EPA' Administrator Jackson (image emagazine.com)

Let’s just say the sooner we get on with this effort the better.  As NWF’s Senior Scientist Amanda Staudt blogs today, a new report by the Nobel Prize winning U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says carbon pollution induced climate change will make the drought and flooding events that have battered the United States more frequent in years to come.  

Right now, our nation’s power plants can belch carbon dioxide pollution into our air without any limits. A recent piece in the New York Review of Books by Yale economist William Nordhaus aptly describes why it is urgent that we address this source of carbon pollution:

 

[The] burning coal is very dirty, releasing both conventional pollutants and greenhouse gases. Per unit of energy, coal emits 27 percent more CO2 than oil and 78 percent more CO2 than natural gas. . . . In the aggregate, the emissions of CO2 from coal-fired electricity- generating facilities are the largest single industrial source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. They make up one third of all emissions in an industry that constitutes only about one half of one percent of the US economy! Moreover, studies indicate that reducing coal-fired generation is the least expensive way for the US to reduce its carbon emissions in the near term (emphasis added).

The new pollution limits will be established into two parts. In January, the administration will propose limits that any new power plant must meet before it can be constructed.  NWF expects that the critically important second part of the standards - new carbon pollution limits on the nation’s existing power plants – will be proposed  later in the Spring of 2012.  

This is where you come in! The public will have an opportunity to (and needs to) comment in support of setting strong air pollution standards that reduce carbon pollution. Polluters will surely go all out to push back on this effort and we need to stop them in their tracks.

Visit our Action Center and see how you can help this effort!

Focusing on High-Impact Events that Affect People and Communities  

This IPCC report stands out in the extent to which it focuses on the climate changes that people are likely to detect in their day-to-day lives and the direct implications for managing these risks. Past IPCC reports have concentrated on gradual changes in mean temperatures and other climatic variables. But, aside from some plants and animals, most of us aren’t sensitive enough to climatic variables to notice small shifts in the mean. What we will notice is more severe heat waves, heavier rainfall events, more intense and longer droughts, and other extremes.  

The expert panel found evidence that many extreme events are already changing, and they projected that climate change will increase the severity of impacts from future weather and climate disasters. The report even points out that climate change “can result in unprecedented weather and climate events.” Some specific conclusions include:

• It is “virtually certain” that hot temperature extremes will become hotter and more frequent. Specifically, “a 1-in-20 year hottest day is likely to become a 1-in-2 year event by the end of the 21st century in most regions” if carbon pollution continues unabated.
• Heavy precipitation events are likely to become more frequent, especially in the high latitudes, tropics, and in the winter for northern mid-latitudes. This could mean more heavy snowfall events for parts of the United States.
• It is likely that rainfall rates and maximum wind speed will increase for tropical cyclones.
• Droughts in some regions—including Central North America—are expected to intensify as these places have less precipitation or more evaporation.

We Need to Step Up Our Disaster Risk Management

Existing strategies for managing weather and climate disasters leave us vulnerable to current weather and climate disasters, much less more severe events in a future warmer climate. Our preparedness hasn’t kept up with trends in population, infrastructure development, and other factors that make communities more vulnerable to extreme events. This conclusion won’t come as news to communities across the nation and world that have been reeling from an extraordinary year of extreme weather events. U.S. damages for 2011 sum in the tens of billions of dollars.

Preparing for future disasters is intertwined with steps necessary to address climate change. The report authors make it clear that an integrated approach provides multiple benefits for successfully reducing risk. Ideally, the strategy needs coordinate efforts across national to local scales of government. In other words, we need a national strategy in place to deal with these risks, and at the same time communities need to assess their vulnerability and start taking actions to protect themselves.

The report also highlights that a portfolio of actions is necessary for reducing disaster risk and providing livelihood benefits, and that ecosystem-based approaches are part of that solution.  Let’s hope we can be smart enough to make these investments in our forests, natural lands, wetlands, and biodiversity, so that we can actually reap these multiple benefits.  Both for our sake and for the sake of our treasured wildlife.

Flooding in downtown Memphis, May 2011 (via Flickr's Chris Wieland)

As we head into the final months of 2011, you hear a lot of talk about how it may be remembered most for its extreme weather. But a new report is set to warn the intensity of this year’s floods, heat and drought aren’t freak occurrences - they’re the direct result of man-made climate change:

For a world already weary of weather catastrophes, the latest warning from top climate scientists paints a grim future: More floods, more heat waves, more droughts and greater costs to deal with them.

A draft summary of an international scientific report obtained by The Associated Press says the extremes caused by global warming could eventually grow so severe that some locations become “increasingly marginal as places to live.”

The report from the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change marks a change in climate science, from focusing on subtle shifts in average temperatures to concentrating on the harder-to-analyze freak events that grab headlines, hurt economies and kill people.

“The extremes are a really noticeable aspect of climate change,” said Jerry Meehl, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “I think people realize that the extremes are where we are going to see a lot of the impacts of climate change.”

For all the talk about the cost of acting to cut carbon pollution, the report is a reminder that Washington’s failure so far to put America on the fast track to clean energy comes with high costs of its own. The new IPCC report is due out later this month, and you can be sure you’ll be seeing a lot more about it here at NWF’s Wildlife Promise.

Anne Thompson took an in-depth look at the issue last night on NBC Nightly News, concluding, “Today, no one can deny that extreme weather is here to stay”:

Dr. Amanda Staudt is the lead author of the National Wildlife Federation’s series of scientific reports on how the climate crisis is fueling extreme weather. Here’s her take on the reports:

Two things jump out at me about the new IPCC study and the segment on NBC. First, the longstanding reticence about connecting extreme weather events to climate change is clearly fading away. As more and more places have experienced record-setting extremes—from the flooding in Thailand to the drought and wildfires in Texas—there is increasing awareness that something is out of whack with our climate and that these events are increasingly hitting home.

Second, the conversation is quickly and necessarily shifting to what communities can do to reduce their vulnerability to such events. The IPCC reports devotes a lot of attention to what makes different places more or less vulnerable and how to prepare for and respond to these risks. As the costs of these extreme events continues to rise, these actions to adapt to climate change are becoming increasingly attractive.

To learn more about how global warming is affecting weather in your community, go to NWF.org/ExtremeWeather. And to learn more about the cost of inaction if we don’t cut carbon pollution now, read the NRDC report The Cost of Climate Change.

David W. Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College. He is Senior Advisor to the President of Oberlin, as well as a trustee of Bioneers. (Oberlin College)

It is telling that in 1988, before the first proceedings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were published and climate change began to emerge in the media as an issue of public concern, Orr convened the first conference ever on the role of the banking industry in minimizing climate effects and advancing self-interest by avoiding loans for inefficient energy projects.  It would be difficult to identify another author on the modern dilemma of climate change who has studied the issue more deeply, taught more patiently, or worked harder to apply the lessons learned than Dr. Orr.

His latest effort helps us map where we are now, identify our blinders, and discern the best options for the future.  Scientists have identified humans and our penchant for burning fossil fuels as the biggest driver of climate destabilization amidst the complex interplay of variables that influence the habitability of earth. Orr, similarly, helps us isolate the most important questions amidst the din of information about the climate and the human prospect for survival, illustrating how we can better address a number of other social priorities by focusing the policy agenda on energy and climate.  “Adoption of a robust energy policy,” he posits, “is the fastest and cheapest way to improve the economy, environment, health, and equity and increase security.”

Readers looking for purely technological fixes or who imagine that a series of small shifts will match the scale of the challenge, are encouraged, in an entertaining style, to re-evaluate key trend lines and revisit criteria for effective policy, educational, and design options.  “Realistic hope,” writes  Orr, “requires us to check our optimism at the door and enter the future without illusion.”

