Water strategy for climate change
One only need read James G. Workman’s op-ed in today’s Los Angeles Times to deduce what we aren’t doing about water in advance of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen next week.
Rather than wait for hell to freeze over and heaven to melt, the US Environmental Protection Agency has got out in front of politicians with this presentation on what’s happening to our climate in the meantime, its impact on our fresh water supply and what we should be doing as a matter of urgency.
Read it carefully before confidently taking the quiz, or, as I did, read it carefully the second time before re-taking the quiz.
This posting was updated at 7.10pm, 11/30/2009. The Workman reference and link were added.…
How Atlantis disappeared
Guardian on U.N. draft climate agreement: “Long, confusing and contradictory”
White House Global Climate Change Report. Click on the cover then follow the prompts to download a copy.
MONDAY 9/28/2009: It is a blueprint to save the world. And yet it is long, confusing and contradictory. Negotiators have released a draft version of a new global agreement on climate change, which is widely billed as the last chance to save the planet from the ravages of global warming. Running to some 200 pages, the draft agreement is being discussed for the first time this week as officials from 190 countries gather in Bangkok for the latest round of UN talks. There is only one short meeting after this before they meet in Copenhagen aiming to hammer out a final version. Click here to keep reading Guardian environment correspondent David Adam’s “Countdown to Copenhagen“
THURSDAY, 9/24/2009: For Time Magazine on our current climate cycle, “The Long …
A walk in the woods with Cleverly and Fleck
SAN ACACIA, NM — When the weather heats up, James Cleverly’s instruments can detect the moisture coming off this little patch of woods alongside the Rio Grande.
Once the heat dries out the surface soil, the plants’ roots tap into deeper water, bringing it up and “transpiring” it through their leaves — essentially exhaling water, explained Cleverly, a University of New Mexico biologist.
Because the river and the nearby groundwater are closely linked, this ultimately means less water in the river.
The story Cleverly’s instruments are telling, scientists say, is increasingly important to understanding what will happen to water supplies in New Mexico and across the West in a warming world. …
Click here to keep reading John Fleck’s science column in the Albuquerque Journal.
Click or here for links to studies by James Cleverly. To visit John’s blog, jfleck at inkstain, click here.…
Cap and trading in Sacramento
THE Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has been worried about the cost of complying with Assembly Bill 32, a 2006 law that requires California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, reports David Zahniser in the Los Angeles Times.
Last month, DWP officials decided to beef up their advocacy efforts in Sacramento by bringing in the author of the global warming bill, Los Angeles Democrat and former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, to advise the department’s team of lobbyists, writes Zanhiser.
…Department officials have voiced concern that AB 32 would result in a “cap and trade” program that requires utilities that rely on coal power, including the DWP, to purchase expensive pollution credits. That process could result in a “massive transfer of ratepayer money” away from the utility, said DWP spokesman Joe Ramallo.
To be taken to Zahniser’s full story in the Los Angeles Times, click here…
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