Alan Gregory’s Conservation NewsRepublican’s Climate Solution: Clear-Cut the Rain Forest. By John Collins Rudolf. New York Times.
If he is so stupid he doesn’t know trees suck up carbon dioxide, not emit it, what about his views on the economy, medicine, national defense?
Has there ever been a time in America when science was held back so much by politicians who are avaricious fools?
The finite availability of western water is part of the reason Ralph Maughan previously posed the question : Will the resource sucking “sin city” be reclaimed by the desert ? Perhaps eventually, but in the meantime – despite setbacks, the Southern Nevada Water Authority keeps stretching its tentacles in a continuing effort to draw-down surrounding water resources:
Hundreds Protest Las Vegas Water Grab – Great Basin Water Network Press Release
Nevadans and Utahns made it clear once again that Las Vegas won’t take water from rural Nevada without a fight.
This at a time when the Interior Department has announced a report commissioned by the Bureau of Reclamation – which has presumably brushed up on its 9th grade math – highlighting the impacts of climate change to western water resources – including a projection of an 8 to 20 percent decrease in average annual stream flow in several river basins, including the Colorado, the Rio Grande, and the San Joaquin.
Interior Releases Report Highlighting Impacts of Climate Change to Western Water Resources – Interior Press Release
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today released a report that assesses climate change risks and how these risks could impact water operations, hydropower, flood control, and fish and wildlife in the western United States. The report to Congress, prepared by Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation, represents the first consistent and coordinated assessment of risks to future water supplies across eight major Reclamation river basins, including the Colorado, Rio Grande and Missouri river basins.
National Wildlife Federation Prepared to Sue Montana Over Mega-loads. By George Prentice. Boise Weekly.
Exxon is now getting ready to test taking the megaloads up Highway 12 and through Montana. There could be as many as 200 gigantic loads from Exxon sent to Alberta. Some, however, are being broken down into smaller loads so they don’t have to travel on beautiful Highway 12.
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Here is some good news on the struggle fighting the tar sand oil. Ottawa fights EU’s dirty fuel label on oil sands. Climate Connections. The EU is going to label it as a dirty fuel.
I was thinking of writing an essay on this yesterday after I read about this vote, but I see Andrew Leonard already wrote it, and it was published on-line at Salon.com.
Triumph of the flat-earth Republicans. Who cares what scientists believe? The House GOP is on the record, now and for all time: The earth isn’t warming. Salon Magazine. March 16, 2011
Tim DeChristopher was convicted at his trial after not being allowed to explain the motives for his prank. Do Motives Matter? The DeChristopher Verdict. The New York Times. By Kirk Johnson.
Inside traders, coal and oil company disaster creators, military contractors break the law with no fear. Two Justices of the Supreme Court plot openly with the Koch Brothers, but who gets convicted? As climate crime continues, who are we sending to jail? Tim DeChristopher? By Bill McKibben. Grist Magazine.
Some people are outraged. Read below (written shortly before his trial).
Why is Obama prosecuting Tim DeChristopher, the gas-lease pranker? Jeremy Bloom. Red, Green, and Blue.
Every Western pine from the Yukon to New Mexico is suffering high mortality from unusually severe attack by native insects, diseases and direct mortality from drought and heat. Lodgepole pine, which often grows in vast almost monocultural stands, is dying too. Almost anyone who lives in the West knows this. In many places the beauty of the forest has been greatly marred for many miles.
Climate Change Takes Toll on the Lodgepole Pine. By John Collins Rudolf. New York Times.
When lodgepole pine dies, the needles first turn red for a year before they fall off. While red, they burn with remarkable explosive force. After they are dead, however, lodgepole and other dead conifers do not burn as fiercely as a green forest. A common misconception is that they do, a mistake this New York Times article perpetuates. Lodgepole are shallow rooted. When dead they are easily blown over in windstorms. If they pile up in large “jackstrawed” heaps, these can burn very hot. Miles of downed lodgepole also form barriers to wildlife migration.
I took this photo of red lodgepole pine near Stanley, Idaho about 5 years ago. Since then, they have almost all died and many fallen over or cut down. They didn’t burn.
I don’t think it will, not as the so-called conservatives in office today look at the world. However, back in the world of facts where Lake Mead isn’t far from the level of “dead pool,” there will be enormous consequences for all the Colorado River Basin states: Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, California.
Salazar: Colorado River issue could push conservatives to face climate change. By Karoun Demirjian. Las Vegas Sun
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego places Lake Mead at a 50% chance to run dry by 2020, with its enormous power production inoperative by 2017. They gave a 10% chance it would be inoperable by 2014.
The refrigerator gets warmer, and the room (the lower latitudes) get colder.
The cold winters of late might be a climate change rather than random variability. The explanation would be the weakening of the cyclonic winds that keep the extreme cold penned into the high latitudes.
Cold Jumps Arctic ‘Fence,’ Stoking Winter’s Fury. By Justin Gillis. New York Times.
Despite some recognition today, just one tree is being planted in Queensland for every one hundred cleared to increase livestock grazing.
Yes, it rained a lot for a long time, but cows on huge tracts of “cleared” land made the disaster.
Video. http://suprememastertv.com/save-our-planet/?wr_id=1659
There are a lot of people who tend to think snowy weather means there is no global warming (they tend to watch Fox News). Actually, the opposite is true, at least under the current level of warming.
What does a blizzard on the U.S. East Coast mean for global warming? By David Biello. Scientific American.
As arctic ice continues to melt, scientists have predicted where last few polar bears will make their last stand.
Where Polar Bears Might Go If Climate Change Doesn’t Slow. By Pete Spotts. Christian Science Monitor/ABC News
Their Washington Bureau news chief emailed them saying, “refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question.” Apparently they would be expected to say “some scientists say there was an ice age 450,000 years ago, but that is based on a theory whose data has been called into question.”
