January 2009 Archives

The climate crisis continues to intensify down under, as large areas of Australia endure an unprecedented heatwave [ark], adding to the misery of years of severe drought [search]. Melbourne's temperatures have topped 43C (109.4F) for three days for the first time, causing trees to lose their leaves and railway tracks to buckle. This is clearly a climate change exacerbated event and portends humanity's future if we do not immediately embark upon massive emissions reductions.

For over 15 years Ecological Internet's Earth Action Network has given warnings to successive Australian government's regarding their unique vulnerability to climate change, exacerbated by deforestation and reliance upon coal. Our and many other voices have been completely rebuffed. Is the current political system capable of addressing global issues of this sort? How about society, people, business or the economy? Who is going to solve climate change and what it is going to require? We are looking for answers here.

One hundred and thirty-five leading ocean scientists have released [ark | more] the Monaco Declaration to draw attention to the “other CO2 problem [search]”. Carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas responsible for increases in global temperature and climate change, also causes ocean acidification [search]. Oceans have buffered the climate by absorbing some 25% of human released carbon dioxide, but as a result have already become 30% more acidic. This is interfering with the growth and health of shellfish and eating away at coral reefs, which will eventually affect marine food webs generally.

Ocean acidification is predicted to destroy most coral reefs by 2050, and substantially change commercial fish stocks, threatening food security and the fishing industry. This problem has seemingly come out of nowhere and is only now getting the attention it deserves. Should the human family fail to limit carbon dioxide emissions urgently and massively, we can expect not only terrestrial extreme weather, droughts, famines and sea rising; but also for global oceans to largely become slimy, lifeless, acidic cesspools. This is eerily reminiscent: Soylent green [search] is people.

On March 2nd Power Shift 2009 protesters will gather at the Capital Power Plant in Washington for long overdue civil disobedience against coal and climate change [ark]. The plant is the source of heat and refrigeration for the entire Capitol Hill. They will walk on to the property, sit down and thereby break the law. Perhaps the plant will be shut down for the day. I would love to be with them, but cannot rationalize the carbon to get there from the left coast. But I do encourage all Climate Ark readers that can get there to participate. We have a very short time to build a people's climate change protest [search] movement capable of achieving sufficient climate change policies required for a habitable planet. This is an important start.

U.S. Department of Energy environmental researchers warn many effects of climate change are irreversible [ark | more\ark | RealClimate], and even if carbon emissions are halted, global temperatures will remain high for 1,000 years. Average global temperature increases are one small aspect of what we can expect -- it is the ecosystem collapse [search] including failed crops, starvation, migration from coastal cities, extreme weather, water scarcity and so much more that will kill you. This is not an excuse to go out and party, start panicking and geo-engineering a planet, or otherwise forget about immediately implementing perfectly attainable policies that exist now for saving being. It just is. The truth. And the earliest we "stop digging", the more damages will be minimized.

The findings just further increase the urgency of policies to reduce emissions as soon and as dramatically as we possibly can, because we are determining human and planetary futures, now. In this regard, Obama's plan to have the EPA reconsider automobile efficiency rules [ark | more\ark] is tepid and ineffective. I know, I know, the guy just took office. But being slightly smarter and better than the preceding village idiot is not going to cut it, and we are way past the time where minor policy tinkering can prevent a global apocalypse. We must hold the Obama administration accountable for not getting just any old climate deal, but hold him to achieving sufficient policies to solve the problem, which unfortunately at this point means minimizing it as much as possible.

What a week it has been in climate change: ends up Antarctica is dramatically warming too [ark | search], America's old-growth is dying [ark | search], the U.S. East coast is to be submerged [ark | search], and spring is coming two days early [ark]. Thankfully, the signs of ecological collapse have now become so evident that global citizenry and their governments are swinging into action -- committing to ending the damage, and protecting and restoring global ecological systems. The people made clear that ecological transformation was required, and governments listened rather than be overthrown. In the face of imminent global ecological collapse, a new found sense of commitment and sacrifice reigns, as plans are being made to end ancient forest logging and coal use, while embracing energy alternatives, efficiency and conservation. Sigh.

PRESS/SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE

Precedent set that researchers can experiment on Earth's shared biosphere without oversight. Protests highlight oceans are not carbon dumps, a biosphere cannot be engineered.

