Environment

The 'Uplift of the Tibetan Plateau' Myth

sb admin — Tue, 12 May 2020 14:40:03 +0000

The 'Uplift of the Tibetan Plateau' Myth

'The uplift of the Tibetan Plateau' is invoked to explain various phenomena, from monsoon dynamics to biodiversity evolution and everything in between. It's not accurate, finds a new paper.

The orogeny of the Tibetan region (Tibet, The Himalaya and the Hengduan Mountains) dates back approximately 200 million years, long before the arrival of India, and was the product of earlier Gondwanan tectonic block collisions that produced a complex of mountain chains and valleys. The review finds that the concept of an extensive low-relief Tibet, rising in its entirety as a result of the India-Eurasia collision, is false, and the product of overly simplistic modeling.

Previous stable isotope and fossil-based estimates of past surface heights were often contradictory; isotopes tend to record the height of mountain crests, while the fossils are more indicative of where sediments accumulate in valley bottoms. The isotopic bias towards uplands means that even valleys appear as uplands at the height of the bounding mountains and so appear as an elevated plateau, a result confirmed by isotope-enabled climate modelling. By combining well-dated multiple paleoaltimetric methods a better understanding of past topography emerges.

The formation of a complex topography, and in places thickened crust, before the arrival of India suggests that the formation of the Tibetan Plateau was not only due to the India-Eurasia collision and this has important implications for the amount of crustal shortening and the size of 'greater India' before collision.

Tibet was assembled by a succession of Gondwanan tectonic blocks (terranes) colliding with Eurasia over a period of about 200 million years.

Previous work pointed to a rise of eastern Tibet and the Hengduan Mountains in the Miocene, but recent radiometric re-dating of key sites shows the region was elevated before plateau formation and the rise of the Himalaya. Uplift began in the Eocene in large part due to extrusion of parts of Tibet beginning as early as ~ 52 million years ago and extended into the early Oligocene, with landscape dissection through the expansion of river drainages taking place in the Miocene (subject to the dating being correct) as the monsoons strengthened.

The Himalaya began to rise in the Eocene, but only crested the pre-existing Gangdese mountains that already formed a 4-5 km high 'wall' along southern Tibet after the mid Miocene. North of the Gangdese, along the Bangong-Nujiang Suture south of the Tangula mountains, a deep ancient east-west aligned great central valley existed until early in the Neogene (approximately 23 million years ago) and later in its history was internally-drained. Numerous fossil finds show lakeside sub-tropical vegetation in this valley remained below 2.3 km above sea level for much of its history, the valley floor only rising in the Neogene to form today's flat plateau through ongoing tectonic compression from India and sediment infilling.

'Uplift' in geology relates to the rise of rocks and work done against gravity, so the infilling of basins by sediment to contribute to the formation of a low-relief surface means that Tibet was never 'uplifted' as a plateau, nor was that rise solely a consequence of the India-Eurasia collision.

sb admin Tue, 05/12/2020 - 10:40

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Environment

Fireflies Face Extinction Threat Due To Pesticides, Habitat Loss, And Light Pollution

sb admin — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 19:26:09 +0000

Fireflies Face Extinction Threat Due To Pesticides, Habitat Loss, And Light Pollution

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, a coalition of activist groups which recently charged that climate change is contributing to exploitation of women, is now arguing that various factors are causing 2,000 species of fireflies to go extinct.

They came to the conclusion by surveying affiliates to ask them what is driving fireflies to extinction.

According to survey respondents, habitat loss is the most most critical threat to firefly survival, followed by light pollution and pesticide use.

"Lots of wildlife species are declining because their habitat is shrinking," said Professor Sara Lewis of Tufts University, "so it wasn't a huge surprise that habitat loss was considered the biggest threat. Some fireflies get hit especially hard when their habitat disappears because they need special conditions to complete their life cycle. For instance, one Malaysian firefly [Pteroptyx tener], famous for its synchronized flash displays, is a mangrove specialist."

Lampyris noctiluca, female glow-worm. Image: Jason Steel - www.jason-steel.co.uk

One surprising result that emerged from the survey was their naming light pollution as the second most serious threat. Given the IUCN demographic, pesticides would have been the smart prediction. Yet artificial light at night has grown exponentially during the last century. Many fireflies rely on bioluminescence to find and attract their mates, and it is hypothesized that too much artificial light can interfere with these courtship exchanges. Switching to LEDs is better for climate change but not light pollution, and since environmentalists have driven astronomy out of the U.S. mainland, those limits on limit pollution have now gone unchecked.

Pesticides round out the top three dangers listed by the activists. Though pesticide exposure is unknown, if it happens it is most likely in the larval stages, since juvenile fireflies spend up to two years living below ground or under water. Insecticides such as organophosphates and neonicotinoids kill pests, but IUCN members insist they also have yet unknown off-target effects on beneficial insects. Though that hasn't been shown, some papers claim that commonly used insecticides are harmful to fireflies.

A few studies have quantified firefly population declines, such as those seen in the tourist-attracting synchronous fireflies of Malaysia, and the glowworm Lampyris noctiluca in England. Otherwise it is just anecdotal reports which suggest that many other firefly species across a wide range of habitats have also suffered recent declines.

sb admin Mon, 02/03/2020 - 14:26

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Environment

The End Is Not Near, But If An 'Insect Apocalypse' Ever Happens, How Would We Know?

The Conversation — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 14:19:50 +0000

The End Is Not Near, But If An 'Insect Apocalypse' Ever Happens, How Would We Know?

Insects scuttle, chew and fly through the world around us. Humans rely on them to pollinate plants, prey on insects that we don’t get along with, and to be movers and shakers for Earth’s ecosystems. It’s hard to imagine a world without insects.

That’s why news reports in recent months warning of an “insect apocalypse” sparked widespread alarm. These articles, which were based on long-term insect collections and a review of past studies, suggested that people alive today will witness the indiscriminate extinction of insect-kind.

I study fungi that can be used to control harmful insects, such as pests that damage crops and mosquitoes that transmit malaria. In my world, reports of mass insect die-offs are big news. But while there clearly is reason to be concerned about certain insects, such as the endangered rusty patched bumble bee or the American burying beetle, in my view it isn’t yet possible to predict a looming insect apocalypse.

More than 1 million insects have been discovered and named, but many millions have yet to be described. It’s undeniable that Earth is becoming increasingly inhospitable to some insects – but nightmarish conditions for one may be heaven to another.

Put another way, there is no perfect environment for all insects. And human impacts on the environment, like climate change and land development, very well may hurt beneficial insects and help harmful ones.

Insects account for 75% of all the known species on Earth. What makes them so successful?

Insect declines

Around the world, entomologists are looking wistfully into empty nets, and car owners are increasingly unsettled by their pristine windshields. It does not take decades of data collection and a degree to notice that in a human lifetime, our teeming world teems less.

The first study to set off alarms was published in 2017 by entomologists in Germany, who reported that over 27 years the biomass of flying insects in their traps had declined by 75%. Another study from the Luquillo Long Term Ecological Research program site in the Puerto Rican rainforest reproduced an insect survey from the 1970s. It found that the biomass of arthropods – a large group of organisms that includes insects – had declined 10- to 60-fold in that time, and that lizards, frogs and birds that ate arthropods had also declined.

Underscoring this theme, in April 2019 two scholars published a review that synthesized over 70 reports of insect decline from around the world, and predicted mass insect extinctions within a human lifetime. They took a alarmist tone, and have been widely criticized for exaggerating their conclusions and selecting studies to review with the word “decline.”

Nonetheless, these researchers had no trouble finding studies to include in their review. Many scientists are currently analyzing the roles that climate change, land use, chemical pesticides and other factors have played in reported declines in many insect species.

The Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly, once found throughout grasslands in the Pacific Northwest, was listed as endangered in 2013. The main cause is habitat loss, driven by development, tree encroachment and spread of invasive plants. USFWS/Ted Thomas, CC BY

The end is not near

These discussions are important, but they don’t mean an insect apocalypse is under way. Predicting insect decline is hard to do without a lot of effort and data.

