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EPA: US greenhouse gases up 2% in 2013; increased coal consumption, cool winter

Total US greenhouse emissions were 6,673 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2013, an increase of 2% (127.9 MMT CO 2 Eq.) over the prior year, according to the EPA’s newly published Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990–2013 . Total US emissions have increased by 5.9% from 1990 to 2013. The increase from 2012 to 2013 was due to an increase in the carbon intensity of fuels consumed to generate electricity due to an increase in coal consumption, with decreased natural gas consumption, according to the report. Additionally, relatively cool winter conditions led to an increase in fuels for the residential and commercial sectors for heating. The transportation sector was the second largest sector source, at 27%. Transportation emissions increased as a result of a small increase in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and fuel use across on-road transportation modes. By sector, power plants were […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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The Bottom of the Food Chain Is Experiencing a Catastrophic Collapse

A 1,000 Mile Stretch Of The Pacific Ocean Has Heated Up Several Degrees And Scientists Don’t Know Why According to two University of Washington scientific research papers that were recently released, a 1,000 mile stretch of the Pacific Ocean has warmed up by several degrees, and nobody seems to know why this is happening.  This giant “blob” of warm water was first observed in late 2013, and it is playing havoc with our climate.  And since this giant “blob” first showed up, fish and other sea creatures have been dying in absolutely massive numbers.  So could there be a connection?  And what is going to happen if the Pacific Ocean continues to warm up?  Could we potentially be facing the greatest holocaust of sea life in the Pacific that anyone has ever observed?  If so, what would that mean for the food chain and for our food supply? For […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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California’s Cycles of Drought

Photo Dry farmland being tilled near Corcoran, Calif., in August. California’s current drought is in its fourth year, but research indicates that the state and the rest of the West had ancient megadroughts that lasted decades and sometimes two centuries. Credit Matt Black When Gov. Jerry Brown of California imposed mandatory cutbacks in water use earlier this month in response to a severe drought, he warned that the state was facing an uncertain future. “This is the new normal,” he said, “and we’ll have to learn to cope with it.” The drought, now in its fourth year, is by many measures the worst since the state began keeping records of temperature and precipitation in the 1800s. And with a population now close to 39 million and a thirsty, $50 billion agricultural industry, California has been affected more by this drought than by any previous one. But scientists say that […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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The long, dirty trail of fake science

“ Doubt is our product ,” wrote executives for tobacco giant Brown & Williamson in a now infamous 1969 memo on industry communications strategy. The memo was revealed during discovery in class-action lawsuits against tobacco companies that would eventually yield a trove of 85 million pages. Among those pages are details about the public relations playbook of an industry that — as far back as 1958 — knew that smoking caused cancer and used public relations to fight regulation for decades. “ Merchants of Doubt ,” a brilliant new film from documentarian Robert Kenner (of “Food Inc.” fame), reveals this spin and tracks how other industries, from chemical manufacturers to pharmaceuticals, are ripping pages from Big Tobacco’s playbook to fight their own regulation and public scrutiny. Based on the book of the same name by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, the film reveals, in particular, Big Oil’s role in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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How the climate change debate got hijacked by the wrong standard of proof

Everyone loves a courtroom drama–especially one that pits a feisty, but a determined criminal defense attorney against the awesome power of a prosecutor who has the resources of the state behind him or her. We see such  David and Goliath  stories every week on television. We cheer as the defense attorney pokes one hole after another in the case of the prosecutor, raising what the audience now perceives as reasonable doubt. But will the jury see it that way? We’ll return after these messages…. This is just the sort of metaphorical setting into which the climate change denial lobby is trying to place the debate over climate change without the public or even most policymakers realizing it. The deniers in the fossil fuel industry and elsewhere are attempting by sleight-of-hand to get both the public and policymakers to abandon the  preponderance of evidence  standard used primarily in civil trials–and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Environmental Order in China to Prevent Building of Contested Dam

Photo Construction of a suspension bridge over the Yangtze River in Chongqing, China, in 2012. The Xiaonanhai Dam project, which has been blocked, would have been Chongqing’s largest infrastructure project. Credit Peter Parks/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images BEIJING — The Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection has issued an order preventing dam-building on a stretch of the upper Yangtze River, which will result in the scrapping of a proposed hydroelectric dam near the western metropolis of Chongqing that had been opposed for years by environmentalists. The Xiaonanhai Dam would have cost billions of dollars to build and operate, and it was supported by Bo Xilai , the former Chongqing party chief who was sentenced to life in prison in 2013 for corruption. The dam would have been Chongqing’s largest infrastructure project. Environmentalists said the dam would have destroyed a protected area of the river that had been established by officials […]

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California’s New Era of Heat Destroys All Previous Records

The California heat of the past 12 months is like nothing ever seen in records going back to 1895. The 12 months before that were similarly without precedent. And the 12 months before that? A freakishly hot year, too.  What’s happening in California right now is shattering modern temperature measurements—as well as  tree-ring records  that stretch back more than 1,000 years. It’s no longer just a record-hot month or a record-hot year that California faces. It’s a stack of broken records leading to the worst drought that’s ever beset the Golden State.   The chart below shows average temperatures for the 12 months through March 31, for each year going back to 1895. The orange line shows the trend rising roughly 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, just a bit faster than the warming trend observed worldwide. 12-Month Average Temperature (°F), April-March. Source: NOAA / Bloomberg The last 12 months were a full 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.5 Celsius) above the 20th century average. Doesn’t sound […]

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Study Forecasts 70% Loss of West Canada’s Glaciers

The glaciers of the Canadian West could shrink by 70 percent by 2100, according to new research that has implications for predicting glacier loss around the world. The loss of mountain glaciers contributes to the rise in sea levels. As glaciers dwindle there could be also be pronounced effects on availability of water for aquatic creatures and for agriculture as well as water quality issues. The report, published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience, combines scientific disciplines to develop an unusually powerful method of predicting glacier loss, including high-resolution regional models of current glaciers and the physics of ice flow. The researchers then applied their findings to the range of predictions of warming over time from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Under the calculations in the paper, glaciers in Western Canada will shrink to less than 10 percent of the area they covered in 2005, and glaciers in […]

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California Drought Tests History of Endless Growth

LOS ANGELES — For more than a century, California has been the state where people flocked for a better life — 164,000 square miles of mountains, farmland and coastline, shimmering with ambition and dreams, money and beauty. It was the cutting-edge symbol of possibility: Hollywood, Silicon Valley, aerospace, agriculture and vineyards. But now a punishing drought — and the unprecedented measures the state announced last week to compel people to reduce water consumption — is forcing a reconsideration of whether the aspiration of untrammeled growth that has for so long been this state’s driving engine has run against the limits of nature. The 25 percent cut in water consumption ordered by Gov. Jerry Brown raises fundamental questions about what life in California will be like in the years ahead, and even whether this state faces the prospect of people leaving for wetter climates — assuming, as Mr. Brown and […]

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California drought may find relief from Down Under

Drought-related cactus installation called "Desert of Cantareira" by Brazilian artist and activist Mundano is seen at Atibainha dam The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. California Governor Jerry Brown may want to look Down Under for relief from the state’s years-long drought. The amount of water stored in reservoirs and snowcaps is so low that on Wednesday he ordered an unprecedented 25 percent cut in statewide use. It’s a wise though belated move. Now he needs a comprehensive plan to help turn California’s water woes around. Melbourne, Australia offers a good model. The city suffered through what’s known as the millennium drought between 1997 and 2009. Like their California counterparts, Melbourne officials failed to react at first. They assumed abnormally low rainfall and high temperatures would not last for long, and enough water was flowing into city reservoirs to meet residents’ needs. That […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple