Safe The World

Declining Aral Sea: Satellite Images Highlight Dramatic Retreat

2009-07-13T21:20:00.001-07:00

Earth from Space: Declining Aral Sea

10 July 2009
These Envisat images highlight the dramatic retreat of the Aral Sea’s shoreline from 2006 to 2009. The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth-largest inland body of water, but it has been steadily shrinking over the past 50 years since the rivers that fed it were diverted for irrigation projects.

By the end of the 1980s, it had split into the Small Aral Sea (north), located in Kazakhstan, and the horse-shoe shaped Large Aral Sea (south), shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

By 2000, the Large Aral Sea had split into two – an eastern and western lobe. As visible in the images, the eastern lobe retreated substantially between 2006 and 2009. It appears to have lost about 80% of its water since the 2006 acquisition, at which time the eastern lobe had a length of about 150 km and a width of about 70 km.

The sea’s entire southern section is expected to dry out completely by 2020, but efforts are underway to save the northern part.

The Kok-Aral dike, a joint project of the World Bank and the Kazakhstan government, was constructed between the northern and southern sections of the sea to prevent water flowing into the southern section. Since its completion in 2005, the water level has risen in the northern section by an average of 4 m.

As the Aral Sea evaporated, it left behind a 40 000 sq km zone of dry, white salt terrain now called the Aral Karakum Desert. Each year violent sandstorms pick up at least 150 000 tonnes of salt and sand from the Aral Karakum and transport it across hundreds of km, causing severe health problems for the local population and making regional winters colder and summers hotter. In an attempt to mitigate these effects, vegetation that thrives in dry, saline conditions is being planted in the former seabed.

In 2007, the Kazakhstan government secured another loan from the World Bank to implement the second stage, which includes the building of a second dam, of the project aimed at reversing this man-made environmental disaster.

Envisat acquired these images on 1 July 2006 and 6 July 2009 with its Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument while working in Full Resolution Mode to provide a spatial resolution of 300 m.

$500M in Labor Department Grants Available for Green Job Training Programs

2009-06-28T10:09:00.000-07:00

$500M in Labor Department Grants Available for Green Job Training Programs

By Leslie Guevarra
Published June 24, 2009

Energy & Climate

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Resource Efficiency

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OAKLAND, Calif. -- Grant competitions opened today for $500 million in Recovery Act funds for training programs that will help retool the U.S. workforce for a clean energy economy.

Speaking in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. Secretary of LaborHilda L. Solis announced the availability of grants in five broad program areas that will prepare people for jobs in energy efficiency or renewable energy industries.

About $150 million in grants are earmarked for green job training programs that provide “pathways out of poverty,” and a portion of some $290 million in grants will go toward efforts to retrain workers from the hard-hit auto industry.

"These grants are an essential first step towards not just building America's clean energy economy, but making sure that every community gets to enjoy the benefits of that economy," Green For All CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins said in a statement provided to GreenBiz.com.

"Thanks to Secretary Solis, this money will ensure that the people who most need these jobs have a chance to earn them -- low-income people, people of color, the unemployed, and those without much formal education."

Green For All was a driving force for inclusion of green job training money in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- and for provisions to ensure that training opportunities are extended to some of the country's most economically disadvantaged populations.

Of the $500 million designated in green job training, the Labor Department set aside:

• $150 million in Pathways Out of Poverty Grants. Eligible applicants include national nonprofit organizations that have networks of local affiliates and other partners and local entities.

• $100 million in Energy Training Partnership Grants for programs that will serve workers affected by national energy and environmental policy, workers who need training to update or transition their skills and the unemployed. An unspecified portion of the funds are for projects that serve communities left stranded by the foundering auto industry.

• $190 million in State Energy Sector Partnership and Training Grants for state workforce investment boards that are working with their state governors to devise a strategy that aligns a workforce vision with state energy policy and green job training on local and regional levels. A portion of this money also will be reserved for communities affected by the auto industry meltdown.

• $50 million to state employment agencies to compile labor market data on the energy efficiency and renewable energy industries -- not only to build an information base, but also to support jobseekers who want to pursue work in green industries.

• $5 million in Green Capacity Building Grants to enable organizations to provide training for entry-level or gateway positions.

More information about the grants, eligibility and application deadlines is available from the U.S. Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration and fromhttp://www.grants.gov/.

Green for All and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, both based in Oakland, California, and a coalition of other green job advocates in the region were instrumental in lobbying for the training funds and in creating programs that could be used as models.

“This is a huge victory," Green for All founder Van Jones said in interviews and in his blog in February when Congress passed the final version of the Recovery Act. Jones is now the special advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Commenting on today’s development, Ella Baker Center spokesman Abel Habtegeorgis told GreenBiz.com in a statement that the availability of training grants puts the country more solidly "on the path towards a cleaner, greener, more equitable America."

“This is a crucial step in the right direction as we continue to work to move this country from a pollutant-based economy -- that benefits some and locks out many -- to one that is sustainable and provides hope, opportunity, and lasting change to the lives of millions looking for decent dignified labor that pays well and saves the environment simultaneously," he said.

The Ella Baker Center had further cause for celebration this week. The first class of Oakland Green Jobs Corps trainees graduated on Monday. Forty young adults completed the nine-month job training program for members of at-risk populations.

"The graduation was truly a historic day filled with hope and inspiration," Habtegeorgis said.

The Ella Baker Center was a guiding force in establishing the program, whose leaders and supporters served as resources for the California Green Corps launched by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in March.

The Truth About Glass Recycling

2009-06-28T10:05:00.000-07:00

From: Trey Granger, Earth 911, More from this Affiliate
Published June 22, 2009 02:00 PM

The Truth About Glass Recycling

Before you deposit the next beer or wine bottle into your blue bin, here are a few things to know aboutrecycling your favorite sand-based product:

1. It has the quickest turnaround of any curbside product, back on store shelves in as little as 30 days
2. There’s a strong market for recycled glass, and the demand is not currently met
3. A good portion of glass that you place in your recycling bin is not actually recycled
What is Downcycling?

According to O-I Global, the leading glass manufacturer in North America, about 1.6 million tons of glass are downcycled, translating to almost 40 percent of the 4.2 million tons collected annually for recycling. Furthermore, this 4.2 million tons represents only 25 percent of total glass manufactured, as shown in the chart below.

Let's start by explaining what happens to all this glass that isn’t reprocessed into new containers. To do this, we need to understand the concept of downcycling.

Downcycling is the process by which materials are recycled into a product of lesser-quality. An example for glass containers would be fiberglass or using it as an additive in concrete or ceramic tiles. The decision to downcycle glass is usually based on the quality of material, but who makes that call?

"This is most often the decision of the Material Recovery Facility (MRF)," says Paul Smith, O-I’s Global Sourcing Manager of Cullet. "Aggregate use of glass is important but limited in application. The recycling rate through MRFs could improve."

Rising ocean temperatures near worst-case predictions

2009-06-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

Rising ocean temperatures near worst-case predictions

Adam Morton

June 19, 2009

The ocean is warming about 50 per cent faster than reported two years ago, according to an update of the latest climate science.

A report compiling research presented at a science congress in Copenhagen in March says recent observations are near the worst-case predictions of the 2007 report by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In the case of sea-level rise, it is happening at an even greater rate than projected - largely due to rising ocean temperatures causing thermal expansion of seawater.

Released last night at the European Policy Centre in Brussels, the report says ocean temperatures are a better indicator of global warming than air temperature as the ocean stores more heat and responds more slowly to change.

Report co-author Will Steffen, executive director of the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute, said the top 700 metres of the ocean had warmed by about 0.1 degrees over the past half-century.

"While that looks like a modest figure, that would correspond to something like 15 to 20 times more heat going into the ocean than has gone into the atmosphere," Professor Steffen said.

"Well over half of the increase in ocean temperature occurred in the last 10 years, so the system is accelerating."

The report, titled Climate change: Global risks, challenges & decisions, says greenhouse gas emissions needed to peak within the next six years for the world to give a chance of limiting global warming above pre-industrial levels to about two degrees.

But it warms that even a two-degree rise in temperature would lead to significant risks, including loss of water storage capacity in the Himalayan glaciers and the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

Ice sheet melting could be locked in for centuries before it is felt.

Other findings in the report include that:

* Sea level is predicted to rise by about a metre by 2100, though it notes models of the behaviour of polar ice sheets are in their infancy.

* Summer Arctic sea ice is reducing dramatically, with the decrease in 2008 almost as great as the record loss in 2007. As ice and snow reflect the sun, loss of sea ice will lead to more rapid warming as heat is instead absorbed by seawater.

* Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere have not been substantially higher than now for at least the last 20 million years.

* Global average surface temperature will hardly drop in the first thousand years after greenhouse gas emissions are cut to zero.

DESERTS CROSSING MEDITERRANEAN

2009-06-28T09:59:00.000-07:00

DESERTS CROSSING MEDITERRANEAN

Experts say southern Italy faces severe risk of drying up

(ANSA) - Rome, June 25 - The Sahara Desert is crossing the Mediterranean, according to Italian environmental protection group Legambiente which warns that the livelihoods of 6.5 million people living along its shores could be at risk.

''Desertification isn't limited to Africa,'' said Legambiente Vice President Sebastiano Venneri.

''Without a serious change of direction in economic and environmental policies, the risk will become concrete and irreversible.'' A recent report by Legambiente estimated that 74 million acres of fertile land along the Mediterranean were turning to desert as the result of overexploited land and water resources.

Legambiente said that southern Italy was at severe risk in addition to the islands of Sicily and Sardinia where 11% of all arable land showed signs of drying up. ''Semi-arid coastal regions like southern Italy are prone to the effects of desertification due to farmers' dependence on water from underground aquifers instead of rainfall,'' said Legambiente spokesman Giorgio Zampetti. According to Zampetti, pumping too much fresh water out of these underground deposits can result in seawater leaking in to replace it, effectively poisoning the groundwater.

As an example of the long-term consequences, Legambiente pointed to Egypt where it said brackish groundwater had compromised half the country's farmland.

''The south of Italy isn't the only part of the country at risk,'' added Zampetti. ''Aquifers around the Po Delta in northern Italy have also begun showing signs of saltwater contamination.'' Experts said that the Po River, which is Italy's longest waterway and nearly dries up in parts when industrial consumption peaks, is one of the most visible examples of desertifying climate change in Italy. Italy is not the only country in Europe losing fertile land.

Legambiente estimated that desertification affects more than a fifth of the Iberian Peninsula with early indicators also present along the French Riviera.

Across the Mediterranean, Legambiente said that countries like Libya, Tunisia and Morocco were losing 1,000 square kilometers of fertile land every year.

Legambiente experts predict that between 1997 and 2020, desertification will have forced over 60 million people in sub-Saharan Africa to leave their homes, many of whom will head north to Europe.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome ranks desertification among the chief causes of worldwide famine.

''In addition to destroying the biodiversity of ecosystems and exacerbating the problems related to global warming,'' said Sebastiano Venneri, ''desertification causes people to migrate, perpetuating a vicious cycle of social strife and overpopulation that has placed mankind's survival at risk.'' To turn back the tide on desertification, Legambiente is calling for drastic water conservation measures, particularly with regard to agriculture where it says flood irrigation is a chief culprit behind the exhaustion of local reservoirs.

Simple measures like collecting rainwater for use during drier periods could make the difference in protecting water resources, according to Legambiente.

In the household, it listed a number of novel steps Italian families could take to reduce waste, including recycling water used to boil pasta to degrease pots and pans or to water house plants.

It also urges homemakers to wash fruits and vegetables in a basin with a pinch of baking soda instead of under running water. photo: the Po river near the northern city of Piacenza.

Farm Air Quality Talks Get Underway Amidst New Pollution Findings

2009-06-20T20:52:00.000-07:00

Farm Air Quality Talks Get Underway Amidst New Pollution Findings

By GreenBiz Staff
Published May 3, 2009

Business Operations

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Energy & Climate

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FRESNO, Calif. -- The EPA next week will convene an Agricultural Air Quality Task Force this week in the town that, according to a new study by the American Lung Association, is among the 10 most-polluted cities in the nation.

The Task Force will look into ways that farm operations can minimize air pollution and toxic emissions -- including how to use funding from a $10.9 million assistance package to help achieve those goals.

"This is a pivotal time for agriculture and air quality," says Ed Burton, State Conservationist of the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service in California. "The focus on energy and climate is creating more challenges -- and more opportunities -- for agriculture than ever before. At this meeting we will address technical issues associated with agriculture and forestry."

Appropriately enough, the meeting convenes in one of the cities most affected by these pollution issues. According to the American Lung Association's 2009 "State of the Air" report, Fresno is the second most polluted city in the U.S. for short-term particle pollution, and seventh most pollution nationwide for overall pollution.

Five California cities made the list this year, four of which are farming-intensive cities located in the state's Central Valley farm region. Bakersfield landed at the top of the list for the first time, with Visalia, Hanford, and Fresno also in the top 10. Los Angeles is the remaining California city on the list, in third place overall.

Farming is a leading cause of the overall pollution in these farm cities, including emissions from diesel-powered farm machinery, dust kicked up by those machines, and residues of pesticides and herbicides. But for these California cities, geography plays a major part in leading to accumulations of toxins: the coastal -- and farm-intensive -- city of Salinas, Calif., ranked ninth overall for best air quality.

The overall news from the American Lung Association's report is not good: about 60 percent of Americans live in areas with poor enough air quality to cause serious health problems and endanger lives. Even though many cities have made improvements in air quality in the past decade, the report finds that air pollution lingers at unhealthy levels in almost every major city.

The full details of the report are online at StateOfTheAir.org. The findings of best and worst overall cities for air quality is as follows:

Ten Most Polluted U.S. Cities
1. Bakersfield, Calif.
2. Pittsburgh-New Castle, Pa.
3. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, Calif.
4. Visalia-Porterville, Calif.
5. Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman, Ala.
6. Hanford-Corcoran, Calif.
7. Fresno-Madera, Calif.
8. Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington, Ohio-Ky.-Ind.
9. Detroit-Warren-Flint, Mich.
10. Cleveland-Akron-Elyria, Ohio

Ten Cleanest U.S. Cities
1. Cheyenne, Wyo.
2. Santa Fe-Espanola, N.M.
3. Honolulu, Hawaii
4. Great Falls, Mont.
4. Flagstaff, Ariz.
6. Farmington, N.M.
6. Anchorage, Alaska
8. Tucson, Ariz.
9. Bismarck, N.D.
9. Salinas, Calif.

Polar Bear, Walrus Populations in Trouble:

2009-06-20T20:49:00.000-07:00

From: Center for Biological Diversity
Published June 19, 2009 10:19 AM

Polar Bear, Walrus Populations in Trouble:
Federal Studies Show Tenuous Future for Arctic Icons

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Responding to a court-ordered deadline, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Thursday released long-overdue reports documenting the status of polar bearsand Pacific walrus in Alaska. The reports confirm that polar bears in Alaska are declining and that Pacific walrus are under threat. Both species are imperiled due to the loss of their sea-ice habitat due to global warming, oil and gas development, and unsustainable harvest.

"Polar bears and walrus are under severe threat, and unless we act rapidly to reduce greenhouse pollution and protect their habitat from oil development, we stand to lose both of these icons of the Arctic," said Brendan Cumming, oceans program director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

The new reports, issued pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, summarize information on population abundance and trends of polar bears and walrus, threats to the species, and include calculations of human-caused mortality and whether that mortality is sustainable.

There are two polar bear populations in Alaska: a Southern Beaufort Sea stock, which is shared with Canada, and a Chukchi/Bering Sea stock which is shared with Russia. The Pacific walrus occurs in the Bering and Chukchi seas and is shared with Russia.

For the Southern Beaufort Sea polar bear stock, the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated a minimum population of 1,397 bears and an annual human-caused mortality of 54 animals, well above the calculated sustainable rate of 22 animals per year. The stock assessment states that "the Southern Beaufort Sea population is now declining."

For the Chukchi/Bering Sea polar bear stock, the Service estimated a minimum population of 2,000 bears and an annual human-caused mortality of 37 animals from Alaska and between 150-250 bears killed per year in Russia. The calculated sustainable rate of harvest is 30 animals per year. The stock assessment states that "the population is believed to be declining" and is "reduced based on harvest levels that were demonstrated to be unsustainable."

For the Pacific walrus, the Service estimated a minimum population of 15,164 animals and an annual human-caused mortality of between 4,963 and 5,460 animals. The calculated sustainable rate of harvest is 607 animals per year.

Of the three population estimates, only the estimate for the well-studied Beaufort Sea polar bears is considered reliable. The Chukchi/Bering Sea polar bear population is based on incomplete data and could be an overestimate, while the walrus estimate is an underestimate as it only represents surveys in about half of the walrus habitat and does not account for walrus not counted because they were in the water rather than hauled out on ice.

"These reports publicly confirm what scientists have known for several years: Polar bear and walrus populations in Alaska are in trouble," added Cummings. "And even if the population numbers are not precise, we know that without their sea-ice habitat they are likely doomed."

The Marine Mammal Protection Act requires that the secretary of the interior and the secretary of commerce prepare stock assessments for marine mammals. The assessments are meant to be used as the basis for management decisions such as permitting the killing or harassment of the animals from commercial fisheries, oil and gas exploration, boating and shipping, and military exercises.

A copy of the stock assessments released today can be found athttp://alaska.fws.gov/fisheries/mmm/reports.htm

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 220,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Mars Lake Held as Much Water as Lake Champlain

2009-06-20T20:41:00.000-07:00

Mars Lake Held as Much Water as Lake Champlain

Michael Reilly, Discovery News

Martian Lake Champlain | Discovery News Video

June 18, 2009 -- Nestled in a valley near the Martian equator, scientists have discovered the striking remnants of an ancient lake.

Though dry and frigid now, the traces it left behind hint at a water body younger than any other on the planet, and its sediments are a prime target for finding fossilized alien life.

When Mars coalesced billions of years ago it was much warmer, and probably wet. Features that appear to be eroded river deltas more than 3.7 billion years old dot parts of the planet's surface. Researchers have speculated they are evidence of lakes -- and primitive life may have once existed on the surface.

Now Gaetano di Achille and a team of researchers at the University of Colorado in Boulder have found an ancient shoreline ringing Shalbatana Vallis, a gash in Mars' surface just east of the massive volcanic province, Tharsis Rise.

They estimated from powerful images obtained using the powerful High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), that lake was 450 meters (1,476 feet) deep and nearly identical in volume to Lake Champlain in Vermont. Even more intriguingly, it dried up around 3.4 billion years ago -- 300 million years after the Red Planet's "warm and wet" phase is thought to have ended. And its deltas appear rich in fine-grained sediments, a sign that they've been relatively untouched by erosion.

"Deltas are high priority targets for exploration because they imply copious and long-lived water," team member Brian Hynek of the University of Colorado in Boulder wrote in an email to Discovery News. "And the sedimentation process is very effective at burying and preserving organic material."

The discovery could force a rethink of Martian climate history, but it's equally possible that it is an aberration. While the rest of the planet became cold and dry, volcanic heat from the Tharsis Rise could have released groundwater into the valley, and kept the lake ice-free for thousands of years.

"We need to be careful saying Mars was warm and wet," Patrick McGovern of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston said. "Some experts think the features we see are a result of episodic pulses. Heat from an impact could have produced something like this lake, for instance."

Either way, the lake is a tempting place to look for fossilized alien life forms.

"Life wouldn't have arisen in this lake, but lakes on Earth provide many habitats for countless organisms," Hynek wrote. "This lake could have helped sustain and proliferate life on Mars, if it ever arose."

Nissan to make electric cars in U.S.

2009-06-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

Nissan to make electric cars in U.S.: report

Fri Jun 19, 2009 10:20pm EDT

1 of 1Full Size

(Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co plans to launch production of electric vehicles and their batteries in the United States to tap low-interest loans for green vehicles, the Nikkei business daily said.

The overall investment is estimated at 50 billion yen ($516.4 million) and may rise to 100 billion yen, it said.

Under the plan, the new electric-car assembly lines are to be built at a plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, where Nissan North America Inc is based, the paper said.

The facility, capable of making 50,000 to 100,000 eco-friendly vehicles a year by 2012, is expected to first produce a small passenger car, it said.

Nissan also intends to construct a production facility for high-capacity lithium ion batteries at the Smyrna site with NEC Corp.

The company has applied for funding from the U.S. government under a low-interest-loan program to support the automobile industry.

Nissan will soon receive approval for a loan of more than 100 billion yen, the paper said, citing a source familiar with the matter.

Nissan intends to assemble up to 50,000 electric cars a year in Japan starting in fall 2010, the paper said.

($1=96.83 Yen)

(Reporting by Jennifer Robin Raj in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

Black Carbon" Chokes Chilean Towns

2009-06-19T10:22:00.000-07:00

From: Jane Zhou, Worldwatch Institute, More from this Affiliate
Published June 17, 2009 10:26 AM

"Black Carbon" Chokes Chilean Towns

On winter nights, Carmen Ahumada is unable to see across the street to her neighbor's house. Visibility in Temuco, Chile, can be as low as five meters at times, she said.

