Wolfing Down Fossil Fuels

The Annual Energy Outlook from the U.S. Energy Information Administration sums up the government’s best estimates of energy trends through 2035. Buried in the projections is a seismic change in energy policy, and it’s about coal. The EIA is projecting that utilities won’t build any new coal-fired electricity plants in the United States, aside from the projects already under construction or built as “clean coal” experiments. The projections say that all our new electricity plants are expected to be either renewables like wind and solar, or natural gas (which releases about half the carbon emissions of coal).

BUT:





But if you look at the long-term projections, the amazing thing is how little the energy mix will change in 25 years. Right now, we get 84 percent of our energy from fossil fuels. In 2035, we’ll still be getting 78 percent of our energy from fossil fuels. Read the rest Here.

Earthday (WEEK)

Earthday is upon us, and I am happy to find that it has grown in many many places to 'EarthWeek'. About a month ago I decided to track the goings on via YouTube, so subscribed to a search term simply "Earthday" 2008. My hope was to gather PSA's about city's and towns and their scheduled events. What I found were thousands of videos from hundreds of different types of outlets. Schools not only advertising their earthday events, but whole school and district wide challenges ranging from litter disposal to energy efficiency. Vineyards planning events with no motor vehicle traffic allowed (carts, bicycles and horsedrawn carriage available). Mom's doing clever voice overs with babies in carriages asking us to consider her future. Hundreds of kids taking it upon themselves to put something on video to express their thoughts about earthday and the situation they find themselves in, some quite elaborate productions, some simple but thought provoking and honest. I was less than 10 years old when the first earthday event was held, and I remember thinking when I was a kid that nature and the animals and plants were important and that I would do what I could to keep them all safe. Since then I've watch each year as the effort has slowly grown into what we see today. It's one of the childhood ideals I have been able to hold onto all of these years, which makes it seem all that more real for me. I have the benefit of the long view with me now, and with that I can see some of the good our efforts have brought to us. The eagles and hawks have returned to the skies around the urban and suburban areas of the pacific northwest, the hare's and the coyotes also seem to have found their balance in and around our suburbs. There is much for us to do, and a new way of thinking and acting is on the horizon. I try to look to the success stories to remind me why these changes are needed, change is hard for me as it is for most. A little reward goes a long way in easing the transition so please, take the time to seek out the success stories and think what more wonderful things will happen if we keep working at it.

We love these guys! Click to hear Kevin Bacon, Questlove and Zach Braff's Call for Climate. (OH! Don't forget Chevy! He's up there^)

Above is the collected Earthday Videos discussed, below is an article from Treehugger.com


The US's Earth Day (22 April 2008) now include unlikely champions such as JCPenney. Banana Republic, Macy's, Clorox, and even NBC's The Biggest Loser. While you can put no price on raising awareness, one question remains: Does turning Earth Day into a marketing blitz promote the cause or contribute to green fatigue? We ask the question: Is Earth Day the New Christmas?.

National Hanging Out Day

Forget about Earth Day; a much bigger deal is National Hanging Out Day, celebrating the humble clothesline (Saturday April 19th) Why dry your clothing with coal, using six percent of the nation's electricity, when you can tell your friends that you have installed solar and wind power in your home, for the price of a clothesline? In celebration of this great day we present the party line on clotheslines. Be they indoors, for apartments or yards, decorative, low tech or high tech, they are integral to our future. ::More

The Pleasures of the Flesh

George Monbiot points out that the world produced 2.1 billion tonnes of grain last year, the biggest harvest in history. "If hunger can strike now, what will happen if harvests decline?" Yet only about 1.1 billion tonnes of it goes to feed people. While diverting 100 million tonnes to feed cars is a "crime against humanity", the real problem is that "760m tonnes will be snatched from the mouths of humans to feed animals. This could cover the global food deficit 14 times. If you care about hunger, eat less meat. ::More


