writeaboutwarming

 September 1, 2020 The good news, such as it is, goes like this: the suspense is over. No need to guess about whether sea level rise will be life-altering by the end of this century or not. It will, at least for the 40 percent of humankind which lives on or near a coastline. That's because all the ice on Greenland is going to melt, according to researchers at Ohio State University (yes, yes, I know - it's THE Ohio State University. Get over yourselves.) Their research appeared in the journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment in August. Total meltdown will take 10,000 years, but enough will have melted by 2100 to cause sea level rise of approximately three feet. That will cover a lot of coastal property, a loss made worse by storms and hurricanes. How have researchers reached this conclusion? By studying almost 40 years of satellite data. Glaciers on Greenland have shrunk so much since the year 2000 that even if global warming came to a complete stop, they would contin...

I was listening to Science Friday on NPR today, and Ira Flatow said that increasing numbers of people now understand that climate change is really happening. He or a guest remarked that many of those same people ask, What can I do to improve the situation? Since that's a subject I haven't written about in awhile, and since there is so much each of us can do, let's talk about it. Where to start - what we eat? what we wear? what we drive? There are right answers to each of those questions. If you're eating conventionally grown food, that needs to change, because foods that "require" chemicals to be grown are killing all of us, both because of airborne pollutants, and because of the poisons that wind up in our bodies. While it is difficult to eat a diet that consists only of organic foods, there are so many organic options (especially produce, dairy foods, and meat) that you should acquaint yourself with what's available. The end result will be healthier bo...

June 12, 2020 According to Mother Jones, "The United States faces an extreme weather season like we've never seen before. Scientists predict an extraordinarily hot summer, one that could put 2020 on track for the hottest year ever." Early evidence of extreme weather can be found in Arizona, where the Bighorn Fire burns near Tucson. Sparked by lightning and fueled by the dry landscape, the Bighorn has consumed 11 square miles and was only 10% contained as of Friday morning, according to an update from the Coronado National Forest. The fire-fighting team assigned to the first major fire of the season is most concerned about the communities that lie along the southern boundary of the fire. More than 419 fire personnel are fighting the blaze, including multiple aircraft. In fact, the terrain is so steep, ground crews cannot be sent in. Temperatures above 100 degrees also increase the difficulty of controlling the inferno. Crews will experience temperatures topping 107 Fri...

April 17, 2020 Under cover of an historic pandemic, the EPA has announced it will suspend enforcement of environmental laws. You read that right. The agency is hoping we're all so distracted that no one will notice. Why would they do this, you ask. It will come as no surprise that a number of industries, including oil, have asked for the suspension. In the words of EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler: EPA "recognizes challenges resulting from efforts to protect workers and the public from COVID 19 may directly impact the ability of regulated facilities to meet all federal regulatory requirements." Critics of the hiatus concede exceptions to regulations could be made on a case-by-case basis, for example, if companies are short-staffed because employees are working from home. But those industries deemed essential and continuing to operate should be expected to comply with the law. In fact, because COVID 19 is exacerbated by air pollution, leading to higher death rates, pol...

March 21, 2020 While the risks and dire consequences of the current pandemic are difficult to overstate, I do think there are effects as a result of our lives being lived closer to home that are worth pointing out. Though retired myself, many of my neighbors commute to work, some for quite a distance. More and more of my neighbors are working from home these days, to avoid contagion. In doing so, they have ceased producing dangerous amounts of greenhouse gases with their cars. Whether we can see or measure it, the atmosphere we breathe is becoming cleaner with every passing day. The benefits to humankind and wild creatures alike will, no doubt, one day be quantified. In the meantime, I feel safe in stating we're all enjoying a boost to our cardiopulmonary health. Given that the need for social isolation may last indefinitely, I think it's safe to say scientists will have numberless effects of this fossil fuel hiatus to study, probably for years to come. Just imagine what we m...

Did you know that back in June of 2019, a Dutch automotive company called Lightyear introduced the world's first long-range solar car? They've dubbed the sedan "Lightyear One." Made of light-weight carbon fiber, the car's rooftop solar cells make it a viable, emissions-free alternative form of transportation. Long overdue, we can only hope it will, over time, become affordable enough for every driver. The National Pollinator Garden Network set themselves the goal of registering a million gardens in 2015. In April last year, they surpassed that goal. With their existence threatened by the use of poisonous pesticides, bees, birds, butterflies, and other bugs will be aided by these gardens in their fight for survival. The gardens comprise roughly 5 million acres, and involve around 8 million people in the United States, Canada and Mexico. French company Carbios announced in October 2019 it has developed a process for converting PET plastics into a reusable form. ...

January 17, 2020 The Trump administration is determined to undo protections of the environment going back as far as 1970. These protective regulations affect water, air, land and public health quality, and target limitations on greenhouse gas emissions, including emissions of mercury and smog, the reporting of natural gas emissions, chemical plant safety, use of pesticides, a moratorium on coal mining and regulation of coal mining waste, methane pollution, and fuel efficiency standards. All of these limitations are intended to benefit industries that donate to the Republican Party. Statistics demonstrate that the benefits of these regulations far outweigh the costs by preventing illness and death. Yet the 95 regulations Trump wants to eliminate are well on their way to being rescinded: 58 of the targeted rules have already been revoked, and 37 of them are at various stages of being discontinued. For example, if Trump has his way, a 2019 proposal will halt federal protection of 51% ...

