ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL BLOGS

Forget global warming - it's Cycle 25 we need to worry about (and if NASA scientists are right the Thames will be freezing over again) | Mail Online

The supposed �consensus� on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.

The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.

Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.

via www.dailymail.co.uk

Offsetting global warming: Molecule in Earth's atmosphere could 'cool the planet'

ScienceDaily (Jan. 12, 2012) — Scientists have shown that a newly discovered molecule in Earth's atmosphere has the potential to play a significant role in off-setting global warming by cooling the planet.

via www.sciencedaily.com

Ford Motor withdraws from climate change group | Campaign 2012 | Washington Examiner

The National Center for Public Policy Research is claiming a scalp today after Ford Motor Co. formally withdrew from the liberal U.S. Climate Action Partnership. The conservative non-profit announces today that Ford has withdrawn from the organization, which uses corporate support form management to work against shareholders' interests by promoting a cap-and

via campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com

Disease-causing strains of Fusarium prevalent in plumbing drains

A study examining the prevalence of the fungus Fusarium in bathroom sink drains suggests that plumbing systems may be a common source of human infections.

In the first extensive survey of its kind, researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences sampled nearly 500 sink drains from 131 buildings -- businesses, homes, university dormitories and public facilities -- in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and California.

They analyzed fungal DNA to compare the spectrum of Fusarium species and sequence types found in drains with those recovered from human infections.

The study identified at least one Fusarium isolate in 66 percent of the drains and in 82 percent of the buildings. About 70 percent of those isolates came from the six sequence types of Fusarium most frequently associated with human infections.

via www.eurekalert.org

OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Curtain rises on EPA’s final MACT - The Hill's E2-Wire

EPA is preparing to unveil long-awaited (and long-delayed) rules as soon as Friday that mandate cuts in mercury and other air toxic emissions from coal- and oil-fired power plants.

The heavily-lobbied rules are among the measures at the center of a political clash between Republicans who claim the Environmental Protection Agency is going overboard and a White House that caved on ozone rules but has pledged to hold the line on these protections.

via thehill.com

Russia slams Kyoto Protocol - Yahoo! News

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia supports Canada's decision to pull out of the Kyoto Protocol, says its foreign ministry, reaffirming Friday that Moscow will not take on new commitments#

Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told Friday's briefing that the treaty does not cover all major polluters, and thus cannot help solve the climate crisis.

via news.yahoo.com

So much for Kyoto--kinda like the League of Nations.

Giant plumes of methane bubbling to surface of Arctic Ocean | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News

Russian scientists have discovered hundreds of plumes of methane gas, some 1,000 meters in diameter, bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean. Scientists are concerned that as the Arctic Shelf recedes, the unprecedented levels of gas released could greatly accelerate global climate change.

Igor Semiletov of the Russian Academy of Sciences tells the UK's Independent that the plumes of methane, a gas 20 times as harmful as carbon dioxide, have shocked scientists who have been studying the region for decades. "Earlier we found torch-like structures like this but they were only tens of meters in diameter," he said. "This is the first time that we've found continuous, powerful and impressive seeping structures, more than 1,000 metres in diameter. It's amazing."

via news.yahoo.com

Kyoto Accord: Canada formally withdrawing from climate change protocol | News | National Post

Canada will pull out of the Kyoto protocol on climate change, Environment Minister Peter Kent said on Monday, dealing a symbolic blow to the troubled global treaty.

Canada will become the first country to formally withdraw from Kyoto, which it says is badly flawed because it does not cover all major emitters of greenhouse gasses, notably the United States and China.

The news came as little surprise, especially since Kent said last month that “Kyoto is the past.” The right-of-center Conservatives took power in 2006 and made it clear they would not stick to Canada’s Kyoto commitments.

via news.nationalpost.com

BBC News - New Icelandic volcano eruption could have global impact

Hundreds of metres under one of Iceland's largest glaciers there are signs of an imminent volcanic eruption that could be one of the most powerful the country has seen in almost a century.

Mighty Katla, with its 10km (6.2 mile) crater, has the potential to cause catastrophic flooding as it melts the frozen surface of its caldera and sends billions of gallons of water surging through Iceland's east coast and into the Atlantic Ocean.

"There has been a great deal of seismic activity," says Ford Cochran, the National Geographic's expert on Iceland.

"There have been more than 500 tremors in and around the caldera of Katla just in the last month, which suggests the motion of magma. And that certainly suggests an eruption may be imminent."

Scientists in Iceland have been closely monitoring the area since 9 July, when there appears to have been some sort of disturbance that may have been a small eruption.

via www.bbc.co.uk

At the end of the BBC article, the author writes: "But the biggest threat to Iceland's icecaps is seen as climate change, not the volcanoes that sometimes melt the icecaps.

"They have begun to thin and retreat dramatically over the last few decades, contributing to the rise in sea levels that no eruption of Katla, however big, is likely to match."

The problem for the author is that this conclusion does not reflect the comments in the rest of the article, such as the quote from one expert:

"'Folks talk about a nuclear winter - this eruption generated enough sulphuric acid droplets that it made the atmosphere reflective, cooled the planet for an entire year or more and caused widespread famine in many places around the globe.

"'One certainly hopes that Katla's eruption will not be anything like that!'"

How exactly is such sudden, widespread "nuclear winter" devastation ( a previous Katla erruption wiped out 20% of Iceland's human population) not comparable in seriousness to gradual global warming? The author can only achieve his dramatic-sounding conclusion by switching the disussion from a threat to LIFE to a threat to the "ice caps".

With all due respect to the ice-cap constituency, despite an artistic longing for white-capped mountain ranges ice-cap melting is really noteworthy only because of what such melting may due to LIFE (by causing gradual rising sea levels). From the perspective of preserving life, it's pretty hard to compare gradual sea-level rises over hundreds of years to a sudden nuclear winter.

The United States of EPA-from the Wall Street Journal

The EPA heaved its weight against another industry this month, issuing a regulation to sharply increase fuel economy. Under this new rule, America's fleet of passenger cars and light trucks will have to meet an average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, a doubling of today's average of about 27 mpg. By the EPA's estimate the rule will cost $157 billion, meaning the real number is vastly greater.

The fuel-economy rule is classic Obama EPA. Until this Administration, fuel standards were the remit of Congress, via its Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program. In 2007, the legislative branch raised those standards with a bill requiring the U.S. fleet to hit 35 miles per gallon by 2020, a 40% increase. The industry is struggling to keep pace with those steep requirements.

-Wall Street Journal editorial

Apparently, Congress is so busy not making decisions about the Budget that the legislative branch no longer has time to notice its powers are slipping away. Whether one agrees or disagrees with EPA's action, shouldn't Congress have a say?

There are now only 2 ways to curb EPA's own appetite for power--court challenge or Congress reasserting its prerogatives by overruling the agency. Since the Administration still controls a major part of the automobile manufacturing in this country, however, don't count on that industry to make the challenge. The challenge is likely to come, if at all, if as and when there is a change of power in DC after next year's election.