RoguePundit

Blameshifting to Climate Change

2009-07-14T00:47:41-07:00

Once again, some bureaucrats have decided to blame climate change for their inefficiency.

Children die from pneumonia and other respiratory infections every year during the winter months particularly in Peru's southern Andes.

But this year freezing temperatures arrived almost three months earlier than usual.

Experts blame climate change for the early arrival of intense cold which began in March.

Experts in what? The climate in the tropical latitudes of the Andes has been trending warmer, helping to melt glaciers and other permanent snowpack in the region. But when the weather is more like what helped those glaciers form in the first place, that's also climate change? Only in the sense that it's a reversion to the mean.

The extreme cold, which has brought snow, hail, freezing temperatures and strong winds, has killed more children than recorded annually for the past four years.

A total of 246 under the age of five have died so far, only half way through the winter months.

One third of the deaths were registered in the southern region of Puno, much of which is covered by a high plateau known as the altiplano which extends into neighbouring Bolivia.

Aid workers say prolonged exposure to the cold is causing hypothermia and deadly respiratory infections such as pneumonia.

Children, who are often malnourished, are more vulnerable to the extreme cold.

The capital of the Puno Region (state) is also called Puno. The city is on the northwestern shore of Lake Titicaca, whose elevation is about 12,500 feet. The average low temperature there just 37ºF. And with much of the region being at higher elevations, cold is the norm--despite being only about 1100 miles south of the equator. However, this story was written by a BBC correspondent in Lima, a coastal city with a very dry and mild climate. The all-time record low there is 48°F...and sensationalism sells.

The following is from an April article.

In Puno, rain has destroyed harvested potatoes and freezing temperatures as low as -13.5º C (8º F) have destroyed more than 50% of the quinoa crops, a staple food.

The rainy season in semi-arid Puno is from December to March, with April being a transition month to the colder, drier winter. In other words, those rains weren't terribly abnormal. Quinoa survives a fairly hard frost, and that was definitely a hard frost that hit just before the harvest. Sad, but again not terribly abnormal.

Thirty percent of Peru's children suffer from malnutrition, with the problem being worst in the Altiplano. There is incredible poverty in many of the Puno Region's rural areas. The poor can rarely afford heating beyond what's needed for cooking...and it's not like there are many trees there. Here's a picture of Puno borrowed from Wikipedia. It's grown in the years since I was there.

Finally near the end of the original article was a more honest assessment of the problems.

The government has declared a state of emergency in the affected areas but critics say the cold snaps are predictable and the annual deaths preventable.

Many have blamed government inefficiency for the deaths.

But Peru's Health Minister, Oscar Ugarte, has said regional officials have not effectively distributed government resources.

I'm sure the national officials weren't paragons of efficiency either.

At least the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) isn't as powerful there as it used to be. As bad as the Peruvian government has been, those Maoist butchers are far worse.

Random Nature #221

2009-07-13T02:50:37-07:00

Organized Anarchy: G8 Summits have tended to be magnets for anti-globalization protesters, whom former British Prime Minister Tony Blair once famously called "the anarchist traveling circus." The biggest protests were in 2001, the last time--until this past week--that the G8 was held in Italy.

In Genoa eight years ago, around 300,000 anti-globalization protesters gathered to demonstrate both loudly, and at times violently, against the summit. The result: During heavy clashes with police, close to 500 people were injured and one G-8 opponent was killed. That seems to have been the high point for the anti-globalization movement, which formed during a 1999 conference of the World Trade Organization in Seattle.

Some of the protesters weren't as non-violent as they claimed, and a small percentage deliberately stirred things up. However, it certainly didn't help that the police and paramilitary sometimes reacted with excessive force.

This year, things were very different for the G8 meetings in L'Aquila.

Hundreds of protesters marched past ruined villages and suburbs on Friday at a demonstration against the Group of Eight summit held in this quake-hit central Italian town.

Anti-globalization activists carrying red communist flags and wearing T-shirts reading "No G-8" and "God smash America" were bused in from across Italy for the protest, which set out from a suburb of L’Aquila.

Most expected the protests to be somewhat larger, despite the shrewd change of venue. Returning to the earlier link...

The few protests that are taking place are happening in large cities elsewhere in Italy. In Rome on Tuesday, around 150 protesters marched through the streets. Smaller demonstrations were also held in Turin and Bologna.

