Climate Change
Crazy weather kept happening and nobody was willing to pin it officially on anthropogenic climate change -- until now. This new study, published in Nature, links severe rain events in the Northern Hemisphere like the Pakistan floods, 2000 UK flood, and the Nashville flood to climate change. From this Washington Post blog:
The study found that observed increase in deluges "cannot be explained by natural internal fluctuations of the climate system alone," said Zwiers. In other words, only the addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere explains why the United States and Canada have experienced a dramatic increase in heavy downpours.
The only complaint with the methods used is that they might not go far enough -- actual rainfall totals are actually slightly higher than models predicted.
Gulf Oil Disaster
Remember all the triumphant news of just how fast the oil was disappearing, thanks to dispersants and, like, mother nature? And how the Gulf was going to recover pretty quickly from the Macondo spill?
Time for the unanticipated consequences to start rolling in.
Baby dolphins are dying at a rate ten times the normal rate.
From ABC News:
The gestation period for bottlenose dolphins is between 11 and 12 months. "That means the mothers would have conceived between March and May. If the mothers are delivering their calves now and many are dying, that is significant," Solangi said.
Was it the oil? The dispersant? A combination? Petroleum is a long-recognized endocrine disruptor, and while Corexit, the dispersant used in the Gulf, appears in several studies not to increase uptake of the problematic compounds in petroleum, there are so many factors at play in the chemistry of the Gulf that we may not find one smoking gun.
The fact remains: Petroleum is an endocrine disruptor, a reproductive toxin, a carcinogen. (As it turns out, it is also a potent political and economic disruptor.) We are not that different from dolphins. With every new oil well, every tar sands operation, every refinery, we are courting infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth. We are courting breast cancer, testicular cancer.
Unfortunately the effects are not limited to those who profit from oil, or even those who use it. And the system is rigged so that it is almost impossible to avoid using petroleum in some form -- rigged because passenger rail and trolleys were bought up and dismantled by oil and automotive companies. And our government is subsidizing oil production to an almost unfathomable degree. It's about as far from a free market as you can get.
And here I stop. I am fortunate enough to have friends from all over the political spectrum, and I know that two reasonable, intelligent people can look at the same information and come away with different answers. All I know is that I cannot conceive of any defensible way that we as a country can continue our ways with oil; our response must be manifold, and there is room for more than one kind of solution.
But ending government subsidies for oil seems like a good start. I surely hate chipping in for my own endocrine disorder.
The crappy part for my family is that my idealistic, brilliant physicist husband, with many potentially lucrative skills, has instead devoted his career to alternative energy research, which can't get consistent governmental funding to save its life. Or our lives, I suppose. It makes me CRAZY. He's spent the last week welded to congressional budget info on his computer, wondering if he's going to lose his grant.
Posted by: May ProblemUterus | February 24, 2011 at 11:56 AM
Ugh. We are also dependent on grants.
May, that is such a big deal. I would love to see alternative energy research subsidized -- I personally believe the job of the government should be to assure the good of the people, and alternative energy certainly fits the bill from a health, environmental, and political standpoint. I am certain it would fit the economic standpoint with the necessary investment and updates to infrastructure (which we need NOW, regardless of what our energy source is, so why not tailor it *away* from oil?).
That said, I know that some don't want to see gov't subsidies for that kind of thing. I would challenge them to completely remove all government funding from the oil industry, the coal industry, and the nuclear industry -- all of which are only workable with astronomical infusions of government money.
Posted by: Jo | February 24, 2011 at 01:08 PM
You're smart.
Posted by: Melissa | February 25, 2011 at 07:36 AM
Amen! Now we just need to start forcing our elected officials to see past their dirty campaign contributions and see the light! Check out dirtyenergymoney.com
Posted by: Keya_chatterjee | February 25, 2011 at 09:11 AM
As a mother, I feel for those dolphin mothers out there. I know that they are not human, but as rather intelligent animal I imagine that they must feel some emotion at the death of their babies.
I certainly agree about ending subsidies for oil. It would be wonderful to see more government (and private) investment in public transportation. We live in an area (Pasadena) that used to be part of what was, arguably, the best public transportation system in the world. It is all gone now, but the rights-of-way remain in many cases and it is interesting and sad to me to walk by the alleys which were once trolley lines and wish things had turned out differently.
Posted by: Gina | February 25, 2011 at 02:09 PM
My husband actually works for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and the good news is they have been expanding and growing for some years now, hiring more researchers and engineers and building more lab buildings on the campus. The bad news is, with the recession and overall budget crisis, it is likely that some of the increased funding is going to get pulled soon...
I agree with all your points as to why it would be good to break our dependence on petroleum. Another point would be: Middle-East unrest, anyone? Most of our fuel comes from one of the most politically unstable regions in the world. Somehow I find that kind of unwise...
Posted by: Anne | February 25, 2011 at 03:47 PM
I want to end subsidies for corn. HFCS is the one thing that kicks my PCOS into overdrive. When I stopped consuming it, I actually started ovulating. HFCS avoidance did more for me than exercise and losing weight. So, "Say no to Big Ag."
Posted by: SarcastiCarrie | February 28, 2011 at 11:38 AM
Yes, I feel the same way about corn subsidies. Also, if you want to totally blow your mind, start thinking about the amount of oil and natural gas that go into corn production. From pesticides (oil) and fertilizers (natural gas) to cultivation and transport (oil) and processing and packaging and transport again...
Everything we eat is made of corn, and all the corn is made of oil.
DUDE.
Posted by: Jo | March 01, 2011 at 11:41 PM
Well, real cane sugar (and maple sugar and honey) don't mess with the PCOS so much. I am pretty sure a lot of energy goes into refining and transporting cane sugar, but I don't think the cultivation of sugar cane is subsidized by my tax dollars, so I'm cool with that as a sweetener, but I guess the price for even that is artificial if I am subsidizing the energy costs. Dang. Consider my mind blown.
I would be totally fine with an end to all subsidies (I mean, if they cut my taxes in proprotion to the money they'd not be spending then). Let the market go and see how people value certain things. We'll get more of the stuff people actually value and less of what we don't.
Posted by: SarcastiCarrie | March 03, 2011 at 09:02 AM