Posted by: JohnnyRook | January 12, 2009

How and Why Greenland Glaciers are Accelerating

An interesting phenomenon of Greenland Glaciers is that they have been speeding up at a rapid rate. At the same time scientists have noticed an increasing number of “glacial earthquakes” associated with glacial movement. The initial hypothesis proposed to explain this phenomenon was that global warming led to increased glacial melt at the surface of the glacier. This meltwater then flowed through moulins at the glacier’s surface down to the bottom of the glacier where the glacial ice rested on bedrock.

Water entering a moulin.

As the water accumulated, it “greased’ the bottom of the glacier eventually causing the glacier to “lurch forward” suddenly producing at the same time a seismic event reaching as high as 5.1 on the moment-magnitude scale which is similar to the Richter scale.

According to one of the scientists responsible for formulating the “lurching glacier” hypothesis:

“People often think of glaciers as inert and slow-moving, but in fact they can also move rather quickly,” says Göran Ekström, professor of geology and geophysics at Harvard who will be moving to Lamont-Doherty in the spring. “Some of Greenland’s glaciers, as large as Manhattan and as tall as the Empire State Building, can move 10 meters in less than a minute, a jolt that is sufficient to generate moderate seismic waves.”

New research published recently Geophysical Research Letters disproves the “lurching glacier” hypothesis and proposes an alternative. The paper: Step-wise changes in glacier flow speed coincide with calving and glacial earthquakes at Helheim Glacier, Greenland [PDF–subscription required] proposes that ice berg calving at the glacier’s front causes both the glacial earthquakes and the increases in the glaciers rate of movement.

January 22, 2009 UPDATE: To see a wonderful graphic from the January 2009 edition of National Geographic magazine and reprinted online at the Ohio State University School of Earth Sciences (SES) web site, which illustrates this process as it occurs on the Whillans Ice Stream as it flows into the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, follow this link.

The research team, led by Meredith Nettles of Columbia University’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, employed a network of GPS receivers to take measurements both of glacial calving and glacial movement on Greenland’s Helheim Glacier. As the authors explain:

We operated a network of continuously recording Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers on Helheim Glacier for a period of ~50 days in 2007, from July 4 to August 24. Twelve receivers were installed on the glacier, in a configuration including stations both on and offset from the centerline (Figure 1). The stations spanned an along-flow distance of about 20 km, with the downflow stations located just behind the calving front. Several stations installed within a few km of the calving front were removed and relocated to points slightly farther upglacier during a midcampaign field visit. One GPS receiver was operated at a rock site near the glacier throughout the campaign to help define a stable local reference frame; two additional rock stations operated for shorter durations.

Southern Greenland, with locations of glacial earthquakes; arrow marks Helheim Glacier (inset). Geometry of GPS network at Helheim Glacier during summer, 2007, overlain on a 2001 LANDSAT image. The position of the calving front at two times during the summer of 2007 is shown by the black dotted lines (easternmost line, July 4; westernmost line, August 15). Blue dots, locations of GPS stations on the glacier surface at the time of deployment; black ring shows station IS38 (Figure 3). Red dots, locations of rock-based reference stations. Yellow arrows show average station velocities determined over the duration of station deployment; white arrow shows scale

What the scientists learned over the course of their study, which took place during July and August, the peak calving periods, is that the glacial earthquakes were closely tied to calving events at the the mouth of the glacier. Major calving events usually preceded acceleration of glacier movement by anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour with a greater increase in glacier speed toward the front of the glacier and a lesser increase up-glacier. Interestingly the scientists did not observe a measurable coseismic displacement in association with Helheim’s glacial earthquakes. In other words the glacier maintained it’s its physical integrity although it began to move faster. Lending further support to the idea that it is the calving that causes both the earthquakes and the increase in glacial speed is the fact that the force of the glacial acceleration is insufficient to cause the seismic events as the earlier hypothesis had posited.

Our combined seismological and geodetic observations suggest two plausible scenarios for glacier speedup. In the first, a large calving event leads to the loss of resisting forces at the calving front, resulting in glacier acceleration [e.g., Howat et al., 2005], and produces one or more glacial earthquakes, perhaps through one of the mechanisms of Tsai et al. [2008]. The apparent small difference in the timing of acceleration and calving results from the finite duration of the calving process, the uncertainties in our estimate of the time of glacier acceleration, or both. In this scenario, the seismic precursors to the glacial earthquakes are associated with disintegration of the calving front in preparation for a major calving event. In the second scenario, the glacier accelerates as a result of a process other than calving, such as the passage of a meltwater pulse under the glacier, and this process leads to calving and associated glacial earthquakes. The speedup is sustained and perhaps enhanced by a calving-related loss of resisting forces at the calving front. In either scenario, changes in tidewater-glacier speed are closely tied to the behavior of the glacier terminus.

The second scenario still has meltwater playing a role as a contributing factor to iceberg calving and earthquakes, which in turn lead to faster glacial movement. But the calving and the earthquakes are seen now as the proximate cause of the increase in the rate of glacial movement rather than as an effect.

The researchers conclude:

Our results demonstrate that large outlet glaciers can accelerate in a near-instantaneous, step-like fashion, and show a clear link between such acceleration and large calving events. In addition, our observations invalidate the lurching-glacier model [Ekström et al., 2003; Tsai and Ekström, 2007] for Greenland’s glacial earthquakes, and tie the earthquake source closely to processes at the calving front. The glacial earthquakes and the rapid accelerations we document emphasize the importance of short-time-scale processes occurring at Greenland’s outlet glaciers, and highlight the need to understand the role such processes play in controlling longer-term, seasonal and interannual, variability in glacier behavior.