To predict an apocalypse, entomologists worldwide will need to conduct careful large-scale studies that involve collecting, identifying and counting many different insects. There are very few insects for which scientists have enough data now to reliably predict how many individuals there will be from year to year, let alone confidently chart a decline in each species. Most of the insects for which this information exists are species that are important for agricultural or human health, such as managed honey bees or mosquitoes.

And human actions are shifting balances between insect species. As an example, the mosquitoes that are best at spreading pathogens that cause disease have evolved to thrive near us. Entomologists call them anthropophilic, which means they love people.

That love extends to human impacts on the land. Insects that flutter from flower to flower won’t be happy when developers bulldoze a meadow and scatter tires around, but human-biting mosquitoes will be buzzing with excitement.

What else is out there?

Entomologists are uniformly concerned about the fate of insects in today’s changing world. But I believe the responsible approach is to push back on fire-and-brimstone rhetoric until detailed, large-scale studies are completed. Until then, these same gaps in our knowledge also make it hard to rule out that significant declines in diverse insects are happening. These gaps must be filled to illuminate challenges that insects face, from the inconvenient to the apocalyptic.

When the majority of insects remain to be described, it’s hard to value them. But here’s one example: Insecticide use in pear groves in China’s Sichuan Province has caused such a decline in native pollinators that beekeepers will not lend their bees to these orchards. These farmers are forced to pollinate their trees by hand – an expensive and time-consuming process if you aren’t an insect.

Similarly, native natural enemies played invisible roles in slowing the spread of the invasive brown marmorated stink bug when it was introduced into Pennsylvania in the 1990s. They included wasps that lay their eggs inside of stink bug eggs, and predatory insects and spiders that eat stink bugs eggs for breakfast.

Pollination and predation are just the start. Some insects could be sources of new drugs or traditional dyes, while others inspire artists or just provide little moments of inimitable beauty.

With so many unanswered questions, it’s clear that there is a need for more funding for biodiversity research. It is no coincidence that recent studies reporting massive insect declines came from a Long-Term Ecological Research center that is publicly funded through the National Science Foundation and from a carefully curated collection made and maintained by entomologists.

This kind of work requires money, bold foresight and dedication to science over long periods of time. But it can produce insights into how our world is changing – and that knowledge will help us prepare for the future.

By Brian Lovett, PhD Candidate, University of Maryland. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.Top image credit: Chris Luczkow, CC BY

The Conversation Mon, 04/29/2019 - 10:19

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Environment

George Monbiot Q + A – How rejuvenating nature could help fight climate change

The Conversation — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 16:42:09 +0000

George Monbiot Q + A – How rejuvenating nature could help fight climate change

Natural climate solutions let nature do the hard work in the fight against climate change by restoring habitats such as forests and wetlands. This could absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and help biodiversity thrive. Stephen Woroniecki – a PhD Researcher in Climate Change Adaptation from Lund University in Sweden – discusses how this approach could address the ecological crisis with Guardian columnist and environmental campaigner George Monbiot.

Q: What has inspired you about natural solutions to climate change and what are their chief advantages over other approaches?

They bring together our two crucial tasks: preventing climate breakdown and preventing ecological breakdown. They are all things we should be doing anyway, to limit the scale of the sixth great extinction and protect and restore threatened ecosystems.

Author and activist George Monbiot. John Russell1/Wikipedia, CC BY-SA

In these fields, as in all others, we have often tended to act in isolation, replicating effort, failing to recognise the synergies. Natural climate solutions show how we can use the self-regulating power of the living world to help fend off climate catastrophe.

I should emphasise that even if we use natural climate solutions to the max, we still need to halt almost all greenhouse gas emissions and leave fossil fuels in the ground, if we are to prevent more than 1.5℃ (or even 2℃) of global heating. But it’s now clear that mitigation alone is not enough: we need to draw down carbon that we have already emitted from the atmosphere.

The other main strategies for carbon drawdown are both, in my view, disastrous. The first is bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). This means growing biomass in plantations, burning it in power stations to produce electricity, capturing carbon dioxide from the exhaust gases and burying it in geological formations.

Any deployment of BECCS sufficient to cause significant carbon abatement will also cause either humanitarian or ecological disaster, because of the vast amount of land – cropland or wild land – the plantations will replace. It is also likely to be self-defeating, due to the massive carbon pulse that conversion of forest lands to plantations will cause, and the vast amount of extra nitrogen fertiliser required, with its associated greenhouse gas emissions.

The second is direct air capture. Not only is this likely to be extremely expensive, but the carbon-heavy infrastructure it requires, reliant on a huge deployment of steel and concrete, could help push us past crucial climate tipping points before its positive impacts were felt.

These are both bad ways of addressing the problem. Why deploy them when there’s a much better one?

Q: Clearly this is an emerging field, and research is needed to understand how best to implement natural climate solutions. What are some of the boldest and most exciting examples that have already been tried across the world that we can learn from and be inspired by?

At the moment, the two biggest identified carbon sinks are forests and peatlands, but one of the things that excites me most about this field is how little we yet know. Every year, major new possibilities are identified, in ecosystems that hadn’t been fully considered before. For example, we now know that vegetated coastal habitats – such as mangroves, saltmarsh and seagrass beds – can accumulate carbon 40 times as quickly per hectare as tropical forests can, because of the way they catch and bury organic sediments in waterlogged conditions.

Coastal habitats like mangrove forests can store significantly more carbon than inland habitats. Damsea/Shutterstock

One issue that has scarcely been explored at all is the carbon storage impact of stopping trawling and dredging. The seabed is a vast carbon store, but these activities, that scour over three quarters of shelf seas every year, kick carbon into the water column, where it can be oxidised and released. We don’t yet know for sure, as so little research has been done, but it could be that severely curtailing these destructive activities, which we should do anyway, as they are by far the greatest cause of ecological damage to marine habitats, could result in massively greater carbon storage.

I should mention two key principles. First, that this isn’t just about creating new or renewed ecosystems. We also need to protect the Earth’s existing carbon repositories – such as old growth forests – whose sequestration capacity would take centuries to reproduce. Second, that fertile cropland should not be used. Mass rewilding of the kind I propose should take place only on less productive land. Unlike BECCS plantations, natural ecosystems can thrive on infertile land, without extra fertilisation.

Q: The proposal for a Green New Deal in the US has called for a green transition of society and the economy through investment in renewable energy and by phasing out fossil fuels. How do you see the role of natural climate solutions within a broader transformation of our society and the world we live in?

I think natural climate solutions now need to be urgently deployed by all governments, alongside extremely rapid reduction in energy consumption and substitution of fossil fuels. To avoid full-spectrum climate breakdown, we need a global cooperative effort on a scale that has not yet materialised. My hope is that the new, uncompromising mood among young people, and the brilliant protest movements, such as the Youth Strike4Climate and Extinction Rebellion, will help to make this happen.

Q: Geoengineering proposals are often criticised for taking risks with natural systems that could have catastrophic consequences, often with little to no consultation from the people who could be most affected. How do we ensure natural solutions are carried out democratically and without echoing the technocratic arguments of many geoengineering projects?

Whatever we do has to be done with and through the people it might affect, under the “nothing about us without us” principle. Natural climate solutions must work with the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous people and other local communities, and their benefits must flow to these communities. No project should be pursued that undermines their land rights, economic security and well-being. On the contrary, all projects should seek to strengthen them. There are some excellent examples of how this can be done around the world, compiled by the Equator Initiative.

Q: Restoring natural habitats can sometimes mean giving authority to external experts at the expense of local people. What do you think is important to bear in mind when making the case for natural solutions to local communities?

