Tag Archives: alaska

McDonald’s new sustainable fish is — surprise! — not so sustainable

by gerdi Posted on January 25, 2013

McDonald’s new sustainable fish is — surprise! — not so sustainable

By Susie Cagle

This week, McDonald’s announced that it will start serving a lot more fast-food fish starting next month, in the form of “Fish McBites” that it hopes will boost sales.

The company also announced that all those bites, plus its Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, will be made from sustainable, wild-caught Alaska pollock, with the Marine Stewardship Council’s stamp of approval right there on the box.

Marine Stewardship Council

The MSC “is proud to support McDonald’s and its commitment to sustainability.” The fast-food giant has been serving four kinds of MSC-labeled sustainable fish in European locations since October 2011.

Is this the part where I’m supposed to say, “Yay McDonald’s”? Because yeah, that’s not happening.

Not all conservation groups can agree on what’s a sustainable fish and what’s not, and often what’s sustainable today is overfished tomorrow, especially when a company with an appetite as big as McDonald’s is involved.

Alaska pollock is not considered a “best choice” on the respected Seafood Watch list put out by the Monterey Bay Aquarium; rather, it’s lumped into the middle “good alternative” category. From Seafood Watch:

Alaska Pollock populations are moderately healthy, but their numbers have been declining. Alaska Pollock are now at their lowest levels in over 20 years.

The fishery uses midwater trawling gear that’s designed to not impact the seafloor. However, these midwater nets contact the seafloor an estimated 44% of the time—resulting in severe damage to seafloor habitats of the Bering Sea.

Alaska pollock fishing operations also catch up large numbers of declining Chinook salmon, and might be hurting the endangered Steller sea lions and Northern fur seals that rely on the pollock for food.

Even presuming Alaska pollock is a “good alternative,” there’s still the matter of, you know, everything else McDonald’s does, from serving antibiotic-laden meats to leading the fast-food industrial complex. McDonald’s may be improving its treatment of fish, but it’s not improving its treatment of workers.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

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McDonald’s new sustainable fish is — surprise! — not so sustainable

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2012, the hottest year in U.S. history, was one of the coldest years this century globally

by HarralGeidl697 Posted on January 15, 2013

2012, the hottest year in U.S. history, was one of the coldest years this century globally

By Philip Bump

This is the state of the climate as we know it now. 2012 was only the 10th-warmest year in recorded history around the world (though, of course, it was the warmest in U.S. history). Nonetheless, 2012 global land and sea temperatures were higher than every year in the 20th century, save one, 1998. Yet in terms of the 21st century, 2012 was one of the coldest.

Again, just to make the point: The hottest year in American history was one of the coldest worldwide this century.

Here’s the overview from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

The globally-averaged temperature for 2012 marked the 10th warmest year since record keeping began in 1880. It also marked the 36th consecutive year with a global temperature above the 20th century average. The last below-average annual temperature was 1976. Including 2012, all 12 years to date in the 21st century (2001–2012) rank among the 14 warmest in the 133-year period of record.

Here’s how various regions of the world stacked up compared to 1981-2012 temperatures. Alaska was much colder; the rest of the country, much warmer.

More data points from the report:

The global annual temperature has increased at an average rate of 0.06 degrees C (0.11 degrees F) per decade sine 1880 and at an average rate of 0.16 degrees C (0.28 degrees F) per decade since 1970.
The 2012 worldwide land surface temperature was 0.90 degrees C (1.62 degrees F) above the 20th century average, making it the seventh warmest such period on record. The margin of error is ± 0.18 degrees C (0.32 degrees F).
Major drought gripped important agricultural regions across the world during summer 2012. These regions included eastern Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and central North America.
The United Kingdom had its second wettest year since records began in 1910, falling just 7.3 mm (0.29 inches) shy of the record wetness of 2000. Particularly notable, record dryness during March turned to record wetness in April.
For all of 2012, Arctic sea ice extent was below average.
The annual Arctic sea ice melting ended on September 16th, when the Arctic sea ice extent dropped to 1.32 million square miles (3.41 million square km), the lowest value ever recorded. The annual minimum extent was 49 percent below average and 0.29 million square miles (0.76 million square km) below the previous smallest extent which occurred in September 2007.

Again: all of this in one of the coldest years this century. By the time we get to 2100, the odds are good that 2012 will be considered to have been unusually cold. Be sure to tell your great-great-grandkids all about what life was like in the old, frigid days of what we once called the United States’ hottest year ever.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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2012, the hottest year in U.S. history, was one of the coldest years this century globally

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Shell squeezes one last Arctic screwup into 2012

by johnsmithwindows Posted on January 2, 2013

Shell squeezes one last Arctic screwup into 2012

By Philip Bump

Shell ended 2012 the way it carried itself the entire year: with utter incompetence. From The New York Times:

One of Shell Oil’s two Arctic drilling rigs is beached on an island in the Gulf of Alaska, threatening environmental damage from a fuel spill and calling into question Shell’s plans to resume drilling in the treacherous waters north of Alaska in the summer.

The rig, the Kulluk, broke free from a tow ship in stormy seas and ran aground Monday night. The Coast Guard was leading an effort to keep its more than 150,000 gallons of diesel fuel and lubricants from spilling onto the rocky shoreline.

