winters like summers and summers like hell...

christie in hell...

Most Americans say the United States should be a global leader in the fight against climate change, according to a recent poll conducted by YouGov and our Climate Desk partners at the Huffington Post.

Chris Christie is not one of those Americans.

In a remarkable interview published today by The Atlantic (another Climate Desk partner), the New Jersey governor and Republican White House hopeful criticized President Barack Obama for supposedly prioritizing climate change over the battle against ISIS. "His priorities are climate change," said Christie. "He thinks that this is what we need American leadership on."

"Hell no!" said Christie. "I think there's a lot more important things to worry about. I'll guarantee you this—the 220,000, 230,000 dead Syrians aren't worried about climate change."

In reality, a number of experts argue that a devastating drought linked to climate change was one of the factors that contributed to instability in Syria. Of course, Christie's statements aren't likely to hurt him with Republic voters, who are much more skeptical of climate action—and, for that matter, climate science—than the general public. According to the poll, 52 percent of all respondents said the United States should lead the way on climate, compared with 26 percent who said it shouldn't. But among Republicans (PDF), just 32 percent want the country to take a leadership role; 46 percent don't.

By Gus Leonisky at 7 Dec 2015 - 6:00pm
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pinching the sun from plants... in the USA...

World leaders in Paris may have lauded the future of renewable energy, but in small-town America, all that solar hocus-pocus is still viewed with a healthy dose of slack-jawed cynicism.

The good burghers of Woodland, North Carolina, have successfully torpedoed plans for a solar farm, arguing the panels would suck up all the sun's energy, cause cancer and drive young people out of town.

Local councillors initially voted to reject a rezoning application that would have allowed the Strata Solar Company to build the farm near a highway north of Woodland, the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald reported.

By Gus Leonisky at 14 Dec 2015 - 12:40pm
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climbing above 400...

The chief driver of dangerous climate change is the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This is what creates the "greenhouse" effect of global warming.

So first, a quick reality check of where we're up to. When Dr David Keeling took the first reading of carbon dioxide concentration in the earth's atmosphere at Mauna Loa in Hawaii in 1958, it was 315 parts per million.

A level of up to 350 is safe, we're told by experts. The danger zone begins somewhere in the 400 to 450 range, they tell us.

Beyond 450, the chance of holding global warming to a maximum 2 degrees, the "tipping point" of irreversible change, is only around 50:50, according to the Climate Change Authority. It recommends no more than 415.

By the time the Kyoto Protocol was hailed as humanity's successful response to the challenge of climate change 39 years later, the carbon concentration had reached 363. By the time of the 2009 Copenhagen anticlimax, it was 387.

The level of carbon first moved into the danger zone of 400 ppm on May 9, 2013, according to the US government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which operates the Mauna Loa measuring station.

This was "more than 100 ppm higher than at any time in the last one million years", Charles Miller of NASA pointed out, "and maybe higher than any time in the last 25 million years."

A couple of months ago the son of the original Dr Keeling, Ralph Keeling, who has taken up his father's line of work monitoring carbon levels for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, posed: "Will daily values at Mauna Loa ever fall below 400 ppm again in our lifetimes? I'm prepared to project that they won't."

As delegates in Paris last Friday approached the climax of their negotiations, the Mauna Loa station recorded a carbon concentration of 402 ppm, the latest available at the time of writing.

By Gus Leonisky at 15 Dec 2015 - 9:30am
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... and we don't want clean water either...

But the legal opinion emerged just as Republican leaders moved to block the so-called Waters of the United States clean-water rule through an amendment to the enormous spending bill expected to pass in Congress this week. While the G.A.O.’s findings are unlikely to lead to civil or criminal penalties, they do offer Republicans a cudgel for this week’s showdown.

“G.A.O.’s finding confirms what I have long suspected, that E.P.A. will go to extreme lengths and even violate the law to promote its activist environmental agenda,” Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, who is chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and is pressing to block the rule, said in a statement Monday. He decried “E.P.A.’s illegal attempts to manufacture public support for its Waters of the United States rule and sway congressional opinion.”

The E.P.A. rolled out a social media campaign on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and even on more innovative tools such as Thunderclap, to counter opposition to its water rule, which effectively restricts how land near certain surface waters can be used. The agency said the rule would prevent pollution in drinking water sources. Farmers, business groups and Republicans have called the rule a flagrant case of government overreach.

The publicity campaign was part of a broader effort by the Obama administration to counter critics of its policies through social media tools, communicating directly with Americans and bypassing traditional news organizations.

By Gus Leonisky at 15 Dec 2015 - 10:06am
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