A rain-fed home garden in Sri Lanka which grows food for people and offers refuge for nature. Stephen Woroniecki, Author provided

I believe all projects should be guided by the Freirean approach – developed by the Brazilian philosopher Paolo Freire – of mutual education and understanding. An outsider should not turn up with the attitude that she has come to impart her superior knowledge to local people. She starts by asking them to teach her about themselves, their lives and needs, and to exchange knowledge, in the hope that all become both educators and educated. The outsider might bring new ideas and perspectives – that are, I believe, essential – while local people bring intimate insights into and knowledge of the peculiarities of place and community, that are also essential.

Q: How can people get involved in designing, implementing and managing natural solutions to climate change?

We list on our website the organisations already involved in the field, some of whom would welcome your help. But the most important thing right now is to spread the word as far as you can.

By Stephen Woroniecki, PhD Researcher in Sustainability and Climate Change Adaptation, Lund UniversityThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation Thu, 04/11/2019 - 12:42

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Environment

#1: Is there an evolutionary advantage to "being stupid"?

dr. dolittle — Mon, 30 Oct 2017 15:32:58 +0000

#1: Is there an evolutionary advantage to "being stupid"?

And the #1 blog entry published thus far in 2017 discussed whether there was an evolutionary advantage to being stupid:

----

As I was looking through the scientific literature the other day, I came across an article published in 1973, "The Evolutionary Advantages of Being Stupid." With a title like that, how could I not read it?

In this article Dr. Eugene D. Robin discussed how larger and more complex brains are associated with greater intelligence, which by evolutionary standards was thought to be related to "superiority." He described how this line of thinking places man at the peak of evolution resulting in our tendency toward an anthropocentric view of the world. Anthropocentrism also leads to interpreting or seeing things in terms of our own experiences or value/belief systems.

Dr. Robin went on to argue that looking at survival of species in hindsight suggests that those which survive have done well whereas those that have died off must have been inferior. Rather, he argues it is important to think dynamically. Meaning that traits evolve continually as does the environment. So a trait that may benefit the species at one point in time might not help at all at if conditions change. He quotes Asimov who posed the question, "Which is the fitter, a man or an oyster?" If Earth were covered in water, clearly oysters would fair better than man.

With regards to intelligence, Dr. Robin also proposed thinking in terms of it being a dynamic trait that could help or handicap a species. Take for example diving mammals. Mammals that are good at diving, have evolved the ability to survive with low levels of oxygen. This ability may also protect them from health conditions associated with low oxygen such as blood loss, heart attacks, strokes, etc. In this example, smaller brains relative to body size are more advantageous as it allows the animal to dive longer (and perhaps have better health). In other words, by presumably sacrificing intelligence, the animals with smaller brains have increased survival. His own research looked at turtles that can dive for more than 1 week. To accomplish this, turtle brains create energy through pathways that do not rely on oxygen and, as a result, have reduced activity while diving. Thus, by anthropocentric standards turtles are relatively "stupid" even though they have survived over 200 million years.

Image of turtles from Lvova Anastasiya (Львова Анастасия, Lvova) (Own work (own foto)) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Another argument Dr. Robin presents is that dinosaurs were great at hunting because they were big. At the same time, their large size meant they needed to eat a lot and thus were at risk of running out of resources. Compare this to humans, who are more intelligent and thus able to manipulate the environment to produce adequate food (and other resources). What impact have these environmental modifications had? Or consider the modern rise of so-called "superbugs" from the overuse of antibiotics. Is human intelligence thus a lethal trait?

Source:

Eugene D. Robin. The evolutionary advantages of being stupid. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 16(3): 369-380, 1973. doi: 10.1353/pbm.1973.0060

Dictionary.com

dr. dolittle Mon, 10/30/2017 - 11:32

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Pollution: not “an unavoidable consequence” of development

cmonforton — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 13:09:52 +0000

Pollution: not “an unavoidable consequence” of development

The headlines are grabbing people's attention:

CBC News: "Pollution causing more deaths worldwide than war or smoking"; CNN: "Pollution linked to 9 million deaths worldwide in 2015, study says"; BBC: "Pollution linked to one in six deaths"; Associated Press: "Pollution killing more people every year than wars, disaster and hunger, study says"; The Independent: "Pollution is killing millions of people a year and the world is reaching 'crisis point', experts warn."

News outlets are referring to a report released yesterday by The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health. The report’s authors---an international team of nearly 50 public health scientists---spent nearly two years synthesizing data on the human health effects and economic costs of toxic substances in the air, soil, and water.

Their definition of pollution comes from the European Union:

"unwanted, often dangerous, material that is introduced into the Earth’s environment as the result of human activity, that threatens human health, and that harms ecosystems."

The headlines whet my appetite for more of the numbers and the report delivers. For example, the committee's analysis indicates:

An estimated 9 million deaths in 2015 can be attributed to air, water, and soil pollution. This compares to an estimated 4 million deaths from obesity, 2.3 million from alcohol, and 1.4 million on roadways.
Pollution related deaths are responsible for three times as many deaths from AIDs, TB, and malaria combined.
Pollution related deaths are responsible for nearly 15 times as many deaths as those from wars and all forms of violence.

The report, however, goes much deeper than calculations and point estimates. Laced throughout the report---explicit and implicit---is a message that governments, foundations, medical societies, and research institutions pay too little attention to the impact of pollution on health. The authors call out political actors, international development and health organizations for ignoring pollution in their agendas. The authors write:

“Although more than 70% of the diseases caused by pollution are non-communicable diseases, interventions against pollution are barely mentioned in the [World Health Organization’s] Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases.”

The identify several factors for the neglect:

“… A persistent impediment has been the flawed conventional wisdom that pollution and disease are the unavoidable consequences of economic development, the so-called ‘environmental Kuznets hypothesis.’ This Commission vigorously challenges that claim as a flawed and obsolete notion formulated decades ago when populations and urban centres were much smaller than they are today, the nature, sources, and health effects of pollution were very different, and cleaner fuels and modern production technologies were not yet available.

The authors do not shy away from articulating a path forward to address pollution. I agree with their assessment that sustainable long-term solutions will require a fundamental economic shift. We must move away from the "resource-intensive, and inherently wasteful, linear take-make-use-dispose economic paradigm." (It's a mouthful but sums it up well.) We must embrace and adopt a new economic system that the authors describe as one in which:

"pollution is reduced through the creation of durable, long-lasting products, the reduction of waste by large-scale recycling, reuse, and repair, the removal of distorting subsidies, the replacement of hazardous materials with safer alternatives, and strict enforcement of pollution taxes. ...[An economy that] conserves and increases resources, rather than taking and depleting them."

The Lancet Commission's report generated some eye catching headlines. I'm glad I took the time to read it. I hope many others do too.

cmonforton Fri, 10/20/2017 - 09:09

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Environment

10/19/2017
With widely announced reports of casualties from world pollution being so exceedingly great; the worth of clean air, water and contaminant free soils and foods becomes further emphasized and the need underscored. This also infers that ground water, being tained by chemically laden ashes from homes and towns that have burned to the ground; homes Containing plastics, household chemicals, electronics casings. industrial solvents etc. that yet need be better prevented from contaminating; and doing so by wise planning and construction and forestry management. Further actual value can be derived from societal pursuits that do not increase or require daily polluting commuting, breathing lingering wildfire smoke, and the equally dangerous fumes from detonated weaponry being used worldwide by peoples not realizing the after effects of lingering barbarism and refusal to rather nurture mutual regard also for the planet's life sustaining land foliage -plants, trees-and other wildlife, long preceding human presence onthe planet.

Further value can be derived from not only abandoning the long adversely ramifying death dealing sado-masochistic world 'cults of mayhem, injury,decimation and death' but rather seeking and actually both pursuing and accepting whatever actually leads toward greater global safety and stabiity; and especially when such more optimal outcomes can and do present evidences of sure achievement and attainment, however unprecedented.

Among such novel occurrences are those widely seen successful demonstrations during the past three decades; of difficult to access wildfires being more quickly suppressed without chemicals and costly air flights, in over two countries and three states. The modes the advanced collaborative modes introduced, saved benefitting states and countries billions in firefighting, restoration & medical expenditures, yet were largely disparaged and likely deemed coincidental. This too underscores how humankind -even when shown better provenances to pursue, are prone to disregard and devalue the implications;, preferring the more risky costly familiar pursuits.

During the early AM hours of 10/21/2017 while dreaming; twice during the same dream sequence, I saw a volcano -seemingly nearby and somewhat blue and yellow in color-. when actually enabled to I look at it for a sustained period. During that second time;he second time -the first time it was more fleeting- I saw dark clouds moving slowly and , spreading overhead too. Whenever ever in the past when a dream is suddenly interrupted twice like that -and wit brilliant colors-, I've learned it's more than a dream and deserves attention of others. In fact I heard other voices also shouting in alarming tones when the volcanoes were seen..

It's very possible we all need be readied for more than just reckless human induced consequences, as heat from growing radioactive 'waste' is also adversely impacting the global environs . Long accumulating protective moderating elements have also been dangerously degraded, resulting in residual intensifications. And likely also enabling deeper tropospheric penetration of solar X-rays, high energy UV and cosmic rays..

The data gap problem

hrynyshyn — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 08:27:43 +0000

The data gap problem

“The monitoring of the atmosphere, of the surface of the Earth, of what’s going on in the ocean and under the ice — all of that is overwhelmingly funded by the federal government.”

— Former Obama science adviser John Holdren

The other day a friend of mine who works in Beijing as a foreign correspondent suggested that of all the acts of stupidity committed by Donald Trump since assuming office, the thing that bothers him the least is the decision to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement. Haven't we actually moved beyond relying on government to reduce carbon emissions? he asked. Isn't the private sector basically doing that for us?

This is a common observation. And he wasn't just speaking from the position of someone who's paid to pay attention to what China is doing. A few months ago, you could read all sorts of exhortations about the apparent, or at least impending, decoupling of carbon emissions and economic growth rates. Such predictions are practically a growth industry themselves. And it's true so far as it goes. But it doesn't go very far. Yes, wind and solar power are rapidly becoming economic options. But we haven't been able to record a significant global decoupling, and nothing like that for any meaningful length of time. Even if it does come about, we still have to worry about the climate madness that's already been baked into the system by the last 200 years of emissions.

The more troubling part of this idea is that it leads to complacency about the public sector's role in dealing with climate disruption. To do that we need data. Lots of it. And this is why we should be worried about Trump and his allies, Paris or not.

The New York Times' Jon Gertner explores what might happen if and when some of the current crop of Earth-0bservation satellites fall out of the sky and aren't replaced. His magazine piece, "What Could We Lose if a NASA Climate Mission Goes Dark?," focuses on a pair of aging satellites that are the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE. At the beginning of this month, they were falling 250 feet a day. And when they burn up, as they will within months, there goes a massive amount of important data that climate analysts — including the people who are building Climate City here in Asheville, N.C. — need to be able to tell their clients how to anticipate the ecological changes that warming the world is already bringing.

... if Grace goes dark or perishes before then, there will be a break in NASA’s continuous observation of Earth’s gravity field and water dynamics. Climate researchers will be confronted with what’s known as a “data gap,” which can leave them at a loss for drawing scientific conclusions about environmental trends.

Replacements are getting ready, but they won't be launched until sometime next year. Hence the data gap. And if the Trumpistas get their way, this sort of thing is going to become a new normal. As Gertner points out, "the recent Trump budget proposal … made the unusual request of turning off the Earth sensors on an orbiting spacecraft, Dscovr, to save $1.2 million."

This kind of data-gathering is exactly what the private sector can't do, nor should it. Elon Musk, for all his accomplishments and his desire to save the planet, isn't interested in doing science experiments. He just wants to help governments carrying out that part of the plan. For one thing, scientists are terrible at predicting how useful their data will turn out to be, and how it will be applied. Corporations are loathe to take stabs in the dark. And then there's the cost. Satellites are expensive and by their very nature, operate in a global context. Only governments — and international collaborations of governments — can afford to engage in these types of ventures. And there are other incompatibilities, as Gertner describes:

Private-sector satellite companies have in recent years been expanding the business of collecting and selling Earth observational data, but it’s very unlikely that such firms (or a group of tech philanthropists) could adequately replace NASA’s work. “These are projects that are too expensive or require a large and diverse group of collaborators that can only be assembled as an international project,” said Rush Holt, a former Democratic congressman who is now the head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “Or this is work that has to be sustained for a longer period of time than any board of directors from a private company would consider, because it’s not clear enough that it would produce a return on investment in anyone’s lifetime.”

Another problem that occurs to me is the potential conflict between private and public interests. What happens if a firm that gathered some very useful datasets decides, for whatever reason, not to share them with the scientific community? Some things should never be kept secret.

So the next time you hear the claim that the free market will take care of climate change, the best response might be: Yeah, it's great that business is finally getting on board. But business can't do it alone, and in fact, without the active and aggressive participation of government, we're not going to be able to handle existing climate trends, let alone what's coming down the pipeline if we don't get those same businesses to stop burning fossil fuels.

hrynyshyn Fri, 09/15/2017 - 04:27

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fossil fuels

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Environment

The Trump War on Science: Daring blindness, Denying climate change, Destroying the EPA and other daily disasters

jdupuis — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 13:20:03 +0000

The Trump War on Science: Daring blindness, Denying climate change, Destroying the EPA and other daily disasters

The last one of these was in mid-June, so we're picking up all the summer stories of scientific mayhem in the Trump era. The last couple of months have seemed especially apocalyptic, with Nazis marching in the streets and nuclear war suddenly not so distant a possibility. But along with those macro-level issues, Trump and his cronies are still hammering away at climate change denial, environmental protection, research funding and public health issues. As exhausting as it seems -- and this is part of the plan -- amongst all of us opposed to Trump, we need to keep track of a wide range of issues.

If I'm missing anything important, please let me know either in the comments or at my email jdupuis at yorku dot ca. If you want to use a non-work email for me, it's dupuisj at gmail dot com.

The selections are by no means meant to represent a comprehensive account of everything written about science and science-related over the last few months. I'm not aiming for anything than complete or comprehensive. For example, there are probably hundreds of articles written about climate-change related issues over that period, but I'm just picking up what I hope is a representative sample.

The last time around was a bit more thematically organized rather than chronologically. I'm trying the later organizational method this time around to see if I can get a sense of which I prefer or which seems more useful.

This post covers from approximately mid-June, 2017 up to August 31, 2017. The fact that most days -- even in the summer -- there are multiple things to report is terrifying.

A few general resources:

Sidelining Science Since Day One: How the Trump administration has harmed public health and safety in its first six months by The Union of Concerned Scientists
I Heart Climate Scientists

And now the full list:

