Al Gore says Obama Must Veto 'Atrocity' of Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline

Former vice-president says oil pipeline is 'really a losing proposition' and demands climate plan promised at inauguration.

Al Gore has called on Barack Obama to veto the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, describing it as "an atrocity".

The former vice-president said in an interview on Friday that he hoped Obama would follow the example of British Columbia, which last week rejected a similar pipeline project, and shut down the Keystone XL.

"I certainly hope that he will veto that now that the Canadians have publicly concluded that it is not safe to take a pipeline across British Columbia to ports on the Pacific," he told the Guardian. "I really can't imagine that our country would say: 'Oh well. Take it right over parts of the Ogallala aquifer', our largest and most important source of ground water in the US. It's really a losing proposition."

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http://climatedesk.org/2013/06/al-gore-says-obama-must-veto-atrocity-o

Methane Leaks Could Negate Climate Benefits of US Natural Gas Boom: Report

Reduction in carbon emissions triggered by America's shift from coal to gas is being offset by a sharp rise in methane.

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Methane leaks could undo the climate change benefits of America's natural gas boom, a new report said on Tuesday.

The report, produced by the Centre for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), said America's shift from coal to gas had produced important climate gains.

Carbon dioxide emissions fell last year to their lowest point since 1994, according to the Department of Energy. Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions were 12% below 2005 levels.

But the report said those reductions were not enough, on their own, to escape the most catastrophic consequences of climate change.

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http://climatedesk.org/2013/06/methane-leaks-could-negate-climate-bene

Carbon Bubble Will Plunge the World Into Another Financial Crisis - Report

Trillions of dollars at risk as stock markets inflate value of fossil fuels that may have to remain buried forever, experts warn.

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The world could be heading for a major economic crisis as stock markets inflate an investment bubble in fossil fuels to the tune of trillions of dollars, according to leading economists.

"The financial crisis has shown what happens when risks accumulate unnoticed," said Lord (Nicholas) Stern, a professor at the London School of Economics. He said the risk was "very big indeed" and that almost all investors and regulators were failing to address it.

The so-called "carbon bubble" is the result of an over-valuation of oil, coal and gas reserves held by fossil fuel companies. According to a report published on Friday, at least two-thirds of these reserves will have to remain underground if the world is to meet existing internationally agreed targets to avoid the threshold for "dangerous" climate change. If the agreements hold, these reserves will be in effect unburnable and so worthless - leading to massive market losses. But the stock markets are betting on countries' inaction on climate change.

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http://climatedesk.org/2013/04/carbon-bubble-will-plunge-the-world-int

Drought That Ravaged US Crops Likely to Worsen in 2013, Forecast Warns

NOAA predicts tough spring for already struggling farmers as growing demand for water leaves US more exposed dry seasons.

The historic drought that laid waste to America's grain and corn belt is unlikely to ease before the middle of this year, a government forecast warned on Thursday.

The annual spring outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted hotter, drier conditions across much of the US, including parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, where farmers have been fighting to hang on to crops of winter wheat.

The three-month forecast noted an additional hazard, however, for the midwest: with heavy, late snows setting up conditions for flooding along the Red and Souris rivers in North Dakota.

"It's a mixed bag of flooding, drought and warm weather," Laura Furgione, the deputy director of NOAA's weather service told a conference call with reporters.

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http://climatedesk.org/2013/03/drought-that-ravaged-us-crops-likely-to

Climate Change Denying Congressman to Head Subcommittee on Climate Change

Rep. Chris Stewart has written Glenn Beck-endorsed end times novels. Now he might be dealing with the real thing.

Wikimedia Commons

As the new chairman of a key House subcommittee on the environment, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) will be one of the GOP's leading actors when it comes to the Environmental Protection Agency and the growing threats from climate change. So with his first hearing as chairman on tap for Wednesday, what does the freshman Republican-and end times novelist-think about anthropogenic global warming?

He's not sure.

In response to an inquiry from Mother Jones, Stewart's office emailed a statement suggesting that more study was needed before he could safely say whether-as 97 percent of scientists believe-humans are responsible for rising global temperatures. And even if they are, he explained, that doesn't mean we should act:

The world's climate is changing. That has always been true. Our global climate is always in flux, and always will be. So while I accept that our climate is changing, I also understand that a great deal of research still needs to be accomplished to understand why, as well as to discover the impacts man might be having on that change.

