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Sore Throat
Joined: 01 Sep 2000
Posts: 1802
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Bush Gets His Way on Energy
 Sun Jul 31, 2005 4:57 pm
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http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0731-22.htm
Bush Gets His Way on Energy
by Matthew Rothschild
For all his troubles with Iraq and with the Karl Rove scandal, Bush still manages to win in Congress.
He prevailed on CAFTA, thanks to 15 wayward Democrats.
He scored a victory for the NRA, which bragged in 2000 that it would be setting up shop in the Oval Office if Bush became President.
And now the House has approved his energy bill, which will dole out billions of dollars to the oil and gas companies.
Not that they need it.
In the first quarter alone, the top four oil giants raked in $97 billion in profits.
Bush and Cheney, executing their agenda down the line, have put in wording that will deregulate the energy field even further.
“The bill’s repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act will set the stage for utility mergers that could very well destabilize an industry that for the past 70 years has brought us the world’s most reliable electricity grid,” said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. “Under this legislation, banks, oil companies, and even foreign countries could purchase electric utilities, further removing them from local control and state oversight.”
Claybrook added that the bill will “exempt oil and gas companies from important environmental protection laws” and “limit the ability of states and local communities to have adequate say in how proposed liquefied natural gas facilities are built.”
The biggest outrage of the energy bill is that it won’t make us any more energy independent any time soon, if at all.
There is hardly anything in it about conservation or about solar or wind power. But the dangerous nuclear power industry gets “cradle-to-grave subsidies,” as Claybrook put it.
Nor is there any requirement that the automakers increase the miles per gallon that our vehicles get on the highway. Raising this requirement is the best way to reduce U.S. energy consumption.
Republicans actually voted down an amendment on that one a few months ago.
Instead, they added language that will actually make it more difficult in the future for the government to raise that standard.
Bush’s EPA helped with this sleight of hand by delaying the release of its annual report on the fuel economy of the U.S. fleet.
That report, which was leaked to The New York Times, shows that “loopholes in American fuel economy regulations have allowed automakers to produce cars and trucks that are significantly less fuel-efficient, on average, than they were in the late 1980s,” according to the Times.
But Bush likes going in reverse. |
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Sore Throat
Joined: 01 Sep 2000
Posts: 1802
Location: x |
| Hurricanes more powerful, study says
Mon Aug 01, 2005 3:42 pm
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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/08/01/hurricanes_more_powerful_study_says?mode=PF
Hurricanes more powerful, study says
Researcher at MIT sees larger storms with stronger winds
By Scott Allen, Globe Staff | August 1, 2005
The destructive power of hurricanes in the North Atlantic and North Pacific has nearly doubled over the past 30 years, at least partly because of human-induced global warming, according to a controversial new study by a prominent climate researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Though the number of tropical cyclones worldwide has hovered at 90 a year for decades, MIT hurricane specialist Kerry Emanuel contends that the storms are growing larger and reaching higher maximum wind speeds than in the past. Focusing on the cyclones that have been most closely measured -- hurricanes striking the Eastern United States and typhoons in Southeast Asia -- Emanuel concluded that today's storms, on average, release far more energy than their predecessors did in the mid-1970s.
''There seems to be a clear correlation" between increasing strength and length of storms and a temperature increase of 0.5 degrees Celsius on the surface of the sea during the same period, said Emanuel, whose paper was published online yesterday by the journal Nature.
One of the nation's leading hurricane forecasters, William Gray of Colorado State University, said Emanuel is leaping to conclusions based on imprecise information about the strength of hurricanes, especially in decades past. He said Emanuel's formula for calculating the energy released by hurricanes obscures the fact that no one directly measured the winds in many of the storms, roughly estimating speeds from satellite images instead.
''It's a terrible paper, one of the worst I've ever looked at," said Gray, who does not believe that cyclone intensity worldwide is increasing. He also questioned Emanuel's contention that human actions, such as the burning of oil and other fuels, have caused the surface of the ocean to warm. Gray said the ocean-temperature increase is natural.
