WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana, June 11, 2009 (ENS) – A new hybrid of the American chestnut tree could not only revive the nearly extinct species, but also help limit the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere, according to new research from Purdue University.

Douglass Jacobs, an associate professor of forestry and natural resources, found that American chestnuts grow much faster and larger than other hardwood species, allowing them to sequester more of the heat-trapping greenhouse gas than other trees do over the same time period.

“Maintaining or increasing forest cover has been identified as an important way to slow climate change,” said Jacobs, whose paper appears in the June issue of the journal “Forest Ecology and Management.”

“The American chestnut is an incredibly fast-growing tree,” Jacobs said. “Generally the faster a tree grows, the more carbon it is able to sequester. And when these trees are harvested and processed, the carbon can be stored in the hardwood products for decades, maybe longer.”

Purdue scientist Douglass Jacobs examines a two-year-old chestnut tree at an experimental farm near the university. (Photo courtesy Purdue)

Once a dominant forest species throughout much of the eastern United States, the American chestnut grew from Maine to Mississippi, treasured for its annual yield of nuts, rot-resistant wood and towering size.

But at the beginning of the 20th century, an introduced Asian fungus caused widespread blight that killed chestnut trees across their range. About 50 years ago, the species was nearly gone.

New efforts to hybridize remaining American chestnut trees with blight-resistant Chinese chestnuts have resulted in a species that is about 94 percent American chestnut with the protection found in the Chinese species.

Jacobs said those hybrid new trees could be ready to plant in the next decade, either in existing forests or in former agricultural fields that are being returned to forested land.

“We’re really quite close to having a blight-resistant hybrid that can be reintroduced into eastern forests,” Jacobs said. “But because American chestnut has been absent from our forests for so long now, we really don’t know much about the species at all.”

Jacobs studied four sites in southwestern Wisconsin that were unaffected by the blight because they are so far from the tree’s natural range.

He compared the American chestnut with black walnut and northern red oak trees at several different ages, and also cross-referenced his results to other studies using quaking aspen, red pine and white pine in the same region.

In each case, the American chestnut grew faster than the other species, growing as three times more aboveground biomass than the other species at the same point of development. American chestnuts can grow to 120 feet tall. One tree in North Carolina had a trunk diameter of 17′6″.

American chestnut trees also sequester more carbon than the others. “Each tree has about the same percentage of its biomass made up of carbon, but the fact that the American chestnut grows faster and larger means it stores more carbon in a shorter amount of time,” Jacobs said.

Since American chestnut trees are most often used for high-quality hardwood products such as furniture, they hold the carbon longer than wood used for paper or other low-grade materials.

Jacobs said trees absorb about one-sixth of the carbon dioxide emitted globally each year. Increasing the amount that can be absorbed annually could make a considerable difference in slowing climate change, he said.

“This is not the only answer,” Jacobs said. “We need to rely less on fossil fuels and develop alternate forms of energy, but increasing the number of American chestnuts, which store more carbon, can help slow the release of carbon into the atmosphere.”

Jacobs said that since this study looked at aboveground carbon sequestration, future studies would seek to understand more about how forests that contain American chestnuts store carbon below the ground.

The roots of American chestnuts are vulnerable to new exotic pests. Blight-resistant hybrids have already proven susceptible to Phytophthora cinnamomi, or root rot, which preys upon tree roots in wet, southern soils.

“This threatens to be almost as bad as the fungal blight,” Jacobs said. “In the future, we may need to select for this resistance in new hybrids. Luckily, the Asian chestnut shows some resistance to this fungus as well, although the breeding process would take a long time.”

One of the greatest obstacles to reintroduction of the American chestnut is the host of laws and regulations that now govern the lands in the chestnut’s original range, Jacobs said.

On many public lands where the chestnut used to thrive, such as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, human interference is discouraged and often illegal. But Jacobs said some interference and harvesting will be necessary to reintroduce the chestnut, calling for a unified and proactive approach and exceptions to certain laws that govern public lands.

The Stry Foundation, Electric Power Research Institute, and Purdue University’s Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center funded the research.

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WASHINGTON, DC, February 20, 2009 (ENS) – The $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law Tuesday by President Barack Obama will not only create jobs, it will create green jobs, the new U.S. EPA administrator said today.

“Through the President’s stimulus package, green initiatives will play a significant role in powering economic recovery,” said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

The act specifically includes $7.22 billion for projects and programs administered by the EPA. These programs will protect and promote both green jobs and a healthier environment, Jackson said.

Christina Romer, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, has estimated that the recovery package will save or create 3.5 million jobs over the next two years. Jackson says many of those will be jobs that protect and enhance public health and the environment.

“EPA’s portion of the plan will create good, sustainable jobs that help produce cleaner drinking water, purer air, environmentally friendly urban and rural re-development, and reduced greenhouse gases,” said Jackson. “This is a perfect example of economic growth and environmental protection working hand in hand to the benefit of all Americans.”

Clean drinking water (Photo courtesy Washington State Department of Health)

The Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund will receive a total of $6 billion – of that total $4 billion will be used help communities with water quality and wastewater infrastructure needs and $2 billion will be spent on drinking water infrastructure needs.

Of the total, $1.2 billion, or 20 percent, must be used for green infrastructure, such as stormwater mitigation, water or energy efficiency improvements or other environmentally innovative activities.

“This is an unprecedented amount of money for clean water and rivers,” said Betsy Otto, vice president of strategic partnerships for the nonprofit organization American Rivers. “It’s a real investment in more sustainable water infrastructure for the future, and it will boost health, safety and quality of life in communities across the country.”

The stimulus package contains $100 million for competitive grants to evaluate and clean up former industrial and commercial sites called brownfields.

Diesel emissions reduction projects will be funded with $300 million for grants and loans that will be disbursed to regional, state and local governments, tribal agencies, and nonprofit organizations.

The EPA will receive $600 million for Superfund hazardous waste cleanup and $200 million for cleanup of petroleum leaks from underground storage tanks.

The new law is geared for performance and unprecedented transparency, said Jackson. Preference will be given to projects that can be started and completed expeditiously, and EPA intends to quickly move designated funds to states, she said. All funding will be monitored by EPA’s Inspector General, which will receive $20 million for oversight and review.

The Apollo Alliance, a coalition of labor, business, environmental, and community leaders, says the new law contains $86 billion in clean energy and green-collar job programs.

In addition, the Alliance points to $27.5 billion in road and highway construction funds, much of which state transportation department directors say will be used to repair infrastructure and not on building new highways.

The stimulus measure also contains $830 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a portion of which will be used for river restoration projects.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is to receive $115 million for priority construction, repair, habitat restoration and other activities on public lands the agency governs.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will also receive $165 million for priority critical deferred maintenance, capital improvements, habitat restoration and other activities on Service properties.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service will get $290 million for structural and nonstructural watershed infrastructure improvements, including purchase and restoration of floodplain easements.

Wild and Scenic Manistee River in Michigan (Photo courtesy U.S. Government)

And the U.S. Forest Service will receive $650 million for priority road, bridge and trail maintenance, including related watershed restoration and ecosystem enhancements projects.

“The clean water, drinking water, and river restoration provisions in the bill will create jobs, improve the nation’s rivers and clean water supplies, and save communities money,” said Otto. “This kind of investment represents a sea change, and will ensure that the nation is better prepared to meet the water challenges of the 21st Century. These provisions are a down payment on a better future and will improve the lives of all Americans.”

Kevin Eber of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory says the measure includes $16.8 billion for the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. He calculates that the funding is a nearly tenfold increase for the agency, which received $1.7 billion in fiscal year 2008.

While the bulk of the new EERE funding will go into direct grants and rebates, $2.5 billion will support EERE’s applied research, development and deployment activities, including $800 million for the Biomass Program, $400 million for the Geothermal Technologies Program, and $50 million to increase the energy efficiency of information and communications technologies.

The act also directs the Department of Energy, DOE, to analyze the nation’s electrical grid to determine if significant potential sources of renewable energy are locked out of the electrical market by a lack of adequate transmission capacity. DOE must then provide recommendations for achieving adequate transmission capacity.

An additional $400 million will support the establishment of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, an agency to support innovative energy research.

The economic stimulus act also stipulates that $5 billion will go towards the Weatherization Assistance Program, and the act increases the eligible income level under the program, increases the funding assistance level to $6,500 per home, and allows new weatherization assistance for homes that were weatherized as recently as 1994.

A complementary measure in the act provides $4 billion to the Department of Housing and Urban Development to rehabilitate and retrofit public housing, including increasing the energy efficiency of units, plus an additional $510 million to do the same for homes maintained by Native American housing programs.

An additional $400 million will support efforts to add electric technologies to vehicles.

The act also directs $2 billion in EERE funds toward grants for the manufacturing of advanced battery systems and components within the United States, as well as the development of supporting software.

Toyota hybrid display at an auto show allows visitors to see all the components of a hybrid-powered vehicle. (Photo courtesy NREL)

The battery grants will support advanced lithium-ion batteries and hybrid electric systems. Another $300 million will support an Alternative Fueled Vehicles Pilot Grant Program, and an additional $300 million will support rebates for energy efficient appliances, while also supporting DOE’s efforts under the Energy Star Program.

The act also stipulates that $3.2 billion will go toward Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants, which were established in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, but were not previously funded, Eber explains.

The grants will go toward states, local governments and tribal governments to support the development of energy efficiency and conservation strategies and programs, including energy audit programs and projects to install fuel cells and solar, wind, and biomass power projects at government buildings.

The new law includes $6 billion to support loan guarantees for renewable energy and electric transmission technologies. The funds are expected to guarantee more than $60 billion in loans but only for projects that will start construction by September 30, 2011, and that involve renewable energy, electric transmission, or leading-edge biofuel technologies.

In addition, the act provides $4.5 billion for the DOE Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability for activities to modernize the nation’s electrical grid, integrate demand-response equipment and analyze, develop and implement smart grid technologies.

The tax section of the act provides a three-year extension of the production tax credit for most renewable energy facilities, while offering expansions on and alternatives for tax credits on renewable energy systems.

Components for the wind industry manufactured at the Hodge Foundry in Greenville, Pennsylvania (Photo courtesy Hodge Foundry)

The extension keeps the wind energy production tax credit in effect through 2012, while keeping the production tax credit alive for municipal solid waste, qualified hydropower, biomass, geothermal energy, marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy facilities through 2013.

The production tax credit, PTC, provides a credit for every kilowatt-hour produced at new qualified facilities during the first 10 years of operation, provided the facilities are placed in service before the tax credit’s expiration date.

“Unfortunately,” says Eber, “the current slump in business activity means that fewer businesses are seeking tax credits, which means that renewable energy producers are having trouble taking advantage of the PTC. With that in mind, the act also allows owners of non-solar renewable energy facilities to make an irrevocable election to earn a 30 percent investment credit rather than the PTC. The option remains in effect for the current period of the PTC, that is, through 2012 for wind energy facilities and through 2013 for other qualified renewable energy facilities.”

