Maryland Climate Change Commission progress

Southern Maryland News reports that “On Wednesday, August 8th, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) hosted the first meeting of the Maryland Climate Change Commission’s Adaptation & Response Working Group (ARWG). ” The executive order to create this Commission was signed by O’Malley back on April 20, 2007. The Commission is to develop a Maryland Climate Action Plan. The Commission also has three working groups: the Scientific and Technical Working Group, the Greenhouse Gas and Carbon Mitigation Working Group, and the Adaptation and Response Working Group.

Notice the word “Adaptation” coming up over and over again now.

The Adaptation and Response working group is chaired by DNR Secretary John R. Griffin, who says that, “If left unchecked, rising temperatures will cause devastating impacts to Maryland’s people, natural resources, and property.” This poor group is assigned the task of cleaning the Augean Stables. I mean they are supposed to “recommend strategies for reducing the vulnerability of the State’s coastal, natural, and cultural resources and communities to the impacts of climate change; and develop a comprehensive strategy for reducing Maryland’s climate change vulnerability” Continue reading

Mike Tidwell interview with Bill Moyers

On August 17th, Mike Tidwell appeared on PBS’s Bill Moyers Journal to revisit the Hurricane Katrina disaster and discuss how global warming is turning every coastal city into the next New Orleans. Here’s an excerpt of the interview:

What gives me optimism in the face of this overwhelming challenge, and, you know, Katrina really is a curtain-raiser. If you want to know what Miami’s going to look like 100 years from now, go to New Orleans today. Below sea level, behind levees, battered by huge storms– if we don’t stop global warming. This climate crisis is here now. The Great Lakes are dropping in water levels. Texas has got too much rain. The Carolinas too little. Hurricanes are getting more intense– it’s here now. It’s not a maybe, kinda sorta, maybe thing in the future that computer modeling says is coming. It’s already deeply here. So, the fact that it’s here, that this giant climate system with all the momentum built in it toward warming, it’s already unpacking its bags. What could possibly give us the optimism and hope that we can now respond at this late stage, strongly and fiercely enough to hold it in check? And the thing that I come back to is, when we decide to change, we tend to change explosively. You know, Look at the great changes in World War II and all these things that have happened in the 20th Century. I believe that this issue of climate change and sustainable– sustainability, which also implies questions of human rights, and fairness. When this light bulb finally goes on, and it’s going on.

You know, I think Katrina opened the door, Al Gore walked through it. And the zeitgeist changed a lot more. But once we finally really get serious, we’re going to change really fast.

Click here to watch it yourself or watch it below:

 

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Is it time for an ethical reckoning at Nat'l Geographic?

Why Does National Geographic Report on the Dangers of Global Warming then Fill its Pockets with Ad Money from Oil Companies and SUV Makers?

The National Geographic Society says global warming is wrecking the Earth and that fossil fuels are to blame. The National Geographic Society also says one of its official goals as an organization is the protection of the Earth’s natural resources. So why does the National Geographic Society accept amazingly ambitious and slick multi-million dollar ads from oil companies and SUV makers? Is it time for an ethical reckoning at Old Yeller?

According to National Geographic magazine, climate change is already virtually out of control. The magazine’s June 2007 cover shows the Greenland ice sheet imploding with the headline: “The Big Thaw: Ice on the Run, Seas on the Rise.” The article, among many run by National Geographic in recent years, graphically illustrates the impacts of climate change: polar bears starving and drowning, ice vanishing worldwide, and the likelihood of 3 feet or more of sea-level rise by 2100, inundating places like Miami and lower Manhattan.

Yet the same magazine routinely runs major ads from oil companies and SUV makers. Indeed, the July 2007 issue, astonishingly, included an entire 9-minute DVD advertisement movie about the great work Shell Oil is doing in Indonesia to squeeze every last drop of oil from the ocean floor. The film is truly shocking. It paints Shell Oil in utterly heroic colors, never mentioning the words global warming and the fact that every drop of that extracted oil contributes to the climate catastrophe featured by National Geographic magazine just the month before. This Shell Oil DVD was delivered to nearly one million North American readers of the magazine this summer. Continue reading

Hotter than July

NOAA reports that July 2007 was the seventh hottest globally on land and sea since records were kept beginning in 1898. This at first does not seem like much news; however it is consistent with the IPCC-predicted

