Tag Archives: alaska

California Just Had Its Warmest Winter on Record

by olikellopas Posted on March 13, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

NOAA

This winter has been a tale of two Americas: The Midwest is just beginning to thaw out from a battery of epic cold snaps, while Californians might feel that they pretty much skipped winter altogether. In fact, new NOAA data reveal that California’s winter (December through February) was the warmest in the 119-year record, 4.4 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average.

The map above ranks every state’s winter temperature average relative to its own historical record low (in other words, relative to itself and not to other states). Low numbers indicate that the state was unusually cold; higher numbers mean it was exceptionally warm. As you can see, the Midwest was much colder than average, while the West was hotter than average (despite a season-long kerfluffle about polar vortexes, the East Coast wasn’t exceptionally cold, after all).

As we’ve reported, there’s currently a scientific debate over whether climate change in the Arcitc is making the jet stream “drunk,” and thereby increasing the likelihood of extreme cold spells; the exact role of climate change in California’s record heat is still unclear.

As anyone working in California’s farming industry could confirm, the state also had an exceptionally dry winter, the third-lowest precipitation on record. Other interesting facts from the NOAA report:

At the beginning of March, 91 percent of the Great Lakes remained frozen, the second-largest ice cover since record keeping began in 1973.
With reservoirs in central and northern California at 36 to 74 percent of their historical average levels, these regions would need 18 inches of rain over the next three months to end the drought, much more than the state normally gets in that time period.
Alaska’s winter was the eighth-warmest on record, 6.2 degrees F over the 1971-2000 average.

Continued here: 

California Just Had Its Warmest Winter on Record

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on California Just Had Its Warmest Winter on Record

Who had the best one-liners at the Senate’s climate slumber party?

by ijgmyne6n Posted on March 11, 2014

Who had the best one-liners at the Senate’s climate slumber party?

By

Shutterstock

Sens. Brian Schatz and Maria Cantwell share a light moment during the all-night talkathon. OK, not really.

Thirty U.S. senators pulled an all-nighter on Monday. They did not, sadly, wear PJs, paint toenails, or fight with pillows.

Instead, they talked about climate change — and talked and talked and talked. They cited studies and stats. They showed photos and graphs. They warned about climate impacts in their home states. They promoted the economic benefits of clean energy and the job-creating potential of innovation. They made strained analogies about baseball and the rise of the Nazi regime. Altogether, they talked for nearly 15 hours, right through to 8:55 a.m. Tuesday morning.

There aren’t enough votes in Congress right now to pass strong climate legislation, or any climate legislation (though an energy-efficiency bill might squeeze through). But at least nearly a third of senators care enough about the problem to stage the 35th all-nighter in Senate history.

“Tonight is not about a specific legislative proposal,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), one of the organizers of the talkathon. “It’s about showing the environmental community, young people, and anyone paying attention to climate change that the Senate is starting to stir and we want to get some actions going.”

Whitehouse — a passionate climate hawk who has now given 60 speeches about global warming on the Senate floor — orchestrated the chatfest along with Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), under the aegis of the new Senate Climate Action Task Force. Both of the Senate’s independents joined in, as well as 26 other Democrats, including, as The Guardian points out, “several senior Democrats who have not spoken out publicly before on climate change.”

Whitehouse tweeted out this photo:

The only Republican to show up was more than a little off-message. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the Senate’s No. 1 climate denier, gave a rambling speech arguing, among other points, that it’s been cold recently, therefore global warming is a hoax.

To which Schatz replied: “Pointing out a window on a cold day and laughing about climate change is one of the most profoundly unserious things that otherwise good and responsible leaders in this chamber do.”

