Tag Archives: region

After mega-heatwave, Los Angeles faces mega-wildfire

by CandidaFulkerson Posted on June 22, 2016

A Los Angeles County fire helicopter makes a night drop while battling the Fish Fire. REUTERS/Gene Blevins

After mega-heatwave, Los Angeles faces mega-wildfire

By on Jun 22, 2016Share

Two fires erupted just a few miles apart near Southern California’s Angeles National Forest on Monday, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of Los Angeles County residents. The fires, collectively dubbed the San Gabriel Complex Fire, raged unchecked across more than 5,000 acres of parched canyons and foothills throughout Monday night and Tuesday.

The first of the twin blazes, named the Reservoir Fire, was ignited on Monday morning around 11 a.m., when a car went off the road and plummeted to the bottom of a canyon near the Morris Reservoir, where it ignited. The second fire, the Fish Fire, erupted about an hour later a few miles away, cause unknown.

As of Wednesday morning, 48 hours after the first fire erupted, the San Gabriel Complex Fire has been just 10 percent contained, local news sources report. Smoke from the San Gabriel Complex Fire was visible across Los Angeles, as far as south L.A. Local authorities issued air pollution warnings throughout the San Gabriel and San Bernadino areas.

Meanwhile, two hours north of L.A., firefighters continued battling a weeklong, 8,000-acre wildfire near Santa Barbara. To the south, San Diego’s Border Fire is entering its fourth day. Years of drought and a scorching heatwave throughout the region early this week created a veritable tinderbox for the blazes, and climate change is only making things worse. In total, Cal Fire reported on Tuesday that 4,700 firefighters were battling six wildfires across the state.

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After mega-heatwave, Los Angeles faces mega-wildfire

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Antarctica’s CO2 Levels Are Now the Highest in 4 Million Years

by ShelaNBIqryv Posted on June 17, 2016

Mother Jones

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Oof. We just passed yet another climate change milestone, and it’s a particularly troubling one. Carbon dioxide levels in Antarctica recently hit 400 parts per million, according to an announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Wednesday. It’s the first time in 4 million years that the region has reached such levels.

Carbon dioxide—a heat-trapping gas produced by burning fossil fuels—is the primary driver of global warming. Carbon dioxide levels have been on the rise all over the world, but because Antarctica is so remote, the pollutant has accumulated more slowly there. Antarctic CO2 concentrations first surpassed the 400 ppm mark on May 23, according to measurements taken at the South Pole Observatory.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

“The far southern hemisphere was the last place on earth where CO2 had not yet reached this mark,” Pieter Tans, the lead scientist of NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, said in a statement. “Global CO2 levels will not return to values below 400 ppm in our lifetimes, and almost certainly for much longer.”

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Antarctica’s CO2 Levels Are Now the Highest in 4 Million Years

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Amid fire evacuations, Alberta oil production restarts

by AlisaCal08148 Posted on May 12, 2016

A plane flies low to dump fire retardant on wildfires near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

Amid fire evacuations, Alberta oil production restarts

By on May 12, 2016 5:05 amShare

It’s time to ask the really important question about the ongoing, devastating Alberta wildfire: How has it affected the province’s oil production? While output has been down by approximately 1 million barrels of crude oil each day since the wildfire began last Wednesday, according to CBC News, for the most part energy facilities were “barely touched” and are starting to kick up production again — albeit slowly.

Many operations have been closed this week due to heavy smoke from the fires — not to mention the fact that there was no one to, you know, operate the facilities as thousands of workers living in Fort McMurray have been evacuated. Officials say that production will slowly begin to pick up pace in the coming days, according to CBC News. And in the early part of this week, the fire began moving away from the region’s largest oil sands deposits.

And as we noted on Tuesday, the residents of Fort McMurray have borne the brunt of the destruction: As of Tuesday, nearly 90,000 people had been forced to flee and 24,000 buildings were destroyed.

