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Antarctica’s about to lose a New York City-sized chunk

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:20:00 -0800

Grist - By Jess Zimmerman - Feb. 03 - A NASA photograph of the crack across Pine Island Glacier Normally when icebergs split off from glaciers, it’s called “calving,” but I think it would be fair to say that Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier is about to have a cow. Pine Island Glacier, which

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“Winter Jam Canceled Due to Lack of Winter”

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:38:00 -0800

Grist - By Jess Zimmerman - Jan. 27 - Apparently this year isn’t among New York’s ten warmest winters on record, but it’s too warm for the scheduled activities, some of which require snow. The parks department was prepared to make the snow, rather than relying on nature to provide, but the f

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Boehner invites pipeline pals to State o’ Union

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:52:00 -0800

Grist - By Scott Rosenberg - Jan. 25 - As the camera pans around the Capitol chamber for President Obama’s State of the Union address, see if you can spot the representatives from the state of Oil: four avid supporters of the Keystone XL Pipeline who will attend the speech as the guests of Ho

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Mitt Romney’s climate and energy views

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Grist - By Lisa Hymas - Jan. 04 (Opinion) - Where does Mitt Romney stand on climate change and energy issues? Brace yourself: He doesn’t have that flip-flopper reputation for nothing. Then Romney used to be one of the more sane Republicans when it comes to climate change. He would play up uncertainty and use weasel words, but he still acknowledged global warming as a problem. In his 2010 book No Apology: The Case for American Greatness , Romney wrote: I believe that climate change is occurring—the reduction in the size of global ice caps is hard to ignore. I also believe that human activity is a contributing factor. I am uncertain how much of the warming, however, is attributable to factors out of our control. In June of 2011, he went so far as to suggest that we should actually do something about climate change . Do what ? Well, definitely not cap-and-trade , but, you know, something: I don’t speak for the scientific community, of course, but I believe the world’s getting warmer.

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The brutal logic of climate change

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Grist - By David Roberts - Dec. 06 (Opinion) - The consensus in American politics today is that there's nothing to be gained from talking about climate change. It's divisive, the electorate has more pressing concerns, and very little can be accomplished anyway. In response to this evolving consensus, lots of folks in the climate hawk coalition ( broadly speaking ) have counseled a new approach that backgrounds climate change and refocuses the discussion on innovation, energy security, and economic competitiveness. This cannot work. At least it cannot work if we hope to avoid terrible consequences. Why not? It's simple: If there is to be any hope of avoiding civilization-threatening climate disruption, the U.S. and other nations must act immediately and aggressively on an unprecedented scale . That means moving to emergency footing. War footing. "Hitler is on the march and our survival is at stake" footing. That simply won't be possible unless a critical mass of people are on board.

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Theft in progress: Big Ag raids the treasury—with help from Congress

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Grist - By Tom Laskawy. - Nov. 17 (News Analysis) - by Tom Laskawy. If the straight-up taxpayer swindle taking place in the supercommittee isn’t making you angry, you’re probably not paying attention. I’m talking about the attempt by agribusiness and a group of willing farm-state representatives to put billions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of industrial farmers during the ongoing super committee Farm Bill negotiations. According to The Hill , the moment of truth is upon us: The supercommittee is indeed poised to rewrite the Farm Bill behind closed doors and with no input from reform-minded congresspeople, let alone the public. Many of us have knew this was going on, but the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found some new developments that are nothing short of shocking. EWG reports that the new “shallow loss” subsidy which would protect commodity growers from small price drops via a “taxpayer-paid guarantee of getting no less than 90%[!!] of their income.” This new subsidy is now considered ...

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Rick Perry: The EPA ‘won’t know what hit ‘em’

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Stephen Lacey - Sep. 07 (News Report) - Speaking at a campaign stop in his home state Monday, Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry announced his intentions to make the Environmental Protection Agency unapologetically pro-pollution. His remarks were reported by the Houston Chronicle : “I’ll tell you one thing: The EPA officials we have an opportunity to put in place, they’re going to be pro-business, and there’s not going to be any apologies to anybody about it,” he said. “Those agencies won’t know what hit ‘em.” It’s not hard to see why Perry would want environmental regulations to be crafted by polluters, considering that he’s taken $11 million from the oil and gas industry since 1998. Meanwhile, Perry has stepped up his attacks on climate science by falsely claiming that researchers manipulated data for money. Perry attended the town hall meeting ...

