We are subsidizing our own demise.

Posted on August 26, 2023 by Al Bergstein

According to Tom Hartmann..https://substack.com/@thomhartmann— “The world is subsidizing the fossil fuel industry’s efforts to destroy our planet at a rate of $13 million per minute.

A new report from the International Monetary Fund (which has funded fossil fuel projects in the past, so they’re not likely exaggerating), the total amount of subsidies given to fossil fuel billionaires and their companies last year was around $7 trillion, or about 7 percent of global GDP.

The biggest culprits are, in descending order, China, the US, Russia, the EU, and India. Here in America we give around $600 billion in subsidies every year to the fossil fuel industry, and that doesn’t even begin to count the costs we pay for cleaning up the industry’s messes, from abandoned wells and coal mines to rebuilding cities destroyed by climate-change-caused violent weather and fires.

This is insane, and must stop immediately. The IMF calculates that if the world’s subsidies were to end this year, next year would see a 34% decrease in the use of fossil fuels because they’d become so much more expensive. While we can’t control the rest of the world, we can set an example by cutting off American fossil fuel companies and their billionaires from our absurd taxpayer-funded subsidies: call your members of Congress at 202-224-3121 and let them know you support ending fossil fuel subsidies.”

Better yet, today is the annual Jefferson County Democratic fundraiser. Perhaps it’s worth reminding our elected officials.

And here’s a song to sing to these people who just can’t seem to stop killing the planet for their own greed.

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How Tree Diversity Can Help Fight Climate Change

Posted on May 1, 2023 by Al Bergstein

While we continue to plunge headlong into creating a monoculture treefarm on the Olympic Peninsula, aided and abetted by DNR, this is a good reminder that the science does not necessarily support this direction.

Ensuring the preservation of forest diversity guarantees their productivity and holds the potential to enhance the accumulation of carbon and nitrogen in the soil. This, in turn, helps maintain soil fertility and combat global climate change.

That’s the main takeaway from a new study that analyzed data from hundreds of plots in Canada’s National Forest Inventory to investigate the relationship between tree diversity and changes in soil carbon and nitrogen in natural forests.

https://scitechdaily.com/how-tree-diversity-can-help-fight-climate-change/

Filed under: Environmental Science, Forestry, Global Warming, Olympic Peninsula | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

New research paper out on nearshore water temps during heatwave

Posted on February 3, 2023 by Al Bergstein

A new research paper out from northwest scientists.

Large and transient positive (not good! positive means increased here) temperature anomalies in Washington’s coastal nearshore waters during the 2013–2015 northeast Pacific marine heatwave.

Abstract:

The northern portion of Washington’s outer coast—known locally as the Olympic coast—is a dynamic region characterized by seasonal upwelling that predominates during summer interrupted by occasional periods of downwelling. We examined spring-to-fall water temperature records collected along this coast from 2001–2015 from April to October at four nearshore locations (Cape Elizabeth to Makah Bay) that span one degree of latitude and are located within 15 km of the shore. When compared against a long-term climatology created for 2001–2013, seven-day smoothed temperature anomalies of up to 4.5°C at 40 m depth during 2014 and 2015 show short-term warm events lasting 10–20 days. These periods of warming occurred within the well documented marine heatwave in the Northeast Pacific and were about twice the seasonal temperature range in the climatology at that depth. These warm events were strongly correlated with periods of northward long-shore winds and upper ocean currents, consistent with what is expected for the response to downwelling-favorable winds. While our focus a priori was on 2014 and 2015, we also found large positive temperature events in 2013, which were potentially related to the early stage of the marine heatwave, and in 2011, which did not have a documented marine heatwave. This indicates that near-shore short-term warm events occur during periods of large-scale offshore marine heatwave events, but also can occur in the absence of a large-scale marine heatwave event when downwelling-favorable winds occur during the summer/early fall.

Large and transient positive temperature anomalies in Washington’s coastal nearshore waters during the 2013–2015 northeast Pacific marine heatwave | PLOS ONE

Filed under: Environmental Science, Global Warming, Straits of Juan de Fuca | 3 Comments »

CO2.COM – Builder of climate action portfolios

Posted on December 9, 2022 by OlyOpen

Had dinner last night with one of the members of the CO2.com team. They are a subsidiary of Time (the magazine business) and working out of Yakima. Their business is building diversified, high-impact climate action portfolios. They work to find the best climate projects out there, vet them from every angle, and curate them into portfolios.

