The Wonk Room

Global Boiling: Hurricane Ike Part Of New Era Of More Destructive Storms»

On Friday, National Wildlife Federation (NWF) climate scientist Amanda Staudt explained to viewers of KTBC-TV in Austin how Hurricane Ike is part of a new era of more destructive storms, fueled by global warming. She explained that we’ve seen an increase of about fifty percent in the destructive power of storms, even as we’ve let our infrastructure decay:

As a researcher who’s been looking at global warming and hurricanes for several years now, it’s really hard to see one of these big storms play out in real life my heart goes all to all the folks who are dealing with the effects right now. There’s definitely a contribution from global warming to the storm activity and the intensity of storms that we’ve seen over the last few decades and we expect to see in the coming century.

Watch it:

Hurricane Ike’s deadly path has claimed at least 31 lives in the United States from Texas to Indiana. It devastated the Caribbean, killing 61 people in Haiti, 57 of them in one town destroyed by floods from the storm.

NWF is leading efforts to help Americans connect the dots on the real and present threat of global warming, sounding a “Wake Up Call” this year on the Midwest floods, California wildfires, and tropical storms.

UPDATE: At the ThinkProgress mothership, Amanda Terkel notes that the “media is restricted from covering Hurricane Ike’s devastation.” Watch it:

Global Boiling: Hurricane Ike Is A ‘Freak Storm’ Larger Than Katrina»

The planet is boiling. The Wonk Room recently reported on the troubling new studies that show the spate of stronger storms — including Katrina — is tied to global warming caused by our unrestrained burning of fossil fuels. Today, Greenpeace notes that Ike is part of this trend of larger, more destructive storms fueled by hot oceans. As the Washington Post reports, “Hundreds of thousands of people began fleeing coastal areas in Texas today under mandatory evacuation orders as Hurricane Ike rampaged across the Gulf of Mexico, bringing 100 mph winds and a storm surge forecast to be as high as 20 feet.”

Tropical storm blogger Dr. Jeff Masters has been tracking Hurricane Ike, and he’s unequivocal about the threat of this “freak storm“:

Hurricane Ike’s winds remain at Category 2 strength, but Ike is a freak storm with extreme destructive storm surge potential. Ike’s pressure fell rapidly last night to 944 mb, but the hurricane did not respond to the pressure change by increasing its maximum winds in the eyewall. Instead, Ike responded by increasing the velocity of its winds away from the eyewall, over a huge stretch of the Gulf of Mexico. Another very unusual feature of Ike is the fact that the surface winds are much slower than the winds being measured aloft by the Hurricane Hunters. Winds at the surface may only be at Category 1 strength, even though Ike has a central pressure characteristic of a Category 3 or 4 storm. This very unusual structure makes forecasting the future intensity of Ike nearly impossible. . . . Ike is now larger than Katrina was, both in its radius of tropical storm force winds–275 miles–and in it radius of hurricane force winds–115 miles. For comparison, Katrina’s tropical storm and hurricane force winds extended out 230 and 105 miles, respectively. Ike’s huge wind field has put an extraordinarily large volume of ocean water in motion. When this swirling column of water hits the shallow waters of the Continental Shelf, it will be be forced up into a large storm surge which will probably rival the massive storm surge of Hurricane Carla of 1961. Carla was a Category 4 hurricane with 145 mph winds at landfall, and drove a 10 foot or higher storm surge to a 180-mile stretch of Texas coast. A maximum storm surge of 22 feet was recorded at Port Lavaca, Texas.

Masters estimates that Hurricane Ike will do “$20-$30 billion in damage.”

If we don’t change direction to build a green economy now, our entire planet will be staggered by climate change, as Thomas Fingar, “the top analyst in the U.S. intelligence community,” warned this week, the seventh anniversary of 9/11.

Digg it!

McCain Surrogate Tim Pawlenty: Human Impact On Global Warming ‘Half A Percent’»

Appearing on the Glenn Beck radio show yesterday, Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) denigrated the science of climate change, saying the human impact on global warming was only “half a percent.” He implied mandatory programs to reduce global warming emissions — like the cap-and-trade programs he has previously called for — would “wreck the economy.” And he said that it’s “understandable” that plans to fix global warming have “faded into the background” because of the “energy crisis”:

But, you know, in my view is this: you can argue that the world, the globe is warming as it always has for natural reasons. But I think the weight of the science indicates that at least some of it — you could argue it’s half a percent or something more substantial — is caused by human behavior. . . But, in the wake of this energy crisis, where people are struggling to pay the bills, that debate on cap and trade has fallen to the background for understandable reasons.

