George Will - Climate Denier redux

Back in February, George Will published a . . . fanciful column . . . supposed exposing (again) the lie that is the climate crisis. I shot back, as did many others. Even the President of the World Meteorological Society wrote in, and suqarely laid Mr. Will out for his flagarant lying. Sadly, neither Post, nor Mr. Will ever printed a correction or retraction, perferring to hide behind half answer to their own ombudsman, who had been on the job only a week or so.

Now comes Mr Will is at it again, and Joe Romm debunks him better then I can. So does Carl Zimmer. And as Sarah A points out, a lie is a lie no matter who tells it or for what purpose. Someone needs to tell Hiatt that, though I wonder sometimes if he's capable of listening.

Another Obama bomb - unlimited detention policies coming into existence.

Yes Martha, the Obama Administration is going to detain certain suspected terrorists indefinitely. So now we as a nation will be "safe" from those . . . people . . . who are denied due process because the government . . . . might loose . . . on account of the previous Administration's refusal to abide by the rule of law in the first place. But we'll be "safe."

Problem is, once a system of permanent detention gets set up, it will be nearly impossible to take just down, just as the "War on Terror" will be nearly impossible to end (so loose are its defining parameters). History also teaches us that such a system, while initially turned outward against some "other" will all too easily be turned inward against crticis of the regime. Think I'm joking? The USSR used to do it, and Russia still does in Chechnya. Nearly every South American country has had a totalitarian phase with unlimited detention without trial. So does North Korea. Think our President, at some point, won't use it? Really? Play the lottery much?

More Grumbine Science: What cooling trend?

As if we need any more ways to deal with climate change deniers, my colleague Robert Grumbine gives us More Grumbine Science: What cooling trend? I commend it to you as your monday morning reading - As usual he distills an improtant denier side track into its real components.

Ocean Acidification - An open call to action

As many of you may have guessed, the oceans are a major source of passion for me personally - and thus the focus of my work professionally. My position in the federal government often restricts what I can write about here - I'm too inside baseball legally for a lot of of topics.

But on the issue of Ocean Acidification, I'll make an exception. This is a real impact of our global climate crisis, it's already occuring, and as I recently wrote, it can be devastating.

So when Sheril sent me this letter, and asked me to be part of her simultaneous blogging action, I readily agreed. read for yourself, and then decide what you want to do:



We are both lifelong boaters. What we have learned from sailing across the Pacific over the past 6 years, and especially from scientists focused on marine conservation, is startling. Whether you spend time on the water or not, Ocean Acidification affects all of us and is something we believe you will want to know about.

What would you do if you knew that many species of fish and other marine life in the ocean will be gone within 30 years if levels of C02 continue increasing at their present rate? We believe you would take action to stop this from happening, because informed people make informed choices. This letter is about what we can and must do together now to help solve a very serious but little-known problem, Ocean Acidification.

Ocean Acidification is primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels. When carbon dioxide in the atmosphere ends up in the ocean it changes the pH, making the sea acidic and less hospitable to life. Over time, C02 reduces calcium carbonate, which prevents creatures from forming shells and building reefs. In fact, existing shells will start to dissolve. Oysters and mussels will not be able to build shells. Crabs and lobsters? Your great-grandchildren may wonder what they tasted like.

Carbon dioxide concentrated in the oceans is making seawater acidic. Many of the zooplankton, small animals at the base of the food web, have skeletons that won’t form in these conditions, and sea-life further up the food chain – fish, mammals and seabirds that rely on zooplankton for food will also perish. No food – no life. One billion people rely on seafood for their primary source of protein. Many scientific reports document that worldwide, humans are already consuming more food than is being produced. The implications are obvious.

The issue of Ocean Acidification is causing irreversible loss to species and habitats, and acidification trends are happening up to ten times faster than projected. We want you to know what this means, how it affects all of us, and what we can do about it.

Today, the atmospheric concentration of C02 is about 387 parts per million (ppm) and increasing at 2 ppm per year. If left unaddressed, by 2040 it is projected to be over 450 ppm, and marine scientists believe the collapse of many ocean ecosystems will be irreversible. Acidification has other physiological effects on marine life as well, including changes in reproduction, growth rates, and even respiration in fish.

Tropical and coldwater corals are among the oldest and largest living structures on earth; the richest in terms of biodiversity, they provide spawning areas, nursery habitat and feeding grounds for a quarter of all species in the sea. Coral reefs are at risk! As C02 concentrations increase, corals, shellfish and other species that make shells will not be able to build their skeletons and will likely become extinct.

The good news is we can fix this problem. But, as you guessed, it will be difficult. Ocean Acidification is caused by increased C02 in the atmosphere. Solving one will solve the other. The House of Representatives has acted, passing HR 2454, the Waxman-Markey “American Clean Energy and Security Act”, but it was severely weakened. Now the Senate has announced that it will move similar legislation this fall. We need the Senate to join the House in its leadership, but to demand far greater emissions reductions than were able to pass the House.

“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that in order to stabilize C02 in the atmosphere at 350 ppm by 2050, global carbon emissions need to be cut 85% below 2000 levels.”That's a very tall order! And the way our political system works (or doesn't) makes its tougher. It will take all of us to step up and take responsibility to make this happen.

Here is what you can do: Contact your Senator now using ont of these techniques listed in order of effectiveness.

1. Visit your Senator at their local office. It is easy to make an appointment. Tell them your concerns about C02 and the oceans, and to move strong climate legislation immediately that will reduce our greenhouse gas concentrations to levels that will not threaten our oceans. The experience is rewarding. (Alternatively, drop a letter off at their local office.)

2. Call your Senator and leave a message urging action be taken to reduce C02 , address Ocean Acidification, and move strong climate legislation immediately that will reduce our greenhouse gas concentrations to levels that will not threaten our oceans.

3. Click on this link to send an email, which will go directly to your Senator based on your address: http://www.oceana.org/acid You may use the letter provided, but it is more effective to edit it, and in your own words urge them to move strong climate legislation immediately that will reduce our greenhouse gas concentrations to levels that will not threaten our oceans.

Ocean Acidification is an issue we can do something about. We need a groundswell of informed citizens to get Congress to have the backbone to stand up to the entrenched interests of coal, oil, and gas and not compromise on the reduction of C02. We also need real leadership to aggressively create jobs using sustainable technologies. The choice is ours. We can solve this or not. What we do know is that the future facing our children, grandchildren and indeed all of humankind depends on our decision.

Please join us in sharing this letter with others. We appreciate your taking the time to contact your Senators; it is easy to do and effective. Thank you for your support.

Randy Repass Chairman
West Marine

Sally-Christine Rodgers
Board Member
Oceana

A more complete report on ocean acidification here: http://oceana.org/fileadmin/oceana/uploads/Climate_Change/Acid_Test_Report/Acidification_Report.pdf

Blogging Etiquette - James Kwak on Blog-o-sphere rules to live by

Tne Number One Reason why I hate wading into the waters of the "New Atheists" vs. "religious scientists" is that BOTH SIDES violate this rule:

Another thing that follows, though perhaps a little less obviously: be polite. Bloggers are a community, and how you behave matters. If you disagree strongly with someone, express your disagreement through superior logic or mountains of evidence, not by calling the other person an idiot. There are a few bloggers out there who not only like to show that they are smarter than other people (most of us fall victim to this temptation), but come out and say that they are smarter than other people, and judging from their traffic (Alexa can show this for you) that strategy has not been successful for them. I am on good terms with some of the people whom I have disagreed with most strongly; some of them send me emails pointing out posts they think I may find interesting. Bloggers are people like everyone else; whether they will help you depends largely on whether they like you.

You can thank James Kwak, over at The Baseline Scenario for this one.

Another Cost of Climate Change - Coral Reef Bleaching

Over at PLoS ONE, there is a new study out that predicts some pretty dire consequences for coral reef communities from continued sea temperature rise. It seems that if one looks at the impact of green house gasses on ocean surface temperatures (which are a major cause of coral bleaching), the two best climate models from NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory predict a serious increase in temperature caused bleaching through 2100. The usual scientific caveats are applied, but the bottom line is real, and dire:

Humans had put enough greenhouse gasses (including Carbon Dioxide) into the atmosphere by 2000 to seriously imperil the world’s coral reef communities due to temperature-induced bleaching. Even if we do things now to get back to or below that level, the lag time in climate systems will not stop massive coral bleaching for most of the rest of this century.

Um, ok, so what you may ask. What is bleaching anyway, and why should I care? Coral Bleaching is when a coral head, or an entire reef, releases or sloughs off its collection of symbiotic algae from within each coral polyp. Not only does this remove the color of the coral, is usually leads to death of the coral because the algae are an important food producer for the polyps. So, bleaching events are bad for reefs physically.

On the human side of things, bleaching events are bad economically as well. In the aggregate, losses to human communities that rely on reefs for economic success may range from $3.35 Billion to $4.87 Billion per year. This would include the loss of recreational and commercial fisheries harvests, loss of commercial SCUBA diving and snorkeling tourists, and the very real impacts of increased storm damage to coastal areas as reefs decay. Much of that impact would be felt close to the U.S., most notably in the Caribbean islands.

Why am I drawing this to your attention? For the same reason that I keep linking to old reports from Congress’ defunct Office of Technological Assessment – to prove the point that our global climate crisis is very real, isn’t a new phenomena, and requires strong action lest we loose some or all of our Earth’s most precious resources. I also keep drawing it to your attention because when I hear how "expensive" actions to arrest global climate change are supposed to be, I shudder. The balance sheet of inaction is rapidly filling up with entries like this. How much does inaction have to cost before we do something?

Vacation is over - back to work

Having enjoyed a much needed retreat to Wisconsin with the Red Headed wife and daughters, I'm back to wrok and back to blogging. Once the engine gets spun up, expect posts following up on my latest analysis of financial sectors in the U.S. Economy, the contribution of the boating industry to solving the global climate crisis, and further analysis of the need for investigations of Bush-era intelligence practices. And a few baseball posts to break things up.