The Environment

• The Effects of Global Warming being Felt in the US

  In a recent PBS documentary, the mayor of Norfolk, Virginia, Paul Fraim, talks about how flooding has become a monthly occurrence in his town, and how global warming and sea level rise are as much a daily issue for him as education and fighting crime. In some parts of Norfolk, streets turn into rivers at high tide. Homes are flooded five out of six years. People lose their carpets, their appliances, their savings. And they can’t afford to move elsewhere.Sea levels have risen 14 inches in Norfolk since 1930–almost double the global rate. Part of this alarming change is due…

• Carbon Isotopes Prove Humans Have Caused Global Warming

  The earth is warming. But can we be sure that humans are the cause? Yes. The same way cycling officials were sure that biker Floyd Landis doped with synthetic testosterone while winning the 2006 Tour de France.With Lance Armstrong retired and most of the other top riders expelled for illegal drug use, Landis had become one of the favourites. He was leading when in stage 16 he fell to eleventh place. Then, just as his chances of winning seemed dashed, Landis won the next stage going away and went on to ride the Champs-Élysées in the winner’s yellow jersey.A few…

• Never Mind Earth Day, Carbon Emissions are still too High

  The first observance of Earth Day was March 21, 1970. I was 17, and along with other students at Broad Run High School, went out with garbage bags to clean up the side of the road leading to the school. Even then, of course, the world faced much more serious pollution issues than roadside litter. But that problem was one we students could do something about.Given the magnitude of the challenges the earth now faces, provoked by man-made global climate change as a result of our spewing massive amounts of carbon dioxide and soot into the atmosphere, the problems that…

• Catastrophic Climate Change to Hit Africa and the Middle East within a Decade

  A new study just published in Nature Geoscience has found it plausible for the first time that the world’s average surface temperature could rise by as much as 5 degrees Fahrenheit (3 C.) by 2050, only 38 years from now. In February, the United Nations warned that the world only has a few years to substantially reduce its dependence on hydrocarbons, if it was to avoid the disasters facing the earth with a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees C. The likelihood that such a rise in temperature can be avoided is now low (emissions were up 6% in…

• Even Keel Needed off Coast of Brazil

  An oil spill off the coast of Brazil has sparked a political firestorm in what may one day be a global production leader. The Brazilian government is throwing the books at Chevron, while the U.S. supermajor tries to dodge legal bullets. There's no such thing as too much caution in the wake of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico but Brasilia might be inhibiting its own potential in an effort to send the warning that it means business offshore. Roughly 3,000 barrels of oil spilled off the coast of Rio de Janiero in November at the Chevron-operated Frade…

• Scrapping all Coal Plants Would have no Significant Effect for 100 Years

  Who could have dreamed solving climate change would be so easy? A new paper in Environmental Research Letters called “Greenhouse gases, climate change and the transition from coal to low-carbon electricity” concludes that replacement of all of the world’s currently operating coal-fired power plants — which produce about 40% of the world’s electricity — and replacing them with renewable energy would have an impact of 0.2 degrees Celsius 100 years from now. Cherry-Picking Conclusions According to One’s Viewpoint However, a number of climate change websites took away a very different message than I took away from the paper. Here is…

• How Severe an Impact Would the Keystone XL Pipeline have on the Environment?

  Last month, a group of 15 climate scientists (included the now disgraced Peter Gleick) sent a letter to Congress expressing their displeasure over the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline. President Obama has weighed in against approval, but Congress wants a green light to allow construction of the 1,700-mile, $7 billion project. Most recently, Bill Clinton weighed in for the pipeline, indicating just how deep the positives of the project are for the U.S. and world oil market. So why are physical scientists getting political about a market-friendly pipeline to deliver oil from the Athabascan oil sands in Alberta, Canada, to various…

• Energy Pragmatism Dies in New Zealand

  Shell won approval from the U.S. government for its oil spill response plan for work the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska. Washington said it welcomed the "science-based" approach to oil exploration in the arctic waters, where production levels could reach around 700,000 barrels per day. More than 400 pages of information from Shell and approval from federal agencies charged with ensuring the safety of offshore energy developments, however, did little to discourage environmental groups from waging war. Shell said it has plans to drill as many as six wells in the Chukchi Sea, a remote region thousands of miles…

• The Climate Change Controversy Continues

  There are a couple of controversial items that have made it into the mainstream press recently that seem to have stirred a little controversy, and which are worth at least a mention. The first was the Opinion piece in the WSJ back in Januuary in which 16 scientists wrote that there was no need to panic over Global Warming. They note, in their letter: Alarmism over climate is of great benefit to many, providing government funding for academic research and a reason for government bureaucracies to grow. Alarmism also offers an excuse for governments to raise taxes, taxpayer-funded subsidies for…

• Chevron's Underhand Tactics to Avoid Paying for Worlds Worst Oil Disaster

  The Andean Commission of Jurists and five prestigious international law experts from around the world have joined a growing chorus of criticism targeting Chevron's attempt to use a secret investor arbitration as part of its campaign to evade an $18 billion environmental judgment in Ecuador, according to letters released today. In a letter to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the Andean Commission said it was "alarmed" at Chevron's attempt to use a private investor arbitration convened under the U.S.-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty ("BIT") to influence the outcome of a private litigation between indigenous groups and Chevron in Ecuador's courts.…