Washington Post Ignores Climate Impacts, Wonders Why People Are Ignorant on Climate Impacts

The Washington Post's Darryl Fears, who conspicuously left climate change out of his recent article on the impacts of sea level rise on the Virginia coast, today has a follow-up article on how some people don't think climate change is connected to sea level rise.

Gee, I wonder why people are so in the dark about climate science? It's quite the puzzler.

BBC: "The Disappearing Island in the Chesapeake Bay"

Virginia's Tangier Island was first settled 325 years ago. But as the BBC reports, thanks to a combination of a  Chesapeake Bay polluted by unchecked runoff, rising sea levels fueled by global warming, an eroding shoreline fueled by natural subsidence, Tangier Island is slowly disappearing into the Bay:


Learn in the National Wildlife Federation's 2008 report on the Chesapeake Bay & sea level rise.

Bay Oysters Held Hostage: Virginia Demands Everything For Nothing

It's not something you'd expect to hear from a government run by people who claim to be fiscal conservatives: Virginia is threatening to pull out of oyster restoration work because federal officials won't give free handouts to Virginia businesses.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission is objecting to federal rules that say oyster reefs restored with federal money can't be commercially harvested. It's also balking at the $500,000 contribution to receive $2 million in federal oyster reef restoration money.

But those federal rules exist to protect taxpayers. After all, why should public tax dollars be used to subsidize an oyster reef, only to have those oysters turned over to private watermen as a political favor? If Virginia officials want to enrich private businesses with public dollars, why not just save the time & effort and hand tax dollars directly to the watermen? Oh, right - because that would make Gov. Bob McDonnell look like a tax-and-spend socialist. Much better to demand the feds do it for him!

Of course, there are plenty of benefits of healthy oysters besides their commercial value. They'll make new oysters, provide food for other tasty things like crabs, and filter Chesapeake Bay water that's in desperate need of cleaning. So why not chip in the 25% to get a federal windfall?

Despite Gov. Bob McDonnell's claims that Virginia's in the money, Virginia is so short on cash it's basically collecting bottles to return for the deposit:

Lacking cash, the state has been using the value of old oyster shells as its matching share; shells are the building blocks of new reefs.

But the state is running out of oyster shells and already is being forced to mine ancient shells buried within river beds to keep pace with construction needs.

You see, ever since they cut a deal in 2004 with then-governor Mark Warner to raise taxes to fund things like roads & schools and Warner got the credit, Virginia Republicans refuse to raise taxes for any reason ever. Then, thanks in large part to George W. Bush's economic policies, the economy crashed, dramatically reducing tax revenue. Combine the two and, well, Virginia's now literally scraping the bottom of the river.

Forced to pay our bills with oyster shells - and now demanding a free ride because we've run out of even those. Is this any way to run a state? Why won't Gov. McDonnell put aside politics and figure out how to sensibly raise the cash we need to pay our bills?

EPA Moves to Restore Chesapeake Bay

Since the attempts of Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) to protect his big agriculture & tobacco donors the Chesapeake Bay were flunked, I'm glad to see President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency stepping in to provide a real plan:

Shawn M. Garvin, the agency's regional administrator for the mid-Atlantic, described the plan as "the largest water pollution strategy plan in the nation" and possibly "number one or number two" in the world. He noted that it will affect "basically every drop of water that gets to the bay" from as far north as Upstate New York.

The legally enforceable road map, which runs roughly 200 pages along with 800 pages of appendices, will help determine everything from how pig farms in West Virginia will dispose of waste to the way Pennsylvania copes with stormwater runoff. Environmentalists hailed it as the most promising plan the United States has ever adopted to revive an estuary plagued by low oxygen and struggling fish and oyster populations, while some critics warned it could be costly and hard to execute.

It's saving the Bay that could be costly? Damaging the Bay has cost the economies of Virginia, Maryland & DC more than $4 billion over the last 30 years. Hopefully the EPA's plan is the first step towards real leadership on restoration - something that's been lacking in a generation worth of elected officials from both political parties.

Sierra Club Flunks McDonnell on Chesapeake Bay

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell ran claiming to be a sensible moderate. But his governance record is clear -- from trying to privatize Virginia ABC stores at a massive loss to taxpayers to ignoring Metro's desperate need for funding, Bob McDonnell puts big business first & the little guy last.

