People Before Profit blog

Utility workers ask W. Va. officials to strictly regulate area water firm

Wed, 29 Jan 2014 12:03:00 +0000

CHARLESTON, W. Va. (PAI) - The Utility Workers, who represent West Virginia American Water workers-who must deal with the aftermath of the chemical spill into the Elk River that poisoned drinking water for 300,000 people - want state officials to strictly regulate the water firm, and especially keep a beady eye on its staffing levels.

The Jan. 23 letter from national union President Michael Langford to West Virginia Public Service Commission Chairman Michael Albert is the Utility Workers' most extensive statement on the spill. Utility Workers Local 537 members work for the water firm, along with other utilities in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

West Virginia American Water has 278 workers in the affected area. Langford reminded Albert the commission's own staff calls that inadequate. WVAW wants to stop filing quarterly staffing reports. It's been filing them for two years, due to past problems.

WVAW is dealing with the aftermath of the Jan. 9 chemical spill, and Langford emphasizes the firm did not cause it. But he contends the water company may lack the personnel to deal with the toxic chemicals, their cleanup and their aftermath.

"Our local has testified from first-hand experience about the need for substantial upgrades to West Virginia American Water's infrastructure and the impact of continuing manpower shortages on the ability of the workforce to operate and maintain aging mains and other facilities. We are not alone in voicing such concerns," Langford said.

"The commission itself expressed frustration in late 2011 over American Water's emphasis on investing in new accounting software rather than on distribution system upgrades," he said. The short-staffing 'is shortsighted and not in the best interest of WVAWC or its customers,'" he added, quoting the commission itself.

The result, Langford told Albert is leaks - lots of leaks. While the commission accepts a maximum of 15 percent leakage, Langford noted, its staff found WVAW's pipes leaked 37.57 percent of their water last May and June in the Kanawha District alone.

"The (commission's) staff went on to express concerns about the number of leak repairs and the failure to meet valve inspection targets," Langford told Albert. "Data highlighted by the staff were prepared by American Water. Moreover, in identifying 'resource' concerns, the staff pointed out that American Water's staffing levels were below commission-approved minimum numbers.

"One immediate concern is that a consequence of the excessively high leak rate in West Virginia American's distribution system is that a significant amount of the contaminated water pumped through the system will have leaked into the ground. The union does not know whether this presents a public health concern, but believes that the matter warrants investigation.

"We do not know-and take no position on-whether any deficiencies in American Water's infrastructure contributed to this water crisis. Our purpose in writing is not to point fingers, but to focus on the future. Toward that end, we urge the commission and other agencies charged with investigating this situation and crafting going-forward recommendations to consider how best to address any deficiencies they find in American Water's physical and human infrastructure," Langford concluded.

Photo: Workers inspect an area around Freedom Industries, the site of the chemical leak in West Virginia. Steve Helber/AP

Dolphin slaughter stirs up wave of outrage

Tue, 28 Jan 2014 16:26:00 +0000

At least 250 dolphins have been tortured, many of them brutally killed, in Japan's Taiji Cove in the past seven days. Some of these mammals will be collected and shipped off to aquariums, but a large number will be harvested for their meat. Dolphin hunting is also known as drive hunting, and involves driving the animals together with boats and trapping them. It is increasingly seen as a cruel, inhumane, and entirely unnecessary practice. Now, animal rights groups and other activists worldwide are fighting back.

Several hundred bottlenose dolphins, porpoises, and pilot whales are hunted and slaughtered in Taiji Cove annually. Among those slain so far this year were infant dolphins (whom the fishermen view as too small to be worth much in meat), and a rare albino dolphin.

On Jan. 24, activists held a rally in downtown Tokyo, decrying this abuse and calling on officials to stop the sale of marine animals to aquariums and as meat. They declared that the practice is tarnishing Japan's reputation, especially as Tokyo prepares to host the 2020 summer Olympic Games.

"The government had argued that the practice of dolphin hunting is part of Japanese tradition and food culture," said Noriko Ikeda, a member of Action for Marine Mammals who organized the demonstration. "But the reality is that most Japanese people do not know about dolphin hunting, and it is extremely rare to find Japanese people who wish to eat dolphins. The real problem is that this hunt is driven by a demand for live dolphins from aquariums wishing to put on dolphin shows."

Satoshi Komiyama, who is the leader of Action for Marine Mammals, noted that their group is relatively new, having arisen from a grassroots movement, and is indicative of a new uprising against these cruel practices. He remarked, "There have always been discussions about the pros and cons of dolphin issues in Japan. But arguments and discussions do not save dolphins. Now, we think action is important. Many foreign groups come to Japan and are active in protecting dolphins. However, since they are not permanent residents of Japan, there are various limitations and difficulties in regard to their activities here." If enough people protest, he remarked, "we have the potential to start a larger movement [based] right here in Japan."

Animal rights and rescue organization In Defense of Animals added that not only is dolphin hunting a cruel sport, it is also unhealthy for people. "How the Japanese government can knowingly allow the human consumption of dolphin meat is beyond reason," stated the group. "It contains dangerous levels of mercury and other industrial pollutants."

According to Carl Safina, Stony Brook University professor and founder of conservation group Blue Ocean Institute, it's notable that Japan's own slaughter guidelines for livestock are superior to that of the U.S.'s torturous factory farming, in that Japan requires animals to be killed in the quickest, most painless way possible, or else lose consciousness before being killed. Efforts must also be made to minimize anxiety and depression in the livestock.

None of these guidelines, however, apply to whale and dolphin killing, and since 2010, a new, more vicious killing method has been employed, one which involves piercing the animals' spinal cords with metal rods. Essentially, this results in a more prolonged, painful death for these highly intelligent mammals. The reason for doing so is because it apparently shortens the "harvest time" and makes the job easier for the fishermen.

The uproar over the slaughter has extended beyond that of mere animal rights and environmental groups: It drew a firm rebuke from U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, who on Jan. 17 tweeted, "I am deeply concerned by the inhumaneness of drive hunt dolphin killing. The U.S. government opposes drive hunt fisheries."

And according to a report by Whales.org, "The treatment of dolphins in [these] hunts sharply contradicts current animal welfare standards employed in most modern and technologically advanced societies. The systematic mistreatment of dolphins, allowed and sanctioned by a highly developed country such as Japan, is in striking contrast to the European Union, the United States, and even existing Japanese livestock legislation."

Photo: In Defense of Animals

Barn owls face armageddon

Mon, 27 Jan 2014 10:45:00 +0000

The ghostly sight of a barn owl flying silently and slowly at night is a rare thrill. There is a lane near my home where we often catch the almost white, slow and stately wing beats of a solitary barn owl in the car's headlights as we drive home. It is always a stirring sight.

Last week we saw one of these amazing creatures quartering a meadow in broad daylight. It was hunting low over the ground and took no notice when we stopped to admire its flying ability.

Owls do hunt both day and night, particularly in winter when food is scarce, so this daytime hunt may well have been a reflection of the fact that our native barn owls are having a hard time at the moment. The many winter floods have drowned huge numbers of mice and voles that make up such an important part of the barn owl's diet. Many birds failed to make up their breeding weight last spring and worse, some even starved to death. It seems that - with even greater floods this winter - their plight might be even worse.

Historically, the barn owl population declined significantly during the 20th century. This was mainly due to loss of habitat and lack of good nest sites, but also just as importantly by increased use of agricultural poisons like organo-chlorine pesticides such as DDT and by rat and mouse baits so popular in the 1950s and 1960s.

The trend did reverse as farmers took part in environmental schemes and provided rough grassland strips alongside fields as feeding areas. Nest box schemes are also providing nest sites where there are few suitable trees or old barns - and so the barn owl population started to grow again.

However, this winter has seen another crisis in barn owl numbers. Wildlife trusts and the RSPB have been counting owl numbers and the results have rung alarm bells.

The barn owl is a handsome bird. It grows to just over a foot (30-35cm) in height. It has buff or honey-coloured upper parts, flecked with grey and snow-white under parts, which make it easy to identify and gives it that ghostly appearance.

The bird has a distinctive white facial disc which is framed by a fine black heart-shaped border. Its vision and hearing are excellent enabling it to find prey in twilight and at night. Its feathers are especially soft and make no noise in flight - it is a silent hunter and can drop on prey undetected. Generally it feeds on small mammals - mostly short-tailed field voles and pygmy shrews, but also rats, wood mice, house mice, bank voles, and common shrews. It is these small animals' numbers that have been so adversely affected by this winter's flooding.

Last year after the floods came the snow. Similar weather is forecast this year. Snow allows the small mammals to hide from barn owls flying overhead so it seems likely that the owl population will suffer a real knock back again. When an owl does manage to catch its prey it swallows it whole and then a pellet of the indigestible material, mainly bones and fur, is regurgitated.

Naturalists break open the pellets to discover the exact diet of a specific barn owl by identifying the bones inside. This has helped establish the problems owls are having finding suitable prey.

The birds need to reach a good weight before they can mate and produce viable eggs. Barn owls lay between two and five, occasionally up to seven, eggs starting in late April to early May. The eggs are laid over several days, but as soon as the first egg is laid the female owl sits on the nest. She will sit for around 28 days and is fed by the male during all this period. Once hatched both parents feed the young birds. They are ready to leave the nest after about nine weeks.

The number of young birds that successfully fledge is dependent on the food supply. If there is a shortage of food the older, larger young will eat their smaller siblings. Survival of the fittest.

This article was reposted from Morning Star.

Photo: Wikipedia (CC)

W.Va. disaster culprit Freedom Industries declares bankruptcy

Wed, 22 Jan 2014 13:49:00 +0000

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - With $30 million in assets and about $3 million in liabilities, Freedom Industries followed a tried and true coal industry tactic of declaring bankruptcy and moving assets to a new company, rather than face responsibility for its crimes. Freedom Industries is the company responsible for poisoning the drinking water of up to 300,000 residents in nine counties surrounding Charleston, W.Va., from spillage of a stored chemical used in treating coal waste. The owner, Pennsylvania coal mining executive Cliff Forrest, just acquired the company in December 2013.

According to news sources, the chemical that leaked creates bubbles that attract fine coal particles. Coal mining companies can use this to skim off the particles and sell them as fuel. It is a composite chemical and, along with other mining related chemicals, was stored in containers last inspected by state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) officials in 1991. As Jon Stewart quipped on The Daily Show, "that was six Batmans ago!" Since then the company's permits under the previous owners have been renewed contingent on a requirement to "self-report" any violations or leaks. To evaluate if this is credible regulation, consider how many speeding violations you would "self-report" if there were no highway police.

It's been a pretty good business niche. Freedom Industries buys and stores chemicals manufactured by Eastman Chemical, an international $12 billion business, and Georgia Pacific Chemicals, a unit of the Koch brothers' Georgia Pacific, a global paper product giant. Freedom Industries then markets to some of the country's biggest coal producers.

Since the spill was discovered on Jan. 9, a total of 411 patients had been treated at 10 Charleston area hospitals for reported chemical exposure as of Jan. 18, according to Allison Adler, a spokeswoman for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR), and reported by Lori Kersey of the Charleston Gazette. Twenty patients had been admitted to four hospitals. The West Virginia Poison Center had received 2,302 calls about the chemical leak by the evening of Jan. 18. Of those, 1,862 were human-related, 98 were animal-related.

U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin said in a strongly worded statement Jan. 10:

"Yesterday's release of a potentially dangerous chemical into our water supply has put hundreds of thousands of West Virginians at risk, severely disrupted our region's economy, and upended people's daily lives ... Companies whose facilities could affect the public water supply should be on notice: if you break federal environmental laws, you will be prosecuted. Our drinking water is not something you can take chances with, and this mess can never be allowed to happen again."

In the wake of the calamitous spill, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin seems shaken and unsure of his ground. His State of the State speech, delivered just 12 hours before learning of the spill, declared, "We won't back down" in his, and the coal industry's, fight against the Obama administration's efforts to enforce the Clean Water Act, for which the West Virginia coal industry has been granted waivers and exceptions for years. Tomblin suggested that people going to hospitals were just "experiencing the flu," or had "not been washing their hands" - but with the poisoned water, where would they? Or, he suggested, they were simply "suffering from anxiety." Despite the massive impact on residents and businesses in the largest population center in the state, Tomblin thought it more important to issue a stronger warning against "overreaching regulation" than against unsafe practices by the coal industry.

Nonetheless a rising tide of distrust, and disgust, at the abysmal performance of state water protections, compelled the governor to propose new legislation "providing new tools" for the state DEP to regulate chemical storage facilities. However, Tomblin's proposal specifically excludes using any regulation to interfere with either coal, or shale gas (fracking), production. His bill calls for creation of special funds to pay for inspection, but no mechanisms to insure the fees are ever collected - a longstanding problem with the existing DEP. No fees, no real inspections. The secretary of the DEP, appointed by the governor, is given full authority to promulgate rules -- but in the past DEP rules have been heavily influenced by industry lobbyists. Lastly, the bill is narrowly focused on large storage tanks and "areas of concern" around public water intakes. It addresses no other threats from other industries to private and public water sources from which West Virginians get their drinking water. The fact that water from Elk River is being piped to communities over 60 miles away gives some evidence of the negative impact of mining and chemical operations on local groundwater resources in numerous counties.

Despite the harsh weather on the Eastern seaboard, Tuesday night found vigils in support of clean water across the state, and around the world, as far away as Bhopal, India, site of the world's worst industrial disaster in 1984, where over 2,200 people were killed by a toxic gas leak.

