Climate Progress

I got a little flak when I made a similar suggestion back in August, prompted by my Minneapolis-based brother. So I will try to report as neutrally as possible on an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune just sent to me by said brother, headlined:

Did heat, rusted plates doom bridge?
Federal investigators are trying to determine whether 91-degree heat caused expansion that put too much pressure on the corroded gusset plates that held the I-35W span together.

What does the article say?

… authorities are analyzing what role the 91-degree heat on Aug. 1 might have played in increasing stress on the already-weakened L-11 gusset plate, which connected four steel beams located near the bridge’s south end.

Like the New Orleans levees that failed during Katrina, this bridge was not well-designed. In particular, it apparently could not handle the consequences of the cold and heat that Minneapolis is subjected to:

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The long-feared saturation of one the world’s primary carbon sinks has apparently started. The BBC reports, “The amount of carbon dioxide being absorbed by the world’s oceans has reduced.”

After 10 years and more than 90,000 ship-based measurements of CO2 absorption, University of East Anglia researchers reached this stunning conclusion:

CO2 uptake halved between the mid-90s and 2000 to 2005.

The BBC writes: “Scientists believe global warming might get worse if the oceans soak up less of the greenhouse gas.”

Sigh. Note to the BBC, you don’t need a double hedge: If you’re going to just say “might get worse” you surely can drop “Scientists believe.” Frankly I doubt you can find many, if any, reputable scientists — or even the few remaining deniers — who would say that if the ocean sink saturates, global warming won’t get worse. I would probably phrase it this way: Global warming will accelerate if the oceans soak up less of the greenhouse gas.

The researchers say, “it is a tremendous surprise and very worrying because there were grounds for believing that in time the ocean might become ’saturated’ with our emissions - unable to soak up any more.”

Why is that bad news?

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You have probably been racking your brains for months wondering “what can I give back to Climate Progress in return for all this free up-to-the-minute climate information and snarky climate commentary?”

Well, as part of our endless effort to deliver you a better product, we have partially redesigned the web site to make it more user-friendly and to let you share the content with others. Here’s what you can do for us:

1. TELL A FRIEND ABOUT CLIMATE PROGRESS.

If you click on the new “Share This” button at the bottom of each post, and then click on “E-mail,” you can now send any post to your friends (or to your enemies, if that’s the kind of person you are).

At a loss as to what post to send? Look no farther than the new “Most popular posts” feature on the right. These include some of Climate Progress’s most clicked-on and most commented-on posts — and are a good introduction to the site for newcomers.

2. TELL THE WORLD ABOUT CLIMATE PROGRESS.

The “Share This” button “Social Web” feature allows you to recommend any post to the top social networking sites. If enough people vote for a post, it gets brought to the attention of people using that site. What are the most useful sites?

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“A new kind of hybrid uses less gas and more electricity. All-electric cars are already here. What will this mean for the road trip of the future?”

Find out in this Travel & Leisure article by early plug-in advocate David Morris. A very good discussion of recent news on electric drive cars.

CNN has done an interesting poll for its Planet in Peril show:

Most Americans blame emissions from cars and industrial plants as the primary cause of global warming and believe the United States should reduce levels even if other countries don’t, a survey shows.

Fifty-six percent of poll respondents said the phenomenon of global warming has been proven, and can be largely blamed on human endeavors, such as power plants and factories, according to the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll.

In comparison, 21 percent of those surveyed claimed global warming problems are caused either by natural changes or are unproven.

Sixty-six percent of Americans believe the United States should do what it can to reduce global warming, even if other nations ignore it. This compares with 52 percent of respondents who believed that way in 2001.

In that year, 34 percent thought the United States needed to reduce harmful gases only if other nations did. A much smaller proportion, 16 percent, responded that way in 2007.

The survey of 1,212 adults was conducted October 12-14 and has a sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Biofuels can’t get any respect these days. Science magazine (subs. req’d) recently published an article whose abstract reads, simply,

The carbon sequestered by restoring forests is greater than the emissions avoided by the use of the liquid biofuels.

The article, “Carbon Mitigation by Biofuels or by Saving and Restoring Forests?” notes:

Two issues need to be addressed before the efficacy of biofuels can be assessed: the net reduction in fossil carbon emissions (avoided emissions) arising from use of agriculturally derived biofuels and the effect of alternative land-use strategies on carbon stores in the biosphere.

What happens when you do this analysis?

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Treehugger reports on a public bet I have made with Greg Blencoe, CEO of Hydrogen Discoveries:

Greg Blencoe wins if hydrogen fuel cell vehicles hit 1% of new sales of the typically-defined car and light truck market in the U.S. during 2015 or any year before. Joseph Romm wins if it is 2016 or any year after.

At stake is $1000, plus a certain amount of pride (if I lose, I must be photographed wearing a t-shirt saying “I was wrong about hydrogen.”)

I am certainly prepared to make that bet with pretty much anyone — though I might have to reconsider in the (very) unlikely event I get too many takers. Reasons why you shouldn’t take the bet are below:

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Now that I have become a serious journalist snarky blogger, I am the target of publicists.

A “Social Networking Manager” helping out CNN sent me to this 24-minute clip of the forthcoming two-part environmental documentary, Planet in Peril by Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Animal Planet’s Jeff Corwin.

Two things struck me — first, not much bloody stuff about climate change in that long clip. And in fact a visit to CNN’s web site reveals the show “looks at four key issues: climate change, vanishing habitats, disappearing species and human population growth.” So if you are just a climate change junkie — and if you aren’t, what in God’s name are you doing here? — you might find parts of the show less than interesting. As a general-interest environmental documentary, the high-def show is, however, visually-compelling.

Second, the planet isn’t in peril. The planet is doing just fine — at least until the next big asteroid hits us. What’s in peril — danger; a possibility of incurring loss or misfortune — is lots and lots of species that depend on the climate, including us.

I’m sure the CNN show is fine, but “planet in peril” is, for me, the wrong message. Leaving people with the impression that it is the earth and “nature” that are in peril is not productive. What should (hopefully) motivate the kind of serious, multi-decade action by humans needed to avoid catastrophic climate change is the threat to humans, and possibly the threat of mass extinction.

Well, okay, you can ask.

Over this weekend, the powers that be will be putting in place a partial web-site redesign aimed at making the site a tad more user-friendly for long-time readers and newcomers alike.

I will discuss those changes on Monday, at which time I will finally answer a question that I know has been weighing heavily on your mind for a long time: “What can I do for Climate Progress?”

Stay tuned, and I hope you like the improvements!

October is Energy Awareness Month. What’s more, October first got this designation from the first President Bush in 1991.

Why do I know this? Because the only people I have ever met who know about Energy Awareness Month are people who have worked at the Department of Energy. But I’m going to change all that with this blog post — which will probably double the number of people aware of Energy Awareness Month. Don’t worry, though, the DOE has made it easy to take action:

To help you customize your energy awareness program, You Have the Power campaign artwork is available for you to download from the images [on this website].

This is my favorite downloadable poster. Click on the image for animation — I could watch it for hours. And yes, since you ask, the energy savings from walking one or two flights of stairs instead of using an elevator is humongous — easily equal to those cancelled Kansas coal plants. Easily! [Although if there are other people waiting for the elevator, then it was going to run anyway, but don’t go all techno-nerdie on me — it is the thought that counts!]

Now I know you have been waiting to hear what the second President Bush thinks of this. You probably believe he has presided over some eighty consecutive months of Energy Unawareness — but in fact he cares deeply about Energy Awareness Month, as he made crystal clear last year with Proclamation 8068 - National Energy Awareness Month, 2006:

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