Finally, US leads on environment
December 10, 2009 by Erwin Heid · Leave a Comment
By Derrick Z. Jackson
December 8, 2009
IN A CRITICAL demonstration of backbone on global warming, the Obama administration yesterday declared carbon dioxide a dangerous pollutant. Saying the country “will not ignore science and the law any longer,’’ Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said her findings and declaration “cement 2009’s place in history as the year when the United States government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse gas pollution.’’
Climate Scientist
December 10, 2009 by Erwin Heid · Leave a Comment
Climate scientists once suspected global cooling
December 8, 5:32 AM Essex County Conservative Examiner Terry Hurlbut
Thirty-four years ago, the world’s climate scientists once acknowledged the Little Ice Age (LIA) and feared a return of those conditions. In fact, authorities were worried enough about that eventuality to fear that wars might break out over scarce foodstuffs.
Today, those who insist that the globe is warming, and that such warming is man-made, refuse to acknowledge that their colleagues once held the opposite fear. That their denials are believable might be because few persons alive today remember a time when winters were much harsher than they are today. In fact, many people, including this Examiner, who are significantly older than forty years of age, can remember, or at least should be able to remember, a time when winters were very harsh indeed and getting harsher, and when authorities were concerned that much colder climate was coming.
The most obvious article that anyone remembers today that predicted global cooling was an article that appeared in Newsweek magazine in 1975 (Gwynne P., “The Cooling World”, Newsweek, 28 Apr 1975, pp. 64), reproduced here. Peter Gwynne, the author, went so far as to predict widespread famine:
There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production – with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now. The regions destined to feel its impact are the great wheat-producing lands of Canada and the U.S.S.R. in the North, along with a number of marginally self-sufficient tropical areas – parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indochina and Indonesia – where the growing season is dependent upon the rains brought by the monsoon.
William Connolley of RealClimate.org acknowledged (in 2005) the existence of the Newsweek piece, and also of a piece in National Geographic (November 1976) that he described as non-committal. Yet as regards the scientific literature of the period, he insisted:
The state of the science at the time (say, the mid 1970’s), based on reading the papers is, in summary: “…we do not have a good quantitative understanding of our climate machine and what determines its course. Without the fundamental understanding, it does not seem possible to predict climate…” (which is taken directly from NAS, 1975). In a bit more detail, people were aware of various forcing mechanisms – the ice age cycle; CO2 warming; aerosol cooling – but didn’t know which would be dominant in the near future. By the end of the 1970’s, though, it had become clear that CO2 warming would probably be dominant; that conclusion has subsequently strengthened.
However, Mr. Connolley is perhaps unaware of a thirty-seven-page report, issued August of 1974, issued by the Office of Research and Development, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), titled A Study of Climatological Research as it Pertains to Intelligence Problems. Its executive summary, found on page 4 of the report, read in part:
The western world’s leading climatologists have confirmed recent reports of a detrimental global climatic change. The stability of most nations is based upon a dependable source of food, but this stability will not be possible under the new climatic era. A forecast by the University of Wisconsin predicts that the earth’s climate is returning to that of the neo-boreal era (1620-1850)–an era of drought, famine, and political unrest in the western world.
The report went on to detail several episodes of drought in southeast Asia and other sensitive parts of the world, and ended with a grim conclusion that global cooling was both imminent and permanent.
(Note that the Office of Research and Development was part of the CIA’s Deputy Directorate of Research and existed from 1962 to 1995, the year that this Directorate changed its name to the Directorate of Science and Technology.)
The scandalous Climategate affair has forced a re-examination of both the climate and the prevailing official, scientific, and popular opinion of the era. This is especially so in view of the revelations involving Michael E. Mann’s famous “Hockey Stick” graph. Not only was that graph far from accurate, but also–as previously noted in these pages–the CRU Archive contains a temperature-anomaly dataset that reflects accurately the decline in global temperatures since the 1960s, culminating in the harsh winter of 1977-78, which this Examiner has previously described from his own personal experience. Four different blogs have recalled the original Newsweek story, and the administrators’ own memories of either the climatic conditions of the era, typical school lesson plans, or both:
Fabius Maximus
Iain Dale
George Sutton (Forbes online)
Charles Crawford
At least one blogger, Charles Crawford, recalls speculation being given to the deliberate injection of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, in the belief that such action would forestall a return of the Little Ice Age.
