Al Jazeera English Puts the Downgrade in Perspective with a Story on Starvation

Al Jazeera is becoming a mainstream news outlet.  Its reporters are everywhere in the world, and are increasingly often consulted by NPR and PBS and even CNN (which often steals their video feed from dangerous parts of the world). Their correspondents and editors are on Diane Rehms syndicated show frequently.  Covers the world way better than CNN or any other American news organizations. I follow its excellent Twitter feed and watch it on TV  here in DC too. 
Around the country it's pretty rare.

Today it puts the US credit downgrade downgrade in perspective, with a story about starvation in Somalia: RT @AJEnglish: UN makes historic Somali aid drop: http://aje.me/pnJYO8

Bill Gates misconception of the energy issue in Wired magazine interview:

Bill Gates has started opining on energy policy. His brusque dismissal of the  importance of energy efficiency as an option in addressing climate change in a Wired magazine interview is short-sighted.  Here are his words:  

From the Audience: What about on the usage side? What do you think of the technologies that are increasing efficiency, cutting down on the amount of energy consumed?

Gates: There’s certainly lots of room for increasing efficiency. But can we, by increasing efficiency, deal with our climate problem? The answer is basically no. The climate problem requires more than a 90 percent reduction in CO2 emitted, and no amount of efficiency improvement is going to address that. As we’re improving our efficiency, poor people are increasing their energy intensity. You’re never going to get the amount of CO2 emitted to go down unless you deal with the one magic metric, which is CO2 per kilowatt-hour. http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/06/mf_qagates/

This attitude is short sighted to say the least.  Most energy experts these days regard energy efficiency programs as an essential part of the mix, along with the every other supply side option.

Potential of Renewable Energy Outlined in Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The IPCC has issued its final report on renewable energy sources suitable to help the climate.

The six technologies reviewed are:

• Bioenergy, including energy crops; forest, agricultural and livestock residues and so called second generation biofuels
• Direct solar energy, including photovoltaics and concentrating solar power
• Geothermal energy, based on heat extraction from the Earth‘s interior
• Hydropower, including run-of-river, in-stream or dam projects with reservoirs
• Ocean energy, ranging from barrages to ocean currents and ones which harness temperature differences in the marine realm
• Wind energy, including on- and offshore systems

EPA announces renewable fuel proposal for 2012

EPA has announced the biofuels goals for 2012. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) established annual "renewable" fuel volume targets for the nation, which steadily increase to an overall level of 36 billion gallons in 2022. The proposed 2012  volumes and standards are:

• Biomass-based diesel (1.0 billion gallons; 0.91 percent)
• Advanced biofuels (2.0 billion gallons; 1.21 percent)
• Cellulosic biofuels (3.45 - 12.9 million gallons; 0.002 – 0.010 percent)
• Total renewable fuels (15.2 billion gallons; 9.21 percent).

You'll notice that  the "total renewable fuels" figure is not the sum of the previous three lines, as you might expect.  That's because the vast majority of so-called renewable fuels--More than 12 billion gallons--are corn-based ethanol.   Corn ethanol, is less of an energy program than a subsidy to farmers, and probably has little or no benefit for either energy security or environmental quality.

The 1 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel (similarly, is made of (we hope) canola oil, but may be other oils too, including soy, palm, or other edible oils. 

These standards, says EPA, "lays the foundation for achieving significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions from the use of renewable fuels, for reducing imported petroleum, and encouraging the development and expansion of our nation's renewable fuels sector." http://www.epa.gov/otaq/fuels/renewablefuels/index.htm

Chesapeake Bay recovery efforts are poorly focused, says committee of scientists

The Chesapeake Bay Program's efforts to remove polluting nutrients and  sediments from the Chesapeake Bay recovery are poorly focused and badly monitored, says an NRC committee.

That is the conclusion of a report from the National Research Council, "Achieving Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Goals in the Chesapeake Bay: An Evaluation of Program Strategies and Implementation," just published by the National Academies:
http://books.nap.edu/catalog/13131.html

The CBP was established in 1983,  as a partnership of the watershed states and federal EPA. It's goal was to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phophorus (which go by the name "nutrients") and sediment going into the heavily polluted estuary and a help the natural resources that depend on its ecosystems (crabs and oysters and commercial and sport fishing), bringing back underwater grasses.