Partly this is a product of the symbolism of the destroyed Abruzzian city. Rioting and vandalism in a city devastated by a massive earthquake would be extremely difficult to justify. Indeed, some believe it was a cool calculation on the part of Silvio Berlusconi. The Italian prime minister suggested moving the G-8 summit to what he called the "capital of suffering," as an "act of solidarity," on April 23.

Several of the groups that typically protest the event claim that the G8 has lost its relevance. They could use to do some soul-searching on that subject themselves. One would expect tens of thousands to descend upon Copenhagen later this year for climate change summit...and that's only counting the lobbyists.

Salesmen: Kim Carstensen is a cultural sociologist by training and the director of the WWF's Global Climate Initiative. He's easily impressed. From his recent opinion piece on the CBS News website.

Contrary to last year's summit in Japan, G8 leaders at this year's summit managed to produce two pieces of news on climate change: First they acknowledged the scientific view that global temperature increases should be limited to two degrees Celsius. Secondly they agreed that the developed countries should reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by 80 per cent or more by 2050. G8 leaders have never agreed on this before.

If the leaders are serious about what they agreed--and I wouldn't dream of suggesting that they are not--this sets a new, clear direction for the international efforts to combat climate change.

The reference to the science on 2 degrees limit indicates that science must be the basis for where we set our level of ambition on climate change.

Right. Neither the science nor man's ability to manage our impact on the planet are anywhere near precise enough to pretend that this decision was based upon science. World leaders simply set an unrealistic goal so far in the future that they'll be dead by the time it doesn't come to pass...which in politics passes for an accomplishment. They didn't even set a baseline year from which to measure the reductions.

Then, President Obama played to his strength, selling hope and change.

Mr Obama said the agreement with MEF nations had provided a good start and he urged the world to be optimistic. "One of the things we are going to have to do is fight the temptation towards cynicism, to feel the problem is so immense we cannot make significant strides," he said.

However, another fervent believer in catastrophic climate change is feeling a bit gloomy.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been overheard pouring cold water on world leaders' chances of hammering out critical climate change limits in Copenhagen--just hours after US President Barack Obama called for global optimism.

In an embarrassing gaffe, Mr Rudd's comments were picked up by Australian TV microphones that had been allowed in briefly to film bilateral talks with Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who is to host the Copenhagen summit in December. This is the vital meeting at which world leaders aimed to hammer out a united agreement with developing nations for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

"Right now I don't think we are on track to get an agreement at Copenhagen," Mr Rudd told Mr Rasmussen. "There are too many problems."

And with as awful as our climate bill is looking thus far, probably the best thing we can hope for this year is it stalling out in the Senate.

Awaiting Ana, Bill, Claudette, etc.: Normally, we have our first named tropical storm in the Atlantic by July 10...that's the average since 1943. However, this is something else that's been quiet this year.

June came and went without a tropical storm or hurricane. That's pretty common. July often is quiet as well. But one hurricane forecaster said today there are signs the quiet will continue.

Lack of formation in the early season usually is attributed to waters not yet being warm enough to provide the heat storms use as fuel.

While the eastern Atlantic Ocean, where monster storms tend to emerge, still isn't warm enough yet, the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean already are plenty warm in the early summer.

The latest we've waited for a major Atlantic storm was in 1977--Anita on August 29.

What's driving the prediction of continued quiet? Bear in mind this article was published on June 30.

"Shear tends to be high this time of year, and it's even higher than normal this year," James Franklin, branch chief of the specialist unit at the National Hurricane Center, said this afternoon.

"We're starting off with a pattern that looks very inhibitive across the Atlantic," Franklin said.

Franklin said the high wind shear could mean the tropics are coming under the spell of El Niño, a pattern of warm weather in the Pacific Ocean that tends to limit storm formation.

He said shear diagrams he saw only today "show a large area of above-normal shear over most of the (Atlantic) basin."

The climate models the IPCC used in developing its report show that a warmer climate will tend to come with increased wind shear in the Atlantic (previous blog here). Yet, we're constantly regaled with claims that global warming will bring more and stronger hurricanes. Just ignore the models when they produce inconvenient results.

