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Posts Tagged ‘climate change’

Austinites join the Washington Climate Forward Rally – both in DC and at home

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , , , on February 25, 2013 |

On February 17th, environmental activists gathered in front of the Whole Foods headquarters in Austin, TX to show their support for the Tar Sands Blockade and to raise climate change awareness, adding their voices to the over 40,000 that gathered on the Mall in Washington, DC that same day.

The Keystone XL Pipeline would carry oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. Around 200 people in attendance at the Austin rally, from many organizations, said the pipeline is environmentally toxic. The protestors chose Whole Foods as the best location for their action because CEO John Mackey recently said “Climate change is not that big a deal.” Chris Wilson with S.T.O.P. (Stop Tar Sands Oil Pipelines) said the oil that will come out from the pipeline will be exported overseas and none will stay in the United States.

Click here to watch the local CBS news affiliate’s coverage.

2013-02-17 Forward on Climate Rally on the National Mall

Texans who rode on a bus for 36 hours to Washington, DC to participate in the Climate Forward rally in 30 degree weather with 6 degree wind chill.

Austin Rally - Sasha Violette

Rally in Austin for those unable to make the trip to DC. – Photo by Sasha Violette

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Rep. Waxman Statement on New Reports on the Climate Impact of Tar Sands and the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline

Posted in Air Quality, Climate Change, Global Warming, Tarsands, tagged , , , on January 17, 2013 |

Today, Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman issued the following statement on new research from the Pembina Institute and Oil Change International, indicating that the Keystone XL pipeline will accelerate the reckless expansion of the tar sands industry and the climate impact of tar sands and the pipeline will be significantly worse than anticipated:

“The new reports show that TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline is the key that will unlock the tar sands.  If the pipeline is approved, the world will face millions more tons of carbon pollution each year for decades to come.  After Hurricane Sandy, devastating drought, unprecedented wildfires, and the warmest year on record in the United States, we know that climate change is happening now, we have to fight it now, and we must say no to this pollution pipeline now.”

To access the report released at the event, please visit:
Petroleum Coke: The Coal Hiding in the Tar Sands – Oil Change International
The climate implications of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline – The Pembina Institute

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New Sea Level Rise Study Indicates the Impacts of Sandy Could Become the Norm Sooner Than Expected

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, Water, tagged , , , , , on November 28, 2012 |

In a new peer-reviewed scientific study, experts said satellite data show sea levels rose by 3.2 millimeters a year from 1993 to 2011 — 60 percent faster than the 2 mm annual rise projected by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for that period, however  the IPCC was just about spot on with its predictions for warming temperatures.

The IPCC has estimated that seas rose by about 7 inches over the last century, and estimates a range of between 7 and 23 inches this century.  This is enough to worsen coastal flooding and erosion during storm surges and if the impacts of Hurricane Sandy is any indication, will dramatically impact the dense coastal populations around the world.

The most recent IPCC report did not factor in a possible acceleration of the melt of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and “assumed that Antarctica will gain enough (ice) mass” to compensate for Greenland ice loss, the new study’s authors noted, but more recent studies have shown that “the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are increasingly losing mass.”

When the next IPCC report comes out in March 2014, we should expect a more quantitative understanding of ongoing sea level rise — and an entire chapter on the topic —given the impacts on the densely populated coastal regions of the world.

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Bill McKibben speaking in Austin, TX

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , , , on October 2, 2012 |

Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, and technical adviser to the Texas Drought Project, will appear Thursday, October 4th, at 7 PM at the Belo Center for New Media Auditorium (BMC 2.106), at the northeast corner of Dean Keeton and Guadalupe, University of Texas, Austin, TX.

McKibben is known for his provocative books, Eaarth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet, The Global Warming Reader, and Deep Economy, among others. He is considered by Time Magazine to be “the planet’s best green journalist” and by the Boston Globe as “the country’s most important environmentalist.”