In 2008, the CBP launched a series of initiatives to increase the transparency of the
program and heighten its accountability. In 2009 a presidential executive order injected new energy
into the restoration effort. 

In 2010 EPA set up a "total maximum daily load (TMDL)" [of nutrients] that determined the limits (maximum loads) on the amount of nitrogen,phosphorus, and sediment from point and nonpoint sources that would be necessary to attain the water quality standards in the Bay, and each of the Bay jurisdictions (the six states
and the District of Columbia) developed watershed implementation plans outlining the pollutant
control measures that would be implemented by 2025 to reach the TMDL. 

In addition, a series of two year milestones for water quality was adopted to speed progress and increase accountability in the Bay restoration. The aim is to reduce overall pollution in the Bay by focusing on incremental, short-term commitments from each of the Bay jurisdictions. to document the implementation of urban and agricultural nutrient and sediment reduction practices (also called best management practices, or BMPs) and treatment technology upgrades.

The study committee found:

• The current accounting of BMPs is not consistent across the Bay jurisdictions.Additionally, given that some source-sector BMPs are not tracked in all jurisdictions, the current accounting cannot on the whole be viewed as accurate.
• The committee was unable to determine the reliability and accuracy of the BMP data reported by the Bay jurisdictions. Independent (third-party) auditing of the tracking and accounting at state and local levels would be necessary to ensure the reliability and accuracy of the data reported. 
• The committee was not able to quantify the magnitude or the likely direction of the error introduced by BMP reporting issues. On the one hand, there is under-counting of BMPs because the jurisdictions do not currently report non-cost-shared (or voluntary) practices,although the model calibration may include the effects of some of these practices . On the other hand, there is over-counting of BMPs because few states account for the loss of BMPs when they are no longer properly maintained, functioning, or in place. Furthermore, there are errors introduced by site-level variability in BMP effectiveness, insufficient data on the location of BMPs, and discrepancies between state and CBP definitions of BMP management.
• A consolidated regional BMP program to account for voluntary practices and increase geo-referencing of BMPs presents opportunities to improve the tracking and accounting process.
• Targeted monitoring programs in representative urban and agricultural watersheds and subwatersheds would provide valuable data to refine BMP efficiency estimates, particularly at the watershed scale, and thereby improve Watershed Model predictions.
• Electronic tracking and data transfer systems are likely to improve the quality of reporting and reduce the jurisdictions’ tracking and accounting burden but may currently be contributing to delayed assessments of implementation progress.
• The two-year milestone strategy [adopted in 2009] commits the states to tangible, near-term
  implementation goals and improves accountability and, therefore, represents an improvement upon past CBP long-term strategies. However, the strategy, in and of itself, does not guarantee that implementation goals will be met, and consequences for nonattainment remain unclear.
• CBP jurisdictions reported mixed progress toward their first two-year milestone
  goals. However, data were insufficient to meaningfully evaluate implementation or
  anticipated load reduction progress relative to the goals.
• The first two-year milestone goals will likely be the easiest to achieve.

 ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT

• Neither the EPA nor the Bay jurisdictions exhibit a clear understanding of adaptive
  management and how it might be applied in pursuit of water quality goals. 
• Successful application of adaptive management in the CBP requires careful assessment of uncertainties relevant to decision making, but the EPA and Bay jurisdictions have not fully analyzed uncertainties inherent in nutrient and sediment reduction efforts and water quality outcomes.
• Targeted monitoring efforts by the states and the CBP will be required to supportadaptive management. 

• Additional federal actions are needed to fully support adaptive management in the CBP.
• Without sufficient flexibility of the regulatory and organizational structure within which CBP nutrient and sediment reduction efforts are undertaken, adaptive management may be problematic.

STRATEGIES FOR MEETING THE GOALS

• Success in meeting CBP goals will require careful attention to the consequences of future population levels, development patterns, agricultural production systems, and changing climate dynamics in the Bay Watershed.
• Helping the public understand lag times and uncertainties associated with water quality improvements and developing program strategies to account for them are vital to sustaining public support for the program, especially if near-term Bay response does not meet expectations.

 Agricultural Strategies

• Improved and innovative manure management.Incentive-based approaches and alternative regulatory models.
• Incentive-based approaches and alternative regulatory models.

Urban Strategies

• Regulatory models that address stormwater, growth and development, and residential fertilizer use.

• Enhanced individual responsibility.

Cross-cutting Strategies

•  Additional air pollution controls.
• Innovative funding models will be needed to address the expected costs of meeting
  Bay water quality goals.
• Establishing a Chesapeake Bay modeling laboratory would ensure that the CBP would have access to a suite of models that are at the state-of-the-art and could be used to build credibility with the scientific, engineering, and management communities.

Lester Brown: Plan B: Mobilizing to Save Civilization

I watched  a PBS video called "Journey to Planet Earth:  Plan B: Mobilizing to Save Civilization."  Framed as a "road trip" by Lester Brown, from DC to Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, and other major cities of the world, by the former head of the Worldwatch Institute.  The message:  Climate Change is coming and will lead to loss of water supplies from Himalayan and other mid-latitude glaciers, global food shortages, loss of biodiversity, and ultimately "failed states" around the world. In short, break down of Civilization.

Food supplies are  often implicated in civilizations' collapse (e.g., Sumerians, Great Zimbabwe, and Mayans).

Why didn't the leaders  make the connections? He wonders if food shortages could bring down our civilization?  Already, India and China are turning toward meat and cars, etc. And ethanol for vehicles (one fourth of the US corn crop goes to ethanol--which is very very wasteful).

 The number of "failing states" is rising.  Haiti--deforestation and soil erosion.  Haiti must develop the strengths to deal with its environmental problems.

The film features quotes from Thomas Friedman , Paul Krugman, Bruce Babbitt, Thomas Lovejoy and other luminaries.

TBrown's Bottom line:  We need to cut CO2 and other GHGs  80% by 2020! The recent UN agreement has an implied  deadline of 2050.  We must turn entirely to renewable sources (wind, solar, and huge amounts of geothermal. [GEOTHERMAL!!]) are the key.  Nuclear is too expensive [?].  We also need to put a tax on carbon.

He notes with approval the rise of anticoal protests, which have resulted in a "moratorium on coal." These protests seem to have petered out.  My utility has just announced a brand-new coal-fired plant.  The power grid is half coal already.

So it is going to be costly. We will need to look out for our grain supplies and markets, owing to China's spending power .

This, he says, would require putting the economy on a war footing, as Roosevelt did in WWII.  He quotes Roosevelt, telling car manufacturers that the must turn to tanks and aircraft and other war material. He notes with relish that you could get arrested for driving a private car. 

It would also require four things:  

•  Cut GHGs  80% by 2020
• Stabilize  Population at no more than 8 billion
• Eradicate poverty through the and family planning magic and micro-credit and female education (as in Bangladesh and Istanbul;
• Restore the natural resources on which we depend

After decades of no progress in the Chespeake cleanup, feds and states are taking another whack

After decades of halting progress in curbing pollution in the Chesapeake Bay (actually regress would be more like it), president Obama  issued a executive order in 2009 specifying tougher new standards on pollutants flowing into the bay.  

The specifics of the plan were called too timid by environmentalists such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, but industry called them too aggressive, according too the WaPo at the time: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/12/AR2009051202469.html

The Obama order imposed new pollution limits on the states in the Chesapeake watershed. States are responding by imposing limits on pollution in cities and counties throughout the watershed  Municipalities in turn are are responding by doing things like imposing limits on farmers waste and controlling storm waters to reduce sediment into the Bay, and installing water treatment plants to cut down on nitrogen and phosphorus emissions.  .

The Bay is supposed to bw subject to a "pollution diet"  Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), "a historic and comprehensive “pollution diet” with rigorous accountability measures to initiate sweeping actions to restore clean water in the Chesapeake Bay and the region’s streams, creeks and rivers," according to the EPA. http://www.epa.gov/reg3wapd/pdf/pdf_chesbay/FinalBayTMDL/BayTMDLExecutiveSummaryFINAL122910_final.pdf

So the recent report on the health of the Bay was a disappointment: The Chesapeake Bay Gets Bad Report Card: For the first time in 4 years, the Chesapeake's annual report card showed a... http://bit.ly/lIZtob 

Housing prices continue to fall

The NY Times has the story:
Despite record low mortgage interest, a decline in foreclosure activity (which should support prices), the Case/Schiller index of home prices hover at one-third below their peak. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/business/economy/27econ.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Ace

Underwater grasses decrease dramatically in the Chesapeake Bay

A survey of underwater grasses in the Chesapeake by scientists reported last week (according to Baynet) that underwater bay grasses, which serve as habitat tor fish and blue crabs and food for turtles in the  estuary, have decreased significantly. In the bay's midsection, which includes three Southern Maryland counties and the Patuxent and Potomac rivers, the loss was 35,446 acres or 11 percent of the total.

The health of the underwater grasses is linked a key indicator of the bay's water quality.

They attributed the decline to last summer's heatwave early in the growing season.  

The story is here:

http://www.thebaynet.com/news/index.cfm/fa/viewstory/story_ID/22213

Way to go, President Yudhoyono!

Way to go, President Susilo Banbang Yudhoyono! Indonesian's president agrees to a two year moratorium on forest cutting, according to the World Resources Institute  (WRI): http://bit.ly/ii3mz0

Bumblebees Are Declining

A team of ecologists did a large survey of bumblebees and found that half of the once-common species they looked for were gone.  A parasite may be causing the declines. 

"We've lost a lot of bees. There are whole regions where we can't find them any more," says entomologist Sydney Cameron of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Cameron and her team picked eight of the nearly 50 bumblebee species in the United States. All eight had been historically common, but four had appeared to decline in recent decades.

First, the researchers figured out the geographic ranges and relative abundance of the species over the past century by creating a database of collection records from 47 museums and other institutions, which covered nearly 78,000 bees in all. Then the researchers hit the road, caught 16,788 bumblebees in 40 states, and brought them back to the lab.

The Tragedy of the Chesapeake Bay

The Bay is going downhill by every measure, from loss of oysters to loss of clear water to loss of underwater grasses.So the giant estuary that for centuries provided sealife in abundance to humans has been snuffed out in the past few decades--in my memory--by suburban development and heedless waste disposal. 

Most of the tributaries are no longer swimmable because of too many E. Coli from untreated waste of humans and farm animals.

The Bay itself gets too much nitrogen and phosphorus (known collectively as "nutrients") and sediments from these sources and others (air pollution from cars and trucks, deposited on pavement along with oil other nasty things). In total they cause the development of algae blooms and other conditions, which in total create anoxic (oxygenless) conditions.  Huge anoxic "dead zones" in the deeper waters of the Bay, suffocating fish and crabs and other life. 

The combined lobbies of suburban developers, corn farmers and food processors like Purdue and Smithfield are at work in Richmond and Annapolis and other state capitals in the watershed  to weaken legislation to clean up the waters.

If the environment had such a well funded lobby, it would make a serious difference.. 


One thing we would do is impose sediment and nutrient budgets on the waterways, as they do in Seattle and elsewhere, and as called for in the Chesapeake Bay Program (a partnership of localities , states and the US EPA intended to clean up the Bay. ). 

The Developer Next Door

Poor Marty Smith (the developer next door).  He is forced to live next to riffraff like Ann and me, with all our compost bin, our giant mulch piles and hundreds of plants. 

In building his giant house (see "Marty and his Macy's Day Parade Balloon"), he bulldozed the little bungalow next day and the eradicated all plant life except a huge Amur honeysuckle bush.  He scraped and leveled the land, removing dozens of nice plants and everything else interesting (like a big old gatepost, which he had yanked up and sent to the scrap yard). 

His house and concrete driveway cover every square foot of the lot, to the point that Arlington County so-called "Zoning Enforcement Office"delayed his moving in for two months and fined him a certain sum (he says $400K) to compensate the county for the loss of tree canopy .  As a developer he knows how to work around the

Throughout this process he critiqued our style of landscaping in a very irritating way.  "I saw a big rat out in your alleyway."  (You're the one who drove it out of its home in Norma's shed. "Why do you have those piles of branches?" (It's called mulch-- Our approach is kind of the opposite of his).


He lives there with a somewhat younger wife and a toddler son.  I have never had a conversation with him, in more than two years.  I'll say "hi Marty, Isn't a beautiful day?"  He looks at me with that predator's gaze, and falls quickly into silence, and duck back into his garage. 

Fracking is is where we get half our gas.

The natural gas industry has been getting some bad press, focused on its use of hydraulic fracturing in producing natural gas from shales.  Fracking, as it's called, is considered a revolutionary technology, in a good way.

Wikipedia says 

Shale gas is natural gas produced from shale. Shale gas has become an increasingly important source of natural gas in the United States over the past decade, and interest has spread to potential gas shales in Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. One analyst expects shale gas to supply as much as half the natural gas production in North America by 2020.^[1]

^{But the movie "Gasland" which got raves at Sundance Festival makes a case for abandoning it.  (It's a documentary that features a man  IGNITING HIS KITCHEN TAP , and other scary things, including an EPA employee complaining about EPA studies that were postponed. ). It is on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phCibwj396I&NR=1}

The oil and gas industry has put out a slick rebuttal,--the Truth About Gasland-- which you can also see on You-tube: http://bit.ly/f6RjSj

John Dawson diagnoses the problem with our watersheds

In short, too much suburban development:

http://severnapark.patch.com/articles/how-did-our-environment-get-in-this-mess

Ancient Tsunami Warnings Were Ignored in Japan

From @Skytruth:  Ancient stone tablets recorded tsunamis: :http://twitter.com/#!/SkyTruth

Housing prices reach a 9 year low!

This Reuters story tells the tale.

Ace 

 

Home sales tumble, prices near 9-year low

Reuters – A "Price Reduced" sign is displayed on a home for sale in northern Virginia suburb of Vienna,

• Slideshow:Housing Crisis
• Play Video Economy Video:Changing Global Outlook CNBC

Related

By Lucia Mutikani Lucia Mutikani – 32 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sales of previously owned U.S. homes plunged in February and prices hit their lowest level in nearly nine years, implying a housing market recovery was still a long way off.
The National Association of Realtors said on Monday sales fell 9.6 percent month over month to an annual rate of 4.88 million units, snapping three straight months of gains. The percentage decline was the largest since July.
The weak sales were the latest evidence of the malaise in the housing sector and confirmed it would remain outside the strengthening and broadening economic recovery.
"The housing market is still very depressed and a major drag on the economy, especially household net worth," said Chris Christopher, a senior economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Economists had expected a decline of only 4 percent to a 5.15 million-unit pace. The actual drop was greater than even the most pessimistic forecast in a Reuters survey of 53 economists.
Analysts said harsh winter weather in January could have curbed February sales. Existing home sales are measured when contracts are closed and last month's sales decline was telegraphed by a drop in January's pending contracts.
The Realtors' group also said tight credit conditions and home appraisals that fell short of agreed-upon selling prices weighed on sales.
U.S. financial markets largely ignored the data. U.S. stocks rose sharply, partly on news of a bid by AT&T for Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA and growing hopes Japan would get its nuclear crisis under control.
Prices for U.S. government debt fell after the Treasury said it would begin selling $142 billion in mortgage-backed securities it had acquired to help tame the financial crisis. The dollar rose against the yen on intervention fears.
PLUNGING PRICES A WORRY
Though economists cautiously hope an improving labor market will lift home sales in the months ahead, plunging house prices could throw a spanner in the works.
NAR said the median home price dropped 5.2 percent in February from a year earlier to $156,100, the lowest since April 2002, in a sign of the relentless downward pressure on prices from a market flooded with foreclosure sales.
"If the price declines persist, even with the job market recovery, that could hamper recovery in the housing market," the trade group's chief economist, Lawrence Yun, said.
A glut of homes on the market and a flood of foreclosures are holding back a recovery in the housing sector, whose collapse helped to tip the U.S. economy into its worst recession since the 1930s.
Data last week showed a plunge in housing starts and the government on Wednesday is expected report a marginal rise in new single family homes in February. Home resales make up more than 90 percent of national sales and economists said they would continue to weigh on new home sales and building.
Foreclosures and short sales, which typically occur below market value, accounted for 39 percent of transactions in February, the highest since April 2009, up from 37 percent the prior month, the trade group said. All-cash purchases made up a record 33 percent of transactions in February.
According to the Realtors' group, new home prices have been running 45 percent higher than existing home prices, a premium that is historically about 15 percent, indicating previously owned homes are selling well below the cost of construction.
At February's sales pace, the supply of existing homes represented an 8.6 months' supply, up from 7.5 in January. A supply of between six and seven months is generally considered ideal, with higher readings pointing to lower house prices.
"Inventory is still high, about a third higher than it was pre-recession. We are not going to see any bounce back in new home sales until the inventory of existing home sales gets worked down," said Steve Blitz, a senior economist at ITG Investment Research in New York.
"We don't even know what the inventory is. We see a visible supply but then there is a shadow supply that comes on and off the market depending on the time of the year. It's still a morbid market on national level."
Sales last month fell across the board, with multifamily dwellings declining 10 percent and single-family home units dropping 9.6 percent. Compared with February last year, overall sales were down 2.8 percent.
While sales plunged in all regions last month, economists said the pattern was likely to become less uniform in the months ahead, with regions where the labor market is fairly strong showing more life than others.
(Editing by Neil Stempleman)