Indeed, El Niño conditions are building in the Pacific this year. It used to be that only the severest of events were called El Niños or La Niñas. Now, there's an average, and just about every year falls on one side or the other. We don't know how big this El Niño will be, but it's not too early to stoke fear. From the ordinarily sober London Times...

El Niño, the warming of the Pacific Ocean that creates chaos in global weather patterns, is on its way back, threatening droughts, floods, crop failure and social unrest.

...

The implications are severe, not just for climate but for the effects on food, water supplies and other commodities. Australia, still recovering from its worst drought in a century, will be hit again if the rains fail to nourish its wheat belt. Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest producers of palm oil — a basic source of income for many of its poor — and a drought would hit this commodity hard.

Farming in India is already suffering from an abnormal monsoon, which scientists think could be related to the emerging El Niño.

The rains arrived early but stalled. They picked up speed again only last week and covered the whole of the country, although rainfall is far lower than normal. There are fears that, if the rains do not improve, water shortages will kill crops and lead to soaring food prices.

Newspapers continue to get smaller, and too much of what's left is speculation about what might or might not happen rather than news. Too many ifs and maybes...

Defrauding Gullible Biofuels Advocates

2009-07-12T00:36:00-07:00

I've noted many times that cheap cellulosic ethanol has been just around the corner for decades. Despite the hype by a never-ending procession of scientists and entrepreneurs--and of course the generous subsidies, affordable cellulosic ethanol remains as elusive as cold fusion. Lord knows why the government won't wait on buying that fuel until the price comes down--significantly. That money would be better used on more research, or reducing the debt, or...

There's been less effort put into cellulosic biodiesel thus far, but the results have been similar...if not worse.

After a jury ordered a leading cellulosic biofuel company to pony up millions for defrauding investors, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will likely come in 60 million gallons shy of its 100 million gallon target next year.

Late last month, a federal court in Mobile court ordered Cello Energy of Bay Minette, Ala., to pay $10.4 million in punitive damages for fraudulently claiming it could produce cheap diesel-like fuel from hay, wood pulp and other waste.

Cello''s owner, Jack Boykin, allegedly built a sham facility and lured pulp producer Parsons & Whittemore Enterprises to invest $2.5 million in an ownership stake in 2007. In court, Parsons & Whittemore CEO George Landegger said he was unimpressed with the company's facilities, and a string of expert witnesses testified that fuel samples were derived from petroleum sources.

... Another defendant, Khosla Ventures, a California firm that invested $12.5 million in Cello in 2007, was unavailable to comment.

The samples supposedly produced by the facility were actually derived from fossil fuels.

As the EPA has become increasingly dominated by activists, solid science has become less important.

Although it's no surprise that investors might be dazzled in the rush to hop on board the biofuels bandwagon, the EPA appears to have been duped as well.

Cellulosic biofuel technology is still in its infancy, and the agency and Congress required gasoline blenders to purchase and sell just 100 million gallons next year, less than 1 percent of the nation's proposed renewable fuel mandates. And to encourage biofuel producers to meet that demand, the government would establish a credit scheme to set a floor on the wholesale price of $3.00 per gallon—about twice that of corn-based ethanol—if production fails to reach the 100 million gallon mark.

There are too many bureaucrats and politicians seduced by the theory that they can accelerate the development of technologies through the application of government policy. Sometimes yes...but anybody working with cellulosic biofuels should know to be really wary of any concept that seems too good to be true. Where was the due diligence here?

Trust, but verify...a bit of observation and a couple of simple lab tests up front would have readily exposed this fraud. Is the EPA simply running on hope, driven by climate change fervor and with renewable energy money burning holes in its pockets?

But David Woodburn, an analyst at ThinkEquity Partners in Chicago says that the agency had pinned its hopes on Cello and has not put in place the cellulosic biofuel credit system required to maintain that price point.

...

In the best-case scenario, he says, the nation will produce 39 million gallons of cellulosic biofuel next year and blenders will be on the hook to pay the government a $600 million or more for biofuel credits through a program that still does not exist.

Heck, there are still folks considering forcing us to use E-15, despite all the damage it will cause to huge numbers of engines.

We Care...About Reelection

2009-07-11T02:39:24-07:00

Remember that proposed tax on sugary beverages, like flavored milk (previous blog here)? A similar tax is still under consideration in the House. However, those who need to care what their constituents think about such proposals are getting nervous.

