Signs From Earth

The Behavioral Wedge: Simple Measures Can Yield Big Greenhouse Gas Cuts, Scientists Say

http://behavioralwedge.msu.edu/

New technologies and policies that save energy, remove atmospheric carbon and limit greenhouse gas emissions are needed to fight global climate change -- but face daunting technological, economic and political hurdles, a Michigan State University scientist said. The good news: Basic actions taken by everyday people can yield fast savings at low cost, according to MSU Professor Thomas Dietz and colleagues. 

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-10/msu-smc102609.php

PNAS Paper:

 http://behavioralwedge.msu.edu/documents/behavioral_wedge_paper.pdf

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Useful Resource: Online Annotations for Stewart Brand's new Book "Whole Earth Discipline"

http://web.me.com/stewartbrand/DISCIPLINE_footnotes/Contents.html

SB Homepage: http://web.me.com/stewartbrand/SB_homepage/Home.html

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Reportage: Greenland is Warming Up: Fiona Harvey @ft.com

Glaciers of Greenland. Photo by basheertome/flickr

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/91635aac-c207-11de-be3a-00144feab49a.html

"...If this were merely an Arctic problem, politicians would not be visiting Ilulissat. The real threat of climate change is not that the ice will melt (though when it does, we are in trouble because the departure of reflective ice leaves dark sea that absorbs more of the sun’s heat, increasing the rate of global warming in another feedback loop). The real disruptions of climate change will be felt far from here: in sub-Saharan Africa, where the heat will become unbearable; in south-east Asia, where rising sea levels will claim more and more land and typhoons will destroy towns and villages; in southern Europe, where drought will render the land unsuitable for agriculture..."

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Jonathan Raban on Dorothea Lange and "Migrant Mother": American Pastoral (via @nybooks) #photojournalism

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23373

"Of all the many thousands of photographs that came out of the New Deal–era effort to photograph rural poverty in the southern states, none has remained more famous than Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother. Taken in February 1936 at a pea pickers' camp northwest of Santa Barbara, it was published in the San Francisco News the following month, when it resulted in $200,000 in donations from appalled readers. For a long while now, I've tried to observe a self-imposed veto on the overworked words "icon" and "iconic," but in the exceptional case of Migrant Mother it's sorely tempting to lift it...."

Also see:

Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" Assessed in Review of book 'Dorothea Lange - A Life Beyond Limits,' by Linda Gordon (Via @nytimes)

http://ddimick.posterous.com/dorothea-langes-migrant-mother-assessed-in-re

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Research: Oil industry lessons may help address groundwater crisis (via @eurekalert @oregonstateuniv)

Declining groundwater in Mississippi has prompted a $1 billion lawsuit against Memphis. Image: Oregon State University/flickr

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-10/osu-lfo103009.php 

Oregon State University PR: "Although declining streamflows and half-full reservoirs have gotten most of the attention in water conflicts around the United States, some of the worst battles of the next century may be over groundwater, experts say -- a critical resource often taken for granted until it begins to run out. But lessons learned as oil was running out may offer some solutions." 

"...A new analysis by researchers at Oregon State University outlines the scope of this problem, but also points out that some tools may be available to help address it, in part by borrowing heavily from lessons learned the hard way by the oil industry. 

"...It's been said that groundwater is the oil of this century," said Todd Jarvis, associate director of the Institute for Water and Watersheds at OSU. "Part of the issue is it's running out, meaning we're now facing 'peak water' just the way the U.S. encountered 'peak oil' production in the 1970s. But there are also some techniques developed by the oil industry to help manage this crisis, and we could learn a lot from them."..." 

"...The unitization concept the oil industry developed is built around people unifying their rights and their goals, and working cooperatively to make a resource last as long as possible and not damaging it," Jarvis said. "That's similar to what we could do with groundwater, although it takes foresight and cooperation."

"..."Like we did with peak oil, everyone knows were running out, and yet we're just now getting more commitment to alternative energy sources," Jarvis said. "Soon we'll be facing peak water, the only thing to really argue over is the date when that happens. So we will need new solutions, one way or the other."..."