As the founder of the grassroots climate campaign, 350.org, he has helped to co-ordinate over 15,000 rallies in 189 countries. He is also a leader against tar sands oil.

Don’t miss it!

The event is sponsored by the University of Texas School of Journalism and the Third Coast Activist Resource Center. It’s free and open to the public, and seating is limited on a first-come, first-served basis.

 

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25 days of 100 degree weather, better than 90 days.

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , on August 16, 2012 |

Austin, Texas just hit 100 degrees today (according to weather.com).

This is our 25th day of 100 degree weather this year.  That pales in comparison to 2011, where at this time last year we were counting down to breaking the previous record of 69 days of 100 degree days set back in 1925.  Austin did that and more, setting a new record of 90 days of 100 degree days in a single year a month and a half later.

Nevertheless, this year is still above our average of 13.5 days of 100 degree weather, but to the north of Texas, the midsection of the country is experiencing drought and heat waves comparable to ours of 2011.  That being said, weather forecasters are seeing the development of a moderate El Nino which could bring enough rain to Texas this winter to break our drought.  We can only hope that it is not a strong El Nino like the one that hit in 1997 and 1998 which brought major flooding to the state.  These feast or famine swings of weather are taking their toll on many things in this state – our agriculture, economy, electric grid . . .

If climate change is responsible for these extreme weather events, then maybe our leaders should look more closely at what we can do to slow climate change and mitigate the effects.

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Does climate change influence extreme weather events?

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , on November 18, 2011 |

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) today released a special report on the influence of climate change on extreme weather events. In the United States, Americans have endured a record-setting series of extreme weather events in 2011, including the Mississippi floods, record high summer temperatures, and severe drought in Texas and Oklahoma.

In a November 2011 national survey, the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication found that a majority of Americans believe global warming made the following events worse:

What do you think?

[polldaddy poll=5682908]

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IEA warns we may be at the tipping point for limiting global warming

Posted in Climate Change, Efficiency, Global Warming, tagged , , , on November 12, 2011 |

The International Energy Agency warned Thursday that the world is hurtling toward irreversible climate change in its annual World Energy Outlook.  They stated that we will lose the chance to limit warming if we don’t take bold action in the next five years, spelling out the consequences if those steps aren’t taken and what needs to be done to cap global temperature increases at 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. That’s the threshold beyond which some scientists have said catastrophic changes could be triggered.

At the moment, the world is going in the wrong direction in terms of climate change.  Governments around the world have put increasing energy efficiency at the top of their to-do lists, but efficiency has worsened for two years in a row now in spite of the fact that the world has the technology to tackle the problem — just not the political will.

Rather than providing incentives to reduce consumptions, incentives to consume more have risen: The report said subsidies for fossil fuels have risen past $400 billion.  Only when “dirty” fuels become more expensive, will governments follow through on their commitments to increase energy efficiency.

Energy efficiency is generally considered the easiest way to reduce consumption since it has a price-incentive built in. It has become even more important since Japan’s nuclear accident sparked a rethinking of the use of atomic technology previously seen as key to cutting emissions.  In Texas, which is still in the grip of a record setting drought, efficiency may be the difference between rolling blackouts and keeping the lights and air conditioners on next summer.

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IPCC to release report that paints a grim future: more floods, heatwaves, and droughts

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , , , on November 3, 2011 |

burning-worldWith weather catastrophes in abundance this year, the latest warning from top climate scientists paints a grim future: more floods, heat waves, droughts
and with the world’s population nearing 7 billion, greater costs to deal with them.

A soon to be released report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change marks a shift in climate science from focusing on subtle changes in average temperatures to concentrating on events that grab headlines, hurt economies and kill people, saying that extremes caused by climate change could eventually grow so severe that some areas will become “increasingly marginal asplaces to live.”

The final version of the report will be issued in a few weeks. The draft says there is at least a 2-in-3 probability that climate extremes have already worsened because of human-made greenhouse gases.

