 | Valerie on Local Resources |
 | Burnie Gould on Pea Island and Highway 12: Dee… |
 | bobxnc on Pea Island and Highway 12: Dee… |
 | Dan on The Most Beautiful Waves … |
| Dan on Pea Island and Highway 12: Dee… |
Filed under: General Information | Comments Off
350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide—measured in “Parts Per Million” in our atmosphere. 350 PPM—it’s the number humanity needs to get back to as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change.
No. We’re like the patient that goes to the doctor and learns he’s overweight, or his cholesterol is too high. He doesn’t die immediately—but until he changes his lifestyle and gets back down to the safe zone, he’s at more risk for heart attack or stroke. The planet is in its danger zone because we’ve poured too much carbon into the atmosphere, and we’re starting to see signs of real trouble: melting ice caps, rapidly spreading drought. We need to scramble back as quickly as we can to safety.
We need an international agreement to reduce carbon emissions fast, and 2009 might be our best shot.
The United Nations is working on a global climate treaty, which is supposed to be completed in December of 2009 at a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. But the current plans for the treaty are much too weak to get us back to safety. This treaty needs to put a high enough price on carbon that we stop using so much. It also needs to ensure poor countries a fair chance to develop.
This year, we can create a grassroots movement connected by the web and active all over the world.
We can hold our decision-makers accountable to producing a treaty that is strong, equitable, and grounded in the latest science. On 24 October, we’re holding a Global Day of Climate Action to do just this.
If this global movement succeeds, we can get the world on track to get back to 350 and back to climate safety. It won’t be easy, that’s why we need all the help we can get.
We need an international agreement to reduce carbon emissions fast. The United Nations is working on a treaty, which is supposed to be completed in December of 2009 at a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. But the current plans for the treaty are much too weak to get us back to safety. This treaty needs to put a high enough price on carbon that we stop using so much. It also needs to make sure that poor countries are ensured a fair chance to develop.
Make no mistake—getting back to 350 means transforming our world. It means building solar arrays instead of coal plants, it means planting trees instead of clear-cutting rainforests, it means increasing efficiency and decreasing our waste. Getting to 350 means developing a thousand different solutions—all of which will become much easier if we have a global treaty grounded in the latest science and built around the principles of equity and justice. To get this kind of treaty, we need a movement of people who care enough about our shared global future to get involved and make their voices heard.
Only if we’re loud enough.
If we can make this number known across the planet, that mere fact will exert some real pressure on negotiators. We need people to understand that 350 marks either success or failure for these climate negotiations. It’s not an easy fight—the other side has the power of the fossil fuel industry. But we think the voice of ordinary people will be heard, if it’s loud enough. That’s all of our job—to make enough noise that we can’t be easily ignored.
Dr. James Hansen, of NASA, the United States’ space agency, has been researching global warming longer than just about anyone else. He was the first to publicly testify before the U.S. Congress, in June of 1988, that global warming was real. He and his colleagues have used both real-world observation, computer simulation, and mountains of data about ancient climates to calculate what constitutes dangerous quantities of carbon in the atmosphere. The Bush Administration has tried to keep Hansen and his team from speaking publicly, but their analysis has been widely praised by other scientists, and by experts like Nobel Prize winner Al Gore. The full text of James Hansen’s paper about 350 can be found here.
Yes—America has been producing more CO2 than any other country, and leads the industrialized world in per capita emissions. Even though China now produces as much CO2 annually, the US still produces many times more carbon per person than China, India, and most other countries. And America has blocked meaningful international action for many years. That’s why many of us at 350.org have worked hard to change U.S. policy—we staged more than 2,000 demonstrations in all 50 states in 2007, and helped spur Congress to pass the first real laws to reduce CO2. Now we need help from around the world to persuade both the U.S. and the U.N. to continue the process.