This Little Piggy Went to Market

RecycleBank, the company who brought us an innovative recycling program that pays you to throw less stuff away (by throwing more in the recycling bin), is taking their game across the Atlantic Ocean, to Europe. Fresh off raising $30 million, the company will expand services here in the States and will expand into Europe. (As their truck collects the recycling it scans the barcode on the container and translates the value of the recycled items into a dollar amount -- up to $35 RecycleBank Dollars a month.) ::More

Tailpipes vs. Smokestacks

This post references a chart which shows CO2 emissions by gas-electric plug-in hybrids depending on their electricity source. Plug-ins beat the conventional gasoline-powered vehicle at the top in all situations, but the comparison with a regular hybrid vehicle is more complex. Depending on the power source, it can go from slightly worse than the hybrid, to about twice as good (and three times as good as the conventional car). Not surprisingly, coal without carbon capture is the worst power source. ::More

Ecoffins Biodegradable Caskets

Our guide on How to Green Your Funeral already offers a huge array of resources for those looking for more environmentally sustainable end-of-life options, from a conversation the Green Burial Council to some very funky green casket suppliers. But even that guide is by no means exhaustive - our inboxes are constantly filling up with information about products and services for green burial or cremation. Such as Ecoffins, makers of biodegradable coffins crafted from bamboo, willow, banana, etc. ::More

Experts Ask Schools for Help

When an acclaimed expert on rare diseases arrived on the scene, 19 schools in 10 U.S. states had reason to hope he might be aware of a cure for the strange, contagious disease striking school photocopiers during The Great Copy Machine Epidemic. But even he was stumped by the symptoms. According to Dr. K, "They just keep chewing up trees and contributing to global warming. It's impossible to suggest a cure when we simply don't know the cause." Teachers and students are the solution, he said. ::More

Munchies
a. Potato chips (crisps), smoothies, honeys, jams and shortbread are just some the foods to be :climate impact labelled in the UK.b. Greenpeace asked an ad agency to raise awareness about genetically-modified organisms.c. Your fave eco-organic-fairtrade snack might be owned by on of the Top 30 food processors in North America.

Transits
a. Retired NYC subway cars are controversially being dropped off the coast of Delaware to create a reef.b. LA's new Bus Rapid Transit lines, is a step towards light rail, and a wider transit strategy involving bikeways.c. San Francisco tries out improved public transit by offering a Connected Bus with high speed internet!

Presidents
a. Past. Bill Clinton is the head liner celebrity at Toronto's upcoming 400 eco exhibitor Green Living Show.b. Present. Is George W Bush really turning over a new leaf and contemplating "new climate change proposals"?c. Almost. Al Gore has a brand new, rousing, call-to-arms slide show, "New Thinking on the Climate Crisis".

email: newsletter@treehugger.com
web: http://www.treehugger.com/

And..a big thanks to our gracious sponsor, pair.com. pair Networks, a global Web hosting and domain name registration company, hosts over 180,000 sites from around the world. Whether you're a business, a student, an artist, a blogger, or a non-profit organization, pair Networks has a Web hosting plan that's right for you. Seriously folks, they've been excellent to work with...few mistakes, great service.

Thanks Treehugger!

Conservative Bias Alleged in Textbook

Winston Churchill said that "History is written by the victors". Now it seems, history is also written by the losers.

The AP reports - "A high-school senior has raised questions about political bias in a popular textbook on U.S. government, and legal scholars and top scientists say the teen's criticism is well-founded."

"Both authors are considered conservative. Dilulio, a University of Pennsylvania professor, formerly worked for the Bush administration as director of faith-based initiatives. Wilson is the Ronald Reagan Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University."

"James Hansen, the director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, sent Houghton Mifflin a letter stating that the book's discussion on global warming contained "a large number of clearly erroneous statements" that give students "the mistaken impression that the scientific evidence of global warming is doubtful and uncertain."

The authors kept a phrase stating that global warming is "enmeshed in scientific uncertainty."