By the end of the century, the intense, single-day rainstorms that typically happen once every 20 years will probably happen about twice a decade, the report said.

The opposite type of disaster – a drought such as the stubbornly long dry spell gripping Texas and parts of the Southwest – could also happen more often as the world  warms.

The Texas State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon, taking a cue from the state leadership is not is not committing to how much the current drought, Texas’ worst single-year  one on record, is connected to climate change.  But he does acknowledge that the drought is caused by a lack of rainfall and record heat; and at least part of the heat is due to global warming.

In the future, climate change will make droughts even more severe, with higher temperatures causing more evaporation and thus putting a greater strain on water resources.

The report does say scientists are “virtually certain” – 99 percent – that the world will have more extreme spells of heat and fewer of cold. Heat waves could peak as much as 5 degrees higher by midcentury and even 9 degrees by the end of the century.

In the United States this year, we set 2,703 daily high temperature records, compared with only 300 cold records during that period, making it the hottest summer in the U.S. since the Dust Bowl of 1936, according to Weather Underground.

The report’s summary chapter didn’t detail which regions might suffer extremes so severe that they become only marginally habitable, but we may learn more once the report is released.

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HOT HOT HOT! Austin breaks heat record today as arguments inexplicably continue about climate change

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , , , on August 23, 2011 |

melting planetToday Austin’s temps will soar back into the 100’s for our 69th day this year of over 100 degrees. This  will break a record that has stood since 1925 for the most days over 100 degrees, as we begin another round of heat advisories lasting through the weekend of 100+ degree weather. Since we’re going to not just be breaking the record, but adding several more days onto it (to a total of at least 73 or 74- assuming this is the last hot pattern we have in the next month), we may want to ask ourselves what is going on?

Well, we are faced with a La Nina weather pattern, bringing hot, dry weather to the Lonestar state. La Ninas have happened before and they’ll happen again- as evidence by the 86 year old record og 68 days of 100+ heat. For it to be hot in Texas in the summer is normal, but it’s not normal for it to be this hot for this many days.

Which brings us to climate change. Scientists theorizing about climate change decades ago predicted exactly what we are seeing now: slight upticks in temperature giving us more slightly hotter days. So, a day that would normally be 98 or 99 is now 101 or 102 due to the radiative forcings of the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Or, like this informative video from Futurama explains it:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2taViFH_6_Y&feature=fvwp&NR=1]

Things are even getting so bad that they’re delaying Texas football games by an hour to let the temperatures cool off.  So, as unprecedented as these individual points are, they don’t necessarilly individually indicate a pattern of warming. However, when you consider that in 2009 we were also in danger of breaking the 1925 record, and 2008 was also an unseasonably hot year, the fact that climate is getting hotter is in no doubt.

truth o meter rick perry false climate changeMeanwhile, there are a lot of folks wasting their time debating the science of climate change. Our Texas governor, Rick Perry, himself a well-known source of greenhouse gases, recently told people in New Hampshire that “I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. I think we’re seeing it almost weekly or even daily, scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change.” Call me crazy, but Perry sounds. . . well, crazy. Politifact looked into it and called his statement False.  That’s putting it nicely.  Perry was probably obliquely referring to the non-scandal known as Climategate, the only real scandal of which was that several scientists had their private emails hacked and published. Despite looking for problems with the scientists’ actual work reviews by several major agencies have cleared the scientists, including yet another one, today, from the National Science Foundation.

So, it’s hot. Those of us with functioning brains can understand why it’s hot, and getting hotter. So what do we do about it?

The first and most obvious step is energy efficiency. If we’re going to be demanding more cooling, rather than pumping out more pollution, let’s use that energy as efficiently as we can by sealing leaks in our homes, offices, etc. Let’s use more efficient lighting and appliances, all of which help keep our energy bills low. Let’s look at harnessing the power of that big hot Texas sun to do more than just melt our snowcones. Let’s look at oru energy policy holistically so that we can come up with cheaper, cleaner, cooler solutions to our energy needs.