Listen here (and watch the latest global boiling reports):

Gov. Pawlenty has been a “driving force” for a regional cap-and-trade system, so it’s unclear if he’s just pandering to Beck, a notorious global warming denier, or if he’s retreating from principle. This is not the first time an adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has denigrated the prospects for climate change legislation. In July, Steve Forbes told Glenn Beck that cap-and-trade and related proposals are not “going to get very far as people start to examine the details of them.” And in May, Sen. McCain himself agreed with Beck that solutions to climate change can be delayed.

Digg it!

Transcript: Read the rest of this entry »

Global Boiling: Rising To The Threat — Or Not»

The future of global warming — a world of extreme storms, floods, droughts, rising seas, catastrophic change, species loss — is upon us today. The Wonk Room looks at the startling new scientific evidence that has come out this week, as well as how top environmental organizations — the Environmental Defense Fund and the National Wildlife Federation — have responded.

PLANET DYING

Each day brings new, troubling headlines: the drought in Australia has deepened; coral reefs are dissolving as the oceans acidify; global warming threatens giant sequoias with extinction; and the U.S. Climate Change Science Program reported that soot and smog pollutants from Asia could cause extreme heatwaves and drought in the United States by 2050. Further, September represents the height of the Atlantic hurricane season and the end of the Arctic summer — both of which are being catastrophically changed by global warming:

EXTREME STORMS BUILDING

As the Wonk Room reported yesterday, top hurricane scientist Kerry Emanuel found that Hurricane Katrina would have been significantly weaker twenty-five years earlier. With storms Hanna, Ike, and Josephine following in Gustav’s wake, Nature published a stark new study that shows hurricanes are getting fiercer:

As this year’s Atlantic hurricane season becomes ever more violent, scientists have come up with the firmest evidence so far that global warming will significantly increase the intensity of the most extreme storms worldwide. . . . Rising ocean temperatures are thought to be the main cause of the observed shift. The team calculates that a 1 ºC increase in sea-surface temperatures would result in a 31% increase in the global frequency of category 4 and 5 storms per year: from 13 of those storms to 17. Since 1970, the tropical oceans have warmed on average by around 0.5 ºC. Computer models suggest they may warm by a further 2 ºC by 2100.

At Climate Progress, Joe Romm responds:

Actually, if we don’t sharply reverse our current emissions path soon, SSTs are likely to rise far more than 2°C by 2100. Indeed, we could easily see a 1°C increase in SSTs by 2050, and that means four more potential city-destroying super-hurricanes per year by mid-century.

Read the rest of this entry »

Top Hurricane Scientist: ‘Katrina Would Not Have Been As Intense In 1980′»

In an exclusive interview with the Wonk Room, Massachusetts Institute of Technology climatologist Kerry Emanuel says that he would be “surprised” if global warming “were not a big factor” in intensifying Hurricane Katrina’s destructive power. Katrina, the costliest and third deadliest hurricane in United States history, intensified to Category Five strength, with peak sustained winds over 170 mph, over extremely warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico before its record storm surge devastated the Gulf Coast.

Emanuel compared the meteorological conditions in which Hurricane Katrina developed in 2005 to the existing conditions twenty-five years earlier in 1980. Using his model of tropical storm potential intensity, which uses at determining factors such as sea and air temperature and wind shear, he found that Katrina would have been significantly weaker twenty-five years earlier. When asked how to characterize his findings, Emanuel replied:

I think it is correct to say that Katrina would not have been as intense in 1980. What part of that to attribute to global warming is tricky, but I would be surprised if it were not a big factor.

NCEP/NCAR Re-analysis potential intensity for 1980 and 2005 (Emanuel, 2008)

Dr. Emanuel, one of Time Magazine’s 100 Influential People of 2006, is the author of dozens of influential papers on tropical meteorology and climatology, including the 2005 Nature paper, “Increasing destructiveness of tropical cyclones over the past 30 years.” Dr. Emanuel has authored the popular science books Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes and What We Know About Climate Change, and is profiled in ScienceProgress editor Chris Mooney’s book, Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming.

Global Boiling: Palin In Denial About The Greatest Threat To Alaska»

Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) is an oil and gas woman. When Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) announced she would be his running mate, Palin told the crowd how her husband Todd worked for British Petroleum (now BP) for twenty years. But her ties go much deeper. As governor of Alaska, Palin is the chair of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission and has served as chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

She believes in the transcendent power of drilling but scorns renewable alternatives. Worse, she is in denial about the incontrovertible science of anthropogenic climate change. When asked recently by the right-wing magazine Newsmax, “What is your take on global warming and how is it affecting our country?” Palin replied:

A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I’m not one though who would attribute it to being man-made.

