In scanning the climate news each week, I come upon interesting items I’d like to share. This week I found some alarming new studies about carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere and ocean.
Climate 411
President says CO2 emissions have declined – have they?
Yesterday, President Bush stated that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2006 declined 1.3 percent, "putting us well ahead of what is needed annually to meet my greenhouse gas intensity reduction goal of 18% by 2012." There are two problems with what he said:
- The so-called "decline" is most likely a short-term dip in an upward trend.
- The President’s goal is insufficient to halt global warming.
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Global Warming in the Garden
Our guest blogger, Sheryl Canter, is an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.
If you have a garden, you know the climate is warming. In temperate zones, the last frost in spring comes earlier, and the first frost in fall comes later. The longer growing season may allow you to grow vegetables you never could grow before. But you also may have noticed your weeds are more aggressive, insect pests are more of a problem, and pollen plagues you all summer long. You’re not imagining things!
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Environmental Groups Put EPA on Notice
In 2005, California petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for permission to establish its own, stricter tailpipe emissions standards. Nearly two years have passed, and EPA still has not ruled on the request – despite a recent Supreme Court ruling that EPA has the authority to regulate tailpipe emissions.
Today, Environmental Defense and NRDC sent a letter to EPA warning that they will join California to in a lawsuit to compel "EPA’s unreasonably delayed and unlawfully withheld final action on California’s waiver request" if the agency does not make a decision within 180 days.
Energy-Efficient Buildings
In large cities such as New York, buildings account for most of the greenhouse gas emissions. The William J. Clinton Foundation has developed a plan to reduce energy usage in buildings, and organized an international coalition of banks and 16 of the world’s largest cities to implement it. Billions of dollars have been pledged to address the problem. For details, read the story in the International Herald Tribune.
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Do Volcanoes Cause Global Warming?
Today’s Guest Blogger, Lisa Moore, is a scientist in the Climate and Air Program.
The fiery centers of volcanoes burn carbon-containing rocks from deep within the earth, and thus emit the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). There are a fair number of volcanoes in this world, all emitting CO2, so couldn’t this be the cause of global warming?
In a word, no. Here’s how scientists know that climate change is not from volcanic activity.
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