October 12, 2008 – 1:04 am
Groups file opposition comments on rule that would allow “self-consultation”
October 10, 2008
Seattle, WA — With less than four months to go before leaving office, the Bush administration has proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act that would end mandatory review by independent federal scientists. Under the proposed Bush rule, government agencies would be given the authority to “self-consult” when seeking approval for projects that could harm rare and threatened wildlife or their habitat. This plan would erase essential checks and balances between government agencies that have worked effectively for 35 years.
A coalition of conservation and public health groups represented by Earthjustice submitted comments today opposing this rule change. Those groups include: Conservation Northwest, Endangered Species Coalition, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Institute for Fisheries Resources, Sierra Club, Conservation Law Foundation, Oregon Wild, Washington Toxics Coalition, and The Mountaineers.
Statement by Earthjustice attorney Janette Brimmer:
“The vigilance of conservation, fishing, and hunting groups has held the line against the Bush administration attacks on endangered species for eight long years. This proposed rule change is obviously a Hail Mary pass to industry friends in the final days of the Bush administration and it will fail.”
Summary of comment letter:
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October 11, 2008 – 12:02 am
ScienceDaily (Oct. 10, 2008) — The northern part of the Greenland ice sheet experienced extreme snowmelt during the summer of 2008, with large portions of the area subject to record melting days, according to Dr. Marco Tedesco, Assistant Professor of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at The City College of New York (CCNY), and colleagues Their conclusion is based on an analysis of microwave brightness temperature recorded by the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) onboard the F13 satellite.
“Having such extreme melting so far north, where it is usually colder than the southern regions is extremely interesting,” Professor Tedesco said. “In 2007, the record occurred in southern Greenland, mostly at high elevation areas where in 2008 extreme snowmelt occurred along the northern coast.”
Melting in northern Greenland lasted up to 18 days longer than previous maximum values. The melting index, i.e. the number of melting days times the area subject to melting) was three times greater than the 1979–2007 average, with 1.545•106 square kilometers x days.
“The results obtained from SSM/I are consistent with the outputs of the MAR (Modèl Atmosphérique Régional) regional climate model, which indicated runoff 88 percent higher than the 1979 – 2007 mean and close to the 2007 value,” Professor Tedesco noted. In addition, analysis of ground measurements from World Meteorological Organization automatic weather stations located close to where the record snowmelt was observed indicate surface/air maximum temperatures up to 3° Celsius above average. Keep Reading
October 10, 2008 – 12:00 am
On this week’s episode: Obesity expands to European children. Ford increases green efforts. Robert De Niro’s restaurant servers an endangered species.
October 9, 2008 – 12:30 am
Agencies reject multi-million dollar chance to capture gas, protect climate October 7, 2008 Denver, CO — WildEarth Guardians and Earthjustice today called on federal agencies to withdraw a permit for a Western Colorado coal mine expansion that would waste massive amounts of methane and contribute to global warming. Methane — also known as natural gas — is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, yet is also a valuable energy source. “Not only is this a waste of valuable resources, it’s worsening global warming,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. “We aim to put an end to this needless waste and safeguard the climate.” In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Denver, WildEarth Guardians, represented by the public interest law firm Earthjustice, challenges the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Interior for ignoring global warming impacts of enlarging the West Elk coal mine. The lawsuit aims to overturn the decision authorizing the mine to expand and vent 7 million cubic feet of methane daily. The Forest Service estimates that the amount of wasted methane would be enough to heat more than 34,000 homes for 12 years. Based on current natural gas prices, the methane’s value would be approximately $21 million annually and more than $250 million over the life of the mine expansion. “This is the ultimate hypocrisy,” said Nichols. “While the Bush Administration is clamoring for more and more natural gas drilling in Colorado, they’re authorizing a massive waste of this valuable resource.” The West Elk coal mine, near Paonia in Gunnison County, is operated by Mountain Coal Company, a subsidiary of Arch Coal, a multinational coal company based in St. Louis. Last July, the Forest Service and Interior Department permitted
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October 8, 2008 – 12:08 am
ScienceDaily (Oct. 6, 2008) — As a result of the Haber-Bosch process for the synthesis of ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen, billions of people have been fed, millions have died in armed conflict and a cascade of environmental changes has been set in motion, suggests a feature article by scientists from four of the world’s leading environmental research centres that will be published online on 28 September in Nature Geoscience.
The feature appears 100 years after Fritz Haber filed his patent on the ‘synthesis of ammonia from its elements’ for which he was later awarded the 1918 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Lead author, Jan Willem Erisman from the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), explains: “The increasing demand for food and biofuels makes efficient use of nitrogen fertilizer and more sustainable energy a challenge for many. Haber-Bosch is perhaps the most significant invention of the 20th Century, yet it has many side effects. Now we need a new invention that changes the world just as much, but without the environmental impact.”
According to the article, we now live in a world transformed by, and highly dependent upon, Haber-Bosch nitrogen. This extra nitrogen has allowed large scale production of explosives with the result of millions of casualties. On the other hand, it has created an enormous chemical industry producing materials and goods for society. The major impact, however, has been the large scale production of fertilizers supporting almost half of the world’s population through increased food production.
While the use of nitrogen as a fertilizer has brought enormous benefits, losses of fertilizer nitrogen to the environment lead to many side effects. These include reduced biodiversity and the formation of marine algal blooms. Nitrogen compounds endanger the quality of drinking water, and contribute to air pollution as well as climate change, affecting life quality and the health of large parts of the population.
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October 7, 2008 – 2:12 pm
The X-ray Vision-aries blog has posted its choice of Top 100 Environmentalist Blogs, and we at Climate of Our Future are very pleased to announce that we made the cut under the category Climate Change. It may not be as well-recognized as Technorati or Google Page Rank, but we’re very happy to accept the honor. Thank you X-ray Vision-aries. Here is some info on their site:
The X-Ray Vision-aries Blog
- X-Ray Vision-aries is a healthy and green living blog designed for non-health nuts. We hope that by looking at health and the environment in a non-technical and light-hearted manner that makes learning about and improving one’s health, environment and life accessible to everyone, we can all learn a thing or two. Enjoy!
October 7, 2008 – 12:10 am
ScienceDaily (Oct. 6, 2008) — As a result of the Haber-Bosch process for the synthesis of ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen, billions of people have been fed, millions have died in armed conflict and a cascade of environmental changes has been set in motion, suggests a feature article by scientists from four of the world’s leading environmental research centres that will be published online on 28 September in Nature Geoscience.
The feature appears 100 years after Fritz Haber filed his patent on the ‘synthesis of ammonia from its elements’ for which he was later awarded the 1918 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Lead author, Jan Willem Erisman from the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), explains: “The increasing demand for food and biofuels makes efficient use of nitrogen fertilizer and more sustainable energy a challenge for many. Haber-Bosch is perhaps the most significant invention of the 20th Century, yet it has many side effects. Now we need a new invention that changes the world just as much, but without the environmental impact.”
According to the article, we now live in a world transformed by, and highly dependent upon, Haber-Bosch nitrogen. This extra nitrogen has allowed large scale production of explosives with the result of millions of casualties. On the other hand, it has created an enormous chemical industry producing materials and goods for society. The major impact, however, has been the large scale production of fertilizers supporting almost half of the world’s population through increased food production. Keep Reading
October 6, 2008 – 1:03 am
Rocket fuel ingredient has tainted drinking water in 26 states, pregnant women and newborns at greatest risk
October 3, 2008
Oakland, CA — Environmental advocates plan to sue the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its refusal to set limits for perchlorate in drinking water. Perchlorate, a primary ingredient in rocket fuel, munitions, and explosives, has been linked to thyroid problems in pregnant women, newborns and young children nationwide.
The EPA formally announced today that it will not issue a drinking water standard for the chemical, which has contaminated drinking water in at least 26 states. EPA’s decision represents a victory for the Department of Defense and military contractors, which for years have pressured EPA not to regulate perchlorate and other chemicals associated with weapons manufacturing.
Responding to the announcement, the nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice said it plans to challenge any final EPA decision in court, representing the Environmental Working Group and other organizations concerned about the health effects of perchlorate in drinking water.
“EPA’s decision has industry’s fingerprints all over it. Weapons makers will benefit at the expense of millions of Americans’ drinking water spiked with rocket fuel,” said Earthjustice attorney George Torgun. “Clean, safe drinking water is essential. That’s why we will fight in court to make sure this toxin is regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act.”
For years, perchlorate was dumped in the ground by the military and missile-makers. The highly soluble toxin has spread from bases and factories to wells and rivers across the country. If limits for perchlorate in drinking water were set, the Defense Department and defense contractors could be found responsible for cleanups triggered by violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
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October 5, 2008 – 12:06 am
ScienceDaily (Sep. 29, 2008) — Rather than building stronger ocean-based structures to withstand tsunamis, it might be easier to simply make the structures disappear.A collaboration of physicists from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Aix-Marseille Universite in France and the University of Liverpool in England have conducted laboratory experiments showing that it’s possible to make type of dike that acts as an invisibility cloak that hides off-shore platforms from water waves. The principle is analogous to the optical invisibility cloaks that are currently a hot area of physics research.
Tsunami invisibility cloaks wouldn’t make structures disappear from sight, but they could manipulate ocean waves in ways that makes off-shore platforms, and possibly even coastlines and small islands, effectively invisible to tsunamis.
If the scheme works as well in the real world as the lab-scale experiments suggest, a tsunami should be able to pass right by with little or no effect on anything hidden behind the cloak.
October 4, 2008 – 12:49 am
Wilderness study area must be protected from off-road vehicles
October 1, 2008
Bozeman, MT — A federal court has ruled that the U.S. Forest Service must protect a wilderness study area in a national forest immediately north of Yellowstone National Park from damage and disruption caused by off-road motor vehicle enthusiasts. In a decision issued on September 30, 2008, the court also ruled the Forest Service was correct to restrict off-road vehicles in other parts of the forest.
The ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch addresses two lawsuits concerning the Forest Service’s Travel Management Plan for southwest Montana’s Gallatin National Forest. The Gallatin Travel Plan, which is the first of a series of similar plans to be issued by national forests nationwide, was finalized in 2007 to designate areas where motor vehicles may be used in the Gallatin forest.
In response, three conservation groups, represented by Earthjustice, challenged the plan’s rules for the Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area, a 155,000-acre region running along the Gallatin Mountain Range from Hyalite Peak south of Bozeman, Montana, to the north boundary of Yellowstone National Park. The Wilderness Study Area contains important habitat for grizzly bears, wolverines, and lynx, but the Forest Service authorized increased levels of snowmobile and motorcycle use in the area.
The court’s ruling agreed with the conservation groups that the Forest Service’s decision improperly degraded the wilderness character of this area in violation of federal law.
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