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VJ

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Snippets from the news

• Shower curtains emit toxic chemicals. • Men use more energy than women — at least in Sweden. • Navy was practicing just before dolphins stranded. • Madagascar will sell offsets to fund rainforest conservation. • Group ranks best cities in which to weather an oil crisis. • New Hampshire joins Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

China earthquake shook up pandas

China’s destructive earthquake took a toll on wild panda habitat, State Forestry Administration officials said Thursday. Only 1,590 pandas still live in the wild, and about 1,400 of those live in China’s Sichuan Province, which was rocked hard by the quake. Officials estimate that some 8.3 percent of wild panda digs was completely destroyed, and […]

As fertilizer flows from the Midwest, a vast algae bloom thrives below the Mississippi

Every year since the early 1980s, a monstrous algae bloom has risen up in the Gulf of Mexico, fed by fertilizer runoff from Midwest farms. The nasty growth sucks oxygen from the ocean beneath it — snuffing out sea life even as climate change and other human-induced factors threaten the globe’s fish stocks. Ironically, as […]

House passes Amtrak authorization by veto-proof margin

The House passed a bill yesterday to allocate nearly $15 billion to Amtrak, a move intended to give travelers an alternative as gas prices soar. The bill, which would authorize funding for the passenger railroad for the next five years, passed by a vote of 311-104 — a veto-proof margin. Within the funding package, $14.9 […]

Mainstream media misses connection between global warming and Midwest floods

The British and the Chinese understand global warming has driven their record flooding. The United States? Not so much.

Although you wouldn't know it from most U.S. media coverage, the record "once-in-a-hundred-year flooding" the Midwest now seems to be getting every decade or so is precisely what scientists have been expecting from the warming.

A 2004 analysis [PDF] by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center found an increase during the 20th century of "precipitation, temperature, streamflow, heavy and very heavy precipitation and high streamflow in the East." They found a 14 percent increase in "heavy rain events" of greater than 2 inches in one day, and a 20 percent increase in "very heavy rain events" -- best described as deluges -- greater than 4 inches in one day. These extreme downpours are precisely what is predicted by global warming scientists and models [PDF].

NOAA would require saltwater fishers to register

To keep better tabs on which fish are being yanked from federal waters, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has proposed requiring recreational anglers to join a national registry. For the past three decades, the agency has gleaned (insufficient) information on anglers and the fish they catch by asking questions at public docks and doing […]

Climate action plans for the first 100 days and beyond

I am blown away by the depth and scope of the nonpartisan Presidential Climate Action Project. Its centerpiece is a first-100-days plan, detailed in a 300-page report, covering issues ranging from energy policy and green collar jobs to the farm bill and ethanol subsidies to the Law of the Sea. My only quibble is the continued support for grain ethanol -- although the project does advocate quick turnover to cellulosic sources -- how quick that evolution will be is a huge outstanding question. Apart from the report, the PCAP website also features a very cool Who's Who in Climate Action, a database of climate professionals and a Contact the Candidates link, where you can submit your own suggestions to the presidential hopefuls (the page needs to be updated; although I'm sure Giuliani would still welcome email about the state of the planet).

And PCAP isn't the only player in the game. As Elizabeth Kolbert reports, a number of think tanks and coalitions have been cranking out climate recommendations for the next president of the United States. Whoever that turns out to be, the next president's problem won't be a lack of guidelines or expert advice ... if anything, it will be the opposite.

Cheney perpetuates myth about China-Cuba oil partnership

During his “drill, drill, drill” rant yesterday, Dick Cheney complained that Cuba and China are drilling for oil closer to the coast of Florida than American companies are currently allowed. It’s become a common talking point for Republicans arguing that more areas should be opened to drilling — but, reports McClatchy, it appears to be […]

Dingell promises climate bill friendlier to manufacturers

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell (D-Mich.) has been saying for months now that a climate bill from his committee is on the way. Yesterday he talked about his pending legislation to industry folks, promising it would be friendlier to their interests than the Senate bill that failed last week: Dingell told the […]