More quotes from the talkathon:

“I rise tonight in puzzlement as to how this issue became a partisan issue. It’s a scientific issue.” — Angus King (I-Maine)
“It’s time to stop acting like those who ignore this crisis — the oil baron Koch brothers and their allies in Congress — have a valid point of view.” — Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
 “We do not have to accept the false choice of the environment versus the economy.” — Tim Kaine (D-Va.)
“We are on the cusp of a climate crisis … a point of no return. We are in a moment of great danger and great opportunity. It is up to us.” — Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
“So much of that CO2 is red, white, and blue.” — Ed Markey (D-Mass.)
“I don’t want to bury my head in the tar sands.” — Tim Kaine (D-Va.)
“Right now what we need is a Republican dance partner.” — Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii)
“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today.” — Cory Booker (D-N.J.)
“Lobsters are our modern-day canary in the coal mine.” — Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” — Ed Markey (D-Mass.), reading from The Lorax

Did your senators join in? Here’s a list of participants:

Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)
Cory Booker (D-N.J.)
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)
Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.)
Ben Cardin (D-Md.)
Chris Coons (D-Del.)
Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
Al Franken (D-Minn.)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.)
Tim Kaine (D-Va.)
Angus King (I-Maine)
Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)
Ed Markey (D-Mass.)
Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)
Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)
Patty Murray (D-Wash.)
Bill Nelson (D-Fla.)
Jack Reed (D-R.I.)
Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii)
Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)
Mark Udall (D-Colo.)
Tom Udall (D-N.M.)
Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)

And here are the Democrats who did not attend the all-nighter, some of whom hail from fossil-fuel-producing states and/or face tight reelection races this year:

Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.)
Mark Begich (D-Alaska)
Michael Bennet (D-Colo.)
Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)
Thomas Carper (D-Del.)
Robert Casey (D-Pa.)
Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.)
Kay Hagan (D-N.C.)
Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)
Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.)
Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii)
Tim Johnson (D-S.D.)
Mary Landrieu (D-La.)
Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)
Carl Levin (D-Mich.)
Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)
Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.)
Bob Menendez (D-N.J.)
Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.)
Mark Pryor (D-Ark.)
John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)
Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.)
Jon Tester (D-Mont.)
John Walsh (D-Mont.)
Mark Warner (D-Va.)


Source
They’re Up All Night To Get Wonky: 30 Senators Hold Overnight Climate Session, The Huffington Post
Sleepless in the Senate: Democrats pull all-nighter for climate change – as it happened, The Guardian
Big Senate Climate Caucus Live On The Internet, Planetsave
Climate Change Keeps Senate Democrats Up All Night Long, ABC News Radio

Lisa Hymas is senior editor at Grist. You can follow her on Twitter and Google+.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Climate & Energy

,

Politics

View original:  

Who had the best one-liners at the Senate’s climate slumber party?

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Who had the best one-liners at the Senate’s climate slumber party?

What Would Happen If We Really Went to War Against Christmas?

by HolleyN22wck Posted on December 18, 2013

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

You’ve heard about the “War on Christmas,” a cynical but largely successful attempt by grown men and women to drive up cable news ratings and sell terrible books. But what about an actual war on Christmas? If President Barack Obama wanted to take down Santa Claus*, how would he do it? And would it work? A classified report obtained by Mother Jones sheds new light on the Department of Defense’s plans. Take a look:

Overwhelming force: On paper, it looks possible. The United States has 16,000 military personnel in Alaska, mostly at major Air Force bases outside Anchorage and Fairbanks (home to the 354th fighter wing). A military airstrip at Barrow, the country’s northernmost point, could also be used a forward operating base, as could Thule Air Base in northwest Greenland, 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The Navy and Air Force regularly conduct carrier group exercises in the Gulf of Alaska; so they’re not exactly coming in cold.

But Santa’s best defense is that the North Pole is—spoiler—really cold. The US Navy doesn’t have any icebreakers, and the Coast Guard only has two, both of which are research vessels. (An amendment to the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act would have commissioned four new icebreakers, but that’s still pending congressional approval.) And unlike the Russians and the Finns, the United States doesn’t have any ground units specifically trained to handle polar climates.