Shell Canada and Suncor have restarted operations in limited capacity, BBC reports. Some companies planned to fly in workers to ramp up production since, as mentioned above, many locally-based employees were evacuated from their homes. And as CBC News reports, travel to Fort McMurray is restricted to essential services — which includes commercial vehicles, but not humans that oil production sites employ.

On Tuesday, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley announced at a press conference that getting oil operations up and running again is “an important step in the recovery of our people.” Yes — the well-being of the people is clearly the focus here.

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Amid fire evacuations, Alberta oil production restarts

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Colorado considers bill to make it easier to sue Big Oil over fracking earthquakes

by EvelyneOgles Posted on March 18, 2016

Colorado considers bill to make it easier to sue Big Oil over fracking earthquakes

By on 18 Mar 2016commentsShare

If you were under the impression that ordinary people couldn’t do much to hold Big Oil companies directly accountable for the environmental havoc they wreak, you definitely weren’t alone. But, if a bill currently making its way through Colorado’s state legislature becomes reality, Coloradans harmed by quakes linked to the fracking boom may be able to sue frackers.

The bill, HB16-1310, would hold companies liable for physical injuries and damage to property caused by the recent spate of unusual earthquakes in the West. Researchers from the University of Colorado and Stanford University determined last year that the increased seismic activity in the region was caused by the industry’s practice of injecting massive amounts of toxic wastewater from oil and gas operations — primarily from hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” — into underground wells. In its current incarnation, the bill would lower the burden of proof for plaintiffs, who’d have grounds for a case so long as they could demonstrate that oil and gas operations had occurred in the area where the injurious earthquake had occurred. That would make it increasingly difficult for companies to get a case thrown out of court right off the bat.

The bill cleared the Democratic-led House on Thursday and now heads to the Republican-led Senate, where its fate is less certain. But a fracking backlash is picking up steam in the Centennial State: Colorado’s secretary of state gave organizers of a ballot initiative to ban fracking throughout the state the OK to start circulating petitions on Thursday.

A decade into America’s fracking boom, Big Oil is being taken to court in several states. Homeowners in Oklahoma — a state that has recently broken records for its frequent earthquake activity — are already suing companies for damages relating to earthquake-induced injuries and property destruction. And last month, Sierra Club sued three energy companies with operations in Oklahoma and in Kansas, not to seek damages but rather a ruling that would force the defendants to immediately curb wastewater disposal. The personal-injury lawsuits in Oklahoma came after the state’s Supreme Court ruling last July that “rejected efforts by the oil industry to prevent earthquake injury lawsuits from being heard in court,” as ThinkProgress reported at the time; the industry was hoping that such disputes would be handled by a state regulatory agency.

If the HB16-1310 bill becomes Colorado state law, a person injured because their ceiling collapses from an earthquake — in, say, Durango — could potentially hold an oil company with a drilling operation in Durango liable. “This bill is about protecting homeowners and protecting people and it’s about protecting individuals,” Democratic state Rep. Joe Salazar told Colorado’s Daily Sentinel. “Oil and gas should be acting with the highest degree of care because this activity is very dangerous and it’s happening.”

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Colorado considers bill to make it easier to sue Big Oil over fracking earthquakes

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35,000 Cows: Is That a Lot or a Little?

by VilmaMerrill Posted on January 6, 2016

Mother Jones

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Here’s a little quiz. Based on the teaser on the right from the New York Times, how serious would you say this blizzard was in terms of milk production? It sounds pretty serious, no?

But nowhere in either the teaser or the linked article does the Times tell you just how much 35,000 cows is. Here’s the answer: there are 9.3 million dairy cows in the United States, so 35,000 represents….

About 0.4 percent.

I don’t get it. The blizzard is a worthwhile story, and the hit to farmers in the region is serious. No problem there. Still, why not take the extra five minutes required to dig up a couple of numbers and give readers a sense of whether this is a big problem from a national perspective? The only hint is 13 paragraphs down: “Consumers should not expect noticeable increases in the prices of milk or milk products.”

