Month: July 2012

Show this New Study to Your Anti-Science Auntie, and Stand Back. Species EVOLVE in response to CLIMATE CHANGE

Nature:

Climate change has altered the behaviour and interactions of many plants and animals, including when fish migrate and plants flower. But evidence has been lacking that such shifts have a genetic basis.

Organisms often deal with environmental pressures by altering traits through a process known as phenotypic plasticity, which does not require genetic changes. But many organisms will need to evolve genetic adaptations to climate change to survive, and seasonal traits such as the timing of migration are those most likely to evolve as they are genetically heritable.

Ryan Kovach, a population ecologist at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, and his colleagues have now investigated the genetic basis of shifts towards earlier migration times in spawning pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) in Auke Creek, a stream near Jueau, Alaska1. The team found that in 2010, the fish swam upstream to spawn nearly two weeks earlier than they did 40 years ago, a trend also seen in other salmon populations. Over the same period, the average temperature of the water rose by more than one degree. Now, Kovach has linked the change in behaviour to a genetic change.

“It has been extremely difficult to determine whether any of the multitudes of observed phenological changes in nature are due to rapid microevolution within a population,” says Kovach. “This study is the first empirical example using genetic data to confirm this theory, and so addresses a key research gap that has been acting as a thorn in the side of the field.”

The researchers used a genetic marker that had been bred into late-migrating fish in the 1980s to differentiate late-migrating fish from early-migrating fish. The marker was on the gene MDH B1,2, which is not affected by natural selection. They then looked at 32 years of genetic data begining in the 1970’s taken from 17 generations of the fish. In addtion, between 5 and 30 fish were sampled every day in the odd years from 1983 to 1993, and in 2001 and 2011.

They found that by 2011, the number of late-migrating fish had dropped by at least 20%, to make up just 10% of the population. They also found a three-fold decrease in the frequency of the genetic marker. They found no changes in the frequencies of many other genes used as controls. The findings are published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B1.

“We show that there has been a genetic shift towards earlier migration timing through what appears to be natural selection against the late-migrating individuals in the population,” Kovach says.

Doh!!

One Day to Go. Still Time to Kick in For Climate Crocks on Ice.

About a day left to go in the Kickstarter fund drive to put Climate Crocks on ice.

The gig is fully funded, right now – but any additional funds will be plowed into upgrading my tools, with the hope of even more ambitious field trips in the future. I’m dutifully trudging up and down the stairs at my local football stadium in preparation for humping it up Easton Glacier on Mount Baker just a few weeks from now.

Have been getting some good tips from pros in the field on what types of gear to pick up and advice from my guide, Dr. Mauri Pelto, as well.

As of midnight, friday, july 13th, the campaign will close, and the pledges will be processed. Deepest and humblest gratitude to all those who kicked in.  I’ll do my best to make it worth your while.

Conservatives Working to Walk Back Denial – Opening to Carbon Tax Initiatives

“Science is neither conservative nor liberal; it’s evidence-driven. Scientists, including those of us who are politically conservative, hope for an early end to the populist rejection of science and a return to evidence-driven scientific inquiry. Conservatives have a critical role to play in meeting the challenges posed by changing climate, and the Energy and Enterprise Initiative provides a vehicle for them to do so.”

DR. KERRY EMANUEL, PROFESSOR OF ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE, MIT

“One need not take a side in the debate regarding manmade global warming in order to support improvements in US energy policy. Instead, by eliminating subsidies for all fuel types and making all fuel types accountable for their costs, free enterprise will make clear the best fuels for our future. Reduce taxes on something we want more of–income–and tax something we arguably want less of–carbon pollution. It’s a win-win.”

ART LAFFER, ECONOMICS ADVISER TO PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN

Art Laffer was the architect of the Reagan economic program. Bob Inglis is a former Republican Congressman from South Carolina. Both of them think that a carbon tax might be a cool, and cooling, idea.

Energy and Enterprise:

FAIRFAX, Va., July 10,2012—George Mason University announced today the formation of the Energy and Enterprise Initiative(E&EI), a nationwide public engagement campaign led by former Congressman Bob Inglis that will explore and promote conservative solutions to America’s energy and climate challenges.  E&EI will operate from Mason’s Center for Climate Change Communication (4C).