Temuco, with a population of 300,000, has the fourth most polluted air in the country, according to local media. The burning of firewood for heating, cooking, and other uses is the main source of soot particulates, known as "black carbon," that enter the air at levels 150 percent higher than the national standard and more than four times the World Health Organization's recommended limit.

In 2008, Temuco violated Chilean air pollution laws on 34 days, three times the number of days as in 2004.

Cold weather conditions, especially at night, trap urban air pollution near the ground, cloaking Chile's urban areas in thick smog. The problem worsens during the winter, when lower temperatures and poor home insulation ratchet up the amount of firewood burned.

"There are a lot of people here who suffer because of the pollution. The government promises and promises to help," Ahumada said. "The day arrives, and nothing happens."

On many counts, Chile has taken the lead in Latin America in tackling urban air pollution. But little has been done to help smaller towns address particulate pollution from firewood burning, which supplies 20 percent of the country's energy, according to local residents and officials.

Firewood use in the world's poorest regions has been recognized as a contributor to local air pollution, public health concerns, and more recently global climate change. Yet even in Chile, the most prosperous nation in South America, locals are struggling to overcome the effects of black carbon.

About a third of the world still burns wood and other biomass for cooking, heating, and lighting, accounting for 13 percent of global energy consumption. But burning does not completely break down the wood, resulting in the release of particulate matter into the environment. The soot contains carbon monoxide, heavy metals, and carcinogenic dioxins such as benzene and formaldehyde.

Detrimental health effects have been well documented and include asthma, respiratory infections, decreased lung function, malnutrition, cardiovascular disease, and cataracts. Such effects are particularly harmful to the elderly, young children, and the poor, according to researchers.

"I don't think it's an exaggeration to call [an indoor firewood stove] a toxic waste plant," said Kirk Smith, a global environmental health professor at the University of California at Berkeley who has studied the health effects of wood stoves in India and Central America.

A Chilean national health commissioner has warned that poor air quality conditions may increase the risk of swine flu and other current health challenges, with the situation potentially exacerbated in small towns like Temuco.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the leading international body of climate scientists, concluded in its 2007 assessment report that burning firewood may affect the global climate as well. When soot settles on light-colored snow or ice, it reduces the capacity of these surfaces to reflect sunlight and contributes to atmospheric warming.

"It doesn't matter if it's a fossil fuel or a biomass fuel, it all contributes to the problem," said Smith, who is researching the use of more-efficient wood-burning stoves for health and climate reasons.

Some scientists have argued that black carbon's warming effect is greater than the IPCC estimated. The particulates are possibly the second most significant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide and three times more potent in its climate-altering effects, recent studies said [PDF].

Burning firewood as an energy source often contributes to increased levels of deforestation, adding to climate concerns. In Chile, however, forest cover is on the rise, according to the World Bank.

Chile began fighting worsening air pollution in the 1990s in Santiago, the country's capital and home to half the national population. Since then, sulfur and nitrogen pollution have decreased significantly, but particulate matter remains a problem because of increasing population and vehicular traffic.

In Coyhaique, the city that recently ranked the worst in particulate air pollution, 97 percent of residents burn firewood. Firewood in Chile is four times cheaper than paraffin, five times cheaper than natural gas, and seven times cheaper than electricity. Most homes, including Ahumada's, are not equipped for other types of heating systems and are poorly insulated.

In Temuco, where 85 percent of residents burn firewood, the government began measuring local air pollution levels only in 2002. Three years later, the urban area of Temuco-Padre Las Casas was declared a "zone of saturated pollution." Apart from municipal efforts to promote more sustainable burning methods, no official policies regulate the use of firewood.

"In Chile, firewood actually isn't recognized as a fuel [by the government] despite being the second largest source of energy in the country," said Rony Pantoja, regional technical secretary of the National Firewood Certification System (SNCL), a partnership between firewood dealers and the government. "There are no policies that modernize and make sustainable [firewood] use.... It gives the impression that this issue doesn't interest [the national government in] Santiago."

In 2005, the Chilean Senate Committee on Mines and Energy met with SNCL to discuss addressing firewood management issues in the newly created Ministry of Energy. The partnership with SNCL encourages firewood dealers to sell drier wood, which lessens the release of harmful particulates into the air. For a nominal fee of 200 Chilean pesos (35 U.S. cents), sellers receive an official label that they can display to indicate their firewood's quality. By comparison, a cubic meter of wood costs 15,000-22,000 pesos.

Yet local, regional, and state governments have failed to cooperate widely, Pantoja said. As a result, less than 3 percent of publicly purchased wood, including that used in schools, government offices, and even local health agencies, was certified by SNCL, El Mecurio reported in 2008. A year later, the share has risen to 34 percent, Pantoja said.

SNCL's goal is not to impose binding firewood standards on anyone, but to encourage sellers and consumers to be more aware of the issues and to demand higher quality wood, Pantoja said. He hopes one day to establish a Certified Firewood Supply Center that would help improve poor residents' access to quality firewood.

"There's an important part of the population that doesn't have much purchasing power, those who live practically day to day," Pantoja said. "For them, it's difficult to get quality firewood. We yearn to establish a social supply center for certified firewood, but for this we need the support of more institutions. We can't do it alone."

Both urban and national population growth in Chile have held steady at around 1 percent for several years, and air quality is improving, according to the World Bank. But environmental remediation efforts have been concentrated mainly in Santiago and have only recently spread to secondary cities. Meanwhile, smaller municipalities like Coyhaique and Temuco are among the most rapidly growing urban areas in Latin America and face the greatest sustainable development pressures.

For residents of polluted towns, the pace of politics is not enough. The regional decontamination plan issued by Chile's National Commission of the Environment (CONAMA) allotted 30 million pesos (US$53,250) to help with improving fuel quality, replacing heating technology, and beefing up homeinsulation. These funds, however, will be dispersed in projects taking place only over the next 10 years.

"I have just enough for water, light, cooking, and buying the things I need," said Ahumada, who lives on about US$266 per month. "CONAMA has promised for two years to help out, but there is no help at all."

Arctic Sea Ice Extent Trending Below Record 2007 Melt

2009-06-19T10:17:00.000-07:00

Arctic Sea Ice Extent Trending Below Record 2007 Melt

Is global warming sending the Arctic toward another record? Most likely -- if not this year, then soon. See 15 Things You Can Do to Help the Environment.

This composite satellite image shows the Arctic in May 2009.

Photo: NSIDC

By Dan Shapley


Buzz up!

The annual melting of Arctic sea ice is trending toward another record-low.

While it's still too early to say whether the 2009 melt will exceed the record 2007 melt -- the annual low-point isn't reached until September -- the trend line for 2009 for the first time has dipped below 2007, according to the latest data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Another record would be startling, but not surprising. Just 30% of the sea ice in the Arctic at the height of the winter freeze was thicker multi-year ice, leaving 70% susceptible to rapid melting. The amount of ice in the Arctic as of February 2009 -- the height of the annual freeze -- was the lowest on record. Most arctic scientists now say they expect an ice-free Arctic in summer within the next three decades -- far ahead of the projections in the last comprehensive United Nations report on global warming.