Suzana Camargo, a cyclone specialist at Columbia University in New York, said Emanuel's findings should be taken seriously, arguing that his conclusion about the growing power of hurricanes is similar to the increase in the energy of typhoons she measured when tropical Pacific temperatures rise by several degrees Celsius as a result of cyclical El Nino weather events. ''You don't have more typhoons; you have more intense ones. You have supertyphoons," she said.
Christopher Landsea, research meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Miami, said Emanuel deserves credit for taking on a tough issue where the violence of the storms often destroys the equipment intended to measure their ferocity. ''It's certainly the first paper that does systematically connect hurricane intensity . . . to ocean temperature rises that may be due to global warming," said Landsea, who, like Gray, is concerned about the lack of reliable measures of hurricane winds.
Mounting damage from hurricanes has been a major political issue in the United States, at least since Hurricane Andrew caused tens of billions of dollars in damage to Florida in 1992. After several relatively quiet decades, the number of hurricanes originating in the tropics between Africa and the Caribbean rose sharply in the mid-1990s, including two storms last year, Charley and Ivan, that rank among the worst in US history for total damage.
Though most analysts agree the uptick in the number of Eastern hurricanes is a result of natural factors, some environmentalists have argued that global warming intensifies the storms. Global temperatures have increased by roughly one degree Fahrenheit in the past century, at least partly as a result of carbon dioxide releases from the burning of fossil fuels. During the election last fall, a group called Scientists and Engineers for Change posted a billboard in Florida that read: ''Global warming = Worse hurricanes. George Bush just doesn't get it."
Until now, scientific arguments that global warming can intensify extreme weather have been based mainly on projections derived from models. Emanuel published a paper in 1987 suggesting that a warming of the ocean's surface waters would give hurricanes more fuel to churn faster. That theory is now supported by the main scientific panel tracking global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
However, detecting an actual increase in overall hurricane activity has proven elusive. Worldwide, the annual number of cyclones -- a term that includes typhoons and hurricanes -- has fluctuated consistently between 80 and 100 for decades. And scientists had generally agreed that the small rise in ocean temperatures so far is not enough to cause dramatic changes in hurricane intensity, so few researchers attempted to measure for a trend.
Emanuel said he, too, was surprised at his results, which found the total power of North Atlantic hurricanes has more than doubled since the mid-1970s, while western North Pacific cyclones have increased in intensity by 75 percent. He said his team reviewed all the wind speed measurements for hurricanes in both regions, making adjustments for the imprecision of past records, then feeding the numbers into his formula.
Colorado's Gray said he was appalled that Emanuel would take such shaky data on wind speeds, then feed them into a formula that puts such heavy weight on those numbers. You can get any result you want, he said.
Emanuel acknowledges that his technique has a large margin of error and that he would not have published the results if the increase in storm intensity hadn't so closely mirrored the rise in ocean temperatures over the past 30 years.
Even if Emanuel is proved right, the increasing damage from hurricanes may have more to do with where people choose to live than the power of the storms. Most researchers have generally agreed that the mounting damage is mostly a consequence of people building on the coast, effectively putting more people and property in harm's way.
The contention that storms are getting stronger ''could be true, but the significance of the trend he's identified is dwarfed by the damages from coastal development," Roger A. Pielke, director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy at the University of Colorado, said in an interview.
Emanuel noted that he agreed with Pielke a few months ago that global warming probably was not a major factor in hurricane activity. ''I wouldn't be so confident about that now," he said.
Scott Allen can be reached at allen@globe.com. |
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Sore Throat
Joined: 01 Sep 2000
Posts: 1802
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| Pacific Coast life concerns scientists
Tue Aug 02, 2005 3:07 am
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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/12278809.htm
Pacific Coast life concerns scientists
TERENCE CHEA
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - Marine biologists are seeing mysterious and disturbing things along the Pacific Coast this year: higher water temperatures, plummeting catches of fish, lots of dead birds on the beaches, and perhaps most worrisome, very little plankton - the tiny organisms that are a vital link in the ocean food chain.
Is this just one freak year? Or is this global warming?
Few scientists are willing to blame global warming, the theory that carbon dioxide and other manmade emissions are trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere and causing a worldwide rise in temperatures. Yet few are willing to rule it out.
"There are strange things happening, but we don't really understand how all the pieces fit together," said Jane Lubchenco, a zoologist and climate change expert at Oregon State University. "It's hard to say whether any single event is just an anomaly or a real indication of something serious happening."
Scientists say things could very well swing back to normal next year. But if the phenomenon proves to be long-lasting, the consequences could be serious for birds, fish and other wildlife.
This much is known: From California to British Columbia, unusual weather patterns have disrupted the marine ecosystem.
Normally, in the spring and summer, winds blow south along the Pacific Coast and push warmer surface waters away from shore. That allows colder, nutrient-rich water to well up from the bottom of the sea and feed microscopic plants called phytoplankton.
Phytoplankton are then eaten by zooplankton, tiny marine animals that include shrimp-like crustaceans called krill. Zooplankton, in turn, are eaten by seabirds and by fish and marine mammals ranging from sardines to whales.
But this year, the winds have been unusually weak, failing to generate much upwelling and reducing the amount of phytoplankton.
Off Oregon, for example, the waters near the shore are 5 to 7 degrees warmer than normal and have yielded about one-fourth the usual amount of phytoplankton, said Bill Peterson, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Newport, Ore.
"The bottom has fallen out of the coastal food chain, and there's just not enough food out there," said Julia Parrish, a seabird ecologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Seabirds are clearly distressed. On the Farallon Islands west of San Francisco, researchers this spring noted a steep decrease in nesting cormorants and a 90 percent drop in Cassin's auklets - the worst in more than 35 years of monitoring.
On Washington state's Tatoosh Island, common murres - a species so sensitive to disruptions that scientists consider it a harbinger of ecological change - started breeding nearly a month late. It was the longest delay in 15 years of monitoring.
Researchers have also reported a sharp increase in dead birds washing up in California, Oregon and Washington.
Along Monterey Bay in Central California, there are four times the usual number of dead seabirds, said Hannah Nevins, a scientist at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories.
"Basically, they're not finding enough food, and they use up the energy that's stored in their muscles, liver and body fat," Nevins said.
Fish appear to be feeling the effects, too. NOAA found a 20 percent to 30 percent drop in juvenile salmon off the coasts of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia in June and July, compared with the average over the previous six years.
And researchers counted the lowest number of juvenile rockfish in more than 20 years of monitoring in Central and Northern California. Fewer than 100 were caught between San Luis Obispo and Fort Bragg this year, compared with several thousand last year.
Scientists have seen some of these strange happenings before during El Nino years, when higher water surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific alter weather patterns worldwide. But the West Coast has not had El Nino conditions this year.
As for the possibility that this is being caused by global warming, scientists are not so sure, since climate change is believed to be a gradual process, and what is happening this year is relatively sudden.
But "if we did see this next year, the notion that global warming plays a role in this carries more weight," said Nathan Mantua, a climate expert at the University of Washington in Seattle. |
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Et in Arcadia ego
Joined: 07 Jun 2005
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Tue Aug 02, 2005 6:34 pm
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http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/08/02/ocean.crisis.ap/index.html
Scientists puzzle over oddities along Pacific coast
Dead birds, fewer fish, drop in plankton cause concern
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Marine biologists are seeing mysterious and disturbing things along the Pacific Coast this year: higher water temperatures, plummeting catches of fish, lots of dead birds on the beaches, and perhaps most worrisome, very little plankton -- the tiny organisms that are a vital link in the ocean food chain.
Is this just one freak year? Or is this global warming?
Few scientists are willing to blame global warming, the theory that carbon dioxide and other manmade emissions are trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere and causing a worldwide rise in temperatures. Yet few are willing to rule it out.
"There are strange things happening, but we don't really understand how all the pieces fit together," said Jane Lubchenco, a zoologist and climate change expert at Oregon State University. "It's hard to say whether any single event is just an anomaly or a real indication of something serious happening."
Scientists say things could very well swing back to normal next year. But if the phenomenon proves to be long-lasting, the consequences could be serious for birds, fish and other wildlife.
This much is known: From California to British Columbia, unusual weather patterns have disrupted the marine ecosystem.
Normally, in the spring and summer, winds blow south along the Pacific Coast and push warmer surface waters away from shore. That allows colder, nutrient-rich water to well up from the bottom of the sea and feed microscopic plants called phytoplankton.
Phytoplankton are then eaten by zooplankton, tiny marine animals that include shrimp-like crustaceans called krill. Zooplankton, in turn, are eaten by seabirds and by fish and marine mammals ranging from sardines to whales.
But this year, the winds have been unusually weak, failing to generate much upwelling and reducing the amount of phytoplankton.
Off Oregon, for example, the waters near the shore are 5 to 7 degrees warmer than normal and have yielded about one-fourth the usual amount of phytoplankton, said Bill Peterson, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Newport, Oregon.
"The bottom has fallen out of the coastal food chain, and there's just not enough food out there," said Julia Parrish, a seabird ecologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Seabirds are clearly distressed. On the Farallon Islands west of San Francisco, researchers this spring noted a steep decrease in nesting cormorants and a 90 percent drop in Cassin's auklets -- the worst in more than 35 years of monitoring.
On Washington state's Tatoosh Island, common murres -- a species so sensitive to disruptions that scientists consider it a harbinger of ecological change -- started breeding nearly a month late. It was the longest delay in 15 years of monitoring.
Researchers have also reported a sharp increase in dead birds washing up in California, Oregon and Washington.
Along Monterey Bay in Central California, there are four times the usual number of dead seabirds, said Hannah Nevins, a scientist at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories.
"Basically, they're not finding enough food, and they use up the energy that's stored in their muscles, liver and body fat," Nevins said.
Fish appear to be feeling the effects, too. NOAA found a 20 percent to 30 percent drop in juvenile salmon off the coasts of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia in June and July, compared with the average over the previous six years.
And researchers counted the lowest number of juvenile rockfish in more than 20 years of monitoring in Central and Northern California. Fewer than 100 were caught between San Luis Obispo and Fort Bragg this year, compared with several thousand last year.
Scientists have seen some of these strange happenings before during El Nino years, when higher water surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific alter weather patterns worldwide. But the West Coast has not had El Nino conditions this year.
As for the possibility that this is being caused by global warming, scientists are not so sure, since climate change is believed to be a gradual process, and what is happening this year is relatively sudden.
But "if we did see this next year, the notion that global warming plays a role in this carries more weight," said Nathan Mantua, a climate expert at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
_________________
"If the President has commander-in-chief power to commit torture, he has the power to commit genocide, to sanction slavery, to promote apartheid, to license summary execution." |
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Et in Arcadia ego
Joined: 07 Jun 2005
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Location: The Void |
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Tue Aug 02, 2005 6:37 pm
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http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/08/02/hurricanes.reut/index.html
Hurricane outlook worsens
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- This year's Atlantic hurricane season will be worse than previously expected with as many as 21 tropical storms and 11 hurricanes, U.S. government weather forecasters predicted Tuesday.
"Although we have already seen a record-setting seven tropical storms during June and July, much of the season's activity is still to come," Gerry Bell, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) meteorologist, told reporters.
In May, NOAA predicted the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season would be above normal, with up to 15 tropical storms and nine hurricanes. (Full story)
The Atlantic hurricane season typically peaks in August and ends on November 30.
The new forecast, based on atmospheric conditions and warm ocean temperatures, would mean a record number of named, tropical storms. The previous record was 19 tropical storms in 1995, according to NOAA.
The increased activity is due to cyclical conditions, not global warming, NOAA officials said. Hurricane activity was low in the 1980s and early 1990s and a more active cycle of hurricanes is now under way, Bell said.
"It's certainly reasonable to expect above-normal hurricane seasons for the next decade or perhaps even longer," Bell said. "It's not a matter of if more hurricanes are going to hit the coast, it's simply a matter of when."
In early July, Hurricane Dennis pounded the U.S. Gulf Coast with sustained winds of 120 miles per hour, causing losses estimated as high as $5 billion. Later in the month, Hurricane Emily made landfall in the Gulf Coast about 75 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border with winds of 125 mph.
So far this year, tropical storms and hurricanes have halted more than 6.14 million barrels of U.S. crude oil production from the offshore Gulf of Mexico. Damage from last year's Hurricane Ivan cut about 45 million barrels of crude output over six months after that storm toppled platforms and damaged undersea pipelines, making it the most damaging hurricane to the energy industry on record.
Billions of losses in 2004
The 2004 hurricane season was one of the most devastating ever recorded. The Atlantic Ocean churned out 15 tropical storms, nine of which turned into hurricanes, and caused billions of dollars in damage to the Caribbean and the United States.
David Johnson, director of NOAA's National Weather Service, said that while coastal communities are at highest risk, Americans living inland also need to be prepared for damaging storms. About half of all hurricane deaths and injuries occur from inland fresh water flooding, he said.
Tropical disturbances and storms typically form off the west coast of Africa, then move west toward the Caribbean and the United States as they strengthen.
NOAA officials said they could not predict how of the 2005 storms would hit the U.S. coast, or where.
However, Joe Bastardi, a meteorologist with private forecasting company AccuWeather, predicted most of the remaining storms this year will take a more easterly path than the June and July storms that entered the Gulf of Mexico.
"The most action will be from August 15 to October 15 along the Eastern Seaboard. I'm targeting the Carolinas for the worst," Bastardi said. "Also, there will be (landfalls) in New England and the Florida coast."
A study published this week in the science journal Nature said hurricanes have become more destructive during the last 30 years and their growing intensity could be caused by global warming. The report by Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said the duration and wind speed of hurricanes increased by 50 percent. (Full story)
NOAA said its detailed hurricane records only date back to 1945, which means it lacks enough data to determine if there is any link to global warming.
"We're not convinced that global warming is playing an important role yet, or if at all, in this era of increased activity," Bell said.
Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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"If the President has commander-in-chief power to commit torture, he has the power to commit genocide, to sanction slavery, to promote apartheid, to license summary execution." |
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MaryB
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| Disturbing News
Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:45 am
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I find all this quite disturbing. I've been trying to do my part for environmental stability, including installing solar panels on my home, but I wonder if my efforts will be fruitless.
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Hi! I'm new!  |
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Sore Throat
Joined: 01 Sep 2000
Posts: 1802
Location: x |
| Shuttle Commander Sees Wide Environmental Damage
Sat Aug 06, 2005 3:59 am
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http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0804-02.htm
Shuttle Commander Sees Wide Environmental Damage
by Jeff Franks
HOUSTON -- Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that greater care was needed to protect natural resources.
Her comments came as NASA pondered whether to send astronauts out on an extra spacewalk to repair additional heat-protection damage on the first shuttle mission since the 2003 Colombia disaster.
Discovery is linked with the International Space Station and orbiting 220 miles above the Earth.
"Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation. It's very widespread in some parts of the world," Collins said in a conversation from space with Japanese officials in Tokyo, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
"We would like to see, from the astronauts' point of view, people take good care of the Earth and replace the resources that have been used," said Collins, who was standing with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi in front of a Japanese flag and holding a colorful fan.
Collins, making her fourth shuttle flight, said the view from space made clear that Earth's atmosphere must be protected, too.
"The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so very thin," she said. "We know that we don't have much air, we need to protect what we have."
While Collins and Noguchi chatted, NASA officials were deciding whether a rip in an insulation blanket that protects part of the shuttle surface could tear off and strike the spacecraft when Discovery re-enters the atmosphere, possibly causing damage.
Deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said NASA's concern stemmed from an abundance of caution since Columbia.
"I think in the old days we would not have worried about this so much," he said in a briefing.
The agency was to decide later on Thursday whether to order a spacewalk to repair the blanket. The spacewalk would take place on Saturday if needed.
Noguchi and astronaut Steve Robinson already have done three spacewalks, including a landmark walk on Wednesday to remove loose cloth strips protruding from Discovery's belly. NASA feared the strips could cause dangerous heat damage when the shuttle lands on Monday.
After Discovery comes home, there may not be a shuttle mission for a while because NASA has suspended flights until it figures out how to stop insulation foam from the spacecraft's external fuel tank from coming loose at launch.
Loose tank foam was blamed for the break up of Columbia over Texas on Feb. 1, 2003, and was spotted again when Discovery blasted off on July 26.
A report in The New York Times suggested NASA was not as careful as it could have been about the loose foam issue.
A briefcase-size piece of foam broke from its fuel tank and struck Columbia at launch, punching a hole in its wing heat shield. Sixteen days later, superheated gases entered the breach as the ship descended into the atmosphere for landing, causing it to break apart and killing its seven astronauts.
NASA spent 2 1/2 years and $1 billion on safety upgrades after Columbia and was dismayed to see loose foam at Discovery's launch.
The Times said an internal NASA memo, written in December by a retired NASA engineer brought back to monitor the quality of the foam operation, complained deficiencies remained in the way foam was being applied to the fuel tank and warned "there will continue to be a threat of critical debris generation."
A NASA spokesman told the newspaper a response to the memo had been written, but could not be released because of confidentiality rules.
A spokesman at Johnson Space Center in Houston told Reuters he had not yet seen the Times report and could not comment. |
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Louis Aubuchont
tagged & banned
Joined: 08 Mar 2005
Posts: 946
Location: Parsonsfield, Maine |
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DELETED DUE TO THE POLICY OF CTC IN LETTING THE DEBUNKERS AND TROUBLEMAKERS LIKE "FUIwon'tDoWhatUTellMe" AKA, "MAY41970' OVERRUN THE SITE.
FOR THAT REASON I WILL NOT HAVE MY POST ARCHIVED HERE AND I NO LONGER WISH TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS SITE.
Last edited by Louis Aubuchont on Wed Nov 21, 2007 6:50 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Sore Throat
Joined: 01 Sep 2000
Posts: 1802
Location: x |
| Earth ‘losing fight against global warming’
Sun Aug 07, 2005 6:06 am
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http://www.sundayherald.com/51146
Earth ‘losing fight against global warming’
By Jenifer Johnston
THE Earth is losing its natural resistance to global warming as the oceans and forests reach capacity in their ability to soak up carbon emissions, say scientists.
Using a new computer model, researchers “fast- forwarded” 100 years to reveal that unless emissions are curbed, land and seas – the “sinks” for carbon dioxide – will become steadily less effective at removing carbon from the atmosphere, causing the planet to heat faster and increasing temperatures and droughts.
Lead researcher Dr Inez Fung of the University of California, Berkeley, told the Sunday Herald the model debunks one argument put forward by global-warming sceptics that plants will flourish and the oceans bloom in a warmer environment.
“Our work shows that if we keep going on our current course of fossil fuel emissions, the land and oceans will not be able to slow the rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere the way they are doing now. Land and oceans absorb about half of the carbon dioxide produced by human activity at the moment. If we accelerate our emissions, the saturation rate will increase,” she said.
Fung’s model suggests that as heat and droughts increase, plants cut back their intake of carbon dioxide to save water. Ultimately, they stop absorbing it at all. Similarly, as the oceans heat up they struggle to absorb carbon dioxide which then collects near the surface, further preventing absorption and accelerating global warming.
Using data from 1982 onwards, Fung said the northern hemisphere has “greened” each spring and summer as the climate has warmed, leading to more atmospheric CO2 being absorbed by plants.
However, since 1994, as droughts have made the world hotter and drier, plants have been unable to cope. Even though plants could take in more CO2 in spring, that has been offset by decreasing CO2 uptake during summers which have become increasingly dry, literally “browning” the Earth.
“We’re saying ‘hold on a second – plants may not be happier in a warmer and drier world’. This negative effect of hot, dry summers completely wiped out the benefits of warm, wet springs. If you look at satellite pictures of the Earth over this time you can actually see this happening now,” Fung said.
Fung’s planet model predicts that by 2050 – as the biosphere struggles to absorb CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere by humans burning fossil fuels faster and faster – the planet will not be able to keep up, and that, at a low estimate, global temperatures will rise 1.4?C .
“The Earth has a natural rate of absorption that you just cannot accelerate – you can’t make the land accept more CO2 just because more is being released,” she said. “If the rate of fossil fuel emissions is too high, the carbon storage capacity of the land and oceans decreases and climate warming accelerates.”
Last week the World Wildlife Federation warned that Scotland’s average temperature for 2005 is 1?C above average. Overall, Scotland’s average annual temperature has increased by 1?C in the past four decades.
Friends of the Earth Scotland’s Dr Dan Barlow warned: “It is not surprising that the Earth’s ability to deal with rising carbon emissions has limits and it is increasingly clear that we have a very narrow window in which to act to avert climate chaos.”
Dr David Reay of the Institute of Atmospheric and Environmental Science at the University of Edinburgh said the study’s predictions are “clearly important”.
“As scientists we’re aware that you cannot keep pumping CO2 into the atmosphere and expect the Earth to keep absorbing it. This study is very important in terms of giving us a window on the future,” he said.
Fung, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, has spent decades studying the carbon cycle of the planet, producing a sophisticated model which takes into account the tiniest of details, such as the salinity of oceans and forest floor litter decomposition rates and the effects of temperature, rainfall, clouds and wind speed on these kinds of interactions.
She told the Sunday Herald: “The Earth is entering a climate space we’ve never seen before … we don’t know where the threshold is. You might think that a one or two degree increase is not all that much but if we’re on the threshold, it could make a big difference.” |
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Orwell knew
Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Mid-Missouri |
| Re: Bush Gets His Way on Energy
Tue Aug 09, 2005 3:46 am
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quote:
Originally posted by Sore Throat
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0731-22.htm
Bush Gets His Way on Energy
by Matthew Rothschild
The biggest outrage of the energy bill is that it won’t make us any more energy independent any time soon, if at all.
Rather than wait for an 'energy bill' that is going to help poor sheeple escape the confines of their pen, shed their ear tags, and remove themselves into the light of energy *independence* (good luck), I might suggest that if that "independence" is to come, it will only come 'independently'.
My next home will use even less energy than this passive solar I designed and help erect myself. It will be built into the side of a hill, sheltered on 3+ sides to cool, have virtually no cooling costs, no real heating costs (clean wood heat), it's own well and be built mostly of the abundant quick growing cedar trees and rock already on the property.
For those that want to cut energy costs, I can direct them to many used Geo Metros (or the like) for only one to two thousand dollars. Or perhaps a nice 84 volkswagen diesel quantum or the like where they can either make their own fuel from cooking oil, or support the few but growing operations of this 'transitional' technology.Only a couple of the options. Most people simply CHOOSE to drive 12 mpg behemoths around this part of Missouri, and probably won't change their ways until they can no longer tolerate 100 plus dollar a week fuel bills.
Sorry, but I have to somewhat agree with former somewhat actor and parttime president Ronnie Ray-gun and concur Guberment is the PROBLEM not the solution (99.99999999% of time)
I'm not waiting for no stinkin 'energy bill'.  My 'Independence' (if and when it comes) will come from within not without.
Vote with YOUR DOLLARS America,
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Louis Aubuchont
tagged & banned
Joined: 08 Mar 2005
Posts: 946
Location: Parsonsfield, Maine |
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DELETED DUE TO THE POLICY OF CTC IN LETTING THE DEBUNKERS AND TROUBLEMAKERS LIKE "FUIwon'tDoWhatUTellMe" AKA, "MAY41970' OVERRUN THE SITE.
FOR THAT REASON I WILL NOT HAVE MY POST ARCHIVED HERE AND I NO LONGER WISH TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS SITE.
Last edited by Louis Aubuchont on Wed Nov 21, 2007 6:56 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Orwell knew
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 475
Location: Mid-Missouri |
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Sat Aug 13, 2005 12:33 am
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Thanks Sore Throat,
for all your time and efforts.
Be aware my response to your post (if you happened to read it) isn't an undercut but rather a 'second front'. Consumers MUST REALIZE they play the ULTIMATE role in most everthing regarding 'environmental concerns'.