Here are some images of the Helheim glacier from NASA’s Earth Observatory:

These images from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite show the Helheim glacier in June 2005 (top), July 2003 (middle), and May 2001 (bottom). The glacier occupies the left part of the images, while large and small icebergs pack the narrow fjord in the right part of the images. Bare ground appears brown or tan, while vegetation appears in shades of red.

From the 1970s until about 2001, the position of the glacier’s margin changed little. But between 2001 and 2005, the margin retreated landward about 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles), and its speed increased from 8 to 11 kilometers per year. Between 2001 and 2003, the glacier also thinned by up to 40 meters (about 131 feet). Scientists believe the retreat of the ice margin plays a big role in the glacier’s acceleration. As the margin of the glacier retreats back toward land, the mass of grounded ice that once acted like a brake on the glacier’s speed is released, allowing the glacier to speed up.

Note: Here then you have another example of real science, in which one hypothesis is proposed and then discarded in favor of another as the evidence changes. (Note that Dr. Nettles was one of the researches on the team that came up with the original “lurching glacier” hypothesis, which this study duscredits. This is true “skepticism” in action where one honestly weighs all the data and revises one’s opinions based on the credibility of the evidence free from any political agenda. The denialists/delayers who like to style themselves as “skeptics” have nothing to do with this process of scientific inquiry. Instead, their goal, when they are not outright lying, is to cherry pick the data in search only of those studies which might possibly be construed to support their positions.

Related post:

Ocean Cooling: A Science Lesson for Denialists/Delayers

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Posted in Arctic, climate change, Climaticide, environment, global warming, Greenland | Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted by: JohnnyRook | January 10, 2009

A Little Contest for Climaticide Chronicles Readers

Here’s how the contest works. First watch to this short segment from the Lou Dobbs show and count up how many errors Dobbs’s guests make about global warming. Then explain why they are errors. I’ll publish the best responses in a separate post. (Unfortunately WordPress won’t let me embed the video so you’ll have to follow this link to watch it.)

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Posted in climate change, climate science, Climaticide, environment, global warming, humor | Tags: , , , , ,

Posted by: JohnnyRook | January 9, 2009

Recent Flooding in Washington State and (shh!) Global Warming…

Let me begin with the obligatory caveat: it is impossible to relate any specific weather event to global warming.

Then, let me add some statements from the recent 4th IPCC report on extreme weather events:

Observed changes “At continental, regional, and ocean basin scales, numerous long-term changes in climate have been observed. These include changes in Arctic temperatures and ice, widespread changes in precipitation amounts, ocean salinity, wind patterns and aspects of extreme weather including droughts, heavy precipitation, heat waves and the intensity of tropical cyclones.”

“More intense and longer droughts have been observed over wider areas since the 1970s, particularly in the tropics and subtropics. Increased drying linked with higher temperatures and decreased precipitation have contributed to changes in drought. Changes in sea surface temperatures (SST), wind patterns, and decreased snowpack and snow cover have also been linked to droughts.”

“The frequency of heavy precipitation events has increased over most land areas, consistent with warming and observed increases of atmospheric water vapour.”

Projections of future changes

“It is very likely that hot extremes, heat waves, and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent.” (In IPCC terminology, “very likely” means a probability greater than 90 percent and “likely” means a probability greater than 66 percent.)

“Extra-tropical storm tracks are projected to move poleward, with consequent changes in wind, precipitation, and temperature patterns, continuing the broad pattern of observed trends over the last half-century.”

“Since the [2001 IPCC report] there is an improving understanding of projected patterns of precipitation. Increases in the amount of precipitation are very likely in high-latitudes, while decreases are likely in most subtropical land regions…continuing observed patterns in recent trends.”

Scientific certainty

“There is now higher confidence in projected patterns of warming and other regional-scale features, including changes in wind patterns, precipitation, and some aspects of extremes and of ice.”[all emphases–JR]

Interstate 5 Lewis County Flooding December 5, 2007

Now, lets talk about what has happened in Washington State last winter and this winter. In December 2007 and January 2009 Washington received extremely high levels of rainfall leading to heavy flooding that caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage and the closure of Interstate 5 between Seattle and Portland. This year, several rivers in Western Washington have reached flood levels never seen before.

Additionally, this year, the rainfall and flooding was preceded by heavy snowfall so that once the temperatures rose and the rains came, all the mountain passes that divide Eastern from Western Washington were closed because of avalanches or the danger of avalanches. Moreover, the melting of the recent snow means that come summer we will derive no benefit from December’s heavy snowfall, because our current warm temperatures and the flooding will have swept away much of the snow pack, which, prior to the heavy December snows, was well below normal.

According to the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group:

Examined over the past 30 days and the period since 1 October (the beginning of the Water Year), conditions have been drier and slightly warmer than normal (precipitation, temperature). The snow pack, as measured in terms of snow water equivalent, is less than 50% of normal for this point of the season throughout the Columbia Basin (18 December analysis, map legend, current analysis, NWRFC).

