environment: allergies poison ivy pollen sneezing
by Warren
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Month 4, Day 16: Aaaaaaahhhh-choooo!
A Siegel is a prolific writer on climate issues at Kos. Yesterday’s piece was about the impact of climate change on pollen levels, and hence the future of allergic reactions….kind of scary.
Sent to my local paper, the Medford Transcript.
The effects of global warming are no longer abstract. You’re going to be feeling them in your nose. Increased CO2 levels are projected to boost pollen production enormously over the coming decades, according to a National Wildlife Federation study released yesterday. A doubling or tripling of ragweed allergens in the United States is going to have huge economic impacts. We already lose around $12 billion dollars a year to hay fever suffering; we lose over 14 million school and work days, over $15 billion in medical costs and over $5 billion in lost earnings a year to asthma. What will the Global Warming multiplier be?
But wait! There’s more! Fungal production will probably quadruple with doubled CO2 levels; tree pollen levels are expected to increase drastically — and did I mention that poison ivy will be faster-growing and more virulent?
But it’s not all bad news. Investing in pharmaceutical companies should be a winning strategy. As asthma and allergies debilitate huge segments of the population, we can sneeze all the way to the bank.
Warren Senders
environment: newsweek pine beetle
by Warren
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Month 4, Day 15: Beetlemania
I got all the info used for this letter from a new series at Kos, “This Week In Climate Change.” Definitely read it all.
Part of that piece was a link to Newsweek’s short article on the pine beetle in the American West, which is killing forests with brutal efficiency. So I used the Newsweek piece as the hook for a letter.
Thanks for giving a closer look at what global warming will be bringing us in the years to come. The dying forests left in the pine beetle’s wake are just one of many phenomena which mark the planet’s rising temperatures. Some of the other things we can expect to see: more weather anomalies and storm activity (such as this winter’s freak blizzard in Washington, DC); higher pollen counts (severely affecting many asthmatics); shrinking populations of sensitive wildlife (Antarctica’s Adelie penguin population has diminished to a third of its 1980 level); more and more invasive species replacing local flora and fauna; irregular and unpredictable monsoons (potentially devastating food production worldwide)…the list goes on and on. It is time to stop treating climate change as a forum for political gamesmanship, and to start addressing it for what it is: a slow motion catastrophe that constitutes the most urgent existential threat humanity has ever faced.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Ben Nelson
by Warren
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Month 4, Day 14: Because Someone Told Me So…
A diarist at DK who goes by the handle patrickz wrote a piece the other day called “John Kerry Is Trying To Pass A Climate Bill and He Needs Your Help.” To my pleasure, he referenced me and my letter-writing campaign (using the word “epic,” no less)….and included a sample letter of the sort he asks people to send to Ben Nelson, of the famous “Cornhusker Compromise.”
So I did. It’s not as good as patrickz’s but that’s okay.
Dear Senator Nelson,
I write to you as as a concerned citizen. It is my understanding you do not support the American Clean Energy and Security Act in its present form, because it includes “cap and trade” — and that you are firmly against any kind of “carbon tax,” because you believe that incentives for innovation and infrastructure development are the best way to move the country towards energy efficiency and environmental responsibility.
Well, incentives are certainly important; no argument there. But it is an undeniable fact that the best incentive to lower CO2 emissions is to price carbon according to its true cost, which necessarily includes the health impacts of atmospheric particulates from coal, the poisoning of our national rivers and streams, the expensive wars we wage to protect our sources of oil, and the destruction of the polar ice caps. To burn our energy resources, pushing Earth’s climate to a point of no return — this is truly generational theft, for it may take thousands of years for our planet to recover from the damage we’ve done and the damage yet to come. Simply put, there isn’t any tax high enough to recover these costs. Furthermore, it’s also quite clear by now that increased conservation and a transition to green energy will improve our standard of living, not destroy it. The only things that will be affected negatively are the quarterly balance sheets for big oil and big coal companies. Unless we start now, we haven’t a hope of avoiding economic and environmental catastrophe.
