Archive for December, 2009
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Sunday, December 20th, 2009
There was a break in the blog action last week because I was attending the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.
As usual, this was a great meeting with over 16,000 climate and earth system scientists from around the world gathering to share the current state of their research.
Some highlights: Richard Alley (world-renowned climate scientist at Penn State) gave an interesting talk linking CO2 and climate change across multiple geological scales. It’s a 50-minute version of my Earth Climate History course I’m teaching next semester at Bowdoin.
There were other keynote addresses, but Alley’s was the most appropriate for a general audience.
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Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the-o/ / CC BY 2.0
Posted in climate change science | No Comments »
Where might farmers turn for help with climate change?
Saturday, December 12th, 2009
In the Online First edition of Climatic Change, Tyler Tarnoczi and Fikret Berkes assess1,2 the sources and availability of information about climate adaptation to farmers in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.
Farmers rely on several information sources for agricultural practices, which will likely be vital in helping food producers learn how to adapt to climate warming:
- social networks/experiential learning
- government
- industry (e.g., seed, machinery)
- producer and conservation organizations
- media
Here’s what they found…
Posted in climate adaptation, communication and framing, food and agriculture, nature and culture, policy | No Comments »
Ecosystem stewardship: sustainability strategies for a rapidly changing planet
Saturday, December 12th, 2009
That’s the title of a new article1,2 by Terry Chapin and colleagues in a forthcoming issue of Trends in Ecology and Evolution.
Human actions are having large and accelerating effects on the climate, environment and ecosystems of the Earth, thereby degrading many ecosystem services. This unsustainable trajectory demands a dramatic change in human relationships with the environment and life-support system of the planet. Here, we address recent developments in thinking about the sustainable use of ecosystems and resources by society in the context of rapid and frequently abrupt change.
To deal with these challenges, they advocate “ecosystem stewardship,” which has three core principles. Here are excerpts of these principles (slightly condensed/adapted by me); please check out the paper for details:
Posted in climate adaptation, nature and culture, policy, risk analysis, solutions, sustainable development | No Comments »
When the levees break, we’ll have a more sustainable landscape again
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
We don’t ordinarily think about climate change and land use change as being a synergistic threat to society. However, the combination of impervious surfaces that increase runoff, declining wetlands, levees, and more severe storms pack a quadruple whammy that could lead to some major flooding in the future. From the cool adaptation work done in Keene, NH, we know that much of our infrastructure (roads, bridges, culverts) can’t handle the added stress of streams and rivers with higher discharge. We’re looking at a potential nightmare of increased costs associated with infrastructure damage.
In this week’s issue of Science, Jeffrey Opperman and colleagues argue1 that our historical paradigm of flood control with levees needs to fundamentally change to achieve a more sustainable socioecological system.
Their solution? Tear down some of the levees to allow some floodplains to flood. This can accomplish several goals:
(1) Flood risk reduction
- Move to flood-tolerant activities in floodplains so that we don’t have to spend so much on disaster relief.
- Storing water in floodplains takes the strain off downstream regions because floodwaters can naturally spill to where they are supposed to rather than swelling channelized rivers. Small amounts of land can accomplish this—they cite a study of the Illinois River showing that a floodplain of 8,000 hectares would drop the likelihood of flooding 26,000 hectares of cropland by 50%.
(2) Increased floodplain goods and services
- Several economic activities are conducive to periodic flooding: pasture, timber, and flood-tolerant biofuel crops, such as willow.
- Periodically flooded soils can also assist with reducing erosion and storing nutrients that would otherwise reach and pollute coastal oceans.
(3) Building resiliency to climate change
- They argue that reconnecting rivers to floodplains can help us adapt to climate change in ways that are socioeconomically beneficial. For instance, we presently have to keep some reservoirs partially empty to accommodate periodic flood waters. But partially filled reservoirs can’t generate as much hydropower or provide as much drinking water. If we used floodplains as a natural pressure relief valve, we can operate reservoirs closer to capacity and benefit economically.
Opperman and colleagues acknowledge that there are political hurdles, such as convincing some private landowners that flooding their land can be useful.
But there are creative solutions that have already been deployed. They cite Sacramento as an example: Some farmers allow their crops to flood, serving as a pressure-relief valve when rivers swell, thereby preventing more expensive damage. In return, the farmers are compensated for their crop loss. It’s a win-win situation that presumably costs less than dealing with infrastructure damage or having to build new infrastructure that handles greater flooding.
Another idea is to allow some of these areas to become wetlands and compensate people as part of a wetlands banking system to mitigate the loss of wetlands elsewhere. This would most likely have several ecological benefits, including increasing habitat for wetland-dependent species such as waterfowl and other migrating birds. It would also likely increase vegetation productivity and carbon storage.
It’s interesting to note that they don’t call for an end to economic activity or human use in floodplains. Sure, we probably want to stop building McMansions in flood-prone regions. However, there are several ways we can use floodplains for ecological and economic benefit. These will likely require compensation, but in the long run, it’s cheaper than having to re-tool major infrastructure to handle greater discharge with climate warming.
1Opperman, J.J. et al (2009) Sustainable floodplains through large-scale reconnections to rivers. Science 326:1487-1488.
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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/doblonaut/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Posted in biodiversity science, climate adaptation, food and agriculture, risk analysis, solutions, sustainable development | No Comments »
Sustainable seafood: Does fresh vs. frozen make a difference?
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
The NY Times is running an op-ed, Catch of the Freezer, by a few ecological economists who were interested in learning whether it’s more sustainable to eat fresh or frozen seafood.
Focusing on salmon as a case study, they suggest that it does matter. Eat frozen when you can to reduce carbon emissions:
When it comes to salmon, the questions of organic versus conventional and wild versus farmed matter less than whether the fish is frozen or fresh. In many cases, fresh salmon has about twice the environmental impact as frozen salmon.
The reason: Most salmon consumers live far from where the fish was caught or farmed, and the majority of salmon fillets they buy are fresh and shipped by air, which is the world’s most carbon-intensive form of travel. Flying fillets from Alaska, British Columbia, Norway, Scotland or Chile so that 24 hours later they can be served “fresh” in New York adds an enormous climate burden, one that swamps the potential benefits of organic farming or sustainable fishing.
There are a lot of other important questions about sustainable seafood, including harvest rates, the industrialization and carbon intensity of the fishing process, genetic modification of farmed species, and organic pollutant loads in wild vs. farmed fish. In terms of transportation and climate warming, this article offers a useful point of view, but I think their statement dismissing the importance of organic and wild vs. farmed is a bit parochial to a discussion of seafood sustainability writ large. It depends on what part of sustainability—warming, human health, fish stocks, genetic alteration—matters most to you.
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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adactio/ / CC BY 2.0
Tags: seafood
Posted in energy, food and agriculture, shopping guides, sustainability, transportation | No Comments »
Innovative ideas for financing home energy efficiency
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Let’s face it, how many people have a spare $10k lying around for a new furnace? Not me, and I could use a new furnace.
Home weatherization and efficiency upgrades can make a big difference in U.S. carbon emissions. As we saw in a previous post, American households (including personal transportation) are responsible for
- 38% of the overall US carbon emissions
- 8% of global emissions
- more emissions of any single country except China
Unfortunately, there’s a big disconnect between things we can do to to save home energy and the ability for folks to pay for these improvements. New insulation, solar hot water, solar photovoltaics, high-efficiency furnaces: Take your pick….Each can cost $10k or more.
Fortunately, there are a lot of creative ideas coming to the rescue to help people defray these up-front costs:
- Municipalities can issue bonds that homeowners can borrow from to pay the up-front costs of improvements. The costs of these improvements are then payed back over an extended periods of time through raised property taxes. Homeowners effectively get a zero-interest loan from their cities.
- Banks can issue higher mortgages that include up-front costs for major energy efficiency improvements. These added costs are then spread out over the life of the mortgage, resulting in manageable monthly payments for homeowners.
- Or, the federal government can simply reimburse people for part of the costs of improvements. The so-called “Cash for Caulkers” program reported today by CNN is an example.
