Planetary Ruin

LAST month Australians endured our coldest June since 1950. Imagine that; all those trillions of tonnes of evil carbon we’ve horked up into the atmosphere over six decades of rampant industrialisation, and we’re still getting the same icy weather we got during the Cold War.

Not that June should be presented as evidence that global warming isn’t happening, or that we’re causing it. Relying on such a tiny sample would be unscientific and wrong, even if it involves an entire freakin’ continent’s weather patterns throughout the course of a whole month, for Christ’s sake.

No such foolishness will be indulged in here.

Sadly, those who believe in global warming – and who would compel us also to believe – aren’t similarly constrained. A few hot days are all they ever need to get the global warming bandwagon rolling; evidently it’s solar powered. Here, for example, is an Australian Associated Press report on May’s weather, which in places was a little warmer than usual:

“Climate change gave much of Australia’s drought-stricken east coast its warmest May on record, weather experts say.

“Global warming and an absence of significant cold changes had driven temperatures well above the monthly average, said meteorologist Matt Pearce.

According to Mr Pearce, May’s temperatures were “yet another sign of the widespread climate change that we are seeing unfold across the globe.”

If that’s the case, shouldn’t June’s cold weather – coldest since 1950, remember – be a sign that widespread climate change isn’t unfolding across the globe? We’re using the same data here; one month’s weather. And, in fact, the June sample is Australia-wide while May only highlights the east coast. Fear the dawn of a great “coldening”!

While Australia freezes, it’s kinda hot in California. Again, local toastiness is evidence of global warming; one San Francisco Chronicle writer this week referred glibly to their “global-warming-heated summer”.

What phenomenon was responsible for previous summers? Maybe they got by on the superheated fumes radiating off Lateline host Tony Jones.

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Scientists on the US Pacific coast are increasingly observing emaciated gray whales in what they fear is a sign that global warming is wreaking havoc in the whales’ Bering Sea summer feeding grounds.
The scientists fear that the same phenomenon is cutting back reproduction in the Pacific whale population to the point it could be facing a new crisis, after recovering in the mid-1990s and graduating from the endangered species list.

“The gray whales are migrating later, not going as far north, and are producing fewer calves,” Steven Swartz, head researcher with the National Marine Fisheries Service told AFP.

Swartz, who with his team meticulously photograph and identify the migrating whales, estimates that at least ten percent of the population is seriously skinny.

“Instead of looking plump coming off the summer months, they have noticeable depressions behind the head, with scapulas visible through the skin, and concave sections above the tail,” he added. “This is enough to cause alarm.”

Swartz has studied the pacific whale population since 1977 and last saw a major whale die-off in 1999 when an El Nino warming cycle left traditional northern feeding grounds barren and claimed one third of the population.

He has partnered with scientists at the Autonomous University of Baja Sur, Mexico since 1996, keeping tabs on the whales’ calving and migration, the longest of any mammal.

The most recent gray whale survey in 2001 showed a decrease of thirty percent in five years. Researchers are now holding their breaths while final tabulations are completed on a current survey, and are bracing for another drop, said Swartz.

“We have yet to find any indications of disease in the population,” said Swartz. “When times are tough and there is less food out there, the whales do not reproduce. It’s possible that they are birthing somewhere else, but we have a lot of people looking, and we have not found them.”

The San Ignacio lagoon, one of four gray whale breeding grounds off the Pacific coast of Mexico, can be used as a litmus test for the reproductive rate of the species, said Swartz.

In the early 1980s, 350 calves were born in these waters every February. This past winter the number was closer to 100.

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If one of the more extreme responses to global warming comes true, driving a sports car anywhere but on a racetrack might be relegated to history’s dustbin.

Fast, powerful cars within a few years may be outlawed in Europe, an idea that has been raised ostensibly because Ferraris and Porsches produce too much carbon dioxide. For those who abhor sports cars as vulgar symbols of affluence (along with vacation homes, furs and fancy jewelry), such a ban could be a two-fer: Saving the planet while cutting economic inequality.

Who are these people anyway who decide on behalf of everyone what car is proper to drive? In the U.S. they’re members of Congress, which is considering fuel-efficiency standards that will affect vehicle size. In Europe, it’s the ministers and parliamentarians of the European Union, which wants to limit how much CO2 cars can emit as a proxy for a fuel- consumption standard.

Chris Davies, a British member of the European Parliament, is proposing one of the most-extreme measures — a prohibition on any car that goes faster than 162 kilometers (101 miles) an hour, a speed that everything from the humble Honda Civic on up can exceed. He ridiculed fast cars as “boys’ toys.”

The proposed ban would take effect in 2013. Davies told the Guardian newspaper that “cars designed to go at stupid speeds have to be built to withstand the effects of a crash at those speeds. They are heavier than necessary, less fuel-efficient and produce too many emissions.”

His last point is telling, even though there are many reasons why cars are heavier, including safety measures such as air bags and steel-reinforced crumple zones.

Focused on Cars

The idea is to limit CO2, a so-called greenhouse gas blamed for causing the earth’s temperature to rise.