David Orr's previous books include The Nature of Design, Ecological Literacy, The Last Refuge, and Earth in Mind. (OUP)

As in his previous books and essays, Orr’s insights come through the work he’s done: in the last three decades, he’s been a pioneer in local community initiatives such as localizing food and other purchasing and designing buildings that define what is meant by “green.”  The latest effort at Oberlin, described in Down to the Wire, aims to eliminate greenhouse gas pollutants and addresses all facets of the Oberlin community in its larger ecological context, from forests and wildlife to renewable energy and agriculture.  Each new book by Dr. Orr, thus, is also an illuminating new chapter in the application of ideas about social, economic and environmental sustainability, providing powerful precedents that inspire local change efforts all across the US and beyond.

McNair Wagner, Robert Boyd and I woke up very early this morning (7am CET = 1am EST), put on our warmest clothes and made our way to the Bella Center for the U.N. Climate Conference. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of different organizations from all over the world represented at booths brimming with information. In a single (although very large) room, I was able to collect materials ranging from the IPCC's report, "Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis" to the special Copenhagen edition of Ode Magazine ("for intelligent optimists"). 

We walked through the exhibition hall, picked up a daily programme and went our separate ways. My first sessions was "Taking Action at Home" with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in the U.S. Center. The main room was full more than 30 minutes before the event began, so I watched on a screen from the lobby just outside. I was in good company, though, because I ran into McNair, Robert and Energy Action Coalition's Executive Director Jessy Tolkan. Administrator Jackson's major announcement for the day was that the EPA has found once and for all that greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten public health and the environment and confirmed the scientific findings that GHGs are at unprecedented levels due to human activity.  Read the official news release here.

Later in the day, I got a look at what communities are doing about those GHGs, in the form of Smart Grid technology (which we've written about before here) and the role of regulators in promoting and developing it in both Europe and California. In case you're not familiar with smart grids, they allow for significant improvements in the efficiency of energy distribution due to better monitoring, controls and storage capabilities. Smart meters would allow homeowners to monitor their energy consumption in real time and power companies could measure actual demand with greater accuracy, enabling them to meet that demand with minimal waste and losses. These grids also have increased ability to manage both central (power plant) electricity generation as well as distributed generation (small-scale solar and wind, etc.). As more and more electric cars hit the road, households will also be able to assist in energy storage (which can be very difficult to do on a large scale), again to prevent waste and energy loss. (Visit the U.S. Department of Energy's website for more information about this technology.)

My last session of the evening was titled, "Sustainable Living or Sustainable Building." Panelists discussed simple changes that we can all make to our living spaces, such as insulation and lighting retrofits, that will not only make them significantly more efficient, but more comfortable as well. The speaker discussing building insulation reinforced my excitement to start weatherization volunteer/training programs throughout the Southeast, which I learned a good deal about just last weekend by attending the BuildINSULATE! workshop at Warren Wilson College. You can watch a video about the workshop here, but also expect to hear a lot more about weatherization programs from me in the future.

Every county in the United States has a weatherization assistance program to help insulate and upgrade low-income homes. The Warren Wilson INSULATE! crew has come up with a great model that can be easily adapted to any inhabited part of the U.S., which will make homes more efficient (leading to less GHGs emitted in the future), reduce rising energy costs that can account for more than 50% of household spending in certain cases, and train participants in proper weatherization techniques that they can use in their own homes and communities, perhaps even creating a source of income for those seeking employment in the new "green" economy.

The United Nations Environment Program released an excellent report summarizing scientific evidence from over 400 sources that have emerged since the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report.

This compendium affirms that climate change is happening faster than previous estimates predicted.

As Juliet Eilperin highlights in New Analysis Brings Dire Forecast of 6.3 Degree Temperature Increase:

“…climate researchers now predict the planet will warm by 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century even if the world’s leaders fulfill their most ambitious climate pledges, a much faster and broader scale of change than forecast just two years ago.”

As my good friend Dr. Bob Corell, who chairs the Climate Action Initiative that reviewed the report, says about this amount of global temperature rise: “We don’t want to go there.”