Nor is Santa himself a pushover. Some images of the old man depict him with a Kalashnikov. Elsewhere, he’s armed with a sword. Futurama‘s Robot Santa has some sort of laser blaster. In Scrooged, Santa is able to repel a terrorist attack with an M16A2; his elves carry M60 machine guns. Oh, and about those elves. According to NorthPole.com, “There are an unlimited number of elves because it takes a lot of help to keep the northpole maintained and the presents made every year” sic. Even if an expeditionary force succeeds in taking the workshop, the elves’ sheer numbers make the possibility of a post-invasion insurgency likely. And then there’s Santa’s sidekick Krampus, a massive goat-demon who according to Germanic legend, captures his enemies in a bathtub, eats them, and transports them to hell. How do you stab the devil in the back? No, really—it’s our only hope.

Leo/Shutterstock

Missile intercept: Targeting Santa while he’s on his rounds sounds good in theory. NORAD already purports to track Santa’s progress on its website, owing to a typo in a 1955 Sears advertisement that accidentally broadcasted a secret government phone line to the general public. And the NSA is well-equipped to spy on Santa’s kingdom. Arctic Fiber, a Canadian company, is laying a new fiber-optic cable underneath the North Pole that will link Tokyo and London, to get a leg up on high-frequency stock market trading, but it could also give the US government’s super-secret (until recently) data-collection programs the lowdown on what’s going on at the workshop.

But the United States has never successfully shot down a ballistic missile, which doesn’t inspire confidence in its chances at taking down Santa, whose packed schedule requires him to travel at pace somewhere between ridiculous and ludicrous speed. Norwegian physicist Knut Jørgen Røed Oedegaar argues that Claus is equipped with an ion shield, which prevents him from being torn apart by gravitational forces and protects him from being incinerated (by fireplaces, atmospheric reentry, or missiles). Also, he travels between dimensions.

Special ops: Why not? Let us count the ways: “I cannot think of too many worse environments to infiltrate and then exfiltrate from than the North Pole,” says Andrew Exum, a former special adviser for Middle East policy at the Department of Defense who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I have no idea how many elves would remain loyal to Santa Claus, but given the open terrain, you would probably want to surround Santa’s workshop with at least a company of Army Rangers before sending in a team from one of our special missions units to capture or kill Santa himself. That’s 150 to 200 men right there that would have to make their way to one of the most remote locations on Earth, carry out a very difficult mission in low visibility and freezing temperatures, and then march back out. As much as I love and admire our special operations forces, that’s a huge ask.”

Drones: There’s nothing to stop the United States from sending a few Predator drones over the North Pole and targeting Claus’ infrastructure—the workshop, the reindeer runway, the gingerbread valley. But that would trigger an international incident with Russia, which in 2007 claimed the pole falls on its continental shelf and is therefore sovereign territory. Canada recently made the same claim (invoking Santa in the process), although the evidence was dubious. The United States could claim the North Pole for itself too, but only if the Senate gets around to ratifying the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty. (Also, holy collateral damage, Batman!)

Andre Adams/Shutterstock

The long game: Probably our best shot. Santa’s workshop is a political powder keg just waiting for a spark. With only reindeer milk, fish, and the odd seal readily available in the harsh Arctic landscape, the North Pole has to import eggs, dairy, and sprinkles to sustain its inhabitants’ principal diet of Christmas cookies. Elves also consume enormous quantities of maple syrup, which must be imported from the United States or Canada by way of a cartel. All that makes the North Pole uniquely vulnerable to tough international sanctions and a coordinated push for regime change—by aiding militant factions if necessary.

The North Pole is also vulnerable to climate change, putting an already fragile environment in flux. Literally. The North Pole is now shifting because melting glaciers are affecting Earth’s mass. And Santa’s workshop sits above potentially lucrative deposits of oil and gas that energy companies want to get their hands on ASAP. It’s only a matter of time before the locals face displacement in the face of humanity’s unceasing thirst for material wealth.

Under the brutal Claus regime, which exiles its radicals to the Island of Misfit Toys, the elite few have grown fat on the labor of the many. How long can Santa’s elves endure such pressures before they begin to question the leader they’ve followed blindly for so long? How long before the workers seize the means of production?

