Can Conserving Water Slow Global Warming

California is a global leader in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.  The state is now studying the impact of reductions in the use of water in reducingthe load on the state’s power grid.

When most of us think of slowing global warming, we think of reducing car exhaust and power plant emissions – limiting activities that involve combusting fossil fuels. But we rarely draw the connection between the production of energy and another important resource: water.

Yet in California, 20% of the state’s electricity and 30% of the natural gas that isn’t used by power plants goes to the water system – from pumping it for delivery to disposing of wastewater. Could saving water play a significant role in addressing climate change? And, if so, could we achieve these savings without incurring significant costs?

Our analysis showed that the quantity of electricity saved statewide through reducing urban water use by 25% in 2015 was roughly equivalent to all of the electricity saved by all of the energy efficiency programs from the state’s four major investor-owned energy utilities in 2015. The conclusion: energy savings from water conservation are significant.

Book Report - Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction

Mary Ellen Hannibal’s book is a testimonial to the power of individuals to help expand our knowledge of the natural world.   A notebook and an accurate weather report can turn into a 45-year study in how plants adapt to global warming, and that can help determine ways to help hummingbirds survive.  Figuring out how lilac trees know when to bud in spring and how that decision is made, might help forests survive.  It’s the little things that add up and individuals can make huge contributions.  Buy the book.

Science is built from observations, and for a subject as vast as global climate, there is no way for any one researcher — or team — to gather all the information alone. More and more, researchers are inviting all of us, as citizen scientists, to help collect the data that will truly save the world.

“I want to know what the lilacs know!” Toby Ault, a Cornell University climatologist told me. Lilac trees have been around for a very long time. One hundred and twenty thousand years ago, they persisted through a major shift in the climate spectrum.

Another scientist making important contributions in the field is David Inouye…  For more than 45 summers Inouye has conducted a field study in flowering phenology at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) in Crested Butte, Colorado. Although initially focused on bumblebees and hummingbirds, Inouye soon got interested “in the resources,” or the flowers on which the insects and birds depend. When his study began, Inouye had no idea that with time his work would become among the most important in documenting long term ecological change due to shifting weather patterns.

Lobsters Moving On

New England’s commercial fisheries are dealing with the results of climate change as the warming North Atlantic results in the migration of fish and lobsters from the encroaching warmer waters.  Cod fishermen in Maine are feeling the impact of global warming.

One of America’s oldest commercial industries, fishing along the coast of the Northeast still employs hundreds. But every month, those numbers fall. After centuries of overfishing, pollution, foreign competition and increasing government regulation, the latest challenge is the one that’s doing them in: climate change.

Though no waters are immune to the ravages of climate change, the Gulf of Maine, a dent in the coastline from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, best illustrates the problem. The gulf, where fishermen have for centuries sought lobster, cod and other species that thrived in its cold waters, is now warming faster than 99 percent of the world’s oceans, scientists have said.

As cod move north depriving commercial fisheries of their most lucrative catch, lobsters are moving north from the warming waters south of Cape Cod.

Lobster catches in Maine are booming as the species creeps north, but as the warming continues, that’s a good thing that’s bound to end. A federal report from 2009 said that half of 36 fish stocks studied in the northwest Atlantic Ocean have been shifting north over the past 40 years, and that the trend is likely to continue.

However, as the ocean continues to warm, soon the lobster will move further north or that fishery will collapse completely as rising temperatures and predation by fish species following the warmer waters such as black sea bass decimate the population.

The number of adult lobsters in New England south of Cape Cod slid to about 10 million in 2013, according to a report issued last year by an interstate regulatory board. It was about 50 million in the late 1990s. The lobster catch in the region sank to about 3.3 million pounds in 2013, from a peak of about 22 million in 1997.

Unfortunately for the communities that for generations have been sustained by this industry there are no simple solutions.  Regulations and species protection also play a role in reducing the available catch.  But, often those are remedies put in place to help off-set the damage being done as warmer water results in the movement of game species and decreases in their populations.  

