"Hotspot Watersheds" With 10 Or More At-risk Fish And Mussel Species Are Concentrated In The Southeastern

In the U.S., clean energy and carbon pollution regulation are very popular. What is the disconnect between public opinion on these issues, and Federal actions?

Once just an alluring pet, the ravenous lionfish is now a predatory threat to reefs in the Atlantic. Learn more: to.pbs.org/2c3CjnU

This graph shows net forest conversion (deforestation that replaces forest with a new land use) from 1990-2010. Brazil and Indonesia stand out as the hot spots of deforestation.

In contrast, China, the United States and Vietnam experienced afforestation and reforestation.  

People of color support environmental protection at higher rates than whites. Yet, while people of color make up 36% of the US population, and 29% of the science and engineering workforce, they are substantially underrepresented on the staff of major environmental government agencies, NGOs, and the foundations that fund them. For the environmental movement to be effective in the future, it will need to become more diverse.

Even as global carbon dioxide emissions hit a record high in 2012, CO2 emissions from energy generation in the United States fell to 1994 levels. This is a 13% decrease over the past 5 years. President Barack Obama has set a climate goal of lowering greenhouse gas emissions 17% from 2005 levels over the next decade. By the end of last year, levels were down 10.7% from the 2005 baseline, meaning America is more than halfway towards that goal.

The reductions come from a variety of places. It is, in part, because of new energy-saving technologies. In part because of a weakened economy. In part because of a growing share of renewables in the energy sector. And in part because cleaner natural gas is displacing carbon-rich coal.

While this is good news, there are some important caveats. 1.) This is only the U.S. Emissions are rising rapidly in other parts of the world. 2.) This is only CO2 emissions from energy production. This is a big source of greenhouse gas emissions, but not the only one. 3.) This rate of decline is probably not fast enough to avert the worst of climate change.

Coal's share of U.S. electricity generation has been steadily declining, a result of market forces, particularly the low price of natural gas and the expense of building new coal plants. Since throughout its life cycle coal is arguably our dirtiest fuel source (from mountaintop removal mining, to mercury and air toxics released during combustion, to carbon emissions, to hazardous coal ash), a move away from reliance on coal benefits public health, the environment and the climate.

From the Washington Post:

Map from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showing how much electricity each state gets from wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal. Maine was the clear winner in 2011, getting 27 percent of its electricity coming from renewable sources — a lot of it wind power and biomass. But Maine had a lot of renewable energy back in 2001, too. South Dakota and Iowa, at 21 percent and 17 percent, have seen far more impressive growth. Both of those states got almost none of their electricity from renewable sources a decade ago.

The sex of a sea turtle hatching is determined by temperature. Nests incubated at cooler temperatures produce more males, while nests incubated at warmer temperatures produce more females.

This could be a problem with climate change. As global temperatures rise, nests will be incubated at higher temperatures, producing fewer males. As this study found, climate change could lead to turtle nests with few to no males, skewing sex ratios and endangering the persistence of sea turtle populations. As the authors note:

“[O]nce incubation temperatures are 35°C, there are almost no more males produced (1 per 50 000 eggs laid)... As turtles return to the rough neighbourhood of their natal breeding grounds, it seems likely that for populations already producing more than 80% females, there will be a real extinction risk if they continue to nest at the same time of year and conditions warm by a few degrees.” 

But the bigger issue may be the increasing number of unviable eggs with rising temperatures. As the authors claim:

“[T]he primary concern in scenarios of climate change and rising incubation temperatures [is]... the high hatchling mortality in excessively warm nests...While climate warming still poses a threat to sea turtles, it is not the skewed sex ratios per se that will threaten population survival but rather higher mortality within clutches.”

Let's look at the false choice too often portrayed in the media and by politicians of jobs vs. the environment in the context of mountaintop removal mining (MTR). Coal companies claim that any efforts to stop or restrict MTR will cost jobs and devastate economies in Appalachia. Yet, the graph above shows that as coal production has increased, employment of coal miners has decreased. This is because MTR replaces coal miners with big machinery and explosives. The reason coal companies like it is because it increases profits, in part by decreasing labor costs. Thus, it is MTR, not efforts to protect the environment by restricting MTR, that is destroying jobs in the mountains of Appalachia

The Sulztalferner glacier from 1990 and 2017.  Red arrow is where the glacier ended in 1990, yellow arrow where it ended in 2017, purple dots are the snowline, and the green arrow an area of exposed bedrock amidst the glacier.

 Sulztalferner is a glacier in the Alps of Austria... between 1969 and 2003, 14 of the 88 glaciers in this range disappeared. The area of these glaciers was to 54.1 km2 in 1969, but only 36.9 km2 in 2003. 

In 1990 the Sulztalferner glacier was 3050 m long; in 2017 the glacier is 2100 m long.

Source: AGU