China and India and the rest of the developing world need to be involved. But since per capita they use far less energy than the West, and have been doing so for much shorter periods of time, and are using fossil fuels to pull people out of poverty, their involvement needs to be different. The West is going to have to use some tiny percentage of the wealth it built up filling the atmosphere with carbon to transfer technology north to south so that these countries can meet their legitimate development needs without burning all their coal. A great resource for thinking about these questions is the paper prepared by the Greenhouse Rights Network, which can be found here.
350 translates into many languages—numerals are among the few things most people around the world recognize. More to the point, 350 tells us what we need to do. Far from boring, it’s the most important number in the world. It contains, rightly understood, the recipe for a very different world, one that moves past cheap fossil fuel to more sensible technologies, more closely-knit communities, and a more equitable global society.
Filed under: Climate Change | Tagged: 350, Climate Change | Leave a Comment »
Here are some pictures of a seagull that was rescued Josie of Outer Banks SPCA (Dare County Animal Shelter). It was found on the beach with a fishing lure stuck in its side with fishing line hrough its beak. If you find an injured in Dare County call 252.475.5620. They can also direct you to the correct number for different areas of the Outer Banks.
Filed under: General Information | Tagged: Habitats, seagulls | Leave a Comment »
Momentum is building on Capitol Hill for addressing a crucial piece of the climate change puzzle — ecosystem-based adaptation.
Why is helping nature adapt to climate change important? Because natural systems serve as the backbone of public health and the nation’s economy — everything from providing clean water and air and protecting communities from catastrophic weather-related disasters to sustaining our outdoor recreation and agricultural industries (which combined represent more than $1 trillion annually).
So in order to fully address the effects of climate change, we must help communities and natural systems become more resilient to the changes we are already seeing. We must also prepare people and nature for the changes we know will come.
Known as adaptation, this combination of management, restoration and protection strategies will help prepare places, plants, animals — and people — for climate change.
Yesterday was a good day for this vitally important piece of the climate change puzzle. Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee Chair Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) introduced the “Natural Resources Climate Adaptation Act.” The legislation builds upon an earlier adaptation proposal that was included in the Senate’s version of comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation introduced earlier this month.
The legislation calls for important dedicated funding for adaptation work, with approximately 5 percent of the total allowances form a climate change bill going towards job-creating conservation initiatives that safeguard wildlife and protect, restore and enhance America’s forests, grasslands, rivers, coasts, and oceans impacted by climate change.
It would also require federal, state and tribal agencies to use the best available science to develop plans and work alongside local groups and private landowners to identify and safeguard vulnerable ecosystems.
Underscoring the importance of adaptation legislation — the US Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a coalition of businesses and environmental organizations (including The Nature Conservancy) that is dedicated to passing climate change legislation — has provided a report to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works calling for a commitment to funding adaptation, saying it is “a critical component to climate legislation.” USCAP cites the citing the following reasons adaptation is so critical:
With dedicated legislation for adaptation funding now working its way through committee, provisions already included in the broader climate change and energy bill, and a new report from business and environmental leaders supporting adaptation funding, real momentum appears to be developing on Capitol Hill to ensure that people, places, plants, and animals are prepared for climate change now and in the future.
(Photo: Erika Nortemann. North Carolina’s Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge is under threat from salt water inundation due to rising seal levels caused by climate change.)
Filed under: Climate Change Effects, Sea Level Rise | Tagged: Estuaries, Habitats, Impact, north carolina, Sea Level Rise | Leave a Comment »
November 3rd, 2009
North Carolina Coalition with Senator Kay Hagan. Left to Right: Erica Ramjohn (River City CDC), Rick Copeland (CARE Intl.), Wayne Gideons (Yaroke, USA), Senator Kay Hagan, Dr. Stephen Smith (SACE), Anne Blair (SACE), Aubrey Davis (Outer Banks Brewing Station), Toni Reale (SACE), Jennifer Rennicks (SACE). the belief that we have an economic, environmental and a moral imperative to protect our Southeastern coastal communities, natural resources and businesses from the perils of global warming.