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Surprise! Fracking fluid kills trees

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Jess Zimmerman. - Jul. 13 (News Report) - Not that this is a big surprise or anything, but a new study shows that disposing of fracking fluid can do a number on local trees. One perfectly legal dump of used fracking fluid in West Virginia ended up killing more than half of the trees in the affected area. Companies don't disclose -- and don't have to disclose -- the actual composition of fracking fluid, so it's hard to predict exactly what its effect will be. But they're still allowed to dump it in forests, because that makes sense. And here's what happens when they do: Almost immediately after disposal, the researchers said, nearly all ground plants died. After a few days, tree leaves turned brown, wilted and dropped; 56 percent of about 150 trees eventually died. Semi-ironically, spreading the fluid over a larger area might have mitigated the impact. More trees would be affected, but maybe not in concentrations high enough to kill them. But of course, nobody knows exactly what those ...

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Coal company: ‘Birth defects aren’t from mining, they’re because you’re inbred hicks’

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Jess Zimmerman. - Jul. 13 (News Report) - Babies born in areas with mountaintop removal mining have higher rates of birth defects -- we know that from a study that came out last month. But, say coal companies, that doesn't mean the mining CAUSES the birth defects! They could easily be caused by something else -- like, say, rampant inbreeding . A letter from law firm Crowell & Moring, representing the National Mining Association, rebutted the study's findings by saying they failed to account for "consanquinity." That is not a thing, but "consanguinity" is inbreeding. And inbreeding is a nasty (and false ) rumor about West Virginia, where a lot of mountaintop removal mining takes place. A Crowell & Moring spokesperson told Ken Ward, Jr. the West Virginia blogger who first noticed the epic foot-mouthing, that they hadn't meant anything by it: "Consanguinity is one of a number of commonly addressed issues in studies of this type, regardless of geography ... We did not ...

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Arizona’s becoming a dust bowl, and this video of it will scare your pants off

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Christopher Mims. - Jul. 07 (News Report) - You don't have to wait to find out what the American Southwest will look like when it becomes a permanent dust bowl, with unrelenting drought conditions worse than the 1930 disaster you know from cheery books like The Worst Hard Time . Just watch this video of what it’s like to drive into a " haboob ," a.k.a. a gigantic dust storm often seen in the deserts of the Middle East -- hence its Arabic name. Continuing the planet's recent theme of "extreme weather is the new normal, puny ape-people," this haboob is right in line with scientists' predictions for what will happen to Arizona and the rest of the Southwest -- all the way up to Kansas -- this century. As Joe Romm of ClimateProgress notes: In 2007, Science (subs. req’d) published research that “ predicted a permanent drought by 2050 throughout the Southwest ” — levels of aridity comparable to the 1930s Dust Bowl would stretch from Kansas ...

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Contaminated compost? Toxins might be lurking in that bag you’re about to buy

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Tom Laskawy. - Jun. 08 (Special Report) - by Tom Laskawy. Do you know what’s in your compost? The growing number of municipal and commercial composting operations has been one of the few bright spots in the environmental landscape, from San Francisco’s curbside composting service to this industrial-scale composting facility in Delaware . But Josh Harkinson in Mother Jones has harshed our green-tinged buzz. Thanks to fractured or lax regulations as well as the ubiquitous contamination of our environment by industrial chemicals (particularly heavy metals and pesticides), there’s a distressingly real risk of toxic chemicals making it into commercial and municipal compost. And it’s a particular problem for organic growers: Pesticide-laced compost has presented a quandary for the USDA’s National Organic Program ever since California regulators traced residues of dichlorophenyl-dichloroethylene, a breakdown product of DDT, and bifenthrin, an ant killer, to compost in pots of organic wheatgrass in Northern ...

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Three energy developments that are changing your life—and not in a good way

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Michael T. Klare - Jun. 08 (Opinion) - Here’s the good news about energy: Thanks to rising oil prices and deteriorating economic conditions worldwide, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that global oil demand will not grow this year as much as once assumed, which may provide some temporary price relief at the gas pump .... Keep in mind that this is the good news. As for the bad news: The world faces an array of intractable energy problems.

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry, climate crank, considering presidential run

Sun, 29 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Lisa Hymas - May. 29 (News Report) - by Lisa Hymas. A weak field of GOP presidential candidates is weakening the resolve of politicians who’ve been insisting they don’t want to run. After saying for months that he had no interest in getting into the race, Texas Gov. Rick Perry changed his tune on Friday and told reporters , “I’m going to think about it.” While he thinks about whether to run, let us think about his record. In his recent book Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington , Perry writes that global warming is “all one contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight.” His response to the drought and wildfires that have been plaguing his state? A proclamation to pray for rain . Jonathan Hiskes summed up Perry’s record in Grist last fall, when Perry was running for reelection: Perry relishes his role as a foe of national climate action. He lambasted the climate bill that passed the House [in 2009] as an “economic disaster.” He is ...

