Green Environment

Sarah Palin took to Facebook again this weekend, posting about her youngest daughter’s graduation in the Alaskan snow: One last blast of Alaska winter today, hopefully? This is what “Grad Blast” means in Alaska! We’ll move our graduation b-b-q indoors and watch the mini-blizzard from ’round the fireplace. (Global warming my gluteus maximus.) When Palin was running for national office, she advocated capping carbon emissions and said man’s activities contribute to global warming. Over the last half decade, she has swung back to rejecting climate science and embracing carbon emissions: Aug. 2008: Asked about global warming, said “I’m not one though who would attribute it to being man-made.” Sep. 2008: Told Charlie Gibson: “I believe that man’s activities can certainly be contributing to the issue of global warming, climate change.” Oct. 2008: Said during the vice presidential debate that she supported capping carbon emissions. May 2009: Forced to cancel an appearance at White House Correspondents’ dinner because of a flooding disaster caused by an “unusually warm spring thaw in Alaska.” Nov. 2009: Asked Rush Limbaugh, “Are we warming or are we cooling?” Dec. 2009: Attacked climate scientists in a Washington Post op-ed, then said she would not debate Al Gore on climate change because “they don’t want to listen to the facts. They don’t want to listen to some reasonable voices in this.” Feb. 2010: Asserted that climate science is “snake oil” and said “man-made global warming hysteria isn’t based on sound science.” Apr. 2010: Dismissed “this snake oil science stuff that is based on this global warming, Gore-gate stuff Jun. 2010: In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill, said “I chant, ‘drill, baby, drill,’ because it will help make the country energy independent.” May 2011: At a motorcycle rally, exclaimed: “I love that smell of the emissions!” Jan. 2012: In the middle of last winter, took to Facebook to ask, “What global warming?”. Apr. 2012: Celebrated Earth Day by calling, yet again, to “drill, baby, drill.” Palin is an entertainer now rather than a public servant and so her opinions alone do not merit much consideration. Yet her joking asides that cold weather means that climate change is not happening are representative of a larger skepticism and confusion about the link between climate and weather. Essentially: climate is a trend, while weather is a data point. Lots of data points make up a trend. The trend thus far has been that of frankly shocking warming. In December, we saw the 333rd month in a row global temperatures exceeded the long-term average. Both the science and the evidence tell us that humans have a lot to do with this. Carbon emissions are rising — and recently hit the highest levels humans have ever seen. But what about the fact that some parts of the U.S. have recently seen cold temperatures? In fact, it is entirely possible that the cold weather is partially driven by climate change. The Arctic has recently been warming twice as fast as the rest of the Northern Hemisphere. Paired with melting sea ice, this can cause extreme weather “such as drought, flooding, cold spells, and heat waves.” Some studies suggest this causes a “blocking” weather pattern arises over somewhere like Greenland, which slows down the jet stream and alters weather patterns. This is what appears to be happening this spring. The blocking pattern slowed down weather patterns and allowed them to tap into more cold air. This brings cold into the continental U.S., allowing the Arctic to warm dramatically. Though some parts of the U.S. have been colder than, for instance, last year’s extremely warm spring, climate change makes itself apparent in unusual ways. In March, the bulk freighter “Federal Hunter” docked in Du

A judge has ruled that a nun and two other protesters must remain in jail until they are sentenced in September for breaking into a nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee. Sister Megan Rice and protesters Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed  were convicted Wednesday of sabotaging the plant and damaging federal property last year at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. The sabotage charge carries a maximum prison term of up to 20 years. The damaged property charge has a penalty of up to 10 years. Thapar said that the defendants can’t meet the first requirement as federal prosecutors have said they plan to seek prison time. Thapar also noted that the defendants have not shown any “unique circumstances that would weigh against detention.” via Nuclear Protestors, Including Sister Megan Rice, To Remain Jailed In Tennessee For Months.

You may be worried that because you have a small yard or even just a front porch, growing your own food is out of reach. That, however, is not the case. Plenty of options exist for growing food. Greg Peterson, an expert gardener and gardening instructor in Phoenix, advocates keeping it simple, especially when gardening in tight, urban spaces. Here are some tips Peterson offers to help you start growing food in small spaces the simple way. 1. Work with the space you have 2. Try out alternative methods 3. Grow herbs 4. Plant a fruit tree via Tips for Growing Food in a Small Space | Earth911.com.

Scientists have discovered a strangely patterned new insect in the Philippines, dubbing it the pirate ant because of a dark stripe over its eyes that makes it look like it's wearing an eye patch.   The formal name of the newfound creature is Cardiocondyla pirata, and belongs to a group of species that are found from Thailand across the whole Indonesian-Malaysian region.