January 3, 2020 Wildfires have been burning out-of-control in Australia since July of 2019. That's not hyperbole: the entire country has been ravaged by fire since July in one of the worst wildfire seasons in decades. Spring of 2019 was the driest on record. A heatwave in December broke the record for highest national average temperature, with temperatures in some locations topping out between 113-120 degrees Fahrenheit. As a result, some fires have been fought for months at a time. Strong winds have pummeled large areas of the country, causing fires and smoke to spread more widely and rapidly. Dry lightning and arson have also been to blame Before I go any further, let's talk a little bit about Australian geography. The continent is divided up into six provinces, plus Tasmania, an island off the southeastern coast. The provinces are: Queensland, in the northeast, New South Wales (NSW), in the southeast (where Melbourne and Sydney are located), Victoria, a small province in...

December 22, 2019 Carbon lock-in: technological, economic, political and social forces that make use of fossil energy [seem] natural and taken for granted by households, cities, provinces and countries. The word "forces" might be replaced with the word "habits." Habits like driving half a mile to pick up a gallon of milk. Habits like setting the thermostat at 70 degrees, winter, summer, night and day. Habits like accepting the cost of gassing up your non-hybrid vehicle without a second thought. Habits like re-electing incumbent government officials who vote against environmentally beneficial legislation. Habits like forgetting to recycle your clothes, furniture, books and kitchen utensils. These habits eliminate the possibility of one day living decarbonized lives, i.e., lives that are not dependent upon fossil fuels. According to two University of Toronto researchers, seeking merely to reduce our carbon footprints will never get us a climate-change-free world. ...

December 12, 2019 It's important to remember that the European Union (EU) has the world's largest economy. It ranks third, behind China and the United States, in contributions to climate change. What the EU decides to do in order to combat climate change will affect every one of us, existentially and economically. Unveiled yesterday, the EU's Green Deal proposes a target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Regulators will create standards for the manufacturing of goods that force recycling and the phasing out of plastic and other kinds of non-recyclable waste. Beginning in 2021, 40 percent of the agricultural budget will, assuming adoption of the plan, be devoted to mitigating climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, 30 percent of fisheries subsidies would be used in a similar manner. Air quality standards will be more stringent, an essential element of the plan, given that 400,000 premature deaths a year can be attributed to air pollution in...

October 8, 2019 The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming , by David Wallace-Wells, has a misleading title. Wallace-Wells is not at all sure that human life will continue post-warming. The point of his hard-to-read volume is that we need to act with the urgency a life-threatening situation demands. Action devoid of the mandatory intensity and intentionality will render us a footnote in history - a history no one will read. The author begins by telling us "It is worse, much worse, than you think," and goes on to list the ways in which we have chosen to delude ourselves. The bitter truth is that we are all in this together, though some will suffer more than others, with India and Pakistan leading the pack. Let us count the ways: heat death, hunger, drowning, wildfire, disasters no longer natural, freshwater drain, dying oceans, unbreathable air, plagues of warming, economic collapse, climate conflict, and "systems," or threat multipliers. Thus far we have incurr...

August 23, 2019 The Amazon is an enormous rainforest in South America. It covers forty percent of the South American continent, and can be found in eight countries. If it were laid over a map of the 48 contiguous states of the United States, it would encompass nearly two-thirds of it. Because trees breathe in carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, it is essential that we protect them, wherever they grow. In Brazil, where much of the Amazon is located, the president of that country has been encouraging farmers, ranchers, and loggers to exploit the riches that can be found there. That means clearing away the trees by incinerating them. So hellbent are farmers on enlarging their holdings and growing more food, they organized a "fire day" last week. In order to accommodate them, President Bolsonaro of Brazil has weakened regulations intended to protect forests and indigenous lands. His failure to halt deforestation, in keeping with the Paris Climate Accords, has caused Germany and...

August 16, 2019 The Trump Administration is proposing a freeze on federal fuel economy standards at 2020 levels. The state of California has reached an agreement with four automakers that would call for average fuel economy of 51 miles per gallon by 2026.  Automakers are siding with California, because they don't want to have to build two different cars to meet two different standards. In fact, 17 car companies informed Trump by letter in June that the weakening of fuel economy standards could destabilize the entire auto-making industry. The good news? More and more states support California's higher standards. States like New Jersey, Connecticut, Washington, Vermont, New York, Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. The District of Columbia also backs California's clean air standards, and Colorado, an oil-producing state, has just joined this farsighted group. They are what is considered a "Section 177 state," in refe...

