Many of us might spend up to 90 % of our day indoors — at home, work or school. The quality of the air we breathe indoors also has a direct impact on our health. What determines indoor air quality? Is there any difference between outdoor and indoor air pollutants? How can we improve indoor air quality?

It may come as a surprise to many of us that the air in an urban street with average traffic might actually be cleaner than the air in your living room. Recent studies indicate that some harmful air pollutants can exist in higher concentrations in indoor spaces than outdoors. In the past, indoor air pollution received significantly less attention than outdoor air pollution, especially outdoor air pollution from industrial and transport emissions. However, in recent years the threats posed by exposure to indoor air pollution have become more apparent.

Imagine a newly painted house, decorated with new furniture… Or a workplace filled with a heavy smell of cleaning products… The quality of air in our homes, work places or other public spaces varies considerably, depending on the material used to build it, to clean it, and the purpose of the room, as well as the way we use and ventilate it.

Poor air quality indoors can be especially harmful to vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, and those with cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma.

Some of the main indoor air pollutants include radon (a radioactive gas formed in the soil), tobacco smoke, gases or particles from burning fuels, chemicals, and allergens. Carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxides, particles, and volatile organic compounds can be found both outdoors and indoors.

Policy measures can help

Some indoor air pollutants and their health impacts are better known and receive more public attention than others. Smoking bans in public spaces is one of them.

In many countries, smoking bans in various public places were quite controversial before relevant legislation was introduced. For example, within days of the entry into force of the smoking ban in Spain in January 2006, there was a growing movement to assert what many considered their right to smoke in indoor public places. But the ban has also led to greater public awareness. In the days following its entry into force, 25 000 Spaniards per day sought medical advice on how to quit smoking.

Much has changed in public perception when it comes to smoking in public places and on public transport. Many airlines started to ban smoking on short-haul flights in the 1980s, followed by long-haul ones in the 1990s. It is now unthinkable in Europe to allow non‑smokers to be exposed to second-hand smoke on public transport.

Today many countries, including all the EEA countries, have some legislation to limit or ban indoor smoking in public places. After a series of non-binding resolutions and recommendations, the European Union also adopted in 2009 a resolution calling on EU Member States to enact and implement laws to fully protect their citizens from exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.

Smoking bans appear to have improved indoor air quality. Environmental tobacco smoke pollutants are declining in public places. In the Republic of Ireland, for example, measurements of air pollutants in public places in Dublin before and after the introduction of a smoking ban showed decreases of up to 88% for some air pollutants found in environmental tobacco smoke.

As in the case of outdoor pollutants, the impacts of indoor air pollutants are not limited to our health only. They also come with high economic costs. Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in EU workplaces alone is estimated at over EUR 1.3 billion in direct medical costs, and over EUR 1.1 billion in indirect costs linked to productivity losses in 2008.

Indoor pollution is much more than tobacco smoke

Smoking is not the only source of indoor air pollution. According to Erik Lebret from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in the Netherlands, ‘Air pollution does not stop at our doorsteps. Most outdoor pollutants penetrate into our homes, where we spend most of our time. The quality of indoor air is affected by many other factors, including cooking, wood stoves, burning candles or incense, the use of consumer products like waxes and polishes for cleaning surfaces, building materials like formaldehyde in plywood, and flame retardants in many materials. Then there is also radon coming from soils and building materials.’

European countries are trying to tackle some of these sources of indoor air pollution. According to Lebret, ‘we are trying to substitute more toxic substances with less toxic substances or to find processes that reduce emissions, as in the case of formaldehyde emissions from plywood. Another example can be seen with the reduction of certain radon-emitting materials used in wall construction. These materials were used in the past but their use has since been restricted.’

Passing laws is not the only way to improve the quality of the air we breathe; we can all take steps to control and reduce airborne particles and chemicals in indoor spaces.

Small actions such as ventilating enclosed spaces can help improve the quality of the air around us. But some of our well-intended actions might actually have adverse effects. Lebret suggests: ‘We should ventilate, but we should not over ventilate as this is a substantial loss of energy. It leads to more heating and use of fossil fuels, and consequently means more air pollution. We should think of it as making more sensible use of our resources in general.’

More Information:

World Health Organization on indoor air quality
Joint Research Centre on indoor air quality
European Commission on public health

Originally published in Development Roast.

An INBAR project in Ecuador, financed by the World Bank, builds flood-resistant houses using a native species of bamboo. Photo credit: World Bank

Efforts to thoroughly study the role that plants play in climate change mitigation are increasing. Most researchers focus on the promise of large, leafy forest trees to help remove carbon from the atmosphere; for example Lal (1998) in India, Chen (1999) in Canada, Zhang (2003) in China, and Monson ( 2002) in the United States. This is because, generally speaking, the bigger the plant, the more CO₂ it absorbs - and trees are the most obvious large plant species. However, there are some very large non-tree plants in the world and increasing evidence points to a surprising grassy climate change warrior: bamboo.

One species of bamboo, the guadua angustifolia, found in Venezuela, Ecuador, and Colombia, has been shown to grow up to 25 meters in height and 22 centimeters in diameter, with each plant weighing up to 100 kilograms (Rojas de Sánchez, 2004). This doesn’t match the stature of many trees, but it is still big enough to be significant. It is not all about size, however. How fast a plant grows has a part in determining how much CO₂ it can absorb in a given time. In this respect, bamboo wins hands-down: it grows faster than many trees, growing up to 1.2 meters per day. In fact, bamboo holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s fastest growing plant.

Tall bamboo. Photo: By 13dede on sxc

Bamboo’s other advantage is that it has great strength and flexibility, making it an ideal low-cost building material in many parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, areas where it is native. This means that bamboo in a plantation can regularly be chopped down and used to build houses and other structures, where the carbon remains sequestered for an average of 80 years (Castañeda, 2006), and that the plantation will recover quickly due to the fast growth rate. Because of this, the World Bank recently financed a project in Ecuador proposed by the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), an intergovernmental organization dedicated to improving the livelihoods of the poor producers and users of bamboo and rattan. The project is called ‘Elevated bamboo houses to protect communities in flood zones’ and has so far succeeded in developing and implementing techniques to construct ecological flood-resistant housing for low-income families using a type of bamboo that is native to Ecuador. The results currently include five, three classrooms, and two shelters. Elsewhere in the world, bamboo is also used to make boats (most commonly in Asia, but also in Ethiopia), furniture, flooring, clothing, paper, plastics, water pipes, and a very long list of other products. In cases such as furniture and flooring, bamboo provides an attractive and practical alternative to slower growing and less sustainable tree timber.

Bamboo’s carbon sequestration properties have been studied in countries where it naturally forms wild forests, such as Mexico (Castañeda, 2006) and China (Song, 2011). Contributing to these efforts, Ricardo Rojas Quiroga—an environmental engineering student at the Universidad Nuestra Señora de La Paz—studied Guadua angustifolia, a species of bamboo that grows in the Carrasco National Park of Bolivia. He measured the density and masses of bamboo plants in the forest, estimating the amount of carbon stored per hectare. Rojas concluded that, in addition to forming part of one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world, each hectare of the bamboo forest of Carrasco National Park stores levels of carbon comparable to some large tree species such as Chinese fir and oak. This finding is consistent with that of many previous studies, a review of which can be found in this 2010 report by INBAR.

Bamboo growing in big clumps. Photo: By revati_me on sxc

This research is important because concrete numbers can more easily persuade policy-makers of the importance of bamboo forests, as well as other natural resources, in mitigating and adapting to climate change. For example, China has a native giant species of bamboo called Moso bamboo. One hectare (an area roughly the size of an athletics track) of this species can store up to 250 tons of carbon (Qi, 2009). Using data on CO₂ emissions from the World Bank, this translates into the amount of carbon that was produced in 2009 by around 160 people in China (or, equivalently, 50 people in the U.S.A.). Each year, a hectare of Moso bamboo absorbs 5.1 tons of carbon, which can compensate for the CO₂ emissions of three people in China (or one person in the U.S.A.). For reference, China has 3.37 million hectares of Moso bamboo (according to the State Forestry Administration of China) which accounts for around three percent of China’s total forest area.

Once the relevant data has been collected, similar calculations can and should be performed for more countries, enabling politicians to allocate resources and priorities more effectively. It is important to note that INBAR and the other studies do offer a word of caution. Prioritization of one species over another for the purposes of carbon sequestration must take care, as figures are highly dependent on geographical and climatic conditions. It must also take into consideration the compatibility of the plants with the ecosystems in question.

Ultimately, the most effective solution to climate change is to decrease CO₂ emissions by reducing dependence on fossil fuels. But, since a stage of zero emissions is highly unlikely in the near future, forests play a vital role in drive towards a more achievable state of carbon neutrality. Additionally, if countries such as those in South America can prove that their forests are removing not just their own country’s CO₂, but also a lot of the carbon produced by other countries, it could be used to provoke rich, highly-polluting countries into contributing more towards the protection of these precious resources.

Tracey Li is a Senior Research and Communications Intern with INESAD.

As Europe’s climate warms, wine producers in Europe may need to change the type of grapes they cultivate or the location of vineyards, even moving production to other areas in some cases. This is just one example of how Europe’s economy and society need to adapt to climate change, as examined in a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA).

The ‘Adaptation in Europe’ report describes the policies and some of the measures taken at EU level and by European countries. So far half of the 32 EEA member countries have plans for adaptation, and some have started to take action, although all countries still have a lot of work to do.

While global mitigation efforts should continue to aim to limit global temperature increases to 2 °C, the report states that it is necessary to prepare for a greater range of temperature increases and other climate changes. This is needed to properly account for the many uncertainties in climatic and socio-economic projections.

An earlier EEA report has shown that climate change is already affecting all regions in Europe, causing a wide range of impacts on society and the environment. Further impacts are expected in the future if no action is taken. Observations show higher average temperatures across Europe Precipitation is decreasing in southern regions and increasing in northern Europe.

Jacqueline McGlade, EEA Executive Director, said: “Adaptation is about new ways of thinking and dealing with risks and hazards, uncertainty and complexity. It will require Europeans to cooperate, to learn from each other and to invest in the long-term transformations needed to sustain our well-being in the face of climate change.”

The report was launched at a conference on the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change, which is intended to support coherent and integrated adaptation policies in the EU across different sectors.

Europe Begins to Adapt

The report recommends a combination of different measures – ‘grey’ measures such as technological and engineering projects, ‘green’ ecosystem-based approaches using nature, and so-called ‘soft’ measures such as policies to change governance approaches. The most effective adaptation projects often combine two or more different approaches, the report says.

For example, adaptation on France’s Mediterranean coast uses an integrated approach considering climate change, tourism, transport and biodiversity. In urban areas green spaces and water bodies work together with building design to reduce heatwave risks. Barcelona has also started to adapt to water shortages with a new highly efficient desalination plant. This ‘grey’ project works in tandem with other ‘soft’ initiatives such as incentives to reduce water consumption, reducing the impacts from prolonged droughts.

While the cost of adaptation may be high in some cases, the report emphasises the overall savings from some adaptation actions. One of the largest ecosystem-based adaptation projects is restoring the Danube river basin to its previously natural state. Although it will cost an estimated € 183 million, it should help prevent flooding such as the 2005 event which alone cost € 396 million in damages.

Early warning systems to help predict forest fires, floods and droughts have been set up in Europe. Such soft measures can help communities cope with risks, the report says. A similar project in Italy has set up early warning systems for mosquito-borne diseases expected to increase with climate change.

Future Challenges

Europe needs to adapt to climate change in a coherent way, ensuring adaptation is integrated in EU and national policies, the report says. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach – adapting to climate change should respond to national and local conditions.
There is still uncertainty in climate change projections, and it is difficult to accurately estimate future risks as socio-economic aspects are also changing. For these reasons adaptation planning should be flexible enough to cope with unforeseen circumstances and a range of future climate changes, the report says. For example, the upgrade of the Thames Barrier which protects London from coastal flooding is being planned to keep options open, so it can be adjusted depending on the trend in sea level rise.

Climate-ADAPT has a wealth of case studies and other information to help countries, regions and cities adapt to climate change. The website includes information on projected climate impacts and national actions as well as news and upcoming events.

Related Publication:

Adaptation in Europe – Addressing risks and opportunities from climate change in the context of socio-economic developments

The extent of the sea ice in the Arctic reached a new record low in September 2012. Climate change is melting the sea ice in the region at a rate much faster than estimated by earlier projections. The snow cover also shows a downward trend. The melting Arctic might impact not only the people living in the region, but also elsewhere in Europe and beyond.

Melting glaciers in Greenland

“It is clear that our understanding and knowledge of the Arctic and how climate change in the Arctic might impact the rest of the world is improving every year. Science keeps moving forward. The rate of change in the Arctic we observed in the last few years urges us to update policy on a much more regular basis and to ensure that the inter-linkages are properly addressed.”

Prof. Jacqueline McGlade, EEA Executive Director

Speaking at a panel debate on the Arctic melting at the EEA, Professor Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University explained what might have contributed to this year’s unprecedented collapse: ‘Year on year since the late 20th century, the sea ice has been slowly shrinking as the climate has been warming up. The last IPCC estimate from 2007 indicated that summer sea ice would last another 70 years. However, the shrinking has recently speeded up because the ice is getting thinner. Global warming affecting the oceans and the atmosphere caused the ice to grow less during winter.’

The thickness and the age of the ice play an important role in this collapse. Thinner ice melts faster. Wadhams added, ‘Decades ago, the Arctic Ocean was covered almost entirely by multiyear ice, where we had ice more than one year old. Now multiyear ice can only be found in a limited area off the North coast of Greenland and Baffin Island in Canada.’

It is not only the sea ice that is melting in the Arctic. The Greenlandic ice sheet is also losing ice mass at an alarming rate especially at the margins, according to Professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen from Niels Bohr Institute of Copenhagen University: ‘Compared to the rest of the world, the Arctic has been warming twice as much.  The most active glacier in Greenland – the Jakobshavn glacier – used to pour into the ocean at a speed of 7 km per year in 2002, now this has increased to 15 km per year, which means twice the amount of ice is released to the ocean as icebergs which contributes to sea level rise. ’

Speaking at the same event, Dahl-Jensen added, ‘Ice core drilling shows us that we are experiencing exceptionally warm years. We might consider 2012 an extreme event year in climate terms but already in 2010 and 2011 the Greenland ice sheet was losing more than 350 gigatonnes of ice mass per year compared with the average of 240 gigatonnes per year we recorded for 2003-2010. ’

Sea Levels on the Rise

Greenland’s ice sheet contains enough water to increase global sea levels by 7 metres. In any case, if it were to melt completely, it would take many centuries. Recent melting of the Greenland ice sheet is estimated to have contributed up to 0.7 milimetres a year to sea level rise (about one quarter of the total global average sea level rise of about 3.1 mm/year). Projections for global average sea level rise estimates by 2100 vary from 0.2 to 2.0, depending on the model and scenario used.

‘There is substantial uncertainty around by how much the sea levels may actually increase,’ said Professor David Vaughan from the British Antarctic Survey (and Ice2sea project) during his presentation. ‘Once sea level rises, it is quite difficult to make it fall again. At the moment, the sea level is increasing by about 3 mm per year, but with climate change, this rate is very likely to increase.’

Vaughan continued, ‘There are different factors behind sea level rise. About one third of the rise we can expect could be linked to the thermal expansion of oceans. Melting mountain glaciers are also predictable and their contribution can be estimated roughly. The big uncertainty is linked to ice sheets in Greenland and the Antarctica. We have studies on how they are losing ice, but projections come with high levels of uncertainty.’

According to Vaughan, both the very lowest and very highest estimates of sea level rise are extremely unlikely. He estimates that the middle range (0.4 – 1.0 meter) by the end of this century was more likely. Vaughan also pointed out that sea level rise is not a uniform event; some areas of the world will experience a higher than average rise in sea levels, while other parts will see a fall due to gravitational forces acting differently across the planet. Moreover, sea level rise is not expected to stop at the end of the century. Consequently, policy makers and coastal residents will need to prepare for further rises in the next century.

Vicious Cycle

Warmer temperatures in the Arctic accelerate the melting, which result in darker surfaces on the sea and land. These darker surfances retain a larger part of the solar energy instead of reflecting it back. Warmer air and water temperatures in the region also affect the surrounding land, including the permafrost, which has started melting both on land and at sub-sea level.

The Arctic permafrost contains carbon dioxide (CO₂) and large amounts methane, which is released into the atmosphere as the permafrost thaws. ‘Methane is a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. So now we risk facing further global warming and even faster melting in the Arctic,’ added Wadhams.

Arctic Livelihoods

In addition to potentially causing sea levels to rise and contributing to global warming, the Arctic melting could also alter the oceans’ salinity levels and affect oceans currents. Moreover, increased absorption of CO₂ in the oceans can lead to ocean acidification and this can in turn alter the composition and distribution of key Arctic species like crustaceans, krill and plankton.

According to Morten Olsen, chair of a recent Arctic Council assessment on changes in Arctic snow- and ice-conditions, ‘Changes in the climate and cryosphere risk fundamentally altering the Arctic ecosystems. Warmer water temperatures might result in invasive species moving north, which would affect local species and ultimately local economies.’

Sami reindeer herders

Tove Søvndahl Pedersen, Head of the Greenlandic Representation in Denmark, highlighted during her presentation day-to-day challenges that people of Greenland have to face because of climate change: ‘As an example, we are currently struggling with an epidemic of mold fungus in our housing stock. An increasing number of homes and public buildings are infected with a fungus, hitherto unseen in Greenland. This has major implications for human health and for our economy.

On the other hand, warmer temperatures also offer new opportunities to the people of Greenland, such as increasing the scope for agricultural production in southern Greenland or in the exploration and extraction of mineral ores, some of which are strategic for climate friendly technologies and have the potential of offering a much needed alternative income as traditional livelihoods cannot sustain the welfare of people.  As increases in oil, gas, mineral exploitation and shipping may all contribute to further warming and likely thawing of permafrost releasing methane, Greenland is keenly aware of the need to take a balanced approach.

Beyond the Arctic

The Arctic and the Antarctic act as the planet’s cooling system. This cooling effect, known as the ‘albedo effect’, diminishes when the extent of the Arctic sea ice goes down and the global heat balance is shifted. A warming Arctic could lead to more extreme summers and winters in the Northern hemisphere as it may affect the North Atlantic Oscillation by pushing the jet-stream further south and causing more precipitation.

Because changes to the planet’s cooling system has the potential to change many global systems from weather patterns and oceans streams to species distribution, a melting Arctic will affect not only the people of the Arctic but also the rest of the world population.

Many European cities are built on the coast and, depending on how much sea levels rise, they will need to adapt and prepare. Current storm surge barriers may need to be improved, and erosion may need to be to be managed to maintain coastlines, protect beaches, infrastructure and residential areas. In Europe alone, 70 million people live within 500 meters of the sea and the economic assets have an estimated value between 500-1000 billion Euros. Other parts of the world like Bangladesh or low-lying island states are also at risk from sea-level rise.

‘The challenge is to understand how all these different factors are connected and to continue adapting accordingly alongside reducing greenhouse gasses,’ said Professor Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of the EEA. ‘It is clear that our understanding and knowledge of the Arctic and how climate change in the Arctic might impact the rest of the world is improving every year. Science keeps moving forward. The rate of change in the Arctic we observed in the last few years urges us to update policy on a much more regular basis and to ensure that the inter-linkages are properly addressed.’

Climate Change Impacts in Europe

The EEA recently published a report on the impacts of, and vulnerability to, climate in Europe. The report includes many indicators on changes in the climate system and the cryosphere, indicators of impacts on the environment and society and indicators on changes in the Arctic cryosphere (Arctic sea ice and Greenland ice sheet).

According the EEA report, climate change is affecting all regions in Europe, causing a wide range of impacts. Further impacts are expected for the future, potentially causing high damage costs. The report highlights the need for adaptation in all regions and sectors across Europe. The EEA report supports the European Commission’s European Adaptation Strategy, which will be published in early 2013.

EEA Report: Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2012

The Umatilla Tribe in northeastern Oregon promised to take care of the foods that promised to take care of them: water, fish, game, roots and berries. Can they keep that promise in a warming world?

Rising temperatures impact every stage of the salmon lifecycle. Salmon need cold, clear and clean water to survive. In winter, more rain and earlier snowmelt increase the risk of floods that can destroy salmon spawning grounds. In summer, low flows reduce the quantity and quality of salmon habitat. Warmer water temperatures physically stress the fish and block migration routes.

Climate change could also shift the ranges of roots and berries. Scientists project that air temperatures in the Pacific Northwest will increase 3°F by the 2040s, and even relatively small increases in temperature can alter conditions that sustain life. With temperatures changing too quickly for native plants to adapt, their range may shift north or to higher elevations for cooler temperatures. Some may become extinct.

The Umatilla’s First Foods have deep history, extending back to original creation beliefs. What’s new is the application of this tradition to modern land management decisions affecting all of the reservation’s 178,000 acres – from the salmon that spawn in the floodplains to huckleberries growing in the mountains, and beyond to other lands where the tribe has rights to harvest and gather traditional foods.

The Umatilla might be the first tribe in the nation to use foods served at the Longhouse table to guide the way they protect, restore and manage natural resources. The First Foods promise to take care of water, fish, game, roots and berries continues to serve the Umatilla, one of the plateau tribes, as they adapt to a changing landscape.

Film Transcript

A warmer climate is changing agricultural landscapes throughout the Pacific Northwest. Droughts are expected to occur more frequently, and in some places, more precipitation will fall as rain instead of snow. In the Columbia River Basin, spring snowpack is projected to decrease by more than half by 2100. These factors will make summer water less available in some rivers, presenting difficult choices to farmers who depend on summer stream flow for irrigation.

The Bell Rapids Project developed 25,000 acres of irrigated farmland high above the Snake River when water was cheap and plentiful. As competition for that water grew, irrigation costs rose and crop prices fell, making irrigation at Bell Rapids harder to justify. The state purchased the project’s water rights to support salmon and steelhead recovery. New wind farms pick up speed in the fallow fields as the local economy – and potato farmers like John O’Conner – capitalize on more profitable uses.

Less snowmelt will impact hydropower, salmon, farmers, and cities all across the West. While the farmers of Bell Rapids successfully navigated the transition from irrigated agriculture to other uses, other farms may not be as fortunate. The winds of change are blowing in all directions, creating new opportunities and challenges for the landscapes and livelihoods of those in their path.

Film Transcript

After scientists identified sea level rise as a threat to the Lower Skagit River area, the Swinomish, one of several coastal tribes in Washington State, launched a climate change initiative to study the long-term impacts of climate change on their reservation, and to develop an action plan to adapt. Impacts of sea level rise on the island, including coastal erosion, habitat loss, and declining water quality, raised central concerns. The study presented the Swinomish with a difficult question: whether to plan for inches or feet of rise?

Planning must embrace a range of possibilities. Important factors used to calculate global sea level rise, such as melt rates of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, vary widely. In addition, regional estimates must include local factors such as wind patterns and tectonic activity.

Sea level rise projections for Puget Sound range from very low (three inches by 2050) to very high (50 inches by 2100). Rising seas threaten to inundate up to 15 percent of low-lying Swinomish Reservation lands. Approximately 160 homes (worth over $83 million), 18 businesses (worth $19 million), critical roads and docks, areas of traditional tribal shellfish harvest, and sensitive cultural sites are all vulnerable to inundation. When sea level rise combines with more frequent and intense storms, a likely scenario in a warming world, the risks of damaging floods are even higher.

Planning for future change can thus feel like staring into a murky crystal ball. What if climate change cuts off mainland access to the Swinomish’s Fidalgo Island Reservation? What if buildings relocated to higher ground in forested areas just swap the risk of flooding for increased risk of wildfire? What if sea levels change faster than scientists predict, and tribal peoples continue to bear a disproportionate burden of climate risk?

With millions of dollars invested in low-lying properties that include a bingo hall, casino, and hotel, the Swinomish are planning for a Puget Sound that is up to four feet higher than it is today. They are considering raising or relocating buildings, engineering shorelines to better support construction, and insuring properties against financial loss. But the coastal tribe cannot relocate inland or replace culturally significant lands and practices very easily. Tribal peoples worldwide have survived and thrived by adapting to change. The Swinomish will try to continue following the sea, living in rhythm with its rise.