Electorally vulnerable Democrats are urging the House Ways and Means Committee to drop language from its healthcare reform proposal that would tax food and beverage products, saying it would disproportionately impact the poor.

In a letter to committee chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) and ranking member Dave Camp (R-Mich.), 13 members of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Frontline program, led by Reps. Debbie Halvorson (Ill.), John Adler (N.J.), Michael McMahon (N.Y.) and Ann Kirkpatrick (Ariz.), urge the committee to abandon proposed taxes on food.

...

One proposal would tax sugary sodas at a rate of 10 cents per can, which could generate $112 billion, according to estimates.

$112 billion over a decade. The Senate's proposed 3-cent-per-can tax on all sugary drinks (which is supposedly off the table) was estimated to raise $50 billion over a decade. Both would only raise a small percentage of the cost of the health care proposals being bandied about. The solution is evidently to make the most expensive health care in the world even more expensive.

The Democrats, all freshmen except Rep. Leonard Boswell (Iowa), say such a tax would hit poorer families hardest. According to an assessment by the Congressional Research Service, 70 percent of the money generated from a soda tax would hit those making under $92,000 a year.

And, the Democrats said, adding taxes to certain food items and not others would raise the cost of groceries; poorer Americans spend more of their money on food than wealthier families.

Well duh! But couldn't the Congressional Research Service have come up with a more relevant income than $92,000?

Do you suppose President Obama would veto a health care bill that would include him breaking his promise about not raising taxes on those making less than $250,000??

"While we support health care reform and finding appropriate offsets, we would prefer that health care legislation does not raise taxes on middle class families and small businesses," the members wrote.

...

Those who signed the letter include some of Republicans' top targets heading into the 2010 cycle. The GOP already has top recruits set to run against Reps. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho), Frank Kratovil (D-Md.) and Betsy Markey (D-Colo.), while Reps. Tom Perriello (D-Va.), Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) and John Boccieri (D-Ohio) could also face tough contests.

Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-N.Y.), who faced a surprisingly close race in 2008, and Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) also signed the letter.

They just want to be on record as opposing the taxes before supporting them.

Fencing and Verification

2009-07-10T00:51:50-07:00

The virtual fence along our border with Mexico hasn't worked well (previous blog here). Despite that, the Department of Homeland Security--bolstered by $100 million in stimulus funds--decided earlier this year to continue moving forward with the effort. Construction resumed in May. However yesterday...

The Senate voted 54-44 today in favor of requiring physical fencing along 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. Senator Jim DeMint's amendment to Homeland Security's 2010 Appropriation Bill states that ineffective fencing to restrain pedestrians such as vehicle barriers and virtual fencing cannot be used to meet the 700 miles of fencing required by law. Instead, reinforced double-layer fencing must be installed by December 31, 2010.

The original bill mandated that 370 miles of (actual) fencing be completed by the end of last year. As of yesterday, just 34.3 miles was done.

Meanwhile back in February...

The House version of the economic stimulus package requires companies that receive contracts for projects funded by the bill to use the E-Verify system to check the eligibility of their employees to work in the U.S.

The Obama administration, meanwhile, has delayed implementation of a new rule that would require federal contractors to use E-Verify. The rule, which was issued by the Bush administration, was scheduled to go into effect Feb. 20, but the Obama administration postponed implementation until May 21 so it can review it.

Some figured that President Obama would quietly reauthorize E-Verify because it would blunt some of the energy behind comprehensive immigration reform. Don't know if that was the motivation or not, but...

The Obama administration said Wednesday it would implement a Bush-era program targeting federal contractors that hire illegal immigrants.

The program, which is unpopular in the business community, will cut across all sectors of the economy, affecting about 170,000 companies, from health care to construction to weapons makers, as well as many other industries that receive government business or federal stimulus funds.

The program requires that companies check whether employees are entitled to work in the U.S. through the government's E-Verify system, which compares names and Social Security numbers with a government database.

Targeted companies range from prime contractors with more than $100,000 in annual government business to subcontractors earning more than $3,000 in taxpayer money.

However...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued the government in December to halt the program, calling it unlawful. That litigation, pending in a Maryland federal court, is likely to move forward now that the Obama administration has embraced the program.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports amnesty, but calls it comprehensive immigration reform. The "world's largest business federation" has recommendations for our "wasteful and inefficient" health care system, but few of these businesses provide health care to their employees needing amnesty. We get higher unemployment and the privilege of subsidizing what health care the illegal aliens get, in exchange for some cheaper products...and the Chamber is suing to help keep it that way.