SACE Leads Diverse Coalition to DC to Advocate for Climate Action
On October 21st and 22nd, SACE staff led a diverse coalition of clean energy business owners, decision makers, faith leaders and academics from coastal North Carolina and Florida to our nation’s capitol to carry a message of urgency to act on climate change. These community leaders visited with Senators Hagan, Burr, LeMieux, Nelson as well as Congressional Representatives from Florida and North Carolina’s vulnerable coastal communities.
The Southeast simply cannot afford to ignore climate change
The southeastern coast is home to more than 16 million residents and the property values along our shoreline are in excess of $2.2 trillion. We rely on our more than 2,000 miles of coastline as a primary economic driver of tourism, real estate and recreation. Yet our communities, and our unique natural and historic resources are particularly vulnerable to the threats of climate change – from rising seas to stronger storms.
Renee Cahoon, Mayor of Nags Head, NC, along with Kelly Kirschner, Vice-Mayor and City Commissioner of Sarasota, FL, Dr. Chris Dumas a coastal economist at UNC-Wilmington and Dr. Doug Gamble an Associate Professor of Geography at UNC-Wilmington brought a wealth of knowledge to their elected officials regarding the costs of inaction on climate change.
“The sea level rise that we’ve experienced in our community has had a direct impact on tax base loss, lower property values, municipal services and maintenance of infrastructure, so I think it’s very important that we start dealing with the issue that we can’t ignore, because we see the impact on a daily basis.” – Mayor Cahoon of Nags Head, NC Dr. Dumas shared results
from a 2007 publication that he co-authored titled Measuring the Impacts of Climate Change to North Carolina’s Coastal Resources with elected officials. Using conservative sea level rise projections, North Carolina’s coast could lose $6 billion in coastal property values and about $230 million in reduced recreation value of NC beaches by mid-century (due to fewer beaches being available and in poor condition) if nothing is done to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
According to Swiss Re’s “Shaping Climate Resistant Development” study, which looked at the costs of climate inaction to three-Miami, FL area counties (Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach), they expect annual losses from hurricane-related impacts alone (not including sea level rise) for these counties to total $30 billion by 2030 if they continue on their current haphazard path of coastal development.
Adaptation and Mitigation
The Swiss Re report looked at a variety of adaptation options for Florida and found that nearly 40% of expected loss can be averted cost effectively and have a net economic gain, however large residual loss remains (also about 40%). According to Swiss Re, cost-effective adaptation options that should be part of a core strategy to manage hurricane risk include beach renourishment, home improvements, vegetation management and barriers to salt-water intrusion to name a few (see report for details). The need for North Carolina to think seriously about adaptation is becoming more evident every day – a recent article in the Charlotte Observer highlights sea level rise concerns for the coast.
North Carolina’s Climate Action Advisory Group recommended 56 options (across all economic sectors) for mitigating the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to the Legislative Commission on Global Climate Change to be adopted into policy. Some of these recommendations have up-front costs, but would actually save more money in the long-term. For example, by making the state’s transportation sector more efficient, North Carolina can reduce GHG emissions 30-40% in 20 years and save $5 billion on a net basis.
Filed under: Climate Change Effects, Sea Level Rise | Tagged: Assessment, Climate Change, Coast Land, Impact, Local Food, Outer Banks, Sea Level Rise, The South | Leave a Comment »
350.org is an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis–the solutions that science and justice demand. They called on people around the world to organize an action on October 24 incorporating the number 350 at an iconic place in their community, and then upload a photo of their event to 350.org website.
You can view amazing photos at the slide show at http://www.350.org/350-action-gallery
Filed under: Climate Change | Tagged: Climate Change, Impact | Leave a Comment »
All residents of Currituck County are invited to participate in an online survey, presented by Currituck Emergency Management, in order to gather data regarding community awareness of natural hazards that may affect our county. The following survey should take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.
The results of this survey will assist us in our efforts to update the Currituck County Hazard Mitigation Plan. Your information will be used for this purpose only and the Plan will not state your personal information.
Any and all comments or questions regarding hazard mitigation, ways to prepare, and/or how to respond in the event of a disaster affecting you or your property are welcome.
Click here to Complete the Currituck County Hazard Mitigation Survey
Filed under: Hazardous Waste, Local Organizations | Tagged: currituck, disaster event, hazardous waste; hazard mitigation | Leave a Comment »
Sources: NRG close to buying Bluewater
Owner of coal-fired Indian River plant interested in wind power . Bluewater Wind expects a controlling interest in the firm to be sold in the next few weeks, and sources familiar with the plan say the company is in serious negotiations to sell to NRG Energy Inc. In selling a majority stake in the offshore wind farm company, Bluewater would get the immediate financial help it needs to keep its projects moving forward, and the backing of a large energy company that should ease the financing of billion-dollar wind farms.
Bluewater needs a new infusion of money because its current majority owner, the Australian investment holding company Babcock and Brown, was ravaged by debt during the global economic meltdown. Babcock International, the subsidiary that owns Bluewater, is selling off its assets over a two- to three-year period.
Such a deal, if culminated, would pair Delaware’s most prominent clean energy project with one of the state’s most prominent polluters. NRG, based in Princeton, N.J., owns the coal-fired Indian River Power Plant, which long has ranked among the state’s major air-pollution sources. A $500 million pollution reduction effort is under way there.
NRG has two land-based wind projects in Texas, but its power generation portfolio features mainly coal, natural gas and oil plants, as well as one nuclear plant, providing enough power to serve 20 million homes. It also is hoping to build new nuclear plants.
NRG built and operates the wind farms under the name Padoma Wind Power. It has a third Texas wind farm under construction, and six more planned in Texas, California and New Mexico.
Bluewater’s primary asset is a 25-year power purchase contract with Delmarva Power, the only known contract for offshore wind power in the nation. There are no wind turbines off the United States coast, although they are common in Europe.
At last count, the Bluewater project would have at least 79 turbines and be sited about 14 miles off the coast of Rehoboth Beach. It would generate enough electricity to power 55,000 homes. It could be the first commercial-scale U.S. offshore wind farm.
A controlling stake in Bluewater was acquired by Babcock in 2007. Its deep pockets were supposed to bolster the project, which Bluewater officials in September estimated would cost at least $1 billion. But Babcock, laden with debt, was hurt badly in the global economic meltdown.
Bluewater President Peter Mandelstam said in September that Babcock would be out of the project by the year’s end. It is unclear how much of Bluewater is now owned by Babcock, and how much is owned by Mandelstam.
Tyler Tringas, a wind-energy analyst for New Energy Finance, said it is routine in Europe for large power companies to be the financial motor of wind farms. It’s easier for them to finance a wind farm than if the project’s developers had to cobble together hundreds of millions in development financing, Tringas said.
Such a purchase could help ease NRG into an era of new rules and regulations on burning coal, Fremont said.
At the time, few Americans had given much thought to offshore wind farms, which made the Bluewater proposal novel. It picked up substantial public support as company officials toured the state.
The potential pairing represents the “irony of ironies,” said Nick DiPasquale, a Bluewater supporter and a former state natural resources secretary. He said he has no knowledge of the possible deal. “If a fossil-fuel company is coming forward in that direction, that’s definitely a good thing,” he said.
“That’s a pretty serious commitment, and I think it bodes well. NRG has in the past acknowledged that climate change is for real, and the country needs to be moving away from carbon-emitting power production. This is certainly a demonstration they’re putting their money where their mouth is,” he said.
And earlier this month, NRG received final approval for the largest air-pollution control effort in state history. The $500 million project will cut some smog-forming and toxic emissions at Indian River by 75 to 90 percent. The effort includes shutting down the two oldest units at the four-unit facility.
In addition to Delaware and New Jersey, Bluewater hopes to build projects off the coasts of Maryland, Rhode Island, New York and North Carolina.
Bluewater is gearing up to build meteorological towers off the Delaware and New Jersey coastlines to study a year’s worth of weather and bird flight patterns. The U.S. Department of the Interior recently released rules governing offshore wind farms, which developers say will speed construction of the projects. The Delaware project is scheduled to begin operation in 2013.
