Olympic Peninsula Environmental News

Weather you agree that this is global warming or not, the ramifications for our source of water, the snowpack of the Olympics, is worrisome. As the globe (or areas of the globe) warms, that means that our snow pack is not as low (in elevation), nor as deep. Water is probably going to continue to be a huge concern for the west, and us.
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The National Weather Service says last month was the warmest January on record in Seattle, an average of 47 degrees.

That was about a half-degree warmer than the old record set in 2006. Seattle records go back to 1891.

Forecasters say the average daily high at Sea-Tac Airport was nearly 52 degrees, about 6 degrees above normal. The average low was the month was about 43, about 7 degrees above normal.

Bellingham also had its warmest January on record, averaging 45 degrees. And Olympia had its second-warmest January, averaging nearly 44 degrees.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010948491_apwawarmjanuary.html?syndication=rss

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Climate Updates
Upcoming Winter High Tides: A Preview of Future Sea Level Rise
Seasonal high tides occurring throughout the region early next week will provide a preview of what the state might expect to see on a more regular basis as a result of rising sea levels.

The region experienced seasonal high tides in early January. At that time, we asked you to take photos and send them in to us. We got some great shots and a few are represented here: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/climatechange/ipa_hightide.htm. Thank you to all of you who responded!

Now we have another opportunity to document these seasonal high tides. Those of you who happen to photograph the high tide events February 1 – 3 are invited to submit your images to the Washington State Department of Ecology. We are interested in using these images to help document the coastal impacts our state is likely to face with increasing frequency as sea levels continue to rise.

Images can be submitted via email to ‘ecologyoutreach@ecy.wa.gov’ – along with the date, time, and detailed location information. Please provide contact information if you’d like us to send you a release form for future publication of your photos. For more information, visit the Washington Department of Ecology blog:
http://ecologywa.blogspot.com/2010/01/grab-your-waders-and-your-camera-and.html

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Whether you believe that we are heating up the planet, or you believe that this is all ‘natural’, the facts are continuing to come in that we, globally and locally, are going to have to deal with the effects of global warming. Here’s the latest scorecard, and you better get out your tropical gear.  But to be clear, as ocean currents stall out due to the heating of the poles (which is one possible effect, and was seen on the east coast this summer), we are probably going to see colder winters that last a shorter period of time. So don’t assume that more snow means less global warming!  We are going to be paying for global warming whether we like it or not, because insurers are going to raise rates to deal with the increase in natural disasters. And if the U.S. can no longer grow wheat and corn, due to drought, there will be nowhere to hide.  What can you do? Get involved. Work to cut your emissions down, and demand that the politicians do more.

Here’s the story, edited for brevity. The whole story is linked at the bottom.

Warming’s impacts sped up, worsened since Kyoto

By SETH BORENSTEIN (AP) – 1 day ago WASHINGTON – Since the 1997 international accord to fight global warming, climate change has worsened and accelerated – beyond some of the grimmest of warnings made back then.

As the world has talked for a dozen years about what to do next, new ship passages opened through the once frozen summer sea ice of the Arctic. In Greenland and Antarctica, ice sheets have lost trillions of tons of ice. Mountain glaciers in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa are shrinking faster than before.

And it’s not just the frozen parts of the world that have felt the heat in the dozen years leading up to next month’s climate summit in Copenhagen:

_The world’s oceans have risen by about an inch and a half.

_Droughts and wildfires have turned more severe worldwide, from the U.S. West to Australia to the Sahel desert of North Africa.

_Species now in trouble because of changing climate include, not just the lumbering polar bear which has become a symbol of global warming, but also fragile butterflies, colorful frogs and entire stands of North American pine forests.

_Temperatures over the past 12 years are 0.4 of a degree warmer than the dozen years leading up to 1997.

Even the gloomiest climate models back in the 1990s didn’t forecast results quite this bad so fast.

“The latest science is telling us we are in more trouble than we thought,” said Janos Pasztor, climate adviser to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Officials from across the world will convene in Copenhagen next month to seek a follow-up pact, one that President Barack Obama says “has immediate operational effect … an important step forward in the effort to rally the world around a solution.”

The last effort didn’t quite get the anticipated results.The changes in the last 12 years that have the scientists most alarmed are happening in the Arctic with melting summer sea ice and around the world with the loss of key land-based ice masses.

It’s all happening far faster than predicted.  Back in 1997 “nobody in their wildest expectations,” would have forecast the dramatic sudden loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic that started about five years ago, Weaver said. From 1993 to 1997, sea ice would shrink on average in the summer to about 2.7 million square miles. The average for the last five years is less than 2 million square miles. What’s been lost is the size of Alaska.

The Colorado River reservoirs, major water suppliers for the U.S. West, were nearly full in 1999, but by 2007 half the water was gone after the region endured the worst multiyear drought in 100 years of record-keeping.

Insurance losses and blackouts have soared and experts say global warming is partly to blame.

The number of major U.S. weather-related blackouts from 2004-2008 were more than seven times higher than from 1993-1997, said Evan Mills, a staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.

“The message on the science is that we know a lot more than we did in 1997 and it’s all negative,” said Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. “Things are much worse than the models predicted.”

On the Net:

*     U.S. government’s 2009 report on

climate change impacts:

http://tinyurl.com/usimpacts

*     Intergovernmental Panel on

Climate Change 2007 report on changes already

observed: http://tinyurl.com/worldimpacts

*     United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate change: http://unfccc.int Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Whole story at:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hjrkevVWHdM8rWorsC2E8mUvBPzgD9C4NKU80

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A relatively new field of concern, especially for those of us on the Peninsula, is that of water use. With the warming climate, our snowpacks are not lasting the same length of time, and of course, our drinking water comes from snowpack and rivers that are fed by that snow pack. An area of study is emerging that focuses on the use of water, both in the products we buy (did you know that one cup of coffee used 140 liters of water), and the use of water in our homes.  In this interview, done on Living On Earth, a weekly radio show on environmental issues, David Gellerman interviews first Derk Kuiper, who founded the Water Footprint Network (link on the left side of this page), along with Michael Kobori of Levi-Strauss (yes the jeans manufacturer), on how they are focusing on water use in the making of jeans.  It’s a good learning experience for kids to teach them to think about their water use. In PT, our monthly water bills come with a graph of our last 12 months of water use. We make tradeoffs every day in use of our watershed, given that our paper mill uses millions of gallons of water weekly to make it’s products.

Water Footprinting: http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00035&segmentID=2

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Given our last post about the movie “A Sea Change” I thought this appropriate for better understanding the issue. Apparently our recession is affecting CO2 output. Only problem is that millions are out of work due to industrial slowdown. However, as we recover from the recession, it will get worse again…From the U.S. Government energy stats office:

This Outlook begins reporting projected carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from fossil fuels, which fell by 3.2 percent in 2008.  We project CO₂ emissions will decline by 5 percent this year with lower CO₂ emissions from coal accounting for more than one-half of this decline.  Economic recovery next year and modest growth in energy consumption are expected to lead to a 0.7-percent increase in CO₂ emissions.

Carbon Dioxide EmissionsThis Outlook introduces a short-term forecast of CO₂ emissions from the consumption of the three fossil fuels: coal, natural gas, and petroleum. The economic downturn, combined with natural gas displacing some coal as a source of electricity generation, is projected to lead to a 5-percent decline in fossil-fuel-based CO₂ emissions in 2009 (U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Growth Chart).  We expect an improving economy to increase CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels by 0.7 percent in 2010.