The problem with waiting for an elvish uprising, Exum says, is that it might take a while—even if they get assistance from the Green Berets. “I have no idea how combat-ready these elves are. They could be like the elves in the Lord of the Rings, in which case they shouldn’t need much training, or they could be like those Keebler elves, in which case I can’t imagine they have any military training or experience. So I’m afraid Christmas is likely to go on this year as planned in all its gaudy commercial excess.”

Just kidding, kids. Santa is your parents.

Link: 

What Would Happen If We Really Went to War Against Christmas?

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on What Would Happen If We Really Went to War Against Christmas?

Thanks for the waves

by Myrna Posted on November 27, 2013

When you don’t have waves… be thankful for when you do. Continued: Thanks for the waves ; ;Related ArticlesEmbracing the surfboard fin while moving ocean conservation forwardDrinking fountain comes full circlePunk rock environmentalism, Pennywise takes the stage ;

Source – 

Thanks for the waves

Posted in alo, Black & Decker, Citadel, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, mixer, Monterey, ONA, PUR, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Thanks for the waves

Climate change will make the Arctic a new battleground. Here’s how America will fight

by JudithCedillo Posted on November 25, 2013

Climate change will make the Arctic a new battleground. Here’s how America will fight

By

Ash

The Arctic is melting, so the U.S. is rolling up there with its guns and ammo.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel laid out the Pentagon’s first-ever Arctic strategy — a military strategy designed to keep the fast-melting region peaceful and clean as it is plundered by drillers and traversed by shippers. From his speech on Friday [PDF]:

Climate change is shifting the landscape in the Arctic more rapidly than anywhere else in the world. While the Arctic temperature rise is relatively small in absolute terms, its effects are significant – transforming what was a frozen desert into an evolving navigable ocean, giving rise to an unprecedented level of human activity. Traffic in the Northern Sea Route is reportedly expected to increase tenfold this year compared to last year. …

With Arctic sea routes starting to see more activities like tourism and commercial shipping, the risk of accidents increases. Migrating fish stocks will draw fishermen to new areas, challenging existing management plans. And while there will be more potential for tapping what may be as much as a quarter of the planet’s undiscovered oil and gas, a flood of interest in energy exploration has the potential to heighten tensions over other issues – even though most projected oil and gas reserves in the region are located within undisputed exclusive economic zones.

Despite potential challenges, these developments create the opportunity for nations to work together through coalitions of common interest, as both Arctic and non-Arctic nations begin to lay out their strategies and positions on the future of the region.

Here is our summary of Hagel’s eight-point strategy:

1. The U.S. will not allow anybody to even think about messing with us. “We will remain prepared to detect, deter, prevent and defeat threats,” Hagel said.

2. The U.S., Alaska, and private industry will work together “to improve our understanding and awareness of the Arctic environment” — which provides the “first new frontier of nautical exploration since the days of Ericsson, Columbus, and Magellan.”

3. No pirates. “We will help preserve freedom of the seas throughout the region, to ensure that the Arctic Ocean will be as peacefully navigated as other oceans of the world.”

4. Boost infrastructure and military presence in the Arctic “at a pace consistent with changing conditions” and “balance potential Arctic investments with other national security priorities.”

5. Similar to No. 1, but with Russia and other partners. “We will enhance our cold-weather operational experience, and strengthen our military-to-military ties with other Arctic nations.”

6. Be better prepared to respond to disasters, both natural and those related to shipping, drilling and other human activities.

7. Protect the Arctic’s “environmental integrity.”

8. Support the development of the Arctic Council and other international organizations. “These engagements will help strengthen multilateral security cooperation throughout the region, which will ultimately help reduce the risk of conflict,” Hagel said.

“Throughout human history, mankind has raced to discover the next frontier,” Hagel said. “And time after time, discovery was swiftly followed by conflict. We cannot erase this history. But we can assure that history does not repeat itself in the Arctic.”