Coast GuardThe

Kulluk

, pictured here trying to evolve into a land animal

Happily, the vessel isn’t leaking any of its fuel. And, happily, Shell’s complete inability to do things right over the last 12 months means that it wasn’t actively drilling anything anyway.

Here’s a list of things that have gone wrong so far in the company’s hyperactive push to suck oil from the Arctic ocean floor. (I have added a totally believable fake one; can you spot it?)

A vessel broke free from its moorings. (Not the Kulluk. Another one.)
Fuel leaked from Shell’s containment vessel before the company actually even started drilling.
The company decided it wouldn’t be able to meet the government’s air pollution mandate.
It begged for an extension on its drilling permit because it couldn’t get things ready in time.
A test of its containment dome resulted in the dome being “crushed like a beer can.”
The company admitted that a spill was going to happen in the Arctic.
Shell accidentally awakened a long-dormant undersea lizard that wreaked havoc on Tokyo.

Which raises the question: What, exactly, does Shell have to do before the government pulls its permit to drill? At what point does the Department of the Interior say, You know what, Shell? You’re just too shitty at this.

Imagine, if you will, a gravedigger employed at a cemetery. Once hired, he loses his shovel. He spills a chemical that kills a bunch of grass. He creates air pollution (interpret this as you will). He doesn’t get his work done in time. Then he loses another shovel. How long do you think it would be before the cemetery suggested he seek employment elsewhere?

Here’s the difference between that hypothetical and the case of Shell: Imagine that the gravedigger gave massive financial contributions to the cemetery’s board and spent $10.8 million persuading them to let him keep his job. Think that might do the trick?

The BBC offers a bit of analysis on the grounding:

This is more a story about reputational risk than environmental risk. … Shell says its record in the Arctic is good. It says it will investigate the incident and learn from it.

The gravedigger will take “how not to lose your shovel” lessons.

There’s really only one major fuckup that Shell hasn’t yet committed: a ceaseless spill in one of the most remote parts of the world. If only there were some way the government could prevent that from happening.

Update: Gary Braasch shares images of the area around the Kulluk — a huge, empty, stunning expanse of ocean.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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Shell squeezes one last Arctic screwup into 2012

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Greenland’s ‘extraordinary’ summer ice melt may have been caused by tundra fires

by Myrna Posted on December 7, 2012

Greenland’s ‘extraordinary’ summer ice melt may have been caused by tundra fires

By Philip Bump

Last July, over the course of a week, 97 percent of Greenland’s ice surface melted. The response from scientists can be summarized as: “Um, shit.” Or, by way of a direct quote: “This was so extraordinary that at first I questioned the result: was this real or was it due to a data error?”

It was real. And it’s one of the things that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2012 Arctic report card cites as an unexpected anomaly in a season full of them.

Researchers now think they know why it happened. Like so much of what’s happening in the Arctic, the melt likely stems from another aspect of climate change: fire.

From the Guardian:

Satellite observations, due to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union on Friday, for the first time tracks smoke and soot particles from tundra wildfires over to Greenland.

Scientists have long known that soot blackens snow and ice, reducing its powers of reflectivity and making it more likely to melt under the sun.

But the satellite records, due to be presented by the Ohio State University geographer Jason Box, go a step further, picking up images of smoke over Greenland at the time of last summer’s extreme melt.

Byrd Polar Research

Click to embiggen.

The study, from a team centered at Ohio State’s Byrd Polar Research Center, works backward from the presence of smoke over Greenland (seen above) to possible sources. A series of tundra fires in Alaska and Western Canada and wildfires in Labrador earlier in the summer appear on this June 25 thermal map.

Byrd Polar Research

Click to embiggen.

Analysis of barometric pressures in the week preceding the start of the melt suggests that winds passing over the areas of wildfire could have carried the smoke seen in the image at top.

Byrd Polar Research

Click to embiggen.

Along with the smoke came soot, particulate matter of the type that’s also prompting concern over Arctic air travel. Such pollution demonstrably contributes to ice melt.

And, in yet another feedback loop, those tundra fires themselves are exacerbated by and contribute to climate change. From NPR:

Tundra fires have become more common over the past two decades as average temperatures in the Arctic have risen and sea ice has receded. And according to scientists, there has been a marked increase in lightning activity on the North Slope in the last two decades. Warmer temperatures may allow more vegetation to grow — which, in turn, makes it more of a fire risk when lightning strikes.

Normally, the tundra in this region of Alaska, near the Anaktuvuk River, takes up more CO2 from photosynthesis than it gives off every year from natural decomposition. …

Overall, the amount of carbon released — about 2.1 terragrams — is comparable to what comes from forest fires in warmer parts of the planet, according to Dr. Mack. “But what’s surprising to me,” she says, “is that forests have huge trees, and tundra has six-inch-tall, tiny little plants. All that extra carbon is coming from the soil.”

And the extra carbon heads into the atmosphere. In school kids learn about the water cycle. Maybe the carbon circle should be added to the curriculum.

The link between these fires and the Greenland melt is still circumstantial. So the team behind the initial research has launched Dark Snow, a proposed 2013 expedition to Greenland for which they are soliciting contributions. Once there, they plan to analyze the extent to which soot affects the melt.

If they raise the money for the trip, a bit of good news: They can probably leave the ice cleats at home.

Source

Smoke from Arctic wildfires may have caused Greenland’s record thaw, Guardian

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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