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Coke, BPA, and the Limits of 'Green Capitalism'

Tue, 03 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Tom Philpott - May. 03 (News Analysis) - Last week, Coca-Cola shareholders voted by a 3-to-1 margin to continue using BPA, a toxic industrial chemical, in the lining of its soft-drink cans.

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‘Let’s talk about sex’—and what American teenagers don’t know about it [VIDEO]

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - Apr. 09 - by Lisa Hymas. “Every day in America, 10,000 teenagers catch an STD, 2,400 young girls become pregnant, and 55 young people are infected with HIV.” Those sobering stats are from a documentary airing on TLC tonight, April 9, at 10 p.m. / 9 central. Let’s Talk About Sex is directed by James Houston, a fashion photographer who came to the U.S. from Australia and Europe and was aghast at our screwed-up sexual culture. Sex is everywhere, used to sell everything, but we don’t talk about it openly and honestly with our teenagers. “Young people in America don’t know the risks associated with sex, and because of that, American teen pregnancy and STD rates are among the highest in the industrialized world,” says Houston. Says one teenager in the film, “People are in denial—teachers, parents. They’re like, ‘No, no, teenagers aren’t having sex. They can’t, or the shouldn’t.’ But we do and we are.” I ...

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Powering up: Green tech investment surges

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - Apr. 05 (News) - by Todd Woody. Some good news on the environmental front for a change: Global investment in green technology in the first quarter of the year spiked 52 percent compared to the previous quarter, to $2.57 billion. That’s according to a report released Tuesday by the Cleantech Group, a San Francisco research and consulting firm. The increase represents a 13 percent jump over the first quarter of 2010, and indicates that investors’ appetite for renewable energy, electric cars, and other green technologies continues to rebound from the recession. But the numbers aren’t exactly good news for entrepreneurs toiling away in their garages on the next new thing. The first quarter results show that investors are focusing on existing portfolios rather than financing a lot of new startups. In fact, 93 percent of that $2.57 billion represented so-called follow-on investments. “In the first few months of the new year there have been a rash of large later-stage deals which have propelled 1Q11 to the second highest quarter ever for clean tech VC investment,” Sheeraz Haji, the Cleantech Group’s chief executive, said in a statement. “It’s encouraging to see some big private equity firms entering the space.” So who got the money? Solar companies were the big winners, taking in $641 million in 26 deals, according to the Cleantech Group. About a third of that went to a single startup, BrightSource Energy, the Oakland, Calif., solar thermal power plant builder. And venture capitalists seem to have a renewed appetite for cutting-edge thin-film photovoltaic technology, an area they poured a couple of billion dollars into back during the green tech boom. One such startup, MiaSolé, scored $106 million in the first quarter. Electric cars also proved popular among investors as the new year got underway. Fisker Automotive, a Southern California startup building a super sleek plug-in hybrid sports sedan called the Karma, took in $150 million. At the other end of the electric spectrum, Coda Automotive, another SoCal startup, took in $76 million for its middle-of-the-road four-door. Biofuels are back as well, taking in $148 million. The largest share, $75 million, went to a California company called Fulcrum Bioenergy, which is developing a process to turn municipal waste into ethanol. North America still accounts for the lion’s share of investment—85 percent in the first quarter, a 43 percent rise from the same period last year. And Silicon Valley’s Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers did the most deals—nine. But in a sign that corporate America is increasingly seeing green tech as a good bet, GE Energy Financial Services took third place for the number of deals done. Related Links: China charges up the on-ramp of the electric highway Watch a Robot swap out batteries from this electric vehicle [VIDEO] Getting to 100 percent renewables in 20 years

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Internationally linking carbon trading systems is the wave of the future

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - Apr. 01 - by Robert Stavins. The latest rage in Washington policy discussions these days (that’s relevant to climate change) is renewed interest in renewable electricity standards, this time in the form of so-called “clean energy standards.” I’ve written about this policy approach recently and will do so again in the near future, but for today I want to turn to an important issue—for the long term—on the related topic of the international dimensions of climate change policy. The current state of affairs Despite the death in the U.S. Senate last year of serious consideration of an economy-wide cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions—and the apparent political hiatus of such consideration at least until after the November 2012 elections—a major cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is in place in the European Union ; similar systems are in place or under development in New Zealand , California , and several Canadian ...

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Japan’s wind farms save its ass while nuclear plants flounder

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - Mar. 18 - by Christopher Mims. If Japan’s wind turbines were to get a new theme song, it would be Wagner’s “ Ride of the Valkyries ”, and it would ring out from the hills upon which they stand triumphantly, unscathed by the the country’s earthquake/tsunami double whammy, lifting their skinny, still-turning blades like antennas to heaven . While Japan’s water-dependent nuclear power plants suck and wheeze and spew radioactive steam, “there has been no wind facility damage reported by any [Japan Wind Energy Association] members, from either the earthquake or the tsunami,” says association head Yoshinori Ueda . Even the country’s totally badass Kamisu offshore wind farm , with its giant 2 MW turbines with blades big as the wings on a jumbo jet , and only 186 miles from the epicenter of the largest quake ever recorded in Japan, survived without a hiccup thanks to its “battle proof design.” As a result, the nation’s ...

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Today's tsunami: This is what climate change looks like - Grist Magazine

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 08:50:12 -0800

Grist - Mar. 11 - Telegraph.co.ukToday's tsunami: This is what climate change looks likeGrist MagazineIn a little-heeded warning issued at a 2009 conference on the subject, experts outlined a range of mechanisms by which climate change could already be causing more earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic activity. "When the ice is lost, the earth's crust ...Backgrounder: Relationship between earthquakes, tsunamisXinhuaall 11,597 news articles »

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The Climate Post: While Congress debates climate science, China and Europe move ahead

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:41:23 -0800

Grist - Mar. 10 - by Mason Inman. Republicans are far more skeptical of “global warming” than of “climate change,” a study led by a University of Michigan psychologist found. Among Democrats, on the other hand, about 85 percent believe the planet is getting hotter and weather getting weirder, no matter which label you use. Meanwhile, in the U.S. Congress, hearings continued about a bill to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from protecting the environment—specifically, “from promulgating any regulation concerning, taking action relating to, or taking into consideration the emission of a greenhouse gas to address climate change, and for other purposes.” As Science showed in its live blogging of the bill’s most recent hearing, it centered not on policies, but on the science of climate change. In China, though, the leaders appear to be taking climate change increasingly seriously. “The depletion, deterioration and exhaustion of resources and the worsening ecological environment have become bottlenecks and grave impediments to the nation’s economic and social development,” wrote China’s environment minister late last month. This week, China unveiled its latest five-year plan, with ambitious goals for boosting energy efficiency and the share of energy from sources other than fossil fuels—while also aiming for slower economic growth than in years past. But fossil fuels still loom large: “Oil security is the most important part of achieving energy security,” said China’s longtime former energy czar, Zhang Guobao. Energy crunch seen on European highways: In a move reminiscent of the 1970s energy crises that limited drivers to speeds of 55 miles per hour to conserve energy, Spain has lowered its speed limit from 120 to 110-kilometers an hour. (That’s 75 to 68 mph for us Americans.) Environmental writer George Monbiot indicates the U.K. should follow suit, since “the era of cheap and easy oil is long gone.” In the past week, oil prices climbed still higher, as fierce fights continued in Libya, with Muammar Gaddafi’s forces making air raids on the eastern city of Ras Lanuf, setting ablaze its oil facility. To comply with U.S. sanctions, Exxon stopped its trade with Libya. At a major oil meeting in Houston, several industry leaders tried to dispel fears of a global drop in oil production. However, at the meeting, the CEO of Kuwait Energy Co., Sara Akbar, said the protests and fighting are unlikely to end soon. “This bug that is growing in the air is very contagious, and everyone is getting it,” Akbar said. Soaring gas prices: here to stay?: Get used to gas station owners putting up signs replacing the usual prices for various grades of gas with: “ARM, LEG, BOTH.” The U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) said high oil prices are here to stay—at least for this year. They revised upward the predicted prices for the year, saying oil would average $3.70 a gallon at the pump, and $102 a barrel on the world market. If true, that would be an all-time high for the average annual price, breaking the record set in 2008. These high prices spurred several Democrats to call for the White House to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, meant for big emergencies. The reserves are stored largely in underground salt caverns, a LiveScience primer explains. According to EIA statistics, the reserve’s roughly 727 million barrels of oil are the equivalent of only two months of U.S. oil imports. Warnings came from many corners that high oil prices could stall the global economic recovery. But The Hill reports some U.S. senators hope the high oil prices will revive a bipartisan energy bill “gang,” which in 2008 aimed to boost U.S. oil production and spur development of clean energy. Meanwhile, Europe and Australia forged ahead with plans to battle climate change and dependence on fossil fuels. The European Union’s climate change commissioner published a long-awaited roadmap for how the member countries could cut emissions cost-effectively, calling for a 25 percent cut (that’s below 1990 levels) by 2020. But the European Union looks likely to miss targets for improving energy efficiency—one of the main ways of cutting emissions. Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard has vowed to push ahead with plans to put a price on carbon emissions. Climate-sensing satellite takes dive for NASA ... again: A NASA satellite named Glory failed in its launch and fell into the Pacific Ocean, which spelled the end of the $424-million project. One of its main tasks would have been monitoring aerosols—tiny droplets in the atmosphere—to determine their effect on the Earth’s climate. In 2009, another climate-sensing satellite riding on the same type of rocket, called a Taurus XL, met the same fate, due to the identical problem: a door on the side of the rocket failed to open and release the satellite. The Climate Post offers a rundown of the week in climate and energy news. It is produced each Thursday by Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. Related Links: Solar: It’s not just a California thing anymore Mideast unrest isn’t causing gas price surge, a bill the Senate never voted on is! Mideast unrest isn’t causing gas price surge, a bill the Senate never voted on is!

