorate and lead to meaningful action to address the issue.

Such an approach should also enable the candidate to demonstrate a contrast with how President Obama and the Democrats have tackled, or failed to tackle, climate change.

I have drafted a speech that may help some current or future GOP candidate achieve all of the above. Any candidate who wishes to use the following material is more than welcome:

Continue reading “How A Republican Could Explain Climate Change…”

I hardly ever pick up my guitar any more – but at one time I played a lot, and even sometimes performed with “Small Potatoes” – a pick up band in the area.

I was working as a paramedic at the time, and when I was lucky enough to have a quiet moment during the shift, I’d pull out the Taylor  and wear the strings down trying to sound like Tony Rice. But nobody sounds like Tony Rice.

These infuriating, insolent third world villagers somehow have found a way to generate their own electricity, pump water, become self sufficient, improve education, and build community  —  without sending warriors to kill their neighbors. Clearly someone has not gotten the fear-and-scarcity memo.

Independent villagers like these will not be forced to move to the cities and become compliant, fearful drones.

Memo to Dick Cheney and the Tea Party – if we don’t look out, this could spread. They must be punished.

Telegraph: 

The Discovery Channel is set to air the documentary series, which is co-produced by the BBC, thoughout North America next March.

It will encompass all seven episodes, including the controversial program on climate change, which will be hosted by Sir David Attenborough.

On that seventh episode, the famed British naturalist will investigate what rising temperatures will mean for the planet and life on it.

After much debate about whether it would be shown in the US not, prompting concern American viewers will not learn about climate change at the Poles, the network announced Tuesday, that it would be screened.

The airing of the final episode of Frozen Planet will have a huge impact on the ongoing debate about global warming.

Washington Post:

A key feature of the initial drop in global warming belief was a burgeoning partisan divide, with Republicans and independents becoming markedly less convinced. The new poll reveals a growing internal divide within the GOP between conservatives and moderates, as well as between tea party and non-tea party Republicans.

More than six in 10 moderate or liberal Republicans in the new poll say there is solid evidence of global warming (up 22 points from 2009), while barely three in 10 conservative Republicans say the same. And while 30 percent of Republicans who agree with the tea party believe in global warming, that jumps to 56 percent of non-tea party Republicans. Democrats continue to be the strongest believers – over three quarters say there is solid evidence.

As the numbers show, conservative republicans continue to become functionally stupider, probably due to the influence of Fox News.

The Post further confirms one of my key assertions – for many conservatives, the most important indicator of global climate is local weather – the “Ah looked out mah winder,and it wuz snowin’, so there cain’t be clahmut change” school of climatology.

A 2011 working paper found evidence that for political conservatives, shifts in local temperatures have an impact on belief in global warming. The research, by Tatyana Deryugina at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, was conducted by examining Gallup polls and local weather patterns.

Continue reading “Winning! GOP Attitudes Turning on Global Climate”

I recently met with Ways and Means Committee Chairman, Dave Camp (R-MI), and urged him to push for renewal of the PTC, production tax credit for wind (and some other renewable) energy.

The PTC expires next year, and its historically been a political football, which has hampered the development of the US wind industry, and allowed our competitors to leap ahead in this critical 21st century technology. The record (below) shows how the growth of the industry tends to crash when the PTC is allowed to expire. Companies and investors need stability over an adequate time horizon to make the investments required for long term growth.

The American Wind Energy Association points out:

With the support of the PTC, the U.S. wind energy industry has achieved impressive numbers:

• Over 400 facilities across 43 states manufacture for the wind energy industry.

• 60% of a wind turbine’s value is now produced here in America, compared to 25% prior to 2005.

• Over 90% drop in the price of wind power since 1980, benefiting utilities and consumers.

• More than $60 billion of investment since 2005

Dave was non-commital, and mumbled something about the bogus Solyndra non-story that’s so popular on Fox News.  I’ll be getting back to him and his staff in coming months.
Camp, and every representative, need to be prompted to renew this essential part of the US’s competitive strategy for the new century.

Go Here to find the contact for your rep. I won’t tell you what to say – you know what has to be done.

A team of scientists from the United States and the UK went to Greenland in the summer of 2011 and witnessed the birth and death of a superglacial lake named Lake Ponting.