While there are still some scientists who downplay global warming and the role of burning fossil fuels, the overwhelming majority of climate scientists and peer-reviewed scientific research say human activity is causing climate change. Last year an international collection of hundreds of scientists and government officials unanimously approved wording that said the scientific community had "very high confidence," meaning more than 90 percent likelihood, that global warming is caused by humans. (Keep in mind that these scientists originally wrote that they were 99 percent certain, but that the Chinese objected to this and would only proceed in discussions if the number were lowered, they settled on 90%)

LaClair also was concerned about the textbook's treatment of U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding prayer in school. The book shows a picture of kids praying in front of a Virginia high school and states, "The Supreme Court will not let this happen inside a public school." Blake said the photo was cut out of the most recent edition.
The textbook goes on to state that the court has ruled as "unconstitutional every effort to have any form of prayer in public schools, even if it is nonsectarian, voluntary or limited to reading a passage of the Bible."

Those examples are not correct, says Charles Haynes, a religious liberties expert at the First Amendment Center in Washington.
"Students can pray inside a public school in many different ways," Haynes said, adding they can pray alone or in groups before lunch or in religious clubs, for example.
Haynes said students can't disrupt the school or interfere with the rights of others. The court has said the prayer can't be state-sponsored, so a teacher can't lead a prayer and a school can't require it, Haynes said."

Between the winners and the losers editing history I may never open a text book again, and I will now take very much more seriously Mr. Franklin's suggestion:

Benjamin Franklin said: "Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see"

Oil Executives Defend Profits to Congress : NPR

"Don't blame us," oil industry chiefs told a skeptical Congress.
Top executives of the country's five biggest oil companies said Tuesday they know record fuel prices are hurting people, but they argued it's not their fault and their huge profits are in line with other industries.


This is right up there with Mccain's "I don't care about the people and I don't know much about the economy but have Mr Greenspan's book", and Cheney's 'who care's what the American people think'.... Huh, I wonder how THAT Happened?!

Earthday 2008

"Earth Day April 22, 2008"

Earthdaynetwork Says:
This Earth Day, Make Noise. Make Them Uncomfortable.
Let our leaders know if they want to keep their jobs, they have to do something, something big and bold, to solve climate change.
Earth Day is on a Tuesday this year! They are in, they are at their desks, CALL THEM, go visit them, email them, let them know you are out there, watching!
Sound off To your Leaders :

Call your President
Call your legislature
Call your Mayor
Call your Council Members

If you are in the US...

White House 202.456.1111
Capitol Hill (our Capitol Hill Operators are really helpful, don't be afraid to call and ask for your Member of Congress!!) 202.224.3121
Don't know your congressperson? >Check Here!

March/Organize
Come to the Washington DC Mall on April 20th
Organize your own march to your Capitol
Protest against your local coal Plant
Organize an ED event and get media there
SEND US YOUR VIDEO AND WE'LL POST IT ON EARTH DAY TV!!
Share your plans and experiences with our partners from around the world, participate in our discussion board forums and visit our blog to keep up with the latest news. Earthdaynetwork

Senator John Barrasso proposes to Cut down Trees in order to Save Water

EDIT: 11/18/2012
The senator has been re-elected as the chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, further proof that nothing has changed inside the Republican party.  Too bad, it is clear to everyone that without a mass exodus of the 'old school' party there will be no Republican party resurrection.
end edit.

He quotes that a Russian Olive tree consumes 500 gallons of water per day, and a certain type of cedar requires 200 gallons per day. Has anyone checked this man's credentials? I think 5Th grade science class explained the fresh water cycle pretty clearly, and if I remember correctly it's fairly dependant on trees and other flora to operate properly. And just to confuse you a bit further, he brings this up in a speech on the pending Budget. Gosh, whats this guy about...

Critics Hit Bill on Bark Beetles

Barrasso Beetle Bill

In John's Words (Edit: the link to the Senators statement was broken, added his public page link 11/2012)

In a press release put out when the de-listing announcement was made last week, the senator said, “The special interest groups advocating keeping the animal on the list wouldn't know a gray wolf if it blew their house down.”

And finally the research pays off... no one has in fact checked his credentials. He wants to cut down the trees to save water, and spend money on incentives for developing technology to remove existing excess green houses gases from the atmosphere and permanently sequester them.

