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Archive for January, 2009

Obama Announces Task Force for Green Jobs for the Middle Class

Friday, January 30th, 2009

President Obama just announced he will have a task force lead by VP Joe Biden that will focus on green jobs for the middle class. Biden presented this website where the public can get information http://www.astrongmiddleclass.gov. The task force will be in the form of monthly meetings the first to be held is in Philadelphia on Feb. 27.

According to MSNBC, Biden said the jobs “pay well, can’t be outsourced and will help us move to a cleaner, more self-sufficient energy future.” Sounds good. Get moving.

The areas of green job expansion coincide with Obama’s stimulus package. The article stated that “utilities could enlist workers to build a more powerful and efficient energy grid, and developers could build more energy efficient homes, offices and schools by weatherizing them or building new structures to green codes.” The auto industry is expected to retool itself also.

Funny but I could swear I caught Republicans complaining about unnecessary spending in Obama’s stimulus package while referring to money for infrastructure projects, updating schools, and our parks. If updating power grids, schools, bridges, and helping our parks that have been sold to the devil by the past administration is pork barrel, than what was funding for the bridge and road to nowhere?

The article went on to say that “some Republican lawmakers have backed the focus on green jobs, but others question whether the government should be trying to direct the economy.” What? How about handing Wall St. billions without any oversight, and repeating that action, while singling out American automakers by threatening a Czar that would tell the auto companies how to operate? Wouldn’t the government then be directing an entire major manufacturing sector of our economy?

The operative word here is “self righteous” relative to partisanship.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28934164/wid=18298287.

Tags: Obama Administration
Posted in Alternative Energy, Environment and Jobs, Environmental Capital, Federal Government, Funding for Green Business | No Comments »

New Figures Released Show Protecting the Planet is Affordable

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

Another study, one of the largest and most detailed ever, a global analysis of sorts was released Monday in Belgium. What we were told from the beginning that we need to act on curbing global warming within the next decade still holds true. The study said, “that delays in action of even 10 years would mean failing to contain global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, the level most scientists say will avert its most drastic impacts.”

The best part of the study showed that moving to a global economy by 2030 is not only possible but also affordable even though it’s a rigorous program, concentrating on lowering greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 1990 levels in the next 20 years. It’s not often that something urgent doesn’t cost extra. We know that when we have to accomplish something in a hurry. Expediting usually costs more no matter what. So to say we have to do this, we can do this, and we can afford to do this is a real blessing.

Posted in CO2 Emissions, Conservation, Environmental News Service, Global Warming, Global Warming Reports, Pollution | 1 Comment »

New CO2 Emissions Study Published Today

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

More and more studies about global warming bring greater understanding about what can be expected. Environmental News Source reported: “[A]pioneering study was conducted by an international team led by senior scientist Dr. Susan Solomon of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder. It shows how changes in surface temperature, rainfall, and sea level are irreversible for more than 1,000 years after carbon dioxide emissions are completely stopped.” The research was supported by the Office of Science at the Department of Energy.

Well, that about says it all. If we completely stop emitting CO2, what we’ve already done still affects the earth for 1000 years no matter what. I know plenty of people aren’t affected in the least by this but I feel guilty. I’m from a generation of people that let this happen, was part of the problem and somehow feel guilty even though I won’t be around to see some of the worse effects of global warming. I just think the U.S. stalled far too long on doing anything in the interest of big money. It would be different if that big money could turn around and fix things if need be, but unfortunately, what I and so many others have been trying to convey is that the environment is precious and we’re simply not unified in our care of it. We’ve failed as caretakers of the earth.

Read the whole article that was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2009/2009-01-27-01.asp

Posted in Alternative Energy, CO2 Emissions, Fossil Fuel, Global Warming, Industry, Pollution, Science | No Comments »

Orders on Inauguration Day; The N. Rockies Gray Wolf Safe for Now

Monday, January 26th, 2009

The day of the inauguration “White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel sent a memo to the heads of all executive departments and agencies, ordering a stop to all pending regulations until a legal and policy review can be conducted by the Obama administration,” according to an Earthjustice newsletter.

That means the Gray Wolf of the Northern Rockies is safe for now. As I blogged before, the states of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming claim wolf populations threaten the deer and elk populations. But they lied: http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2008/01/states-caught-in-lies-about-wolves-and-hunting/.

It shouldn’t take much for the pieces to come together to reveal there wasn’t a wolf problem as much as a lobby problem. More rulings need to be overturned that were finalized. For instance:

Those that weakened an already abused Endangered Species Act.