For residential renewable energy systems, the act removes all caps on the tax credits, which equal 30 percent of the cost of qualified solar energy systems, geothermal heat pumps, small wind turbines and fuel cell systems. The act also eliminates a reduction in credits for installations with subsidized financing, explains Eber.

For businesses and individuals buying electric vehicles, the act simplifies and expands the available tax credits. For electric low-speed vehicles, motorcycles, and three-wheeled vehicles, a 10 percent tax credit is available through 2011, with a cap of $2,500.

For vehicles converted into qualified plug-in electric vehicles, a 10 percent tax credit is also available through 2011, with a cap of $4,000.

And starting in 2010, full-scale commercial plug-in electric vehicles can earn a maximum tax credit of $7,500, depending on their battery capacity. The credit will phase out over a year for each manufacturer after they sell 200,000 plug-in vehicles.

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OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada, February 19, 2009 (ENS) – President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced plans to collaborate on a new clean energy economy as a key element of broader economic recovery and reinvestment efforts between the United States and Canada.

“I value our strategic partnership with Canada and look forward to working closely with the Prime Minister to address the global economic recession and create jobs, to protect our environment through promoting clean energy technologies, and achieve our shared goals in responding to international security challenges,” said President Obama at a press conference in the Reading Room at Parliament in Ottawa.

“The President and I agree that both our countries must take immediate action to restore economic growth by lowering taxes, ensuring access to credit and unleashing spending that stimulates economic growth. We also agreed to strengthen our cooperation in the areas of environmental protection and global security,” said Prime Minister Harper.

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper discuss clean energy in Ottawa. (Photo courtesy Office of the Prime Minister)

Noting the history of bilateral co-operation on continental environmental protection and energy trade and technology, the two leaders agreed that environmental protection and the development of clean energy are inextricably linked. They agreed to collaborate on high-return opportunities for expanded and new joint research.

“We are establishing a U.S.-Canada clean energy dialogue which commits senior officials from both countries to collaborate on the development of clean energy science and technologies that will reduce greenhouse gases and combat climate change,” Harper said.

“How we produce and use energy is fundamental to our economic recovery, but also our security and our planet,” Obama said. “And we know that we can’t afford to tackle these issues in isolation. And that’s why we’re updating our collaboration on energy to meet the needs of the 21st century.”

“The clean energy dialogue that we’ve established today will strengthen our joint research and development,” the President said. “It will advance carbon reduction technologies and it will support the development of an electric grid that can help deliver the clean and renewable energy of the future to homes and businesses, both in Canada and the United States. And through this example, and through continued international negotiations, the United States and Canada are committed to confronting the threat posed by climate change.”

President Obama and Prime Minister Harper take questions from the media. (Photo courtesy Office of the Prime Minister)

The United States and Canada are already collaborating on energy research related to advanced biofuels, clean engines, and energy efficiency.

The leaders signed a document today stating that the new clean energy dialogue will focus on carbon capture and storage technology, which they said “holds enormous potential to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions as we use our own energy resources to power our economy.”

To spur rapid progress in this critical technology, the two nations will coordinate research and demonstrations of carbon capture and sequestration technology at coal-fired plants.

“This will build on our experience with the North Dakota-Weyburn project,” the leaders’ statement says. This project pipes carbon dioxide from a North Dakota synfuels plant to a Saskatchewan oilfield 320 kilometers away and injects the greenhouse gas to enhance oil recovery. The project is expected to store about 22 million tons of CO2 and produce 130 million barrels of oil over 20 years.

To fund this part of the collaboration, the United States will draw from the $3.4 billion for carbon capture and storage demonstration provided in the newly enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Canada’s Economic Action Plan establishes a $1 billion Clean Energy Fund which builds on the Canada’s previous investments in carbon capture and sequestration.

“A strengthened U.S.-Canada partnership on carbon sequestration will help accelerate private sector investment in commercial scale, near-zero-carbon coal facilities to promote climate and energy security,” according to the leaders’ statement.

President Obama listens as Prime Minister Harper answers a reporter’s question at the news conference. (Photo by Paul Souza courtesy The White House)

The two nations will consult and share information on the demonstration and deployment of smart grid technology, including installing smart meters in residential and commercial buildings, digitizing distribution systems, and employing information and measurement tools to manage the grid more effectively.

To fund this part of the collaboration, the United States will draw from the $11 billion for smart grid technology and transmission investment in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

To build a bigger grid, the United States and Canada will share analysis of new transmission options for integrating wind power and other clean generation sources and encourage development of a grid stakeholders group, building on the existing U.S.-Canadian collaboration among the states and provinces.

These investments are expected to make electricity delivery more reliable, reduce congestion that can lead to blackouts and power losses, enable consumers to use energy more efficiently, and promote broader development of renewable power.

In advance of President Obama’s visit, Michael Ignatieff, the MP for Etobicoke-Lakeshore and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, wrote in the “National Post” newspaper a piece that included his vision for an environmental partnership between Canada and the United States.

“Our environmental partnership should extend into the far north. Canada and the United States should work together, with other northern nations, to protect this region for the whole globe,” Ignatieff wrote.

“We should applaud the President’s campaign commitment not to undertake drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We should maintain Canada’s long-held legal position that the North West Passage is an inland waterway and not an international strait, but we should not allow our disagreement with the Americans on the issue to preclude bilateral efforts to ensure good stewardship and orderly management by Canadians of passage through the waterway,” he wrote.

“We need to reinvigorate the Arctic Council so that all northern nations develop common strategies to mitigate the impact of global warming, avoid conflict over resource development and improve the lives of the region’s indigenous peoples.”