June 2017

2017.06.01. U.S. pulling out of the Paris climate deal may make China great again
2017.06.02. Trump Has No One in Charge of FEMA or the NOAA, Just in Time for Hurricane Season
2017.06.03. Trump administration touts innovation, cuts funding for it
2017.06.04. Duluth EPA lab turns 50: Low profile, high outcome science mostly behind the scenes
2017.06.09. Watch Donald Trump Throw Binders Full of Highway Environmental Reviews on the Floor
2017.06.09. Trump Caps Infrastructure Week By Tossing Binders on Ground
2017.06.13. President Trump chats on phone with Tangier mayor
2017.06.13. If elected governor, Graham says Florida would stick with Paris climate accord
2017.06.14. Meet the fossil fuel all-stars Trump has appointed to his administration
2017.06.14. EPA: air pollution rule should be delayed – despite its effect on children
2017.06.14. Actual Scientists Say Sea-Level Rise Is A Threat To Tangier Island, Virginia
2017.06.14. San Diego commits to 100% clean electricity
2017.06.15. Energy Department aims to close international clean energy office
2017.06.15. EPA Chief Gets Hit From All Sides At First Budget Hearing
2017.06.15. These Republicans Are Pretty Upset About Trump’s EPA Budget
2017.06.15. Trump’s EPA budget cuts hit strong opposition at House panel
2017.06.15. Why California's Climate Change Fight Is Also About Public Health
2017.06.15. U.S. Quietly Removes 17 Sites From UN Biosphere Reserve Network
2017.06.16. EPA head met with multiple energy execs in his first weeks
2017.06.16. Trump Doesn't Care about HIV. We're Outta Here
2017.06.17. Six resign from presidential HIV/AIDS council because Trump 'doesn't care'
2017.06.17. Navigating Clean Energy Innovation in the Age of Trump
2017.06.18. Six members of President Trump’s advisory council on HIV/AIDS have resigned
2017.06.19. Energy Secretary Rick Perry says CO2 is not the main driver of climate change
2017.06.19. Republicans And Democrats Unite Against Scott Pruitt's Heavy Budget Cuts To The EPA
2017.06.19. Trump administration will not renew key EPA advisers, cancels committee meetings in agency shakeup
2017.06.19. Rick Perry blames ocean for climate change: Energy secretary once again denies scientific consensus
2017.06.19. DOE head says carbon dioxide not primary cause of climate change
2017.06.20. 6 Resigned from Trump's HIV/AIDS Advisory Board. Here’s Why One Doctor Stayed
2017.06.20. EPA Set to Eliminate Over 1,200 Employees By September
2017.06.20. EPA axes 38 more science advisers, cancels panel meetings
2017.06.20. Perry sees climate denial as evidence of being ‘intellectually engaged’
2017.06.20. Apple CEO Tim Cook urges Trump to show more compassion on immigration
2017.06.20. Trump regulators trigger pollution fight
2017.06.20. Perry sees climate denial as evidence of being ‘intellectually engaged’
2017.06.20. EPA Wants 1,200 Employees to Accept Buy Outs, Early Outs
2017.06.21. Trump attacks wind power in state that gets nearly third of energy from wind
2017.06.21. EPA not renewing advisory roles for dozens of scientists: report
2017.06.22. GOP senator slams proposed NIH cuts: ‘No one should have to defend’ them
2017.06.22. Trump administration removes protections for Yellowstone grizzly bears
2017.06.22. Clarion call for scientists: 'Use your voice ... or lose it'
2017.06.22. These Scientists Are Running for Office to Fight Trump’s “Anti-Truth” Agenda
2017.06.22. Trump administration removes protections for Yellowstone grizzly bears
2017.06.23. The fact is: Facts don’t matter to climate deniers
2017.06.25. Bloomberg launches $17M contest for US cities
2017.06.26. Al Franken’s devastating strategy for taking on Trump’s team of climate science deniers
2017.06.26. Top EPA Official 'Bullied' Scientist to Change Testimony About Dismissed Scientists
2017.06.26. Republican governor sides with coastal communities against Trump’s offshore oil plans
2017.06.27. Trump's EPA chief met with chemical CEO before dropping pesticide ban: report
2017.06.27. Cities rally around the Paris deal, a reminder that global problems can have local solutions
2017.06.27. EPA seeks to scrap rule protecting drinking water for third of Americans
2017.06.27. EPA moves to repeal Obama water rule
2017.06.28. 'You Are A Climate Denier': Protesters Interrupt Rick Perry's Speech At Energy Conference
2017.06.29. Inspired by Trump’s attacks on science, this former engineer is running for Congress
2017.06.29. Climate kids to get their day in court against the Trump administration
2017.06.30. Pruitt will launch program to 'critique' climate science
2017.06.30. Scientists Who Have Had Enough
2017.06.30. No more business as usual: the corporates stepping up to save the planet
2017.06.30. EPA on climate change: Gotta hear both sides: The EPA is holding a color war to challenge climate science
2017.06.30. Wind Industry Tacks as Trump Shifts the Political Climate
2017.06.30. EPA head launching initiative to 'critique' climate science
2017.06.30. Science division of White House office no longer staffed: report