Peak Water: Peter Gleick at The New Security Beat

http://newsecuritybeat.blogspot.com/2009/02/pacific-institutes-peter-gleick-piques.html

USGS: 

Effects of Climate Variability and Change on Groundwater Resources of the United States (Sept. 2009)

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2009/3074/

USGS Groundwater Page

http://water.usgs.gov/ogw/

USGS: Groundwater Availability in the United States (PDF here)

http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1323/

Wikipedia: Groundwater

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundwater

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U.S. water use has leveled off, say new numbers from USGS (via @circleofblue)

Mt. Storm Lake Power Plant in West Virginia. Fresh water use for cooling thermal power plants in the US has stabilized or decreased since 1980 according to a new USGS report. Photo by rmcgervey/flickr.

http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2009/world/peter-gleick-water-use-in-the-united-states-has-leveled-off-new-remarkable-numbers-released/

Peter Gleick: "New numbers on total water use in the United States in 2005 have just been released by the U.S. Geological Survey, which does an assessment of water use every five years. We have been tracking these numbers for many years. The new numbers are the latest evidence for a remarkable change in U.S. water use toward more efficient use — a change the Pacific Institute has been calling for since our founding 22 years ago..."

Link to USGS report page and data: 

http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1344/

Abstract: "Estimates of water use in the United States indicate that about 410 billion gallons per day (Bgal/d) were withdrawn in 2005 for all categories summarized in this report. This total is slightly less than the estimate for 2000, and about 5 percent less than total withdrawals in the peak year of 1980. Freshwater withdrawals in 2005 were 349 Bgal/d, or 85 percent of the total freshwater and saline-water withdrawals. Fresh groundwater withdrawals of 79.6 Bgal/day in 2005 were about 5 percent less than in 2000, and fresh surface-water withdrawals of 270 Bgal/day were about the same as in 2000. Withdrawals for thermoelectric-power generation and irrigation, the two largest uses of water, have stabilized or decreased since 1980. Withdrawals for public-supply and domestic uses have increased steadily since estimates began...."

PDF of Report: 

http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1344/pdf/c1344.pdf

County-by-County Data Page (with excel files):

http://water.usgs.gov/watuse/data/2005/

Pacific Institute Analysis on this:

http://www.pacinst.org/press_center/usgs/US%20Water%20Fact%20Sheet%202005.pdf

USGS Water Watch: Maps and Graphs of Current Water Resources Conditions

http://waterwatch.usgs.gov/

Wikipedia on Mt. Storm Lake Power Station

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Storm_Power_Station

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Court mandates that Dept. of Energy consider water-sipping washing machines in California (via @latimes)

"What's Wrong with this Washing Machine?" A fifth of household water in California is used by washing machines, that may decline if the U.S Department of Energy approves a proposed California rule on washer efficiency. Photo by Vincent Montibus/flickr (see below for more.). 

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2009/10/washing-machines-energy-efficient.html

"...On Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered the U.S. energy department to reconsider California’s request to set its own washing machine standard. While the U.S. energy department has not agreed to the state’s request, it could be granted next year, with the new standard going in to effect some time in 2013..."

Vincent Montibus' innovative flickr photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vincemoblog/

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Typhoon Mirinae: Fourth typhoon in a month heads for the Phillippines w/picture (via @BBC and NASA_EO)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8334659.stm

Philippines braced for typhoon

“Authorities in the Philippines have been making frantic preparations ahead of the arrival of the fourth storm to hit the country in a month." 

“Typhoon Mirinae is expected to make landfall south of the capital, Manila, early Saturday morning local time..."

NASA Earth Observatory on Mirinae: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=40954

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Climate change to devastate Africa, more research needed, says UK scientist Gordon Conway (via @guardianeco)

Kenya. A new research paper says Africa will be severely affected by rising temperatures and precipitation shifts. Photo by azulnocturnal/flickr.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/oct/28/africa-climate-change-sir-gordon-conway

"...Professor Sir Gordon Conway, the outgoing chief scientist at the UK's Department for International Development, and former head of the philanthropic Rockefeller Foundation, argued in a new scientific paper (pdf link below) that the continent is already warming faster than the global average and that people living there can expect more intense droughts, floods and storm surges.

"There will be less drinking water, diseases such as malaria will spread and the poorest will be hit the hardest as farmland is damaged in the coming century, Conway wrote.

"There is already evidence that Africa is warming faster than the global average, with more warm spells and fewer extremely cold days. Northern and southern Africa are likely to become as much as 4C hotter over the next 100 years, and [will become ] much drier," he said..."

"...He called for more research into climate change. "There is much that we do not know. The Sahel may get wetter or remain dry. The flow of the Nile may be greater or less. We do not know if the fall in agricultural production will be very large or relatively small. ..."

Link to pdf of report:

https://www8.imperial.ac.uk/content/dav/ad/workspaces/climatechange/pdfs/discussion_papers/Grantham_Institue_-_The_science_of_climate_change_in_Africa.pdf

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On Seeking Ways to Feed a Hungry World: Letters respond to @nytimes, one by @worldwatch

One letter writer says subsidies for corn and other food products in the U.S. drives down prices and discourages food production in agriculture-based developing economies. Photo: Mat B/flickr 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/opinion/l28hunger.html?ref=opinion

Regarding: Experts Worry About Feeding the World as its Population Grows (news article, Oct. 22.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/world/22food.html

Nicole Summers, Evanston Ill:"...subsidies of corn and other basic food products in the United States and other developed countries drive down their prices, thereby discouraging production and devastating many agriculture-based economies in the developing world... 