This is a much needed solution to ‘green-washing’ businesses. Worth checking out if you are a business or government needing to make sure your “climate-neutral offsets” marketing is really what you think it is. This blog has no financial stake in this business. Just an FYI.

CO2.com

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Dungeness crab dying amid low oxygen levels linked to climate change – Seattle Times

Posted on November 9, 2022 by Al Bergstein

Climate change wreaking havoc on our native crab populations. Scientists are racing to see if there is anything that can be done.

Not too far down the coast, piles of dead Dungeness crab washed ashore on Kalaloch Beach this summer. Meanwhile, fishers have shared stories about hoisting up dead or suffocating crabs in their pots, said Jenny Waddell, research ecologist with the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.

Dungeness crab dying amid low oxygen levels linked to climate change | The Seattle Times

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Researchers, growers face the challenge of acidic ocean water -Salish Current

Posted on November 4, 2022 by Al Bergstein

Things are getting worse as it relates to ocean acidification. But as the article points out, we are on the leading edge of trying to find a way forward to save our shellfish. This is global warming in your backyard. There is no time to waste.

Salish Sea waters are acidifying faster than ever before, but researchers in Washington are leading the world in addressing the looming disaster. Rena Kingery reports. (Salish Current)

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Washington to phase out new gasoline-powered cars by 2035 -AP

Posted on August 25, 2022 by Al Bergstein

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says the state will phase out the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by the year 2035. Inslee announced the move in a tweet on Wednesday and said a new rule will be finalized by the end of the year. John Ryan reports. (KUOW)  

California poised to phase out sale of new gas-powered cars California is poised to set a 2035 deadline for all new cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the state to be powered by electricity or hydrogen, an ambitious step that will reshape the U.S. car market by speeding the transition to more climate-friendly vehicles. (Associated Press)  

Chinese province plans ban on sale of gasoline cars Hainan island in the South China Sea says it will become China’s first region to ban sales of gasoline- and diesel-powered cars to curb climate-changing carbon emissions. (Associated Press) 

The move away from fossil fuels can come none too soon. Rivers supplying critical water for cooling nuclear power plants and providing dams with water are running dangerously low across China, the U.S. and Europe. We have no time to waste. The assumptions that we have enough time to wait until the mid-30s are likely to be unrealistic. Many climate scientists warned us years ago that if we did not hit global warming targets the world would reach a tipping point by the end of this decade. What will it look like if we don’t have electricity production to meet the needs of the electric cars? Or even to heat our homes and provide drinking water.

Filed under: Climate Change, Global Warming | 2 Comments »

Condition of Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary good; climate change a growing concern

Posted on March 7, 2022 by Al Bergstein

This just released from NOAA.

Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary habitats are in overall good condition, with stable or improving trends, but climate change impacts are a growing concern for sanctuary managers, according to a new NOAA report on the health of the sanctuary.

The sanctuary’s “Condition Report” includes information on the status and trends of resources in the sanctuary, pressures on those resources, and management responses to the pressures that threaten the integrity of the marine environment. 

The report, based on information from 2008-2019, concludes that overall, most habitats within the sanctuary are in good condition and show signs of stable or improving trends over time. However, there are concerns about the effects of climate change—especially for open ocean habitats.

Climate change effects—marine heatwaves, harmful algal blooms, hypoxic events, and ocean acidification—are the biggest threats to the condition of the sanctuary. Although wildlife populations of the sanctuary are fairly stable or increasing overall, certain keystone and foundational species populations—the purple sea star and sunflower star, Southern Resident Killer Whales, and some salmon species—are displaying cause for concern. 

The report uses a standardized method to summarize the condition and trends of the sanctuary’s resources, habitats, and ecosystem services, as well as pressures on those resources and management responses to the pressures.

Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary was established in 1994 and includes 3,188 square miles of marine waters off the rugged Olympic Peninsula in northwest Washington state. Habitats within the sanctuary range from towering kelp forests to deep-sea coral and sponge communities, and there are over 200 reported shipwrecks. Twenty-nine species of marine mammals and more than 100 bird species reside in or migrate through the sanctuary, and it contains some of the most productive habitats for fish in the world.

In order to represent both traditional and modern-day perspectives of the relationship between humans and the ocean, this report includes the voices and knowledge of Indigenous people. Tribal Councils, tribal members, and participating staff from the four Coastal Treaty Tribes contributed to the report.

NOAA uses sanctuary condition reports as a standardized tool to assess the status and trends of national marine sanctuary resources. The assessment period for this report was 2008 through 2019, updating the previous 2008 report. It will inform the management plan review process for Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. 

A web story with details has been published by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.

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What new projections of sea level rise mean for Puget Sound and WA Coast – Seattle Times

Posted on February 28, 2022 by Al Bergstein

Solid reporting on our future along the Salish Sea. 10 to 12 inches of sea level rise in a place like Port Townsend could put large areas under water much of the time. Think the boatyard, Lincoln Beach, Point Hudson, and other places at sea level now.


Sea level rise will affect each area of the planet in a unique way, but new projections are helping researchers and lawmakers in Washington state identify which coastal communities are most vulnerable. A new report published earlier this month by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says sea levels will rise 10 to 12 inches in the contiguous U.S. by 2050 — with regional variations — which scientists say would trigger a “profound increase” in coastal flooding. Nicholas Turner reports.(Seattle Times)

What new projections of sea level rise mean for Puget Sound and the WA coast

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Hottest ocean temperatures in history recorded last year – The Guardian

Posted on January 17, 2022 by Al Bergstein

Not great news for those hoping to protect our oceans from the ravages of humankind. Sixth consecutive year. Whatever can be done to slow this must. While we are a small island of calm in the midst of this, nevertheless we cannot escape it. Forest fires, smoke, heat waves like last summer, acidifying oceans affecting sea food output etc. are all ahead.

“Last year saw a heat record for the top 2,000 meters of all oceans around the world, despite an ongoing La Niña event, a periodic climatic feature that cools waters in the Pacific. The 2021 record tops a stretch of modern record-keeping that goes back to 1955. The second hottest year for oceans was 2020, while the third hottest was 2019.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/11/oceans-hottest-temperatures-research-climate-crisis

Filed under: Around the Salish Sea, Climate Change, Environmental Science, Global Warming | Comments Off on Hottest ocean temperatures in history recorded last year – The Guardian

Welcome to 2022 – King tides takes out shoreline homes and businesses in the Salish Sea

Posted on January 10, 2022 by Al Bergstein

In a grand “Climate Change” welcome to 2022 King tides moved into the Salish Sea along with a major storm front. The outcome was widespread destruction across a huge swath of the shorelines, from the South Sound up through British Columbia. This is just a taste of what’s ahead, as we await the break off of a huge glacier in Antarctica, and it’s subsequent melt down, which will add to sea level rise. If you have a home or business on the shoreline, now is a good time to reconsider your long term options.

Let’s do a quick overview. If there is only one thing to see, watch this video that was posted by a homeowner from Blaine on Twitter.

And KUOW coverage opens with a scary photo of a neighborhood built on the “wrong side of the tracks”.

KUOW – Sea level on steroids: Record tides flood Washington coastlines

The CBC covered the British Columbia story.

B.C. coastal communities assess damage, look to future after king tides, extreme weather wreak havoc | CBC News

This does not even begin to cover the amount of businesses that have docks that may have been destroyed, nor the simple flooding that may have occurred.

I have watched with disbelief over the last decades as more and more luxury homes have been built on spits in Puget Sound. Some examples? Three Tree Point in South King County. A more recent one in is Miller Bay near Indianola. Let’s look! These houses are really expensive and right at sea level!

Image by Google Earth

Or how about our own Beckett Point in Jefferson County?

Image by Google Earth
Beckett Point Flooding January 9, 2022 Photos by Diane Jones

Beckett Point is no stranger to flooding. It was wiped out in the 1930s by a massive wind storm. Back then it was just fishing shacks but those were replaced by homes. Bottom line, these people are living on a sandspit, at sea level, and likely their home owners insurance is provided by the Federal Government because there is no way they could afford to pay for private insurance, even if it’s available. Choosing to live here, while incredibly beautiful and usually no problem, is and will continue to be challenging.