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WASHINGTON, DC, February 6, 2009 (ENS) – In accordance with President Barack Obama’s order in January, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will reconsider its decision denying California permission to set standards controlling greenhouse gases from motor vehicles.

The waiver request was made by California on December 21, 2005, to allow the state the right to control greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. The request was denied by then-EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on March 6, 2008.

On January 26, less than a week after taking office, President Obama requested that EPA revisit the matter of the denial.

“EPA has now set in motion an impartial review of the California waiver decision,” said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. “It is imperative that we get this decision right, and base it on the best available science and a thorough understanding of the law.”

The Clean Air Act gives EPA the authority to allow California to adopt its own emission standards for motor vehicles due to the seriousness of the state’s air pollution challenges.

Tailpipe emissions contain the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. (Photo by Daniel Olinick)

The EPA must approve a waiver, however, before California’s rules may go into effect. There is a long-standing history of EPA granting waivers to the state of California.

EPA believes that there are significant issues regarding the agency’s denial of the waiver. Jackson said, “The denial was a substantial departure from EPA’s longstanding interpretation of the Clean Air Act’s waiver provisions.”

EPA received on January 21, 2009, a letter from California outlining several issues for Administrator Jackson to review and reconsider about the previous denial of the waiver.

Should the EPA grant the waiver, California, and 13 other states will begin a program to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles 30 percent by 2016.

EPA will take public comment concerning the reconsideration of the waiver for a period of 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. There will also be a public hearing to be held in March in Washington, DC.

“Today’s decision is a return to sanity by an agency whose fairness and balance had been sabotaged by the partisan extremism of the Bush Administration,” said California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr.

“This is but a first step, but it signals that this EPA has a renewed commitment to sound science and to rule of law,” he said.

The regulations in question were developed under California’s 2002 vehicle greenhouse gas emissions reduction law AB 1493 authored by then-Assemblymember Fran Pavley, the first global warming law in the nation.

The California Air Resources Board adopted the Pavley regulations in 2005.

Pavley, a Democrat, was elected to the California State Senate in November 2008, where she now chairs the Natural Resources and Water Committee.

The reductions achieved by the Pavley regulations constitute an important element of the California’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2020 enacted into law in 2006.

The Air Resources Board approved the Scoping Plan for this effort in December. It is the nation’s first comprehensive approach to address climate change that draws upon every sector of a state’s economy.

“California has led the way on global warming,” said Attorney General Brown, “and the state should be allowed to continue in its leadership role in reducing automobile emissions and addressing global warming.”

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TOKYO, Japan, January 23, 2009 (ENS) – The first satellite dedicated to monitoring greenhouse gas emissions as part of global efforts to combat climate change was launched into space today from Japan.

The IBUKI, which means “breath,” will circle the globe every 100 minutes at an altitude of some 670 kilometers (416 miles) and will monitor the levels of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane at 56,000 locations.

The satellite will acquire data covering the entire planet every three days and this data will be shared with other space and scientific organizations.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, launched the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) at 12:54 pm Japan Standard Time from the Tanegashima Space Center.

The launch vehicle flew smoothly, and, at about 16 minutes after liftoff, the separation of the IBUKI was confirmed, JAXA officials said.

Japan’s Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite IBUKI (Photo courtesy JAXA)

“The satellite is expected to play an important role in monitoring global environmental changes and look out for any small warning signs that could affect our future,” said JAXA in a statement.

JAXA said the satellite project will observe the concentration distribution of greenhouse gases thought to be a primary cause of global warming, and help reduce carbon dioxide emissions covered by the Kyoto Protocol.

Signed in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, the international treaty that limits the emission of six greenhouse gases took effect in February 2005. The target for Japan is six percent below 1990 levels.

The protocol’s first commitment period expires at the end of 2012 and it is expected to be replaced by a treaty to be finalized in December.

While the Kyoto Protocol requires that 35 industrialized countries meet precise emissions limits, in reality, says IBUKI project manager Takashi Hamazaki, there are no standardized means to measure greenhouse gas emissions, and the amount of emissions reported is based on self-declaration.

The amount is calculated based on assumptions about the volume of the countries’ oil consumption, car-driving distances and industrial gas emissions, among other factors.

“Therefore if GOSAT observation makes it possible to estimate greenhouse-gas absorption and emission per continent or large country, we’ll be able to use the data as a means of verification,” he said.

GOSAT has three major mission objectives. The first is to monitor the density of greenhouse gases precisely and frequently worldwide.

The second is to study the absorption and emission levels of greenhouse gases per continent or large country over a certain period of time.

And the third objective is to develop and establish advanced technologies that are essential for precise greenhouse gas observations.

Hamazaki said, “Over the last few years, global warming has become a serious concern around the world. Discussions on how to reduce the rate of global warming are taking place both domestically and internationally, and include such strategies as reducing the level of carbon dioxide emissions by half over the next 50 years.”

“To accomplish this goal,” Hamazaki said, “we must improve the accuracy of observations and long-term climate-change predictions. Up to now, global warming predictions have been performed by research organizations around the world through supercomputer simulations based on ground observation data.”

In Japan, the National Institute for Environmental Studies, the Meteorological Research Institute, and the University of Tokyo are participating in global warming modeling.

Hamazaki said there are only about 260 ground observation points at present, and they are not evenly distributed, “so we can by no means say we are observing the entire globe.”

“Thus, under the present circumstances, global warming predictions vary and may not be accurate,” he said.

By comparison, he said, GOSAT will have 56,000 observation points on the Earth, and will be able to acquire data covering the entire globe every three days. “We think this will improve the accuracy of global warming predictions.”

IBUKI will be “watching how the Earth breathes,” he said.