Climate change is also an extraordinarily complicated discipline. Because of this, it is vital that we ensure that policy decisions are based upon sound science. Before we make any long-lasting policy decisions that could negatively affect our economy, we need to be certain that the science behind our decisions is sound.

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http://climatedesk.org/2013/03/climate-change-denying-congressman-to-h

Yikes! Without Top Predators, CO2 Emissions Skyrocket

Wolves and bears do a lot more than hunt.

Dennis from Atlanta/Flickr

Top predators do more than regulate prey populations (think wolves and deer). They also regulate carbon dioxide emissions. At least they do in freshwater ecosystems-where if you take away the top predators CO₂ emissions rise a staggering 93 percent.

This according to a new paper in the latest Nature Geoscience that holds ramifications for a lot more than marshes. "Predators are disappearing from our ecosystems at alarming rates because of hunting and fishing pressure and because of human induced changes to their habitats," said lead author Trisha Atwood, at the University of British Columbia.

I wrote in an earlier post here on research showing how the loss of biodiversity (itself often a function of the loss of top predators) likely alters CO₂ dynamics and other issues of global change as much as greenhouse gases.

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http://climatedesk.org/2013/02/yikes-without-top-predators-co2-emissio

Secret Funding Helped Build Vast Network of Climate Denial Thinktanks

Anonymous billionaires donated $120m to more than 100 anti-climate groups working to discredit climate change science.

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Conservative billionaires used a secretive funding route to channel nearly $120m (£77m) to more than 100 groups casting doubt about the science behind climate change, the Guardian has learned.

The funds, doled out between 2002 and 2010, helped build a vast network of thinktanks and activist groups working to a single purpose: to redefine climate change from neutral scientific fact to a highly polarising "wedge issue" for hardcore conservatives.

The millions were routed through two trusts, Donors Trust and the Donors Capital Fund, operating out of a generic town house in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC. Donors Capital caters to those making donations of $1m or more.

Whitney Ball, chief executive of the Donors Trust told the Guardian that her organisation assured wealthy donors that their funds would never by diverted to liberal causes.

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http://climatedesk.org/2013/02/secret-funding-helped-build-vast-networ

Sea Change: The Bay of Bengal's Vanishing Islands

Rapid erosion and rising sea levels are increasingly threatening the existence of islands off the coast of Bangladesh and India.

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Schoolteacher Nurul Hashem lives in a grass hut set among coconut palms and pine trees, yards from a pristine beach on the sparkling Bay of Bengal. It sounds idyllic, but he longs to return to the island of Kutubdia, 50 miles away, where his family home has been swallowed by ever-rising tides and is now out at sea under several feet of water.

To make matters worse, the local government, which welcomed him when he arrived three years ago, wants him and thousands of other families who have fled to the coast from the island, to make way for an airport and hotel developments.

Kutubdia is one of many islands off Bangladesh and India affected by increasingly rapid erosion and some of the fastest recorded sea-level rises in the world. These "vanishing islands" are shrinking dramatically. Kutubdia has halved in size in 20 years, to about 100 sq km. Since 1991 six villages on the island of fishermen and salt workers have been swamped and about 40,000 people have fled. Like Hashem, most have relocated to the coast near Cox's Bazar.

"The sea water is rising every day," says Hashem, who calls himself a climate refugee.

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http://climatedesk.org/2013/01/sea-change-the-bay-of-bengals-vanishing

How Climate Change Could Wipe Out the Western Forests

If current trends continue, the landscapes of states like New Mexico and Arizona may soon be unrecognizable.

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The fire that burned through Forest Canyon, a breathtaking stretch of wilderness ringed by snowy peaks in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, started in October and burned long past the end of the fire season. Trees still smoldered in late December, and the smoke mixed with dry snow blowing in the air. Known as the Fern Lake Fire, the blaze tore through 3,500 acres of land the federal government set aside a century ago both to provide public enjoyment and protect it from human destruction.

One of those missions has been accomplished: 3.1 million people visit the park each year. Increasingly, however, the destruction it was meant to prevent is encroaching. Like most wildfires, the Fern Lake Fire was the work of careless individuals. Most likely campers let an illegal campfire get out of control. But science suggests our collective effort may have made it much worse.

Last year was the hottest on record in the United States, and the fall weather was unseasonably warm in the Rockies. The forest was weakened by prolonged drought; that November was the driest ever recorded in the park. An epidemic of bark beetles, which thrive in warmer conditions, was already in the process of killing off thousands of trees. The area's first heavy snow came unusually late, in mid-December, and only then did the fire slow down.

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http://climatedesk.org/2013/01/how-climate-change-could-wipe-out-the-w

Climate Change Moves to Forefront in Obama's Second Inaugural Address

President's affirmation of climate science - more prominent than in the campaign - wins praise from environmental groups.

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Barack Obama said more about climate change in his inauguration speech - and expressed it more forcefully - than he did at any point in the 2012 election campaign and during much of his first term.

Climate change occupied a significant chunk of Monday's speech, and Obama did not stint on the language, suggesting it was a religious and patriotic duty to deal with the challenge.

"We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations," Obama said. He made a carefully calibrated appeal to Republicans, situating a transition from fossil fuels to clean energy in a religious and conservative framework of God and constitution.

"That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That's what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared," Obama said.

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http://climatedesk.org/2013/01/climate-change-moves-to-forefront-in-ob

Climate Change Inaction the Fault of Environmental Groups, Report Says

Academic paper largely clears President Obama of blame over failure to pass climate legislation through Congress.

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A Harvard academic has put the blame squarely for America's failure to act on climate change on environmental groups. She also argues that there is little prospect Barack Obama will put climate change on the top of his agenda in his second term.

In a research paper, due to be presented at a Harvard forum next month, scholar Theda Skocpol in effect accuses the DC-based environmental groups of political malpractice, saying they were blind to extreme Republican opposition to their efforts.

Environmental groups overlooked growing opposition to environmental protections among conservatives voters and, underestimated the rising force of the Tea Party, believing - wrongly, as it turned out - they could still somehow win over Republican members of Congress through "insider grand bargaining".

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http://climatedesk.org/2013/01/climate-change-inaction-the-fault-of-en

Do Cities Really Take the Lead on Climate Change?

Don't hold your breath for the feds.

Ô£ø PhilippeLPhotographyÔ£ø pifou95 Ô£ø/Flickr

Climate change is at least a distant fifth in line for attention from the federal government, behind sequestration, debt ceiling, gun control, and immigration. Couple that position with the fact that many Congressional lawmakers don't even think warming exists, and the United States isn't likely to take meaningful climate action anytime soon. That means it's up to localities to take the lead - states in a general sense, but really cities themselves when it comes to the details.

To better understand the motivation for local action, UCLA urban planner Rui Wang has been studying how cities go about taking action on climate change. Wang recently reviewed California planning surveys to determine climate actions taken in 2008 and 2009 by the state's 480 cities. In an upcoming issue of Urban Affairs Review, Wang reports that cities tend to adopt climate change policies in increments - pushing simple policies first, then in some cases working toward more challenging ones.

In other words, writes Wang, cities pick for the "lower-hanging fruits." (Even in California, with state environmental laws like S.B. 375 and CEQA in place, cities must implement the policies.)

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http://climatedesk.org/2013/01/do-cities-really-take-the-lead-on-clima

Barack Obama 'Seriously Considering' Hosting Climate Summit

Campaign groups say US president could use bipartisan summit to launch a national climate strategy.

Barack Obama may intervene directly on climate changeby hosting a summit at the White House early in his second term, environmental groups say.

They say the White House has given encouraging signals to a proposal for Obama to use the broad-based and bipartisan summit to launch a national climate action strategy.

"What we talked about with the White House is using it as catalyst not just for the development of a national strategy but for mobilising people all over the country at every level," said Bob Doppelt, executive director of the Resource Innovation Group, the Oregon-based thinktank that has been pushing for the high-level meeting. He said it would not be a one-off event.

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http://climatedesk.org/2013/01/barack-obama-seriously-considering-host

Could Chuck Hagel Turn Out To Be a Climate Hawk?

The likely defense secretary nominee has been confused about climate change... but concerned about it, too.

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Chuck Hagel, who's expected to be nominated as secretary of defense this week, has long been confused about climate change ... and yet concerned about it too. He has a history of obstructing climate action, but also a record of elevating climate as a national security issue. If he's confirmed to head the Department of Defense, he might ultimately show himself to be a climate hawk - though not one who hews to green orthodoxy or any party line.

Confused Chuck

On the one hand, Hagel - a Republican senator from Nebraska from 1997 to 2008 and now co-chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board - has professed many views you might associate with a climate denier.

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http://climatedesk.org/2013/01/could-chuck-hagel-turn-out-to-be-a-clim