Video Transcript

Kathleen Nisbet and her father, Dave, farm oysters in Washington’s Willapa Bay. They recently shifted some of their business to Hawai’i, after ocean acidification started killing baby oysters in local hatcheries.

Over the past 250 years, the world’s oceans have absorbed about 25 percent of the carbon dioxide that humans have put into the air by burning fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide lowers the pH of oceans, turning waters more acidic. The Northwest is home to some of the most corrosive waters on earth. Washington State in particular is an ocean acidification hotspot due to coastal upwelling that delivers cold water, low in pH and rich in carbon dioxide, from the deep ocean to its coasts. In Hawai’i, where coastal upwelling does not occur, the water is warmer and acidity is increasing less rapidly.

Ocean acidification makes it more difficult for oyster larvae and young oysters to grow and maintain their protective shells. Shells may even dissolve in increasingly acidic waters, leading to higher mortality in young oysters. Dave finds success in shipping baby oysters from Hawai’i and maturing them in Willapa Bay.

The Nisbet’s story may be unique, but they are not alone. Washington supports the most productive commercial shellfish operation on the West Coast, a multi-million dollar industry at risk. Yet the issue exceeds lost profits. Not all farmers can invest in warmer waters. Coastal tribes harvest wild shellfish for economic and subsistence uses. Healthy seas help build livelihoods in rural communities. So what next?

Under rising emissions scenarios, ocean acidity may increase 100 to 150 percent by the end of the century. In response, farmers are using new technologies to monitor the acidity levels of hatchery waters. Young scientists are devoting their careers to understanding risk and resilience. Former Washington Governor Gregoire formed a blue ribbon panel on ocean acidification and issued an Executive Order to implement key actions. Washington State is pioneering efforts to tackle ocean acidification so that its waters continue to serve as a source of prosperity and inspiration. We need all hands on deck. 

Each year, researchers at Ross Island's three bird colonies band a large number of chicks just before they make their first trip to the sea. Adélie penguins are banded so penguin researchers can track penguins throughout their life cycle. The purpose of this type of work is to see how penguins are responding to climate change. Credit: Penguinscience.com

For decades, David Ainley, a National Science Foundation-funded researcher with the ecological consulting firm H.T. Harvey and Associates, has studied Adélie penguins in Antarctica. Ainley says the birds appear to be coping in different ways in response to climate change, but there is one question that begs an answer: What are their overall chances of survival?

In 2009, Ainley, a long-term polar researcher, received a five-year NSF grant to conduct research on how penguin populations cope with climate change and on how individual birds cope. He especially wanted to know why some penguins succeed in coping with climate change while others do not, and what qualities successful birds have.

NSF manages the U.S. Antarctic Program, through which it coordinates all U.S. research on the southernmost continent.

The Adélie is unique because researchers understand how the penguin relates to its land and ocean habitats in the current climate. Using data from the historical record and relating it to present day changes, scientists are able to predict how climate change will affect the penguins, principally through changes in sea ice. Also, researchers say paying close attention to successfully breeding penguins offers clues as to how penguins as a whole will cope in the future.

Every November David Ainley and his colleagues travel to the Antarctic for months to study Adélie penguins at Cape Royds and Cape Crozier. Ainley has been in the field doing this since 1996.

Seventeen-Year History

A long-term polar researcher, David Ainley is studying how climate change is affecting Adélie penguin populations in Antarctica Credit: Penguinscience.com

“We find these birds and use GPS and nest tags to note where they are, with the idea that we’ll be coming back repeatedly during the season to keep track of their success or failures. In this particular project, which has gone on for 17 seasons now, we are up to 17-year-old penguins. So we are getting some idea of the mechanisms of their population regulation, like how breeding success and mortality affect their population growth rates, and how this changes with age and experience,” says Ainley.

Each year, the Adélie penguins of Ross Island return from wintering at sea on ice floes to large bird colonies where they build nests and breed. The transition from ice floes to bird colonies is always a risky undertaking because of the harsh environment and predators.

Success during this transition for especially young penguins depends entirely upon the cooperation of both parents, for feeding and foraging. Adélie penguins must travel repeatedly from the colonies into the adjacent ocean to find food, which can be tricky and dangerous.

The Yin and Yang of Sea Ice

Adélie penguins are sea ice obligate birds, which means they exist only where there is sea ice, just as many song birds exist only where there are trees.

Icebergs, glaciers, ice sheets and ice shelves all originate on land, whereas the sea ice upon which Adélies depend is frozen ocean water. Sea ice forms, grows and melts in the ocean depending on the season. Except when the wind blows sea ice away, these Antarctic seas are covered by ice floes–pack ice–and it is in these ice-covered waters that Adélie penguins find the fish and krill that they eat.

However, in certain instances, there can be too much ice. Penguins are really great at swimming but are slow at walking. Areas of open water allow the penguins to be more efficient at foraging and bringing back food to their chicks. For their size, Adélies can dive deeper and can hold their breath longer to reach farther under ice floes, than can penguin species that avoid sea ice.