Hamazaki says Japan hopes the data gathered by IBUKI will be useful to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which summarizes research results from all over the world. The IPCC will be publishing a report on climate change predictions for the next 100 years.

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CHICAGO, Illinois, January 20, 2009 (ENS) – While the bitter cold of President Barack Obama’s Inauguration Day in Washington may seem to contradict the idea that global warming continues, a new survey reveals consensus among scientists about the reality of climate change and its likely cause.

The survey of 3,146 earth scientists from around the world found overwhelming agreement that in the past 200 years, mean global temperatures have been rising, and that human activity is a “significant contributing factor” in changing mean global temperatures.

Peter Doran, an associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, along with former graduate student Maggie Kendall Zimmerman, conducted the survey late last year.

The findings appeared Monday in the journal “Eos, Transactions,” a publication of the American Geophysical Union.

“The debate on the authenticity of global warming and the role played by human activity is largely nonexistent among those who understand the nuances and scientific basis of long-term climate processes,” the researchers conclude.

There are many human activities and natural processes that contribute to climate change. Burning coal, oil and gas to generate electricity or to power cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships releases greenhouse gases that blanket the planet, keeping the Sun’s heat from radiating back into space.

Cutting forests prevents the trees from absorbing the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. Methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas, is given off by landfills, coal mines, oil and natural gas operations, agriculture, and melting permafrost.

Natural causes also exist. For instance, volcanoes can affect the climate because they can emit aerosols and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Greenhouse gases rise from a petrochemical refinery in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Wolfgang Schlegl)

To overcome criticism of earlier attempts to gauge the view of earth scientists on global warming and the human impact factor, Doran and his team sought the opinion of the most complete list of earth scientists they could find, contacting more than 10,200 experts listed in the 2007 edition of the American Geological Institute’s “Directory of Geoscience Departments.”

Experts in academia and government research centers were e-mailed invitations to participate in the on-line poll conducted by the website www.questionpro.com.

Only those invited could participate and computer IP addresses of participants were recorded and used to prevent repeat voting. Questions used were reviewed by a polling expert who checked for bias in phrasing, such as suggesting an answer by the way a question was worded. The nine-question survey was short, taking just a few minutes to complete.

The 3,146 participating scientists were asked two key questions – “Have mean global temperatures risen compared to pre-1800s levels?” and, “Has human activity been a significant factor in changing mean global temperatures?”

About 90 percent of the respondents agreed with the first question and 82 percent the second.

Doran determined that climatologists who are active in research showed the strongest consensus on the causes of global warming, with 97 percent agreeing humans play a role.

Petroleum geologists and meteorologists were among the biggest doubters, with only 47 and 64 percent, respectively, believing in human involvement.

Doran compared their responses to a recent poll showing only 58 percent of the public thinks human activity contributes to global warming.

“The petroleum geologist response is not too surprising, but the meteorologists’ is very interesting,” he said. “Most members of the public think meteorologists know climate, but most of them actually study very short-term phenomena.”

Doran was not surprised by the near-unanimous agreement by climatologists.

“They’re the ones who study and publish on climate science,” he said. “So I guess the take-home message is, the more you know about the field of climate science, the more you’re likely to believe in global warming and humankind’s contribution to it.”

The challenge now, the researchers say, is how to effectively communicate this to policy makers and to a public that continues to mistakenly perceive debate among scientists.

They can draw support from a statistical study published earlier this month by scientists in Germany and Switzerland who determined that the global increase of warmer years after 1990 is no accident.

The likelihood that the 13 warmest years since 1880 could have occurred after 1990 by accident is no more than one in 10,000, they conclude. Or, in other words, the likelihood is the same as tossing 14 heads in a row in a coin toss.

“Our study is of a purely statistical nature and cannot attribute the increase of warm years to individual factors,” said Dr. Eduardo Zorita at the GKSS Research Center in Geesthacht, Germany.

“But it is in full agreement with the results of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the increased emission of greenhouse gases is mainly responsible for the most recent global warming,” he said.

The results of the statistical study will be published in the journal “Geophysical Research Letters.”

However, some scientists are still climate skeptics. More than 650 dissenting scientists are listed in a report released January 14 by the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s office of the Ranking Member Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma.

A typical comment is that of physicist Dr. Will Happer, a professor at the Department of Physics at Princeton University and former director of energy research at the U.S. Department of Energy, who is quoted in the Inhofe report as saying, “I am convinced that the current alarm over carbon dioxide is mistaken. … Fears about man-made global warming are unwarranted and are not based on good science.”

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TRENTON, New Jersey, December 18, 2008 (ENS) – New Jersey environmental officials have released a proposal to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. Department of Environmental Protection Acting Commissioner Mark Mauriello has invited the public to comment on the recommendations outlined in a draft report published on the state’s Global Warming website.

“While this plan is still in draft form, it lays out an ambitious vision for New Jersey and what we must do to reduce greenhouse gases for the next 40 years,” said Governor Jon Corzine.

“This draft report outlines a New Jersey where employees commute without the frustration of traffic and the air pollution it causes, where energy is clean, and where waste is a thing of the past,” the governor said. “Such ambitions are the future of our environment and our economy.”

New Jersey’s B.L. England power plant operated
by Rockland Capital Energy Investments burns
coal and oil. (Photo by Curt Bergesen)

The state will host six meetings in January to solicit input on the plan. The draft report is a key requirement of the Global Warming Response Act, signed by Governor Corzine on July 6, 2007, that calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, followed by a further reduction of emissions to 80 percent below 2006 levels by 2050.

