Louis CK: Shouldn't All Christians be Environmentalists?

Continuing the rebuttal to Rick Santorum's contention that God's cool with us destroying the planet, from Louis CK's Live at the Beacon Theater:

Graphic via WarmingGlow.UpRoxx.com - go see their Louis CK slideshow.

Warm Spring is Bad News for Virginia Wine

The global warming-fueled heat wave that's gripped much of America this month may be good news for March picnics, but it's terrible for Virginia wine lovers. Wine grape vines are already waking up, posing a twofold threat - hotter temperatures can mean less flavorful wine, and a sudden frost could devastate the crop:

Workers at Tomahawk Mill Winery in Chatham are certainly concerned. They say they are usually working in the cold right now wearing two pairs of socks and gloves. But while it's nice to work in this weather, the grapes don't like it one bit.

Corky Medaglia, owner of Tomahawk Mill Winery, always says: "When God gives you lemons you make lemonade. And when God gives you grapes, you make wine."  

But within his 17 years working the vineyards, he has never seen a winter like this one. "Sap is coming up because the temperatures are going up. And this guy thinks it's spring time," said Medaglia. 

Meteorologists say there's a 50/50 chance of a surprise frost. And looking ahead, hotter summers are no kinder to wine grapes - when temperatures top 95 degrees, the vine's respiration system can shut down.

(To be clear, the photo with this story is from 2007, not a photo of what the grapes look like right now.)

'God Wouldn't Let Us Destroy the Climate': A Brief Rebuttal

So why did God let us light the Cuyahoga River on fire? Does God just really hate Cleveland? What about smog - God hates kids with asthma?

I missed the part in the Bible about God cleaning up our messes for us. God is not our mom - no, wait, mom wouldn't pick up after you, either.

Maybe people like Rick Santorum and Jim Inhofe should stop acting like bratty kids and take responsibility for our mess instead of leaving it for someone else to deal with.

New Study: Global Warming Could Push DC Cherry Blossoms into February

The National Park Service now agrees with what the Capital Weather Gang first predicted - our warm winter will have the Tidal Basin's cherry blossoms challenging the earliest peak bloom record, continuing the global warming-fueled trend. As this photo from Flickr's Richard Cline shows, they're already beginning to emerge.

A 2000 Smithsonian study showed the climate crisis already has the cherry blossoms emerging about a week earlier than they used to - but a new report says that could be just the tip of the iceberg:

Now comes a team of scientists theorizing that with drastic warming of the globe, future decades could see blossom times not just a few days early but advanced by almost a month.

That could mean a bloom process that begins in January, rather than February, a blooming period in February instead of March, and a peak bloom in early March, instead of early April, the research suggests.

Oddly, the study doesn't frame the challenge not as one of limiting our use of carbon-intensive fuels like oil and coal, but one strictly of limiting population growth:

According to the more dire global warming scenario the scientists used — one with unchecked global population growth — the District’s cherry trees could be blooming 29 days earlier by 2080 and 13 days earlier by 2050.

A less severe scenario, with eventually declining population, had the trees blooming 10 days earlier by 2080 and five days earlier by 2050.

With more near-record warmth forecast today, it's a reminder that we can't wait to cut carbon pollution - and that if we don't, earlier cherry blossoms will be the least of our worries.

New Study Details Threat of Global Warming-Fueled Sea Level Rise in Virginia

Sea levels have already risen 8 inches since 1880 and thanks to global warming are forecast to rise at least several more feet in the lifetime of a child born today. A new study from Climate Central takes a look at what that means for people who live on America's coasts:

The studies look at people who live in homes within three feet of high tide, whereas old studies looked just at elevation above sea level, according to work published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research and an accompanying report by Climate Central.

That's an important distinction because using high tide is more accurate for flooding impacts, said study co-author Jonathan Overpeck, a scientist at the University of Arizona's Institute of the Environment. And when the new way of looking at risk is factored in, the outlook looks worse, Overpeck said.

"It's shocking to see how large the impacts could be, particularly in southern Florida and Louisiana, but much of the coastal U.S. will share in the serious pain," Overpeck said.

And what about here in Virginia? I entered a very modest number - three feet of sea level rise, storm surge & tide - into the ClimateCentral.org model & here's what I got:

Things below +3ft in Virginia:

• Population 58,507 0.7%
• Homes 28,511 0.8%
• Acres 157,123 0.6%

Over 1 in 6 chance sea level rise + storm surge + tide will overtop +3ft by 2020 at nearest flood risk indicator site: Lewisetta - Potomac River, 116 miles away.