Not surprisingly, then, the Adélie colonies are highly sensitive to minor changes in the amount of sea ice, which itself is responsive to changing climate.

“When the cover on the ocean reaches around 70 percent ice and there’s only 30 percent water, conditions become more difficult for Adélies,” says Ainley. “Above that point penguins begin to have problems with access to the sea and spend too much time walking. Around 20 percent ice cover is ideal for them.”

In 2001 a huge iceberg, designated B15, broke from the Ross Ice Shelf and grounded against Ross Island. It hampered the summer disintegration of sea ice cover. This prevented Adélie penguins from reaching prey and ultimately from producing offspring. The penguin colony at Cape Royds also suffered significant losses.

“Because of the 50 miles of sea ice, the penguins had to walk across to get to open water. The young adults, returning to look for territories, after a short way decided that the walk wasn’t worth the effort and began to visit colonies, such as at Cape Bird, closer to seas only partially covered by ice,” said Ainley. “Adults who had nested at Royds before undertook the entire trip initially, but then deserted. After failing to breed for a couple of seasons even these adults began to look for nesting territories elsewhere.”

The researchers were able to learn this about the penguins because each year at each of Ross Island’s three penguin colonies, the researchers band a large number of chicks just before they make their first trip to the sea.

Ainley and his colleagues place on the birds metal rings imprinted with numbers to identify individual penguins. Bands are placed around the penguins’ flippers near their “arm pits.” The researchers band 400 chicks each year at the small Royds colony and 1,000 at the other, larger colonies.

The bands can be read using binoculars from 20 feet away. Once banded, the penguin will never again need to be caught and handled. Much of the researchers’ time is spent hiking and looking for these birds at all the Ross Island colonies.

Prior to the B15 Iceberg, there were about 4,000 pairs of Adélie penguins at Cape Royds. By 2005, the last year the iceberg blocked access to the ocean, the population had decreased to 2,000 pairs, roughly equivalent to the numbers that were there in 1909-11, when British explorer Ernest Shackleton stayed at Cape Royds.

“These penguins ignored the rule of thumb that scientists believed for decades–that penguins are faithful to their colony of birth–and they began to emigrate to other colonies, not just as young recruits, but birds that bred previously in their respective colonies. This totally tore up the book on how penguins should relate to their chosen habitat,” says Ainley.

David Ainley and Jean Pennycook are studying Adélie Penguins in Antarctica to learn how they may adapt to climate change. Ainley is looking closely at the “superbreeders” among the penguins for clues.
Credit: Gwendolyn Morgan, National Science Foundation

Super Penguins

Currently, Ainley and his fellow researchers are trying to determine why some penguins, year after year, are more successful than others. They discovered that only 20 percent of individuals are successful breeders for consecutive years. They dubbed this group of penguins “super breeders” and believe that these penguins will hold clues as to how the species will adapt to a changing ocean.

“We’ve been studying the foraging behavior of these super breeders, comparing it to other penguins, and we found that the super breeders are kind of the Michael Phelps of the penguin world. Their foraging trips are shorter, because they dive deeper, dive more rapidly with shorter rest periods at the surface, and ultimately bring back more food to their chicks,” Ainley said.

Ainley was able to learn this about penguins because he had marked all the penguins in one group of nests at each colony using microchips injected under their skin. The chips are called “passively integrated transponders” or PIT tags.

In going from their nests to the sea and back again, the tagged penguins must walk through a hoop-shaped antenna, which reads the chip’s electronic numbers–almost like “bar codes” on items at supermarkets. As they pass through the hoop, the penguins also cross an electronic scale that assesses their weight. The information is sent to a computer to be stored.

By knowing when penguin parents come and go from their nests, how much they weighed when they went to sea, and how much they weigh upon their return, researchers are able to determine the amount of food each penguin caught over what time period. In addition, using tape, Ainley applies small instruments to the back of penguins that record their diving behavior, and with the help of a satellite connection, pinpoints where they went to find food.

“Except when the wind blows sea ice away, these Antarctic seas are covered by ice floes–pack ice–and it is in these ice-covered waters that Adélie penguins find the fish and krill that they eat.”

The ocean-going skills of the penguins are important when it comes to finding prey, and finding it quickly. The fish and krill that Adélie penguins pursue are often in just one school of fish, which they keep revisiting. If the penguins wait too long to catch their breath before diving again, their meal may have swum away or competitors may have eaten it. Then they must search for another school, which takes time and energy. If Adélie penguins are to be successful, efficient swimming and foraging skills are essential.

Ainley and colleagues hope to determine how age, experience and physiology affect the skill set of penguins in their pursuit of prey. Also, Ainley wants to know if experience or inheritance has critical bearing on breeding success for these penguin athletes. The next steps in his research relate to a penguin’s breath-holding capabilities.

“We are interested in the capability of their blood to hold oxygen. So we are collecting a little bit of blood from a penguin after it goes on a foraging trip to look at its red blood cell count and hemoglobin levels, as measures of oxygen-storing capabilities,” he says.

