Category: environment

Carbon Trading: Once Again, Speculative Market Type Solutions to Real Problems Fail Abysmally

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It appears that they have discovered that outright fraud is destroying carbon trading.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, one out of every five carbon credits that’s been issued by the United Nations may be bogus in the sense that the projects being credited for reducing emissions are in fact increasing emissions.

The justification for carbon trading has been that speculative markets will magically find truth and the best way of doing things.

The real justification is that people with MBAs can create complex instruments that generate them lots of fees for doing things that do not benefit the public, or achieve the stated goals of the program.

Basically, this is gambling, and Wall Street sets itself up as the house. It’s what the FDR era regulations were supposed to minimize, and what 30 years of deregulation, starting under Carter, have given us.

It’s a system that encourages phony numbers and lying to generate fees and profits.

Carbon trading is a carbon tax, they both serve to raise the cost of releasing carbon into the atmosphere.

The only difference is that the former benefits Wall Street types, and the latter benefits everyone, so under today’s morality, the former is good, and the latter is bad.

Sonny Perdu is an Idiot, and He Will Kill Atlanta Through Thirst

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Most of you not from the far SE US are probably unaware of the fact that Georgia, Alabama, and Florida are fighting over water rights.

Well, alabama and Florida have just won a major case, over the allocation of water from the federal Lake Lanier reservoir.

The judge ruled that, “agreement between Georgia and the Army Corps of Engineers that would have given Georgia rights to use nearly a quarter of the water …. was void because the two parties had not first obtained Congressional approval.”

As is the case with most such cases, this has been bubbling along* for the past 20 or so years, and has been compounded by the drought, and by Georgia’s unwillingness to take steps to ensure adequate water to feed its growth.

In related news, the very next day,Sonny “He’s Not a Schmuck Because a Schmuck Has a Head†” Purdue has announced will be allowing folks to fill their swimming pools and water their lawns.

This is a metaphor for what will be the next resource fight, potable water.

If conflict over the past 35 years has been largely defined by fights over oil, fights over the next few decades will be over water.

It will be far more brutal, because people don’t die without oil.

*Pun intended.
†True…Learn your Yiddish.

Federal Judge to Bush: “Because I Said So” Is not a Valid Legal Argument

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Yes, “U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper ruled Monday that the Navy is not exempt from complying with both the National Environmental Policy Act and a court injunction that created a 12 nautical-mile no-sonar zone off Southern California“.

Basically, this means that George W. Bush cannot invalidate a court ruling through executive order, at least for now.

An appeal is certain.

Clean Coal, Toxic Water

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Note that I have just added the Washington Independent to my blogroll…It’s a good source for news and commentary.

Check out this article on the toxic waste of “clean coal”.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s own research, coal ash dumping can lead to higher rates of cancer, developmental problems in children and adverse effects in women of child-bearing age. Despite the fact that coal ash contains mercury, lead, arsenic, chromium, cadmium, selenium, beryllium, and other toxic metals, the EPA has yet to categorize coal ash as hazardous waste. In addition, coal ash has been found to be up to 100 times more radioactive than nuclear waste, due to the concentrations of uranium and thorium that increase 10-fold after coal is burned.

It’s Called Oversight, Dude: EPA Edition

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Why it’s good to have Democrats in control of Congress, when the EPA political apparatchiks decide to ignore the recommendations of professional staff, and veto California’s clean air standards, you have someone looking into what happened, and why, in this case, Henry Waxman.

Dear Administrator Johnson:

On December 20, 2007, I wrote to request that you provide the Committee with documents relating to your decision to reject California’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I requested that the documents be produced on a rolling schedule, starting on January 10 with responsive documents from your immediate office. On January 4 and January 11, 2008, your staff responded to my letter, but did not provide any documents.

I appreciate the efforts EPA is taking to collect responsive documents, but I am concerned about the failure of the agency to meet the Committee’s January 10 deadline. I am also concerned that no schedules for document production are proposed in your letters.

In an effort to accommodate the agency without unduly delaying the Committee’s investigation, I ask that your staff work with Committee staff to establish by the close of business on January 16 mutually agreeable deadlines for producing documents to the Committee.

The Committee will also be conducting transcribed interviews or depositions of agency staff who may have knowledge of the agency’s deliberations. As a first step in this process, I request that a schedule be established by the close of business on January 16 for the interview or deposition of the following officials:

* Robert Meyers, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation
* Jason Burnett, Associate Deputy Administrator, Office of the Administrator
* Margo Oge, Director, Office of Transportation and Air Quality
* Karl Simon, Director, Compliance and Innovative Strategies Division, Office of Transportation and Air Quality
* Brian McLean, Director, Office of Atmospheric Programs
* Dina Kruger, Director, Climate Change Division, Office of Atmospheric Programs
* Rob Brenner, Director, Office of Program Analysis and Review

In prior investigations, the Committee has allowed counsel representing the agency to be present during transcribed interviews. In this case, since your own conduct is being examined, this accommodation would not be appropriate, although counsel employed by the agency may participate if they certify that their presence is as counsel for the witness. Attachments to this letter provide additional information about Committee interview and deposition procedures.