Save the Vermin

2009-07-09T00:39:05-07:00

Over the weekend, I blogged about the ongoing civic workers strike in Toronto that's caused garbage to build up in the city. That's not good for tourism, much less the poor residents.

It tops a long list of ominous travel warnings, crimes against tourists, plagues and passport restrictions.

The Toronto garbage strike recently pushed to the front of the line in one widely read travel column--ahead of dengue fever in Mexico and bubonic plague in Libya, tourist extortion in Latvia, youths in Northern Ireland throwing rocks at tour buses, and attacks by Basque terrorists in Spain.

"A strike by 24,000 municipal workers in Toronto shut down parks, recreation programs, ferry service and garbage collection June 22, "travel writer Larry Habegger posted on his website, World Travel Watch--on Canada Day, no less. The column is also carried by a number of American newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle.

"The strike entered its second week with negotiations continuing but no end in sight. Meanwhile, garbage was piling up around bins and residents were dumping their trash at 19 temporary dump sites, including city parks. Residents living near the sites complained of the stench and visitors were surprised to see the mounds of trash throughout the city that is known for its cleanliness.''

Less tourists means less tax receipts, meaning there will be less money available for the civic workers to get the raises they want, despite the weak economy. Lord knows why anybody should be rewarded for willfully endangering the public.

All that garbage lying around is obviously a health hazard. That's why over the weekend, the city hired contractors to spray and bait for various types of vermin. And as one would expect...

...animal welfare groups expressed concern about the use of bug and rat killer in neighbourhoods which are hosting emergency dumps.

"Nothing is totally safe ... the risks are very small to the environment and human health," said Dr. Keith Solomon, director of toxicology at University of Guelph's environmental biology department.

The city has sanctioned the use of an insecticide called permethrin to control flies and other insects at temporary garbage dumps. Permethrin is commonly used to control hair lice in school children.

"Permethrin is a relatively older product that is well-understood and widely used in humans and it's prescribed for children with head lice. It's inherently not very toxic to humans ... The history of it has been safely used and prevents the spread of the disease," Solomon said.

But the doctor doesn't get it...those protesters could care less about human health--other than of course their own.

"Once the rat eats the poison, it's not going to lie in the middle of Yonge St. to die," Solomon said, adding that rats tend to die privately in remote areas that are not accessible to humans or cats.

...

However, it's possible the pesticide could leach into the eco-system, insisted Ian McConachie, spokesman for the Toronto Humane Society.

"Once rats go into the neighbourhoods, cats could eventually get sick," McConachie said.

"Raccoons and squirrels could also scrounge for food through the trash as a food source, which could be a real health hazard and possibly (result in) death," he added.

Funny how the Toronto Humane Society rep passed up an opportunity to talk about keeping cats indoors. Well, maybe not...the Society is campaigning against animal control's plan to capture feral cats in a local city park, preferring to leave them be.

Meanwhile about 200 miles to the southwest, Windsor, Ontario (across the river from Detroit) has been enduring a civic workers strike since April 15. Things are more orderly there...residents have gotten used to dropping off their garbage at the assigned locations. Yesterday...

For the second day in a row, police had to respond as neighbours picketed Tuesday outside the headquarters of striking city workers to protest the garbage dumped next to the sidewalk that union members admit is mostly their own.

Ironically, the union tried to have the protesters removed. The city had to send out non-striking workers to remove the trash.

The Priority is Making More Money

2009-07-08T22:28:20-07:00

U2's lead singer Bono often talks of saving the planet. But when it comes to making money, the band doesn't let saving the planet from climate change stand in its way.

...the band's 100-date 18-month world tour will see the multi-millionaires clock up 70,000 air miles (113,000 km) in their private jet.

The £90 million ($230 million) U2 360 tour also features three 390-tonne stages criss-crossing the globe, along with 200 crew and backstage staff.

...

The band’s vast emissions are dozens of times bigger than Madonna’s carbon footprint on her 2006 world tour, despite her extravagant demands and 250 staff. She produced 1,635 tonnes in air transport.