Nowhere does that record become more stark than on environmental issues. McDonnell has made it clear that the agricultural interests like cigarette companies & pork processors that have given him over $1 million come first & the Chesapeake Bay comes last.

Now the Virginia Sierra Club has issued its Chesapeake Bay Report Card, making it clear that when it comes to the Bay, Bob McDonnell has been a total failure:

McDonnell: Meh, Chesapeake Bay Fine The Way It Is

Dead zones spawned by runoff from farm fields, urban sprawl & inadequate water treatment plants? Crab populations constantly on the brink of collapse? Oysters in need of human helping hands just to survive? Watermen having to go to court to preserve their way of life?

Gov. Bob McDonnell's response: Sounds fine to me!

The restoration plan developed by Virginia offers tax incentives to farmers to use pollution- and erosion-reducing practices, yet still estimates the cost to agriculture could range up to $800 million. It also calls for the expansion of other programs intended to limit bay pollution.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation was unsparing in its criticism, saying the plan lacks details and is "stunningly deficient on how the commonwealth will implement many of these proposals."

J.R. Tolbert, assistant director of the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, said the plan relies too heavily on voluntary measures and General Assembly passage of program expansions aimed at a cleaner bay. He called it a "status quo" plan.

"I think our governor has an approach that the free market is going to solve all the problems of the world," Tolbert said. "We've spent the last 25 years relying on the free market to clean up the Chesapeake Bay and, while we've made a little bit of progress, we have failed time and time again."

Considering McDonnell has gotten more than $1.1 million from agriculture interests in his career, should we be surprised who he's looking out for here?

New Links Between Environment, Economy, Public Health

Over at Grist, Dave Roberts reviews some recent studies on the economic impacts of environmental issues and concludes:

One thing they all have in common: an environment-degrading practice often defended as necessary to economic health is revealed, upon closer inspection, to be uneconomic. I wonder how many other allegedly economic environment-degrading practices would also be revealed uneconomic if examined with a fresh eye?

It’s almost like the economy is embedded in an environment, and degrading the latter ultimately degrades the former.

And in today's Washington Post, David Fahrenthold reports:

The same pollution problems that afflict the Chesapeake Bay's fish and crabs -- high levels of mercury in fish, neon-colored algae blooms and voracious bacteria -- can also threaten the health of people who fish, boat and swim in the estuary, according to a new report.

The report, released today by the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation, pointed out that the threat of infection from pollutants that wash into the bay from onshore is great enough that health authorities recommend not swimming until 48 hours after a significant rain.

You know that old myth about how you can put a frog in water and slowly turn up the heat and the frog won't notice until it's boiling? That's us when it comes to the Bay. We've been sitting here, not noticing the minor changes as the Bay slowly degrades. Now we can't even swim in our own Bay after a heavy rainfall.

It's happened gradually enough that what should be a shocking change is received not with outrage but with resignation.

Bay-Friendly Dishwashing Detergent Hits The Teet

The Green Miles takes so many cell phone pictures at Harris Teeter, they must think I'm a Safeway spy or something.

But there's good news to report. The Teet is now stocking Palmolive Eco dishwashing detergent, a phosphate-free alternative. As Grist's Ask Umbra reports, most dishwashing detergents use phosphates, which contribute to algae blooms and dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay even though natural enzymes work just as well.

Virginia recently joined Maryland in banning phosphates from dishwasher detergent effective 2010. The legislation passed the Virginia General Assembly last year without a single opposing vote.

The Teet also recently added an extensive selection of Seventh Generation products, so there are natural alternatives available for all sorts of kitchen and bathroom cleaners.

Virginia Makes Sure Your Dishwasher Doesn't Pollute the Chesapeake Bay

Good news from Richmond:

Dishwasher detergent may make your stemware sparkle, but the phosphates contained in most brands are among the most damaging pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay.

Now, Virginia is poised to ban phosphates from all home dishwasher detergents, a move environmental groups say will reduce one of the major contaminants dumped in the bay each year. [...]

Under the new rules, phosphorus will be eliminated from home dishwasher detergents except for a trace level of a half-percent or less.

I wasn't aware of the dishwasher detergent-Bay pollution link until this bill came along. I looked for phosphate-free dishwasher detergent at my grocery store, but every brand contained around 8% phosphate.

