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May 12, 2014
New Government Report Says Climate Change Is Happening Here and Now
On May 6, the federal government released the Third National Climate Assessment (NCA), a comprehensive examination of peer-reviewed science on climate change impacts in the United States. The NCA echoes the findings of the latest reports from the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change, which state with high certainty that emissions from human activities are causing global climate change. The NCA reveals that climate change is already impacting Americans across the country, and its effects are predominantly negative. “For a long time we have perceived climate change as an issue that’s distant, affecting just polar bears or something that matters to our kids,” commented Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist, professor at Texas Tech University, and an author of the NCA. “This shows it’s not just in the future; it matters today. Many people are feeling the effects.” Mandated by the Global Change Act of 1990, the report examines climate change over a long-term timescale, observing past trends, current changes, and projecting future scenarios. Thirteen federal agencies oversaw the completion of the work under the auspices of the Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). More than 240 scientists from across public, private, nonprofit and academic sectors volunteered their time as authors.
In related news on the same day, President Obama gave eight rare individual interviews with TV meteorologists from across the country, in order to bring more widespread attention to the NCA. While polls have revealed that local television meteorologists are some of the most trusted scientists in the country, a 2011 George Mason University poll found that only 18 percent of American television weathercasters agree the climate is changing due to human activities. The President also recently gave an hour-long interview on climate change to the Showtime documentary series, “Years of Living Dangerously.”
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Mashable
“GOP Can’t Ignore Climate Change,” Says Jon Hunstman in New York Times Op-Ed
On May 6, Jon Huntsman, chairman of the Atlantic Council and former governor of Utah and ambassador to China, published an opinion-editorial piece in the New York Times, stating his view that the Republican party needs to have an intelligent conversation about climate change. “So obtuse has become the party’s dialogue on climate change that it’s now been reduced to believing or not believing, as if it were a religious mantra,” Huntsman said. “It simply kicks a big problem down the field. And it’s a problem we - as solution seeking Republicans - have the opportunity to solve.” Huntsman said the party should have intelligent conversations, without denial or extremism, about the science of climate change. Reports, such as the National Climate Assessment, released on May 6, should help policymakers make informed decisions, Huntsman added. He also said it was important for members of the environmental community to “demonstrate a genuine appreciation for different perspectives,” which may entail accepting nuclear energy and natural gas as part of the country’s short-term energy mix. Huntsman concluded, “We need to empower Republicans leading those efforts to make decisions and investments that benefit their constituents, the party and the planet.”
In related news on the same day, the Washington Post published an editorial on the same topic, “On climate change, Republicans can’t deny reality forever.” The piece, written by Paul Waldman, notes that with the release of scientific studies like the National Climate Assessment, which details many of the negative impacts of climate change, comes the simultaneous need to begin legislative action to mitigate its effects. Waldman describes how this action will be difficult, due in large part to the Tea Party faction of the Republican party, which has the lowest levels of agreement on climate change: only 25 percent of identified Tea Party members agreed there is evidence the climate is warming in a January 2014 poll conducted by Pew Research Center. For the rest of the Republican party, agreement on the theory of climate change is generally split evenly, Waldman says.
Pew Research Center
Indonesia Must Stop Burning Peatland To Save Climate, Experts Say
On May 5, at the opening of the Forests Asia Summit 2014 in Jakarta, Indonesia, world leaders and scientists discussed the great need to address deforestation and peatland burning in Indonesia and world wide, in order to keep carbon sequestered in the ground. According to David Gaveau, a scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), who spoke at the event, peatland burning is the single largest contributor to Indonesia's greenhouse gas emissions. Peatlands are highly dense; composed of dead vegetation and organic matter; they have an especially high carbon content. Gaveau stated that in Sumatra, an island in Indonesia, individuals and companies clearing land to make room for palm oil plantations, mining operations and pulp and paper ventures burned an estimated 163,336 hectares of land, 84 percent of which was peatland. Singapore's environmental minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, commented at the Summit, "The reason companies burn forests and engage in unsustainable degradation of land is because of profit." Large international companies, such as Unilever PLC, Giant Asia Pulp & Paper, and Colgate-Palmolive Co., have recently made commitments to sustainably source their ingredients and remove deforestation risks from their supply chains. Balakrishnan said these commitments are a good start, but more progress is needed, "the solution requires collaboration and effective, decisive action on the parts of governments, NGOs and local communities."