Lets see if we can make this easy and get it to him fast:

Fresh Water Cycle








Carbon Cycle:














Note the Green "Trees" in both Cycles




What you'll want to be doing, Mr Barrasso, is getting a carbon credit or a tax credit or something beneficial for each of the trees you and your state plants. Shoot, you and yours could lead the way in water and air purity and not have to do much more than STOP CUTTING DOWN TREES.

Climate Change - What if you held a conference, and no (real) scientists came?

And with this little tidbit falls one of the stanchions on the 'Non-Believers' tally sheet of evidence. Long have they stated that the 'Believers' have paid or otherwise compensated scientists to lend credence to their cause. You only have to have met a scientist or two to understand the chances of so many of them participating in such a scheme is none to zilch.



PeakOil.com: "The Heartland Institute must have realized that this is not what drives the kind of people they are trying to attract as speakers: they are offering $1,000 to those willing to give a talk. This reminds us of the American Enterprise Institute last year offering a honorarium of $10,000 for articles by scientists disputing anthropogenic climate change.

So this appear to be the current market prices for calling global warming into question: $1000 for a lecture and $10,000 for a written paper." (click on the headline to view the full article)

Database assembles U.S. warnings of Saddam threat | Reuters

WASHINGTON, Jan 23
The Bush administration's warnings about prewar Iraq, from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's "mushroom cloud" to Vice President Dick Cheney's statements on weapons of mass destruction, were released on Wednesday in a searchable online database.

The Center for Public Integrity, a Washington research group highly critical of U.S. policy in Iraq, put together 935 comments uttered by eight top administration officials including President George W. Bush in the run-up to the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

publicintegrity.org/WarCard/

It Bears Repeating

People against efforts to improve our environment have long perplexed me. It's not that I don't understand that some people are more concerned with personal gain, I think it may be that I don't understand how a person could put a price on their own and their families lives. Have they convinced themselves that they breath somehow cleaner air? That their food is grown in magically pure soil? Are their cows of a level they can move away from the grass accidentally sprayed with this or that toxin by a stray strong wind?

I've come to understand, if not accept, that it all comes down to money. I still don't get it.
If your town's waterfront (usually the highest income producing area in town if there is one) floods, even by a few inches, that is economic disaster. No supplies, no jobs, no taxes and no revenues.
If your town's farmlands are struck by drought, economic disaster. No food, no jobs, no taxes and no revenues.
If your town is struck by heat/cold wave and aging power grids fail.....
Now realize this is happening around the world...

Now no one cares about the newest car model, or fashion lines or football scores or....
No one is spending any money on anything except food shelter and protection...

There is money to be made in this endeavor, just like any other thing. Climb on board now, be a pioneer, those guys always make a ton of dough!
And if we are wrong, the worst thing that happens is we have clean air to breath, water to drink and food to eat

Please take 15 minutes to watch the 2 videos below
And then take 5 minutes to forward or post it.






Saturday January 12, 2008 - 01:37am (PST)

Washington Flooding Dec 2007

We DID IT! Kitsap County was just added to the list for Federal Storm Aid!

Please, if you have damage and are in other counties, refer to the previous blog for the phone numbers and websites to visit to report your damage. If they don't know the monetary amount of the damage, they can't make the designation.

Kitsap County added to federal storm aid list
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 19th, 2007 12:10 PM

Kitsap County has been added to the list for federal storm aid to individuals.
County officials say they got the word this morning from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The county was previously designated as eligible for aid to local government and a few private agencies. Now individuals with major damage from the windstorms and flooding early this month may also register for assistance.

FEMA previously approved storm-related aid to individuals in Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Pacific and Thurston counties. Gov. Chris Gregoire also has asked that Clallam County be added to the list.