July 2017
2017.07.01. Buzz Aldrin Looked As Baffled As We Felt During Trump's Space Talk
2017.07.02. EPA’s Scott Pruitt is Trump’s most adept and dangerous hatchet man
2017.07.02. Struggling For Visas, Tech Startups Are Looking Outside The U.S. To Launch Businesses
2017.07.02. The White House's Science Division Is Now Completely Empty
2017.07.03. Court rejects Trump's delay of EPA drilling pollution rule
2017.07.03. China, Germany Step Up as U.S. Retires From World Leadership
2017.07.03. Stephen Hawking says Trump’s climate policies are pushing Earth toward an irreversible “tipping point”
2017.07.03. DONALD TRUMP’S NEW NATIONAL SPACE COUNCIL IS ALREADY BAFFLING THE SPACE INDUSTRY
2017.07.03. Why This Computer Scientist Is Running For Congress
2017.07.03. Court Blocks E.P.A. Effort to Suspend Obama-Era Methane Rule
2017.07.03. Federal court blocks Trump EPA on air pollution
2017.07.03. Stephen Hawking: Trump Pushing Earth's Climate 'Over The Brink'
2017.07.03. Obama praises Paris climate deal despite Trump's withdrawal
2017.07.03. When Trump attacks science, he attacks the heart of the Declaration of Independence
2017.07.04. Trump's alarming environmental rollback: what's been scrapped so far
2017.07.04. U.S. denies visas for Afghanistan’s all-girl robotics team
2017.07.05. Groups see climate science review as chance to undercut regulation
2017.07.05. Climate Change Authority No Longer Has Any Climate Scientists On It
2017.07.05. Democrat Tackles Climate Change Issues, Defying GOP Leadership
2017.07.06. Trumpcare and climate change will have the same victims
2017.07.06. Ivanka & Melania Are Not Happy With Where Angela Merkel Is Forcing Them To Go Tomorrow
2017.07.06. The U.S. Supreme Court Stymies Science
2017.07.07. Energy Secretary Rick Perry Makes Massive Mistake During Visit To Coal Power Plant
2017.07.07. Trump Administration Reviewing Marine Protected Areas in US, Will The Ocean Be Valued Accurately?
2017.07.07. Environmentalists Win a Victory Against Scott Pruitt
2017.07.07. ‘He doesn’t speak for the rest of America’: Jerry Brown shows up in Hamburg amid G20 — and shreds Trump
2017.07.07. How climate scepticism turned into something more dangerous
2017.07.08. Why Trump Pulling Out of the Paris Agreement Led to a Stronger Global Climate Change Plan
2017.07.08. Mike Pence touches Nasa equipment right next to 'do not touch' sign
2017.07.08. G20 world leaders’ agreement hinges on U.S. climate change issue
2017.07.08. G20 leaders' statement on climate change highlights rift with US
2017.07.09. G20 closes with rebuke to Trump's climate change stance
2017.07.10. Climate Change -- What Now With The White House Abandoning The Paris Agreement?
2017.07.11. Trump’s White House science office still small and waiting for leadership
2017.07.11. House bill would cut EPA funding by $528M
2017.07.11. Trump nominates finance executive for DOE science undersecretary
2017.07.11. State Science Adviser Resigns Early, Amid Departmental Reorganization
2017.07.11. White House’s dwindling science office leaves major research programmes in limbo
2017.07.11. House panel set to vote on bill that cuts or eliminates some DOE science programs
2017.07.11. EPA chief wants scientists to debate climate on TV
2017.07.12. The Trump Administration Wants To Debate Climate Change On TV. Here’s What Scientists Think About It.
2017.07.12. Q&A: Former Obama science adviser John Holdren on the White House science office and Trump’s science policy
2017.07.12. Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ energy policies are being met by ‘sue, baby, sue’
2017.07.12. Rebel US Governors And Mayors Launch "America's Pledge" To Fight Climate Change
2017.07.12. EPA Chief Wants TV 'Debate' on Climate: Scientists Call Foul
2017.07.13. NOAA erases ‘human activity’ from news release on soaring greenhouse gases
2017.07.13. How President Trump’s Proposed Budget Cuts Would Harm Early Career Scientists
2017.07.13. Science’s Communication Problem
2017.07.13. Why Do Republicans Suddenly Hate College So Much?
2017.07.14. Does Being a Nice Personable Scientist Make Sense in Trump's America?
2017.07.14. Fox News host attacks climate scientists who might refuse to participate in EPA chief's sham debate
2017.07.16. EPA and Dept. of Interior held a private briefing with 45 gas and oil CEOs at Trump's D.C. hotel
2017.07.16. Macron says his charm offensive may change Trump's mind about climate change
2017.07.16. International Collaboration Between Scientists Is Becoming Difficult
2017.07.17. Myths and facts to know ahead of Rick Perry's study on the electrical grid and renewable energy
2017.07.17. Exclusive: Trump administration pulled top climate expert from Mark Zuckerberg’s national park visit
2017.07.18. Former NASA scientist releases new paper supporting youth climate case against Trump
2017.07.18. GOP rep asks NASA panel if there were ancient civilizations on Mars
2017.07.18. Trump's Pick For EPA Post Writes “Science-Bible Stories” And Has Ties To The Chemical Industry
2017.07.18. Neil deGrasse Tyson: fighting science denial starts with people, not politicians
2017.07.19. I’m a scientist. I’m blowing the whistle on the Trump administration.
2017.07.19. Seth Meyers Calculates The Damage Done By The EPA In Just 6 Months
2017.07.19. That French plan to attract climate scientists? It’s working.
2017.07.19. Climate Scientist Says He Was Demoted For Speaking Out On Climate Change
2017.07.19. Trump budget chief touts progress in rolling back regulations
2017.07.19. Updated: Trump pick for USDA science post has drawn darts for lack of technical background
2017.07.19. Six ways Trump is 'dismantling' the US after six months in office
2017.07.20. Another Day, Another Denier
2017.07.20. GOP Effort To Make Environmental Science 'Transparent' Worries Scientists
2017.07.20. Glacier Chief Pulled From Facebook Founder's Tour of Park
2017.07.20. Trump officially nominates climate-denying conservative talk radio host as USDA’s top scientist
2017.07.20. Whistleblower Speaks Out as Pruitt Tries to Destroy EPA
2017.07.20. EPA Set to Eliminate Over 1,200 Employees By September
2017.07.21. Trump's New Communication Director Believes the World is 5,500 Years old
2017.07.21. For the Impact of Trump Slashing Science Funding, Look North
2017.07.21. Trump Administration Is Demoting Scientists In The Hope They'll Quit, Says Whistleblower
2017.07.23. History shows that stacking federal science advisory committees doesn’t work
2017.07.24. Trump administration lining up climate change 'red team'
2017.07.24. Whatever You Do, Do Not Take Your Eye Off Trump’s War on Science
2017.07.24. GOP Science chairman extolls 'benefits' of climate change
2017.07.24. Has the Moment for Environmental Justice Been Lost?
2017.07.25. How Science Can Survive Hostile Governments
2017.07.25. Scientific integrity must be defended, our planet depends on it
2017.07.25. Is a Conservative Climate Movement Heating Up?
2017.07.26. Emergency Meeting Held To Oppose Trump Weakening Marine Monuments
2017.07.26. EPA Chief Met With Canada’s Scientist-Muzzling Ex-Prime Minister Before Scientist Purge
2017.07.26. This Is Not How Science Works
2017.07.27.
2017.07.27. It’s Never Been Harder to Be a Climate Scientist
2017.07.27. A Carbon-Free City Is Being Built from Scratch
2017.07.27. Murkowski’s committee postponed confirmation vote for Trump nominees
2017.07.27. Scott Pruitt's Crimes Against Nature: Trump's EPA chief is gutting the agency, defunding science and serving the fossil-fuel industry
2017.07.27. Trump Administration Moving Closer to Picking Science Director
2017.07.28. Developer might not build Keystone XL pipeline
2017.07.28. From abalone to advocacy
2017.07.28. Enviro Group Calls For Investigations Into EPA Chief’s Travel History
2017.07.28. Trump rolled back this environmental rule. California may replace it with a stronger one
2017.07.30. Pruitt wants to remove climate exhibits at the EPA’s museum
2017.07.30. We need a scientist's perspective in Richmond
2017.07.31. ‘You Don't Do Those Things Lightly’: Why EPA Chief Didn't Ban Brain-Damaging Pesticide
2017.07.31. Climate Science Out, Coal In: EPA Exhibit Will Reflect Trump's Agenda
2017.07.31. Scientists respond to Red Team/Blue Team climate change debate idea from EPA
2017.07.31. Court tells EPA to enforce Obama methane pollution rule
2017.07.31. Donald Trump’s War on Scientists Has Had One Big Side Effect: More than a dozen Democratic candidates with scientific backgrounds are running for Congress.