Inaction is Action: EPA drags on emissions waiver

In other words, EPA is blocking states from implementing meaningful standards for automobile emissions simply by refusing to process its mail. In “EPA gets push on emissions controls,” The Baltimore Sun reports that Maryland is held back from implementing the California emissions standards (developed by the California Air Resources Board, or CARB) that it voted to adopt last spring because EPA has not yet given its OK to California; these standards are heavily opposed by automakers. California is the only state that has the right to create these standards due to federal law, subject to EPA approval of a “California Waiver”. Other states are allowed to follow suit once the waiver is passed. EPA has said that it may make a decision by the end of the year- notably, California will have been waiting two years since it first enacted the legislation. EPA claims that it is processing over 60,000 comments and technical reports on the legislation. I read elsewhere that 50,000 of these comments are actually form cards from environmental groups that were filled out in support of the bill. Isn’t that ironic? I want to say that I heard this attributed to Barbara Boxer. Kudos to Maryland legislators:

“It’s very important that states be able to move forward, particularly until we can have an enforceable federal cap in place,” said Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, a Maryland Democrat who is one of the lawmakers backing legislation that would require the agency to issue a ruling by Sept. 30. “Unfortunately, inaction is action.”

“If we can find some ways to mitigate in small ways the things that we do in the aggregate, like burn carbon fuel, if we can limit that even just a little bit, it can have a salutary impact,” said state Sen. Brian E. Frosh, a Montgomery County Democrat who sponsored the legislation in Maryland. “The way that that works the best is to have national standards. And when you can’t have that … having states do it individually is the second best way.”

“If you look over the history of the automobile industry’s position on reductions in emissions, safety improvements, they’re always crying wolf,” Frosh said. “They always claim that the apocalypse is just around the corner. … The only way these guys make changes that are to the benefit of consumers and to the benefit of the environment is when EPA or the Congress tells them they’ve got to do it.”

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Maryland Citizens Rally for Real Global Warming Solutions

This morning in Annapolis, I was one of over 70 Maryland citizens and students gathered outside the state house to support the Maryland Commission on Climate Change and Governor Martin O’Malley. Backed by a giant yellow banner calling for science-based reductions in global warming pollution of at least 20% by 2020 and 80% by 2050, speakers from the newly formed Alliance for Global Warming Solutions and politicians spoke of the importance of taking real action to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. The Alliance delivered over 5,000 (!!!) postcard petitions to the Governor and Commission members asking the state leaders for a firm commitment and swift action!

The Time to Commit is Now!

Last April, Governor O’Malley created the MD Commission on Climate Change to study the effects of global warming in Maryland and to make an action plan to deal with them. And believe me, Maryland may seem small, but just like in every other place, the effects of global warming will cause massive changes. Maryland, with over 3,100 miles of coastline, is the third most vulnerable state to sea level rise- after Louisiana and Florida. With just a small rise in sea level rise, Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay culture and much of the Eastern Shore will be dramatically impacted. Even Allstate Insurance Company is no longer issuing new flood policies in coastal Maryland.

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And today before the Commission’s third meeting, we turned out to rally the Commission and the Governor to set firm commitments to science-based reductions of at least 20% by 2020 and 80% by 2050. It was incredible to see how many people had come from out of town, or taken the day off work. Armed with a giant hourglass, Claire Douglass, CCAN’s Maryland Campaign director, showed how with every passing minute and every turn of the hourglass, Marylanders are pumping 350,000 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere.

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I was inspired by the overwhelming grassroots support and dedicated political leaders (including state Sen. Paul Pinsky and Del. Kumar Barve, who spoke at the rally). Maryland is the position to become a national leader in the fight against climate change. Click here to send an email to Governor O’Malley and the Commissioners to thank them for their support and to encourage them to make a commitment to science-based reductions.

As Claire said, “These are achievable reductions. We can do this, we must do this, but we have to act now.”

Hansen: Declaration of Stewardship

Jim Hansen has clearly determined that the time to stay silent has long past. That urgency demands urgent voices. That he must — and other scientists — should speak out forcefully.

Hansen is not just speaking forcefully, he is also speaking eloquently. This past week, at a Re-Energize America event, Hansen gave a speech that spoke to the risks of Global Warming and discussed his draft Declaration of Stewardship for the Earth and all Creation to be asked of every candidate (at all levels).

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1998: Still Hot

You may have heard this from a conservative friend already, but NASA recalculated its temperature records for 1998 and the year is no longer the hottest in the 48 states (1934 is). Hill Heat has a good synopsis of the political fallout- sometimes more interesting than the science itself. RealClimate has a good rundown on the science. What your conservative friend did not tell you is that the differences are statistically insignificant. Anyway, the problem with the NASA data was found by a blogger from http://www.climateaudit.org/. Nice work, Steve McIntyre. You get the gold star for analyzing primary data and for paying attention.

The data record still indicates that temperatures on the surface of the Earth are getting warmer. The data corrections are for anomalies of surface air temperatures for the 48 states and do not change the fact that temperatures in 19 of the past 26 years globally have been setting records, and that 2005 was the warmest year on record for the globe. According to RealClimate:

More importantly for climate purposes, the longer term US averages have not changed rank. 2002-2006 (at 0.66 Continue reading