The U2 360 tour will generate an estimated 65,000 tons of CO2 emissions. And lord knows how much more will be generated by all the people traveling to and attending the concerts.

Carbonfootprint.com's environment consultant Helen Roberts said: "The carbon footprint generated by U2's 44 concerts this year is equal to carbon created by the four band members traveling the 34.125 million miles from Earth to Mars in a passenger plane.

"You also have to add the carbon emissions from the same number of concerts again next year. Just looking at the 44 concerts this year, the band will create enough carbon to fly all 90,000 people attending one of their Wembley concerts to Dublin. To offset this year's carbon emissions, U2 would need to plant 20,118 trees."

Funny she should mention trees...Carbon Footprint sells a variety of carbon offsets--including trees--that allow people to assuage their guilt over not reducing their own carbon footprints. One can spend $12.63 to have a tree planted in Kenya, or $19.37 to have one planted in the UK. Per its sales pitch for Kenya...

All trees that are planted are native to the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, and will be carefully planted and managed to live their natural lifespan and meet their biodiversity targets.

Each tree planted "offsets" your environmental impact by "breathing" in about 1 tonne of CO2 emissions over its lifetime. It's estimated that the average person needs to save about 7 tonnes of CO2 per year.

How small are the odds that a tree planted in Kenya will survive to live its natural lifespan? Many a tree planted as a carbon offset has already bitten dust via neglect, as food for animals, etc.

Carbon Footprint Ltd also sells certified emission reduction credits, facilitates donations to a clean energy portfolio, etc. And a percentage of that guilt goes to their bottom line, helping to make the owners rich.

By the by, U2 is going to buy carbon offsets of some sort for its tour.

Emissions and Wind Direction

2009-07-08T01:48:56-07:00

In 2006, Grain Processing Corporation agreed to pay the state of Iowa $538,000 for air pollution violations at its plant in Muscatine. What is there in the processing of corn that's so polluting? The plant burns coal for the heat needed to manufacture ethanol and various foods and feeds. In particular, the plant had been running a pair of spray dryers too long, causing it to exceed its particulate emissions limit. No, that's not very green ethanol.

Today, that plant is still in the state's top--or is it bottom--ten in terms of total emissions. But, that doesn't mean it's violating any environmental laws. In fact, it's going to somewhat unusual lengths to keep a different pollutant within limits.

Workers at the Grain Processing Corp. facility in Muscatine acknowledged last fall that they switch from burning high-sulfur coal to a low-sulfur variety when the wind blows toward a nearby sulfur-dioxide monitor, an Iowa Department of Natural Resources complaint investigation shows.

That may sound fishy--it certainly does to some environmental groups, but it's legal.

Low-sulfur coal is more expensive, but using it during certain weather conditions is evidently cheaper than modifying the plant to reduce the emissions from high-sulfur coal.

The Muscatine area, home to Grain Processing Corp. and several other large polluters, was declared to be in nonattainment of federal sulfur dioxide standards in the early 1990s.

Violating federal standards can require expensive changes to reduce emissions. The region has also violated standards for fine particle pollution, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

...

The company said a study conducted several years ago showed the facility's sulfur dioxide emissions could combine with those of several nearby facilities, but only when the wind was blowing from the south - or toward the monitor.

"If certain meteorological conditions occur, GPC will voluntarily switch coal to prevent any possible adverse impact on the ground-level concentrations of sulfur dioxide," the statement from Sichterman said.

The Grain Processing plant is the fourth largest emitter of sulfur dioxide in the state. Switching articles...

Although facilities track their own emissions, DNR also operates a small network of more than 30 ambient air monitors in the state's industrial areas and population hubs. Still, the vast majority of the state is left uncovered, leaving only the facilities to measure emissions, even in areas with heavy polluters.

Forcing every factory, refinery and power plant to install expensive monitors at every emissions point would not be practical, Hutchins said. Nor would estimating every emission provide sufficient accuracy.

Ideally, it's simply risk management rather than--for instance--political considerations that keeps certain areas and businesses lightly or unmonitored as compared to others. At least the periodic burning of low-sulfur coal reduces the emissions from the Grain Processing plant...that's better than nothing.

One last point from the original article...

The DNR began its investigation after a complaint was brought last October by union workers who had been locked out of the facility following failed contract negotiations, Levetzow said.

And how are those workers doing? As of today...

