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February 2, 2015
The image, released January 23 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), shows a cross-section of the Greenland Ice Sheet. The green section shown formed over the last 11,700 years during the Holocene; the blue section is from the last ice age, 11,700 to 115,000 years ago; and the red is over 115,000 years old, from the Eemian period. The gray areas are of unknown age. Image courtesy of NASA.
On January 25, during a joint press conference in New Delhi, President Obama and Prime Minister Modi of India announced they were increasing cooperation between the United States and India on climate change and clean energy. President Obama pledged financial support to the Indian government to help increase the access and affordability of renewable energy, especially solar. India, the world’s third largest producer of GHG emissions after the United States and China, has yet to commit to any greenhouse gas reduction targets. However, India did agree to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), potent greenhouse gases (GHG) commonly used as a refrigerant. Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, hailed the HFC announcement, saying, “Agreeing to the HFC phasedown this year will essentially eliminate one of the six main greenhouse gases.” The announcement comes just two months after a US - China climate deal to reduce GHG emissions. These bilateral deals mark important milestones on the road to Paris, the goal of which is an ambitious global deal on climate change. For more information see: Bloomberg News, The White House, YouTube
On January 29, the Senate voted 62-36 to pass S. 1, the Keystone XL pipeline bill. Overall, out of 247 amendments offered on S1, the Senate voted on about 41 and passed five. The approved amendments included one from Sen. Whitehouse (D-RI) stating, “climate change is real and not a hoax;” an amendment from Sen. Murkowski (R-AK) saying all oil companies should pay a per-barrel tax to create a government fund to clean up oil spills; an amendment from Sen. Cornyn (R-TX) that attempts to protect property owners from eminent domain land seizure; and two energy-efficiency amendments, one a pared-down version of last year’s Shaheen-Portman bill and one to promote school energy efficiency. The Senate bill is now considered different from the version passed earlier by the House, and will need to be reconciled before being sent to the President, who has said he will veto it. It is unlikely the Senate will have the 67 votes necessary to overturn a Presidential veto.
For more information see:
USA Today, The Hill, The Hill, The Senate
On January 30, Gina McCarthy, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) visited the Vatican for a discussion on the Obama Administration’s Climate Action Plan and EPA’s approach to addressing climate change effects both domestically and abroad. McCarthy deemed the trip to the Vatican as “the most important” of her five-day scheduled European tour, which will also take her to Geneva, Rome, and Florence. The EPA initiated the meeting with Vatican senior officials Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and Monsignor Antoine Camilleri, an undersecretary at the Vatican Secretariat of State, as a chance to create an open dialogue on climate change and further the EPA’s work with communities of faith.
National Catholic Reporter
On January 23, Justice Department attorneys told an appeals court on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that states cannot contest the proposed Clean Power Plan, set to reduce carbon emissions from existing power plants, until it is finalized later this year. The lawyers were responding to a suit filed August 2014 by 12 states, which stated both that EPA was regulating carbon emissions only because of a 2011 settlement, and that EPA could not require emissions reductions because it was already regulating pollutants from power plants. “The premise of petitioners’ suit is wrong; the proposed rule is not the result of that settlement agreement, but rather part of an administration initiative to address the most critical environmental problem of our time,” the EPA stated in the brief. The lawyers added that the statute the states were using to argue EPA couldn’t double-regulate power plants was ambiguous and allowed for “reasonable agency interpretation.” There will be an opportunity for the states to respond in February.
The Hill
On January 26, the Wyoming House of Representatives voted 30-21 to reverse previous legislation that blocked the State Board of Education from adopting new science standards that would educate students on climate change as a human-related trend. The bill, sponsored by Republican Rep. John Patton, repeals the original ban, which had been attached as a footnote to a state budget in March of last year. The ban was passed after Rep. Matt Teeters (R) had argued teaching anthropogenic climate change would shed a negative light on Wyoming’s coal energy-based economy. Rep. Patton commented, “[Climate science is] not against the economy,” adding, “Working for knowledge . . . is progressive, that is what we are in the state of Wyoming. This state is very, very proud of its educational system. It’s not broken.”
National Journal, Casper Star-Tribune
On January 24, the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland ended, after four days of debate among 2,500 world leaders in business, government, academia and civil society that included many conversations on climate change. The French government had specifically requested that climate change be high on the WEF agenda, in advance of the United Nations Conference of the Parties meeting in Paris this year where it is anticipated that countries will seal an ambitious global deal on climate. On January 23, Christine Lagare, managing director of the International Monetary Fund; Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank; and Ban Ki-Moon, secretary general of the United Nations, held a public discussion on climate change, “Tackling Climate, Development and Growth.” The panel discussed the risks associated with rising global temperatures, the potential for a price on carbon, and the need for urgent action.
The New York Times, The Guardian, WEF
On January 28, the United Kingdom Department of Energy and Climate Change released a new online tool, the Global Calculator, which allows users to test the outcomes of different policies to address climate change. The tool showcases thousands of options, which users can control by manipulating 40 “levers,” each of which represents a policy for mitigating climate change – such as using more nuclear energy, or changing people’s diets. The levers are divided into four categories: lifestyle, technology and fuels, land and food, and demographics and long term emissions trajectories. The Department concurrently released a report with key findings from the Global Calculator, concluding that it is, “physically possible to achieve both our economic development and climate change goals by 2050.” For more information see: The Guardian, Global Calculator, Report
On January 22, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a poll which found a majority of likely voters in 2016 elections in five states – Colorado, Florida, Maine, New Hampshire, and Virginia – favored the president’s Climate Action Plan. Over 75 percent of respondents in each state thought environmental regulations were just right or too lenient. Majorities in each state also supported the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan, including a majority of Republican respondents. Franz Matzner, associate director of government affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), stated, “The bottom line is Americans don’t want dirty energy; instead, they’re calling for clean energy, health safeguards, and steady resolve to protect our future from dangerous climate change.”
Clean Technica, Natural Resources Defense Council
On January 23, the Risky Business Project, an organization headed by Michael Bloomberg, Henry Paulson, and Tom Steyer, released a report examining climate change-related risks in the Midwest on transportation, energy, labor productivity and agriculture. The report said “dangerous levels” of heat across the Southern Midwest will happen more often, and by the end of the century wheat and corn will decline 11 to 69 percent across the Midwest. The report found that among Midwestern states, Iowa’s economy would be the most affected by climate change, due to reduced yields of corn. Iowa’s almost $10 billion corn industry, the largest in the United States, faces an 18 to 77 percent decline in yields. The crop decline will also harm associated manufacturing, insurance, and other industries throughout the Midwest. Greg Page, a business leader on the Risky Business advisory committee, said, “If we stand still, and fail to be thoughtful in building resilience, we could see a weather scenario that would produce an outcome that’s dire.”
The Des Moines Register, Minn Post, Risky Business Press Release
On January 26, Nature released a report finding that by the end of the century La Nina, a weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean which is the counterpart of El Nino, will occur almost twice as often. This is due to a larger differential between land and ocean temperatures, caused by climate change. La Nina is sometimes referred to as the cold phase of El Nino, and extreme La Ninas have caused flash floods and droughts in the southwest United States, Venezuela, China, and other places, sometimes killing thousands. Researchers found that extreme La Ninas will likely occur once every 13 years by 2100, double the frequency of the 1990s, and will most often occur after extreme El Ninos. Study lead author Dr. Wenju Cai of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia, stated, “El Nino and La Nina can be a major driver of extreme weather – we are going to see these extreme weather [events] become more frequent.”
The BBC, Scientific America, Nature
On January 27, Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and the Bureau of Meteorology released the first update on its Natural Resource Management report in eight years, finding that Australia is likely to be hit harder by the effects of climate change than the rest of the world. The report states with “very high confidence” that temperatures will rise through the rest of this century. Depending on whether greenhouse gas emissions will fall or continue to rise at the current rate, by 2090 average temperatures in Australia will increase 0.6 to 1.7 degrees Celsius (low emissions) or 2.8 to 5.1 degrees Celsius (high emissions) above the average temperatures recorded from 1986-2005. At the current pace of emissions, Australia is set to face an increase at the higher end of that window.
The Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, CSIRO
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1. India and Germany Hold Climate Change Talks
2. Climate Change-Stressed Populations More Likely to Turn to Terrorism
3. Copenhagen Unveils First Fully Climate-Adapted Neighborhood
4. Drier Peatlands Threaten to Release Huge Amounts of Carbon
5. Portland Brewery Unveils Low-Carbon Beer
6. Blizzards Don’t Disprove Climate Change
7. Climate Skeptic Scientist Accused of Unethical Disclosure Practices
8. Scientist Warns Coral Reefs on Verge of Collapse
Authors: Caitlin Madera and Samuel Beirne
Editor: Laura Small
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