The draft report outlines the necessary implementation steps that New Jersey must take over the next 18 months in order to meet the statewide 2020 limit, and put the state on the right path for achieving the statewide 2050 limit.

The plan reinforces three of the state’s core environmental programs that are aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from New Jersey’s largest contributors – the transportation and energy sectors.

The Energy Master Plan establishes the framework for reducing New Jersey’s energy demands through incentives that encourage investment in renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.

The state’s Low Emission Vehicle, which becomes effective on January 1, 2009, will achieve twice the reduction in greenhouse gases as the Federal clean car standards.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a 10-state northeastern and mid-Atlantic initiative, is reducing carbon output from power plants in the region through a cap-and-trade market-based approach. New Jersey is participating in RGGI’s second carbon auction that took place on Wednesday.

The plan also provides supporting recommendations that include legislative and regulatory actions, as well as additional market-based initiatives that encourage investment in innovative environmentally-friendly technologies.

The draft report and a list of dates and times for the public meetings are listed on the state’s global warming website at: www.nj.gov/globalwarming.

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SAN FRANCISCO, California, December 17, 2008 (ENS) – Regulations announced by Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne last week that would exempt many federal activities, including those that generate greenhouse gases, from review under the Endangered Species Act were published in the Federal Register Tuesday.

But the regulations are being challenged in court by three conservation groups – the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace and Defenders of Wildlife, who filed suit in federal court for the Northern District of California the day the regulations were announced, December 11.

Unless overturned in court, the regulations will take effect on January 11, nine days before President-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated and the presidency of George W. Bush comes to a close.

“These regulations undermine fundamental protections for the nation’s endangered species,” said Noah Greenwald with the Center for Biological Diversity. “We hope an Obama administration or Congress will act quickly to undo this 11th hour attempt to weaken our most important law for protecting wildlife.”

The lawsuit argues that the regulations violate the Endangered Species Act and did not go through the required public review process. The regulations, first proposed on August 11, were rushed by the Bush administration through an abbreviated process in which more than 300,000 comments from the public were reviewed in three weeks, and environmental impacts were analyzed in a brief environmental assessment, rather than a fuller environmental impact statement.

“This is a clear example of a lame duck administration ramming through weakened regulations that are opposed by Congress and the public,” Greenwald said. “When the survival of species hangs in the balance, public policy should not be rushed.”

Under current regulations, federal agencies must consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service if the agencies permit, fund, or otherwise carry out actions that “may affect” endangered species, or if the Service has already determined those actions adversely affect endangered species.

Under the new regulations, federal agencies will themselves determine whether their actions are likely to adversely affect endangered species. That finding would determine whether the agency must consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Announcing the final regulations, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said, “With the regulations finalized today, federal agencies must still follow all existing consultation procedures, except in specific and limited instances where an action is not anticipated to adversely impact any member of a listed species.”

Polar bear clings to a shrinking ice floe
in a warming world. (Photo credit unknown)

The policy would also prohibit any consideration of the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions from federal projects on endangered species such as the polar bear.

“When I announced the listing of the polar bear as threatened in May, I agreed with the President that the Endangered Species Act is not the right tool to set climate change policy,” Kempthorne said. “I also announced that day that we would propose common sense modifications to the existing regulations in order to provide greater certainty that the listing would not become a back door for setting climate change policy.”

Anticipating criticism of the regulations, Kempthorne said, “Importantly, the new regulations do not remove all consideration of the effects of climate change. Climate change should be considered when determining the environmental conditions under which actions are taking place.

He gave the example of a project that would pull water from a lake and it is predicted that, because of climate change, water levels in that lake will already be significantly reduced, then the expected lower lake levels should be taken into consideration, he said.

The U.S. Geological Survey has published a series of reports predicting that due to climate change loss of summer sea ice, crucial habitat for polar bears, could lead to the death of two-thirds of the world’s polar bears by mid-century, including all of Alaska’s polar bears.

The polar bear was listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act on May 14, 2008. The conservation groups’ lawsuit seeks to ensure that the polar bear receives the full protections that other species receive under the law.

The polar bear is the largest of the world’s bear species and is distributed among 19 Arctic subpopulations – two of which, the Chukchi and the Southern Beaufort Sea populations, are located within the United States.

Polar bears are threatened with extinction from global warming, which is melting the Arctic sea ice where polar bears hunt for ringed and bearded seals, their primary food source.

“This rule makes a mockery of the Endangered Species Act, our nation’s most important wildlife protection law,” said Defenders of Wildlife Executive Vice President Jamie Rappaport Clark, who headed the Fish and Wildlife Service under the Clinton administration.

“The polar bear doesn’t have time for political maneuvers. Its habitat is melting away, its food is becoming scarce and the science is clear that the cause is global warming – yet the rule this administration released today affirms that little will be done to save the species from sure extinction,” said Clark.

Listing polar bears as threatened should help protect polar bear habitat from threats such as oil and gas development, which the Bush administration is aggressively pursuing in the Chukchi Sea north of Alaska and has even proposed in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which provides the primary land denning habitat for the species, she said.

“Instead, the administration has made it clear with its 4(d) rule that the ESA will not provide any additional protections from these and other harmful activities than those that already exist under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and will provide no protection against emissions of greenhouse gases that are causing the rise in global temperatures that directly threaten the polar bear,” said Clark.

Greenwald said, “The polar bear and numerous other species threatened by climate change need the protections of the Endangered Species Act to survive.”

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SACRAMENTO, California, December 4, 2008 (ENS) – California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. once again is urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to use its authority under the Clean Air Act to combat climate change.