About 360 workers, including 300 members of Local 86D, have been locked out since their five-year contract with GPC expired last year.

The Muscatine company, which makes and sells corn-based products around the world, has continued to operate since the lockout with workers from its plant in Washington, Ind., along with other temporary employees and salaried GPC employees who have filled production jobs.

The union members have rejected two contract proposals. There were negotiations as recently as late April, but none are now scheduled. It's looking the union rolled the dice and has come up craps.

Members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 86D have been told by the Iowa Workforce Development Center that the unemployment benefits they’ve been receiving since the lockout began on Aug. 22, 2008, will begin ending on Saturday. Workers whose unemployment ends this week will receive their last payments on July 17.

...

Anson said most of the locked-out workers first filed unemployment claims on Aug. 22, 2008. They received 26 weeks of unemployment and then received a 26-week extension, which expires this week.

An additional extension was included in the economic stimulus plan approved by Congress and signed in February by President Barack Obama. It called for a 13-week extension of benefits for unemployed workers in states where the statewide unemployment rate is greater than 4 percent.

That probably includes everybody. In May, Nebraska had the lowest unemployment rate in the nation at 4.4%. Iowa was sixth-lowest at 5.8%, still less than half of Oregon's.

Ivory CSI

2009-07-07T00:02:43-07:00

The Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington has developed a way to determine the source of poached ivory.

DNA is successfully isolated from small amounts of ivory, sampled anywhere along the length of the tusk and used to create a unique genetic “fingerprint” of each elephant. We also extract the same genetic information from elephant feces. DNA from feces enabled us to assemble a geographic-based map of elephant gene frequencies across Africa. We applied a novel statistical smoothing method to these gene frequencies to create a continuous distribution of elephant gene frequencies across the continent. This allows us to estimate each poached ivory sample’s position across Africa, including areas with no reference samples, and provides a confidence estimate for each assignment.

Here's some of what they have learned.

...Wasser and his colleagues analysed ivory seized when more than 11 tonnes of tusks were found in containers in raids on Taiwan and Hong Kong docks in July and August 2006. About 1,500 tusks were discovered and all were traced to elephants from the Selous game reserve, a Unesco heritage site in Tanzania, and the nearby Niassa game reserve in Mozambique. However, Japanese authorities--who had made another seizure of ivory that summer in Osaka--refused to co-operate and have since burnt the 260 tusks they found before their origins could be established. "You can draw your own conclusions," said Wasser.

Since then, major seizures of ivory have been made in Vietnam and the Philippines, both this year, and Wasser and his team are now preparing to use their DNA map to trace its origins.

Authorities had thought that elephants were being poached in small numbers all over Africa.

The discovery suggests that only a handful of cartels are responsible for most of the world's booming trade in illegal ivory and for the annual slaughter of tens of thousands of elephants. The extent of this trade is revealed through recent seizures of thousands of tusks in separate raids on docks in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, the Philippines and Japan. These were aimed at satisfying the far east's growing appetite for ivory, a new status symbol for the middle classes of the region's swelling industrialised economies.

As a result, ivory prices have soared from $200 a kilogram in 2004 to more than $6,000. At the same time, scientists estimate that between 8% and 10% of Africa's elephants are now being slaughtered each year to meet demand.

Until recently, most of the on-line trading of ivory occurred on eBay. But last October...

In response to growing pressure from international law enforcement agencies and conservation groups, eBay, the online auction giant, announced Monday that it would ban all commerce in ivory, including most heirlooms, to avoid providing a market that will encourage the slaughter of endangered elephants.

The announcement, made to the company’s merchants and customers, came as a conservation organization based in Massachusetts prepared to issue the latest in a series of reports documenting how online auction sites, particularly eBay, have become a magnet for trading in items derived from endangered species, among them rare birds and reptiles sold to collectors, ivory-handled walking sticks or bracelets and figurines carved from elephant tusks.

The report, to be released here on Tuesday by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, analyzes data gathered in a six-week survey that tracked more than 7,000 listings of wildlife or their feathers, teeth or pelts offered for sale on more than 185 Web sites in 11 countries. Nearly three-quarters of the items were elephant products, the report said.

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The new report from the animal welfare fund said the advertised price for wildlife items offered on the site during the six weeks of the study was $3.87 million and the sales value about $457,000.