Those that allow mining deposits to be dumped within 100 ft. of flowing streams.

Exemptions for industrialized farms, CAFO’s, etc., to notify govt. officials when releasing unsafe levels of toxic emissions into the community.

Earthjustice has already sued against these rules. I cannot believe the exemptions for industrialized farms. North Carolina should weigh in on that one. That state’s interior was polluted from CAFO’s. And now industrialized farms don’t have to fess up when they pollute? http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2006/12/spreading-pig-poo-who-knew/.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Sea Level Rise May Happen Sooner Than Later

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

I was watching a report on CNN from New Zealand this morning. In just 50 years the climate in Antarctica has risen 5 degrees. The ice sheets as part of the landmass of Antarctica are melting and cracking off at an accelerated rate. These ice sheets are uncertain in predicting sea level rise in the near future but the ice sheet in question that is breaking apart now has been there for 10,000 years!

For all those that keep saying everything is naturally cyclical and man plays no part in the quick climate changes we’re witnessing now, explain this. It would be quite a big cycle that encompasses 10,000 years, and I doubt highly the climate of such a cycle would accelerate at a rate of 1 degree per decade because that would mean a 1,000-degree increase over 10,000 years. A 1,000-degree increase, or even a 100-degree increase has never been documented for planet earth. Frozen core samples from the Arctic ascertained that the first global warming episode some 40 million years ago was caused from methane gas build up and the climate back then changed only a degree or more over a greater period of time than we’re seeing now.

The pieces that are floating off into the ocean from Antarctic ice sheets are moving rapidly and the size of mega malls. One of them is the size of Jamaica. What this means is that the conservative estimate of 15 to 20 cm rise in sea level for our century that was previously predicted by a consensus of scientists may very well be way too conservative in light of these recent floating ice masses breaking apart.

The translation for the U.S. is that a 15-20 cm rise of seawater, which is just less than 6 inches to almost 8 inches and enough to swamp most of the coastline of Louisiana is probably wrong. It will be a whole lot worse before it’s better.

Understand that the ice sheets in Antarctica are not to be confused with regular glaciers that have been floating in the sea all along. A mass of floating glacier ice has already displaced its weight in water. So if a glacier melts it will not cause a rise in sea level any differently than it did as a frozen mass. However, some of the ice from Antarctica is entering the sea for the first time. It topped the land mass there. This ice will indeed raise the sea level, as is the ice that is melting in Siberia gorging rivers and eventually entering the sea.

Knowing this, we certainly do not want to see the Himalayas thawing any time soon. Considering the proximity of China to Tibet, and the fact that the Gobe desert is just 100 miles outside of Beijing now, melting Himalayas is not a stretch.

Tags: Antarctica
Posted in Environmentalism, Global Warming, Global Warming Reports, Tibet, Weather/Climate | 3 Comments »

Japan Beats U.S. to Launch First CO2 Observing Satellite

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

I read an article about Nasa’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory or OCO in BBC News back in December. But since budget cuts for NASA by the Bush administration shelved some projects, I didn’t think we would see OCO until after the Bush administration’s exit. OCO’s launch from Vandenbergy Air Force Base in California is supposed to take place on February 23 according to this same article and Japan’s GOSAT or Ibuki was to follow OCO in orbit around the earth. But surprise Ibuki is up there as of today.

I don’t know much about Ibuki other than what the AP has released. It circles the earth every 100 minutes and gathers info to pinpoint where CO2 emissions are most concentrated. It appears that Japan may have surprised NASA with this earlier than expected launch. Apparently, Ibuki is also first in a series of satellites to be launched just like NASA’s parade of satellites called the A-Train. According to the BBC article check out what follows NASA’s OCO:

Aqua will lag OCO by 15 minutes. It is collecting information about the Earth’s water cycle – water in the oceans, the air and on the land

Cloudsat will allow for the most detailed study of clouds to date. It should better characterise their role in regulating the climate

Calipso views clouds just moments after Cloudsat has looked at them. Its primary interest is the way aerosols interact with clouds

Parasol is a French satellite that can distinguish natural from human-produced aerosols. It makes polarised light measurements

Glory will join the train in June. One task will be to measure the ‘energy budget’ of Earth, to determine accurately the global temperature

Aura also has a big European investment. It looks at atmospheric chemistry, and is producing remarkable global pollution maps.