The initiative, according to its mission, will be “guided by conservative principles of free enterprise and economic growth, limited government, liberty, accountability and reasonable risk avoidance.” Committed to developing real solutions, E&EI will also critique policy prescriptions that expand government and hinder free enterprise.

E&EI will sponsor policy papers from conservative scholars, students and activists.  It will partner with conservative thought leaders, businesses, and other organizations to host panels, conduct outreach, and voice the case for conservative leadership on energy and climate. E&EI will convene forums around the country that bring together economists, national security experts, climate scientists and interested citizens to explore the power of free enterprise to solve the nation’s energy and climate challenges.

“Congressman Inglis has a unique and important point of view — that free enterprise is the best answer to our nation’s intertwined energy and climate challenges,” said Ed Maibach, director of 4C. “We hope to learn a lot about public understanding of these issues by studying how the public responds to E&EI’s public engagement initiatives.”

Greenvilleonline:

Those who watched former U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis grow more and more interested in climate change and energy policy — and who saw his blowout loss in 2010 — won’t be too surprised by his new effort to build a conservative constituency for these issues.

It’s interesting what the target audience is (many former constituents have certainly made clear that they aren’t interested). Inglis said his focus in public speaking engagements and with other economists will be college students and even young evangelicals — the conservative demographic that he believes is most dissatisfied with the Republican Party’s current stance on these matters.

Note: a well informed source tells me that republican pollsters are quietly warning their clients, congresspeople and senators – that unless they walk back their stands on 2 key issues, climate change and gay marriage, “..nobody under 30 is going to vote for them in 2016.”

Atlanta Journal:

Let’s hear it for heretics.

Bob Inglis, a former Republican congressman from South Carolina, is one of them. He lost in a GOP primary in 2010 largely because he acknowledged that manmade climate change is real.

“For many conservatives, it became the marker that you had crossed to Satan’s side — that you had left God and gone to Satan’s side on climate change,” Inglis said after his defeat.

Today, Inglis announced creation of an “Energy and Enterprise Initiative” to promote conservative answers to climate change.

“Conservatives have the answer to our energy and climate challenge,” Inglis said. “It’s about correcting market distortions and setting the economics right. We need to stop retreating in denial and start stepping forward in the competition of ideas.”

(If only he could cite some evidence to back up his claims that climate change is real. You know, like the warmest June on record in the continental United States, or the warmest 12 months on record in the continental United States, or a notable increase in the number of strong storms, droughts and other phenomenon predicted by climate scientists.)

Continue reading “Conservatives Working to Walk Back Denial – Opening to Carbon Tax Initiatives”

Meanwhile – Cap and Trade: Not Only Alive, but Creating Jobs, Revenue, and New Interest

Inside Climate News:

Cap and trade is long dead in the United States, a victim of shifting political winds, fierce oil industry opposition and a weak economy.

Or is it?

Congress and a dozen Midwest and Western states abandoned plans for such programs during the past three years. That’s left California and nine Northeast states alone in their embrace of the scheme, which sets a ceiling on CO2 emissions and allows polluters to meet it by buying permits in auctions—and sends hundreds of millions of dollars into state coffers.

With many states in financial trouble—and with evidence building that cap and trade can bolster a new revenue stream and create jobs—some states are starting to take a second look.

In interviews with InsideClimate News, economists, analysts and state officials say that conversations on the topic are generally taking place quietly and under the radar in a few governors’ offices and in state legislatures, where both Democrats and Republicans dominate.

The catalyst was the release last fall of a 54-page economic analysis of the first mandatory carbon emissions trading scheme in America, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The report analyzed the $912 million in auction revenues that Northeast participants raked in from 2008 to 2011. It found that states netted $1.6 billion in economic benefits and created approximately 16,000 jobs by devoting proceeds to clean energy technologies, energy efficiency programs and other economic activities.

Since then, a handful of states, mostly in the Midwest but also in the deep South, have contacted RGGI officials about cap and trade, says Collin O’Mara, secretary of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. O’Mara chairs the board of directors for RGGI, Inc., the nonprofit corporation that helps states implement the initiative.