Petroleum CO₂ Emissions. Petroleum CO₂ emissions are expected to decline by 4 percent in 2009, primarily due to declines in transportation sector consumption.  Although we expect little change in CO₂ emissions from motor gasoline during 2009, CO₂ emissions from other transportation petroleum fuels, particularly jet fuel (a 9.8- percent decline in consumption), distillate fuel oil (an 8.2-percent decline), and residual fuel oil (a 6.3- percent decline), are expected to fall significantly.  CO₂ emissions from petroleum in 2010 are projected to increase by 0.6 percent, which is lower than the 1.5-percent increase in total petroleum consumption primarily because of the continued growth in the biofuel share of the transportation fuel markets.

Coal CO₂ Emissions. Fuel switching in the electric power sector and declines in industrial use are projected to lead to a 7.9-percent decline in coal-based CO₂ emissions for 2009.  Increases in coal consumption, primarily in the electric power sector, are expected to lead to a 1.1-percent increase in coal CO₂ emissions in 2010.

Natural Gas CO₂ Emissions. Natural gas-based CO₂ emissions are projected to decline by 2.3 percent in 2009 despite significant consumption increases in the electric power sector.  Natural gas consumption is expected to decline in 2009 for all other major sectors.  CO₂ emissions from natural gas are expected to grow slightly in 2010 as natural gas consumption increases by 0.5 percent.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/contents.html

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This will help move us towards reducing carbon dioxide and other pollutants from older diesels. If you have a diesel truck or bus that might qualify, please contact Cascade Sierra Solutions at https://secure.cascadesierrasolutions.org/financing_options.php

U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) announced on August 27th, that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded a $9 million grant to Cascade Sierra Solutions to improve energy efficiency and reduce pollution in the Pacific Northwest. The funding comes from the SmartWay Clean Diesel Finance Program included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“This grant will get high-emission vehicles off our roads, and it will make Washington state trucks more energy-efficient,” said Senator Patty Murray. “Investing in clean-energy will create jobs immediately, and it will help our families by reducing the costs of shipping goods.”

The $9 million grant will be used by Cascade Sierra solutions for revolving loan, lease or bond programs to replace older diesel trucks or upgrade them with clean, fuel saving technologies such as idle reduction equipment, fuel efficient tires and aerodynamic devices.

Purchasing a truck manufactured in 2007 or later can reduce diesel particulate emissions by 85% and Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) by 25%. Trucks manufactured before 1994 can emit 100 times the amount of particulate matter and NOx that a new truck does.

Overall, the Recovery Act allotted $300 million for the National Clean Diesel Campaign (NCDC), $30 million of which will fund SmartWay Clean Diesel Finance Program grants.

As a senior member of the Senate committee overseeing Energy funding, Sen. Murray worked to ensure that investments in clean-energy technology were included in the Recovery Act.  Senator Murray voted to pass the Recovery Act on February 13th. The bill was signed into law by President Obama on February 17th.

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While many of the politicians fiddle while the world is burning, the stats just keep on coming in. It’s time to start really solving the fundamental problems causing this….namely greenhouse gases. Before we all fry.

August 14, 2009

The planet’s ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for July, breaking the previous high mark established in 1998 according to an analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. The combined average global land and ocean surface temperature for July 2009 ranked fifth-warmest since world-wide records began in 1880.

Global Climate Statistics

• The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for July 2009 was the fifth warmest on record, at 1.03 degrees F (0.57 degree C) above the 20th century average of 60.4 degrees F (15.8 degrees C).
• The global ocean surface temperature for July 2009 was the warmest on record, 1.06 degrees F (0.59 degree C) above the 20th century average of 61.5 degrees F (16.4 degrees C). This broke the previous July record set in 1998. The July ocean surface temperature departure of 1.06 degrees F from the long-term average equals last month’s value, which was also a record.
• The global land surface temperature for July 2009 was 0.92 degree F (0.51 degree C) above the 20th century average of 57.8 degrees F (14.3 degree C), and tied with 2003 as the ninth-warmest July on record.

More at http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20090814_julyglobalstats.html

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