Whether the average temperature has changed worldwide is a matter of fact, not of theory. Theories are designed to explain facts and predict new facts (to test a theory and to expand a theory). One can question the process of measurement — say it is wrong — but that has nothing to do with theory. I doubt that few news stories would have time to discuss how average temperatures are calculated and where measurement error might creep in.
Fox News e-mail shows network’s slant on climate change. By Paul Farhi. Washington Post Staff Writer
Overfishing does not create waters with no fish. The vaccum is replaced by billions of jellyfish.
Jellyfish story in Science Daily
Lose-lose . . . sounds like a Western land use issue.
Clearing tropical forests is a lose-lose. Michael Marshall. New Scientist.
This is not a complete project. If you can add anything on candidates’ positions that would be interesting. R L asked us for some help, but we were not able to give him much.
Stupid Goes Viral: Climate Zombies of HI, ID, MN, MT, OR, WY. By R L Miller
Senator Crapo is one of Idaho’s U.S. Senators. He is running for re-election this year, and looks very solid for winning over Democrat Tom Sullivan. On Crapo: “In Idaho, Senator Mike Crapo believes that ‘While there is no dispute over the fact that the Earth’s climate has changed many times over the planet’s history, the underlying cause of these climactic shifts is ultimately not well-understood and is a matter of vigorous debate.’ “
We posted about this repeal effort earlier, but a good article about the Koch Brothers by a California minister.
Passing Prop. 23 would send California Reeling Backwards. Syndicated Columnist, Author, Pastor of the Resurrection Community Church Oakland, CA
Grizzly feeding on elk © Ken Cole
Doug Peacock continues to enrich the debate over grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem :
Global Warming, Killer Bears? Doug Peacock, Counterpunch
Biologists sometimes like to quibble that losing the grizzly because of the collapse of whitebark pine forests may be the least of our ecological worries. Ecosystems are, of course, founded on the backs of bugs and bacteria not bears. But there is another argument, less scientific, for keeping a few grizzlies around: the American grizzly bear, especially the isolated population marooned on the island of Yellowstone Park, stands alone in defiance of human arrogance. It is the single North American animal who challenges our dominion, reminds us that we are not top dog in the wilderness or within the food pyramid.
Russia blames fires on global warming. Moscow hits 100 degrees. New York Times. By John Collins Rudolf.
Russia moves rockets as wildfires spread. Associated Press.
Meanwhile summer forest fires are a bit below normal in the western United States, although air is getting is typical August haze or worse in many places. Numerous soaking thunderstorms have washed over southern and central Utah and Colorado, Arizona.
The truth about global warming. Monday, August 2, 2010. Washington Post editorial.
Meanwhile Rolling Stone has a great article on the sorry death of the Climate Bill (or better stated the death of the sorry Climate Bill). It is premium content.
Once again Obama was gutless and clueless.*
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*Note: I feel bad writing all these negative things about Obama because the Republican office-holders are so much worse. Nevertheless, he should not be allowed to continue in his failures.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Grousing at windmills | Need to Know | PBS
Climate change may favor couch-potato elk. Heading for the hills every spring appears worse than staying put. By Susan Milius. Science News.
I have to wonder what the pollution of the Gulf of Mexico will do to the continent spanning bird migrations?
Climate Expertise Lacking among Global Warming Contrarians. “A majority of scientists who dispute global warming lack the climatological expertise to do so.” By David Biello. Scientific American.
I would say that the “contrarians” have largely carried the day in public opinion. Too bad scientific truth isn’t discovered that way. Then the Earth would indeed be flat.
If biomass energy production were fully implemented, it would become the single largest human impact to land in the country, requiring the near full utilization of all the U.S. forests and much of its agricultural lands for fuel production, contributing to what one TNC scientist has termed “energy sprawl.”
Biomass Energy Juggernaut Threatens Human and Forest Health.
George Wuerthner – New West
Although the first article below has a somewhat pessimistic tone, this certainly seems better than the current trend in boreal Canada. There is more value to the vast boreal forest than caribou.
Caribou still at risk under historic forestry deal. Industry, environmentalists band together for sustainability. By Hanneke Brooymans, edmontonjournal.com
-Ducks Unlimited is plenty happy. DU celebrates boreal wetlands protection announcement. Vital wetland systems in Canada’s Boreal Forest conserved.
This pact will not stop the biggest threat in the area, the open pit mining of “tar sands,” conversion of which into synthetic oil is tremendously polluting and has relatively poor net energy efficiency.
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*Methane, CH4, is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, CO2
Pika © Ken Cole
With very few systematic surveys of pikas there is not much to compare the results of this most recent survey to. The questions that still needs to be answered are what impact is climate change having on the survival of pikas in, especially, the isolated ranges of the pika’s range? Are the pikas being squeezed out of lower elevation sites to cooler, higher elevation sites?
A trend cannot be determined from just one sample and this information should be considered a baseline.
In places where pikas are systematically surveyed they are disappearing like in the Bodie Hills of California.
American Pika Are Thriving in the Sierra Nevada and Southwestern Great Basin
ScienceDaily
I should add, however, that I think we will find that treating areas with other kinds of land cover the right way might prove to be very important too.
Protected Forest Areas May Be Critical Strategy for Slowing Climate Change. ScienceDaily
Pika © Ken Cole
Decision expected tomorrow.
Two previous stories on the pika listing process:
Formal Protection For Pika Due To Climate Change
May 7, 2009
U.S. agrees to consider protections for pikas
February 15, 2009
Pika decision could have far-reaching effects
By MIKE STARK – Associated Press Writer
Update 2/4/10: Federal agency denies protections for tiny pika
I review grazing allotment renewal documents and rarely, if ever, have I seen climate change discussed. When it is discussed, and only in response to comments by WWP, the agencies claim that issues related to global warming and livestock grazing are beyond the scope of the project. Unfortunately, grazing compounds the effects of global warming by creating warmer and drier landscapes which, in turn, impacts wildlife.