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Chicken, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and regulatory independence

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Grist - By Tom Philpott - Feb. 16 (Investigative Report) - After my post Monday on aspartame’s wild and wacky path from pharmaceutical-company lab to beverage sweetener for millions of people , I got into a back-and-forth on Twitter with star progressive bloggers Matt Yglesias and Adam Ozimek . They seemed shocked (and a little angry) by my suggestion that something approved both by the FDA and its European counterparts might actually menace the public health. Well, I, in turn, am shocked by the credibility they lavish on these institutions. When you study the politics of food, stories of the “FDA [or USDA or EPA or some European agency] approves [insert dodgy, lucrative practice or substance]” nature are hardly earth-shaking. Indeed, industry influence over the food-related regulatory institutions seems pretty widespread, as I tried to show in the aspartame post. On Tuesday, an ...

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Why you don’t want gas to get cheaper

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Grist - By Christopher Mims - Feb. 13 (Opinion) - Americans would like to pay less at the pump. But what would that take? How about another economic crash—or perhaps you’d prefer an ecological one. However the next century shakes out, one thing’s for sure: the ever-growing gap between world oil supplies and demand is making itself felt, and the longer it takes us to break our addiction , the more painful the coming decades will be. The latest reminder: a State Department cable released by Wikileaks which quotes the former second in command of Saudi Arabia’s national oil company asserting that his country cannot save us from a decline in world oil supplies. Not that he hasn’t been saying this publicly since 2004 . Like climate change before it, “peak oil” is an issue that threatens so many of our most-cherished myths about never-ending prosperity and an automobile-dependent civilization that it takes a while to sink in. It’s not that we’re running out , say the ...

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Egypt has a population crisis as well as a democracy crisis

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Grist - By Lisa Hymas. - Feb. 06 (Special Report) - Hosni Mubarak is a dictator who has to go—that’s obviously the animating force behind the protests in Egypt. And more power to the protesters! But Egypt’s problems run much deeper than its autocratic regime, and one of its biggest problems is unsustainable population growth. Here’s a 2009 Al Jazeera report on population pressures in Egypt: The country’s populace has soared from 44 million when Mubarak took power in 1981 to more than 80 million today, making Egypt by far the most populous country in the Middle East and the Arab world. And Egyptians are densely concentrated, living in a narrow band along the Nile, as the rest of the country is dry and largely uninhabitable. If Egypt’s current growth rate continues, its population could hit 160 million by 2050 . The Mubarak regime has promoted birth control and smaller families , and helped to slow the birthrate. In 1981, the average woman had more than five children ; now that figure ...

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‘Objective’ political media helps Inhofe lie about EPA | Grist

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Grist - By David Roberts. - Feb. 03 (News Analysis) - Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and John Barrasso (R- Wyo.) have each introduced bills that would eliminate EPA authority over climate pollution. That represents a legitimate policy position, albeit one I disagree with profoundly. In the process of pushing their bills, however, both Inhofe and Barrasso have claimed that greenhouse gas regulations represent an attempt by EPA to implement cap-and-trade. (“Backdoor cap-and-trade” is their term of choice.) That is a lie. And I use that term advisedly. It is not a difference in policy preferences. It is not a difference of interpretation or emphasis. It is a lie, i.e., it’s not true and they know it’s not true.

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If you’re under 25, you should be pissed about climate change

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Grist - By Lisa Hymas - Jan. 23 (Review) - "Generation Hot" is the 2 billion or so young people who will be stuck dealing with global warming and weirding for their entire lives -- and who have to figure out how to do it sanely and humanely.

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