The melting of Arctic sea ice is one of the clearest signals of global warming, and a leading indicator of what is to come. The melting is also an example -- one of many -- of a positive feedback loop that scientists expect will accelerate global warming: As sea ice melts, the darker water that is exposed absorbs more of the sun's energy, which leads to warmer waters and more melting ice.

The Arctic is referred to as the "Earth's air conditioner," moderating climate worldwide. More directly, Arctic species like polar bears, seals and walruses are becoming threatened as their habitat shrinks. The latest data may not be surprising, but it is not encouraging. It's another indicator that the world needs to take action to slow and reverse the effects of climate change, which means reducing our emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. To that end, there was no good news from the latest round of world climate talks, where nations were unable to reach consensus on key issues, according to AFP.

Research Provides Foundation for Effective Management of the "Dead Zone" in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

2009-06-19T10:13:00.000-07:00

CSCOR-supported Research Provides Foundation for Effective Management of the "Dead Zone" in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

LATEST UPDATES

OFFICIAL 2009 FORECAST FOR THE SIZE OF THE DEAD ZONE TO BE ISSUED THE WEEK OF JUNE 15 - 19, 2009

Updates Archive

Since its inception in 1990, the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science's Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research (CSCOR) has provided the research foundation upon which management of the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico is based. This nearly 20 year, $27 million commitment is an exemplar of NOAA's goal to "protect, restore and manage the use of coastal and ocean resources through ecosystem-based management."

Hypoxia (low dissolved oxygen) occurs in many of the world's aquatic environments. Hypoxic and anoxic (no oxygen) waters have existed through geologic time, but the frequency of their occurrence in shallow coastal and estuarine areas worldwide is increasing, largely attributed to anthropogenic nutrient pollution. The largest zone of oxygen-depleted coastal waters in the United States, and the second largest for the world's coastal oceans, is in the northern Gulf of Mexico on the Louisiana continental shelf.

The interagency Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Forcewas established in the fall of 1997 as part of a process of considering options for responding to Gulf of Mexico hypoxia. The Task Force is made up of leading representatives from states and the federal government, and includes Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator. In 2001, the Task Force issued its first Action Plan that set a goal to reduce the size of the hypoxic zone to 5,000 km² by 2015.

This Action Plan, which included 11 specific implementation actions, suggested that a 30% reduction in nitrogen load is needed to reach the goal. Following a scientific reassessment process, the Task Force released the 2008 Action Plan, which reaffirmed the goal of reducing the hypoxic zone and suggested 45% reductions of both nitrogen and phosphorus.

For nearly 20 years, NCCOS' Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research, formerly the Coastal Ocean Program, has been on the forefront of this effort. CSCOR involvement began with the NECOP Program; supporting interdisciplinary projects that provided the resource base for the COP-sponsored Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (CENR) integrated assessment in 2000 that was called for in the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act (HABHRCA). This assessment and its six supporting technical reports provided the state-of-knowledge on the characteristics, causes, and effects of Gulf of Mexico hypoxia, and guided the scientific consensus leading to the Action Plan. CSCOR has played a leading role on the Coordinating Committee for the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Forceand co-chairs its Monitoring, Modeling and Research Workgroup. In addition, CSCOR continues to lead the support and management of hypoxia research in this region through the HABHRCA-mandated NGOMEX Program.

Knowledge gained through the NGOMEX Program satisfies several elements of the Action Plan. Ongoing studies, utilizing a regional ecosystem approach, are documenting the dynamics of the hypoxic zone over the Louisiana continental shelf and helping to better define the relationships among nutrients, phytoplankton, carbon production and flux, physical properties, and hypoxia effects on fisheries. These studies are leading to enhanced predictive models capable of examining a multitude of interacting factors (e.g. nutrient input and recycling, freshwater inflow, circulation patterns) on the size of the hypoxic zone and how hypoxia affects commercially and ecologically important species in the region. These predictions of complex processes, or ecological forecasts, will allow for the comprehensive assessment of alternative management strategies within the context of influences from the basin and climatic trends. In FY'08 CSCOR's commitment to supporting Task Force science needs was renewed as an additional three year $781,000 project was initiated for the NGOMEX program.

As part of an adaptive management process, in 2006 the Task Force initiated a scientific reassessment of the 2001 Action Plan. Building on knowledge gained through the NGOMEX program, CSCOR led several elements of a science reassessment, coordinating symposia and preparing peer-reviewed scientific papers, including the Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico: Assessing the State of the Science Symposium, co-led with EPA. These scientific symposia and papers provided up-to-date information to an evaluation of the science by an EPA Science Advisory Board Hypoxia Advisory Panel. by Results from the science reassessment, combined with the independent science review by the EPA Science Advisory Board Hypoxia Advisory Panel, has served to update and synthesize research efforts on the causes and consequences of the hypoxic zone and assess progress in implementing nutrient reduction measures in the Mississippi River watershed. This information subsequently led to the adoption of the 2008 Action Plan.

CSCOR continues to address science needs highlighted during the science reassessment through newly funded NGOMEX projects, and CSCOR-sponsored meetings. In 2007 CSCOR sponsored two critical workshops, the Summit on Long-Term Monitoring of the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone: Developing the Implementation Plan for an Operational Observation System, and theEcological Impacts of Hypoxia on Living Resources Workshop. These workshops have formed the foundation for ongoing efforts to improve monitoring of the hypoxic zone and understand the impacts of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico.

Zero-emission vehicles

2009-06-19T05:42:00.000-07:00

A car that has neither an engine nor a muffler will debut on the Japanese market next month. Developed by Mitsubishi Motors Corp. the "i-MiEV" is the world's first mass-produced zero-emission minicar that does not need an internal combustion engine because it runs on a motor charged with electricity.

The car may usher in a new age of driving that does not require petroleum fuel.

Mitsubishi's sales target for the i-MiEV in fiscal 2009 is a modest 1,400 units. The company will sell the vehicle only to corporate and government customers until April 2010, when the general public will also be able to buy this green car. The company hopes to sell 15,000 units during fiscal 2011.

The i-MiEV's per-kilometer cost of electricity is only 3 yen, considerably less than the price of gas for the same distance. However, the car itself is certainly not cheap--about 3.2 million yen if the buyer qualifies for a government subsidy for green-car owners.

The i-MiEV can travel 160 kilometers on its lithium-ion battery pack, but it will take 14 hours to fully recharge the battery from a 100-volt household power outlet.

In terms of price competitiveness and user-friendliness, the i-MiEV is not even close to hybrid cars already being marketed by Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. Unless Mitsubishi corrects these shortcomings, the i-MiEV may have a tough time.

That said, however, the i-MiEV's merits are remarkable. It emits no carbon dioxide (CO2). Even when taking into account CO2 emissions at the power plants that generate the power needed for charging the car, it emits only about one-third of the CO2 of a gasoline minicar. The i-MiEV certainly reduces the "original sin" of automobiles that have polluted the environment with exhaust, and helps to curb global warming.