Please change your mind on this issue. A bill without a price on carbon is a terrible mistake. Our descendants will not forgive us our failure to act responsibly.
Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: coal Graham Kerry Lieberman Natural Gas
by Warren
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Month 4, Day 13: Not King Coal
I read a terrific piece at Kos about a politically viable strategy for weaning the US off its terrible coal addiction. So I appropriated a chunk of the piece, shuffled the clauses around, changed some verbs and punctuation, filed off all the serial numbers, and I’m now going to send it off to the Senators in charge of the climate bill.
Dear Senators Kerry, Lieberman and Graham,
As the recent tragedy in West Virginia reminds us, coal mining is a dirty and dangerous business. The true cost of coal includes places like Southeast Ohio, where even the cows have cancer; it includes hundreds of thousands of cases of black lung disease, and it irrefutably includes huge CO2 emissions which lead to global warming. And yet, these factors are never considered when we think of how “cheap” coal is as a source of energy.
In the long run, America needs to stop burning coal, and it needs to stop burning oil. The hidden costs of fossil fuels aren’t going to stay hidden much longer, now that the polar ice caps are melting and catastrophic climate change is just around the decadal corner. On the other hand, it’s not politically or economically realistic to think that we can start decommissioning these coal fired plants any time soon. A switch to natural gas would lead to massive price hikes in that commodity, creating conditions for poor people to freeze to death, and US agriculture’s total dependence on fertilizers created with natural gas would mean that food prices would closely track heating costs.
If we are to accomplish a lessening of CO2 emissions from the US energy system, we must be pragmatic. The legacy of coal and natural gas-fired electrical capacity is both a burden and a blessing. We need to focus on using coal and LNG as part of a strategy to integrate renewables into the electric grid — on thinking of renewable electricity is a way to conserve our fossil fuel resources rather than as a way to replace them. If every megawatt of power produced from renewables can keep a megawatt of coal or gas fired capacity offline when it’s available, we can start reducing our country’s grossly disproportionate carbon footprint.
If this strategy is coupled with a vigorous national push to reduce energy wastage, we might have an energy policy that actually accomplishes something. What we don’t need is a “political solution,” where our CO2 emissions are simply augmented with a lot of hot air.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment: Shen Neng1 Time Magazine
by Warren
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Month 4, Day 12: Time Enough For Lies
I revised the letter I sent to the Boston Globe and sent it off to Time Magazine, which ran the AP story about the Shen Neng 1. Same point, same framing, different phrasing.
The Chinese coal ship foundering on the Great Barrier Reef is not just a sad story about oily birds, or a sea-captain’s dereliction of duty. The disaster off the coast of Australia also warns us to acknowledge the huge hidden costs of so-called “cheap energy.”
The Shen Neng 1 could just as easily be a million cases of black lung disease or the imminent loss of the polar ice cap, for these tragedies are all consequences of our addiction to fossil fuels. If we are to survive and prosper in the coming centuries, we must acknowledge the truth: oil and coal are only “cheap” when we ignore their health, ecological, and environmental costs. Any realistic energy policy must include these factors; to disregard them is to perpetuate a lie — and with catastrophic climate change looming on the horizon, lies about “cheap energy” are a luxury we can no longer afford.
Warren Senders
environment: Bret Stephens idiots Wall Street Journal
by Warren
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Month 4, Day 11: The Wall Street Journal – Fishwrap for Financiers
It’s 11 pm and I’m finishing this one up. I couldn’t think of what to write, so I checked out Media Matters, which had a good treatment of a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. So I wrote them a letter (the WSJ, not Media Matters).
Speaking of Media Matters, I greatly enjoyed David Brock’s book “Blinded by the Right.” It’s always amazing to me that anyone can swallow the nonsense spewed by so-called “conservatives,” and Brock’s personal story was very revealing. I’m glad he came around and is now on the side of the right, rather than the Right.
