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March 9, 2015
This image, released March 3 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shows the likelihood of coral experiencing stress from heat during 2015. Heat stress often leads to coral bleaching. Darker colors indicate a higher risk of stress. Image courtesy of NOAA.
On March 4, the Senate failed to override President Obama’s veto of a bill approving construction of Keystone XL oil pipeline. The Senate fell short of the required two-thirds vote with a final vote of 62 to 37. The 1,179-mile proposed pipeline to transport 800,000 barrels of petroleum each day from oil sands in Canada to ports on the Gulf Coasts has been highly controversial since its initial application in 2008. When vetoing the bill, Obama said Congress was attempting to, “circumvent longstanding and proven processes for determining whether or not building and operating a cross-border pipeline serves the national interest.”
For more information see:
The New York Times, NPR
On March 3, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) introduced a bill (S. 639) in the Senate to require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide funding offsets from the EPA to any other agency which sees an increase in costs from any proposed EPA regulation on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The bill, which was referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works, has seven cosponsors, including Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Sen. Daniel Coats (R-IN), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), and Sen. John Thune (R-SD). Flake has called the bill the “Agency PAYGO for Greenhouse Gases Act,” and says it is similar to the Senate pay-as-you-go rule, and would require the EPA to cut its own budget to match any increases a GHG regulation caused in another agency’s budget.
Congress, Sen. Jeff Flake
On March 5, the Department of Energy released a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the formation of a Consortium to conduct research and development on five issue areas all pertaining to the energy-water nexus, as part of a collaboration between the United States and China. The Consortium will create a new technical track at the US-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC), and both the United States and China will equally contribute to fund the initiative for a total of $50 million. The Consortium will improve “climate impact modeling, methods, and scenarios to support improved energy and water systems understanding,” along with efforts to reduce water use at thermoelectric plants, improve hydropower designs, and improve water management.
Breaking Energy, DOE
On February 27, Switzerland became the first country to submit its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to the United Nations (UN) for cementing an international climate change deal at talks this November/December in Paris. Switzerland’s INDC commits it to cut greenhouse gases (GHG) 50 percent from 1990 levels by 2030, and the country is considering additional reductions of up to 70-85 percent by 2050. Swiss officials say 30 percent of the GHG emissions cuts will come from within the country, with the remaining 20 percent coming from offsets abroad. “This objective . . . reflects Switzerland’s responsibility for climate warming and the potential cost of emissions reduction measures in Switzerland and abroad over the 2020-2030 period,” says a Swiss communication. All major global economies have been requested to propose their INDCs by October 1 this year.
The Guardian, RTCC, Federal Office for the Environment, Swiss Communication
On March 2, Dr. Wei-Hock (Willie) Soon released a statement through the Heartland Institute regarding information recently released by Greenpeace and other groups claiming he had not properly reported all of his funding sources to the scientific journals which published his work (see past CCN). Soon’s lack of reporting has been especially controversial, as he omitted to say he received funding from fossil fuel companies when submitting studies that were skeptical of climate change, a potential conflict of interest. Soon stated, “I have never been motivated by financial gain to write any scientific paper, nor have I ever hidden grants or any other alleged conflict of interest.” Soon added that if changes are to be made in the realm of scientific funding disclosures, they should be done evenly across the board.
In related news on February 27, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) released a letter which condemned Rep. Raul Grijalva’s (D-AZ) recently announced probe into the funding sources of seven climate change denying scientists and professors, a response to the Willie Soon scandal. Rep. Grijalva wrote to seven universities asking for information about certain professors’ funding. Senators Ed Markey (D-MA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) have also launched a probe into science funding, writing letters to trade unions, companies and conservative groups to ask if they have funded climate research. Eleven Senators on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, led by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), released a letter the same day condemning the probes from the Senate and the House.
The National Journal, The National Journal, American Meteorological Society, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Grijalva, The Hill, Heartland
On March 4, Leonardo DiCaprio and Netflix announced they will be working together on a series of documentaries and docuseries, “with partial focus on environmental and conservation themes,” including climate change. DiCaprio’s production company Appian Way will also work on the project, as part of a Netflix’s First Look deal which will have the programs premiere on Netflix. “There’s never been a more critical time for our planet, or more of a need for gifted storytellers to help us all make sense of the issues we face,” stated DiCaprio. DiCaprio was named a United Nations Messenger for Peace on Climate Change last September.
Business Insider, USA Today
On March 6, VICE premiered the third season of its documentary series on HBO with an episode, “Our Rising Oceans,” which focused on climate change-exacerbated sea level rise. The episode featured Vice President Joe Biden, who stated that denying climate change is “almost like denying gravity now.” Biden added, “It gets to the point where you can’t look anyone in the eye seriously and say, well, it’s nothing to do with manmade.” The episode will examine the United Nations climate conferences, the New York People’s Climate March, climate change science denial, sea level rise in Bangladesh and the melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet.