August 2017
2017.08.01. Energy Department Scientists Barred From Attending Nuclear Power Conference
2017.08.01. EPA museum may axe climate-change display, add one on coal
2017.08.01. Top EPA official resigns over direction of agency under Trump
2017.08.01. DHS waives environmental laws to speed border wall construction
2017.08.01. US scientists answer France’s call to come ‘make our planet great again’
2017.08.01. US Scientists, Please Run for Office. The Planet Needs You.
2017.08.01. William Gibson Has a Theory About Our Cultural Obsession With Dystopias
2017.08.01. Senior EPA official resigns with scathing message for Trump and Pruitt: “Today the environmental field is suffering from the temporary triumph of myth over truth.”
2017.08.02. Sam Clovis, Trump's pick for USDA chief scientist, called progressives 'race traders' and 'race traitors' online
2017.08.02. EPA panel clears Pruitt’s climate denial by misquoting scientific integrity policy
2017.08.02. Leaked EPA Document Does Not Absolve EPA Administrator of Spreading Falsehoods
2017.08.02. EPA panel clears Pruitt’s climate denial by misquoting scientific integrity policy
2017.08.02. EPA Science Integrity Panel Says Pruitt’s Climate Denial Is Permissible
2017.08.02. EPA clears Pruitt of scientific integrity charges
2017.08.02. Al Gore Warns That Trump Is A 'Distraction' From The Issue Of Climate Change
2017.08.02. 30-Year EPA Veteran Writes Farewell Letter, Warns of Environmental Catastrophe Under Pruitt
2017.08.03. Temporary Triumph of Myth Over Truth at Pruitt’s EPA
2017.08.03. EPA backs off delay for smog-causing emissions reduction after being sued
2017.08.03. Trump administration touts streamlining of mine permit review
2017.08.04. Scientists: The Public Needs to Hear from You!
2017.08.04. Schwarzenegger launches new effort to counter Trump on climate
2017.08.07. USDA office told to use ‘weather extremes’ instead of 'climate change'
2017.08.07. Government scientists fear Trump will suppress climate change study: report
2017.08.07. Think Too Much: The fight on behalf of science
2017.08.07. US federal department is censoring use of term 'climate change', emails reveal
2017.08.07. With Trump in the White House, Obama science experts operate shadow network to press their positions
2017.08.07. That Federal Climate Change Report May Not Be New, But It Is Startling
2017.08.08. Lawyers Take on Another Trumpian Task: Stopping Science Suppression
2017.08.08. Canada's hope to get climate change into NAFTA could prove difficult
2017.08.08. Tillerson advises diplomats to dodge questions on Paris deal: report
2017.08.08. Fearing Trump Censorship, Govt. Scientists Leak Alarming Climate Report
2017.08.08. A key government report on climate change is out. Here's what you need to know
2017.08.08. Scott Pruitt's EPA website still lacks a climate change section
2017.08.08. The closest man to Trump is a stealth climate believer
2017.08.08. The Trump administration's solution to climate change: ban the term
2017.08.09. The battle over science in the Trump administration
2017.08.09. EPA chief Pruitt holds series of closed-door meetings in GF, Fargo
2017.08.09. The reason the Trump administration avoids discussing the science of climate change
2017.08.09. Canadian co-author of U.S. climate report says findings 'flatly contradict' Trump administration
2017.08.09. EPA head casts doubt on ‘supposed’ threat from climate change
2017.08.09. Trump plans to roll back environmental rule everyone agrees on
2017.08.09. Midweek podcast: Meet the Canadian behind the frank U.S. climate report
2017.08.10. Trump team's climate change stance at odds with science
2017.08.10. Federal Scientists Say Climate Change Is No Hoax, Refuting Trump
2017.08.10. Americans Oppose EPA & Environmental Budget Cuts
2017.08.11. Manchin possibly emerging as pick to lead US Energy Department
2017.08.11. An attempt to avert Trump’s interference in climate science might actually invite it
2017.08.11. FDA puts new restrictions on hiring of foreign scientists, documents show
2017.08.11. Pruitt: EPA will review 'politicized' climate science report
2017.08.11. Trump’s environmental agenda is crashing into the courts
2017.08.12. Hoeven: EPA administrator meetings in ND should have been open
2017.08.14. The EPA Is Beginning To Roll Back An Obama-Era Rule Limiting How Much Toxic Waste Power Plants Release In Water
2017.08.14. Testing the Testers: How Scientist-Activists Persuaded their Peers to March
2017.08.14. Scott Pruitt is dismantling EPA in secret for the same reason the GOP health care bill was secret
2017.08.15. Trump Signs Order to End Obama-Era Flood Risk Building Standards
2017.08.15. Trump Scraps Obama-Era Rule To Protect Infrastructure From Climate-Change Flooding
2017.08.15. These are the business leaders still sitting on Trump’s Manufacturing Council.
2017.08.15. STUDY: EPA chief Scott Pruitt has given more interviews to Fox than to all other major TV networks combined
2017.08.16. So many CEOs resigned from Trump’s manufacturing council that he just disbanded it
2017.08.16. Trump abruptly ends manufacturing council after CEOs disband strategic and policy forum
2017.08.16. Against discrimination: Science cannot and should not be used to justify prejudice.
2017.08.16. EPA’s new focus: Fox
2017.08.17. The Science Police: In highly controversial fields, researchers have to balance science and advocacy.
2017.08.17. The Republicans Trying to Fight Climate Denial in Their Own Party
2017.08.17. Cleveland Clinic, American Cancer Society pull fundraisers from Mar-a-Lago
2017.08.17. Does Reg Review threaten Public Access?
2017.08.18. Maps Explain the 27 National Monuments Under Review by Trump
2017.08.18. EPA to revisit aspects of GHG Phase 2 regs; industry voices concerns
2017.08.18. Trump administration eyes truck emissions standards for its next climate rollback
2017.08.18. Trump Just Struck Down An Obama-Era Climate Rule That Protected Against Flooding
2017.08.18. Trump Forest organizers want to resist Trump with billions of trees
2017.08.21. Yes, Trump viewed #Eclipse2017 without glasses. 'Don't look,' an aide shouted.
2017.08.21. Trump takes in eclipse from White House
2017.08.21. Patagonia Spends $700,000 In First-Ever Ad to Blast Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke
2017.08.21. Report: Trump dissolves climate change advisory panel
2017.08.21. Why the Trump Administration's Latest Auto Industry Move Will Fail
2017.08.21. Trump’s Interior Department moves to stop mountaintop removal study
2017.08.21. Trump administration halts research on mountaintop removal coal mining
2017.08.21. Statement Regarding National Academies Study on Potential Health Risks of Living in Proximity to Surface Coal Mining Sites in Central Appalachia
2017.08.21. Feds halt study of potential link between surface mining and health problems
2017.08.22. AAAS Statement on Trump Administration Disbanding National Climate Assessment Advisory Committee
2017.08.23. Interior Dept. halts study into Appalachian mining technique's likely health hazards
2017.08.23. Climate Change Language Deleted from NIH Site
2017.08.23. Another US agency deletes references to climate change on government website
2017.08.23. Trump to hear recommendations for national monuments
2017.08.23. God help us, Donald Trump tried to dispense energy facts again.
2017.08.23. Trump thinks “clean coal” is just coal that’s been cleaned off. Here’s what it actually is.
2017.08.23. State Department science envoy's letter of resignation has a hidden message for the president
2017.08.23. Spelling 'IMPEACH' in letter, prominent UC professor resigns post in Trump administration
2017.08.23. State Dept. science envoy resigns with letter that spells out 'Impeach'
2017.08.24. Interior recommends Trump shrink national monuments
2017.08.24. The Trump administration's national monuments 'review' is a sham
2017.08.24. After public outcry, the Interior Department won’t eliminate any national monuments
2017.08.24. New study finds that climate change costs will hit Trump country hardest
2017.08.24. U.S. Energy Department grid study calls for boost to coal, nuclear power
2017.08.25. DOE denies it has policy to remove ‘climate change’ from agency materials
2017.08.25. US energy agency asked scientists to scrub references to climate change: Researchers were told to censor descriptions of projects funded by a Department of Energy laboratory.
2017.08.25. Energy Department Tells Scientist to Remove ‘Climate Change’ From Study
2017.08.25. Energy Dept. Asks Scientists to Remove 'Climate Change' from Project Description
2017.08.25. EPA cancels sponsorship of awards for climate leadership
2017.08.27. Trump Damaged Democracy, Silicon Valley Will Finish It Off
2017.08.27. How to offset Trump's climate science ignorance – plant 10bn trees
2017.08.28. Katharine Hayhoe is successfully convincing doubtful evangelicals about climate change
2017.08.28. Donald Trump's cyber-security advisers resign warning of 'insufficient attention to the growing threats'
2017.08.28. Tillerson Outlines Plan to Cut Envoy Jobs in State Overhaul
2017.08.28. Tillerson moves to eliminate special envoy posts at State Dept.: report
2017.08.28. EPA Chief Scott Pruitt: "Science Shouldn't Dictate American Policy"
2017.08.28. The US coal industry is going out, not with a whimper, but with a burst of rent-seeking
2017.08.28. The FDA’s Consumer Protection Warnings Are Falling Under Trump
2017.08.28. Trump Rescinded Obama’s Flood Regulations Weeks Before Hurricane Harvey Hit
2017.08.29. House Republican introduces measure to defund key climate research
2017.08.30. Greens sue to stop rollback of Yellowstone grizzly protections
2017.08.30. For Scott Pruitt’s EPA, Climate-Change Denial Is Mission Critical: The EPA chief is very wrong about Harvey
2017.08.30. Activists sue U.S. to restore protections for Yellowstone grizzlies
2017.08.30. Trump team politicizes superstorm Harvey by attacking scientists for doing their job
2017.08.30. Empty seats: Trump’s top science jobs vacant; others tied to industry
2017.08.31. The Trump administration wants to bail out failed contrarian climate scientists

As usual, if there are any errors in the above list or if I've missed anything significant, please let me know in the comments. If you'd prefer not to comment, you can let me know via email at jdupuis at yorku dot ca or my non-work email dupuisj at gmail dot com.

jdupuis Mon, 09/11/2017 - 09:20

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The limits of adaptation

hrynyshyn — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 12:57:20 +0000

The limits of adaptation

The release of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels is, conceiveably, the most important environmental issue in the world today.