This position is ludicrous and reckless. In McCain’s own words:

We know that greenhouse gasses are heavily implicated as a cause of climate change. And we know that among all greenhouse gasses, the worst by far is the carbon dioxide that results from fossil-fuel combustion.

Manmade global warming is destroying Alaska faster than any other state in the Union. Her hometown of Wasilla is the traditional starting point for the Iditarod dogsled race and the Iron Dog snowmobile race, which her husband won in 2007. In recent years, however, these races have come under threat by unprecedented conditions, despite taking place in the heart of winter:

The 2003 Iron Dog Race was cancelled by rain during the “winter that wasn’t” — “From Finger Lake to Puntilla Lake on the south side of the Alaska Range, there were walls of alder that would normally be buried beneath the snow. From Rohn in the heart of the range across the Farewell Burn to Nikolai, there was open water or no snow.” Anchorage Daily News, 2/1/03]

The 2006 Iron Dog Race began in rain: “Rain hammered the puddles on the lake ice here Sunday as the world’s longest, toughest and once coldest snowmobile race met global warming. . . No one involved in the 22-year history of the Tesoro Iron Dog race…had ever seen anything quite like this: temperatures pushing 50 degrees in early February and standing water inches deep in places.” [Anchorage Daily News, 2/13/06]

The 2007 Iron Dog Race, won by Todd Palin, Gov. Palin’s husband, again had unusually bad conditions — “Drivers were pounded by a trail lacking snow. ” [Associated Press, 2/1/08]

Read the rest of this entry »

Right-Wing Ideological Extremist Tim Phillips Calls Olbermann ‘Silly And Ideologically Driven’»

On August 19, Keith Olbermann reported that Americans for Prosperity was forced to cancel events in Florida due to Tropical Storm Fay, and noted the irony of “global warming deniers’ meetings postponed by tropical storms.” Obermann described AFP as “one of the many corporate-funded lobbying groups working hand-in-hand with Big Oil, and the administration, and other people who make more money the more there is doubt that there is global warming.”

Watch it:

In an article on the Business and Media Institute’s website written by Jeff Poor, AFP president Tim Phillips took umbrage at the segment, claiming the description of AFP as a “corporate-funded lobbying group” was “outrageous.” Phillips told Poor that “guys like him” who descibe the connection between global warming and extreme weather are “global warming extremists”:

It’s ironic that guys like him and global warming extremists will use any weather event – whether it’s a hot spell, whether it’s a hurricane or a tropical storm or a hailstorm or a snowstorm – anything, any weather event – they’ll try to tie it to their pet cause which is ideological extremism at its worst. . . It shows just how silly and ideologically driven they are. They don’t look at the science. They don’t look at any factors. It’s just an ideological extremism. It would be funny if it were not so serious for our nation.

As the Wonk Room has well documented, the link between global warming and extreme weather is recognized by the Bush administration itself, which warned in June that global warming has likely or very likely worsened intense rainfall, heat waves, winter storms, hurricanes, wildfires, insect outbreaks, and coral bleaching. The world’s largest environmental organization, Friends of the Earth, and America’s largest environmental organization, the National Wildlife Federation, have joined national scientific organizations representing hundreds of universities and thousands of climate scientists in calling for immediate action.

In fact, it is Tim Phillips and Jeff Poor who are “ideologically driven” extremists who “don’t look at the science” but instead work for polluter-funded right-wing front groups:

Tim Phillips Is A Top Right-Wing Operative. Before replacing Koch Industries lobbyist Nancy Pfotenhauer as president of Americans for Prosperity, Timothy R. Phillips had a long career as a conservative operative. In 1992, Phillips managed Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s (R-VA) first Congressional campaign and served as his chief of staff for four years. In 1997, Phillips co-founded public relations firm Century Strategies with Ralph Reed. There, Phillips oversaw “direct mail, telemarketing, coalition building and strategic services” for the 2000 and 2004 Bush for President campaigns, and specialized in “grasstops” operations to establish fake grassroots organizations. [Century Strategies (Internet Archive)]

Jeff Poor Is A Self-Described ‘Very Conservative’ ‘Professional Jerk.’ Jeff Poor describes himself on his Facebook page as a “professional jerk” with “very conservative” political views. Poor has previously written hit pieces for the Business and Media Institute attacking Al Gore and climate scientist Stephen Schneider for discussing the links between climate change and extreme weather.

Business & Media Institute Is Part Of Right-Wing Message Machine. BMI is a right-wing “free-enterprise” front group that is part of Brent Bozell’s conservative media machine, the Media Research Center. In 2005, the MRC honored Ann Coulter, T. Boone Pickens, Zell Miller, and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth at their conservative media gala.