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Texas drought, is this a come to Jesus or climate change moment?

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , , , , , on August 18, 2011 |

The worst Texas drought since the 1950s has a handful of cities facing a prospect they’ve never encountered before: running out of water.

Many lakes and reservoirs across the state are badly depleted after more than a month of 100-degree temperatures and less than 1 inch of rain. The worst-off communities are already trying to run pipes to distant water, drilling emergency wells bringing on systems that turn waste water into tap water and banning water use for virtually anything beyond drinking, bathing and keeping businesses working.

Worst-case scenarios have a few towns running out of water in a matter of months.  Although Texas cities have gone bone-dry before —Throckmorton in 2000 — the nearly 500 water systems statewide now under some mandatory restrictions appear unprecedented.

Prayer gatherings for rain have been held across the state, the most notable being called by Governor Rick Perry in July.  So far, these measures have not brought even the promise of rain for most of us.

In the town of Llano, near Austin, which went to Stage 5 water restrictions back around the 4th of July weekend, officials have made a contingency plan to roll trucks of bottled water into town if rain doesn’t start to replenish the water supply, and workers are drilling test wells into parched, rock-like soil. Water restrictions are in effect in unprecedented in places like Midland, where barely a half-inch of rain has fallen since October of 2010.

If La Nina conditions return this fall, which the Climate Prediction Center says is likely, Texas is unlikely to see any significant relief from this drought well into next year.

As I sit at my desk with the sun pouring through the window heating everything around me, knowing that just outside the front door it is still a soil scorching 103 degrees F, I think that it may be time to raise the specter of (duhn-duhn-duhhhhhhn) CLIMATE CHANGE.  Even if Governor Perry is traveling around the country telling everyone that scientists have cooked up the data on global warming for the cash, the numbers here in Texas seem to be refuting his claim and you can expect to see us blogging about it soon.

Related articles

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Kids sue TCEQ to preserve the future and halt climate change

Posted in Global Warming, TCEQ, tagged , , , , , , on July 21, 2011 |

Statewide organizations support youth as they appeal TCEQ decision
denying petition to reduce carbon emissions and prevent climate catastrophe

Three Texas youth and one young adult filed for judicial review today of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s (TCEQ) denial of their petition to force action on climate change. Specifically, the rulemaking petition requests TCEQ to require reductions in statewide carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuels consistent with what current scientific analysis deems necessary to avoid catastrophic climate change.

“TCEQ and the Texas government have failed to live up to their responsibility to protect my future and take the urgent action needed to halt climate change,” said 15 year-old plaintiff, Eamon Umphress. “My generation will be hurt the most by climate change, but instead of taking action, Texas is putting short-term profits for corporations above a livable planet for me and future generations.”

As part of the iMatter Campaign, a petition was filed on May 5th in conjunction with legal actions in 47 other states, the District of Columbia, and against the federal government on behalf of youth to compel reductions of CO2 emissions in an effort to counter the negative impacts of climate change that these youth expect to manifest in their lifetime.

The petition relies upon the long established legal principle of the Public Trust Doctrine that requires all branches of the government to protect and maintain certain shared resources fundamental for human health and survival. Science, not politics, defines the fiduciary obligation that the government, as the trustee, must fulfill on behalf of the beneficiary—the public.

“Dr. James Hansen, a prominent and widely respected climate scientist, has warned that our window of opportunity is quickly closing to take serious action to avoid the worst impacts of climate change,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, Director of Public Citizen’s Texas Office. “Since 1991, TCEQ has had the authority to regulate greenhouse gases but has lacked the political and moral will to do so. The moral failure of the leadership of Texas, particularly Governor Perry and TCEQ Commissioner Shaw, is shameful and betrays future generations. We urge the courts and TCEQ to follow the science and take action to protect the climate and future generations by reducing CO2 emissions now.”