Virginia joins Maryland in banning phosphates from dishwasher detergent effective 2010. It's a small step towards improving the Bay's health, but every step is a good one!

Video: CCAN's "Keep Winter Cold" Polar Bear Plunge

Ask The Green Miles: Most Vulnerable to Sea Level Rise?

A question from The Green Miles' dad:

Is there a place that would show a rising ocean first and most dramatically? Would it be Florida, Holland, Venice, Bangladesh, some Pacific Island group, or where? Or is it too soon for that kind of extrapolation?

Too soon? The impacts are already right here in my backyard. No fewer than 13 islands in the Chesapeake Bay have already been swallowed up by rising sea level. According to a recent National Wildlife Federation report, over the last century air temperatures in the Bay region have risen 1.4 degrees, water temperatures are up two degrees, and sea levels have risen two feet. That's due mostly to thermal expansion (warmer water takes up more space than cooler water), not melting glaciers or ice caps as commonly though.

But back to the question. Obviously I am not a scientist, so my answer will be more subjective based on what I've seen and read, but this is a blog and you should know this already. In the US, the these are the areas that are most screwed when it comes to rising sea levels:

- New Orleans (I know, you're shocked). It's below sea level already and still sinking due to subsidence, the natural compression of land composed of flood deposits. Why hasn't this been a problem until now? Because before people came along, the land would sink, then Mississippi would flood and retreat, leaving a layer of sand and silt to build it back up. Then we decided to put levees up and build on the floodplain. Now there's just sinking, no silting.
- Hampton Roads, VA (Hampton/Norfolk/Newport News/Virginia Beach), just a few feet above sea level and home to major naval installations.
- Miami, three feet above sea level.
- Lower Manhattan and its hundreds of miles of subway tunnels.

All of the above are not only below or right at sea level but are in prime hurricane landfall zones. But let's be honest - as the richest country in the world, America can afford to build flood barriers or even relocate key populations without a devastating economic impact. Globally, it's the poor nations that can't afford to adapt that will be hit the hardest.

Island nations just a few meters above sea level like The Maldives face grave threats, but for total number of people threatened, I'd have to go with Bangladesh. Not like they're so safe and sound to begin with - a recent cyclone killed 3,400 people, about twice as many people as killed by Hurricane Katrina. One estimate says just a 1.5 meter rise in sea level could affect 17 million people in Bangladesh.

The most frightening part about sea level rise is that no one can truly say how fast it will occur. The human brain tends to think of everything as rational and directly related - a 1% rise in temperature will result in a 1% rise in sea level. But as anyone who has ever, say, made ice knows, at the margin a one degree difference is all it takes to go from solid ice to water.

How will we know if and when we're approaching a similar tipping point? The United Nations International Panel on Climate Change has more or less punted on the issue, focusing on sea level rise probability due to known factors like thermal expansion. Now Arctic Sea ice is retreating faster than even the most pessimistic projections. Can anyone say definitively that Greenland's ice sheet, with its potential to raise sea levels 20 feet, won't beat expectations as well?

Wikipedia can tell you much more about sea level rise. And if you have a question about the environment, ask The Green Miles!

Senate Hearing Highlights Warming's Threat to VA's Coast

I was lucky enough to be able to attend yesterday's Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on how global warming will impact the Chesapeake Bay (I work for the National Wildlife Federation). Gov. Tim Kaine and Sen. Jim Webb testified and Sen. John Warner sits on the committee.

Gov. Kaine did a masterful job of laying out the threats Virginia faces and calling for a national cap-and-trade system to limit carbon emissions:

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine told a Senate committee that low-lying Hampton Roads is considered the second most vulnerable population center in the country to rising sea levels linked to global warming. Only New Orleans is more exposed, he said.

"My message to you," Kaine told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, "is that each day that legislative action is delayed will have negative consequences for the Chesapeake Bay."

Also at the hearing, the NWF released a new report on how global warming will impact the Bay's fish and wildlife.When Kaine mentioned Virginia is a national leader in technology jobs, Sen. Warner said he hoped Virginia would soon be a national leader in "green collar" jobs -- producing low-carbon-emissions technologies. Neither Gov. Kaine nor I had heard the term, but we both had the same reaction -- excellent nickname for the industry!

