Climate study suggests rapid warming ahead for New England coastal waters

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“Temperature surge likely to have dramatic impacts on aquatic life

“There may be more trouble ahead for New England-based fishermen, as a new NOAA study shows that ocean temperatures along the U.S. Northeast Shelf are projected to warm twice as fast as previously projected and almost three times faster than the global average. The findings are based on a complex analysis of several different climate models.”  summitcountyvoice.com

GR:  To counter attacks by the energy industry, climate scientists have been cautious with their projections.  They have avoided emphasizing worst-case possibilities. They have not thrown down their gloves and insisted that planners prepare for the worst. Consequently, continuing investigations keep turning up inarguable facts that conditions will be worse than projected. Like this one.

How Much Ice is Right? Collaboratives and forest ecosystems

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“In my mind the right amount of trees, wildfire, juniper, bark beetles, is whatever exists. All of these are controlled by climate, just like the amount of ice that covered the continents and mountains was dictated by climate. Climate will decide what density of trees can grow on any particular site.

LOGGING IS NOT BENIGN

“One of the assumptions of many collaboratives, agencies like the Forest Service, and of course the timber industry is that logging emulates natural processes. There is a very small amount of truth in that logging as well as wildfire, beetles and other natural agents do kill trees. However, that is like suggesting that someone shot to death by a gun is analogous to dying from old age because in both cases, the person is dead. The sad truth is that most so-called “restoration” is degrading our forest ecosystems.” www.thewildlifenews.com

GR:  Wuerthner debunks many of the forest management myths and irresponsible policies. I think his most important point is that logging, the harvest of timber, is always harmful in all its guises.  The U. S. Forest Service, on behalf of timber companies, has developed numerous false arguments that support logging.

I agree that the current mass extinction would slow if we did what Wuerthner advises–just leave the forests alone.  That is true, but there are other serious problems.  Careful scientific analyses of global warming projections indicate that by century end, many forests will be gone.  Climate is changing too fast for the trees to move to new locations or adapt to the new conditions.

Worldwide, agribusiness is clearing and replacing them with crops and pastures that supply food to the bulging human population.

We are past the point where improving land-use practices can save nature. We are at the point where our environmental writers need to attack greenhouse gas emissions, and human population.

Did The Human-Warmed Ocean Just Kill 8,000 Mures?

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“Around the world, mass sea creature die-offs have been occurring at an alarming rate. Off the US West Coast alone, the past three years have seen severe losses along almost ever link of the marine food chain from sea stars, to salps, to crabs, to sea lions. Many of these deaths have been linked directly or indirectly to impacts caused by a chronic warming of the region’s ocean surface dubbed ‘the hot blob.’

“And sadly, looking at the NASA MODIS satellite data, we do see an indication of the kind of algae bloom that may be depleting the waters near Prince William Sound of that life-giving oxygen. We see the tell-tale greens and blues of a large bloom of the kind that can rob waters both of nutrients to support fish life and of oxygen itself. Visual analysis alone cannot positively identify this kind of bloom with 100 percent certainty. Water samples must be taken in the area and analyzed. But scientists asking the very pertinent question — did global warming cause this? — may only need to take a look at the composition of this bloom to get their answer.

“An answer that won’t save the thousands of already dead Mures, but that might help us build the resolve to prevent more catastrophes like this one. To stop burning fossil fuels and halt the accumulation of a terrible build-up of heat forcing that is ripping the very underpinnings of life in the oceans asunder.”  robertscribbler.com

GR:  More details on the die-off we heard about this morning.

Grazing Monitoring Report–2015

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“According to a report by the Center for Biological Diversity, the federal government spent $143.6 million dollars on grazing programs in fiscal year 2014 but grazing receipts only totaled $18.5 million. The Feds pay for a lot—grazing employees, fences, corrals—but do not recoup their costs because they charge grazers 6.72 percent of fees charged by private land owners in the West.

Photo:  Cow manure in Taylor Lake.

“Ranchers are emboldened because they view our national public lands as theirs to spoil. While the standoff at Malheur has drawn considerable attention, closer to home, this sense of entitlement is also present. In the Klamath National Forest, a growing number of ranchers are not removing their cattle on time, often merely leaving them to wander home. This is met without punishment by the Forest Service, which further encourages this sense of entitlement.”  www.wildcalifornia.org

GR:  Ecologists keep saying that the way livestock grazing is managed is too destructive, and any of us can go out and see that.  Nevertheless, the U. S. Bureau of Land Management and the U. S. Forest Service keep paying the ranchers to keep on destroying the biological diversity and productivity of the public lands.  The reason is inertia–continuation of old policies, and fear–fear of reprisals from politicians supported by the livestock industry.

Groups Sue Over North Carolina’s Ag Gag Law, Saying It Violates The Constitution

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“Last year, North Carolina made it nearly impossible for citizens to legally gather evidence on and report instances of wrongdoing — animals being mistreated by farm workers, for instance, or pollution being dumped into a stream. Now, a group of organizations is suing over the law, saying it tramples on North Carolinians’ constitutional rights.

“In the lawsuit, filed this week against North Carolina’s attorney general, the groups allege that North Carolina’s House Bill 405 “attacks the core values embodied by the federal and state constitutional protections of speech and the press” and “should be declared unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.” The law in question allows business owners to sue people who take photos, video, or any other data from their property without their consent. That in and of itself presents constitutional questions, but it’s the law’s breadth that’s so concerning, said lead council for the case David Muraskin.

“This is a law designed to gag North Carolinian citizens,” Muraskin, a food safety and health attorney at Public Justice, said. “If you have a parent in a nursing home or a child in daycare, you should be concerned about this law.”   thinkprogress.org

GR:  If you suspect someone’s behavior is dangerous you should report it.  But if you see potentially dangerous or illegal activity by a farmer in North Carolina, you can go to jail for reporting it.

Starved Dead Birds Are Washing Up On Alaska Beaches, And No One Knows Why

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“Seabird die-offs in Alaska are natural events, but the massive rate of starved dead birds washing ashore this month is as puzzling as it is unprecedented.
“Two weeks ago an estimated 8,000 murres were found laying dead by David Irons, a retired seabird biologist from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “I never thought I would see that many dead birds on one beach,” Irons told ThinkProgress.
“It’s fair to say that that’s never been recorded before,” said Rob Kaler, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seabird biologist, in an interview with ThinkProgress.”  thinkprogress.org

GR:  There have been numerous unusual die-offs in recent years.  The best guess is that the death’s are related to shifting weather and food sources brought about by global warming.

US Not Prepared for Grid Terror

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“The federal government is not prepared to deal with a cyberattack that cripples the power grid, Ted Koppel warns in his new book, “Lights Out.”

“The current secretary of homeland security is sure that a plan to deal with the aftermath of a cyberattack on the grid exists, but he doesn’t know any details of the plan,” Koppel writes. “As of this writing, there is no specific plan.”

“Koppel also states, “It would be comforting to report that those agencies charged with responding to disaster are adequately prepared to deal with the consequences of a cyberattack on on the grid. They are not.”  From: climatecrocks.com

GR:  Ted Koppel’s book is the reason I started stockpiling supplies.

 

Warming Could Mean Major Thaw For Alaska Permafrost

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“If you’d asked permafrost researcher Vladimir Romanovsky five years ago if he thought the permafrost of the North Slope of Alaska was in danger of substantial thaw this century because of global warming, he would have said no. The permanently frozen soils of the northern reaches of the state are much colder, and so more stable than the warmer, more vulnerable permafrost of interior Alaska, he would have said.

“I cannot say it anymore” he told journalists last month at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.  From: www.climatecentral.org

GR:  The growing threat of melting permafrost is one more reason to cut CO2 emissions now.

 

Balancing hydropower and biodiversity in the Amazon, Congo, and Mekong

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Dam Construction in Brazil

Construction of Santo Antônio Dam in Brazil

GR:  Why don’t conservationists give up their pleas for river ecosystems.  After a century of effort, they should have learned that investors will do nothing that might jeopardize profits.

From Science Policy Forum:  “The world’s most biodiverse river basins—the Amazon, Congo, and Mekong—are experiencing an unprecedented boom in hydropower dam construction. These projects address important energy needs, but advocates often overestimate economic benefits and underestimate far-reaching effects on biodiversity and critically important fisheries.

“We call for more sophisticated and holistic hydropower planning, including validation of technologies intended to mitigate environmental impacts.” –Authored by 38 scientists.