Is Government Action Worse Than Global Warming? - Reason Magazine

Man-made global warming occurs as a result of burning fossil fuels is a negative externality—a spillover from an economic transaction that harms parties not directly involved in the transaction. In this case, the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is thought to be boosting temperatures, raising sea levels, and having other effects on the climate that people must adapt to (by using more air conditioning, switching crops, and so forth). Ideally, once the full costs of man-made global warming are calculated, consumers, businesses, governments, and international agencies can adopt policies that take those burdens into account. But, do we have time to wait to figure out all the details of accounting to calculate this to the nth degree? The goal of both approaches is to make polluters pay for the costs they impose on others. But they work only if those costs can be accurately assessed. In the real world things are never so simple.

Source: http://reason.com/archives/2009/09/08/is-government-action-worse-tha

Making Sweden an OIL-FREE Society

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Making Sweden an OIL-FREE Society

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The Swedish Commission on Oil Independence propose a number of far-reaching, concrete measures that can end dependence on oil by the year 2020 and tangibly reduce the use of oil products.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

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Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

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Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, located in Richland, on the sunny eastern side of Washington state. PNNL is one of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) ten national laboratories, managed by DOE's Office of Science. PNNL also performs research for other DOE offices as well as government agencies, universities, and industry to deliver breakthrough science and technology to meet today's key national needs.

U.S. Climate Change Science Program

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U.S. Climate Change Science Program

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The Climate Change Science Program integrates federal research on climate and global change, as sponsored by thirteen federal agencies and overseen by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Council on Environmental Quality, the National Economic Council and the Office of
Management and Budget.

During the past thirteen years the United States, through the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), has made the world's largest scientific investment in the areas of climate change and global change research -- a total investment of almost $20 billion. The USGCRP, in collaboration with several other national and international science programs, has documented and characterized several important aspects of the sources, abundances and lifetimes of greenhouse gases; has mounted extensive space-based monitoring systems for global-wide monitoring of climate and ecosystem parameters; has begun to address the complex issues of various aerosol species that may significantly influence climate parameters; has advanced our understanding of the global water and carbon cycles (but with major remaining uncertainties); and has developed several approaches to computer modeling of the global climate.

U.N. climate panel says warming is man-made

U.N. climate panel says warming is man-made is about the most dire of all possible climate change and global warming warnings. ..."The world's top climate scientists said on Friday global warming was man-made, spurring calls for urgent government action to prevent severe and irreversible damage from rising temperatures."...

The report comes from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). They publish a series of assessments on various subjects. Their 2001 estimate of global warming deemed it 66 percent likely to be human-caused (hey, Mr. Bush, isn't that a pretty strong indicator?) and the current study deems it 90 percent likely.

We've wrecked the weather, Stern says "SIR Nicholas Stern, author of a major report on the economic impact of global warming, says the latest review of the scientific evidence by United Nations' experts has demolished the chief argument of so-called climate skeptics."

Science Panel Calls Global Warming ‘Unequivocal’ "They said the world was in for centuries of climbing temperatures, rising seas and shifting weather patterns — unavoidable results of the buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere....Feb. 2 will be remembered as the date when uncertainty was removed as to whether humans had anything to do with climate change on this planet...the warming has set in motion a rise in global sea levels, the report says. It forecasts a rise of 7 to 23 inches by 2100 and concludes that seas will continue to rise for at least 1,000 years to come. By comparison, seas rose about 6 to 9 inches in the 20th century...."

Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis (Summary for Policymakers)

Even Before Its Release, World Climate Report Is Criticized as Too Optimistic Apparently many feel the report doesn't go far enough or state the case strongly enough. As if 90% is not too strong?

Democrats: Climate Report Is Smoking Gun appears in Forbes Magazine and tries to cast this report as a political problem rather than a scientific one. I have news for the Republicans, no election can turn back environmental change. The laws of nature trump the laws of man.

Humans blamed for climate change

Greenpeace Analysis of the IPCC Climate Change Confirmed: Now Take Action before It’s Too Late

Climate change: In graphics

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U.S. Geological Survey’s Acute Toxicity Database

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U.S. Geological Survey’s Acute Toxicity Database

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The following database summarizes the results from aquatic acute toxicity tests conducted by the USGS CERC located in Columbia, Missouri. The acute toxicity test provides a relative starting point for hazard assessment of contaminants and is required for federal chemical registration programs such as the Federal Insecticide Fungicide Rodenticide Act (PL 80-104) as amended by the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act of 1972 (7 U.S.C. 136-136y) and the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (PL 94-469).

The database was initially developed in 1986 by Foster L. Mayer (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) and Mark R. Ellersieck (University of Missouri, Columbia, MO) for 4,901 acute toxicity tests toxicity tests conducted by CERC since 1965 with 410 chemicals and 66 species of aquatic animals.

A report by Mayer and Ellersieck (1986) provides an interpretation of the original 4,901 toxicity tests which utilizes various statistical approaches to make taxonomic comparisons, and to assess the degree to which various factors (static versus flow-through, age of test solutions, pH, temperature, water hardness, and diet) affect toxicity (Manual of Acute Toxicity: Interpretation and Data Base for 410 Chemicals and 66 Species of Freshwater Animals, F.L. Mayer and M.R. Ellersieck, United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Resource Publication 160, 1986).

Toxic Release Inventory

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Toxic Release Inventory

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The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is a publicly available EPA database that contains information on toxic chemical releases and other waste management activities reported annually by certain covered industry groups as well as federal facilities. This inventory was established under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA) and expanded by the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990.

U.S. Geological Survey: Acid Rain Monitoring

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U.S. Geological Survey: Acid Rain Monitoring

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On-line data and reports on acid rain, atmospheric deposition and precipitation chemistry.

U.S. EPA ’s Aerometric Information Retrieval System (AIRS)

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U.S. EPA ’s Aerometric Information Retrieval System (AIRS)

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Apparently this is a project which existed at one time and has morphed into four services as described below.

In 2001, EPA changed the Aerometric Information Retrieval System (AIRS) to a database that is solely related to tracking the compliance of stationary sources of air pollution with EPA regulations: the Air Facility Subsystem (AFS). With this change in focus, administration of the AIRS/AFS database was transferred to EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. For more information, see:

Air Facility Subsystem (AIRS/AFS): Database overview, contacts, technical support phone number.
Compliance and Enforcement Data Systems: Other databases administered by the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.

Information about air monitoring - the ambient concentrations of air pollutants - was moved out of AIRS to a separate database: the Air Quality System (AQS). For more information see:

Air Quality System (AQS): Database overview, memos, contacts.
AirData Web Site: Reports and maps of air monitoring annual summary data.

United Nations Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution’s Web site

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United Nations Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution’s Web site

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Since 1979 the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution has addressed some of the major environmental problems of the UNECE region through scientific collaboration and policy negotiation. The Convention has been extended by eight protocols that identify specific measures to be taken by Parties to cut their emissions of air pollutants.

The Convention, which now has 50 Parties identifies the Executive Secretary of UNECE as its secretariat.

The aim of the Convention is that Parties shall endeavour to limit and, as far as possible, gradually reduce and prevent air pollution including long-range transboundary air pollution. Parties develop policies and strategies to combat the discharge of air pollutants through exchanges of information, consultation, research and monitoring.