Ainley hopes that by investigating the foraging capabilities of super breeders, people can understand the much larger picture of how Adélie penguins will cope with climate change.

Ultimately, the amount of sea ice will dictate how the penguins respond. If the sea ice goes away entirely, the penguins will disappear, but more subtle changes before then will be important. With the unstable environment in which they live, Adélie penguins are being tested.

Attracting Future Scientists

Jean Pennycook is an education and public outreach specialist with Penguin Science. She talks with students over Skype about Adélie penguins, in hopes of attracting them into math and science fields. Credit: Penguinscience.com

In addition to studying penguins, Ainley and educator Jean Pennycook run an online outreach program called Penguin Science in hopes of attracting future scientists into the field.

“I’m trying to encourage kids and students to stay in the sciences, technology, engineering and math fields, so they can have jobs like this. My job is very interesting and scientific work is fun; it takes you to extraordinary places around the world,” says Pennycook.

Pennycook draws teachers and students from many countries into her living classroom in Antarctica. She chats with students over Skype from her tent about what it is like to be a researcher in the Antarctic, gives them a tour, and answers questions about wildlife.

Pennycook started a penguin postcard project in which students draw a picture of penguins on a self addressed postcard about penguins and give it to her so that they can receive their postcard with an Antarctic postmark. In addition, teachers and students can design a flag that will be flown in front of the PenguinCam that daily takes pictures of the Cape Royds penguin colony. Students can also follow the lives of eight penguin families while they raise their chicks.

Pennycook hopes more teachers and students will visit the Penguin Science website to see the abundance of resources and activities for educators to use in their lesson plans.

“It’s very exciting when I get notes from students who say they want to go to Antarctica when they grow up, and of course I work a lot with little kids that are 7 or 8 years old. Sometimes I get a letter from them saying ‘I want to work with penguins’ or ‘I want to go to Antarctica’ or maybe they want to work with seals or on the volcano, or they want to go on the boat. That’s a big one, they want to be on the boat,” says Pennycook.

Apart from engaging young students, Pennycook has had former students down in Antarctica. She used to run an intern program where students had a work-study experience at a research station. For Pennycook, she knows she’s reaching students when they follow in her footsteps.

“It makes me proud, it makes me smile that the information I brought back to my students, just showing them this place, showing them how something they can do widens their horizons… I’m hoping to open doors and inspire them to do something fun with their lives,” says Pennycook.

For more information about the research by David Ainley’s group and the penguin educational program, please see the Penguin Science website.

Source: National Science Foundation

Adults aged 65 and older make up about 13% of the current U.S. population, but by 2040 that number is projected to increase to 20%. One of the most significant public health challenges facing this aging population will be changes in the frequency and/or intensity of climate-related stressors such as hot temperatures and extreme weather events. A new review of the literature provides a comprehensive assessment of the state of the science regarding the impacts of climate change on this segment of the U.S. population and discusses possible adaptation measures [EHP 121(1):15–22; Gamble et al.].

The investigators performed PubMed and Google Scholar literature searches for relevant research dating from 2000 through 2011 using three sets of general search terms describing 1) the older adult population; 2) environmental impacts, events, and potentially vulnerable areas related to climate change; and 3) effects of climate change on health and well being. In addition, they polled subject matter experts and reviewed major synthesis reports to identify additional relevant sources. Ultimately they created a list of nearly 100 papers and reports for analysis, including a few seminal articles published earlier than 2000.

The number of older adults in the United States is projected to increase to 88.5 million by the year 2050, with 21% of these individuals aged 85 or older. Relatively higher concentrations of older adults live in areas such as coastal zones, large urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest, and in the Southwest, all of which are expected to be especially affected by climate stressors such as heat events, droughts, and wildfires; hurricanes, storm surges, floods, and sea-level rise; and higher concentrations of ground-level ozone and other air pollutants and airborne allergens.

Socioeconomic characteristics are expected to contribute to older adults’ vulnerability to climate-related stressors. Elderly Americans living in poverty or on limited fixed incomes may lack resources to pay for air conditioning during heat waves, they may live in substandard housing that leaves them more vulnerable to flooding and strong winds, or they may not have easy access to social services or to adequate transportation to evacuate when devastating weather events occur. In addition, functional and physiological limitations associated with aging could impede elderly people’s ability to adapt.

Implementing effective adaptation measures will be key to addressing the unique risks faced by the elderly in association with projected changes in climate. The authors discuss a number of resources that could aid in this effort, such as community-based registries of at-risk older adults, local outreach programs targeted toward older community members, and the development of preemptive ecological strategies designed to temper heat and promote green environments, for instance, planting shade trees and other vegetation and installing green roofs. But more research is needed to assess the effectiveness of adaptation measures and to identify and implement those that are most useful.

Tanya Tillett, MA, of Durham, NC, is a staff writer/editor for EHP. She has been on the EHP staff since 2000 and has represented the journal at national and international conferences.