Want to add your own and track more vulnerable communities on the Sound? Go to my little project on Google Earth. https://earth.google.com/earth/d/1ZiX9tu1nnWs16-Lwnm4CORazbgPMJJ5H?usp=sharing

It is worth remembering that these homeowners get federal insurance to live here, so our tax dollars go to help continue this behavior. Please make sure that you let our elected officials know that with rising costs due to sea level rise, we cannot continue to subsidize everyone who lives on the shore. Now is the time to end this practice and let these homeowners bear the full cost of their decision (and it is also the decision of the local land use officials and county officials).

I’ve left out the massive flooding all over western Washington and British Columbia in the last 60 days, along with wildfires in December in Colorado, and massive super tornadoes in Kentucky (can you picture a tornado 250 miles long? with winds of 94 MPH sustained over four hours and 24 minutes?). Global warming is upon us and our best situation is to begin making changes to issues like insurance and infrastructure to mitigate the worse that is yet to come in future decades.

Filed under: Around the Salish Sea, Climate Change, Global Warming, Jefferson County | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

For the Northwest, climate change was hard to ignore in 2021 -KUOW

Posted on December 31, 2021 by Al Bergstein

A good wrap up of the Northwest climate change in 2021. The photo in the article is a great example of what a flood plain is and why so many restoration projects (i.e. the Dungeness) are working to recover old flood plains. So many of them were used for farming (as in the Nooksack pictured) or just putting in housing, like on the Dungeness. Building dykes is a long term failure strategy for salmon and the people trying to live on the flood plain. As shown, the dykes just won’t protect you from climate change as we are seeing it unfold.

From heat domes to record-breaking rainfall, climate change was hard to ignore in Washington.As temperature records were shattered around the state in late June, the 911 calls poured in.

https://kuow.org/stories/climate-change-was-hard-to-ignore-for-the-northwest-in-2021

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Northern Washington Tribes fear devastation of salmon by extreme floodwaters – KUOW

Posted on November 30, 2021 by Al Bergstein

While this story is not specifically about the Peninsula, it is about issues that we faced along with the Bellingham and B.C. environment in the last month. Our rivers flooded also, just not quite as bad. As we all know, the salmon of this region are on the brink of extinction, along with our Orcas. Every year our human induced climate brings 500 year floods to already destroyed ecosystems the fish become more threatened. The Salish Sea is an ecosystem itself, what is happening to the east and north of us is tied to us by the water.

When a month’s worth of rain hit northern Washington and southern British Columbia in just a couple of days in mid-November, the resulting extreme flows scoured streams and riverbeds. They flushed away gravel and the salmon eggs incubating just below the surface, likely by the millions.

KUOW

https://kuow.org/stories/northern-washington-tribes-fear-devastation-of-salmon-by-extreme-floodwaters-ffcd

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How heat waves warp ecosystems – High Country News

Posted on November 26, 2021 by Al Bergstein

Just this week I was in an online discussion with a noted wildlife journalist here on the Peninsula who wanted to blame a series of environmental horrors he had recently seen on a certain restoration project, because the project was close to the area he was viewing. I tried to explain that the last few years had seen a variety of shocks to our ecosystem, and what he was seeing was far more widespread than just the area in question. Fish kills, algae blooms, massive die offs of shellfish, are easily observed but hard to map to a single root cause. But today in my inbox was this story and so I share it to help all of us understand that what is happening is anything but a local issue. The effects are widespread and causing destruction across an enormous range of wildlife. Welcome to the new world of the Pacific Northwest ecosystem under global warming.

Initial reports were sobering: A billion shellfish and other intertidal animals baked to death on the coast of British Columbia. The Portland Audubon Society declared a “hawkpocalypse” as it tended to scores of sick and injured birds. And in eastern Oregon, state officials estimated that tens of thousands of sculpin, a bottom-dwelling fish, perished in streams already throttled by drought.

High Country News
https://www.hcn.org/issues/53.12/north-climate-change-how-heat-waves-warp-ecosystems?utm_source=wcn1&utm_medium=email

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Don’t Be So Quick to Doubt China’s Climate Change Dedication -NY Times

Posted on November 8, 2021 by Al Bergstein

While watching the COPS-26 Circus in Glasgow over the last couple weeks it’s easy to get dismayed especially about China’s commitments to solving global warming. However this interesting article in the New York Times today has a different perspective on it from someone who has followed the Chinese environmental stories for the last 20 years. Well worth a read if you’re feeling down about what happened in Glasgow. some of you might have also missed that China announced about a month ago or so the largest solar farm in the world to be constructed in the deserts in eastern China. I think that China takes global warming far more seriously than we do in some cases. They are a leader in electric bike and car production and have ambitious goals to produce vastly more of them. It’s just that, given their behavior on the world stage, it’s very hard to know what it all really means.

www.nytimes.com/2021/11/07/opinion/cop26-china-climate.html

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B.C. Sea Stars approaching extinction?

Posted on August 25, 2021 by Al Bergstein

Seems hard to fathom, that we may be losing the entire species.

A new study published by the Royal Society said sea stars are getting close to extinction as waters along the west coast. Sea stars in the waters off British Columbia that died off in the billions about a decade ago are not recovering as expected, an expert says. Hina Alam reports. (The Canadian Press)

Expert says B.C. sea stars melting away because of wasting disease

Filed under: Around the Salish Sea, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Global Warming | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Taking the Temperature of Salmon -Salish Sea Currents

Posted on August 23, 2021 by Al Bergstein

Good overview of one of the most critical issues facing recovery of endangered salmon. Rising temperatures in streams.

In the Puget Sound region, elevated stream temperatures are believed to be one of the great downfalls for salmon, especially in areas where streamside vegetation has been removed by farming, forestry or development.

https://www.eopugetsound.org/magazine/taking-temperature-salmon

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First-ever water shortage declared on the Colorado River, triggering water cuts for some states in the West – WA Post

Posted on August 17, 2021 by Al Bergstein

While we watch as the megadrought blankets the west this should be a wake up call to those of us up here on the Peninsula that managing our water resources for the next ten years is likely to be a guessing game. Will the snows come again as expected? If not, how will it affect the flows in the rivers we rely on for our drinking water?

Right now, there has been discussions between the Port Townsend Mill and the City, on renewing a long term lease for the right to use our drinking water source for the mill manufacturing, as they have done for a century. My suggestion? Go for a 10 year lease and revisit it then. We seem to be ok for the immediate future. But 10 years from now it could be a very different situation.

A 22-year drought — the region’s most severe in more than a millennium — and climate change have made that fundamental problem worse. The alpine snowpack that feeds the river has been diminishing and was melting earlier this year. Parched soil soaks up much of it before it even enters rivers and streams. Extreme heat evaporates water in Lake Mead and other reservoirs more quickly and causes evaporation from plants.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/16/colorado-river-water-cuts-drought/

Filed under: Global Warming, Jefferson County, Olympic Peninsula, Port Townsend | 4 Comments »

Hydrogen Fuel may not be the salvation we have been told.

Posted on August 15, 2021 by Al Bergstein

New studies show the dangers in betting on hydrogen fuel. By the way, who has been promoting it’s use? The oil and gas industry, of course.

www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/climate/hydrogen-fuel-natural-gas-pollution.html

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Biotoxins in shellfish lead to closure at Discovery Bay – Peninsula Daily News

Posted on July 20, 2021 by Al Bergstein

Following on a recent post about the effects of the recent heatwave, here’s more economic and enviromental effects. Yes, global warming is costing all of us. Discovery Bay is home to a number of commercial geoduck operations as well as recreational shellfish harvesting.

Discovery Bay is closed to shellfish harvesting due to high levels of marine biotoxins discovered in the water. Shellfish samples taken from Discovery Bay were found to contain elevated levels of the marine biotoxin that causes diarrhetic shellfish poisoning, resulting in the state Department of Health closing the beaches around the bay for all shellfish harvesting, Jefferson County Environmental Health said in a press release. Zach Jablonski reports. (Peninsula Daily News)

Read the whole story here:

Biotoxins in shellfish lead to closure at Discovery Bay

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