Source
Remarks by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, E2

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Climate & Energy

,

Politics

Source: 

Climate change will make the Arctic a new battleground. Here’s how America will fight

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized, wind energy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Climate change will make the Arctic a new battleground. Here’s how America will fight

Accidents? What accidents? Shell’s Arctic drillers are ready to roll again

by Jim Bow Posted on November 4, 2013

Accidents? What accidents? Shell’s Arctic drillers are ready to roll again

By

Shutterstock

OK, so last year was a nightmare for the officials at Shell charged with figuring out how to plunder the Arctic for oil. Shell gets that. Both of the company’s exploratory oil rigs in the region were damaged in accidents, wells were abandoned, a vice president lost his job, and the Obama administration prevented the company from resuming its Arctic work this year.

But Shell is delighted to announce that its problems have largely been fixed and it’s ready to return to some American-controlled Arctic waters next year. From E&E Publishing:

In a teleconference with energy analysts, Shell Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry said the company will submit an exploration plan for the Chukchi “in the next few weeks.” Shell officials added, however, that the company has not yet reached a final decision on drilling.

Although Shell is moving forward in the Chukchi [the waters just north of the Bering Strait, and to the west of the more northerly Beaufort Sea], the company is postponing its Beaufort Sea operations for the foreseeable future.

Henry said the company also expects to abandon its battered drill rig the Kulluk and will take a write-off “of a few hundred million in the fourth quarter” of this year if the rig is scrapped.

Shell is taking a renewed look at Alaska a year after the company spent more than $5 billion in an unsuccessful campaign to explore in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. …

Despite last year’s problems, Henry said the company is eager to gauge the size of the oil reserves on its Chukchi leases. The Interior Department estimates that the region could hold 12 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

Shell wants us to know that everything will probably be peachy, but Earthjustice attorney Holly Harris isn’t ready to buy the oil-industry promises:

Before Shell starts boasting about its new plans for the drilling in the Arctic Ocean, the company should explain why it couldn’t safely conduct its operations under last year’s plans. We’ve already watched Shell lose control of two different drill rigs in less than a year, with one of them catching fire and the other one running aground off the coast of Alaska. The federal government chastised Shell earlier this year that it needed to answer ‘serious questions regarding its ability to operate safely and responsibly in the challenging and unpredictable conditions’ of the Arctic Ocean. We’re still waiting for those answers. Drilling in the Arctic Ocean is just too risky and no company has figured out how to respond to an oil spill in icy waters.

Drilling in the Arctic Ocean would also take us in the wrong direction when it comes to addressing the challenges of climate change … The president can make a generational commitment to take action against the devastating effects of climate change by leaving the oil in the ground and preventing oil drilling in the pristine waters of the Arctic Ocean.

Time will tell whether the Obama administration sides with hopeful Shell officials or with skeptical environmentalists.


Source
Shell Plans to Drill in The Arctic in 2014, Earthjustice
Offshore drilling: Shell will return to Arctic in 2014, E&E Publishing

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

,

Climate & Energy

,

Politics

Read this article: 

Accidents? What accidents? Shell’s Arctic drillers are ready to roll again

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, ONA, Safer, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Accidents? What accidents? Shell’s Arctic drillers are ready to roll again

Shell fined $1.1 million for polluting Arctic air during error-plagued drilling efforts

by Natalia681 Posted on September 9, 2013

Shell fined $1.1 million for polluting Arctic air during error-plagued drilling efforts

By

U.S. Coast GuardWorkers were evacuated after Shell’s exploratory oil rig ran aground. 

In the words of then-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Shell completely “screwed up” its efforts to tap Arctic oil reserves last year. A series of accidents in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, off the North Slope of Alaska, led to the abandonment of drilled wells and damage to both of the company’s Alaskan exploratory oil rigs, one of which ran aground. Those blunders prompted the Obama administration to bar Shell from the region this year. They also claimed the job of Shell Vice President David Lawrence, who once described drilling in the Alaskan Arctic as “relatively easy.”