“The Public Trust Doctrine requires TCEQ, as a trustee, to protect and preserve vital natural resources, including the atmosphere, for both present and future generations of Texans,” said Adam Abrams, an attorney with the Texas Environmental Law Center. “TCEQ’s fiduciary duties as trustee of the public trust cannot be disclaimed.”

TCEQ’s decision states that any reduction in CO2 emissions will not impact the global distribution of these gases in the atmosphere. “But as the largest emitter in the United States, reductions in Texas can make a difference in overall reductions,” said Dr. Neil Carman, Clean Air Director for the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. “Every ton of carbon contributes to global warming, and fewer emissions means less heating in the pipeline and a better chance of reversing Earth’s current energy imbalance.”

“Texas is not only the largest contributor of greenhouse gases in the U.S., the state is also reeling from severe impacts of climate change right now—namely heat waves, droughts, and wildfires,” said Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas. “The U.S. Global Change Research Program states in its 2009 report, Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, that with rising high temperatures, droughts and heat waves will become more frequent and severe, and water supplies are projected to become increasingly scarce. Just last month, the federal Department of Agriculture declared 213 counties in Texas disaster areas, due to ‘one of the worst droughts in more than a century.’” Texas has “sustained excessive heat, high winds and wildfires that burned hundreds of thousands of acres,” and many farmers and ranchers “have lost their crops due to the devastation caused by the drought and wildfires,” USDA stated in its press release. “We call on Texas government officials to take these impacts seriously and act now to reduce CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels,” stated Metzger.

To protect Earth’s natural systems, the best available science shows that average global surface heating must not exceed 1° C and concentrations of atmospheric CO2 must decline to less than 350 ppm this century. We are currently at around 390 ppm. To accomplish this reduction, Dr. Hansen and other renowned scientists conclude that global CO2 emissions need to peak in 2012 and decline by 6% per year starting in 2013. The rulemaking petition seeks a rule that would require a reduction of statewide CO2 emissions at these levels. Click here to read Dr. Hansen’s recent paper.

“The Texas government continually claims that any kind of regulation on CO2 is a regulation that would hurt business and the economy. This does not have to be the case,” said Karen Hadden, Executive Director of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition. “The shift to an economy based on energy efficiency and renewable energy instead of fossil fuels is not only technically but economically feasible, and with the right policies in place, our economy could flourish in new green jobs from this shift. Wind energy is comparable in price to coal and the cost of solar is falling, as San Antonio’s recent investment in a 400-megawatt solar project demonstrates. While touting the possible negative impacts on the economy that reductions in CO2 emissions could have, Texas consistently fails to consider the negative economic impacts of climate change—such as the increased weather extremes of heat waves, drought, and hurricanes—already felt by many Texans.”

“We have a moral duty to provide our children and our children’s children with a livable planet,” said Brigid Shea, mother of 15 year-old plaintiff, Eamon Umphress, and former Austin City Council member. “The Texas government must live up to its responsibility to protect and preserve our planet and our atmosphere. We need to end our reliance on fossil fuels and live as if our children’s future matters.”

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

Our Children’s Trust is a nonprofit focused on protecting earth’s natural systems for current and future generations. We are here to empower and support youth as they stand up for their lawful inheritance: a healthy planet. We are mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers. We are adults, part of the ruling generation, and we care about the future of our children—and their children’s children. www.ourchildrenstrust.org/

iMatter is a youth-led campaign of the nonprofit group, Kids vs Global Warming, that is focused on mobilizing and empowering youth to lead the way to a sustainable and just world. We are teens and moms and young activists committed to raising the voices of the youngest generation to issue a wake-up call to live, lead and govern as if our future matters. www.imattermarch.org/

 

 

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Perry running for President as a climate change denier

Posted in Air Quality, Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , , , on July 10, 2011 |

An unnamed Republican campaign veteran told the Washington Post that Texas Governor Rick Perry has decided to run for President, though the official word from the Perry camp is still a definite maybe, stating that Mr. Perry has surveyed the field and decided to get in the race later this summer.  The thinking from republican sources  is that apparent front-runner Mitt Romney “does not reflect the Republican Party” and is therefore vulnerable to a credible challenge from the right, especially after Mr. Romney’s recent squishy remarks on global warming.  So the Texas governor is running as a climate change denier.

In a Stanford University report researches have found that “candidates running for office can gain votes by taking green positions and might lose votes by expressing skepticism about climate change.” A study entitled “The Impact of Candidates’ Statements about Climate Change on Electoral Success in 2010: Experimental Evidences,” reveals that taking a “green” position on global warming attracts votes from Democrats and Independents, while expressing skepticism about the warmist theory alienates those same voters. On the Republican side there was no significant impact either way, so it looks like Perry intends to look to his base.

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Drought worsens in Texas

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , on June 3, 2011 |

Drought plagued cotton field in Lubbock, Texas just two weeks ago - photo by Betsy Blaney, AP

More than half the state of Texas is now gripped by the most extreme level of drought measured by climatologists and as I look out my window at the lush green strip of lawn in front of the office building across the street, I wonder how long they will be able to keep watering to maintain that look.

A report released Thursday by national climate experts shows that Texas saw the highest levels of drought — rated as “exceptional” — jump from 43.97 percent of the state to 50.65 percent of the state.  Folks living in these regions of the state are experiencing thousands of wildfires, dried up grazing land needed for cattle, and the loss of thousands of acres of wheat and other crops.

It has been estimated that Texas farmers and ranchers have already lost $1.5 billion in revenues this year, and officials say if the drought continues into June, losses will top $4 billion, making it the costliest season on record, impacting the entire nation since Texas is the nation’s second largest agriculture producer .

Texas could be well on its way to breaking the record of 2006 as we contemplate this May’s estimated rainfall totals, which were only about 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 inches of rain across the state.  This would make the March-May spring period the driest on record once the totals are confirmed.

Texas has a long history with droughts,  but it is still early and we will have to wait a bit to determine how this year ranks in the history of Texas droughts, but it is not looking good and so far the governor’s call for prayer for rain has yet to be answered.

The persistent drought in the south comes even as too much rain has been falling to the north with flooding prompting wide-spread evacuations, and tornadoes spawning as disturbances move through from Dallas north and eastward, devastating communities in their wake.  How much weather related devastation do we have to endure before our governments begin to seriously consider means to mitigate the effects of climate change?

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Making Connections

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , on May 25, 2011 |

Are the recent tornadoes in Missouri caused by global warming?  In an op-ed published yesterday in the Washington Post, 350.ORG founder Bill McKibben connects the dots between recent natural disasters and climate disruption.

We have reprinted the op-ed below.

Keep Calm and Carry On
By Bill McKibben

Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of rubble like this week’s shots from Joplin, Missouri, you should not ask yourself: I wonder if this is somehow related to the huge tornado outbreak three weeks ago in Tuscaloosa, or the enormous outbreak a couple of weeks before that—together they comprised the most active April for tornadoes in our history. But that doesn’t mean a thing.

It is far better to think of these as isolated, unpredictable, discrete events. It is not advised to try and connect them in your mind with, say, the fires now burning across Texas—fires that have burned more of America by this date than any year in our history. Texas, and adjoining parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico, are drier than they’ve ever been—the drought is worse than the Dust Bowl. But do not wonder if it’s somehow connected.

If you did wonder, you’d have to also wonder about whether this year’s record snowfalls and rainfalls across the Midwest—resulting in record flooding across the Mississippi—could somehow be related. And if you did that, then you might find your thoughts wandering to, oh, global warming. To the fact that climatologists have been predicting for years that as we flood the atmosphere with carbon we will also start both drying and flooding the planet, since warm air holds more water vapor than cold.

