NEWS

Energy Regulatory Chief Says New Coal, Nuclear Plants May Be Unnecessary
By NOELLE STRAUB AND PETER BEHR, Greenwire

No new nuclear or coal plants may ever be needed in the United States, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said recently. For details and discussion, go to http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/04/22/22greenwire-no-need-to-build-new-us-coal-or-nuclear-plants-10630.html?pagewanted=1

Study warns climate-change damage to forests could accelerate greenhouse gas emissions
The critical role of forests as massive "sinks" for absorbing greenhouse gases is "at risk of being lost entirely" to climate change-induced environmental stresses that threaten to damage and even decimate forests worldwide, according to a recent report.

"Adaptation of Forests and People to Climate Change — A Global Assessment" was coordinated by the Vienna-based International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) through the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), an alliance of 14 international organizations that each has substantial forestry programs.

Authored by 35 of the world's top forestry scientists, it provides the first global assessment to date of the ability of forests to adapt to climate change.

"We normally think of forests as putting the brakes on global warming, but in fact over the next few decades, damage induced by climate change could cause forests to release huge quantities of carbon and create a situation in which they do more to accelerate warming than to slow it down," said Risto Seppälä, a professor at the Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) and Immediate Past President of IUFRO, who chaired the expert panel that produced the report.

Scientists hope the new assessment will inform international climate change negotiations, set to resume in December in Copenhagen, where forest-related deliberations thus far have focused mainly on carbon emissions from deforestation. The analysis shows that officials also must consider how the world's forests are likely to suffer—and perhaps severely—as the earth gets warmer.

[EDITORS' NOTE: So those "offsets" or "credits," involving the planting or maintenance of trees, may not ultimately help at all. Conceivably, they could contribute to future global-warming "feedback," depending on whether and when we arrive at the "tipping point."
The same shift from "sinks" to sources of GHGs could also affect soils and oceans.]

Battle Creek's Climate Change Coalition Campaigns for CFL's and Local Change
Our friend Sue Anderson keeps us informed about the activities of the Climate Change Coalition in Battle Creek. Their current campaign involves the distribution of 20,000 free CFL's, with financing from government and local businesses. The coalition has an informative web site at www.climatechangecoalition.org, including an EARTHCLOCK, that will tick off population growth, oil pumped, species lost, and much else. The numbers spin and tick by--as we watch.

"Occupy the Amazon so as Not to Lose it" - with Palm Oil Plantations
Adapted from a story on Rainforest Action Network, ran.org, February 3, 2009

Palm oil isn't being produced just in Southeast Asia, the Pacific or West Africa. Increasingly, massive palm oil plantations are sprouting up throughout Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil - yes, in the middle of the Amazon.

The Agropalma plantation is a sprawling 107,000 hectare (264,402 acre) complex located south of Belem, in the Brazilian Amazon. 40,000 hectares (98,842 acres) of this land is covered in palm oil plantations and the other 60,000 hectares (148,263 acres) of land remain in what Agropalma calls "forest reserves." 1600 kilometers of roads run through the plantation - 994 miles. Agropalma differentiates themselves from many other palm oil producers worldwide through their production of organically certified palm oil. 30% of their total palm oil in production is organically produced and certified. The rest is not.

Agropalma is a major producer of palm oil for all of Latin America, and one of the primary sources of organic certified palm oil to the U.S. and European markets. Their palm oil is destined for the food and cosmetic industry, not for biofuels.

The owner of Agropalma was a recipient of the Brazilian government's tax incentive program in the 1980's which encouraged industry and individuals to relocate to the Amazon. The philosophy of the government was, "Occupy the Amazon in order not to lose it."

EDITORS' NOTE: Before you buy a product, check the ingredients. If it contains palm oil (even if it's "organic"), try to find an alternative.

Little Things Mean a Lot - and "Fix" a Lot

• EAST LANSING, Mich. - Tiny creatures at the bottom of the food chain called diatoms suck up nearly a quarter of the atmosphere's carbon dioxide, yet research by Michigan State University scientists suggests they could become less able to "sequester" that greenhouse gas as the climate warms. The microscopic algae are a major component of plankton living in puddles, lakes and oceans.
  
• Zoology professor Elena Litchman, with MSU colleague Christopher Klausmeier and Kohei Yoshiyama of the University of Tokyo, explored how nutrient limitation affects the evolution of the size of diatoms in different environments. Their findings underscore potential consequences for aquatic food webs and climate shifts.
  
