ANYONE GOT AN EXTRA PFD?
Earth nearing warmest point in a million years, may see rougher El Ninos
The earth is the warmest it has been in the last 12,000 years and is
within 1.8 degrees of its highest average temperature in the past million
years, scientists report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences. The global surface temperature has increased 0.36 degrees each
of the last three decades, more rapidly than during the century up to
1975. “If further global warming reaches [3.6 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit],
we will likely see changes that make earth a different planet than the one
we know,” said NASA’s James Hansen, lead author of the study. “The last
time it was that warm was … about 3 million years ago, when sea level
was estimated to have been about [80 feet] higher than today.” Hansen and
his colleagues are also concerned that warming of the Pacific Ocean could
lead to stronger and more destructive El Nino weather patterns; they say
global warming affects El Ninos much as it does tropical storms. We’ll
batten down the hatches.
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Deborah Zabarenko, 26 Sep
2006 < http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=7743 >
straight to the source: ABC News, Associated Press, 25 Sep 2006
< http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=7744 >
straight to the source: The Wall Street Journal, Gautam Naik, 26 Sep 2006
(access ain’t free) < http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=7745 >
CAN’T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE BLING
Northern forests worth up to $250 billion a year, research says
You thought they were just standing there, but forests in Russia, Canada,
and other northern nations provide services worth up to $250 billion a
year, say Canadian researchers. Water filtration, erosion control, habitat
provision, greenhouse-gas absorption, and tourist attraction are highly
lucrative pursuits that should be valued by governments, says lead
researcher Mark Anielski. The ecological economist calculates that the
benefits provided by forests in Canada — home to one-quarter of the
world’s forests — would amount to about $83 billion, roughly 9 percent of
the nation’s annual gross domestic product. While logging, mining, and
other industrial activities lead to short-term economic growth, the
long-term risks and problems they pose often go unaccounted for. Anielski,
who presented at the just-concluded National Forest Congress in Quebec,
hopes his findings will “change the way decisions are made.” Ah, everybody
loves a dreamer.
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Alister Doyle, 27 Sep 2006
< http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=7756 >
straight to the source: Environment News Service, 25 Sep 2006
< http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=7758 >
straight to the source: CTV, Canadian Press, 24 Sep 2006
< http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=7757 >
THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAM COTE
Ivory Coast scandal highlights illegal dumping of toxic waste
The recent dumping of toxic oil byproducts and subsequent deaths of eight
citizens in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, has highlighted the shady world of
illegal toxic-waste disposal. The practice of unloading nasties on
developing countries was addressed by the U.N.’s Basel Convention in 1989
(you remember that one), but “[w]ith globalization, this has resurfaced,
it is even on the increase,” says Pierre Portas, deputy executive
secretary of the Basel Convention Secretariat. Globalization indeed: the
tanker that offloaded on the Ivory Coast — which was impounded at an
Estonian port yesterday — was Korean-built, Greek-managed,
Panamanian-flagged, and Dutch-chartered. And the Ivory Coast is far from
alone. U.S. activists say 500 containers of computers were shipped to
Lagos, Nigeria, every month last year, up to three-quarters of which were
dumped and burned; a European watchdog said last year that nearly half of
E.U. waste exports were illegal. But hey, at least that old monitor isn’t
taking up space in your garage anymore.
straight to the source: Toronto Star, Reuters, Oliver Bullough, 27 Sep
2006 < http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=7763 >
straight to the source: AlertNet, Reuters, David Mardiste, 28 Sep 2006
< http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=7764 >
THE QUALITY OF COMMERCE IS STRAIN’D
Nature charges that Commerce Department blocked climate-change report
The Commerce Department blocked a National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration report indicating that climate change contributes to stronger
hurricanes, the journal Nature reported yesterday. In February, a seven-member
NOAA panel was directed to prepare a report on agency views regarding climate
change and hurricanes, and a draft indicated that — gasp! — warming might
indeed affect storms. In May, when the statement was to be released, a Commerce
official informed the panel that the report was too technical to be made
public. A NOAA spokesflack disputed the Nature article, saying the document was
simply not ready in May — and besides, it was not a report but a fact sheet.
NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher had a different view, calling it an
internal document that was not released because the agency could take no
official position on the matter — even though the report contained no policy
statements. So many conflicting reports! Guess the only thing we can be sure of
is that climate change affects hurricanes.
straight to the source: Prescott Herald, Associated Press, Randolph E. Schmid,
27 Sep 2006
http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=7755
TENDER LOVING CARIBOU
Judge sides with caribou, bans snowmobiles from some Idaho national forests
Mountain caribou celebrated last week as a judge banned snowmobiles from a
nearly 470-square-mile caribou recovery zone in the Idaho Panhandle National
Forests. The ban will hold unless the U.S. Forest Service can develop a winter
recreation strategy that would enable noisy, polluting vehicles and the last
mountain caribou herd in the Lower 48 states to coexist harmoniously, ruled
U.S. District Judge Robert H. Whaley. There are about three dozen of the
caribou left in the area, with what Whaley called a “precarious finger-hold”
on
survival (although hoof-hold, we think, would have been more apt). Snowmobile
interests blamed logging, backcountry skiing, and climate change for the
shrinking herd; conservationists presented evidence that snowmobile noise
frightens caribou from feeding and calving grounds, and argued that vehicle
trails compact snow, leaving the caribou without deep-snow protection from
predators. “The court chooses to be overprotective rather than
under-protective,” Whaley wrote in his ruling.
straight to the source: The Seattle Times, Associated Press, 26 Sep 2006
THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD
Honda develops “superclean” diesel engine for passenger cars
Honda Motor Co. is aiming to clean up diesel’s dirty image with a new
diesel engine for passenger cars that runs as cleanly as the most advanced
gasoline-powered engines. In 2009, the company plans to start selling a
sedan, probably a Honda Accord, powered by its new “superclean,”
four-cylinder diesel system; the car will be the first diesel model to
meet strict air-quality standards that will come into effect in California
in 2009. Diesel engines get about 30 percent better fuel economy than
gasoline cars, but Americans have long avoided them because of their dirty
emissions — a problem Honda says it’s now solved. Honda is also working
on a six-cylinder diesel system for use in larger vehicles like SUVs. And
the company has just unveiled a small, light, and powerful fuel-cell
electric system that it plans to use in a hydrogen-powered, fuel-cell
electric sports car that will go on sale in 2008.
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, John O’Dell, 25 Sep 2006
< http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=7738 >
straight to the source: The Wall Street Journal, Norihiko Shirouzu, 25 Sep
2006 (access ain’t free)
< http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=7740 >
HUMMER BUMMER
Correction: Schwarzenegger didn’t really sell off his Hummers
News reports published last week and cited here in Daily Grist claimed
that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) had, in a fit of green
consciousness, sold his fleet of Hummers. Turns out that was poppycock. A
media representative in the Governator’s office said Monday that
Schwarzenegger still owns four of the hulking gas-guzzlers. “But the
governor does not drive them anymore, mostly for security reasons,” the
rep said. Is that like not inhaling?
—
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“Our German forbearers in the 1930s sat around, blamed their rulers, said ‘maybe everything’s going to be alright.’ That is something we cannot do. I do not want my grandchildren asking me years from now, ‘why didn’t you do something to stop all this?” –Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst of 27 years, referring to the actions and crimes of the Bush Administration
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