These and other events perhaps best recall the aphorism by George Santayana:
Your Friend for Why Go Green
Erwin
Hydro-energy
December 10, 2009 by Erwin Heid · Leave a Comment
The power of water: advantages of Hydro-energy
December 7, 10:27 PM Bay Area Green Careers Examiner Michal Lenchner
Water is a source of renewable energy and is an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuel-based (oil, coal and gas) electricity generation.
Water is currently the leading renewable energy source used by electric utilities to generate power. Harnessing the power of flowing water can generate a substantial amount of clean and cheap energy, without generating air or thermal pollution nor depleting fossil fuels.
In 2008, hydro power accounted for 6% of total U.S. electricity generation and 67% of generation from renewables.
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Climate Change
December 10, 2009 by Erwin Heid · Leave a Comment
Climate Change Impact on Nepal
Last Updated : 2009-12-01 11:57 AM
Bidur Prasad Upadhyay
The Earth’s climate is unique as it supports life due to the availability of oxygen in atmosphere, water on its surface and the occurrence of reasonable range of surface temperature due to the presence of naturally occurring green house gases (water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide). Climate thus, has been playing central role in human societies since long. However, humanity today is playing a dice with its natural environment through multitude of interaction- injecting trace atmospheric gases like the green house gases, engineering massive land use change, depleting species in the natural habitat and accumulating stockpiles of nuclear equipment sufficient to destroy human civilization.
Climate Summit
December 10, 2009 by Erwin Heid · Leave a Comment
FRANK McDONALD,
Environment Editor in Copenhagen
THE EU delegation at the Copenhagen climate summit, which opened yesterday, has said it would be “astonished” if US President Barack Obama did not put more on the table when he arrives here at the end of next week
Swedish environment minister Andreas Carlgren, who heads the EU’s negotiators, was referring to the recent US offer to cut American greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent by 2020, relative to 2005. This equates to a cut of only 5 per cent, based on 1990 levels.
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Climate Risks Report
December 10, 2009 by Erwin Heid · Leave a Comment
China CO2 targets not enough to avert Climate Risks -Report
Reuters, Tuesday December 8 2009
* China’s 40-45 pct CO2 intensity targets not enough
* Dramatic increase in funding from rich countries required
By David Stanway
BEIJING, Dec 8 (Reuters) – China must do much more if it is to halve per capita greenhouse emissions by 2050 and thereby avoid a catastrophic rise in global temperatures, but it cannot go it alone, a report released in Beijing said on Tuesday.
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Save Rain Forest
December 10, 2009 by Erwin Heid · Leave a Comment
Special Report: Business of Green
Guyana Offers a Model to Save Rain Forest
By ERICA GIES
Published: December 8, 2009
In Guyana, where pristine rain forest still covers 75 percent of the land, and barely 750,000 people live in a country roughly the size of Britain, a young economist-turned-president is pushing a development model based on conservation that has earned his government international recognition in the United Nations talks on a climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
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Theory On Global Warming
October 6, 2009 by Erwin Heid · Leave a Comment
Chilly reception for theory on global warming
David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Has climate change been around as long as the pyramids?
It is an odd-sounding idea, because the problem is usually assumed to be a modern one, the product of a world created by the Industrial Revolution and powered by high-polluting fossil fuels.
But a professor emeritus at the University of Virginia has suggested that people began altering the climate thousands of years ago, as primitive farmers burned forests and built methane-bubbling rice paddies. The practices produced enough greenhouse gases, he says, to warm the world by a degree or more.
Other scientists, however, have said the idea is deeply flawed and might be used to dampen modern alarms over climate change.