  "They are globally important since they ‘fix' a significant amount of carbon," Litchman explained of the single-cell diatoms. "When they die in the ocean, they sink to the bottom carrying the carbon from the atmosphere with them. They perform a tremendous service to the environment."
  More: http://news.msu.edu/story/6074/&topic_id=13
  

Bad-News Briefs

• Acceleration of the Pine Island Glacier, largest glacier in Antarctica (about the size of Texas), has increased by about seven percent over last season, "An incredible acceleration," according to Julian Scott, research scientist, Rothera Research Station, Antarctica.
  Source: "Journey to the End of the Earth," BBC KNOWLEDGE, April 2009.
• Rising temperatures and drought are causing trees in the American West to die at more than twice the rate than they did a few decades ago. Source: NY TIMES, Jan. 23, 2009, p. A13
• New evidence indicates that ocean acidification, caused by rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, is affecting the ability of small marine organisms - specifically foraminifera, a species of plankton - to create shells. Source: NY TIMES, March 10, 2009, p. D3.
• The number of U.S. lobbyists working to block global warming action has increased 300% in recent years, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

Take Heart! Here's Some GOOD News
Ecuador and Some U.S. Communities Recognize Rights for Nature
Ecuador, in its new Constitution, has become the first nation in the world to define nature not as property but as a rights-bearing entity: "Nature . . . has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution."

More surprising, the idea for such legal recognition came from a few communities in the United States. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund has worked with over 120 communities to limit corporate "rights" and extend citizen powers to defend environmental interests. Over a dozen of these communities now legally recognize rights for nature. For more, go to www.celdf.org    Source: Global Exchange Newsletter, Winter 2009, pp. 1, 14.

Costa Rica Says No to Drilling, Yes to Paying Full Cost of Natural Resources
Costa Rica discovered oil on its land five years ago, but has steadfastly banned drilling for it. Moreover, 25 percent of Costa Rica's land is under environmental protection, and there is a 3.5 percent TAX on carbon emissions. Economic growth must be fully paid for, not by the consumer but by the producer, who is accountable and must pay for all destruction and impairment of natural resources, all "externalities."

How do they do it? One key: there is only one minister for both energy and environment. "In Costa Rica, the minister of environment sets the policy for energy, mines, water and natural resources," according to Carlos M. Rodriguez, who served in that post from 2002 to 2006.

In commending Costa Rica's policies, Thomas Friedman concludes that without them, "We end up impoverishing both nature and people. Worse, we start racking up a bill in the form of climate-changing greenhouse gases, petro-dictatorships and bio-diversity loss that gets charged on our kids' Visa cards to be paid by them later. Well, later is over. Later is when it will be too late." Source: Thomas L. Friedman, "(No) Drill, Baby, Drill," NY TIMES, April 12, 2009, p. WK-7.

THE WORLD'S FIRST BUMBLEBEE SANCTUARY
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust and Scotland's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds have joined to create the world's first bumblebee sanctuary in Loch Leven, Scotland. The flower-rich meadow was created as a sanctuary to counteract the widespread habitat loss that has already led to the extinction of three bee species in Europe. Native bumblebees, important pollinators for crops and ecosystems, are under stress everywhere because of habitat loss, pesticides, and pollution.

Costa Rica Says No to Drilling, Yes to Paying Full Cost of Natural Resources
Costa Rica discovered oil on its land five years ago, but has steadfastly banned drilling for it. Moreover, 25 percent of Costa Rica's land is under environmental protection, and there is a 3.5 percent TAX on carbon emissions. Economic growth must be fully paid for, not by the consumer but by the producer, who is accountable and must pay for all destruction and impairment of natural resources, all "externalities."

How do they do it? One key: there is only one minister for both energy and environment. "In Costa Rica, the minister of environment sets the policy for energy, mines, water and natural resources," according to Carlos M. Rodriguez, who served in that post from 2002 to 2006.

In commending Costa Rica's policies, Thomas Friedman concludes that without them, "We end up impoverishing both nature and people. Worse, we start racking up a bill in the form of climate-changing greenhouse gases, petro-dictatorships and bio-diversity loss that gets charged on our kids' Visa cards to be paid by them later. Well, later is over. Later is when it will be too late." Source: Thomas L. Friedman, "(No) Drill, Baby, Drill," NY TIMES, April 12, 2009, p. WK-7.