Other Japanese automakers are entering the market. Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. will start selling its electric vehicle next month, while Nissan Motor Co. will reportedly begin production in autumn 2010 of about 50,000 units per year. Once solar power becomes a readily available energy source, it will no longer be a dream to fill the roads with zero-emission cars.

We eagerly await further technological developments and hope the prices of such vehicles will reach affordable levels.

Ford Motor Co. of the United States ushered in the "century of automobiles" with its Model T, the world's first mass-produced gasoline car. General Motors Corp., which overtook Ford and became the top-selling automaker in the world, filed for bankruptcy protection last week, making us aware that the age of gas guzzlers has ended.

Now, Japanese automakers are leading the way to a new century of non-gas eco-cars.

While makers need to keep striving for greater efficiency and safety and better prices for their customers, the popularization of green cars is also contingent on other factors, such as the availability of government subsidies for buyers and securing the rare resources needed for battery production.

Another issue is that even if the batteries can be easily recharged from household outlets, the overall carbon footprint will not necessarily shrink if there is increased coal-fired power generation that produces a lot of CO2.

It will be necessary to make cleaner alternative resources more available, such as solar panels--and not just for households.

About five years ago, Mitsubishi was in a crisis because of a recall coverup scandal. We believe the automaker is now staking its reputation on electric vehicle development out of a genuine desire to rebuild itself. Some Mitsubishi people say they have yet to fully recover the trust of consumers.

The development and successful marketing of green cars are vital to the rebirth of the struggling auto industry. We would like "Made in Japan" to come to mean "safe, affordable and green."

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 10(IHT/Asahi: June 11,2009)

Report: Agriculture Holds the Key to Solving Global Warming

2009-06-19T05:37:00.000-07:00

Report: Agriculture Holds the Key to Solving Global Warming

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now ABC7, June 2, 2009
Straight to the Source

Agriculture, so often cited as a factor in global decline - for claiming natural grasslands that store carbon, soil erosion and pesticide runoff - could become a big part of the solution to global warming, according to a hopeful report by Worldwatch Institute released today.

Innovations in food production and land use that are ready to be put to work could reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to roughly 25 percent of global fossil fuel emissions and be managed to reduce carbon already in the atmosphere as well, according to WWI and Ecoagriculture Partners.

Carbon capture technology remains unproven and will take a decade at least to put into operation. By contrast, agricultural and land use management practices that are ready today could be employed to sequester carbon through photosynthesis by growing and sustaining more plants.

To understand how and why the agricultural approach to climate change must be a part of the solution, the public first needs to recognize that the world must "go negative" with carbon emissions - producing fewer than it churns out to reach the necessary reductions by 2050, said Sara Scherr, co-author with Sajal Sthapit of the report, Mitigating Climate Change Through Food and Land Use.

Policymakers must go beyond improving energy efficiency and scaling up renewables and add ways to pull down emissions from forestry and agriculture operations.

More than 30 percent of all human-caused greenhouse gases are linked to agriculture and land use, notes the report, which rivals the combined emissions of the transportation and industry sectors.

The report outlines five ways to reduce and sequester carbon using farming strategies:

* Enriching soil carbon. Soil, the third largest carbon pool on Earth's surface, can be managed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by minimizing tillage, cutting use of nitrogen fertilizers, and preventing erosion. Soils can store a vast amount of additional carbon by building up organic matter and by burying carbon in the form of biochar (biomass burned in a low-oxygen environment).

* Farming with perennials. Two-thirds of all arable land is used to grow annual grains, but there is large potential to substitute these with perennial trees, shrubs, palms, and grasses that produce food, livestock feed, and fuel. These perennials maintain and develop their roots and branches over many years, storing carbon in the vegetation and soil.

* Climate-friendly livestock production. Livestock accounts for nearly half of all greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and land use. Innovations such as rotational grazing, manure management, methane capture for biogas production, and improved feeds and feed additives can reduce livestock-related emissions.

* Protecting natural habitat. Deforestation, land clearing, and forest and grassland fires are major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Incentives are needed to encourage farmers, ranchers, and foresters to maintain natural forest and grassland habitats through product certification, payments for climate services, securing tenure rights, and community fire control.

* Restoring degraded watersheds and range lands. Restoring vegetation on vast areas of degraded land can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while making land productive again, protecting critical watersheds, and alleviating rural poverty.

EPA Examines Health Impact of Shredded Tires

2009-06-18T14:23:00.001-07:00

EPA Examines Health Impact of Shredded Tires

by Trey Granger

Based on new research that shows shredded tires may release arsenic, lead and mercury into the products they are used in, the EPA is examining the safety of using them in applications such as playground surfacing.

Part of the investigation is a small-scale survey commissioned by the EPA. Its goal is to determine if children can suffer health risks from ingesting the toxic chemicals present in tires.

Added to soil under playing fields, crumb rubber improves drainage and root structure of grass. Ground rubber applications accounted for 12 percent of scrap tire use in 2005. Photo: Southernledger.com

In addition to playground surfacing, ground rubber is used as an additive for artificial turf, and the Center for Disease Control issued an advisory for potential lead contamination from this turf just last year.

While the investigation is underway, the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility is requesting that the EPA remove its endorsement of using crumb rubber in consumer products.

The Rubber Manufacturers Association has responded that several studies show no health risks from using recycled rubber, and are calling this a “misinformation campaign.”

High-Altitude Wind Machines Could Power New York City

2009-06-18T11:24:00.001-07:00

High-Altitude Wind Machines Could Power New York City

By Alexis Madrigal
June 15, 2009 |
6:36 pm |
Categories: Earth Science, Energy, Environment

The wind blowing through the streets of Manhattan couldn’t power the city, but wind machines placed thousands of feet above the city theoretically could.

The first rigorous, worldwide study of high-altitude wind power estimates that there is enough wind energy at altitudes of about 1,600 to 40,000 feet to meet global electricity demand a hundred times over.

The very best ground-based wind sites have a wind-power density of less than 1 kilowatt per square meter of area swept. Up near the jet stream above New York, the wind power density can reach 16 kilowatts per square meter. The air up there is a vast potential reservoir of energy, if its intermittency can be overcome.

Even better, the best high-altitude wind-power resources match up with highly populated areas including North America’s Eastern Seaboard and China’s coastline.

“The resource is really, really phenomenal,” said Cristina Archer of Cal State University-Chico, who co-authored a paper on the work published in the open-access journal Energies.”There is a lot of energy up there, but it’s not as steady as we thought. It’s not going to be the silver bullet that will solve all of our energy problems, but it will have a role.”

For centuries, we’ve been using high-density fossil fuels, but peaking oil supplies and climate concerns have given new life to green technologies. Unfortunately, renewable energy is generally diffuse, meaning you need to cover a lot of area to get the energy you want. So engineers look for renewable resources that are as dense as possible. On that score, high-altitude wind looks very promising.

“We might extend the application of [wind] power to the heights of the clouds, by means of kites.”

utopian technologist John Etzler, 1833

Wind’s power — energy which can be used to do work like spinning magnets to generate electricity — varies with the cube of its speed. So, a small increase in wind speed can lead to a big increase in the amount of mechanical energy you can harvest. High-altitude wind blows fast, is spread nicely across the globe, and is easier to predict than terrestrial wind.