These kinds of programs make a lot of sense and have the potential to be game changers, along with helping Americans transition to electric vehicles as soon as possible.
Related post: Behavioral changes at home can have big impacts on U.S. emissions
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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicksee/ / CC BY-NC 2.0
Tags: energy efficiency
Posted in energy, policy, solutions, sustainability, urban | 1 Comment »
Can guilt about climate warming drive people to do something about it?
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
That’s the question asked by Mark Ferguson and Nyla Branscombe in a forthcoming article1 in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
They begin by exploring the conditions in which climate warming might make people feel guilty:
First, people must believe that their group is responsible for the harm done… This suggests that collective guilt is more likely to be experienced when people believe that global warming is caused by humans than when caused by nature.
Second, people must believe that it is possible to repair the harm done. This suggests that collective guilt is more likely to be experienced when people believe that global warming will have minor effects than when it will have major effects. When people believe that the harm produced by global warming will be catastrophic, then there is less sense that repair is possible, reducing the potential for collective guilt.
Since collective guilt motivates behavior to repair wrongdoing, it follows that collective guilt should increase mitigation behavior.
Next, they interviewed 79 people, using a survey to determine understanding of climate warming, human roles, and any associated guilt.
What did they find?
Posted in behavior, communication and framing, nature and culture | No Comments »
New sea level rise estimates—getting worse
Monday, December 7th, 2009
Sea level is a notoriously difficult thing to predict. Currently, it is not something that climate models (process models based on the transfer of heat and matter) are very good at because we are still learning how ice sheets and glaciers behave.
Therefore, scientists have taken a different approach, using simpler models that relate sea level height to temperature, which climate models are good at predicting.
In the early edition of this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (open access), Martin Vermeer and Stefan Ramstorf apply1 an updated version of one of these new models.
Several important points:
- Thermal expansion of the ocean is a big driver of sea level rise—between 55-70%.
- Even the low-emission scenario indicates sea level rising 1 m by 2100.
- Higher emission scenarios suggest it may be as much as 2 m.
- Both of these are about 3 times higher than the 2007 IPCC report suggests.
- Like the IPCC report, this model does not include the possibility of more catastrophic thaw of major ice sheets like Greenland and Antarctica (which is really hard to predict). So the potential for even greater—perhaps significantly greater—sea level rise exists.
- A sea level rise of 2 m will be devastating to Louisiana, south Florida, and coastal North Carolina as this EPA website demonstrates.
- To the extent that we are already committed to some warming, we are likely already committed to sea level rise. This study suggests at least 75 cm.
1Vermeer, M and S. Ramstorf (2009) Global sea level linked to global temperature. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/go_greener_oz/ / CC BY-ND 2.0
Posted in climate change science, sea level rise | 1 Comment »
This week’s good ideas in campus sustainability: 12/7/09
Monday, December 7th, 2009
This week, it’s the University of Oklahoma and Florida Gulf Coast University:
(1) Regulators approve ‘OU Spirit’ wind farm plan
This will be one of the largest wind power projects among universities—44 turbines generating 101 Megawatts. Eventually, the university hopes to supply all of its electricity by wind. This is exactly what needs to happen throughout the Great Plains. Hopefully OU will serve as a model for all other states and schools in the region. Maybe we won’t need the Pickens Plan if enough people get on board.
(2) Florida College To Create Green Research Center
Another great example of public, private, and university partners coming together to spur technology, education, and green jobs.
As part of its goal to become a center for renewable energy and green technology research and education, Florida Gulf Coast University has joined the John D. Backe Foundation in a collaborative venture to create Florida Gulf Coast University Innovation Hub, a 1.2 million square-foot, state-of-the-art research and development area.
One of the primary goals of the initiative is to attract businesses and universities with an interest in renewable energy, and spur growth in green jobs, all of which are good for the region, the state and its residents. As more people realize the value of green initiatives and the vital importance of renewable energy, initiatives like the I-Hub and the work that will be conducted at FGCU will play an exciting role in the future growth and prosperity of the region and the state.
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For more information: AASHE Bulletin 12/7/09
Posted in campus sustainability, higher education, sustainability | No Comments »
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