Americans For Prosperity Is A Front Group For Corporate Polluter Koch Industries. Americans for Prosperity is the successor to the free-market front group Citizens for a Sound Economy, founded by conglomerate Koch Industries. David Koch, Executive Vice-President of Koch Industries, is a founder of AFP and “a financial supporter through the family-controlled and company-financed Claude R. Lambe Foundation.” Koch Industries is the largest privately owned company in the United States, whose multiple holdings make it a veritable global warming pollution factory. [NRDC, 7/25/08] [Forbes, 2007]

Transcript: Read the rest of this entry »

Global Boiling: Fay’s Floods Are A Wake Up Call»

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) has described Tropical Storm Fay as a “serious, catastrophic flooding event,” as it dumps “historic levels of rain with totals in excess of 20 inches already” in Brevard County. Fay is tracking over the entire state of Florida, devastating crops and causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage. Jeff Masters tells Bloomberg that Fay is “reminiscent of Hurricane Irene,” which caused $800 million in damage less than ten years ago.

The National Wildlife Federation, which has been warning that global warming is worsening wildfires and floods, describes the triple threat of global warming-fueled tropical storms in a new report:

While Florida and Gulf Coast residents bear the brunt of Tropical Storm Fay, the latest science connecting hurricanes and global warming suggests more is yet to come: tropical storms are likely to bring higher wind speeds, more precipitation, and bigger storm surge in the coming decades.

Watch it:

As Dr. Staudt writes in the report, “Stronger hurricanes, heavier rainfall, and rising sea level: this is what global warming has in store for the U.S. Gulf and Atlantic coasts.”

Scientists are begging politicians to take action. Eight national scientific organizations are asking the next president — whoever it may be — to support $9 billion in new investments between 2010 and 2014 “for research and forecasting, saying about $2 trillion of U.S. economic output could be hurt by storms, floods and droughts.” The organizations — the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, The Weather Coalition, the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, and the Alliance for Earth Observations — represent “thousands of experts in the public, private, and academic weather and climate enterprise.”

Across the United States and the rest of the planet, people are reeling from torrential rains: Read the rest of this entry »

McCain Wants A Water War»

Our guest blogger is Alice Madden, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and Majority Leader of the Colorado General Assembly.

Last week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told The Pueblo Chieftain that the 1922 Colorado River compact, which determines water sharing for Colorado and other upper basin states with lower basin states like Arizona, California, and New Mexico, “obviously needs to be renegotiated,” citing “the new realities of high growth”:

I don’t think there’s any doubt the major, major issue is water and can be as important as oil. So the compact that is in effect, obviously, needs to be renegotiated over time amongst the interested parties.

As Jonathan Adler reminds us, “In the West, whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting.” Has John McCain forgotten where he comes from? His cavalier attitude about the distribution of western water should send a chill down the spine of anyone who hails from west of the Mississippi.

But even scarier — Sen. McCain seemed oblivious to the hard work on this very issue completed just last year. The seven states of the Colorado River basin worked together to craft a new agreement within the 1922 compact to deal with the increasing problem of drought and lower basin water demands. This agreement, signed by the states and the federal government on December 13, was praised by Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne, the former Republican governor of Idaho: “You have steered around the cataracts and sharp boulders of litigation and acrimony. You have found the serene waters of partnership and cooperation.”

McCain’s reckless comments threaten all of that hard work. And that is why the condemnation of McCain’s remarks in Colorado has been swift and bipartisan:

“Senator McCain’s position on opening up the Colorado River Compact is absolutely wrong and would only happen over my dead body.” — Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO)

“He will not get a more fierce fight from a United States senator than he will have from me.” — Bob Schaeffer (R-CO)

“On this issue he couldn’t be more wrong. Nothing is more crucial for Colorado than water, and I oppose any suggestion that the federal government should get involved in how we share it with Arizona, California or any other state.” — Rep. Mark Udall (D-CO)

“It would be sheer folly to re-open the compact at a time like this when all of the states are working cooperatively on this issue.” — Gov. Bill Ritter (D-CO)

I have an idea. Why doesn’t the Senator from Arizona turn his attention to how to help the region deal with the looming threat of global warming? “Scientists have predicted a 10 to 30 percent reduction of water flow in the Colorado River,” the Sierra Club’s Rob Smith explained to the Denver Post, “due to long-term drought and higher temperatures associated with climate change in the Southwest.” Instead of proposing an agenda with water conservation and stream restoration, McCain is promoting a unsustainable expansion of water-hungry non-renewable energy projects in the West.

McCain should spend less time inside the DC beltway and more time with real Coloradans, so he can discuss real solutions instead of trying to reopen old wounds.

UPDATE: Apparently Mitt Romney has been brought in to bat clean up: McCain didn’t say that. Never happened. But if it did, he didn’t mean it.