More Exxon Double-Dealing

With a decades long head start in awareness of the reality of global warming and climate change Exxon has done little to protect some of its facilities and the communities they reside in from the impact.  While it insures its oil rigs are protected, it leaves the communities around its MysticRiver terminal unprotected.

“This is a stunning example of how ExxonMobil’s climate deceit hits home, where their repeated sworn, but false, statements to regulators that this facility was prepared for climate conditions put the surrounding communities that have hosted the facility for years in danger,” Brad Campbell, president of the Conservation Law Foundation, told ThinkProgress.

According to investigative reports published last year by both InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times, ExxonMobil’s internal scientists knew about the role of fossil fuels in driving global warming as early as 1977, and yet publicly continued to fuel doubt about climate science.

Exxon also built oil rigs in the North Sea to withstand projected climate impacts like sea level rise and rising temperatures.

Yet the company failed to make the same structural improvements to its terminal in Massachusetts, the lawsuit claims, leaving surrounding communities at risk of toxic pollution during severe storm events or floods. According to the complaint, the Everett Terminal is especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change predicted to hit New England in the coming years: sea level rise, increased precipitation, increased magnitude and frequency of storm events, and increased magnitude and frequency of storm surges.

DAILY QUICK READ - SEPTEMBER 8, 2016

Let’s start a new day with this.  Yosemite’s Half Dome at sunrise.  A Mark Lilly photograph.

Good News

Humpbacks are moving off the endangered species list.  But, even good news is fraught with peril.  Even recovering species hover so close to the brink that we need constant attention and effort to prevent falling back.

And now, efforts to protect humpbacks from their most fearsome predator—human beings—are having an impact. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced that most populations of humpback whales, which had been on the brink of extinction, are being removed from the endangered species list.

The announcement, described by NOAA as a “true ecological success story,” comes after 40 years of federal protection that have allowed the whales’ numbers to rebound.

Still, four of the 14 distinct population segments remain on the endangered list, and one—the Mexican whales that feed along the California coast in the fall and summer—is still designated as threatened.

More Good News

Evidence of what we can do if we prioritize and put the effort into making a difference.  Pandas are making a comeback.  Amazing what can be done if we protect their habitat and food supply.

The bears, China's national icon, were once widespread throughout southern and eastern China but, due to expanding human populations and development, are now limited to areas that still contain bamboo forests.

The success is due to Chinese efforts to recreate and repopulate bamboo forests.

Bamboo makes up some 99% of their diet, without which they are likely to starve.

Pandas must eat 12kg (26 lbs) to 38kg worth of bamboo each day to maintain their energy needs.

There are now an estimated total of 2,060 pandas, of which 1,864 are adults - a number which has seen their status changed from "endangered" to "vulnerable", on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List.

"It's all about restoring the habitats," Craig Hilton-Taylor, Head of the IUCN Red List, told the BBC.

"Just by restoring the panda's habitat, that's given them back their space and made food available to them."

A loss of habitats was what caused the number of pandas to drop to just over 1,200 in the 1980s, according to Mr Hilton-Taylor.

"You need to get the bamboo back and slowly the numbers will start to creep back," he said.

Is It All for Nothing?

The oceans are all that stands between being a blue green living planet and a burnt out cinder.  Once we lose the ocean’s ability to mitigate global warming extinction events will be daily occurrences.

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which is currently hosting the World Conservation Congress in Hawaii, has recently released a report detailing the state of the ocean in response to climate change, and it’s not good.

The ocean has played a disproportionate role in mitigating the effects of human caused climate change, but increasingly extreme storms, bleaching coral, and massive fish die-offs are indications that the oceans can't take much more.

"We all know the oceans sustain this planet, yet we are making the oceans sick," Inger Andersen, IUCN’s director general, said at the World Conservation Congress. "Without this oceanic buffer, global temperature rises would have gone much, much speedier."