7 Billion People on the Planet

Check it out:  The National Geographic has created an interactive website to commemorate the fact that there will soon be 7 billion on the planet earth: There's lots of information on their demographics:

It contains an excellent Chinese-looking face (because the majority of people are Chinese) made up of 7,000 tiny human figures, each representing a million people, to represent the whole population..

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/age-of-man/face-interactive

Answering the "Climate Skeptics"

Skeptical Science is a fine website that addresses all of the major "climate skeptics," using real science, from "It's the Sun" to "CO2 Lags Temperature."  It offers analysis in virtually any language, from English to Icelandic to Hebrew.

http://www.skepticalscience.com/

It offers in formation at any level of detail, from Basic to Advanced.

ACEEE’S GREENEST CAR RATINGS ARE NOT JUST FOR NUTS: REAL CARS FOR REAL LIFESTYLES

As an environmentalist, I cherish the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay and all their little tributaries.  Ann and I try to reuse and recycle things around the house.  We plant native trees and bushes, to replace the exotic invasive jungle that covered our tiny Arlington homestead when we moved in 10 years ago.   We composted grandma.

So the annual greenest car ratings of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) are my kind of thing. If you’re in the market, I urge you to check it. http://www.greenercars.org/

I phoned Therese Langer, ACEEE Transportation Director, when the annual ratings came out last week.  She told me, “Each year, since 1998, we have rated the ‘greenest’ vehicles sold in the US (using a combination of tailpipe pollution, fuel consumption, and the greenhouse gases that cause global warming).”

The 13 “greenest” vehicles (listed below) include a wide range of cars from domestic and foreign makers, including Ford and Chevy: a natural gas vehicle, an all-electric, several high-mileage conventional gasoline vehicle, and a hybrid. Further down the list is the first “extended-range electric vehicle,” the Chevrolet Volt.  http://www.greenercars.org/highlights_greenest.htm

They also rate the “meanest” (those whose outrageous fuel consumption or emissions put them beyond the pale of polite society). You know, your Bugattis and Bentleys, and hyper-extravagant sport utility vehicles, whose drivers are obviously trying to compensate for deep feelings of inferiority.

“But wait!” I opined.  “Some of the top-rated cars only a nut would drive.  Those two-seater Smart Fortwos from Mercedes, which gets 41 mpg on the highway, but is surely too tiny for safety out there.  I’m also dubious about the natural gas fueled Honda Civic  at the top of the list, since natural gas has lower energy content than gasoline and most people don’t have fueling stations for it in their homes.”   

Langer said she agreed that they were not that realistic. “For that reason, ACEEE also identifies a selection of the most efficient gasoline-powered models in each vehicle class (from full size pickups to ultra-compacts). We call it Greener Choices 2011.  We thought it would be more useful for most people.” A selection of gasoline vehicles that score well can be found at  http://www.greenercars.org/highlights.htm
 

Also available at the site is The Best Vehicles by Class (from two seaters to heavy SUVs), which is quite exhaustive.

http://www.greenercars.org/highlights_byclass.htm

As for today’s politically-correct electric vehicles (such as the Leaf and Volt), Langer warned, their performance can be deceptive. “Vehicles running on electricity emit nothing from the tailpipe, but their ‘upstream’ emissions [the emissions of the power plants that generate the power] can be substantial, depending on where they’re charged. As U.S. power generation becomes cleaner, these vehicles’ scores will rise.” [For now most of America gets its power from coal, natural gas, or other fossil fuel. Those plants generate much pollution. That will take years to change, so your electric car will continue to spew that phantom pollution until the nation’s entire power system is replaced with cleaner stuff.]

Table 1.  Greenest Cars (Source: http://www.greenercars.org/highlights_greenest.htm  ACEEE Website)

Make and Model: Honda Civic GX	Specs: 1.8 liter 4 cylinder, automatic transmission [fueled with natural gas]
Nissan Leaf	Electric (Li-ion bat.)
Smart Fortwo Cabriolet / Smart Fortwo Coupe	1.0 liter, 3 cylinder, manual
Toyota Prius	1.8 liter 4 cylinder, auto [constant velocity transmission]
Honda Civic Hybrid	1.3 liter 4 cylinder auto
Honda Insight	1.3 liter 4 cylinder, auto [constant velocity transmission]
Ford Fiesta SFE	1.6 liter 4 cylinder, auto
Chevrolet Cruze Eco	1.4 liter 4 cylinder, manual
Hyundai Elantra	1.8 liter 4 cylinder, manual
Mini Cooper	1.6 liter 4 cylinder, manual
Toyota Yaris	1.5 liter 4 cylinder, manual
Mazda 2	1.5 liter 4 cylinder, manual
Chevrolet Volt	1.0 liter 4 cylinder, auto, with auxiliary electric drive (Li-ion batt.)

Poor Are Likely To Migrate as Warming Takes Hold, says IIED Study

The International Institute for Environment and Development  has published a report saying that one impact of climate change is likely to be greater migration from poor countries to richer one, and countries should let them move freely to minimize misery and costs. The researchers cited case studies from Bolivia, Senegal and Tanzania, 

-Ace



Here's the press release:

Climate change: governments should support not fear migration

Governments risk adopting policies that increase people’s vulnerability to climate change because of a general prejudice against migration, according to research published today by the International Institute for Environment and Development.

Research published today (4 February) by the International Institute for Environment and Development refutes alarmist predictions about hundreds of millions of people being forced to migrate across international borders because of climate change.

The research, which includes case studies from Bolivia, Senegal and Tanzania, found no evidence that environmental degradation linked to climate change would result in large flows of international migrants.

Instead, social and economic factors play a bigger role in who moves, where they move and for how long — and most movements are of short durations and short distances.

“People affected by environmental degradation rarely moved across borders,” says the study’s author Dr Cecilia Tacoli. “Instead they moved to other rural areas or to local towns, often temporarily.”

“Such migrants can reduce their vulnerability by diversifying their sources of income and reducing their dependence on natural resources, but governments often view migrants as a problem and either provide little support or actively discourage them from moving.”

The study urges governments to understand the social and economic factors that shape migration so they can develop policies that support the strategies poor people use to adapt to environmental degradation.

“Policymakers need to redefine migration and see it as a valuable adaptive response to environmental risks and not as problem that needs to be tackled,” says Tacoli. “We need rational, realistic responses to climate-change, not knee-jerk reactions that create new problems and increase vulnerability,” says Tacoli.

For governments in climate-vulnerable countries, this means policies that:

• protect livelihoods in migrants’ home areas, with specific attention to ensuring access to land;
• support migrants at destination, making sure that they have adequate representation and that their rights are respected; and
• avoid vicious cycles, whereby migration is the consequence not of climate change itself, but of policies created to address climate change.

The study notes that when people do move internationally they often invest in their home countries in ways that can further have an impact on internal movement.

This is because such investments tend to be made in areas with potential for economic growth and, in many cases, in non-agricultural activities, such as construction and businesses in urban centres, especially in small and intermediate ones where land is cheaper.

Also, when international migrants send money home this can be used to pay temporary labourers to work on family farms.

Both these sectors are major employers of temporary migrants from environmentally fragile areas and can reduce people’s vulnerability to climate change.

“Both the relatively common internal migration and the relatively rare international migration can support poor people who are at risk from climate change,” says Tacoli. “Migration is part of the solution, not part of the problem as many people think.”

Trick Letters to DHS and Maryland Officials Lampoon the National Security Craze

NBC reported today that matching letters were received by Janet Napolitano and Gov. O'Malley  and the Maryland Secretary of Transportation of :

Package addressed to homeland security chief ignites in D.C.

No one injured; mail similar to fiery parcels sent to Md. government buildings day earlier

"Mail addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ignited Friday at a U.S. Postal Service facility in Washington, a day after suspicious letters "flared up" at state government buildings in neighboring Maryland, authorities said. 

and 

A worker ripped the pull tab on the first package, addressed in typeface to the recently re-elected governor [O'Malley of Maryland] and adorned with holiday stamps, in Annapolis where mail for O'Malley's office is routinely checked. The building is just blocks from the governor's office, which is inside the State House in the heart of the capital.

The message read: "Report suspicious activity! Total Bull----! You have created a self fulfilling prophecy.

Get the whole story at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40967486/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

Set Your Watch: The Brood X Population of 17 Year Cicadas Arrives in only 10 Years!

The Brood X cicadas  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brood_X), the largest in area and numbers of the 17-year "periodical" cicadas. were last seen here in 2004. By the literally billions they crawled up out of the ground in spring, each leaving a burrow as big around as your finger. 


It stretches from Illinois to New York to Georgia. to a good X population of 17 Year Cicadas Arrived Here in 2004 They are the biggest of them all. 

They’ve all been eaten or squashed. A few paltry millions have reproduced, leaving cast-off wings and skeletons on the ground, in a nice, nitrogen-rich mulch. 

Afterwards plants are practically springing out of this recharged ground. This big pulse of fertility (nitrogen from their bodies and shells, birds too fat to fly, cats and dogs, raccoons and foxes stuffed too, refusing to eat another bite).   

In addition, all of the bugs and berries and other prey that didn’t get eaten (everything from butterflies to aphids), because the big clumsy slow-flying cicadas were available by the billions, have thrived and reproduced more thickly than before.

I suspect that a kind of secondary effect of the cicadas has been heavier mortality of birds.  The neighborhood cats have been knocking them off, because they are too well fed and sluggish to escape.

As of October, neighbors were reporting heavier than usual predation of squashes by too-plentiful squirrels.  

Then there is the aerating services they have provided.  The normally heavy clay soiled is lighter and airier than usual. 

Needless to say, we have filled our freezer with them.  In Bangkok we learned to eat them, three at a time, on bamboo skewers.  Not!  But you have to admire people who do eat them.

Producing Insects for Food Would produce Less GHG than Pork or Chicken Do Now.

If you really want to lower your carbon footprint, why not eat meal worms or cockroach? Some helpful Dutch entomolgists people did the math for us.  

 That would be the day!   Most of  us resist change in eating habits, Arlington County forbids backyard chickens, let alone pigs or cockroaches.   

Eating whitetail deer--which are scourges of our gardens and fields-- would be more to the point.  The "Locavore Hunter" in the DC area  trains suburbanites to kill and butcher their own deer, and butts up against the Bambi syndrome everyday. (at: http://rule-303.blogspot.com/)

They studied in detail these inset species: 

• Fifth larval stage mealworms Tenebrio molitor L. (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

• Fifth and sixth nymphal stage house crickets Acheta domesticus (L.) (Orthoptera: Gryllidae), 

• Third and fourth stage nymphs of migratory locusts Locusta migratoria (L.) (Orthoptera: Acrididae), 

• Third larval stage sun beetles Pachnoda marginata Drury (Coleoptera; Scarabaeidae) and 

• A mix of all stages of the Argentinean cockroach Blaptica dubia (Serville) (Dictyoptera: Blaberidae). They point out ahat  "Currently, T. molitor, A. domesticus and L. migratoria are considered edible, while P. marginata and B. dubia are not. The latter two species were included since they are a potential source of animal protein, for instance by means of protein extraction. These two species can be bred in large numbers with little time investment and are able to utilise a wide range of substrates as feed."

It's in An Exploration on Greenhouse Gas and Ammonia Production by Insect Species Suitable for Animal or Human Consumption by Dennis G. A. B. Oonincx^1*, Joost van Itterbeeck¹, Marcel J. W. Heetkamp², Henry van den Brand², Joop J. A. van Loon¹, Arnold van Huis¹  in the journal PLos ONE  [http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0014445