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5 ways women can stay healthier
October 6, 2009 by Erwin Heid · Leave a Comment
5 ways women can stay healthier, live longer.
03:58 PM CDT on Monday, October 5, 2009
By NANCY CHURNIN / The Dallas Morning News
nchurnin@dallasnews.com
Women who fret about their children’s doctor appointments and their husband’s aches and pains often put their own health last.
RICHARD DOWNS/Special Contributor
Not a good idea.
Even if you have trouble taking time for yourself, remember the safety instructions you get when you board a plane: Put your oxygen mask on first in case of emergency. Then put the mask on children and others who need your help.
One in three women will die from some form of cardiovascular disease, according to the American Heart Association. One in 35 will die from breast Cancer, according to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. One in 72 will die of ovarian cancer, according to the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance.
While you can’t prevent these tragedies, you can reduce your risk. We gathered tips from medical experts on easy things a woman can do, starting today, to stay healthy and strong.
Nutrition
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UN’s forest protection
October 6, 2009 by Erwin Heid · Leave a Comment
UN’s forest protection scheme at risk from organised crime, experts warn.
International police, politicians and conservationists warn that the UN’s programme to cut carbon emissions by paying poor countries to preserve their forests is ‘open to wide abuse’
John Vidal, environment editor
guardian.co.uk, Monday 5 October 2009 17.00 BST
Clean Energy in World
October 5, 2009 by Erwin Heid · Leave a Comment
Abu Dhabi to be hub of clean energy in world
(WAM)
4 October 2009
BU DHABI – ‘Abu Dhabi has been working on climate change issue as a member of global community since we want to be a hub of clean energy
in the world’, Majid Al Mansouri ,Secretary General of Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD), said in an interview run by NHK channel One‘s news feature program ‘WorldNetwork’ today NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation, is Japan’s sole public broadcaster which launched its transmission from Dubai on Sunday.
There is a growing boom in the world for searching renewable energy and oil-richer Gulf countries are not exception.
Ocean being poisoned
October 5, 2009 by Erwin Heid · Leave a Comment
Ocean being poisoned by Organic Pollutants
By GNA – Ghana News Agency
Science/Nature | Fri, 18 Sep 2009
A Japanese Professor in Geochemistry, Hideshige Taka, on Thursday said the ocean was being poisoned with Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), which caused deformities in marine lives and human beings.
He explained that aquatic animals especially fishes transfer the effect of the POPs, which were like plastic resin pallets and in the form of small granules, generally with the shape of a cylinder or a disk, with a diameter of about a millimetre through the food chain.
Air Pollution II
October 5, 2009 by Erwin Heid · Leave a Comment
Air Pollution May Raise Blood Pressure
Mon Sep 14, 7:04 pm ET
MONDAY, Sept. 14 (HealthDay News) –
Breathing polluted air for even two hours can boost blood pressure, potentially raising the risk of cardiovascular disease in those exposed to smog, a new study suggests.
Although the increase may not mean much for healthy people, “this small increase may actually be able to a trigger a heart attack or stroke,” study author Dr. Robert D. Brook, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, said in a university news release.
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Air Pollution
October 5, 2009 by Erwin Heid · Leave a Comment
Air Pollution May Cause Appendicitis: Study
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter by Amanda Gardner
healthday Reporter – Mon Oct 5, 7:03 pm ET
MONDAY, Oct. 5 (HealthDay News) –
Air pollution is already linked to respiratory and cardiovascular ills, and now researchers say the dirty air you breathe may also cause appendicitis.
Authors of a new study published in the Oct. 5 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that cases of appendicitis go up when the air is dirtier.
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UN chief alarmed
September 3, 2009 by Erwin Heid · Leave a Comment
UN chief ‘alarmed’ at glacier melt rate
From correspondents in Ny-Alesund, Norway | September 02, 2009
Article from: Agence France-Presse
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was “alarmed” by the rate at which the Arctic’s glaciers were retreating as he visited the region ahead of key climate talks in December.
Mr Ban said world leaders had a “moral political responsibility” to safeguard the future of the planet.
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