Pot Used to be for Tree Hugging Hippies

Now it’s just a business.  And, one that is destroying old growth redwood forests.

We shadow the Eel River, swollen from El Niño rains, as it meanders past the county's last sawmill and then head into SoHum, as locals call southern Humboldt. Flying toward the Pacific Ocean, we pass over redwood-covered hills pockmarked by dozens of clearings hacked from the forest. This land is zoned for timber production, but loggers didn't cut down those trees. In just about every clearing, long white cylinder-shaped structures appear, resembling, some say, rolling papers. It's an apt observation. The buildings are greenhouses and inside, marijuana plants are grown for Humboldt County's multibillion-dollar cannabis industry.

Growers have fragmented forests by cutting trees to build greenhouses and roads on steep hillsides, choking creeks home to endangered salmon with sediment, fertilizers and pesticides and sucking streams dry during a record drought to irrigate marijuana crops. Once-still forests echo with the racket of hundreds of diesel generators. Rat poison and other toxic chemicals used by some growers to protect their plants are killing rare wildlife like the Pacific fisher.

DAILY QUICK READ - AUGUST 31, 2016

The Age of Humans Begins

If we continue our current habits, this will be a very short epoch.  Look at the list of human accomplishment below. 

The Anthropocene Epoch has begun, according to a group of experts assembled at the International Geological Congress in Cape Town, South Africa this week.

After seven years of deliberation, members of an international working group voted unanimously on Monday to acknowledge that the Anthropocene—a geologic time interval so-dubbed by chemists Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer in 2000—is real.

The epoch is thought to have begun in the 1950s, when human activity, namely rapid industrialization and nuclear activity, set global systems on a different trajectory. And there's evidence in the geographic record. Indeed, scientists say that nuclear bomb testing, industrial agriculture, human-caused global warming and the proliferation of plastic across the globe have so profoundly altered the planet that it is time to declare the 11,700-year Holocene over.

• ·        Pushed extinction rates of animals and plants far above the long-term average. The Earth is now on course to see 75 percent of species become extinct in the next few centuries if current trends continue.
• ·        Increased levels of climate-warming CO2 in the atmosphere at the fastest rate for 66m years, with fossil-fuel burning pushing levels from 280 parts per million before the industrial revolution to 400ppm and rising today.
• ·        Put so much plastic in our waterways and oceans that microplastic particles are now virtually ubiquitous and plastics will likely leave identifiable fossil records for future generations to discover.
• ·        Doubled the nitrogen and phosphorous in our soils in the past century with our fertilizer use. This is likely to be the largest impact on the nitrogen cycle in 2.5bn years.
• ·        Left a permanent layer of airborne particulates in sediment and glacial ice such as black carbon from fossil fuel burning.

More Evidence of the Anthropocene

The conspiracy of virtually every government agency, academic institution and anyone with any common sense apparently believes that human activity may be the cause of global warming.  Bunch of fools – the carbon energy industry has the proof – global warming is a hoax. 

The planet is warming at a pace not experienced within the past 1,000 years, at least, making it “very unlikely” that the world will stay within a crucial temperature limit agreed by nations just last year, according to Nasa’s top climate scientist.

This year has already seen scorching heat around the world, with the average global temperature peaking at 1.38C above levels experienced in the 19th century, perilously close to the 1.5C limit agreed in the landmark Paris climate accord. July was the warmest month since modern record keeping began in 1880, with each month since October 2015 setting a new high mark for heat.

But Nasa said that records of temperature that go back far further, taken via analysis of ice cores and sediments, suggest that the warming of recent decades is out of step with any period over the past millennium.

The increasing pace of warming means that the world will heat up at a rate “at least” 20 times faster than the historical average over the coming 100 years, according to Nasa. The comparison of recent temperatures to the paleoclimate isn’t exact, as it matches modern record-keeping to proxies taken from ancient layers of glacier ice, ocean sediments and rock.