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Because of that scrutiny, Paul Hibbard, vice president of the Analysis Group, the consulting firm behind the RGGI report, says he’s “very surprised” at the interest in the study. State representatives and industry groups across the RGGI region and in California—as well as U.S. Department of Energy officials and federal legislative staff—have frequently brought in Hibbard and colleagues to explain their findings.

Hibbard says the RGGI study is unique because it examines cap and trade strictly from an economic angle. It doesn’t consider environmental impacts or whether the program is crucial for curbing global warming pollution.

“We just looked at the [auction] money and the impact of those dollars. We found that there’s absolutely an economic return for collecting cap and trade revenues. And that’s true almost regardless of how you use them,” he says. That includes in states like New York, which used tens of millions in cap-and-trade money to plug budget gaps.

The Analysis Group:

RGGI (Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative – a cap and trade agreement among northeastern states) has also produced changes in consumers’ overall expenditures on electricity. Although CO2 allowances tend to increase electricity prices in the near term, there is also a lowering of prices over time because the states invested a substantial amount of the allowance proceeds on energy efficiency programs that reduce electricity consumption.6 After the early impacts of small electricity price

PBS: Extremes Linked to Climate Change (ya think?)

PBS News Hour:

As temperatures soared past 110 degrees in some states and thunderstorms pummeled the deep South, raising fears of flooding, a new report says climate change has likely influenced the odds of extreme weather. Judy interviews Thomas Karl, director of NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center

Land Based Wind Healthy in New England

Boston Globe:

Despite controversy that has slowed the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound, land-based wind farms are expanding rapidly in the region.

One company alone, First Wind Holdings LLC of Boston, has installed enough turbines in the Northeast over the past few years to generate nearly as much power as the long-awaited offshore wind farm. Other companies, too, have developed wind projects in New England states.

Driving this growth are technological advances reducing the cost of wind turbines and increasing their efficiency, making wind power more competitive with traditional power sources — particularly in the Northeast, where electricity costs can run as much as 60 percent above the national average.

Turbine prices have dropped about 30 percent over the past few years, and new turbines are able to generate electricity at lower wind speeds.

ABC News: Powering your Home from your Car

Somebody at ABC must read this blog.

ABC News:

Hundreds of thousands of Americans were left without power for days after a violent storm front moved through from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic last week. But what if — in the case of a blackout — you could just use your car to power your home?

It might sound futuristic, but in Japan it is already happening.

In Ginza, a posh shopping district in the heart of Tokyo — customers looking to buy a car can do something they can’t do anywhere else in the world — walk into a Nissan dealer and buy an all electric Leaf that will integrate into their home’s energy supply. Simply put, the car powers the home and the home powers the car.

“If there is a power disruption, you can keep things running,” Ken Screbnik, vice president for strategic planning and business development for Nissan told ABC News. “Depending on the size of the home, the power from your car can be used to power your home for about two days.”

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The vehicle-to-grid system is all part of a vision for a smarter energy system for Japan following last year’s tsunami- and earthquake-triggered nuclear disaster.

“Japan has really been on a fast curve because of the events of March 11 [2011], with the tsunami and the earthquake, when there was devastation, there was no way to get gas to gas stations and really there was a whole different look at electric vehicles, how they were able to work, and also having that comfort of this backup energy storage system in your home,” Screbnik said. “We were able to work with the government to provide subsides and really shape a business out of a tragic event.”

Moving to a Smarter Grid

Since the earthquake and tsunami hit, the Japanese government made concerted efforts to ensure a stable power supply.

There were 50 Smart Cities proposed, promising to offer cleaner energy integration, and the ability for the smart cities to maintain their own energy supplies in the case another large earthquake knocks the power offline.

At Kashiwa-no-ha, one of the smart grid cities on the outskirts of Tokyo, construction began before the tsunami and nuclear disaster, and is scheduled to be completed in 2014.  The 26,000 people who will be living in the city will have access to smart grid features, including the ability to monitor and control their energy supply with mobile applications.

“The smart features allow you to conserve 40 percent of energy, Ai Kanda Communications Officer for Kashi-no-ha told ABC News.  “It’s one of the most innovative smart grid projects in the world.”

It’s just one more thing that climate deniers deny – that turning to a renewable smart grid will improve our lives, allow us to be more secure, improve national security, and increase our resilience in the face of natural disasters like the east coast is living thru this week.