“We Are Only Beginning to Feel Climate Change’s Impact”

‘Accepting the 2013 Ridenhour Courage Prize, James Hansen warns of the dire environmental impacts of our growing carbon emissions (3 May 2013)’.

‘On May 9th, for the first time in human history the atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide in the air reached a daily average of 400 parts per million. Carbon dioxide is the climate-warming greenhouse gas the world continues to be warned about and governments continue to struggle to regulate. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration made the measurements at the Muana Loa observatory in Hawaii and found the highest levels of CO2 in 3 million years. Meanwhile, Europe tries to make efforts to manage greenhouse gas pollution with an emission trading system, or carbon credits, which is something unlikely to happen in the US. Bob English, producer of RT financial show Prime Interest, joins us to discuss the matter. (14 May 2013)’.

Stealing Fish: The Chinese Gambit

On the collaborative website China Daily Mail, which aims to present a collection of interesting stories about China, while also constituting an opportunity for writers to promote their own sites, the following interesting story, culled from Foreign Policy, was presented the other day: the Chinese are “stealing” fish on a massive scale . . .

‘According to a recent study published in the journal Fish and Fisheries, the Chinese have been drastically underreporting the number of fish that Chinese ships catch in other countries’ waters every year. While China tells the UNFAO, the U.N. agency that tracks global fishing data, that Chinese distant-water fishing vessels take in roughly 368,000 tons of fish a year, the Fish and Fisheries report estimates that the real weight of the collective catch is more than 12 times that number – around 4.6 million tons a year. At the same time, China exaggerates its domestic catch. The report claims that the majority of the haul (64 percent) comes from off the coast of West Africa, where Chinese fishing practices could have a serious impact on the local population. “The study shows the extent of the looting of Africa, where so many people depend on seafood for basic protein,” Daniel Pauly, a professor at the University of British Columbia and one of the authors of the study, told the Guardian. “We need to know how many fish have been taken from the ocean to figure out what we can catch in the future. Countries need to realize the importance of accurately recording and reporting their catches and step up to the plate, or there will be no fish left for our children.” It’s important to note that just because the fishing goes unreported doesn’t mean it’s illegal. The Chinese government may have negotiated special (and usually secret) agreements with certain African coastal states allowing Chinese vessels to fish in the waters. It’s also true that the Chinese are not alone in exploiting West Africa’s abundant fishing grounds. But, if these estimates are correct, Chinese fishermen are doing it on a larger scale than anyone else, catching as much as 22 West African coastal countries and the other 38 countries fishing in the region combined. The long-term consequences for food security could be quite severe’.[1]

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[1] “Is China secretly hoarding the world’s fish?” China Daily Mail (06 April 2013). http://chinadailymail.com/2013/04/06/is-china-secretly-hoarding-the-worlds-fish/.

Monsanto & Frankenfish: GMO FTW

‘On Tuesday, 26 March 2013, President Barack Obama signed the Agriculture Appropriations Bill into law. Within the legislation exists a provision, “The Monsanto Protection Act,” that has many speculating the future of food in American because it protects genetically modified seeds patents from litigation over health risks. Since Obama signed the bill, nearly 250,000 have signed a petition to President Obama. RT’s Margaret Howell has more on the bill and how “frankenfish” could be making their way into supermarkets across the nation oihj 0ji (28 March 2013)’.

Climate Change: Global Temperatures Highest in 4,000 Years

‘New research finds the planet is warming rapidly. Climate scientists say that’s actually the opposite of what the planet would be doing on its own (8 March 2013’.

This new study seems pretty conclusive and indicates that the time is up . . . Researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) and HarvardUniversity published their findings in the journal Science. The National Science Foundation released this statement on 7 March: ‘With data from 73 ice and sediment core monitoring sites around the world, [OSU and Harvard] scientists have reconstructed Earth’s temperature history back to the end of the last Ice Age. The analysis reveals that the planet today is warmer than it’s been during 70 to 80 percent of the last 11,300 years. Results of the study, by researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) and Harvard University, are published this week in a paper in the journal Science. Lead paper author Shaun Marcott of OSU says that previous research on past global temperature change has largely focused on the last 2,000 years. Extending the reconstruction of global temperatures back to the end of the last Ice Age puts today’s climate into a larger context’.[1]

Shaun Marcott states unequivocally that “We already knew that on a global scale, Earth is warmer today than it was over much of the past 2,000 years. Now we know that it is warmer than most of the past 11,300 years”.[2]  Candace Major, program director in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences adds that “The last century stands out as the anomaly in this record of global temperature since the end of the last ice age This research shows that we’ve experienced almost the same range of temperature change since the beginning of the industrial revolution, as over the previous 11,000 years of Earth history–but this change happened a lot more quickly”.[3]  Climate change or global warming continue to be two hot talking points, in spite of the fact that public opinion has turned away from these issues now . . . global apathy with regards to the effects of man-made climate change seems to reign supreme and the search for more fossil fuels to burn continues unabated. As a result, it would appear that the future of humanity on planet earth is not very rose-coloured anymore . . .