Since 40 to 70 percent of the world’s species will have significant extinctions if temperatures rise more than 7.2°F, it’s time for those of us dedicated to helping safeguard wildlife speak up now.

Our legislators will be releasing a climate plan of action this week.

If we let our voices be heard along with the more than 70% of likely voters who support comprehensive climate and clean energy action we can help protect wildlife from the worst impacts of a warming world.

If we don’t speak up for wildlife now, who will?

Roseanne Skirble of Voice of America reports:

“The UNEP report presents scientific evidence that has emerged since the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its last report in 2007. The “Climate Change Science Compendium” affirms that climate change is accelerating faster than previous estimates.  UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner says evidence of human-generated warming is “unequivocal” and “just in time for us to appreciate how the magnitude of change, the scale of change and the pace of change are in fact occurring.”

Findings from some 400 peer-reviewed studies from scientific journals and research institutes are woven into the report’s chapters on earth systems, ecosystems, ice, oceans and climate management. The data show that global carbon emissions – which rose 1.1 percent from 1990 to 1999 – climbed 3.5 percent from 2000-2007.

Rapid glacier-melt, sea-level rise and ocean acidification will become complex problems, Steiner says, in a world whose population is expected to grow to nine billion people by 2050. “And herein lies another vital message in the report,” he says. “When we talk about management, essentially we need to take the science that we now have at our disposal and think about how we are going to manage in response to these developments.”  

See full article >>

Since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its report in 2007, climate impacts are unfolding faster and climate change projections are getting worse. Some models have “business as usual” warming at 5 degrees C.

If we keep this up our business as usual will mean that we won’t have any more business as usual, as climate change disrupts business and impacts wildlife and people around the planet.

Join Dr. Stephen Schneider at 3 pm today to learn the emerging scientific view. The call in information is Call-in Number: 1-712-432-3100 Conference Code: 253385

So what did the panelists talk about? Those reliable conservative bogeymen, the liberal media, pop culture and Hollywood elites.

They all started with one liners on Al Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio and Barbra Streisand. The audience ate it up.

In fact, the communications director for Sen. James Inhofe spent virtually his entire presentation mocking celebrities and journalists who’d expressed support for or reported on climate action.

Then panelists moved on to attacking that liberal media for reporting all that science from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. For some reason, a favorite target was Ann Curry. I mean, I expected the potshots at MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and CNN’s Miles O’Brien, but even Ann Curry is controversial to these people?

The more I’ve listened to these speakers, the more I’ve realized that for most of these deniers, it’s not about the science. They can only see the world in terms of left and right, so they’ve absorbed global warming into that broader paradigm of partisan politics and culture wars.

But as National Wildlife Federation President & CEO Larry Schweiger says, “Confronting global warming is not an issue of left and right. It’s a matter of right and wrong.” We have a moral responsibility to confront climate change now to protect our children’s future.

Fortunately, while attacking the liberal media, pop culture, and Hollywood elites may play well on Rush Limbaugh, it’s falling flat in the halls of Congress. U.S. Senators like John Warner, Norm Coleman, and Elizabeth Dole recognize that climate action is not a partisan issue. They’re joining a bipartisan coalition supporting the Climate Security Act, a bill that would establish a cap-and-trade system to cut our carbon emissions.

And while President Bush has stonewalled on climate action, every one of the leading presidential contenders has expressed support for mandatory cuts in carbon emissions.

So maybe the deniers should keep playing to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Pretty soon, those may be the only allies they’ll have left.

Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today, along with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), for their work to alert the world about global warming.

Al Gore’s work has helped educate the world about this enormous challenge, and his commitment to environmental issues runs very deep. His book, Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, published in 1992, is certainly worth a read for a primer on global warming.

NWF is thrilled that Al Gore’s tireless efforts to tackle global warming and devotion to environmental issues are being recognized by the Nobel committee.

Read about what NWF’s staff has to say about this exciting announcement!