— "Costs and benefits of carbon dioxide," Nature, May 3, 1979

Actually, the scientific understanding of the dangers posed by rising CO₂ levels date back much further — at least 100 years — but 1979 was a watershed year, with all sort of reports and high-level meetings organized in response to the growing recognition that we had a serious problem on our hands. Since then, no major corporation, government or organization can justify being taken by surprise by what's happening in Houston this week. Eric Holthaus puts it bluntly in Politico Magazine:

We knew this would happen, decades ago. We knew this would happen, and we didn’t care. Now is the time to say it as loudly as possible: Harvey is what climate change looks like. More specifically, Harvey is what climate change looks like in a world that has decided, over and over, that it doesn’t want to take climate change seriously.

Wagging an "I told you so" finger isn't very helpful, though, and it's not Holthaus's main point. That would be pouring cold water on the idea that adaptation is a viable response to the mess we're in. "Incremental" tweaks to the prevailing model for civilization aren't going to cut it. He's talking about the model in which large numbers of humans pave over large portions of the Earth with impermeable surfaces, not to mention doing exactly that in service of vast, sprawling industrial operations dedicated to the conversion of fossil carbon chains into liquid fuels.

Adapting to a future in which a millennium-scale flood can wipe out a major city is much harder than preventing that flood in the first place. By and large, the built world we have right now wasn’t constructed with climate change in mind. By continuing to pretend that we can engineer our way out of the worsening flooding problem with bigger dams, more levees and higher-powered pumping equipment, we’re fooling ourselves into a more dangerous future.

We will have to adapt, of course. More and more scientists have already turned their attention from the study of climate change to the provision of "climate services." This embryonic sector is less interested in mitigating global warming, a certain degree of which is now baked into our ecosystem over the next few decades regardless of what we do about our carbon emissions, than in helping communities and corporations anticipate the effects of that warming and minimize the consequences. To be fair, most of these scientists-turned-consultants are also genuinely worried about the consequences and very much support aggressive mitigation efforts; it's just that they know we are way past the point of no return on threats like sea-level rise, desertification, and catastrophic flooding.

But Holthaus and many other professional observers are calling for much more dramatic changes to our standard operating procedures than just making sure new developments aren't built in floodplains. They're talking about abandoning not just poorly-cited buildings, but entire communities. It is really hard to deny, if you want to be honest, that there are portions of New Orleans that simply shouldn't be rebuilt, but left instead to the mercies of the ever-wandering Mississippi, land subsidence and the rising waters of the Delta. Likewise, the summer homes of the Outer Banks of North Carolina are probably not worth saving. Do desert cities like Phoenix and Scottsdale, Ariz., or Las Vegas, Nev., really make sense in the long term, what with the cost of importing water?

Pretty soon, for some communities, the only responsible answer to the question of "What do we do to combat the looming effects of climate change?" will be "Leave." No one is keen on going there first, but it is inevitable. Most of us won't turn into climate refugees, of course. But there will be sacrifice enough to go around, especially if you're particularly enamored of private automobiles, golf, or beach houses. (Unless, that is, you're a member of the upper 0.1%, who will be able to hold onto those kind of affectations regardless of what we do to the atmosphere.)

The alternative is to continue to pay the 11- or 12-figure price tags of Houston-scale floods and similar not-entirely natural disasters. And along with the economic costs will come social and political side effects. If you think the country is polarized now, just wait a few years. Indeed, why not wait a little more? We've been putting off making the hard decisions for almost 40 years now.

Image: Houston from Landsat

hrynyshyn Tue, 08/29/2017 - 08:57

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Environment

NASA team provides free satellite public health data to researchers and communities

lborkowski — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 07:23:31 +0000

NASA team provides free satellite public health data to researchers and communities

by Dominika Heusinkveld, MD, MPH Researchers at NASA and the University of Arizona, among others, are hoping to make real-time air quality forecasting a reality in the next few years. The NASA Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team, or HAQAST, is collaborating with health departments, county and state agencies, and university researchers to get the word out about its satellite data. The data, available for free online, can help track air quality indicators, heavy metals in air, dust, and other atmospheric components which can affect human health.

Photo courtesy of NASA Image Library

NASA satellites have been collecting data for years on nitrogen dioxide, ozone, particulate matter, and sulfur dioxide. The time period of available data depends on when the individual satellite was launched. The HAQAST team hopes to encourage local stakeholders to make use of it. NASA HAQAST Team Leader Dr. Tracey Holloway says, “Hopefully when [agencies] see that satellite data and other NASA resources can answer their [public health] questions, they will take advantage of all the amazing satellite and other data available.” A past NASA project, the Air Quality Applied Sciences Team (AQAST), was the genesis of the current HAQAST project. AQAST aimed to increase the utility of satellite data to researchers and public agencies while improving communication with stakeholders such as the public and government officials. “We publish papers in journals but it’s not really percolating into policy,” said Avelino Arellano, Jr., Associate Professor of Data Assimilation and Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Arizona’s Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences. The AQAST project was an important way to connect the data to stakeholders. One of the AQAST projects resulted in a brief video with President Obama explaining how satellite data has been helpful in tracking nitrogen dioxide, a common air pollutant. Arellano sees the video as one of the success stories of AQAST. Another was improving communication and relationships between agencies like NASA, the EPA, and NOAA. “AQAST was instrumental in showing how satellites can ‘see’ trends in air pollution, even in areas where no other monitors exist. As a result, the EPA used satellite data in their public report on clean air trends for the first time in 2016,” says Holloway. HAQAST plans to build on those successes with a wider emphasis on human health, says Holloway. Input from satellite data can greatly improve current air quality forecasts, but these are still not accurate on a local scale and require finer resolution to be more useful. “We don’t really have a good forecast for air quality yet,“ says Arellano. For instance, air pollution is worse during rush hour, but many of the older satellites only pass over an area once a day, so the differences in air quality between morning and afternoon rush hour are not seen. A new satellite, called GOES-16, should fill in some of the blanks and provide finer resolution data. According to a NASA website its instruments “can provide a full disk image of the Earth every 15 minutes, one of the continental U.S. every five minutes, and [have] the ability to target regional areas…as often as every 30 seconds.” In addition, more research will be needed to fully utilize the data and to integrate it with human health. “In forecasting I’m not really sure that there’s a connection between what the satellite sees and what you breathe,” Arellano says. “We need to connect studies on air quality and data on air quality to health.” For example, while pollution has been linked to cardiac events (such as heart attacks) and lung disease, more studies need to be done on the relationship between air quality and hospitalization events. These relationships are extrapolated in much of the current research; direct correlations would provide a clearer picture. Arellano would like to see public health agencies and federal agencies such as the National Weather Service utilize the satellite data. He would also welcome collaborations with nonprofit agencies. The main limitation he encounters is lack of connections between researchers and nonprofits. Fortunately, outreach is an important part of HAQAST’s mission. “We have a Twitter account (@NASA_HAQAST), the new website, a semi-monthly newsletter, and even a YouTube channel,” Holloway says. In addition, the team hosts two meetings per year with a variety of local and national agencies. “We’ve found…that listening is the most important part - we need to hear where new information could be helpful… then the scientists on our team work to figure out new ways to answer open questions,“ Holloway says. She encourages interested agencies to contact the team. “Our mission is to serve the public and maximize the benefit of satellite data for health and air quality. ” Want data? Here’s where to get it:

Worldview: Users can make layered maps from daily, monthly, and yearly data. Good for new users, and user-friendly.
Giovanni: Users can make maps, map plots, and download data. Also good for new users.
ARSET: the Appled Remote Sensing Training program. Offers online training on how to use satellite remote sensing data.
For more advanced users: download the data files for mapping or plotting from https://earthdata.nasa.gov/earth-observation-data/near-real-time. Will require the use of advanced data management software.

Dominika Heusinkveld, MD, MPH is currently a graduate student in the University of Arizona's Environmental Science and Journalism programs. Her interests are environmental health, health communication, and science journalism.

lborkowski Mon, 08/21/2017 - 03:23

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Thanks for Great Article. Well Subscribed the NASA AQAST: Air Quality Applied Sciences Team Youtube channel for video updates..

Thanks again.
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