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Hush Hush, Keep It Down Now

Top NASA climate scientist says he’s being censored by Bush admin If Bush administration officials were trying to keep NASA’s chief climate scientist quiet, as he charges, they failed spectacularly. Instead they got a front-page story in The New York Times. In it, James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, charges that […]

Ladies and gentlemen, your president

"... I want to see different kinds of cars on our road that don't require upon crude oil from overseas, but we have got a serious problem, and now is the time to fix it, and I'm going to address it again at the State of the Union."

Hunting and fishing groups are increasingly vocal about global warming

If you're a regular Gristmill reader, you've probably already digested this weekend's front-page coverage of climate change in The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Global warming also recently made the cover of Trout, the quarterly magazine of the sportsmen's group Trout Unlimited. The article, "Weathering the Change," explains how climate change could impact stream habitats and trout populations (which thrive in cold waters):

A study prepared in 2002 for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change predicted that a 1.5-degree increase in air temperature in the Rocky Mountain region could reduce suitable stream habitat for trout by 7 to 16 percent. A 4.8-degree increase could reduce habitat by a staggering 42 to 54 percent.

Along similar lines, The Waterfowlers' Guide to Global Warming (PDF), released last summer by the National Wildlife Federation, looks at how rising temperatures could evaporate the water necessary for duck breeding grounds in the U.S. and Canada:

The Prairie Pothole Region contains millions of shallow depressions that fill with water in spring, providing breeding habitat for millions of ducks and other migratory birds and many species of resident wildlife. As the climate warms and evaporation and transpiration by plants increase, many of these ponds are likely to dry up or be wet for shorter periods, making them less suitable habitat for breeding pairs and duck broods. Models of future drought conditions in the region due to global warming project significant declines in Prairie Pothole wetlands, from no change to a loss of 91 percent. This could lead to a 9 percent to 69 percent reduction in the abundance of ducks breeding in the region.

Sportmen's organizations in America have traditionally focused their resources on private habitat-restoration programs. Trout Unlimited, for example, organizes efforts to clean up abandoned mines and watersheds in Appalachia. But such groups are becoming increasingly active in public debates. Bringing their members up to speed on global warming is just one example.

P.S. Pleased to make your acquaintance here at Gristmill. Most of the time I write for The Washington Monthly, where I'm now researching a series of articles on the intersection of rural politics and environmental concerns. Feedback is more than welcome: larson_at_washingtonmonthly.com.

Top 25 green power purchasers

Let me officially become the very last green blogger on the planet to draw attention to the EPA's Top 25 Partners in the Green Power Partnership, "whose annual green power purchase is the largest, and whose green power purchase has been completed."

No. 1? The U.S. Air Force.

Interestingly, Whole Foods' recent moves have vaulted it to No. 2. Too bad its food costs so damn much. (But man, I've never had turkey/white bean chili like that before or since ...)

Hunting deer amidst strip malls

To the usual problems of suburban sprawl and strip development -- the traffic, mind-numbing visual blight, and acres of pavement -- add another: It's not easy enough to hunt deer.

That's the situation in Milford, Connecticut, where the owner of the local Honda dealership has asked the town for permission to put in a gravel road so he can hunt, with bow and arrow -- not on a remote tract deep in the woods but on a 100-by-100 plot behind his showroom.

Tilting at Pombo

Alternet has a story about green attempts to unseat Rep. Richard "Dick" Pombo (R-Calif.) that is substantially a retread of Amanda's story from a few weeks ago. There's a lot of hand-waving, but no good, practical answer to the main question, to wit: What chance in hell do these efforts have in succeeding? Perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised come 2006, but from everything I've seen my own answer remains: a snowball's.

(via Sustainablog)

Oh, and I forgot, Carl Pope also blogged about this, quoting a political scientist saying, "Personally, I'd look at anything less than a two-to-one win (by Pombo) as a clear signal." That's one way of defining victory, I guess.

L.A. Times: EPA Follies

On Saturday the L.A. Times ran a series of editorials collectively titled "EPA Follies":

• "A wrong-way agency" -- a general critique.
• "Sticking up for health" -- lauding the EPA for cracking down on teflon.
• "Good, clean information" -- bashing the agency for proposing to weakened the Toxics Release Inventory.

All short, all worth a read.

Will probably soon die out

The smallest vertebrate on record was just discovered in the swamps of Sumatra and Borneo. Squabbling over important details ensued. Is it the smallest fish or just the shortest?

Weight also has to come into this ... If a snake was longer than an elephant, would you say the elephant was smaller than the snake?

Damn good question. I will have to think about that one.

This is all the more serious because the habitat of this fish is disappearing very fast, and the fate of the species is now in doubt.

Huh, sounds familiar. Did you know that more than 360 new species have been discovered on Borneo in just the last ten years? When completed, the world's largest palm oil plantation in this same area (about half the size of the Netherlands) will undoubtedly be responsible for the extinction of untold undiscovered species.

A award-deserving series of stories on the effects of small temperature differences

While I'm noting journalists worth their salt, how about a shout out for the San Francisco Chronicle's Jane Kay? A couple weeks ago she wrote a superb series on global warming, under the rubric "A Warming World: The Difference a Degree Makes." I should have noted it then, but let me remedy that:

• "Polar Warning," about the declining fate of polar bears;
• "Seashore Sea Change," about the web of effects brought about by a three-degree rise in the temperature of California coastal waters;
• "Survival of a Reef," about the slow death of the Cabo Pulmo coral reef in the Gulf of California, and its effect on one Mexican family;
• a fantastic audio slide show in three parts -- one, two, three.

It was all good, but I think my favorite was the second. The next time a friend asks what the big deal is about a few degrees difference in the global temperature, point them here:

A story in increasing fears of climate-change ‘tipping points’

Next up is Juliet Eilperin, documenting the increasing worry among experts about global-warming "tipping point" scenarios.

While scientists remain uncertain when such a point might occur, many say it is urgent that policymakers cut global carbon dioxide emissions in half over the next 50 years or risk the triggering of changes that would be irreversible.

There are three specific events that these scientists describe as especially worrisome and potentially imminent, although the time frames are a matter of dispute: widespread coral bleaching that could damage the world's fisheries within three decades; dramatic sea level rise by the end of the century that would take tens of thousands of years to reverse; and, within 200 years, a shutdown of the ocean current that moderates temperatures in northern Europe.

Irreversible changes, in the next few decades. Whee!

Eilperin also touches on the political pressure being put on Hansen, and digs up this deliciously Orwellian quote:

Mary L. Cleave, deputy associate administrator for NASA's Office of Earth Science, said the agency insists on monitoring interviews with scientists to ensure they are not misquoted.

"People could see it as a constraint," Cleave said. "As a manager, I might see it as protection."

Yes, Dr. Hansen, this is for your own good. Now please relax -- it's easier when you don't struggle ...