Wednesday December 19, 2007 - 12:52pm (PST)

December '07 Washington Flooding

Federal Disaster designation is based on total monetary damage. It is very important that everyone report their damage to both FEMA and their County. The Stafford Act defines the process that triggers most federal disaster assistance other than assistance for crop losses. The criteria for disaster declarations are vague. The law defines only two categories of presidentially declared disasters: emergencies and major disasters. When the costs of a disaster exceed the resources of state and local government, a governor can ask the President to declare a major disaster.[1] Once the President determines that the event causes damage of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant major disaster assistance, the affected area becomes eligible for a wide range of assistance coordinated by FEMA. At least 13 federal agencies, including FEMA, provide a combination of services, technical assistance, grants, and low- interest loans for disaster response and recovery. FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund pays between 75 and 100 percent of the costs of immediate emergency services, public facilities repair, and assistance to individual families. Click to read more.

Disaster News from FEMA dated Dec 15 '07 states that only 319 people from the 'Non Designated' counties have applied for assistance. Click to read more.

PLEASE CALL 360-307-5968 TO REPORT YOUR KITSAP COUNTY STROM DAMAGE. Click here for other counties and more info.

Kitsap County IS included in the SBA's list of Approved Disaster Assistance counties. SBA has disaster assistance loans not only for small business, but homeowners and renters as well. Click here for more information.

IRS Disaster Information Center provides details on the tax relief available if you have damage.Click here for info

Saturday December 15, 2007 - 04:47pm (PST)

Speaking of China

Ever wonder who is funding the recent (relatively) industrial and economic reform in China? It's pretty clear they aren't going to be very grateful for it, nor should they be. It doesn't take a super computer to predict the outcome of this particular model.
American Imports, Chinese Deaths: The human cost of doing business
Their lungs shut down, their kidneys fail, they lose fingers, limbs, all so Americans are guaranteed an unfettered flow of cut-rate merchandise.

Meet Wei Chaihua - he's dying of silicosis.

By Loretta Tofani Special to The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 10/21/2007 01:06:01 PM MDT

GUANGZHOU, China - The patients arrive every day in Chinese hospitals with disabling and fatal diseases acquired while making products for America. On the sixth floor of the Guangzhou Occupational Disease and Prevention Hospital, Wei Chaihua, 44, sits on his iron-rail bed, tethered to an oxygen tank. He is dying of the lung disease silicosis, a result of making Char-Broil gas stoves sold in Utah and throughout the U.S. Down the hall, He Yuyun, 36, who for years brushed America's furniture with paint containing benzene and other solvents, receives treatment for myelodysplastic anemia, a precursor to leukemia.
In another room rests Xiang Zhiqing, 39, her hair falling out and her kidneys beginning to fail from prolonged exposure to cadmium, which she placed in batteries sent to the U.S. "Do people in your country handle cadmium while they make batteries?" Xiang asks. "Do they also die from this?" 'Big problem for Americans': With each new report of lead detected on a made-in-China toy, Americans express outrage: These toys could poison children. But Chinese workers making the toys - and countless other products for America - touch and inhale carcinogenic materials every day, all day long. Benzene. Lead. Cadmium. Toluene. Nickel. Mercury. Many are dying. They have fatal occupational diseases.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_7239727

Sunday October 21, 2007 - 08:16pm (PDT)

Two Voices, One Message on Climate

Video

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize is being conferred for two starkly different ways of communicating about human-caused global warming.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change speaks in the measured voice of peer-reviewed science and government-negotiations. In four reports issued since 1990, it has always focused on the most noncontroversial findings. In 2001, for instance, it concluded, “There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.”
The other awardee, former Vice President Al Gore, delivers brimstone-laden warnings of an unfolding “planetary emergency.” He has not shied from emphasizing the most emotionally potent, though least certain, consequences of warming, such as its link to hurricane intensity and the likely pace of sea-level rise.