These properties have led inventors and scientists to cast their hopes upward, where strong winds have long been known to blow, as Etzler’s dreamy quote shows. During the energy shocks of the 1970s, when new energy ideas of all kinds were bursting forth, engineers and schemers patented several designs for harnessing wind thousands of feet in the air.

The two main design frameworks they came up with are still with us today. The first is essentially a power plant in the sky, generating electricity aloft and sending it down to Earth via a conductive tether. The second is more like a kite, transmitting mechanical energy to the ground, where generators turn it into electricity. Theoretically, both approaches could work, but nothing approaching a rigorous evaluation of the technologies has been conducted.

The Department of Energy had a very small high-altitude wind program, which produced some of the first good data about the qualities of the wind up there, but it got axed as energy prices dropped in the 1980s and Reagan-era DOE officials directed funds elsewhere.

The program hasn’t been restarted, despite growing attention to renewables, but that’s not because it’s considered a bad idea. Rather, it is seen as just a little too far out on the horizon.

“We’re very much aimed these days at things that we can fairly quickly commercialize, like in the next 10 years or so,” said National Renewable Energy Laboratory spokesperson George Douglas.

Startups like KiteGen, Sky Windpower, Magenn, and Makani (Google’s secretive fundee) have come into the space over the last several years, and they seem to be working on much shorter timelines.

“We are not that far from working prototypes,” Archer said, though she noted that the companies are all incredibly secretive about the data from their testing.

Magenn CFO Barry Monette said he expects “first revenue” next year when they sell “two to four” working prototypes of their blimpy machine, which will operate at much lower altitudes.

“We do think that we’re going to be first [to market], unless something happens,” Monette said.

In the long term, trying to power entire cities with machines like this would be difficult, largely because even in the best locations, the wind will fail at least 5 percent of the time.

“This means that you either need backup power, massive amounts of energy storage, or a continental- or even global-scale electricity grid to assure power availability,” said co-author Ken Caldeira, an ecologist at Stanford University. “So, while high-altitude wind may ultimately prove to be a major energy source, it requires substantial infrastructure

PESTICIDE MAY SEED AMERICAN INFANT FORMULAS WITH MELAMINE

2009-06-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

PESTICIDE MAY SEED AMERICAN INFANT FORMULAS WITH MELAMINE

By Janet Raloff

Infant formulas purchased from stores in Canada show widespread tainting with traces of melamine, a toxic constituent of plastics and other materials. In China, the fraudulent use of melamine as a protein replacement in infant formulas resulted in the poisoning of more than 1,200 babies last year, six of whom died. Canada’s widespread contamination, however, appears unintentional and to stem from a very different source.

Chemists with Health Canada in Ottawa report they have yet to identify the source of the pollutant they’ve just turned up in 71 of 94 samples of infant formula. In a report of their findings, however, just published online ahead of print in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Sheryl Tittlemier and her colleagues do finger one key suspect: the insecticide cyromazine. It’s legal for use on food crops and animal forage — and melamine is one of its breakdown products.

“In all instances in which melamine was detected, concentrations observed were below the standard of 0.5 micrograms per gram set by Health Canada for infant formula,” the researchers note. Indeed, levels ranged from 4 to 346 nanograms per gram (or parts per billion) of assayed formula. Based on the concentration present in even the most contaminated product, Tittlemier’s group calculates that a baby’s likely intake of the kidney-toxic chemical would only come to about 1 percent of the allowable intake.

The peak tainting found, 346 ppb, is in the same ballpark that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported finding in a single domestic infant formula — one of 74 samples it tested last year. In November, Stephen Sundlof, director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, noted that at such concentrations U.S. infant formulas are “safe” for continued use as a sole source of nutrition for babies.

The real question is how melamine has been making its way into North American infant formulas. At a press briefing last fall, Sundlof posited that it might be from melamine-based plasticware or food packaging. He noted that some foodware and plastic-laminate counter materials are made from melamine, which studies have shown can leach into foods.

But clearly, no one believes manufacturers are storing their wholesale supplies of baby formula in melamine vats. It also would appear, Tittlemier’s group says, that the melamine it found did not come from packaging. These chemists tested the material lining the can from which the most tainted formula had come — and found no melamine. Most reassuring: Melamine concentrations in North American products are far lower than those linked with the deliberate adulteration of dairy products in China.

Which brings Tittlemier's group back to cyromazine, an insecticide used on Canadian and U.S. produce. The pesticide’s manufacturer has published data showing that when goats had been dosed with a radioactively labeled form of the insecticide, five to nine percent of the residues turned up as radiolabeled melamine in the milk. “It appears plausible,” Tittlemier and her colleagues now conclude, “that milk from cattle exposed to cyromazine may contain melamine,” explaining how the chemical could end up in milk-based infant formula.

Of course, melamine also turned up in most of the 19 samples of soy-based formula that Health Canada tested — products with no milk. I’m guessing the pesticide is also used on soybean fields, although a quick scan of FDA’s pesticide-tolerance data sheet doesn’t identify allowable levels for soy as it does for onions, potatoes, corn, radishes and lima beans.

Bottom line: Even our salads and casseroles may have a little something in common with the laminate counter tops on which so many are prepared: melamine.

Government report shows climate change is happening now and impacting entire U.S.

2009-06-17T15:38:00.001-07:00

A press conference was held Tuesday to discuss a study prepared by the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States is the third study issued since the enactment of a 1990 federal law requiring the research program to report on natural and human-caused effects on the environment every 10 years.

Dr. Thomas Karl, Director of the National Climatic Data Center, discussed these major points:

* Global temperature has increased one and a half degrees over the past 50 years, and are projected to rise another 2 to 11.5ºF, primarily due to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases.

* Climate-related changes have been observed globally and in the United States. There is an observed increase in heavy downpours, alterations in river flows, and rise in sea level. "Some of the changes have been faster than previous assessments had suggested."

* Reducing emissions of carbon dioxide would lessen warming over this century and beyond.

The study lays out the effects of global warming on specific U.S. regions and sectors. It shows impacts on infrastructure, agricultural production and food resources specific to each region. The study reveals impacts to human health nationwide, coastal areas like the Gulf, and water resources in the regions of the U.S. like the Southwest. The report shows that although the impacts are different from region to region, climate change is impacting all of us not just the glacier fields of the arctic. The report also notes that climate change will interact with other anthropogenic and environmental stressors, increasing these impacts. “Climate change will combine with pollution, population growth, overuse of resources, urbanization, and other social, economic, and environmental stresses to create larger impacts than from any of these factors alone”

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco’s closing statement was a clear call for action. "I think much of the foot-dragging in addressing climate change is reflective of the perception that climate change is way down the road in the future, and it only affects remote parts of the planet," she said. "This report demonstrates that climate change is happening now, in our own backyards, and it affects the things that people care about."

The need to act now was reiterated by many of the experts and authors. "What we've shown in this assessment is that we do need to act sooner rather than later," said University of Illinois scientist Donald Wuebbles. "We want to avoid the worst of the kind of changes that we looked at."