Global Boiling: Tropical Storm Fay Crashes Denier Townhall»

Americans For Prosperity (AFP) has a brief message on its website today:

Ft. Myers and West Palm Beach Town Hall Meetings Rescheduled

The August 19th Ft. Myers town hall and August 21st West Palm Beach town hall will be rescheduled as a result of Tropical Storm Fay. We apologize for any inconvenience.

AFP is a front group for the right-wing pollution company Koch Industries, with an agenda of attacking “global warming alarmism” and promoting increased offshore drilling.

Somehow I doubt they planned to discuss how global warming intensifies tropical storms and threatens Florida’s coasts, nor how tropical storms and offshore drilling are a disastrous combination.

Global Boiling: Our New Era Of Catastrophic Wildfires»

In the second report of its “Wake Up Call” series on global warming’s worsening of extreme weather, the National Wildlife Federation describes how the western United States has entered a new era of catastrophic wildfires, brought on by global warming, past forest management, and poor land development.

The frequency of large wildfires and the total area burned have been steadily increasing in the Western United States. Warmer springs and longer summer dry periods since the mid-1980s are linked to a four-fold increase in the number of major wildfires each year and a six-fold increase in the area of forest burned compared with the period between 1970 and 1986. The fire season stretches about 78 days longer and individual fires last about 30 days longer.

In a video, the National Wildlife Federation’s climate scientist, Amanda Staudt, describes how “global warming will increase the risk of wildfires.” Watch it:

Global warming increases wildfire risk in several ways. From the report, Increased Risk of Catastrophic Wildfires: Global Warming’s Wake-Up Call for the Western United States:

– Longer fire seasons will result as spring runoff occurs earlier, summer heat builds up more quickly, and warm conditions extend further into fall. Western forests typically become combustible within a month of when snowmelt finishes. Snowpack is now melting 1 to 4 weeks earlier than it did 50 years ago.

– Drier conditions will increase the probability of fire occurrence. Summertime temperatures in western North America are projected to be 3.6 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit higher by mid-century, enhancing evaporation rates, while precipitation is expected to decrease by up to 15 percent.

– More fuel for forest fires will become available because warmer and drier conditions are conducive to widespread beetle and other insect infestations, resulting in broad ranges of dead and highly combustible trees. Higher temperatures enhance winter survival of mountain pine beetles and allow for a more rapid lifecycle. At the same time, moderate drought
conditions for a year or longer can weaken trees, allowing bark beetles to overcome the trees’ defense mechanisms more easily.

– Increased frequency of lightning is expected as thunderstorms become more severe. In the western United States a 1.8 degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature is expected to lead to a 6 percent increase in lightning. This means that lightning in the region could increase by 12 to 30 percent by mid-century.

Not only is global warming worsening wildfires (despite Joel Achenbach’s protestations), but catastrophic wildfires are hastening global warming, by rapidly releasing carbon it took the forests decades, even centuries, to store:

In recent years, fires in the western United States have released carbon dioxide into the atmosphere equivalent to about 11 percent of their annual fossil fuel emissions. In some Western states a fire spanning over just a couple months can emit nearly as much carbon dioxide as its total annual fossil fuel emissions.

This vicious cycle is one of many dangerous experiments humanity is running on its only planet through unmoderated pollution. Recent scientific reports have discussed how oceanic dead zones caused by fertilizer runoff and air pollution have reached catastrophic levels. Atmospheric oxygen is declining, reaching hazardous lows in urban centers. And rapidly declining arctic sea ice is leading to permafrost melt, which has kept frozen thirty percent of all soil-based carbon for hundreds of thousands of years.

Earth To Jim Webb: The Emissions Are The Crisis»

Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) told the Politico last week that “environmentalists will be forced to compromise next year and support the development of clean coal, nuclear power and other alternative fuels”:

We need to be able to address a national energy strategy and then try to work on environmental efficiencies as part of that plan. We can’t just start with things like emission standards at a time when we’re at a crisis with the entire national energy policy.

Webb’s concept that one can construct a “national energy strategy” first — then “try to work on environmental efficiencies” second — is completely misguided. The fuel-price shocks that rightly concern Webb are inextricably linked with the climate crisis. Numerous scientific, economic, and governmental reports make clear that the degradation of the planet’s climate system is threatening our economic and national security. As Al Gore described, “We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change.”

The League of Women Voters — a civic, not environmentalist organization — recognizes how our national energy policy needs to change, as their call for a moratorium on all new coal plants makes clear. In the words of national League President Mary G. Wilson, “Global warming is happening now.” She recognizes that Congress is failing its mission:

If we wait for federal action from our congressional leaders, it will be too late. We must take immediate and aggressive action to halt climate change. Burning more coal is too big a risk for too many people. Coal is the single largest source of global warming pollution in the U.S., with power plants responsible for 33 percent of CO2 emissions. Because of this pollution, we already face increasingly severe heat waves and droughts, intensifying hurricanes and floods, disappearing glaciers and more wildfires. If left unchecked, the effects will be catastrophic to us and our planet.