Experts generally agree that the worst flooding, that in Lewis County, home to the second largest floodplain in the state, was made much destructive by county policies favoring commercial development on the flood plain itself. Many businesses, including a large Walmart have been constructed just off of Interstate 5 which in Lewis County bisects the flood plane. The local county council has not only approved but pushed such development in order to provide an economic boost to a region that has been hard hit by the decline in timber revenues. (Lewis County is one of the reddest places in blue Western Washington and it’s elected officials are well known for their disregard, if not contempt, for scientific research and opinion.)

Additionally, lax oversight by the state’s Department of Natural Resources, whose director was thrown out by the voters in the recent election in no small part because of concerns about his handling of the permitting and supervision of clearcutting by Weyerhaeuser and other smaller companies in the area, contributed to the damage caused by last year’s and, presumably, this years floods. Slopes that had been clearcut in violation of state rules washed away under the heavy rains, sweeping tons of top soil, rocks and trees stumps into local creeks and rivers, which then backed up until these accidental dams brook releasing all the pent up water and debris in a mad rush. The fact that, because of the development, much of the floodplain had been paved over for building sites and parking lots did not help.

An investigation by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer after last year’s flooding had the following to say about why the flooding caused so much damage:

Big-box stores, restaurants and strip malls galore. A railroad line extension, parking lots for a church. A coal-unloading facility, a new natural-gas pipeline, a mine expansion. And barns, homes, carports and shops. All built in the floodplain.

Then last Monday, heavy rain punched into the watershed from the southwest. Faster than anyone had ever seen before, torrents of water gouged hillsides, broke levees and overtopped dikes as flood gauges reached record highs and some blew out altogether. At the worst of it, some 10 feet of water covered parts of Chehalis, and hundreds of people watched their homes and belongings go under. One man was swept away in the deluge.

Now as the water recedes and residents of Lewis County take stock, many are looking back in time, wondering how much the legacy of development in the floodplain, and clear-cut logging in the upriver drainages, contributed to their woes.

Many state officials and regional experts, including a former county manager who says he was fired after criticizing floodplain development, say they have been warning for years that the hunger for development was running counter to common sense.

They note that while many counties, including neighboring Thurston, have either banned or seriously crimped development in the floodplain, Lewis County has not.

“It’s kind of sad, we keep repeating the same mistakes, even when we know better,” said Andy McMillan, a longtime wetlands manager for the state Department of Ecology. “It’s the same old things coming into play: There’s money to be made, and people want to make the most money for their land.”

But in the wake of the storm, Lewis County leaders still say it’s unfair to blame them for nature’s wrath. And they predict the development will go on.

“The floodplain in the Chehalis is so vast that the filling in the floodplain for local development has no significant impact,” said Bob Nacht, the director of community development for the city of Chehalis.

The investigation also focused on the clearcutting:

Clear-cuts increase risk

All the while Lewis County has debated its floodplain development, logging has been chewing through the forests in the Chehalis watershed since the last flood.

Logging has declined overall in Western Washington in the past 15 years. But the most intensive cutting is still happening on the type of industrial forestlands that dominate the Chehalis watershed.

Since 2002 alone, about 230,972 acres of the watershed — up to 14 percent of the forestland there — have been logged, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.

It’s only about 2.3 percent of the watershed a year. But the effects of clear-cuts and logging roads stick around for years, potential ticking time bombs for large landslides, said Gordon Grant, a hydrologist for the federal Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis, Ore. Landslides can happen anywhere, including on forested ground. But forestland that has been clear-cut is up to five times more likely to slide in flood conditions, and forestland with logging roads is even more vulnerable, Grant said. Those landslides can bring down logs, creating debris flows that stop up streams, culverts and even rivers.

That means even more flooding when the big rains finally come.

Last week, they did.


In yesterday’s Post Intelligencer, the newspaper reported on a federal study that bolsters the conclusions that it’s reporters drew from last year’s flooding. (Kudos to the PI for actually mentioning climate change in the context of a story about the weather.)

Logging and development are prime suspects because dense forests intercept and slow down rainfall before it becomes a flood, while development plasters concrete and asphalt across marshy areas that once soaked up floodwaters. Meanwhile, climate change appears to be increasing the incidence of extraordinarily heavy rainstorms, scientists say.

A federal study adds credence to the development and logging hypotheses. In fact, the Puget Sound region so far has come out No. 1 nationally in an examination of how land cover changed — primarily from development and clearcutting — from 1973 to 2000.

The study is nearly finished, and so far no faster rate of land conversion has been found anywhere in the nation, said Dan Sorenson, a U.S. Geological Survey geographer.

The main reason is clearcutting, which decreased forest cover by 10 percent. The No. 2 reason is the footprint of development, which increased nearly 7 percent.

Some of that development is going into floodplains — the areas surrounding riverbanks where rivers traditionally spilled over after winter storms. Virtually all the land between West Seattle and Beacon Hill, for example, once was covered by the then-multichanneled Duwamish River and associated marshes.

None of this week’s damage should surprise anyone. In fact, one year ago this week, University of Washington geologist David Montgomery warned state legislators in testimony: “It appears to me that the flooding and landslide problems (from) this December storm stem from the combination of an unusually large storm and decades of risky behavior both in upland forestry practices and downstream floodplain development.

“The combination put people at risk and will do so again under the present system.”