EcoWatch, Huffington Post
On March 4, at an event in San Francisco, a new report, A Vital Partnership: California and China Collaborating on Clean Energy and Combating Climate Change, was released by the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and Asia Society’s Northern California Center, in partnership with The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands. The report details California’s experience working with civil society organizations at home and in China on clean energy and combatting climate change. The report states, “Recognizing that subnational cooperation will play an important part in any meaningful overall agenda for addressing the global climate challenge, the state [California] has stepped up its efforts to share its own experience and expertise through direct exchanges with counterparts in China.”
Report, Asia Society
The European Environment Agency (EEA) published a five-year report on March 3 assessing the effectiveness of European Union (EU) environmental policy. The report found that the EU has much more to accomplish to meet its 2050 goal of cutting emissions by 80 to 95 percent below a 1990 baseline. Despite Europe’s strict environmental legislation, the EEA found that EU policy is still insufficient to meet its objective of “living well, within the limits of our planet.” Hans Bruyninckx, head of the EEA, commented, “This is not a threat to well-being . . . For Europe this is a major opportunity.” The European Commission has said the EU will need to invest an extra 270 billion Euros ($303 billion) per year in low-carbon initiatives to meet its objectives.
EU Observer, Reuters, The Guardian, Report
On March 2, a study on warming temperatures in woodland forests was published in Global Change Biology. This study found that warmer, earlier springs alter flowering patterns, which may threaten the survival of some woodland plants over the long-term. “Our projections reveal that this may lead to a substantial shuffling of the order of flowering and leafing events in temperate forests,” Edinburgh University scientists reported in the study. Researchers used data from 14 plant species at the Stratton Strawless Hall estate in Norfolk, U.K. between 1753 and 1947.
BBC, Study
On March 2, 2015, a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found climate change contributed to sparking the Syrian civil war in 2011. A serious drought from 2007 to 2010 caused over 1.5 million farmers to abandon their lands and move to urban city centers, which were already stressed by the influx of over 1 million refugees from neighboring Iraq. These issues, along with others, catalyzed the civil war in Syria. The study found that climate change has made serious droughts, such as the 2007-2010 drought, two to three times more likely in the region.
The New York Times, Slate, Study
A study published on March 2 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examined the effects of climate change on California weather patterns. The study found that climate change will increase temperatures and change rainfall patterns in California, resulting in more frequent droughts. Scientists used computer models and a 120-year data set of rain, drought and temperature observations, to find that drought frequency has more than doubled in the last 20 years and will continue increasing over time. “We found that essentially all years are likely to be warm – or extremely warm – in California by the middle of the 21st century,” said study co-author Daniel Swain. “This means that both drought frequency, and the potential intensity of those droughts which do occur, will likely increase as temperatures continue to rise.”
The Washington Post, San Jose Mercury, Stanford News
On March 2, a University of Wisconsin Madison-led study published by Nature Plants found that under raised carbon dioxide (CO2) conditions, leaf-eating insects consumed more than double the amount of leaves – restricting how efficiently trees absorb and store carbon. The study utilized a Free-Air Carbon Dioxide (FACE) facility to replicate projected 2050 CO2 levels of 560 parts per million (ppm), finding that with higher carbon emissions insects consumed 88 percent more leaf matter. The increased insect consumption reduced trees’ CO2 absorption by 35 percent. “It's kind of a double whammy: not only is the leaf area removed, but the potential growth that the removed area could have produced is not realized.” Explains Dr. John Couture, a biologist at the University.
The Carbon Brief, Study
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1. February’s Carbon Dioxide Levels Are Above Prehistoric Levels
2. New Version of Windows Game SkiFree Has Players Fight Climate Change
3. Study Links Climate Change to Deadly Coral Disease
4. IPCC Considers a Re-Vamp
5. Scientists Searching for Climate Change-Resistant Strain of Coffee Bean
6. India to Double Tax on Coal
7. EPA Approves Climate-Friendly Refrigerants
8. White House Reviewing EPA Airplane Emissions Draft Regulation
1. Making Buildings More Energy Efficient: The Building Technologies Office’s 2016 Budget Request
Thursday, March 12 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
210 Cannon House Office Building Independence Avenue SE and 1st Street, SE
The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) invites you to a briefing on the programs and priorities of the Department of Energy's Building Technologies Office (BTO), as reflected in its FY 2016 budget request. Why is DOE involved in researching and developing building technologies? Buildings represent 40 percent of the total energy used in the United States and a whopping 70 percent of the electricity used (for lighting, air-conditioning, appliances, electronics). Making buildings and the products that go into them more energy efficient will make a serious dent in U.S. energy use, save billions of dollars each year, improve comfort, and reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. BTO is seeking to reduce U.S. building energy consumption by 50 percent from a 2010 baseline.
To expedite check-in, please RSVP here.
2. The “Bottom Line” on Investment Needs For Our Transportation System
Tuesday, March 10 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
334 Cannon House Office Building 27 Independence Avenue Southeast
The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), in conjunction with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), invite you to a briefing on the investment requirements for America's multi-modal transportation infrastructure.
Please RSVP to expedite check-in here.
Authors: Caitlin Madera, Rachael Shook, and Samuel Beirne
Editor: Laura Small
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