With U.S. greenhouse gas emissions rising year after year, according to a report issued this week by the U.S. Energy Department, and with the UN’s annual climate conference now taking place in Poland, Brown and other attorneys general say this is the time for the EPA to protect the climate.

“After eight years of foot-dragging, it is time for the EPA to reverse its shameful inaction on global warming and use its authority under the Clean Air Act to combat dangerous climate change,” Brown said.

Brown joined with 13 other attorneys general; the California Air Resources Board and four other state environmental agencies; the cities of Minneapolis, Seattle and Salt Lake City; and the New York City Corporation Counsel in writing a letter to the federal agency that lays out key principles EPA should adhere to in regulating greenhouse gases.

Separately, Brown submitted a comment letter to EPA responding to the 500-page advance notice of rulemaking for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act issued by EPA over the summer.

Both letters called on EPA to make a determination as to whether greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare – as required by the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA.

Gridlock on a Los Angeles freeway (Photo
credit unknown)

The letters requested that the EPA reverse the denial of California’s preemption waiver for California’s landmark greenhouse gas automobile regulations, allowing California and the 13 other states that have adopted these standards to begin immediately enforcing the regulations.

The states of Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington joined California in writing to the federal agency.

They requested the EPA to adopt controls for large polluting sources such as coal-fired power plants, cement plants and refineries.

And they asked the EPA to adopt controls for cars, trucks, aircraft, ocean-going vessels, and non-road engines that are responsible for more than one-third of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

“Technology to reduce emissions from these sources is available and cost-effective,” Brown said.

In the joint letter to EPA, Brown and his co-authors wrote, “The Clean Air Act is one of our most successful regulatory programs. It has a proven track record of effectively dealing with complex air pollution problems that implicate a multitude of sources and a wide range of economic activities, and it has done so without harming the economy.”

The attorneys general said in their letter that they “strongly disagree” with claims by departing EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson that the Clean Air Act is ill-suited to the task of regulating greenhouse gases.

As the analysis by EPA’s professional staff in the advance notice of rulemaking points out, “the Clean Air Act provides EPA with flexibility to regulate through a variety of approaches, including performance standards, operational controls, market-based incentives and other measures, and also to tailor its traditional strategies to suit the particular challenges posed by GHG emissions,” the attorneys general wrote.

But while the state attorneys general are critical of the EPA’s approach to climate change, the agency said in a November 18 statement that it and the U.S. Energy Department “are helping states lead the way in an effort to promote low cost energy efficiency.”

The remark came as the EPA introduced an updated version of the “National Action Plan Vision for 2025: A Framework for Change,” produced by more than 60 energy, environmental and state policy leaders.

The updated action plan outlines strategies to help lower the growth in energy demand across the country by more than 50 percent, and shows ways to save more than $500 billion in net savings over the next 20 years.

“These actions may help to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 90 million vehicles,” the agency said.

“The significant action taken by states, utilities and energy customers advances low cost energy solutions,” said Robert Meyers, principal deputy assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. “The plan is a big step toward a more energy-efficient future, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while growing the American economy.”

The action plan contains data showing that states, utilities and other organizations are spending about $2 billion per year on energy efficiency programs. It shows that they have saved the energy equivalent of more than 30 power plants generating 500 megawatts of electricity and that they helped reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those emitted by nine million vehicles.

Initiated in 2005, the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency is directed by a group of 30 electric and gas utilities, 20 state agencies and 12 other organizations. It is designed to help electric and natural gas ratepayers increase energy efficiency while saving money. Some of the same states are involved in this plan as signed the attorneys general’s letter – California, Connecticut, Massachusett, and New York.

More than 120 organizations have endorsed the original recommendations of the national action plan and have committed to making it a reality.

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WASHINGTON, DC, December 3, 2008 (ENS) – Total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions were 7,282 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent in 2007 – an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2006 level, federal government figures show.

The figures are contained in an annual report titled, “Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2007,” released today by the Energy Information Administration, the independent statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy.

Since 1990, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have grown at an average annual rate of 0.9 percent.

U.S. greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product, known as greenhouse gas intensity, fell from 636 metric tons per million 2000 constant dollars of Gross Domestic Product in 2006 to 632 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent per million dollars of GDP in 2007 – a decline of 0.6 percent from the 2006 level.
Reliant Energy’s coal-fired Pleasants power plant in West Virginia (Photo by Stefan Schlöhmer)

Since 1990, the annual average decline in greenhouse gas intensity has been 1.9 percent.

The United States keeps track of six greenhouse gases – the same six gases governed by the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty limiting greenhouse gas emissions which the U.S. government signed but never ratified.

The six gases are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride.

Total estimated U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2007 consisted of 6,022 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, which represents 82.6 percent of the total greenhouse gases emitted from U.S. sources.

In 2007, the U.S. emitted 700 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent of methane (9.6 percent of total emissions); 384 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent of nitrous oxide (5.3 percent of total emissions); and 177 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent of hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride (2.4 percent of total emissions).

Burning of the fossil fuels coal, oil and gas as well as deforestation leads to higher carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere.

Emissions of carbon dioxide from energy consumption and industrial processes, which had risen at an average annual rate of 1.1 percent per year from 1990 to 2006, increased by 1.3 percent in 2007.

Unfavorable weather patterns, where both heating and cooling degree-days were higher in 2007 than 2006, and an increase in the carbon intensity of electricity generation, driven by decreased availability of hydropower, both contributed to higher energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2007, explains the Energy Information Administration report.

Methane emissions increased by 1.9 percent, while nitrous oxide emissions rose by 2.2 percent.

Methane is emitted by livestock enteric fermentation and manure management, paddy rice farming, land use and wetland changes, pipeline losses, and covered vented landfill emissions, leading to higher methane atmospheric concentrations.