Video from the December 2007 flooding in Lewis County. Note that the sound track is Paul Simon and Phoebe Snow singing “I’ve had a long streak of bad luck but I pray it’s gone at last” (Actually, you won’t be able to hear the audio, because You Tube has just disabled it for copyright reasons, but you can read the lyrics here)

Well, unfortunately, it isn’t. Here’s video from a couple of days ago showing the most recent flooding in Lewis County:

And here’s another short one from a different part of the county:

The Lewis county flooding brings up one of the basic issues of Climaticide: how much of the blame for such disasters do we attribute to human folly (global warming, which as this point can no longer be seen as an historical accident but rather can only be attributed to greed, ignorance and stupidity) and how much do we lay at the feet of human folly (development in floodplains and watersheds, clearcutting–things that are stupid in any case, but which are doubly so in the light of the IPCC’s prediction of increased extreme weather events, prominently among which figures increased precipitation delivered in more intense episodes)?

Let’s conclude this piece with a quotation from a resident of Lewis County regarding last year’s flooding.

All sides agree that the rain itself was stunning, with 15 inches falling on parts of the Chehalis River basin.

“Who do you blame for that?” said Bobbi Fenn, 54, who said she had lived in the area near Curtis for half a century and never before seen such flooding. “Sometimes things just happen. I’ve been thinking someone should write a book about it, but I wouldn’t want to read it.”

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Posted in climate change, Climaticide, environment, extreme weather, global warming | Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted by: JohnnyRook | January 9, 2009

Success! Tim DeChristopher Raises $45,000 for Initial Payment on Oil and Gas Leases

Tim published the following letter on his web site a couple of hours ago.

We have reached our initial goal $45,000. Thank You
Published: January 9, 2009, 12:00 am
Revised: January 9, 2009, 4:30 pm
Author(s): Cliff Lyon
Topics: Tim Speaks
Contents

January 9, 2009

To Everyone,

I’m excited and thankful. We have reached our initial goal of raising $45,000 for the first payment on the 22,500 acres I “won” at the BLM auction on December 19th. Most of our donations came in $10 or $20 increments from thousands who gave whatever they could during this hard economic time.

I deeply appreciate and touched more than I can express with the generosity of all those who have contributed to our goal. It is very encouraging for me to see how many others value the land, the climate and a participatory democracy as much as I do. This has been a reminder for me that when you stand for what is right, you never stand alone. I hope that all these partners continue to stand with me in our fight for a livable future.

My legal team and I are now prepared to make the first payment. We are waiting for confirmation from the BLM and US Attorney’s office that they will accept the payment. As I have said before, it is unclear to me how the BLM or the new administration will proceed in my case. In the event that my payment is refused and the parcels are going to be put up for auction again, the money given to my Lease Fund will be used to acquire these parcels in the new auction. I think that together we value this land and the climate more than oil companies value the oil in those rocks so we should be able to demonstrate that in any future auction.

The other possibility is that my payment is refused and the parcels I “won” are not put up for auction again because the new administration realizes their real value. In this event, I will contact the donors and ask them whether the money should be returned, used for my defense fund, or given to another active environmental cause. There has been much uncertainty in this process, and I deeply appreciate the trust shown by those who have given despite that uncertainty. I will try to keep my supporters as informed as possible and respect their input.

We are continuing to receive donations for my legal research, defense and for possible future payments which may be required on the leases. As always, I urge those who support me and my actions to join me in standing up for our future. Please join the Capitol Climate Action in Washington DC on March 2nd, and constantly seek your own opportunities to create change. Remain open to the reality that you are not helpless and the possibility that you may be your own best hope for your future.

Tim
www.bidder70.org

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Posted by: JohnnyRook | January 9, 2009

James Hansen’s Slides from Bjerknes Lecture at 2008 AGU Meeting Now Available

Dr. James Hansen of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies has made the slides from his December 2008 Bjerknes Lecture at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting in San Francisco available on line in PDF and Power Point formats. In his presentation he covered science, public policy and ethics. The slides are definitely worth taking a few minutes to peruse.

Below, I’ve provided a few examples to whet your appetite. I was, personally, particularly interested in the one describing what it would take to produce runaway, Venus-like conditions on earth as that is something that I’ve long wondered about but never seen addressed.

A few more of the slides:

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Posted in Activism, Antarctica, Arctic, climate change, climate science, Climaticide, coal, Dr. James Hansen, energy, environment, ethics, geopolitics, global warming, Obama administration, Politics, Public Policy, sustaninable energy, Wildlife | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: JohnnyRook | January 8, 2009

It’s Raining Sick Pelicans Along US West Coast

The Orange County Register is reporting that 100’s of ill, brown pelicans have been reported falling from the sky along the west coast of the United States and Mexico.

Pelicans suffering from a mysterious malady are crashing into cars and boats, wandering along roadways and turning up dead by the hundreds across the West Coast, from southern Oregon to Baja California, Mexico, bird-rescue workers say.

Wildlife rehabilitation experts in various cities have been treating the birds, but have been unable to save many of them. The birds’ symptoms have the experts puzzled.

While some of the symptoms resemble those associated with domoic-acid poisoning — an ocean toxin that sometimes affects sea birds and mammals — other symptoms do not. Domoic acid also apparently has not been found in significant amounts offshore, although more tests are needed.

Rescuers are wondering whether the illness is caused by a virus, or even by contaminants washed into the ocean after recent fires across Southern California. Many of the birds also have swollen feet.

“These birds are on the freeway, getting run over,” said Jay Holcomb, executive director of the rescue center in San Pedro. “A bunch we’ve seen have been hit. They’ve been landing on yards five miles inland. When some of the people have captured them in parking lots, they just sit in the corner. They just go pick them up.”