It’s far smarter to repeat to yourself, over and over, the comforting mantra that no single weather event can ever be directly tied to climate change. There have been tornadoes before, and floods—that’s the important thing. Just be careful to make sure you don’t let yourself wonder why all these records are happening at once: why we’ve had unprecedented megafloods from Australia to Pakistan in the last year. Why it’s just now that the Arctic has melted for the first time in thousands of years. Focus on the immediate casualties, watch the videotape from the store cameras as the shelves are blown over. Look at the anchorman up to the chest of his waders in the rising river.

Because if you asked yourself what it meant that the Amazon has just come through its second hundred-year-drought in the last four years, or that the pine forests across the western part of this continent have been obliterated by a beetle in the last decade—well, you might have to ask other questions. Like, should President Obama really just have opened a huge swath of Wyoming to new coal-mining? Should Secretary of State this summer sign a permit allowing a huge new pipeline to carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta? You might have to ask yourself: do we have a bigger problem than four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline?

Better to join with the US House of Representatives, which earlier this spring voted 240-184 to defeat a resolution saying simply “climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for public health and welfare.” Propose your own physics; ignore physics altogether. Just don’t start asking yourself if last year’s failed grain harvest from the Russian heatwave, and Queensland’s failed grain harvest from its record flood, and France and Germany’s current drought-related crop failures, and the death of the winter wheat crop in Texas, and the inability of Midwestern farmers to get corn planted in their sodden fields might somehow be related. Surely the record food prices are just freak outliers, not signs of anything systemic.

It’s very important to stay completely calm.  If you got upset about any of this, you might forget how important it is not to disrupt the record profits of our fossil fuel companies. If worst ever did come to worst, it’s reassuring to remember what the US Chamber of Commerce told the EPA in a recent filing: there’s no need to worry because “populations can acclimatize to warmer climates via a range of range of behavioral, physiological, and technological adaptations.” I’m pretty sure that’s what they’re telling themselves in Joplin today.

Bill McKibben is founder of the global climate campaign 350.org, and Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College.

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Half of Texas suffering an “exceptional drought”

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , , on May 16, 2011 |

Less than halfway through 2011, this country has already seen three “exceptional” meteorological events just in the past few weeks. These events that pushed the record books to the limit include:

  • A deadly swarm of 244 confirmed tornadoes from April 25-28, (with 112 reports of tornadoes yet to be confirmed) that raked the South and Southeast, with some tornadoes up to a mile wide that remained on the ground for over 100 miles.
  • a slow-moving flood disaster with record flooding or lake levels recorded in 25 locations in 10 states, topping the Great Flood of 1927, and
  • the Southern drought that is creeping toward a new record Just under 6% of the continental US is currently suffering an “exceptional drought”. That’s 185,321 square miles (an area larger than the state of California – 163,695 sq. mi.)

This exceptional drought event has not yet broken the record drought coverage set back on Aug. 20, 2002, but it is getting close.

And while this is not yet the worst drought on record, of note is the fact that just under half (47.5%) of the state of Texas is in this “exceptional” category!  The previous maximum coverage of exceptional drought in Texas was a mere 18.8% on Aug. 25, 2009 (this since aerial coverage of records have been kept starting in January 2000).

Texas has gone from being at least 82% in drought to less than 12% in drought 14 times over the last 11 years! This probably makes Texas one of the most “feast or famine” precipitation states in the nation and we are certainly in a famine phase right now.

Right now there is little expectation that we can expect relief from this current drought in the near future, and that relief may come too late for some. If the past decade is any indication, it also means relief may come in the form of too much, and parts of the state can expect exceptional flooding. Some meteorologists think this may be evidence of the amplification of the water cycle as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), relating to greater evaporation over land and water.

As Texas rides these roller coaster weather shifts, it is clear that the state needs to carefully assess its water resources and that means looking at water usage by conventional power generators (coal and nuclear).

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