Anyway, here’s my letter to the Journal:
Bret Stephens’ April 6 column suggests that recent scientific research shows that “global warming is dead.” Yet the climate scientists he cites explicitly reject this notion.
While Stephens claims that National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) data show that Arctic sea ice has not diminished significantly, the NSIDC disagrees, stressing that long term data (in contrast to data for a single month) indicate that “ice extent has shown a dramatic overall decline over the past thirty years.”
Stephens’ also discussed the “now debunked claim about disappearing Himalayan glaciers” in the context of the so-called “Climategate” scandal. Is he aware that scientists’ studies around the world unanimously support data showing significant glacier loss? And is he also oblivious to the fact that on March 31, the British House of Commons’ Science and Technology Committee completely exonerated Dr. Phil Jones and the CRU, confirming that their data are “consistent and independently verifiable”? Yes, the 2007 IPCC report included an erroneous citation about Himalayan glacier loss, but this no more invalidates the document’s conclusions than a mendacious op-ed about global warming invalidates the Wall Street Journal’s stock market reports.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Barack Obama James Hansen Sophie Prize
by Warren
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Month 4, Day 10: Saturday POTUS
I figured I’d send the President a letter urging him to take James Hansen more seriously. I mean, now that he’s won the Sophie Prize and all.
Dear President Obama,
I write to urge you to extend public recognition from your Administration to Dr. James Hansen, the eminent climatologist who has just been awarded the Sophie Prize. Especially given that Dr. Hansen was subjected to flagrant censorship by the Bush administration, it would be a significant gesture for you and your environmental experts to acknowledge the value and relevance of his work. It would be even more appropriate for you to offer Dr. Hansen a place in your administration’s climate-science team; his work is of the highest possible quality and the greatest possible significance.
The Bush Administration’s suppression of Dr. Hansen’s results is shocking and shameful (although it was a foregone conclusion that it would do no good, I wrote them letters at the time protesting this terrible behavior). The appalling fact is that our national politics has been infected with a virulent and pernicious form of stupidity; George W. Bush and his anti-science cohort were (and are) symptoms of this disease, and because his conclusions failed to fit their predetermined narrative, Dr. Hansen had to be censored.
While your administration is an enormous improvement on its predecessor, I am still waiting for signs that you can address global climate change with the degree of urgency that is needed. One such sign would be a public acknowledgment that Dr. Hansen was shamefully treated by the previous administration — and that he is a scientist of immense value to the fight against catastrophic climate change.
Such an acknowledgment would be both morally appropriate and scientifically sound. We need James Hansen’s voice, now more than ever.
Thank you.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
humor music: birthdays genius satire Tom Lehrer
by Warren
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Tom Lehrer is 27.7777…. today
The greatest satirical songwriter ever to grace the planet prefers to count his age in Centigrade. In Farenheit, he’s 82.
On April 9, 1928, little Thomas Lehrer was born in Manhattan, and…
…began studying classical piano music at the age of seven, but was more interested in the popular music of the age. Eventually, his mother also sent him to a popular-music piano teacher. At this early age, he began writing his own show tunes, which eventually would help him in his future adventures as a satirical composer and writer in his years at lecturing at Harvard University and later at other universities.
I was privileged to see and hear the Master in a living room concert in the early part of 1968. I was nine, and it was a fundraiser for Eugene McCarthy. He sang and played all of his best-known material, and delivered “Whatever Became of You, Hubert?” with an air of great mockery. As a special part of the fundraising, a bottle of French wine labeled “Chateau Maccarthy” and autographed by Lehrer was auctioned off; my father bought it. I wonder where that bottle is now.
environment Politics: biomass burning house bill 4458 pat jehlen paul donato
by Warren
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Month 4, Day 9: MA State Business
The people at StopSpewingCarbon asked me to write/call to my State Legislators in support of MA House Bill 4458. I didn’t know much about it, so I did a little research (just a little; it’s getting late).