Webb seems to fail to comprehend the immediacy of the climate crisis. Hopefully he will become part of the solution before it’s too late. As Webb himself wrote, in “What It Means To Be A Leader“:

To the American voters, I offer this advice: Be as shrewd and ruthless in your demands on our leaders as the wizards running campaigns are in their strategies to get your vote. Do your part to send to Washington people who truly want to solve the problems of this country from the bottom up.

You won’t regret it. You will benefit from it. And the stakes could not be higher. Sometimes the business of politics seems silly. It can also be infuriating. But you must stay in the game, because you and your grandchildren will be the inheritors of both our successes and flaws.

Global Boiling: Joel Achenbach, Dittohead?»

MSNBC reporting on heat waves and tropical storms today, not mentioning global warming.

Washington Post columnist Joel Achenbach is terribly aggrieved by the media’s coverage of the relationship between climate change and extreme weather events, complaining, “Somewhere along the line, global warming became the explanation for everything.” Parroting Rush Limbaugh, he fulminates that if a hurricane hits the United States, “some expert will tell us that this storm might be a harbinger of global warming.” He continues:

Right-thinking people are not supposed to discuss any meteorological or geophysical event — a hurricane, a wildfire, a heat wave, a drought, a flood, a blizzard, a tornado, a lightning strike, an unfamiliar breeze, a strange tingling on the neck — without immediately invoking the climate crisis. It causes earthquakes, plagues and backyard gardening disappointments. Weird fungus on your tomato plants? Classic sign of global warming.

That is, of course, nonsense. Achenbach’s piece is a series of distortions, misrepresentations, and false attacks.

In reality, the media almost never discuss global warming in the context of extreme weather events. The cable news channels fill hours of time with “extreme weather alerts” of tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, and floods. But the few times they discuss the influence of global warming is to either falsely attack it, as on Fox News, or to garble the science and equivocate, as on CNN. Print media and network television likewise run minimal coverage discussing weather in the context of climate change — and just as rarely discuss the global warming consequences of energy policy.

Achenbach’s sole evidence for a deluge of people “immediately invoking the climate crisis” is a single Newsweek article. Achenbach falsely claims that the author “flat-out declared that this year’s floods in the Midwest were the result of climate change,” when in fact she states “The proximate cause was the western part of the jet stream dipping toward the Gulf of Mexico, then rising toward Iowa,” and goes on to discuss global warming as “one clue” why the jet stream behaved that way. In contrast, right-wing media publish a deluge of global warming denialism and false arguments on a daily basis, from specious libertarians to polluter-funded right-wingers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hawaii Representative Crafting ‘Environmentally Responsible’ Plan That Would Endanger His State»

It seems that Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) is crafting a plan that could lead to the inundation of Hawaii’s beaches, the extinction of its species, and the destruction of its water supply. Abercrombie and John Peterson (R-PA) are creating a “working group” to establish a “comprehensive, environmentally responsible energy plan,” whose members will be announced today. The centerpiece of this plan is opening protected coasts to drilling for more oil, as Abercrombie told the Hill:

Simply standing up and saying, you can’t drill your way out of this doesn’t work. The people are standing up and saying, “Yes, we can.”

The unique beaches, coral reefs, and oceanic ecosystems of Hawaii won’t be directly threatened by expanded offshore drilling, as the ocean that surrounds it doesn’t have fossil reserves. An oil spill or two could get tourists to flee the beaches of California, Florida, and the states of the eastern seaboard in favor of the Aloha State.

But in reality, Abercrombie’s advocacy of increasing fossil fuel production as a climate crisis looms will have deeper repercussions for this necklace of islands than perhaps any other state in the nation. Big Oil wants the world to keep burning fossil fuels at a rate that would increase global temperatures by five to seven times more than we’ve already experienced. Even more modest increases would spell catastrophe for islands like the Hawai’ian chain:

Rising Sea Levels Submerging Islands. In 2006, President Bush declared the 1200-mile chain of Northwestern Hawaiian Islands part of the largest marine sanctuary in the United States. But U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers found that “by 2100 up to 65 percent of some islands would be lost if the sea level rose 18.9 inches (48 centimeters), which is the average IPCC projection.” A 34.6 inch rise “could result in up to 75 percent of NWHI wildlife habitat disappearing.” Whale Skate Island, home to seals, turtles, and seabirds, has already disappeared under the waves. [Endangered Species Research, 2006]

Coral Reefs Dying. “The combined stress of global warming and ocean acidification” due to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases is already causing coral bleaching. “Especially in the state of Hawaii, we depend on the reefs for tourism as well as our economy. Also, recreational and commercial fisheries,” said Coral Reef Ecologist Ku’ulei Rodgers to NBC affiliate KHNL. “The coral reefs are the basis for all of the foundations and key species and if we lose the reefs we also will lose the fish and other organisms that are involved.” [KHNL, 7/2007]

Water, Wildlife, Economy Under Threat. In the 2007 legislation to cut Hawaii’s greenhouse gas emissions, the state legislature found, “The potential adverse effects of global warming include a rise in sea levels resulting in the displacement of businesses and residences and the inundation of Hawaii’s freshwater aquifers, damage to marine ecosystems and the natural environment, extended drought and loss of soil moisture, an increase in the spread of infectious diseases, and an increase in the severity of storms and extreme weather events.” Further, “Climate change will have detrimental effects on some of Hawaii’s largest industries, including tourism, agriculture, recreational, commercial fishing, and forestry.” [H.B. 226, 2007]

It is difficult to encapsulate the threat of global warming to these jewels of biodiversity. Everything from the unique snow-dependent wekiu bug on Mauna Kea to the Hawaiian monk seals are under threat. The destruction of Hawaii’s unique habitat is not just devastating to its wildlife. As the National Wildlife Federation notes, “At Honolulu, Nawiliwili and Hilo, sea level is already rising 6-14 inches per century, and the EPA estimates it is likely to rise another 17-25 inches by 2100. Sand replenishment to protect the coasts from a 20-inch sea level rise could cost $340 million to $6 billion.”

Abercrombie has criticized the Bush administration for its “obstruct, confuse and delay” strategy on global warming. His “drill, drill, drill” advocacy is no better.

Global Boiling: Yes, CNN, Global Warming Is To Blame For Wildfires»

More than 1,700 wildfires are burning across California, at a cost of greater than $200 million. Yesterday, CNN interrupted its breathless coverage of these catastrophic wildfires to ask, “Is this climate change? Is this global warming?” Miles O’Brien, CNN’s chief technology and environment correspondent, attempted to supply an answer, with a dithering, confusing, and chart-filled presentation, cautioning that “it’s hard to make a connect-the-dots moment here in all of this” and that his charts “will make your eyes glaze over.”

At the end, anchor Tony Harris responded:

Let me ask something crazy here. You know, nature’s been doing this, lightning strikes, whatever, for a gazillion years. Isn’t it it’s own sort of a natural pruning process? I know that we’ve got a hand in this, but this has always been the case.

As a public service for the reporters at CNN, here’s a “connect-the dots” moment. This season’s wildfires are coming on the heels of the four worst wildfire seasons in the modern era of wildfire control, begun in the 1960s with wildfire management and changes in land use and forestry. In 2006, nearly “100,000 fires were reported and nearly 10 million acres burned, 125 percent above the 10-year average.”

And global warming is at fault.

As the 2006 Science report Warming and Earlier Spring Increase Western U.S. Forest Wildfire Activity states unequivocally:

Thus, although land-use history is an important factor for wildfire risks in specific forest types (such as some ponderosa pine and mixed conifer forests), the broad-scale increase in wildfire frequency across the western United States has been driven primarily by sensitivity of fire regimes to recent changes in climate over a relatively large area.

Furthermore:

Hence, the projected regional warming and consequent increase in wildfire activity in the western United States is likely to magnify the threats to human communities and ecosystems, and substantially increase the management challenges in restoring forests and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

What’s more, multiple federal government agencies have been sounding the alarm for at least a decade, with the evidence for the building catastrophe growing starker year by year: Read the rest of this entry »

Global Boiling: Cheney’s Office Blocked Testimony On Global Warming Health Threat»

Last fall, as the Environmental Protection Agency worked to satisfy its Supreme Court mandate to protect the American public from the threat of greenhouse gases, White House officials took steps to prevent such action. In a letter responding to questions by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chair of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, former EPA official Jason K. Burnett implicated the Office of the Vice President, Dick Cheney, as well as the White House Council on Environmental Quality for censoring “any discussion of the human health consequences of climate change” in testimony to Congress.

Although Burnett refused to assist in the efforts, the October testimony of Dr. Julie Geberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was “eviscerated,” with ten pages detailing the specific health threats of global warming — ranging from heat waves to floods — eliminated. After initial denials of White House interference, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino later claimed that the Office of Management and Budget had redacted testimony that contained “broad characterizations about climate change science that didn’t align with the IPCC.”

In fact, Burnett tells Sen. Boxer that the reason for the cuts was to “keep options open” for the EPA to avoid making an endangerment finding for global warming pollution, which would trigger immediate consequences for polluters. He writes:

On December 5th, under the direction of EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, Burnett emailed a formal endangerment finding to the White House Office of Management and Budget, but received a “phone call from the White House” that asked Burnett “to send a follow-up note saying that the email had been sent in error.” He declined to retract the email, which remained unread. Two weeks later, on December 19, Johnson put an end to EPA’s work on global warming regulations and rejected California’s petition to regulate tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions.

This May, Burnett resigned from the EPA. In June, President Bush asserted executive privilege to block investigation of his involvement. Boxer has called Burnett to testify before her committee on July 22, in a hearing on “the most recent evidence of the serious danger posed by global warming.” In a statement today, Boxer said:

History will judge this Bush Administration harshly for recklessly covering up a real threat to the people they are supposed to protect.

Read Dr. Gerberding’s unredacted testimony here.

Read Sen. Boxer’s letter to Jason Burnett, and his letter in response.

Global Boiling: Climate Activists Call For Response To Extreme Weather»

The We Campaign’s action alert sent yesterday to activists about the U.S. Climate Change Science Program report on global warming’s effects on extreme weather.

As the Wonk Room has reported in our Global Boiling series, scientists have warned for well over a decade that global warming will make extreme weather events like the Midwest floods and California wildfires that are ravaging the nation commonplace. However, the Bush administration has failed to mobilize the nation, instead suppressing the research and letting polluters control policymaking. Now, spurred by activists, major environmental organizations are calling for action.

On June 19, Friends of the Earth led the clarion call:

The warming climate has made more extreme precipitation inevitable, and in response, the U.S. must dramatically refashion its failed flood control policies.

The world’s largest grassroots environmental organization noted that U.S. flood control policy has been misguided for decades, pointing to government panels from 1966 and 1973 that recommended “more attention be paid to relocation out of flood zones and called for greater emphasis on non-engineering solutions.” Instead, due to pork barrel spending “totally unnecessary and often environmentally destructive projects are built while those of higher priority go unaddressed,” destroying up to 95% of the wetlands of Iowa and Illinois. With global warming, policies that were once problematic are now disastrous.

Yesterday, National Wildlife Federation head Larry Schweiger called on Congress to hold immediate hearings to revise the National Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act. The accompanying report from the largest environmental organization in the United States, “Heavy Rainfall and Increased Flooding Risk: Global Warming’s Wake-Up Call for the Central United States,” recommends the U.S. stop its levee-larded strategy for flood control and begin aggressive reductions in global warming pollution. Offering her thoughts and prayers to those grappling with the “catastrophic flooding in the central United States,” NWF climate scientist Amanda Staudt connected the dots:

The big picture is that global warming is making tragedies like these more frequent and more intense. Global warming is happening now. Our dependency on fossil fuels like oil and coal is causing the problem, and people and wildlife are witnessing the effects.

Also yesterday, the We Campaign alerted its million-person list about last month’s U.S. Climate Change Science Program report on global warming’s effects on extreme weather.

Unfortunately, not all leaders are recognizing the severity of this crisis. Major news networks employ global warming deniers and industry apologists in senior positions, The Wall Street Journal publishes right-wing extremists who think climate science is a “sick-souled religion,” and the New York Times publishes stories on the future of the Everglades and the effects of extreme floods on Midwest agriculture without even mentioning climate change once.

Digg It!

Global Boiling: Rush Versus Reality»

Last week, conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh assailed the Center for American Progress Action Fund’s “Global Boiling” Progress Report, which explained that the extreme weather events causing death and destruction across the United States “are consistent with the changes scientists predicted would come with global warming.” He called it a “piece of propaganda” by “wackos” but refused to read any of it — “You can imagine what it says.” He continued:

You know, it is a crying shame to have to sit out here and just do nothing but refute a bunch of lies that are repeatedly told by leftist activist groups and then amplified and promulgated by willing accomplices in the Drive-By Media.

The “leftist activist groups” Rush is attacking now includes not only us but also the Bush administration, whose multiagency Climate Change Science Program has released two reports this week on the damage climate change is doing to the United States.

The first, released Thursday, said:

Many extremes and their associated impacts are now changing. For example, in recent decades most of North America has been experiencing more unusually hot days and nights, fewer unusually cold days and nights, and fewer frost days. Heavy downpours have become more frequent and intense. Droughts are becoming more severe in some regions, though there are no clear trends for North America as a whole. The power and frequency of Atlantic hurricanes have increased substantially in recent decades, though North American mainland land-falling hurricanes do not appear to have increased over the past century.