There is a very good case to be made that eliminating grazing from public lands would also reduce the effects of global warming by 1) reducing desertification and 2) increasing carbon sequestration in soils. As Brian Ertz has illustrated in his post from last year, public lands can be very effective carbon sinks if allowed rest from livestock grazing. This is an important idea that needs to be kept in mind when discussing public lands ranching.
Federal agencies may have to consider climate before they act
By Jim Tankersley – L.A. Times
Heavily impacted soils and vegetation in Nevada's desert. © Ken Cole
Sage Brush with ancient soil crusts Cave Valley, Nevada © Ken Cole
Although this article focuses on the effects to Rainier National Park, melting could result in a deadly mudflow downriver.
Rainier’s rocks are filling riverbeds. The fallout from Mount Rainier’s shrinking glaciers is beginning to roll downhill, and nowhere is the impact more striking than on the volcano’s west side. By Sandi Doughton. Seattle Times science reporter
These clouds can be seen for several hours after the sun has set. They form in the summer at high latitudes, but they are getting denser and appearing farther south. The shine at night because they are 50 miles above the ground and reflect the sun’s rays hours after the sun has disappeared on the ground. They are still above the Earth’s curve.
They are made of ice particles and might be increasing because of the build up of carbon dioxide and the warming lower atmosphere which might have caused the stratosphere to get even colder. However, this hasn’t been proven.
At any rate, have you seen them while camping or whatever?
Pictures: “Night Shining” Clouds Getting Brighter. National Geographic News.
This is an amazing development. Hopefully it won’t be difficult to move it from the lab to sources of carbon dioxide gas such as coal, oil and natural gas fired power plants.
Bacteria Engineered to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Liquid Fuel. ScienceDaily
Canada’s image lies in tatters. It is now to climate what Japan is to whaling. The tar barons have held the nation to ransom. This thuggish petro-state is today the greatest obstacle to a deal in Copenhagen. George Monbiot. U.K. Guardian.
We have posted several articles on oil sands development. It is said to be the single biggest greenhouse gas polluter on the planet.
The article below is related to the one posted about “Sen. Udall sponsors bill to attack pine beetles.”
It’s good to finally see some attention to the role of forests as carbon sinks, but it is not clear how to maximize their role as sinks, or even how to prevent them from becoming carbon sources.
On thing the article doesn’t discuss the the amount of carbon stored in forest soils. In the dry interior forests with shallow soils, it probably isn’t much. In the wet, big tree forests west of the Cascades up into British Columbia and coastal Alaska , the kind of logging done in the past, clearcuts followed by burning slash, has a horrible effect on the carbon storage.
Every kind of forest probably needs to have a different carbon management plan.
Story in the New York Times by William Yardley. Note that the Times headline is misleading as a description of the article’s content.
It looks like Tim DeChristopher will pay heavily for his civil disobedience. Republican prosecutors were not amused, and the judge will not allow a defense based on necessity to protect the climate.
Here is an op-ed in the Salt Lake Tribune on the DeChristopher ruling: An evil day for justice. By Rebecca Hall
“The boreal forest stores more carbon than any land-based ecosystem on the planet, according to a new report that says the Amazon is no match for Canada’s boggy bush.”
It turns out that a major reason is all peat under the trees. Too many carbon sequestration analyses only look at the vegetation above the ground, maybe not even the roots, and certainly not the soil. Very serious errors of policy will be made unless the entire structure of the land from bedrock to the tallest vegetation is not taken into account.
Story: Canada’s boreal forest top-rated carbon warehouse. By Margaret Munro, Canwest News Service.
What the Democrats did is what you might expect, but in the past the Democrats have said, “Oh we need some bipartisanship,” when it is clear the minority at present wants nothing to do with bipartisanship.
I guess no one will be surprised by the one Democrat to vote against it — Montana’s nobleman senator Max Baucus.
So the climate bill will head to the floor of the Senate.
Senate Democrats advance climate bill without GOP. By Dina Cappiello. The Associated Press
New on Nov. 6. Democrats Push Climate Bill Through Panel Without G.O.P. Debate. By John M. Broder. New York Times.
We’ve talked about how despite Hamburgers being the ‘Hummers’ of Food in Global Warming, and How Meat, Especially Beef Contributes to Global Warming, big agribusiness and the livestock industry flex their political muscle and are exempted from Meating the Truth every time (like on the Climate Bill).
Now, a bill has just passed the U.S. House of Representatives that includes an amendment from Idaho’s Mike Simpson that :
prevents the Environmental Protection Agency from being allowed to gather any data on the contribution that animal agriculture makes to climate change.
So even the EPA conducting scientific inquiry into Livestock’s contribution to Climate Change could be cut off, if the President signs the bill.
Simpson even opined: “If the EPA had existed in Biblical times, there is no question in my mind that it would have regulated gas emissions from Noah’s Ark. Poor Noah and his livestock; they could withstand a 40-day flood, but they would never have survived the EPA.”
This news right after a new report suggests that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s report (Livestock’s Long Shadow) estimate that Livestock contribute 18% of human global warming gases in the world (more than all trains, planes, and automobiles) might have significantly underestimated Livestock’s relative contribution to Climate Change :
Livestock and Climate Change – by Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang
With all the escaped animals from all over the tropics finding a home in Florida, things are getting exciting. Studies show some large snakes could survive as far north as Oregon.
Giant snakes warming to U.S. climes. By Janet Raloff . Science News.
The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a “there ain’t no climate change” outfit organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is seeing a hemorrhage of support from utility corporations.
Utility Quits Alliance Over Climate Change. By Kate Galbraith. New York Times.
Livestock grazing, water mining, dams, all serving to desertify the West which ends up blowing, in the form of dust, to the East causing snow to melt faster and making less water available in the long run.
“After decades in which Easterners ritualistically visited the American West, the West may be traveling east.”