View the model for yourself and see what different levels of sea level rise would mean for your community:

 

WJLA Makes Coverage of Climate's Impact on Warm Weather Look Easy

Reporters make covering the relationship between extreme weather and climate change seem really hard. It doesn't have to be! Take today's story from WJLA's John Gonzalez:

• It's much warmer than average
• That's good in some ways and bad in others
• Climate science tells us it fits a long-term pattern and we can expect more of it if we don't cut our carbon pollution
• Moms doing their exercises outdoors! With cute babies!

And that's it! Not controversial. Not political. No sound bite from the American Petroleum Institute necessary. Just the facts.

Many reporters think the way to dodge politics and controversy is to avoid mentioning the connection between climate change and extreme weather altogether. Just the opposite! Omitting facts and leaving a void of confusion in their place is no better than manufacturing a false "balance" with he said, she said reporting.

NASA's James Hansen: Continued Climate Inaction "Immoral"

Here's a new TED Talk from Dr. James Hansen, NASA climate scientist. Dr. Hansen explains how he wrote a paper in 1981 predicting "the 21st century would see shifting climate zones, creation of drought prone regions in North America and Asia, erosion of ice sheets, rising sea levels, and opening of the fabled Northwest passage. All of these impacts have since either happened or are now well underway."



If you're at the office and can't watch video, read a good summary of Hansen's talk from ClimateProgress.org.

It's a stark reminder that while polluters & their allies accuse climate scientists of being "alarmist," the predictions of climate scientists to this point have more often been too conservative. The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just issued its Fourth Assessment in 2007, but many climate scientists already think its predictions were far too cautious given our rapid climate changes and the continued acceleration of global carbon pollution.

By the way, are you familiar with TED Talks? The acronym stands for Technology, Entertainment & Design and the organization describes itself simply as a "nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading." Their podcasts are indispensable - brilliant ideas explained in easy to understand terms in around 15 minutes.

Ken Cuccinelli's Quixotic War on Climate Science Finally Ends

How much damage has Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli done with his baseless legal attacks on climate science? The Washington Post editorial board surveys the damage done by Cuccinelli's climate witch hunt:

This month, after nearly two years of legal proceedings, the Virginia Supreme Court halted the attorney general’s investigation of Mr. Mann, who used to teach at the University of Virginia. Twisting a law designed to root out embezzlement of state funds and the like, the attorney general had demanded oceans of documents — including Mr. Mann’s e-mail correspondence — from U-Va. But, along with some technical legal problems with his demand, Mr. Cuccinelli didn’t offer any reasonable suspicion that Mr. Mann had committed anything resembling fraud — even as the attorney general proposed violating scientists’ sacrosanct freedom to conduct research without political pressure. Multiple independent reviews of Mr. Mann’s record have found that the professor did little more than participate in the normal push-and-pull of scientific inquiry. [...]

Now that the Supreme Court has shut Mr. Cuccinelli down, what’s left is a range of consequences that can only hurt the commonwealth. The university had to raise nearly $600,000 for legal fees — money the cash-strapped university should have been able to use for something productive. On top of that are the public resources of the attorney general’s office that Mr. Cuccinelli wasted. Scientists in Virginia now have reason to wonder whether they will suffer similar pressure if they publish research government officials don’t like. And, because of some of the Supreme Court’s legal findings, the powers of the attorney general to pursue actual fraud have been clipped.

Tea Party activists claim to stand for fiscal restraint - then waste huge piles of taxpayer money on political witch hunts. Tea Party activists claim to stand for freedom - then bully scientists whose research contradicts Tea Party political beliefs. Tea Party activists claim to stand for limited government - then work to pass laws mandating the invasion of women's bodies.

Fraud like Cuccinelli's is exactly what they demand. If GOP activists continue to let the Tea Party inmates run the asylum, we should only expect more of it.

Virginia Home to 4 of SELC's Top 10 Endangered Places

The Southern Environmental Law Center recently released its Top 10 Endangered Places of 2012. Virginia has four of the top 10, a testament to both Virginia's immense natural beauty and our Republican-controlled government's disinterest in preserving it.

President Obama on Investing in a Clean Energy Future

President Obama delivers his weekly address from the Rolls-Royce Crosspointe Centre plant in Petersburg, Virginia that makes fuel-efficient jet engines: