Global Warming

Climate Conference to Start with Controversy and Division

Sunday, 06 December 2009 08:03 Mike Marks

December 6, 2009 - Tomorrow some 15,000 delegates from around the world will be gathered in Copenhagen for what is formally called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The goal of the week long conference is to lay out a plan for a global response to global warming. The core premises of the conference are that climate change is happening and that human activity is either causing or contributing to it. There is a general worldwide consensus on these two fundamental points.

However, a general consensus leaves a lot of room for dissent and the dissenters have had support from a recent controversy at East Anglia University in the UK, a leading university in the field of environmental studies. There, researchers who support strong action to reverse the emissions of greenhouse gasses, emailed each other about how to best present evidence that supports global warming and how to suppress evidence that is contrary. Here's one of the many stories on this subject from Guardian UK. And then there's news that global warming has been stalled for the past ten years as reported in Der Spiegel.

Beyond these disputes about the data, there are deep divisions among the governments and peoples of the world. Countries emerging from poverty, such as China and India blame rich established countries like the US for creating the problem and say that rich countries should do more to mitigate emissions even as they (the emerging countries) contribute an ever larger share. More on this issue.

But even if the issues about the fundamental data and who-to-blame are resolved and the world agrees to take unified action there is the question of what to do? Should the rich countries pay Brazil, Indonesia, Congo and Burma to stop burning and logging timber in their rain forests? Should the world make a concerted effort to switch from coal and oil based sources to non emitting sources such as sun, wind and nuclear?

Here's an illuminating view from aliens written by NY Times science commentator Olivia Judson: Betting on Copenhagen

Last Updated ( Sunday, 06 December 2009 09:04 )

Blog - Global Warming

Oceans, land absorbing less C02

Thursday, 19 November 2009 06:54 Mike Marks

November 19, 2009 - One of the biggest issues in the ongoing debate about C02 and global warming is measurement. How quickly are we adding C02 to our atmosphere? It's not a simple matter of adding up the total output of C02 each year. The reason is that land and seas absorb much of the C02 that is emitted. Increased absorption of C02 is believed to be the reason that oceans have become more acidic. It may also be the reason that the effects of a thickening C02 blanket have been mitigated thus far. But now, after absorbing much more C02 than in the past, the oceans' ability to absorb C02 seems to be diminishing. This means that the amount of C02 remaining in the atmosphere may increase more quickly than it would otherwise. Measuring this change in absorption is difficult but necessary to accurately forecast future C02 levels. Here's the full story from David Biello at Scientific American.

Last Updated ( Thursday, 19 November 2009 07:13 )

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Preservation Ruling May Delay Cape Wind

Friday, 06 November 2009 09:49 Mike Marks

November 6, 2009 - Brona Simon, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Historical Commission has decided that Nantucket Sound is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic places because of its significance to the Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag indian tribes. The tribes have maintained that windmills on Horseshoe Shoal will disturb their ritual of greeting the sun every morning. In a letter made public yesterday Simon wrote that she believes Nantucket Sound should be listed on the National Register as a traditional cultural property. This view is opposite that of the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency that led the environmental review of the Cape Wind project. The National Park Service has been asked to review the claim - this could delay the Cape Wind project for up to a year. Here's more from Beth Daley at Boston.com.

Last Updated ( Friday, 06 November 2009 11:03 )

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Indian Tribes Open New Front Against Cape Wind

Wednesday, 28 October 2009 06:48 Mike Marks

October 28, 2009 - The Aquinnah and Mashpee Wampanoag tribes say that the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound will disturb their spiritual sun greetings and submerged ancestral burying grounds. They have recently requested that all of Nantucket Sound to be listed as a traditional cultural property on the National Register of Historic Places. A listing by itself would not necessarily stop the project, but could add more reviews and make it harder to obtain necessary permits. The tribes are being supported and encouraged by the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the primary opposition group to the Cape Wind project. It is predicted that the tribes’ opposition will cause some delays but will ultimately be rejected.

The tribes’ have been objecting to Cape Wind since 2004 for the same reasons as waterfront property owners - wind turbines will ruin the view. Tribal representatives say their culture greets the sunrise each day, sometimes from sacred sites on the shore of Nantucket Sound, and that this ritual requires unobstructed views. Here's more from the Boston Globe.

In an editorial published yesterday the Boston Globe says that this opposition move is "cynical:" OF ALL THE gimmicks that opponents of Cape Wind have resorted to, working with the Wampanoag tribes to protect all of Nantucket Sound for cultural reasons wins the prize for sheer cynicism. The ploy seems intended to drag out the approval process long enough for some other tactic to emerge. But the opponents will have to work hard to find a mechanism for delay as laugh-out-loud bogus as this one.

The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, which opposes the wind-power project, must know full well that the federal government would never designate the sound as a tribal “traditional cultural property.’’ Nor should the government do so. Such a precedent could cast a legal shadow over any new pipeline, oil rig, or harbor reconstruction on any US coastline...

The Wampanoag tribes say they want the entire sound placed on the National Register of Historic Places because they say their spiritual greetings of the sun require unobstructed views; Cape Wind’s proposed 130 wind turbines would get in the way. They also say the turbines could disturb the ancestral burying grounds that might be under the shallow waters of the sound. This concern has not kept one of the Wampanoag tribes, the Aquinnah, from proposing its own wind-turbine project on tribal land on Martha’s Vineyard - just a few hundred yards from the Gay Head Cliffs that have won designation as a National Historic Landmark...

Here's the full editorial.

Blog - Global Warming

Int'l Day of Climate Action

Saturday, 24 October 2009 06:50 Mike Marks

October 24, 2009 - Organizers at 350.org have declared today as International Day of Climate Action. From the pyramids of Egypt to Christopher Columbus park in Boston, some 4,500 events have been organized around the world to generate awareness of the need for coordinated global efforts against climate change. Billed as the largest political environmental action effort in the world’s history, the day will see events in more than 175 nations. Organizers hope to persuade world leaders to create meaningful policies to reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. People wearing snorkels, life vests and the like will be gathering in Boston’s Christopher Columbus Park this afternoon. They will be highlighting concerns that parts of Boston could be submerged as global warming raises sea levels. Here's more from Beth Daley at Boston.com.

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