Yesterday, Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) rejected the notion that Hurricane Sandy’s damage was worsened by climate change. At a ceremonial event to mark the rebuilding of the Jersey Shore boardwalk post-Hurricane Sandy, Christie responded to a question from WNYC/New Jersey Public Radio about how the state could have better prepared for the consequences of climate change: Well, first of all, I don’t agree with the premise of your question because I don’t think there’s been any proof thus far that Sandy was caused by climate change. But I would absolutely expect that that’s exactly what WNYC would say, because you know liberal public radio always has an agenda. And so since I disagree with the premise of your question I don’t feel like I have to answer the rest of it. Of course, this isn’t about whether Sandy was “caused” by climate change. It’s about twwhether climate change and sea level rise are making such storms more frequent and much more destructive (see links below) — and that is something we can plan for. Christie is already one of the few Republican leaders that acknowledge human activity causes climate change. Even so, he still casts it as a second-tier issue. “Maybe in the subsequent months and years, after I get done with rebuilding the state and getting people back in their homes,” he told reporters in February, “I’ll have the opportunity to ponder the esoteric question of the causes of the storm.” He even acknowledged climate change is real in the same speech where he announced that he was pulling New Jersey out of a regional compact aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Contrast Chrstie’s words with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D), who said, “We have a one-hundred year flood every two years now.” Still, both governors make the case for greater greater resiliency, even though Christie does not directly reference climate change. The different responses also characterize the gulf in NY and NJ preparations for climate change. According to a report from WNYC, New Jersey overlooked climate change warnings before Sandy, which resulted in it losing over one-quarter of its public transit fleet. Meanwhile, New York had consulted scientists on climate change-related incidents, and lost 19 of its 8,000 rail cars. What Christie fails to grasp is the impact climate change is having on his constituents today, including coastal flooding, powerful storms, sea level rise, and drought. Extreme weather has also cost taxpayers $136 billion in the last three years, with Sandy’s toll alone at $60 billion. Related Posts: How Arctic Ice Loss Amplified Superstorm Sandy — Oceanography Journal How Does Climate Change Make Superstorms Like Sandy More Destructive? Yes, Climate Change Contributed To Superstorm Sandy

New York City seems alien enough to many of its visitors, but imagine how strange it would look if whisked away to another planet.

WASHINGTON — If an extreme solar storm aimed at the Earth hits in just the right way, it could put interconnected electrical grids around the world at serious risk, experts say.

The beginnings of Monday's disastrous tornado in Oklahoma were caught from space by a weather satellite in orbit.

The big tornado outbreak, including a monster Oklahoma twister, have people asking again about a possible link to climate change. I’ll review the science in this post. “The news helicopter from kfor.com caught this image of the shocking near-total destruction of a huge area of Moore, Oklahoma, on May 20, 2013.” Via Masters. Tom Karl, the director of the National Climatic Data Center, explained in a 2011 email: What we can say with confidence is that heavy and extreme precipitation events often associated with thunderstorms and convection are increasing and have been linked to human-induced changes in atmospheric composition. Insured losses due to thunderstorms and tornadoes in the U.S. in 2012 dollars. Data and image from Property Claims Service, Munich Re. Tornadoes “come from certain thunderstorms, usually super-cell thunderstorms,” explained climatologist Dr. Kevin Trenberth in an email today, but you need “a wind shear environment that promotes rotation.” Global warming may decrease the wind shear and that may counterbalance the impact on tornado generation from the increase in thunderstorm intensity. Trenberth, the former head of the Climate Analysis Section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, notes: The main climate change connection is via the basic instability of the low level air that creates the convection and thunderstorms in the first place. Warmer and moister conditions are the key for unstable air. The climate change effect is probably only a 5 to 10% effect in terms of the instability and subsequent rainfall, but it translates into up to a 32% effect in terms of damage. (It is highly nonlinear). So there is a chain of events and climate change mainly affects the first link: the basic buoyancy of the air is increased.  Whether that translates into a super-cell storm and one with a tornado is largely chance weather. After April 2011 saw records set for most tornadoes in a month and in 24 hours — “The Katrina of tornado outbreaks“ — I examined the climate/tornado link in great detail here, looking at the data, the literature, and expert analysis. That piece concluded: When discussing extreme weather and climate, tornadoes should not be conflated with the other extreme weather events for which the connection is considerably more straightforward and better documented, including deluges, droughts, and heat waves. Just because the tornado-warming link is more tenuous doesn’t mean that the subject of global warming should be avoided entirely when talking about tornadoes. Early March 2012 saw what was likely “the most prolific five-day period of tornado activity on record for so early in the year,” as meteorologist Dr. Jeff Masters put it. Then we had an unusually long “tornado drought” from May 2012 to April 2013, which has now come to a stunning end, punctuated by the devastating Moore, Oklahoma tornado yesterday: A massive, mile-wide supercell tornado ripped through the suburbs of Oklahoma City, destroying homes, schools and other buildings. The tornado was on the ground for some 40 minutes, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), and police reported that an occupied elementary school was in the path of the cyclone. Early estimates had winds on the ground near 200 mph, which would have made the cyclone an F4 or higher. Witnesses said the damage was like something out of an atomic bomb strike, and there are at least 24 people dead, including many young children, with a toll that could eventually be far higher. Masters says “the Moore tornado likely to be one of the five most damaging tornadoes in history,” which is particularly tragic because Moore had “previously experienced the 4th costliest tornado in world history, the notorious May 3, 1999 Bridgecreek-Moore EF-5 tornado.” You can donate to the American Red Cross disaster relief here. Below is an extended review of the scientific liter

As a cadre of Google executives took turns touting Google’s newest products at a conference in California on Wednesday, they also described how they were working toward a future in which technology would disappear. That might sound like a bizarre mission for a tech company. Yet they promised that by fading into the background of our lives, technology would become easier to use, more intuitive, more efficient and more anticipatory, even allowing people to speak to Google like it were a person, rather than a piece of software. Google would usher in this new world with tools that would bring web services into every crevice of our lives, from maps that know where we’ll go next, to Google Glass, eyewear that puts the Internet mere millimeters away from our eyeballs. But Google’s professed goal of making technology “get out of the way” masks what’s truly taking place. By making technology invisible, Google is also making it omnipresent. As software and gadgets become less in-your-face, they also become more pervasive and more influential, as we in turn become more dependent on them, more accepting of their presence in our lives and less critical of them. After all, how can someone scrutinize what they can’t see? via Bianca Bosker: The Truth Behind Google’s Bizarre Mission to Make Tech ‘Go Away’.