If you have any questions concerning this request, please have your staff contact Greg Dotson of the Committee staff at (202) 225-4407.

Sincerely,

Henry A. Waxman
Chairman

Mr. Johnson, it won’t be pretty.

EPA Director Ignored Staff in Shooting Down California Emissions Regulations

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Gee, the Los Angeles Times is saying that a Bush admin political appointee ignored the science and the law when making a decision??? I’m shocked at these allegationsEPA chief is said to have ignored staff – Los Angeles Times

“California met every criteria . . . on the merits. The same criteria we have used for the last 40 years on all the other waivers,” said an EPA staffer. “We told him that. All the briefings we have given him laid out the facts.”

Bush and His Evil Minions™ Have EPA Block California Air Quality Rules

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No big surprise here. Bush loves polluters. Governor Schwartzenegger* says that he will file suit. The EPA is using the recently passed energy bill as one of the justifications.

Since 12 other states follow California regulations, and 5 other states are considering it, this is a significant thing.

*I still have a problem getting my head around, “Governor Schwartzenegger”.

Regulation Encourages Innovation

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Bradford Plumer makes a very good point.

While the free market evangelicals constantly say that deregulation is the heart and soul of innovation, this graph of patents for sulfur dioxide emissions:

The Government spent money on reducing sulfur dioxide emissions before 1963, but when they started regulating the actual emissions is when we saw the technology develop?

It’s information like this that leads me to be suspicious of “market driven” procedures. A cap and trade system is a carbon tax, it’s just that speculators, rather than the government get the money….Let’s get it for the tax payers instead.

Word Up….Politics Good

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Dave Roberts of the Gristmill gets it right. At a meeting on environmental policy, he made the point that Republicans really don’t have detailed or credible global warming ideas, and someone scolded him for, “making it a political issue.”

His response is spot on:

It’s something I hear a lot, and I remain utterly baffled by it. The assumption seems to be that politics is bad and that the ideal state would be unity. That’s just … creepy. This is an enormously significant policy challenge facing a democracy, where different citizens and groups have different assessments of the problem and different proposals for solving it, arising from different interests. In other words, it is political. Politics is the means by which people resolve their disputes. The only practical way of achieving unity is by suppressing dissent.

Race Bank Opens for Business

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This is an interesting activity. Basically, they have created a giant deep freeze in a cave deep below the Svalbard Islands off the coast of Norway, and they are placing samples of agricultural species in order to preserve them.

While the stated purpose is to account for disaster, I think that it’s more important in the context of preserving old genes in various staple crops as they increasingly become mono-cultural world wide.

IPCC is Warning of Abrupt Climate Change

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Basically, the question is whether climate is stable, like a ball in a bowl, or metastable, like a ball on a flat spot on a hill, which, with a sufficient nudge will careen down the hill accelerating.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is now warning that once that ball is pushed too hard, it will start accelerating on its own.

I tend to agree, particularly when one considers things like hydrates on the ocean floor, and the massive amount of organic material that would start to decompose and emit gasses in the tundra areas of the world.

Water Wars

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It appears that Floridahas decided that it will not play nice with Georgia regarding water during the ongoing drought.

I’m not sure why, though with rain predicted in the next week, the point may be moot.

That being said, all this is like two kids throwing spitballs, compared to the inevitable water wars in the Western US, these are arid regions to begin with, they have experienced explosive population growth, and the source of much of the water, the Ogallala Aquifer, is largely primeval water, and recharges very slowly, so this will get very, very ugly.

Of course, global warming makes this all a crap shoot.

Barack Obama Can Kiss My Shiny Metal Ass

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He’s had a busy past day or so. Not only has he reinforced the Republican meme about killing social security by calling it a “crisis”, he is now in full pander with the mining interests when he says that he is opposing the repeal the 1872 Mining act.

We have had 200 years of bad laws, but the 1872 Mining act is among the worst. Under the 1872 law, a miner stakes a claim, and all they have to do is pay $5/acre, and it removes pretty much all environmental protections from land put to this applications.

Additionally, the law allows the land to be “patented” or transferred to private property for a small fee. This is a bad law. It has resulted in massive losses to the federal government, the pollution of 40% of the watersheds in the west, and continues to harm the delicate ecology of the west.

What’s more, with gold increasing in value, old mining sites will be doubtlessly be scavenged, doing more harm ecological harm.

For just how bad this law that Obama supports is, go here.

On the FiresIn California

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“There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.”

Raymond Chandler, Red Wind

I guess that the Santa Ana winds cause fires too, and pretty bad ones at that. I can’t add much to this news except this picture:

Global Warming Leads Coast Guard to Open Arctic Base

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The base would likely be located near Barrow, Alaska.

It will handle the expansion of traffic in the Arctic Ocean, and will coordinate traffic through the Bering Strait with the Russians.

When there is an open path during the summer months, which appears to be happening ahead of the worst cases given by climate change scientists, the traffic through such a “Northwest Passage” could be significant, and would require significant monitoring and aid by coast guards of all the nations on the arctic ocean.

Needless to say, this is a rather profound manifestation of global warming, notwithstanding the protestations of the global warming deniers.

Joel Kovel Specifically, and US Greens Generally are Idiots

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Joel Kovel ran against Hillary Clinton for Senate as a Green, and he typifies the smug, sanctimonious, and ineffective mindset that is the US Green Party.

I concur with Brad Delong. Where was Kovel when Al Gore was proposing a BTU tax to reduce carbon emissions in 1993.

People like Kovel are personally comfortable with the status quo, but want to feel virtuous, so they set the bar so high that it can never be attained, while they can still feel smug, superior, and sanctimonious.

Bush and His Evil Minions&trade Are Conceiling Documents and Testimony from the Utah Mind Disaster

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Here.

The question is, why? The owner of the mine, Robert E. Murray is a politically connected Republican, and it probably serves his purposes for there not to be disclosure.

Additionally, the release of information leading to more regulation of the mine industry that might result from disclosure is not something that either the mining industry, or the Bush administration wants.

Tamiflu Remains in Environment, Likely to Create Resistant Bird Flu

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This press release is important because new flu strains begin in birds, particularly waterfowl, that tend to swim in, and eat from bodies of water where this might accumulate, and hence lead to the development of drug resistant strains of bird flu.

Contact: Jerker Fick
jerker.fick@chem.umu.se
46-480-446-225
Public Library of Science
Tamiflu survives sewage treatment

Swedish researchers have discovered that oseltamivir (Tamiflu); an antiviral drug used to prevent and mitigate influenza infections is not removed or degraded during normal sewage treatment. Consequently, in countries where Tamiflu is used at a high frequency, there is a risk that its concentration in natural waters can reach levels where influenza viruses in nature will develop resistance to it. Widespread resistance of viruses in nature to Tamiflu increases the risk that influenza viruses infecting humans will become resistant to one of the few medicines currently available for treating influenza.

”Antiviral medicines such as Tamiflu must be used with care and only when the medical situation justifies it,” advises Björn Olsen, Professor of Infectious Diseases with the Uppsala University and the University of Kalmar. “Otherwise there is a risk that they will be ineffective when most needed, such as during the next influenza pandemic.”

The Swedish research group demonstrated that oseltamivir, the active substance in Tamiflu, passes virtually unchanged through sewage treatment.

“That this substance is so difficult to break down means that it goes right through sewage treatment and out into surrounding waters,” says Jerker Fick, Doctor in Chemistry at Umeå University and the leader of this study.

The Swedish research group also revealed that the level of oseltamivir discharged through sewage outlets in certain countries may be so high that influenza viruses in nature can potentially develop resistance to the drug.

“Use of Tamiflu is low in most countries, but there are some exceptions such as Japan, where a third of all influenza patients are treated with Tamiflu,” explains Jerker Fick.

Influenza viruses are common among waterfowl, especially dabbling ducks such as mallards. These ducks often forage for food in water near sewage outlets. Here they can potentially encounter oseltamivir in concentrations high enough to develop resistance in the viruses they carry.

“The biggest threat is that resistance will become common among low pathogenic influenza viruses carried by wild ducks.” adds Björn Olsen. These viruses could then recombinate with viruses that make humans sick to create new viruses that are resistant to the antiviral drugs currently available.

The Swedish researchers advise that this problem must be taken seriously so that humanity’s future health will not be endangered by too frequent and unnecessary prescription of the drug today.

###

Disclaimer

This press release refers to an upcoming article in PLoS ONE. The release has been provided by the article authors and/or their institutions. Any opinions expressed in this are the personal views of the contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of PLoS. PLoS expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability in connection with the information found in the release and article and your use of such information.

Their study was published in the high-ranked journal PLoS ONE. The entire article is available free online, and can be read at the following address: http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0000986

Citation: Fick J, Lindberg RH, Tysklind M, Haemig PD, Waldenstro¨m J, et al (2007) Antiviral Oseltamivir Is not Removed or Degraded in Normal Sewage Water Treatment: Implications for Development of Resistance by Influenza A Virus. PLoS ONE 2(10): e986. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000986

PLEASE ADD THE LINK TO THE PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT (URL live from October 2): http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0000986