However, that's a fraction of the estimated $10 billion spent on illegal wildlife each year.

Random Nature #220

2009-07-06T01:24:53-07:00

Shrinking Coastal Seagrass Meadows: Some marine ecologists were recently shocked at the loss of seagrass meadows in many parts of the ocean. I'm shocked--well, disappointed--that a scientific report (with 14 co-authors) which was published in a recent Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences Early Edition contained such basic math errors.

Seagrass meadows, along with coral reefs, mangrove forests, and salt-marshes, provide valuable ecosystem services like nutrient cycling. They also protect edible crustaceans, like shrimps and crabs, and juvenile fish such as salmon. In addition, seagrass meadows provide habitats for endangered species like dugongs, manatees, and sea turtles.

While marine ecologists have been measuring localized seagrass loss for decades, they had never before pooled their information to get a global perspective. So a team led by Michelle Waycott of James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland, Australia pooled data from 215 regional studies, from 1879 to 2006.

They found that the total area of known seagrass meadow had decreased by 29 per cent over the 127 years. They also found that the rate of loss had accelerated, from less than 1 per cent per year in the 1940s to 7 per cent per year since the 1990s.

At 7 percent per year, that's a 44 percent loss from 2000-2006 alone. Yet, the overall loss is 29 percent over 127 years?? If you've had enough math to become a scientist, a basic error like that should jump off the page when you read it. And after reading some of the emotional quotes from the scientists, it's obvious that this was more about activism than science.

Reducing the Flaring at Landfills: Waste Management currently collects some of the methane produced by its Altamont Landfill (near Livermore CA) and burns it for power--about 6.6 MW. But, the landfill is producing more methane than its turbines can burn. Thus, the excess is flared. That will soon change.

Landfill gas is about 50 percent methane and 50 percent carbon dioxide, nitrogen and other particles. Through a series of tubes, the gas is filtered to just methane and cooled down, to the tune of -275 degrees, and it becomes a fuel source, Lewis said.

The plant will produce 13,000 gallons of fuel a day. Three tanks will store 45,000 gallons for the trucks to use. Statewide, the fuel is expected to power hundreds of collection trucks.

There should be sufficient methane production at the landfill for 30 years.

By the by, a bit of climate change math pertaining to this topic...

The carbon dioxide derived from biological decomposition is considered carbon neutral, but the methane is considered to be a man-made greenhouse gas that is more than 20 times more potent to the ozone than carbon dioxide.

But if you just toss those table scraps and lawn clippings into a backyard compost or empty field...

Verification: When city leaders brag about recycling, who actually checks to see that their numbers aren't a bit rosy?

The City of Toronto boasts that its green bin program diverts a third of our garbage and turns it into "black gold" compost. But a Star investigation shows that the program--although nobly conceived--is a sham.

There are two problems. First, the city's claim of how much waste the program diverts from landfill is inflated. Second, some of the compost that is being produced will kill your plants because of its high salt content, according to laboratory tests.

The Star found that, over the past two years, thousands of tons of organics in various stages of the composting process have been dumped into a gravel pit, tossed into landfills or stockpiled on city property. What's more, some of the material residents are told to place in green bins--plastic bags and diapers--has wound up in the belly of a Michigan incinerator, despite Mayor David Miller's vow Toronto will never burn garbage.

Over $15 million a year for organics recycling buys that? Meanwhile, Toronto's civic workers are on strike, which has garbage piling up in the city.

On Thursday, health officials ordered the city to regularly inspect all of the temporary dumpsites for infestations after swarms of maggots were found crawling through the growing piles of garbage, most of which have been steadily increasing since the city workers strike began 13 days ago {June 22}.

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As city officials closed the temporary dumpsite at Christie Pits this evening, a city-hired contractor blanketed the location with pesticide early this afternoon, just one day after officials obtained a court injunction preventing protesters and picketers from blockading the site.

Christie Pits is a city park with an outdoor hockey rink. Switching links...

Birds have pried many garbage bags open and others were ripped when hit by trucks driven by managers staffing the site, Mr. Burgess said, adding that rain water and leaking garbage have combined into a sludge that has now seeped out onto the cement floor around the rink.

"It’s been long enough that the garbage is starting to liquefy so you can imagine …"

When the strike is finally over, where will that rotting garbage actually end up? And, what about all of the methane that's getting away?