But that’s not all. As we told you in January, amid its chain of mishaps, the company was also sullying the Arctic air and violating the Clean Air Act. Now it has been fined for those air-pollution transgressions. From an EPA press release:

Based on EPA’s inspections and Shell’s excess emission reports, EPA documented numerous air permit violations for Shell’s Discoverer and Kulluk drill ship fleets, during the approximately two months the vessels operated during the 2012 drilling season.

In today’s settlements, Shell has agreed to pay a $710,000 penalty for violations of the Discoverer air permit and a $390,000 penalty for violations of the Kulluk air permit.

The $1.1 million in penalties is, of course, chump change for an oil giant that has already spent more than $4.5 billion on its Three Stooges-like efforts to plunder the Arctic.

But it’s nice to know that the federal government is at least keeping one eye on Shell’s Arctic operations.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

,

Climate & Energy

Visit link: 

Shell fined $1.1 million for polluting Arctic air during error-plagued drilling efforts

Posted in ALPHA, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, ONA, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Shell fined $1.1 million for polluting Arctic air during error-plagued drilling efforts

Report: 38,600 Green Jobs Announced in Second Quarter

by Ludmillamet Posted on September 9, 2013

Fifty-eight clean energy and clean transportation projects were announced in the second quarter of 2013, including a wind power transmission project in Missouri and Kansas.

The clean energy and clean transportation sectors continued to create jobs during the second quarter of this year, according to a recent report published by Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), a community of business leaders who promote environmental policies that also benefit the economy. The report states that across the country, 58 clean energy and clean transportation projects were announced, which could lead to as many as 38,600 new jobs, a number slightly higher than that reported during the second quarter of last year.

These new jobs come from a variety of areas, including renewable energy, public transportation, electricity grid improvements and energy efficiency. Renewable energy jobs make up the greatest number with more than 13,300, and these projects include solar, wind, biomass and other energy sources.

“Clean energy jobs are alive, well and growing,” said Judith Albert, executive director of E2, in a press release. “Smart policies like renewable energy standards at the state level, coupled with federal policies like President Obama’s climate change initiative, promise to keep that growth going.”

Some states made notable achievements with their project announcements, including Missouri and Kansas, which made the top 10 list of states to announce clean energy projects for the first time. These two states will be involved in a transmission upgrade project that will transmit more than 3,500 megawatts of wind energy east to other states. For the first time, Hawaii and Alaska were also included in the top 10 states to announce clean energy projects.

Maryland announced an expansion to the existing light-rail system in Baltimore, which will create many new construction jobs. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Maryland, which placed third on the list, announced a $2.6 billion expansion to Baltimore’s light-rail system. The improvements will include 20 new stations, reduce carbon emissions over time and create more than 4,200 construction jobs.

California announced 12 clean energy and transportation projects, the most of any state, which could lead to as many as 9,000 jobs.

To learn more about these and other clean energy projects, as well as to see a state-by-state breakdown of projects, visit cleanenergyworksforus.org.

earth911

Visit site: 

Report: 38,600 Green Jobs Announced in Second Quarter

Posted in alo, ATTRA, eco-friendly, FF, Free Press, GE, ONA, solar, Uncategorized, wind energy, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Report: 38,600 Green Jobs Announced in Second Quarter

Sally Jewell doesn’t want any climate deniers at Interior

by JohnsieaJensen Posted on August 2, 2013

Sally Jewell doesn’t want any climate deniers at Interior

By Claire Thompson

BLM OregonSally Jewell.

Obama has staffed his second-term team with a couple of kickass women ready to take the lead on climate action. Two days after EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy called bullshit on the notion that environmental regulations kill jobs, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, in an address to her employees, made clear that she won’t tolerate any debunked theories, either. “I hope there are no climate change deniers in the Department of Interior,” she said.

E&E News reports:

If there are any [deniers], she invited them to visit public lands managed by the agency — be it the melting permafrost in Alaska or shrinking snowpacks in the Sierra Mountains — as proof. “If you don’t believe in it, come out into the resources,” she said.

Interior will be following through on President Obama’s climate change plan, including achieving 20 gigawatts of renewable power on public lands by 2020, she said.

“You and I can actually do something about it,” she said several times. “That’s a privilege, and I would argue it’s a moral imperative.”

Moreover, the former head of REI said the federal government is able to take action on climate change on a scale “orders of magnitude” larger than any individual business, even one as huge as Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Right-wingers flipped out over Jewell’s comments about employees who might not be conversant in basic scientific facts. Don’t be surprised if deniers start twisting her statement into a form of workplace discrimination. Globalwarming.org, a denier blog with the tagline “May Cooler Heads Prevail,” fumed:

Such moralizing would be funny were it not for the chilling effect it is bound to have in an agency already mired in group think. …

Ms. Jewel’s anti-’denier’ sermonizing is morally vacuous. It will, however, discourage candor and independent thought in an important and powerful agency.

Only a few months on the job and Jewell already behaves like a self-righteous bully. A good swift dose of congressional oversight is in order. It might just keep the thought police from harassing climate dissenters at DOI.

Just yesterday, Jewell’s bullying resulted in Interior’s first auction of offshore wind power rights. That’s $3.8 million for the federal government, and renewable power on its way to American ratepayers in as little as five years, in the first of many such auctions Interior plans to hold. If this is what self-righteous bullying looks like, bring it on.

Claire Thompson is an editorial assistant at Grist.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Climate & Energy

,

Politics

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Read article here:

Sally Jewell doesn’t want any climate deniers at Interior

Posted in Anchor, Dolphin, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Sally Jewell doesn’t want any climate deniers at Interior

Arctic Forests Are On Fire Now More Than at Any Point in the Past 10,000 Years

by anjunonstennyao Posted on July 24, 2013

Wildfires burning in Alaska. Photo: Alaska Fire Service

The temperature in the Arctic is rising, the snow is melting, and the landscape is getting greener—that is, when it’s not on fire. In the 10,000 years since the end of the last ice age, says a new study lead by Ryan Kelly, the severity of Arctic fires—the damage they do to the areas, particularly the soil, that they burn—is the highest it’s ever been. The closest match, the researchers say, was a 500-year stretch known as the Medieval Climate Anomaly, a period that ended around 750 years ago and was defined by warm, dry conditions in the Northern Hemisphere.

The modern boreal forest of Alaska, where the scientists did their study, took shape around 3,000 years ago. Along with the sharp increase in fire severity, the frequency of Arctic wild fires has been increasingly recently, too. Kelly and the others write that the frequency of fires is the highest it has been in this 3,000 year stretch.

Predictions of future Arctic wildfires, say the scientists, “almost ubiquitously suggest increased frequency, size, and/or severity of burns in coming decades as a result of future warming.” But Kelly and colleagues point out that making these sorts of predictions might not be quite so simple. They say that some trees are more flammable than others, and just like during the Medieval Climate Anomaly, an increase in strong fires may be increasing the prevalence of less flammable species. During the Medieval Climate Anomaly, this type of shift capped the extent of the fires, and, the scientists write, a similar change that seems to be going on now “may stabilize the fire regime, despite additional warming.”

So, Arctic greening and changes in the types of plants might put a damper on the recent increases in Arctic fire frequency. Or, it might not. “The present fire regime seems to have surpassed the vegetation-induced limit that constrained burning during the [Medieval Climate Anomaly],” Kelly and his colleagues say. Modern climate change seems to be more dramatic than even that five-hundred-year warm period centuries ago, so we’re really not entirely sure what’s going to happen to the Arctic. Maybe something will dampen the blaze, like it has in the past, or maybe it won’t. We might, as the scientists say, be headed for a “novel regime of unprecedented fire activity” in the Alaskan Arctic.

More from Smithsonian.com:

A Warming Climate Is Turning the Arctic Green

Link to article: 

Arctic Forests Are On Fire Now More Than at Any Point in the Past 10,000 Years

Posted in alo, GE, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Arctic Forests Are On Fire Now More Than at Any Point in the Past 10,000 Years