Red Snow Warning: The End of Welfare Water and the Drying of the West
by Chip Ward in the Huffington Post.
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Related article added on 9/15. New study shows river runoff decreases in driest years in Oregon, Northwest. By Joe Rojas-Burke, Oregonian.
We’ve frequently discussed the environmental costs of new power generation, including wind and solar on public lands and centralized versus distributed generation. All energy production has environmental consequences. But while everyone’s talking about the pros and cons of the next generation technology, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council has found that although it may not be as sexy, the real ‘bang for the buck’ is in conservation.
Conservation could provide 85 percent of power
The new plan envisions the Northwest actually using less power in 10 years than it does now, even as the population rises, he said.
Council member Dick Wallace of Washington said conservation measures cost less than half of what new power generation costs, and they don’t add new carbon emissions.
Bill Moyers considers whether Obama has sold out environmentalists.
Obama and Environmentalists ~ Bill Moyers Journal – July 17, 2009
Bill Moyers’ blog goes on to ask : How Should America Respond to Global Warming?
Read the rest of this entry »
Salazar cites failure to provide adequate Endangered Species Act consultations as on the forefront of his decision to scrap attempts to log BLM land in Oregon.
Obama Admin Scraps Logging Plan in Ore. Carbon Sinks – New York Times
The move scraps a Bush-era decision to rezone 2.6 million acres of Bureau of Land Management forests, which would have tripled current logging production and opened old-growth forests to clear-cutting.
The Climate Bill has passed the House. It still must clear the Senate where the coal, gas and oil lobbyists hope to make still better for them. There are those who blame Obama for not spending more of his still considerable political capital on this. This permitted enough of the House Democrats to cave to the lobbyists to make the opening for the traditional polluters possible. As usual, the Republicans were with coal, oil, gas and nuclear from the start.
Getting the bill through the Senate is very tough because 60 votes are needed to beat the inevitable filibuster. The Democrats don’t really have 60 votes although they now have 60 seats. Due to illness, Democratic Senators Edward Kennedy and Robert Byrd are almost never there to vote.
One idea is that getting a bill on the books is a start. It can be strengthened later. Perhaps. This has happened with many other bills, but often as not Congress just moves on figuring they have dealt with that issue. There are so many more on their plate.
Story in the New York Times. Disillusioned Environmentalists Turn on Obama as Compromiser. By Leslie Kaufman.
Additional. Senate Democrats Begin Drawing Road Map to 60 Votes on Climate Bill. By Darren Samuelsohn of ClimateWire in the New York Times.
Scientists have been speaking about how regulation to ensure greenhouse gas emission reductions needs to be comprehensive to work. Unfortunately, Obama folded to the Big Ag lobby on one of the most significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions :
THE INFLUENCE GAME: Excuse me! Lobby wins on burps – AP
One contributor to global warming — bigger than coal mines, landfills and sewage treatment plants — is being left out of efforts by the Obama administration and House Democrats to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Cow burps.
Belching from the nation’s 170 million cattle, sheep and pigs produces about one-quarter of the methane released in the U.S. each year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That makes the hoofed critters the largest source of the heat-trapping gas.
We’ve spoken of the potential for our public lands to act as carbon sinks.
When you think about public lands and the value that these places have to serve our efforts to curb global climate change I’d like you to consider a new idea that is as old as dirt ~ passive restoration. Yes, I’m suggesting that part of the answer might be to remove our footprint on those places we can – and in doing so – let the land catch it’s breath.
Just as trees draw CO2 out of the atmosphere, so does the life of soil and other healthy plant communities. In fact, even in places as arid as the Mojave desert, researchers have found that healthy, undisturbed living-soils may draw as much carbon out of the atmosphere as temperate forests ! Can you imagine ? Resting the land from soil disturbing activities that degrade living-soils and remove vegetation, precluding the living carbon from being recycled back into the soil, ~ preserving our natural environmental heritage ~ may actually be an important strategy in mitigating climate change – a way to actually and directly take carbon out of the atmosphere.
Perhaps these ideas will be considered in the study recently announced concerning sagebrush communities :
Soil carbon sequestration study begins – Casper Star Tribune
Scientists believe increasing the carbon in soils — a process known as soil carbon sequestration — may help reduce the rise of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere that contribute to global warming
The Obama Administration upheld Bush’s industry-friendly, obstructionist interpretation of the Endangered Species Act when Obama’s rancher Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, issued a decision refusing to consider ESA regulation of carbon emissions, the chief threat to the listed Polar Bear.
No global warming crackdown for polar bears – Las Angeles Times
Energy industry groups celebrated Friday, as did many Republicans.
“The Endangered Species Act is not the proper mechanism for controlling our nation’s carbon emissions,” said Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute.
Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington, the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee, praised Salazar for “a common-sense decision that will ensure more jobs are not lost due to excessive regulations of greenhouse gases by the government.”
Department of Interior’s News Release – Anyone else notice how Obama’s Interior has a habit of issuing these things on Friday (end of the news cycle) just like Bush ? The Obama decision to uphold Bush’s politicized wolf delisting rule was made public on a Friday too …
This is an entirely political decision made on entirely political grounds. What happened to Obama’s promise to uphold science over politics with his Administration’s decisions ?
President Obama’s Interior : If it looks like a Bush, sounds like a Bush, and acts like a Bush … …
Pika © Ken Cole
People who frequent the alpine areas of Idaho may be familiar with these small relatives of rabbits. Pikas live in boulder fields where they harvest herbaceous plants and carry them into their dens. You can often hear them calling “eeeep” from these areas. They are very sensitive to high temperatures so, with global warming, their range is becoming more limited. The southern populations suffer from limited habitat which is shrinking due to warmer temperatures and there have been startling losses.
“An investigation in 2003 discovered that six of the 25 pika populations in the Great Basin had vanished, attributed to the effects of warming temperatures.”