It sounds like a good idea to me:
The Massachusetts Medical Society, The American Lung Association of New England, The Massachusetts Sierra Club, and the Stop Spewing Carbon Campaign…offered very powerful testimony this Wednesday in Boston supporting House Bill 4458.
The next 2-3 weeks are critical to getting something done in the Legislature. The American Lung Association of New England and the Massachusetts Sierra Club have committed to making House Bill 4458 a high priority for their organizations in the upcoming weeks. We do need your backup to be effective. Each Representative and Senator must receive many calls on House Bill 4458 if we want them to do the right thing.
Oddly, a teabagger group in Western Massachusetts posted this on their website, with the bizarre comment:
Why must this bill reduce CO2 why can’t it just end the subsidies?
Because CO2, as we all know, is life. (warning: link goes to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a right-wing climate denialist thinktank).
Dear Representative Donato and Senator Jehlen,
I write to ask you to support House Bill 4458, “An Act to Limit Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Renewable and Alternative Energy Sources.” Massachusetts will do well to prevent burning wood, construction waste and other debris in power plants.
Despite the “green” label given by supporters of biomass burning, this form of power generation is anything but:
Burning biomass releases even more particulate matter into the atmosphere than a coal plant, with concomitant impacts on the health of our population.
Burning wood and biomass causes increased CO2 emissions. While trees will be planted to replace those burned, it will take several decades for a growing tree to absorb anything close to the amount of CO2 emitted; the carbon balance may be maintained in the long run, but right now it is imperative that we drastically reduce atmospheric CO2 in the short-term if we are to insure a habitable planet for us all.
Because biomass plants are water-cooled, many Massachusetts rivers will face massive water withdrawals year-round, as well as heat discharges. The pressure on wood sources will adversely affect headwater and tributary streams to many of our state’s most beautiful rivers.
The new biomass plants proposed for central and western Massachusetts are projected to consume more wood than we have in the State’s forests, and they’ll eventually be forced to burn construction debris, animal waste, and municipal trash.
It is important that our state be engaged in the struggle to develop robust alternative sources of energy. But this form of biomass burning is a bad idea.
Please support House Bill 4458.
Thank you,
Warren Senders
environment: James Hansen Sophie Prize
by Warren
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Month 4, Day 8: James Hansen Is Recognized!
Dr. James Hansen has won The Sophie Prize.
The Sophie Prize is one of the world’s most generous environment and sustainable development Prizes. The Sophie Prize is established to inspire people working towards a sustainable future.
The Sophie Prize is an international award (US $ 100,000), for environment and sustainable development, awarded annually. The Sophie Prize is established to inspire people working towards a sustainable future. The Prize was established in 1997 by the Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder and his wife Siri Dannevig.
I was getting tired of writing doomy gloomy letters, so I sent Dr. Hansen a note of congratulations for a change.
Dr. James E. Hansen
Columbia University
Armstrong Hall
2880 Broadway
New York, NY 10025 USAApril 8, 2010
Dear Dr. Hansen,
Congratulations on receiving the Sophie Prize! I am pleased and happy to see that your work is recognized and valued, and I hope this means that you will have more influence with policy-makers here in the United States and in the world. I’m a music teacher by profession, a private citizen with no climatological expertise, but my parents are scientists, in consequence of which I acquired a modicum of scientific literacy. When I first read reports of your work they immediately rang true.
The Bush Administration’s suppression of your results is shocking and shameful (although it was a foregone conclusion that it would do no good, I wrote them letters at the time protesting this profoundly stupid behavior). The appalling fact is that our national politics has been infected with a virulent and pernicious form of stupidity; George W. Bush and his anti-science cohort were (and are) symptoms of this disease, and because your conclusions failed to fit their predetermined narrative, you had to be censored.
While the Obama administration is obviously an improvement on its predecessor, I am still waiting for signs that our current President can address global climate change with the degree of urgency that is needed.
Congratulations again on your receipt of the Sophie Prize. You are a pivotal figure in this struggle, and I thank you not only for your tireless advocacy, but for being an honest and conscientious scientist. Please keep it up!
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders