By Climate Guest Blogger on Feb 15, 2012 at 10:56 am
by Daniel J. Weiss
As part of the FY 2013 budget released on February 13, President Obama proposed to eliminate $40 billion in tax breaks for oil and gas producers over the next ten years. Yesterday, the Yale Project on Climate Change reiterated its recent finding that Americans of all political stripes oppose subsidies for “coal, oil, and natural gas companies.” They oppose these subsidies by 70 percent to 30 percent – better than two to one. Republicans oppose these subsidies by 67 percent to 34 percent (reflects rounding of percentages).
Intensity matters in public opinion. A determined, energetic minority can be quite powerful. The Yale poll shows that there is much more intensity against oil subsidies than in favor of them. Americans strongly opposed to the subsidies outnumber those who strongly support them by 31 percent to 3 percent – a 10 to 1 ratio. Independents – the voters who will likely determine the outcome of the 2012 election – strongly oppose these fossil fuel subsidies by 45 percent to 2 percent.
ScienceDaily (Feb. 17, 2012) — The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 will have a large economic impact on the U.S. Gulf fisheries. A new study published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (CJFAS) says that over 7 years this oil spill could have a $US8.7 billion impact on the economy of the Gulf of Mexico. This includes losses in revenue, profit, and wages, and close to 22 000 jobs could be lost.
“Unlike the visually obvious and immediate effects on birds and mammals, the effects of oil on fisheries can be more difficult to detect, though they are no less devastating,” says lead author U. Rashid Sumaila. “Oil and hydrocarbons are taken up by plankton and other surface-dwelling species that link to aquatic food chains.” This in turn affects the fishing industry. Read the full article at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120217115553.htm
By RYAN McCARTHY. Keynoter
Wednesday, February 01, 2012 11:08 AM EST
Keys Energy Services is making the most of a state Clean Energy Grant it was awarded last summer. The most recent initiative — a pair of wind turbines — has been getting noticed a lot lately at the Lower Keys utility’s Cudjoe Key substation.
Keys Energy spokesman Julio Barroso said the utility plans to track how much energy the turbines produce and make the information available on its website. Barroso said the plan was to install one on Cudjoe Key and another on Stock Island, but instead both were put in the same location.
The smaller turbine is 35 feet tall, the maximum height allowed under county rules. Keys Energy got a waiver to install the other one at 52 feet.
“It’s always been said the Keys aren’t a good area for wind generation. Our thinking was to gain some information and see if height had something to do with it,” he said. “They’re definitely there for a year and we’ll see if we want to keep them both there or move another to perhaps the Stock Island substation. There’s no plans one way or the other.”
Alliance of Small Island States’ Chairperson and Grenada’s Ambassador to the United Nations Dessima Williams in an exclusive interview with MediaGlobal’s Nosh Nalavala
MediaGlobal (MG): The most recent talks in Bonn showed that the 194 negotiating countries have failed to even define a common target or method for curbing greenhouse gases. Where do the negotiating countries go from here? Does Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) have a strategy for breaking this deadlock?
Dessima Williams (DM): Our strategy is to be prepared for progress and for lack of progress, in the sense that we are working for very ambitious, deliberate and timely outcomes. What we have done is to stress the situation of our islands and of the world. The whole world is suffering from a worsening situation in climate change. Island countries are on the forefront of global climate deterioration. Many economic and physical science studies suggest that we are in trouble. The earth is now hotter than it has ever been, and 93 percent of the warming over the past 50 years has gone into the oceans, which directly affects our coral levels, fish stock, sea-level rise and thus the security of islands. For those reasons, negotiations ought to be moving faster.
One of our main strategies is to resist a pullback based on the absence of US legislation. Many say that when “there is no US legislation, there is no commitment,” therefore they should not commit. But we got the Kyoto Protocol without the US, didn’t we?
MG: Ambassador, what are you asking for?
DM: AOSIS is asking for fair international climate policy measures that are protective and supportive of small islands. First, a legal commitment that the global average rise in temperature be limited to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.
Secondly, we are asking for a level of financing commensurate with the needs of adaptation and mitigation. We acknowledge the “fast start” financing and other bilateral efforts. Fast Start is a $30 billion fund — $10 billion a year for the next 3 years, starting this year—intended to support Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and others who have already sustained damage from climate change. Three years from now there will be the longer-term funding of $100 billion until 2020. Thirdly, we are negotiating for a legal institutional framework to bind all parties in such an agreement.
MG: And where will your strategy fit in this context?
DM: Everybody agrees that when we emerge from the economic downturn of 2008, we cannot use the same old pollutant technology. If we move toward a greener and climate-resilient paradigm, we will be able to resuscitate the global economy and protect the environment simultaneously.
The islands have positioned themselves in large measure as the bell weather of the global regime. Our small size highlights our vulnerability whether in climate change, global trade or the economic arena. We therefore have to make a strategic advantage out of that vulnerability. Thus linking climate change needs to our sustainable development needs is a strategic approach for SIDS, and for LDCs and Africa too.
MG: In a recent press conference, the UN Secretary General said he does not expect a resolution at the year-end Cancun Conference on Climate Change and therefore advocated taking small steps in small conferences. Are you hopeful there will be a meeting of the minds in Cancun?
DM: COP-16 is a big conference that requires big outcomes. So far, there is a little progress in the negotiations, including in forestry programs and technology transfer. But we are still far from the mandate of the 2007 Bali Action Plan and from definitive agreements that would reduce carbon emissions and support islands.
That, and the failure to have legislation in the US, have encouraged some to say ‘We cannot get anything definite. Therefore we should just ask or take a little bit here and a little bit there.’ This is not consistent with the AOSIS mandate, which is to stick to the Bali Action Plan that calls for definitive, comprehensive and ambitious legal outcomes. But, we have to be careful. We could be on a slippery slope where we just postpone outcomes every year while climate impacts worsen. We understand incrementalism in negotiations. But the talks must move forward more rapidly. AOSIS has built a coalition of 107 countries who support a comprehensive outcome with 1.5 as an upper allowable temperature target. Read the full interview at http://www.mediaglobal.org/2010/10/09/small-island-developing-states-seek-international-commitment/
ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2012) — Nova Southeastern University (NSU) and Florida International University (FIU) researchers have drafted a plan to best prepare South Florida for an oil spill off the coast of Cuba.
The proximity of intended Cuban oil drilling and production puts the U.S. coastal zone at risk from Florida to the Carolinas and northward. Oil from a spill would quickly enter the Gulf Stream and reach Florida’s shores in hours or days with potentially devastating effects on the densely populated South Florida coastline and its coastal ecosystems. South Florida’s accounts for 3.4 million jobs and 45 percent of the $587 billion contribution to Florida’s GDP generated by coastal and ocean economic activity.
Read the full article at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120130093113.htm
Associated Press. January 30, 20
MIAMI — The U.S. is not ready to handle an oil spill if drilling off the Cuban coast goes awry but can be better prepared with monitoring systems and other basic steps, experts told government officials Monday.
The comments at a congressional subcommittee hearing in the Miami Beach suburb of Sunny Isles come more than a week after a huge oil rig arrived in Cuban waters to begin drilling a deepwater exploratory well.
Similar development is expected off the Bahamas next year, but decades of tense relations between the U.S. and Cuba makes cooperation in protecting the Florida Straits particularly tricky. With memories of the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico still fresh, state and federal officials fear even the perception of oil flowing toward Florida beaches could devastate an economy that claims about $57 million from tourism.
Man-made pollution is acidifying the world’s oceans at unprecedented rates and is threatening sea life, an international team of researchers reports Monday.
By Dwayne Meadows, NOAA
Scientists have found that human-caused carbon dioxide emissions, from the burning of fossil fuels in the last 100 to 200 years, have already raised ocean acidity far beyond the range of natural variations. Based on computer modeling and observations, they say these emissions, which increase water acidity by reacting with saltwater, may significantly reduce the calcification rate of marine organisms such as corals and mollusks. Read the full article at http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2012/01/greenhouse-gases-make-oceans-more-acidic-threaten-coral/1
Source: EurekAlert!
Contact: Emily Howells
em.howells@gmail.com
61-747-534-203
ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies
Recent experiments conducted at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) produced striking results, showing for the first time that corals hosting a single type of “zooxanthellae” can have different levels of thermal tolerance – a feature that was only known previously for corals with a mix of zooxanthellae.
Zooxanthellae are algal cells that live within the tissue of living coral and provide the coral host with energy; the relationship is crucial for the coral’s survival. Rising ocean temperatures can lead to the loss of zooxanthellae from the coral host, as a consequence the coral loses its tissue colour and its primary source of energy, a process known as ‘coral bleaching’. Globally, coral bleaching has led to significant loss of coral, and with rising ocean temperatures, poses a major threat to coral reefs.
It was previously known that corals hosting more than one type of zooxanthellae could better cope with temperature changes by favouring types of zooxanthellae that have greater thermal tolerance. However, until now it was not known if corals hosting a single type of zooxanthellae could have different levels of thermal tolerance.
Results recently published in the prestigious scientific journal, Nature Climate Change, showed corals that only host a single type of zooxanthellae may in fact differ in their thermal tolerance. This finding is important because many species of coral are dominated by a single type of zooxanthellae.
Read the full article at http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/acoe-mpn012012.php
COMMENTARY
By Andrew Freedman
An Obama administration plan to cut costs by combining several government agencies may make good political sense, coming in the midst of the Republican presidential primary season, with its heated small-government rhetoric. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea from a policy perspective.
In fact, the White House proposal that would move the country’s oceans and atmosphere agency — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — from its current home in the Commerce Department and fold it into the Interior Department, could severely undermine America’s climate and weather research efforts, as well as marine resource protection. Worse, it comes at a time when climate change beseeches us to build those capacities.