In addition, the morning featured a bit of political theater, with some fireworks between Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and America's leading climate change denier, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK).

You can read transcripts and watch video of the entire hearing at the Senate EPW Committee website.

Cross-posted from Raising Kaine

Week of Bad News for Region's Water

Just about every day for the last week, the Washington Post has had a story about a threat to our region's water -- both in streams and in taps. The most worrisome report concerned levels of chlorine pollutants in DC's drinking water:

Toxic chlorine pollutants were found at unsafe levels in 40 percent of D.C. tap water samples tested this spring during the water utility's annual chlorine surge, according to a national environmental group's report to be released today.

The nonprofit Environmental Working Group conducted tests at 18 sites -- including private homes, an elementary school, the U.S. Capitol and the Environmental Protection Agency -- to measure the levels of chlorine toxins that could cause cancer, reproductive problems and developmental delays in children. In 90 percent of the samples, the tests found another class of chlorine toxin at levels that some epidemiological studies have associated with low birth weight and serious birth defects.

The findings suggest that the chemicals needed to help make Potomac River water potable could be creating a different risk to consumers. Chlorine is used to kill disease-causing microbes. Heavy use results in chemical compounds, called disinfection byproducts, that are formed when organic matter in the river water reacts with the chlorine.

You can read the full Environmental Working Group report here.

Also this week:

* A Smithsonian Institution researcher discovered an invasive species of Asian crab in the Chesapeake Bay.

* A joint study between the U.S. government and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation found ethanol production could damage the bay. How? More corn-based ethanol means more demand for corn, which means more farmers growing corn. It's yet another reason we should be looking at next-generation cellulosic or biomass ethanol instead of corn-based ethanol.

* Also from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a report discussing the impacts rising sea levels could have on the bay. The most disturbing passage:

[Smith Island minister Rick Edmund] said residents are hoping Congress will approve a $9.4 million plan, proposed by Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), to build artificial breakwaters offshore.

But Edmund said island residents know that their problems will probably get worse.

"Climate change," he said in a telephone interview yesterday, "will get us in the long run."

* The final piece of news could be taken one of two ways. You could see it as, "The Potomac River is safe to swim in on some days!" Or you could see it as, "After all these years, on a lot of days the Potomac still isn't safe to swim in."

Up Next, Pigs to Fly: The Green Miles & Charles Krauthammer Agree on Something

Thanks to both of the people who donated to Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment using the SixDegrees.org charity badge on the right side of my blog! I'm thrilled to have been proven wrong on that one. It only takes a few minutes, and a $20 donation will get you a Friends of ACE membership, or you can make contributions as small as $10. Please donate now!

* What's this world coming to that Charles Krauthammer and I agree on anything? Today's column, "Energy Nonsense," is right on the money in saying that President Bush's energy plan is about pleasing constituencies, not sound policy. I'd disagree with him on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and it's farm corporations and Midwestern politicians who are pushing corn-based ethanol, not environmentalists. But we do need hard measures like higher gas taxes to lower fuel consumption, and we need to talk about nuclear power. Lowell agrees over at Raising Kaine, and adds a push for green buildings.

* New blogger Jonathan Krall points out the comedy of errors that passes for transportation planning along the I66 corridor.

* Politicians have always been happy to pose for pictures by the Chesapeake Bay and pledge their commitment to clean it up, but they've usually been reluctant to take the tough stands against business, development, and farming interests needed to make a real difference. As a result, the Washington Post reports, "A Revitalized Chesapeake May Be Decades Away."

* Interesting article on green construction in E/The Environmental Magazine.

* I appreciate his strong advocacy on environmental issues, but I absolutely do not get former Green Party County Board candidate Josh Ruebner's recent letter to the editor in the Sun Gazette. He equates Arlington's Metro-centered smart growth with suburban sprawl. Exactly where does Josh think new development should go? Should we put up a fence along the Beltway and refuse to let any new people in? A former Arlington resident named Lisa Nisenson wrote a nice rebuttal.

* After the recent the demise of Backfence, What's Up Eric recommends checking out outside.in.

UPDATE (1/29/07): More reactions to Josh Ruebner's letter, including a thoughtful response from an Arlington resident and a nutty rant from a Manassas resident.