All of this is well and good but it seems there is going to be a lot of duplication resulting in space trash. There is a ton of it up there already. A unified, cooperative effort world wide to gather the latest data would be nice. Oh and a satellite that goes up and also comes down so we don’t have floating junk to dodge if space travel ever becomes common place.

If someone aimed a big magnet into outer space, I wonder how much scrap metal would be collected?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7769619.stm

http://green.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090123/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_rocket.html

Posted in BBC, CO2 Emissions, Earth, Environmentalism, Global Warming, Japan, NASA, Pollution | 1 Comment »

Obama’s Environmental Cabinet

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

The Grist website offered a good introduction as to who’s who in the Obama administration that’s going to be watching over all things environmental.

The lineup looks good, although I worry a little about the agricultural industry and hopes for eliminating CAFO’s. But time will tell. We’ll see the direction this administration takes soon by the rulings President Obama overturns his first few weeks in office. Hopefully the animals in peril from being delisted from the Endangered Species List will soon be reinstated, and their habitat protected.

I’ve signed quite a few environmental petitions for various things aimed at the White House ASAP. Many, many people do want change. Right now I’d like to see change in my heating bill! Not enough sun this winter to help out.

http://grist.org/feature/2008/11/13/index.html

Tags: Obama Administration
Posted in Dept. of the Interior, EPA, Environment and Jobs, Environmentalism, Federal Government, Global Warming Policy, U.S. Dept. of Energy, White House Council on Environmental Quality | 2 Comments »

“We Will Harness the Sun and the Winds and the Soil…”

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

This particular part of President Obama’s speech had an immediate impact on the 77% of Americans that want change for our environment. I caught the statement about restoring science to its rightful place first. In its entirety the paragraph reads:

We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

And not a moment too soon. Now about undoing all those anti-environmental moves by the exiting administration. That should be interesting. I specifically hope the gray wolf is returned to the endangered list, the polar bear’s habitat is protected, and aerial killing of any animal abolished for good.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Mid-Atlantic States Threatened the Most by Sea Level Rise

Monday, January 19th, 2009

A federal report came out Friday from the EPA, U.S. Geological Survey, and other agencies stating that the Middle Atlantic States are threatened by rising seawater due to global warming.

There are more and more storms up the mid-Atlantic coast. There are also dense populations near water’s edge always and so infrastructure is in low-lying areas. Think Hilton Head Island, and Tybee Island off of Savannah, gone.

Oh, it’s not like water will just rise and engulf the islands until they disappear. And most people will just shrug when the time span for a two-foot rise to peak is still 90 years off. But so much more happens when a two-foot rise keeps ebbing in slowly. It’s called erosion. And when the furthermost islands give way to erosion, the storms come in much closer to those dense populations.

It’s these chain reactions that cause all the chaos, the unforeseen problems that arise from something as simple as two feet of water more than usual.

Read the report at: climatescience.gov

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/science/earth/17sea.html?_r=2&ref=science

Posted in Extreme Weather in U.S., Global Warming, Global Warming Reports, Science, U.S. Weather Patterns, Weather/Climate | 1 Comment »

China’s Rush to Save the Yangtze as Water Supply Dwindles

Friday, January 16th, 2009

China may be running out of water. No surprise there. I think it was two years ago that I watched an hour-long presentation by Chinese environmentalists that showed the situation in China’s waterways. Bad stuff, all polluted. I read an article from Asia Times that’s from 2003 about the way the Chinese have devastated their country and explained the history of China’s terrain.

At one time China was much warmer and wetter. Animals that we normally associate with Africa existed there. But their growing population repeatedly cut down forests, and drained marshy areas to expand. Now China is rapidly headed toward a desert like existence. I reported quite some time ago that the Gobe desert is currently only 100 miles outside of Beijing.

China has already invested billions of dollars to redirect a river in the south toward Beijing even though that river is polluted. This plan uproots 400,000 people also. The recent movement to improve China’s water supply is massive. I suspect this might be why China has been helping Africans—a lot. China says it’s sincere. I think the Chinese are scoping out a place to go. China’s historical climate and terrain was like Africa’s. But we never hear much about China in Africa and probably won’t, until they are there. If they weren’t communist it wouldn’t be too bad but…

China is an example to the world on how not to treat the environment, over lumber, over build, over populate, and pollute. It can leave a population high and dry down the road, or should I say river.

Read more about China’s efforts a little too late: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2009/2009-01-15-01.asp

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/EH26Ad01.html

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-05/16/content_873767.htm

Posted in China, Climate, Conservation, Drought, Environmentalism, Global Warming, Weather/Climate | 1 Comment »