An Affordable Salvation by Paul Krugman. New York Times op ed
Congress is debating the climate change bill right now. Cap and trade is a market based method of controlling carbon emissions. That means “free market” conservatives will probably support it, right? Think again.
It’s amusing to see the conservative distortion of Krugman’s position. Take this right wing Idaho blog, for example, Krugman on Climate Change Costs. Right Mind.
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If climate change efforts prove too costly, it won’t be because of mechanisms like cap and trade, or my preference, pollution taxes. It will be because the no carbon energy technologies adopted prove to have too many harmful environmental or national security defects, such as building huge, remote solar farms, conected to “the grid” by long, new transmission lines.
The Western United States is naturally dusty, right?
With the exception of some dry lake beds and parts of very hot deserts this is not true.
Soil is held in place from the wind by vegetation and rock. Anything that reduces the ground cover to dirt will result in it blowing away in the wind. Even deserts where there appear to be wide barren spaces between plants are not naturally bare. Desert soil is naturally covered by a microbiotic crust. This holds the dirt down except in the strongest winds. Unfortunately, hooves and wheels destroy this crust.
Microbiotic crust. Great Basin. Copyright Ralph Maughan
I took the photo above in early April near Pocatello, Idaho, along an old road bed. The road had been closed for 3 years and the area had never been grazed. The road used to produce big clouds of dust. Now that it has largely filled in, it doesn’t.
Story in the Washington Post. Dust Storms Escalate, Prompting Environmental Fears. Increase in Dirt Affects Ecosystems In Western States. By Juliet Eilperin Washington Post Staff Writer
Although grizzlies are now coming out of their dens, quite slowly this year because of deep snow, it may be that recent warm years have delayed the onset of their annual winter hibernation.
Now a study is underway to ascertain the details of den entrance and emergence and compare them to temperature and snowfall.
Autumn is the most dangerous time for the grizzly, doubly so now with the decline in high altitude whitebark pine nut “crop” due to the hot fires of 1988, the spread of whitebark pine blister rust (a non-native disease) and a general die-off of pines of all species in the Rocky Mountains.
The longer bears are denned up, the fewer are killed during the year.
Study to research effect of climate change on denning. By Karl Puckett. Great Falls Tribune Staff Writer.
There has been much discussion about renewable energy sources and large wind and solar projects. The problems with many of these projects are manyfold. One, there will be no decommissioning of any coal fired or other polluting/greenhouse gas emitting power plants as mitigation. Two, the areas where many of these projects are planned are in very important habitats for rare plants and animals. Three, many of these plants are centralized for the profit of the few and vulnerable to any manner of attack as can be seen from last week’s post. Fourth, desert soils, which will be scraped of all life, are great carbon sinks and all of this carbon will be released to the atmosphere exacerbating the greenhouse effect.
The Ivanpah Solar Energy Project is planned for an area of southern California near Clark Mountain on the border of the Mojave National Preserve. 4,000 acres, nearly 6.5 square miles, will be scraped clean of all earth and solar panels will be constructed.
There are better ways and places to produce or save electricity but since many people view these lands as “wastelands” there is little concern from the public. De-centralized power, including community based systems, in areas that have already been developed such as rooftops and farm fields are better options. This type of development is more sustainable, loses less energy in transmission, and less vulnerable to attack.
Basin and Range Watch visited the site of the proposed facility and found a great diversity of life.
Even though the rains were not great this past winter, wildflowers were still common in the Mojave Desert. We walked across the old granitic fan sloping gradually off Clark Mountain, by creosote rings perhaps thousands of years old, by strange tree-like cholla cacti, to a small gray limestone hill. The entire area we traversed will be graded by machinery and stripped of all life if the planned Ivanpah Solar Energy Project is built. So we wanted to check out what will be lost.
The desert here was quite active, Black-throated sparrows singing from the tops of shrubs, Zebra-tailed lizards skittering across washes, and hordes of mammal tracks filling the sand: Kit foxes, kangaroo rats, pocket mice, jackrabbits, even a few wild burros. The place was waking up from cold winter rest, and a diversity of wildflowers showed themselves.
Last Spring at Ivanpah…?
Basin and Range Watch.
This country is amidst a fundamental cross-roads when it comes to energy development. Many, including those in Washington, are straddling a dirty green line, a compromise of wildlife habitat and public lands to facilitate Salazar’s ambitious “moon shot” – the expeditious development of centralized renewable energy and transmission lines.
I’ve been delivering the need for a line in the green sand, concluding that a landscape and wildlife habitat carved by an energy development marketed as “green” is still a denuded landscape and precluded wildlife habitat.
But frequent visitors to this forum may note that Ralph has also been pointing to another vulnerability in re-developing our energy grid in the same centralized fashion as before. He’s been pointing to the inherent vulnerability of centralized production and distribution of power to disruption – whether it be from domestic, natural, or foreign threats :
Electrical Grid In U.S. Penetrated by Spies – Washington Post
Congressmen to hear resident’s testimony
By Thomas Dewell, Jackson Hole, Wyo
McCarthy’s testimony will focus on the Outdoor Alliance’s perspective that public lands are vital in combating climate change because of their role in ecosystem adaptation, their natural ability to sequester carbon, their potential for renewable energy projects such as wind farms and solar arrays, and that they provide the opportunity for Americans to stay connected to the natural world.
Now with a new and improved label! New Reality ad directed by the Academy-award winning Coen Brothers.
Spending bill nixes Bush endangered species rules. By Dina Cappiello. AP in the Washington Post.
The Bush weakened Endangered Species Act regulations would be out and more polar bear protection in with the budget bill the House Democrats are considering for the rest of the year right now in the House.
Hamburgers are the Hummers of Food in Global Warming: Scientists – CommonDreams.org
Buying local meat and produce will not have nearly the same effect, he cautioned.
That’s because only five percent of the emissions related to food come from transporting food to market.
“You can have a much bigger impact by shifting just one day a week from meat and dairy to anything else than going local every day of the year,” Weber said.
The facts : Livestock production …
U.S. agrees to consider protections for pikas
San Francisco Chronicle
“Surveys in the Great Basin show that more than one-third of the populations are disappearing”
Although this essay is international in scope, it being written about a river in Britain, it gets at the heart of a tension among environmental issues coming to a head in so many localities all over the West – all over the world. Paul Kingsnorth hits the point in a way that many activists have been hoping to hit it for some time :
A Line in the Green Sand – The Guardian
When I climb a mountain, then, and find that the detritus of civilisation has followed me, in the form of giant wind turbines, my reaction is not to jump for joy because it is zero-carbon detritus. My reaction is to wonder how anyone could miss the point so spectacularly. And when I hear other environmentalists responding to my concerns with aggressive dismissal – particularly if they have never visited the mountain in question – I get really quite depressed
Fifteen or so years ago, as an excitable young road protester, I tried to prevent the destruction of beautiful places. To me, building a motorway through ancient downland, or a bypass through a watermeadow, was a desecration. To me today, a windfarm on a mountain is a similar desecration. A tidal barrage that turns a great river into a glorified mill stream is a desecration. Carpeting the Sahara with giant solar panels would be a desecration. The motivation may be different, but the destruction of the wild and the wonderful is the same. Read the rest of this entry »
By Todd Wilkinson
New US office takes fresh approach to carbon. Christian Science Monitor.
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Added by RM. Related article. It’s cold. Does that debunk global warming? By Eoin O’Carroll. Christian Science Monitor.
On the plus side, it will get too hot for cheatgrass in some places, but it may be replaced by another invasive — red brome.
Cheatgrass will migrate with climate change. LA Times.
Those who write for this blog don’t think, “beef, it’s what for dinner.” If you care about the future of humankind, at least it shouldn’t be.
This from the Scientific American.
I’m not sure how the author of this article (Richard Martin) knows this, but he says the part of the stimulus directed specifically at energy will consist mostly of community based activities, retrofitting, energy efficiency and the like.
I add that this kind of energy stimulus will also create more jobs per dollar by far than remote solar farms, wind farms, and transmission lines.
The article is in New West. How Will the Stimulus Affect Energy? By Richard Martin
Obama to Take Steps On Car Fuel Efficiency. By Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson. Washington Post Staff Writers
Kathie Olsen, a Bush climate change denier in the National Science Foundation “burrows” into a civil service position.
A Loyal Bushie Burrows Into Obama’s System
By Elana Schor
Talking Points Memo
Story in the New York Times. Two camps. By John Broder (story doesn’t mention the above because Obama team is unaware of how much cattle and sheep reduce the amount of carbon rangelands can sequester and just as bad, add methane to the air).
The argument that cap-and-trade has always had going for it was political feasibility, but maybe a revenue neutral carbon tax is more feasible. Economic theory would predict a more rapid response to a tax than to a market in pollution (or carbon release permits).
Story. By Dan Rosenblum
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~ And here is a related, new idea (to me) — personal carbon savings accounts. Green Stimulus. By Kathleen Rogers. Real Women; Real Voices.
Leaking gas is a potent climate changer. Disrupted soil does not sequester carbon. Native vegetation at the well site is almost impossible to restore. Coalbed methane wells produce huge amounts of saline (generally unreusuable water).
Story by Matthew Brown. Plan approved for gas wells. AP
Idaho’s energy czar wants to harness power of manure. By The Associated Press
Southern Idaho is full of vast stinky livestock feedlots (dairy and beef). Here is one way to amelioate the situation
I found this video that shows solar power underway with a deemphasis on remote solar collection in land-destroying mega-farm and vast transmission lines to electricity load centers.
Orchards of the sun on space.com. Let’s hope Obama will go this route. Not only is it better for our environment, it will distribute the jobs more widely.
Farmer’s Freak about Potential ‘Cow Tax’ on Cows’ Methane Emission. WWP blog.
Methane is 26 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide and cows belch and fart a tremendous amount of it. Feedlots could capture it, however, and turn it into much less polluting energy — natural gas is methane.
This is one of the good things about taxation. Properly placed taxes encourage good behavior. Because they work through the maketplace, heavy-handed government regulation is not needed. Any revenues raised from taxes set to encourge certain kinds of behavior can be used used to reduce traditional taxes like sales and income tax whose only purpose is to raise revenue.
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More on meat and methane . . . As More Eat Meat, a Bid to Cut Emissions. New York Times. By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL.
John Dingell of Michigan has chaired the powerful Energy and Commerce committee for many years (when the Democrats have controlled the House). This powerful committee has jurisdiction of the Clean Air Act as well as many other matters.
He has been the “Big 3” auto’s point man in Congress and bears much responsibility for the automakers fossilized and perhaps terminal conditional.
Finally some change. . . Waxman has been Dingell’s intraparty nemesis for years. He will move quickly to push through measures Dingell opposed.
Story in the New York Times. Longtime Head of House Energy Panel Is Ousted. By John M. Broder.
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Note: Over the years Dingell was helpful with some wildlife issues.
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Update 11-20-08: Henry Waxman’s victory is the biggest gift Obama could have asked for.
By Christopher Beam. Slate Magazine.
Update 11-21-08: Waxman win has ripple effects. Politico. By Patrick O’Connor and Ryan Grim
Energy and Commerce Subcommittee chairs are now pleading with Waxman to let them prove they are environmentalists.
Story in Salon.com (Salon Magazine). By Katharine Mieszkowski
The article doesn’t just speak of Bush sin, but how Obama can redeem on the environment.
I guess we would call them “old-timers” now — folks like myself — but I remember there used to be many more ponds on the Northern Range of the Park. From the road the loss is especially apparent near Junction Butte, “Little America,” and the lower part of Slough Creek. “Little America” as a place name came from a large pond that had the general shape of the United States when viewed from Specimen Ridge.
How long since there has been water in Phantom Lake?
There are many backcountry losses too.
I don’t know if it is warming per se, but there is no longer any carryover water in the ponds at the end of the year, and there isn’t enough snow in the winter to refill them. They are dry by the end of June if they hold water at all.
Science News has just written a popularized version of the paper Climatic change and wetland desiccation cause amphibian decline in Yellowstone National Park.
Democrat Walt Minnick is challenging one-term Republican U.S. Representative in Idaho’s first congressional district. Polls show the race to be close.
Rocky Barker has a report this morning on a clear difference (there are many differences, but this applies to the topics commonly discussed on this forum).
Minnick and Sali disagree on climate change. By Rocky Barker. Idaho Statesman.
Years earlier Minnick won some fame and notoriety in Idaho when as CEO of a timber-related company, he argued that it was not necessary for the timber industry to be awarded “below-cost” timber sales on public lands from the taxpayers in order to make a profit.
On TV news tonight I see Sarah Palin is getting ready to blast Joe Biden and Barrick Obama for opposing “clean coal,” although I noted Obama has said he does support it. He shouldn’t.
Coal is inherently dirty. “Clean coal” is simply use of coal in a way that is not so dirty as other ways. Even then, some “clean coal” technologies really are as dirty or worse than conventional coal when we look at the entire process. For example, carbon sequestration of CO2 emissions from coal will take (or waste) a lot of energy. Synthetic gasoline from coal is very inefficient.
The West is going to bear the brunt of the burden (aside from the world climate) from these clean coal technologies.
Greg Gorden writes about this in “Writers on the Range” in High Country News. Clean coal is an oxymoron
Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin Wins Center for Biological Diversity’s 2008 Rubber Dodo Award
“Governor Palin has waged a deceptive, dangerous, and costly battle against the polar bear,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Her position on global warming is so extreme, she makes Dick Cheney look like an Al Gore devotee.”
Congrats to Sarah on the esteemed achievement.
A view of Palin’s views on the environment from a major U.K. newspaper.
Sarah Palin, the Republican party’s vice-president nominee, governs an oil-rich area that has seen some of the most dramatic effects of climate change. So what’s her record on environmental concerns?
By Britt Collins. The Guardian. Sarah Palin: Ice queen of the Arctic
Talk about bad news, if true. Some kind of geoengineering would the only hope.
Bad Sign For Global Warming: Thawing Permafrost Holds Vast Carbon Pool. ScienceDaily.
As Arctic Sea Ice Melts, Experts Expect New Low. New York Times.
After a harder than usual winter in 2007-8, climate change skeptics were hailing the winter refreezing of the Arctic Ocean, and even suggesting global cooling was underway because there were not enough sunspots. . . as though ice shelves thousands of years old refreeze in one winter.
But now the reality in September.
Climate Change: Ice Chunk the Size of Manhattan Splits from Canadian Glacier. Scientific American
Related. Sunday. Sept. 7. Editorial in the New York Times. John McCain’s Energy Follies
Seems pretty intuitive to me :
Report: Climate change to fuel wildfires in West – SignOnSanDiego.com
The Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) sent a 60-day Notice of Intent to sue the Department of Interior over its decision to list Polar Bears under the Endangered Species Act. From PLF’s News Release:
The PLF letter is filed on behalf of ranching and forestry interests that, along with employers nationwide and the economy in general, would be harmed by heavy-handed regulations that could proceed from the listing of the polar bear.
Hunting Season is Open on Polar Bears’ ESA Listing – Mother Jones
Rocky Barker: White says climate change worse on range than ranching. Idaho Statesman.
I thought this might be joke. RM
Certainly a lesson in bad logic. Of course, a nearby supernova would be worse than climate change; duh.
White, of course, is trying to argue that conservationists should spend more time working on climate change and less on bad grazing practices. Unfortunately for White, grazing lands not suitable for grazing or overgrazing makes the effect of climate change yet more severe. Removing livestock, especially cattle, makes the rangelands more resistant to climate change.
Recent studies (cited on this blog by Brian Ertz), also indicate that the practice of grazing marginal and submarginal lands changes them from carbon sinks (meaning they take up a net amount of carbon from the atmosphere) into carbon sources (release a net amount of carbon and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere).
Therefore, fighting to reduce grazing is an excellent way to retard climate change. So please volunteer to help.
When a lot of folk think about public lands and the value of these places to serve our efforts to curb global climate change they think development. They think of wind farms or solar arrays. If you think about it you can’t really blame them, that’s all they’ve had to think about – with the endless commercials put on by the big “renewable” industry (usually Big Oil patting itself on the back for diversifying), news reports, and politicians making every promise under the sun that the next shiny technology will save the day and let the public keep its wasteful habits. Unfortunately, this thinking doesn’t do a whole lot of good at reducing global warming gases – that’s because renewable energy technologies don’t replace fossil fuel power plants – thus far, they’re doing little more than to serve future increased demand for energy. It’s more cheap energy so people don’t have to think about how they use it. And the planning ! Well, these huge developments on public lands aren’t any good for wildlife either – usually they go where not a lot else has, opening that up has meant that some of the last critical habitat for many species is coveted by some of the largest economic power-houses.
When you think about public lands and the value that these places have to serve our efforts to curb global climate change I’d like you to consider a new idea that is as old as dirt ~ passive restoration. Yes, I’m suggesting that part of the answer might be to remove our footprint on those places we can – and in doing so – let the land catch it’s breath.
Energy efficiency is the core climate change solution. Joseph Romm. Grist Magazine.
It is also the least expensive source of new energy, and it is the primary method by which demand will be satisfied regardless of all the talk and action about drilling or alternative fuels, just as was the case during the 1970s energy crisis. RM
Bush’s BLM had put a moratorium on solar energy lease applications for development on public lands wanting to wait for comprehensive environmental analysis before accepting new applications. The moratorium met an uproar of opposition. Now, the moratorium is dead.
More on the Western Governors Conference being held in Jackson, WY. . .
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Western govs to mull ways to cut pollution, slow warming, boost energy. By Robert Gehrke. The Salt Lake Tribune.
Govs hear water warning. By Chris Merrill. Casper Star Tribune.
As Brian Ertz and others have remarked, politicians dealing with resource issues seem to have stopped debated whether climate change is real, and they are planning for the future (for better or worse).
For example, if the Western governors are truly concerned about diminishing water supplies, they should try to stomp out oil shale development fast, because it will be like pouring huge amounts of water down a black hole in an arid region .
As suggested in an earlier post (or two), the Bush Administration’s Fish & Wildlife Service is doing its best to take its decision to list polar bears and extend federal protections to oil companies with it :
This is an insightful look at the implications of the recent U.S. Climate Change Science Program’s report by one of Wyoming’s leading rangeland experts.
High Noon On The Range. By Deb Donahue. Wyomingfile.com
Vote on climate bill is blocked in Senate. By H. Josef Hebert. Associated Press Writer.
The next Congress will look a lot different.
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U.S. Senate Abandons Global Warming Bill. By J.R. Pegg. Environmental News Service
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Republicans thwart McCain ‘greenwash’. By Leonard Doyle. The Independent (U.K)
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What Will the Next President Do About Climate Change? By Mark Hertsgaard. The Nation (on the left)
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A Qualified “Yes” to Cap-and-Trade. By William Tucker. The American Spectator (here a right-winger deviates from the party line to a degree).
New Climate Report Foresees Big Changes. By Andrew C. Revkin. New York Times. Published: May 28, 2008
The southwestern states, in particular, will see big decreases in river flows. That means places like Phoenix, AZ and Las Vegas, NV will become even more unsustainable.
Here is a link to the final report (60mb pdf file). Quite a resource!
With increasing fuel prices, the oil and gas industry is chomping at the bit to get at vast oil and gas reserves on your public lands.
Oil and Gas on Public Lands Off-Limits to Exploration – ENN
Report Offers Road Map for Energy Relief [Bush’s] BLM
With climate change, mining, livestock grazing, timber, exotic species and other uses and abuses of our public lands that wildlife and wildlife habitat has endured over the past century this industry may already have a problem… among others.
Are energy reserves that may or may not be accessible on your public lands worth the cost to wildlife, our environmental heritage, our children’s environmental trust ? Is $4/gallon gas the problem ? Is domestic extraction of fossil fuels on public lands the solution ?
It seems to me that all of these symptoms might be pointing to a deeper problem.
Update 5/24/08 – Cost of Drilling : Wells threaten tourism, hunting, and natural beauty – Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
Earlier we noted Secretary of Interior, Dirk Kempthorne’s decision to list the Polar Bear as a threatened species. Kempthorne was spreading around the idea that the ESA was not intended to regulate greenhouse gases, the principle threat affecting polar bear habitat.
Now, we learn of the “4(d) rule”, a waiver of protections normally afforded species given ESA protections.
Fortunately, Environmental Groups Seek Full Protection for Polar Bear by filing suit.
A sobering idea : The World Wildlife Fund estimates that the worlds wildlife populations have been cut to 3/4 what they were just 3 decades ago :
Wildlife numbers plummet globally : WWF – AFP
Local resolve is warranted.
A link to a report is featured on the bottom of the page.
By now you’ve likely heard that the Bush Administration has listed polar bears in Kempthorne’s first listing since taking his position :
Kempthorne makes tough call on polar bear listing – Idaho Statesman
Call me a cynic, but it seems to me likely the Bush Administration decides to list the bear now rather than kick it to the next administration so it can capitalize framing the listing against any implications it might have on greenhouse gas regulation. Kempthorne is adamant about preventing that from happening.
Our friends at Demarcated Landscapes have been on the story for a few days :
Imagine that ! A presidential candidate willing to speak up about wildlife !
Clinton Reports on Washington Wildlife – Wall Street Journal Blog
Hey, it’s more than has been said by anyone else…
To be fair:
Green Evangelical Applauds McCain’s Environment Speech – The Christian Post
Why Obama is Winning the West – NewWest
Somebody needs to clue these candidates into the idea that “environmental” policy has more to it than “energy” policy.
Would these scientists be paid no compensation if they didn’t find what the Republican legislators want?
That is not how real science is conducted — EVER.
There is bad news all around here, with the most alarming being the sudden rise in emissions of methane, a very potent greenhouse gas (25x that of carbon dioxide). If the arctic tundra has begun to seriously outgas, the outlook is very grim.
Greenhouse Gases, Carbon Dioxide And Methane, Rise Sharply In 2007. Science Daily
Carbon dioxide, methane up sharply in 2007-US govt. Reuters.
In British Columbia, a beetle upsets climate calculus. A record infestation of beetles is turning western Canada’s forests from a carbon sink into a CO2 source. By Peter N. Spotts. Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor.
Bad news beetles in Colorado: Tree killers could add to global warming. By Mike Saccone. The Daily Sentinel
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Buffalo Field Campaign Blog Demarcated Landscapes
The Wildlife News 
Global warming prompts doubt about wildlife conservation in the West
June 30, 2008 — Brian ErtzResistance to the scientific consensus of the existence of climate change is waning ~ politicized prescriptions for inaction and for the relaxation of public environmental laws takes its place.
Last week, federal and state wildlife and public land managers gathered to talk about global warming and the effects it will have on western land and wildlife management. The overwhelming theme, as conveyed to me by several in attendance and passed along by Rocky Barker in the Statesman was dismal. Federal and state managers are preparing to give up on many species in the west.
Warming world prompts change – Rocky Barker – Idaho Statesman
Related Update: Anti-science conservatives must be stopped – Salon.com
Read the rest of this entry »