August 10, 2019 Did you know that, globally, farmers produce 1.5 times the amount of food consumers need? Because farmers must sink so much money into food production in the way of chemicals and seed, they have little choice but to overproduce, in order to recoup what they've overspent. As things stand, far too much of what farmers spend to grow food winds up in the hands of chemical and seed companies. Needless to say, farmers can't stay in business if they can't make money. Farmers in Iowa are grappling, not only with prices that are too low, but with flooded fields. In fact, farmers throughout the Plains and the South have dealt with the effects of spring floods and summer downpours this year. That's why the time is right for parity pricing. Did you know that the American agricultural economy contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than all forms of transportation combined? Stop overproduction of food and you limit production of these gases. Another ...

July 3, 2019 Last Friday, the temperature reached 115 degrees Fahrenheit in Gallargues-le-Montueux, France, a record for the entire country. France was not the only country in Europe suffering from record-setting heat: Germany, Poland, Spain, the Czech Republic, Italy, and others were sweltering. Why? Scientists have their eyes on the polar jet stream, the fast-moving flow of high-altitude air currents at the top of the world. When the jet stream wanders, cold Arctic air can spill southward, or hotter air from the middle latitudes can move north. These scientists theorize that the melting of Arctic ice, along with the decreased temperature difference between the Arctic and lower latitudes, is causing the jet stream to weaken, leading to its wobbly flow. Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State, says a "meandering, slowed jet stream . . . favors stalled extreme weather regimes like the ones we are seeing right now." The hotter the Arctic, the weaker the jet stream. ...

June 20, 2019 Scientists from the University of Edinburgh found a new way of studying permafrost in the Arctic: they flew drone-mounted cameras over the Canadian Arctic. What they found reveals one aspect of the damage global warming is doing in that part of the world. During a 40-day period in the summer of 2017, the Canadian permafrost coastline retreated 47 feet, with daily rates of erosion sometimes exceeding 3 feet. This rate of erosion is six times higher than the historical average of the past half century. Why is this important? First of all, permafrost is soil that remains frozen for at least 2 years. When permafrost thaws, it releases twice as much carbon into the atmosphere as when its temperature stays below freezing . More CO2, more global warming. More global warming, more permafrost that thaws, more CO2. Melting permafrost releases both carbon dioxide and methane into the air and water. Perhaps most disturbing, a 2017 study found that a major portion of the Arctic ha...

May 12, 2019 What do wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and hydro power all have in common? You're right - they're all forms of renewable energy. Better than that, taken together they all put the kibosh on coal-produced energy this past April. Expectations are that they'll do the same thing in May. Best of all, this is the first time that's ever happened, and it won't be the last. According to Dennis Wamsted, of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), "Five years ago this never would have been close to happening. The transition that's going on in the electric sector in the United States has been phenomenal." Renewable forms of energy are expected to enjoy sporadic dominance over coal during the rest of 2019 and 2020.The IEEFA is a non-profit organization that supports the transition to renewable energy.  Their analysis indicates that renewables will surpass the roughly 2000 to 2200 thousand megawatt hours per day generated ...

April 25, 2019 I thought I knew about recycling plastics, and I guess I know enough to get by. Still, there are some big no-noes, so pay attention. Before we get to the yeses and noes, however, let's make sure we're all on board when it comes to the simple stuff. You know about little numbers inside a triangle on the bottom of your plastic recyclables, right? We all know that. But did you know that number is called a resin identification code? I didn't. If you want to know what should go straight into the recycling bin, look for the numbers 1, 2 and 5. Why? " . . . because we have great markets for them in the U.S.," according to Brent Bell of Waste Management. Items such as water and soda bottles, milk jugs, laundry detergent bottles, yogurt cups and butter tubs can be recycled without a second thought. If you're feeling ambitious, help out by rinsing them and removing labels. On the other hand, items like squeezable bottles, plastic bags, meat trays, s...

April 14, 2019 I'd never heard of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) before, but the 160 countries and regional intergovernmental agencies that comprise its membership have released a report entitled Global Energy Transformation: A Roadmap to 2050. I ran across a summary of the report at Think Progress, and I thought I'd share parts of it with you. This is an important report. The members of IRENA base their research on the premise that renewable energy sources, as the most accessible energy on earth, can accelerate conversion to electricity on a global scale while meeting agreed-upon climate objectives. (I should mention that member countries must also belong to the United Nations.) Their report maintains that because prices of key clean energy technologies are dropping, as much as 85% of the world's energy could come from renewable energy sources, primarily solar and wind. Keeping the global temperature increase below two degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees...

March 17, 2019 You don't want glyphosate (RoundUp) on your food, so this article will tell you how to avoid this and other pesticides that have been sprayed on crops, or have drifted onto organic crops. A lot of the information I'm passing along is common sense; some of this might be new to you. Wash all grocery store and supermarket purchases, even organic foods. You can use plain water to do this: rinse for a few seconds and wash away all visible dirt. Don't use any kind of soap. Dry and wipe down your produce with a clean dish cloth or paper towel. Peel off outer layers of produce. Again, this includes organically grown foods. Fat and skin in meats are the places where toxins are stored, so remove them before cooking. If the animal you are consuming was fed on non-organic grains or vegetables, you need to pay attention to this. Remember, the idea is to avoid having to grapple with cancer, so every step you take to keep your distance from poisons will make a dif...