By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

(Seattle, WA) -- RV Polarstern, a German research ship from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, is to dump twenty tons of iron sulphate over 300 square kilometres of the Scotia Sea, off Chile's coast, near the Antarctic Peninsula. The chemical cargo -- normally used to treat lawns and sewage -- is likely to provoke a massive algal bloom big enough to be seen from outer space.

German and Indian scientists are hoping the experiment will show that such manmade algae blooms can provide a quick fix to climate change by absorbing carbon into the sea. In fact, it is a desperate attempt to put off hard climate change policies by using technology to further create a human dominated "Frankensphere". Along with other geo-engineering proposals such as space mirrors and aerosol release, seeking to engineer the biosphere holds great risks of unintended consequences such as further climate destabilization and global ecological damage.

Jim Hansen [search], the first scientist to bring concerns regarding tglobal warming to a large audience and arguably the world's leading climate change scientist, continues to issue remarkably candid and dire warnings. In today's Guardian he states the world is now in "imminent peril" [ark] and "we cannot now afford to put off change any longer... We have only four years left for Obama to set an example to the rest of the world." He rails against carbon markets as weak and ineffective, preferring carbon taxes (as do we). And he describes coal as "factories of death".

I implore all reading this to respond to our greatest present thinkers, and rise to the challenge of saving being, by embracing radical transformations such as hefty carbon taxes, ending ancient forest logging, banning the use of coal, and reducing population and inequitable consumption. These goals are literally "to die for".

Many seek to "geo-engineer" a global solution to climate change; that is, modify the Earth's biosphere at a planetary scale. Is humanity so resistant to change that we will seek to construct a "Frankensphere", with dramatic unknown consequences, rather than reducing emissions, consumption and population?

TAKE ACTION! A rogue science ship is poised to carry out risky experimental fertilization of the Southern Ocean. This is likely the first of many coming attempts to begin "geo-engineering" [search] the biosphere as a solution to climate change. RV Polarstern [search], a German research ship, is to dump twenty tons of iron sulphate [ark | more\ark] over 300 square kilometres of the Scotia Sea, off Chile's coast, near the Antarctic Peninsula. The chemical cargo -- normally used to treat lawns and sewage -- is likely to provoke a massive algal bloom big enough to be seen from outer space. German and Indian scientists are hoping the experiment will show that such manmade algae blooms can provide a quick fix to climate change by absorbing carbon into the sea. Please write to the German government demanding that the RV Polarstern turn around and return to port. Insist that Germany agree to a permanent ban on large-scale geo-engineering experiments and implementation, until all other options are exhausted, and until global geo-engineering protocols are in place. TAKE ACTION!

Most economists agree that a straight forward tax upon energy's carbon [ark] is far preferable to a greenhouse gas trading system. Carbon markets [search] are failing to reduce emissions, and are complex and expensive. A carbon tax [search] simply charges a fee for every ton of CO2 produced by users of fossil fuels. So far it appears President-Elect Obama will be going for the carbon market approach, seriously bringing into question whether he wants to appear to be addressing climate change, or actually succeed in doing so in time.

Another issue immediately facing Obama is what to do with Canada's criminally environmentally damaging tar sands [ark]: carbon markets may well tolerate their pollution with offsets or some such nonsense. A carbon tax would better make producers and users pay for the utterly devastating externalities associated with ripping up boreal forests by the bulldozer load, turning water and land into toxic waste dumps, to squeeze out a bit of synthetic oil. Carbon markets tolerate tar sands and other irredeemable activities such as ancient forest logging and coal burning, while properly assessed carbon taxes would make these activities simply uneconomic, as they should be. No climate policy that allows continued oil sands [search] production will ever prove sufficient to maintain an operable atmosphere -- and it should be taxed out of existence.

Coinciding with expected government approval of a third runway at Heathrow airport [ark | more\ark] near London, in recent days protesters dressed as Edwardian era protesters and ate cake and drank champagne [ark] in the airline terminals to emulate the civilized Suffragette movement protests. And they have just made the surprise announcement that they have bought land where the new runway would run [ark | more\ark], potentially adding a whole new level of legal wrangling to delay the project.

