This C02 / Climate Change blog is a bit of a ramble--too big and complex a topic to consider covering in a single blog. So I decided to do a bit of zigzagging as I headed from one "sparkly" fact to another--my goal: help all of us become better informed. As always, your thoughts, comments, and additional sparkly facts are welcome.
/November 2024
This election cycle has turned into a perfect storm of culture wars, a polarized electorate sprinkled with a healthy dose of outright, pretzel-logic-forehead-slapping stupidity. I cringe to think that the American public would seriously consider electing a climate-denying autocrat as president of the United States. The mere thought that this could become a reality has convinced me that we are not capable of making rational choices. I keep returning to the witch-burning scene in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". watch...
/The Greenhouse Effect
As far back as 1822, French physicist Joseph Fourier developed mathematical models to describe heat transfer. His broader interest in terrestrial temperatures led him to hypothesize that, like a greenhouse, the Earth's atmosphere might be similarly trapping heat. In 1824, his paper "Remarques Générales sur les Températures du Globe Terrestre et des Espaces Planétaires" (General Remarks on the Temperatures of the Terrestrial Globe and Planetary Spaces) was published.
Unfortunately, scientific insights and discoveries like Fourier's took a very long time to reach a broader audience. It wasn't until 1861 that Irish physicist John Tyndall discovered that some gases, like CO2, trap heat. It is likely that Tyndall's work built on Fourier's initial insights and provided experimental evidence for the mechanisms involved in the greenhouse effect.
From last month's blog, here's a short list of other significant contributors to the CO2 story:
1896: Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius published the first calculation of global warming from human emissions of CO2.
1938: English engineer Guy Callendar compiles temperature records from the previous century and links rising CO2 levels to global warming.
1958: Charles David Keeling begins continuous measurements of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory, establishing the "Keeling Curve," demonstrating a steady rise in CO2 levels.
Between 1958 and the 80s, I didn't find much regarding government policy action on climate change. However, the 1980s did witness several environmental legislative landmarks, including the Montreal Protocol.
Here's an excerpt from the UN Environment Programme/About Montreal Protocol:
"To date, the Parties to the Protocol have phased out 98% of ODS globally compared to 1990 levels. Because most of these substances are potent greenhouse gases, the Montreal Protocol is also contributing significantly to the protection of the global climate system. From 1990 to 2010, the treaty’s control measures are estimated to have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 135 gigatons of CO2, the equivalent of 11 gigatons a year."
While not specifically addressing climate change, it helped raise awareness of our environmental impact. Lest we forget, the 80s had its share of environmental disasters.
Bhopal Disaster (1984): A gas leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, released toxic methyl isocyanate gas, immediately killing thousands and leading to long-term health problems for hundreds of thousands more. This is considered one of the worst industrial disasters in history.
Chernobyl Disaster (1986): A nuclear reactor explosion and fire at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union) released massive amounts of radiation into the atmosphere. This caused widespread contamination, immediate deaths, and increased cancer rates across Europe. The disaster had lasting effects on the environment and human health.
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (1989): The oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling millions of gallons of crude oil. This devastated the pristine ecosystem, harming wildlife and causing significant economic damage to fishing and tourism industries.
Not feeling suitably depressed yet? Then you might want to visit The Council on Foreign Relations Ecological Disasters 1912 - 2020 webpage for more.
If you really want to get a complete picture of how f**ked up things have gotten, I invite you to visit ReliefWeb for news on the latest headlines and recent disasters. more...
When I remove my rose-colored glasses and look around, I despair. Remaining cheery and optimistic in the face of deprivation, violence, and injustice worldwide is quite challenging.
These and other environmental disasters helped bring about bipartisan legislative action. Here are a few brighter moments:
1980 – Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Created the Superfund program.
1982 – Nuclear Waste Policy Act
1986 – Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRKA)
1986 – Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA)
1987 – Water Quality Act (amended FWPCA of 1972)
June 23, 1988, UN Foundation Vice Chair and former Senator Tim Wirth convened the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to discuss global warming and the greenhouse effect: "Policymakers were alerted to the irrefutable connection between man-made global warming and the impacts on our climate, and urged cutting greenhouse gas emissions and working to manage and mitigate their impacts." more...
1989 – Basel Convention
1989 – Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting chemicals enters into force.
Aimed at phasing out ozone-depleting substances
/Drought, Fire, Climate Change
June-August 2024 was the Northern Hemisphere's hottest meteorological summer on record, 2.74 degrees F (1.52 degrees C) above average, and the Southern Hemisphere's warmest winter on record. More...
Arizonans have been living under draught conditions since 1994. A growing population, agriculture, mining, and climate change have all strained our water resources. A perfect recipe for fire. Then the subject of fire led me to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) website to learn more.
Here's an excerpt from their Facebook page: "October 15, 2024. Wildland fire activity continues in 9 states where 27 large active wildfires have burned 1,183,610 acres. More than 10,500 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to incidents, including 19 complex incident management teams, 185 crews, 472 engines, and 89 helicopters."
Between 2016 and 2020, 88 percent of US wildfires were human-caused due to sparks from power lines, vehicles/equipment, campfires, and arson. According to the NIFC, "Lightning strikes account for approximately 15% of wildfires in the United States. However, these lightning-caused fires are responsible for about 60% of the total acreage burned, indicating that while they may ignite fewer fires, they tend to burn larger areas compared to human-caused wildfires." more...
Wildland Fire Acreage
The National Interagency Fire Center provides a yearly list of fires and total acreage burned from 1983 to 2023. 1988 saw the loss of 5,009,290 acres, which included the Yellowstone Fire, 1.4 million acres burned, including 793,880 acres of the national park. "Unusually high winds. Drought conditions. Heavy, dry fuel accumulations. Low humidity at night. A higher-than-usual number of fires caused by lightning—39 fires compared to the average yearly total of 26—plus six fires caused by humans." more...
Earlier that year, plant ecologists reported that the area had historically experienced small fires that were interspersed every 200-400 years by massive fires. The last major burn occurred in the 1730s, so 250+ years later, the stage was set. One might argue that this event would have happened despite climate change. However, the size and frequency of subsequent fires may be attributable to changes in our climate. Take, for example, fire years 2015 (10,125,149 acres), 2017 (10,026,086 acres), 2020 (10,122,336 acres) and there are several 7+ million acre years to boot. To put this into perspective, 10 million acres is 15,625 square miles. Arizona's total land area is ~113,623.1 square miles. more...
/Hurricanes - a brief mention
Then, this year (2024), Mother Nature gave us Helene in late September and Milton in early October. To learn more, visit NOAA's hurricane forecasting webpage. I also stumbled upon NOAA's Incident Archive, which lists a variety of climate and environmental events ranging from hurricanes to medical waste to oil leaks dating back to March 29, 1957. more...
Here is an example, "Diesel Discharge from M/V Defiant; Baltimore Harbor, MD"... "Initial Notification: At 0730 on 27 September 2024, USCG Sector Maryland notified the NOAA SSC that the MV DEFIANT was discharging diesel fuel into Baltimore Harbor. WCD is 180,000 gallons of diesel fuel. Sector Maryland requested trajectory and RAR."
Translation:
SSC - Scientific Support Coordinator
MV - Merchant ship that is powered by engines
WCD - Worst Case Discharge. This refers to the maximum amount of diesel fuel that could potentially be released from the MV DEFIANT in this incident: 180,000 gallons.
RAR - Resources at Risk: This is an assessment of the environmental resources that are potentially threatened by the diesel spill. This could include Sensitive habitats like marshes, mangroves, or coral reefs, Important wildlife populations such as birds, fish, or marine mammals, and Human-use resources like beaches, fisheries, or water intakes. By requesting a trajectory and RAR analysis, Sector Maryland is asking NOAA to predict the likely movement of the spilled diesel (trajectory) and identify the specific environmental resources that might be affected (RAR). This information will help them prioritize response efforts and minimize the damage caused by the spill.
/Top Green House Gas Emitters
According to the European Commission's Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR):
"China, the United States, India, the EU27, Russia and Brazil were the world’s largest GHG emitters in 2023. Together they account for 49.8% of global population, 63.2% of global gross domestic product, 64.2% of global fossil fuel consumption and 62.7% of global GHG emissions.
Among these top emitters, in 2023 China, India, Russia and Brazil increased their emissions compared to 2022, with India having the largest increase in relative terms (+ 6.1%) and China the largest absolute increase by 784 Mt CO2eq.
With only two exceptions, 2009 (global financial crisis) and 2020 (COVID-19), global GHG emissions have grown steadily since the beginning of the 21st century, mainly due to the increase in fossil CO2 emissions by China, India and other emerging economies.
Based on the emission estimates for 2023 provided by EDGAR, global GHG emissions increased by 1.9% compared to 2022, reaching 53.0 Gt CO2eq."
/What do the numbers mean?
"Gt: Stands for gigatonnes. A gigatonne is a unit of mass equal to one billion metric tons... ...That's roughly the weight of 200 million elephants. (53 Gts = 10.6 billion elephants).
CO2eq: Stands for carbon dioxide equivalent. This is a way to express the impact of different greenhouse gases (GHGs) in a common unit. GHGs like methane and nitrous oxide have different global warming potentials than carbon dioxide (CO2). CO2eq converts the emissions of those other GHGs into the equivalent amount of CO2 that would have the same global warming impact."
This figure represents the total amount of greenhouse gases released, with their warming potential standardized to that of carbon dioxide. It's a massive amount and a key indicator of the scale of global greenhouse gas emissions.
/CO2 Sources
According to the World Resources Institute's most recent (June 2022) article, "4 Charts Explain Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Countries and Sectors,": "Energy consumption is by far the biggest source of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for a whopping 75.6% (37.6 GtCO2e) worldwide. The energy sector includes transportation, electricity and heat, buildings, manufacturing and construction, fugitive emissions, and other fuel combustion...
... Within the energy sector, heat and electricity generation is responsible for most emissions (15.8 GtCO2e in 2019, or 31.8% of total greenhouse gas emissions), followed by transportation (8.4 GtCO2e in 2019, or 17% of total emissions) and manufacturing and construction (6.3 GtCO2e, or 12.7% of total emissions)."
/Carbon Footprint
Although my lifestyle is far from "carbon neutral," I do what I can to reduce my carbon footprint: I work from home, I traded in my less fuel-efficient vehicle for a hybrid, and I am mindful of the energy and water resources that I consume.
But when did "carbon footprint" become part of our everyday language? It began in the early 1990s with the term "Ecological Footprint," coined by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees as part of their PhD research at the University of British Columbia. more...
Then, in 2004, British Petroleum, in an attempt to downplay its own role in CO2 emissions and rebrand itself as "Beyond Petroleum," hired the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather to create a marketing campaign that introduced the "carbon footprint calculator." In the process, it was very successful in helping to shift the focus away from fossil fuel companies and toward the individual consumer. More...
Regardless of BP's attempts to spin the conversation, this does not excuse our energy consumption and our consumer-driven lifestyles. We won't ever get to net zero without making some hard choices--however uncomfortable you may find it, sacrifice is required.
Accepting that the term is now in common use, the University of Michigan's Center for Sustainable Systems has published a Carbon Footprint Factsheet for anyone who wants to learn more about the subject. Here's a snippet from the website: "In an average U.S. household, eliminating the transport of food for one year could save the GHG equivalent of driving 1,000 mi, while shifting to a vegetarian meal one day a week could save the equivalent of driving 1,160 mi."
Here are a few websites that provide fact-checking information regarding climate change.
Climate Feedback: https://climatefeedback.org/ - A worldwide network of scientists sorting fact from fiction. Our goal is to empower readers to discern trustworthy news.
Skeptical Science: https://skepticalscience.com/ - Explaining climate change science and rebutting global warming misinformation
FactCheck.org: https://www.factcheck.org/ - A nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.
Snopes: https://www.snopes.com/ - dispelling rumors, conspiracy theories and bullshit
/Denial
I know two climate deniers, both former 60s high school classmates. We took the same science classes. They both seemed like rational, level-headed people. Both of them became veterinarians, a profession based on the scientific method. However, somewhere along the line, a screw or two came loose, and they became climate-denying-Trumpistas. What went wrong? A topic for a future blog.
Except for these two yahoos, everyone I know acknowledges that the scientific evidence is pretty well settled: CO2 and other GHG emissions are the root cause of climate change. By now, the topic has been widely reported on television, print, and social media, as well as numerous online resources that track and report on CO2 emissions -- nothing new here.
/Congress
Unfortunately, the US Congress has had its share of climate-denying legislators, primarily Republican conservatives from states with ties to the fossil fuel industry. At least one of them also happens to be a bible-thumping Christian. who turns to scripture instead of science. Here are two skeptics who, unfortunately, held chairmanships in key Senate and House committees:
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman. Inhofe wrote a book titled The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future. Coincidentally, he represented the state of Oklahoma, one of the country's largest natural gas and oil producers. According to OpenSecrets, James Inhofe received $2,352,775 in campaign contributions from the Oil & Gas industry during his tenure. During a March 2012 appearance promoting his book on Voice of Christian Youth, Inhofe repeated his frequent claim that human-influenced climate change is impossible because “God’s still up there.” Inhofe cited Genesis 8:22 to claim that it is “outrageous” and arrogant for people to believe human beings are “able to change what He is doing in the climate.” The Center for Biological Diversity awarded Inhofe its 2012 Rubber Dodo Award for general scientific obtuseness. I didn't know diddly about Genesis 8:22, so I looked it up: “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” more G8...
Another climate skeptic was Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), who chaired the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He opposed efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and, being from Texas, he often championed the fossil fuel industry. According to OpenSecrets, he received $2,251,087 in campaign contributions from that same industry. Fortunately, Joe retired in 2017 after it was discovered that he had trouble keeping his pants on: "U.S. Rep. Joe Barton retiring after graphic photo posted online." I wonder if any evangelicals considered punishing Joe in keeping with the Lord's word, as revealed in Leviticus 20:10: “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death."
Money. Inhofe and Barton are two of several federal legislators who received contributions from the fossil fuel industry. Just imagine what may be going on at the state and municipal levels. You can visit the OpenSecrets website, which tracks the congressional money trail by interest group. more...
/The Heartland Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute
Conservative think tanks that actively promote climate denial and lobby against climate action. Both receive funding from the fossil fuel industry and work to spread doubt about climate change. Surprise-surprise!
/Dark Money
SCOTUS' unfortunate Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court decision in 2010 opened the floodgates, allowing politically active nonprofits to spend money to influence elections without disclosing their donors. While you and I go about our daily lives, operating under the illusion that we live in a democracy and that our vote and our measly online political donations matter. HA,..you're not paying attention! more...
Here are some organizations that track where the money comes from and where it goes. This does not include dark money, lobbying, public relations campaigns, and other efforts to shape policy.
OpenSecrets.org: You can find detailed information on contributions from the oil and gas industry to individual candidates and parties. Go to OpenSecrets.org, search for "Oil & Gas" under Industries.
FollowTheMoney.org (now merged with OpenSecrets): Allows you to track money in state and federal politics.
InfluenceMap.org: This organization analyzes data on corporate lobbying and political influence. They have reports and data on the fossil fuel industry's political spending.
Much more to this topic, but I need to end here. As always, your feedback is welcome. Paz
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