Filed under: 1 | Tagged: Wind | Leave a Comment »
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 29 (UPI) — A U.S.-led team of scientists says the sea level rise along the North Carolina coast is accelerating.
The researchers, led by the University of Pennsylvania, found the 20th-century sea level rise to be three times higher than the rate of sea level rise occurring during the last 500 years. The scientists said the jump apparently occurred between 1879 and 1915 — a time of industrial change that may provide a direct link to human-induced climate change.
Scientists said they found the rate of relative sea level rise during the 20th century was 3 to 3.3 millimeters per year, which is higher than the usual rate of one millimeter per year. That acceleration, they said, appears consistent with other studies from the Atlantic coast, although the magnitude of the acceleration in North Carolina is larger than at sites farther north along the U.S. and Canadian Atlantic coast and may be indicative of a latitudinal trend related to Greenland ice sheet melting.
Researchers said understanding the timing and magnitude of the possible acceleration in the rate of relative sea level rise is critical for testing models of global climate change and for providing a context for 21st-century predictions.
The study appears in the journal Geology.
Filed under: Climate Change Effects, Sea Level Rise | Tagged: Climate Change, north carolina, Outer Banks, Sea Level Rise | Leave a Comment »
Moyock restaurants or residents that cause sanitary sewer blockage or overflows because of fat, oil and grease, or FOG, deposits will now pay a hefty fine of up to $5,000, thanks to a new ordinance passed by the Currituck County Board of Commissioners at their meeting last Monday.
Public Utilities Director Patrick Irwin told The Daily Advance that FOG is the number one cause of sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) in North Carolina. “Grease will clog a sewer line up and make it rock hard,” he said. “We spend $20,000 cleaning out the collection system every year (in Currituck County) — but it’s a lot better than having overflow.” SSOs carry the potential for health risks, which come from contact with disease-causing organisms. Raw sewage can carry bacteria, viruses and parasitic organisms, which cause a number of diseases, ranging from mild gastroenteritis (diarrhea) to life threatening ailments such as cholera, dysentery and hepatitis. Irwin suggests that residents mix fats, oils, how and grease with absorbent waste such as paper towels, coffee grounds, kitty litter, or shredded newspaper, and discard them in the trash instead of dumping them down the drain. FOG plan requirements include routine inspection and cleaning of the district’s collection systems, grease interceptors in all new commercial construction and maintenance and record keeping for all existing grease traps and grease interceptors.
Irwin told the board that with the new plan, any residence or food handling facility that is determined to be the source, in whole or in part, of a sanitary sewer blockage and/or overflow, the residence or facility will be assessed a fine of not less than $100 and not more than $5,000, plus remediation costs for clean up, in addition to any fines dispensed from the State of North Carolina. Minor and moderate violations include inspection hindrance, failure to maintain records, failure to maintain grease interceptors and traps and failure to clean out grease interceptors and traps every 30 days. The first violation will result in a warning, Irwin said, with incremental fines from $50 to $150 imposed for each succeeding violation. Major violations include being the source of a sewer blockage, which carries a minimum $500 fine and maximum $5,000 fine, and being the source of a sanitary sewer overflow or falsification of records, each with a minimum $1,000 fine and maximum $5,000 fine. Irwin said the county sends out brochures to let residents know the consequences of FOG, and he said that most restaurants are already aware of the problem. “Our restaurants in Moyock Commons do a good job — they’re cognizant of what’s going on,” he said. “We let them know if it clogs up it would come back in their restaurant.”
Louise Harrell, co-owner of Southland Restaurant in Moyock, said her restaurant has had grease traps and interceptors in place for years. “From a business owner’s viewpoint I don’t think (fines) would affect me because we already clean our water for grease and we pay a person to maintain (the system) so we already separate the grease,” she said. “It’s something we must do to keep our permit — we have to submit reports to the county.” Harrell said her restaurant pays thousands of dollars to the county per year to keep the system operational and expects that other restaurants should be compliant, as well. “We would want other businesses to comply as we do and will,” she said. “We want the same standards applied to them that are applied to us.”
Though Camden and Pasquotank counties don’t have a FOG program, there has been one in Elizabeth City since 2005, according to Public Utilities Director Paul Fredette. “(The FOG program) does make a difference, but we could be more diligent about enforcement,” he said. “Grease is major factor — it builds up in sewage collection systems and any attempt we can make to clean the system will reduce the number of times there are backups.” Fredette said the sewers gets backed up on a regular basis in Elizabeth City and it’s not always easy to know who is at fault because of the size of the collection system. “A few times a year, we have a system that gets blocked up from a FOG deposit,” he said. “It can be anywhere in the system — generally it’s hard to pinpoint who is responsible. Family dwellings are also a problem to a smaller extent. It’s nearly a full-time job for a crew to maintain a collection system.”
By Toby Tate Staff Writer Daily AdvanceSaturday,
Filed under: General Information | Tagged: fog, grease, waste | Leave a Comment »
Mill Valley Film Festival: “Tapped”
by Peter Wong‚ Oct. 16‚ 2009
If words were munitions, then the number of F-bombs released over the course of watching Stephanie Soechtig’s documentary “Tapped” would have flattened Nestle’s corporate headquarters a couple of times over. Soechtig’s film follows bottled water from first pumping to the emptied bottle’s final disposition. But rather than appreciating a supposed symbol of health, viewers will get angry and/or frightened at bottled water’s negative impacts on its drinkers and the environment.
“Tapped” shows how bottled water is far less safe than the viewer thinks. Only somewhere between less than a third to 2/5 of America’s entire bottled water supply is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration … on a practically non-existent basis. Tested samples of bottled water revealed the presence of the gasoline component toluene among other harmful chemicals. Municipal tap water, by comparison, is heavily tested for safety multiple times a day. Perhaps that’s why 40% of bottled water sold to the public is actually filtered tap water.
That greedhead practice is just one of the rapacious stunts pulled by bottled water companies such as Nestle and PepsiCo. The viewer will also learn about rural communities targeted for water mining. Giant bottled water companies take advantage of such old land laws as absolute dominion to ceaselessly pump out water for bottling even during periods of dire drought.
As Soechtig shows, controlling access to water is an extremely high stakes game. For much of the world, water is a necessity of life that everyone needs. But for a small handful of companies, the world’s water is an $800 billion market worth controlling for huge profit.
The director doesn’t bother hiding her outrage at such corporate rapaciousness. International Bottled Water Association President Joe Doss or some other industry spokesman may blandly talk about their lack of hostility towards tap water or the minimal impact of bottled water pumping. But Soechtig uses onscreen titles to out Doss, for example, as representing Nestle and Fiji Water. Compared to such prior efforts as “FLOW: For Love Of Water,” the director’s in your face aggressiveness feels refreshing.
But “Tapped” is more than just a cinematic anti-corporate manifesto. It’s also a portrait of environmental racism. A segment set in Corpus Christi, Texas shows how the chemical process used to make plastic water bottles has harmed the chemical plant’s neighboring residents. A birth defect rate 84% higher than the state average is just one of the problems facing that community. Unfortunately, those residents are economically trapped. What sane person would want to buy a house located near a chemical plant?
Some of Soechtig’s material will not surprise viewers already familiar with these issues. The discussion of control of water resources doesn’t couch the problem in a fresh manner. Corporate malfeasance fans will not be surprised by Nestle’s corrupt actions given their involvement in the 1970s’ African infant formula scandal.
“Tapped” ultimately trades aesthetically presented information for craft adequate to prompt the viewer to take action. If such a viewer drops plastic bottles for a reusable stainless steel canteen or buys a water filter, Soechtig will probably count that as a win.
Filed under: General Information | Leave a Comment »
North Carolina Sierra Club Environmental Educatior North Carolina US Government Climate Science