According to the Guardian:

Heather Nevill, a veterinarian tracking the problem for the International Bird Rescue Research Centre (IBRRC), said the malady could be anything from disease to a suite of converging, harmful environmental conditions.

“Maybe the weather has been particularly difficult on them,” Nevill said. “Maybe the fish stocks are particularly low. It might be more than one thing, all coming together at once.”

The IBRRC reported initial test results today on it’s blog, stating that 3 of 6 birds examined, tested positive for domoic acid, but that it was not clear that domoic-acid poisoning was the principal culprit.

Samples of phytoplankton collected recently from the waters off of Santa Barbara to Newport Beach were also tested. 5 out of 14 samples indicated very low concentrations.

These are the first of many test results expected. Additional blood and tissue samples are being tested and we anticipate more information within the next two weeks.

“We are very appreciative of the rapid test results from the Dave Caron Lab at USC. We believe these results are significant but do not explain all the signs we are seeing in the pelicans. We are seeing a number of conditions that are not typical of domoic acid toxicity or a domoic acid event. Therefore, we are continuing to collect and test samples, keeping an open mind and considering all possibilities,” according to Dr. Nevill.

Due to the great distribution of ailing pelicans (Baja to WA), and the fact that most of the pelicans are thin, as opposed to being of good body weight (typical in a domoic acid event), this indicates to us that domoic acid is likely playing a secondary role to a larger problem.

The group is working with California Fish and Game wildlife veterinarian Pamela Swift, who said she is trying to obtain fresh carcasses so samples can be sent to laboratories for analysis. Results could come by next week. Occasional disoriented birds are not unusual, the rescuers said. Young pelicans also often turn up starving or debilitated. But the pelicans appearing along California shores are adult birds, and the sheer number of them is highly unusual, rescuers and veterinarians said. “This year, quite a few adult birds are coming in starving”, Nevill said. “That’s not typical.”

Rebecca Dmytryk of Wildrescue.org” summed up how unusual the situation is: “I’ve been rescuing wildlife on the California coast since 1981,” she said. “And I’ve never seen anything like this.”

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Posted by: JohnnyRook | January 7, 2009

Newsflash: CFL’s Cause Impotency, Hairy Palms, Cholera and Tooth Decay, and Threaten Our Rights and Freedoms

In a bid to counter claims that Americans are the stupidest people on the planet the UK’s Daily Mail has been running a series of articles on Britain’s switch from conventional light bulbs to CFL’s. Yesterday, the paper, the UK’s second in terms of circulation after Rupert Murdoch’s, The Sun, ran a front-page story with the headline:

Lights go out as Britain bids farewell to the traditional bulb despite health fears about eco-bulbs

Yes, that’s right, Britain has now been plunged into total darkness as a result of the voluntary removal of 100 watt incandescent light bulbs from the shelves of grocery and home improvement stores. Too terrified to turn on the new CFL’s for fear of an outbreak of the Black Death and other dread diseases, including congenital silliness, the island’s inhabitants now sit trembling, huddled in their homes waiting for the sun that never used to set upon them, to rise again to restore a bit of light to their world. Reports are growing of violent gangs roaming the streets using flashlights (torches in the local vernacular) with incandescent bulbs to stun and pillage an unarmed, defenseless populace. Remember, when incandescent bulbs are outlawed only outlaws will have incandescent bulbs.

Today The Mail followed up with this doozy

Revolt! Robbed of their right to buy traditional light bulbs, millions are clearing shelves of last supplies

Revolt!! Revolution!! What else could one possibly expect from the land of Magna Carta, John Stewart Mill and Adam Smith when the Crown’s subjects are robbed of their rights to freely release greenhouse gases into the commons?

So, are the streets flowing with blood as freedom-lovng Brits build barricades in a final last gasp effort to preserve their liberties in a world threatened by eco-totalitarianism? Well, no, this is actually more like a George-Bush sort of revolt where one expresses one’s undying commitment to liberty by going shopping and hoarding as many of the Climaticide-causing little buggers as one can fit in the pantry.

Here are some actual quotes from the Daily Mail stories (although the headlines quoted above are the best):

The voluntary withdrawal – part of a Government campaign to force people into buying low-energy fluorescent bulbs – follows the scrapping of the 150w bulb last year.

The move has angered medical charities who say the low-energy alternatives can trigger a host of ailments, including migraines, epilepsy and skin rashes.

Ah, yes, the weighty opinions of the authoritative but unnamed “medical charities”.

However, critics complain that compact fluorescent bulbs contain mercury, making them dangerous to dispose of, and give off a harsh light more suited to offices than living rooms.

What, people don’t get migraines, epilepsy and skin rashes in offices?

They can also take up to a minute to reach full brightness and do not work with dimmer switches. Some do not even fit conventional lightbulb sockets.

Wait, when were these articles written? It says January 2009 but it sounds as if the author wrote it two or three years ago and just left it lying around in a drawer until deciding to publish it now. Maybe it was one of his New Year’s resolutions to clear all the crap out of his desk. I have CFL’s throughout my house. The older ones can be slow to reach full strength but the newer ones do it in a few seconds. And, I’ve never seen a CFL that didn’t fit a convention socket, although, once again, some of the older one’s were a bit too large to fit comfortably in some lamps.

There is also concern because the fluorescent bulbs contain mercury, which makes them dangerous to get rid of.

The bulbs do need to be disposed of properly, but there are facilities for that purpose, just as their are for televisions and computer monitors, which also contain mercury and other toxic substances. (Recyclers of those items do need to be subject to better government oversight to keep them from ending up in Chinese recycling sweat shops where they poision the workers.)

But concerns about the poor quality light of low energy bulbs – and the fact that most don’t work with dimmer switches – has led to tens of thousands of people stockpiling supplies.

Further proof that this article has been gathering dust in the author’s desk drawer for a good while. There are plenty of dimmable CFL’s available now. See this FAQ from Greenpeace UK.

To be fair, all of the Daily Mail nonsense has been debunked by other news sources including this piece from BusinessGreen.com:
Lighting experts slam Mail energy efficient bulb scare story

Despite all the diseases and shoppers’ popular uprisings it appears that Britain will come through the Great-Light-Bulb Transition with only minor scrapes and bruises. As to the Daily Mail, one can only wonder what sort of nostalgia-waxing it will indulge in once British anti-coal activists succeed in closing down Britain’s coal-fired power plants. Ah, CO2 we hardle knew ye. (I know, I know, it’s an Irish saying, but what can you expect from a stupid American…?)

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Posted in climate change, Climaticide, energy, environment, global warming, greenwashing, health, humor, Ideology, sustaninable energy | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: JohnnyRook | January 6, 2009

Student Who Stopped Auction of Public Lands Needs Our Help

Back on December 22, 2008 I wrote about Tim DeChristopher who saved the gas and oil rights on over 22,000 acres near Utah’s Arches and Canyonlands National Parks from being auctioned off by the BLM to oil and gas exploration companies.

Hayduke Lives: Tim DeChristopher’s Heroic Act of Creative Civil Disobedience

Tim became an instant hero for his heroic act of civil disobedience, but he was also detained by federal authorities and faces legal action for “fraudulent bidding”. At the time I reported the story many of you expressed interest in raising the 1.8 million dollars that Tim needs to pay for the rights he won (it works out to about $57 per acre.

I am now excited to report that Tim has decided to try and pay off the leases thus “legitimizing” his bids. He needs to raise $45,000 by January 9th in order to make the initial payment. So far he has raised over $37,000, but remaining time is short. Surely, we can raise the remaining $8,000 on this web site alone.

Below you can read Tim’s letter in which he explains his decision and asks for help. Please click on the donate button and give as generously as you can.

Here is Tim’s letter:

Donate at bidder70.org

As you may have already heard, on December 19th I chose to disrupt the BLM oil and gas auction through an act of civil disobedience by bidding against participating oil & gas companies. I ended up “winning” the leases for 22,500 acres of beautiful land near Moab. You can find more details at http://www.bidder70.org.

The tremendous support I’ve received in response to my action was unexpected and utterly inspiring. Hundreds of people have contributed over $10,000 to my legal defense and to the $45,000 bond obligation for the leases. And countless others have expressed their solidarity and support for the long American tradition of meaningful civil disobedience.

In addition to the moving effect on me, this support has also opened up the real possibility of paying off the leases which I “won”. The initial payment on this, required to secure the land, is around $45,000. After a good deal of struggling over this choice, I have decided to raise the money to secure the leases. With much advice from my legal team, it has become clear to me that making the down payment on the leases is the best way to protect the land until we can restore open, transparent and democratic procedures for determining the fate of valuable public lands.

It is still unclear how the new administration will deal with this inappropriate auction and the disruption I caused to it, but I can only hope the President Obama follows through on his promise for a transparent government. Until then I will make sure that no drilling or development happens on this land, and for that I need your help. This is an opportunity for all of us to make a clear statement of how much we care for our land, our climate and participatory democracy.

Please donate to help protect these 22,500 acres of wilderness (and reduce the chance of prison for me). Together we can protect this land and show that we are all willing to make the sacrifices necessary for a livable future.

Please forward this email on to as many people as you can and continue to spread the word of the need for critical action. Thank you for being a part of protecting the future for all of us.

Sincerely,

Tim DeChristopher

Related post:

Amy Goodman Interviews Tim DeChristopher on Democracy Now!

Donate at bidder70.org

Crossposted at Daily Kos

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Posted in Activism, Bush Administration, climate change, Climaticide, energy, environment, global warming, Obama administration, Politics | Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted by: JohnnyRook | January 5, 2009

Reducing Soot Saves Lives AND Slows Global Warming

In 2005, Dorothy Koch and James Hansen published research on the role of soot in sea-ice melting and reduction of the earth’s albedo.

NASA continues to explore the impact of black carbon or soot on the Earth’s climate. NASA uses satellite data and computer models that recreate the climate. New findings show soot may be contributing to changes happening near the North Pole, such as accelerating melting of sea ice and snow and changing atmospheric temperatures.

Dorothy Koch of Columbia University, New York, and NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), New York, and James Hansen of NASA GISS are co-authors of the study that appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research.

“This research offers additional evidence black carbon, generated through the process of incomplete combustion, may have a significant warming impact on the Arctic,” Koch said. “Further, it means there may be immediate consequences for Arctic ecosystems, and potentially long-term implications on climate patterns for much of the globe,” she added.

The Arctic is especially susceptible to the impact of human-generated particles and other pollution. In recent years the Arctic has significantly warmed, and sea-ice cover and glacial snow have diminished. Likely causes for these trends include changing weather patterns and the effects of pollution. Black carbon has been implicated as playing a role in melting ice and snow. When soot falls on ice, it darkens the surface and accelerates melting by increasing absorbed sunlight. Airborne soot also warms the air and affects weather patterns and clouds.

To see the animation click here.

Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

Now, a new NASA GISS study confirms what the earlier study had indicated, that soot is a major contributor to Climaticide, while adding that sharp reductions in soot could have positive effects both on climate and international cooperation against global warming.

Governments could slow global warming dramatically, and buy time to avert disastrous climate change, by slashing emissions of one of humanity’s most familiar pollutants soot according to NASA scientists.

A study by the space agency shows that cutting down on the pollutant can have an immediate cooling effect and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from air pollution at the same time.

At the beginning of the make-or-break year in international attempts to negotiate a treaty to replace the Kyoto protocol, the soot removal proposal offers hope of a rapid new way of tackling global warming.

Governments have long experience in acting against soot.

Cutting its emissions has a virtually instantaneous effect, because it rapidly falls out of the atmosphere, unlike carbon dioxide which remains there for over 100 years. And because soot is one of the worst killers among all pollutants, radical reductions save lives and so should command popular and political support.

The study from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics concludes that tackling the pollution provides ”substantial benefits for air quality while simultaneously contributing to climate change mitigation” and ”may present a unique opportunity to engage parties and nations not yet fully committed to climate change mitigation for its own sake”.[emphasis–JR]

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Posted in Arctic, climate change, Climaticide, coal, environment, geopolitics, global warming, health

Posted by: JohnnyRook | January 5, 2009

Read It and Weep: All the Stuff We Knew and Ignored

“It if weren’t so expensive, I’d wish I were dead.”–John Prine

If I could, I would post this entire 1972(!) Atlantic article by Stewart Udall. Entitled The Last Traffic Jam, it is a prescient and sobering piece. But, since I can’t publish the whole thing, here are some excerpts along with my commentary.

After you read my post go to the original article and read all the things I had to leave out.

At the moment there are more than 112 million motor vehicles on the American road….Detroit executives look forward to 178 million registered vehicles in the United States by 1985

The environmental effects of the automobile are well known: motor vehicles cause, for example, as much as 75 percent of the noise and 80 percent of the air pollution in our cities, and the industry must face mounting pressure from environmentalists. There is another, even more compelling constraint on the proliferation of cars. Surprising as it may seem, American oil companies, which during the 1960s increased their production of gasoline by 64 percent, will not be able to provide enough petroleum to fill the gas tanks of some sixty-five million additional autos expected by 1985.

According to Wikipedia, in 1985 there were 172 million motor vehicles on US roads.

In 2006 there were 250,851,833 motor vehicles in the United States.

Additionally, there were 168.03 million motor vehicles on China’s roads in October, 2008.

If there will in fact be 178 million motor vehicles on American highways by 1985, the NPC estimates that our oil needs will increase by about 85 percent. During the next decade total U.S. oil production, however, will continue to hover near the current level of eleven million barrels per day—even if the Alaska pipeline is put into operation. (It would contribute an extra two million barrels per day, thus helping make up for a falloff elsewhere.) Unless action is taken to slacken domestic demands, this huge petroleum gap will force the United States by 1985 to import roughly 60 percent of its oil, largely from the nations of the Middle East.

As it turned out, petroleum imports in 1985 were lower than expected but have risen consistently since then. As of September 2008 the United States produced 5,064,000 barrels/day of petroleum while importing 12,036,000 barrels/day. Imports provided 58.2% of total consumption not too far from Udall’s (actually the National Petroleum Council’s) prediction of 60%. Of those imports, 5,980,000 barrels/day came from OPEC countries. The biggest exporter to the US is Canada. Nine percent of US crude imports come from Canada’s tar sands.

Udall foresaw the growth of foreign demand as well.

This surge of demand will soon begin to send shock waves through the American economy and transportation system. The impact of these tremors can already be anticipated: to the consumer they signal the end of a long love affair with the car, and to Detroit they offer an early warning that its 1985 growth aims are dangerously unrealistic. Unless we exercise foresight and devise growth-limits policies for the auto industry, events will thrust us into a crisis that will lead to a substantial erosion of our domestic oil supply as well as the independence it provides us with, and a level of petroleum imports that could cost as much as $20 to $30 billion per year. (This in turn would produce a staggering balance-of-payments problem for the United States, and give the Middle Eastern suppliers a dangerous leverage over our transportation system as well.) Moreover, we would still be depleting our remaining oil reserves at an unacceptable rate, and scrambling for petroleum substitutes, with enormous potential damage to the environment.

The cost of US imported oil in 2007, according to Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, was 327 billion, 10 times the NPC’s prediction. And foreign suppliers seem to have gained leverage over more than just our transportation system.

Plainly, any effort to limit economic growth violates our historic belief in progress. The President and his advisers have largely ignored this great and difficult issue, although, in his 1971 message to Congress, the President rightly called for the formation of a single agency to oversee the nation’s energy policies. The stress of his message, however, fell not on limiting demand for energy but on developing new technology to meet growing energy “needs.” Despite his expressed concern over energy shortage and air pollution, the President has chosen to shore up the economy by stimulating the production of automobiles.

Well, now, that’s worked out real well for us, hasn’t it?