The West Virginia Rivers Coalition has proposed thorough reforms to legislators interested in changing the environmental conversation in West Virginia. Their top recommendations include:

* Elected officials, agency heads, and members of the Legislature should change their tone and expectations to hold the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection accountable for fully and consistently enforcing its permits and all environmental laws.

* The governor and Legislature should require that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection inspect all National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System-permitted sites, and should immediately inspect the most critical sites.

* The governor and Legislature should prohibit coverage under the general multi-sector industrial stormwater permit for facilities that are located in zones of critical concern, upstream from public water supply intakes.

* The governor and Legislature should require additional permit conditions for facilities such as the Freedom Industries site.

* The governor and Legislature should increase funding and staffing for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System and environmental enforcement programs."

The tide against the coal dictatorship in West Virginia is rising. As Bob Dylan sang, "You better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone, for the times they are a-changing." True enough!

Photo: Don't drink the water! Members of the West Virginia National Guard's Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High-Yield Explosive Enhanced Response Force Package draw water samples from across the Kanawha Valley on Jan. 14 to determine levels of contamination remaining in local water supply following the Jan. 9 chemical leak. (West Virginia National Guard Public Affairs)

W. Va. spill occurred after repeated lack of oversight

Tue, 14 Jan 2014 17:44:00 +0000

This month is a bitter anniversary for Charleston, W. Va.: Three years ago in January, experts with the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) urged the state to create a new program to prevent toxic chemical spills. They did so after an extensive investigation of an August 2008 explosion and fire at the Bayer CropScience plant, which left two workers dead. The board's proposal went nowhere. Fast forward to 2014: 7,500 gallons of a chemical "sudsing agent" used in coal processing have leaked into Charleston's water supply, sickening many and leaving 300,000 residents in nine counties across the state unable to drink or use their water. And still, oversight is sorely lacking.

The chemical, which was stored in a tank, overflowed the containment area around it, wending its way over land and through soil until it poisoned Elk River - the main drinking water source for the affected population. The tank is owned by Freedom Industries, which supplies products for the coal mining industry: the same industry that regularly engages in mountaintop removal and other practices that wreak environmental havoc.

According to experts, the real tragedy of it all is that it could have been avoided. The Kanawha-Charleston Health Department had also sought to develop an initiative to address the lack of scrutiny of chemical corporations in the state. But the state's Department of Health and Human Resources would not step in to provide the legal authority (or the funding) that Kanawha-Charleston needed to execute such a plan.

"We've had [the CSB's] recommendation on the books for several years now," said Health Department Director Dr. Rahul Gupta. "This [latest disaster] gives us another opportunity to look at what they recommended."

The recommendation to which he refers is the CSB's proposal for a new "Hazardous Chemical Release Prevention Program" - a core part of the agency's report on the 2008 Bayer plant explosion. This was dismissed by the state Department of Health and Human Resources, no doubt bowing to the coal industry's political sway. The CSB pressed the point again in 2011, to no avail. The program would require companies to draw up and submit comprehensive safety plans and be subject to regular government audits of those plans. The majority of the funding would likely come from fees paid by the chemical companies.

Industry groups such as the American Chemistry Council denounced the recommendation as something that would "create unnecessary redundancies" and impose "economic burdens" on industry and the West Virginia state government. Reading between the lines, one might glean that what they really mean is it would place the coal industry under tighter scrutiny, if only slightly. It would also require profiteering chemical corporations to open their wallets.

In truth, the need for an overhaul of how chemical companies handle and process their material seems desperately needed. The CSB perhaps said it best in their 169-page report on the Bayer explosion: "The Kanawha Valley has many facilities that handle large quantities of hazardous materials, some of which are acutely toxic. Furthermore, there are environmentally sensitive areas like the Kanawha River, which is an important transportation corridor. The local government should adopt regulations and implement a program that would improve emergency planning and accident prevention."

Photo: A series of tanks at Freedom Industries in Charleston, W.Va. The chemical leaked after breaching a containment area around one of them. AP

West Virginia chemical spill: a predictable water crisis

Mon, 13 Jan 2014 15:26:00 +0000

On January 9, I was one of 300,000 West Virginians who learned their water had been contaminated by a chemical leak two miles upstream from the state's largest drinking-water intake. Predictably, politicians and the public are clamoring for heads to roll-most notably those of managers at the Freedom Industries plant responsible for the leak.

Freedom Industries should be held accountable, but that won't fix the problem. That's because the Elk River spill wasn't an isolated accident. It was the inevitable consequence of weak regulatory enforcement over many years, made possible by our collective failure to uphold the values we profess.