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[1] “Earth Is Warmer Today Than During 70 to 80 Percent of the Past 11,300 Years” The Natural Science Foundation (07 March 2013). http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=127133&org=NSF&from=news.

[2] “Earth Is Warmer Today Than During 70 to 80 Percent of the Past 11,300 Years”.

[3] “Earth Is Warmer Today Than During 70 to 80 Percent of the Past 11,300 Years”.

Global Warming: Melting Arctic Ice Cap

Joe Romm, editor of Climateprogress.org and author of Language Intelligence, tells Viewpoint host Eliot Spitzer why news that the Arctic ice cap has shrunk to the smallest size on record is cause for concern (21 Sept 2012).

Going down into the nitty-gritty of the big melt, Romm explains: “We’ve known for a long time about basic polar amplification. Warming melts highly reflective white ice and snow, which is replaced by the dark blue sea or dark land, both of which absorb far more sunlight and hence far more solar energy. More recently another insidious feedback has become obvious — as the Arctic ice retreats, big oil companies can drill for more fossil fuels whose combustion will accelerate warming and ice retreat. You might call this the “brainless frog” feedback. Now Reuters reports on yet another feedback: ‘Local pollution in the Arctic from shipping and oil and gas industries, which have expanded in the region due to a thawing of sea ice caused by global warming, could further accelerate that thaw, experts say. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said there was an urgent need to calculate risks of local pollutants such as soot, or “black carbon”, in the Arctic. Soot darkens ice, making it soak up more of the sun’s heat and quickening a melt. “There is a grim irony here that as the ice melts . . . humanity is going for more of the natural resources fuelling this meltdown,” [somebody] said. Large amounts of soot in the Arctic come from more distant sources such as forest fires or industry’ [leading Romm tp add:] So the direct pollution from shipping and fossil fuel extraction could speed up Arcticmelt”.[1]

Romm adds: “For the sake of completeness, Arctic warming is amplified for several additional synergistic reasons, beyond the change in reflectivity. As the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) explains in their 2004 report, Impacts of a Warming Arctic . . . In the Arctic, compared to lower latitudes, “more of the extra trapped energy goes into warming rather than evaporation”. In the Arctic, “the atmospheric layer that has to warm in order to warm the surface is shallower”. So, when the sea ice retreats, the “solar heat absorbed by the oceans in summer is more easily transferred to the atmosphere in winter”. [And as one climate scientist explained to me, it can get incredibly cold above thick ice, but it can't get much colder than freezing above open water.] All this leads to more snow and ice melting, further decreasing Earth’s reflectivity (albedo), causing more heating, which the thinner arctic atmosphere spreads more quickly over the entire polar region, and so on and on. And that in turn threatens a cascade of effects. As the scientists at The International Polar Year noted, this could “speed up melting of the Greenland ice sheet, accelerating the rise in sea levels,” and “Permafrost melting could also accelerate during rapid Arctic sea-ice loss due to an amplification of Arctic land warming 3.5 times greater than secular 21st century climate trends”. Yet the destruction of a significant fraction of the permafrost, coupled with the climate-carbon-cycle feedbacks that the IPCC models, would make the task of averting the unmitigated catastrophe of 800 to 1000 ppm even more challenging”, ending with the ominous words: “We are headed into uncharted waters”.[2]

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[1] Joe Romm, “Arctic Death Spiral: New Local Shipping And Drilling Pollution May Speed Up Polar Warming And Ice Melting” ThinkProgress (19 September 2012). http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/09/19/872121/arctic-death-spiral-new-local-shipping-and-drilling-pollution-may-speed-up-polar-warming-and-ice-melting/.

[2] Joe Romm, “Arctic Death Spiral: New Local Shipping And Drilling Pollution May Speed Up Polar Warming And Ice Melting”.

Conversations w/ Great Minds – Jeffrey Smith GMOs – Seeds of Deception

Jeffrey Smith, Executive Director-Institute for Responsible Technology, leading spokesperson on the health dangers of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), author of the books “Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating” and “Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods.” Genetically modified crops are all the rage these days – and have taken over the agriculture industries of many countries. But just how dangerous are genetically modified crops – and do we really need to be relying so heavily on them? (23 August 2012).

“Outrageous! That’s what you’ll say over and over again when you read how the biotechnology companies have manipulated the government, our food, and the media, and put an entire generation at risk.”

—Ben Cohen (of Ben and Jerry’s)

 

“This is a brilliant book which combines shrewd dissection of the true nature of GM technology, a devastating critique of the health and environmental hazards of GM crops, and scarifying examples of the manipulation of both science and the media by the biotech industry… What is so exciting about this book is that it is no dry text of scientific exegesis—it positively fizzes with the human drama of the cabals and conspiracies behind the scenes… It is meticulously documented and powerfully written, somewhere between a documentary and a thriller.”

—From the UK Edition forward by Michael Meacher, former UK environment minister

 

“Clear, profound, and unerringly accurate… If you care about the future of life on this dear planet… this is the book to get.”

—John Robbins, Author, The Food Revolution and Diet For A New America

 

“The revelations in this book are being made public at a pivotal time in the global GM debate, and could tip the scales against the biotech industry. The evidence in the book refutes U.S. science and safety claims, and undermines the basis of their WTO challenge.”

—Andrew Kimbrell, director of the Center for Food Safety

 

“The best written on the subject.”

—Ronnie Cummins, Director, Organic Consumers Association[1]

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[1] “What people are saying about Seeds of Deception, the world’s best-selling book critical of genetically engineered food:” Seeds of Deception. http://www.seedsofdeception.com/.

Fukushima: A Tale of Disasters Expected

The intrepid Mister Palast spins his tale like this: “On March 12 [2011], as I watched Fukushima melt, I knew: the “SQ” had been faked. Anderson Cooper said it would all be OK.  He’d flown to Japan, to suck up the radiation and official company bullshit. The horror show was not the fault of Tokyo Electric, he said, because the plant was built to withstand only an 8.0 earthquake on the Richter scale, and this was 9.0. Anderson must have been in the gym when they handed out the facts. The 9.0 shake was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 90 miles away. It was barely a tenth of that power at Fukushima. I was ready to vomit. Because I knew who had designed the plant, who had built it and whom Tokyo Electric Power was having rebuild it: Shaw Construction. The latest alias of Stone & Webster, the designated builder for every one of the four new nuclear plants that the Obama Administration has approved for billions in federal studies. But I had The Notebook, the diaries of the earthquake inspector for the company. I’d squirreled it out sometime before the TradeCenter [where the documents were kept] went down. I shouldn’t have done that. Too bad. All field engineers keep a diary. Gordon Dick, a supervisor, wasn’t sup- posed to show his to us. I asked him to show it to us and, reluctantly, he directed me to these notes about the “SQ” tests”.[1]

And in his inimical style, Palast enlightens us next: “SQ is nuclear-speak for “Seismic Qualification.” A seismically qualified nuclear plant won’t melt down if you shake it. A “seismic event” can be an earthquake or a Christmas present from Al Qaeda. You can’t run a nuclear reactor in the USA or Europe or Japan without certified SQ. This much is clear from [Gordon Dick’s] notebook: This nuclear plant will melt down in an earthquake. The plant dismally failed to meet the Seismic I (shaking) standards required by U.S. and international rules”.[2]  Fukushima was a disaster waiting to happen . . . and now four nuclear plants of the same type are set to be built in the U.S. Palast continues, “Here’s what we learned: Dick’s subordinate at the nuclear plant, Robert Wiesel, conducted the standard seismic review. Wiesel flunked his company. No good. Dick then ordered Wiesel to change his report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, change it from failed to passed. Dick didn’t want to make Wiesel do it, but Dick was under the gun himself, acting on direct command from corporate chiefs. From The Notebook: ‘Wiesel was very upset. He seemed very nervous. Very agitated. [He said,] “I believe these are bad results and I believe it’s reportable,” and then he took the volume of federal regulations from the shelf and went to section 50.55(e), which describes reportable deficiencies at a nuclear plant and [they] read the section together, with Wiesel pointing to the appropriate paragraphs that federal law clearly required [them and the company] to report the Category II, Seismic I deficiencies. Wiesel then expressed his concern that he was afraid that if he [Wiesel] reported the deficiencies, he would be fired, but that if he didn’t report the deficiencies, he would be breaking a federal law’. . . . [Palast then goes on: ] The law is clear. It is a crime not to report a safety failure. I could imagine Wiesel standing there with that big, thick rule book in his hands, The Law. It must have been heavy. So was his paycheck. He weighed the choices: Break the law, possibly a jail-time crime, or keep his job”.[3]  What did Bob Wiesel do???