Habitat Loss

The Tricolored Blackbird is heading toward the brink and we of the West Coast could actually do something to save this incredible social species.  Will we?

The Tricolored Blackbird breeds in groups of thousands, forming the largest colonies of any species in North America. Like the Passenger Pigeon, the bird's colonial nature makes it particularly vulnerable to rapid population declines: Tricolored Blackbird populations have plummeted by roughly 66 percent over the past six years due to habitat loss. An estimated 140,000 birds remain; all are in California.

American Bird Conservancy's Western Program, formed in 2015, is on a mission to save the Tricolored Blackbird from extinction. Working with researchers, ranchers, dairymen, state public officials, and several NGOs, ABC aims to identify and conserve key remaining habitat for the species.

Now May Be A Good Time - For A Pep Talk

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DAILY QUICK READ - AUGUST 17, 2016

Nutrients– I’m OK With That

But, fish pee as a key component in reef health.  I’ll let the research lead where it does.  Still, fish pee…

Recent studies suggest that coral reefs, however, are just as dependent on these fish for key nutrients that help coral grow. When fish urinate, they release phosphorus into the water. This phosphorus, along with nitrogen excreted as ammonium through the gills of fish, is crucial to the survival and growth of coral reefs.

A new study appearing Aug. 16 in Nature Communications takes this a step further, finding that in coral reefs where fishing occurs, nearly half of these key nutrients are absent from the ecosystem.

The main reason? Fewer large-bodied and predator fish to pee nutrients into the water, the study found.

“Part of the reason coral reefs work is because animals play a big role in moving nutrients around,” said lead author Jacob Allgeier, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.

Why Is This Still A Discussion?

Neonicotinoids are a major factor in bee colony extinction.   It seems like a good idea to do something about it.

New research has provided some of the strongest evidence yet that pesticides can do serious, long-term damage to bee populations. And the findings may help fuel the ongoing debate about whether certain insecticides should be permitted for agricultural use at all.

The new study, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, examines the question of whether the use of a common (and highly controversial) class of pesticides called neonicotinoids can be linked to wild bee declines in England. The results suggest that this could be the case.

Endangered Species Protection – Or Lack of Same

Any suspicion that Republican budget cuts and foot dragging impact the ability of the government to evaluation and implement provisions of the Endangered Species Act?

Endangered species are waiting in long lines for the federal government to make a decision.

That’s the conclusion of a study in the journal Biological Conservation on wait times for listing a species under the Endangered Species Act.

Emily Puckett is the lead author of the study. She’s a postdoctoral associate with Fordham University. She analyzed what happened with 1,338 species since 1974. She says according to the law, it’s supposed to take about two years to get through the process.

“The median time that they’re waiting is 12.1 years and not that two years. Some species are being listed very quickly, but other species have essentially waited the entire length of the ESA, up to 38 years before they’re ever listed," she says.

Puckett says reptiles, fish, and mammals had much shorter wait times than invertebrates and plants. She says one reason might be that many people have an easier time feeling affection for, say, an eagle, than a snail.

Saving Wildlife In Africa

Thoughtful discussion that questions the philosophy of making wildlife a state owned entity has opposed to a resource to local communities.  Also, touches on the question of conservation colonialism.

Cottar views bad policy as inherently damaging for wildlife as “African governments continue to impose inherited variations of colonial-era game laws, which make wildlife a state-owned asset.” He also observes that Kenya, “under pressure from animal rights-oriented NGOs, has chosen to use this state monopoly of wildlife to impose complete bans and moratoriums on all commoditization or consumptive use of wildlife, applying the theory that the more ‘devalued’ the wildlife, the less incentive local people have to kill it.”

 In other words, if Kenya’s natural resources are unavailable to landowners, they will simply let it be, an idea that organizations like the International Union for Conservation of Nature view as both illogical and impractical.