By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: October 13, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/science/13climate.html?ex=1349928000&en=f556a7ed3042384a&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Feb. 6, 2007)

Friday October 12, 2007 - 04:48pm (PDT)

Movers Meet Shakers at Third Annual Gathering of Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative

We need more of these sorts of gatherings. Or maybe we just need better coverage. I remember being in a Tokyo hotel lounge in ‘91 and overhearing a group of men, Japanese American and Australian I believe, discussing global warming and the various treaties and other measures currently in place. They were quite animated over the course of about 2 hours. At first I thought (or perhaps presumed) they were corporate magnates gathered to imbibe and complain about the restrictions forced on them. It wasn’t too long before I realized that they were, in fact, passionately discussing the corporate world’s refusal to participate in the cause, instead focusing their efforts (i.e. money) into fighting the regulations. This group formed several smaller groups to take on several projects geared toward improving their company’s efforts and getting the word out to other industries. I never did figure out exactly what industry they represented, but it hardly mattered. I was so happy to witness this I bought the table a round of drinks.
Below are excerpts from the article, the link to read the entire article is at the bottom.

Movers Meet Shakers at Third Annual Gathering of Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative
By CELIA W. DUGGER
Published: October 1, 2007

“It was conceived as a kind of activist answer to the gathering of politicians, business people and academics at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “The origin of this is Davos,” said John Podesta, who was Mr. Clinton’s chief of staff in his presidency’s final years. “There was a feeling that everyone was talking about these causes and no one was doing anything.”
The Clinton event, held over three days at a Sheraton Hotel, featured tightly choreographed sessions to come up with solutions to specific world problems. Each participant was required to promise to do something concrete to make the world a better place. This year’s themes were poverty alleviation, global health, education and climate change.
Here, the people with causes gained access to people with seriously deep pockets. Chad Hurley, a YouTube founder; Larry Brilliant, who leads Google’s philanthropic foundation, and Carlos Slim Helú, ranked by Fortune the world’s richest man, were among almost 1,300 participants.
The furious networking was not subtle. Standing in the midst of a loud party at the Museum of Modern Art, Nancy Collins, a journalist who has covered her share of society events, described the gathering as “one of those where you have to look over your left shoulder for someone more important.”

In hallways, at cocktail parties and around conference tables, leaders of nonprofit groups hustled for valuable connections.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/world/01clinton.html?ex=1348977600&en=85e25e1125bf1831&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink


Wednesday October 3, 2007 - 05:07pm (PDT)

Bush to Skip U.N. Talks on Global Warming

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 — Dozens of world leaders are to gather at the United Nations on Monday for a full agenda of talks on how to fight global warming, and President Bush is skipping all the day’s events but the dinner.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/world/24warming.html?ex=1348372800&en=bb85b6229a5d7b6a&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
Published: September 24, 2007
The New York Times

Monday September 24, 2007 - 03:15pm (PDT)

People still want to know if Global Warming is real...

The people way up north say its getting warmer is this true?
sorry the same GW debate but still it is still alarming!
Posted question in Yahoo! Answers 9/24/07 by Yowsie

I pulled 4 documents from a general search phrase "average daily temperature England 1910" to include 'North' and avoid unreasonable data methods. I chose the pages used from the first page of results, and those listings showing highest on the page containing most of my search terms in a way that seemed relevant to the question. One of those documents studied and commented on warming only in relation to fluctuations in average daily min's and max's, so was disregarded. These are the result from the 3 remaining pages.

Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (Thats pretty north eh?) The period is 1946–99, a warming episode. Averaged over all stations, the indices of temperature extremes indicate “symmetric” warming of the cold and warm tails of the distributions of daily minimum and maximum temperature in this period. However, “asymmetry” is found for the trends if the period is split into two subperiods. For the 1946–75 subperiod, an episode of slight cooling, the annual number of warm extremes decreases, but the annual number of cold extremes does not increase. This implies a reduction in temperature variability. For the 1976–99 subperiod, an episode of pronounced warming, the annual number of warm extremes increases 2 times faster than expected from the corresponding decrease in the number of cold extremes. This implies an increase in temperature variability, which is mainly due to stagnation in the warming of the cold extremes. http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?requ... This page finds the average mean temperature of the city for the period of 54 years (1873-1926) covered by Weather Bureau statistics was 49.8º. A comparison of average mean temperatures for the past 10 years with those of Boston and New York shows New Haven's figure, 50.34º to be only 0.15º higher than that of Boston and 1.88º lower than that of New York. And the mean annual temperatures for the ten years 1916-1925 52.22. http://www.med.yale.edu/newhavenhealth/d... And this one says NY mean temp 1961-90 is 60.7 http://www.met.utah.edu/jhorel/html/wx/c...