Palast ends his piece on Fukushima and SQ thus: “I think we should all worry about Bob. The company he worked for, Stone & Webster Engineering, built or designed about a third of the nuclear plants in the United States”.[4]  The good folks at Wikipedia tell us that ‘Stone & Webster is an American engineering services company based in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Stone & Webster was founded as an electrical testing lab and consulting firm by electrical engineers Charles Stone and Edwin Webster in 1889. It was acquired by The Shaw Group in 2000. The company provides engineering, construction, environmental services, and plant operation and maintenance. The company has long been involved in power generation projects and has worked on most American nuclear power plants’.[5]  Not content with simply endangering the world with unsafe nuclear power plants, The Shaw Group recently proudly announced that ‘it has achieved substantial completion of the new Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center, a 585-megawatt clean coal-fired generating plant in Virginia for Dominion Virginia Power. As part of substantial completion, the plant was operated at its rated capacity and released to Dominion for commercial operation’.[6]  Nuclear energy is an unsafe method of boiling water, given that the nuclear waste material will have to be safely deposited . . . which seems like a contradiction in terms. At the same time, the company is also busy purveying other means to boil water using “clean coal”, a fuel that has been proven not to exist.

 

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[1] Greg Palast, “The Fukushima story you didn’t hear on CNN” Greg Palast (08 March 2012). http://www.gregpalast.com/the-fukushima-story-you-didnt-hear-on-cnn/.

[2] Greg Palast, “The Fukushima story you didn’t hear on CNN”.

[3] Greg Palast, “The Fukushima story you didn’t hear on CNN”.

[4] Greg Palast, “The Fukushima story you didn’t hear on CNN”.

[5] “Stone & Webster” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_%26_Webster.

[6] “Shaw Completes New 585-MW Clean Coal-fired Generating Plant in Virginia” News Release (12 July 2012). http://ir.shawgrp.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=61066&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1714193&highlight=.

The Upcoming Influenza Pandemic: Bird Flu Mutations

On Tuesday, 24 July, NPR’s Nell Greenfieldboyce writes that ‘[t]op influenza researchers around the world published a statement back in January [2012] saying they would temporarily hold off on any work with contagious, lab-altered forms of a particularly worrisome form of bird flu. The unusual voluntary moratorium was supposed to last only 60 days, but it’s been more than six months. And scientists don’t agree on what should happen next. Some scientists and researchers say these mutant bird flu viruses could cause a devastating pandemic if they ever got out of the lab. Others argue that the work is vital to help public health officials get ready for the possible threat of a flu pandemic that might emerge naturally, as bird flu viruses mutate in the wild. Flu researchers are going to New York next week for the annual conference of the government-funded Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS). Researchers who made the mutant viruses will be there, plus others who signed the voluntary moratorium’.[1]

And to remind ourselves what we are talking about, let’s go back to 2006 and read Debora Mackenzie’s words: the “H5N1 strain of influenza – often referred to as bird flu – is first known to have jumped from chickens to humans in 1997. Since 2004 it has ripped through poultry and wild bird populations across Eurasia, and had a 53% mortality rate in the first 147 people it is known to have infected. Health authorities fear this strain, or its descendent, could cause a lethal new flu pandemic in people with the potential to kill billions. Flu has been a regular scourge of humanity for thousands of years. Flu viruses each possess a mere 10 genes encoded in RNA. All of the 16 known genetic subgroups originate in water birds, and especially in ducks. The virus is well adapted to their immune systems, and does not usually make them sick. This leaves the animals free to move around and spread the virus – just what it needs to persist. But sometimes a bird flu virus jumps to an animal whose immune system it is not adapted to. In chickens – originally a forest bird and not a natural host – it causes a moderate disease but can readily mutate to a more severe, highly pathogenic strain. Just such a strain of H5N1 flu, named after its surface proteins, began rampaging through large chicken farms in east Asia sometime before 2003”.[2]

Viruses are wily creatures, in fact there is some debate as to whether a virus lives or is a mere chemical reaction. The virology professor Vincent Racaniello explains on his blog that “Viruses are not living things. Viruses are complicated assemblies of molecules, including proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and carbohydrates, but on their own they can do nothing until they enter a living cell. Without cells, viruses would not be able to multiply. Therefore, viruses are not living things”.[3]  It is a strange world we live in, as Racaniello explains: when “a virus encounters a cell, a series of chemical reactions occur that lead to the production of new viruses. These steps are completely passive, that is, they are predefined by the nature of the molecules that comprise the virus particle. Viruses don’t actually ‘do’ anything. Often scientists and non-scientists alike ascribe actions to viruses such as employing, displaying, destroying, evading, exploiting, and so on. These terms are incorrect because viruses are passive, completely at the mercy of their environment”.[4]

And now to get back to the possible lifting of the moratorium on altering the flu virus in laboratory environments that might be decided upon next week . . . The Stanford University microbiologist David Relman states unequivocally: [if the moratorium is lifted right after the upcoming meeting], “I’d be concerned”.[5]  Sentiments which are echoed by the Harvard School of Public Health epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch: “But the risks are not to scientists. The risks are to the world. The risks are that one of these viruses gets out of a laboratory and starts to spread from person to person. And so the people who have something at stake are not the scientific community only”.[6]  In other words, if the moratorium were lifted next week, there is very little that would prevent a Twelve Monkeys scenario from being enacted . . . On its Facebook page, CEIRS announces that the ‘2012 6^th Annual CEIRS Network Meeting (Mount Sinai) to be held in New York City, July 29-August 1, 2012’.[7]

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[1] Nell Greenfieldboyce, “Bird Flu Researchers To Meet About Research Moratorium” NPR (24 July 2012). http://m.npr.org/programs/all/3/157130835.

[2] Debora Mackenzie, “Introduction: Bird Flu” New Scientist (04 September 2006). http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9944-introduction-bird-flu.html?full=true.

[3] Vincent Racaniello, “Are Viruses Living?” virology blog (09 June 2004). http://www.virology.ws/2004/06/09/are-viruses-living/.

[4] Vincent Racaniello, “Are Viruses Living?”.

[5] Nell Greenfieldboyce, “Bird Flu Researchers To Meet About Research Moratorium-2”. http://m.npr.org/programs/all/3/157130835?page=1.

[6] Nell Greenfieldboyce, “Bird Flu Researchers To Meet About Research Moratorium-2”.

[7] “CEIRS-Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance” Facebook (23 September 2011). https://www.facebook.com/pages/CEIRS-Centers-of-Excellence-for-Influenza-Research-and-Surveillance/252648441447170#!/pages/CEIRS-Centers-of-Excellence-for-Influenza-Research-and-Surveillance/252648441447170.

Last Undersea Lab Set to Close Off Florida Keys

After 20 years, the Aquarius Reef Base is losing its $3 million federal funding. The budget cut will close the lab unless it secures private funding (18 July 2012).

And then there is the other CO2 problem: Ocean Acidification . . . The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) posits that ‘[a]bout a quarter of all carbon dioxide emissions are absorbed by the earth’s oceans, where they’re having an impact that’s just starting to be understood. Over the last decade, scientists have discovered that this excess CO2 is actually changing the chemistry of the sea and proving harmful for many forms of marine life. This process is known as ocean acidification. A more acidic ocean could wipe out species, disrupt the food web and impact fishing, tourism and any other human endeavor that relies on the sea. The change is happening fast — and it will take fast action to slow or stop it. Over the last 250 years, oceans have absorbed 530 billion tons of CO2, triggering a 30 percent increase in ocean acidity. Before people started burning coal and oil, ocean pH had been relatively stable for the previous 20 million years. But researchers predict that if carbon emissions continue at their current rate, ocean acidity will more than double by 2100. The polar regions will be the first to experience changes. Projections show that the Southern Ocean around Antarctica will actually become corrosive by 2050.[1]

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[1] “Ocean Acidification: The Other CO2 Problem” NRDC. http://www.nrdc.org/oceans/acidification/.

Link TV: Earth Focus Episode 41 – Biodiversity and Health

Earth Focus is an environmental news magazine that puts a human face on the environment by featuring under-publicized stories about how changes in our environment are affecting everyday people.

What do plants, snakes, molds, marine sponges, and cone snails have in common? They have helped develop medicines that save human lives. Biodiversity — the variety of life on Earth — is key to human survival. But plants, animals, and microorganisms are disappearing at unprecedented rates. What impact will this have on human health? Find out in this Earth Focus special report, produced in collaboration with Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and the Global Environment (6 June 2012).