Agricultural activities, including the use of fertilizers, lead to higher nitrous oxide concentrations in the atmosphere.

Emissions of HFCs, PFCs, and SF6, a group labeled collectively as “high-GWP gases” because of their high heat-trapping capabilities, increased by 3.3 percent. These last three are human-made gases, sometimes called potent industrial greenhouse gases or fluorinated greenhouse gases.

HFCs, PFCs and SF6 have extremely high global warming potentials and are being emitted at a rapidly increasing rate – predictions indicate worldwide emissions could rise 150 percent between 1995 and 2010.

U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions are projected to increase at an average annual rate of 0.5 percent from 2005 to 2030, while emissions from the developing economies are projected to grow by 2.5 percent per year.

As a result, the U.S. share of world carbon dioxide emissions is projected to fall to 16 percent in 2030, down from about 21 percent of the world total in 2005.

According to a preliminary estimate by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, the largest national producer of carbon dioxide emissions since 2006 has been China with an estimated annual production of about 6200 megatonnes.

China is followed by the United States with about 5,800 megatonnes. Yet the per capita emission figures of China are still about one quarter of those of the U.S. population.

To read the full U.S. Energy Information Administration report click here [www.eia.doe.gov].

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DOHA, Qatar, November 20, 2008 (ENS) – Military experts from Australia, the Netherlands and the United States will help save the ozone layer and fight global warming under a unique partnership between the United Nations, national governments and the armed services.

Spearheaded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Defense, the new program will make use of technical experts in the military already on the ground.

The initiative was announced to delegates from more than 150 governments who are concluding a five-day meeting in Doha of Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

Marco Gonzalez, executive secretary of the UN Environment Programme’s Ozone Secretariat, said, “The military in many countries have been at the forefront of efforts to phase out ozone depleting substances, ODS. Their experience can be invaluable for developing countries facing similar challenges.”

More than 90 percent of the chemicals that damage the ozone – the thin, high layer of gas that filters out the Sun’s harmful ultra-violet rays – have been phased out since the Montreal Protocol took effect in 1987. But the chemicals are stockpiled in old equipment that will soon come to the end of life.

Cylinders containing halon, a ozone depleter
used to fight fires (Photo courtesy IAEA)

]

Delegates at Doha learned that releases from these sources could add to ozone depletion as well as climate change because many of these substances are also potent greenhouse gases.

Without action to safely remove and destroy these chemicals, experts fear that by 2015 releases equivalent to several billion metric tonnes of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide could occur.

The military experts are offering to assist countries in the safe collection of stockpiles and banks of unwanted, ozone-damaging substances. They will give support and advice on the shipping, labeling and other procedures needed to fast-track the chemicals to disposal centers around the world.

The partnership could dramatically cut the costs of the disposal of ozone-depleting chemicals such as halons, hydrofluorocarbons and chlorofluorocarbons to a third or less of the current market cost. These and other chemicals containing chlorine and bromine were once used as refrigerants, for cleaning circuit boards, in aerosol sprays and to fight fires until they were phased out under the Montreal Protocol.

“The United States is committed to actions under the Montreal Protocol for the benefit of the global climate system and fragile ozone layer,” said James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. “Experts who responsibly manage military ozone-depleting substances can transfer that know-how throughout the world to recover and destroy a significant portion of unwanted or unusable ozone-depleting substances.”

Argentina will be one of the first countries to take advantage of this opportunity to safely dispose of the obsolete chemicals.

“Argentina is proud to be one of the leaders promoting the climate benefits of the Montreal Protocol, and we welcome the opportunity to work with the technical logistics experts from the militaries of the world to continue these efforts to realize benefits for both the climate system and the ozone layer,” said Romina Picolotti, secretary of environment for Argentina.

“The Netherlands is proud of our national leadership in combined ODS banking for both industry and the military and pleased to share everything we know that can protect the global environment,” said Anton Janssen, who heads the Knowledge Centre for Occupational Safety and Health and Environment within the Netherlands Ministry of Defence.

“Technical cooperation on ODS application and replacement avoids costly duplication of effort and builds trust and networks so experts can work together for the good of human society,” said Janssen.

Many armed forces have existing, competitively priced contracts already in place for destroying ozone-damaging chemicals found as gases and foams in old military air-conditioning units and other kinds of army, navy and air force equipment.

The partners hope that by joining forces, civilian destruction programs will be able to benefit from these low-cost contracts, making them cheaper and more attractive to undertake.

Delegates at the opening of the high-level
segment of the Montreal Protocol meeting
in Doha. Laptops were everywhere at this
paperless conference. November 19, 2008
(Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulletin)

The UNEP Ozone Secretariat will act as coordinator with the Secretariat of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal and other conventions to ensure the transport of unwanted ozone-depleting substances to countries with destruction facilities is correctly permitted.

Officials say this coordination will streamline the shipments of chemicals to proper destruction facilities.

“It is an honor for military logistics experts to use their considerable talent and experience to help the world protect the stratospheric ozone and climate,” said Robert Thien, U.S. Department of Defense ODS Program Manager.

“I am confident that the United States Department of Defense and our partners can provide guidance to developing nations concerning collecting, storing and banking and someday destroying CFCs, HCFCs and other ozone-depleting substances that also threaten climate,” said Thien.

“The military’s leadership shown by these partners will earn the praise of environmentalists and compliance officials from around the world,” said Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, and director of the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement, a network of 4,000 environmental authorities in more than 150 countries.

Zaelke said, “Protecting the Earth against climate change is an environmental security campaign that we all support.”

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