Global Warming will require new management methods to protect our drinking water supplies October 6, 2008
Posted by bruce mcgranahan in climate change, water.Tags: Drinking water, global warming, Water supply
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Via Alternet …
Image from http://pixdaus.com/
An EPA Report, “National Water Program Strategy: Response to Climate Change“, describes the impacts of Global Warming on water. It ain’t pretty and it’s going to be quite a challenge for local governments and utilities to protect our drinking water in the face of these changes. According to the report Global Warming will affect our water in several ways:
- More intense storms will threaten drinking water systems and increase polluted runoff.
- Shorelines will move inland from rising sea levels
- Changes in ocean chemistry will alter aquatic habitat and fisheries.
- Warmer water will likely change contaminant concentrations in water.
- New patterns of rainfall and snowfall are expected to alter water supply for drinking and other uses.
- Heavier precipitation in tropical and inland storms will increase the risks of flooding, expand floodplains, increase the variability of streamflows, increase the velocity of water during high flow periods and increase erosion.
- These changes will have adverse effects on clean water and aquatic ecosystems.
- Intense rainfall will result in more pollution, pathogens, and toxins being washed into waterbodies.
As a result, the strategy advises, city and county water managers will need to plan for extreme weather resulting in excess of water or a lack of water. EPA’s “National Water Program Strategy: Response to Climate Change” describes steps for managers to adapt their clean water, drinking water, and ocean protection programs, but it is not a rule or regulation and is not legally binding. The new strategy focuses on 44 specific actions for the National Water Program to take in responding to climate change. They fall within five topic areas — mitigation, adaptation, research, the education of water program professionals on climate change issues and management of climate change work within the National Water Program.
To view the 119-page National Water Program Strategy: Response to Climate Change, go HERE.
Pa first to pass GHG legislation July 17, 2008
Posted by bruce mcgranahan in climate change.Tags: climate change, global warming, Pennsylvania
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This is from a July 9 post at Celsius:
On July 3 Pennsylvania passed PA Senate Bill No. 266 , which will look into just how much the state contributes to global warming. Governor Ed Rendell has already championed many alternative energy programs and has said that he will sign the bill into law.
“Under the bill, the state Department of Environmental Protection each year must catalog the sources and amounts of greenhouse gases, which most scientists believe contribute to a warming global climate.” The first report is due December of 2009.
- Pennsylvania will be the first state to take serious steps to understanding their contributions to Greenhouse Gases.
- Despite the fact that the state has a large group of global warming deniers, Bill 266 passed 176-24.
- Celsius also reports that Montgomery County, Pennsylvania emits more greenhouse gasses than half of the world’s COUNTRIES and that these gasses were all man-made.
Go to Source Page at Celsius >>>
Stop trashing the climate July 7, 2008
Posted by bruce mcgranahan in climate change, waste reduction.Tags: climate change, waste reduction
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Stop Trashing the Climate provides compelling evidence that preventing waste and expanding reuse, recycling, and composting programs — that is, aiming for zero waste — is one of the fastest, cheapest, and most effective strategies available for combating climate change. This report documents the link between climate change and unsustainable patterns of consumption and wasting, dispels myths about the climate benefits of landfill gas recovery and waste incineration, outlines policies needed to effect 
change, and offers a roadmap for how to significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within a short period.
Significantly decreasing waste disposed in landfills and incinerators will reduce greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent to closing 21% of U.S. coal-fired power plants. This is comparable to leading climate protection proposals such as improving national vehicle fuel efficiency. Indeed, preventing waste and expanding reuse, recycling, and composting are essential to put us on the path to climate stability.
Download the executive summary (PDF, 2 MB);
- Print quality version (PDF, 10 MB)
Download the full report (PDF, 6 MB)
Download key findings and priority policies as a one-page handout (PDF, 160 KB)
US Drought Monitor online July 2, 2008
Posted by bruce mcgranahan in climate change, water.Tags: climate, drought, weather
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The U.S. Drought Summary released June 17 provides the following:
Mid-Atlantic and Southeast: The searing heat eased up during the period, particularly in the northern reaches of the region. Rainfall also increased, but was primarily associated with scattered to isolated showers and thundershowers. Thus, there was a wide range of precipitation totals observed for the 7-day period. Many locations picked up 0.5 to 3.0 inches of precipitation, but a fair number of sites received less while isolated locations across southern Georgia and southern Florida reported as much as 6 inches of rain. The scattered nature of the precipitation means that there will be some variability in dry conditions on a scale too small to depict on our national map. However, significant rainfall was widespread enough to erase D1 conditions in northern Florida and drop D2 conditions to D1 across central Alabama. Furthermore, surface moisture increases were noted across Florida and near the central Gulf Coast, but hydrologic conditions, which respond to precipitation on longer time scales, remained essentially unchanged. As a result, the D0AH to D2AH conditions in these areas were reclassified as D0H to D2H, and some limited improvements were introduced. In contrast, rainfall totals were relatively low across western South Carolina and much of interior North Carolina, resulting in the introduction of exceptional drought (D4) near the Carolinas’ border, and the eastward expansion of D1 to D3 conditions farther east in the Carolinas. Similarly, generally light precipitation led to the expansion of D1 across central and eastern Georgia, the introduction of D1 in east-central Louisiana, and the expansion of abnormal dryness across northern Louisiana.