Despite the bleak forecast, Lubchenco and others stated that "It's not too late to act." The report states that “the amount and rate of future climate change depend primarily on current and future human-caused emissions of heat-trapping gases and airborne particles. Responses involve reducing emissions to limit future warming, and adapting to the changes that are unavoidable."

Australia's forests key to fighting global warming

2009-06-17T09:45:00.001-07:00

Australia's forests key to fighting global warming

Reuters, 16 June 2009 - Ancient Australian forests are key to fighting climate change and contain the world's most dense carbon store, eclipsing tropical rainforests as efficient greenhouse gas absorbers, scientists said on Tuesday.

Towering Mountain Ash forests covering Victoria state's cool highlands hold four times more carbon, or around 1,900 tonnes of carbon per hectare, than tropical forests, scientists at the Australian National University said.

"The trees in these forests can grow to a very old age, at least 350 years, and they can grow very large, very tall, and they grow very dense, heavy wood," said Brendan Mackey, a professor of environment science.

The researchers studied biomass data from 132 forests around the world to discover regions storing the most carbon, with results published in the U.S.-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Australian forest was compared to old growth tracts on the United States Pacific Coast, Siberia, the central Amazon, Thailand and Cambodia, Venezuela, Finland and elsewhere.

The findings overturn conventional thinking about the carbon density of different forest types that until now held that tropical rainforests were the most carbon-dense, Mackey said.

The Victorian forest, part of the water catchment for Australia's second biggest city Melbourne, was a large store because the area had been protected from logging, highlighting the link between old growth forest felling and global warming.

"Part of the reason these trees store so much is that they have reached mature growth. You are just never going to store the same amount of carbon if you are turning the forest over every 40 years," Mackey told Reuters.

"This reinforces the point that we need to think about the carbon value of these forests, which we've just been thinking of until now as wood supply," he said.

A second reason for Mountain Ash's carbon efficiency was that plant growth rates were balanced by rates at which biomass decayed, with the cool Victorian forests conducive to high growth and slower rates of decomposition.

That placed Australia's living and dead biomass carbon among Mountain Ash forest at 1,900 tonnes per hectare against 650 tones per hectare in temperate U.S. Pacific forests and between 140 and 250 tonnes in most rainforests globally.

The Victorian forests are in rugged mountains at the head of the Yarra River, which eventually flows through the centre of Melbourne, and is surrounded by national park and state forest.

Mackey said the findings could be of real help in planning the fight against climate change in other parts of the world.

"If we were to have climate change policies that recognised the mitigation value of the carbon stocks in natural forest, then that would give a completely different set of values about forest resource management," he said.

Australia's Wilderness Society said the carbon stored in the native forests of Southeast Australia was equivalent to 460 million tonnes of greenhouse gas per year for the next 100 years, with 9.3 billion tonnes of carbon stored.

"This research demonstrates how important it is for the (national) government to now take seriously the carbon stored in our remaining native forests," said Virginia Young, the society's Strategic Campaigns Coordinator.

Mounting evidence shows native grasses could destroy explosives pollution

2009-06-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

COLUMBIA | Besides the obvious reason, TNT is not good for you.

But grass, it turns out, might be dynamite for the problem.

TNT contaminates hundreds of sites, from military firing ranges to old production dumps to waterways, and poses a threat to the human nervous system and to the liver and kidneys. It’s suspected to cause cancer. It can cause allergic reactions and attack the immune system, and it may lead to birth defects.

Left alone in the soil, TNT breaks down into an even more toxic substance.

If the problem is left in the dirt, maybe that’s where the solution can grow.

Three Missouri researchers have hit on an idea that could potentially scrub away the TNT danger: Simply plant the right kind of grass.

The notion started with mounting evidence that native grasses could render harmless a common weed killer.

That herbicide, atrazine, is the second most common herbicide used in the U.S. and has been a stubborn pollutant in the nation’s waterways. Mounting evidence has shown that certain native grasses, and the microbes that thrive around their roots, convert the toxic leftovers from atrazine into harmless carbon dioxide.

Robert Lerch, John Yang and Chung-Ho Lin began talking about how chemically similar atrazine is to the explosives TNT and RDX.

“If it worked for atrazine, we thought it might work for these things,” said Lin, a research professor for the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry.

Should their idea succeed, it would offer a greener, cheaper and possibly quicker way to clean up more than 530 sites across the country contaminated by the explosives.

Trinitrotoluene, or TNT, and cyclotrimethylene trinitramine, also called RDX, began creeping into U.S. soil and waterways decades ago, before the manufacturers of explosives came under stricter regulation.

The problem isn’t small. Of the 538 locations identified by the Department of Defense with RDX or TNT contamination, 20 are Superfund sites — classified by the federal government as the country’s most dangerous abandoned toxic waste sites. Congress rejected a Pentagon proposal in 2005 to exempt the military from regulations for pollution from munitions.

“It’s a serious problem, and it’s widespread,” said Andrew Wetzler of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

To clear a field tainted by those explosives — typically to haul away the dirt for incineration — can run from $100,000 to $1 million an acre.

The researchers in Columbia have doped soil samples with explosives and planted two species of grass.

In essence, the explosives practically disappear.

It’s unclear whether it’s the grasses — Eastern gamagrass and switchgrass seem to work best — do the work themselves, whether it’s two forms of bacteria that thrive in soils around grass roots that do the trick, or if something happens in how they work together.

But in a closet-size room basking in fluorescent lights, a solution to explosives pollution looks to be taking root.

The scientists added RDX and TNT to cup-size soil samples and planted the grasses. In just weeks, the toxic chemicals degraded harmlessly into carbon dioxide and water.

“It’s a controlled situation to look at how these chemicals break down,” said Yang, the director of the Center of Environmental Sciences at Lincoln University.

The next step, perhaps still a year or two away, is to test the process outdoors.

The researchers are talking with the Army — the initial research has been covered by $110,000 in Defense Department grants — about trying the grasses on already contaminated sites.

Since the grasses are native and grow easily across the Midwest and the Southeast, they pose no threat of kudzu-like exotic species seen as their own environmental threat.

Initial tests show that the amount of RDX in soil is reduced by 50 percent in a matter of weeks, and TNT contamination drops by 95 percent.

So, Lerch said, a year or two after planting, a field could be cleaned of the explosives contamination.

And the cost might run less than $3,000 per acre.

“If this works, it will be great,” he said.

“It’s so simple.

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Research Provides Foundation for Effective Management of the "Dead Zone" in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

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Zero-emission vehicles

Report: Agriculture Holds the Key to Solving Global Warming

Report: Agriculture Holds the Key to Solving Global Warming

EPA Examines Health Impact of Shredded Tires

EPA Examines Health Impact of Shredded Tires

High-Altitude Wind Machines Could Power New York City

High-Altitude Wind Machines Could Power New York City

PESTICIDE MAY SEED AMERICAN INFANT FORMULAS WITH MELAMINE

Government report shows climate change is happening now and impacting entire U.S.

Australia's forests key to fighting global warming

Mounting evidence shows native grasses could destroy explosives pollution

Polar Bear, Walrus Populations in Trouble:
Federal Studies Show Tenuous Future for Arctic Icons