So, we've gone (generally) from 49.8 in 1873-1926 to 52.2 in 1916-1925 up to 60.7 in the years 1961-1990.....I could probably go on...



Monday September 24, 2007 - 04:27am (PDT)

Scientists Report Severe Retreat of Arctic Ice

By ANDREW C. REVKIN
FAIRBANKS, Alaska, Sept. 20 — The cap of floating sea ice on the Arctic Ocean, which retreats under summer’s warmth, this year shrank more than one million square miles — or six Californias — below the average minimum area reached in recent decades, scientists reported Thursday.
The minimum ice area for this year, 1.59 million square miles, appeared to be reached Sunday. The ice is now spreading again under the influence of the deep Arctic chill that settles in as the sun drops below the horizon at the North Pole for six months, starting Friday.
The findings were reported by the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., and posted online at http://www.nsidc.org/.
While satellite tracking of polar sea ice has been done only since 1979, several ice experts who have studied Russian and Alaskan records going back many decades said the ice retreat this year was probably unmatched in the 20th century, including during a warm period in the 1930s. “I do not think that there was anything like we observe today” in the 1930s or 1940s, said Igor Polyakov, an ice expert at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
The ice retreat has been particularly striking this year. The Alaskan side of the Arctic Ocean has stretches of thousands of square miles of open water; the fabled Northwest Passage through the islands of northern Canada was free of ice for weeks; and the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans north of Russia was nearly clear a week ago, with one small clot of ice around a group of Siberian islands.
Mark Serreze, a senior researcher at the snow and ice center, said it was increasingly clear that climate change from the buildup of greenhouse gases was playing a role in the Arctic warming, which is seen not only in the floating ice but also in melting terrestrial ice sheets, thawing tundra and warming seawater.
“We understand the physics behind what’s going on,” Dr. Serreze said. “You can always find some aspect of natural variability that can explain some things. But now it seems patterns that used to help you don’t help as much anymore, and the ones that hurt you hurt you more.”
“You can’t dismiss this as natural variability,” he said. “We’re starting to see the system respond to global warming.”
Still, he and other scientists acknowledged that both poles were extraordinarily complicated systems of ice, water and land, and that the mix of human and natural influences was not easy to clarify.
Sea ice around Antarctica has seen unusual winter expansions recently, and this week is near a record high.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Thursday September 20, 2007 - 11:27pm (PDT)

