Climate 411

Climate Change Insights from Mohonk Weather Station

Lisa Moore's profileThere was an interesting story in Tuesday’s New York Times about a unique weather station in upstate New York next to the Mohonk House resort. Most cooperative observer stations move over time, or the area around them is built up, or the observers and observing methods change. Not so at Mohonk.

At Mohonk, the weather observations are done as they were 112 years ago, and only a handful of people have recorded the over 41,000 readings. Plus Mohonk has an extensive database of wildlife sightings, a 77-year record of Mohonk Lake water quality, and an 83-year record of local phenology (the timing of events such as frost, blooms and migrations) – all observed by the same handful of people. This makes the site’s data uniquely valuable:

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Climate Corps: A "Peace Corps" for Climate

Sheryl CanterYou know how Peace Corps volunteers travel to developing countries offering help where it’s needed? Imagine a corps of interns working at U.S. corporations to help them reduce their environmental footprint, save energy, and save money, and you have the Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps.

Our Corporate Partnerships team placed MBA students from top business schools at five California companies: Intuit, NVIDIA, Cisco, Yahoo! and Salesforce.com, and at Crescent Real Estate in Houston, Texas. The interns spent the summer making the business case for increasing energy efficiency in company facilities. One intern found that Cisco could reduce its carbon footprint by nearly 300 million pounds and save $24 million over five years by installing smart power distribution units in their labs. For more, check out our "What We Did This Summer" page.

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

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New Offshore Drilling in Perspective (Cool Graph)

A picture is worth a thousand words:

U.S. Oil Consumption by Source

Source: Architecture2030, based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

From Architecture2030:

According to the US Energy Information Administration, oil production from drilling offshore in the outer continental shelf wouldn’t begin until around the year 2017. Once begun, it wouldn’t reach peak production until about 2030 when it would produce only 200,000 barrels of oil per day (in yellow above). This would supply a meager 1.2% of total US annual oil consumption (just 0.6% of total US energy consumption). And, the offshore oil would be sold back to the US at the international rate, which today is $106 a barrel. So, the oil produced by offshore drilling would not only be a "drop in the bucket", it would be expensive, which translates to "no relief at the pump".

Gernot Wagner's profileGernot Wagner is an economist in the Climate and Air program at Environmental Defense Fund.

Posted in Energy / Read 4 Responses

EDF Testifies on Funding for Public Transit

Sheryl CanterOn Tuesday, the Senate banking committee held a hearing on how the federal government can improve public transportation options. Federal funding is badly needed. Ridership is skyrocketing due to gas prices, while services are being cut due to lack of funds.

A Wall Street Journal article on the issue summed up with a quote from our own Andy Darrell, vice president for Living Cities:

What we’re seeing around the country is that transit is underfunded and is having a really hard time meeting that demand," Mr. Darrell said. "Our government should be ready to meet that demand, to embrace it."

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Why Drilling in Alaska’s ANWR Is a Bad Idea

Sheryl CanterU.S. oil companies already have permission to drill in millions of unexplored acres, but there is a push now to drill in one area where they don’t have permission: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). A terrible idea, drilling in ANWR would:

  • Not produce much oil.
  • Not lower gas prices.
  • Harm the environment.

If you (or someone you know) does not believe this, read on!

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Posted in Energy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions / Read 53 Responses

11 Carbon Offsets You Can Trust

Sheryl CanterYou probably know that you should do what you can to reduce your carbon footprint – the greenhouse gas emissions produced by your lifestyle. After you’ve done that, you can negate what remains by supporting projects to reduce emissions elsewhere – that is, by purchasing "carbon offsets". This works because, from a global warming perspective, it doesn’t matter where the carbon comes from.

Carbon offsets are a good idea, but it’s hard to know whether a given project truly reduces carbon emissions. There are no unified standards. To help you make good choices, Environmental Defense Fund has just published CarbonOffsetList.org, a guide to high-quality offset projects for businesses and consumers. These are projects that we would turn to for our own offset needs. Check it out!

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Posted in Economics, Greenhouse Gas Emissions / Read 20 Responses