Advanced Search
July 7, 2014
Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell Says Climate Change Is Affecting Every National Park
On June 30, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said she is seeing the impact of climate change at just about every national park she visits. "Glaciers melting in Glacier National Park; Joshua trees dying in Joshua Tree National Park — and all these things are tied in to a changing climate,” she said. The impact of climate change on national parks makes it a difficult time to decide whether the government should use resources to save the existing national parks, or to explore the places that are less likely to be impacted. It is because, as Jewell explained, "the mission of the National Park Service is to leave these national treasures unimpaired for future generations.” Furthermore, Jewell expressed little patience with those who argue the climate isn’t changing or debate whether humans are causing the change. She stated, "I would say that the science is clear. But whether or not you choose to think about the causes of climate change, all you have to do is open your eyes and look around you to see that climate change is real. So we can no longer pretend it's going to go away. We have to adapt and deal with it."
For More Information see:
USA Today
Terry McAuliffe Relaunches Virginia’s State Climate Panel
On July 1, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe resurrected a state climate change panel to mitigate rising sea levels and floods caused by climate change. Originally created by former Gov. Timothy Kaine in 2008, the panel has been dormant since he left office in 2010. The 35-member panel includes climate scientists, local elected officials, industry representatives, business leaders and environmental groups. Virginia’s coast has recently been identified by the National Ocean and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) as one of the areas most vulnerable to climate change in the United States. The Virginia Institute of Marine Scientists (VIMS) reports that in 20 to 50 years sea levels may rise 1.5 feet on the Virginia coast, flooding 289 miles of road in Virginia Beach. McAuliffe said, “Virginia has the opportunity not only to be a leader in finding creative ways to mitigate climate change in the future but also to adapt to the effects of climate change that we have already begun to see here in the commonwealth.”
For more information see:
Times Dispatch, The Washington Post, Announcement
NASA Launches Satellite To Measure Carbon Dioxide Levels on Earth
On July 1, NASA launched a satellite to track carbon dioxide (CO2) on the global scale. The two-year mission of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) will indicate where CO2 is being released into the atmosphere as well as where it is being reabsorbed on the planet’s surface. While half of emitted CO2 stays in the atmosphere, the other half falls back to the surface and is reabsorbed by forests and oceans. The amount of CO2 that is reabsorbed by the earth, however, is variable from year to year, and it is unclear how plants have kept pace with increased emissions. “Understanding what controls that variability is really crucial. If we can do that today, it might inform us about what might happen in the future,” said OCO-2 project manager Ralph Basilio. The OCO-2 will measure the relative intensities of light bouncing off the earth in order to determine how much CO2 the light beam passed through. Project scientist Michael Gunson of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said, “it's really the fate of carbon dioxide once it's in the atmosphere that we're trying to really put our finger on.”
New York Times, ABC News, Reuters, NASA
GAO Releases Report Revealing American Military Operations Need to Protect Against Climate Change
On June 30, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report that detailed potential treats that the Department of Defense (DoD) will have to face because of climate change. The report took into consideration five climate impacts, including rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, increasing storm frequency, rising sea levels and ocean temperature, and how these impacts are predicted to damage military bases or disrupt DoD projects. It also offered recommendations of how the Department should begin to make their bases and other assets more resilient to climate threats. DoD agrees with the report’s findings and has begun surveying weaknesses in their infrastructure. “We are committed to maintaining the resilience of our installations in support of our mission, our warfighters and our communities,” said John Conger, Acting Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Installations and Environment. “We will continue to integrate consideration of climate change and associated impacts across the Defense enterprise.” However, DoD may have difficulty implementing these adaptations as the House passed the Department’s 2015 appropriations bill on July 24, with an amendment attached to prevent any DoD spending on climate change initiatives recommended by national and international reports. The amendment, sponsored by Rep. David McKinley (R-WV), is unlikely to make it through the Senate.
For more information:
US News, The Hill, US News, Report
UNEP Mandate: Combat Air Pollution, Save Millions of Lives, Cut Global Warming in Half
The week of June 23 to 27, the inaugural United Nations (UN) Environment Assembly, attended by high-level delegations from 160 UN member and observer states, passed a resolution giving the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) a mandate to combat air pollution, in an effort to save millions of lives every year and cut near-term global warming in half. Attendees targeted air pollution as a top priority because it is now the world’s single largest preventable health risk. According to the World Health Organization, one in eight deaths in 2012 can be attributed to air pollution—more than malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS combined. Outdoor air pollution caused 3.7 million deaths globally in 2012, while air pollution from the burning of solid fuels for heating and cooking caused another 4.3 million deaths. Exposure to air pollution from black carbon soot, also known as “particulate matter,” is linked to ischemic heart disease, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, respiratory infections, and lung cancer. The Environmental Assembly unanimously urged governments to set national standards and policies to reduce air pollution and mitigate air pollution health and economic impacts in their home states. The delegates directed UNEP to expand its assistance to governments, by providing support such as capacity building and pertinent data and assessments. The resolution will also support UNEP’s ongoing work on air pollution through the international Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC), the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles, and the Atmospheric Brown Cloud program.
In related news on June 24, the CCAC launched its new publication, Time to Act, to explain the benefits of cutting the four climate pollutants known collectively as short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), due to their relatively short atmospheric lifetimes. The SLCPs include black carbon, methane, tropospheric ozone, the main component of urban smog, and hydrofluorocarbons (or HFCs) used primarily as refrigerants. “Fast action to reduce SLCPs can cut the rate of climate change in half, slowing global temperature rise by up to 0.6 degrees Celsius by 2050 and 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, while preventing 2.4 million air pollution-related deaths per year, and avoiding around 30 million tonnes of crop losses annually,” said Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, speaking at a CCAC side-event at the Environment Assembly.
UNEA decisions and resolutions, IGSD Press Release, UNEP’s UNEA Press Release, World Health Organization, CCAC, Time to Act
Zurich Insurance Group Closing Its Climate Change Office
On June 27, Zurich Insurance Group closed its U.S. climate change office, which has been working for six years to advocate for policy solutions to climate change-exacerbated environmental disasters. Sources speaking to E&E News said Zurich Insurance Group may have chosen to close the office due to the unpopularity of insurance products geared to customers concerned about climate change. These products will be transitioned into the more traditional business at Zurich Insurance Group. Waltern Stahel, the director of risk management research at the Geneva Association, commented, “The internal meaning could be that they don’t want to stick their neck out, that they want to be less visible with regard to climate change in general – and they want to break it down into much more concrete [efforts] to impose adaptation measures.” Zurich Insurance Group has recently begun a $30 million program to evaluate the value of flood protection efforts such as sea walls and elevated homes; this comes on top of a $1 billion investment in green bonds the company made last year to support clean energy and projects to address climate change. Although the climate office is closed, Zurich spokeswoman Jennifer Schneider said the company is not de-emphasizing climate issues. “Zurich’s commitment to addressing climate resilience and extreme weather has not changed. . . We have integrated the knowledge and expertise generated through this [climate] office into every aspect of our business. We will continue to work passionately to help our customers and communities understand and protect themselves from risks and become more resilient and sustainable to natural disasters and extreme weather.”
For more Information see:
Environmental and Energy Publishing
Emperor Penguin Populations Facing Steep Population Decline
On June 29, a Nature study found that the global population of emperor penguins is projected to fall 19 percent from its current level by 2100. For two-thirds of emperor penguin colonies, population could decline by more than half. The source of decline is the future loss of sea ice in the Antarctic region which is home to krill, the penguin’s main food source. One of the study’s authors, Hal Caswell, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, says “The population is declining. Unless something changes to stop that, the population will go into extinction.” The report calls upon governments to place the emperor penguin on the endangered species list, which could limit tourism and fishing companies. Additionally, the researchers proposed the creation of marine reserves, which Stephanie Jenouvrier, lead author of the study and scientist at Woods Hole, said “could help buy time to avoid extinction and to put in place needed conservation and greenhouse gas mitigation strategies.”
The Guardian, Scientific American, Mother Jones, Study
June Marks Third Consecutive Month With Atmospheric CO2 Levels Above 400 PPM
June marks the third consecutive month this year in which average carbon dioxide (CO2) levels have remained above 400 parts per million (ppm), as measured by the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii. Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is one of the biggest drivers of global climate change. CO2 levels first reached this level in May 2013, but dipped back down below the 400 threshold until April of this year. The average atmospheric concentration of CO2 has not been this high in 800,000 to perhaps 15 million years and has increased approximately 120 ppm just since the Industrial Revolution, resulting in an increase in average global temperature of 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit. According to Pewter Tans of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), “it is urgent that we find a way to transition to non-carbon fuels as our source of primary energy . . . as long as human society continues to emit CO2 from burning fossil fuels, CO2 in the atmosphere and oceans will continue to increase.” Tans believes that by 2016, there will be enough built up CO2 in the atmosphere for the world to remain at or above 400 ppm year-round.
Climate Central
Headlines
=====================
1. Former New Jersey Whitman Governor Calls for More Republicans to Join Fight Against Climate Change
2. Industry Groups Organizing Against California Cap-and-Trade
3. Former Secretary of Treasury Robert Rubin Says Climate Change Risk is “Catastrophic”
4. This May Set New World Record For Heat
5. Arizona State University Awarded $20 Million to Study Security Threats Caused by Climate Change
6. LGBT Community Creates New Advocacy Group For Climate Change: “Queers for the Climate”
Advancing science-based climate solutions
Top-Rated Climate Nonprofit – 4-Star Charity