"...the prevalence of foreign ownership of land in developing countries often means that land is used to produce food for export, rather than to feed the local population..." 

Karen Hardee, Population Action International: "...Ensuring access to contraception would reduce the demand for food, while meeting broader development goals and empowering women..."

Brian Halweil and Danielle Nierenberg, Worldwatch Institute:"...solving hunger, particularly in Africa, is not an either-or scenario — either focus on seed breeding, artificial fertilizers and genetically modified crops to feed the world or rely on organic farming practices. 

"There is overwhelming evidence that a combination of approaches is more effective in terms of productivity, income generation and resilience than any one approach, including using conventional practices paired with agro-ecological approaches..." 

Also See: Signs From Earth: 1 in 7 are hungry worldwide, what to do?...

http://tinyurl.com/ygae7tn

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Panorama Photo of Lead-Laden Missouri Town: Herculaneum Again Contaminated EPA Says (via @sejorg and @stltoday)

Multi-image Panorama of Herculaneum, Missouri. Oct. 3, 2009. Doe Run Lead Smelter at right. Photo by Dennis Dimick.

High Lead Levels Return Near Doe Run Smelter

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/339D5676DCE326848625765C000FEFF5?OpenDocument

More than 100 properties near the Doe Run Co.'s smelter have been recontaminated with dangerous levels of lead, a finding that comes less than a decade after regulators ordered the company to remove and replace polluted soil on the properties, the U.S. EPA said Monday." Greg Jonsson and  Leah Thorsen report for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch October 27, 2009. (via @sejorg)

Good Stuff: "Fix the climate, or the kids get it" special issue in @motherjones @ClaraJeffery

  
 Frosty, Thawing. My contribution to MoJo's cover gallery. Photo by Dennis Dimick. http://www.motherjones.com/climate-cover-gallery

http://www.motherjones.com/toc/2009/11

http://www.motherjones.com/special-reports/2009/11/climate-countdown

Editor's Note: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2009/11/editors-note

November/December 2009 Issue: "IF YOU DON'T Buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog" was the headline of a famous 1973 issue of National Lampoon. The cover, with its mutt worriedly glancing at the gun pointed at its head, has itself been lampooned many times. (Texas Monthly recently paired an image of a shotgun-wielding 

"You can't just do incremental adaptation and then gradually shift to transformative thinking." (@naturenews)

Safia Fungie Hasenna on her parched land in Ethiopia. Photo by Zeresenay Berhane Mehar, Oxfam/flickr

Nature Reports Climate Change on the Sept. Oxford meeting on global effects of 4 degrees warming:

http://www.nature.com/climate/2009/0911/full/climate.2009.106.html

No easy way out: Scientists look seriously at the possibility of warming beyond the 2 *C target. Anna Barnett reports.

Warming of 4 *C would cause large declines in rainfall in Africa, Australia, the Mediterranean and Central America, according to climate modellers.

"Concerned by escalating greenhouse gas emissions, scientists are now looking in earnest at the possibility of global temperatures rising by 4 *C or more. Gathering this month at the University of Oxford, they sketched out a world affected by severe climate change, which they now see as increasingly probable...

Report: Ailing planet seen as bad for human health (via @washingtonpost)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102602402.html

Advocates' report links climate change to worsening of diseases

David Farenthold: "Climate change will make Americans more vulnerable to diseases, disasters and heat waves, but governments have done little to plan for the added burden on the health system, according to a new study by a nonprofit group. 

Emerging "Climate Refugees" lack of status: Fleeing drought in the Horn of Africa (via @latimes)

Drought and flooding from sea level rise are two conditions that will drive people from their homes. Students in Malaysia demonstrate as part of the October 2009 350.org action on behalf of "climate refugees." Photo by 350.org/flickr

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-climate-refugees25-2009oct25,0,4396751.story

"A new kind of refugee has arrived: Those forced from their home regions not by war or persecution, but by the climate. A Kenyan camp is bursting with the displaced, some of whom share their stories."

Edmund Sanders: "...

Africa is already home to one-third of the 42 million people worldwide uprooted by ethnic slaughter, despots and war. But experts say climate change is quietly driving Africa's displacement crisis to new heights. Ibrahim is one of an estimated 10 million people worldwide who have been driven out of their homes by rising seas, failing rain, desertification or other climate-driven factors...