We all say we value clean water, so why do we accept pollution as the status quo, as a byproduct of everyday life? In public opinion polls, Americans routinely and overwhelmingly say that it's the job of government to ensure clean water. And yet we continue to let elected officials off the hook when it comes to clean water laws.

In this light, the Elk River spill could be the future of many American cities. It's one in which systems failures cause local catastrophic events-leaving taxpayers to foot the bill to clean up after polluters.

Since the earliest days of the chemical industry, it has been a major part of West Virginia's economy. We live every day with the potential for toxic leaks into our waterways, knowing the consequences can be devastating. We shouldn't have to live this way.

Since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, industry has worked diligently to weaken the law's enforcement and oversight.

As the director of an organization that advocates for clean water, I regularly witness the audacious influence of industry as it cajoles lawmakers and regulators to lower production costs by lowering the bar on public health. I review the same data as the politicians do on the risks to public health posed by weakening clean-water standards. But when it comes to environmental stewardship, data and facts are no match for industry's sway over government.

And at times like these, I see the irony of politicians scapegoating a company whose pollution is enabled by government's failure to adequately regulate. We've allowed them to foster a culture of neglect instead of one of oversight and accountability.

The Mountain State enjoys an abundance of water, but year after year we have seen access to clean water diminish. Our water has paid the price for our legacy of mining, gas drilling, coal-burning power plants, and chemical production. We have seen the steady chipping away of our water quality standards to help reduce costs to big coal. We have seen the injustices of people's right to clean water usurped by industries. Indeed, there are parts of West Virginia that will never have access to clean water, where industrial pollution has caused irreparable harm to water supplies.

Read the rest of the article at West Virginia Gazette-Mail.

Angie Rosser is executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition in Charleston, W.Va., a statewide nonprofit organization focused on water quality issues. She lives on the Elk River upstream from the spill. In 2013, she was part of a successful effort to secure endangered species status for the Elk River Diamond Darter, a fish found only in the Elk River in West Virginia.

Photo: A volunteer from West Virginia Rivers Coalition tests water quality through a program that train volunteers to monitor coldwater streams in West Virginia and Virginia facing potential impacts from shale gas development (via West Virginia Rivers Coalition).

Amidst 40th anniversary, attacks on Endangered Species Act persist

Fri, 10 Jan 2014 16:01:00 +0000

December 28, 2013 marked the 40^th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act. It was signed into law as a way to better handle wildlife conservation, and in response to the near-extinction of bison and the total extinction of the passenger pigeon in the early 1900s.

As of late, the Act has encountered obstacles and outright attacks, and in an atmosphere where climate change and environmental havoc are growing problems, more and more animals have gone extinct in recent years.

But since 2001, the number of species listed has been truncated. Revisions to longstanding policies caused the Act to focus only on endangered animals' current locations, rather than their former ones. This meant that no further efforts would be made to restore those species to the habitats from which they were now missing; this could ultimately circumvent the efficacy of the Act, as endangered species will, after all, slowly disappear from more and more locations.

The most recent problem has been the delisting of species formerly under the Act's protection. The most significant of these is the gray wolf, which was delisted in 2011, despite the fact that the gray wolf population is at an all-time low. And in 2013, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to strip further federal protections from them, such as allowing them to be hunted in areas where they formerly enjoyed protection from such activity. Wolves can now be shot on sight in 80 percent of Wyoming, with the goal being to reduce their population to 100 there.

Experts have shown that this is wrong not only from a political, but also a scientific standpoint. Noah Greenwald, the Center of Biological Diversity's endangered species director, remarked, "Taking federal protection away from wolves will bring about senseless slaughter. It flies in the face of all the best research that's been done in recent years. Just in the short time we've allowed wolves to return and reclaim their ecological role, they've quickly demonstrated that they're an irreplaceable keystone species."

As the efficiency of the Endangered Species Act is gradually reduced, the dangers that have always plagued species (climate change, human interference, environmental destruction) are suddenly made that much more dire. Here are five important species that were officially declared extinct within the past several years:

5. Northern Darwin's Frog

This species of frog, which lived only in Chile, is now considered extinct. The last living specimen was seen in 1980. It is no coincidence that rapid deforestation occurs in Chile.

4. Formosan Clouded Leopard

This feral cat, native to Taiwan, has been deemed extinct after not being seen for over 30 years, and after the failure of a recent 13-year effort to document one. Their obliteration is owed to the human-caused decimation of their habitat and the killing of them for their fur.

3. Eskimo Curlew

These birds were once highly populous in the tundras of Canada and Alaska, but they haven't been seen since 1963. The last photograph taken of one occurred one year prior. Their extinction was caused by overhunting and, indeed, the last known specimen was killed by a hunter.