A wonderful model for people power climate change protest [search] is flourishing in England, where groups such as "Plane Stupid" and Greenpeace UK are leading protests against Heathrow airport expansion. Aviation's rapidly growing impact upon climate change [search], as well as protesting new coal plant construction at climate camps, have galvanized a creative and growing grassroots climate protest movement. The groups are using technology to organize "flash mobs" to quickly mobilize protesters. Indications are the protests will continue to enjoy more success. This is precisely the type of protest activities that we are here providing news, tools and analysis to promote.

Throbgoblins International: Cantankerous Frank, by Marc Roberts

PRESS/SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE

Climate Ark celebrates with something old, something new

By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

(Seattle, WA) -- The Climate Ark Climate Change Portal at http://www.climateark.org/ turned ten years old this New Year. Tens of millions of users have and continue to enjoy the Internet's best climate search, news feeds, blogging and action alerts. Ecological Internet has been campaigning for sufficient climate policies and been a critic of global environmental policy since Al Gore actually had the power to do something about climate change.

To mark the event, Ecological Internet's President, Dr. Glen Barry, has recommenced writing biocentric, deeply thought provoking and critically acclaimed "Earth Meanders" essays at http://www.ecoearth.info/earthmeanders/. "There is a real hunger for truthful and ambitious solutions to climate change and the many other global ecological crises that threaten planetary annihilation," notes Dr. Barry.

Serious consideration is being given to the mad proposition of engineering the biosphere as a solution to climate change [ark]. Technological pseudo-scientific proposals for humans to engineer atmospheric processes are dubbed "geoengineering" [search] and generally seek to either reflect solar radiation or absorb greenhouse gases. They include such shortsighted, ill-conceived and risky ideas as mass release of aerosols into the atmosphere, fertilizing oceans with iron, and others, including my personal favorite, stationing mirrors above the Earth. Given the complexity of the Earth System, almost certain unintended consequences and the risk of doing immense further damage to global ecology; geo-engineering amounts to ecological vandalism.

Geoengineering is indicative of both humanity's ignorance and laziness when confronted with tremendous challenges of their own making such as climate change. Don’t try to change society to massively reduce emissions, don’t sacrifice or give up anything, don’t try to change the government through protest or revolution. Instead, take a craps shoot and bet the whole planet that you can engineer the biosphere. This "Plan B" comes as there have been little serious efforts at a "Plan A". What of using all resources at our disposal -- including politically engaged ecologists and other Earth scientists -- to conserve energy, reduce emissions and pursue renewable alternatives? Have we really, fully tried that yet? We are unable to control even most invasive species, for example getting zebra mussels out of the Great Lakes. Yet now humanity is going to be responsible for engineering a livable biosphere forever?

Throbgoblins International: Cantankerous Frank, by Marc Roberts

It is reported President Bush is closing off some of President-Elect Obama's immediate climate policy alternatives [ark] with last minute "midnight" environmental regulations. These include barring the Environmental Protection Agency from considering the effects of climate change on protected species [search], and forbidding the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act [search]. These are avenues Obama could have used immediately to begin regulating carbon dioxide (and still can but will take longer to undo Bush's mess). Some had hoped President Obama would make a dramatic gesture and begin regulating carbon under these existing avenues immediately upon taking office, others would argue it is better to work for more comprehensive national legislation and lead international cooperative measures to achieve binding yet differentiated carbon targets upon all nations.

I would argue for all at the same time and more, as leading NASA climate scientist James Hansen does [ark]. President Obama should begin by banning further coal plants and regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act as soon as possible. He should also begin national measures to establish a dedicated carbon tax, proceeds to be used for renewable energy development and to lower other taxes. Further, if any more time is to be wasted on establishing cap and trade systems, he must unveil an ambitious goal to reduce carbon emissions quickly -- perhaps 40% by 2020. Or else he is better off moving on to ending the use of coal and other actions commiserate with the threat. And finally, the world is calling out for international leadership to break the log jam of national interests impeding global enforceable cuts upon greenhouse gas emissions. Let's hope that Obama lives up to his rhetoric and leads on climate at this crucial juncture. Nothing less than the survival of the world, humanity and all Earth's creatures is at stake.