Submerged tree stumps reveal depth of historic drought in Western US June 29, 2008
Posted by bruce mcgranahan in climate change, water.Tags: climate change, drought, water
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According to Recordnet.com, “Trees hidden beneath the waters of Sierra Nevada lakes suggest California, and most of the West, experienced “megadroughts” that put our current water crisis in context. Water levels dropped so low that trees began growing as much as 70 feet below the current surface of one Sierra lake, researchers say.
Scott Stine, a geographer with California State University, East Bay, says our entire perception of California’s climate may be off. “What we have come to consider normal is profoundly wet,” Stine told National Geographic magazine earlier this year. “We’re kidding ourselves if we think that’s going to continue, with or without global warming.”
California’s Climate Plan could be model for the rest of us June 28, 2008
Posted by bruce mcgranahan in climate change, energy.Tags: climate, energy
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It could serve as a blueprint not only for the rest of the United States, but also for other big polluting nations like China and India, planners and environmental groups said. “This is of tremendous importance, not only for California,” Mary Nichols, chairman of the influential California Air Resources Board (CARB), said on a conference call with reporters on Wednesday. “By taking action here … we will be able to help motivate other states in our nation.”
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – California on Thursday took a major step forward on its global warming fight by unveiling an ambitious plan for clean cars, renewable energy and stringent caps on big polluting industries.
The initiatives include implementing a cap-and-trade program on carbon dioxide emissions that will require buildings and appliances to use less energy, oil companies to make cleaner fuels, and utilities to provide a third of their energy from renewable sources like wind and solar power.
The program will also encourage development of walkable cities with shorter commutes, high-speed rail as an alternative to air travel, and will require more hybrid and hydrogen-fueled vehicles both to move goods and people, CARB said.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose landmark 2006 law aimed at reducing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions prompted CARB’s plan, supports the program, Nichols said.
“AMBITIOUS, FAR-REACHING”
CARB said the measures will benefit residents of the most populous U.S. state by reducing pollution-related illnesses such as asthma and bronchitis, and by stimulating investments in new energy technologies that will create jobs.
Nichols declined to speculate on what the program will cost for individual business sectors such as the utility industry, but said the initiatives overall should benefit the state’s economy by about 1 percent starting in 2020. <MORE>
Announcements from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program June 26, 2008
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Announcements from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program
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Final Report of Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.4 (Preliminary review of adaptation options for climate-sensitive ecosystems and resources) posted online. See also press release (dtd 20 June 2008) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and brochure. (links posted 20 June 2008) |
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Final Report of Synthesis and Assessment Product 3.3 (Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate) posted online. See also press release (dtd 19 June 2008) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and brochure. (links posted 19 June 2008) |
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U.S. Climate Change Science Program Scientific Assessment of the Effects of Global Change on the United States. A report of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources of the National Science and Technology Council. See also press release (dtd 29 May, 2008). (links posted 29 May 2008) |
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Final Report of Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.3 (The effects of climate change on agriculture, land resources, water resources, and biodiversity) posted online. See also press release (dtd 27 May 2008) from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). (links posted 27 May 2008) |
Warming climate means weather extremes June 24, 2008
Posted by bruce mcgranahan in climate change.Tags: climate, global warming, resources, weather extremes
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Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate Final Report, Synthesis and Assessment Product 3.3
CCSP, 2008: Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate. Regions of Focus: North America, Hawaii, Caribbean, and U.S. Pacific Islands. A Report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research. [Thomas R. Karl, Gerald A. Meehl, Christopher D. Miller, Susan J. Hassol, Anne M. Waple, and William L. Murray (eds.)]. Department of Commerce, NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, Washington, D.C., USA, 164 pp.