SmT |
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Sore Throat
Joined: 01 Sep 2000
Posts: 1802
Location: x |
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Sat Aug 13, 2005 2:19 am
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SmT,
I agree.
A saying from the 60's worth remembering,
"Think Globally, Act Locally"
My previous car got 22 MPG.
My current Prius hybrid get an honest 44 MPG.
And a new added bonus in California is that hybrids can use the diamond lanes.
Imagine the US auto industry embracing highly efficient vehicles using technologies that we could actually EXPORT rather than import.
The "Energy Bill" was a payoff to the backers of the Bush junta and has no positive impact on our energy dependency on Middle East oil.
A sham! ...
and a shame. |
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Sore Throat
Joined: 01 Sep 2000
Posts: 1802
Location: x |
| Feds can follow local lead to reduce global warming
Sun Aug 14, 2005 4:45 pm
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/14/EDG2RE6OBK1.DTL&hw=james+barrett&sn=001&sc=1000
Facing Our Energy Dependency
Feds can follow local lead to reduce global warming
- James Barrett
Sunday, August 14, 2005
As the country suffers through a sweltering summer and another spate of heat waves and heat-related deaths, it is becoming increasingly clear that this is not an aberration but rather a glimpse of things to come. According to the National Academy of Sciences, if global warming continues unchecked, nearly 1,200 people could die in Los Angeles from heat-related causes by the end of the century. To put that number in perspective, such deaths averaged 165 annually during the 1990s.
So when President Bush signed into law a sweeping energy bill from which any focus on greenhouse-gas emissions and global warming was conspicuously absent, the need for cities and states to take matters into their own hands became even more pressing. Congress may have nixed mention of global warming from the energy bill, but not all parties are standing still. One-hundred and seventy five U.S. cities have pledged to meet or beat the targets in the Kyoto Protocol -- including San Francisco, Oakland and Irvine. In a novel approach to recycling, Santa Rosa has set up an elaborate system of pipelines that pumps wastewater into the ground for clean and reliable geothermal electricity.
By adopting a far less ambitious approach than any of these pioneering localities in addressing climate change -- both in his reluctance to acknowledge the reality of global warming and by his recent toothless pact with China, India, South Korea and Australia -- President Bush is not only in the minority among the leaders of the developed world, but he is also alone among leaders at home.
In the absence of decisive leadership at the federal level, forward- looking governors and mayors are doing what they can to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and diversify energy supply on their own. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has shown leadership by naming a task force to evaluate the feasibility of a cap-and-trade system in California to meet targets he laid out this past June. The onus is now on the governor to commit to a decisive plan to reduce emissions and stimulate innovative business. The best way to do this is to auction emission permits and recycle the revenue back into the economy, investing in new technologies and ensuring consumers are protected from unfair price disadvantages.
As one of top 10 economies in the world, the spin-offs for new energy and other industries in California will create the momentum necessary to build an economy that is both lean and green, more efficient and more competitive in growing international markets. By building international cooperation on climate change, California -- along with Canada, New York, New Jersey and the New England states -- may follow the European Union's carbon-dioxide emissions trading market that is already up and running.
In addition to fostering international collaboration, California can adopt the Redefining Progress plan that would cap the emissions that industry is allowed to produce, but give individual companies the flexibility to buy and sell permits for emissions as they see fit. This system would invest in new technologies to produce renewable energy (such as Santa Rosa's geothermal fields) provide funding for critical infrastructure development, and reduce our dependence on foreign energy supplies. Research indicates that this is the best -- and perhaps only -- way to ensure that U.S. companies are major players in the economy of the 21st century.
Strong national leadership supported by federal investment in clean energy technology and a cut in corporate welfare would be far more effective than a patchwork of state projects, and the new international pact will achieve little beyond what would have occurred anyway. So the energy bill's failure to address global warming furthers the need for local action. The president has refused to address the issue of climate change and has left it to state and local leaders to pick up the slack -- and while the nation experiences record-breaking temperatures this summer, the real heat needs to come from state and local leaders willing to take smarter, stronger action on climate change.
James Barrett is director of the Sustainable Economics Program at Oakland's Redefining Progress (www.rprogress.org). |
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