One Answer to Global Warming: A New Tax

One Answer to Global Warming: A New Tax

New York Times
September 16, 2007
Economic View
By N. GREGORY MANKIW

IN the debate over global climate change, there is a yawning gap that needs to be bridged. The gap is not between environmentalists and industrialists, or between Democrats and Republicans. It is between policy wonks and political consultants.
Among policy wonks like me, there is a broad consensus. The scientists tell us that world temperatures are rising because humans are emitting carbon into the atmosphere. Basic economics tells us that when you tax something, you normally get less of it. So if we want to reduce global emissions of carbon, we need a global carbon tax. Q.E.D.
The idea of using taxes to fix problems, rather than merely raise government revenue, has a long history. The British economist Arthur Pigou advocated such corrective taxes to deal with pollution in the early 20th century. In his honor, economics textbooks now call them “Pigovian taxes.”
Using a Pigovian tax to address global warming is also an old idea. It was proposed as far back as 1992 by Martin S. Feldstein on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal. Once chief economist to Ronald Reagan, Mr. Feldstein has devoted much of his career to studying how high tax rates distort incentives and impede economic growth. But like most other policy wonks, he appreciates that some taxes align private incentives with social costs and move us toward better outcomes.
Those vying for elected office, however, are reluctant to sign on to this agenda. Their political consultants are no fans of taxes, Pigovian or otherwise. Republican consultants advise using the word “tax” only if followed immediately by the word “cut.” Democratic consultants recommend the word “tax” be followed by “on the rich.”
Yet this natural aversion to carbon taxes can be overcome if the revenue from the tax is used to reduce other taxes. By itself, a carbon tax would raise the tax burden on anyone who drives a car or uses electricity produced with fossil fuels, which means just about everybody. Some might fear this would be particularly hard on the poor and middle class.
But Gilbert Metcalf, a professor of economics at Tufts, has shown how revenue from a carbon tax could be used to reduce payroll taxes in a way that would leave the distribution of total tax burden approximately unchanged. He proposes a tax of $15 per metric ton of carbon dioxide, together with a rebate of the federal payroll tax on the first $3,660 of earnings for each worker.
The case for a carbon tax looks even stronger after an examination of the other options on the table. Lawmakers in both political parties want to require carmakers to increase the fuel efficiency of the cars they sell. Passing the buck to auto companies has a lot of popular appeal.
Increased fuel efficiency, however, is not free. Like a tax, the cost of complying with more stringent regulation will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher car prices. But the government will not raise any revenue that it can use to cut other taxes to compensate for these higher prices. (And don’t expect savings on gas to compensate consumers in a meaningful way: Any truly cost-effective increase in fuel efficiency would already have been made.)
More important, enhancing fuel efficiency by itself is not the best way to reduce energy consumption. Fuel use depends not only on the efficiency of the car fleet but also on the daily decisions that people make — how far from work they choose to live and how often they carpool or use public transportation.
A carbon tax would provide incentives for people to use less fuel in a multitude of ways. By contrast, merely having more efficient cars encourages more driving. Increased driving not only produces more carbon, but also exacerbates other problems, like accidents and road congestion.
Another popular proposal to limit carbon emissions is a cap-and-trade system, under which carbon emissions are limited and allowances are bought and sold in the marketplace. The effect of such a system depends on how the carbon allowances are allocated. If the government auctions them off, then the price of a carbon allowance is effectively a carbon tax.
But the history of cap-and-trade systems suggests that the allowances would probably be handed out to power companies and other carbon emitters, which would then be free to use them or sell them at market prices. In this case, the prices of energy products would rise as they would under a carbon tax, but the government would collect no revenue to reduce other taxes and compensate consumers.
The international dimension of the problem also suggests the superiority of a carbon tax over cap-and-trade. Any long-term approach to global climate change will have to deal with the emerging economies of China and India. By some reports, China is now the world’s leading emitter of carbon, in large part simply because it has so many people. The failure of the Kyoto treaty to include these emerging economies is one reason that, in 1997, the United States Senate passed a resolution rejecting the Kyoto approach by a vote of 95 to zero.
Agreement on a truly global cap-and-trade system, however, is hard to imagine. China is unlikely to be persuaded to accept fewer carbon allowances per person than the United States. Using a historical baseline to allocate allowances, as is often proposed, would reward the United States for having been a leading cause of the problem.
But allocating carbon allowances based on population alone would create a system in which the United States, with its higher standard of living, would buy allowances from China. American voters are not going to embrace a system of higher energy prices, coupled with a large transfer of national income to the Chinese. It would amount to a massive foreign aid program to one of the world’s most rapidly growing economies.
A global carbon tax would be easier to negotiate. All governments require revenue for public purposes. The world’s nations could agree to use a carbon tax as one instrument to raise some of that revenue. No money needs to change hands across national borders. Each government could keep the revenue from its tax and use it to finance spending or whatever form of tax relief it considered best.
Convincing China of the virtues of a carbon tax, however, may prove to be the easy part. The first and more difficult step is to convince American voters, and therefore political consultants, that “tax” is not a four-letter word.
N. Gregory Mankiw is a professor of economics at Harvard. He was an adviser to President Bush and is advising Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, in the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Monday September 17, 2007 - 10:30am (PDT)