Instead, why not put something like this at the top of the story: “So far, more than 35,000 dairy cows have been found dead. Although this represents less than 1 percent of the nation’s dairy herd, for regional farmers it’s etc. etc….” Context is everything.

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35,000 Cows: Is That a Lot or a Little?

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Hillary Clinton Just Came Out Against Obama’s Arctic Drilling Plan

by JerrellSunderlan Posted on August 18, 2015

Mother Jones

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This story was originally published by the Huffington Post and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has agreed with the vast majority of President Barack Obama’s policies, but in a Tweet on Tuesday she expressed her disapproval with one: letting Shell drill for oil in the Arctic.

Clinton had previously said she was “skeptical” and had “doubts” as to whether the Obama administration should have given Shell the go-ahead for exploratory drilling. The oil company’s permit from the US Department of the Interior allows it to drill in the Chukchi Sea off the northwest coast of Alaska. Shell halted its drilling program in the region after it lost control of a massive rig in 2012.

Environmental advocates say drilling in the Arctic will deepen the United States’ reliance on oil, harm local wildlife and upset the region’s fragile ecosystem. They have called Obama’s planned visit to the region later this month—the first to the Arctic by a sitting US president—hypocritical, given the president’s focus on combating climate change since he took office.

Clinton’s willingness to come out against Arctic drilling is at odds with her non-answer on whether she supports construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. When pressed on the issue, she said that it would be inappropriate for her to express an opinion, since she was head of the Department of State when the pipeline review process began.

Clinton outlined her own climate change plan in July, which focuses on incentivizing renewable energy sources.

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Hillary Clinton Just Came Out Against Obama’s Arctic Drilling Plan

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More Pluto! Troughs, Hills, and Pitted Surfaces!

by cazarehotel Posted on July 17, 2015

Mother Jones

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Here’s the latest from Pluto, a hi-res image of the Sputnik Plain, which should be enough to get Republicans seething. From NASA:

In the latest data from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, a new close-up image of Pluto reveals a vast, craterless plain that appears to be no more than 100 million years old, and is possibly still being shaped by geologic processes. This frozen region is north of Pluto’s icy mountains, in the center-left of the heart feature, informally named “Tombaugh Regio” (Tombaugh Region) after Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930.

….Scientists have two working theories as to how these segments were formed. The irregular shapes may be the result of the contraction of surface materials, similar to what happens when mud dries. Alternatively, they may be a product of convection, similar to wax rising in a lava lamp. On Pluto, convection would occur within a surface layer of frozen carbon monoxide, methane and nitrogen, driven by the scant warmth of Pluto’s interior.

So, um, mud drying or lava lamps. Take your pick. Cool picture, though.

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More Pluto! Troughs, Hills, and Pitted Surfaces!

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States are polluting less and their economies are doing just fine

by DarellUXTK Posted on July 15, 2015

States are polluting less and their economies are doing just fine

By on 15 Jul 2015 12:03 pmcommentsShare

Even as America’s economy started to rebound from the recession between 2008 and 2013, climate change–causing power plant emissions in the majority of American states did not, according to a new study.

Earlier this year, environmentalists celebrated the news that, while the world’s economy continued to grow, CO2 emissions remained flat. This new report is the most thorough examination so far of how that trend is playing out in the U.S. The study, conducted by a team made up of sustainability groups, Bank of America, and four of America’s largest power plant operators, looked at carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and mercury emissions from the nation’s 100 largest electric power producers.

The drop in CO2 emissions (and in local pollutants as well) happened for a number of reasons, the report said, including better pollution controls at coal power plants, less demand for energy, and the growing availability of cheap alternatives to coal.

The findings present further evidence that emissions are not necessarily linked to economic growth: Over the five-year period the report looked at, 42 out of 50 states decreased their CO2 emissions from power plants, making for a nationwide decrease of 12 percent. This, sustainability advocates behind the report say, debunks arguments advanced by the fossil fuel industry and its allies in Congress that regulating climate change-causing pollutants will kill jobs. The report also found that a small number of energy companies are responsible for a disproportionate share of emissions.