 Kenya’s policies are especially damaging since the presence of wildlife causes losses of up to 48 percent of productivity revenues from agriculture and domestic livestock, mostly due to predation, crop damage, disease transfer, and infrastructure damage (Norton-Griffiths 2007). Should an old, deposed lion, for example, repeatedly prey on a Maasai pastoralist’s cattle, the pastoralist is not legally allowed to take any action in defense of his livelihood that would result in the death of the big cat.

 Though this law looks good on paper for the offending lion, what usually follows is a much worse fate than if that lion was permitted to be dealt with legally. More often than not, that same herdsman will simply poison an entire pride illegally instead.

Is California Burning?

Global warming might have something to do with decades of low precipitation in the Western US.  Oh, and the five year drought in California.  And, let’s now forget the potential for a megadrought if we don’t reduce carbon emissions.

Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency in the fast-moving Blue Cut Fire that has exploded to 15,000 acres and forced more than 82,000 people out of their homes since it broke out Tuesday morning in the Cajon Pass, officials said.

"There is imminent threat to public safety, rail traffic and structures in the Cajon Pass, Lytle Creek, Wrightwood and surrounding areas," according to the Inciweb page.

An estimated 34,500 homes and 82,640 people have been affected by the evacuation warnings.

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s officials were asking residents to heed evacuation orders for their safety.

About 700 fire personnel from the county fire department, CalFire and the San Bernardino National Forest are on scene. Water and fire retardant drops are being made over the fire.

Six San Bernardino County firefighters were entrapped by flames while battling the fire and two of them suffered minor injuries.

An unknown number of structures have been damaged and destroyed.

DAILY QUICK READ - AUGUST 4, 2016

It’s A Dog’s Life

So besides being a conservation paradise with miles of perfect beaches, rain forest and pura vida; Costa Rica apparently is a haven for stray dogs.

Imagine a place where the sun shines year-round, the average annual temperature is 73°, and more than 900 dogs with breed names like “Chubby-Tailed German Dobernauzer” and “Fire-Tailed Border Cocker” roam free across the lush landscape.

Sound like Heaven? Well believe it or not, it exists right here on earth! Territorio de Zaguates, or “Land of the Strays” is a privately funded, volunteer-run organization in Costa Rica.

Global Warming – A Hoax

The U.S. Senate has 100 members.  It is one of the world’s oldest and most respected examples of democracy and representative government.  Ron Johnson is a United States Senator – and apparently a complete idiot.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) compared those mounting the efforts to address climate change to Joseph Stalin and Hugo Chavez, while claiming that it has been "proven scientifically" that the climate is not in fact warming. He suggested in a radio appearance that progressives' concern about climate change was driven by their desire for government control of Americans lives.

To expand the senator’s point, if only there was some scientific evidence the earth is getting warmer.  Some sort of comprehensive, rigorously researched and peer reviewed evidence.   Oh wait….

Last year was unequivocally the warmest year on record for Earth. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Tuesday released a 300-page report documenting the historic warmth as well as scores of other aspects of 2015’s climate.

The hefty report, State of the Climate in 2015, was produced by more than 450 scientists from 62 countries around the world — more than any previous edition.

Every single direct indicator of temperature described in the report leaves no doubt that 2015’s global surface temperature towered over any year preceding it. Numerous other climate indicators related to temperature exhibited characteristics consistent with such historic warmth.

Little Things You Can Do

The African Wildlife Foundation offers some suggestions for painless support of wildlife conservation activities in Africa.  Gaming apps, clothing suppliers and shopping options that donate a percentage to the foundation.

There’s something for everyone. Whether you want to shop online, get lost in a mythical world while helping solve real-world problems, or wear tees that show off your love of elephants, you can do it all while supporting wildlife. We here at AWF are so appreciative of any kind of support from fellow wildlife enthusiasts!

DAILY QUICK READ - JULY 20, 2016

Speed Freaks – Hummingbirds

At 60 miles per hour, how do hummingbirds navigate through tight spaces with seeming ease?  Despite their obvious skills, ten percent of these incredible bird species are endangered.

Hummingbirds dart around in colorful blurs, twisting and turning their flight and stopping on a dime, all at top speeds. Anna's hummingbird, native to the West Coast of North America, can even clock in at speeds of over 60 miles an hour.

The tiny birds actually use sophisticated visual clues to determine just how far away objects are, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But the hummingbirds didn't use the cues researchers expected.

Here's how it likely works when a hummingbird flies along in a wild environment: A tree just a foot away would expand more quickly in the bird's field of vision than one 15 feet away. So the birds seem to notice how different objects expand in their field of vision to determine which course corrections to make to avoid collisions.

"When objects grow in size, it can indicate how much time there is until they collide even without knowing the actual size of the object," Dr. Dakin said in a press release. "Perhaps this strategy allows birds to more precisely avoid collisions over the very wide range of flight speeds they use."

People Are Stupid - Mountain Goat Dies

Really!  Is it possible that people can be so clueless?  Even in Alaska - epicenter of American cluelessness (see Palin, Sarah)

A mountain goat in Alaska jumped into the ocean to get away from crowds snapping its picture, and the animal drowned when it couldn’t get back to land because of the crush of people on shore, troopers said.

Alaska state troopers said it was imperative to give animals adequate space. That didn’t happen on Saturday in downtown Seward, and troopers said in an online post that it “resulted in a wild animal dying for no cause”.

Stuff Still Happening

Just because a major American political party refuses to believe in climate change doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.  Each month in 2016 is the warmest recorded since formal record keeping began in 1880.

Global temperatures have been rising and sea ice has been melting at unprecedented rates since the start of 2016.

Scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York said that each month in the first half of this year set a record as the warmest month globally since temperature records began in 1880. The analysis is based on ground-based observations and satellite data for global surface temperatures and Arctic sea ice extent. The period of January-June 2016 saw average temperatures 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit) higher compared to the late 19th century.

And as temperatures continue to warm, global sea ice continues to melt. Five of the first six months in 2016 showed the smallest sea ice extent -- the area of the sea covered with ice -- since satellite tracking began in 1979. March was the only exception, recording the second smallest extent for that month.

Wolf Pack in Ontario

Wolves are under such incredible pressure in the wild.  Places like Haliburton are critical to keeping the species viable.

A wolf pack lives in a large forested enclosure near Haliburton, Ontario, where visitors can watch from the observatory and learn lots about these magnificent and reclusive animals.

If you drive three hours north of Toronto, then veer a bit to the east, you’ll come to the Haliburton Forest & Wild Life Reserve. This unique forest, privately owned by Peter Schliefenbaum, sprawls over 80,000 acres of rolling hills, stands of hardwood, and clean lakes. Lesser known than its famous neighbor, Algonquin Park, the Haliburton Forest has plenty of beautiful sights and fun activities worth checking out. Its attractions include camping, dog sledding, treetop canopy tours, astronomy, hiking and biking trails, public wolf howls, and wildlife viewing.

One of the Forest’s most unusual attractions is the Wolf Center. This is a 15-acre enclosure where a pack of wolves lives and roams. An interpretive center comprises part of the fence in one corner, with an observatory that’s equipped with one-way glass and a microphone to watch and listen to the wolf pack. The only problem is, you never know when the wolf pack will be hanging out in front of the observatory! With 15 acres of forest to explore, they could be anywhere. (There is a live wolf cam that allows you to check in from home to see what's going on.)

The only problem is, you never know when the wolf pack will be hanging out in front of the observatory! With 15 acres of forest to explore, they could be anywhere. (There is a live wolf cam that allows you to check in from home to see what's going on.)