For its part, the private sector has been dominated by oil and auto industries whose executives have been unable even to contemplate production plateaus and low horsepower engines. When James Roche retired last December as chief executive of General Motors, he expressed the belief and the faith of Detroit by predicting the inevitability of the auto industry’s growth. He then observed: “I think the average American today would give up about anything before he gives up his automobile.”

Even the planet, apparently. Remember that seen from An Inconvenient truth where Gore shows the right-wing graphic, which supposedly showed that we couldn’t save the planet because it was too expensive?

The energy crisis poses specific questions which leaders of the oil industry can no longer avoid. At what point will rising U.S. oil consumption endanger our whole economy? When does a national policy that accelerates oil depletion become a threat to the long-term future of the American people? When must we adopt and enforce a remedial policy of conservation?

The unwillingness of the oilmen to discuss such issues is illustrated paradoxically by last year’s report of the National Petroleum Council. In one breath, this document describes a grave oil shortage; in the next, it says the shortage can be overcome. This report simply urges “new oil policies” which would enhance the short-run economic position of the major oil companies and hasten the depletion of the nation’s petroleum resources. Give us the tools (in the form of new tax incentives and exploration advantages), the oilmen argue, and we’ll produce twice as much oil.

How are we to meet the nation’s galloping demands for more oil? The current “game plan” of the oil industry, as reflected in the National Petroleum Council reports, proposes these stratagems to make possible “dramatic increases in domestic production”:

An increase of the oil depletion allowance.

Liberal new tax incentives for oil drilling and exploration.

Federal deregulation of controls over the price consumers pay for natural gas (to encourage new exploration).

Quick access—through expansive new Interior Department leasing programs—to the oil deposits below the Atlantic coastal shelf.

Aggressive development of Alaska’s oil resources.

“Drill, Baby, Drill” Well, they got all they asked and what did we get? Declining domestic production, environment destruction (this was written 17 years before the Exxon Valdez crime), dependence on petrodictatorships for our energy, tremendously bloody and costly foreign wars (wars whose costs needed to be added to the baseline costs of oil imports to begin to get a true reckoning of the costs to Americans of imported oil), windfall profits for oil companies and the catastrophic consequences of global warming, which Udall did not know yet know about. It was “only” 20 years ago after James Hansen testified to Congress and Bill McKibben wrote The End of Nature that we lost our excuse for not knowing about that.

Extracting enormous quantities of oil from Colorado oil shale may someday be possible, but I have not spoken with a single expert who believes that this process can be developed in time to fill the petroleum gap of the next fifteen years. Oil shale development is already the subject of intense controversy. There is no known technique for extracting the oil economically, and neither the federal government nor the oil industry is pursuing the kind of crash research that might produce a big breakthrough in oil shale technology. Moreover, it is abundantly clear that environmentalists will strenuously oppose any oil shale development plans that would turn huge sections of the Rocky Mountains into a conservation disaster area.

And now, 36 years later, it is still not possible to develop oil shale so as to derive any significant near-term benefit and without destroying not only the Rocky Mountains but the entire planet.

In short, common sense dictates that we begin a transition to policies designed to avoid an energy impasse that could cripple out transportation system and imperil our economy. We must set growth limits that will allow the automobile and oil industries to maintain economic stability while conserving our resources and preserving our environment. Of course, such a reorientation will require statesmanship as well as public pressure. It will not happen unless corporate self-interest yields to a responsible outlook that serves the broader interests of the nation as a whole. Above all, this shift requires a thorough redirection of the aims of these two industries.

The oil industry, in my view, must acknowledge that conservatism (not depletion) should be the keystone of our national energy policies.

The auto industry must acknowledge that a rational transportation policy should seek a balance between individual convenience, the efficient use of limited resources, and urban-living values that protect spaciousness, natural beauty, and human-scale mobility.

Thirty-six years later we find ourselves calling for the same things and hearing the same old stale arguments in return.

Some will argue that the changes advocated above are a prescription for unemployment and recession. I believe this argument is alarmist and specious. I am not proposing that we bring our oil and auto industries to a screeching halt. There is still time to begin a series of gradual steps toward new transportation and energy policies, livable cities, and more humane, efficient transit systems. These changes will require some industries to make steady adjustments, and others to set firm new limits on production and construction.

Less horsepower, smaller cars, and fewer autos mean more safety, healthier urban environments, more constraints on suburban sprawl, more efficient use of fuel. Less oil consumption for fuel means more oil to share with our children and theirs, more energy self-sufficiency, more oil for use in basic industrial processes. Less investment in highways means more money for efficient public transportation, more open space, more investment in cheap, fast intercity trains.

The bonuses of “less is more” are vast. The choice facing the American people is not between growth and stagnation, but between short-term growth and long-term disaster. We can continue to pursue the growth policies of the past and let urban decay, exorbitant prices, and risks to our national security dictate stringent remedial policies a few years from now. Or we can exercise restraint and learn to live comfortably, within our means.

The basic choices we face are still the same. The salient difference between now and 36 years ago is that we no longer have the option of making a gradual shift to a sustainable economy. Such a shift is now an urgent necessity, not only for the United States, but for the entire world. We do not have another 36 years to steal resources from the world’s poor and future generations. If we do not act within the next couple of years we will create a world in ways that most people alive today cannot (and are not) even imagining.

h/t to Bill McGurk

Crossposted at Daily Kos

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Posted in climate change, Climaticide, energy, environment, global warming, Politics, sustaninable energy | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

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