“Most parts of the country are firmly on the path toward a clean energy future, but some states and utilities have a longer way to go and overall the carbon emissions curve is still not bending fast enough,” said Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, one of the sustainability groups behind the report, in a statement. “To level the playing field for all utilities, and achieve the broader CO2 emissions cuts needed to combat climate change, we need final adoption of the Clean Power Plan.”

Ceres

This study follows on another one, out yesterday, showing that the Northeast Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap-and-trade scheme, cut emissions from the region’s power plants by about a third since it started up in 2009, and pumped nearly $3 billion into the regional economy over that same time period.

Obama’s critics are claiming that his Clean Power Plan, which the EPA will finalize this summer, would devastate the economy, but the evidence just keeps mounting that power plants can cut their CO2 emissions without killing jobs or slowing economic growth at all.

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Charts: Here’s How Much We’re Spending on the War Against ISIS

by CoraFeaster Posted on June 14, 2015

Mother Jones

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As the White House considers opening operating bases in Iraq and deploying troops to bolster support for Iraqi forces against ISIS, including one in ISIS-held territory, the cost of airstrikes in the region continues its steady rise.

The Department of Defense has spent more than $2.7 billion—some $9 million per day—since the United States began operations against the so-called Islamic State last August. To put that in perspective, the DOD is on pace to spend a little more than $14 million per day to combat ISIS in fiscal year 2015. That’s minuscule compared to the roughly $187 million the Defense Department is still spending on the Iraq War each day.

The result? More than 6,200 targets damaged or destroyed in the course of nine months, according to the DOD. Roughly two-thirds of that spending, or a little more than $1.8 billion, came from the Air Force, with air operations costing $5 million per day.

The newly released DOD data comes as the House passed a $579 billion defense spending bill for the coming fiscal year. Here’s the breakdown:

Source – 

Charts: Here’s How Much We’re Spending on the War Against ISIS

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This Map Shows Why The Midwest Is Screwed

by TommieC45wkj Posted on January 27, 2015

Mother Jones

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The ongoing drought in California has been, among other things, a powerful lesson in how vulnerable America’s agricultural sector is to climate change. Even if that drought wasn’t specifically caused by man-made global warming, scientists have little doubt that droughts and heat waves are going to get more frequent and severe in important crop-growing regions. In California, the cost in 2014 was staggering: $2.2 billion in losses and added expenses, plus 17,000 lost jobs, according to a UC-Davis study.

California is country’s hub for fruits, veggies, and nuts. But what about the commodity grains grown in the Midwest, where the US produces over half its corn and soy? That’s the subject of a new report by the climate research group headed by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer (who recently shut down rumors that he might run for Senate).

The report is all about climate impacts expected in the Midwest, and the big takeaway is that future generations have lots of very sweaty summers in store. One example: “The average Chicago resident is expected to experience more days over 95 degrees F by the century’s end than the average Texan does today.” The report also predicts that electricity prices will increase, with potential ramifications for the region’s manufacturing sector, and that beloved winter sports—ice fishing, anyone?—will become harder to do.

But some of the most troublesome findings are about agriculture. Some places will fare better than others; northern Minnesota, for example, could very well find itself benefiting from global warming. But overall, the report says, extreme heat, scarcer water resources, and weed and insect invasions will drive down corn and soybean yields by 11 to 69 percent by the century’s end. Note that these predictions assume no “significant adaptation,” so there’s an opportunity to soften the blow with solutions like better water management, switching to more heat-tolerant crops like sorghum, or the combination of genetic engineering and data technology now being pursued by Monsanto.

Here’s a map from the report showing which states’ farmers could benefit from climate change—and which ones will lose big time:

Risky Business

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This Map Shows Why The Midwest Is Screwed

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