2. Pinta Island Tortoise

Perhaps some of the most amazing examples of their kind were this species of tortoise. Native to the island from which its namesake is derived, this species had long been thought of as the exemplar for the need for better conservation efforts. For the last forty years, it was represented by the last of its kind, a single tortoise named Lonesome George, who was long considered the rarest animal in the world. Unfortunately, he died in 2012 from old age (he was over 100 years old). Again, this extinction was due to overhunting.

1. Western Black Rhino

Finally, the most devastating extinction has been that of the Western Black Rhino, which owes its demise solely to unchecked profit-driven poaching. This is more devastating when one considers the fact that there were 2,300 of them in 2001. But it was viciously hunted for its horn, which some in China and Vietnam falsely believe holds medicinal properties. In 2011, it was confirmed that that number had been reduced to zero, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature formally declared the species extinct. Other branches of the black rhino species still remain, but are also in grave danger. Consider that there are only 2,900 rhinos (of any species) remaining worldwide. Poaching, on the other hand, continues to run rampant, especially in South Africa.

In light of these harsh facts, the importance of the Endangered Species Act - and the further federal protections it inspires - is paramount.

Rachel Santymire, director of the Davee Center for Epidemiology and Endocrinology at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, said she sees the positive impact of the Endangered Species Act ever day she goes to work. "It's one of the best things we've done for our environment," she said. "We have to preserve the habitat to save the species."

She currently works with black-footed ferrets - highly endangered animals in North America. Only 400 remain in the wild, and she is certain that would not be the case if not for the Endangered Species Act. "The black-footed ferret is the flagship species for the Endangered Species Act. We've produced over 8,000 of them [in captivity]. This is a species that serves as a shining example of how successful the Endangered Species Act can be."

Photo: Lonesome George, the last of his species, was over 100 years old when he died in 2012. Wikipedia/Flickr (CC)

Cold? Really, it’s warmer than ever

Wed, 08 Jan 2014 11:04:00 +0000

Believe it or not, winters have been warming rapidly in the majority of the continental 48 states since 1970. And, take note Chicago and other Midwest readers: The coldest states are warming the fastest. So says a 2013 report by Climate Central.

In fact, says science writer Andrew Zimmerman, if the climate had not warmed so much during the past few decades, it's possible that the current freezer-like weather would be even colder in those areas. Yikes!

Meanwhile, there have been above-average temperatures across parts of the Arctic, Scandinavia, Europe and Asia this past week, Zimmerman reports. Last month, the northern Alaska coastline, above the Arctic Circle, had the warmest temperatures on record in at least 70 years. It's part of an overall trend of warming in the Arctic area.

But yes, brrrrr, every state in the continental U.S. has had sub-freezing temperatures this week. It's attributed to the behavior of the "polar vortex." The polar vortex (also known as a polar cyclone) is a large swirl of very cold air that sits over the polar regions year round. It intensifies in the winter and weakens in the summer. The jet stream from the Arctic polar vortex sometimes brings extremely cold weather southward into Europe, Asia and the U.S.

According AccuWeather.com, cold outbreaks like the one this week occur "on average once every 10 years. The last far-reaching, bitterly cold blasts occurred in the mid-1990s, during February of 1996 and January of 1994." AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson said, "We were overdue for a large Arctic outbreak of this intensity."

This time the polar vortex has spread unusually far south into the U.S., giving us the record frigid conditions we've been experiencing.

Is global climate change a factor in this unusual intrusion of the polar vortex? Some scientists say yes; others say the jury is still out. Scientific studies have tied abnormally cold temperatures in the U.S. and Europe to warmer than usual conditions in the Arctic - they dub this the "Warm Arctic/Cold Continents Pattern." This could be driven by the loss of polar sea ice which has been documented over the past few decades. That in turn is spurred by human-caused global warming. Research is ongoing.

"The research linking climate change impacts in the Arctic to more extreme jet stream patterns is still very new, and we need several more years of data and additional research before we can be confident that this is occurring," writes Weather Underground scientist Jeff Masters. "But if the new research is correct, the crazy winter weather we've been seeing since 2009 may be the new normal in a world with rapid warming occurring in the Arctic."

But one thing is sure, scientist agree: cold weather does not contradict the well-established fact that the Earth has been warming overall due to human activity, in particular the massive use of oil, coal and other fossil fuels. The consequences of this, scientists say, include more extreme weather of all kinds.

For a break from the cold, you might want to consider a trip Down Under. Australia has experienced record-breaking scorching hot weather this past year. It's been so hot that mapmakers have had to add a new color to temperature maps to signify the blistering heat there. Australia's winter, which is during our summer months, was "only" the third hottest on record. But its spring temperatures, starting in September, were the hottest ever. January 2014 is starting off with similar heat extremes. Walgett, in New South Wales, recorded 120 degrees Fahrenheit, the second hottest temperature ever measured in the state.

One of the reasons for Australia's record heat in 2013 was very high ocean surface temperatures, the third warmest on record according to preliminary data.

If you are not up for a trip to Australia, not to worry. The record cold in the U.S. will be ending this week, weather forecasters say. Temperatures are predicted to be up to 50 in places like New York and St. Louis.

Photo: A Chicago street scene this week. John Bachtell/PW

Declare yourself #IdleNoMore

Tue, 07 Jan 2014 14:05:00 +0000

Just over a year ago, four women from Saskatchewan, Canada, began a global movement with a single hashtag on Twitter: #IdleNoMore. It has grown to become more than a slogan for a movement on environmental and Indigenous rights. Idle No More is now what some Indigenous people have called an awakening of our people.

On Oct. 30, 2012, Jessica Gordon, one of the four women, sent out the first tweet with the #IdleNoMore hashtag. It promoted a series of teach-ins to discuss Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Bill C-45 which made changes to the Indian Act and the Navigable Water Act that infringed on Indigenous land and water rights.

A month later, Gordon along with Nina Wilson, Sylvia McAdams and Sheelah McLean were holding #IdleNoMore teach-ins all over Canada. These teach-ins moved people to organize the first #IdleNoMore National Day of Action on Dec. 10, 2012. This day was chosen because it is also Amnesty International's Human Rights Day. Thousands of people came out all over Canada in support of the movement. At this time Indigenous leadership across Canada requested a meeting with Prime Minister Harper to discuss Bill C-45 and its impact on First Nations people. Harper denied the meeting. On Dec. 11, Chief Theresa Spence of the Attawapiskat First Nation began a hunger strike that would last 30 days. This hunger strike put fuel on the #IdleNoMore spark and turned it into a fire.

On Dec. 18, 2012, the first Round Dance flash mob invaded Edmonton Mall, stopping the holiday shopping, and focusing attention on the #IdleNoMore movement. By Christmas 2012 hundreds of these #IdleNoMore round dances were being held all over Canada and the United States. The Round Dance Revolution became a powerful tool against our oppressors. Our drums and our voices brought new power to the Indigenous movement of a kind that has never been seen in our communities. By January 2013, a movement that began with a simple hashtag in a tweet went global. On Jan. 11, 2013, the #IdleNoMore Global Day of Action took place in over 300 locations around the world, in a massive act of solidarity against the Harper regime.

A year later the #IdleNoMore hashtag is still going strong. On Dec 21, 2013, a group of Indigenous warriors and supporters held a round dance flash mob in Winnipeg, Manitoba, at the Polo Park Center Court, once again interrupting holiday shoppers and bringing focus to important issues. This movement has grown to include the tar sands and pipeline blockades that stretch across Canada and parts of the U.S. It has spurred a re-emergence of cultural education within our communities with language camps and youth empowerment workshops. Indigenous resistance is on the rise and our people and the people of the world are taking notice. For some Indigenous people this movement has given them for the first time in their lives a sense of pride in their indigenousness.

It's time the people of the world take hold of that pride and power, adopt the #IdleNoMore tag, and change the world! To plug into the #IdleNoMore Movement, find it here: http://www.idlenomore.ca/ or here: https://twitter.com/IdleNoMoreNews, or here: https://www.facebook.com/IdleNoMoreCommunity, or at this one too! http://idlenomore.tumblr.com/ . Make 2014 the year when you are Idle No More!

Photo: Idle No More Facebook page

North Dakota oil train explosion is another harsh lesson

Fri, 03 Jan 2014 16:48:00 +0000

In what was a devastating end to 2013, on Dec. 30, just a mile outside Casselton, N.D., a train carrying oil collided with another train, producing a series of explosions that left 10 cars ablaze. The disaster sent fireballs hurtling into the sky, black smoke that could be seen for 15 miles, and prompted the evacuation of nearby residents. Those evacuees have since been cleared to re-enter their homes, but the aftermath of the event has rung in the new year with a harsh lesson about the consequences of oil transportation.

North Dakota is home to a massive oil boom, and it is therefore that much more sobering that such havoc occurred there, of all places. Simultaneously, there has been an uptick in oil shipment via rail, which has been touted by corporations as a "safer alternative." Their stance on this matter has, absurdly enough, remained the same even after the recent string of train derailments and explosions throughout North America, including in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantec, and in the Alberta town of Gainford. Meanwhile, pipelines are, of course, no safer, as the bursting of a Koch Brothers-owned pipeline in Texas proved in November.

It is also troubling to know that in Canada, where much rail-bound oil goes, the agency responsible for safeguarding train transport is operating with a reduced budget. During 2013, the country's transportation regulator, Transport Canada, had its funding cut by almost 30 percent, down to $1.5 billion.

According to officials, in the case of the explosion near Casselton, that town's residents apparently dodged a much worse disaster. "We could have had this go in so many different ways," said Sheriff Paul Laney of Cass County, which includes Casselton. "If that thing happened a half mile into town, we'd be having a very, very different discussion here today." That doesn't leave much to the imagination; one could simply look to the Lac-Megantec disaster, which left 47 dead, to see what the horrific alternative could have been.

Grist writer John Upton, meanwhile, noted that people ought to reject comparisons between train and pipeline oil delivery, noting that the fossil fuel is innately dangerous, no matter how it is transported. "The comparison obfuscates an obvious reality," he said, which is that "the oil can't be moved safely at all. After a string of pipeline and rail accidents in recent years, it's clear that letting the energy industry move incendiary bulk fluids around the continent is like tossing a book of matches into the crib to keep little Johnny happy while his folks stare at the television. And that's without even considering the climate impacts of the fossil fuel-mining binge."

As for the cause of the crash near Casselton, it is still being investigated. Though the oil train was equipped with a black box and forward-facing video cameras, officials with the National Transportation Safety Board are not so sure those will be in good enough condition to analyze.

Wayde Schafer, a spokesman for the Sierra Club, had previously predicted more of these disasters would occur as corporate support for oil-by-train transporation increased. "As if we needed another wake-up call after Quebec," he said, "here's another wake-up call."

Photo: A fireball goes up at the site of the oil train crash near Casselton, N.D. Bruce Crummy/AP

Worse than we thought: Climate uncertainties turning into harsh facts

Thu, 02 Jan 2014 14:49:00 +0000

Beware uncertainty! It can cut both ways - something the climate change deniers want us to ignore at our peril.

The well-funded deniers have taken advantage of the great amounts of uncertainty about climate science, climate change, and the interlocking web of life that is nature, the nature on which humanity depends for its existence.

And they have been correct that there has been and continues to be much uncertainty. Climate models and projections are guesstimates, not absolute proof. The world's climate system is complex and interacts in sometimes unexpected ways.

But the climate change deniers imply, or state outright, that all this uncertainty means that things might not be so bad. They want people to conclude that there is nothing but upside to it.

The problem is that uncertainty can work the other way too. It can mean that things are much worse than we thought - and we already thought they were pretty bad.

For example, one of the uncertainties about climate change has been about exactly how the systems of cloud formation affect climate. Do clouds reflect, deflect, or absorb the sun's rays? To what degree? Does cloud cover make climate change better or worse? We haven't known.

But a new study, published in Nature, a scientific establishment journal of record, peer reviewed and fact-checked, shows that as the climate changes and warms significantly, cloud formation changes as well, and a warming climate will decrease our cloud cover. As a result there will be fewer lower-level clouds to ameliorate the earth's warming.

What this means is that the predictions up til now, based on calculations that did not include any cloud-related factors, have underestimated how much the climate will heat up by the end of the century.

As we learn more, some of the uncertainty disappears. It is replaced by a certainty that if we don't act soon and in radical fashion to address the causes of climate change, we will sweep past the conservative estimates of 2 degrees Celsius of climate change. That figure might (there's that uncertainty again) keep climate change from affecting humanity and natural systems in catastrophic ways. But the new calculations, taking into account the new certainties about clouds, project an increase of 4 degrees Celsius (about 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100, double the already-dire predictions of mainstream climate scientists.

As other studies have suggested, the most drastic impacts of climate change will likely come from those effects we don't fully understand yet.

Realistic optimism needs to be based on facts, on reality, on demonstrated understanding of how the world works. The laws of physics can't be repealed or annulled by legislative action. And the uncertainty about how bad climate change is going to get can mean it will get a lot worse a lot sooner than even the most dire projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Nobel Prize-winning United Nations body of scientists charged with evaluating the latest in climate science.

All these predictions can be depressing. But the hopeful signs come from the growing movements around the world for curbing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing the many related environmental problems we face. The divestment movement, the anti-fracking movement, the many cities and states as well as countries that are taking real action, the positive steps from the Obama administration such as regulating existing and future coal-powered plants and increasing auto standards, all will help, even though they are not yet anywhere near enough to address the enormity of the problems. What is needed is a massive worldwide movement, inclusive of many organizations, many strategies, and many fronts.

Photo: Flickr (CC)