But the debate isn’t just about how much carbon dioxide to allow into the atmosphere and whether the amount actually matters. It’s also about disdain some hold for the size or speed of the cars others drive.

“Automobiles always seem to be the focus, even though they only consume 15 percent or 20 percent of energy,” said Csaba Csere, editor of Car & Driver magazine. If politicians really cared about the atmosphere they might concentrate first on power plants or factories, he said.

The folks against sports cars in Europe and big sport utility vehicles in the U.S. often are same ones who hate McMansion-sized homes, corporate jets, jumbo freezers, yachts, 60-inch flat-screens TVs, overnight-delivery services and other trappings of Western-style wealth and energy use.

Do people demonize these goods because they can’t afford them? Or because they think others shouldn’t have them? Proposals to limit carbon dioxide often sound like basic opposition to prosperity and rising living standards.

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Burping cows and sheep are being targeted by UK scientists to help bring down Britain’s soaring levels of greenhouse gas pollution. Experts at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research in Aberystwyth say the diet of farmed animals can be changed to make them produce less methane, a more potent global warming gas than carbon dioxide. Farmed ruminant animals are thought to be responsible for up to a quarter of “man-made” methane emissions worldwide though, contrary to common belief, most gas emerges from their front, not rear, ends.

Mike Abberton, a scientist at the institute, said farmers could help tackle climate change by growing grass varieties bred to have high sugar levels, white clover and birdsfoot trefoil, a leafy legume, for their animals to eat. The altered diet changes the way that bacteria in the stomachs of the animals break down plant material into waste gas, he said. The institute has started a new government research programme, with the universities of Wales and Reading, to investigate how this process could be improved. A similar project in New Zealand suggested that dietary changes could reduce methane emissions from sheep by up to 50%.
Dr Abberton said: “It’s very unlikely that we’ll get that sort of reduction in the UK but it could still make a significant difference. Making the animals’ diet more digestible can lower their methane emissions.” A single cow can produce between 100 and 200 litres of methane every day. Farmers regularly re-sow their fields so Dr Abberton said the switch in diet could be relatively straightforward. Birdsfoot trefoil can be difficult to grow, he said, but part of the new project is to develop more suitable varieties.

As well as helping to reduce methane production, growing legumes such as clover could help replenish soil nitrogen levels because they naturally attract bacteria and fungi that fix it from the air. In a separate project, Giles Oldroyd, a plant scientist at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, is working on ways to genetically modify other plants such as wheat so they can mimic this nitrogen-fixing ability, an advance he called the holy grail of crop research because it would dramatically cut the use of synthetic fertilisers.

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U.S. East Coast power grid operators said they had enough electricity to keep air conditioners running Tuesday as a heat wave continued to grip the region.

Meteorologists forecast the heat and humidity would again make it feel like more than 105 degrees (Fahrenheit) Tuesday in the big cities from Connecticut to Virginia, including New York, Philadelphia and Washington, before highs drop into the 80s on Wednesday.

The grid operators forecast demand Tuesday would top the highs for the summer that were hit Monday, but would not reach record-breaking levels.

The New York ISO, which operates the grid for nearly 20 million New Yorkers, did not have to take any steps to keep the lights on Monday and did not expect to take any steps Tuesday, a spokesman said.

In fact, none of the grid operators has yet taken any steps to reduce customer usage or shed load during the heat wave.

However, the Midwest ISO, which operates the grid for 36 million people from Montana to Pennsylvanian, kept an emergency alert in place for the FirstEnergy Corp. system in Ohio due to some unplanned generation outages and the continued heavy air conditioning demand.

A spokesman for FirstEnergy said Tuesday its Ohio system was in good shape with extra generation they had on Monday still available.

Meteorologists forecast temperatures in Cleveland would reach 95 degrees Tuesday afternoon, before thunderstorms march across the state, dropping high temperatures into the 70s for the rest of the week.

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Water temperatures of up to 82 degrees killed hundreds of rainbow and brown trout on the Firehole River this past week as warm, dry weather continues to pummel the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem.

Officials noticed the kill after they issued a fishing advisory Friday for a number of waterways in the park, asking anglers to avoid fishing low elevation waters between noon and 6:00 p.m. The partial fishing closure is voluntary, but could become mandatory if warm conditions persist. The voluntary closure starts Saturday.

According to Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash, water temperatures in a number of waterways have exceeded 73 degrees, which can be stressful or even fatal for trout.

The fish kill in the Firehole ranged from Midway Geyser Basin downstream to Firehole Cascades. The Firehole River maintains higher temperatures than other rivers in the park because of geothermal features that heat the water.

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NBC’s three-hour Live Earth primetime special, which included highlights from Saturday’s global concerts, failed to generate much enthusiasm in the ratings.

The estimated 2.7 million viewers were slightly less than the 3 million NBC would average on a normal Saturday night in the summer with repeats on what already is the least-popular night of television.

It was less successful than what MSN experienced online for Live Earth. MSN said Monday that more than 8 million users streamed 15.4 million videos of Live Earth on MSN live. That’s ahead of the 5 million people who watched 2005′s Live 8 concert via AOL.

Ratings for individual cable networks weren’t available until today, but Nielsen Media Research said Monday that 19 million people tuned in to at least six minutes of the telecasts on NBC, Bravo, Sundance or the other NBC Universal channels that were involved in Sunday’s telecast.

NBC’s telecast performed below the Live 8 concert two years ago, according to preliminary estimates by Nielsen Media Research.
 

The three-hour concert special from Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., drew a 0.9 rating/3 share in adults 18-49 — the same as a typical summer Saturday after Memorial Day.

The special on NBC also was a little less than ABC’s primetime coverage of the Live 8 concert on July 2, 2005. Live 8 averaged 2.9 million viewers and a 1.0 rating/5 share in adults 18-49.

In all, users streamed 30 million videos of Live Earth concert footage on MSN live and on-demand as of Monday morning, said Rob Bennett, GM of entertainment, video and sports at MSN.

Bennett also said that with 237,000 users logged on around midday Saturday, MSN’s Live Earth webcast broke the record for most simultaneous viewers of an online entertainment event. The previous record was 175,000 streaming users for Live 8 on AOL.

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Overnight rain and cooler temperatures slowed a wildfire that had raced out of a canyon, destroyed 27 houses and killed a homeowner who went back to try to save his belongings, a top fire official said Monday.

The change in weather gave firefighters a chance to shore up their fire lines, though conditions could shift again for the worse, state wildland fire coordinator Joe Lowe told crews at a morning briefing held in light rain.

“This fire is not over yet,” he cautioned. “This fire could come back to life again.”

The blaze was started by lightning on Saturday, and by Monday it had covered an estimated 11 square miles just southwest of Hot Springs, on the southern side of the Black Hills. It was 20 percent contained and crews expected to have it fully contained by Thursday. A state highway that cuts through the fire area remained closed Monday morning.

Other fires blackened the landscape in California, Utah, Nevada, Washington, Colorado, Montana and Oregon, many of them also started by lightning and fueled by the dry conditions, made worse by a heat wave that sizzled across the West last week.

In addition to the death in South Dakota, smoke from a major Utah fire was blamed for two deaths in a weekend motorcycle accident, and another blaze still active in Utah killed three people last week.

Crews in California’s eastern Sierra Nevada gained ground against a fire that had charred at least 37,000 acres, or 58 square miles, in the Inyo National Forest.

That fire was 55 percent contained Monday after cooler temperatures and lighter wind allowed firefighters to make their first real progress, forestry officials said. Full containment was expected by Wednesday.

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The city opened nearly 300 cooling centers Monday as temperatures across much of the Northeast surpassed 90 degrees—the hottest in the metropolitan area since a heat wave last year that was blamed for 40 deaths.

Extra utility crews were on hand in case of power outages, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged residents to help prevent blackouts by conserving power. He urged New Yorkers not to exert themselves in the sweltering conditions.

“It is very hot,” Bloomberg said. “I don’t care how good a runner you are, I don’t care how strong you are, you should take some precautions to prevent strokes.”

The temperature in Central Park hit 90 degrees at 1 p.m. High temperatures were forecast in the 90s through Wednesday.

“This is the first heat wave this year,” said Joe Pollina, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Last year, a heat wave in late July and early August caused 40 deaths from heat stroke and contributed to the deaths of another 60 people.

On Monday, the city opened its network of 290 cooling shelters for the first time in 2007, offering people without air conditioning a break from the heat at senior centers and community buildings.

But one social worker with an senior-service agency cautioned that the cooling centers may not be enough.

“We’ve seen that the city has done a good job of publicizing the cooling centers, but it’s often hard for seniors to get there,” said Karen Fuller, director of health and nutrition services for Dorot, an agency that delivers meals and other services to homebound seniors.

The commissioner of the city’s Department for the Aging, Edwin Mendez- Santiago, urged seniors to make sure someone checks on them.

“Make sure you’re planning in advance, that you have water, that you use your air conditioner. And if you don’t have an air conditioner, seek respite at a cooling site or any other location where you can cool off,” he said.

Extra utility workers were in place to guard against blackouts like the ones that plagued the borough of Queens and suburban Westchester County in July 2006, when 174,000 people lost service or experienced low voltage.

“There will be outages in the summertime,” Consolidated Edison utility spokesman Alfonso Quiroz said. “And we’re just hoping that when they come they are short in duration and few in number.”

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America’s main coal mining union said on Monday former Vice President Al Gore’s Live Earth concert pledge to fight for a ban on new coal-fired power plants was “short-sighted.”

And the main trade group of mine operators backed the union, saying it was premature to call for an end to coal-fired electricity generation when the technology to reduce greenhouse gases is still being developed.

Gore urged fans at the concerts held around the world on July 7 to commit to a seven-point pledge to cut carbon emissions and to lobby governments and employers to do more to save the planet.

The third point on the pledge states: “To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2.”

Approximately 50 percent of current U.S. electricity is generated by coal-burning plants.

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