Holdren, A Strong Voice on CO2 as Science Adviser
By Andrew C. Revkin adapted from http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com

John P. Holdren, a Harvard physicist best known as a strong proponent of cutting greenhouse gas emissions and a specialist on energy technology policy and nuclear nonproliferation, is President Obama's science adviser.

Dr. Holdren, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science from 2006 to 2007, has long been pressing for prompt action to curb greenhouse gas emissions and advance research on non-polluting energy sources.

This is how Dr. Holdren described his stance to me in 2007: "I am one of those who believes that any reasonably comprehensive and up-to-date look at the evidence makes clear that civilization has already generated dangerous anthropogenic interference in the climate system…. What keeps me going is my belief that there is still a chance of avoiding catastrophe."

The Harvard physicist also directs the Woods Hole Research Center, a prominent center of inquiry on forest and climate policy.

Holdren says "global warming" is not the correct term to use; he prefers global disruption. "Global warming implies something that's mainly about temperature, that's gradual, and that's uniform across the planet," says Holdren. "In fact, temperature is only one of the things that's changing. It's a sort of an
index of the state of the climate. The whole climate is changing: the winds, the ocean currents, the storm patterns, snow packs, snowmelt, flooding, droughts. Temperature is just a bit of it."

Higher Emissions and CAFE Standards
from Natural Resources Defense Council and San Francisco Chronicle

President Obama directed his EPA to immediately review the Bush Administration's denial of the right of California and other states to set global warming pollution standards for new cars. He also directed the Department of T ransportation to set higher national fuel efficiency standards.

What will that mean in the real world? If Obama's EPA, as expected, approves the California program, new cars sold in that state and at least 13 others will have to reduce their global warming pollution by 30 percent between 2009 and 2016. And the Department of Transportation will require more efficient new cars to be on the road starting in 2010, and set a course for the average new car to achieve maximum feasible fuel efficiency by 2020.

California officials say they plan to enforce the state's regulation requiring the nation's most fuel-efficient vehicles as soon as the federal government grants the state a waiver from less-stringent national standards. The move is expected this spring. The regulation would have the single largest impact on the state's ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020 -- Matthew Yi and Wyatt Buchanan, The San Francisco Chronicle

Hillary Sends "Unequivocal Message" on Climate Change
Adapted from a news item at http://gristmill.grist.org

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has recruited a special envoy for climate change at the State Department, Todd Stern, who will serve as lead climate negotiator at the United Nations and other international summits. Said Clinton, "With the appointment today of a special envoy, we are sending an
unequivocal message that the United States will be energetic, focused, strategic, and serious about addressing global climate change and the corollary issue of clean energy."

"President Obama and Secretary Clinton have left no doubt that a new day is dawning in the U.S. approach to climate change and clean energy. The time for denial, delay and dispute is over," said Stern at a press conference today announcing his appointment.

EPA Chief Jackson's Top Priority: Reducing GHG Emissions, Scientifically
New EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has outlined her top five priorities for the agency. No. 1 is reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. "Science must be the backbone for EPA programs," she wrote. "The President believes that when EPA addresses scientific issues, it should rely on the expert judgment of the Agency's career scientists and independent advisors. When scientific judgments are suppressed, misrepresented or distorted by political agendas, Americans can lose faith in their government to provide strong public health and environmental protection."

New Study: CO2 Effects Could Last for Over 1000 Years
from the Climate Project web site newsletter
A new scientific study conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and researchers in Switzerland and France says carbon dioxide which exists in the atmosphere today may continue to affect surface temperatures and sea levels for more than 1,000 years. The report released this month notes that severe droughts and a rise in sea levels are expected to occur as a result of global warming. "Our study convinced us that current choices regarding carbon dioxide emissions will have legacies that will irreversibly change the planet," said NOAA senior scientist Susan Soloman, who led the study. See the NOAA press release to learn more on the findings: www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20090126_climate.html

Rising Acidity Threatening Ocean Food Web
Adapted from a story in NY Times, Jan. 31 09
The oceans serve as a major carbon sink, buffering the effects of anthropogenic CO2; but as the gas dissolves, it makes seawater more acidic. Now, an international panel of scientists say this acidity is increasing so fast it is threatening the diversity and survival of the ocean food web. The panel, comprising 155 scientists from 26 countries, issued the strongest warning yet about the effects of CO2 emissions on the oceans and called for "urgent action" to sharply reduce emissions as quickly as possible. " Severe damages are imminent," the group said.