Wall Street Journal
The Jakarta Globe
Cutting Short-Lived Climate Pollutants Is Central Strategy in Abu Dhabi Climate Ascent
On May 4 and 5, more than 1,000 world leaders from governments, businesses and civil society met in the United Arab Emirates to discuss climate change action for the Abu Dhabi Ascent, in advance of the September 23 Climate Summit in New York. The Ascent meeting, convened by United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki, highlighted concrete mitigation actions against climate change, including actions to reduce both carbon dioxide and short-lived climate pollutants, including hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), black carbon, and methane, as well as climate issues in agriculture, adaptation, resilience and disaster risk reduction, among others. Speakers included former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair, Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, and UN Environment Programme Director Achim Steiner. “The Abu Dhabi Ascent is an essential step in the preparations for the Climate Summit, and aims to raise the level of global ambition on climate change and catalyze concrete climate action on the ground to reduce emissions and strengthen resilience,” said Secretary-General Moon in a statement released before the event. These meetings are part of Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon’s strategy to build momentum for the Paris Conference of the Parties in 2015.
Abu Dhabi Ascent
Sudan Vision Daily
United Nations
Stanford University to Divest Its $18.7 Billion Endowment from Coal
On May 6, Stanford University announced that it would be divesting its $18.7 billion endowment from coal-mining companies. Stanford’s Board of Trustees approved the resolution to avoid investing directly in companies that extract coal due to the fact that coal is a major source of carbon pollution that causes climate change. Although only a small fraction of the University’s endowment is invested in coal, it represents a substantial amount of money. John Hennessy, President of Stanford, commented, “moving away from coal in the investment context is a small, but constructive, step while work continues, at Stanford and elsewhere, to develop broadly viable sustainable energy solutions for the future." Stanford joins 11 other universities that have chosen to remove fossil fuel stocks from their endowments, but Stanford is by far the largest university to join this campaign. Bill McKibben, president and cofounder of 350.org, the nonprofit which brought the national Divestment Campaign into the media spotlight, said Stanford “knows the havoc that climate change creates around our planet . . . Other forward-looking and internationally minded institutions will follow, I’m sure.”
New York Times
Bloomberg
LA Times
Report Says $1 Trillion in Oil Investments Will Not See a Return, If Governments Act on Climate
On May 8, the Carbon Tracker Initiative (CTI) launched its new research series on the highest risk projects in the oil, gas and coal sectors, with the release of a study, “Carbon Supply Cost Curves: Evaluating financial risk to oil capital expenditures.” The study found that if the world’s governments fulfill their commitments to act on climate change, $1 trillion of capital expenditure in fossil fuels expected over the next decade will be lost. “This risk analysis shows that many oil companies are betting on a high demand and price scenario,” James Leaton, the research director at CTI, commented. “Investors need to [challenge oil company strategies] to ensure capital is not being wasted.” The CTI report stated that smaller companies are more exposed, as they often specialize in unconventional oil, which can be more expensive to exploit and require larger prices to break-even. When the report extended the timescale beyond 2025 to 2050, it found a larger amount - $21 trillion - which could be wasted. Projects most at risk include deepwater oil works in the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Brazil, and in the Arctic, as well as projects in the oilsands in Alberta, Canada.
The Guardian
Report
Huge Ice Shelf in East Antarctica at Risk from Climate Change
On May 4, the journal Nature published research from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, which found that in East Antarctica an ice shelf called Wilkes Basin is being held in place by a few wedges of ice, which if dislodged, would release the ice held in the Basin into the ocean — causing three to four meters of sea level rise. “East Antarctica’s Wilkes Basin is like a bottle on a slant,” said Matthias Mengel, lead author of the study. “Once uncorked, it empties out.” The research indicates that a rise in ocean temperatures would likely take 200 years or more to melt the ice wedges, or plugs, which are holding the shelf in place. Once the shelf is destabilized, it would take 5,000 to 10,000 years for the Wilkes Basin to empty completely. Co-author Anders Levermann added that once the ice flow began, it would be irreversible. “The full sea-level rise would ultimately be up to 80 times bigger than the initial melting of the ice cork,” Levermann commented. “Until recently, only West Antarctica was considered unstable, but now we know that its ten times bigger counterpart in the East might also be at risk.”
ABC
Science
National Geographic
Study
Extreme Rainfall in England More Likely Due to Climate Change, Oxford University Says
On April 30, Oxford University released an analysis on climate change and flooding in England. The research, shown on climateprediction.net, says man made climate change has made the likelihood of extreme rainfall significantly higher, causing the threat of severe flooding to increase by approximately 20 to 25 percent. The study authors warned that their conclusions are based on measurements of rainfall in the recent past, not on historic levels. When considering the wide swath of potential scenarios for rainfall under different levels of climate change, the amount of extreme rainfall could be even greater. According to Friederike Otto, of Oxford’s School of Geography and the Environment, “it will never be possible to say that any specific flood was caused by human-induced climate change. We have shown, however, that the odds of getting an extremely wet winter [in the UK] are changing due to man-made climate change.” This study was conducted with special software that allowed 60,000 volunteers to use their personal computers to process raw data on weather patterns; the scientists plan to refine the data even further in order to include more details regarding the specific geography and hydrology of England.
Study Says Shale Gas Will Not Significantly Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions
On April 22, a study about the implications of shale gas development on climate change was published in Environmental Science and Technology. The study’s authors Richard Newell and Daniel Raimi, both energy economists at Duke University, concluded that while the use of natural gas in place of more carbon-intensive fuels such as coal or oil can help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, an overall increase in energy use could negate this reduction of GHG emissions. Their analysis showed that by 2040, shale gas would displace more coal than renewable energy or nuclear power in electricity generation, effectively cutting emissions 5.1 percent below the baseline scenario for US GHG emissions. However, when the increased use of energy is factored in, total emissions reductions would only be 0.3 percent. Newell said that while the use of natural gas has “no impact on greenhouse gases,” other researchers have found that when the use of natural gas is coupled with policies that place a price on carbon, natural gas can be a functional bridge fuel to transfer the electric grid off coal. Hillard Huntington, a researcher from Stanford University who was not involved with the study, said, “If we had a carbon policy in place, economic forces would be operating in concert to back out of carbon-intensive sources of energy and to reduce the total amount of energy used, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
ACS
Blue and Green Tomorrow
EPA Report Says Vehicle Emissions Reductions Are Ahead of Schedule
On April 25, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its annual report examining greenhouse gas emissions for model year 2012 light-duty vehicles. This report found that vehicles from 2012 emitted 10 grams less carbon dioxide per mile than what the EPA requires. Model year 2012 vehicles were the first to be required to comply with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards. According to EPA Deputy Administrator, Bob Perciasepe, “Manufacturers are developing clean vehicles faster than anticipated, and consumers are supporting it.” The extra reductions in GHG emissions generated 25 million credits which can be used to offset emissions that are generated in the future, as long as the goal of 35.5 mpg is achieved by model year 2016. According to Christopher Grundler, director of the EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality, half of the extra credits were awarded for over-compliance with the tailpipe emissions standard, with the remainder coming from improvements to air conditioning systems and the manufacture of flexible-fuel vehicles. Dan Becker, director of the Center for Auto Safety’s Safe Climate Campaign, criticized the credits, saying credits given for manufacturing flexible-fuel vehicles which can use 85 percent ethanol (E85) fuel amounts to a loophole, as many drivers cannot access the retail stations to fill the cars with E85.
Bloomberg BNA
Climate Change Causing Nutrition Decline in Food Crops
On May 7, a study published in the journal Nature found a link between rising carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and the decreasing nutritional value of our food supply. The study found that in several staple crops, including wheat, rice, corn, and legumes, the levels of essential nutrients – iron and zinc, as well as some proteins – showed a significant decrease in value. With projected CO2 emission rates in 2050, the models predicted the zinc content in wheat would decrease by 9 percent, iron by 5 percent and protein by 6 percent. To arrive at these conclusions, the scientists contrasted the nutrient levels of crops grown in the ambient CO2 levels at the time of the study (380-390 parts per million (ppm)), with those grown in the estimated CO2 levels for 2050 (545-585 ppm). The scientists examined 41 different strains of staple crops, grown on three continents in seven locations. According to Samuel Myers, an environmental health professor at Harvard University and leader of the study, 2 billion people already suffer from deficiencies in iron and zinc. This is especially prevalent in developing countries such as Bangladesh, Iraq, and Algeria, where these staple crops are the major sources of these nutrients. Myers states, "The concern is that there is already an enormous public health problem and rising CO2 in the atmosphere will exacerbate that problem further." David Wolfe, a professor of plant and soil ecology at Cornell University who was not a part of the study, stated that the reason for this nutrient depletion was the quickening growth rates of the plants due to rising CO2 emissions, which causes the roots to insufficiently uptake iron, zinc or nitrogen. Thus, Wolfe states, “people would have to eat more pounds of corn or rice to get the equivalent amount of protein, iron, [or] zinc in their diet.”
BBC
NBC
Headlines
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1. UN Climate Expert Optimistic for 2015 Climate Talks
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4. United Nations Chief Ban Ki-Moon Says “Climate Change Affects Us All” in Guardian Op-Ed
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